Phonebook Eater 9/10

"Kivenkataja", for it's beautiful profoundness, should be considered a landmark Metal album of the new millennium.

Moonsorrow are one of the greatest Metal bands of the new millennium and have proved to be so with several albums, one of them is the masterpiece “Kivenkataja”, the third album, and the first album that is part of a trilogy of excellent works (the second one would be 2005’s “Verisakeet” and the final chapter 2007’s “V: Havitetty”.) This 2003 release proves how Moonsorrow in two years have shown a great difference in songwriting skills, structuring songs and arranging them: “Kivenkataja” indeed is a 100% Moonsorrow album that shows all of the band’s essential and best characteristics.

On one side, the style isn’t different: we’re talking about the usual, Pagan Black Metal/ Folk Metal influence here. But it’s so much more complex, profound and epic than the previous two releases, (beating even the wonderful “Voimasta Ja Kunniasta”) due to it’s superior instrumentation, more progressive influences, and overall perfected songwriting skills. All this together makes up something more than just great album: “Kivenkataja” rightfully should be considered a landmark Metal LP of it’s era, because of it’s uniqueness, richness, and especially, it’s haunting and evocative nature. Sure, Folkish instruments like the Jew Harp, accordion, flutes and many others were present in previous albums, however here, they have a major, essential role, and dominate completely some of the passages here, creating a well balanced equilibrium between the lush Folk moments and Black Metal influenced ones, which still have melodies driven by traditional Scandinavian canons. The Lyrics, being this Pagan Metal, although having pretty much the same themes as the first two albums, this time around are proposed and written in a much more poetic and vivid way: instead of focusing on battles and warriors, there is more detailed descriptions of nature, like in the opening track “Rauniolla”. The tone is more the one of a lonely, forgotten bard of the North, instead perhaps of a drunk one from a noble palace telling hackneyed stories of warriors and battles fought. It basically feels more of a realistic point of view.

The album starts off with the thirteen minute epic “Rauniolla”, quite possibly the best thing Moonsorrow has ever created: the melodies are, instead of being triumphant and full of testosterone, melancholic, a little resigned, solemn. Structured almost as a mini-suite, it features extremely diverse moments, from heavy riffs to beautifully evocative Folkloric ones. “Jumalten Kaupunki”, the second track, is heavier, with less atmospheric moments, and with a more triumphant tone, however still maintaining an impressive level of complexity and depth. The following track is yet another sort of mini, ten minute suite, using however completely different formulas from the ones used in the previous two tracks, giving the structure of the overall album a great flow so far. The title track is more of a traditional Folk Metal track, more ballzy and in-your-face, but it also shows explicit Prog Metal influences especially in the frequent rhythm changes; “Tuulen Tytar” is a mostly instrumental piece, half calm, half distorted and loud. It certainly is the odd one out of these six tracks, and gives yet again another touch of variety in the sound. The album closes with the short but gorgeously crafted “Maktan Lopussa”, a sad, beautiful, and very surprising song on behalf of Moonsorrow.

“Kivenkataja” has an amazing set of songs that together make one, solid and consistent album, despite the great amount of changes that distinguish one song from the other. One of the culminating peaks of Folk Metal music, a perfect model for all of the bands that are minimally interested in the genre.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Suden Uni" although feeling like a collection of drinking songs, is a fun and consistent listen.

“Suden Uni” is legendary Finnish act Moonsorrow’s debut album, which will be shortly followed that same year by a much more well developed album, “Voimasta Ja Kunniasta”, one of the most solid releases of the band’s discography. In fact this album does not stand at the same level as the sophomore LP, however, it is proof that Moonsorrow have taken a further step ahead from the previous demos, towards the path of maturity.

Moonsorrow adapt a cleaner production for their full length, compared to the rawness of the EPs/Demos, and start to incorporate a lot more Nordic Folk influenced melodies in their music, as well as exotic instruments like the accordion and the famous jaw harp, but also several keyboards are used. But compared to future albums these folkish instruments are used in a much more subtle way, and serve the sole purpose to enrich the sound; they don’t play a particularly important role within a song. This said, it’s easy to imagine how much less atmospheric and more straight-forward this LP is, again compared to the complexity of future Moonsorrow albums, thus more riff driven and melodic.

“Sudden Uni” means “A Wolf’s Dream” in Finnish: by only the title, you can tell what Mooonsorrow’s lyrics deal with, and, if you’re familiar with the band, it will be very easy to guess the main themes of the album: Viking./Nordic wars, proud warriors, Gods, but also normal people and their sense of honor. the first track is probably the one that is the oddest of all, seemingly coming from a completely different style: “Son of the God Of Thunder” (English translation) is about a young, teenage God who gets expelled by his father from the clouds, because of his futile and reckless behavior. Other than that, the lyrics deal with the above mentioned themes in a casual way, without being particularly evocative.

Because of it’s straight-forwardness, “Suden Uni” in some points seems to be a collection of drinking songs, instead of profound, epic poems of music. This impression obviously does not occur in every song: for example, in the eleven minute “1065: Time”, there are some good doses of epicness in the songwriting and the structure of the song is fantastic, which includes also more ambient friendly passages, mostly in the first few minutes. But the rest of the songs offer little variation, and some are not at all as memorable as they should be: “As Eternal” and “Son Of The God Of Thunder” come a little close to annoy me, however, standing in the middle of them (according to the tracklist) is “Pakanavedet II”, much more accessible and interesting, thanks to the massive presence of the Jew Harp and fun, heavy rhythms. . “Home Of the Wind…” is a little too simple and banal for my taste, but it still has interesting arrangements overall.

“Suden Uni” can be a fun listen for sure, and even if some melodies come a little too close to being corny and clichéd, it’s still a solidly structured release for Moonsorrow, an album that is the natural predecessor of “Voimasta Ja Kunniasta”, which uses a more complex and solid formula.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

"Spiral Shadow" is a big mix of emotions and musical variety.

American Stoner Metal band Kylesa’s 2009 release, “Static Tensions”, was one that was hard to follow, because of its use of successful formulas mixed together well. But “Spiral Shadow” comes right behind it in terms of quality, and in some points, there is even a slight improvement: however, overall it’s not as solid and enjoyable as the previous album.

There are pretty noticeable changes in direction the band takes on this new album: the distortion has lost a bit of it’s original impact, favoring however a more atmospheric sound, cleaner passages that include diverse guitar effects and more rich arrangements; this way, many of these moments are remindful of Atmospheric Sludge Metal, except for the fact that Kylesa have always been straight to the point and have always done the job quickly. The type of impact the band delivers is also very varied; from tense, anxious moments, there could be more optimistic and cheerful ones, or angry, violent ones. Previous albums by the band have had more of a monotone attitude and never changed their perennial state of anger (“Static Tensions” was the first album to change that a bit more).

Again with a short, forty minute long album, Kylesa with “Spiral Shadow”, although showing they can blend many things into one another in order to make a more different, elaborate and musically luxurious sound, are making the album as a whole a little less solid and a bit more sparse: the great songs are still here, like the opener “Tired Climb”, which is nauseatingly aggressive for the most part, but it also has a cool, tense and anxious build up. “Crowded Road” has a Doomier, heavier feel, while the guitar tapping of “Don’t Look Back” almost reminds of Math Rock, with a somewhat strange and very subtle Pixies influence in the songwriting. The second half of the LP, while it still has a few good moments like the solemn closing track, is a little less emotional and impactful, focusing more on making interesting effects rather than concentrating on the melodies themselves.

An album with a very wide range of sounds that still however remains faithful to Stoner Metal. Although a bit one sided because of the obvious superiority of the first half to the second half, it remains enjoyable pretty much all the way through, and delivers excellent songs that will become, in my mind, Kylesa classics.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Static Tensions" is one of the most enjoyable Stoner Metal releases of the last few years.

Kylesa are an American Sludge/Stoner Metal band; “Static Tensions” is their fourth album, the LP that finally brought them up to popularity among the stoner metal community, after a few, more average and disappointing albums.

The first thing you notice in “Static Tensions” is how different it sounds compared to previous Kylesa material: it is clear the band have found their own, original take on this kind of music. They have massive Sludge Metal/Hardcore Punk influences in most of the vocals , as well as heavy, crunchy, and extremely loud guitars; but the original aspect of the music is probably the rhythm section, often incorporating a more exotic percussion that replaces simple drum fills. However, the drummer in this band does not hesitate in blasting fast bursts of velocity, making Kylesa basically sound like the more drugged out, intense and in-your-face cousin of Mastodon. The great thing about this new style is that slower, clean moments are not rare, and still have that Stoner feel that is just as powerful as the other more intense moments, especially thanks to the clever addition of female vocals.

“Static Tensions”, in it’s most intense passages, reminds not only of the Hardcore gigs but also of clever, well structured Sludge Metal. Despite this raw blend, Kylesa manage to be extremely accessible in every single song, proving amazing songwriting skills. It is pretty rare to find a band that can successfully write catchy melodies, be adventurous, and surround you with total, blissful distortion, all at the same time.

With only forty minutes “Static Tensions” is by far the most solid Kylesa album, where each song, although all of them maintaining the same style (the clean moments though are all different one another), never bore all together, and together shine as one. Of course, there are particular highlights like the amazingly face-bashing first track “Scapegoat”, the more dualistic (soft and aggressive) nature of “Running Red”, the hypnotic atmosphere of “To Walk Alone”, or the straight-forward catchiness of “Almost Lost”. Each and every one of these songs has a different character, and together they form a quite functional family of tough boys.

“Static Tensions” is an extremely enjoyable, fun, catchy, and aggressive listen, despite not being the most cheerful camper out there. Yet, the solemnity of this band could add some further canons to future Stoner Metal.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"The Light At The End Of The World" is a decent return to a style that is more traditional of My Dying Bride.

My Dying Bride are one of the most well known and respected Doom Metal acts of all time. With such a high reputation, this band has managed to consistently release some great albums over the years, in particular their third album “Turn Loose The Swans” and it’s follow up, “The Angel and The Dark River”, both of these released in the mid nineties. After a few, more disappointing albums, the band return to shine, in the eyes of many fans, with 1999’s “The Light at The End Of The World”.

This release of theirs is quite unlike what they have ever done; this is thus far the darkest, most unsettling and disturbing album the band has released. The desperation of previous albums seem to be almost a joke compared to this extremely emotionally difficult album. The sound itself hasn’t drastically changed, but there is a more frequent use of subtle synthesizers, more extreme vocals (which seem to be more Black Metal influenced this time around), and a bit faster-paced melodies. While it may not be the Doomiest album of the band, it is the grimmest and most pessimistic, despite only slight stylistic changes.

The concepts brought up are not estranged to other Doom Metal material, nor to other My Dying Bride lyrics: pain, suffering, revenge, hopelessness, and quite a few religious themes are what the lyrics portray, and there are some interesting stories depicted too; in the title track, the story is of a man who is forced to guard an everlastingly deserted sea from a lighthouse on an isolated island. He begs his divinity for one night only with his woman, which he does get; but the following day, he will stay eternally in solitude on the island, without ever seeing a man or woman. The lyrics of the other songs are not as epic, but a couple still have an intriguing nature: “She Is The Dark” incarnates deceit and pain into a woman, while “Edenbeast” is about a feast of sin that takes place in Eden, possibly a metaphor of the presence of corruption and greed in the most unexpected places.

The songs on this release are extremely evocative, especially in the first half of the album; songs like “She Is The Dark” and “Edenbeast”, other than having dark, haunting melodies, also bring to the listener the feeling of being in front of an abandoned, dark plain, where man’s sins and defects are laid down and exposed. However, it is sad to see that some of the songs, during the second half of the album, are not nearly as powerful as they should: “Christliar” has an interesting structure, but does not give any emotional impact whatsoever, just like the compressed intensity of “The Fever Sea”, the title track (despite it’s majestic lyrics) or “Into The Lake Of Ghosts”. They are not really bad tracks, they simply aren’t able to accomplish the task (that is admittedly hard to do) to stay as haunting as the emotional concepts in the lyrics.

“The Light At The End Of The World” is a unique album for My Dying Bride, being also their first album, after those more experimental albums preceding it, to return to the more traditional style. However, this return isn’t as successful as I would have liked; “The Dreadful Hours”, the following album, will have done the job in a much more satisfactory way.

Phonebook Eater 9/10

The shape of Heavy Metal to come.

Judas Priest are one of the great Heavy Metal bands of all time, and they were so even before 1990. “Painkiller” then was the icing on the cake. One of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed albums by the band, this album represents a milestone in Heavy Metal music because of it’s broad influence it had on bands that followed.

“Painkiller” is definitely the heaviest, fastest, ground shaking album of the band: the drums are of a pounding nature, the guitars are beastly heavy and don’t hesitate in delivering chaotic, messy solos, for the most time perfectly executed. Halford’s screams have never sounded so sincere and ideal for the moment. The resulting music is a sort of Speed Metal sound, because of how relatively faster this album is compared to the other Judas Priest albums, where there was much more of a NWOBHM influence, especially the albums of the eighties.

With ten tracks Judas Priest bring together an amazingly solid album, full of fast moments; but they never sound the same one another, and there is a lot of variety between the melodies, and each song sounds different. Starting from the opening song, the title track: there is the perfect handful of potent rhythms, amazing drum section, chaotic guitars, and a perfect pitched Rob Halford; this track is now a milestone for Judas Priest fans and an immense Heavy Metal classic. The other tracks are not of lesser quality: “Metal Meltdown” is extremely catchy, yet strong and powerful in terms of sound, “All Guns Blazing” is probably the fiercest, most alarming track, while “Hell Patrol” and “Leather Rebel” have more traditionally paced rhythms and less shouted vocals. The second half of the album too presents great gems, like the emotionally daring “Touch Of Evil”, and “Night Crawler” and “Between The Hammer and The Anvil” are catchier, more melodic songs that still don’t loose the punch.

