This is the debut album from Behind Your Fear, a Gothic/melodic metal band from Germany.
Featuring current and ex-members of bands such as Crimson Moon and Flowing Tears, Anthropocene provides us with 47 minutes of quality tunes. It succeeds in taking cues from the past to deliver a satisfying interpretation of an older style. Continue reading “Behind Your Fear – Anthropocene (Review)”
Inhuman are a Belgian symphonic metal band and this is their debut album.
Inhuman mix together symphonic metal’s epic flamboyance with death metal’s bark and bite. The end result is an album that’s heavier and more aggressive than the norm for many bands who play in this arena, and all the better for it. Continue reading “Inhuman – Inhuman (Review)”
Dimlight are a symphonic metal band from Greece and this is their third album.
Now this is quite interesting. Here we have a Gothic/symphonic metal band that have some death/black metal elements entwined into the tracks.
This is a modern, updated version of the old, so-called, beauty-and-the-beast vocal approach that twins angelic female cleans with guttural male growls. I always quite liked this approach when it was probably at the height of its popularity Continue reading “Dimlight – The Lost Chapters (Review)”
Impavidus are a Metal band from the UK. This is their début EP.
Boasting 18 minutes of melodic Death/Thrash/Groove Metal, Impavidus have forcefully arrived on the scene with a decent display of modern Metal.
Taking cues from bands such as Arch Enemy, Carcass, The Agonist, The Haunted, etc., they proceed to play this style better than most bands who are just starting out.
The songs are well-written and enjoyable, and I especially like the more melodic parts featuring clean female vocals. This is somewhat of a rarity for me, as more often than not these kind of sections are my least favourite parts when listening to similar bands’ songs. Impavidus, however, do all of this extremely well and their vocalist has a very good voice, reminding of the singer of Leaves’ Eyes in some ways.
Apart from these cleans, we get Arch Enemy-esque growls, occasionally backed by male shouts. These all work well and the music thrashes along at a good pace, nicely heavy and riffy.
Leads and solos are plentiful and the band aren’t shy about showing off their musical skills. Nor should they be.
It all comes together nicely and Impavidus have produced an impressive EP that’s way better than I was expecting. Why? Simply due to the fact that on paper, this follows a familiar format, one that is easy to be lazy with. The reality, however, is that these songs have high energy, catchiness, obvious passion and melodies that really hit the spot.
Quality stuff.
German band Dark Man Shadow have released their third full length album of Symphonic Black Metal.
This is well-produced slick music with varied vocals and orchestration aplenty.
The male vocals alternate between growls and semi-cleans, with the latter sounding particularly gratifying. These are usually interspersed with melodic/operatic female vocals.
The music has a pleasantly aggressive core with added keys and ornamentation played over the top of it. There is a bit of a Death Metal influence to some of the riffs as well, meaning that the guitars sound a bit more muscular than a lot of bands of this ilk. The band is still largely playing in the Symphonic Black Metal genre and Gothic Metal ostentation abounds, but they sound more solid and heavy than similar bands. Think more Atrocity than Leaves’ Eyes, for the most part at least.
If you’re in the mood for it this album fulfils your Symphonic Metal needs. Have a listen.
Wonderbox Metal 