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...
Wetnurse – Invisible City (Seventh Rule Recordings)
Amidst the potpourri of disparate sounds, elements, and little ditties that make Invisible City a next-to-impossible album to classify, is an underlying Voivod influence, one that instantly made this scribe stand up, put down the Cheetos,...
Mouth of the Architect – Quietly (Translation Loss)
We’re really starting to get hazy with all of this metalgaze stuff. For what Neurosis started and Cult of Luna and Isis picked up on is now being beaten to death by Rosetta, Ghost...
Nefastus Dies – Urban Cancer (Candlelight Records)
A red flag on this one went up almost immediately after learning members of Ion Dissonance were involved. Not to say ID is a bad band per se, but man, if Urban Cancer were to be...
Metal Church – This Present Wasteland (SPV)
Album #3 with singer Ronny Munroe, This Present Wasteland harkens more to the workmanlike, uninteresting era of Metal Church than its exploratory, challenging efforts of yore. While 2006’s A Light in the Dark was pleasantly strong, This Present Wasteland kinda...
Into Eternity – The Incurable Tragedy (Century Media Records)
The now very-ubiquitous Into Eternity continue to steadily climb the ladder, going against the grain with a brand of cerebral and uncanny metal that is this close to catching on. 2006’s The Scattering of Ashes got plenty of...
Soulfly – Conquer (Roadrunner Records)
As a former card-carrying member of the Sepultura Fan Club, this scribe’s affinity for Soulfly lasted about a week in 1998, as Fred Durst’s impotent raps on “Bleed” wore thin about as quickly as...
Hammerfall – Rebels With A Cause DVD (Nuclear Blast Records)
Hearing a lot from the Hammerfall camp these days, which is both a good and bad thing. Good, in the sense Rebels With A Cause is a pretty fun watch; bad because the band must, must...
Therion – Live Gothic (Nuclear Blast Records)
Not on the scale of 2006’s massive Celebrators of Becoming 4-DVD, 2-CD set, Live Gothic is scaled down to two discs and a DVD of the live show. Shot during the band’s Gothic Kaballah tour in early 2007 in Warsaw, Poland,Live Gothic serves...