Leave any expectations you have from Avenged Sevenfold at the door, because Life Is Just A Dream… is pushing the band’s boundaries so much that it cannot be anything but divisive. It is one of the most ambitious and surprising albums of the year, and it is impressive how over-the-top it gets, regarding music genres blending together. To claim that its influences are broad would be an understatement; Mr. Bungle, Alice In Chains, Frank Zappa, System Of A Down, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Daft Punk, Faith No More, Frank Sinatra, Nine Inch Nails, Rush… there is no end to the list. This is an alternative metal act going progressive, avantgarde, pop, experimental, and, quite frankly, batshit crazy. Being a Jack of all trades is one thing, but also being a master of almost all of them, like Avenged Sevenfold are on this album… well, that deserves respect and applause. And taking the risk to scare away the fanbase in favour of evolution and growth deserves all the praise in the world.

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nikarg Nejde, RaduP, ScreamingSteelUS, Starvynth

4 decades of crushing pain. 4 decades of blood-curdling violence. 4 decades of unrelenting anger. 4 decades of FILTH.

Swans' explosive debut album remains as vicious and uncompromising as it was back in 1983. A milestone within the annals of heavy music. It went on to influence plenty of bands within the industrial, noise rock, and metal scenes. But few acts can hope to ever reach this level of mad intensity. From the bludgeoning and creative percussion to the colossal bass. From the piercing guitars to the misanthropic and unstable vocals. Filth was specifically designed to harm the listener. After all this time, it keeps on delivering.

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X-Ray Rod RaduP, Apothecary

That cover. The silver gate. Those riffs. That cover. Open the silver gate. Open it. Those riffs. Dark Fortress may have recently disbanded but their under-appreciated sound and albums are most definitely here to stay.

Eidolon might not be their most-rounded album yet it is their most hypnotic offering, The intensity of the songs is only rivaled by the groove of these same songs.

Discover - or re-discover - one of the foundamental bands in melodic black metal history.

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Dream Taster Daniell, nikarg, Starvynth

I'll admit, Monumension and especially Madraum don't get the attention they deserve as the bridges between Enslaved's viking era and their current prog one. But when the first mellotron notes of "As Fire Swept Clean the Earth" hit, it's pretty clear that it's here that Enslaved finally came into their own progressive black metal sound. The soloing gets more melodic, the structures more intricate, the soundscapes more expansive, but there's still a neckbreaking quality to the riffing and a harshness in the vocals that Enslaved continue to play with, even twenty years since the release of this one.

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RaduP Daniell, X-Ray Rod, Netzach, Dream Taster, Darkside Momo

What if Pink Floyd played atmospheric black metal? Doesn’t Black Medium Current’s cover art vaguely remind of The Dark Side Of The Moon? Doesn’t its music have this progressive structure, this floating feeling, where one song bleeds into the next, securing a flow that most albums don’t even come close to achieving? Doesn’t it sound immaculate? Aren’t the vocals infectiously quirky, despite the departure of Aldrahn? Don’t the electronics give that familiar avant-garde touch? Doesn’t the piano sound as demented as it has ever been? Is this album a surprise? No, it is not. Dødheimsgard have proved time and time again that they are capable of mind-bending music. Black Medium Current is both mind-bending and earwormingly accessible. An excellent entry point for the uninitiated, and my personal favourite of this spectacular band.

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nikarg RaduP, Ivor, X-Ray Rod, Dream Taster, Darkside Momo

Time to sound the alarm!

Happy 30th anniversary, Screams and Whispers.
May 11th, 1993 you have come to see the light of day.
It is so good to still have you around today.
Please stay with us as long as you can.

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Redel Netzach, RaduP, Yaniv, nikarg, Starvynth, X-Ray Rod, Darkside Momo

Before At The Gates locked into the impeccable groove that would yield their undisputed kingmaker, Slaughter Of The Soul, and leave an indelible impact on the evolution of melodic death metal and metalcore, they were an almost formless entity. Their first two albums are swarms of otherworldly chaos, creeping weirdness, shifting time signatures, unstable tempos, bizarre melodies, and lurching riffs and percussion that seem to change direction with each passing measure - so far-removed from the "angrier thrash" template of most early death metal as to be incomparable. While The Red In The Sky Is Ours typically gets more attention for these qualities, for me, With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness is the secret jewel of the band's discography: it has all of that unpredictability (plus a raft of undisputable classics and poetic, strikingly colorful lyrics), but it's all packed within the deepest, darkest, and most luscious production they ever achieved. The distortion is heavy but the tones are a luxurious purple-red-black, and Tompa's gutting shrieks are as frigid and biting as the void itself; you can feel time tearing itself in the riffs. This is a perfect illustration of the sound of burning darkness.

This magnificent album turned 30 this week, so take some time to pay special attention to the most underappreciated album of At The Gates's early work.

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ScreamingSteelUS Nejde, RaduP, Redel, Netzach, Daniell, nikarg, Starvynth, X-Ray Rod

"Screamo" is still used as a derogatory term simply because of how the name was misappropriated in the MySpace era, hence why you even have to have a term like "skramz" to even be accurate. This is a genre that I've been getting more and more into lately, and while stuff like Orchid, Pageninetynine, or Saetia might be the biggest staples in the genre, the one album that really knocked my socks off and became my favorite screamo album is the debut album of a band called Love Lost But Not Forgotten, released back in 2000, simply because it feels like it pushed the actual sound to its logical extreme. The lo-fi rawness of it, occasional burst of math rock groove, post-rock injections, chaotic dissonance, these all work to create a very viscous sound, but it is the blood-curdling vocals that push this album to the extreme. The band would release another album two years later, more mature and calculated, but it's the vitriol in this album that is forever etched in my mind.

