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  • Narrow House – A Key to Panngrieb (2012)

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    Being huge fans of Doom Metal, we sometimes dabble in the realms of Funeral Doom Metal, its ugly and boring cousin. While we are not huge fans of the genre due to its mind-numbing repetition and ridiculously slow execution, some bands like Shape of Despair and Thergothon are still ok in our book. Hence today we have Narrow House and their less boring approach to the genre with “A Key to Panngrieb”. By introducing lush atmospheric elements that range from keyboards to cellos, this band really grabs ahold of the listener and keeps it engaged for the duration of the huge songs in this album.

    Opening with the crushing “Poslednee Pristanishe”, things start very well with the perfect mixture of slow and painful riffs, commanding growls, and brilliant atmosphere. The simplicity of the music is really well shrouded behind a well-crafted atmosphere thanks to the keyboards. The band does a great job in navigating through such a long song with well-placed tempo changes. The same can be said about the considerably shorter track “Psevdoriatunok”, but with a nice combination of growls and ethereal clean vocals, very reminiscent of Draconian and such bands.

  • Attempted Life – Pangaea (2012)

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    Hailing from Finland, today we have a trio that delivers quite interesting music that is ridiculously hard to pin down exactly what they play, so we will just say they play Metal. “Panagea” marks the band’s latest EP that features five very different tracks that range from Sludge to Melodic Metal to Groove Metal, and almost everything else. The only consensus we can reach is that the band has that Finish Melodic Death Metal vibe to them in most of the tracks.

    Opening with the funky vibe and hard rocking riffs. The harsh vocals only add to the overall confusion of the band’s identity, but they nicely enhance the experience. Switching from catchy riffs to melodic passages it kind of gives the feeling that this track is actually more of a jam-session than an actual song. On a more serious note, “Graveyard Bitch” has a more traditional structure and relies on powerful riffs to create a melodic atmosphere that is sometimes accelerated to mildly aggressive levels.

  • Show Your Face - Afraid (2012)

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    Nailing down three solid and very catchy tracks, today we have Show Your Face and their EP titled “Afraid”. Hailing from Greece, this band nicely combines Groove Metal with Core elements to create very engaging tunes that will appeal to a wide variety of people. With a somewhat unique sound, this band is a worthy representative of the recent Core-with everything movement.

    Opening with the razor sharp “Afraid”, this track delivers a hefty dosage of powerful riffs that sometimes feel a bit Deathcore, but the band’s Thrash influences pulls them apart from sounding like another The Black Dahlia Murder clone band. The screams are very typical of Core-stuff releases, but the emphasis on catchiness really makes this song quite enjoyable.

  • Ashes You Leave – The Cure For Happiness (2012)

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    What better early X-mas gift can anybody ask for than the latest Ashes You Leave album titled “The Cure For Happiness”. Dropping this November 29th, 2012 through Rock’n’Growl, this eagerly awaited release is set to fill that void left in 2012 of an excellent Gothic Doom Metal release. Delivering nine tracks of pure melancholy and powerful emotions, this album is sure to keep the band’s legacy intact of excellent album that are only release when the band really feels they are done right.

    Newly fronted by Giada “Jade” Etro, the band returns in full strength as they have managed to find another excellent vocalist that can lead their melancholic music. Wasting no time, she delivers a commanding performance in “Devil In Disguise”. In this amazing track the band nicely sets a melodic mood with their traditional violins and well-crafted keyboards. Jade’s vocals immediately gave us chills when listening to the song since it is very eerie how well they mix with the band’s sound and greatly enhance the atmosphere.

  • WildeStarr – A Tale Tell Heart (2012)

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    Dave Starr and London Wilde (and the other dude) return with another excellent hard-rocking release that will be quite hard to equal by all the newbie bands trying to play straight up Melodic Metal these days. In “A Tale Tell Heart”, the band delivers a ten song dosage of excellent Metal anthems that greatly showcase London’s gifted singing talents and Dave’s master abilities to craft engaging melodies filled with epic melodic moments.

    Since the opener “Immortal”, we are let into the band’s world of traditional Metal with epic vocal lines, killer guitar work, and superb drumming. Led by epic riffs, tracks like “Transformis Ligea”, “A Perfect Storm”, and “Valkyrie Cry” blow past the listener pounding on your speakers like the good old Metal albums from back in the day. Even epic ballads like “Last Holy King” deliver that much needed infusion of true heartfelt metal that bands are missing these days.

