2008

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Frailty - Lost Lifeless Lights (2008)

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    After listening to their 2007 promo, Frailty caught our ears with their crushing Death/Doom Metal in a way that no band since the early 2000’s and late 90’s had done it. Hailing from Latvia, this band keeps the Death/Doom Metal flame alive and delivers 9 crushing tracks in their first full-length “Lost Lifeless Lights”.

    Quickly after their Intro song, the band treats us to some crushing guitar riffs in the traditional vein of bands like Saturnus, Mourning Beloveth, Shape of Despair, etc. With the traditional tuning of Doom Metal music, the band’s riffing is very crushing in the sense that is simple, desolate and authoritative. The growls quickly make their presence and the traditional atmospheric passages soon follow. “I Know Your Pain” is the prefect song to create a depressing and monumental atmosphere to surround this release.

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    Žrec – Žertva (2008)

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    Featuring 3 members of Moravská Zima, a Czech Black Metal band, today we have Žrec and their latest album “Žertva”. Žrec plays a mixture of Folk and Pagan Metal that focuses more on the Folk side of things. We particularly love bands like Žrec that play Folk Metal where you can easily identify the region they are from if you pay close attention.

    Žrec does a great job in crafting catchy and effective tunes that will resonate in your head for quite a while after listening to this solid release. We particularly enjoy that while Žrec has the traditional folk elements with the violin, flute, and pipes, they still show a broad diversity within the songs allowing them to never get old and tired, like many Folk Metal albums get after 5 minutes.

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    Quest of Aidance – Dark are the Skies at Hand (2008)

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    Quest of Aidance is yet another band that was started/features Christian Älvestam from Scar Symmetry, Solution .45, etc. fame. This Death/Grind band also has within it’s ranks Jonas Kjellgre (Scar Symmetry, Centinex), and Henrik Schönström (Unmoored) on drums.

    After all the name-dropping we find ourselves listening to a very brutal Death/Grind release with some weird stuff in the middle. All previous musicians are usually known for their technical abilities but in “Dark are the Skies at Hand” they show they can do uncompromising brutality with a little technical aspect on the side.

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    Virgin Snatch – Act of Grace (2008)

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    Today in our huge promo-to-review queue we find Virgin Snatch’s “Act of Grace”, the band’s fourth release since their formation on 2001. Playing a very interesting mixture of Trash Metal with Modern Metal elements, more specifically Groove elements, we find “Act of Grace” a very interesting release… musically. The album is very fresh, sounding more like melodic Metal releases in some parts, since there are plenty of well crafted passages that sound like anything, except Trash Metal.

    With a name like Virgin Snatch, we were about to immediately throw this to the queue of Grindcore/’shit we don’t really want to listen’ list, but we decided against it after doing some research on the band. You should not discard them because of this either, since this Polish band is worth a listen.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Enemy Reign - Means To A Dead End (2008)

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    For the countless fans of Death Metal we have today a pretty solid band from the USA called Enemy Reign. These Colorado based outfit present us with their very brutal EP called “Means To A Dead End”.

    The band features nothing ‘original’ about their music, other than the fact that is fast paced and brutal. It follows all the traditional elements of Death Metal: The furious drumming, blazing guitar riffs and hooks, and subhuman growls.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    The Down Spiral To Hell - The Advent of Neurosis (2008)

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    Out of the countless CD’s I get on the mail or digitally every month, I have to say that only a few standout each month, and “The Advent of Neurosis” is one of the most recent ones.

    The Spanish duo called The Down Spiral To Hell have a really demented style that is very amusing to listen to. Mixing Black/Death/Grind Metal among other genres, make this release a listening journey into the abyss. The brutal riffs with Grind style vocals set the tone for this crushing album that will leave your head spinning for a few hours after the album is done.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ethereal Collapse – Categories (2008)

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    Recorded two years after their great debut full-length “Breaching The Citadel” was released, Ethereal Collapse is back with “Categories” a 3 song EP that takes off where their last album left.

    And if you have not read the review of their full-length album, then I’ll give you the jist of it: the album kicks ass, plain and simple. The band’s second effort is pretty good, but it’s probably lost the WOW factor since after listening to the first you have very high expectations of whatever the band releases next.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    A Forest Of Stars – The Corpse Of Rebirth (2008)

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    A Forest Of Stars is one of those bands that is trying to push the barriers of music, by creating a very interesting sounding mix of different elements with Black Metal.

    This British quartet features Katie Stone (ex My Dying Bride) as the ‘Queen Of Ghost’ and other equally interestingly named characters: Mr. Curse, The Gentleman and Mr T.S. Kettleburner.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Hot Buttered Anal – Lies (2008)

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    Luckily Hot Buttered Anal sent this album in the same package as their first album so we avoided repeating the embarrassment of their mailing label (read the review of “Please Kill Me” for the full story).

    “Lies” artwork seems more conservative than the bands first album, but it still features interesting song names like: “We’re Not Retarded, Choke the Bitch and Duct Tape and Sausages. So we knew we were in for another journey thru this band’s demented collective brain.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Idols Are Dead – Mean (2008)

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    Idols Are Dead are trying to take the USA by surprise with their very interesting mix of Trash metal, sleaze rock and some Metalcore hints. This Italian band manages to create interesting and modern sounding music that would appeal to fans of all of the previously mentioned genres and from all different age ranges in the metal community.

    All tracks in this album blast you away from start to finish. All songs are very simple in nature since most riffs are very basic, but extremely effective. The catchiness achieved by the melody in all songs is one of the best things this band has going for them.

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