Sworn Enemy - Maniacal

I don't know much about Sworn Enemy, I've always just assumed they were a terrible hardcore band, and though this newest release, Maniacal, isn't terrible, it's not very exciting. From this record it sounds like these guys could be capable of writing something good. I don't know whether they intend to inject the dull and repetitive hardcore influenced riffs into the songs or its just a result of them running out of ideas of where their songs should head.

There is some good riffing here, as well as some aggressive fast paced tunes that get your head going. The guitar solos prove that the guitarists are capable of shredding. At their best, they sound kind of like the Swedish Nightrage. I just can't deal with the hardcore elements that surface throughout the album.

4/10

Zimmers Hole - When You Were Shouting At The Devil...

...We were in league with Satan! Zimmers Hole is pretty much just Strapping Young Lad without Devin Townsend, with every song having the heavy, yet humorous, vibe of SYL's "Far Beyond Metal." With Gene, Jed, and Byron contributing all the instruments, and Devin producing, there's a definite Strapping feel to this album. However, the music lies more in traditional thrash than the chaotic mess that can be SYL. Chris Valagao 'The Heathen' does the vocals, recreating his best Rob Halford pipes to give us the Zimmers Hole message of metal.

This album is a blast. It's not to be taken seriously, but its a damn fine work of metal. Hell, the names alone associated with this should make you go out and buy it immediately. The riffs are fast, heavy, and catchy. The drums are relentless. And the vocals expertly flow between Rob Halford and Oderus Urungus.

There's even a guest spot by Nathan Explosion of Dethklok on the track "The Vowel Song" which helps you how to read... Brutal

9/10

Death Angel - Killing Season

I wish I could say that I was a huge Death Angel fan back in the day, but I was only 11 in 1990, and I didn't really listen to music at that age. I was probably 16 or 17 before I got introduced to Master of Puppets, and even then, it wasn't until I went off to college that I discovered the metal underground. And since Death Angel hadn't released anything since 92ish, I had never heard them. So my first Death Angel experience was 2004's The Art Of Killing, which I enjoyed thoroughly, though I haven't gone back in time to their early releases.


Anyway, as far as thrash metal goes released these days, this album tops the lists. Of course, I'm not even sure I really know many thrash bands these days besides these guys, Anthrax, and Exodus. Maybe its only the old school guys that are capable of still thrashing well. The young Black Tide sure aren't very exciting.

Like all thrash released these days, there's nothing original here, its just how well the band is capable of thrashing. The songs here are catchy and will soon have you headbanging; riffs galore and good solos. The singer sounds kind of like Joey Belladonna so the vocals are certainly spot on.

8/10

Hate Eternal - Fury And Flames

Hi, I'm a double bass drum, let me pound in your face for 40 minutes. I haven't really heard anything from Hate Eternal for awhile, I know that I didn't really like their debut, though I may have to go and relisten to it after this newest brutal offering of death metal from Erik Rutan. I never really followed this band, so I can't really say much about their other albums. Though somehow I remember the name of the main guy from this band and that he spells it with a 'k' instead of a 'c.' wtf.

This thing is intense though. The bass drum is way up in the mix, and it's pretty much just double bass drum throughout the entire album. The guitars aren't very audible except when a solo pops out. Only Erik's vocals equal the intensity of the double bass drum. If Hate Eternal's equipment van broke down, they could pull off the songs live by only bringing a microphone and a double bass pedal with triggers.

I'm being a bit overly critical, because this is a good album. If you are a fan of the death metal, than check this out.

7/10

Soil - Scars

Leave it to WoW to get me to listen to an album that I was almost sure I would not like. The first two tracks from this album: "Breaking Me Down" and "Halo" are probably two of the most popular songs for people to use in their warcraft movies. Fortunately, for this nu-metal-ish rock band, these two tracks are actually really good. It's the rare occasion when a band can put together an enjoyable tune to your ears, despite coming from a genre you absolutely hate. There's good beats, heavy riffs, and catchy choruses. Unfortunately the rest of the album just absolutely blows. I was kind of excepting this, but I figured I'd give it a shot. There's just nothing original or interesting after the two really good opening tracks. Its just radio-friendly rock crap between the likes of Creed and Korn.

3/10

Therion - Crowning Of Atlantis

I've recently started getting into Therion thanks again to Pandora Radio. I'm not really sure how to describe these guys. It's often very theatrical with grandiose male and female vocals, as if they hired two opera singers, but then just have catchy rock guitar riffs underneath. It's not extremely heavy, at least this album is not; I don't really know about their other stuff yet. Though the few tracks I've heard from other albums on Pandora have been in a similar style as Crowning of Atlantis.

