Why so? Well, Kivenkantaja and Verisakeet, the third and fourth Moonsorrow albums, were, and still are, among the all-time personal favorites. Put simply, while listening to those two, there was a feeling that life couldn't be much better.

And now comes the long-anticipated fifth one. Two songs and 56 minutes promised Moonsorrow like we've never heard before. Epic Heathen Metal, as they call it, was supposed to reach its ultimate peak. But, after twenty-something listens, we're still not convinced.

It’s nothing that could make an impact unless you're there just to enjoy the sound. But for a band like Moonsorrow... wait... the 12th minute and STILL there's nothing happening. On previous albums twelve minutes was enough to take you to Valhalla and back.

12:48... a landmark! A memorable riff! Not an extraordinarily brilliant one, but at least something to hold on to for some thirty seconds. Then it's back to the same-old until 16:00 and another non-memorable dreamy interlude. At 17:07 there's a decent folksy melody, the kind of you could have heard on Kivenkantaja, only five times better there.

18:20 and back to layers of chords just going up and down the fretboard, and no hooks or real story-telling meaning. 19:30 — a blastbeat on top of all that. To cut the story short, from 20:53 to 30:10 the song is ending, using all of the previous elements, but without a feeling that it has even begun in the first place.

And there's the song two, "Tuleen Ajettu Maa" ("A Land Driven Into Fire"). Nice intro with tribal drums, fire and chants, and another dreamy part, though, better than the same thing on track one. 02:37 and already a memorable, earthshaking slow thrash riff. Maybe this is the one?

No. from the third minute onwards there are more up and down waltzing guitar chords exchanging places with tribal parts and clean interludes until 10:15 when — finally — there's a feeling you're listening to Moonsorrow in all their glory. From the momentum-building two bass drums to a raging blastbeat (actually quite the same as the long blastbeat part on Verisakeet's "Karhunkynsi") and more stop and go rage.

Whoosh! Finally it's Moonsorrow, but could it be that it is too little, too late? Probably, because for the last ten minutes, again, the song is ending. Endlessly.

Is it becoming an excuse? Is it commonplace nowadays to disguise not having real ideas by claiming to be "atmospheric"? If you're from Norway you can probably pull it off. Sadly.

It seems that Throne of Katarsis are trying to do just that. Attempting to pay homage to the early '90s Norwegian black metal, the unholy duo might have miscalculated. Their first album, An Eternal Dark Horizon, is Norwegian black metal. It can't be anything else. Yet, it isn't. What we like about Norwegian black metal is unpredictability, the cold atmosphere, the strange riffs and patterns somehow making sense, the feeling of listening to something otherworldly. Yet, there isn't any of this on display here. What is here, though, is very predictable. The same Darkthrone beat, the same long screams, an occasional acoustic guitar, and the same riffs, if they can be called that.

Can a series of simple chords repeated too many times be called a riff? No, it's not Burzum or even a metal version of Vinterriket, it's just Throne of Katarsis trying to make long songs out of nothing.

An Eternal Dark Horizon is not entirely unlistenable: The sound is as true as it can be; there's actually one riff that might have been on A Blaze in the Northern Sky, and an Attila Csihar impression might raise an eyebrow or two. If that's all you need, then go ahead, pretend with them. (3.3/10)

Fairly impressed with Mournful Gust's first album, we were excited to hear the pre-production demo for the next album. Unfortunately, being unsigned, Mournful Gust must be sending the CDRs around in such a frenzy that this one came with only the inscription on it and no music. Such a small drawback couldn't stop us, so we've downloaded the three available tracks from their site just to be able to review them, and, in return, we've been promised an autographed CD once it is released. Fair enough.

Judging by the 11 minutes of shortened songs, Mournful Gust have become far more deliberate, compact and memorable. The sound this time is full and modern, and the songs show more flow instead of a million ideas one after another.

There's a wonderful guitar outburst on "A Pain to Remember" and the flutes are now more in harmony with the guitars, instead of having their own space. "It's Our Own Tragedy" displays a progressive yet fluent melancholic intro of the highest class and Vladislav Shahin's clean vocals show tremendous improvement, now being somewhere between Garm and Dan Swano.

The complex vocal line interlacing with other instruments drives the song into a grievous escapade. "To Your Deceits... Again" shows a similar progress, with another beautiful piano melody and the classic metal instruments building a strong but pensive structure around it.

Altogether, The Frankness Eve is still Mournful Gust, but it is no longer My Dying Bride. Mournful Gust now have their own style, sound and vision, and with so many far inferior bands of this kind around, what are the labels waiting for? Will someone sign these guys? There are lots of broken hearts out there waiting for something like this. (8/10)

If you expand the "third stream" beyond the classical-meets-jazz realm to include rock music as well, then this second release by Far Corner is a definite example of the genre.

Unarguably a child of other chamber rock outfits (Univers Zero and Present are more than possible influences), Far Corner seems to rely even more on chamber music, as some of the band’s compositions are less repetitive than those of the avant-rock contemporaries, making the skillful band sound more like an expanded rock band playing classical pieces, with movements built on thematic variations, some jazzy maneuvers and improvisations.

Despite the reputation established above, Far Corner doesn’t take things too seriously though, as the band’s pieces are full of playfulness that will keep you cheerful on top of being impressed with the dynamics and the springing, experimental ideas.

The music relies heavily on the keyboards playing of Dan Maske, who borrows his tones from the ‘60s and ‘70s organ sounds and elaborates them to fit the semi-dark chamber aura. He supplies many of the basic lines and themes, and his colleagues (on a wide variety of instruments that includes cellos, violins, drums and basses) screw around with them for our pleasure.

Even though it all integrates smoothly and to great satisfaction, the production is not sharp enough at places (take for example the lifeless cymbals bashes), taking away from the album’s vividness — a true shame, but at least it leaves Far Corner a little room for improvement on its next release. (9/10)

This is the only Marduk re-issued by Regain whose original version we hadn’t had the opportunity to listen to, but based on the improved sonic quality of the other three re-issues, we’ll safely assume this one is better as well.

It’d be hard to imagine Those of the Unlight being any Marduk fan’s favorite album. It is a big step forward in quality and craftsmanship from the debut full-length Dark Endless, with one of the most pronounced distinction between song styles and approaches on a Marduk record. It’s probably this aspect of variety in intensity and the inclusion of the most melody on a Marduk record that gives Those of the Unlight its charm. And there are some classic Marduk cuts to be found here, like the opening riff to "Those of the Unlight," the ripping "Burn My Coffin," or the peaceful, rain-accompanied riff to "Echoes From the Past."

Marduk’s made some waves this year featuring clean vocals for the first time ever on Rom 5:12, but in retrospect, wouldn’t a Marduk track with falling rain samples and pretty, clean guitar be just as much an apparent no-no? But, then again, it works. Trust Marduk. Most of the time.

As a bonus, the re-issued, mastered Those of the Unlight features some video clips that I couldn’t get to play on my computer. Still, that’s a sight better than a handful of terrible quality practice tracks from the period the album was originally released. The only thing resembling a drag on this re-issue is that the cover art isn’t as good as the original, but apparently Marduk doesn’t own the rights to their own albums’ cover art, so they had to commission new stuff. Those of the Unlight is a cool and worthwhile record. (7/10)

Paul Ryan of Origin kept going on about Beneath the Massacre. If anyone knows anything about unrelenting death metal brutality, it’d be Origin’s guitarist. But we have to kind of take issue with Mr. Ryan’s perception.

Beneath the Massacre is, of course, totally "brutal." But that’s kind of conditional.

You can easily classify what this group does alongside Origin’s most recent work, Echoes of Decimation, in that Beneath the Massacre puts absolutely all of its emphasis on trying to completely overwhelm the listener with as many notes and whizzing, shredding, bewildering musicianship as possible. And in a sense, Beneath the Massacre is setting the bar.

However, on the flip side, Mechanics of Dysfunction is kinda lame. For one, the sound of the album. It’s incredibly fake. Certainly, Beneath the Massacre and producer Pierre Remillard (Cryptopsy, so you know nothing was done by accident here) consciously chose the guitar and drum tones they did to maximize clarity, but does that really warrant making your album sound like this? Necrophagist’s Mohammed Suicmez drops all the gain out of his guitar to get it so you can make out all the notes, but there still manages to be some meat in there. And the drums, could they sound any less heavy and bludgeoning, and indeed, any less like a veritable drum kit? Using samples for the entire kit is to be expected for this type of music, but with samples THIS bad? The cymbals sound cheap and lifeless, and the rest of the kit might as well be a drum machine from the early 90s, it sounds so piddly.

The sticker on the Mechanics of Dysfunction CD come with a quote from "Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles," proclaiming the album to be a "cacophony of sick, sick brutality." Don’t be fooled. True metal music brutality comes from a certain sense of raw visceralness; any trace of such qualities are stripped on this album. Nothing that sounds this wimpy could be brutal. Heavy? Nothing that sounds this thin and plastic could count as such.

But it doesn’t have to be brutal or heavy to be good. Unfortunately, Mechanics of Dysfunction seems to be made up of 10 songs that have no identity whatsoever from one another. Sure, it’s impressive on some level to hear what’s going on in one of these songs, but around the album’s halfway mark, things get hopelessly dull. This is because Beneath the Massacre appear to approach their riffs, vocals and songs in exactly the same way all the time, so although there are differences in notes, they are effectively playing the same riff over and over again.

Although the technical merit is unquestionable, Beneath the Massacre has made a record with little to no musical taste. And it doesn’t even sound good by anyone’s standards imaginable. We gotta call this one a bummer. (3.8/10)

Lithuanian metal is so badass. The Luctus portion of this split contains six tracks of Ammit-level rage and intensity. According to the release info, Luctus has established himself as a mainly solo musician with a few demos of blistering black metal. He has lived in Rome for some time, but wears his Lithuanian identity affixed firmly to his sleeve. He is also gifted with a very remarkable, old school thrash sensibility that makes these songs sound darker than most.

Throw Bathory, Kreator, Emperor into the equation and you get some genuinely, orgasmically SCARY material like "Filthy Blood, Guts and Shit," the more Khold-like "Uz Lietuva!," and "No Future [for your future]." Highly recommended, take heed.

The Argharus material has the slight disadvantage of smelting in the shadow of Luctus. His sound is a shade more distinctive. However, the raw upfrontness of Argharus on "Nusiramink pries Audra" brings old Kampfar to mind, and the delivery sounds even more distinctly Lithuanian. I would need to see some of this material performed live to have my panties melted, though. The black metal achievement of the track "Zvaigzdes Aukstybej Uzges" is a point of utter redemption, but Luctus steals the show on this split. (Luctus: 7.5/10, Argharus: 5.99/10)

This release presents an interesting dilemma: it’s not likable, nor is it even remotely listenable. But in this ugliness reigns a perverse appeal.

The title Evil Genius seems appropriate. Southern Lord, that darkened hamlet of goat whores and Nazarene jissum, licensed from Sweden’s Black Lodge the earliest Abruptum releases and present them to us, genital warts and all.

This is my first time hearing Abruptum — some of you who have read Lords of Chaos will recall one-time member "It (too evil to have a name)," one of the original piglets of Norway’s early ‘90s black metal pyro-pioneers, "The Black Circle."

Abruptum doesn’t sound like your momma’s black metal. It is more like Lubricated Goat meets Happy Flowers. Therein lies its appeal. It is not ordinary.

But listening to Evil Genius is like smelling a really nasty fart for a whole hour. Reverb-drenched tribalisms, TOTALLY random guitar, cat-paw attempts at keyboards, and some of the most unsettling gutturals this side of the pond deliver one of the bravest-sounding recordings on one hand, and the biggest wastes of time on another. Most of the material sounds as though "It," "All," and "Ext" invited homeless people into the studio to play their instruments for them and let the bullshit commence.... heh, you KNOW that didn’t happen but Jesus Christ, the ineptitude of this material is astounding.

And this may be the best fucking thing I’ve heard all year. Or not. Damn it. (Damn It/10)

All Out War have been around for a long time. Since the band formed in 1991, they have released only a handful of albums, the latest being Assassins in the House of God; what is presented here, though, is something that almost blurs the lines between genres. Taking influences from old punk and thrash bands, All Out War combine hardcore vocals with thrash influenced riffs that actually sound relatively close to the 80s greats.

Although the guitars are definitely the highlight of the album, it must be said that although the vocals are done in the generic, cheese-infested hardcore style, they actually fit the music; this however, shows the actual quality of the guitar compositions. Thrash-inspired riffs fill this disk, and I say "inspired" because the more you listen to this album, the less thrashy they get and the more hardcore they become.

That, however, is not to say there aren’t some fantastic riffs on this album; some songs like "The Angels of Genocide," "When Your Gods Have Failed," and "Behind the Crescent and the Cross" contain some riffs that would feel right at home on an early Cro-Mags or Kreator albums.

This album however, is really only for fans of hardcore; despite the good production, the album has little or no replay ability once the hardcore components become ingrained upon your mind — that is, if that sort of thing bugs you… (4.5/10)

Thank God, Lucifer, and Thor and his lightning bolts, while you’re at it, that Angel Corpse got back together and made a record. The Inexorable, the last album that Angel Corpse was said to ever do, is an absolute gem of an extreme metal record. It’s an album that death metal fans loved, yet there was a specific quality about it that made it relevant and visceral for die-hard black metal purists. It really tied the scenes together without being an explicit crossover record. In that sense, Angel Corpse was for black and death metal what Slayer is for metal and punk: Everyone can find common ground.

Big shock: the new album, Of Lucifer and Lightning, is a major letdown. What’s weird about it is that the album sounds in all ways like Angel Corpse. Pete Helmkamp’s instantly recognizable vocal vitriol, the trademark Angel Corpse guitar sound, and Gene Palubicki’s shredding leads of mayhemic chaos. Listen to Of Lucifer and Lightning for any one of its 34 minutes, and it’ll sound like Angel Corpse is back in full force.

Don’t be fooled.

This record is so dull. There might be one instance of a remarkable riff during the whole nine tracks. The best part of the album is the 10 seconds of gradual double-kick drums and guitar tone that leads up into the first song, only because of the anticipation. But what you get is an album that you wish would hurry up and end around the half-way mark, because all you’ve been getting is by-the-numbers Angel Corpse, with no real soul or composition underneath.