With such a bunch of tracks, “Painkiller” cannot be less than a masterpiece: a landmark album for Heavy Metal music, in particularly because of the shaping it did to a lot of the music to come.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Black Future" is a toxic, fast, and catchy beast that emits a cheerfully dystopian light.

Vektor are an American Thrash Metal band: “Black Future” is their third studio length LP. By most of the Thrash community highly praised, this band is unique thanks to their spacey themes and peculiar, Black Metal influenced vocals. “Black Future” is, so far, the album that most faithfully and best represents their attitude and philosophy, becoming one of the best Thrash Metal albums this reviewer has ever heard in recent years.

The thing that you first notice in this colossal album is the clean production, a characteristic that doesn’t usually suit neither Thrash nor Black Metal: but here, it does nothing but compliment the music. The guitars are edgy and loud, the vocals have been mentioned for the most part, except for the fact that they are very varied and different sounding every time; sometimes they’re more like ghostly screams, other times they are raspy and lower pitched. Then the rhythms are pretty standard for the genre, but they are constantly changing, giving a pretty strong technical feel to the compositions. With these characteristics, Vektor play around with some progressive-like structures and mix in some slower, usually guitar driven passages, as well as some futuristic-machinery sound effects.

In most of the lyrics, there is an evident science fiction/dystopian theme, usually of something that has or is dominating earth, physically or psychologically: whether it be nuclear explosions, asteroids, dark nebulas, or genetically modified creatures. Exceptions include “Forests Of Legend”, the narrating of a once fantastic forest, where Giants and massive creatures lived. Anyhow, there’s almost always a sort of changed-as-we-know-it end of our world.

Over an hour long, “Black Future” never manages to bore or to exasperate the listener: the songs are elaborate and complex but not hard to follow. The pillars of the album are definitely the songs that pass the ten minute border: “Forests Of Legend”, “Dark Nebula” and “Accelerating Universe”. Within these ten minutes Vektor bring chaos to earth, as if zombies just came out of a spaceship and are running around,destroying everything they see; they also manage to give some calmer, slower moments within them, making them even more interesting. The remaining six songs however are not less effective: “Asteroid” is fast, catchy, and technical, just like the more Black Metal influenced title track, or “Oblivion”.

An album like no other, “Black Future” is sure the LP that should stick in the minds of Thrash Metal fans for quite some time. This is a great alternative to bands like Metallica and Megadeth; Vektor are a band that perhaps should be learned more of, even by the people who don’t care about Thrash.

Phonebook Eater 5/10

"Time Will Fuse It's Worth" is a well constructed album that however gets old pretty fast.

Kylesa are an American Stoner Metal band that have received much attention from the Stoner Metal community, later on in the first decade of the new millennium, with albums like “Static Tensions” and “Spiral Shadow”. Before this popularity, there was “Time Will Fuse It’s Worth”, and album that stands in the middle of the band’s discography, being a follow up to two more obscure and more average sounding albums.

The sound still isn’t quite mature on this album, however, it shows significant improvement. But, by listening to the entire thing, it comes obvious that the band have not yet found their style, thus making merely some decent Stoner/Sludge that however sounds pretty standard and generic. In the slower moments however some hints or originality can be heard, an originality that is different from the one of following albums.

The album, despite the less than forty minutes of length, gets old pretty fast, becoming a bit predictable and boring. The good songs are here however, especially “Between Silence and Sound”, the only track where there is a loud and clear burst of uniqueness. The other songs like “Ignoring Anger”, “The Warning” and “What Becomes and End”, although having generic sound, are proof of great songwriting on behalf of the band. Then the intro, intermission and outro give the album almost a feeling of a show that is being presented, a show that can be at times wonderful and at times frustratingly flat.

“Time Will Fuse It’s Worth”, despite it’s flaws, gives a promise that Kylesa would overcome mediocrity (unlike, let’s admit it, a lot of bands) and stand-out as some of the most well-respected Stoner Metal bands in the late 00’s. It kept the promise, fortunately.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Two Hunters" provides an image of the dark corners of the world.

Along maybe with bands like Agalloch, Wolves In Throne Room is now one of America’s most recognized Black Metal bands: in 2007, they released “Two Hunters”, so far the absolute pinnacle of their career and one of the best albums of the scene.

“Diadem in 12 Stars” was their debut album which had a very unique take on Blackgaze; the sound was very ethereal and harsh at the same time. “Two Hunters” perfects that atmosphere by a whole lot, with much more brave, shoegazey and unearthly passages soaked in reverb, which gain a touch of beauty when female vocals, that seem to come from heaven, are added. Then we still have the grim, electric passages. But, despite the great amount of Black Metal in this release, everything sounds much more clean and less raw than in “Diadem”: the reverb is possibly the greatest reason why it doesn’t feel that heavy, but it’s also the fact that WITTR on this one decided to focus much more intensely on the atmosphere.

The lyrics are probably the most enigmatic and fascinating aspect of the album: “I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks And Roots” is a sort of a dying wish of the persona: he wants to be left in the woods, so that he becomes one with nature, entering, this way, into a new life. Then “Vastness and Sorrow” is more complex: it involves a dark rider who rules the world, as he is the only living being there. The world moves to his horse’s steps, as he passes through ruins of a once great civilization, a symbol of failure of mankind. “Cleansing” seems to describe an encouragement to have a ritual act of purification through singing, in order to be saved from the dark rider, who is mentioned.

With only four tracks, “Two Hunters” provides the listener, in less than fifty minutes, a vivid image of dark, hidden corners of the world where man has not yet visited; A damp, black cave, in which there is a waterfall of the purest of waters. “Dia Artio” is the intro the starts off this unique journey, where the reverb-soaked clean guitars set the stage. The twelve minute “Vastness and Sorrow” is a gloomy Black Metal piece that finds no pause, no mercy, managing to be the darkest track on the album. “Cleansing” starts off with a vein similar to the intro, but then explodes into yet another Black Metal passage. The final, eighteen minute track is home of a bunch of solid, solemn and somber riffs, occasionally purified with the watery clean moments. As the music dissolves, at the end of the album, the sound of birds comes in , giving more coherency to the lyrical concept of the song, by this point of view one of the great closers of Black Metal history.

“Two Hunters” will be remembered as a Black Metal landmark album, an album that will be, over the years. a point of reference for many bands; even today, the Blackgaze movement is, although mostly underground, increasing exponentially, and will possibly domain most of future Black Metal. When that happens, Wolves In The Throne Room have a reserved place in the Olympus of legendary Metal bands.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Voimasta" is a perfectly balanced interconnection between the Viking muscles and the guiding hand of Nordic Folklore.

The (possibly) greatest Finnish band of all time, Moonsorrow, in 2001 were able to release two albums: the first one was “Suden Uni”, the second one, “Voimasta Ja Kunniasta”. The latter is possibly the most mature one and the first album by the band that is immensely successful in terms of quality: although maybe not the most recognized and famous release of these Folk Metallers, it is definitely one that opened the path to all of the following Moonsorrow albums and all the other bands that followed them.

Folk Metal’s basics are all down here in an incredibly precise way: here we have the epic feel and melodies of the rough guitars, the Black Metal shrieks, the additional, folkloristic instrumentation (flutes and accordion mostly), the atmospheric synths, and the straddling rhythms. So many Folk Metal bands have used only a portion of these characteristics, but most of the time, the best result will occur if all of these elements are properly incorporated. The songs themselves are structured in a very thought-provoking way, because of the shifting tempos and passages ( from a folkloristic one to a harsh, black Metal burst, enlightened moments later by elaborate, acoustic instrumentation).

The spirit of all Moonsorrow albums is here found in great abundance: the Northern lands, the Vikings, the battles, the Gods. In “Voimasta Ja Kunniasta” there seems to be a more frequent and specific theme of battles, plunders of villages, pride and honor of warriors. “Aurinko Ja Kuu” is however the odd one: its an interesting description of a man who roams in the woods without ever encountering men, and that sleeps in the beds of bears. In 50 minutes of length, “Voimasta” manages to stay quite consistent, and at the same time, the songs have enough variation one another to have a fluent flow. Nearly each one of these six songs can be considered a highlight: “Sankarihauta” and “Kylan Paasa” are generally more muscular, raw, and harsh songs, which still do not lack of intelligence. “Sankaritarina” however, the thirteen minute closer, has a great riff that echoes throughout the entire song and still manages to have the most thought-provoking and elaborate structure here. The remaining two songs, “Auriko Ja Kuu” and “Hiidenpelto” are great as well, incorporating more folkish elements yet without losing the grit.

“Voimasta Ja Kunniasta” can be considered essential listening not only for Moonsorrow lovers but also for Folk Metal fans; an album that uses all of the canons and brings them up at a quality that not many other bands of the genre can do.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Like An Ever Flowing Stream" is an ear-crushing landmark album for Death Metal.

Dismember are a Swedish Death Metal band from the nineties, and are praised as some of the most influential and important bands of the genre, mainly because of their debut album “Like An Ever Flowing Stream”, one of the key LPs of old school Death Metal.

Like a lot of similar bands, Dismember were focused on giving a brutal impact with their music: the first thing that pops up about these compositions are the crushingly heavy, distorted guitars. Hearing them makes you think of mountains crumbling down in fast motion. The vocals also are greatly guttural, nasty, and fierce. With the typical old school DM sound, the music is rough sounding and thrashy, and gives the perfect touch to the tracks. Sometimes a vocal chorus might subtly come in, to give a more unearthly feel, really giving the idea of this music, visceral as it is, coming strait from the center of the earth, born from the lava and rocks.

It’s thematic nature also is not different from the one of most Death Metal bands: what make the lyrics interesting is that the persona seems to be the same, but his actions and characteristics change from song to song, as if a story narrated his changes: on the first track, this narrator seems to be reluctant yet resigned about dying and to go to hell, but by the second and third track, he gets progressively more sadistic in his actions. Then in “Skin Her Alive” it almost looks like he’s somewhat guilty of his killings, yet with the track following he continues his work of evil. On the final track, it’s a sort of goodbye to the audience.

With only thirty minutes of length, “Like An Ever Flowing Stream” features eight tracks, all of them extremely consistent to the sound and to the attitude. This truly is like an immense, fuzzy ball of mayhem and destruction falling down a hill, and disintegrates every single thing that comes in its way. It leaves quite an impact on the listener, who despite the short life of the album is overwhelmed by the intensity. Starting with the powerfully memorable “Override To The Overture”, the album doesn’t lose it’s quality throughout it’s length, emphasizing the impact: from the shorter episodes like “Soon To Be Dead” and “Skin Her Alive”, to the more stretched out ones like “In Death’s Sleep” and “Dismembered”.

Thanks to it’s sheer brutality, “Like An Ever Flowing Stream” is still today regarded as Death Metal milestone; for any fan of the genre, this is a must.

Phonebook Eater 9/10

"British Steel" is inevitably part of Heavy Metal history due to it's timeless hymns to rebellion.

One of the reasons why Judas Priest are one of the most important bands of all time is because of “British Steel”, the album that brought the band to a huge level of popularity and that showed everybody how NWOBHM was done.

With the previous album, “Hell Bent for Leather”, (aka “Killing Machine”) the band incorporated officially their leather-based image, became less dark and were more about the fun of it. That album was musically going in a direction that “Stainless Class” was really aiming for, but it had the attitude that “British Steel” perfected. Even strictly musically speaking, the band changed, influenced by some mainstream genres of the time; metallically precise rhythms, low-end guitars, cheerful melodies. A package of metal anthems that will inspire almost any metal band after that.

These anthems are full of a spirit that is almost reminiscent of the Arena Rock kind of sound, because they do sound invincible, immortal, and timeless. The lyrics can’t be completely denied, as they contribute to this sort of feeling: some cite rebellion and a tough-guy image, like in “Breaking the Law”, “United”, “Living After Midnight”, “You Don’t have To Be Old To Be Wise”. “The Rage” though is an interesting, brief description of someone getting angry, and “Metal Gods” seems to tell the story of robots taking over mankind a-la Terminator.

An album full of immense hymns to rebellion, classic songs that will bring Judas Priest up up with the great bands of music history: “Living After Midnight”, “Metal Gods”, “Breaking The Law”. The less known songs maintain just as high levels, like the immediate intro “Rapid Fire”, a more aggressive, pounding track that gives an excellent feeling right at the beginning. Later on, “United” or “You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise” are still excellent dishes, as well as the last track that closes the album, “Steeler”. But “the Rage” is easily the most different song, because of it’s more stretched out nature, not as in your face but still quite intriguing in songwriting.

“British Steel” is a Metal masterpiece that will go down in history as one of the most important of it’s genre: in not even forty minutes, Judas Priest create something that still today is fun, rebellious, and daring.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Stainless Class" is easily the darkest Judas Priest album.

Judas Priest’s “Stainless Class” opens a new era not only for the band, but also for Heavy Metal in general. If the first three albums of the famous quintet had more of a Hard Rock/ Proto-Metal image, this fourth album is the first one where they are incorporating heavier guitars, faster rhythms, and more screamed vocals by Metal titan Rob Halford. Although not an immense landmark album for the genre as a whole (that is, not as much as something like “Sad Wings Of Destiny”, “Painkiller” or “British Steel”), it symbolizes nevertheless a turning point for one of the greatest bands of Heavy Metal.

As said previously, “Stained Class” has, in comparison to previous Priest works, a heavier sound much more similar to the golden eras of “Screaming For Vengeance” or “British Steel”. Basically, an approach much more towards the famous NWOBHM that was blossoming right during the period this albums was released. The compositions and the production of the album though are extremely peculiar and recognizable as part of this LP only: the sound is very clean, yet it has abrasive guitars, and more sparse and loose rhythms, (instead of the metallic, rigid rhythms of future albums) to give a more hellish and uneasy mood.

