CD

The Body

One of Mother Earth’s most eerie Doom acts is this two-piece, The Body, consisting of Lee Buford and Chip King. Again the duo recorded its new material at Machines With Magnets, and additional vocal contribution was provided by e.g. Reba Mitchell (Whore Paint), Otesanek’s Leslie Weitz, and Chrissy Wolpert (of Assembly Of Light Choir).

Phlebotomized

About twenty five years ago (we’re talking about the late eighties and early nineties), a couple of Extreme Metal acts added keyboard lines to their music, not only as introduction to a recording, yet as an important ‘full’ instrument. Best known example probably are Nocturnus, but acts like Torchure, The Gathering or Sinoath are other comparable possibilities as well. This goes for Dutch act Phlebotomized too.

Pest

Pandemics and plagues, who does not like them? It is, I think (no, I don’t think so; I’m sure) one of the final solutions to save our Earth from that other sickness, called Humanity. Pest is a possibility (no further comment for this writing is a new album’s review and not my personal opinion about the detestable place of the human being within Nature and Earthly Life).

Monarque

J’adore le scène de Québec – cela a toujours été le cas, et cela ne changera jamais. At least, not as long as labels like Sepulchral Productions continue releasing material by superb acts from out there. This excellent label focuses on local bands, especially francophone. A small selection: Forteresse, Utlagr, Gris, Borgne, Sombre Fôrets or Neige Et Noirceur.

Iced Earth

Since John Schaffer recruited Stu Block (Into Eternity) on vocals, it seems the career of Iced Earth  has been relaunched.  Since the release of ‘Dystopia’ in 2011 they’ve toured over the world and played countless gigs.

Hagl

Russian warriors Hagl were once formed as Darkomen and about a decade ago, they changed their moniker into the current one. Throughout the years, the band recorded two albums (Nearer To Victory, 2005, and Irminsul, 2008), but in both cases it took many years before being able to release this stuff (respectively 2010 and 2011). This time, however, things aren’t turning the slowest way.

Autopsy

More than twenty five years ago our beautifully smelly Earth got festered when Autopsy decided to exist. Through miscreants like Severed Survival and Acts Of The Unspeakable, the quartet injected the American Death Metal scene with their own vision of gore and terror, and undersigned was pleased. I saw it was good… Autopsy unfortunately disbanded in 1995 and some of the members continued under the moniker of Abscess, another great, and slightly comparable act with messages of love and peace, evidently.

August Burns Red

Since I am slightly allergic to the overcrowded Metalcore-scene (specifically caused by infantile and puerile nonsense), I wasn’t really looking forward to review this August Burns Red album. It’s a collection of regular and predictable stuff, compiled to annoy my sensitive ear drums for sure, or a sadistic outburst of this website’s Big Boss to irritate me, I guess.

Visions Of Atlantis

This new album by Visions Of Atlantis marks a change in their repertoire. Whereas before you could categorize the band as producing symphonic metal, this album is more going in the direction of classical heavy metal. 

There are still some symphonic elements of course, but in comparison to their previous album ‘Delta’ this album has more of an edge, by which I mean that the bombastic and operatic elements have been drastically reduced.

TesseracT

Since this band’s birth ten years ago, TesseracT created a very specific, own-faced vision on the progressive side of Metal Music. Personally I am not that much ‘into’ this kind of sonics, but when it comes to this band specifically, I cannot but express a modest form of appreciation.

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