  • Minority Sound – The Explorer (2012)

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    Hailing from the Czech Republic, today we have Minority Sound and their very catchy brand of Industrial Metal with some Electronic and Groovy modern elements. Catering to fans of bands like Silent Descent, Sybreed, etc, Minority Sound delivers eight solid tracks of heavy riffs colliding with super effective electronic beats creating ‘rave party’ Metal music.

    Opening with razor sharp riffs on tracks like “Hostile In Your Skull” and “Load of Destruction”, the band really delivers when it comes to catchy electronic elements paired with groovy riffs. The mixture of growls and clean vocals is pretty solid and allows the songs to quickly shift from heavy and aggressive to ethereal and catchy. Emphasizing on atmospheric elements, “The Explorer” and “Zealots” showcase the band’s ability to make engaging songs that are different from each other.

  • Therion - Les Fleurs du Mal (2012)

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    Celebrating their 25th year anniversary, today we have Therion and their latest opus “Les Fleurs du Mal”. In this very unique release, we have Therion doing what Atrocity did with their “Werk 80” release, but with French songs from the 60’s and 70’s, going for an even more retro approach. In the last release we thought that Therion was winding down since the album was “more of the same” and not much to write home about, but they have managed to revive themselves with this very interesting and engaging track that will have you falling in love with the band once again.

    Cranking out fifteen tracks in 45 minutes, the band delivers quite a different spectrum when it comes to styles used in the covers of songs. Songs like the opener “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” have the signature Therion sound, but other like “Une fleur dans le cœur” show a completely different side of the band. We are most impressed with how Christofer Johnsson and company managed to transform these original French songs a bit into the Therion sound, and some of them even have a certain Victorian flair to them (like “Soer Angelique”). This makes this release quite a delight to discover how each of the songs presented in this release (if you know them from before) will sound with the sonic overhaul.

  • Lost In Alaska – Time of Solution (2012)

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    Making its way from Russia, today we have Lost in Alaska and their head-smashing Deathcore sound. Delivering a three-song EP, this band has a sound similar to The Black Dahlia Murder, Oceano, etc., so you know it is pretty intense and well-crafted. For all fans of endless moshing to Core music, this is one release you don’t want to miss.

    Opening with commanding guitar work, “The Inevitable Changes”, immediately shows the band’s heavy sound. As the sound warms up, the drumming is pretty solid and the vocal layering is quite crushing, allowing them to sound very brutal. The tempo changes are well-placed and help the song not sound extremely repetitive.

  • Mandibula – Sacrificial Metal of Death (2012)

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    With a crushing and think as fuck sound, today we have one-man army Mandibula and the CD release of their 2010 demo “Sacrificial Metal of Death”. The band plays homage to the greats of the 80’s namely Celtic Frost, Venom, Bathory, etc. with a very retro and dirty sound that will wake the dead from their graves. Featuring nine eardrum crushing tracks, this release is as raw as you can get while still being able to distinguish everything that is going on.

    Opening with an intro similar to Mortician releases, the band sets a very dark and disturbing mood since the get go. Once the riffing comes through, you can hear that this is not your typical ‘pretty Metal’ release since everything is very raw and a bit garbled up, thanks to some cheap (or intentionally cheap) production. The raw vocals remind us of Hellhammer at times, and ultimately add a great deal of authenticity to the bands killer old-school music.

  • Dream Circus – Land of Make Believe (2012)

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    For fans of commercial alternative rock with some grunge influences, today we have Dream Circus and their debut full-length “Land of Make Believe”. Not being our main cup of tea, this release delivers 10 tracks of catchy music that we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s playing on the radio when we go to a supermarket or something like that. This Portuguese band does a solid job in creating effective guitar-driven tracks, but ultimately fails to grab our attention due to its very traditional nature.

    Rocking hard since the opener “Make Believe”, the band nicely sets a very enjoyable mood with soaring vocals and well-crafted guitars. Not challenging themselves too much, the band goes through tracks like “So Long”, “Crown”, “Going Down”, and “Poison” with a rather simple, but effective, musical structure. James Powell’s vocals are probably the best thing worth noticing since they are very good and similar to what mainstream bands sound like.

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