The album is like a big blurt-fest. The leads stumble around and appear haphazardly; the songs are careless and interchangeable. If you want to talk about the mix, it’s nothing out of the ordinary for this band, but it’s not helping: drums that are too much of an afterthought considering how much of an importance they play. But come to think of it, the drumming, although in the hands of more-than-capable John Longstreth, is as uninteresting as the rest of the album. A rare point of real enjoyment is in the guitar tone, here and there, as it reminds of old, old-school Bolt Thrower (think, Realm of Chaos) in that it sounds like each pick of the strings is causing a rusted, hulking gear to churn.

So here’s what’s becoming apparent. The Inexorable is really the only Angel Corpse you need. Hammer of Gods is a mess, and whatever the follow-up is called is just ok. Remember, if Tony Laureano isn’t on drums, you don’t need to buy it. And that sadly goes for the new one. God damn it. (4.9/10)

Dial is the new project featuring ex-Pain of Salvation bassist Kristoffer Gildenlow on lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, fretted and fretless bass guitars, mandolin, keyboards, cello, double bass, and programming. Quite a mouthful there. The first song, "Beautiful," is highly experimental, and features a lot of electronic synths and programming. "Sadness," on the other hand, is a great actual prog rock tune that would put the last Pain of Salvation album to shame.

Featuring layered vocals, and intensity building hooks, "Sadness" is really an incredible song. They also use a Mellotron flute sound to great effect during the verses. Gildenlow proves he has good vocal skills as well, and now that he isn't faded out in the background of the music, you can really hear how great his voice is. Liselotte Hegt's vocal performance is equally pleasing. She uses more of a jazz or blues-based vocal style that works quite well within the music.

The songwriting is incredible. Dial’s not deep into the prog like mid-period Pain of Salvation, as they use many more straight-forward, rockin' riffs and more experimental progressions that include very strange uses of minor chords.

Speaking of strange, "Candyland" is freaking ridiculous. It sounds like a carnival showtune with Joy de Jong performing the staccato sousaphone, forming a bouncy groove while Hegt's jazzy vocals really open up the track.

The track is extremely cartoony and laughably entertaining, yet still manages to build up to a Muse-like climax near the end. Synchronized is very easy to get into, and evokes a feeling of warmth in you — like with the song "Green Knees." It's incredibly emotional and as memorable as a beautiful photograph. (9.5/10)

Starting off, "Strip Search" sounds like a corny interpretation of Rammstein. Vocalist Viggo Domino performs low, whispery vocals that sound a bit creepy amongst the synths and the sparse, droning, powerchord hits. There is a very rough transition into the chorus that sounds like something from Devin Townsend's early catalogue of works. Domino uses a drastically different vocal range during the chorus that almost makes it seem like there is another person on the crew, but it's only the two musicians.

Also, the ending and various sections of "Strip Search" seem to be ripped almost exactly from Tool. "Ancient" and "Talitha Cumi" are very tribal, and have a middle-eastern sound. Domino still provides layered vocals, but in a more ambient fashion, as there is not much to back them up in these songs. "Serpentine" features electro-drums and starts out with some acoustic chords, then does a 180 flip into a funky section... It continues furthermore into a mysterious, almost triumphant sounding chorus.

Alcoholocaust is, to say the least, diverse. It cycles through strange patterns at such a rate that it almost purposely detaches itself from your favor. Each part is great, don't get me wrong — but they are too different from each other. They're not really any real flow to the songs. The music is extremely experimental and unique, and the musicianship is incredible... It's just very hard to get into. (6.5/10)

Awoken From Beyond is Aither's first demo, and unless they intend to work heavily on ameliorating themselves, this band will go down the drain. While the music barely sounds coherent, the vocalist seems to sing outside of the melody.

The first song after the into, "The Coming of The Blessed Age," is a sloppy track filled with everlasting synths and bromidic drumming; and just when one thinks that it cannot get any worse, the singing becomes a bawling that seems to be coming from someone who is having his fingernails ripped out, one by one. At times, the song is bearable, but then the bawling comes back, this time accompanied by a caustic, shrieking guitar sound.

"Alone Under the Sky" is slightly more interesting, since there is a healthier attempt at dismal emotions. At the start, the singer is mumbling something obscure and incomprehensible, a pattern which he comes back to throughout the duration of the track. The guitars whine and slither, and bore at the same time.

The verdict is that it is indeed hard to produce a demo and get a good sound, even harder to write songs that will be able to stand out from the rest and captivate listeners ears. (2/10)

This split release between the The Graves Brothers Deluxe and Boxcar Satan is a tribute to the heritage of New Orleans, and its proceeds are to be donated for charity to help the victims of the Gulf Coast area.

Boxcar Satan opens with a stomping cover of Charley Patton’s "High Water Everywhere," delivering raw, unrelenting blues mixed with the crunchiness and heaviness of Primus.

The Graves Brothers Deluxe then take a shot at a Boxcar Satan song — the style is similar to the previous track in its kicking drive, although the bros take things a bit lighter and funkier (this being emphasized by appropriate keyboards). The brothers following take of Huey "Piano" Smith’s "Don’t You Just Know It" features slightly bothering choir vocals in its chorus (stating "gooba gooba gooba gooba" a bit too much) and a silly attitude that adds an element of a comic relief.

One more to go, as Boxcar Satan pays back to the brothers with their attempt at the bros’ "Legs Rub Together." This one starts off rather quietly, led by a walking bass and some jazzy guitar, but eventually explodes and bashes.

This release showcases the two bands’ brands of dirty, hard blues, and although it is too short to make a real difference (even on the charity front — how many of you out there will put their well earned money into a 12 minutes CD?), it is still highly infectious. (For the sake of charity/10)

Western Xterminator opens with the title track — quite an interesting number, even if only for being such a peculiar one: a slow, enchanting song with semi-devilish vocals, colored (with the help of a flute) in both medieval and cosmic tones, and resulting in a sort of a trance.

The basics are indeed quite familiar, but do not mistake — RTX has its own color, with a Hawkwind-ish layer of psychedelic sounds, electronic manipulations; and, of course, Herrema adding her very own sleaziness to the mix, stretching out her vocals over the expected boundaries portrayed by the music. (7/10)

While most people will agree on Sleep defining stoner doom metal (or "stoom"), some of us are crazy enough as to say that Acid King fits the bill better. Sure, they haven't recorded eighty-minute songs, but Zoroaster and Busse Woods were two of the most important albums, if not THE most important, to set and define what would later become stoner/doom as a (not really populated) genre.

So, besides the whole historical significance thing, what can be said about Acid King? Riffs. Black Sabbath-influenced riffs, the dopiest atmosphere in the genre (well, Sleep's own Dopesmoker is at the same level) while mantaining cohesion, and — *gulp* — songwriting. Riffs. The fact that Acid King is _not_ a jam band, as opposed to 99% of the Sleep clones that have been floating around.

Riffs. Did I mention riffs?. Oh yeah, and some downright scary female vocals (that, sadly, are not as common here as on newer albums).

Anyway, The Early Years is a compilation including Acid King’s first, self-titled EP and their Zoroaster CD. As it is to be expected, the production isn't nearly as good as it was on their last album, but it's still really good, emphasizing the low guitar notes, bass and vocals and giving it the typical stoner, Acid King-vibe. The music back then was comparable to the first two Electric Wizard albums, but with scratchier vocals and shorter, more cohesive songs. In fact, if you've heard Electric Wizard's self-titled, then you know pretty much everything you're gonna find here.

While technically, they aren't so different from your usual stoner doom band, Acid King can handle atmosphere much better than every single one of them, without really sounding completely laid-back. They can make it full of energy if they want to, and that's something that most bands just can't. They don't sound so extreme, either, with no death vocals or other extreme metal influences, they just sound like the old school doom we all love, but gone stoner.

Talking about how good it is doesn't even matter anyway. Zoroaster is one of the CDs that started it all for the second wave of Black Sabbath worshippers, and as such needs to be listened to, at least by anyone who happens to be into doom. However, it IS an amazing album, regardless of how important it was or how much we all love some angry female vocals. And did I mention the totally sweet riffs? (Classic/10)

Just to get something out of the way first, and on a completely personal note, I say one of the biggest problems in rock nowadays is the limited instrumentation bands work with. Yes, it's much easier just to get two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer and proclaim yourself a rock band, but really, working on such a small scale, both numerically, timbre-wise (remember, you only got two kinds of instruments there, strings and percussion) limits you in a way that's really noticeable when you compare with another band in the genre with more varied instrumentation. Like Attack Formation. Trust me, trying to make a rock ensemble sound full sometimes ends up being just like cooking with just eggs and soya beans.

Attack Formation is, simply, an indie rock band. The thing is, they aren't limited to just some guitars, percussion and vocals. They are a modern orchestra of sorts, including stuff like electronics, wind and traditional rock instruments. To start with, that means they're already forced to, at least, arrange every instrument, so there is far more complexity here than on your average indie album. But even so, their being good doesn't come solely from including many different sounds, even if it contributes a hell of a lot.

They certainly have a taste for ‘60s rock, both in vocals and compositionally. They aren't afraid to use catchy choruses or even Black Sabbath-like bass riffs, but they don't abuse them either. They aren't afraid to use melodrama and pompous interludes, but they don't shove them down your throat, either. And most of all, they aren't afraid to innovate even over the most common stuff you can think of (see "We Were (Always) Often w/o Money").

While that might make Attack Formation sound like a mish-mash of random segments, they really aren't. They are experimental, sure, but their songwriting is still cohesive and it's really an easy album to listen to, because it's so laid-back. There really are no abrupt changes or anything like that, so much that you might actually wonder just how they manage to keep the same atmosphere going for a whole song.

And that's the good part: Every song is like a different story. For example, "Black Magic" is an IDM-influenced piece (think Aphex Twin on the Richard D. James album) while "Similar Sideways Glance" is mostly hard indie rock with xylophone (think...The New Pornographers with a mini-orchestra, a Hammond organ and synths).

Think of We Are Alive in Tune as a kind of crash course through rock and indie in general, going from brief glimpses of twee to full blown punk pieces with ska-like wind instruments... and sometimes even psycho "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida"-influenced rock songs. Definitely not what we're used to seeing in the mostly conservative indie scene.

It is great, but it's also a little bit too short and not as polished as one would expect, as sometimes the instruments are treated too uniformly and end up cluttering. Get it, if only for the sheer variation and uncommon instrumentation. Future releases should be much, much better. (7.5/10)

Progressive rock has a tendency for being quite difficult to digest on the first spin. So, naturally, finding a band that you can enjoy completely since you press play is a great feeling. And Good Place, No Place is a great album.

It's not easy to get into because it's simple: it really isn't simple. In fact, they are, at their core, a lot more complex than the average modern progressive rock bands. Not just the story of this concept album (which is a damn good one), but their musical concept. They manage to fit the more traditional sense of the word progressive: groundbreaking, complex rock. Not just tempo-changes, impossible rhythms and classical influences... even if they have them all. Blue Sky Theory are their own genre, they play what they want to play. They do, however, take some of the influences quite seriously (for example, the Malice Mizer-like opening). But that doesn't mean they are anything like them.

Sometimes, like on "Can't Catch Jacques," it'd be fitting to say that Blue Sky Theory are a modern jazz/prog fusion band. Sometimes their baroque melody-crafting makes one think more of a neoclassical rock band, and sometimes they manage to play indie-ish atmospherical rock. We're gonna call it progressive rock just to keep it simple, because it certainly has nothing to do with the much less inspired modern prog bands.

The best part is how they construct and destruct theme after theme, every single one of them carefully crafted to fit the big picture. Their songs are not traditional in any sense of the word, with lots of abrupt changes, harmonic changes and fast switches in the way guitars are handled. Their rhythms are normal 4/4 hardly as much as most new bands, even in their "metal" segments.

Most harmonies are also far from normal, with lots of well-applied dissonances and non-predictable vocal lines. But most of all, Blue Sky Theory knows how to build and release tension, all of the songs actually end in a classicist sense of the word instead of fading away.

Technically, Blue Sky Theory is advanced without being cacophonic, its strongest points being both the female vocalist and the lead guitarist. Vocals are in the vein of Nico, with much less pomposity and much more technicality. Even when some of her lines demand quite a lot of her low range, she sings flawlessly without sounding forced at all. And the guitars... well, they are Blue Sky Theory's foundation, and no doubt they are complex. Uncommon chords, broken rhythms, distorted leads, atmospheric accompaniment but also emotional parts, energic jazz rhythms their guitars go through every single one of them flawlessly.

At almost seventy-minutes, Good Place, No Place feels like a double album of sorts, with the first half being mostly heavy tracks and the second one with Romanticist and even indie tracks with mostly clean guitars. And it feels complete, because both parts are equally great. (9.2/10)

Death metal-derived genres have been overflowing with overly generic bands with no real or discernible style. Some of those bands decide to mix two genres and call them their own style (in this case, death/grind and goregrind) and some don't even try. Sure, some of them are really enjoyable (see most of the Carcass clones) but most of them are pointless. Destructive Explosion of Anal Garland is the latter. Yes, it's not really bad, but it's generic to the point of a complete lack of musical identity.

They hover back and forth from old Regurgitate-like goregrind and completely generic death-grind. That should be enough for most listeners to know what to expect. It's everything you'd find in those genres, with little to no variation whatsoever. And when I say "little to no variation," I mean "100% generic, with absolutely nothing to make them stand out."

The thing is, they even lack the passion of most goregrind bands. When they mimic Gut, they fail at humor (see "Jara Syflman Pissing, Shitting"), when they mimic Cock and Ball Torture they make a half-assed attempt at groove, and when they go death-grind they are just a blast-beat with random growls (seriously, try to find the riffs there). On the other hand, their riffs are more often than not quite good when they are not playing full-on grind (no synth guitar here, hallelujah) and at least you can actually hear them (again, considering their drummer isn't going apeshit on the drums). The vocals are good and low enough if you like them that way. They aren't, however, anything groundbreaking. But, really, Destructive Explosion of Anal Garland is nothing groundbreaking anyway, so it works... well, not really. It just fits.

And that's it. Sealing Off the Vagina by Sewer Lid is about as good as it can be with a 0% original idea. It's not terrible, but that's probably a bad thing, as it'd be more enjoyable if you could at least laugh at it or something. It's right in the middle, where bands aren't funny, but they aren't bad either. Well, some of the broken English is kind of funny, but that's it. If this were a demo, at least we could talk about how they are an amateur-level band and they need time. But they aren't, and they don't.

Let's just say that if you are a hardcore death/grind and goregrind fan, Sealing Off the Vagina by Sewer Lid is OK. It is just not something you'd mention as important or good. In fact, I can't find a reason why you'd mention it. It serves it’s purpose, however, as something you can use not to scratch your copy of Carnivorous Erection too much. (3.1/10)

The following account is true: My roomate walked into the room where Knight Area’s Under a New Sign was playing, and proclaimed it "the gayest thing" he’d heard in a long time.