As mentioned before, this is more like heavy rock with opera-ish vocals. The vocals fit though, its never over the top or anything. The music is very melodic with some great guitar lines and some piano melodies throughout. The song "Crazy Nights" seems somewhat out of place on this album, with its more 80s vibe going on. The song is stuck between to more typical songs entitled "Calivula Nox" and "From The Dionysian Days."

8/10

Poisonblack - Escapexstacy

Here's the catchy 2003 debut album by Poisonblack, the goth metal band featuring the singer, Ville Laihiala, of the great, but now disbanded, Sentenced. Sentenced had always leaned a bit towards the goth metal side of things, but Poisonblack is full out goth metal with many of the annoying tendencies of that genre such as a crooning depressed sounding singer and lots of keyboards. Fortunately, and probably thanks to the songwriting skill of Ville, this all comes together to create some good songs. The guitar riffs are similar to what is heard on Sentenced albums, and this could easily have been a Sentenced album with a little tweaking. Songs such as "Love infernal," "All Else Is Hollow," and "Exciter" will stick in your head and you'll be regrettably singing them in your head after hearing this album.

8/10

Paradise Lost - In Requiem

Here's another one of those bands thats been around forever that I've never really listened to. I vaguely remember enjoying them when I saw them live many years ago when they opened for Opeth. Although I also remember that the audience did not like them, for the most part. I'm sure there's some rich history about Paradise Lost and how they've evolved throughout the years, but I don't know it.

In Requiem is a very typical goth metal release. Paradise Lost has an incredibly good singer though, whereas many goth metal bands have annoying male vocals that drone continually. I'm listening to this for the first time as I write this, as I do most of these reviews, and I haven't decided whether or not I like it. As I said, I really like the vocals, and there's some really good riffs and melodies, but none of the songs are really jumping out as a "must listen to again" song. I suppose I like the album, but will I ever listen to it again? Probably not. However, I may look into tasting some more Paradise Lost in the future.

6/10

Månegarm - Urminnes Hävd - The Forest Sessions

This short 2006 release is a big departure from Månegarm's typical black folk metal assault. The Forest Sessions is all clean singing, male and female vocals, and all acoustic guitars. There is also violin and other instruments used throughout. There is some really good ballads on here, with some memorable guitar lines and melodies. The album is short and to the point at only 27 minutes long. I'm not sure I could listen to much more than 30 minutes of these types of songs without being bored anyway. This is something to enjoy if one really likes those acoustic folk ballads that many folk metal bands will intersperse on their more metal albums.

7/10

Martriden - The Unsettling Dark

Martriden pounded right onto the metal scene with their absolutely ripping 4 song EP and a tour with Emperor. If you haven't heard these guys yet, go to their myspace page now and listen cause these guys are one of the best new melodic death metal bands. These Montana guys now bless us with their first full length - The Unsettling Dark


This band reminds me much of Arsis. Like Arsis, there's nothing really that original going on with the style, its just done very, very, very well. The style and production is very similar to Arsis. The guitars are razor sharp, the drums have a very thick and full sound, and the pace is blistering. These guys might be a bit more melodic, in that they break down with some pretty melodies occasionally, but don't worry, there's nothing radio friendly about this.

The one negative of this album is that I think my favorite Martriden songs are two from the EP still. Nothing quite tops the tracks "Blank Eye Stare" and "In Death We Burn" from the EP, although many of the songs come close. "Prelude" from this release is absolutely BRUTAL. I was a bit apprehensive when I saw that song title, because I was afraid it would be a slow instrumental intro to the following track, and I hate it when bands do that when there already is an intro to the album. Martriden did not let me down though.

10/10 Fucking metal \m/

Cales - Uncommon Excursion

Well, Cales is certainly an obscure band, even by metal standards. I have the 2001 release The Pass In Time, which was a very strong folk/celtic metal album. These guys were one of my first experiences of the folk metal genre, and I absolutely loved it. Listening to that album now I realize its not the best of the folk metal genre, though its still a good album.

Uncommon Excursion departs from the Celt metal themes and becomes a more straightforward rock album. Its not a huge change from The Pass In Time, as these guys definitely have their own unique sound. The guitars and acoustic guitars create some good songs and ballads that I'm thoroughly enjoying as I listen. The singer only uses his clean voice on this, not that he did a lot of death vocals on The Pass In Time. This is both good and bad - Good, because his clean voice is improved since The Pass In Time; bad, because I liked his death vocals.

