*sigh* there was a time when any album with horns, strings, or an accordion would have got me all sorts of worked up. Sure Ensiferum, sort of does it for me, but when I say folk metal I mean bouncy, beer hall, humpa, Finntroll, Svartby-ish shit.

Enter Denmark’s Trold, who I discovered looking for custom songs for a VR drum game called ‘Ragnarock’ (if you like metal and rhythm games, and have a VR headset- I highly recommend it). I downloaded the song “Sensommerbålet” from their debut Der var engang​.​.​. to play, simply due to the band name, loved it, and subsequently found out the band information, and lo and behold they have a new album out.

As you can tell from the band’s moniker and artwork, this is troll and party-themed metal that absolutely scratched the Finntroll/Trollfest itch, along with a bit of death metal crunch akin to countrymates Svartsot and Svartby’s impish playfulness. And with those three bands being far from productive or defunct right now, Trold fills the gap perfectly with a fun, trollish romp of an album.

I Skovens Rige covers all the folk metal bases with unserious, fun, catchy, beer-swilling troll troll-moshing glee. There are keyboards, mouth harps, accordions, tubas et all backing up a rife mix of folky tropes from epic basts to bouncy sing-alongs.

Virtually every song is fun, especially the album’s first half, from the blast beat-filled opener “Med høtyv og fakkel”, rollicking sway of “Til gilde under bøgen”, blistering catchy personal favorites “Trollmanden” and “Tusind år i dvale”, with its nifty little piano breakdown (and did I hear folk metal’s first ‘BLEGH’??) and Ennio Morricone-ish instrumental “Vår”.

The back end of the album is a bit moodier with tracks like “Mod den endeløse skov”,  “Bødlen”,  and “Gamle ask” but still has some fun moments like the pure Finntroll-ish jaunt of “Utysken”, bouncy “Skovfesten”  and closing, short sing-along romp “Tudseleg”, making I Skovens Rige one of the best, and more importantly, most enjoyable folk metal albums I’ve heard in the last couple of years.

“King of Salvation” has some fantastic hooks from start to finish. They have such meticulous arrangements. At times they can remind me of a band like Keep of Kalessin and then on a flip of a dime they can whip out heavy Morbid Angel-type riffs. Having been around since 2012 you can hear the maturity of their songwriting and ability to keep pushing themselves. They mention on their bio Wintersun, and Septic Flesh being influences which I can hear at times. “Iblis’ Mistress” opens with a piano instrumental part that reminds a bit of Fleshgod Apocalypse. They do a fantastic job segueing it into the opening riff of the song. I was not expecting the ode to Tobin Abasi (The Faceless, Animals as Leaders) breakdown towards the end of the track. The guitar work of Johnsen and Hans Bjorheim is relentless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7vO-pz3G64&t=491s

I have listened to this album three to four times now start to finish, and I keep finding new things in each track that impress me. The production is top notch and I truly hope they get over to the United States soon to support this album. “Assailants” opens with some Middle Eastern flared vibrato grooves. The breakdown towards the end of the track has a very machine-like Decapitated vibe. The drum work of Einar Petersen is stellar. The title track “Monophobic” is up next and is another one of my favorite tracks on the album and has also of elements that remind of a heavier Emperor. The vocals have more of a black metal sound to them. “Dhariyan” is another notable example of the Middle Eastern influence on the guitar section. This is the second longest track on the album at a little over seven minutes and has some of the best lead work on the album is on this one.

“Be Headed Your Way” continues the riff onslaught and is one of the more aggressive tracks on Daenacteh. “Daughters of The Desert” finishes the album and is the longest track at almost eleven minutes. There is so much going on with this record. This one has a nice melodic break and then an orchestration outro breakdown which is a cool way to end the album. Deception has such a strong presentation with their song arrangements that they are really on their own level. I know we are early in 2024 but this is a current front-runner for album of the year for me. If you like incredibly polished symphonic technical death metal, then you would do yourself a favor in taking some time out of your day to check out this fantastic group.

And indeed, eccentric symphonic black metal with a quirky but addictively catchy 70s vibe to many of the keyboards is what Sylvatica ply, and ply very, very well, imbuing Arcturus’s quirky second album, La Lasquerade Infernale and svelte third album The Sham Mirrors as well as Borknagar’s The Archaic Course , Quintessence and such.

The synths are the highlight here, along with smooth songwriting that balances more progressive, avant-garde, symphonic black metal from the 90s heyday. There’s a nice mish-mash of styles battling in all the songs as well, with an almost theatrical circus-y, playful vibe here and there (with ‘character’-ish voices to boot) to almost Viking beer hall joviality.