“Stainless Steel” remains possibly the darkest Judas Priest effort, not only because of the infamous trial of the two kids who, ten years later the LP was released, committed suicide, inspired by a presumed subliminal message in the song “Better By You, Better Than Me”: also, because of the lyrics themselves, frequently dealing with death, afterlife, underworlds, futile heroes, and unearthly demons. “Stainless Steel”, with such a background to the music itself, can’t not be massively influential to all of those bands that followed 1978 and went on the road Judas Priest paved.

This album is home of some of the greatest, most famous and celebrated JP songs, from the energetic, fast-paced opener “Exciter”, a massively influential track for many bands to come, to the gorgeous, gloomy semi-ballad “Beyond The Realms Of Death”. Then, others like the Spooky Tooth cover “Better By You, Better Than Me”, the title track’s elegance and cool, the straddling rhythms of “Savage”, or the darker “White Heat, Red Hot” are other tracks that will deeply impact the mind of a fan, and of anybody who is at least a tiny bit interested in Heavy Metal.

“Stainless Class” not only has a peculiar style and mood, but it also contributes in creating the NWOBHM and in letting it become what it did become. One of Judas Priest’s most accomplished works.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Diadem In 12 Stars" has interesting traits and promises great things for Wolves In the Throne Room.

American Black Metal for some is just a joke. That is, for the Black Metal (pretentious) purists. But Wolves In The Throne Room prove how these people are wrong. Their debut album was “Diadem In 12 Stars”, an album that shows the uniqueness of the band and how, even though not having extremely solid roots in the Scandinavian scene, they are credible, and loyal to the genre.

Even from the start, WITTR have received attention because of their sound: this debut album of theirs distances itself from the more traditional side of BM, incorporating different styles and making them mesh one another: there are a great amount of shoegazey guitars, female clean vocals, audible melodies, atmospheric acoustic passages, and quite a bit of dynamicity. Their music is hypnotic but not repetitive, complex but easy to follow. The richness of the textures, the variety, and the carefully structured songs make Wolves a much more progressive influenced band in comparisons with other Atmospheric Black Metal bands like Burzum or early Ulver, also because of the unusually different rhythms, more syncopated and elaborate than the stale ones of the more traditional bands.

“Diadem in 12 Stars” is one of those albums whose cover perfectly reflects the music of the album: with a cascade surrounded by trees and by fog, it brings the listener right in front of that spectacle: in the more hypnotic moments, one finds himself directly underneath the cascade, bathed by ethereal, silvery water that falls either smoothly or harshly. There is in fact a strong feeling of ethereal, dreamy nature in the compositions and in the lyrics, that echoes throughout the entire album.

With only four tracks and an hour worth of length, “Diadem In 12 Stars” is an extremely consistent album in terms of structure: it’s biggest gripe is the fact that these songs are made out of the same ingredients, and the resulting cake tastes the same. Even though the variation is of course undeniable within the songs, there is no variation from track to track, and the formulas are just repeated again, becoming a little stale when reaching to an end to this LP. The songs, studied individually, are all good, pretty entertaining (even though some moments feel simply passive and not as engaging as they should), and well planned. It seems though that the album as a whole does not feel like that as much.

“Diadem In 12 Stars” is a decent start-off point for Wolves in The Throne Room. Already received a cult status among the lovers (non-purists) of the genre, this debut release is a promising one, and clearly the promises the band gave here came true later on in 2007 (one year later) with “Two Hunters”.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

Although not always consistent, “Sin After Sin” is a fun and underrated excerpt of Judas Priest’s glorious discography.

“Sin After Sin” is Metal titans Judas Priest’s third studio album, the follow-up to one of the greatest albums of all Metal, “Sad Wings Of Destiny”. Being a hard album to follow, “Sin After Sin” nevertheless is an enjoyable experience that offers great, fun songs that still today are very well respected by Priest fans.

Compared to “Sad Wings Of Destiny”, SaS has a very similar kind of heaviness; this album though is a little less varied, more focused on delivering one kind of style and sticking only to one or two formulas, without adding much to it. The result however is not at all monotone or boring, because of the excellent songwriting the band always manages to have. That is not to say that all the songs are the same: a few of them are humble and honest ballads, instead of being rebellious, upbeat tunes. The guitars have the same kind of Hard Rock crunch they had on the previous two albums: with the album following “Sin After sin”, “Stained Class”, those guitars will be substituted with ones much more Heavy Metal oriented. Rob Halford though, in my opinion the greatest Heavy Metal vocalist of all time, still remains his own self, delivering both high and low pitched vocals.

Even though Judas Priest’s lyrics are not exactly popular in any way, there are still some nice images the lyricists portray, especially in the love songs: “Last Rose Of Summer” is a melancholic little declaration of love and of the change of seasons, while “Here Come the Tears” is even more blue, where the loneliness of the persona narrating is really highlighted well. The rest of the lyrics aren’t exactly memorable in any way, perhaps mildly entertaining in the description of a demonic figure (Sinner), or of an angelic figure of hope (Starbreaker).

The first half of the LP is a true gem: “Sinner”, the first track, is a colossal classic, sort of in the vein of “Victim Of Changes”, only slightly less emotional. “Starbreaker” is a fun and entertaining bridge between the powerful Joan Baez cover “Diamonds And Rust” and the beautiful ballad “Last Rose Of Summer”. The second half however disappoints because of some inconsistencies in the songwriting, noticeable even in the six minute “Let Us Pray/Call For the Priest”. “Raw Deal” and “Dissident Aggressor” don’t have the same impact as the previous songs, same thing said for “Here Come the Tears”, not nearly as haunting as the other ballad.

If “Sin After Sin” obtained a more solid and consistent flow, it would have been a guaranteed Priest classic. Yet, it’s sort of falls into the shadow of all the other albums the band has released over the years, being by the audience generally considered neither excellent or poor, but just in averagely decent.

Phonebook Eater 5/10

"Incurso" throws at the listener so many things at once, that none of them end up giving an impact.

Spawn of Possession are a Swedish Technical Death Metal that over the years have been gaining an increase in popularity. But with “Incurso” the band reaches the attention they never really had: they now are generally extremely well respected among Death Metal enthusiasts. This third album of theirs, “Incurso” is being somewhat praised by Metal fans, not really for the songwriting but more for the amazing technical aspects.

Like the vast majority of modern Technical Death Metal, “Incurso” has no sense of melody whatsoever: everything is focused on are flashy guitar riffs, extremely fast-paced and complex rhythms, everlastingly changing hooks. But the thing about Spawn Of Possession is that in their music these technicalities are done extremely well: each and all of these musicians play like musical demons, especially the drummer, Henrik Schonstrom, who many times delivers truly amazing fills. The bass played by Erlend Caspersen is wild and virtuous as well, with all of it’s slappings and slidings. Of course the music is very hard to follow because of all the things that are coming and going at once, and that is one of the main problems I seem to have concerning modern Technical Death Metal.

The lyrics, like many Death Metal lyrics of the early days, are graphic and violent. But what makes them especially gruesome is that most of them are stories: some include hints to necrophilia (“Bodiless Sleeper”), possession and Satanism (“Deus Avertat”), demonic raping and futile revenge (“Spiritual Deception”), sadistic surgeons (“Servitude Of Souls”). But the most twisted story of all is possibly the explicit one narrated in “The Evangelist”, where a man remembers being dialy raped by a priest, and finds out, sitting next to his sickly mother, that she too was daily raped by the same priest and that the protagonist is actually the son of the priest.

The album as a whole, because of it’s style, is one that drags on and on, and since there are no sort of melodies or stand-out moments, it feels like a huge, lengthy song that never ends. This impression is strengthened even more with the fact that all of the songs use pretty much the same formulas, almost never there are any moments that somehow differ from the rest. A slight exception is the last track, “Apparition”, where there is much more instrumentation--mostly orchestral--, a slower passage, and an overall more varied feel. But the rest of the tracks, even though they are constantly changing hooks and rhythms, feel monotonous anyhow, which is the last thing that should happen in this kind of music.

“Incurso” has an excellent production, amazing musicianship, and disturbing themes in the lyrics, but there is no natural flow from song to song: no matter how flashy everything is, there are really few moments worth remembering. But maybe this is just me.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Tama Ikuinen Talvi" is a decent demo that, although still having some flaws, is a promising piece of music for Moonsorrow.

Finnish Folk Metallers Moonsorrow, at the time of their first demo, had already released the extremely lo-fi, twenty minute EP “Metsa”, which wasn’t exactly one that promised the immense epicness of the future albums. This 1999 release, though, is a big improvement and it goes towards a direction that is much more accessible, haunting, and well developed.

For starters, the production is much less lo-fi than the first EP, even though still maintaining the very rough sound typical of Black Metal recordings. The music in fact for the most part of that kind of Metal: however, there are instant sparks of Folk Metal, and more than a few moments of Symphonic ones, thanks to the glossy, enigmatic, and quite atmospheric keyboards, much more dominant than in “Metsa”, where they were extremely subtle. Acoustic moments aren’t really present, but the orchestral/ambient/sample-based ones have a few spots here and there, especially in the beginning and the end of the demo.

Although not quite at the levels of the next albums, this demo has some of the epic, triumphant atmospheres typical of the band, however they never feel accomplished nor developed enough. Instead, there is a stronger Symphonic Black Metal influence, because of the mentioned keyboards: the atmospheres they create are desolate, at times anxious too. Other times, they sound like they’re completely drowned in the production, fusing with the big melting pot of the rhythm section and the guitars. This kind of result comes out in several moments of the demo, and when it comes around, it feels like a snowstorm is surrounding the listener, disorienting him completely.

Moonsorrow start off with the best song off this album, “Taistelu Pohjolasta”, a sort of a mini suite that has as an intro an Ambient/ Orchestral section, until it blasts into a dense, enigmatic track with more than a few fiercely fast moments. The second track is another huge surprise, being the track that more than any of these five songs brings up a lot of Folk Metal passages, all of them extremely memorable (although still smothered in the particularly rough production). Starting from the third track however things start to go downhill in terms of variety and innovation, and even more so for the fourth track, where the melodies are very flat and unexciting. The closing piece is a short epilogue in the same vein as the opening minutes of the album.

Overall this first demo, called “Tama Ikuinen Talvi”, is an interesting start for Moonsorrow, a piece of work that still has some flaws, but, in the end, it’s really only a demo, so no extraordinary things can be expected, especially when a band is at such an early stage.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"The Angel And The Dark River" is another My Dying Bride milestone that would influence a great deal of the Doom Metal to come.

My Dying Bride’s career had a sudden twist, with the release of their sophomore LP, “Turn Loose The Swans”, for some people the masterpiece of the band. But the third album, “The Angel And The Dark River”, got just as much recognition: now, fans are sill debating which of these two early records is the magnum opus of the act. Anyway the debate goes, this 1995 release still keeps incredibly high levels from every point of view, and has risen up to be considered one of the key albums of Doom Metal.

Compared to the ethereally gloomy atmosphere of “Turn Loose The Swans”, “The Angel And The Dark River” is almost more bright in terms of sound: the levels of despair and hopelessness are not at all as extreme as they were with the band’s second album. The music in this third LP generally is much more fast-paced, more dynamic and lively. There seems to be a much stronger focus on the songwriting itself: the amount of effects used (that is, keyboards, guitar effects and what not) is minimal, although some peculiar elements that were present in the previous efforts, like the violin or the lamenting clean vocals, still persist and are a great part of the album. But another great, noticeable change is the almost complete absence of Death Metal growls (with the exception of the last track), a factor that made My Dying Bride such a unique band at it’s origins. However, “Turn Loose the Swans”, because of its slight change in direction, shows how the band had reached a sort of independence from the point of view of artistic freedom, even if it was really early in their career.

The themes present in “The Angel and The Dark River” are more or less the same we see in other Doom Metal bands and in other My Dying Bride releases, including loss of hope, desperation, but also more religious elements, like the strong presence of God in the lyrics. This sort of gloominess though on this album is much more human and rational than the more extreme tones of TLTS, and feel also more credible.

With seven tracks, My Dying Bride once again bring a solid album structure together: the twelve minute opener “The Cry Of Mankind” is already a track where the change in direction is pretty obvious, because of the lively guitar riff that Agalloch probably kept in mind eleven years later, while writing songs for “Ashes Against The Grain”. This riff is the heart of the piece, and is accompanied by the rest of the instruments, including a piano. The last few minutes of the track are somewhat Dark Ambient driven, another aspect that is new for MDB. “From Darkest Skies” is an even more emotional piece, where there are strong alterations between feelings: if one part sounds resigned and lost, the next one is angry and revengeful. “A Sea To Suffer In” is of a noticeably heavier nature, because of the overwhelming crunch the guitars have, enriched by the intense melodies and the extremely urgent feel. Then “Only Two Winters” is half clean, half electric: in the first part, a gorgeous, deep guitar melody that holds even a bit of nostalgia in it, in the second part, a sort of catch-up to the heaviness. “Your Shameful Heaven” is the most violent song yet, proof of how progressively strong the sounds get as the album flows. And then, the album finishes with “The Sexuality of Beaverment”, the only song where there is a return to the “Turn Loose The Swans” feel, especially thanks to the growls, and the slow rhythms. Overall, this last piece is a great closer and gives an epic end to the previously mentioned progression.

“The Angel And The Dark River” has now received a status as a Doom Metal classic: it has terrific songwriting, that overcomes the need of atmosphere and studio effects, and an intriguing, gloomy romanticism, that is unique only of this band.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Sorrow And Extinction" is an honest Doom Metal tribute, with some hints of originality here and there.

