Candlelight

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Fear Factory – Mechanize (2010)

    cover

    The all mighty Fear Factory as back with Dino Cazares on guitars and replacing longtime founding member Raymond Herrera we have none other than Gene Hoglan. “Mechanize” is the bands first full-length album in 5 years and while not one of their best, is a complete improvement over the lackluster “Transgression”.

    For a band that has been so long in the scene, you can always rely on Fear Factory to release a straight forward in-your-face type of release. “Mechanize” is not an exception to this rule, but however like the band’s sound is pretty formulaic by now and it’s just another release with not much inspiration.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Ihsahn – After (2010)

    cover

    “After” is one of the first albums of 2010 that I had the pleasure of listening to, and it blew my mind from start to end. Ihsahn is clearly one of the few musicians that are true visionaries and are not afraid of bending the boundaries of music in order to share their vision with the world.

    With each album topping the previous one, Ihsahn has constantly been evolving and incorporating different elements to his music until “After” where he blended the use of the saxophone in a highly impressive way that had me listening over and over to make sure my ears were not deceiving me. This paired with brilliant musical composition skills make this album one of the most complex and intricate I’ve reviewed in years.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Savage Messiah - Insurrection Rising (2009)

    cover

    With this current new revival of Trash Metal hundreds of new bands have popped out of nowhere and just because they can play a couple of Trash riffs they think they are good at it. Thankfully Savage Messiah has more to their sound than many of the shitty bands out there.

    "Insurrection Rising" is this British outfit first full length album and while it's pretty solid it also gets a bit dull at some points since some of the riffs are very repetitive (especially within songs). The nine songs featured in this album all have their unique riffs, but like I mentioned before some of them get a bit too repetitive. But at least the dull riffs are pretty decent riffs, so it's all good, and if you are not too picky on this department then you will surely love Savage Messiah. The guitar solos are very scarce in this album, but when the band shows them off they sound pretty decent (like in Enemy Image)

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    The Atlas Moth – A Glorified Piece Of Blue Sky (2009)

    cover

    Is this Sludge/Stoner Metal month? I have reviewed more albums of these genres this month than in the last year or so. The Atlas Moth is a band from Chicago, Illinois and like I mentioned they play a blend of Sludge with Stoner Metal influences.

    “A Glorified Piece Of Blue Sky” features 50 minutes of music divided in 8 tracks that guarantee a very interesting delusional ride into the band’s mind. I must say that I really enjoy an album that flows nicely from aggressiveness into more trippy songs.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Insomnium - Across The Dark (2009)

    cover

    “Across The Dark” marks the fourth full-length album of these Finish melodic Death Metal band. And as expected based on their previous releases this new album is close to perfection. Being delayed from release a couple of times this was one of the most anticipated albums on my list.

    The music presented in “Across The Dark” is one of the best I’ve heard this summer in the melodic Death Metal genre. The band manages to create a very depressing, and at the same time, melodic atmosphere that is rare to find this days. For the whole duration of the album the listener is guided into a journey across the dark.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Darzamat – Solfernus Path (2009)

    cover

    I can always count on Darzamat to produce a high quality album that is very, if not totally, different from their previous one. This is a feature that I like about Darzamat but unfortunately some critics do not, and they trash the band’s releases.

    “Solfernus Path” marks this Polish band fifth full length, while the band started more in the style of Symphonic Black Metal, they have now switched around to Dark/Gothic Metal, but without loosing their aggressiveness and power that the band had in their earlier days.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Viatrophy – Viatrophy (2009)

    cover

    When I heard that this band had Metalcore influences, I was very cautious since it’s one the genres that I can’t stand, since all releases sound very much alike and the vocal work just makes me want to shoot my self.

    So after gathering enough courage start playing this self titled album I hit play and after a flashy into I’m blown away with their brutal Death Metal opening from their second track “Mistress Of Misery”. While the band plays mainly Death Metal you can hear some of the dreaded Metalcore influences here and there but it’s still pretty brutal and technical.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Onslaught - Live Damnation (2009)

    cover

    “Live Damnation” is the latest offering from British Trash Metal legends Onslaught. We usually don’t review live albums since they do not usually feature new material, but we will talk about the recording sound, what’s on it, and such things.

    After releasing a so so album back in 2007, the band has been touring extensively so they decided to release a live album. “Live Damnation” features 8 tracks of old school Trash Metal that brings back those glory days.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Forest Stream - The Crown of Winter (2009)

    cover

    Have you ever wondered what a band with multiple personality disorder (MPD) would sound?, well look no further since Forest Stream has a very interesting case of MPD.“The Crown Of Winter” features 4 tracks of amazing Gothic Death/ Doom Metal, 2 tracks of Melodic Black Metal (Emperor style) and one intro and one outro tracks.

    While the band excels at both styles, it’s still pretty weird to listen to such a shocking change from one song to the other!. Luckily for them I’m not a genre purist and only reviews one type of music well and trashes the rest, since this would have been very negative for this amazing release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Xerath – I (2009)

    cover

    Xerath has been touted as a mixture of Meshuggah and the symphonic sound of Dimmu Borgir, and this is a very accurate description of this band in our opinion. Having an amazing movie score like bombastic sound they are here to blow people away.

    Usually when a band is blown up to sound like this they end up being a big disappointment but for Xerath this rule does not apply, this band is all of that and way more, “I” is such a rich album that I had to listen to it more than ten times to fully appreciate and digest all the layers this release has.

Pages

Recent Image Galleries