Heathen – The Evolution of Chaos
The band’s energy is admirable, though, and as flawed as this album is, it’s still nice to hear them performing with passion once again.
Reviews – Audio
Nechochwen – Azimuths to the Otherworld
Azimuths to the Otherworld is an album that demands to be taken in from start to finish. It asks the listener to engage with its many atmospheric layers as they appear.
Destinity – XI Reasons To See
It might not be as de rigueur as Deathspell Omega, Gojira, or Hacride, but Destinity definitely deserves to be recognized as one of the stronger bands in this increasingly promising recent wave of French extreme metal.
High On Fire – Snakes For The Divine
Kyle Harcott reviews Snakes For The Divine, the brand new studio album by High On Fire and their first for new label E1 Metal Records.
Armour – s/t
File this one under holy shit: Finland’s Armour have just released one of the finest slabs of eighties fueled heavy metal to come across the desk over here at Chez Hellbound in quite some time.
Rotting Christ – Aealo
Listening to the new Rotting Christ over and over, I like it, but I want to like it more than I do. Aealo is powerful and dramatic, sometimes violent, eerie, complicated or just plain straight-ahead catchy – a black-death fusion of metal and eastern folk. But there’s something that doesn’t quite click, or at least hasn’t yet.
Helix – Vagabond Bones
One of Canada’s longest running hard rock/heavy metal bands, Vagabond Bones is Helix’s twelfth full-length studio album and twenty-first album release overall. I am very familiar with Helix’s work over the years, with eleven albums in my personal collection and I am glad to say that this one is a keeper.
Holy Grail – Improper Burial
Bottom line is this is fun metal played with over the top guitar shredding.
Vulcano – Tales From The Black Book
By Albert Mansour Brazilian black/thrash/death metal outfit Vulcano is back with a re-release of an album originally issued in 2004, their sixth full length…
Karnivool – Sound Awake
The problem with Sound Awake is that it’s just too clean, too polished and too pretty because, in addition to the statesmen of goth, Karnivool also mixes in a significant amount of pop sensibility which hinders the whole procession.