We can see his point. The very prominent, light, proggy keyboards, easy-listening drumming and sissified, sometimes congested-sounding vocals probably did the most to color his opinion. These elements exist big time on Under a New Sign. However, the album is totally great.

I like to try to like progressive music. I don’t always get there, though. Prog metal, I’ve gotten my mind around. But it’s the prog rock that continues to elude me for the most part. I tried to really like the prog godfathers from the ‘60s and ‘70s, but Yes and its contemporaries sounding — or, rather, reeked — of a bluesy, Hippy vibe, leaving the imagination cluttered with VW vans with flowers on them, baggy, canvas clothes, Birkenstocks, and way too much armpit hair, and the CD had to stop.

Knight Area most probably loves Yes. However, Knight Area, although having clear traits rooted in the prog pioneer’s style, has made an album devoid of those granola elements. In a sense, Under a New Sign is a modern retro prog album. The sound is clean and clear, and yes, while greatly led by the keyboards and vocals, breathes very well and offers much instrumental journeying, which is what prog should be about.

Another thing that doesn’t vibe with me about prog rock is that I keep wanting it to be more dense and busy and furious. You know, like prog metal. It’s subjective, sure. And while Under a New Sign *isn’t* like that, it still retains that quality of instrumental storytelling and sense of travel that makes it work. What else works exceedingly well, and is a trick that so very few prog bands of any style pull off, is what Ignacio talks about in his Blue Sky Theory album: Under a New Sign doesn’t require several listens to make sense or be enjoyable. It catches the first time, and offers new things later.

Hang on. How many full-time members are in this band, anyway? Seven? And one guy’s role is playing flutes and recorders? That’s awesome. Awesome because a) Knight Area isn’t synthesizing its flutes (and it makes a world of difference on the flute solo sections), and b) anyone who comes right out and freely admits they play the recorder — the instrument that every grade-school kid in a third-rate music program had to play and passionately hates, to this day, for its incomparable shittiness and inescapable quality of making a child feel worse about his or herself — is obviously insane, which is rad... about as rad as the wimpy vocals, which remind us of Wolf’s singer on their first, best, most progressive — and, incidentally, gayest — record, but the Knight Area guy has more talent.

Yes, it’s all true. Under a New Sign is a pansy-ass record, and that cover art ain’t doin’ it any favors. But can sissiness and greatness co-exist in harmony? You better believe it. (8.5/10)

Oh, holy shit. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that every single goregrind fan has grieved over Ahumado Granujo's splitting-up, more or less. Seriously, not many grind bands (well, except Gigantic Brain and Contrastic) can be as catchy as Ahumado Granujo was, while still being really heavy and sounding like a good ol' punch to the face.

The same thing happened with Negligent Collateral Collapse, who disbanded after releasing the incredible Sick Atoms just two years ago, mostly known for their crazy, crazy vocals and the nerdiest songtitles in all goregrind.

So, what if I told you that Jig-Ai consists of Negligent Collateral Collapse and Ahumado Granujo members?.

Jig-Ai redefines face-smashing. No, really, it does. The album keeps what made Negligent Collateral Collapse one of the most notorious bands in the genre, makes their riffs a little bit more normal (like a faster Cock and Ball Torture, actually) and adds a whole lot of catchiness, obviously from the Ahumado Granujo camp.

Instead of nerd stuff, this time we get... guro anime and gore?. Yeah, stuff that's about as nerdy as NCC's titles. Anyway, the change of aesthetics didn't really change the music, as it's still heavy as bricks, but it does make Jig-Ai sacrifice most of the complexity of Negligent Collateral Collapse's masterpiece, Paranormal Nanodivision.

If only one thing had to be mentioned, it's the vocals: pitch-shifted to hell and back, sometimes sounding like Demilich and sometimes like a serious Abosranie Bogom. Easily, the best vocals in goregrind right now, bar none.

Jig-Ai is substantially helped by a spot-on production that gives it a raw edge but lets you hear everything clearly, like they were just some meters away. In fact, I'm tempted to say that Jig-Ai's guitar tone and overall production is the most perfect one the genre has seen in years.

But even saying that, Jig-Ai isn't just its production. The riffs are face-splitting, the drumming hits hard and the songs are a whole lot of fun, like in the old Ahumado Granujo days. They don't abuse samples, and every single minute of the half hour this CD lasts is completely enjoyable. That is, if goregrind's up your alley.

Hell, they even managed to play a Brujeria cover just the way we all expected Brujeria to sound originally, without the commercial approach found on the last CDs.

Jig-Ai is probably every modern grind fan's dream come true, as it's a worthy follow-up for both Negligent Collateral Collapse and Ahumado Granujo. (8.95/10)

Sometimes amateur bands ignore most music theory. Sometimes, they ignore aesthetics and logic. Sometimes, they ignore all but energy, or even just heaviness. Well, S.M.E.S. ignores... pretty much everything. It's absolutely devoid of musical quality, aesthetic development, logic, theory, production, maturity, and I could go on and on about it. But you know, that's _precisely_ why they are so awesome.

You know the feeling you get when you watch a movie so bad, so hilariously retarded that you can't help but love it? S.M.E.S. is just that, except that there's not even one minute where they take themselves seriously.

Structure? Nope. What you have here is an almost random mashing of drumbeats, death vocals, synth bass, synth guitars (could be real guitars, but they sound 100% sampled). Coherency? None at all, not even in instrument choice (hell, the drums are ‘70s pop-like and the bass is just like that one from the Rick Astley song so famous right now).

But, well, watching this is like watching a freak show, it's about as fun as goregrind can get. You know, they go the whole way, none of that "let's play cybergrind seriously" bullshit.

As weird as it sounds, S.M.E.S is catchy in its own weird way. Keyword: weird. Some keyboard lines are just irrational (for example, "Suicide Against Old Age" has one where the last note is half a tone higher than it should be so it sounds bad, probably on purpose). The only thing not misplaced is the synth guitars, as they are decently programmed. Well, and at least they use a normal 4/4.

The thing is, when you thought you knew all about the album, they play some sax samples like in "Surprisefarty," with some... don't know, stupid-sounding baroque-like arrangements. You just can't get bored of an album that throws so much random stuff at you all the time (like a trip-hop-ish segment at "Cozy Nostra," what the fuck?). No, really, even if you're absolutely serious about metal or grind, I doubt you'd dislike this album. Hell, I'm fairly positive _everyone_ would like this album. It's, in a way, just like watching a grind band play pop classics, or something like that.

Spontaneous or not, intended or not, S.M.E.S is a new kind of genius. One that, if taken seriously, could make music theorists go crazy, but for us people that can still listen to music for comedy value, believe me it's amazing. Just don't, and I mean it, DON'T take it seriously.

Don't even try. (10/10 in its own little world. Impossible to rate otherwise.)

Sometimes I wonder just what the hell happened to modernism (or even post-modernism) in music. It's like everything advanced up until 1950, then everyone decided to go back to complete tonality. Sure, there are a lot of amazing bands nowadays, but when you start comparing, it's almost impossible not to notice that something happened some 50 years ago that made everyone simplify the hell out of music (we're excluding jazz here). If that's good or bad, it's up to you.

In a way, the birth of rock music is a little bit like the French Revolution: it allowed a different social class to rule over others. In this case, rock music let people without much theory and even technicality (and, in some cases, even without talent) play music widely accepted as music. So what am I trying to say with all this? That Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is something that could have been recorded if rock didn't happen. Kind of like early Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Well, yes, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is rock-based, even if quite loosely. Actually, it is postmodern music with rock instruments, and that's about it. For that reason, getting into this album is not precisely easy, as you need to warp your mind a little bit just to be able to understand it. Compositionally, it's more akin to a 1920 classical work than to anything post-1960, with actual orchestration appearing throughout all of it. That is, every instrument is used for its harmonic and melodic properties, and not just for the musician behind it.

What makes In Glorious Times quite unlike pretty much everything is the fact that they can and do innovate, every single second. They are not bound to tonality, they are not bound to a pop sense of melody, and they are not bound to musical formality. In fact, they seemingly make a conscious effort not to play anything like anything you'd expect, excepting some well-placed segments.

Unexpectability. That's exactly what defines In Glorious Times. Instead of a social act, as something everyone's supposed to understand, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum play music for themselves, an idea you might love or hate, depending on your views. Avant-garde enthusiasts will certainly like it. After all, it's quite some years beyond the average rock band, or even the average avant-garde rock band. Now, if you're all for the rock-to-get-chicks approach, In Glorious Times is not for you.

So far, one of the best albums of the year. (9.96/10)

99-track albums promos (and CDs in general) suck, unless they are Agoraphobic Nosebleed. Anyway, the review:

Threshold is one of those bands that you can pinpoint within the first minute of the first track. It's mostly a mix between prog metal a la Dream Theater’s Images and Words, riffs like the newer Dream Theater albums, and melo-death harmonies. The element Threshold adds to their mix as a way of saying "hey, we're not the same old stuff you're used to hear" is the quite strong ‘80s glam rock influence (and in some parts, even Scorpions and newer stuff like early Sonata Arctica).

The only problem is that it IS stuff we're used to hearing, just more developed and less metal.

Not to say Threshold is not heavy, because it is, but they make far more use of melody crafting and general pop-aesthetics than most progressive metal bands, so it will sometimes make you think more of Ayreon than Dream Theater, and more Helloween than Fates Warning. But it works. Not brilliantly, but it does. As much as it'll annoy some metalheads, the whole "easy to follow, hard to play" approach plays a big role on Dead Reckoning.

As such, it's similar to Dream Theater's Images and Words, but much less early Yes and a little bit more ‘80s. Songs are actual songs, and most if not all have choruses that you can recognize after a few spins. It does, however, damage the album in the songs where the mostly circular development is more evident ("Slipstream", for example). The good parts are where Threshold keep it controlled with some theme repetition but variations and instrumental show-off segments ("Elusive"). Dead Reckoning could have been much better with more progressive elements and less verse-chorus-verse.

Dead Reckoning, because it mixes two things metalheads and progressive rock fans aren't usually fond of when together (‘80s and prog "wankery"), is quite a hit-or-miss when it comes to liking it or not, but not many changes would have to be made for Dead Reckoning to fall apart. It is, in a way, a miracle for Dead Reckoning to work as an album.

Good, not brilliant, but effective enough when it comes to rehashing old parts to make a not-so-new something. Catchy, fun and definitely heavy, but also often diluted and too sing-along for its own good. (5.7/10)

Since the days of Bernard Herrmann's "The Day the Earth Stood Still" soundtrack (and, twenty-something years later, Jimmy Page's live usage) the theremin has always been kind of a mystical instrument. After all, it's used scarcely, and when it is, it's mostly confused with a more modern synth or sometimes even a weird mellotron. It's just that we aren't used to it.

In the same way, we aren't really used to music like U.S Christmas, sadly. Not only because they use the theremin, but because they are just unlike anything else, while still sounding recognizable. Well, yes, the "Mind Storm" (or pretty much any fast song of theirs) Hawkwind influences are there, especially on songs like "Death by Horses," and it certainly does sound like a completely warped sludgecore band when U.S. Christmas get slow, but, you know, they won't get to you like a Hawkwind clone. On the other hand, they also manage to build some good, earlier stoner rock atmospheres, but with none of the usual stoner laid-back feeling.

It'd be safe to say that U.S. Christmas is a full blown psychedelic rock act, like the ones so common in Germany and Japan a little bit less than forty years ago, or even the more mainstream American psych bands of the time. They don't, however, stay in the past, as Salt the Wound is a modern rock, sometimes metal, album without a doubt.

And it's amazing, because U.S. Christmas can jam or play more normal songs and still be good, even if their seemingly jammed parts are a bit unimaginative. Their song structures (and their sound, sometimes) are quite similar to Les Rallizes Denudes. If you haven't heard them, they mostly do a single bass line and construct songs over them, with lots of improvisation.

That's the biggest thing about Salt the Wound. The theremin. It's what turns it all into a kind of intergalactic psych/stoner album. Because of that, it feels like the modern, non-classical version of "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

Salt the Wound has a really particular atmosphere. It's dense and extreme but U.S. Christmas don't really play heavy music as much as they play atmospherically heavy music. They do, however, space the hell out all the time, so don't expect to hear really concise music. I'm talking about even less concise than Mars Volta here, so go figure. And yeah, it's detrimental to the album, as their bass lines and riffs when jamming aren't all that interesting after some songs. Unless the theremin's playing, because that makes Salt the Wound incredible every single time it appears. People not used to noise music or early electronica will probably hate it, though.

So, it could be better with a more down-to-earth approach (or even a more prominent modern stoner sound) but as it is, it works. Really, really well. (7.9/10)

Carnal Forge’s Testify for my Victims is fast, intense, and something we have all heard before from this band at one time or another. Sure, guitars have the dual harmonizing solos with crunchy riffs that chug along at a cheetah’s pace, and the drums batter at the ears with percussive glory, but what else is there? Aside from solid musicianship, there isn’t much here that differentiates Testify from any of the other previous releases from Carnal Forge.

The guitars are powerful, technical, and melodic; often driving each song forward like colossi in search of battle. Drums strike and crash with precision blows while the vocalist shouts the only way he knows how to — with extreme aggression. The vocals sound like a combination between Soilwork and Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad fame. However, whereas Devin Townsend has a wide range in vocal ability, Jens Mortensen does not. Vocal lines are continuously delivered with the same intonation over and over again, which for some can quickly become very irritating.

If you like the Gothenburg inspired wave of "neo-thrash" then by all means take a listen, you won’t be so disinterested as the rest of us. (5/10)

To those familiar with the previous releases by the band (the self titled release and follow-up album, Iron), the main aspect of the music one will notice is that the songs don’t really have the same structures that were present in previous releases; songs are generally more straightforward, and it’s now very easy to discern the direction songs will take since predictability overthrew craftsmanship.

It should also be mentioned that yes, there are still folky instrumental breaks, but not as many are laden with acoustic interludes as before as they don’t play quite an important role in shifting song structures anymore (like the first release). This only adds to the linear concept described before as it leaves little room for inventiveness. On a positive note though, the addition of bristling, flute-filled passages is a welcome addition; although it shouldn’t have been used as the main melody lines in so many of the songs.