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RaduP X-Ray Rod, ScreamingSteelUS, Netzach

The slow, plodding tension-infused riff that opens Rust, and the album itself gripped me the first time I started spinning this disk on my truck stereo back in the day. Seven banging tracks deep, some great riffs shifting between slower riffs and that tremolo necro style keep the listener on their toes. The album actually sounds fantastic. Tons of great quotable lyrics that you, too, can sing along with. If Fenriz and Nocturno Teddo were correct with their assertion "black metal is the devil's fuel", this album powered the lake of fire for the better part of the last 20 years... which, incidentally is how long ago they released this one.

Get fucked up and ready to die... at BandCamp!

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BitterCOld corrupt, nikarg, X-Ray Rod, Nejde, Netzach

I can only agree with Radu's sentiment that "Marko Hietala is the one artist I always knew I needed a solo album from”. After a long and illustrious career in Nightwish that arguably raised that band to the immense level of popularity they enjoy, and with Tarot on indefinite hiatus after the death of their drummer, Marko decided to try his own wings with Pyre Of The Black Heart/Mustan Sydämen Rovio (yeah, it's bilingual, how about that?). Great results ensued: a melodic album full of hard rocking, slightly proggy cuts, excellent bass and vocals (as would be expected), and Tarot-worthy anthems.

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Netzach RaduP

In Flames revived a spark of their old selves with the surprisingly listenable Foregone, and last year's debut from The Halo Effect was a much better recapitulation of the band's classic style in a modern context. But if you want another truly capital-g Great Gothenburg album, this is the one to pick: it's not just the groove, not just the guitar tones, not just the screams, but the feeling that Majesties have harnessed. Vast Reaches Unclaimed has the mystique, the darkness, and the infernal romantic luster that made albums like The Jester Race, With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness, and Skydancer so rich and beautiful. The red in the sky may, in fact, be the glint of a new star on the horizon.

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ScreamingSteelUS Nejde, nikarg, Starvynth, Dream Taster

The first CD I ever bought was Far Beyond Driven all the way back in 1994 when I was 13 and just hitting puberty. Back then this was the most brutal thing I had heard in my entire life and this album would become the one album that would define my musical taste up until this day and age. From the initial onslaught of opener "Strength Beyond Strength", through the grooves of "Becoming" and "5 Minutes Alone", leading to "I'm Broken" which probably have the grooviest riff ever written, to the psychotic "Good Friends And A Bottle Of Pills", my mind was blown and we weren't even at the midpoint yet. Half-way through we got "Slaughtered", the most brutal song they've written without losing even an ounce of the grooviness which permeates the entire album. And then we have "Shedding Skin", the highlight of the album and the one song that made me fall in love with metal music. Without namedropping every song I can only state that there are no fillers on this album and to round things up we get a soothing cover of Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan" to calm us down before we press Play again and give it another go.

When speaking of Pantera albums people are most likely bound to mention Vulgar Display Of Power and Cowboys From Hell but Far Beyond Driven shouldn't be overlooked. This is the grooviest Pantera album and the one who really steals the spotlight here is Vinnie Paul who delivers some of his best drumming ever. So what are you waiting for? Press that Play button now.

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Nejde RaduP, nikarg, Daniell, ScreamingSteelUS, Yaniv, Dream Taster, Darkside Momo

Didn't you say Jesus was coming?

A few years ago, I started the tradition to listen to Immolation's masterpiece, Close To A World Below, every Easter. I pass down the tradition down to you, the uninitiated. For Close To A World Below stands out as one of the most infernal and meticulously put together death metal albums of all time. It has an impeccable production that blurs the riffs which sound as if they are coming behind a curtain of hellfire. The growls are so monstrous yet so well performed that every blasphemous line roars loud and clear. The frightening drumwork is maddening in all its complexity and brutality, giving you the sensation of falling down a hole for all eternity. From the terrifying intensity of "Higher Coward" to the apocalyptic grand finale that is the title track, Close To A World Below is a sublime album every self-respecting heretic must listen to.

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X-Ray Rod RaduP, Dream Taster, nikarg, Yaniv

After three ambient albums, Anamnesi goes all-in on a style he calls “solar metal”, which makes a lot of sense considering La Proiezione Del Fuoco is melodic black through and through, but with its seven songs having the same uplifting, spiritual, ritualistic quality to them that you might find on such albums as Rotting Christ's Theogonia or Bølzer's Hero.

You should be hooked already from the opening song "Origine Prima”, with its simple core of hypnotic, start-stop rhythms, mediterranean guitar plucking break, and fantastic drumming which characterises the entire album from start to finish. The song “La Precessione Degli Equinozi” is, quite simply, the most memorable song I've heard in a long, long while, and the rare case of a simply perfect metal song. As the final moments of La Proiezione Del Fuoco echoes out with choirs praising the unconquerable sun god Mithras, you will want to hear it all from the beginning again.

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Netzach RaduP

Megaton Sword had the hard task to follow an epic heavy metal album that defined the genre in modern times (Blood Hails Steel - Steel Hails Fire), and they succeeded in releasing something even grander and more ambitious. The band mixes hard rocking catchiness, Manowar-esque epicness, and Manilla Road-like melodicism to create music that is very much their own. It is admirable how this sounds at the same time classic and fresh, without being trapped in either trying to be retro or over-modernizing a style that is meant to be ageless. The vocals of Uzzy Unchained are an alternate version of Cirith Ungol’s Tim Baker, and Megaton Sword are courageous enough to close an album titled Might & Power with a ballad named “Babe Eternal”. And damn, it just rules.

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nikarg Yaniv, ScreamingSteelUS