Bouncy opener “Strife” starts the proceedings with a bang, with haughty 70s moog-ish styled synths, that you might hear on an Amorphis record. The next track, “Papa Poltergeist” is one of the tracks that really steps into more trippy, avant-garde realms with a plethora of styles and vocal deliveries, but it’s fun as heck, though it might be a little much for some.

“Titivilius” really leans hard into the circus, haunted house atmospheres, but has a wondrous little pre-chorus keyboard bridge. But those ghostly, cartoony shrieks might be a little over the top for some listeners, that want their symphonic black metal a little more stern or frosty.

For those folks “Pope Innocent VIII”, will be a little easier to swallow with a mid-paced, more traditional gait, riffs, vocals, and epic synths, that imbues early Arcturus or Dimmu Borgir with some nice choirs and killer bouncy little piano bridge about 3 minutes in. Then personal favorite “Song of the Leper” really shifts the mood with a somber, catchy, almost balladic tone that is simply killer, except for those cartoon vocals again. There is also a lovely acoustic reprise to end the album.

“Scapegoat” switches again, to a big, brash, 70s prog rock mood again, while another standout, “In the Eyes of God” is more traditional 90s melodic/ symphonic black metal (I’m hearing some Children of Bodom), showing what a real chameleon Sylvatica can be.

If you can get past some of the more over-the-top theatrical elements, Cadaver Synod is an exquisite, layered listen, that does a lot right and certainly has some tangible influences it pulls from, but puts a creative spin on things, that symphonic black metal needs now and then.

The only downside to this killer record, and just a personal thing, is that the album is only available on digital or LP- no CD option. C’mon man. Now I have to buy TWO 2 friggin’LPs this year (this and Exulansis’ Hymns of Solace).

Blood Ages’ take on metal is death metal with a Middle Eastern flair similar to Nile. Not surprising as the album is a concept piece based on a fictional Egypt-like fantasy world, but within those confines you also get a bit of a Rome-vibe akin to Ade and Ex Deo (and there is some latter Kataklysm in here too). The music backing those themes comes across as decent mix of those bands, also maybe with just a smidgen of deathcore as there are some inhaled reeeeees and some breakdowns (“From the Void to the Throne”, “The Ritual: Soil of the Crawling Chaos”.)

But everything comes together pretty well. The epic, Arabic keyboards are sumptuous but not overdone and blend well with the big burly riffs using suitably militant chugs, marches and blasts. The sand whipped keys are both blended into the songs (mostly starting and finishing) and a couple of oneiric interludes (“Collapse”). The songs are by no means world beaters or game changers, but there is some good stuff in here like the start of ‘He Who Came to Defile the World”, the eight and a half minute “Backstab” with a slow burning opening few minutes and more melodeath canter of closer “The Maze”.

In all, a solid release that checks all the death metal boxes for me, but the added bonus of some epic synths is even more for me to like, and a solid young band I will be keeping an eye on. Mighty Music seems to have released a good death metal record, so there is that too.

What we have here, is some technical-ish death metal that has a very heavy Dutch sound a la Sinister, Prostitute Disfigurement,  Houwitser and such, especially in the sharp, guitar tone and twisty delivery. Throw in some impressive blast furnace vocals from Nicolas Troillon, and you have a very enjoyable, competent album of death metal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD6-rKWRy7w

It’s not going to change death metal, but those looking for a new, fresh fix from maybe a previously unknown source, you could do way worse,. It’s got lots of slicing, pinch harmonic blasts (“Sidewalk Business”), plenty of groovy lurches ( especially “Captain Obvious”), squealing solos and those aforementioned powerful unprocessed vocals. There’s even some sneaky melody tucked in the Sinister-ish slices (“The Art of Avoidance”). The guys know how to play and their experience from 4 albums with DarkRise shows.

From opener “Pedagogy Fuck Fest” to closer “Disregard”, the album is just satisfying, no frills death metal, something Mighty Music used to be really good at. Let’s hope they are back on track as Sounds Of Fury certainly seems to point that way.

After a slew of awful rock, Mighty Music has released something that I more expect from the label. Some chunky, beefy European death metal by way of Austria’s Epsilon (formerly known as Side Y)and their second full length album.

These guys are new to me, but I like what they are doing on Zu Richten. Its a form of high octane melodic death metal glazed with with a Swedish mid range buzz, which is always good. I get a bit of a Deranged (circa the s/t release in 20010 vibe as the riffs are often super vast, veering into more brutal faster, death metal realms, but containing some blistering, tighter, thrashing melodies, d beat rumbles and grooves that all at once remind me of Konkeror, Dew Scented or The Netherlands’  I.N.R.I.

