Dark Metal

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    Eisregen – Rostrot (2011)

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    Completely deranged and always surprising people (as well as pissing them off), Eisregen delivers their latest creation titled “Rostrot”. In this crazy album we have 10 very unique songs that focus a bit more on the ‘melodic’ side of Eisregen and fit more to our personal taste than their previous release. If you like the contrast the band makes between the demonic vocals and aggressive lyrics with keyboard sections and funky melodies, this is the album you have been waiting for since “Krebskolonie” came out back in 1998 (our personal favorite).

    The opener “Erlösung” delivers a mood setting piano/spoken words track that is nicely offset by the hectic “Schakal: Ode an die Streubombe”. Pounding drums and heavy guitars makes this song a very typical Eisregen piece and a nice contrast from the opening and following tracks. The rhythm of “Madenreich” is pretty weird and feels like something we would find in an Indie-Rock album but it works very well with the clean vocals. The deranged approach to music that Eisregen has makes this song work wonderfully.

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    Opera IX – Strix - Maledictae in Aeternum (2012)

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    Eight years have passed since the band’s last release “Anphisbena”, and with “Strix - Maledictae in Aeternum” Opera XI intends of regaining their momentum and status in the Metal scene that they acquired with excellent releases before the year 2000. “Strix - Maledictae in Aeternum” delivers a heavy dosage of Black Metal tracks infused with Dark Metal elements but fails to fully capture the listener’s attention and quickly gets old.

    After opening with a very typical atmospheric prologue, the band fully jumps into action with “1313”. In this track the atmosphere is very dense and chaotic (perfectly crafted) but the singing and the guitars feel a bit outdated. The crazy guitar leads are nice, but we’ve heard them many years ago in other Black Metal acts, the vocals are deranged and very powerful but they are also something that band’s have already done in the past (circa early 2000).

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    Cairn – Raise the Cairn (2011)

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    Hailing from the USA, today we have a one-man band named Cairn and their debut album “Raise the Cairn”. With a heavy vibe of Primordial meets Forest of Shadows, this short but sweet EP will be enough to rattle your cage and make you want more. Featuring five tracks and around 23 minutes of music, this solo self-exploratory release is one of the most interesting and less vanilla sounding we have received in 2011.

    Opening with an acoustic section, “Magnapinna Rex, Pt I: Solstiseraph” enshrouds the listener in a mysterious cloud of powerful riffing and nice calm sections. Like we mentioned before, this particular song reminded us of Primordial instantly with this nice folk-ish and aggressive approach to music. The shrieks are very powerful and nicely accompany the guitar work. The bass guitar line is pretty active and melodic, somewhat contrasting with the rest and making it more evident. The song is nicely followed by the acoustic track “Far Passage”.

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    Antipope – House of Harlot (2011)

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    Hailing from Finland, today we have Antipope and their very diverse and well crafted third full-length release “House of Harlot”. Mixing almost every genre available to them, the band delivers a very interesting and diverse release that aims to appeal fans of Gothic, Dark, Doom, Heavy and some Symphonic/Melodic Black Metal fans.

    With the opening track “House of Harlot”, we are treated to powerful melodic guitars and atmospheric keyboard, very similar to bands like Ancient Drive and other early 2000’s Gothic/Melodic Metal bands. This quickly changes into some more old-school Gothic music and then it all blends together very nicely. This is just a little taste on how Antipope combines many elements into their own brand of Metal.

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    Marienbad – Werk 1: Natchfall (2011)

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    Hailing from Germany’s Massacre records, today we have Marienbad and their debut album “Werk 1: Natchfall” released both in English and Germany languages. Being the good journalists we are, we never heard of this band before and gave it a spin before reading the promo notes and we came up to the unanimous decision this band sounded like a mixture of Eisregen and The Vision Bleak with a darker edge. To our surprise this band is formed by M. Roth and Yantit (of Eisregen) and features Allen B. Konstanz (of The Vision Bleak) on drums.

    With a very dark and varied sound, Marienbad is one of the most entertaining and diverse bands we have heard in quite a while. They manage to combine dramatic vocals with shrieks, the way only M. Roth can do, with powerful guitar riffs, tight drumming and very interesting atmospheric elements. All of these ingredients create a very dark and thick atmosphere that will hypnotize you.

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    Bethlehem – Stönkfitzchen (2010)

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    After getting trashed for their ‘re-interpretation’ of their “S.U.i.Z.i.D” album, today we have “Stönkfitzchen” the return of Bartsch and company to the more deranged and totally sublime side of Dark Metal and the Bethlehem sound we all love. Niklas Kvarforth is now somewhat adjusted to the band and their lyrics in mostly German, allowing Bethlehem to sound very deranged and as weird as always.

    The first moment we received this promo CD we immediately started listening to it since we are huge fans of Bethlehem and Kvarforth’s work with Shining, and let me tell you, we were not disappointed at all with this cosmic combination of probably two of the most twisted people in Metal: Bartsch and Kvarforth.

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    October Falls – A Collapse of Faith (2010)

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    October Falls is one of our favorite bands of all time and they have returned with their 3rd full-length album “A Collapse of Faith”. The band plays a mean mixture of Black/Dark Metal with Folk elements unlike anybody else these days, just imagine if early Ulver, Empyrium and Tehni had a genetically engineered of spring.

    As in the same vein of “The Womb of Primordial Nature”, the band crafts epic songs that will transport you to a dark world filled with nature, helplessness and pain. All through a hefty dosage of distorted guitars, surgically precise drumming and majestic acoustic passages that will haunt you till the rest of your life. The atmosphere created for “A Collapse of Faith” is very haunting and unique, and when paired with M. Lehto’s shivering vocal performance you will surrender your soul to this majestic aural experience.

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    Eisregen – Schlangensonne (2010)

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    Eisregen is one of our all-time favorite bands, and they totally continue to be amazing with “Schlangensonne”. Waiting for them to play at 5 AM on With Full Force 2009 was completely justified since we have wanted to see this band live in ages. With their deranged musical style, “Schlangensonne” is yet another brilliant release to add into their already impressive discography.

    The band receives a lot of shit from people that probably don’t understand what the band is all about. And there are always extremely mixed reviews when the band releases an album. Having 3 of their albums censored by the German ‘index’, you can see where this band gets their bad reputation.

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    Mandagora Scream - Volturna (2009)

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    Founded by Morgan Lacroix, Mandagora Scream is an Italian Gothic Metal/Rock band that has been around since 1997. The band's main characteristic is Morgan's unique voice, that once you hear it once, it's almost impossible to not recognize again.

    If you are thinking that Mandagora Scream only has to offer Morgan's vocals, you are deeeply mistaken. The band creates a very dark atmosphere in all their albums and "Volturna" is no different, the enthralling keyboard arangements mixed with electronic elements set the stage for a layering of different vocal tracks and very basic, but effective, distorted guitars.

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    Darzamat – Solfernus Path (2009)

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    I can always count on Darzamat to produce a high quality album that is very, if not totally, different from their previous one. This is a feature that I like about Darzamat but unfortunately some critics do not, and they trash the band’s releases.

    “Solfernus Path” marks this Polish band fifth full length, while the band started more in the style of Symphonic Black Metal, they have now switched around to Dark/Gothic Metal, but without loosing their aggressiveness and power that the band had in their earlier days.

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