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Reviews
Orbeth - 13th Orb
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Ben White AKA Bijimitsu, formerly of Mithras, is a very, very busy composer. His band Orbeth released 4 albums in 2012, which followed the 2 full lengths from 2011. The 13th Orb is his first of who knows how many for 2013.
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Reviews
Anup Sastry - Ghost
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Djent. Yeah, I said it. I usually call it Groovy Rhythmo Chuggingham, but you could also understand it simply as Instrumental Progressive Metal.
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Reviews
Serenity - War Of Ages
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A fine balance is struck in the latest release from symphonic power stalwarts Serenity. The historical themes which run the course of War Of Ages are fitted to a tempered set of tracks which carry an inner strength uncommon of the subgenre.
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Reviews
Kvelertak - Meir
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It's pretty amusing when people try labeling black metal bands/fans as elitist, because these days that stereotype of the genre's bands and followers as striving to maintain that "trve and kvlt" attitude falls pretty easily when one just looks at the facts. In the past decade, black metal seems to have been branching out in all possible directions, incorporating seemingly any potential influences into the core of its traditional formula. Further testament to this increasing evolution comes in the form of Norway's Kvelertak, whose sound can best be described as some strange blackened pop punk of sorts. So as a disclaimer: if you're one of those people that think the aesthetics of black metal all boil down to corpsepaint, howling to the moon in ancient forests, and anti-Christianity, you'll probably want to go elsewhere. Otherwise, if you're someone like me who absolutely loves the ever-increasing creativity of the genre, then please continue.
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Reviews
Clutch - Earth Rocker
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As with all the finer things, there are highly specific do's and don'ts when it comes to pairing Clutch discs with booze. Toss on The Elephant Riders, say, and you won't want to reach for a fifth of rum--that would be exceedingly barbaric of you--save that for their self-titled. Rather, if you want to be a human being and complement the wobbly sloshing-ness of its tunes, you should grab some mugs of a strong American pale ale. The combination will, take my word, lead to quivering liver orgasms of only the highest, most cultivated orders.
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Reviews
DGM - Momentum
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For a band like DGM momentum is essential. Their band name was taken from the initials of founding members Diego Reali, Gianfranco Tassela, and Maurizio Pariotti who have since departed from the line-up. Momentum is what has carried the band on despite such losses and they continue to deliver another set of melodic progressive metal of the catchiest kind in Momentum. A fitting title for what should garner the attention they deserve.
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Reviews
Chosen - Resolution
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Technical-djentcore? Count me in!
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Reviews
Eternal Tears Of Sorrow - Saivon Lapsi
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Let me tell you, timing is a bitch, and not just in the sense of trends deciding whether your album will be successful or not (are there any revivalist thrash bands that won't be met with "KILL IT, KILL IT WITH FIRE" in 2013?). What I want to address is the fact that a band's growth and path should match the growth and path of their fanbase for maximum artistic success. There are bands which evolve alongside their audience (hi, Enslaved), and then there are bands which, despite personnel and style changes, find that their audience has not only stayed the same average age, but also that their own children are rapidly approaching that age too (hi, Nightwish). The fans of Eternal Tears Of Sorrow are four years ahead of their favorite band right now.
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Reviews
Howl - Bloodlines
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Did you ever have a relative give you a really cool present one year? I know I did. It was great. Then few years later your birthday would be rolling around and you knew that they were going to be bringing you a present so your anticipation was through the roof. Then the big day came and you got your present and you open it and was a pair jeans. They were nice jeans, very well constructed and sturdy but nowhere as cool as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Technodrome. Well, that's what we have here with this new album from Howl.
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Reviews
October Tide - Tunnel Of No Light
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Light is a lost hope and all encompassing darkness is an expectation from the music of bands such as Swallow The Sun and Daylight Dies. As you might guess from the title much the same can be said of October Tide with their latest album, Tunnel Of No Light, which is of a similar bleak temperament. Their second release since resurfacing with A Thin Shell in 2010, they continue in the tradition of soul leeching melodic death/doom harkening to roots which are well fed off the sound of an early Katatonia.
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Reviews
Thy Art Is Murder - Hate
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I have listened to way too many albums and have also seen the cream of the crop in today's ever so changing core scene. So, while I am not a die-hard fan of the genre I do enjoy the occasional madness it brings.
After their 2010 debut album The Adversary just got so-so reviews I was wondering how their newest effort would hold up. Well, to be honest Hate isn't better or worse - just different. Yeah right, just how does one death-core album differ from the other?
Ok, different. While The Adversary was a great attempt, it lacked some diversity and seemed to just be one constant noise; technical and fast as hell, but with no clear direction. Prime example would be the drumming which was just ungodly fast on their debut. Are there still tons of blast beats and triggered as hell? Yes, that's part of the appeal. But Lee Stanton toned this down nicely on their new album and it actually sounds a lot better. I guess lesson learned - don't be fast for the sake of being fast, make it count as well.
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Reviews
Tsar Bomba - Silent Queen
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Coughing up bloody chunks of lung as dust particles slice my eyes in blinding pain under the blacked out sun I seek shelter from psychotic biker gangs. This post-apocalyptic barren wasteland is the result of someone letting Tsar Bomba loose on the world. Some say that Tsar Bomba was a nickname for the Russian hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Other claim it is a metal band from France. All I know is that nothing clean and holy survived.
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Reviews
Spiritual Beggars - Earth Blues
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Earth Blues, the 8th full length album by Sweden's Spiritual Beggars and I really didn't know how to put my thoughts into writing about their latest release. Don't get me wrong, I really dig it, and compared to their other albums this one has more "oomph" and depths to it. There are far less psychedelic infused songs on here, which maybe signals a new direction for the band.
2013 is also the bands 20th Anniversary and I think Spiritual Beggars took a step back and focused more on the overall cohesion of the album instead of on the individual songs. Don't get me wrong, the songs are great on the new piece and I am not saying that their prior releases lacked this "quality control". I just feel that their last album, Return To Zero, was a bit too - epic for a lack of better words, and Earth Blues seems more complete as a whole.
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Reviews
Disperse - Living Mirrors
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As much as I love old progressive rock like King Crimson, Yes, Hawkwind, and Van Der Graaf Generator, most progressive metal tends to fall short for me. A lot of the bands within the style tend to appear to have an attitude of ultra showmanship by any means: you know, the types of bands that think they're cool for being able to cram over 100 time signature shifts into one song. Extravagance for the sake of extravagance, a feature that for me gets real old real quick. Poland's Disperse, however, are pleasingly different. With this band, it's more about the atmosphere of the music than it is about the technicality, and by focusing more on the music's mood than sheer virtuosity, they have managed to craft a fairly decent release with 2013's Living Mirrors.
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Reviews
Sanctium - Sanctium
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What the Australian melodic death band Sanctium are doing with their self-titled debut isn't groundbreaking, it's ground solidifying. This is as straight-up as you get and delivers exactly what you would desire from the genre. Brimming with potent riffs that punch out of the mix it has an immediacy to it that will quickly grab the attention.
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Reviews
Void Of Sleep - Tale Between Reality And Madness
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This album is good.
Oh, you need more of a review than that?
OK, I guess I'll tell you more.
Being the vocalist for a stoner doom metal band, I am always on the look out for other artists in the same genre (to help remind me of how lame I really am for having dreams of being in Corrosion Of Conformity). Hailing from Italy, Void Of Sleep quickly became a large blip on my radar since the genre is heavily dominated by Yankees and I wanted to know what stoner doom from the boot-shape nation sounded like.
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