Pallbearer are a fresh band from Arkansas, USA, and “Sorrow And Extinction” is their debut album, with of a well received EP/Demo released in 2010 behind their backs. While they are not the most original Doom Metal band out there, they still put in their music some personality that makes them distinguishable.

The Doom Metal Pallbearer play is really Traditional: slow, low octave riffs, slow rhythms, and a pretty standard pitched voice. The production of the album though makes everything sound huge and extremely heavy, a heaviness that could be accomplished only in these recent years, making Pallbearer something a little more than a nostalgic Traditional Doom Metal band. Very few are the variations in terms of sound, with the exceptions of the first and last track, both of them including more diverse instrumentation and an overall slight change in direction compared to the other three tracks. The atmosphere this huge sounds gives is an arcane, somewhat mystical one. The feeling of the entire LP in fact is one that is almost liturgical, a prayer for nameless divine figures. The lyrics, besides being about sorrow, graves, rivers, sacrifices, always incorporate isolation, and strange encounters with some sort of ancient divinities, that end up symbolizing either direct or indirect causes of man’s evil. These are lyrical themes that are familiar for Traditional Doom Metal and many other genres; Pallbearer lyric-wise seem to be almost giving a tribute to these themes, even though they never manage to feel too old or clichéd.

With almost fifty minutes of music and five long tracks, “Sorrow and Extinction” is an extremely solid release in terms of structure: the first track, the twelve minute “Foreigner”, starts with an acoustic passage and develops into a burst of heaviness, giving the track some appreciable variety. But the following three songs have no particular changes going on throughout them, making the listen a little more monotonous, considering also the fact that none of them are in any way memorable, and more or less simply get the job done by delivering an interesting and consistent atmosphere. The last track redeems a bit all the monotony, adding to the sound much more keyboards, a nice chorus, and an overall more progressive feel.

“Sorrow And Extinction” is an pretty, standard, Traditional Doom Metal album, but the energy and freshness of Pallbearer are undeniable, and, like it was mentioned, they do have a slightly unique approach mood-wise, thanks to the great crunchiness of the guitars. If the band incorporate more instrumentation and clearer melodies, they would be one of the golden bands of today’s Traditional Doom Metal.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Turn Loose The Swans" is a gothic masterpiece of hopelessness intertwining with crushing beauty.

My Dying Bride’s sophomore album puts the band high on the Olympus of Doom Metal bands; still today, this band is one of the most respected acts of Metal music, receiving something like a cult status.

Doom Metal in 1993 wasn’t exactly the most popular kind of music that was metal-oriented: this genre though has been one with a very interesting fan-base, and a genre that has a well-respected history that goes way back, from the early Black Sabbath days. My Dying Bride is a major symbol of evolution in Doom Metal, a band that distanced themselves from the “Traditional” Doom Metal sound typical of bands like Pentagram, Candlemass or Trouble. Although there were bands that incorporated Death Metal and keyboards slightly before the arrival of My Dying Bride, the British band, along maybe with diSEMBOWLMENT, was the first to make Doom Metal more recognized.

“Turn Loose The Swans” has all of the traits of the genre: low-octave, slow, heavy riffs and desperately gloomy lyrics. But the bluesy, retro-feel Traditional Doom sound here is nowhere to be found. Instead, we have an excellent production, Death Metal passages,--usually the heavier ones-- and a great dose of atmosphere, created by keyboards or various effects. Another important addition that really gives a touch of elegancy to the songwriting is the violin, very frequent even in the heavier moments, or the piano driven moments. All this together makes My Dying Bride’s “Turn Loose The Swans” a very ambitious, almost progressive album, with many twists and turns, short and long cuts that still aim towards a precise and effective scope.

Starting with the seven minute, piano driven “Sear Me MCMXCIII”, a desolate, grief-inducing introduction to the general atmosphere of the album, My Dying Bride go full force with “Your River”, where they vent extremely intriguing songwriting, great performances, and a desperate feeling that might even discomfort the listener. The desolation persists especially with the twelve minute “the Crown Of Sympathy”, one of the key moments of the album, a wonderfully arranged, complex, and multi-parted track that is haunting as well as terrifying. Some of the heavier moments, like “The Snow In My Hand” or the title track, are more focused on actual songwriting instead of creating gloomy auras, but the closing track “Black God”, as beautiful as it is, is more repetitive and once again more focused on the atmospheric delivery.

“Turn Loose the Swans” is one of the key Doom Metal albums of all time; essential listening for whoever is into Metal music. It's almost unearthly despair still give the chills today.

Phonebook Eater 4/10

"Metsa" is a messy, but still somewhat promising (at the time) EP by Moonsorrow.

Moonsorrow’s first effort as a group has been criticized a great deal by even the most die-hard fans of the band. Mostly, because of it’s ridiculously immature sound that is so distant from the glories to come of the Finnish band.

The production is in fact almost a joke: one of the most lo-fi productions I’ve heard, where the guitar melodies playing are barely recognizable, being extremely noisy and suffocated by the constant buzz. Then, there’s the most controversial element of this demo/EP: the vocals. They really do sound like a cat screaming, and can be really annoying. The crispy keyboards are in my opinion the redeeming characteristic that give the music a strange yet unique atmosphere, an atmosphere however still buried in a wall of noise.

With just three tracks in the course of less than twenty minutes, “Metsa” is still able to build in a somewhat climactic way: after the brief ambient intro, the extremely noisy “Fimbulvetr Frost” kicks in. It’s frankly a mess of a track because of all the details being corroded by the abrasive production; the only things really recognizable are the okay hooks and the vocals. “Hvergelmir” is a slight improvement, although the ten full minutes could have been cut a little: but the melodies and the song-writing are noticeably at a higher level, the vocals are slightly less annoying, and there is an interesting acoustic/folk passage that closes the piece, as well as the EP.

“Metsa” is really something only for the fans, even though it has some occasional bursts of talent, bursts that will be much more frequent in following albums.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Eternal Turn Of The Wheel" is a traditionally executed, yet pretty effective Atmospheric Black Metal.

Drudkh in 2012 are already considered Black Metal veterans. But the problem with veterans is that they get so used to the fact that they reach this status, that often they don’t try as hard to make good music. Though it does, after a while, come out pretty naturally. “Eternal Turn of the Wheel” indeed feels almost effortless, in a good way, but you can tell that some of the excitement of the earlier albums is gone.

With the usual, rough production, the band delivers a pretty standard, typical Atmospheric Black Metal album, that remains extremely consistent with Drudkh’s style. There is an overall less emphasis on the keyboards, which are used much more subtly. The vocals are probably the biggest change: much lower-pitched, less shrieked and a bit more human sounding, in contrast with the banshee vocals of the previous albums, a definitely interesting and quite different approach.

One of the darkest albums of the band, “Eternal Turn Of The Wheel” has a really intriguing, fascinating and gloomy atmosphere that reminds of a nocturnal, spectral, and especially, sylvan sight, where ancient ghosts roam around. The five tracks that together are only slightly more than thirty five minutes long, all feel very connected to one another, not only length-wise but also in terms of atmosphere: “Breath Of Cold Soil”, “When Gods Leave Their Emerald Halls”, Farewell To Autumn’s Sorrowful Birds” all feel like windy, crispy tracks that aren’t at all estranged from the rest of the band’s discography. They still deliver great, memorable moments and haunting atmospheres.

The closing track, ”Nights Woven Of Snow, Winds and Grey-Haired Star” feels a lot sludgier and crunchier, still however maintaining the chilly aura of the previous tracks. “Eternal Turn Of The Wheel” is a interesting and enjoyable Drudkh album that offers hints of originality occasionally; tradition though is a big aspect of this record, and as a consequence it doesn’t feel that different or distinguishing from other releases of this legendary Ukranian band, who I personally will always follow, no matter how habitual they might become.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

"The Way Of All Flesh" is a ferocious grip, fast-paced like no other album by the band.

Gojira's fourth album is the first one after the seminal “From Mars To Sirius”, and shows that they still are a strong band that can release solid efforts. While not as well developed and written as the previous album, “The Way Of All Flesh” is nevertheless an album enjoyable from beginning to end, with only very few, slight bumps during the ride.

This last effort is a somewhat return to the band’s older days: a more thrashy, groove metal influenced take on Death Metal, with extremely tight compositions and a high level of technicality. Joe Duplianter’s vocals are, as usual, perfect growls, strong, powerful, and mighty, and give yet another touch of violence to the sounds. The production is top notch, better than ever before, with almost flawless mixing (some moments I wish the vocals were louder).

With more than an hour of music and with twelve, average-length pieces, “The Way Of All Flesh” keeps the entertainment rate high, starting with the first two tracks, “Ouroboros” and “Toxic Garbage Island”, this last one definitely the best, most brutally technical song of the record. Then, we have songs like the energetic, quasi-metalcore feeling of “All The Tears”, “Vacuity”, the tribal “The Art of Dying”, or the mighty title track that boasts amazing performances by all the musicians. Some songs like “Wolf Down to Earth” or “ A Sight To Behold” are little too plain and don’t add much to the album, same for “Yama’s Messenger”, a plain, destructive episode that simply doesn’t add anything at all.

Despite the few flaws “The Way of all Flesh” is another extremely impressive piece of work from Gojira, a band that so far has shown immense talent and absolutely worthy of their reputation.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"From Mars To Sirius" is Gojira's best release so far: a modern Death Metal classic.

Gojira are one of the main Progressive Death Metal acts of the new millennium also because of “From Mars To Sirius”, the extraordinary third album. This French band had been active for nine years before this release, but it is known that great albums take time and a certain level of maturity.

Compared to earlier albums, “From Mars To Sirius” has a much rougher production: everything sounds incredibly large, wide, and spacey in this album, contrasting the tight compositions of the early days. Even the technical point of view has toned down quite a bit, in favor of a more sludgy take on Death Metal: the guitars are strongly reminiscent of bands like Mastodon, Neurosis, or Isis. But the typical Gojira vocals, by Joe Duplianter, never leave the stage, and still give that touch that brings together all releases from the band.

The album presents a bunch of solid, well-written and executed songs that, put together, maintain a strongly consistent level throughout the entire hour this albums lasts: the more famous, classic Gojira songs like the Post-Metal vibes of “Flying Whales”, the fiercely dramatic guitar tapping of “Global Warming”, or the energetic “From The Sky” are stuck into the imaginary collective of modern Death Metal. But the other songs present here are not less powerful: “Ocean Planet”, the album’s opener, is an almost devastatingly executed song with one of the sludgiest riffs of the entire LP, “World To Come” and “Oceanbone” simple songs with excellent riffs and songwriting. The more technical, thrashy moments are still present here and there, like in “The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe”, one of the most intense songs Gojira has ever created.

An album with little imperfections, with a tremendously engaging flow, and with a consistent high level of execution, “From Mars to Sirius” shows all of Gojra’s talent, and remains a key album for Progressive Death Metal.

Phonebook Eater 5/10

"Unbreakable" holds tight the usual cliches of Power Metal, without adding much spice to the compositions.

Primal Fear are a Power Metal band from Germany, and have been in the scene since the mid-late nineties, managing to keep a pretty decent level of popularity among fans of the genre. “Unbreakable” is the tenth studio album these guys have released, and it’s pretty much the same thing over and over, the same formulas, probably even a few riffs are the same too, although some are fun and enjoyable.

If there is something that can’t be denied about this album is that its production is incredible, extremely polished and clear. The guitars, thanks to that, sound particularly heavy and in-your-face, and, being Power metal we’re talking about, they are fast and accompanied by the strong, ballzy vocals by Ralf Scheeper that remind a bit of Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, and the fast paced rhythm section.

However, everything in the album seems overdone, and every single riff I hear, even though some are truly good, are just not at all new to my ears. This band looks like they’re not even trying to be original, and they rather stick to the usual clichés of Power Metal, which is already a genre I personally am not always fond of, especially because of it’s cheesy melodies, which are not really abundant in “Unbreakable”, but still present, and do not pass unnoticed, unfortunately.

Some good moments are detectable, like the song “Rise” or the softer “Metal Nation”, but the rest of the tracks sound extremely over the top, overheard Power Metal anthems that don’t really differ one another.

“Unbreakable” might be the bread and butter for hardcore Power Metal fans, because of it’s faithful, strong roots, but, as an occasional listener of the genre, I must say it’s a listen that didn’t do much, nor proposed any new approaches or sonic adventures. And you don’t need much more to be slightly different from the rest.

Phonebook Eater 9/10

"Filosofem" is a milestone album for Black Metal, and its influence is noticeable in many acts today.

The follow up to “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” is another masterpiece on behalf of Burzum, at this point one of the best Black Metal artists of all time. “Filosofem” is not quite as praised as the previous LP, which is a landmark album for Metal music in general; however, “Filosofem” is still considered another Black Metal classic and an essential release for fans of the genre. This album, the last one before the imprisonment of Varg, is one of the biggest stones that supports the castle.

Again, I will say that Varg Vikernes’ actions and philosophical believes will not be mentioned in this review, because of course they don’t relate directly to the music, not even to some of the lyrics, which are more focused on isolation, desperation, pain, darkness, and admittedly, evil, mentioned in more than a few spots. This however is not a good reason to relate it to something like Satanism or being anti-religious in any way. Filosofem, in fact, means Philosopheme in English, proving how Varg is much more than what he shows to be.

