Enslaved – Vertebrae (Nuclear Blast Records)
The great thing about Enslaved Mach II is that they’re toying with us and laughing all the way to the golden halls of Valhalla. Actually no, they abandoned that Viking nonsense for something more...
Gamma Ray – Hell Yeah! The Awesome Foursome (SPV Records)
Kai Hansen and the gang keep rolling, just like their now partners in crime, Helloween. The two are forever linked, but let’s just focus on Gamma Ray at the time being and their marvelous...
Obituary – Left to Die EP (Candlelight Records)
Rejuvenated after their signing with Candlelight for last year’s Xecutioner’s Return album, long-running Florida death metallers Obituary hit us with another slab of no-frills death metal in the form of the Left To Die EP. Consisting of two songs,...
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...