2009

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Exilia - My Own Army (2009)

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    While I’m not a big fan of Nu Metal, and all the variants and pseudo metal genres that this movement sparked, I have to say that “My Own Army” is a solid release for that type of music. Exilia took advantage of the impulse that Nu Metal had a few years ago to establish themselves. After 4 albums under their name this release feels tired and it would have been received better a few years ago.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Magica – Wolves & Witches (2009)

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    Magica is a Romanian band that has been around since 2002. With 4 releases under their belt, their latest album “Wolves & Witches” provides us with some mature and fresh sounding Gothic Metal. While this genre is full of good bands and great releases, it’s difficult to find albums (and bands) that stand out from the rest. However “Wolves & Witches” is one of them.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Elvenking - Two Tragedy Poets (...And a Caravan of Weird Figures) (2009)

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    After getting almost crucified by fans and reviewers for their 2007 album “The Scythe”, Elvenking returns with a pretty solid release that mixes Folk Metal and Power Metal. The album kicks off with a traditional folk intro and gets into full gear on the second song. You can clearly hear the Folk style, but what makes it different is the vocals. The vocal style is more Power Metal oriented. How ever the album is mainly acoustic.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Tankard – Thirst (2009)

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    “Thirst” is the 13th release from Tankard (which by the way means beer mug), and they got the number 13th curse. This album while not bad, it’s very inconsistent. It features some good songs and some filler songs that bring this album down. The opening track kicks the album in high gear, and the next one, is very … dull. This is the pattern throughout the whole album.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ektomorf - What Doesn't Kill Me... (2009)

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    Three years have passed since Ektomorf’s last album “Outcast” and these Hungarians are back with “What Dosen’t Kill Me..”. This release is a nice continuation of Ektomorf’s music. The band continues to play their characteristic old school Trash Metal with a touch of Groove Metal. While the band continues with their traditional sound, this album provides us with very good songs that never get old.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Nightwish – Made In Hong Kong (And In Various Other Places) (2009)

    The DVD part of this release, features a documentary about the band on the road during their tour for "Dark Passion Play" and it's a must have for die hard fans of the band since they show an 'inside' look at the band. The documentary features Tuomas point of view for 90% of the time, it would have been nice to have other band members talk more.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Gate Of Sorrow – Enter Through The Gate (2009)

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    There are only a handful of releases that I truly enjoy every month, and “Enter Through The Gate” is one of them. This Czech band play a great Gothic /Death / Doom Metal, and their album has an impressive quality, musically and production wise. This album features nine powerful tracks that will blow the fans of the genre away.

    Behind the luscious keyboards and amazing female vocals, there is a very well defined drum line and distorted guitars that make this release great from beginning to end. After several releases under a different name (Gate) and from what I can read on their site, different musical style changes, they have released one of my favorite albums of this year.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Ajattara - Noitumaa (2009)

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    “Noitumaa” is what I image would happen if you take a band to the forest, give them some shrooms and peyote, leave some acoustic instruments lying around, and make them record something. I’m not saying this release is bad, but it’s just very very bizarre. And what might be more bizarre is that I actually enjoyed it (and I was not intoxicated in any way).

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Autumnia – O’ Funeralia (2009)

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    This release is one of the finest Death/Doom metal albums I’ve heard in a few years. Their music is an ode to sadness, because it creates a great depressive feeling that this music should create. Autumnia is a two man band from Ukraine, and for this release they enlisted the help of other three musicians to record piano, bass guitars and violin.

    Everybody that knows me knows that I’m a sucker for a good Death/Doom metal release, and this one will make its way to my favorite albums list. Fifthly minutes of pure depressive music make this album a brilliant, much needed release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Mind Odyssey – Time To Change It (2009)

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    This band took ten years off between releases and they are surely back with a pretty good album that will attract fans of Progressive metal as well as Power / Heavy metal. The bands sound as been clearly updated to fit more recent releases of other bands of the genre. But the old school feeling is still there.

    This Germans have created a pretty good release that blends Power/Heave metal with some Progressive touches. It was probably good that they had a ten year hiatus before this release, in order to get perspective on things and come up with a very good release.

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