The end result is a damn salty 45 minute, 11 song slab of death metal that’s satiates a couple of genre paradigms very well. The vocals are a gruff growl and higher pitch rasp, nothing too ‘broodle’, but not too wimpy or purely NWSDM, and there are no keys or clean vocals, keeping things squarely more brutal. But the strength of the album is the riffs, tons and tons of riffs. melodic, but burly and with that slight Swedish buzz to give them some heft and weight.  Take “I Shall Feast on the Flesh of My Enemies”, one of the album’s standouts, which kicks all sorts of ass around 1:47, or  carefully paced “Torn  Apart by the Righteous Animals of this World”.

But the guys can change it up. There’s some playful fun moments buried in the intensity as well such as “Ein zarter Hauch von Menschlichkeit” or wah wah solos on “Can They Suffer?” and even some djenty -ness buried inv “Nutzmensch Agonie” and he penultimate track, “Die Schuld Des Lebens” in a rangy 7 minute affair. There’s even some moodiness  in interlude “In Nammen Gottes”, as the album winds down the intenssity a little for its last quarter or so.

In truth, this might be Mighty Musics’ best release in a loooooong time and almost makes me forgive the likes of The Grumpynators, Fried Okra  Band, Franklin Zoo, Bullet Train Blast, See the Sky, Black Book Lodge and Egonaut.

Looking at the cliché cover art, the juvenile logo, and the bad band name, I just knew I was in for an aural crapfest when I first sat down with Below the Green. Though to my surprise and delight, what I got was a damn fine doom-filled, blackened death metal album.

Wearing their influences clearly, and proudly, on their sleeves, Tomb of Finland do a fantastic job at mixing the blacker melodies of Dissection with the somber death of early Swallow the Sun, wrapping it all up in a late ‘90’s Hypocrisy vibe, with a little Amon Amarth, Dismember, and Bloodbath thrown in for good measure.  Sounds pretty awesome, right? Of course it does, and in all honesty, it is pretty awesome.

After a brief, yet confusing, oriental sounding intro, the band wastes no time in impressing with “Death of the Sun”. This blackened, melodic thrasher is simply well written and straight to the point, recalling a sound and feel of Naglfar meets Rotting Christ, meets Ragnarok. “In the Heart of Winter” follows with its mournful, yet passionate energy, ushering in more of the death/doom sound that is to be found on the rest of the album. Even though the band is Finnish, the love of all things Swedish really shines on Below the Green. From the “Runes to My Memory” inspired melody of “The Autumn Rain”, to the massive Peter T. styled groove and Dismember/Bloodbath mash-up of “Life and Slavery”, “Damnation”, and “Dead Forever”, or the black metal musings of “Sunfader”; Tomb of Finland could have easily called themselves Crypt of Sweden or something as equally hokey. The aforementioned “Damnation” really stands out, not just for its crushing Swallow the Sun melancholy and Bloodbath brutality, but I’ll literally, kiss your ass if it doesn’t remind you of Dismember’s “Life, Another Shape of Sorrow”. Closing out the album is “Kaira”, a nice, short, doom drenched heavy hitter that wisely avoids the pitfall of wearing out its welcome in length.

As I stated earlier, Tomb of Finland heavily wears their influences not only on their sleeves, but massively emblazoned on their backs. While everything on Below the Green is top notch, nothing is slightly close to being considered original, but that’s okay really, because the album is simply a great listen. From the dual, sometimes layered, vocals, to the skillful impressive drum-work, to the crushing rhythm and melodic leads, Below the Green is quite an enjoyable and impressive album. Hell, there’s even a good bass presence captured here too. None of this is really a surprise, being that Below the Green was recorded and mastered by the legendary Dan Swano at Unisound Studios. A great sounding, well played slab of somber brutality, Below the Green is an album that should please any fan of extreme metal.

Luckily, amid the shitstorm, a couple of more acceptable recent releases have managed to just keep the label relevant; French stalwarts No Return, Germany’s promising  Epsilon, Sounds of Fury, Tomb of Finland, The Vision Ablaze, and this, the debut from France’s Mesoamerican inspired Chabtan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxa0I8NI3ro

Don’t get me wrong, there’s some sort of analogy I can use about getting something acceptable when everything else is crap I can use here, as Chabtan are by no means world beaters, but compared to some of the garbage listed above this is Mozart. But what Chabtan do, is deliver is pretty solid form of modern melodic death metal/00s metal core that reminds me of later, more melodic Heaven Shall Burn (i.e Veto).

