Overkill – Ironbound
Now in 2010, armed with the mighty Nuclear Blast behind them in Europe and E1 in North America, Overkill has released the thrash album of this early year.
Reviews – Audio
Meshuggah – Alive
In less talented hands, the 90 minute concert film that constitutes the centerpiece of Alive would come off as a sloppily arranged mess, but director/editor Ian McFarland’s footage is so well-shot and so tastefully edited that we can’t help but forgive him for making the whole experience a touch disjointed.
Adrien Begrand reviews the brand new live DVD/CD collection by Sweden’s technical death metal innovators Meshuggah.
Eluveitie – Everything Remains As It Never Was
Everything Remains As It Never Was is the fourth album from Swiss folk metallers Eluveitie. Its title, considering the band’s place in the growing mythology of folk and pagan metal, is suggestively profound. It’s a shame, then, that the music on this new offering just isn’t as enjoyable well as their previous work.
Blackfield – NYC: Blackfield Live in New York City
Originally released as a DVD only, it has now been reissued as a two disc set, with the entire performance now also available as on CD too. The band sticks pretty much to Blackfield material, playing everything but one song from their second album II and also including nearly all of the first album too. The performances of these songs in a live setting don’t differ greatly from the studio versions. If you have those records already you may not need this collection unless you are an absolute Wilson-aholic that absolutely needs everything he does (and I know there are a lot of you out there, that is for certain).
Dark Tranquillity – We Are The Void
There is nothing truly bad about We Are The Void, but there is nothing that makes the album standout from the band’s strong discography.
Drudkh – Autumn Aurora
[Autumn Aurora] is an album that, listening to it now in retrospect, both continued and solidified the group’s pagan and nature themes and thick, heavy sound.
Village of Dead Roads – Desolation Will Destroy You
Village of Dead Roads are well versed in the sludge of Crowbar and EHG, along with “post-sludge” bands like Neurosis, while mixing elements of death doom and the atmospheric black metal stuff that’s all the rage these days.
Aenaon – Phenomenon
Phenomenon is bound to please fans of all things Emperor, including Ihsahn and Zyklon, a very well-executed blackened death metal hybrid that’s in and out in less than half an hour.
Vampire Mooose – The Reel
This is one of those bands where the record label really had to work on their press release. There was a bit of anticipation when The Reel is described as ‘unrelenting’ and ‘unique’ when it is actually a pretty bland collection of death / metal core tunes in which there is nothing that really stands out.
Shining – VI Klagopsalmer
Klagopsalmer is a surprisingly warm production in spite of its black metal core. That also means that, despite the band’s dark, depressive, even suicidal reputation, the record is not nearly as nihilistic or grim as you might expect.