Reviews
36 Crazyfists - Time And Trauma
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What makes a really good metalcore album?
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Reviews
Abscession - Grave Offerings
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Death metal. From Sweden. Do I need to say more? Although that's the band's official description on their facebook page, I feel like my job here is to lose some more words for you readers. Almost forgot, the band's name is Abscession and we are discussing their debut album Grave Offerings today. The band is a three-piece orchestra with the usual setup, plus some keyboards. And they are from Sweden. They play death metal.
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Reviews
Shepherd - Stereolithic Riffalocalypse
Reviews
Serious Black - As Daylight Breaks
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Super groups are curious creatures. Despite often having superb pedigrees, in many cases they fail to achieve that magical chemistry which might even turn 4 average musicians into something special. In fact too often it's some sort of generic mash up of the members' other project. And with members of Blind Guardian, Helloween and Tad Morose in the band, Serious Black's pedigree is quite illustrious. So the question arises: does Serious Black rise above its origins to create heavy metal that will stand on its own merit?
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Reviews
Amniac - Infinite
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It's not very often I re-visit an album that initially didn't click, even one that's been recently suggested by a friend. This is the case with Greek post-metal band Amniac and their debut release Infinite. Months ago I gave the album a pretty thorough listen and I can usually tell if I dig an album by one play through. Once in a great while, first impressions are hastily made and an album may grow stronger with each reacquaintance. Not with this release, unfortunately. I listened to Infinite again, at my friend's suggestion, multiple times...and...nope, it still doesn't register. Weird, too; I really should like this album but the cons merely outweigh the pros.
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Reviews
In Other Climes - Leftover
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Beautiful albums make cute reviews.
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Reviews
Mourning Mist - Mourning Mist
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In the early 90s, a little band by the name of Katatonia put out an album called Dance Of December Souls, considered by many to have written the rulebook for blackened doom metal. Over 20 years later, Mourning Mist are saying screw it and throwing the rulebook out the window.
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Reviews
No Return - Fearless Walk To Rise
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Ah, the golden days of thrash. Back in the 80's, when the beer flowed like wine, and masterpieces of the genre instinctively flocked to the eardrums of listeners like the salmon of Capistrano. No Return is a French thrash band who got things going right as those glorious times were about to begin their hibernation...
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Reviews
Periphery - Juggernaut: Alpha & Omega
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Juggernaut: Alpha and Omega are parts I and II of a crowning achievement in songwriting, storytelling, and performance. It is more emotional, more melodic, and far more jazz than anyone was expecting. Oh, it just oozes at times with a thick, dense jazz, which is kneaded into the metal music so well. But that's just one of many important ingredients.
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Reviews
Caïna - Setter Of Unseen Snares
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"Matthew McConaughey is a busta", would say a certain MetalStormer.
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Reviews
Terror Empire - The Empire Strikes Black
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"Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless." Reckless indeed, bitches! The sheer reckless aggression that Terror Empire serves up will destroy your eardrums like the Empire destroyed Alderaan. Groove, thrash, some death metal, a bit of hardcore, this melange of modern extreme metal lays in wait like an exogorth space slug.
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Reviews
Thulcandra - Ascension Lost
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When I think of death metal and black metal mixing in a melodic fashion, I think of Dissection, and you do too. Thulcandra is a band heavily influenced by the aforementioned masters of the genre, and on their new album Ascension Lost, they pack it full with everything a fan of the genre could want.
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Reviews
Iron Fist - Boneshaker
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Iron Fist, from Sunny L.A., don't do anything that hasn't been done before. Booze fueled metal punk bashed out at Mach 4 while the vocalist gurgles unintelligibly - before taking the excess reverb into consideration - into the mic. I don't even know what language they speak. I swear the only words I made out the entire four track release were the title track, "Boneshaker". Even then I thought it might have been "For Satam" or "Forsaken"…
So been there, done that…
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Reviews
Orden Ogan - Ravenhead
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Over the river and through to woods, to Orden Ogan's new album we go! If you thought that predecessor To The End was epic then wait till you hear Ravenhead. The band delivers another chapter of the goodness we have come to love from them, with new journeys, battles, grief, and pure fucking glory. They simultaneously expanded and refined their signature sound of catchy, resplendent, and beautifully mournful power metal.
They've never quite behaved like other power metal bands, and this album continues to agree. Warm, mid-range vocals with a slight rasp (instead of stratosphere-scraping, ball-shrinking, notes-only-a-dog-can-hear vocals) tell stories of legends, sorrow, adventure, eternal human nature, and so much more. Their group sing-a-long choruses that you know and love are back to assist in full force. Folk elements appear once more to sweep us away and while they do not dominate the landscape here they complement the power metal so fully due to perfect integration into the metal.
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Reviews
Blind Guardian - Beyond The Red Mirror
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It was hinted At The Edge Of Time. A new symphonic focus and refinement that would bring Blind Guardian's sound fully into modern times. Production has never been as important in showcasing yet another distinctive album experience in their pioneering style of power metal. What lies beyond is assurance as much as surprise.
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Reviews
Napalm Death - Apex Predator - Easy Meat
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Call me a late bloomer of sorts to the grind kings in Napalm Death, as I first got into the band not through the classics such as Scum and From Enslavement To Obliteration, as most do, but through the much more recent Time Waits For No Slave. It was the Barney-fronted incarnation of the band that I first fell in love with, so I'm more than happy to say that they're once again delivering the goods with their 2015 effort.
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