It’s beefy, it’s got some some nice oomph, it’s got some solid grooves , some gravelly vocals and some decent blasts here and there. A smatter of synths and the aforementioned Mesoamerican elements make it interesting. Heck, there’s even a couple of rousing songs such as “Born from Vucub Caquix” or closer “Visions of the Snake” that I actually rather enjoyed. But for the most part the band rage and thrash with energy and aplomb on the likes of “Ixtab”  or “Anthropomorphic Beast” (Where I really heard Heaven Shall Burn) and they even get a little more progressive and adventurous on the likes of “Ah Puch Reign” and “Reptile”.

Again, with Mighty’s slim pickings, I’m getting some enjoyment from a  relatively medicore album, but I cant deny a couple of the above songs got my foot tapping rather than rolling my eyes or gagging as the bands in the opening paragraph. PLEASE let the new Brutality album get here.

What Unsafe actually brings to the metal scene, is competent, well played groove metal reminiscent of that ten year period from ’94 to ’04, bringing to mind bands like Lamb of God, Machine Head, Devil Driver, and Shadows Fall. Every song on Enter Dark Places really does have something enjoyable to be found, whether it’s the heavy groove of “Watch Out”, the Megadeth meets Machine Head vibe of “Intentional Homicide”, or the underlying melody in “The Final Stage”, as well as every song having impressive, fluid guitar leads that really do enhance the songs themselves .

The vocals of Stephanie Nolf, are a bit of a double edged sword for me. While I do appreciate that she isn’t trying to be yet another Arch Enemy/Angela Gossow clone, her style can get to be monotonous after a few songs. At her best, she comes off as a mixture of Dawn Crosby (Fear of God), James Ludbrook (Damaged), and Brian Fair (Shadows Fall), at her worst, she sounds like too many hardcore/metalcore bands not worth mentioning.

I feel that part of the problem with Enter Dark Places is that it’s a little long winded. At thirteen tracks and roughly 50 minutes, the album tends to wear out it’s welcome. Cutting the album down five songs would put it at around the thirty minute mark and honestly, would have really made a bigger impact for the listener.

Overall, Unsafe has crafted a decent slab of groove metal in Enter Dark Places. Unfortunately, it succeeds more in making me want to hear the albums from those who Unsafe drew influence from, more than it does in making me want to hit replay.

And while this is still a modern hard rock, groove metal, thrash metal/modern metal hybrid, it’s the heaviest of the recent crop and still is a little outside of my usual metallic realms. It’s got a little more gruffer than regular /radio rock edge to it akin to some of the 90s /nu metal/ hard rock such as Stompbox, Tantric, Soil, White Zombie, Staind and at their heaviest, maybe some slight thrash/groove metal akin to something  like Pro-Pain or Skinlab or some of the Pavement/Crash releases of the mid/late 90s and early 00s.

It’s not totally terrible (compared to tje band mentioned in the opening paragraph) and it’s some balls here and there, and its sways between something you might hear on a modern rock radio station, or something on Headbangers Ball in the mid 90s. The guitars have some beef and front-man Marcus Karregard has a gravely shout and croon that’s not cringe inducing, even with a majority of the lyrics based on 90s action movies. If opening song below,”Vegas Baby”, second track  title track or “Medicated For Your Protection” reels you in of gets your foot tapping, then the rest of the  album should at least keep you happy. However, if you think its mindless commercial tripe, like some of it is (“The Kid”, “Childhood Friend”),  and you want to shove a rotten dick into each ear, I would not blame you.

At least the label has the likes of No Return, Pandemia and death metal legends Brutality to start 2015 off a little better than they ended 2014. And you may wonder why is he reviewing this? And I’m going to be honest, I’m forcing my self to review some of these weaker releases, in hope we stay on the label’s good side when the Brutality drops. Yeah. I’m a whore.

I couldn’t tell you a song title from Spreading the Message right now if I wanted to, but I remember it sitting comfortably among my Disinter records and post– Millennium Monstrosity material, and given the unapproachable nature of most death metal today, I kind of wanted to hear that sound again.  And with full-length number 5, I got what I wanted, right down to the 90s-era synth album intro and familiar themes of war.  They even have a song called “Killed.”  Doesn’t get much more bare-bones than that.

While it’s clearly a throwback record, it feels more genuine than the bands pilfering Incantation records for unsettling tones.  If you’re trying to sound evil, you aren’t evil.  Effort is for posers.  Disinter seems like they’re having fun with the material here, and their metalness is without question.  It’s just a tough sell in 2014, as aged ears such as mine are usually hoping to hear new paths approached within metal.  The paths chosen here however are pretty sweet ones, as the band out-Vaders Vader during “Harlots of War” and has a nice take on a Rotting Christ type of sound during the second half of “Nihilistic Age.”  And is that piano on “Zyklon B?“  It totally is!

