My first drone album - and it was a pleasant experience!

Rorcal is a doom/drone/experimental band from Switzerland, specialized in huge tracks mixing atmospheric passages and crushing riffs. La Femme sans Tête is an EP (despite its half-hour lenght) containing one song divided in three movements.

The first track is calm and minimalist, with sparse sounds of electronics and some drumming. The second one brings noise and that marvellous crushing riffs. It's more varied than one can imagine, I even banged my head at some point! The third track follows this trend and end the album in a high note.

Good album, indeed. Recommended for fans of drone doom and experimental sounds.

"Somos Todos Culpados" (We Are All Guilty) is an EP from the brazilian hardcore band Surra.

Their sound is basically a blend of hardcore, crossover thrash and grindcore/powerviolence - the latter influences are more noticeable in the songs "Xerifão" (Big Sheriff) and Fim de Festa (End Of Party). It's also pretty evident the influence from other brazilian bands, like RATOS DE PORÃO and DFC.

It's a short release with only four songs, working more like an appetizer to the rest of their catalog. Bottom line, the music is pretty good and catchy, sometimes great, and, despite the language (all their releases are sung in portuguese), it's recommended to everyone who likes some violent hardcore with thrash influences.

Against all the probabilities, Sleep returned after a hiatus of 16 years, releasing a new song through the 2014 Adult Swim Singles – remembering that is free for download. Many acts return years after disbanding, and we all know that most of these returns weren't worth the wait...

But rejoice, fans of Sleep, you all can get high again! The line-up is not the same, since the original drummer left the band. Some people felt this loss, but I couldn't see the difference, really! The musicianship shown in this song, named The Clarity, is excellent. Many nods to Black Sabbath and the 70's hard rock/proto-doom bands, with a generous dose of psychedelia in the last half.

This song is recommendded for the stoner/doom metal fans. Check it out!

Peste, the most recent album of Claustrofobia bring some surprises: the first is the track Nota 6.66. This is an instrumental 7 minute song, where Claustrofobia mix thrash metal with the brazilian percussion traditionally used on samba music! They were helped by the guys from Batuque de Corda, a group of percussion. The results are great, this track is all that Sepultura ever tried to do since Roots! There's even a cuíca solo! Don't expect any prog or avant-garde here, it's fast and violent thrash perfectly blended with samba.

Another surprise are the lyrics, all sung in portuguese. This is a welcomed to me, but don't worry if you are from a non-lusofone country: the songs in this album have enough brutality to delight all the thrashers around the world.

The drumming of Caio D'Angelo has improved greatly since their debut. The addition of a second guitar is also welcomed, bringing some subtleties to their sound. Sure, it's needed some listens to note these subtleties below the virulence of the sound!

The lyrics deal with personal and social struggles, a common theme in thrash metal. Peste is probably the best album of Claustrofobia. Check it out!

Music – like almost everything in the world – can be selled. And generated a business tha moves million of dollars. But, some musicians remember us that music is an work of art, and therefore can be made only for passion and pleasure, without commercial motivation.

Let's see the case of Lord K. Philipson. He has a commercial band - Project Hate MCMXCIX -, whose albums are released by a big metal label. He is malso the leader of Torture Division, an excellent band of death metal. All the releases of TD are free for download, and the quality of their music are so good that most of the people must think they (the guys of TD) are crazy for do this without expecting to receive (much) money. But they do, and we must praise them for this!

But... and the music of Torture Division? It's brutal death metal, pure and simply! Their songs are varied, with crushing riffs – a very nice work with the bass and guitars. The drumming is relentless, but don't focusing in blasting beats all the time – showing that the drummer is a skilled guy. But don't worry, there's enough blasting beats to desatroy all the bones of your middle ear! The vocals are unidimensional (growls, growls, growls), but hey, it's death metal! In this release, the lyrics are sung in swedish, and it's a bonus to me! It's always good to listen metal bands singing in their native language!

So, in a nutshell: this demo (EP?) is killer, and the death metal fans will like! Remember, it's free (with a donation option)!