Category: Reviews – Audio

Glorious metal in all its earthly forms, compressed onto shiny plastic discs or into digital files. Which ones will become the soundtrack to your life?

  • Satyricon: The Age Of Nero

    I’ll be honest, even though I am a big fan of Norwegian metal in general, Norwegian black metal especially, I haven’t really cared for anything Satyricon has done since Rebel Extravaganza. The whole “black ‘n’ roll” thing they have adopted really makes my stomach turn… but there’s something about this record I really dig.

  • Starring Janet Leigh: Spectrum

    Yeah, we get it, you deathcore bands sure can play, but would it kill you to dial down the ostentatious bursts of technical dexterity enough to a) give us a breather and b) try to come up with a passage that we can actually remember?

  • Swallow The Sun: Plague of Butterflies EP

    The Plague of Butterflies EP, released by Finnish doom metal band Swallow The Sun, is a nice little package with potentially a lot of value for its price.

  • Sons of Seasons: Gods of Vermin

    To call Sons of Seasons’ debut prog/power would be accurate but vague. Saying Gods of Vermin sounds like a fusion of inspirations from Savatage to Dream Theater and Therion would get it a little closer.

  • Persona Non Grata: Shade In The Light

    It appears that Greece is quickly becoming a new breeding ground of quality original progressive metal thanks to the likes of Mindflow, Fragile Vastness, etc. And now with Persona Non Grata now signed on with the great prog label Sensory, this quintet has created a succint blend of heavy prog metal…

  • High Spirits: 4 song demo 2009

    This four track demo EP is pure 80’s metal. It sounds to me like the early output of Scotland’s Heavy Pettin’ fronted by a singer that sounds somewhat similar to Kevin Griffiths of the NWOBHM band Briar.

  • Obscura: Cosmogenesis

    Munich, Germany’s tech metal mastermind Steffen Kummerer returns in 2009 with his band Obscura’s sophomore album Cosmogenisis. With a few member changes and additional set backs now behind him, he now comes adorned with former members of Necrophagist and ex -Pesitlence bass extraordinaire Jeroen Paul Thesseling.

  • ISIS: Wavering Radiant

    A couple weeks ago, the world’s most accomplished stoner, multiple gold medallist Michael Phelps, returned to the pool after serving out his suspension for inhaling what, considering his lung capacity, must have been enough weed smoke to lay out the state of Utah.

  • Hooded Menace: Fulfill The Curse

    Known for their decidedly old school style death metal releases – we’re talking in the vein of Impetigo, (the Canadian) Slaughter and Repulsion here folks – it makes total sense that this album could have only come out on Razorback Records.

  • Lacuna Coil: Shallow Life

    Perhaps a surprise to no one who has been following the band over the past few years, Lacuna Coil’s Shallow Life is an interesting step for the band but showcases a bland end result that dilutes the possibilities of the stylistic shift.