Desaster – 666 Satan’s Soldiers Syndicate (Metal Blade Records)
Kinda like throwback thrash, primitive churn-and-burn BM can be pumped out fairly easily. Not to say bands like Impaled Nazarene or the band in question, Germany’s Desaster are without merit, it’s just that when...
Deicide – Till Death Do Us Part (Earache Records)
If this really is the last Deicide album (as Glen Benton has hinted in several interviews), then consider the band having come full circle. Naturally, there were some significant road bumps and career mishaps...
Belphegor – Bondage Goat Zombie (Nuclear Blast Records)
Last year’s Pestapocalypse IV from this Austrian duo was all-in-all, underwhelming. For a band that has made its work in the black/death realm, said album tapered off pretty quickly, so off went Belphegor back to work,...
Neaera – Armamentarium (Metal Blade Records)
At long last, the German metalcore scene is shedding its uniform and copycat image. For a short time, say two or three years ago, Maroon, Heaven Shall Burn, Neaera, Fear My Thoughts, and Caliban...
Ihsahn – angL (Candlelight Records)
With both Emperor and Peccatum in the rear-view mirror, Ihsahn’s immense talent wingspan can now fully blanket the black metal and avant-garde metal realms. His first solo album, 2006’s The Adversary was a challenging, forward-thinking affair...
Moonspell – Night Eternal (SPV)
Since their rediscovery of the Wolfheart-era sound, Portugal’s Moonspell have enjoyed a career revitalization that is both surprising and deserving. Fact of the matter is, Fernando Ribeiro and co. have taken their fair share of...
Testament – The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast Records)
It seemed like this would never come. Testament have taken almost a decade to produce the follow-up to 1999’s mammoth The Gathering, having endured a cancer scare for Chuck Billy, some lineup shuffles, and eventually...
Zero Hour – Dark Deceiver (Sensory)
A great idea on paper: the combination of over-the-top tech metal ala Cynic, Atheist, et al, with clean, progressive vocals, Zero Hour are now coming dangerously close to perfecting their own indelible brand of...
Septicflesh – Communion (Season of Mist Records)
The holy godfathers of the Greek metal scene (Rotting Christ is a very close second), Sepeticflesh return after a short breakup with Communion. As far as natural dark metal bands go, few are more invigorating or adventurous...
Distorted – Voices From Within (Candlelight Records)
Oddly reminiscent of Amaran, a now-defunct melodic death metal band with clean female vox, Israel’s Distorted are a cool mix of the aforementioned sound and haunting Goth metal. Distorted is a bit more progressive...
Midnattsol – Nordlys (Napalm Records)
erhaps best known for featuring Carmen Elise Espenaeas, the sister of Leaves Eyes’ Liv Kristine, Midnattsol (that’s “midnight sun” in case you were wondering), return after a three year layoff with Nordlys. Quite impressive, this...
Mourning Beloveth – A New Disease For the Ages (Prophecy/Grau)
One of the pillars of the slo-mo doom style, Ireland’s Mourning Beloveth return with A New Disease For the Ages, a vast improvement over the inconsistent A Murderous Circus. Rife with prolonged, sobbing emotional passages, Mourning...
Farmakon – Robin (Candlelight Records)
You know, there are rip-offs, and there are rip-offs. Our Finnish friends Farmakon make little or no effort to prove they are anything but an Opeth tribute band in hiding, with Robin being the ill-begotten follow-up to...
Warrel Dane – Praises to the War Machine (Century Media Records)
Essentially “Nevermore-light,” which for all intents and purposes would be their first, self-titled album, Praises to the War Machine bears the unmistakable mark of one of metal’s last true voices, Warrel Dane. Very much a metal...
Arsis – We Are the Nightmare (Nuclear Blast Records)
Arsis may not quite be Death yet, but if anyone can lay claim to the neo progressive death metal tag for this generation, it would be James Malone and co. Their previous two efforts, 2004’s A...