I don't think there's a bad song on this album. I'm always a bit leery of albums that are over 60 minutes, but I'm very satisfied with the music. It's good that these guys didn't force another Celtic metal album if this is what they were wanting to write at the time. However, they are much better at designing Celtic inspired album covers than rock images. This one has a very lame picture of an astronaut with a flame thrower...

8/10 Listen to this, just don't look at it.

Anubis - Heroine

I originally checked out this album because of another band, called Anubis Rising, a killer band from LA, that never really seemed to take off though. They just released a bunch of demos and such. Unfortunately, Anubis is very different than Anubis Rising. Whereas Anubis Rising was good, Anubis is bad...

OK fine, I'll be more thorough than that. Anubis Rising played some more blackened Opeth inspired music, long opuses with lots of changes, but with a raspy black metal sound to it all. Anubis is goth metal, very keys-laden and annoying male vocals goth metal. And this album is 67 minutes... There's no way I'm going to make it through this whole thing.

The female's voice in Anubis is actually not too bad, nothing awe-inspiring, but decent. However, there's nothing exciting at all about the music underneath her voice. There's some very uninspiring keys and electronic noise laying around on this, and the guitars and drums certainly never jump out from the mix. And to top it all off, the male singer is probably about the most bland singer I've heard in a long, long time. I've never heard anything recent about this band, this album was released in 2001, so I doubt they are still around. And yes, I am too lazy right now to actually check that statement, because I don't really care.

I think I'll go listen to all this stuff on Anubis Rising's myspace page.

3/10 If we got rid of the male vocals, it might score a 5.

IWRESTLEDABEARONCE

I don't know why this song is so damn entertaining. I usually hate this type of stuff. The song is called "Tastes Like Kevin Bacon." The other songs on their myspace page are also great. Looking forward to a full release by these guys (and girl!). I love the band name, though it sounds like something random spewed on a WoW forum.

Vader - Impressions In Blood

Dammit Vader rocks!!! Three exclamation marks because every other Vader song seems to end in three exclamation marks. At least they are excited about their songs, although I wonder how the band discussions go when deciding what songs get the three exclamation marks.

Peter: Ok, "They Live" gets exclamation marks.

Mauser: Why that one? I wanted "Field Of Heads" to get the marks.

Peter: No one is going to say "Field of Heads" with such exuberance. If you came across a field of severed heads, you would state as a matter of fact, "Look at this field of heads." You won't say "Look Peter, I found this FIELD OF HEADS!!!" Whereas someone seeing zombies rise from the ground will yell "They Live!!!" cause those zombies are going to fucking eat your brains.

Mauser: Yeah, well "Fuck You!!!"

Peter: See, now that would work, I'll keep that in mind for our next album.

Daray: What about "The Book?"

Peter: ... where's my stabbing knife?


Again, my Vader knowledge is very limited, I still have only heard the EP Art of War and Litany, so give me a bit of break when I can't compare this to their other material. This is the 2006 release by this band, and it is very similar in sound to Litany. That's not a bad thing however, although maybe I wouldn't be saying that if I knew of their entire catalog. But this seems like a band that I'll like every album they put out, even if it sounds exactly like the rest, kind of like Amon Amarth. Amon Amarth releases the same album year after year, but I buy it every single time cause it rocks. It's good to have those bands that you can rely on to release a solid metal album. We already have enough bands stating: "We needed to explore, although this piece of shit we released is still focused in our roots, we just branched out and tried some new things."

8/10 Vader!!!

Black Cobra - Feather And Stone

Is there a label yet for the type of metal that Mastodon, High On Fire, and the like have perfected. Maybe there is and I'm just out of the loop. I've seen sludge metal tossed around, but I would think that would apply more to the Neurosis, Isis, and Pelican style. Anyway, Black Cobra have released a short but sweet record of their own take on this style, perhaps mixing the sounds of face-pounding band such as High On Fire with the slower intricacies of Isis. The result is a face-pounding that takes a breather to highlight some beautiful patterns of blood pooling at your feet.

The guitar work on this album remind me of somewhere between The Sword on the heavier sections and Isis on the softer clean sections. The vocals sound like the singer is trying to scream loud enough to be heard through the wall of sound, as they seem to come from the background.

The only downfall of this album is its length, maybe this is supposed to be just a short EP, but I would have liked to hear some of the songs fleshed out more, or just more of them. There are many intricacies on the album that aren't allowed to explore to their full potential. Although maybe the band doesn't want the music to wander too much such as Isis or Pelican.

8/10 Black Cobra has a very promising future.