Sporting ex-Darkane vocalist Lawrence Mackrory (from the excellent Rusted Angel album) on bass and backing vocals, I had high expectations from Enemy Is Us and their second full length Venomized, despite the not so great band name. What I got was a heaping dose of unmemorable mediocrity. Venomized is a lesson in Swedish repetitiveness. Don’t […]
Strap on your sandals and fur codpiece-its folk metal time. And what folk metal this is! Culling from the likes of Finntroll, Amon Amarth, Turisas, Bal-Sagoth and Ensiferum, Germany’s Equilibrium, after an already fantastic debut in Turis Fratyr, have released arguably the most complete, enjoyable, epic and down right brilliant folk metal album since Jaktens […]
I’ve never really been too into instrumental music, with a passing, fleeting interest in the likes of Tides, Pelican, Red Sparowes and such. The last instrumental album I really got into was The Autumn Project’s The Burning Light, on Deepsend Records. Ironically, this album was supposed to be released on Deepsend Records, but instead got […]
For most bands, releasing a double disc studio album comprised of solely new material, and clocking in at an hour and a half, would be an amazing feat. But for England’s extreme doom gods, Esoteric, this is just another day in the park. In fact, it’s not the first time they’ve released a two disc […]
*sigh* Bland, boring, vanilla, unoriginal, uninspiring, unenthused, lacking of energy – all descriptors of Engel’s Absolute Design. Coming from one of my favorite metal cities in the world, Gothenburg (on top of the impressive list of musicians and their former bands – I’ll dig into this more shortly), I expected more – at least a […]
Just based on the cover, which features a skinned rabbit dressed in lacy dollclothes (rather than the usual demiglace), you can already predict that this will be some sort of loopy, eccentric goth-metal. Eths certainly has a touch of the avant-garde, but musically, it’s a more familiar blend of metalcore and nu-metal. Comparisons to Slipknot […]
I’ve been getting a lot of shimmery, melodic post rock influenced metalcore/screamo type stuff of late such as Tides/Giant, November 5, 1955, Empires, Day Without Dawn, At The Soundawn and such, but when I got this 3 track CDEP/10″ release that features members of Philadelphia rockers Balboa and Towers, (including former digitalmetal.com writer and site […]
After boldy claiming their Victory Records debut Goodbye to the Gallows was the ‘most brutal CD of 2007′, Emmure return with their more humble, yet equally devastating follow up. And while admittedly, most metal heads will turn up their nose at this group of cocked hat, short haired kids and their hoodies, but truth be […]
Three years is a long period of time in general, but in music, it can feel like an eternity. Its bad enough when most bands make you wait two years, which is the accepted and often standard gap average between albums (unless you’re Shai Hulud, Metallica, Tool, etc) but three can begin to stretch the […]
Female-fronted Epic Power Metal…this description alone should be enough to inform you if you’re interested in going any further. Still with me? Ok, then. Edenbridge is what I call a “Genre Band” (I need to copyright that). If you’re into the specific genre to which they belong, then no arguable reason can be found for […]
Originally released in 2006 on JCM records (RIP), Metal Blade apparently saw enough in this Minnesota band’s second effort to send the band back to studio to re-mix and re-master (and add two tracks and new cover art) to the follow-up to 2003’s promising but flawed effort, V.II R.VI. With considerable line-up changes, Epicurean appear […]
Rarely does a band stack up to their ambitious bio, but UK’s End of Level Boss do in excess. Flirting with Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Metallica, and Godflesh on their 2005 debut Prologue couldn’t even hint at what was in store for this London quartet on Inside the Difference Engine—and now, thankfully, every semblance of […]
For a moment I thought this was called We Are the Grim ‘Thong’, and I had some really odd visualizations going through my head, but I digress… Exalted are a USBM act hailing from Chicago and they are eschewing the popular US obsessed, one man mope-fest style of black metal, and instead going for a […]
Beginning life in 1991 as an ultra-heavy, distorted, Drone Doom band, Earth created some of the most mind-numbingly massive instrumental music on the planet. As the years went on Earth found itself developing a few more textures & different tones, yet the band has lost none of the atmosphere it has always been known for. […]
Arguably the most hyped folk metal band of recent memory, Switzerland’s Eluveitie, to coincide with the upcoming Paganfest tour have released their second full-length album on Nuclear Blast and while an entertaining album, Heidevolk’s upcoming Walhalla Wacht is a far superior release as is most of Napalm’s ‘real’ folk bands. The problem is, despite the […]
*Sigh*- the things I do as a CD reviewer. Man, you guys are gonna rip me a new one… First off, I was in Hot Topic (I know, I know) and this was on the speakers, and asked the tattooed young scenster behind the desk if it was In This Moment, and she said no, […]
In the last few months we have seen some stunning brutal/technical death metal releases from the likes of Ulcerate, Sickening Horror, Decrepit Birth, Brain Drill and Hate Eternal, so you’ll have to excuse me if the debut from California’s Embryonic Devourment falls a bit short despite its effort and skill. Though my lack of glowing […]
Waldemar Sorychta (Grip Inc., Rotting Christ) has been busy recently. Not only did he release the album from his new project, Enemy of the Sun record late last year, he also released this German entry into female fronted Gothic metal, a genre he has had considerable influence in, having produced the likes of Lacuna Coil, […]
Despite being formed in 2000 ans this being their 5th album, this is my first exposure to the German black metal war machine known as Endstille, and while a scathing vicious take on razor sharp black metal, I don’t think I’ll b checking out the back catalog unless I see it used or cheap somewhere. […]
Frankfurt Indiana’s scariest duo return with an inexplicable re-issue of their limited 2006 cdr demo release that only serves to show that their horrid debut, The Night Our Rituals Blackened The Stars, was not in fact a fluke and the band can actually be consistently terrible over two releases. Why oh why someone at AKR […]
Enemy of the Sun is the latest musical endeavor from Grip Inc mastermind Waldemar Sorychta. The material on debut offering Shadows is undeniably metal, but there’s much more at play here than just that. The heavier thrashier parts are most comparable to Strapping Young Lad’s wall-of-sound cyber thrashing, but then there’s the not so intense, […]
OK, so there is melodic black metal and then there is Norway’s veteran act Enslavement of Beauty, who with their third album, deliver an uber sugary sweet mix of Gothic synths and very polite, catchy black metal/melodic death metal. Think early Children of Bodom mixed with maybe the synth laced melodic death metal of Lothlorien […]
Ancient Rites has been a favorite of mine for a very long time and I have Gunther and friends to thank for introducing me to country mates Enthroned. I, of course, picked up the Ancient Rites/ Enthroned split back in 1994, having never heard of Enthroned. They have been a mainstay in my cd changer […]
Comprised of the band’s 2005 EP of the same name and 2002’s What Completely is Not EP, both re-mastered for this re-release, the ‘debut’ album from LA’s Exhausted Prayer is a adventurous foray into genre mixing resulting in a solid, if over ambitious affair that shows tons of promise. With a big dash of Opeth, […]
Another offering coming from Italy, this time by Elvenking, who play a poppy, Americanized mix of Power metal, Melodic Death, and Folk. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but the first band that comes to mind when listening to The Scythe is recent Avenged Sevenfold. Extremely accessible melodic metal, with moments of slightly […]