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    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Lustre – They Awoke The Scent Of Spring (2012)

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    After the excellent full-length “A Glimpse of Glory”, Lustre returns to us with another killer full-length release titled “They Awoke The Scent Of Spring”. This one-man aural orgasm machine from Sweden has crafted four excellent tracks that have a very eerie atmospheric vibe that reminds us of Burzum’s “Filosofem” release. With 40 minutes of music, this release surely delivers enough bang for your money in the sense of creepy landscapes painted by the very minimalist music presented here.

    Opening with the nearly 13-minutes long monolithic “Part I”, the atmosphere is set with very fuzzy distorted guitars that only get denser by the minute. The sparse vocals are quite hellish and will creep on you when you least expect it. We particularly love how the song transitions when it seems to ‘brighten up’ between all the heavy dark clouds that are painted by the painful riffs. The minimal use of keyboards is also another thing that is very similar to how Burzum uses them.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Fen – Of Losing Interest (2012)

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    After blowing us away with their excellent debut release “Trails Out of Gloom”, Fen (the Progressive Rock/Metal one) returns with “Of Losing Interest”, a release that while heavier in nature it failed to captivate us as much as their previous release. With nine tracks of well-crafted Progressive Rock/Metal, this release is by no means bad, it just feels too straightforward and lacking the magic that “Trails out of Gloom” had in every track.

    The opener “Riddled” is a quintessential Prog piece that sounds a bit too predictable and linear in our opinion. There are a few cool guitar sections and the bass guitar line is pretty solid, but the song as a hole seems lacking some creativity. Things pick up a couple of times during the tracks “Of Losing Interest”, “Nice for Three Days”, and “A Long Line”, with a few brilliant guitar sections and tight percussions, but nothing extremely impressive. We are kind of turned off that we are almost half-way through the release and haven’t found anything that really sticks in our head.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    T.C.F – Where Madness Reigns (2011)

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    Arriving through Malevolence Records, today we have T.C.F a Dutch band playing some very well crafted Thrashcore. If you didn’t know the band is from the Netherlands, you would easily mistake them for any band from the late 80’s, early 90’s from the USA. Delivering thirteen tracks of balls to the wall Thrashcore, “Where Madness Reigns” is a pretty solid release for any fan of the genres.

    With a very authentic vibe, the band opens with hateful riffs and powerful drums on “Face the Truth”. Keeping the initial vibe rolling, tracks like “Slave to the Suit”, “Mass Hysteria” and “Where Madness Reigns” feature very typical song structures that will have you jumping up and down immediately. It is quite funny to think that this is a fairly young band since they nail 100% the atmosphere needed to pull off this kind of music.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Hexvessel – No Holier Temple (2012)

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    Formed by Mat "Kvohst" McNerney (ex-DHG, Code, etc, etc), this relatively new Psychedelic Folk band has made quite an impact with their debut album “Dawnbearer” and with “No Holier Temple” they show that their epic first release was no fluke. Featuring eleven haunting tracks that bring back the sultriness of the 70’s psychedelic music with a Folk/Doom edge that nobody else in the scene seems to be able to pull off, this album is well on its way to our top 10 of 2012 list.

    With a considerably more ‘sophisticated’ sound that any of Kvohst’s older bands, his enchanting vocals reach new heights in this very well crafted and highly diverse release. After the mysterious intro “Heaven and Earth Magic”, Hexvessel sets sails with the eerie epic “Woods to Conjure”. In this track the band immediately establishes a very dense occult feeling with a very cool backdrop of choir-like vocals. Our favorite moment in this song comes around the 2:20 minute mark when a sexy saxophone comes into the scene making this song completely intoxicating.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Resurgency – False Enlightenment (2012)

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    Formed back in 2009, today we have Resurgency’s debut full-length release titled “False Enlightenment”. Targeted directly to fans of chugging Death Metal, this Greek band delivers 40+ minutes of excellent neck-breaking music that will have you moshing since the first song. Hellthrasher Productions again amazes us with a great ear for bands that play devastating Death Metal but do not fall in the repetitiveness and dullness that plagues other ‘bands’ these days.

