Archive for the ‘ Metal ’ Category
August Burns Red has consistently provided unique, fist-pumping metalcore. After 3 awesome albums, I was starting to think they couldn’t miss. Unfortunately with Leveler, something changed, and they really disappointed me with this one. Their sound changed for the worse, while still staying somewhat true to their style. It’s hard to explain – it’s all there, but something is missing.
6.5/10
Unearth’s newest album, Darkness In The Light, has been out for a little while now. Right off the bat I was very impressed. This album has significantly more shredding then any of their previous albums. It is without a doubt true to the classic Unearth style, but with some better song composition and more melodic and technical riff-age.
8/10
New Unearth Album, Darkness in the Light, is being released on July 5.
New Children of Bodom album was released recently, “Relentless Reckless Forever”. COB Website
Arch Enemy’s newest album, Khaos Legions, was released on June 30. Arch Enemy tour also announced, Calgary date confirmed on September 19th.
New Insomnium album to be released this fall. They currently have two new songs available for download, or watch a video here of ‘Weather the Storm’ featuring Michael Stanne from Dark Tranquillity.
There’s probably more but that’s all I got.
The much anticipated Sylosis album ‘Edge of the Earth’ has been released and I must say I am damn impressed. They also just released a music video for their first single from the album titled ‘Empyreal’. It took a couple listens but this album has already grown on me. Since their lineup changes I have been skeptical, and although I probably wouldn’t rate this album quite as high as ‘Conclusion of an Age’, I would still say it is fairly close. 8.5/10.
Darkest Hour has had some ups and downs for me. Their first few albums weren’t so good in my opinion, and then ‘Undoing Ruin’ came out, greatly influencing my whole metal(core) perspective. After that, ‘Deliver Us’ was their next album and similarly blew my mind. It didn’t have quite the same influence on me but was a great album nonetheless. Then, Kris Norris left the band and I lost all interest. Their last album ‘The Eternal Return’ was released in ’09 and I gave it a quick skim and never listened to it again. Now, here we are and Darkest Hour hasn’t really entered my mind (or my ears) in at least a solid year. I kind of assumed they would quietly disband and all go separate ways. Without Kris Norris it is hard to imagine they can come out with anything that will compare to Undoing Ruin.
With that said, their newest effort will be released to the public on February 22nd. They have released one track which can be listened to on their Myspace. It sounds pretty good but I am not getting excited.
After waiting endlessly, Sylosis has finally announced the release date for their next album, as well as the artwork, track listing, a new website and a sample song.
The new track is classic Sylosis with crazy melody, shredding and everything we have come to love about them – with one exception. As we know, their previous vocalist Jamie left the band and the lead guitarist (Josh) has taken over. I am not opposed to his vocals, but something is definitely missing. Jamie had more range and and an awesome singing voice as well. I will hold judgment until the I hear the rest of the album but so far it seems like the album will not be able to surpass Conclusion of an Age. Although to be fair that is essentially impossible anyway.
Check out their new website http://www.sylosis.com/
Over and out.
The new album by The Absence has been out for a couple months now. After some extensive listening I have to give this album a 8.5/10. The Absence continues to blow me away and basically define what I consider perfect metal. One cool thing The Absence did on this album was hold a contest for anyone willing to submit a guest solo to be featured in an instrumental track. The Absence provided the backing track to the public and got thousands of submissions from random people. The winner did an amazing job, as you can review for yourself in the track “Solace” between approximately 0:53 and 1:30 if you get the album.
I did notice this album seems to be a bit slower pace than their last. The tempos have decreased in speed a bit, making everything seem a little more melodic. I’m also always disappointed when bands have full track intros and outros, which The Absence seems to love doing, so a heads up that this album claims to be 11 tracks but is basically 8 when considering the intro, outro and instrumental in the middle. That just kind of pisses me off too much to give it any higher of a score.
My buddy told me about this a while ago but I thought I would post it up on here. Austrian Death Machine is a “band” comprised solely of As I Lay Dying‘s Tim Lambesis, who does the guitars and bass, while using a computer program for the drums. He also does the vocals, which includes frequent imitations of Arnold Schwarzenegger using golden lines from his movies.
If you haven’t figured it out, the whole thing is basically a joke. It’s decent metal though, and features guest guitarists in a bunch of songs for the solo parts. Some of the best songs include “Get To The Choppa!”, “You Have Just Been Erased”, “If It Bleeds We Can Kill It”, and “I Need Your Clothes, Your Boots and Your Motorcycle”. Check out Austrian Death Machine HERE.
Just terrible news if you ask me. Jamie has parted ways with the band. Sylosis has not yet announced who will be replacing Jamie but I sure hope it is someone with similar chops. This means more delays for their new album which is obviously disappointing for me. I suspect the bulk of the actual song composition is done by guitarist Josh, so hopefully not much will change.
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As for Jamie, he appears to manage his own record label out of the UK – http://www.siegeofamida.net
All Shall Perish is a super brutal (and I mean brutal in a good way) metal band from California, known mostly for their ridiculous shredding and sweeping Rusty Cooley-esque riffs. Which is why I didn’t know what to think when I heard Chris Storey left, who happens to be the man behind the shredding.
Well from what I’ve seen, the guy replacing Chris can definitely hold his own. Even better yet, All Shall Perish is coming to Calgary in August and I will definitely be there. Their song ‘Black Gold Reign’ from the album Awaken The Dreamers is probably one of my favorite songs of 2009.
That is all.
