Amorphis

Aeternus – …and the Seventh His Soul Detesteth Review

Aeternus – …and the Seventh His Soul Detesteth Review

By Steel Druhm on April 4, 2013 in 2.0, 2013, Black Metal, Dark Essence Records, Death Metal, Norwegian Metal, Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, 2 comments

“Over the course of their career, Aeternus have taken me on a sonic ride full of dizzying highs, crushing lows and Milquetoast middles. Their highly acclaimed Beyond the Wandering Moon opus is a truly special album with an atmosphere and mood all its own and I find myself going back to it regularly over time. Their unusual blend of Norwegian black metal and symphonic death came to be known as “dark metal” and that summed up their original sound rather nicely.” But like all true love…one day it withered on the vine. Steel Druhm is bitter, but he’s still going to detail the trials and tribulation of the typical Aeternus fan. Give him your support and beers.

October Falls – The Plague of a Coming Age Review

October Falls – The Plague of a Coming Age Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 13, 2013 in 2013, 4.0, Black Metal, Debemur Morti, Epic Metal, Finnish Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, 22 comments

Back in ’10—when I was wearing an onion on my belt ’cause that was the fashion in those days—I reviewed a record from Finnish atmospheric black metallers October Falls called A Collapse of Faith. At 40+ minutes of a single song, my Angry Attention Deficit Disorder hindered me from loving this record. While it was good, had great melodies, interesting ideas and an old school production that added a fuzzy atmosphere to the whole thing, I was never able to really bring myself to come back to it. It might have been perfect for some of the depressing, snowy days that we get here in Sweden, but I’ve got a quite bit of go-to music for that. Still, I was curious was when I received the promo for The Plague of a Coming Age. With its fantastic cover art, and its 9 easily distinguishable songs, I thought this might be a step in a direction I could enjoy.

Eternal Tears of Sorrow – Saivon Lapsi Review

Eternal Tears of Sorrow – Saivon Lapsi Review

By Steel Druhm on February 21, 2013 in 2013, 3.0, Black Metal, Death Metal, Finnish Metal, Gothic Metal, Massacre Records, Melodic Death Metal, Power Metal, Reviews, Black Metal, Heavy Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Power Metal, 6 comments

“Eternal Tears of Sorrow is an exceptionally fruity band name. The mere mention of it conjures images of a self-serious, black-garbed goth band (see photos) with a sultry, pouty femme fatale as front woman. If the name was keeping you away, you missed out on a quality band that blended black metal with melodic death, goth rock and symphonic power metal with good to great results. While I enjoyed all their albums, their crowning achievement was 2009’s Children of the Dark Water, which hit on the perfect combination of bombast, dark atmosphere, extremity, beauty and song writing that was shockingly good from stem to stern. At times it sounded like Cradle of Filth at their most symphonic mixed with early Cemetery, with traces of Kalmah, Insomnium and Amorphis added for good measure. After waiting over three years for a follow-up, we finally get Saivon Lapsi and with the long wait after such a great album, expectations were unavoidably high.” So… does this live up to those great expectations, or is it more of a bleak house? Get it? [YOU’RE FIRED! – AMG]

Krampus – Survival of the Fittest Review

Krampus – Survival of the Fittest Review

By Madam X on August 19, 2012 in 2012, 4.5, Folk Metal, Italian Metal, NoiseArt Records, Reviews, Folk Metal, 11 comments

To say I’ve been moved by this album is just a slight understatement… bear with me while I try and reign in my fangirl-ism! It’s rarely that I’ve come across an album that carries such a strong and powerful message, while sounding mind-blowing at the same time. This 8-piece, modern folk metal band hail from Udine, in north-eastern Italy, and it seems this city, known for its iron commerce, will soon be known for a slightly more folk inspired kind of metal. Krampus have a style that is reminiscent of new wave folk metal act Eluveitie and sometimes progressive, mostly melodic, folk metal acts Amorphis, Wintersun and Korpiklaani. Where they differ however, is that instead of looking to the past for inspiration, Krampus have crafted Survival of the Fittest wholeheartedly, lyrically and musically, looking towards the future and a rather bleak, battered and bruised future it appears to be. This is the bands first full release, however Krampus have already released two very tempting EP offerings (Shadows of Our Time and Kronos’ Heritage), and will be leaving for their first extended European (Heidenfest) tour shortly (joining the likes of Wintersun and Korpiklaani), and therefore there is a definite expectation that Survival of the Fittest will be well-received.