Cryptik Howling is one of those bands that, for me, falls into the “could be great, but…” section of my record collection. While album number three for this French-Canadian Melodic Black/Death Metal band shows improvement in the songwriting and in their sound, they still have issues with their production. Somebody, either in the band or their studio engineer, decided that they wanted the drums and the vocals to be the two loudest things on the LP. I’m a Metalhead. I like loud guitars. If I wanted to listen to drums, I’d listen to Rap. Cryptik Howling has a good sense for melody, but a lot of it is lost underneath the barrage of snare and bass drums. Things might have worked out okay had the drummer, Benoit Breton, played slower. Like most Death and Black Metal bands, he’s a drummer in the “blast and grind” vein. He rides the snare and double-basses most of the time. The result is that the overly loud snare sounds like a machinegun and the overly loud bass drums sound like a hyperactive kid playing with a light switch. Don’t think I’m laying the blame for all of this on him, though. Unless he was the one that demanded that the drums be super loud, this comes down to the engineer. On the plus side of the equation is that the music is definitely tighter. The guitars are nice and chunky, with a thick bottom-end that gives them heft and brutality. Cryptik Howling was much more Dimmu Borgir styled Black Metal on their previous releases, but the sound on Synthetic Ascension Design is far more Death Metal. The melodic guitar-work of Samuel Pruneau and Sebastien Gagnon is definitely spot-on where they are clearly audible (mostly when Benoit slows down) and the keyboards add plenty of atmosphere. If they can get their production issues (lower the drums, slightly lower the vocals) sorted out, their next album will fucking rule. The music is there already. They have the songs and they have the talent. They probably kick some serious ass in the live setting, too. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for their next release.

Holy hell, Manowar has released so many concert CDs and DVDs (and VHS tapes, back in the mists of time) that I’ve lost count. But I have watched them all over the years, and am proud to say that I’ve been there in person to see the self-professed Kings of Metal perform on several occasions. The band’s energy is absolutely amazing in the live setting, and so is their precision. Naturally, I was eagerly awaiting the release of this EP, with each of its six tracks recorded in a different country on the band’s 2012-13 tour. Other than the first song, “Thunder in the Sky,” everything is from 2012’s excellent The Lord of Steel album. Of course, the group’s many other live albums cover the earlier material, so perhaps it’s not strictly necessary here, but this makes me want to hear the classics. Every night must have been recorded in full, so conceivably a more comprehensive live CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/whatever could be on the way? In any case, sticking with the nearly-single-album theme, where are “Born in a Grave” and “Annihilation”?! Unfortunately, I missed the tour and haven’t seen any set-lists, but if they don’t play those two live… I just don’t get that. Such questions aside, the recording and sound quality on display are absolutely phenomenal, although everything is edited to seem like a single show, with the crowd noise blended from track to track. I like it, but it’s kind of odd to think about, and makes me wonder how much other studio magic was done. There is no way to know by just listening to it that this was recorded separately in Milan, Stockholm, Helsinki, Frankfurt, Moscow, and Prague. If I had to, I’d have guessed it was all from a gig in Italy, since Eric Adams says, to thunderous applause and cheers, “Fuck the world! Hail to Italy!” after the end of “Thunder in the Sky.” I’m not sure if I wish that he’d done that for every city or not. (“Fuck the world! Hail to Elkhart!” -said by no one, ever.) The bottom line is that the only real flaw with this live EP is that 27 minutes of Manowar just isn’t enough.

Ah, a new Yanni album. I haven’t heard Yanni in years. There’s nothing like soothing soundscapes to make my stress flow away. Yeah, Yanni isn’t Metal, but his music works wonders against insomnia. What? This is Burzum? This can’t be Burzum. Varg isn’t this fucking lame, is he? His post-incarceration Metal albums haven’t been all that awesome, but he hasn’t shown any signs of putting flowers in his hair and prancing around the forest with the other Hippies, right? Shit. This is Burzum… Quorthon’s non-Metal stuff was bad, but at least he knew to not use the Bathory name when the music didn’t fit. Varg is probably hoping that the name “Burzum” on the album cover might move a few extra copies. Yes, Varg is back again and apparently his wife is threatening to sell his keyboards on eBay if he doesn’t use them. Sol Austan, Mani Vestan is all instrumental keyboard shit. If you hated Daudi Baldrs and Hildskjalf, you will despise this one, too. Hell, even if you liked those two, chances are that you’ll despise this album. From what I was able to gather from various sources, the music on this LP is actually from the soundtrack of a movie that Varg made with Marie Cachet. The movie, entitled ForeBears, appears to be one of those artsy films that has lots of boring nature footage intermixed with people in furry outfits doing “Pagan” things. If there is more to this than that, please let me know, because from the promotional materials on YouTube, that’s all they showed. Frankly, if the movie is as boring as this LP is, I may just order a copy and stop using Ambien. Sol Austan is about as exciting as watching paint dry. This puts me to sleep faster than a handful of sleeping pills. The most Metal thing about this whole album is the cover art. If it wasn’t for that, I could totally see this on the racks at your local New Age store next to the scented candles and the incense. The only things missing here are the sounds of a flowing stream and some bird noises. This isn’t dark, this isn’t Metal and it certainly isn’t engaging. Welcome to the New Age section of the record store, Varg.

