The Agonist – Lullabies For the Dormant Mind (Century Media Records)
Gotta hand it to the Agonist: they've taken a now very familiar template (cute female singer + metalcore) and turned it into something more expansive, slightly deranged, far more off-the-cuff than one would expect. Their 2007 debut, Only Once...
Ignominious Incarceration – Of Winter Born (Earache Records)
Less than three years old as a band, British death metal-heads Ignominious Incarceration are already unleashing their debut album through Earache. That sets the standard pretty high before the play button’s even been pressed,...
Samael – Above (Nuclear Blast Records)
Did not see this one coming, even with just about every other band from the mid-90’s going through a late-career, old sound discovery. Samael have always done their own thing, whether it be the...
Isole – Silent Ruins (Napalm Records)
Fresh off last year’s melo-doom stroke of brilliance Bliss of Solitude, Swedish doom merchants Isole waste no time in giving us a follow-up in the form of Silent Ruins. Whereas Bliss of Solitude was clearly the most ethereal...
Kylesa – Static Tensions (Prosthetic Records)
Always a critics choice, Kylesa continue to make us all look good with Static Tensions. The band’s amalgam of stoner, sludge, and doom has become even more formidable, with a batch of songs here that...
Throne of Katarsis – Helvete – Det Iskalde Mørket (Candlelight Records)
Don’t know about you, but seasonal depression isn’t made any easier with albums like this. The snow, the ice, the wind, the horror…one can only imagine with our friends in Scandinavia have to endure...
God Forbid – Earthsblood (Century Media Records)
To be frank, Earthsblood rubbed this scribe the wrong way right off the bat. Not by sheer annoyance or anything (we’ll reserve that for any band with “core” in their description), it’s just that GF has...
Deathspell Omega – Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum – Chaining the Katechon (Anja Offensive)
Fuckin’ reckless, man. That’s the new Deathspell Omega EP for ya. Shunning every idea that black metal is fully controlled entity, the Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum - Chaining the Katechon EP is a one-song 22-minute...
Séance – Awakening of the Gods (Pulverised Records)
A reformation that is long overdue, Swedish death/thrashers Séance are best known for former rhythm guitarist Patrick, who is currently cutting his teeth in the Haunted and Witchery. Since we just mentioned Witchery, it’s...
Avantasia – Lost In Space Part 1 & 2 (Nuclear Blast Records)
2008 was a breakout year for Tobias Sammet’s Avantasia project, perhaps forcing the Edguy frontman to put more of an onus on something was considered nothing more than an outlet for Sammet’s extra curricular...