Intronaut – Prehistoricisms (Century Media Records)
Considered by many to be the band that holds up the progressive end of the metalgaze spectrum, Intronaut are still hovering around that area of proficiency manned by Isis, Cult of Luna, and Mouth...
Cradle of Filth – Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder (Roadrunner Records)
It’s somewhat remarkable how Dani Filth has kept this training rolling amidst constant lineup changes and focus shifts. Seriously, the band has yet to have the same lineup from album to album, but here...
Caina – Temporary Antennae (Profound Lore Records)
The brainchild of one Andrew Curtis-Brignell, Caina is an elusive, daringly complex combo of black metal, post-rock, and experimental that is another in a long line of bands that have come to define the Profound Lore...
October Falls – The Womb of Primordial Nature (Moribund Records)
The career path of October Falls (the one-man project of Mikko Lehto) has taken the band from basic, somewhat unremarkable acoustic-driven folk metal to the more aggro, dense exploitation of epic melodic folk metal....
The Haunted – Versus (Century Media Records)
These post-Marco Aro, Dolving reunion albums from The Haunted are a tricky bunch. Not thrash, not metalcore, not Swedish death metal, these albums are either sink or swim it seems, and when the songs are there...
Brave – Monuments (Independent Release)
A perfect example that you don’t have to be signed to be good, long-running American female-fronted symphonic metallers Brave have taken the ‘ole independent plunge, producing an album in the form of Monuments that is every bit as...
Gojira – The Way of All Flesh (Prosthetic Records)
Expectations…they’ll kill ya. After spending the last two years in support of their monstrous From Mars to Sirius effort, French modern metallers Gojria return with an album decidedly less forceful and compelling in the form ofThe...
Serenity – Fallen Sanctuary (Napalm Records)
It’s hardly a secret who Serenity is trying emulate and that’s fine, to be honest. Knock-off bands can sometimes produce some pretty strong material and for the sake of comparison, Fallen Sanctuary is more enjoyable than Sonata Arctica’s Unia,...
Cynic – Traced In Air (Season of Mist Records)
Bucking the trend of legendary prog/tech bands releasing one solitary album (see: Watchtower, Spiral Architect, et al), Florida’s Cynic return after 15 years with Traced In Air. The longevity and influence of 1993’s Focusis not something to be...
Destruction – D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. (Candlelight Records)
A fitting title given the state of the world, D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. is the fifth post-reunion Destruction effort and succeeds where 2005’s Inventor of Evil fails. Naturally, the band’s razor-sharp, polished thrash attack is in place, as the crystal-clear tones...
Rotten Sound – Cycles (Spinefarm Records)
Long-running Finnish death metallers Rotten Sound aren’t ones for brevity. Considering the 18-song tracklisting for Cycles, it’s like the band crammed two albums into one, or wrote nine songs and doubled them. Or wrote 36 songs and...
Suidakra – 13 Years of Celtic Wartunes (Wacken Records)
Quite the busy year for Arkadius and the boys, with their stint on this year’s Paganfest and now the domestic release for the CD/DVD compilation, 13 Years of Celtic Wartunes now hitting the shelves. This scribe...
Anathema – Hindsight (KScope Music)
Oh Anathema, where have thou been? Little has been heard from the Anathema camp since 2003’s striking A Natural Disaster, save for some odd EP’s and DVD’s, but the back-tail of 2008 figures to be...
Swallow the Sun – Plague of Butterflies EP (Spinefarm Records)
Having finally touched down on North American shores last year with Katatonia, Swallow the Sun remain at the helm of Finnish gloom and doom metal. 2007’s Hope was a lateral move after ‘05’s killer Ghosts of Loss album,...
Evergrey – Torn (SPV)
Couldn’t see this one coming. 2006’s Monday Morning Apocalypse was a commercial and critical bomb, as Evergrey tried to clutch the brass ring and distance themselves from their progressive dark metal past. Considering the band is much more...