The problem is although I’m enjoying the record, will it go the route of Spreading the Message and not be a release I reach for in the future?  As much as I despise the immediate gratification needed by today’s ADD metal audience, I’ve heard these songs far too many times.  The material is good and their flirtations with melody do really stand out and give the songs character, but the paths to and from these passages won’t stick in your brain after the record is over.  While I’d love to hear a record that capitalizes on their melodic strengths, I’m sure that’s the last thing Pandemia wants, since those elements may signal the unwanted flair that the band surely doesn’t want to clutter their music with.  With At the Gates of Nihilism, Pandemia’s message is clear, I’m just not sure if my ears can hear it anymore.

Plying a sound that’s somewhere between Eluveitie and Svartsot, Vanir play a style of bagpipes and whistle layered, well produced, chunky, melodic death metal with a mix of gruff and raspy vocals. Like early Eluveitie,  the main criticism seems to be that its simply rather forgetful music with a bagbpipe warbling over it. The riffs themselves simply don’t evoke any sort of heathen, viking blood lust or pillaging emotion. Sure the pipes of token folk band female member Sara Oddershede are well done and amply folky, but still even a but lifeless, but the flat riffs just don’t do anything for me. Just listen to opener “Fall of the Eagle” which should bean album opening throttler, is just meh. Even the attempted somber ballad “I valkyriernes skød”, even with its moody bagpipes just wanders and plods with no real impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0MBQs4VCnE

Which is a shame as I’m typically all over this kind of stuff and I really wanted to like this more as  occasionally the band deliver some solid Amon Amarth sounding march or chug such as “Written In Blood”, “The Flames of Lindisfarne” or  the more urgent “Overlord”, but nothing truly rousing or memorable and as a result, the whole album is just kind of there rather than an album that makes me want to put on my chain mail cod piece and viking helm and chase pigeons in the park with a broad sword.

Mighty Music is usually pretty reliable, but with recent and a really weird recent slew of pretty bad hard rock and power metal releases ( Saint Rebel, 23 Acez, Estate, Malrun, Sea Ruinside) the label needs to step it up and return to its more chunky Euro death metal sound- maybe reunited Czech veterans Pandemia and their upcoming 2015 effort will help.

The production is raw but full-bodied, providing enough bottom end to balance out the high-end harshness. Everything is cranked to eleven, but the balance lets you hear everything: the raspy vocals, the drums, the bass, and the thick guitars at the forefront.

Opener “Sortedoden” wastes no time getting right to the core of what Solbrud does on this album. It delivers powerful black metal with well-constructed and often soaring melodies, and even a dark sense of triumph. The track ends on something that most bands of this ilk avoid–a major chord!–but in a way that manages to avoid coming off as cheesy or contrived. The following tracks, “Afbed” and “Klippemennesket” shows that there is also a touch more traditional black metal ala Darkthrone going on here than you get from the Cascadians, a welcome nod to the roots of this music. Closer “Ursult” shows the same competence and climaxes in an emotional, deeply melodic fury.

The only drawback is what might come off as a derivative sound. I’m not sure how much Wolves in the Throne Room was a conscious influence, but it may turn listeners off who have been worn out on that. For me, the slight touches of more traditional black and folk-black sounds provide enough of a difference for me.

I’ll admit that I’m a total sucker for this style of black metal, and this came as a most welcome surprise after the recent disappointments from Wolves in the Throne Room. Any listener who digs Cascadian black metal needs this immediately, as does anyone who also enjoys the darker, rawer side of folk-black.

Those that still revere Disillusion’s now decade old debut Back to Times of Splendor (me included), will find a lot to like here. It’s intelligently crafted melodic death from cut from the classic Gothenburg cloth but with a slightly orchestral and progressive  tint and rendering the all important clean vocals rather well. Of course, if you think that melodic death metal is dead, then there won’t be much here for you to enjoy as it’s full of catchy, well produced, hooky riffs and solos, even with the proggy vibe that flows within.

The balance is the expected melodic canter and a few more aggressive blasts (“The Dereliction” pt 2″ The Bonds of Oblivion” and “Shockwave”) and plenty of mid paced moments. Bu the band isn’t a simple verse/chorus band with the prog tendencies making for a more in depth and labyrinthine  experience that’s incredibly satisfying. The seven songs are generally a bit longer and twist and turn with multiples shifts within each song long no further than standout opener “On Darkling Plains”

It’s for the most part very bright and uplifting, especially the often exquisite keyboards as displayed in the albums catchiest track  “Fluxus”, “Kryptographik” and “The Worlds We Devour”  but then there is “Solstorm”, which has a bit of a melancholic edge to it. The vocals are a slightly deeper growl and the normal mid range rasp, with a few decent clean vocals thrown (to really great effect to end “The Dereliction” pt 2″ The Bonds of Oblivion”) in here and there, but they are certainly not the focal vocal point. In all a very nice little melodic death metal release with equal parts teeth and brains that signals the genre isn’t quite dead yet.