Many would say that this release shows some sort of progression as the band is continuously evolving; it would probably be safer to say however, that the band as a whole is just trying to find its bearings again due to the departure of half its members. That isn’t to say the spirit of the band is gone, but it has certainly changed somewhat — only time will tell if this new incarnation of Ensiferum is going to rise above its former glory; but rest assured, Victory Songs is still a fun album that definitely deserves some repeated spins. The best way to enjoy this release however, is to forget about the bands past (a hard thing to do), and focus on what the future may bring. (7/10)

The album‘s robust production compliments the instruments considerably; the bass and guitars have a firm and thick timbre that is shown throughout the various aggressive passages found on the disk. A definite plus to the album are the solos, they are usually played slightly above the rhythm sections, which fits the pace of the songs perfectly — it’s also a definite plus that the solos aren’t composed of the fret wankery that is so common in the world of metal. The drums are pretty standard and go well with the music, but the entire kit is very soft in the mix (specifically the cymbals).

The raspy death growl Johan Lindstrand is known for works perfectly with the music; his clean voice, however, brings many problems to the cohesive atmosphere on Error. Most of the time the clean singing sounds quite "angst-ridden," and when this technique is used to back his shouted hardcore-esque scream, it sounds down-right childish; the only exception to this is the Alice Cooper cover of "He’s Back," which is probably the catchiest song on the album. Another negative to the vocal performance are the whispered vocals found in a few of the songs, which sound like they were ripped straight from a Marilyn Manson record.

Error in Evolution is by no means a masterpiece; what it is, though, is a montage of various elements from death/thrash band The Crown synergized with metal-core traits. All in all, fans of the previous album will enjoy this release; although aside from the Alice Cooper cover, there isn’t anything of real interest for those who enjoy the brutality of death / black metal oriented thrash hybrids. (5.7/10)

It is amazing that such a young band can have such a proficient and powerful sound. Despoilment of Origin relentlessly assaults the listener with powerful militaristic drumming, deep and commanding bass lines, and tremulous guitar structures that Nergal would be proud to bear on those eternally barren sands bordering the Fertile Crescent.

Influences are strong within Cursed Madness; song structures throughout the album may remind the listener of an early Immolation / later Morbid Angel hybrid accompanied by a vocal layout that (at times) sounds like it came straight out of Vader’s Litany sessions. Sarpanitum, however, is so much more than the sum of its influences. Verses flow into each other flawlessly, contrasted perfectly with calculated drumming that accentuates the slowly-released melody found on the album. Vocals are done by two individuals who have a wide array of styles at their disposal that range from old-school death metal vocals to blackish roars, then back to exhaled gurgles — the fact of the matter is they’re thick, they’re deep, and they fit perfectly.

This is easily one of the top death metal albums of 2007 so far, and this is not an easy statement to make either; with (upcoming) releases from Behemoth, Inveracity, Gorgasm, and Demiurg — Sarpanitum demonstrate superb compositional skills and an air of professionalism that is rarely seen in young bands today. (9/10)

Scarve are quite a talented band; with instrumentation that mainly uses erratic time signatures, one might expect a rip-off of Meshuggah (hell, the logo looks like a bad knockoff of said band anyway). However, what you are presented with is an apparently "futuristic" sound melded with decent growls and terrible clean vocals.

As the album starts, we are shown that this is in fact the seventh track off of Meshuggah’s Chaosphere album, "The Exquisite Machinery of Torture"; no wait, this is Scarve! You learn this immediately as that odd unpalatable clean voice makes you wearily place your ears between your legs. If I wanted Chester Bennington from Linkin Park in my ears, I would have joyously offed myself quite a while ago. The saddest part however is that even though the addition of the clean "singing" adds some flavor to the already busy compositions, it is often bittersweet at most.

Although the instrumentation is highly technical, it is terribly hard to enjoy something like this. If you like this band, or other bands like this (technical, metalcore-ish, pseudo-thrash with death growls), then by all means give it a shot; other than that, skip this, you’ll find absolutely nothing of interest. (3/10)

Sulphur is a black / death metal outfit that was created from the ashes of a previous band known as Taakeriket; and with members that are so active within the scene (covering live positions for bands such as Emperor, Aeturnus, and Gorgoroth), it is kind of surprising that they have released only two demos and this full length over the last several years.

What is offered here is a solid album that, although won’t start a massive reformation within the genre, does manage to stay above the level of mediocrity found in many other bands. The production qualities give the album a grainy effect (most notably on the guitar) that fits the mid-paced tempo perfectly; the best example of this being "Two Thousand Years of Plague." The best way to describe this album would be to say that, although it is not as "fast paced" as some of Myrkskog or Zyklon’s releases, Cursed Madness does manage to maintain the same bludgeoning aural effect with somewhat slower song structures that other bands do with relentless speed.

The best thing that can be said about this album, though, is the overall atmosphere; when every instrument finally hits that mark of perfect unification, it shines. That is not to say there aren’t any negatives though, which in this case would be the drums. As it stands, the drums are too drowned out in the final mix when compared to the massive presence of the guitar — and although this doesn’t necessarily hurt the overall performance, it may irk a few.

If you like blackened death metal, then give this album a try; hopefully though, the band won’t wait another seven years for another release. (6.9/10)

Hungarian Vorkuta offers some interesting depressive black metal with their new album Into the Chasms of Lunacy. Rolling in at a smooth 36 minutes, this album is probably just a little too short for the actual content within it.

The beautiful cover art to the album evokes magnificent visuals akin to empty forests burning in the sun’s agitated warmth. Then the music kicks in, and you soon find out that the visual stimulation was an accurate representation of the sonic forces found within this disk.

Technicality is not an issue for this band (as with most black metal), as the true heart of the band lies in the space between the aggressive passages. The buzzsaw guitars and pounding drums are perfectly matched with the nasal/croak-like screams that are employed here. Another distinguishing feature is the thumping bass lines that tend to take the spotlight from the guitars. Usually, it’s pretty rare for a black metal album to have the bass sustain songs on an album (aside from a live environment). It’s kind of like Countess’ The Book of the Heretic; unlike the Countess album, though, the production for Into the Chasm of Luncay is pretty top notch.

Although the storming guitars may be the focus of the aggression within the disk, it is the ambient tracks that give the album its namesake. Both ambient tracks were obviously inspired by Varg Vikernes’ work with synths on Filosofem; unlike Vikernes, though, Vorkuta opt for songs that are not as drawn out — which is a definite plus.

Unfortunately, for such a short album, having two ambient tracks that take up a good third of the disk isn’t very desirable (especially when one track completely outshines the other).

All in all, Into the Chasms of Lunacy is a great album — albeit a little on the short side. This is recommended for anyone who likes healthy mixes of speed that lean a little toward the slow side of life. (7/10)

Dark Endless is the debut album by Sweden’s black metal king Marduk, although you might have a case if you claimed the music within is not really black metal.

Euronymous, the godfather of Norwegian black metal, was said to have coined the earliest incarnations of his band, Mayhem, as "total death metal." Dunno if that’s a bona fide style, but it should probably apply to Dark Endless’s super morbid and old-school take on the death metal genre. The music skirts the black metal vibe, but its chunky, loose, and mid-paced bludgeoning style will make you put it in a category very different from most metal aficionados’ perception of black metal.

If you got into this band from listening to the now-considered classic records such as Nightwing and Panzer Division Marduk, you’ll not know what to make of Dark Endless. We talked about the style above, but it’s more that the sense of the heartless killing machine had nothing near the level of grease that made it run like it does only four years later.

Sure, there are a couple good songs, like "The Sun Turns Black As Night," and the classic-to-Maelstrom, "The Funeral Seemed to be Endless" (which makes a couple of us imagine a bunch of bored black metallers, corpsepaint and spikes in place, lament outside a church about how long they were made to sit through a memorial service). However, Dark Endless is rather samey and uninteresting as a stand-alone album. The sound is interesting and appealing in short doses (and greatly propelled by the new mastering job), but the songwriting and execution are both pretty mediocre. Still, the album does have its charm and efficacy, but if you’re going for completion, buy this Marduk album dead last. (5.5/10)

PS: As a bonus, five live cuts are featured at the end of the album (including "Still F**king Dead"... what, Marduk aren’t allowed to curse?). Like with all these re-issues, the bonus material does nothing to ameliorate the album itself, and in fact rather has the opposite effect. The live tracks are like you died, and for your last request, you wanted Marduk to play in your mausoleum, and you’re listening to them through your casket. Burn My Coffin!

I'm sure that if you can take out all the noise, there's something good underneath all the bullshit in Stalaggh's new album Projekt Misanthropia.

On second though, no. This album is horrible. It's one, thirty five minute long... something. Listed as ambient black metal, the only thing I can hear is the sound of people being killed and grinding chainsaws or something arbitrary and not listenable. Beyond that, hushed music drowned out by "ambience" that overpowers what it's supposed to provide a back drop for.

Please, if you love yourself, stay away from this album. (0/10)

Getting a Botch DVD is like having an anonymous person mail you your favorite movie that was lost in the ‘70s. Denying the legacy of Botch on hardcore would be an act of ignorance, as this band has been one of the few to constantly inspire violence with each and every release.

Filmed in 2002 in Seattle, Washington, this video features Botch playing some of their best tunes with a production sound that rivaled their studio efforts. It's dissonant, heavy and most of all, fucking crisp. The band aren't throwing themselves around Dillinger Escape Plan style, but the music more than makes up for it as songs like "C. Thomas Howell as the 'Soul Man’" have rarely sounded so fantastically clear, and have never seemed so funny, as halfway through a gorilla suit comes onstage.

The way that the DVD was shot in contrast to the lights perfectly embodies the power of the show with grainy shots being spliced in between moments of perfect clarity and brilliance, a fitting tombstone for one of Botch's last shows.

This DVD is a must-have for Botch fans. Violent as always, but the music has a sound quality that's not too common amongst their studio albums, and being one of their last shows, it's a small piece of the history of heavy music, and a nice little reminder of what good hardcore used to sound like. (9/10)

Fridge are an interesting group. Lying somewhere between post-rock, indie and math rock, this instrumental group has released their first album in about six years, The Sun.

An infectious and groovy little album, The Sun is a listening experience that will definitely turn a few heads. Standing between groups like Del Rey and 65daysofstatic, Fridge have written an album that seems to be influenced by essentially all walks of life. There are moments with poppy, indie notions that seem to get your shoulders to sway with it, or turn up a smile, and then there are moments of Battles-like progressions that are very somber and sincere, such as the haunting "Oran." They even pull out some 65daysofstatic idioms with songs like "The Sun," and the Sonic the Hedgehog-esque "Comets," aptly named for the spacey sound.

At other times, Fridge quickly recal post rock numbers and even some David Bowie or Elton John with some excellent piano numbers against an acoustic composition. "Insects" even ventures on the jazzy side with their drummer adopting some brushes set against bells and a fantastic melody that is very pensive.

Fridge are a group that requires full attention, but the way the music progresses, it's not hard to give it to them. Listening to this album in broken up pieces isn't a bad idea, but there's an emotive theme present on The Sun that you'll only get through absorbing it and letting it soak in. If you do, it'll be well worth it. (8/10)

Math rock is about as forward thinking as experimental music comes these days, and 2007 is looking really good so far. You start off with an excellent release from Battles, and now I Am Above on the Left deliver their sophomore album, An A-Bomb To Wake Up.

However, I Am Above On The Left don't write the standard notion of math rock. It's noisy and dense, sparse with melody and laden with drone techniques and spacey guitar histrionics not too far removed from Cave-In.

They traverse through spouts of dissonant off-kilter riffs while playing with feedback and distortion that ends up sounding like a mash-up of Neurosis, Cave-In and Red Sparowes, though most of the songs are very individual and pretty much defy any formulas. Songs like "The Elephants Will Never Come Back" and "To Swallow a Wasp" are furious, while "The Korova Milk Bar (Vomitorium)" opts for a much more hushed and seething approach, sounding not unlike Del Rey on even more drugs.

"Mr. Father," one of the more outstanding tracks, begins with some quiet psychedelics before adhering to a punk edict that acts as a progressive platform for I Am Above on the Left to paint their disturbed imagery with feedback.

In the end, An A-Bomb to Wake up is a fantastic album for any fan of math rock, or bands like Cave-In, or hell, even fans of Neurot Recordings. It's not the greatest album to come out this year, but it'll definitely keep you interested. (8/10)

Some music you just don't listen to when you're walking down a forest street at night, or when you're Bruce Campbell in a log cabin somewhere in the secluded mountains. The music that feeds your thoughts of paranoia... music that makes you second-guess whether the area underneath your bed is inhabited by creatures hungry for souls or not, even though you're twenty-one and you know better.

Essentially, that's the album that Mem1 have crafted. Alexipharmica is an ambient album with the soundscape of nightmares. Rhythms are feint and extremely monotonous, and all sounds are just slight slivers here and there.

Half this album had passed by and I hadn't even noticed the first time I listened to it, and even in the day I felt extremely unsettled and jumpy. It's not music to movies like "The Ring," it’s music to movies like "Eraserhead" and "Lost Highway." The music you hear doesn't terrify you; the images you conjure up because of the small hints (which is essentially the entire album) you hear terrify you.

You won't hear some rendered screaming, or screeching white noise; just subtle reverberations reflecting all your paranoia and fear; low-level rhythmic swelling that seems to directly emulate the things that encompass that darker corner of your mind. It's music to zone out while your hand begins writing Manson-esque death threats to your family, which later becomes property of your school counselor, but you don't have any memory at all of writing the thing.

It's hard to say who this music will appeal to; but I can guarantee that it will strike a chord with fans of David Lynch movies, or people who don't mind letting their music play out the scariest horror film in their heads. (10/10)

Crucial Blast albums always make me crack a smile. Even if it's bad, which it rarely is, you still remember the band. Monarch! begins it’s memorability by featuring some strange, pirate-themed artwork.

Dead Men Tell No Tales is the newest release from the soon-to-be doom titans Monarch! Droning feedback gives way to heavy, brooding rhythmic echoes of brutality, directly contrasting the humor evident in the band's layout. Progressions slither and sway, seething with fuzzy guitar histrionics and a sound that eats away at your consciousness.

"Winter Bride" trods along at a semi-furious pace as their vocalist screams howlish incantations of doom and the music rhythmically invokes mental anguish.

However, this album is going to be a stretch for any doom metal fan. "We Are the Music Makers" extends to a whopping twenty-six minutes, and the entire 2-CD album clocks in around at an hour and a half with only five songs total. If you can't put yourself through it, it's worth it, as Monarch! have some fantastic music on "Dead Men Tell No Tales." (8/10)

Just to preface this review, I am by no means a black metal fanatic and don't particularly enjoy too much of the genre outside of bands like Drudkh and Emperor. However, I've always had a soft spot for Naglfar. Their newest album is Harvest.

