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| There are 950 Reviews Done |
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Mercenary - 11 Dreams
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| Denmark's finest melodeath |
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When Mercenary released 11 Dreams in 2004, they set a standard within the Danish metal scene that no other band could accomplish. At the Danish Metal Awards 2004 they won in the following categories: Album of the year - Vocalists of the year (Mikkel Sandager, clean vocals - Kral, growls, shouts) - Guitar player of the year (Martin Buus, lead guitar) and they came in 2nd in the category Live band of the year.
Is all this praise justified then? The answer is one huge YES!
Eventhough their previous album Everblack from 2002 showed a band playing atmospheric melodeath with creativity and brutality, 11 Dreams took all that and added so much more of everything. More melody, more heavyness, more atmospheric keyboards (done brilliantly by Morten Sandager, brother of Mikkel) and to top all that off, 11 Dreams comes with a production so perfectly done. This is really Jacob Hansen's (HateSphere, Dawn of Demise and others) best produced album ever.
Every song on here goes in a different direction, yet they all offer something new to the album, be it the crushing and vicious manifesto of World Hate Center, the precisely layered guitars in 11 Dreams, or simply Firesoul; the song that will show you why Mikkel Sandager is one of the best clean vocalists in Denmark. From brutality to soft spots, because Mercenary master this perfectly as well. Sharpen The Edges begins as a ballad, but halfway turns into a more gloomy and dark, almost black metal'ish piece. Mercenary even dared to put a pop song cover in. Music Non Stop was originally done by the Swedish band Kent, but Mercenary has really spiced it up and added their personal metal touch to it.
11 Dreams ends in the most epic way one can imagine; Loneliness is a majestic song, powerful but at the same time sad without being a ballad.
How Mercenary with 11 Dreams have managed to create such a perfect album is beyond me. There is something for every metal fan here, and I dare procaiming this Album of the decade 2000-2009.
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0 of 1 found this review helpful |
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Putrid Inbred - Scavenger
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| Strange in every way.... |
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I must admit I had a great laugh the first few minutes after receiving this album. One of the things I do when I get my hands on a new album is to check the track list, simply to get an idea of what to expect. And this ‘cookbook for cannibals’ really made me wonder if this debut from Belgian Putrid Inbred is to be taken serious?
The music itself reflects the track list brilliantly. Dark, gore-like death metal that contrasts heavily with the well-balanced production. And what really shines through is their use of double growling vocalists, Peutie and Steven. One doing what I would call normal death metal growl and the other that adds some weird guttural eee-eee ooo-ooo grunting. I have no idea what it’s there for, it does absolutely nothing but annoy.
The only reason I gave them such a high grade (2.5/5) is the frivolous track list (“Clit Kebab” being my favourite) that you can nothing but laugh at, and also as mentioned above the production done by Kris Belaen (In Quest, Ataraxie and others) that really tries to make the songs seem interesting. But sadly it can’t save the day for this really boring album.
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1 of 1 found this review helpful |
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Svartsot - Ravnenes Saga
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| Dark viking-themed folk metal |
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This isn't folk metal like Korpiklaani or Ensiferum, it's not viking themed like Amon Amarth. Svartsot are really their own and what they've released here is fantastic.
Ravnenes Saga has a dark, brutal sound while at the same time the flute, which is the only folk element here, adds so much depth, happiness and the right mood for every song.
In my opinion, this is folk metal in a whole new way, and everyone should give it a spin or more.
Highly recommended!
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0 of 1 found this review helpful |
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Svartsot - Ravnenes Saga
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| Dark viking-themed folk metal |
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This isn't folk metal like Korpiklaani or Ensiferum, it's not viking themed like Amon Amarth. Svartsot are really their own and what they've released here is fantastic.
Ravnenes Saga has a dark, brutal sound while at the same time the flute, which is the only folk element here, adds so much depth, happiness and the right mood for every song.
In my opinion, this is folk metal in a whole new way, and everyone should give it a spin or more.
Highly recommended!
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0 of 1 found this review helpful |
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Dismember - Dismember
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| Solid, but a bit trivial |
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Dismember’s self-titled album could be described as ‘Arch Enemy meets Soulreaper together with Amon Amarth’ (music-wise). It’s 20+ years since they were founded, but if they have become a bit rusty over the years, they certainly hide it well. They show no sign of slowing down and their will to play is still high.
Already on the album opener “Death Conquers All” we witness a band that in addition to playing fast also belongs to one of the pioneers on the Swedish metal scene, and most of the material found on Dismember is something heard before. Like many other Swedish death metal bands Dismember began implementing a bit more melody during the 90’s. But since then they haven’t crossed much new territory, but sticking to what they know will work. The melodic is mostly shown in “Under a Blood Red Sky”, and, this is where the Arch Enemy inspiration truly comes alive. It’s easy to compare the second half of this song with Michael Amott’s lead parts on Stigmata. “No Honor in Death” is the contrary to everything else on the album. Dark, slow and as tough as rowing across the Atlantic in severe contrary wind. Songs like this usually ticks in at 6-8 minutes, but as this is only 3 minutes long, I feel it really doesn’t start before it ends.
Dismember aint groundbreaking at all as the majority of the songs offer very little variation. Still they are so well played and it saves the album from being just another anonymous trash/death metal release.