They Were None is above all things heavy as shit.  And while tangibly culling from obvious contemporaries like Neurosis, Isis, The Ocean and Cult of Luna, the thing that jumps out at your right away is how dense and heavy They Were None is. In particular, the the bass of Pierre Carroz which simply dominates the sound ( in a good way) with a vast throbbing heft. Case and point, twice in opening track “The Fall”, (at 3:11 and the final minute or so) where the album just staggers from the speakers with artful monolithic heft.

And while the pace and gait  is very much post rock with builds and heaving climaxes, due to the overwhelming production and sense of groove, I get a bit of a sense of Gojira in the palpable hugeness  and focus of the crumbling, retrained lurches. There are so many huge staggering moments on the album they are hard to all single out but the likes of the aforementioned “The Fall”, 2:10 and 3:00 of “Inner Peace”, 3:45 of “Northern Lights”, 0:50 of “Watch ’em Die”, 2:44 of “No Forgiveness for Vultures” and there’s even a nice polymorphic Meshuggah stutter in “Betraying Satan” to up the complexity a bit and break up the generally patient lope.

And while there are some moments of expected, tense post rock/sludge  and instrumental ambiance and leading in/out filler (i.e “Northern Lights”, “Sad Hill pt1”, “No Forgiveness for Vultures”, “Sad Hill pt 2”), the album is smart and direct with its eleven relatively compact songs (4-6 minutes or so)- no vast, rangy 20 minute numbers here, as they mostly cut right to the chase within a few bars. The vocals are largely a throaty bellow or semi scream/shout but some strange Eddie Vedder-ish croons surface to start “”We Are the Failure” but luckily that’s the only deviation other than some female spoken words to start “No Forgiveness for Vultures”.

With this and Planet Rain’s The Fundamental Principles, Mighty Music has released couple of top notch albums that break the label’s fun but usually predictable (and often very Danish) roster and sound and I look forward to hearing more from Herod.

Though comprised of competent 19-20 years old, the band’s elder statesman vocalist Dennis Ullehus really carries the band. His old school voice is a mix of Glen Benton (Deicide), Jan C (Gorefest), Hal Shore (Burnt Offering) and Kyle Symons (Malevolent Creation/Hateplow) . And the band’s music is equally old school mic of thrash and death metal culling from the likes of Slayer, Sepultura, Possessed and early Death metal like Benediction and the young Florida scene. It all comes together for a high energy, enjoyable release that’s a nice break from everything brootal, clinical or techy.

The whole affair sits confidently astride death and thrash metal with equal parts white top sneaker,  chunky, canter and a dash of extremity here and there to keep it a little more aggressive and certainly much more enjoyable for me. Though 19-20 old kids, the players certainly know their way around old school riffs, structures, production and lyrics, as all the songs have this musty but meaty 1988-1990 aura that’s not forced or piece meal retro. These kids have done their home work, and found a vocalist who cements the sound they are going for perfectly.

The likes of “Voices of Deception”, “Manor of Hatred”, “Systematically Murdered”,”Face the Sun”, “Echoes of Pain”, chug, groove and gallop with aplomb and an affable presence that’s simple and easy to listen to and enjoy. It isn’t trying too hard to be retro or nostalgic, but it hits the mark with a natural presence and delivery that’s hard not to like of you like the old school.

Move forward a decade and an album I missed (2004’s Yellow Acid Rain), and Sludge are back, and though Makro is still in the band a considerable lineup change appears to have shifted the bands sound somewhat. Still apparent is the down tuned, hefty mix of groove, doom, death and thrash, but now injected with some electronic experimentation and an almost cyber metal feel (a slower In-Quest meets a cyber based Soulfly/Ektomork came to mind) and the end result is a solid if unspectacular album of various styles that never quite gel, despite some considerable heaviness.

On the positive side, with Makroo producing, the guitar tone and overall production is huge, resulting in a super chunky, cyber metal heft and precision that rivals anything Tue Madsen has ever done. The thing is that the songs themselves never really hit you as they should despite the superb tone. None of the songs truly stood out or commanded my attention as they sway from in your face, chunky thrashers like opener “60 Mm”, “Ida Na Hui” and “Carnivore” to slower, longer more deliberate and well… Sludgy numbers like the title track, “Below” and “Inquisition” slow things down to a lethargic chugging crawl. Also, new vocalist ‘Odin’ has a standard shout/roar that adds nothing to the character of the album.