Eh. It's no Vittra or Pariah.

While it isn't those albums, there's still a lot to be had from Harvest. Immediately, the production is very clean and fantastic. The music itself is furious as always, melodic at points, and even features some fantastic leads, such as "Breathe Through Me."

However, this album is essentially standard issue Century Media black metal. Nothing to write home about, but it's nothing that's unlistenable either. It's not going to turn any heads, nor is it going to receive any sort of particular praise in the kvlt commvnity, but it's nothing that you can't headbang to for awhile. (6/10)

The Sublime is four songs long, but forty-four minutes long, so there's a lot of music to absorb. Opening with heavy atmospheric keys of the classical persuasion, and heavy guitar power chording, the first actual song is the fifteen-minute "The Exposition," and it's a number that features some very fantastic synthesized and later on, exquisite acoustic piano.

However, the further the song progresses, it gives way to a prevailing problem that can at times make this album almost unlistenable. There's a very artistic approach to The Sublime, and the band apparently take their influence from a painter, J.M.W. Turner. If you're familiar with his work, you may like the album, however at times it sounds like Sepia Dreamer allow their artistic, bright-eyed inspirations to strangle any sort of songwriting savvy.

Not to say the music sucks, because it doesn't, but there are just too many moments where the band sounds too unfocused, and the lead around the thirteen-minute mark of "The Exposition" is undoubtedly one of them. It sounds awkward and out of key at some points.

There's some extreme potential here that isn't quite being reached. The orchestration is beyond fantastic, but the parts of this album that are supposed to be heavy are tremendously unstable and awkward, and just need some fine tuning.

Sepia Dreamer are a band that will definitely amaze in the future, but they need some maturing with their sound before that. (5/10)

Who doesn't love a new Albini-produced album these days? Normally, if his name is stamped anywhere on the album, you can guarantee you're in for a lo-fi aural assault, and Stinking Lizaveta hold true to that. The power trio has put out their fifth album, Scream of the Iron Iconoclast.

Musically, Stinking Lizaveta have been labeled as "doom jazz," and while that sounds wholly ridiculous, listening to the music can easily sway your perspective on it. Successfully incorporating aspects of post-rock, prog rock, jazz, math rock, and stoner metal, if anything, Stinking Lizaveta is going to be a sound you won't forget for awhile, and most of the music on this album will match that.

However, there are a few shortcomings with Scream of the Iron Iconoclast. The album has its moments of melody, but there are quite a few times where a small lead here or there is really off-key, or a melody just drones on for way too long when a little brevity would've done more good. Another shortcoming is that this album has sixteen songs, and lasts over an hour. While the sound and music is definitely different, you're going to need some heavy drugs to be able to listen through this album more than three times. The lo-fi sound just doesn't mix with all the genres Stinking Lizaveta are trying to put together.

All in all, it's a good album with a few small, nit-picking pitfalls. (6.9/10)

The End records has a roster that's extremely polar. You either end up with something you won't forget, or an over-blown album that people fellate daily just because it's avant-garde. Luckily, The Great Filter by Tub Ring falls in line with the former rather than the latter.

Just to start this off, the vocals aren't going to win over any new fans. However, that's not the subject here. This music is just beautiful. The opener, "Friends and Enemies," features fantastic melody after melody, and a chorus that practically emulates flight. The bridge features hushed chorus lyrics with some very atmospheric synth and random bells, which are always great even though about as masculine as a basket full of puppies.

Songs like "When the Crash Happened" are songs that would even appeal to fans of modern day Incubus or And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead. It's a short but fast song with a riff that's undeniably indie, and features some very quirky electronic sections.

"Glass Companion" features some orchestration like sax and piano that's going to appeal to fans of The End labelmates Stolen Babies. The cinematic sound and ‘50s lounge music swagger gives way to a very foreboding atmosphere, as seems to be the case as you get farther into the album. "Making No Sound(At All)" sounds like it could be placed easily in the soundtrack to a modern-day "Alice in Wonderland."

All in all, Tub Ring are an avant-garde band that deliver on various levels. The vocals aren't anything to write home about, but the music is transcendent and ultimately very theatrical, but most of all enjoyable and memorable. Definitely worth your time. (9/10)

Cruachan is back again for their fifth album in fifteen years. The plucky Irishmen (and one woman) wear stylish plaid kilts and play a cheesy, yet enjoyable form of Celtic / folk metal with a large Irish touch.

"Shelob" starts out with a brutal scream and minor heavy chord structures. Before you know it, female vocalist Karen Gilligan enters with her normal, lower ranged vocals and the song shifts into a ridiculous folksy jig. After continuing from this section, the song plops into an even MORE ridiculous, almost cartoony-themed jig. The music is spontaneous and enjoyable, yet doesn't seem like something you would want to blast with all windows open in public.

Cruachan are a group that truly takes their folksy roots seriously. They've got instruments like the bodhran, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, and more. Of course their jolly garb has already been mentioned. They are as quick to enter a spunky, mirthful jig as they are a gut-wrenching stream of crunching riffs and black metal screams. Cruachan are definitely the band to consider when seeking folk-fused bands. They blow the likes of Finntroll, Korpiklaani, and Ensiferum out of the water when it comes to staying true to their roots. (8/10)

You know those bands who exist solely through demos? Dauntless are one of them. They're essentially Finland's answer to Chimaira, as well.

Granted, Dauntless’ music can be fun at times. Execute the Fact is at its core solid death thrash, nothing more, nothing less. Good for some mindless headbanging if you don't have any Krisiun or Vader. About the album, though, Execute the Fact is essentially a compilation of the band's demos from then til now. The production is fairly clear and heavy, and the music can evoke some adrenaline if in the right mood, but outside of that it's going to be something you listen to seldomly.

Not a bad album, but not something to turn the world upside-down for. (5/10)

The mighty Dimmu Borgir had been climbing the ladder with Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, and then the incredible Death Cult Armageddon... They faltered a bit with the re-recording of Stormblast, and we the people needed some reassurance of their grimness after those shenanigans. Well, we've got it, folks. In Sorte Diaboli is a mixture between Death Cult Armageddon and Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia yet with a bit less power.

"The Serpentine Offering" starts off with a bit of typical orchestral hits as you'd expect from the Borgir, yet also tosses in some toms and crashes and make it sound really similar to the opening theme of "Invader Zim." Although the Borgir has dropped the orchestra for this one, their keyboardist, Silenoz, piles on the occasional keyboard parts that mimic the orchestral sound, and quite frankly, are very successful at it. The transition into Vortex's clean vocals feels forced, yet his performance is just as good as ever.

The songwriting for the most part is a lot more similar to Puritanical than Death Cult. Especially on songs like "The Chosen Legacy" and "The Heretic Hammer," where they play familiar powerchord parts, and Shagrath even does his detuned, distorted dialogue type vocals.

The music isn't as fast as it needs to be, and doesn't have enough orchestral elements to be as awesome as Death Cult, so it's sort of trotting in a purgatory of middle-ground, not superb but still good. It definitely sounds like a Dimmu album, and is a much greater release for us than Stormblast 2.0, so in that sense, In Sorte Diaboli is a success. (7.5/10)

Is Chicago’s Forest of Impaled a well-kept secret? Or is it that they just don’t promote themselves very well? Whatever, every (nearly) surprise release that reminds that this group is still producing is a minor cause for rejoicing around here at Maelstrom HQ.

Forest of Impaled has always been about skirting the boundaries between death and black metal. They’ve done it in slightly different ways through their four or so albums, but they’ve always done it well. Since they got well-travelled drummer Duane Timlin, you can guess that they’ve really turned the speed up a notch or two.

Rise and Conquer, as ever with Forest of Impaled, is a success. It’s fast, it’s bludgeoning, it’s tight, and it’s original.

Now, if you’re going to compare where Rise and Conquer stands in Forest of Impaled’s body of work, it’s clear that it’s not their best album. In fact, it’s their least good album since their debut, Mortis Dei. Rise and Conquer might mark some level of musical accomplishment for the band members (we can’t comment on that), but the sound is far too clean and polished for what this band does and has done. For that, look to Forest of Impaled’s best album overall, Forward the Spears, a much finer mix of dirty rawness and musical exactitude.

As is the case with so many more modern albums that use a very tight, compressed sound while still trying to remain heavy and organic, the downfalls of trading meat for clarity shows its greatest shortcomings during the slower numbers (Hey, take Belphegor’s Pestapokalypse IV as but one great example), where the feel is rather empty and uninteresting where it should be heavy and thick. Unsurprisingly, the slower songs on Rise and Conquer are wholly skippable. But when it gets back to blasting, the music works much better.

Likewise, the overly neat production causes the vocals to be at a level of tangibility that doesn’t really become the style that the band is going for. The vocal style is extreme enough, but the result is too easy to grasp and it distracts from the music. Or maybe it’s that the lyrics are too banal. Might be both.

The funny, perhaps ironic thing about Forest of Impaled is that, in a way, they may never top some of the material on their sophomore album, Demonvoid. While Forward the Spears IS, as said above, their best work overall, Forest of Impaled wrote their most enjoyable and memorable songs a couple albums ago, when their sound had a much more important keyboard presence, the arrangements and riffs were cathier, and their production was heavy and FILTHY. Then, the band wasn’t as remarkable at playing their instruments as they are now (but they could still play!), but, truly, they had their own sound. It was so cool. I can still recall those songs even years after not hearing the album.

Anyway, here’s to Forest of Impaled continuing to fight the good fight, but let’s hope they can step away from the perfection-before-feel world just a little bit to return to a sound that has that grit that befits them so well. (7/10)

There are at least four bands called Decomposed in the USA, around nine total worldwide (that are documented on metal-archives), yet the unoriginal and overused name fits these fellows like a scarf. They pretty much mimicked the goregrind genre down to every note.

On the opener, "Unholy Pleasures," the lead guitarist springs into a string of open-string tapping guitar leads that sound utterly out of place, and frankly, like cheese. Perhaps with a rhythm piece, or even some minor key changes, it could have worked, but it's just ridiculous and bland; desolate.

The vocal performance does add to the music as a whole as they apply various effects and layer them on like a cake, yet the actual content is so boring, you may get tired of it quickly... Really a shame considering it's only 24 minutes long. If you've heard one goregrind album, then you've heard this one. It's not worth going out of your way to find, but it's not entirely worthless. (4/10)

Grimm's wonderful Heksenkringen (in this issue) falls under the symphonic / melodic (black) metal category. That album was a good example of how things should be done: raw, sickeningly sweet, twisted, and dark.

Now, on the other hand, Battlelore's Evernight — which could also, vaguely, be categorized as symphonic black / epic metal — is the personification of all the wrong things in today's metal. And to think Napalm Records once released albums by Abigor.

You see; today's metal music is no longer valid as such the moment it sheds its added values as an antagonist, and has faded or disintegrated and been absorbed into the popular culture around it. Pop is alluring; it attracts with its big money and fame and MTV clips. But if you go this way in the metal world, you are no longer metal; you no longer carry a message. Battlelore's fourth full-length album is anything but metal; or anything the underground stands for.

Evernight is "nice" for the sole purpose of being "nice"; its melodies and orchestrated musical arrangements are sickening with their forced appeal to the masses. Thus, the greatness of metal is subdued to the point of absurdity. What remains is an amalgam of weak male vocals that try so hard to be counted, coupled with female vocals so sweet and inconsequential one could actually vomit, and a semi-rock-ish, quasi-distortion driven music that is anything but metal, or, for that matter good music in any capacity. (0/10)

It's always a pleasant surprise to see rock bands coming out and hitting it big by doing something that is not often done by mainstream rock groups. Just within the first song, "Shake," Drift Effect go from what may be described as your typical hard rock grooves, to an acoustic breakdown with blues solos and all. Of course, not your typical acoustic progression....

Drift Effect have metal influences, and enjoy, as they put it, "hand pumping" riffs. They also enjoy writing a string of short, radio-friendly, possible hit songs. That's basically Be Something in a nutshell. After the opening introduction, each song features catchy songwriting, and plenty of pleasing hooks.

For this type of music, the guitar tone seems a bit too crunchy, which is the primary complaint. Secondly, the album begins to falter as you go along, though manages to cling weakly to the basic patterns and movements that back up the strength of the earlier tracks. On a positive note, these guys are definitely emanating some serious Tool vibes. (6.5/10)

The still fairly esoteric Emergency Gate are back with their sophomore effort. The group has improved where necessary with their trashy, heavy metal stylings since their self-titled debut, yet they are still a bit rough around the edges. Their timing is lax, their guitar tones are fantastically rough, and the production is incredibly open and feels very natural.

The chorus on "Nightly Ray" is surprisingly good despite the many layers of vocals all singing basically the same part in the wrong time and drastically differing styles. The vocals are fairly gruff, and the performance seems a bit sloppy here and there — again, mostly in the timing. The most impressive thing about Nightly Ray is the production: There aren't many CDs I've come across that are able to include such a massive high-end without sounding totally scratchy.

Since 1992, Gaia Epicus has changed their name and sound a bunch. 2007 marks their third release, Victory. They went through the perfect changes to become a power metal band — they started out as a punk group, then later on became thrash, then melodic metal, and on and on... eventually landing where they are now.

These guys know how to write a catchy part with a very small amount of stuff going on at once. For example, the chorus of "Iron Curtain" will have you singing along with the addictive vocal lines and tapping your foot to the rock 'n' roll vibes the band pursues. "The Sign" works well with a pentatonic scale played over powerchords for the opening that leads into some barbaric blastbeats and fast, thrash riffs. This song also features the first chorus that is almost directly plucked from the power metal genre.

"In Memory" is a short but very sweet acoustic interlude and is a breath of fresh air between the heaviness of the previous and forthcoming tracks.

Victory is quite enjoyable because of the band's ability to write simple parts that are downright fun. Of course there are moments when they break into a technical whirlpool of notes made evermore awesome by the strangely raw guitar tone. As a whole, Victory is just good and diverse enough to be worthy of that title. (8.5/10)

The Black Halo was an incredible album, and left much for Kamelot to live up to with their next effort. Their DVD, One Cold Winter's Night, was also stunning in its quality. Ghost Opera plods into fresh territory like with the title track, but for the most part, the band relies too heavily on similar parts to their previous album — mostly in vocalist Khan's exalted performance.

On Ghost Opera, Khan uses vocal melodies straight out of Black Halo. "The Human Stain" has a verse that is basically a double-hit of powerchord every second with vocals and piano accompanying, yet it is a refreshing change in direction for these fellows. The chorus of said song has an underlying melody ripped straight out of Nightwish's "The Siren."