The album’s production is famously raw and lo-fi: Varg, for his guitars, didn’t even use an amplifier, instead he decided to plug them in his brother’s stereo, and record them with again the cheapest equipment he could find. This shows how passionate and determined Vikernes was in attempting to do something quite abnormal, unsettling, and anti-aesthetic. The abrasive instruments, meaning the guitars and drums, at all times, like in the previous album, are accompanied by cold, enigmatic synth sounds that give the music an arcane and surreal imprint. It seems like in “Filosofem” however the keys are much more used overall, and the dedication to Ambient/non Black Metal pieces are much more than in “Hvis Lyst Tar Oss”. But the Metal moments are priceless, hypnotic, and especially dark; in all of it’s distorted fuzziness, “Filosofem” finds unquestionable beauty even in its ugliest places.

Burzum, being the most important artist of Atmospheric Black Metal ( “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” being the absolute zenith of such genre), continues on with his vision with “Filosofem”: he concentrates almost entirely on creating a dark, haunting, and thought-provoking atmosphere rather than writing memorable songs with catchy riffs. But if in the 1994 release those forty five minutes seemed short and compressed, this 1996 release is the opposite, stretched out to almost 70 minutes, almost forty of which intensively atmospheric, giving to the LP a feeling of completeness by the overwhelmed listener.

The album starts off with the track “Burzum”, a perfect example of a typical song by the artist: repetitive riffs, subtle keyboards, shrieked vocals, and the unforgettable production. Same thing goes with “Jesus’ Death” and “Beholding The Daughters Of Firmament”, although this last track is much slower, much more melodic, eloquent and memorable, surprisingly enough. The more atmospheric part of the album (the point where the drums are no longer heard) starts with “Decrepitude 1”, a Black Metal song with no beats, a song suspended in air, giving an extremely gloomy atmosphere that is however one of the most fascinating ones of the entire album. The twenty five minute Dark Ambient track that follows has been subject to much controversy over the years, because of it’s extreme minimalism and repetition. But once again the aura Varg creates with his keyboards is sublime, and in this particular track I’m dared to say has the best atmosphere on this album. “Decrepitude 2” is the instrumental based entirely on the first part, with some slight modifications overall.

“Filosofem” is nothing less than a Metal masterpiece, that while not having the historical importance of “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss”, still maintains a superb quality, even in the songwriting, and maintains pretty much the same levels as Burzum's official magnum opus.

Phonebook Eater 10/10

"Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" is one of Metal's pinnacles, a landmark achievement that gives Black Metal an ideal model of an album.

A year after “Det Som Engang Var”, Burzum returns, with the ultimate Black Metal masterpiece, “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss”, the model and paradigm of the genre’s albums. Everything about BM is in these four tracks, that cover only 45 minutes of time, which pass by quite quickly. But HLTO leaves a permanent stain in one’s heart that will never leave him.

Burzum has always been one that preferred atmosphere over melodies and riffs: when it comes to these elements, he doesn’t put too much effort in the songwriting, all four tracks have simple hooks that immediately stick with the listener. Instead, with the addition of the keyboards that accompany the buzzing guitars and tortured-like shrieks, Burzum creates an extremely unique, scary, yet haunting atmosphere, and keeps this atmosphere constant throughout the entire album. The production is always lo-fi (Vikernes bought the cheapest recording equipment in order to obtain the worst quality possible), giving the atmosphere a more foggy, gloomy and necrophilic touch.

The album starts off with easily the best Burzum song He’s released; “Det Som En Gang Var”, a fourteen minute epic piece that mixes repetitive guitar riffs, accompanied by icy, mysterious keyboards. The song unfolds it’s few hooks only just before the end of the song, all of them being so stretched out in monotony. Burzum’s vocals are once again rough, a perfect addition to the arcane atmosphere. The title track is much more guitar driven: it’s the song where repetition is the strongest factor, because the main, extremely simple riff never changes much except for some variations occurring. Because of it’s atmosphere, it just never gets boring, one of Burzum’s magic tricks. The third track is even better; more hypnotic, it has as a whole much more variation, almost like it was divided in parts, like the opening track. “Tohmet” is the fourteen minute ambient piece that closes the album, as a sort of relaxer after all of the aggressiveness. Some moments on the track are simply beautiful and some even remind of New Age music.

Say anything you want regarding the persona of Varg Vikernes, and there’s no need to mention all the things he is and the things he did, because they have nothing to do with the music. “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” is an album-model for many albums later on, a piece of work that redefines the concept of the Black Metal and gives it a twist that makes it an even more intriguing genre. Thank you, Burzum.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Terra Incognita" is an overall successful mix of technicality, heaviness, and aggression.

Gojira are a French Progressive Death Metal band that have a loving fan base, thanks to albums like “From Mars To Sirius” and “The Way Of All Flesh”, both of them regarded as modern Death Metal/ Progressive Metal classics. Before their rise to recognition, “Terra Incognita” was released, back in the year 2000, overshadowed by so much more brilliant music despite being an overall decent listen.

The level of maturity in this debut album is already quite impressive: the production is top notch, the riffs are nice and heavy, some even worth of an album like “The Way Of All Flesh”. There is a flavor of Nu Metal/Alternative Metal in the concept and image of this album: it almost feels like a much heavier, technical, and fierce version of a Sepultura album, also because of it’s Latin American mysticism-inspired lyrics. The heaviness of the album is what would turn on metalheads: the vocals are also extremely brute, and they truly feel shouted from the inner guts of singer Joe Duplianter. This in-your-face take is accentuated with a strong, technical feeling: the riffs can be extremely fast, or heavily syncopated to the point where calling it Progressive Metal is more than a safe thing to do.

The flaws this album has, however, are a few, the first one is the one that mainly kills some more potential entertainment this album could have had: it doesn’t feature as much variety as the following albums by the band. You might enjoy quite a bit the first half hour or so, but then, it’s not hard to notice, eventually, how the musical diversities from song to song aren’t very many, making the listen a rather monotonous ride. By the end of the album, the listener can easily feel sick of that kind of music, and would wish to lay off it a bit.

Some of the songs here though are extremely enjoyable for one who enjoys this kind of music, starting from the straight-to-the-point opener, “Clone”. “Lizard Skin” and “Blow Me Away You(niverse)” are great concerts pieces that give further blood rushing in the listener’s veins. But the best song is easily the closer, “In The Forest”, the most fiercely technical piece here, added with a potent dose of heaviness.

“Terra Incognita” has some standout moments and tracks that could have become Gojira classics, but as a whole, it stretches out a little too much and doesn’t offer much more than aggression. Still something worth while listening to, especially if you’re a fan of the band, and want to hear their earlier days.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Det Som Engang Var" is one of the first and most successful Atmospheric Black Metal albums.

Burzum’s second effort is much more recognized than the first, obscure debut album. It is though an album loved by the fans, and is one that somehow contributed in reinventing the Black Metal genre, like the following albums. “Det Som Engang Var” has many hints of originality, and many of Burzum’s (aka Varg Vikernes) works are definitely an evolution of this album’s formula.

This sophomore LP is a stereotypical Black Metal album, to make it simple. But, It’s stereotypical today only because it used ideas that inspired many bands of the genre. These bands cited Burzum as a major inspiration. But in 1993, “Det Som Engang Var” was in theory pretty much revolutionary; Black Metal at the time wasn’t as experimental, varied, and atmospheric driven; Bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Hellhammer were more focused on giving a brutal impact on the listener. Burzum shows here, with the use of keyboards and Dark Ambient tracks, that he intended on delivering an aura that the listener could immerge in. Other than that, there are the usual buzzing guitars, shriek vocals by Varg, and the extremely rough and lo-fi production.

Songs like “Key To The Gate”, “Snu Mikrokosmos Tegn”, or “Lost Wisdom” are typical BM songs that will however contribute massively in shaping and influencing further Burzum compositions. The ambient, keyboard driven songs like “Han Som Reiste” are also large contributors in the reaching of maturity on behalf of the musician.

“Det Som Engang Var” is a brave and original album for 1993. Although having some flaws in the songwriting, and being a bit immature, it is nevertheless an enjoyable experience that every Burzum fan must embark on.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

Among the Geometry, the Chaos, and the Complexity all mixed together, a frozen heart still beats loudly.

Dodecahdron are a young Dutch Black Metal band from Tillburg. They don’t have much background, and seem to be just taking off now. This self-titled debut album isn’t one of the most original albums out there, but the fierceness, energy, and promise these guys deliver already freezes the veins.

Their take on Black Metal has been compared many times to the one Deathspell Omega chose: extremely chaotic, fast, with infinite time changes and a lot of tremolo picking. Dodecahedron however insert in their lengthy pieces a little variation: there are a bunch of slower, ambient driven pieces within a song, in almost all of them. But still they manage to maintain a high level of intensity almost all the time. The musicianship and musical preparation of the band members is impressive, and really give another twist to the compositions here. The songwriting is also excellent, especially in the second part of the album, where it bursts like only a few Black Metal bands today can.

The album is constructed in a quite thought-provoking and intelligent way: the first part, chaotic, messy, frankly not quite as original and unique as the second part. “Allfather”, the opener of the album, has some variations but nevertheless remains a big ball of chaos. “I, Chronocrator” is much more progressive in structure, with a bit more developed song-writing and with a slow, ambient driven part in the middle of it. “Vanitas” is a long, an frankly boring ten minute song that doesn’t go at fast, mathematically challenging beats, but still maintains a strong level of complexity. Its much less appealing than the first songs, because it really feels like nothing is going on. The second part of the album however, is something else: starting with a creepy five minute interlude, “Descending Jacob’s Ladder”, we have the masterful trilogy of songs that closes the album, all of them having in the title “View From Hverfell”. Most definitely the most memorable, well-done, and complex piece of work this band has done so far: the repetitive, but very accessible hook of the first part is likely to stick with the listener for a while: the second part adds some ambient passages, more memorable hooks, and amazing musicianship. The third part is an amplified, wider ten minute version of part 2’s sort of structure.

Dodecahedron craft their debut album in a masterful way, and show great promise. I personally will look forward to great things from this band. Among the Geometry, the Chaos, and the Complexity all mixed together, a frozen heart still beats loudly.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

"Le Voyages De L'Ame", despite being too similar to it's predecessor, is a wonderful experience of unearthly, fairytale-like atmospheres.

This project has wowed Metal fans and many others since the 2007 release “Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde”, and gained even more popularity with the beautiful “Ecailles De Lune”; There was the strong suspicion among the hype surrounding “Le Voyages De L’Ame” that it was going to be too similar to the previous albums, without breaking new boundaries or bringing Alcest to a even higher level. These predictions ended up being true, sadly: but even though it’s not as brave as it should have been, it miraculously a la par with “Ecailles De Lune” in terms of quality.

What Alcest does in music is something that could either turn off some Black Metal fans or turn on even haters of that genre: the band tries to be as accessible as possible with their wonderfully dreamy, shoegazey guitars and reverie-like clean vocals, but also to be faithful to the harsh side of music with intense BM shrieking and abrasive sound. The production and overall sound as always is purposely a little rough, without it being stellar nor crystal clear, so that it accentuates the vividness of a more concrete, earthly, human daydream, instead of an unearthly, divine vision. There has always been pain and suffering in Alcest’s music, something that shows up even here in “Le Voyages De L’Ame”, a more fairytale inspired interpretation of beauty. The songs are a little more unearthly sounding, more surreal, more in the clouds than down to earth. Strictly musically speaking however there isn’t much change nor variation, so that it feels like a simple repeat to “Ecailles De Lune”.

Some songs here seem though to be even better than the ones we’ve heard from previous releases: “Autre Temps” is possibly the best Alcest track so far, incredibly touching, beautiful, and full of emotion. However, this song seems to not be coherent to the paradisal atmospheres of the other songs here: “Beings Of Light” is one of the best examples, that uses repetition in order to accentuate the state of reverie Alcest has been aiming for: but there are also the Black Metal moments, which admittedly are only a few, but always very intense, especially thanks to the shrieking vocals, but the guitars give also a credible touch of harsh.

Even if “Le Voyages De L’Ame” is a little too similar to “Ecailles de Lune”, it is a wonderful experience and another great album by Alcest, one that could turn on new fans pretty easily, for it’s great accessibility and overall dreamy delivery.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Carbon Based Anatomy" gives solid, brave music, but leaves the listener wanting more.

Legendary act Cynic have been known for years thanks to their 1994 debut "Focus", a Technical Death Metal landmark album. After such a long hiatus, they returned in 2008 with their sophomore album "Traced In Air", where the previous sound was rejected completely in favor of a more Modern Progressive Rock one mixed with some Alternative Rock, like many Metal bands have done. "Carbon Based Anatomy" now is their first EP with new material since their demos from the nineties.

It seems like Cynic have no intention to go back to their original sound, continuing their experiments from "Traced In Air". This EP and the previous album as a matter of fact share many qualities: the vocals, first of all, are almost sweet sounding in their delicious cleanness; The rhythms are odd time in many points, the drums being influenced by Fusion, there are wonderful spacey soundscapes that give a dreamy touch to the whole pieces. But there is one big difference: while "Traced In Air" still had some Metal within it, "Carbon Based Anatomy" has nothing whatsoever that can be labeled that way: these twenty three minutes are a relaxing, mellow, and sometimes beautiful mixture of some Progressive, Alternative Rock melodies, and very ambitious instrumentation.

Being a six track EP, you'd expect from these guys to receive pretty much flawless entertainment all the way through, but instead, some moments feel a little too toned down, the melodies sometimes aren't quite as memorable or innovating as they were in "Traced In Air", and finally the vocals don't feel quite as powerful and emotional as previous times, even though Paul Masvidal's voice itself has a very pretty tone, as he always had for clean vocals.

The three Ambient experiments are interesting, as well as the atmospheres they create, especially for the intro of the album "Amidst The Coals". The best full length songs here seem to be the title track, with it's dragging and hypnotic sounds, and "Box Up My Bones", a step down to the mentioned piece but still very pretty and engaging in its liveliness. "Elves Beam Out" is a little forgettable in my opinion, even though it's originality is undeniable.

