Reviews

Record reviews

Ravage – The End of Tomorrow Review

Ravage – The End of Tomorrow Review

Certain styles are, and should remain, dead. There was a breed of melodic thrash metal, primarily propagated by Germans (a la Helloween) that should now be left to die. Now, I want to be fair, much of that music has transformed into Europower, which has some great bands in it. The style isn’t entire lost or dead, but one thing should be made clear: the bands that kept it alive are bands that did something new with it, that made it their own and that could be distinguished from the masses. None of these things actually describe Ravage or their new album The End of Tomorrow.

Vader – Necropolis Review

Vader – Necropolis Review

Vader doesn’t have the star power of other Polish bands on their labels (whose CD I just reviewed here), but they definitely have the talent and the drive after all this time. To give the reader a little disclaimer: I haven’t ever been a big Vader fan, in fact, this is only the second full Vader album I’ve heard and I wasn’t terribly impressed with the earlier one–though one never knows how it would sit today. What I remember is thinking that the band lacked a few things that made me wonder why I should even be listening to them at all. Apparently I was having a bad day or something, either that or Vader has had a phoenix-like rebirth from the flames. No matter what happened, Necropolis fucking rules and I’m stoked about it.

Behemoth – Evangelion Review

Behemoth – Evangelion Review

Maybe I’m alone in this, but Behemoth’s tremendous success over the last few years, starting with the record Demigod has long been a great surprise to me. Not that the band isn’t good and doesn’t deserve the success. Frankly, they are great and they do deserve the success, but just the idea that a blackened death metal band from Poland would be causing such a stir wasn’t something that had crept into my mind a few years ago, before they released their first real popular “opus.” Demigod of course was followed up by a weaker The Apostasy which, while good, couldn’t possibly have lived up to the expectations of the earlier material. And, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, it’s probably never bad to be hotly anticipated) for the band, Evangelion is one of the most hotly anticipated records of the year. I’ve been trying to get my hands on it for a while and now that I’ve finally got a promo version of it, I’ve been playing the hell out of it.

Sonata Arctica – The Days of Grays Review

Sonata Arctica – The Days of Grays Review

I’ve been a big Sonata Arctica fan for a long, long time. One of the first records I ever reviewed in my entire reviewing career was Silence, which by many is still considered to be the band’s finest record. I loved it, and I was instantly hooked by the band’s sweet hooks, tightness and particularly the vocal stylings of one Tony Kakko. The music was just technical enough to make me feel superior to all the people who were listening to Nu-Metal, but poppy and feel good were the other traits that I loved about the band. I’ve always described it as “driving music.” You know, hit the open road, go as fast as you think you can get away with and blast Sonata Arctica at top volumes while you barrel down the highway into the amazing summer day. Sound familiar to your experience? I hope so, because that’s the angle I’m starting from.

Beardfish – Destined Solitaire Review

Beardfish – Destined Solitaire Review

“Apparently, someone forgot to inform Beardfish that 1970 has graciously left us behind to suffer without it. If they’re not careful, these guys are going to get lost in a pile of pet rocks, bell bottoms and turtle necks. Still, it’s hard to argue in matters of taste, so I’m going to try to be as fair about this record as I can be. While these guys aren’t really doing something that I enjoy intrinsically, I do appreciate certain things about them and their new album Destined Solitaire.” Angry Metal Guy weighs in on Swedish proggers who will never forget the feeling of ’68.

Valkyrja – The Invocation of Demise

Valkyrja – The Invocation of Demise Rating: 2.5/5.0 – Nothing special Label: Metal Blade Websites: myspace.com/valkyrjaswe | valkyrja.swe.name Valkyrja hails from Sweden, where the ice-cold summers, and even colder winters, apparently breed tons of little metal kids. Everywhere you look here you run into a band, and many of them are good. But certainly not […]

Swashbuckle – Back to the Noose Review

Swashbuckle – Back to the Noose Rating: 3.0/5.0 Label: Nuclear Blast (EU | USA) Websites: myspace.com/swashbuckle | swashbuckle.info Release date: July 24th, 2009 (EU) | August 11th, 2009 (USA) Pirates are becoming an all-too-common and all-too-silly theme in our current society—sort of a strange zeitgeist, if you will. Everything from the pirates in Somalia to […]

Indukti – Idmen Review

Indukti – Idmen Rating: 4.25/5.0 – Excellent, but winding and weak at moments Label: InsideOut Websites: myspace.com/indukti | indukti.com Release date: July 27th, 2009 There is a challenge with truly progressive metal and rock and that challenge is, of course, how one describes it in novel terms without sounding like some kind of pretentious ass. […]

Black Sun Aeon – Darkness Walks Beside Me Review

Black Sun Aeon – Darkness Walks Beside Me Review

I have often commented that Finland is really producing the best metal in the world right now. Of course, when I say that I’m usually associating with bands like Moonsorrow, Finntroll or Amorphis, but apparently I’ve been leaving out a band from that whole list because they’re on a small label: Black Sun Aeon. Right now I’m going to add Black Sun Aeon to the pantheon of excellent metal coming from Finland, but unlike those other bands, they’re not wandering on the folk/viking side of things, but instead they’re doing more old-fashioned mid-paced death, intermingled with a doomy goth element that I haven’t heard done well for a long time.