Those critiques aside, Ghost Opera is a cool album — not up to The Black Halo’s level, but good nonetheless. Kamelot’s technical writing has dropped a little bit from Epica, and furthermore on Ghost Opera. Songs like "Bluecher" show them still pulling out some fancy melodic arrangements, yet the verse drops back down to a simple, single powerchord movement.

The verses are stale. However, the choruses are the better parts throughout the album. The use of sampled audio used behind the music, like cheers on "Ghost Opera," and military sounds on "Bluecher" add a bit to the depth of the overall sound, yet Kamelot could have really tried much harder to reach some plateau amongst the compositional genius that was The Black Halo. (6.5/10)

After a long and grueling history with Stratovarius, Timo Kotipelto decided to start up his own little solo project. Sad fact: Serenity blows Stratovarius' latest two albums out of the water. If you were seeking an album that sounded like Stratovarius during their better period, then you should definitely give Serenity a shot.

Musically, it seems Kotipelto was ready to pull out all the stops to make this a great record. He's got Janne Warman of Children of Bodom fame, Lauri Porra on bass (from Stratovarius, Sinergy, and also Janne Warman's solo project) and Mirka Rantanen from Thunderstone, who also happened to work on Warman's solo project. Apparently this line-up met through various side-projects to work on yet another side-project!

Kotipelto's vocals are up to their usual yelping glory, which, although unmistakable, do border on annoying at times. Warman doesn't tread on unfamiliar territory, as his solos sound typically him, and the songs actually sound like something you may hear from Warman / Bodom / Sinergy. Each member's influence must have rubbed off on the songwriting (which you might expect, considering they're mostly involved in the same projects).

The standout track is the one that they singled out (literally) and used for the first music video, "Sleep Well." The catchy bridge that leads into the heavy metal-style chorus is what makes the song so memorable in an Edguy type of style. Serenity definitely grows on you with time, and each song is refreshingly short and contains plenty of guitar / keyboard solos! (7/10)

Revelation is one incredible black metal album. Lord Belial has been through some line-up changes, but have regained their original guitarist, Vassago. The riffs aren't extraordinarily fast or complicated, but they are well-placed and really accentuate each verse.

The songwriting is strong and keeps your interest throughout, yet there are a couple songs on which the band truly shines. "Death As Solution" is an incredibly epic song with an introduction that builds tension until Thomas Backelin rips into the first melodic verse with high-velocity yells that parallel the gusto of a Viking's battlecry. This is definitely the most memorable, and impressive song on Revelation.

"Death Cult Era" is another fairly epic track. Lord Belial use minor chords with a lead overtop that falls into a bridge that sounds like something Tool would have written. The shreds and solos throughout Revelation are the icing on the cake. Lord Belial have tapped into something awesome that leaves you wanting more. (8.3/10)

Magnum’s 13^th album opens in a crescendo of flute synth sounds and rushes into a ‘80s-tinged synth. When the vocals enter, the elements combine in a vintage style that makes the song sound like something off of a Whitesnake album. Magnum is true to its contemporary roots and writes music that succeeds in being triumphant and majestic within the classic rock genre.

"When We Were Younger" sounds incredibly epic despite the cheese-synths, and comes to a grand climax while morphing from the bridge into the chorus. As the song continues to build, the spot for a solo opens and you expect it to pop out and rend ye asunder... Alas, it is an acoustic solo overtop of the heavy rhythm! Very unexpected, yet retrospectively, great.

After you get used to Bob Catley's throaty, overly dramatic vocals, the album really becomes quite a treat. Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow is exciting in a classic sense. The song structures revive those of old in a refreshing manner rather than being boring or seeming overused by this point. The music is the focus, as the vocals are mixed a bit lower than usual, and the keyboards hold a spotlight within the mix that adds a new dynamic to the analytically simple minor / major key changes. At any rate, Magnum should be proud that their ability to make exciting, provocative music. (8.5/10)

This was vocalist Legion’s first album with Marduk. (Think he was stoked? He’s got the original album art for Heaven Shall Burn tattooed on his right chest and arm.) It is also one of his best vocal performances, bested only by Nightwing, the successive album. Not least importantly, this was Marduk’s first album recorded at Abyss Studios, which should be no coincidence as far as their musical direction went from this album, on through Marduk’s classic line-up period.

Although drummer Fredrik Andersson joined on the previous record, Opus Nocturne, he didn’t really come into his own with his signature Marduk style until Heaven. And his signature pattern (and eight-hit pattern with six hits on crashes and two hits on the ride or hi-hat... repeat a million times a song) that seems incredibly dumb and uninspired at first, in fact, with acceptance, BECOMES Marduk as much as any other element the group has ever had. It’s more than that — that beat, in its own right, IS black metal. Look for it copied in other bands and remember what a silly little thing can inspire in others.

Yes, classic Marduk begins with this album. Although the real heavyweights were to be the following two records, Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered features some superb Marduk songs, namely the opener "Beyond the Grace of God" and "Glorification of the Black God." Marduk’s ne plus ultra take on incessant blasting had its prototype in "Darkness It Shall Be," a four-and-a-half-minute, repetitive and stagnant song that features only the Andersson beat, a few fills, maybe two riffs maximum, and Legion doing his "read a rhyme" style (as our man Mladen calls it... the effect is like a nursery rhyme, but sped up a hundred times and evil) with every line that starts with "I." There’s a slow song ("Dracul Va Domini Din Nou in Transilvania") that gives way to a recharged and furious blaster, "Legion."

The great appeal of Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered — aside from its classic Marduk status — is that it’s a very concise and neat record. The flow is well executed, and the listening experience feels much shorter than its actual 35-minute length.

Therein lies the benefits and drawbacks of having the re-mastered, re-issued Heaven Shall Burn: the songs sound fuller and more exciting, but the flow and tightness of the album as a whole is diminished slightly with the inclusion of four entirely shitty tracks practice/live recordings. Bonus, yes, but it’s not anything resembling an amelioration of the album to listen to these after the closing moments of "Legion." Still, you can always hit the stop button, making Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered a highly recommendable acquisition nonetheless. (8.5/10)

Meyvn fancy themselves connoisseurs. It’s what their name means in Yiddish. And while their style of progressive/power metal has many excellent, well-researched elements, there are a couple major ones that hinder Splintered Skies a fair amount.

Meyvn’s style more than occasionally recalls the height of Forbidden’s career, 1990's Twisted Into Form, and that album’s inclusion of power metal elements into their thrash style. Mevyn is more power than thrash, but the rough, slightly old-school approach it takes to its music gives a nice sense of nostalgia.

Opening, obligatory ripper "How Far We Fall" will catch you with good vocal transitions, engaging arrangements, and thrilling, high-octane musicianship. The performances are excellent throughout the album, and it will only be stylistic issues that will cause any subjective objections, like a blaring, obnoxious blues solo on one of the songs.

"Obligatory" is a term that approaches Meyvn’s drawbacks. What they play and how they arranged Splintered Skies is kind of by-the-book. Acoustic, stand-alone interlude tracks in metal are so cliche. "Furmulum Pani Nolo" (well-separated in the track listing), although pleasant in its own right, sounds clumsy in its implementation and role in the record. A much better use of the music there would have been to incorporate it into one of the full-on blasting tracks in order to provide much-needed dynamics. As it is, seven tracks of musical suffocation transitioning into a track of peace, and then three more tracks of blast is an awkward gear shift.

It’s the sonic presentation is what lets this record down the most. Meyvn went for a highly bludgeoning and in-your-face sound for their power metal record, and they might have overdone it. The issues with Splintered Skies have little to nothing to do with the music or performances — Meyvn can play (and the drum solo in the middle of one song in order to give the album a bit of live flavor is cute) — but the incessantly full-on sound causes fatigue (especially considering the album is 73 minutes long), whether the song at hand is a roaring ripper or a slower, rocking number. The disservice to Meyvn here is that, although their music does contain subtlety, those nuances are basically rendered null and void by the un-dynamic production... that is, until you hit the acoustic number, and then the album’s lack of sonic dimension is even more apparent.

Splintered Skies is a fine beginning for this group. They’ve got all the most important elements in place; it would be a good progression to write songs that breathe a little more, and consider that louder and in-your-face doesn’t always mean better. (6.5/10)

After a long period of time where the future of the group was in question, Nightwish has returned! And not only that, they seem to be stronger than ever. This single, Eva, is like a mix between "Sleeping Sun," "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan," and actually sounds quite a bit like a Within Temptation song. Also adding to this element is the new vocalist, Anette Olzon, whose soft voice and fragile appearance is quite similar to that of Sharon den Adel.

The song itself is incredibly epic, backed by what sounds like a large orchestra and Tuomas Holopainen's subtle keyboard performances, adding piano parts throughout and a touch of harps and other sounds as well. Eva is incredibly beautiful, and even the most macho of men should be able to appreciate it. Well, perhaps not — but still, if the forthcoming material from Nightwish's new, as of yet untitled, album is this good, it will surely be a smash hit. (8.5/10)

Novembers Doom are truly stronger than ever. The heavy sections are more brutal than their previous record, and more focused. The mellow parts that we've come to expect are also more compressed, like with the fourth song, "Twilight Innocence." The song holds all of the beauty of their previous tracks like "Autumn Reflection" yet housed in a simplistic form of broken-chord acoustic guitar along with Paul Kuhr's low-ranged vocals.

You can't think of power without mentioning the growls. They seem a tad less pronounced this time around, but definitely hold more ferocity. Even the guitar performances this time around hold more complexity, and the band often takes advantage of the perfect moment to break into a thrash session. Songs like "Drown the Inland Mere," "Rain," and most definitely "The Voice of Failure" catch your attention immediately with their immensely chunkified riffs, and flowing tremolos in B-standard that hold enough strength to rattle your speakers.

Upon even the first listens, The Novella Reservoir became an instant classic as it does manage to trump the earlier works of Novembers Doom. It seems that the band can do no wrong, as they stay within a radius of their previous works without trekking too far, yet they continue to surprise us with such powerful compositions. It's hard to find any faults in this record, as even the auto-tuned vocals really grow on you quickly, and work perfectly within the songs. It's an all-around good doom thrash album. (9/10)

Octavi Sperati has matured as Grace Submerged boasts much more vividness and effort than any of the band’s previous works. Whereas Winter Enclosure was pretty ethereal and empty, Grace Submerged is overflowing with feeling and content while still retaining occasional slow, almost doomy sections. The absolute highlight has got to be Silje Wergeland's stellar vocal performance.

The weskest part of Grace Submerged is easily overlooked. Wergeland's vocals often sound a bit soft for the heavy section she's accompanying which makes the music sound cheesy, like Within Temptation, Echoes of Eternity, Epica, To-Mera, and pretty much most of the other female-fronted Goth bands.

Luckily, the album doesn't disappoint despite its flaws. There are many riffs, and they act as bridges between differing styles. In songs like "Guilty I Am," Octavia Sperati use heavy metal riffs in conjunction with an acoustic break with middle-eastern influences. The result is very satisfying.

Unfortunately, the album tends to drag on a bit due to a lack of variation as it gets farther along. Still, Grace Submerged is a pretty strong album, and Octavia Sperati show that they still have quite a journey ahead of them; a history in the making... and of course, there is a lot of potential within their musicianship. (6.5/10)

Saxon’s nearly as old as dirt, and they’re sticking to what they know best. Saxon still have that fantastic classic heavy metal sound, yet over the years their musical proficiency has increased, and combined with the technology of today, they have unleashed one friggin' beast of an album. Songs like "Let Me Feel Your Power" rip straight from the starting line, and continue to charge menacingly at a fast tempo while the guitarists wail on their instruments with endless heavy metal fervor.

The sixth album from "power metal" titans Symphorce starts off exciting enough. Many people have been quick to call Symphorce the future of power metal, but "Darkness Fills The Sky" sounds so much like an In Flames song. It's really impossible to classify Symphorce’s music as power metal at all, as it rejects 90% of all power metal elements. It really sounds more like a mixture between modern Gothenburg, heavy metal, and even nu-metal.

Before you get all flipped out at that assessment, consider these facts: The songs are structured in a basic verse / chorus form. There are many generic, and extremely simplistic, riffs that rely on downtuning to make any real impact. The choruses, like the one on "Condemned," sound like something you'd expect to hear from Disturbed, System of a Down, or even Linkin Park. Power metal in general usually doesn't use mainly minor scales, either.

By just regular heavy metal standards, Become Death is not very interesting. It's the kind of album that you will listen to several times with a hope for it to finally catch on, and with enough listens, it probably will but by that time you'll most likely have each part memorized and will lose interest faster than it took to actually get interested in the album.

Of course, there is the occasional solo section. Alas the solos are not great enough to make up for the massive void of excitement that should be the most direct element in this type of music. Become Death sounds really great within the first 30 seconds or so, but there isn’t enough good material for the whole album. (3.5/10)

Witch's Hat is a highly whimsical group that describes themselves as "adventure rock." The adventure part usually manifests itself in their corny vocal lines and over-the-top fantasy lyrics. However, the band break into bursts of bravado like those in "Bomb Squad," and even ridiculously out of place opera vocal layers in songs like "WWVI." Indeed, at first the music may grind on your nerves — especially with the vocalist trying to perform in a range that is a bit too high for him — but it can be overlooked with time and tolerance.

The material is extremely good. The guitar tones on Mastery of the Steel are fantastic, and the progressions are exciting and make full use of major chords primarily. Songs like "Octopus" get into a funky jam, yet they all end too soon, which puts a cap on their potential. The songs rarely go past the four-minute mark and are usually closer to three minutes each. Still, the catchy guitar leads are able to pull you back in for more listens.

Surprisingly, the music sounds very diverse and has a lot of sounds throughout it, yet they are all made with a normal electric guitar. That's not something many bands have been able to pull off too well. The sound may be remotely similar to Dredg, or at times, Muse. Because of this, the band's greatest weakness is probably the vocalist. They need to find someone with a more youthful tone, and a higher vocal range. However, for a band that strives to be strange and nerdy over all, it's probably best they just continue on their current path! (7.5/10)

After a decade together, this Dutch band has an especially polished presentation. A concept album about the aftermath of nuclear war, Emission Phase has a clean and mature melodic-thrash sound. Screamed vocals blend with harmonized singing over emotive melodies and blazing guitar solos, and the atmospheric layering adds to already-powerful production.

The formula is one you've heard before. The execution is what differentiates Detonation from the rest: Every note and rhythm falls exactly in its place, each track leads into the next, and the practiced character of the album as a whole adds substantially to its worth. Plus I can't say enough about the guitar solos — technically impressive, well-crafted and perfectly fitting.

