Reviews written by: Colin McNamara

Reviews

Starve - Promo MMX

While Netherlands Starve call themselves doom metal, their style certainly has plenty of black metal in the mix as well. While the tempo of their four track demo is raw, distorted, and slow, the snarling is certainly black metal tinged. What listeners can expect from this demo is dirty, sometimes rock n' roll doom. "Stuck" is a great slow, plodding...

09/05/2010

Winter's Verge - Tales Of Tragedy

Yes, yes, upon first listen Winter's Verge just sounds like any other power metal band with a story to tell, but fortunately the story here on their concept album, Tales of Tragedy, it's a little more than focusing around the fairytales and mythology. Following their wake of Italian bred metal, each release has a story to tell, with Tales of Traged...

09/05/2010

Black Sun Aeon - Routa

Finland is known for lots of great atmospheric death doom metal acts, from Shape of Despair to Skepticism. So it is no surprise that Black Sun Aeon, also from Finland, has a lot to live up to. Forming in 2008 and consisting of two main members sharing vocal duties, with a session member in between, the band has already released one album in 2009 an...

08/05/2010

Breathin God - Crossing The Human Mind

Formed in 2004, Breathin God released this demo in 2008, showing a brief display of what they could accomplish. Combining the wildly electric riffs of Pantera with meaty metalcore chugs and a blend of harsh and clean vocals, this four track demo certainly shows promise. "This Way" offers some melodic metal in the vein of Killswitch Engage with hars...

08/05/2010

Endless Journey - Endless Journey/Melancholy

Ever wondered if a band could sound weirdly depressing? Enter Endless Journey! Very little is known about the band except that they are from Russia and the members are part of the project, Mehafelon. Their debut album is a grim, cold example of what blackened doom metal can be. Sporting distorted guitars, harsh, tortured snarls, and slow, plodding...

08/05/2010

Cave Canem! - Inter Bella

Hailing out of Russia, Cave Canem! are new to the metal scene. Debuting with their 2008 release of Inter Bella, the band tries create an album that is technical, but more interesting than a headache as some mathcore bands are apt to do. Throughout the albums listeners can expect a lot of hooks, plenty of solos, layered drumming that isn't just blas...

04/05/2010

Devoggol - Shall We Go To The Disco

It isn't very often that you get a band that intentionally tries to be gritty and sounding like they were creating their music in a garage, but according to Italy's Devoggol, the band considers their music 'garage grime.' It is a unique step for a band because compared to most who, in today's music industry, strive for a cleaner, more appreciated s...

04/05/2010

Number H - Whisper In Your Ear

Number H are a rock band from Italy that have graced 2010 with their second album, <em>Whisper In Your Ear</em>. However, don't expect anything quiet from this album. Bringing back memories of the 90s hard rock and grunge rockers such as Alice and Chains, Creed, Soundgarden, Disturbed, and Incubus, there's more than enough catchy headbanging music...

04/05/2010

Silent Fall - Otherwise

Melodic and power metal never sounded sweeter with France's Silent Fall. Originally known as Winterland in 2007, the band changed their name in 2009 and within a brief year later, debuted with <em>Otherwise</em>. It is an exciting melodic metal album with lots of fun solos, keyboard passages, and soaring vocals that mix between singing and shouting...

04/05/2010

Voices From Beyond - The Gates Of Madness

Hailing from Italy, Voices From Beyond are an interesting breed of melodic metal. Taking melodic metal vocals and combining them with death and thrash metal riffs, along with dark themes such as HP Lovecraft that is similar to a sense that King Diamond did with his albums, Voices From Beyond have created their own brand of horror melodic metal. Son...

04/05/2010

Anoxia - Lapdance For The Devil

Anoxia, another one of Denmark's thrash metallers, have been taking their sweet time for the past seven years since their debut CD to create<em> Lapdance For The Devil</em>. It's interesting because at first listen, fans may wonder: What happened to the thrash in these guys? With melodic vocals and music with almost a pop edge to it, Anoxia seems t...

27/04/2010

Clonecircle - Behind The Wire

The first thing to notice about Clonecircle's latest piece of music,<em> Behind The Wire</em>, is the lush, gothic electronic elements that form the backbone of every song on this album. Not unlike other gothic/ electronic metal acts ranging from Deathstars to Rammstein, the music spanning throughout is melodic, strange, catchy, and of course, hard...

27/04/2010