Don't buy Death Magnetic yet.

Fucking Metallica...

My favorite band is doing just about everything they can to make me stop liking them.

The production on Death Magnetic is shit. I think I really like the songs, but the mix is terrible. And interestingly enough, the mix that Metallica sent to Guitar Hero 3 does not sound like shit, and its beginning to cause an uproar.

Read about it here, and here, and see evidence of the shitastic clipping here.

So hold out on buying the album, maybe they'll remaster it so that it doesn't sound like poop. Torrents are starting to appear with audio rips from the Guitar Hero 3 versions, so just go download those until Metallica figures out how much they screwed up this album.

UPDATE: I just downloaded the Guitar Hero 3 audio rip, and holy hell is it better. It's not perfect, the guitars are a bit weak in the mix, but there's no distortion. I think I'm noticing more intricacies to the songs as well. Hopefully it won't be too long until someone starts creating mixes with these tracks.

Compare CD vs. GH3!

Mirrorthrone - Gangrene

Mirrorthrone is the product of a Swiss guy Vladimir who handles all the vocals, guitars, keyboards, and drum programming. The drum is very obviously a drum machine. Mirrorthrone is Vladimir's symphonic epic black metal project. I had actually heard of Mirrorthrone while researching what I thought was his extreme and raw black metal Eikenskaden, though digging around now, it seems as though Eikenskaden was done by a different guy... I already have the debut Of Wind And Weeping. I haven't really followed this band at all, and it looks like I missed the second album. Gangrene is the third and latest from this band. (I'm going to refer to it as a band, instead of writing out Vladimir's symphonic project.)

First of all, this album is definitely epic. The 6 tracks clock in at over an hour, with the longest being 15 minutes. However, the usual song structure isn't really here, the songs rarely reuse riffs and instead change and evolve throughout the duration. I think the highlight of this band is the vocals. Vladimir has a wide range of styles that he puts to good use in this band. Most of the songs break between his raw black metal voice and his clean chants. There's a vocal section on the debut album that I would just listen to over and over. There are not many bands where it is the vocals that actually attract me to the band, but this is one of them.

The drums are a weak point on the album. He really should get a real drummer, the drum machine just sounds thin and weak much of the time.

7/10

This Ending - Inside The Machine

This Ending is the reincarnation of a somewhat old school band called A Canorous Quintet. Old school for me at least. They were one of the first swedish melodic death metal bands I heard when I was just getting into this stuff in 97ish, back when swedish melodic death still had balls. Their 1998 release The Only Pure Hate is still one of my favorite albums. The singer also did the vocals for the absolutely incredible side project, October Tide, with Jonas Renske of Katatonia. Bless Pandora radio for re-introducing me to these guys cause I doubt I would have discovered them on my own.

Musically, this is very much in line with what The Only Pure Hate was back in 1998. The production is better of course, but the riffs, drums, and overall sound has the same feel as ACQ. In fact, its a very similar sound to much of the mid to late 90s swedish metal that has recently fallen off the radar. Maybe that's why I'm enjoying it so much. It reminds me of why I fell in love with this style of music 10 years ago.

Unfortunately if you clicked on the above link to their homepage you'll notice that their image has definitely changed. They look like a shitty Engel-like band. Oh well, at least they still sound good.

8/10

This makes me want to look into whatever happened to another one of my favorite melodic death bands, Autumn Leaves, whose album As Night Conquers Day was also one of my first, and still a favorite, melodic metal album. Well holy crap, a guitarist from Autumn Leaves is now doing The Arcane Order... Going to have to check them out.

Isole - Bliss Of Solitude

I usually multitask while listening to the music for these reviews, which is one reason why they are often brief or just terrible (not that this review won't be terrible as well). However, I put everything aside and gave this album my full attention. I didn't really intend to do that, the album just forced my attention to it. I'm not sure how to categorize Isole, although perhaps doom comes closest to what is heard. The band reminds me a bit of Daylight Dies or Novembers Doom.

Well, whatever one wants to call this band, Bliss Of Solitude is an incredibly fascinating piece of metal. The guitars are super thick, and even the acoustic guitars have a huge sound. Most of the main riffs of the song are slower tempo drudges of doom, but there is a lot of intricacies going on that keeps the listener alert. The singer does all clean vocals, and has a slight haunted effect to his voice, which adds a ton of atmosphere to the album. The third track had about 10 seconds of a female voice. She only seemed to sing a line or two, and that was the only time she appeared on the album, which seems a bit strange. Maybe they couldn't afford to pay her for more...

The 7 tracks clock in at a lengthy seven minutes, and the only weakness might be that it drones on a tad too long here and there. I enjoyed all the tracks, and could not constructively advise as to what to cut out though. The first two tracks "By Blood" and "From Clouded Sky" were my favorite. Good stuff is all over this album.

8/10

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