Slayer: World Painted Blood
All of a sudden Slayer’s new album trades the metal in their thrash for a heavy dose of hardcore, the infusion of which makes Slayer sound exactly like Black Flag did around 1985.
Reviews – Audio
Priestess: Prior To The Fire
Prior To The Fire sounds much more like Priestess does in a live setting, with songs like the sprawling “The Gem” showing them unafraid to stretch past the seven-minute mark while still retaining a strong pop hook in its chorus.
Kvist: For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike
For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike is very much a product of its time, but it is a product that is not discoloured by the bitter taste of symphonic black metal’s subsequent indulgences. What Kvist brings to the table is quite simple: balance.
Deiphago: Filipino Antichrist
Overall, this banshee-stabbing outfit are the Satanic missing link between John Zorn’s Painkiller and Portal, only with 137% more virgin violation to their theoretical credit. And hey, if you’re not feeling particularly like cuddling with hell’s servants, this can effectively be used to clear out any lingering party guests and family members who won’t take the hint to get out, especially come Christmas time.
Morbid Saint: Spectrum Of Death
Originally released in 1989 by a Mexican based label called Avenzada Metalica, this eight-song effort is an absolute face-ripper that will appeal greatly to fans of Dark Angel, Kreator and especially late 80s Razor. The songs are well written, the riffs are lightning fast and they possessed a vocalist in singer Pat Lind that could have easily subbed in for Mille in Kreator if the need ever would have arisen.
Children of Bodom: Skeletons In The Closet
That lighter spirit is what makes Skeletons In The Closet worth listening to because they make the spirit in the rest most obvious; it’s all for fun. These seventeen covers showcase every side of the band, but the most recurring of the lot is that the band is obviously having fun as they pay tribute to the bands they respect, but treat the outrageous steps out with equally good humour
Porcupine Tree: The Incident
Porcupine Tree’s tenth studio album, The Incident once again has proven to be another powerful performance by this veteran UK based quartet.
The Cleansing: Poisoned Legacy
Poisoned Legacy is a fine addition to the Danish death metal corpus (mortale…apologies for the horrid pun). It is well-performed musically and quite enjoyable in short bursts, but it lacks the consistently dynamic songwriting required to hold the attention for its duration.
Gaza: He Is Never Coming Back
Gaza’s He Is Never Coming Back is a tumultuous collection of powerful, almost too emotional songs that are heavy – not for simply being dudes from Salt Lake City who want to show who has the biggest balls on the block, but simply because they have something very powerful to day.
Skyfire: Esoteric
Esoteric is a solid collection of melodic death metal tracks with just enough progressive and power metal aspects thrown in to keep things from being too predictable