Today we have in our review queue Helrunar’s latest and most ambitious offering “Sól” a double-album that features 90 minutes of Black Metal with Folk elements and a great production in the hands of Markus Stock (Empyrium, The Vision Bleak). While the band has never been quite up there with the greats of the genre, this album has enough ambition to get them more attention.

After a clam introduction, the CD1 quickly explodes into the anthemic “Kollapsar”. This song sets a very furious pace that unluckily the band is only able to keep up for some moments in the next tracks. Featuring very long songs (half of the band’s songs are over 8 minutes long) there are some moments of brilliance here and there, but they are drowned with mind numbing filler and traditional BM/Folk clichés.

After gaining widespread popularity with their “Bitter ist's dem Tod zu dienen” album, one of the first ones to introduce Folkish elements with Black Metal back in 1999, the band has been constantly experimenting and releasing more and more interesting album every time. While plenty of people never understand the path of a band like this, we have loved almost every single album this band has put out.

On “Flammentriebe”, the band returns to some of their most brutal roots and delivers one hell of an album.  Featuring 8 tracks of atmospheric neo-folk/classical metal with Black Metal attacks, Dornenreich makes it very hard for us to find a band that has done it before as graciously as them in this release. Each track is beautifully adorned with the amazing violin skills of Thomas Riesner and with Moritz Neuner back on drums, the sonic aggression never stops.

Since their 2005 return with “HEX: Or Printing in the Infernal Method”, Earth has been morphing into a shapeless entity that transfers emotions through magical musical compositions. With “The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull” the band dabbled into some Jazzy realms with some hints of Americana and psychedelic elements. But with “Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1”, the band pushes the envelope once more with a darker side to things then in their previous releases.

“Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1” is an album that features 5 tracks of sheer brilliance, the mood, the space, the tones, everything sounds just right and creates a very dark and depressive atmosphere. With the use of the cello, the band further elevates their sonic exploration into very dark territories that will fill you up with emotions and free you from your everyday worries, allowing you to fully experience the 60 minutes of music the band has laid down on this release.

Releasing yet another compilation album, today we have Antimatter and their latest offering “Alternative Matter”. While we like these types of compilation releases that have unreleased tracks and alternative versions, we are kind of getting tired of Antimatter taking their fans to the cleaners with 2 non-new albums after their great “Leaving Eden” back in 2007.

That being said, “Alternative Matter” comes in two different versions: the standard double-CD digipack (reviewed here) and a premium art-book edition with 3 CD’s, one DVD, and a 104 page book. Out of the 22 tracks presented in our promo version, we are mostly interested in Duncan Patterson’s remixes and some enhanced versions.

In preparation for their upcoming full-length CD for Wraith Productions "For His Satanic Majesty's Glory", we get 3 crushing tracks of nihilistic Black/Doom Metal from one of USA’s newest and most diabolical bands. For 13 minutes we are transported to the depts. of hell, thanks to a raw and thick atmosphere that evolves you in full darkness.  

With two new tracks and a cover of Beherit’s “Gate of Nanna”, this demo CD has enough sauce to keep fans going until their new album gets released. The crushing track “World Ablaze” kicks off this CD and immediately starts with blasting drums, hellish vocals and a very raw nature to the song that makes it highly effective. We are not sure that this will be the final mix and how the CD will sound, but we dig the rawness of this track.

“Anti-Flesh Existence” marks the band’s debut full-length album, but it only includes 3 tracks and the version we got for review has the two tracks of their “Ortus” EP (which we reviewed here http://www.infernalmasquerade.com/?q=reviews/00743-ptahil-ortus-2010). With such a weird way of presenting your first full-length, we will discuss these three brutal tacks in depth as part of this review.

“In Ritual to Yam” we get an old school Black Metal track in the vein of Bathory, Venom, Hellhamer, etc. With such a raw and powerful sound it quickly makes and impact on the listener, but we feel that it’s somewhat sub-par compared to their songs in “Ortus”. However, this track does set the tone for the following aural assaults that will shake you out of your seat.

On Belphegor’s 9th full-length studio release we found a very interesting dilemma, this album sounds crushing and in the same vein as the last few albums of the band, but yet we seem to be falling asleep while listening to it. While the band sounds as good as ever, we think that there is a big chunk of soul missing in this release.

“Blood Magick Necromance” features another 40 minutes of Blephegor’s brutality and technical proficiency in the shape of devilish compositions that will rattle Christian souls, but it also lacks the raw energy and power they used to have in their earlier days. We have to agree that the album is not bad, but it’s by far one of the best of the band, since it seems like 70% filler and 30% ‘good shit’ only.

Finish Folk Metal boozeheads Korpiklaani return with another highly energetic release that will satisfy your Folk Metal needs for months to come. In the spirit of the band’s previous releases “Ukon Wacka” feels like a party from start to end, and with a track named “Tequila”, we all know how this party is going to end.

As any fan of the band (or the genre for that matter) can imagine, the band’s unique brand of ‘folkiness’ and energy makes their music a delightful experience, even if you don’t like Folk Metal. With “Ukon Wacka”, the band continues building on their previous releases by making their sound more concise and effective.

Usually when we get split albums it means that a label or two bands are trying to push substandard (read: mediocre) music that is never good enough for a full-length release. In “Transfigurations” we find that this is not the case since Infernal War and Kriegsmaschine are two promising Black Metal bands in the Polish BM scene and they are trying to get their stuff out there, and “Transfigurations” it-self is not a bad split at all.

Infernal War starts off the split with their clear and evil brand of Black Metal that while not revolutionary or anything, it is quite effective in creating crushing songs. With “Primal Degradation” the band sets up the tone for their ‘side’ of the split with a raw and crushing sound that will put all doubters to rest. This song features a hefty amount of powerful riffs, brilliant production and super tight drumming that ask nothing from any of the ‘famous’ Black Metal acts.