Overall I was left wanting more with "Carbon-Based Anatomy", but this material has no doubt gave me a great feeling for the works to come from the band, who will be releasing the full length third album soon.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Road Salt 2" is a definite improvement over the first chapter.

People change, even metalheads. Will Mikael Akerfeldt do Metal ever again? Will Cynic? Ulver? Pain Of Salvation? Every Progressive Metal related act seems, fortunately, to be more coherent with the term Progressive than Metal, so from album to album these bands tend to change in terms of sound. Pain Of Salvation's case is probably the least successful of all the Prog Metal bands going towards a softer direction. Their change hasn't brought as much enthusiasm among the Metal community as expected, especially with the release of the mediocre "Road Salt 1". A year after, the band releases "Road Salt 2", which is a definite improvement over that first experiment.

Musically "Road Salt 2" isn't a massive change from the first episode: rough produced Blues Rock, with fuzzy guitars and small hints of Progressive and Metal overall. RS2 contains however much more experimentation and variation: there aren't only guitars roaring, but also violins, piano (admittedly that too was included in RS1), horns, keyboards. Daniel Gildenlow proves once more on this album that he is one of the best vocalists of Modern Progressive: his voice is powerful, at times soothing and painful, others full of anger and despair. On this new LP he truly gives terrific performances all over the place, enough times to make him the star of the album.

Maybe its getting use to this sound, but many of the songs here tend to be quite enjoyable, memorable, and also quite deep in some moments, while in RS1 that couldn't be said for many tracks: tracks like "Softly She Cries" and "Mortar Grind", among the more powerful ones, deliver quite a bit of emotion, just as much as the softer moments like "Healing Now", possibly the most beautiful piece of the album, a folky tune that once again contains tons of heart. But then there are moments like "Conditioned", with it's very typical Bluesy riff, that simply feel banal and forgettable.

Overall, RS2 is a definite improvement over RS1, however, there are still a few flaws in the songwriting and, I must say, the production isn't getting any better. However, the musicians are still just as great, especially Gildenlow. RS2 might not appreciated by even the most die hard fans of the band, but overall, it seems to be a pretty enjoyable record

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Rengeteg" is a must for Avant-Garde Metal fans.

Thy Catafalque have been on the map for quite a few years, yet they’ve been pretty much ignored by a good part of the metal community and had a few but very enthusiastic fans. Personally, this band for me was always one to check out, especially after releasing “Roka Hasa Radio”, easily one of the best albums of 2009. It seemed hard to top that release, however, “Rengeteg” maintains the same high quality.

Frequently labeled as Avant-garde Metal, this band is a lot more than that: being from Hungary, the traditional music of the country is a huge influence in Thy Catafalque’s melodies, and has always been. But we also have Black Metal, Industrial Metal, Folk, Electronic beats and samples, and not to forget Progressive Rock. Their vast amount of influences have made them a pretty impacting band for whoever has listened to their material. “Rengeteg” keeps this same mixture of styles as the previous albums, but there’s somewhat more straight-forwardness here, the songs and melodies being a lot less experimental per se and more focused on the melody. As a consequence the ten songs here are relatively shorter than the other albums, with some inevitable exceptions of course. But the melodies are always clear and easy to remember, even after one sole listen, unlike the tracks featured on “Roka Hasa Radio”.

The previous album, although more experimental and brave, was sort of a one-faced album, meaning that for the great part of it the music was pretty much mellow. “Rengeteg” elegantly mixes the heaviness with the calm parts, creating a wonderful balance that is almost symmetrical. This symmetry is there also in terms of straight-forwardness and quirkiness: the first part of the LP is more easy-going, while the second part is more experimental, even though this division is not at all firm: there are indeed experimental moments in the first part, and there are very memorable ones in the second part. The two distinct sides of the album are clearly separate by the axis of these ten songs, the fourteen minute epic “Vashegyek”, placed obviously in the exact middle of the LP.

Each one of these songs is pretty much a little gem of it’s own: the nine minute intro, possibly the heaviest song here, the extremely memorable “Trilobita”, and the more electronic based “Ko Koppan” are the definite highlights of the first half, while the second part boasts songs like the mind blowing electronics of “Holdkomp” and track number eight, but also more heavy moments like the closing track.

Overall “Rengeteg” is an extraordinary follow up to “Roka Hasa Radio”, which might even outdo it in some ways. Thy Catafalque are a band that should be infinitely praised for the utterly original sound and songwriting abilities, as well as their bold experiments with Hungarian Folk music, Ambient and Electronic. A must for any Avant-Garde Metal/Black Metal fan, in my book.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

"Outer Isolation" is one of the best Thrash Metal records of the last few years.

One of the most acclaimed Thrash Metal bands of the last few years, Vektor wowed plenty of Metal fans with the 2009 release 'Black Future', and was a tough one to follow. However, 'Outer Isolation' comes pretty darn close, showing that this band has no intent to slow down. This latest release is easily one of the great monsters of modern Thrash Metal, this said by someone who isn't exactly a fan of the new wave of the genre.

'Outer Isolation' from the first seconds of play is an album that loves to experiment with a somewhat spacey theme, not only in the lyrics but also in some futuristic sounding samples of machines and electronics. This is probably what makes the album very original sounding. But 'Outer Isolation' is also extremely violent, thrashy, in your face, and fiercely technical. Each one of these songs is extremely complex and flows in such a way that maximum attention is required. In one song, it feels like the band is constantly throwing at you different riffs, all of them pretty much face melting. The technical side of the band is quite impressive, each musician is incredibly skilled, to the point that saying this is Technical Thrash Metal is very much accurate.

Even after repeated listens, however, many parts here are very hard to follow, and everything passes by quite quickly, and by the end of the song, you won't remember all of the things happened. It gets almost frustrating at times, but knowing that every single note of a song was enjoyable ends up compensating the frustration somehow.

Examples of such sort of tracks are all over the place, starting from the ten minute opener 'Cosmic Vortex', mixing space ambience with fierce Thrash and tons of time changes. The two following song 'Echoless Chamber' and 'Dying World' are not only extremely fun to listen to but also have excellent ideas and riffs within them, maintaining that technical feel in every note. 'Tetrastructural Minds' and 'Fast Paced Society' seem to be not only two of the best pieces of the album but also the easier ones to get into, while the more complex songs 'Venus Project' and the title track actually feature more variety in the sound, both of them being more open towards doing slower moments or strange, low toned vocals.

An album very hard to get into, but when it reveals itself it's a wonderful joy of a Thrash Metal record, one of the best of that genre of the last few years. Essential listening for Thrash Metal fans.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

"Heritage" is one of the most radical retro-Progressive Rock albums ever.

With a little bit controversy accompanied by a bit of confusion by the fans, here comes, after three years, “Heritage”, Opeth’s tenth studio album already. An almost dramatic turn of direction is why people are confused really: instead of the Progressive Death Metal album, we have a soft, retro prog rock release. Comparisons are thrown to “Damnation” which was considered the softest Opeth album, and still is. But “Heritage” is one of those rare retro-prog albums that gives just as much impact as a good Prog Rock album of the seventies, feeling like one of them, instead of “Damnation”, which didn’t at all feel that way, even though the two albums end up being approximately at the same level.

“Heritage” has a very impressive atmosphere that truly captures those magical moments that obscure Prog bands of the golden age were able to create so wonderfully, instead of perhaps influences such as Yes or Genesis, even though admittedly there are more than a few hints to King Crimson. The fuzzy guitars are far from the distorted ones of the previous Opeth albums, the keyboards much more abundant, as well as flutes, acoustic guitars, organs, spacey mellotrons, and all the typical elements of the genre. Because, looking at it musically, it’s a pretty standard Prog Rock album, but it unfolds so much more with repeated listens.

What seemed to be the most impressive about this album is how the band can perfectly create a vintage and magical sounding atmosphere, especially in their mellower, creepier moments. The more lively moments can be a tiny bit disappointing in a few spots, but mostly, even these are almost always top-notch. Not only the melodies for the most part tend to be beautiful, but the arrangements and the instrumentation are always extremely ambitious and complex. Behind the quasi-biblical theme that echoes in every song, there is a strong, earthly feel to the music, especially in my beloved mellow moments, where you feel like it is music that comes from the inner parts of the earth, it’s so visceral.

Many of the songs here require multiple listens before they can be swallowed properly, that said even for the single “The Devil’s Orchard”, a multi faced six minute piece that almost always maintains great quality. The claustrophobic and sinister “I Feel The Dark” is just as great, with impressive performances by all the musicians. The more Jazzy songs like “Haxprocess” and “Nepenthe” don’t quite deliver as much as the previous tracks in their softness, but the other more lively songs do: “The Lines In My Hand” and “Slither” sound like old, mystic Hard Rock songs, extremely catchy and once again boasting great musicianship by each member. The two longer songs of the album are very different from each other, “Famine” and “Folklore”: while the first one is darker, more tense, and has a unique Oriental-esque section in the beginning (with the percussions and everything), “Folklore” is much more lively, epic sounding in many spots, especially the mighty presence of the mellotron at the end of the piece.

With “Heritage” Opeth have massively changed their sound in a way that I didn’t at all expect. This is one of the most radical retro progressive rock albums I’ve heard, remaining extremely faithful to the sounds of the seventies. If they should go on with this kind of music, I personally wouldn’t complain, even though I miss the metal passages.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

Where despair becomes hopefulness....

Woods Of Desolation are an Australian Black Metal outfit, “Torn Beyond Reason” is already their third studio effort, after two albums mainly influenced by Depressive Black Metal. This last album is a major improvement, to the point where it can be compared easily to other great albums by projects such as Alcest, Fen, or Coldworld.

The maturity of the sound is felt because of a pretty solid change in direction, this time around being influenced more by Shoegaze and Post-Rock. The Atmospheric Black Metal sound is anyway far from gone: The production is very blurry but somewhat dreamy, the fierce guitars are veiled with shoegazey reverb, the powerful shriek vocals a little buried and drowned by the other instruments, as it is convention. As mentioned, this sort of sound reminds a bit of Alcest’s fiercer side, and other Blackgaze acts, thus what is heard isn’t really that innovating nor original, but very traditional and even safe. However, the band’s skills in songwriting is extremely strong, almost every moment is beautiful, evocative, and haunting. Their melodies are truly memorable, and that’s probably what makes the album the most.

While some think that “Torn Beyond Reason” is an album that, like it’s predecessors, is extremely desperate and depressing, I find that there is in it’s potent touch of melancholy a great dose of hopefulness, even though it does come from a very dark corner. But the emotiveness is undeniable and it’s all over the place for the entire thirty seven minutes; human emotion has never been put, I must admit, in such a dreary context this year, (except maybe for “Mammal” by Altar Of Plagues) but there can be sensed a sort of wretched attempt to grasping redemption.

The starting song, the title track, gives a tempestuous yet passionate start for the album, creating a bleak, haunting atmosphere thanks to some beautiful melodies. “Darker Days” does the job done even better, to the point where it’s easily the best and most memorable song of the album. As I previously implied, some moments are a little too traditional and remind of quite a few bands, like the following two tracks, however, it’s not wrong to wear influences on your sleeve, and they still manage to be haunting and efficacious. Another small highlight is “November”, a short interlude that however is extremely well done and deserves to be just as praised as a song like “Darker Days”: it starts with an acoustic piece, and shortly builds into shoegaze heaven.

“Torn Beyond Reason” is another highlight of the year for Black Metal: an extremely haunting and beautiful piece of work that should be recognized more than how it really is.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

“Paragon Of Dissonance” with it’s masterful sound and gorgeous production, brings some of the Doomiest music of the year.

Esoteric are one of the most famous bands of one of the darkest genres of music, Funeral Doom Metal. “Paragon Of Dissonance” is already their seventh studio album, their first one being released all the way back in 1993. Whether the album you like it or not, it features some of the most interesting FDM moments in quite a while, and is essential for any fan of the genre.

Whoever is not familiar with Funeral Doom Metal ( as I was), it is an even slower, monotonous, version of Doom Metal and growls are practically always used concerning vocals. The atmosphere is extremely dreary and sinister, reminiscent of Black Metal soundscapes at times, even because of frequent rough production. “Paragon Of Dissonance” does have most of these qualities, however it is not monotonous, it is as matter of fact one of the most complex Metal albums of the year: more than an hour and a half long, these seven tracks are changing hooks constantly, making it almost a progressive listen. The atmosphere the sound creates is so dense and precise, it ends up being the best thing the album has: the heavy guitars, the slow rhythms, are all veiled with an amazing production that gives the album a more elegant side. Everything is surprisingly crystal clear, and the details are always abundant from the first second of music. This is one of the most ambitious and adventurous albums of the year, and it’s quality is undeniable. However, some of the hooks are not as memorable as they should, and they become easily forgettable. Fortunately this applies to only a small chunk of the album. But also, the fact that it is more than 90 minutes long becomes a little too much for this kind of music, although it gives a more epic feeling to the album.

“Paragon Of Dissonance” with it’s masterful sound and gorgeous production, brings some of the Doomiest music of the year, no question. The extreme density of the music, the billions of layers over layers that can be heard are extremely overwhelming and a treat to listen to. The music though is almost nightmarish, and pleasant is not exactly the first adjective to come to mind. Brutally pessimistic, it is almost scary how it actually sounds so eloquent.

“Abandonment” is probably the most well structured song off the album: thirteen well distributed minutes with great hooks and very efficient atmosphere. Some of the most brutally desperate moments can be found in “Loss Of Will” or the surreal “Non Being”, where Ambient influences are acknowledgeable. Songs like “Disconsolate” or “Cipher” have great hooks, with interesting flows and moods, but don’t compare to the intensity of the already mentioned tracks. Although it’s extremely long, “Torrent Of Ills” has one of the most curious and interesting atmospheres, relying on many guitar effects giving a nod to Shoegaze.

