Album Reviews


Album Review: INANIMATE EXISTENCE – ‘Underneath A Melting Sky’ [Official Stream]

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Featuring former members of Brain Drill and Flesh Consumed and released less than a year after their third release Calling From A Dream (Unique Leader Records), Bay Areas Inanimate Existence return with their fourth progressive tech-death fantasia Underneath A Melting Sky. This marks their first record to be released with independent label The Artisan Era and a definitive peak in their 8-year career with a firm establishment of direction after much experimentation. Produced at the Shark Bite Studios (responsible for the mastering behind Exodus’: The Atrocity Exhibition Exhibit A and Machine Heads The Blackening), this record offers a futuristic delivery of evolutionary technical death metal and an exciting glimpse into the direction of the genre to come.

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Album Review: MONOLORD – ‘Rust’ [Tracks Streaming]

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Monolord

‘Rust’

RidingEasy Records

‘Rust’, the third long-player from Sweden’s Monolord, is a mountain-sized monster of an album, a great, lumbering beast with a low heartrate and a horrifyingly bad disposition. The follow-up to 2015’s breakthrough ‘Vænir’ sees the band ascend into the upper pantheon of modern doom while maintaining and further honing a sense of melody that eludes most of their contemporaries.  ‘Rust’ is an exquisitely crafted truncheon designed for maximum impact, a phaser set on ‘Infinite Crush’; it’s also a moody, dynamic, emotive piece of work that stands with the finest heavy music released this year.

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Review: A SCARLET GOSPEL – ‘A Speaker Of Damnation’ (EP) [Official Videos]

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I am in a lot of facebook groups and I have seen a bunch of bands while scrolling through them but A Scarlet Gospel instantly stood out from the others. Their ability to combine deathcore with blackmetal is something I haven’t seen before and when I found out that they will be releasing their first EP ‘A Speaker Of Damnation’ I got even more excited. It will be available via Putrescene Records on the 30th of September but 2 tracks have already been out for a while and they are top notch!

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Album Review: THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH- ‘Untraveled Roads’ [Song Stream]

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Thousand Foot Krutch are just one of those bands that calls for high energy no matter what they’re doing. The rap metal band from Toronto, Canada performed during the 2016 Winter Jam Tour Spectacular, and are now releasing their second live album since “Live At The Masquerade” (2011) recorded during the tour. “Untraveled Roads” is set to be released September 15th, 2017 through both The Fuel Music and TFK Music Inc. The album features 12 tracks pulled from each of TFK‘s three previous albums, “The End Is Where We Begin” (2012), “Oxygen: Inhale” (2014), and “Exhale” (2016).

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Album Review: CANNABIS CORPSE – ‘Left Hand Pass’

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Death Metal is brutality in its impurest form. The ferocious guitar riffs, earth breaking bass, deafening drum beats, and guttural growls define one of metal’s most extreme and unforgiving genres, and this abrasive sonic assault perfectly describes the style of weed obsessed death metal band CANNABIS CORPSE.

Despite the fact that the name CANNABIS CORPSE is a parody of gore loving death metal band CANNIBAL CORPSE (just needed to explain for all NONE of you who weren’t already aware), bassist/vocalist Phil Hall, drummer Josh Hall, and guitarist Ray Suhy take their doobie influenced and (admittedly) humorous metal quite seriously, and this can be heard on their most recent record ‘Left Hand Pass’ which is an absolute monster of an album with smashing guitar riffs, unforgiving guttural screams, and a slight hint of melody that hooks the listener from start to finish.

Simply put: it’s crushing.

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Album Review: LYNCH MOB – ‘The Brotherhood’

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LYNCH MOB

‘The Brotherhood’

Rat Pak Records

For my money, George Lynch has never had a more fruitful musical counterpart than Oni Logan. Logan’s rich, full-throated bellow has, from the outset, seemed tailor-made to compliment the strong, earthy tones of Lynch’s acrobatic yet understated guitar heroics. ‘The Brotherhood,’ the latest release from their newly-configured LYNCH MOB, more than fulfills the promise of their two post-reunion endeavors, ‘Sun Red Sun’ (2014) and ‘Rebels’ (2015); it’s a rip-snorting chunk of Hard Rock groove and one hell of a fun listen that easily stands alongside their 1990 debut, the underappreciated late-era Glam Metal gem ‘Wicked Sensation.’

 

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Album Review: CRADLE OF FILTH – Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness Of Decay

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Suffolk, England – 1991. Darkness manifests itself to the world of the living in the form of CRADLE OF FILTH. 26 years and eleven studio albums later this looming leviathan is back to haunt the dreams of mankind yet again with their twelfth  studio album entitled “Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness Of Decay” (Nuclear Blast Records). Blazing fast execution, macabre imagery, and a complete mastery of the English language have allowed these creatures of the nether realm to imprint themselves into the upper echelons of extreme metal. Now comprised of Dani Filth – Vocals, Richard Shaw – Guitar, Marek ‘Ashok’ Smerda – Guitar, Daniel Firth – Bass, Lindsay Schoolcraft – Keys, and Martin Škaroupa – Drums, CRADLE OF FILTH is once again going to whisk you into a realm of lurid beauty and forlorn caliginosity.  Continue reading →

Album Review: ALTER BRIDGE- ‘Live From O2 Arena + Rarities’

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I will be the first to admit I’ve never been a fan of albums with recorded live music. I just find that live music is better live. But, Alter Bridge‘s newest album, “Live from O2 Arena + Rarities” challenges that view completely. The first two disks span over an entire nineteen tracks of live music that showed me what an incredible band Alter Bridge is both in and outside of the studio.

“Live From the O2 Arena” was recorded during their promotional world tour for their previous album, “The Last Hero.” November 24th, 2016 was described by Blabbermouth as “One of the biggest moments of the bands career,” performing for 20,000 people at London’s O2 Arena. It is the band’s third live album release following 2010’s “Live From Amsterdam” and 2012’s “Live At Wembley.” The album is to be released through Napalm Records September 8th, 2017.The set features a total of 30 songs. “Live From O2 Arena” includes nineteen live tracks from the London concert and “Rarities” includes “Breathe,” previously a Best Buy exclusive; two never before released songs, and eight other tracks that were only available in Japan. Continue reading →

Review: ARCHAIC KNOWLEDGE – ‘Blade Of The Judge’ [Song Stream]

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Photo Courtesy Of Capone’s

Straight out of the hills of East Tennessee ARCHAIC KNOWLEDGE bring the thunder with their latest release ‘Blade Of The Judge’.  Proving that metal in the mountains is alive and well.

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Review: THE CRUCIFIER – ‘Voices in My Head’ [Song Stream]

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Stonking riffs, catchy grooves and angst-ridden vocals are all indefatigable qualities one can attribute to Athens-based thrash metal group THE CRUCIFIER. Formed in 1995, the group have released three demos, two EPs and two full-lengths. Their newest studio venture is an LP titled ‘Voices In My Head’ which is set to be released on 29 September 2017 via Punishment 18 Records. The line-up consists of Hlias Kyriazis on vocals, Nikos Gkiokas on guitars, Spyros on guitars, Themis (R A T) on bass and Dimitris Kypraios on drums. Continue reading →