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1 of 3 found this review helpful |
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Ensiferum - Victory Songs
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| Victory Songs |
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Finnish viking/folk metal masters Ensiferum return with their third full length album “Victory Songs”. This album is the first full length to feature new vocalist/guitarist Petri Lindroos (ex-Norther) who replaces Jari Mäenpää, who left to form Wintersun.
Ensiferum start off with the introductory track Ad Victoriam, which has the usual epic qualities that you would expect a band like Ensiferum to come out with. Anyone who has heard the track Ferrum Aeternum from their previous album “Iron” knows what to expect here.
The second track (and the first true song of this album), Blood Is The Price Of Glory, comes in right away with a massive kick to the balls that you’re going to feel for the rest of the song, as this song starts off incredibly intense and doesn’t let up all. Easily one of the best fast-paced songs Ensiferum have ever written.
Deathbringer From The Sky comes next, and while it still stays along the faster route, it is unfortunately nowhere near as intense or memorable as Blood Is The Price Of Glory. This track just doesn’t really go anywhere for me, which is a shame.
Going ahead to Ahti, this song is a short piece about Ahti, who is the god of the seas according to Finnish mythology. This track also takes a faster and heavier route, but there is more of Ensiferum’s folk metal influences prevalent, which I feel mixes in well with the lyrical theme of the song.
One More Magic Potion is next, and this is definitely the most catchiest track on this album. On this song Ensiferum effectively combines folk and viking effectively to make what I consider to be the most fun and uplifting song on “Victory Songs”. Try listening to it and not feeling extremely happy at any stage of the song, that’s an extremely difficult task.
Track six is called Wanderer, and this is where we start to see Ensiferum’s epic side start to kick into action. This track is definitely the slowest so far (excluding the intro) but it also happens to be the most epic and inspirational song on the album. Ensiferum haven’t really done a full-blown epic song quite like this before (the closest is the first half of Lai Lai Hei or Finnish Medley) but this shows they’re obviously capable of such songs. I hope to hear more tracks like these from Ensiferum in the future.
Raised By The Sword comes next, and while this track returns to the faster side of Ensiferum’s music, I consider this to be a hit and miss track. It has its moments, but not enough of them for me to consider this to be one of Ensiferum’s better songs.
A New Dawn is another fast track along the lines of Blood Is The Price Of Glory, but definitely not as good. This song is still quite good on its own and likable enough, but it is by no means my favourite song on this album.
The final track on the standard edition of “Victory Songs” is called Victory Song. This song generally takes the same approach as Wanderer does, but it still incorporates everything you could want in a song like this. Victory Song is the longest track on this album at over ten minutes long but there’s no filler anywhere, just pure unadulterated epic metal.
On the digipack version of “Victory Songs” there is also a bonus cover song of Uriah Heep’s Lady In Black. Even though this cover and the original musically sound the same, what is most prevalent about this cover is how incredibly well the song mixes with the folk/viking metal that Ensiferum performs while also giving it a more metal edge. Anyone who enjoyed Wanderer and Victory Song will definitely enjoy this song.
While this album has a couple of less than excellent songs on it, I still consider this to be an excellent Ensiferum album. With the different types of songs on this album and the variety that offers, there’s definitely something here for everyone to enjoy.
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3 of 4 found this review helpful |
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Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
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| An Album Which Defies Any Genre Label |
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Dimmu borgir has been known for bringing hate filled lyrics, death vocals that scare kids and symphonies that sound like theyre straight out of the exorcist. But with this release they have toned it down a little and use alot more melody. This is why it is personally one of my favorite death/black metal albums. The blend of the 50 piece orchestra augments the brilliant production of this truly dark work. Abbath from Immortal performs vocals on tracks 2 and 11 quite well. Great sound, great quality, great lyrics. Black metal for a new age.
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3 of 4 found this review helpful |
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Arch Enemy - Wages Of Sin
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| Death metal with a woman's touch! |
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Wages of Sin...What to say about this melodic power/death masterpiece. We will start with Angela. With this album, AE bring a new vocalist to the frontlines. Angela dispells all concern of a female vocalist by dry-barking and growling throughout 100% of the album. Now we come to the Amott brothers. These two are some of the best lead players in all of metal! Almost anyone can play really fast scales with no feeling or personality, but the Amott brothers play the most emotional, techinical I've ever heard.
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3 of 4 found this review helpful |
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Anata - Conductor's Departure, The
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| Amelodic technical death |
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Anata throw something new into the death metal field, priding themselves on tecnical and inventive tracks that make them downright fascinating. 'The Conductor's Departure' epitomises this perfectly, the album is laden with supremely technical death metal, with tracks such as 'Downward Spiral Into Madness' make you stand up and take notice. This record screams with piercingly skilled riffs and an awe-inspired technicality that make this album so desirable.
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1 of 2 found this review helpful |
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Abysmal Dawn - From Ashes
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| Solid death metal debut |
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Blistering Modern Death Metal. The production isn't so over the top that it doesnt even sound like humans performed the music, but not underproduced either. Abysmal Dawn offers up an impressive debut with From Ashes. I expect nothing but big things to come from this band.
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0 of 1 found this review helpful |
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