The drums are tight but generally uninteresting, as are the too-predictable song structures and time signatures. The lack of experimentation is the album's biggest downfall. It can easily be lost in the pile of modern thrash that seems to keep building, and it is unfortunate that Detonation spent so much time refining its style and so little trying to sound distinctive. Emission Phase clearly took a lot of people a lot of work, and the end result is a very strong example of contemporary melodic thrash. But don't be surprised if their sound gets mixed up with a lot of the other Swedish-influenced thrash that's already occupying that part of your brain. (7/10)

This Memphis crew must have a lot of fun touring. Its aggressive sound and straightforward presentation are sure to please live audiences in the U.S. Plus, Burial Within seems to really like brief, untitled releases — just enough of a taste to get people out to the show, or so I imagine their motivations must be. And since they're giving these three tracks away on their Myspace site, I can't be too far off.

In just a year, the group is sounding older and more mature. The vocals are more confident and forceful, the guitar lines have gotten more intricate, the drums have gotten faster — even the production and lyrics have improved.

Blast beats create a solid bed of energetic rhythm for the frantic but interesting guitar lines to follow, and throaty vocals ring out with conviction.Burial Within does a good job of switching up tempos and hitting decent grooves, but the faster sections are where the band really shines. Take a listen on their site... death metal fans won't be disappointed. (8.5/10)

Music for Total Chickens is a collage of experimental tidbits with some honest reflections and advice, driven by the artist’s own inner struggle. It is an album that challenges the senses, as well as touches a chord.

The songs (18 in total) twist and curl, and yet they are rather sharp. Some of them last for merely a minute or so — making their point and leaving; and so while they are quite accessible, they just don’t last long enough to become predictable or to cause a burden.

The arrangements are clever, including mild electronica, amplifications, wind instruments, appealing percussions and fine vocal harmonies. All in all, this is a fascinating, one of a kind post-pop effort. (8.5/10)

In its second release, Trouble continues with a similar attack to the one the band set forth in its debut (featured in our previous issue). That’s not surprising, given that most of the material used in both albums was penned around the same time.

Although Trouble is widely associated with doom metal, there are some blazingly executed segments throughout the album, a product of a boiling hot twin-guitar lineup. It sounds almost like a mix of Black Sabbath and early Judas Priest; and one can definitely recognize a few rip-offs, even though these are integrated in Trouble’s own aggressive identity.

"The Wish" sees the band attempting more epic songwriting and combines all that Trouble stands for: the heavy, sludgy blues, Eric Wagner’s wholehearted and reflective performance and a wild, thumping assault, which might not be technically perfect (and at times the songs are a bit patchy) but is genuinely heart stirring.

This re-issue holds — in addition to the remastered classic album — a bonus DVD (16 tracks in total) of an audience footage filmed at a 1984 concert. This footage is quite horrible, capturing the band’s performance far from the stage, with poor sound and vision. Nevertheless, the original 1985 album is a good enough reason to get this release. (8/10)

Magane is perhaps Japan's most evil-sounding black metal band. Nearly a decade old and currently on hiatus, Magane was one of my favorite bands to see when I was in Tokyo (ah, the memories. This was Matt’s favorite Japanese band when we met in 1998 – ed). Corpse paint, bullet belts, black boots and nail-pierced leather differentiated the group visibly from anyone else on the scene, and Magane's crazy style — what they call "Yomi" — mixed thrash, death and sludge with a healthy dose of black-metal blast beats and fast picking.

The group's first album, Mortes Saltantes (also Magane's original band name), was a great expression of its range and ability. A wide variety of vocal and instrumental styles combined with an insane energy makes that one a classic.

Magane also held tightly to its Japan-ness. Lyric sheets filled with Kanji, Japanese melodies and singing, cherry blossom imagery — Magane never tried to hide its true roots. With everyone writing English lyrics (often poorly), it was nice to have one more group with a real national flavor.

Beginning at the End may not be quite as strong as Mortes Saltantes, but similar forces are in effect. The main vocal style is a strained, back-of-the-throat screech that will give you goose bumps, and the instrumentation is unpredictable but tight and varied. The production is crisp, the Japanese melodies and sung lyrics are used heavily, and the band sounds as evil as ever.

Yomi's second incarnation doesn't lean as heavily on the black metal style as the first, which results in Beginning at the End containing a more diverse sound. But it also weakens the purely aggressive feel with simpler rhythms and more digestible guitar riffs and vocals. Magane still sounds good slowed-down, though, and there are plenty of forays into the extreme. The keyboards are also too heavily used at times, but this is a minor problem at worst and doesn't mar the album.

The keyboard work is also important to the purely Japanese sound that Magane incorporates, overlaying the distorted guitar lines with traditional melodies and acoustic sounds. Taken as a whole, Beginning at the End will make you feel that you've been transported to another place and time. This combination of atmosphere-building and brutal musicianship is Magane's real strength. Let's hope the current interruption in the band's progress is only temporary. (8.5/10)

Despised Icon is only five years old, but it's accomplished a lot in that time: three full-length albums, tours with Deicide, Cryptopsy, Vader and Suffocation — and, most importantly, the band has developed a heavy, mature sound that blends death and grindcore, and should appeal to just about any fan of those genres.

This Canadian sextet comprises two vocalists, two guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer. The vocals have a lot of range, shifting between a deep, guttural growl (EEEOOOOEEEOOOOEEE *gurgle* OOEEEE) and an aggressive, high-pitched yell. They mix well with the sporadic guitar lines and super-fast, varied drums. Despite all the staff and frequent changes in riffs and time signatures, Despised Icon's sound is surprisingly tight. The clean production lends itself to the band's technical sound and allows each element to be heard.

Despised Icon has a forceful sound, rarely slowing from breakneck tempos for a good groove — this is sure to keep Alex Pelletier busy at the drums, but some of the fast-picked guitar runs must be nearly as strenuous ("A Fractured Hand" is appropriately named). When the group does settle into a groove, it's not for very long, as the tracks seem to always be in a state of flux. This unpredictability, combined with genuinely skillful execution, is The Ills of Modern Man's main strength, but there isn't a weak component to be found on this album. It's the best I've heard in a while, and I would highly recommend it to any fans of the extreme and irregular. (9/10)

Merciless Death does everything wrong; the band focus on image and visuals (they actually hail Reeboks high-tops wearing, and they dwell within the existential question of who's worthy to wear these sneakers and who's not...); they worship all the primitive, "ancient" thrash outfits, they have adopted an Eighties look, Eighties cover-art and an Eighties very famous song title as their moniker (it all pretty much sums up to: Death Scream Bloody Gore, aesthetically speaking).

Alas — he who flourishes upon icons from the past — in which process neglects his own identity, talent or the lack thereof — will eventually fade into the collective amnesia.

Hence, Evil in the Night is a bad album; it is uninspired, it lacks the real thrash power and dynamics; its three riffs are worn-out, watered-down and shallow; the guitar sound is a joke, the drums barely audible, the vocalist... hilariously weak; it is tedious, monotonous, boring and in the end: A very inadequate clone of other, greater, outfits.

Next time, guys, just focus on the music. Will you? (0.1/10)

Like Merciless Death’s Evil in the Night (review in this issue), Lycanthropic Fellatio is another album whose strongest aspect is the very vivid and colorful — albeit childish and a bit retarded, to say the least — cover art: A werewolf sort of bites off / fellates the huge penis of a green-skinned monster that neither enjoys nor suffers from the above mentioned sexual activity acted upon it — while sitting on a big sofa made of human skulls and bones. You better believe it...

If that's the best selling point of that album, how much could be expected from the music? You got it! Not much; the music is somewhat thrash-y metal in essence, with some catchy, classic riffs many a band has used and abused over the years. The vocals belong to the hardcore department, and are very dispassionate sounding, so the admixture does not quite work in favor of the recording. It's like a girl whose facial features are all nice on their own, but somehow, the sum of them all — nose, eyes, lips, etc., — leave much to be desired in terms of a beautiful face.

Likewise, nothing stands out in Lycanthropic Fellatio. It's a one-time listening experience. (4/10)

Grimm is a Dutch semi-symphonic black metal band, but one you'll all want to know about.

Incredibly artistic and melodic, yet not saccharine-sweet to the point of sickeningly unbearable (or maybe it is so sweetly choking to the point its "sweetness" antagonizes with its grimness (no pun intended — hence the singularity of this album...), Grimm's Heksenkringen follows the steps of symphonic/folk black metal experts such as Enid, Bal-Sagoth, and to some extent, also Dornenreich. As Grimm goes along, it delivers one of the most beautifully melodic and melancholy-infused artistic black metal albums of recent times.

Equipped with dual vocalists — the very potent black metal screeches, high-pitched screamer and the more tranquil style singer — and a very persuasive and imaginative keyboardist, Grimm have written a lush, colorful and rich album with colors, tones, hues, and musical tastes.

Heksenkringen is like a dark musical orchard, Garden of Eden of forbidden delights, where the listener is overwhelmed with poisonous fruit so sweet yet so very deadly, in which all kinds of surprises lurk in the shadows; some of which are delightful; some, very, very bad...

As peculiar as it may be read — and with the risk of being bitterly misunderstood and mocked by black metal purists — this is very much black metal, not really music-wise, but more in sense of the mood-emanating quality the music owns, inducing darker dimensions, even though the music itself is a blend of metal and Eurovision contest grotesquery, and even so — even with that impossible dichotomy employed — it is twisted, quasi-harsh and pompous to the point of near ridicule. Put it all together and one cannot help but enjoy it. (7.8/10)

Mister Thom Mathews, I've learnt, is a veteran persona within the metal scene. He's been a member both in the famous Hallows Eve and in the less known Quinta Essentia bands, and has now formed his own little project, with Mindcraft being his debut album of pure guitar artistry... no vocals whatsoever throughout almost 30 minutes of electric string maneuvers (don’t forget the drums and bass! – ed).

The problems are numerous; Mathews lacks in ideas intriguing enough to hold a whole instrumental album solely with the power of his guitar, fingers and their potential. The musical plot is too safe, unadventurous and hesitant; no wild ideas, no experimentation, no points of singularity and originality Mathews could call his own.

Mindcraft tends to be circular, to revolve around the same ideas on and on and on, without really developing, without showing any progress toward a climax, without a catharsis.

Take Leland Windham and his intriguing neo-classical-oriented Windham Hell project, for instance (don’t forget Eric Friesen! – ed); Unless you are half as talented (talented, NOT skilled!) in articulating your instrumental art to the form of it being an art on its own merits, in its true sense, don't even try to go instrumental.

Thom Mathews is a potent guitar player: solos, hooks, rhythms... he strums on his tool in the speed of light, almost. Mathews may be skilled as fuck, but his music lacks emotion and genuine creativity that'll generate interest and appreciation. His circular and monotonous sonic arguments are not persuasive enough to sit through even as short a span of time as a half-hour album. (4.5/10)

Opus Nocturne, Marduk’s fourth album, saw the band begin to abandon some of the more dainty and pretty approaches (we’re talking relatively here) found on Those of the Unlight in exchange for a more brutal sound.

Sure, there are still some fairly uncharacteristically melodic motifs to be found (like on "Sulphur Souls"), but the leanings toward the uber-brutal, "classic" Marduk sound had begun.

Opus Nocturne marked the debut of drummer Fredrik Andersson, whose presence is noted, but who had yet to develop the style he would be famous for. Likewise, Marduk hadn’t yet achieved the level of tightness and efficiency they would on the very next album and beyond. How much this has to do with the production and how much it has to do with the group’s gelling as a unit, is unclear.

This is not to say that Opus Nocturne is not an enjoyable listen. There are certainly some fine moments and songs to be found. Perhaps more relevantly, the album is an interesting display of the progress that Sweden’s most famous black metal killing machine took before it really hit its stride.

The thing that’s remarkable about this particular Marduk re-issue is that the bonus tracks don’t suck. Rather, the way that the horn-raising scream kicks off the first track of extra material (as always, taken from a live/practice recording) after the closing seconds of the proper album works very well in the context of the flow of the CD. The sound quality on these particular bonus tracks is also much better and more akin to what’s going on in the main album. (7/10)

"We’ve been waiting all our lives for ours sisters to be our lovers."

Lesbians on Ecstasy’s We Know You Know is an electronic romp through the lesbian counterculture sensibilities of the ‘70s, ‘80s and beyond. Heavy beats, lots of samples, loops and those good old machine sounds womanipulated into fearless, dynamic, jumpin’ dance music. The music is reminiscent of something between Grace Jones and Sylvester. It’s wacky, upbeat, and absolutely cool in its humor and strong sense of self. "Here come the Lezzies."

This band experiments with everything from freedom chants to crotch rap to rich mythic choruses. Lesbians on Ecstasy defy the monotonous industrial dance groove by taking various soulful vocal approaches to the big techno beat. It’s rough in some places, certainly not an superproduced extravaganza, but clearly true to heart, feisty and often quite funny. It’s a refreshing reminder that we can still defy stigma, break boundaries, get away with thumbing conservative modernity and graduate to calling it what it is — Lesbians on Ecstasy! Yup, times have changed — how wonderful.

I can’t let this CD go by, however, without commentary on the package. A pink throw back to the days where hallucination met imagination — and the guru was a chick! Then I open the CD and the photo of the band in the rehearsal space is kind of a let down. Give us something with some style, ladies. It’s so real in there, it’s a little scary.

Go ahead, let the Lesbians into your world today! Take off that stuffy trendy shirt and DANCE while considering all the yummy alternatives to popular preference. (8/10)

Nearly twenty years after Stackridge released Mr. Mick (also recently reissued by Angel Air, and one to be featured in our next issue) the band was brought back to life with a fresh lineup led by James Warren, and also including Crun Walter of the mid ‘70s Stackridge, who contributed one of the album’s more narrative and less saccharine songs.

Something for the Weekend is quite cohesive, bar the jig "Five Poster Bedlam," which is a showcase for Mike Evans’ violin, and Angel Air Records adds an alternate version of "Sliding Down the Razorblade of Love" and three more songs.

About half of the original 1998 Something for the Weekend has composed the Sex and Flags release, and since we have no wish to repeat ourselves, you should check out our 36th issue to find out what we think about it (we still stand behind our review).

Time (and Angel Air, of course), however, added the perspective of the entire Stackridge catalogue to our review-equation, and while the Stackridge imprint is surely found in this release, it is definitely more accessible and pop-oriented than the band’s ‘70s efforts — kinda like Stackridge on the way to being The Korgis (the more commercial Warren and Andy Davis outfit that followed Stackridge in the late ‘70s).