    The band quickly gets down to business with the hectic “Craniums of Slain Disciples”. “Ending the Beginning” quickly moves into faster territory with crushing drum patterns, tight riffs, and subhuman growls (just what the doctor ordered). With the perfect tempo, we particularly enjoy “Black Holes of Antiverse”, a very crushing track that feels like a slow punch in the face. For the fans of blast-beats and brutal songs, “Dark Revival” has that aggressive feeling of bands like Broken Hope and Suffocation, thanks to the pulsating bass guitar line and intricate riffing.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Reserve de Marche – The Last Twenty Years (2012)

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    Making its way from Russia (literarily), today we have Reserve de Marche and their excellent combination of Progressive Rock with Post-Rock/Metal elements. With their releases titled “The Last Twenty Years”, the band delivers a very cinematic musical experience that covers many genres and will spawn many different images and landscaped in the listeners head.

    With the opener “Calorie” the mood is set very mellow and ethereal. The band chooses to deliver a calmer Post-Rock/Metal track that features excellent percussions and very well defined guitar lines. The atmosphere is very playful and with some superb progressive elements. “Le Garage” rips through with some crunchy Sludgy guitars, giving the music a completely different look than on the first track. This ‘aggression’ is nicely alternated by some progressive percussions and interesting tempo changes. So far, the band has shown great ability for combining genres, and has kept the momentum going with two very different, but equally exciting tracks.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ectovoid – Fractured in the Timeless Abyss (2012)

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    With a very foul traditional Death Metal vibe, today we have Ectovoid and their debut full-length release “Fractured in the Timeless Abyss”. Reeking of old-school Incantation, Immolation, and similar bands, this three-piece from Alabama manage to bring back that heavy and cavernous feeling of crushing Death Metal to the year 2012 with such grace and brutality.

    Opening with the 1-2 combo of “Transcend Into the Moonless Night” and “Shapeshifting Mass”, the band quickly establishes a somewhat sluggish pace with brutal riffs and a very dense atmosphere. The band’s ability to create very thunderous riffs is just outstanding and will hook any DM fan immediately after two tracks. In a more playful fashion, “Dark Clouds of Consciousness” delivers excellent growls and very intricate drums, with a few devastating speed ups.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Septic Christ – Guilty As We Were Born (2012)

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    Keeping the Thrash Metal flame alive, today we have Germany’s Septic Christ and their latest full-length release titled “Guilty As We Were Born”. Released under Malevolence Records, this album features twelve tracks of very well crafted old-school Thrash Metal, that is a bit slower paced than what we are used to listening to, but it has that great old vibe that brings all the nostalgic memories from the genre’s hay day.

    Opening with a very deceiving melodic track that caries the album title, things really get started with  “Starstruck” and it’s intense riffing. There are a few moments in this track that we had some Metallica “And Justice For All” flash backs from a bit, but the music caries on with a more traditional Thrash edge. The band does a good job in crafting catchy melodies, and the drums are very intricate, but we feel that there is some speed missing to make this track (and most of the rest) more intense.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Sakatat - Bir Devrin Sonu (2012)

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    Delivering their pummeling ‘full-length’ debut “Bir Devrin Sonu”, today we have one of Turkey’s most brutal bands named Sakatat. Claiming to have political ideas behind their perplexingly brutal music, this band manages to deliver the shortest full-length release ever: eight minutes long.

    Spanning eight tracks, this ultra brutal and ultra fast release has the feeling of something so intense that you won’t even feel it’s too short. With all the lyrics and song names in Turkish, we can’t really appreciate the message behind the music, but we can say that each short tracks is as brutal as they come, reminding us of the old Agathocles, Dahmer and such bands.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Memoria – Death Calls The Islands (2011)

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    If Moonsorrow, Primordial, and Ulver had a genetically engineered (and somewhat defective) son, it would most likely sound like Memoria from Australia. In their latest release “Death Calls The Islands”, the band delivers a few well-crafted tracks that will surely grab your attention, and a few others that will make you scratch your head. The band’s interesting combination of influences also does them in, since the songs get a bit repetitive and dull after a while, something that in our opinion also happens to Moonsorrow.

    In the opener “The Dogs Smell Blood”, the band immediately lifts a wall of distorted guitars that reminds us of a mixture of Moonsorrow and Primordial, but it does get a bit dull after the sixth track. The production also allows this element to overshadow the vocals in particular, frustrating us after a while. The clean vocal are and excellent hybrid between Garm and Vortex, but they are not exploited correctly. The Emperor-esque “Claw At The Pine” keeps things interesting, but it also sounds a little too much like Emperor from their Anthems-era.

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