2008

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Brown Jenkins – Angel Eyes (2008)

    cover

    Brown Jenkins was a Texan one man band. I say was because it ‘split-up’ late 2008, probably because of creative differences with the voices in his head. I must say that I don’t get this type of bands that play the same (or very similar) guitar riffs for one full album. While I’m always open to hear different types/genres of music, there are some releases that I either don’t get or just plain suck.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Various Artists - Hellfest Open Air 2008 Live (2008)

    I just received my DVD on the mail a few day ago since it took almost 1 month to get from France to the USA, but anyways, I was pretty anxious to pop it on my DVD player, which by the way the DVD says is region free, but PAL format, however my regular DVD player played it to perfection, so you don’t have to worry about it. The DVD contains the following recorded performances listed by day:
    • 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

    Gothmog - A Step In The Dark (2008)

    A Step In The Dark is one of those albums you find yourself liking even tough they are not very original. Gothmog is clearly heavily influenced by Emperor, Cradle Of Flith, and many other black metal bands, and you can hear this in their songs

    This album is a very solid first release of this band, with some great guitar solos here and there, majestic keyboards like it’s to be expected from any good symphonic black metal band. The vocals are not annoying and are a perfect fit for this album.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Luna Obscura - Feltia (2008)

    I have been looking for a great gothic/doom release for the whole year of 2008 and I was never able to find one. Just a few weeks ago I discovered Luna Obscura, and since the album was released in 2008 I have to say that I did found the release I was looking for during that year.

    After finding bands like this I have to wonder if the world is ever going to run out of bands that play this <insert-any-genre> at it’s best, and my answer has always been: NO, I keep finding bands that blow me away.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Dol Theeta - The Universe Expands (2008)

    I have to say that this album is something very interesting, at first I thought I had the wrong band and I was reviewing some weird DJ shit, but nope, this Greek band plays some type of weird progressive / electro music with metal influences so I would just put it in on the category that everything weird goes into: Avant-garde Metal.

    Let me tell you the production of this album is amazing since you can hear every single detail in the music with perfect clarity. They do tend to emphasize the synthesizers too much, but this is the main core of the bands sound.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Hybrid Heaven - The Textures Of Spirits (2008)

    There are several reasons why I label this as a demo: 1) The production quality is not very good, 2) The band is unsigned and 3) It’s limited to 200 copies. Setting this aside, this Mexican band plays a pretty decent trash/death metal with progressive elements. The vocals are the weakest element in this release.

    The music however is pretty good for a first release from this band, they are clearly influenced by progressive music and they have enough skills to incorporate these influences in their songs.

    This release is around 50 minutes long and the songs are very short, however they are not too repetitive or annoying and they do a good job at creating different rhythms in every song. 

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Battlelore - The Last Alliance (2008)

    The Last Alliance is Battlelore’s latest addition to their impressive musical catalog. This Finish band has been improving and refining their music since they where conceived almost achieving perfection in this last release.

    This album contains 11 carefully crafted battle hymns that will surely please any Battlelore fan. The album opens up with Third Immortal, an instant Battlelore classic of the caliber of House of Heroes, and it keeps this level all the way through the album.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Northern Kings - Reborn (2008)

    The second album from this all-star Finnish band brings us 12 more cover songs from a very “unique” group of songs. The band’s adaptation of the songs is very nice in most cases, but some of them do not have a good sound. However, all instruments blend well together and are very well combined (if you ignore the fact that the songs are covers). The combination of 4 different vocalists make them have a very dynamic arsenal of vocal styles and quality, the 2 most notable voices are Marco Hielata and Tony Kako’s since their style sets them apart from the other 2 singers (Jarkko Ahola and Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto).

    While this album is a good metal cover’s album, it takes a while to adapt to, and sometimes you even need to go and see what song they are actually covering since you can’t distinguish them easily.

     

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