Invehertex are a Chilean Black Metal band and this is their début album.
At 79 minutes in length, Invehertex don’t do things by halves it seems.
Alongside some ambient interludes, the band play raw, underground Black Metal that has a sprawling and ambitious attitude to blackened soundscapes.
Blasting, icy aggression is present and correct, alongside groovier riffs and atmospheric explorations; all wrapped in darkness and covered with malevolence.
Sacrilegium are a Polish Black Metal band and this is their second album.
This is sophisticated Black Metal that shrouds itself in occult auras and mystical vibes.
Sacrilegium have produced an album that has a very modern feel, but nonetheless knows where it came from and pays its dues accordingly. With elements of the atmospheric and progressive styles entwined in its dark embrace, Anima Lucifera blasts and pummels its way through its playing time with style and panache. Continue reading “Sacrilegium – Anima Lucifera”
This is the third album from Israeli melodic/progressive Black Metallers Winterhorde.
Winterhorde use melodic Black Metal as a base to launch their epic brand of music from. On this base, they build firm structures of progressive Metal and symphonic/orchestral enhancements, all of which work together to produce Maestro, an Extreme Metal extravaganza.
If you combine elements of Black Metal with bands like Dimmu Borgir, Borknagar, Vintersorg, Arcturus and Nevermore, you’ll have a good idea of where Winterhorde are coming from. Continue reading “Winterhorde – Maestro (Review)”
Images at Twilight are an orchestral Black Metal band from Norway. This is their début album.
Featuring the same orchestral mastermind behind the stunning symphonic Death/Doom début by Abyssic, Images at Twilight is essentially a Black Metal version of this, (or the other way around, actually, as this album came first), with rich, sumptuous orchestration and classical grandness.
Grimner are a Swedish Viking/Folk Metal band and this is their second album.
Grimner play upbeat and melodic Metal that uses folk instruments such as flutes, mandola and Swedish bagpipes, as well as keyboards to add a rich layer of feeling and atmosphere to their aggressive Metal.
This is the début album from Brazilian Post-Black Metal band Solifvgae.
Solifvgae take the harshness of the core of Black Metal and wrap it up in Post-Metal reflection and exploration, making for an album that spreads itself across two worlds, taking in both aspects in equal measure. It’s almost a band of two parts, as the heavy bits are sharp and concise, while the more progressive/exploratory sections are wandering and expansive.
This is the second album from this US Metal band.
Tenth Amendment play modern Metal with groove and aggression. Back in the 90s when this kind of thing was just called either Metal or Hardcore rather than groove Metal or Metalcore, (usually due to how the band looked more than anything else), bands like Pantera, Fear Factory, Machine Head, Merauder, Skinlab and Pro-Pain we all staples of my CD collection, and Tenth Amendment very much remind me of that time.
Coming across as a combination of the aforementioned bands, we get song-based aggression with an industrial undercurrent that leans towards the heavier end of the spectrum. The album is very riff-based and there’s a purity of intent inherent in this kind of approach.
This is the début album from Italian Hardcore band Zeit.
With a good sound that has a fair trade-off between warmth and cold harshness, Zeit spend almost 24 minutes demonstrating their brand of dissonant, violent Hardcore.
Circle of Reason are a rock band from the UK. This is their latest release.
Circle of Reason play an interesting brand of modern rock that combines elements of the progressive and alternative styles into their tasty recipe. The end result is instantly-gratifying songs that nonetheless have that vital ingredient of longevity to them, meaning you’ll come back and listen to them again.
Continue reading “Circle of Reason – Faith or Theory (Review)”
Death Lullaby are a Canadian Metal band and this is their début album.
This is modern Metal/djent that takes no prisoners with its heavy assault.
Stylistically the band are somewhat of a crossbreed between djent and NWOAHM. This is to their benefit; djent by itself is a very easy sub-genre to do badly, but here the limitations of the style are made up for by the more Metal influences of the modern/NWOAHM elements. The end result is songs that still might be a bit too much for some naysayers of djent, but for me strikes the right balance.
Wonderbox Metal 