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Reviews
Gloryhammer - Tales From The Kingdom Of Fife
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This is shockingly good. But, dude, look at the song titles! They're reminiscent of Nanowar and I wasn't initially sure if I was supposed to take this album seriously. If you're unsure as well, fear not: turns out this is completely awesome and fans of symphonic power metal may proceed with taking it seriously.
The epic symphonic intro track, well, it did its job. How often do we hear these great faux orchestra intros and expect great faux orchestra-laden power metal to follow but instead are let down? Often. But not today! This is gloriously cheesy power metal that is as highly symphonic as bands like Fairyland. Splendid.
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Reviews
Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)
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Since there's no point in talking about Porcupine Tree in the foreseeable future, let's just focus on this new Steven Wilson's solo album as it is. I've been wanting to write about it ever since I first heard it and figured it'd be an easy feat. Making up my mind about it turned out to be harder than I thought for, I have to admit, surprising reasons.
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Reviews
Kylesa - Ultraviolet
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Totally Groovy maaaaaaaaan.
That pretty much sums up Kylesa's Ultraviolet. In a world of generic and boring sludge bands that rely on the same rolling and rolling riffs that are overused again and again, Kylesa manages to do something totally off the beaten path. Be (somewhat) original.
This is good. Take your standard Savannah sludge release, and add a nice dose of acid. Boom, you've got Ultraviolet. The standard heavy-hitting, downtuned riffs that everyone loves are still as present as ever, the "air-drum on your van's steering wheel" drum fills and punk influenced beats are still in the mix. The "pleasantly" gruff female voice of Laura Pleasants* is still a charging force in the sound. So, by now you're probably wondering where the "(somewhat) original" comes in.
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Reviews
Encorion - Our Pagan Hearts Rebort
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Lots of bands can make a musically pleasing album in the Viking metal style but it is rare for anyone to so precisely capture the physical atmosphere. Our Pagan Hearts Reborn envelops you in a warm fur while the cool winds brush across your face. I feel like I'm sitting outside, in the middle of a Viking encampment; the sea is not far, and everyone is loading the ship and preparing to set sail. I can smell the salt water and hear the sea gulls overhead.
Not just music. It's true atmosphere, this one.
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Reviews
Mental Torment - On The Verge
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Doom, like all music, can be an odd thing. The gradations between good and, well, not so good can either be just minute shades of grey or clear as day.
Take Ukrainian death doomsters Mental Torment. Aside from the fact their album cover isn't likely to medal if MS runs a sequel to our "Best Album Art" contest, their first album, On The Verge doesn't do anything that stands out as particularly innovative or new.
In their PR bit Solitude Productions implies this release would be a "precious present for fans of Officium Triste."
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Reviews
Shining (NOR) - One One One
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Good grief, Shining (NOR)! What is this nonsense with suddenly sounding all so logical and normal? What gives, men?
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Reviews
Trials - In The Shadow Of Swords
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In The Shadow Of Swords is some excellent thrash with strong groove. Now, I don't listen to a ton of thrash but it's albums like this that make me really think I should. This album is very well written, strongly performed, professionally produced, and of course, ass kicking. Wrapped into the grooving thrash base is plenty of melodic variety and some sweet hints of death metal on a few tracks. All of these elements are tightly bound, though, and create a very solid sound.
Rarely do you hear such passion poured into a record. Trials plays music that is strong and powerful, driving forward with everything they have, but whether you're looking to rage or looking for love, these songs run the gamut of vital emotions. Never staying in one place too long, each experience feeds into the next and leads you back around to driving, groove-laden metal.
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Reviews
Aosoth - IV: An Arrow In Heart
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When it comes to making metal that conjures feelings of being perched on a cliff, gesticulating to control storms and Dothraki hordes and the like, titty-glittered Herman Li-like melodiousness is, mercifully, not the only kind of thing that can be made use of. Sometimes dissonance--sweet, sweet, sour dissonance--can do the trick nicely.
Aosoth prove that's the case on this, even though IV never feels so cheap (and badass) as to suggest that bringing listeners to that cliff perch was ever the goal. If cliffs were involved at all in their vision, they were there to suicide off of. Aosoth is just deep like that, I guess. In the little press blurb for this, they're quoted thusly: " tracks still haunt us, as delivering them was a painful and excruciating experience, and left some of us even physically wounded..." The goal here was to be "spiritual," ostensibly from a melancholy place.
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Reviews
State Urge - White Rock Experience
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The amount of good music that some countries seem to produce sometimes baffles me. However, if there is a country that has ever gone past the point of no surprise for me, it has to be Poland. "Hey, listen, man, I've just found this great prog band! - Let me guess, Poland, right? - Umm... Yeah!" I really have no idea how they do it. Now, once again, I've come across a prog band to my liking and, yes, they are from Poland.
