Other

  • The Down Spiral To Hell - The Advent of Neurosis (2008)

    cover

    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.

  • The Resurrection Sorrow – Hour Of The Wolf (2009)

    cover

    Hailing from New York, USA, The Resurrection Sorrow plays a mean mixture of Heavy and Stoner Metal, and while not the most original band, they do a pretty good job at getting people moving with their music.

    “Hour Of The Wolf” features 10 tracks for over 45 minutes of rocking music that will grab your attention since track one. I’m not a huge fan of Stoner Metal, but the ‘heaviness’ infused by TRS make this album not have a dull moment.

  • Raise The Red Lantern – Raise The Red Lantern (2009)

    cover

    I must say that releases that feature vocals like this never get good reviews from me; even after analyzing the music objectively the vocals ruin the album for me. This is not the case for Raise The Red Lantern, since their music is amazing and I was even able to zone out the vocals for the entire duration of this album.

    Raise The Red Lantern is an American band that plays a very peculiar supper salad of different styles ranging from Sludge to Progressive Metal to Hard Rock to Stoner Rock, and they do so with great ability. While the overall feeling of the album can get them labeled as Sludge, they are more than that since the band’s sound is very unique.

  • Anthropia - The Chain Reaction (2009)

    cover

    After bouncing around the US postal service for a few months, this CD (And the band's earliest album) finally arrived in my hands last week. Having heard a few of their songs on their myspace I was very excited to give this album a few spins in order to write this review.

    Anthropia is a very good Progressive/Symphonic Metal band from France, and their music sounds a lot like Ayreon's and StarOne's music, but with its own identity. "The Chain Reaction" is a concept album with a futuristic theme and provides for a very interesting read once you go through the booklet while the music is playing.

  • Lost God - Savage Souls (2009)

    cover

    Featuring three songs, "Savage Souls" is one of the best EP CD's I've received in a while. Lost God hails from Belgium and they feature Arnaud Vansteenkiste Ex-Enthroned drummer, his brutal drumming skills is one of the elements that stand out the most in this release.

    Professionally recorded this release mixes traditional Death Metal elements with some hints of Black Metal here and there, and while the band is not super original, they do a good job at keeping the listener engaged during the 12 minutes this EP lasts.

  • The Company Band – The Company Band (2009)

    cover

    After listening to several bad releases this weekend it was kind of refreshing to get an album that features a ‘super star’ band playing straight up Rock.

    The Company Band features Neil Fallon of Clutch on vocals, Jess Margera of CKY on drunks and Brad Davis of Fu Manchu on bass guitar. But the band it’s not just names, they manage to create very catchy music that will please anybody that like Rock.

  • Secrets Of The Moon – Privilegivm (2009)

    cover

    “Privilegivm” is one of the weirdest sounding albums I have reviewed in the past few weeks, since the music is Black Metal, but has a different sound than most Black Metal releases that I’ve reviewed. But this does not mean the albums is band, all the opposite, I find it very fresh sounding in comparison to more ‘traditional’ albums.

    Secrets Of The Moon hails from Germany and have been playing music since the late nineties, and for “Privilegivm” being their 4th full album they have done a pretty good job creating their own sound and exploding it as much as they can.

  • While Heaven Wept – Vast Oceans Lachrymose (2009)

    cover

    While Heaven Wept is one of my favorite American bands since their Epic/Power Doom Metal is very different than other bands out there, and “Vast Oceans Lachrymose” is a worthy follow up to “Of Empires Forlorn”.

    However “Vast Oceans Lachrymose” sounds much more like the continuation of “Of Empires Forlorn” since they both have plenty of similarities in their sound. If you like the band’s previous album then you will love this new one, but if you did not then this is the problem here, the band shows almost no musical evolution between them.

  • Handful Of Hate – You Will Bleed (2009)

    cover

    Hailing from Italy, Handful Of Hate brings us their fifth full-length album and they are here to blow us away with some very brutal Black Metal.

    “You Will Bleed” provides us with almost 40 minutes of well produced Black Metal that will closely rival the bigger profile BM albums of this year (Marduk, Immortal, Gorgoroth, etc). The band has been getting better with every album they have released and this one is another step in the right direction.

  • Wilde Starr – Arrival (2009)

    cover

    Wilde Starr hails from Alameda, California, and the band’s name is taken from the two members last names: London Wilde (vocals and keyboards) and Dave Starr (Guitars and Bass). The band’s sound can easily be compared to Doro with some hints of After Forever.

    Featuring over 55 minutes of music “Arrival” is one of the most effective releases I’ve heard this year, and I mean effective in a sense that no minute is wasted in establishing the band into one of the best of the genre. All songs are very well written and are diverse enough to not get bored, but feature elements in common giving the band their signature sound.

Pages

Recent Image Galleries