Reviews written by: Colin McNamara

Reviews

Og Tegnet/Rotting In An Open Field- Into An Eternal Dawn

Og Tegnet took the time to split his work with fellow Hippie Records labelmate Rotting In An Open field. Both perform a similar style of black metal, but Rotting has a more atmospheric style to their sound rather than the bleak, necro lo-fi black metal that Og Tegnet produces. The first six tracks are performed by Og Tegnet and the last six are by...

05/06/2010

Hyperial - Sceptical Vision

Hyperial are a death metal band from poland with symphonic elements mixed in. Formed in 2006 the group had no trouble picking up Psycho Records as a label after their short, but strong demo. Here, with Sceptical Vision the band hammers away with the brutality of a band like Deicide, but also has lush layers of beauty mixed in, thanks to the synth....

29/05/2010

Kna'an - First Impressions

Kna'an are a melodic death metal band out of Israel who profess religious callings in their music, but it isn't out to slander or beat it down with brutal melodies. Instead, the group focuses more on the Christian and Jewish literature around the Bible without being so black and white about the situation. While some bands blatantly title their trac...

29/05/2010

Sercati - The Night Stalker

Sercati are a Belgium black metal band who perform lo-fi black metal. With their second demo, <em>The Night Stalker</em> is certainly low in production and very raw, but it comes to a point where it becomes so raw that it isn't easy to listen to. The opening track is a long keyboard piece that sounds like something Mortiis used to create. It's very...

29/05/2010

Mortemia - Misere Mortem

Mortemia is the side project of Sirenia mastermind, Morten Veland. He does all the instrumentation on the album- guitars, drums, keyboard, vocals... everything. Similar to his other gothic metal band, Mortemia features plenty of lush orchestrations and melodic guitar work. However, there is one key aspect that sets Mortemia aside from Sirenia, and...

29/05/2010

Walken - Walken

Walken are a thrash metal band from San Francisco in the U.S. who have been around for some time. They've been quiet for the past five years or so since their debut album in 2004, releasing a few scattered self-released EPs here and there but keeping under the radar until recently. Their latest offering is their self titled album which offers a lot...

29/05/2010

Morbifer - Moroi

Extreme necro black metal band Morbifer formed in 2006 and in 2009 put out their debut. With only two members in the band (with session drummers in between), they perform a raw, twisted music with a fascination on vampires and other evil things that go bump in the night. The production on the album is very raw and static laden, creating that cold,...

28/05/2010

Nebiros - Komando666

Komando666 was originally self-released in 2005, but Nebiros connected with Fallen Angel Records (a section of Rerdum666) who re-released the demo on their label. There hasn't been any changes since the original save that there's a label name now on it; it is still the same raw, speed driven black metal that Nebiros always performs. Much of the mus...

28/05/2010

Soul Snatcher - Pylons Of Dispersion/Azazel

Soul Snatcher are a brutal death metal band from Poland who originally released <em>Pylons of Dispersion</em> in 2007 before re-releasing it with a very short addition of the <em>Azazel</em> EP. The music from the original has no changed, but it's just as heavy and dark as the original. Sporting plenty of blast beats and gutteral growls, it is the...

28/05/2010

Torture Eternal - Mentally Killed Before The Birth

Torture Eternal have been split up for some time; their only full length album, <em>Mentally Killed Before Birth</em>, was originally self-released in 2005. Four years later Redrum666 released it again, shedding some light on this relatively unknown brutal death metal band. There hasn't been anything new added to the album since its re-release, jus...

28/05/2010

Van Canto - Tribe Of Force

Van Canto are a very unique metal band because they aren't really metal. There are no guitars involved, no bass, no synth, and the music isn't even brutal or heavy. Only the drums are the real instrument. Everything else is done vocally- 5 vocallist to be exact. The best way to describe Van Canto would be 'power a-capella.' It's revolutionary in th...

28/05/2010

Gallileous - Equideus

Gallileus are a funeral doom metal band from Poland who create mounrful tunes with plenty of conviction and no crushing fuzziness. The music is bleak, but not as bleak as some funeral doom bands are such as EA or Somnolent. One can still retain a slight sense of sanity while hearing Gallileus's style. While this may be an EP, the fact it is a lengt...

27/05/2010