Reviews

Katatonia – Dead End Kings

The melancholic musings of Renkse and Co aren’t as convincing as on the three previous albums I’m afraid. Dead End Kings certainly has its moments of greatness, but for some reason I expected a stronger and more consistent album.

High on Fire – The Art of Self-Defense

Though the original contained just six tracks, Southern Lord has beefed this edition up with a trio of demos and a Celtic Frost cover. But really, that’s just the icing on the cake (if you’re into vanilla frosting). These tunes stand alone without the added filler.

Titans Eve – Life Apocalypse

What Titans Eve has managed to do with an album based on hardship is inject an air of triumph into their catchy delivery. The uplifting nature that saturates the album brings hope that no matter what we face in our lives, all our life apocalypses, the strength to rise above them is within us all.

Hellbound.ca Invades Maryland Deathfest

Hellbound invades Maryland Deathfest 2012, Part 2

“If you’re a fan of extreme metal and you live in North America, it’s likely that you have a strong impulse to attend the continent’s biggest annual festival: Maryland Deathfest. Actually attending the fest, however, isn’t always possible, especially if you live thousands of miles away.”

Part two of Jay H. Gorania’s recap of Maryland Deathfest 2012, with live photos by Albert Mansour.

Ancestors – In Dreams and Time

While their debut album was all over the place—in a bad way—Ancestors have a delivered a much more focused effort this time around that’s worthy of a few spins. Recommended for fans of Neurosis, Isis and the like; just don’t expect to hear much that those bands haven’t done before

Baroness - Yellow and Green cover art

Baroness – Yellow & Green

Yellow & Green by Baroness is arguably one of the richest and most diverse albums you are going to hear this year. It is certainly the most ambitious musical undertaking by Baizley and Co yet, but they manage to pull it off without a hitch. Production-wise it’s a little too retro for my taste, but otherwise this is a fantastic musical adventure. I’m hooked!

DTV Soundtrack

The soundtrack runs close to an hour and all the songs are previously unreleased. It is, by turns, invigorating, eviscerating and just good old nostalgic fun. The pulverizing metal component means all the dynamic, outlandish fluency of the action genre is represented.