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To me, Otep has always been quite the mystery. I've always had the hardest time putting this band in one genre. Perhaps that's a good thing. Too many people have been spending too much time labeling bands nowadays. Time to put an end to this. However, not touring Europe for centuries might be another reason for remaining that same enigma. After the release of Hydra, let's hope this last disappointment alters for the better. Back to Otep's new release now, which goes by the liquid name of Hydra.

Hailing from Switzerland, shEver are a female Doom-formation that started almost a decade ago. After a demo, recorded shortly after the band’s birth, they gained lots of positive responses all over Europe. No, not because they are all women (maybe just a little as well; being female might help sometimes ;o), but because of their nice song writing and impressing live performances. 2007 saw the first shEver full length, Ocean Of Illusions, and in 2009 the band released the highly acclaimed A Dialogue With The Dimensions EP.

Formed by Pete Newdeck (drummer at Eden’s Curse) and Ian Nash. After successfully writing an array of hard hitting music, they quickly enlisted the enthusiastic drummer Mark Cross (Firewind, Helloween). Cross was so impressed by the vocal ability of drummer Newdeck, he booked into a studio for the album F.E.A.R.

California-based band Vile was formed in 1996 and throughout the years, they offered us more than just a couple of decent recordings. Especially Listenable Records were so kind to please us with Vile’s sweet harmonies, and in 2011 Vile released the long-awaited comeback album Metamorphosis (via Willowtip), which was slightly different from the past.

More than three years after Purulence (The Ajna Offensive), Greek Old School metallers Acrimonious return with their Agonia-debut Sunyata, which lasts for fifty five minutes. This newest studio effort was recorded, mixed and mastered at Sitra Ahra and Unreal Studio, under the professional assistance of Necromorbus Studio.

The United Kingdom has brought forth lots of new hardcore and metal blood over the past few years. Just think of bands such as Your Demise, While She Sleeps, Brutality Will Prevail, Last Witness, Desolated, ... Although the guys in Continents look like the perfect sons-in-law, they play the hardest music possible.

The first impression when I started listening to the first song, St. James, was that I was dealing with a new song by the British hardcore band More Than Life. But after a few minutes, I realized that I was dealing with a new American hardcore band. To reveal its identity: I'm talking about Fall City Fall from California, USA. They've just released their first full-length through Victory Records, called Victus.

The history of Gloria Morti takes a start at the end of the nineties in Heinola, Finland. The quartet (back then Gloria Morti were a four-members collection) records several demo tapes and a strong promo-MCD, called Phoenix Caged In Flesh, which marked an evolution from intense and obscure Thrash Metal into a darker and much more brutal form of Death / Black Metal.

The Outside is the second album by Hungarian Black Metal duo Kolp (Jim Jones and Knot), released through Temple Of Torturous (together with Melencolia Estatica’s Hel; the review about the latter can be found on this review’s section as well).

Back in the days, when Ozzfest was still on the road in the USA, one Sharon Osbourne witnessed a great band play one of the stages. That band was Otep. They signed to Victory Records in 2009 and immediately became the 'strangest' band on the label, as it's just impossible to put them in a box. The band you can compare them to the best is Deftones in my opinion, but much heavier.