Overall, Lava is a still a solid album but it displays the middle tier song writing that kept the band squarely in the realms of the relatively unknown for their career. Granted, the production and slabs of massive heft (“Machine”, “Inquisition”) give the album some enjoyable moments, but production alone can’t make the album anything more than a curious listen rather than a required listen.

Even the band is publized at the label’s website as “Filter Choruses, Korn Dynamics, Machine Head grooves, System of a Down variations and Slayer dynamics“. Slayer? I don’t think so guys.I have not heard debut Hands Down, but on the surface, everything seems acceptable-from Martin Kruger’s commendable Devin Townsend impression both screamed and sung, to the chunky Tue Madsen production. The riffs are solid, and range from thrash based, high octane numbers to groovier, denser riffs, and as background music, Mevadio could certainly pass for some head bobbing entertainment. However, as you peel back the layers and sit and actively listen to Fresh Kill Daily, it becomes apparent that Mevadio are simply recycling a number of influences with little or no ingenuity.

Still, the 10 tracks rumble with a catchy, hefty pace and while no single track really jumps out and cries for attention, you can certainly get through the album without wanting to turn it off-again though, if used as more of background, party music. A concerted listening effort, like say for review purposes though, just make the album ‘there’. Not bad, but not great either. Tracks like “Norma Jean” and “My Sweet Cage” appear as stout, thrashy, groove based numbers, but then tracks like “Operation Sabbatical (Hell Death)” is superficial forced thrash, while “Five Necessary Kills”, “Directors Cut” and “7 Deadly Songs” just reek of fairly commercial Rock/Nu metal ( A mix of Slipknot and Single Bullet Theory comes to mind), which will put off most extreme metal fans.

Plying a more typically Danish sound (think a mix of Hatesphere, Konhkra and Thorium) than their Swedish black and Death metal roots would have you believe, Vicious Art is one of those death metal/thrash hybrids that rumble and groove with deftly produced precision and throw in the occasional blast beat and more extreme vocals for good deathly measure. However, despite being a high energy, polished and tight affair, Vicious Art is still a purely middle of the pack band that don’t do their line-up justice.

Even with a high profile player like Sandström (bass, backing vocals) in the mix, Pick Up This Sick Child is a by the numbers affair that’s surprisingly bereft of brilliant or memorable moments despite its tangible energy and polish. Only “Our Family Flesh” has any noticeable reference to anything like Entombed, and there’s nothing on the album that comes remotely close to the intensity of Dark Funeral. I know this is a differently styled entity, but you’d expect some of the members to carry at least some of their previous experience over to Vicious Art and dominate the sound instead of simply going through the motions and allowing the ex- Dominion Caligula and Obscurity members drive the sound into mediocrity, as they did with their former bands.

At 45 minutes too, the samey nature and just barely memorable riffs, start to enforce why Dominion Caligula and Obscurity never amounted to much, and that Sandström is merely a piecemeal name presence rather than a key writer. Granted, everything is rendered perfectly and there’s a palpable energy to the riffs (“Chewing Gunpowder”, “Evicting Dead Tenents”, “Dancing Munchausen”), but when the only thing you remember or feel about an album is its energy-there’s something wrong.

This album reminds me a lot of the 2007’s This Ending album (members of Amon Amarth, A Canorous Quintet, Sins of Omission, Guidance of Sin), where members of respectable outfits delivered something rather forgetful and lacking chemistry. Shame, as Vicious Circle have the chops and desire, but right now I see why they are on Mighty Music rather than one of the bigger international labels, as A) the sound is far more like the standard Danish Fare, and B) they are just not that great.

Generally highlighted by chunk and heft with a dash of thrash rather than speed (and more often than not produced or mastered by Tue Madsen or in this case Jacob Hansen) or complexity, the Danish death metal sound is encapsulated by the likes of Battalion, Hatesphere, Mercenary, Illdisposed, Koldborn, Konkhra, Urkraft and veterans Thorium who have just released their third album on their homeland label, and while it delivers the Denmark sound perfectly, at also has the general rather forgetful, middle tier competence as many of their country mates.

As you’d expect, Feral Creation is crisply produced and is full of tight, up tempo songs that often come across as the heavier end of thrash with impressive death metal roars, occasional blast beats and many moments of chunky, tightly wound percussion and riffs, but as a whole, none of it really sticks or commands your attention after the disc stops spinning. That’s not to say it isn’t enjoyable while it is spinning; it is.