An album of highest quality for it’s genre, a different and essential experience for whoever is a fan of this genre, as it is one of the bravest albums of FDM in the last years.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Plains Of Purple Buffalo" brings Post-Rock to places where it's never been: one of the finest releases of the year.

Post-Metal is not a rarity these days, many bands out there are imitating much of the old school, Post-Rock, or Sludge Metal. This is not exactly the case of this London act, *Shels, one of the most unique sounding bands I've heard in a while. Their attitude towards this kind of music is haunting, dreamy, but especially very sincere, in almost a juvenile sort of way, while at the same time, it becomes one of the most earthly and visceral experiences you'll ever have. "Plains Of Purple Buffalo", the sophomore LP, perfectly represents the enigmatic dichotomy.

This relatively obscure gem redefines for one hour and twenty minutes Post-Rock, but you can tell that this little revolution, sadly, will remain within the boundaries of the album and will most likely never influence much music in the future, due to it's overlooked nature. The music is extremely haunting, whether it is calm or violent: it also goes for an extreme choice volume-wise, as there is minimalism in the mellower parts and visceral, pounding distortion in the heavy moments. The band loves to experiment with new sounds and ideas on every song, meaning there's a great variety of instrumentation with also a different song structure ever time. Some of the most noticeable sounds, besides strange synth noises or guitar effects, are the saxophone, which appears in most of the songs here, some strings, but especially the vocals: these are the most precious and unique addition to the sound, ironically enough; they are always lost in the mix, put at a lower volume than the guitars, so that the lyrics are inaudible. However, this feature strengthens the idea that *Shels wanted to give with this album: they wanted you to feel overwhelmed by sound, and at the same time, cry in joy for it. The violent parts truly resemble being hit by a pack of buffalos that is running only for the sake of doing so. The vocals, like the listener, are resembling someone who's trying to get some air from all that stomping, and the result is so beautiful, it almost makes violence the most gorgeous thing on the planet.

This obscure gem, like it was mentioned, brings Post-Rock/Post-Metal in a place where it's never been, and probably would never again return without *Shels. Entering into the world of "Plains Of Purple Buffalo" is like dreaming to hide in your closet in the dark, only to find in there your little, melancholic, desolate world, that belongs only to you. With this album I couldn't help recalling children's books where you enter fantastic, dreamy places, and you bring with you all of your innocence. But when violence overwhelms you, everything seems clear, and violence becomes part of your conception of beauty and joy. It might seem pessimistic, but in truth, it is the most positive and powerful album you'll hear this year, as it turns everything into a dream, a reverie.

As far as the highlights are concerned, well, the album has plenty: from the multi parted opening track, which gives a perfect introduction, "Journey To The Plains". This track is basically a summary of the album to come, all of the defining traits are found in these seven minutes. After that, the remaining hour is a much more developed, detailed, focused, but also stretched out version of the opening minutes: the two part title track is a very complete sounding piece of music, ranging from Ambient influences (almost exclusively in part 1) to Sludge Metal. "The Spirit Horse"' is probably the most memorable and moving songs here, with a brilliant intro and an absolutely wonderful main section, where I can't help thinking about Shoegaze. Same thing for the more cheerful "Butterflies On Luci's Way", with it's almost childish hook, or "Vision Quest", or the dreamiest atmosphere or all, "Conqueror".

These songs change shape, set a different mood every few minutes, and that is something I've always found magical in an album. A stunningly beautiful, complex, eclectic and finally complete piece of art, a little gem that should be recognized much more. No doubt one of the peak moments of the year, as well one of the best modern albums of Post-Rock.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

“Redemption At The Puritans Hand” is a really good follow up to “To the Nameless Dead”, without repeating the formula too insistently.

After four years, Primordial return with a new album to the joy of the fans. This release was highly anticipated, after following their masterpiece “To The Nameless Dead”. We get something that is highly similar in concept to the previous album, perhaps toned down just a bit.

If you expect something different from the previous album, you’ll be disappointed; musically, the two albums share the same style and sound, as it was simply a second part to “To The Nameless Dead”. Thus, we have an archaic sounding production, with harsh guitars, vocals, and drums. Together, they create a dark, bleak, but at times hopeful sounding atmosphere. Whether this album is darker and more effective, it’s highly debatable. However, I can’t deny that this album has quite some moments that are distinct and unique from the other albums.

“Redemption At The Puritans Hand” is a solid release overall, consistent, and very much coherent lyrically speaking, however, I can’t help not enjoying it all the way through. Some parts of the songs, aren’t necessarily bad, or boring, the album as a whole I guess was too long, or at least it felt like it was going on forever. One of the reasons might be that the band always stretches out their songs, without adding another part to them, but of course this band is not progressive, and I never expected them to do so.

I found myself really liking some songs on this one, like the first two songs that open the album, “No Grave Deep Enough” and “Lain With The Wolf”, both having an amazingly dark and bleak atmosphere, even in the harsher moments. “The Mouth Of Judas” was kind of catchy for this record, it has a brilliant melody and a great atmosphere, and “Death Of The Gods”, the final track, is a perfect ending for such an album. Other good songs would be “The Black Hundred”, in all it’s diversity, and “Blooded Yet Unbowed” once again having a good melody and haunting atmosphere.

A solid effort, no one can deny it: one of those albums you feel like something is wrong, but you just don’t see it, because in the end you have almost no complaints. Possibly the only thing is that it is feels, like I mentioned, way too long, and much more than just an hour. Nevertheless an album that is certainly worth the wait for Primordial fans.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

Ghost is one of the very best mellower albums by a metal musician.

Devin Townsend’s newest project finds itself to an end with the final chapter “Ghost”, one of the best albums by the musician and the calmest he’s ever been. The four albums of the project wanted, as Devin said, to represent each “side” of him. If “Ki” is also a mellower effort, “Addicted” is a heavy but very straight-forward one, and “Deconstruction” is as wild Avant-Gardish and chaotic as Devin had never been before. But “Ghost” wanted to represent Townsend’s softer, peaceful side, and what a beautiful sight it is.

There are, of course, no traces of any kind of metal: “Ghost” is influenced by genres such as New Age and a lot of Ambient music too. I dare to say that some vocal melodies are a little reminiscent of Ambient Pop and Dream Pop. If there are any guitars, they are always clean; if they are any drums, they’ll mostly be played with jazz brushes, and always laid back completely. The key instruments I hear are the big chunk of synthesizers, flutes, some very light loops here and there, electronics, and the guitars of course. But the vocals I hear are the most magical addition: I always liked Townsend’s cleans, but here, they are special, and perfectly go along with the enchanting female vocals. The production is crystal clear, as it was definitely intended to be for creating the atmosphere Devin wanted to capture so much.

“Ghost” is one of the most peaceful and quiet albums you’ll ever hear. It is a soothing journey that most fans of the musician wouldn’t expect. The atmosphere this album creates, as a matter of fact, is absolutely priceless: You feel like you’re on an island, by yourself, without technology, without surrounding people, just nature. This feeling Devin attempted to create has very much succeeded, and like no other album that has attempted to do so. It’s great to hear also how even though maintaining pretty much the same concept throughout the album, there is in the music great amount of variation: some melodies are sad, some are ethereal, some are cheerful, some are melancholy. With these handful of moods, I’m happy to say that Devin created out of them a wonderful rainbow of sounds.

There is clear distinction between the first and second half of the album: while the first is more emotive, melodic, and straight-forward, the second half is more Ambient driven, with less vocals, less clear melodies, just pure atmosphere. The delights can be found practically anywhere, from the opener “Fly”, setting a very proper mood for the rest of the album. “Feather” is a very melancholic, multi part piece, where the Ambience is something indescribable. The title track and “Black Berry” are somewhat more cheerful and happy, especially the latter, thanks to it’s great banjo addition. Then, there are more Ambient focused songs, like “Infinite Ocean”, “Texada”, even though the term Ambient can be used on this one very widely, “Moonsoon”, and the final track “As You Are”.

An album I thought was going to hate, but I actually ended up falling in love with; a definite must listen for any Devin Townsend, despite being different from every other recording he’s done. But it you’re a fan of this man, there is no way you can know him without listening to his peaceful other side. One of the great highlights of the year, an album that would be remembered hopefully in the future, as one of the very best calm albums by a metal musician.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

“Flight Of Fancy” promises great, adventurous things for X-Panda.

X-Panda are an Estonian (!) Progressive Metal band that apparently have come out of nowhere with their debut “Flight Of Fancy” released in a year where there is room for many great albums in the music scene. This debut is a huge surprise, an extremely fresh, original and brave work by young, extremely talented and well educated musicians. Together, they create something that is not really an album, but a massive and solemn promise that they’ll be the rulers of the Prog Metal scene in no time.

Is Progressive Metal a word that is starting to get less clear? Maybe it’s simply expanding: here, the second option is what I like to believe X-Panda wants to do with the genre. What this band did with this album shows the great talent that underdog countries such as Estonia can have. It is great to hear hidden talents slowly coming towards the open, towards the outer world. There is only to thank X-Panda, for reminding us what Progressive Metal should mean, which is variation, progression, and experimentation, but also change. The reason why Prog Metal is getting less clear is because of bands such as these, that are able to expand the term, and still being able to remain in that box.

Their music is strongly influenced by Jazz Fusion, it is in fact largely instrumental, to the point where it’s almost more of a Jazz effort, because of song structures that imply it clearly. To mind, Haken seemed a sort of influence for this band, because of their wide eclecticism in keyboard sounds, something that is heard abundantly in the landmark album “Aquarius”. Despite the pretty wide experimentation, jazziness and progressiveness, there is no denying that the melodies are strong in each one of these tracks, another reason why Haken comes to mind: the songwriting can be quite catchy at times, when it’s not focusing on constant melody changing, like in most of the album. As a matter of fact, these songs are best described as shapeshifters: they constantly change form, constant time changes, constant melody changes. This chameleonic piece of music can, let’s admit it, go a little too far over, to the point where after about an hour the listen get’s somewhat tiring. There is musically tons of variation, but in a way, I feel like I’m listening to basically the same track over and over again. Exceptions be made for some that just don’t have the same nature of the rest of the songs.

The album, despite not being the most solid thing out there, has moments that were almost shockingly huge standouts, not only for 2011 tracks but for Prog Metal tracks in general: the song that captures the most of what I just said is the wonderful, extremely touching title-track, a great seven minute trip that contains some of the most touching moments you’ll ever hear from this genre. Songs like the eleven minute “Black” or “Dickybirds: use sort of the same kind of songwriting, with always a very highlighted musicianship. The few sung songs are really good too, especially the dark tones of “Siren” or even the quieter segments of “Black”. “Journey” Of A Dream”’s more melodic moments are indeed a great treat for the listener, but the eleven minutes could get tedious for some. The second part of the album I can’t help to find it a bit weaker, however the shiny moments are more than a few, like in “Rhythm Department” or “Crystal Gazing”.

A unique and brave album that gives great hope and ambition for this band, that hopefully will rise up to become what they deserve to be. A really enjoying experience that will leave pleased any Prog Metal fan.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

“To The Nameless Dead”’s violent finesse makes it one of the key albums of Folk Metal.

Primordial, after the release of the acclaimed “The Gathering Wilderness”, took a step forward with their following release, “To The Nameless Dead”, thus far the best album that band has put out. Easily definable as a landmark album for Folk Metal, and puts Primordial among the highest names of such genre, along with Moonsorrow, Agalloch, Finntroll, Eluveite, Wuthering Heights, Nokturnal Mortum, and many others.

Like “the Gathering Wilderness”, “To The Nameless Dead finds it’s folkish elements not really in acoustic moments, which is a very common stereotype for Folk Metal, but in the rhythms, the dark, evoking melodies, the Ancient Roman flavored lyrics, the overall visceral and at times bleak atmosphere. However, this last album is more open to explicit Folklore, especially one song in particular, “Heathen Tribes”. The harshness of the guitars have not settled down, but have even more increased in intensity, the vocals by frontman Nemtheanga have got even more powerful and intense, yet always unique, the drums more fat but still great to hear. The atmosphere, like mentioned, is more effective and urgent than the previous albums: the solemnity of these galloping tracks is of an elegance (from the metal point of view, clearly)that rarely I hear in an album, is perfectly combined with a most visceral, crude, and rebellious atmosphere: this mix of almost opposing types of sound gives this album of a sort of violent finesse.

The reason of such a focused and clear atmosphere is also because of the lyrical content, which for the most part consists of Ancient Roman history, Roman Paganism, invasions. There is a more human approach on this one compared to the somewhat feral “The Gathering Wilderness”. However, nature is still of a great presence in this album, lyrically, but it isn’t hard to feel it in the air as well.

The album is the most solid Primordial has ever released, eight mostly long songs starting with“Empire Falls”, the opening track, no doubt one of the very best tracks of the band, with it’s amazing riff, strong vocals, great flow and amazing heaviness, while the surprising “Heathen Tribes” is a almost completely acoustic song that reminds much of Irish Folk music because of it’s andante rhythm. “As Rome Burns”’s nine minutes are another standout point, especially the second half of the song, where you find Primordial that have never been so intense. The Black Metal influences are most noticeable in the finale “No Nation Of This Earth”, which also has a mood and riffs that remind of such dark music.

There is really not one song I can talk badly about, a terrific album that rightfully deserves a place in the great metal efforts of the new millennium. An instant classic.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

“Communication Lost” is an emotional, pulsating album that sounds like from the near future, without being really innovating.

