Greek genre benders Nighfall are back and this time, they really mean business. METAL business! Be it doom, black, death or power, they try to cram it in this here album like 60 cats in a suitcase. This is almost as fun as that suitcase too!
SepticFlesh
Zombified – Carnage Slaughter and Death Review
If one thing has become clear lately, its that Madam X loves zombies, gore, death and dark stuff. Since Zombified is all about these things, who can be surprised she loves their Grave worshipping brand of nasty death metal.
Man.Machine.Industry – Lean Back, Relax and Watch the World Burn Review
Incoming! Incoming! It’s a bad album cover!
Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony Review
In 2009 a record came sort of out of nowhere that really took me by surprise, and frankly, kicked my ass something fierce. It was from Italian technical death metallers Fleshgod Apocalypse and the record was called Oracles. What I loved about the album, and the thing that made it so addicting, was that it was beautifully melodic and unabashedly technical at the same time. It blended these two things into what was easily the most unique technical death metal or melodic death metal record that had been released in a very, very long time. I was blown away (and still am). I didn’t review it at the time, but it made the #3 spot on my Top 10(ish) of 2009 and I have been waiting for the follow up ever since. Agony, the band’s first record on Nuclear Blast records, is that follow up and it’s a great album that bugs me.
The Bridal Procession – Astronomical Dimensions Review
The Bridal Procession are a death metal band with orchestral stylings from Paris, France. If you go to their Last.fm page, the first thing you see on there is someone writing “Behemoth 2.0.” What’s funny about this was exactly my response when I heard the introduction of this album, which has an Egyptian sounding orchestral introduction followed up with a vocal introduction that was ripped straight off from “Slaves Shall Serve” (a track from Behemoth’s Demigod, if you’re not familiar). This did not raise my expectations very high, to be totally honest. And, because of that I never had time to get disappointed by the mediocrity, and more frankly, unoriginality that followed.
Aeternam – Disciples of the Unseen Review
Egyptian metal is apparently a genre now! I didn’t have any clue! I just thought it was kind of a thing that Nile did. And then it was Nile and Behemoth. And then it was Nile, Behemoth and SepticFlesh. And now it’s Nile, Behemoth, SepticFlesh and Aeternam! I think that counts as a genre! So, that’s pretty cool in and of itself. Oh, and it turns out that Aeternam is pretty cool themselves, leading to a generally all around happy feeling for a few fleeting moments before the general irritants that keep me so angry all the time come crashing back in.