Sturdy but disposable moments like standout “Diabolical Consumption”, “Cast From Hell” and “The Lurker” make the album a safe purchase but don’t expect Feral Creation to make to many waves or end up on any 2008 year end lists. However, it’s certainly an album you can listen to from start to finish, with a solid nod of appreciation at its conclusion, though you won’t have a burning desire to revisit any of the songs.

This is just damn fine death metal from top to bottom. Much like the recent Aeon release, it’s not particularly original and has some tangible obvious influences (Sinister, Deranged, Iniquity, the technicality of the Florida scene the chunkiness of the Belgian scene and of course Exmortem), but the end result is just a sheer assault of competent, blistering death metal.

Other than instrumental closer “Concluding Carnage”, these 11 tracks spit forth with slicing complexity (“Necrotic Flesh Cravings”, “Prime Murder Suspect”), menacing growls and thunderous grooves (“Autophagist”), all with a classic death metal lyrical lean of death and destruction and the very slightest solo work the accent the brutality (“Hogtied and Waiting”, “Weapons”). There’s no frills, no tangents, no attempts at progression, just pure unadulterated, churning death metal of a pretty damn high caliber.

Backed by a bludgeoning but crisp Berno Studio (Amon Amarth, Deranged, The Haunted), production, Spectral Mortuary’s assault on European death metal is complete and I highly recommend this for death metal fans looking for a relatively ‘new’, unheard of band to freshen up their death metal collection.

If you’re looking for a similar style, The Provenance comes to mind although more rooted in a black metal, but November’s Doom might be the closest U.S. outfit that does a similar style; except Thalarion use a full time female vocalist Nela Horvathova, and a sweet siren she is, too. Her soft, slightly accented angelic presence is a wonderful contrast to the ultra brutal snarl of Juraj Grezdo. This combination offsets each other perfectly and is the driving force in both the atmosphere and delivery of Thalarion. Grezdo’s guttural bellow is as forceful as any pure death metal vocalist and blows away all other vocalists in this genre, where the gruff vocals are piecemeal to the mostly dominant female side. This yin-yang relationship is balanced perfectly, even though compared to Thalarion’s efforts her role does feel slightly diminished, maybe by the lessened emphasis on the goth elements and an overall more aggressive approach. When they sing together as in “A Tatrastream Romance” – it defines a scarred beautiful ambiance. Even when Nela is the main vocal emphasis, (“My Weakness”, “The Endless Cacophony”), the result is still entrancing, but not so dreary as Pale Exit or The Gathering because the background music is still pretty harsh, even for a “ballad”.

A new element has been added though that shows that Thalarion can’t be simply pigeonholed. A saxophone is now used in a few songs that give the material a sensual edge to the aggression. For example, the song “Confined” might start out as Thalarion’s fastest tune they’ve penned, delving into the realms of simplistic yet melodic death metal. The first two minutes or so blazes by without a single synth note or acoustic break, but then it stops suddenly for a subtle time change and Anathema-like interlude with a wonderful saxophone break more akin to Sculptured. It’s a curveball that pleases not surprises or sounds out of place. However, they do have the odd, rare lapse into a more meandering goth/doom that’s not as satisfying and hints at the drawn-out material found on Four Elements Mysterium, the aforementioned “The Endless Cacophony”, being the main culprit. The newer more immediate Thalarion is simply better. More dynamic songs like “My Bitter Overstrain”, while still retaining the goth ‘n’ doom hue, are faster, tighter, and more focused. Lyrically, Thalarion is varied and challenging, while there is the odd fall back into more romantic themes that are I think necessary to facilitate both Nela and Grezdo vocals. They also include a song-based on some of their ethic prose (“Tatyana”), and historical conflict (“911 – As The War Raged”, not to be confused with the recent terrorism events). Still, despite the newer death metal heading, Thalarion displays their deep-rooted penance for morose emotional riffs. “The Tatrastream Romance” walks the perfect line between somber goth/doom with its sweeping intro riff, and its newer style, but still it’s dominated by the vocal play-off in the stunning chorus. Sound-wise, the home country production is lush rich, and deep, as to be expected from this genre and Juraj Schlosser’s guitars are thick and resonant.

To think, a region that is often considered behind the times and a “small” label can find a budget and studio capable of a perfect sound, yet still many larger profile bands on major labels sound like shite. I think Thalarion along with Novembers Doom, The Provenance and The Elysian Fields are some of the few outfits that successfully meld multiple elements seamlessly and without effort. And when done to perfection, as Thalarion has done, it makes for a superb listening experience. Thalarion remains horribly underrated.