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Reviews
Ortega - The Serpent Stirs
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What is music?
Seriously, what is music? Many "academic" sources state many different answers to what seems like and easy question: But when you actually take a minute to think about it, what would you say it is? I was asked this in my physics class earlier this week and it made me think. I took an analytical route and decided that it is "the arrangement of sound in a creative manner." Simple right? Simple, but effective. Another person said that music is "sound that is pleasing to our ears." I liked this answer, even though it's completely incorrect. The answer was more of a personal answer, rather than a factual. It made me think even more about what music actually is. Where am I going with this, you ask?
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Reviews
Hammerforce - Access Denied
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The Russian Federation seems to be producing more and more good, quality metal of various types in the last half decade or so. At the moment I am more familiar with their brutal death scene but over the years I have run into several highly talented bands from Russia playing other genres: Tvangeste (symphonic black), Dominia (symphonic melodeath), Illidiance (industrial), and SunLess Rise (extreme power) to name a few. I'm thinking I need to delve more into their overall metal scene though rather than just the brutal scene.
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Reviews
Pensées Nocturnes - Nom D'une Pipe!
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So Pensées Nocturnes marks the third act in my Big Top Three Ring Cirque du Metal Francais, brought to you by LADLO. If I butchered that, it's for my amigo Collin.
(Pours some 1664 or whatever else the French pass for beer on the ground.)
When I reviewed Way To End, one of LADLO's other recent releases, I referred to it as "carefully controlled chaos". It threatened to spin out of control at times, but never quite did.
Yeah, all pretense of that is tossed out the window here.
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Reviews
My Indifference To Silence - Horizon Of My Heaven
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Or as I call it, My Indifference To My Indifference To Silence.
I kid. I kid.
Kind of.
Vladimir Andreev is a busy man, playing all the instruments for this Podolsk, Russia based death doom act.
I've listened to this album no less than two dozen times over the last month or so per my iTunes counter and never been particularly moved for good or for ill… or in doom terms, for ill or for good.
Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with his approach. It contains all the standard components, you know, bestial death vox, slow tempo, chu-chu-chug riffs, mournful melodies over said riffs, and quiet interludes with either piano, clean guitar, or spoken bits,
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Reviews
Hate Meditation - Scars
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Blake Judd has racked up quite the appetizing metal resume over the years, and every new project of his seems to be just as tasty as the last, if not sometimes more so. From his most well-known role as the guitarist/frontman for Nachtmystium, to the all star Twilight band with fellow titans Wrest and Malefic, and even being a guitarist for the psychedelic sludge of Drug Honkey, each group he gets himself involved with ends up delivering in one way or another. Now putting Nachtmystium on a temporary aside (yes, that "they're breaking up" news was bullshit), Blake turns his focus to yet another new endeavor: Hate Meditation, their debut album Scars being released later in the month.
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Reviews
Defeated Sanity - Passages Into Deformity
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Defeated Sanity play brutal/technical death well—they aim to counterbalance their sweepy wanks in all their counter-intuitive insanity with the kind of stupid, visceral pounding BDM fans seem to want and expect. They're in the business of blending the cerebral and the slightly pretentious with the animalistic and id-tickling, which is what you'll get on this thing.
Problem is, overall, they didn't live up to their name here. Sanity won't be defeated. The goal seems to be to get the listener smearing shit on walls and babbling loudly about papayas and the atomic bomb. This won't do that. If you've got a Mr. Hyde in you and you play this for him, he'll probably just shrug. It's not that crazy.
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Reviews
Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal
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Everybody, let's give a round of applause.
Bring Me The Horizon has made an album that DOESN'T suck.. No, no they have not. It seems after a few releases of some sub-par material and general band dumbassery, Bring Me The Horizon have managed to make something that's actually good. Not ironic "Bro check this breakdown" good either.
This is actually good.
Sempiternal is a post-hardcore release with some heavy electronic hints. Sounds pretty awful on paper eh? Well, for some reason it all manages to blend together nicely. The guitars have a nice, light, non-metal tone, which complements the electronics quite well. The electronics work almost like the synth in an atmospheric black metal band. It provides a nice base, and fills any gaps that may be left by the rest of the music. As expected with a modern metal release, bass is inaudible. That's nothing new, however. It's almost expected nowadays. I also really enjoyed the drum work on this release; it's nice and varied, complex, and buried a little back in the mix. They're not overpowering, nor underwhelming. Now, the piece of resistance.
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