November 2005 Archives
CD, Black Mark 2005
Track list: Malignant - Sulphur Injection - Virus - Supreme Architecture - Vengeance - Salvation Denied - Soulgrime - Suicide Breeze
Apostasy is back, with another album full of symphonic black metal. With dashes of death metal, Devilution hits pretty hard. However, while it's technically well-played and sounds good, the album has a bit of a lack of originality. Still, fans of symphonic black metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir should probably check this one out. ***
CD, Displeased Records 2005
Track list: Vid hargen - Sigrblot - Skymningsresa - Kolöga trolltand - Dödens strand - Preludium - Vredens tid - Svunna minnen - Frekastein - Hemfärd - Segervisa
Månegarm's music is metal with folk influences. I like Vredens Tid, it certainly has its moments. Sigrblot, for example, is a pretty fine track. The whole of it isn't quite top-notch, but almost. The folk instruments could stand out a bit more, I think - now they drown under the metal part. Which sounds good, by the way - this is one well-done album and despite my criticism a good choice for someone who's looking for Scandinavian folk metal. ***
CD, Regain Records 2005
Track list: Silver Flame - Mistress Of The Dark - Serpent's Fire - Shine - Blue - Pray - Nightmare - Black Void Nirvana - Heart's Blood - Night Reborn
Hearts Blood is easy to describe: it's a poor man version of Blessed Be by 69 Eyes. The vocalist sounds pretty much the same as Jyrki from 69 Eyes, but the songs are totally inferior. There are few good ones, but most of it is fairly boring. There's loads of gothic rock like this, and a pretty large share of it is better than this. **
CD, Massacre Records 2005
Track list: Wenn der König stirbt - Silbersarg - Sag: Ich will tot sein - Überreste - Wiegenlied vom Totschlag - Gespenst - In den Trümmern - ? - Schlachtwerk - Krankes Herz - Über dem Jenseits - Menschenfleischwolf - Am Glockenseil - Altersheim
This piece of bizarre German metal simply fails to impress me. There's an odd weaker piece to counter every good bit on the album. In general it all sounds pretty good and the best black metal parts are certainly decent, but the rest of it just leaves me confused. Nothing spectacular here. **
CD, Karmageddon Media 2005
Track list: An Tus - Winds of One Thousand Winters - The Serpent and the Black Lake - Cluain Tarb - I am the Wench's Bane - The Man All Hate to Love - Pauper of Souls - Realms of Insanity
Celtic metal rocks! Mael Mórdha offers an invigorating mix of traditional folk music and metal. No bagpipes or tin whistles this time. Instead, Mael Mórdha has one of the better metal vocalists: what a voice! I recommend checking out Winds of One Thousand Winters or The Serpent and the Black Lake for some really inspiring and rowdy metal. At its best, this is superb material. ****
CD, Metal Blade Records 2005
Track list: Backlands - The Butchers Bargain - Bleed The Meek - The Second Coming - Where The Empty Gods Lie - A Heart For A Heart - In My Eyes - Erzsebet - Promises In Blood - Bring Me The Heart Of Christ - Through The Fiery Halls - The Icy Flow Of Death
Paths of Possession boasts the Cannibal Corpse vocalist Corpsegrinder in vocals. It's not Cannibal Corpse, though, but more like Swedish melodic death - with rather nifty vocals, too. There are certainly brighter spots on the album, but unfortunately it's not quite enough to make the album really shine. In the end, Promises in Blood is yet another decent but not stunning death metal album. ***
