Reviews written by: Colin McNamara
Reviews
Cryptic Tales - Anathema
<em>Anathema</em> is actually one of the first albums by Cryptic Tales, only to be re-released in 2009 by Redrum666 Records. Compared to the original there isn't much different from the original early nineties version; the production is still raw, vocals gritty, and the guitars have that evil, necro production that the early albums by Vader and Beh...
19/04/2010
Unsoul - Magnetic Mountain
Unsoul are one those dream bands that make such a complex album it is almost laughable, but in a good way. There's so much variation on their 2008 release,<em> Magnetic Mountain</em>, that it'd be impossible to count them all. Basically, this is a well constructed jazz prog death metal fusion album. Heavy hitting but also extremely melodic, and ve...
19/04/2010
Antares Predator - Twilight Of The Apocalypse
Antares Predator have created a sci fi world with a strong Terminator influence based upon the album cover of their first, full length debut, <em>Twilight Of The Apocalypse</em>. It's a blend of death metal, black metal, and melodic thrash metal, with some great hooks, harsh vocals, and nothing cheesy or really base standard at all. There is a lot...
18/04/2010
Nasum - A Tribute To Nasum
<em>A Tribute To Nasum</em> (aka the Tribute with the long tracklist EVER) is fifty two tracks of grindcore, deathcore, and death metal bands performing numerous songs by the band Nasum. Nasum originally was formed out of Sweden in 1998 before splitting in 2004. The band's politically charged grindcore must have left quite an impression on the meta...
17/04/2010
Avenging Angels - Shrouded In Mystery
Avenging Angels are a melodic death/thrash band from Austria. With two albums now under their belt, both independently released, they have shown an interesting craft to their self produced methods. With Shrouded in Mystery, the band goes forth to continue in their melodic death style in the sense of vocals, intensity of the guitars, and use of subt...
17/04/2010
Epidemic Scorn - Psycho Gourmet
Epidemic Scorn peform some brutal death metal, and their demo is no different or a letdown from the past albums. Mostly people expect demos to be raw, gritty, and underproduced versions of the tracks that would later show up on a full length album. Epidemic Scorn deliver six clean, wicked tracks that would make bands like Suffocation or Cryptopsy p...
17/04/2010
Urudium - Moonlit Sorrow
Who would have thought that Japan would produce something along the lines of what's considered 'heavy metal?' While Japan is known for producing black metal like Sigh, not many could be sure if something like heavy metal that was originally so American and European could have sprung out there. According to Urudium, who hail from Sendai City, they...
17/04/2010
Bloodthirst - Sanctity Denied
Hailing from Poland, Bloodthirst are a thrash metal trio intent on bringing the best of Slayer back into the world. Expect a lot of familiar riffs from "Reign In Blood" all the way up to "Divine Intervention". There's lots of groove and while the vocals bridge on black metal with their throaty rasp, they still rip with the intensity of the music. H...
15/04/2010
Evil Wrath - Chaotical Invasion
Imagine yourself back into the nineties black metal scene. Two guys in corpsepaint doing all the music in this band. Dirty, raw production was the name of the game with blastbeats and just enough punk groove to keep fans interested. Bring anything to mind? If anyone reading this said "Darkthrone," then you're right! To listen to Evil Wrath's "Chaot...
15/04/2010
Posithrone - Necropoles
Posithrone is a gothic dark metal band from Austria delivering their debut, "Necropoles". From the sci-fi titled tracks such as "Cybernetic Unions" and "Gen-Errator," many listeners may pass the group off as another cheesy cyber metal band. However, while the album is dense with keyboards and science fiction ideas, the musical structure of the albu...
15/04/2010
Thrudvangar - Durch Blut Und Eis
Thrudvangar hail from Germany and have been brandishing the Viking metal flag for almost ten years now. Four albums later and fans are finally greeted with "Durch Blut Und Eis", which translates as "Through Blood And Ice." All the songs are done in German, so expect a lot of translating if you want to understand the lyrics, but its important you do...
15/04/2010
Crematory- Infinity
Germany's Crematory have been around for some time, debuting in 1992 with their album "Transmigration" and then releasing about eight other studio albums until reaching 2010 with "Infinity". Comparing the two, "Transmigration" was a lot rawer where "Infinity" is more modern, thanks to cleaner production and a better range of electronic sound. With...
13/04/2010