Casual fans might doubt this new release’s necessity given that they already have the original issue or Sex and Flags, but the dedicated ones cannot afford to miss it.

With the entire Stackridge studio work now being available, we now throw the glove at Angel Air to release some of the band’s live recordings. (6.7/10)

Angel Air celebrates its 10th birthday and honors John McCoy, whose Think Hard Again was the label’s debut release, with a comprehensive double album anthology.

McCoy is known (and marketed by the label) as the big, bald bass player of Gillan, but his repertoire goes beyond that. The opening tracks here, dating as back as 1969, demonstrate the man’s capabilities on the bass. "Walking Strong" (by Welcome) is a Blood Sweat & Tears / Chicago type of horn-oriented, jazz-rock mixture, while the Zzebra and Quadrant tracks carry out the jazz-rock thing in a more Osibisa / If instrumental approach. These are all interesting tracks. Another rare track, by The Coolies, has a primeval UFO sound (and Angel Air flopped a bit and placed this track out of the chronological order).

Next up are tracks by McCoy and by Samson, and on the accompanying booklet John McCoy explains the two were the same, only double-named to get more gigs. From here on, McCoy’s role as one of the building blocks of NWOBHM is stated loud and heavy (albeit a bit less creative than on the early jazz-rock material), through his involvement with Gillan (including a killer live version of "M.A.D") and on to a new incarnation of McCoy (which corresponds with Van Halen, and features the leader’s old pals from Samson and Welcome), Mammoth (with Nicky Moore on vocals), Sun Red Sun (including a performance by the late Ray Gillen)and more.

Unreal is a great document of British heavy rock, entertaining throughout and with quite a few surprises and rarities thrown in (especially the tracks by McCoy’s early outfits). (8/10)

A somewhat obsolete style of thrash metal is on display on Temple of Brutality’s Lethal Agenda, but regardless, it is done using very bad taste and absolutely zero inspiration. Even being a half-decent copycat takes some savoir faire.

Lethal Agenda’s is a Slayer-meets-Pantera approach, classically structured in a simple verse-chorus-verse-chorus way, with those circular, annoying slogans thrown into the air instead of real meaningful chorus texts, where the same sentence is being repeated numerous times, time and again.

The vocals compliment the powerful rhythm guitars, but more often than not the vocalist chooses to cite the texts, not too dissimilar to what rap and / or hip-hop "singers" sound like — where the words don't materialize effortlessly, instead they are being spewed like bullets, keeping the music from flowing dynamically — only different in pitch level, of course.

Not only is Lethal Agenda an extremely simple album, but also it is tiresome and uninspired and very much dull; no new ideas, no interesting twists in the musical plot, not a unique color to the vocals or an unusual production values sound-wise. The more one listens to this album, the more tedious and wearisome it becomes.

Both Slayer and Pantera had done this sort of metal ten times better in their golden years. Forget Lethal Agenda and go listen to the originals instead. (2/10)

This is great.

I'm not the biggest fan of the humoristic approach — as scarce as it is found in the first place — in metal or the underground in general; I think this kind of music is a serious business, at least for me. Nonetheless, Season in Hell is a great album.

7000 Dying Rats, beyond and above anything, create GREAT music; it is eclectic, powerful, colorful and erratic; it never bores, never loses its grip on the listener, never fucking sleeps; it constantly slaps you on the hand, punches you in the face and it displays its musical surprises every passing moment. There's always action there, always.

Yeah, that's the thing: It's like a nonsensical action movie being filmed in a mental asylum, give or take an ounce of lunacy... although I have a hunch even the most tight-assed purists among you will dig this movie.

Death metal, grindcore, hard-rock ala AC/DC, some horror sound clips, sludge, funeral doom-ish and/or black-metal-ish, spine-chilling organs; it's all there.

Plus sounds of anal wind breaks ("Jesus Farted"), crying babies ("Baby Crusher"), other sounds that involve biological body processes and one hilarious "cover" for Black Sabbath's classic "Paranoid" song, which many will surely find blasphemous... or will just burst into uncontrollable laughter .

7000 Dying Rats have taken a conscious decision to shed the inherent (pseudo) seriousness of metal and other forms of extreme music branching from it, and just have fun while also to make fun of all those "holy icons" taken so dead seriously in some metal circles (take black metal, for instance...). But at the same time, 7000 Dying Rats also never neglect the actual music, and invest in its quality the same amount of energy they have incorporated into their thematic / textual substances.

7000 Dying Rats really ridicule almost every metal genre out there, musically as well as lyrics-wise, and via 28 short but effective tracks they deliver one of the most adventurous, courageous and refreshing albums of recent times.

In the black metal "community," a band such as this would have been boycotted; imagine that. (7.99/10)

Paul Clark is one hell of a guitar player. That sums up this release quite well. But there’s a bit more than just guitar wizardry into this guitar-driven, instrumental album.

Clark is admittedly a follower of Satriani, but more than anything else the album reminded me of Jason Becker’s Perpetual Burn in both its production and its content. In a somewhat limited production, which includes the artist solely, and which might be especially bothering to the casual listener with its thin, ticking (rather than booming) drums, Clark portrays his musical interpretation of seven famous paintings, with a backdrop of keyboards and a fiery axe. His compositions are thoughtful and fully realized guitar pieces; at times they are even emotive.

Clark doesn’t just blaze to show off his technical proficiency, but instead utilizes it for the benefit of the pieces. His fretboard runs are rarely out of place and even his tapping supports the melodic outline. He also demonstrates a great feel when he takes the time to suspend the notes, which sometimes results in a Marty Friedman flavored, new-age vibe.

And so this is a recommended album for those who are interested in metal guitar. However, like many other guitarists’ fine releases, it falls short in terms of a collective release — some enthusiastic support players would have come in handy (a lesson oh, so many guitarists should have learnt by now). (7/10)

The intro, "Exordium," gradually oozes the listener into "Vanish Away," a hypersonic composition whose sole purpose is to crush and bewilder (although that could be said for the entire album). "Final Warning" incites the urge to bang one’s head until it falls to the ground in bloody prostration. Leif Jensen secretes astonishing level of hate-stricken sentiments on "That’s Why I Despise You," charming the listener with the catchy chorus.

One of the minute disappointments with this record is the vocal effect used on Jensen’s voice in "The Fraud," since it seems to take away from the "unfeigned" aspect. The enthralling seventh track, "Perdition for All," features guest guitar solos by Jeff Waters of Annihilator and Gus G. of Firewind. "Now or Never" pirouettes into junctures of superb drumming that are encountered at certain intervals throughout the entire track. It is a shame that, for some reason, the guitar solo in "Aftermath" does not sound as powerful.

"Everything Undone" begins lingeringly, yet manages to infuse the atmosphere with malicious ferocity; however, it contains the same vocal effects which do not do much wonders to Jensen’s voice. Strange enough, the vocal effect seems to work well on "Contradicions"; perhaps because they seem to have a better placement. Kreator’s Mille Petrozza sings alongside Jensen on "Retain the Scars," a devastating vocal composite. The outro, "Exitus," imperceptibly escorts the listener out of Incinerate.

An excellent dual guitar sound and intense, pounding drumming are both present throughout the entire album. Dew-Scented ply a familiar sound, which has attained a level of individuality. While this is not the album of the year, it certainly does depict the band’s heartfelt devotion towards their music. (8/10)

Alright, so Diskreet’s music may not exactly be cutting-edge, but it does embody ruthless virility. Infernal Rise is the debut EP from these Kansas boys, a record that hybridizes technical death metal with grindcore.

The songs demonstrate a level of unkempt progressions, seeing as the concatenation of the different musical fractions of the songs does not turn out as smoothly as expected. That is saying that the songs appear to have gaps in certain places, as though there is no clear visible link between one part and another.

The first track, "Infernal Throne," is a churning hellion that aims to reach a climax, but instead winds up circumvolving around the same energetic output. "Infinite Hold" blends slower moments of intensity with staggering bursts of fervor. "The Bigger Complex" makes use of movie lines, an implement that is oh, so common; nevertheless, the song displays a stunning level of compressed force that explodes at unexpected instants. "Entrails" dwells in a more melodic field, containing a part with deeper-sounding guitars towards the end of the track. "Faust" is the track that appears to stand out from the rest, although it could have sounded so much better if the drums did not sound so distinct from the rest of the instruments.

Conclusively, even though Diskreet do not bring anything overwhelmingly different into the ocean of grindcore and death metal, their first EP does portray a level of barbarous energy. If you are hoping to expand your collection of grind / death and are searching for more of the good stuff, then Diskreet are worth a listen. (6/10)

One would think that when an album is called "A New Disease is Born" that it will be of a musically maleficent nature. However, this is not altogether true in the case of Nightrage. To an extent, the Swedish / Greek band can be traced as a mishmash of melodic death metal and pedomorphism, with a hint of hardcore.

Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates) and Gus G. (Firewind) are no longer in the band. On this record there is Jimmie Strimmel on vocals, who does not do such a bad job.

What is not shocking is the predictability of each song; it is as though the songs have been heard before, seeing as the musical pattern can easily be mapped. "Scars of the Past" also seems to promise grandeur, as it exhibits great guitar work. The song toys with interesting parts, yet still manages to become irksome at certain instants. The instrumental track "A New Disease is Born" makes listening to the entire record not so wearisome, because it presents a hint of integrity, meanwhile lulling the listener into a state of serenity.

Even though the album is well produced (by Jacob Hansen), it’s the content itself that can force the individual to go against buying it. It is a little sad that such eminent musicianship is used in a not-so-original manner. It’s all been done before. While innovation is not always present throughout the record, it does appear from time to time. This is not a "new" disease: it is a prosaic one. (5/10)

With Legendary Demo, Clouds deliver us seven songs that are a rigid conglomerate of lively rock music. The not-so-articulate tempest, drenched with a stoner rock attitude on the one hand, and an in-your-face punk attack on the other, might seem a bit standard at first, but closer examination will reveal that it bears not only the right spirit and energy, but also a solid performance that is intentionally spoiled and smeared to fit the musical agenda. The concealed cleverness makes Legendary Demo one that arguably deserves the "post" tag.

SPOILER WARNING!

But the blend of Misfits, Monster Magnet and Black Sabbath on ecstasy isn’t all that Clouds holds for us in store. After the first seven tracks, the minus countdown begins: at -4:34 to track 8 the band executes its sick, rioting version of Frank Zappa’s "Willie the Pimp." Once the countdown ends the band builds on the momentum and uses the Zappa piece as a vehicle for a free music venture that last for nearly twenty minutes. The groove of "Willie the Pimp" is enhanced with a reggae vibe, trades with some electro-acoustic manipulation, and makes way for a saxophone feature, in what can be described as the 21st century version of Ray Russell’s ‘70s experiments (see our review of Mouse’s "Lady Killer"). What a treat! (8.25/10)

Canada’s Greylevel borrows heavily from Porcupine Tree. The ambient sonic textures are those of The Sky Moves Sideways with mellow songwriting a-la Stupid Dream. In other words, take the spacey Pink Floyd meets David Sylvian influences, beat them flat of any Gong-styled psychedelic twists, wrap them together with sincere, hazy songwriting, enhance the romantic flavor, and you got Greylevel.

So, is Greylevel more than just a monotonous, less colorful and less melodic version of Porcupine Tree? I’m sure this will be a central argument amongst listeners, as it was within me. Eventually though, the truthful, slightly amateurish singing touches a chord, and the whole work drags you into a greyish atmosphere (pun intended). For this experience alone (which is not a far cry from the Aerogramme release also featured in this issue, albeit less lush), this album might be worth a try! (6/10)

The drilling guitars that open Aereogramme’s My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go are of the few characteristics that remain true to Aerogramme’s reputation as a heavy band. Instead, this bittersweet release’s focus is on melodic, wholehearted songs performed with eager desire and a careful attention to their clean esthetics.

The songs featured here border on being kitsch, but they never fall into that territory as they are saved by delicate and masterful instrumentation: a backdrop of strings alternates with the foreground, a thoughtful use of space fills the songs with the breeze of contemplation, and a clever, gradual accentuation contributes to a sense of evolvement (even though the songs are rather round). The heavier, more rumbling segments sound like a low-profiled Tool, as these are always kept on a low flame.

My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go is not meant for those who wish to unleash their frustration, but rather for those who crave for an intimate, lush and expressive listening experience — one that keeps the emotional maelstrom well contained. (9/10)

Even within the most blackened of circles, Impiety is hailed as one of sickest bands around. Despite many lineup changes, they became Singapore’s finest export — the sheer violence of their black thrash sounds like a real battle between forces of nature. Nowhere is this better evinced than on Skullfucking Armageddon. This album captures Impiety at their NASTIEST, sticking their royal pricks up Christ’s orifice and commanding Him to say "uncle" with every thrust.

Impiety are INCAPABLE OF MERCY.

"Lords of Apokalypse" starts with an ‘80s B-movie keyboard intro that soon melts into a song of unrelenting hateblast, pinched vokills (from longtime member Shaithan), and downright frightening musicianship. Also notable is the sound Impiety went for in the recording: everything is upfront and live-sounding, with no noticeable echo or gloss. Guitars play at full-tilt treble, like early Deicide, only louder. Such good thrash.

"Nocturnized" may be the best song on the album, with a bludgeoning verse riff and a bridge that actually sounds like what early Metallica COULD have achieved. By this time, the arrangement of Impiety’s songs comes into fuller view: they shift gears with a solid understanding of what makes their metal work.

"Sodomythical Frostgoats." What’s not to love about that title? Impiety deliver some real nuggets on this one: "Blessed by goatfucks / Hellcantating sodomies / Malevolent blasphemies . . ." The middle of the song devolves into a war march groove, wonderfully heavy and mean-sounding. Jealousy.

"Ironflames of Hate" starts in with a more traditional ‘80s heavy metal attack, but the song’s straightforward preface makes the main song sound all the more vicious. "Diabolical Witching Aggression," "Skullfucked: The Speed Metal Hell," and "Socerique Baphostorms" (!!!) bring the aggression even higher, while the sing-a-long to "Torment in Fire" is actually INJURIOUS!

The Drakkar edition of Skullfucking Armageddon offers three bonus tracks from previously limited Impiety releases: "Serpentspells" (1996), "Cuntblasphemy... Paganistic Bitchgoddess Deiimpalation" and "Magick - Consecration Goatsodomy" (both 1993).

Skullfucking Armageddon is one of nastiest, most overlooked classics of underground metal available. Seek it out and snag it, or you’re a fucking pussy.

Frostgoats RIDE!