Among all the Progressive Rock/Metal bands of the new decade, Wolverine are in some way simply one of the many, one that just stuck to the prog rules and released albums that were loyal to the genre, somewhat brave sounding and some innovating moments. With “Communication Lost”, it is obvious that Wolverine have a distinct style, even though “Still”, their previous album, sounded even more original and promising.

There is tons of melody and accessibility, which definitely contributed in making this band famous in the prog community; as a matter of fact, the experimentation isn’t really that big of an element on this one. What we have here are good rock songs strongly blended with Progressive Metal elements, such as some heavy guitars, some interesting time changes, nice keyboard sounds, and pretty progressive-like song structures. Because of it’s straight-forwardness, I can’t help thinking at times of Alternative Rock as a big influence on this one. The moods here aren’t exactly positive: some times, the music is quite depressing and sad. However, it is in many parts a beautiful portrait of hope. Between melancholic acoustic parts, dramatic keyboards, and surprising electronic bursts, “Communication Lost” is a greatly emotional album, definitely one of the most haunting sounding albums of 2011.

Wolverine are a band that take human emotions and make them the most modern sounding as possible, using elements in their music that just sound of the future. However, they manage to do that without being particularly innovative, as the melodies are at times predictable, even though the songwriting is mostly very strong. But the impact this album gives is quite unique, and the atmosphere it has is very enjoyable. This band shows their talent in songwriting with songs like “Into The Great Nothing”, the song that starts off the album after the three minute intro, or the slower but quite beautiful “Poison Ivy”, or the strongly emotional title track and “Pulse”, with it’s electronic beat that makes it an automatic standout.

“Communication Lost” is a great experience for whoever loves the genre, a little highlight and gem for today’s Prog Rock.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

“The Gathering Wilderness” sounds like a dark evocation of nature itself.

Primordial have been a huge success among the metal community, and praised as one of the best metal bands out there, as well as one of the best Folk Metal bands ever. One of the reasons for this success is “The Gathering Wilderness”, the band’s fifth studio album and the first that receives a lot of attention.

This Irish band has a pretty unique sound, and at the same time, it doesn’t sound like anything new: pure metal, with archaic sounding production and plenty of clean guitar atmospheres that go along with crunchy and heavy riffs, and harsh, yet extremely dramatic vocals, which sometimes are also shrieking. Many of these songs have unusual rhythms for metal, reminding a bit of traditional Irish music, a clear influence for this band. Folk Metal thus is the easiest label for this kind of music, but, looking also at the lyrics, there is a lot of references to paganism, nature, Gods, and Irish history, this way going also towards a Pagan Black Metal direction. These song structures are pretty stretched, going to the nine minute mark at the maximum. It’s a pretty long, but extremely solid release, featuring only seven tracks, that have many elements in common and remind one another, without it being a negative trait, as a matter of fact, it’s a characteristic that makes this album even more solid.

“The Gathering Wilderness” is a good mix of harshness and mellowness, but what makes this sound special is the way the musicians executed it and the overall sound if it: it has an evocative, yet savage production, like I said, thus it truly sounds like an evocation of nature itself, and I’m sure that is exactly what Nemtheanga and his fellow mates were aiming at, due also to their love for archaisms.

“The Golden Spiral”, the eight minute opener, gives you exactly what you’ll get for the remaining fifty minutes, but the title track adds even more spice to the course, as one of the greatest songs of the band, where the lyrics and the vocals are a standout. Hard not to be terrified when Nemtheanga sings “my Faith is not welcome here”. The remaining songs are really good as well, especially the extremely dramatic “The Coffin Ships”, and the final track “Cities Carved In Stone” which gives an epic conclusion to this album.

“The Gathering Wilderness” that will be for some a classic, and it a way, it is a standout for recent Celtic Metal. It’s intense drama and melancholy will eventually lead to the band’s masterpiece, “To The Nameless Dead”, which actually owes so much to “The Gathering Wilderness”.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

“The Hunter” is a collection of short, earnestly crazy songs.

Mastodon, it’s easy to say so, are the biggest Metal band, appealing even to a more mainstream crowd. Ironically, they were able to do so with their most progressive album to date, “Crack The Skye”. The album was infinitely praised, and it was indeed a great album. It was hard to follow up such an LP, and in general to follow up the four part concept Masotodon had created with their previous and only four works (Remission=fire, Leviathan=water, Blood Mountain=earth, and Crack the Skye=air), but they managed to stay on track and to still be creative, original, and thought-provoking.

“The Hunter” was intended and surely is the most straight-forward of all Mastodon efforts. It was a wise choice in my opinion, not because of a need to reach a different crowd, but to expand their sound, and they accomplished in a way that I honestly did not expect. These songs have that usual, energetic feel that Mastodon always gave us, but the melodies are simpler, the songs much more in quantity and much shorter, (no one of them more than five minutes). However, this album has enough variation to be called Progressive Metal, thanks to bizarre sounds in some points, many time changes, or simply different guitar effects,. This last instrument has always been dominant, in the most absolute way, in this band’s music, ad it is so even with this album, having that sludgy tone that is familiar to anyone who knows this band. Musically, in the end, they haven’t changed much in sound, but their way in interpreting and executing the music has.

“The Hunter” is a collection of short, little crazy songs, that however are at the same time very serious. The faster songs, basically, are like cracks of fireworks, while the slower songs, well, they’re just fireworks in slow motion. It’s an incredibly dynamic album, very solid, very memorable, with brilliant musicianship and brilliant songs. “Black Tongue” is a strong, powerful song, that makes you want to start breaking stuff, while “Stargasm” moves in an almost sensual way, and “Octopus Has No Friends”, despite having a silly title, has a kind of serious tones you wouldn’t expect. “The Hunter” is a nice slower song, “Creature Lives” reminds of a strange mix between the cheerfulness of Christmas songs and the cheerfulness of Devin Townsend.

An album that is pretty easy to listen to, with many memorable tracks, and with a great sound that we anyway are used to hearing from this band. A good turn for Mastodon, I hope they again release albums as good as this or as the previous ones.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

"The Sleeping Gods" is another example of how thought-provoking and pondering Enslaved are.

Not being familiar with the band Enslaved, I took my chances back in 2010 and listened to “Axioma Ethica Odini”, which ended up being one of my favorite albums of that year, and of progressive black metal in general. “The Sleeping Gods”, released the following year, did not to my surprise receive great ratings. This half hour long EP has great moments that make it a very enjoyable listen, and certainly is an underrated one.

Enslaved with this EP goes on a more experimental direction compared to “Axioma Ethica Odini”, experimenting with some interesting sounds, a bit of Folk, Ambient, and what not. The musicianship as usual is really good, the production even better, actually sounding quite ambitious and expensive for a Metal album. The vocals, however, are something that disappointed me a little bit, not really the shrieks, as they are always good when Grutle Kjellson does them, but the clean vocals, which sounded a bit generic and a little lost in the mix as well, and overall didn’t do much for me. But the experimentation, which surprised me, is what I really dug: fascinating, atmospheric keyboards, interesting song structures, progressive influences. All these elements are the ones I wish Enslaved would develop even more on their next LP’s.

Standout tracks include the opener “Heimvegen”, pretty straight-forward but very memorable, and because of that perhaps some fans might have been turned off by it, “Synthesis”, a very Ambient driven song, while “Nordlys” is more towards an Avant-Garde approach, and the title track a more Folk influenced song.

A widely eclectic, but very memorable EP, another of the many good examples of how Enslaved is a pondering and thought-provoking band, that will hopefully release even more grandiose efforts in the near future.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

“Towards The Megalith” has an amazing, angry sound, without there being songs.

Disma are an American Death Metal band that have been recognized for this debut album “Towards the Megalith”, mostly because of the distinct growl of the singer, who gave Death Metal fans many chills. Despite liking his voice a lot, I’m not that into the music in this album, even though I do recognize the immense talent this band has as far as the single musicians are concerned.

The reason why this band’s singer has been praised is because his growl is, in one word, scary. It is extremely guttural, deep, and it truly sounds like a enormous, fierce monster from a remote dungeon that has just been awakened. It’s basically like it was constantly growling “who dares wake me up from my sleep?”. The music is extremely dirty, no melodies whatsoever, just pure rage and evil. There are also several time changes during a song, which is very impressive to hear for such a band. The length of these tracks are as a consequence longer than an average metal song. Not only the vocals but also the music has a slow, dark, and sludgy tone, as if they were the score of the monster getting out of his cave. This album in particular has been labeled also Death Doom Metal because of the slowness of the music.

My problem with this album is not at all about the music, but it’s more about the songs themselves: none of them have moments that I care for, none that stand out. All of them, honestly, sound pretty much the same; some people like that, because it gives more consistency to the album, but it’s more of a negative type of consistency, as instead of being a lot of great tracks it’s a lot of non-memorable tracks all squished in forty five minutes.

A decent Death Metal album, but with a great sound. I’m sure this band will come back with a better album than this, with a more mature sound. However, I’m also sure enthusiasts of the Death Metal genre would love this, just because of the sound this band delivers.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Sympathetic Resonance" is an orgasmic fix for Prog Metal enthusiasts.

John Arch, Prog Metal veteran, formal singer of Fates Warning, gave to the world early in the millennium a precious EP called "A Twist Of Fate", and until now nothing was heard of him. But in 2011, with guitarist Jim Matheos, another Fates Warning member came out under the name Arch/Matheos "Sympathetic Resonance", one of the great Prog Metal albums of recent years. This project, in the near future, could very easily be the Fates Warning of the new decade, not only because they share half of the members, but because they play the same role, in different eras, in the progressive metal realm.

Like the former band, Arch/Matheos is a prog metal that does not feature keyboards. They are used very rarely, maybe to give a bit of atmosphere. I love keyboards, so when I knew about this feature I wasn't so sure I was going to love it as I do actually. The musicianship of this project is amazing, the musicians are extremely well educated, obviously influenced by Jazz, Prog Rock , and Metal, everyone gets the job done so well: John Arch gives us his unique beautiful voice that I wish more Progressive Metal singers had, Jim Matheos is a great guitarist and proves it once again with beastly riffs and solos, Bobby Jarzombek has been a genuine inspiration to me(being myself a drummer), his technicality is outstanding, his fills mind-blowing. Joey Vera, finally, proves that he can play bass, playing his instrument so that we can actually hear it, for once. Together, they have fun putting all in one song constant time changes, dozen riffs, solos, acoustic moments and what not. Arch/Matheos at this point come from the more complex side of metal.

"Sympathetic Resonance" is maybe a perfect summary of what Fates Warning is, but it sounds to me a much more modern effort. The album is extremely solid, produced extremely well, the sounds are crystal clear and no instrument is overlapping all the others, something I find very rare and something I always enjoy hearing. "Neurotically Wired" and "Stained Glass Sky" are basically perfect songs, that sound so complete, like nothing was missing: you got nice acoustic moments, you got insane bridges with crazier drumming and guitar performances, and tons of beauty, surprisingly. Every riff in these two songs is spectacular and memorable, especially the heavier ones. The softer songs are good too, like "Midnight Serenade" and "Incense And Myrrh", but there's just no comparison in my opinion. "Any Given Day" has a similar song structure to the first two songs I mentioned, and it is possibly just as good, but I sense a little more straightforwardness, however in the end, that's exactly what the album needs, after a while, to make it sound like something that has moments for every kind of metal fan.

A great album I loved listening to and enjoyed a whole lot. I'm not a big Fates Warning expert, but this album just might do it for me, to start listening to them. "Sympathetic Resonance" no doubt has become one of the great releases of this year, possibly one of the very prog metal albums of the last few years. An orgasmic fix for Prog Metal enthusiasts.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

“Mammal” is an innovative, brave, experimental, and extremely gloomy piece of music.

Altar of Plagues have been a pretty obscure Atmospheric Black Metal band until the release “Mammal” came out, and people started knotting heads in pleasure, or more accurately, started paying attention, very closely, to the music. This latest release might not be the most groundbreaking album of Black Metal, but it certainly is innovative, brave, experimental, and finally, extremely dim.

These musicians aren’t exactly experienced, as a matter of fact there are pretty new to the music scene, coming from a place where isolation among musicians is frequent, Ireland. They are obviously a new band, and its great to hear that. But what is also obvious are the influences from old, famous Atmospheric Black Metal bands such as Burzum, but also from Blackgaze acts that have been getting very popular over the last few years. Altar Of Plagues are a band that can create atmosphere like only a few BM bands can: it can be utterly grim, at times even minimalistic, but then they would explode into a gloomy hook, featuring hammering drums, painful, emotional shrieking vocals, and a surprisingly well produced sound. Post-Rock influences are noticeable in more than a few spots, using interesting samples, some synthesizers to make some ambience, and unusual instrumentation in the eerier moments.

As I mentioned, “Mammal” is an extremely dreary, visceral, dark album, with tons of themes such as death and helplessness echoing like crazy all over the place. It would have been even more effective, though, if the four long tracks were more consistent and somewhat memorable: nothing can be said however about the 18 minute opener “Neptune Is Dead”, the most complete, emotional, brutal, but also most beautiful track, with multiple moods that constantly morph, always with the nastiest attitude. “Feather And Bone” and “All Life Converges To Some Center” have certainly their moments but are at some times inconsistent and I just am not crazy about them in some points, despite being good songs. But the third track, “When The Sun Drowns Into The Ocean”, is an impressive piece of art, a reminiscent, instrumental, eight minute post-rock track that is tense as well and extremely experimental, other than having a quite unusual flow.

“Mammal” is a really enjoyable LP that ought to bring Altar Of Plagues onto a whole new level. Another gem of metal music in 2011, I know that I’ll be looking forward to what this band does next and what they just did, at the end of the year when listing the top metal albums.