Power Quest – Master of Illusion (Napalm Records)
You know, there was a time when being anything but menacing in metal was a rather large no-no. No smiles, no good times, and definitely, definitely not any ‘fun’ tunes. That all changed when...
Withered – Folie Circulaire (Prosthetic Records)
The “wall of sound” is a term often bandied about when discussing the rash of post-metal/hardcore/whatever bands that are currently inundating the underground. While excellent bands like Isis, Rosetta, and Cult of Luna have painstaking recreated...
Daylight Dies – Lost To the Living (Candlelight Records)
The missing link between the vaunted classic-era Katatonia sound and modern, morose dark metal, North Carolina’s Daylight Dies are now the full-blown torchbearers of all things doom and gloom. There is plenty of moods...
Heidevolk – Walhalla Wacht (Napalm Records)
Keeping with the theme thus far for 2008 that folk/epic/whatever metal has set up camp in our collective pysche’s, here comes Heidevolk, a band that no doubt are the bottom-dwellers of this style. If...
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...