Album Reviews

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Mutum - Redemption (2007)

    After several vocalists and two demos Mutum released their first full length Redemption, under Asenath Records in 2007. Of all the bands from Mexico that I’ve listened over the years I must say that Mutum is currently one of the best ones in the country.

    The bands musical style could be defined as gothic metal with some power metal and doom metal influences, yeah I know this sounds weird, but let me elaborate.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Samael - Illumination (2009)

    After listening to this single, I have to say that Samael is preparing for a strong comeback with something more brutal than their most recent albums. The two tracks included in this single blew me away they showcase the intensity Samael was known for in the past. The music is more guitar driven and the vocals are as good as ever, while they don’t rely much on keyboards they are still present. The intensity of the guitars and the drumming are the focal points of these 2 songs.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Sublagrimal - Mental Execution (2009)

    Well I have to say that I haven’t listened to many different Electro / Industrial bands, or stuff related, it’s just not my thing. This Colombian band provides us, from what I can say a very decent Electro/ Industrial album. All the tracks have the same feel and you can probably play the album with no skips and dance the night away.

    This is pretty much all I can say about this release, since I don’t know how to judge good electro music and stuff like that.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Cantata Sangui - On Rituals And Correspondence in Constructed Realities (2009)

    This is one of the most interesting bands I’ve found recently, apparently they have been around for a while releasing several demos in a span of several years, and just now released their debut album through Seasons Of Mist.

    This band hails from Finland and features members from Enochian Crescent, and their musical style is very unique I must say, they mix death/black and gothic metal in a very weird way.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    This Ending - Dead Harvest (2009)

    This band features the drummer from Amon Amarth and pretty much all the members from A Canorous Quintet / The Plague. This album features a mixture of old school death metal, and some more modern black/death metal style of music. And it’s not bad by any means, but it just feels like something put together over a weekend while having some beers.

    The music it self is of good quality, but it gets pretty old after a few songs. Also the vocals are not up to par to compared to other bands.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Sculptor - Temny Oktyabr (2009)

    This release from a Russian one-man band is what I would call: a terrible one. I’m a big fan of doom metal, but when it’s done right here the music is uneventful and boring, not slow and depressing.

    The vocals are just plain bad since when he tries to whisper it sounds pretty bad the same for the clean voice and the growls.

    The only thing I can say positive about this album is that it’s not that badly recorded.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Domina Noctis - Second Rose (2008)

    I would assume that this Italian band is trying to follow their fellow Italian’s Lacuna Coil into international stardom, but they are doing it without selling out. This release in my opinion is 10 times better than anything Lacuna Coil has released in the last 5 years.

    Now that I got that out of my chest, Second Rose is a very solid sophomore release from Domina Noctis. While they clearly fit into the Gothic Metal genre, this album has small details that make it stand out from many other releases, and many other bands.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Silent Descent - Duplicity (2009)

    After listening to this album, I had to do more research on the band, and then I found out that they have won a few battle of the bands competitions, and many magazines have been calling phrasing them to no end. Well I can say that they are 100% correct. While it took me a while to really get into their music I have to say: it’s pretty fucking amazing.

    They label themselves as trance metal, and I think is not very accurate, but they do play a mean Industrial/melodic death metal. I have to say that their music is original in the sense that they sometimes burst out singing like some cheesy synth pop band, and it blends very well with their overall musical style.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Hammerfall - No Sacrifice, No Victory (2009)

    While everybody that knows me or my writing, you can clearly see that I’m no fan of power metal. I don’t have anything against it musically however I hate the vocals style in most of the bands.

    This new release of these Swedes starts with a bang with the song “Any Means Necessary” is a traditional power metal anthem, the blazing guitar solos, the (annoying) singing and choirs and the typical head banging melodic part. I have no complaints about this song the choir part even reminded me of Haggard at some point.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Diathra - My Endless Sorrow (2009)

    My Endless Sorrow is the second album from this band from Belarus, and in my opinion is a very strong second release. This band is clearly influenced by earlier work from Theatre Of Tragedy and Tristania among others.

    Diathra’s musical style is by no means original but it’s executed perfectly. While there are some “Beauty and the Beast” type of vocals in a few songs, the rest of the album mainly features the talents of Shiyka Dmitriy, their female vocalists.

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