Beyond the Embrace “Against the Elements” (Metal Blade) Melodic metal with hoarse screaming vocals (but not all the time) sometimes the singer does something some might call singing, a kind of singing that reminds me a little of the vocalist…
In Extremo “Sunder Ohne Zugel” (Metal Blade) Do I like In Extremo? You bet. Is it because I might have a little thing for big German men in skirts? You bet your skirt-clad bottom! In Extremo play folk metal, and…
Chinchilla “The Last Millennium” (Metal Blade) My last encounter with Chinchilla didn’t go all too well. In fact, I wasn’t even able to keep their CD in one piece. It wasn’t like I shattered it into little digitally encoded shards…
Riot “Through the Storm” (Metal Blade) Riot, huh, I thought they must have been long dead. Maybe it’s a different Riot? No, sounds pretty much like the Riot of the eighties. I didn’t particularly care for Riot then I can…
Cattle Decapitation ““To Serve Man”” (Metal Blade) Ex-members of the Locust, among others, offer us their brutal first full-length cut for Metal Blade. A far cry from the sans bass, 30 second song freakfests some of us were privileged enough…
Symphorce “Phorceful Ahead” (Metal Blade) First, the band’s name. It’s a combination of the words “symphony” and “force.” With this bit of nonsense in mind, I’d say Symphorce is neither particularly symphonic nor forceful. Rather they’re just laying back and…
Amon Amarth “Versus the World” (Metal Blade) There’s an overall melancholy feel to the recording which is strange for such double bass driven death metal, but I often find that death metal tends to alter my mood towards melancholy. That’s…
Tourniquet “Where Moth and Rust Destroy” (Metal Blade) The vocals are definitely going to be of a love them or hate them variety and I for one, compelled towards an obsessive enjoyment of the bizarre, of under dogs, of the…
Various Artists “Uncorrupted Steel 2” (Metal Blade) Metal Blade has always been a label with some great bands, but in my opinion has always done a shitty job in letting the rest of the world know about how great some…
Black Dahlia Murder “Unhallowed” (Metal Blade) After subjecting the listener to an achingly dull and protracted introduction the band kicks into a predictable cross between death metal and grindcore. They’re heavy on the grind side utilizing the now traditional dual…