Hell! This is a lot of Iced Earth! Live in Ancient Kourion clocks in at a whopping two hours and twenty minutes of music. When you consider that a live album is usually in the one hour to ninety minute range, this is essentially twice as long as normal. Recorded live in an ancient theater in Cyprus, this massive set covers just about every era of Iced Earth’s lengthy history, from Night of the Stormrider to the present. I was actually surprised that the band was able to pull off a set this lengthy because two hours and twenty minutes is a long time to be playing. From what I’ve seen of the video footage (a DVD version of this is also available), the crowd was wild and crazy the whole time, so they must’ve really been feeding off of the crowd’s energy. As you might imagine from a professionally recorded and released live album, the sound on this is awesome. It’s almost studio quality stuff. While I did enjoy just listening to this, I think the best medium for it is the video version. I’ve heard a lot of live recordings over the years (some of which I recorded myself for local bands) and even though you get a chance to relive the concert through the audio, the combination of the visual and audio portions makes the experience more “real” for me. If you’re a fan of Iced Earth, this should definitely be on your list of things to get. If you’re not a fan, but you’re curious as to how the band sounds, this release can be a serviceable introduction. Since they play songs from pretty much every album, you’ll get a good idea what the band is all about from just this 2xCD release.

By now, everyone must know that Mpire’s main men are former Venom members, the legendary Jeff “Mantas” Dunn, and Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan. They’re joined by the previously unknown (at least to me) drummer Marc Jackson for this collection of almost entirely Venom covers from the D-Man era, consisting of 1989’s Prime Evil, 1991’s Temples of Ice, and 1992’s The Waste Lands. (Are they technically covers if D-Man and Mantas wrote them?) The band had fans pick some, or perhaps all, of the songs they would re-record. “Blackened Are the Priests” is hands-down the best one here. How could it not be? Naturally, there are a few missing that I’d like to hear (and voted for!). “Prime Evil,” for one, is inexplicably nowhere to be found, which is absolutely beyond my comprehension. Mpire of Evil started out named Prime Evil, and it doesn’t take Stephen Hawking to figure out that the oddly spelled Mpire is an anagram of “prime,” so the band is almost still called Prime Evil. Also absent, but should have been included: “Harder Than Ever,” “Tribes” (with it’s excellent starting sample and bass slide!), and “Cursed.” Considering that this is only 42 minutes long, there would have been plenty of room for those and more on a CD. I’ve been informed that the Japanese pressing has two bonus tracks, possibly live covers of “Black Metal” and “Witching Hour.” I’d like to check those out, but they admittedly don’t fit with the D-Man era concept of the rest of the selections. But why re-record these songs at all? Why not simply re-record all three albums in their entirety? Or re-release the originals? From what I understand, these new recordings only exist because there is some type of copyright issue preventing the reissuing of the D-Man era Venom albums. No idea if it’s a problem with record labels, or Venom’s Cronos, or something else entirely, or some combination thereof. In any case, we do get two great “new” songs, that were previously available earlier this year as a very lavishly packaged 7-inch vinyl EP. The Venom re-recordings are fine, I guess, but now that this review is written, although I was excited to hear these new renditions, I’m likely never going to listen to them instead of the original versions, although in some cases they are a little different. Other than for completists (like me), I think that this collection’s real value is for people who don’t have those Venom albums, but for some reason still want to hear these songs, just not badly enough to have ever done anything about it before now. I don’t know who fits that description, but what I do know is that I’ve mentioned Venom quite a lot, and if Mpire of Evil ever wants to be taken seriously as a legitimate band, and not a couple of ex-Venom guys with a drummer-for-hire (Jackson is their second skin-smasher in three years, following none other than Cronos’s little brother Antton) living in the past (their 2011 debut EP, Creatures of the Black, was also almost entirely cover songs, of various bands that time), they need to concentrate on writing new material. That said, I was looking forward to hearing what they’d do with this old stuff, and it’s an interesting enough, enjoyable novelty/nostalgia listen.

Southern Lord classifies this band as “Dark Metallic Hardcore.” I’m not the resident expert on Metalcore (I defer to Jack’s far superior knowledge in that department), but Belgium’s Hessian A.D. [until recently, simply known as Hessian] doesn’t strike me as being a Metalcore band. Maybe the Sunlight Studios production is what does it, but Manegarmr doesn’t sound remotely like anything I classify as Hardcore. When I think of Hardcore, I think of either bands like Minor Threat, Agnostic Front and Sick of It All, or bands like Crass, Discharge or Napalm Death. Hessian A.D. doesn’t sound anything like any of those bands. The fact that Manegarmr was recorded at Sunlight Studios by Thomas Skogsberg should give you a clue as to what this band really sounds like. The next clue is that singer Bram Coussement is a vocal dead ringer for Matti Karki. If your answer was “Old-School Swedish Death Metal,” you’re correct. Yes, Hessian A.D. sounds very much like a band that worships at the altar of Like an Ever Flowing Stream and Left Hand Path. While not as melodic as Entombed or Dismember were, Hessian A.D. does pack a powerful punch. This is some ferocious shit. If, as the press release indicates, this LP was named after the wolf that devours the sun [isn’t that Skoll?], it’s because these guys attack the listener like a pack of hungry wolves. Each track is a short burst of anger and aggression that gets your head banging right away. If this band could capture even half of the brutality and rage that’s on this LP in the live setting, you’re going to be looking at mass casualties coming out of any venue that they play at.

I’ve listened to this EP approximately 666 times, and I’m saddened to report that this is all that I can remember about it: The first two cuts, the title track and “Venial Sin,” are apparently new. There’s a cover of Satyricon’s “Possessed” that has an obnoxiously loud keyboard hit, I guess I’ll call it, at about 1:18 (it’s in the original Satyricon version, too…), which is really jarring and the only noticeable use of keyboards in the song - but that said, it is very well translated into Grave’s style. We’ve also got a “remixed,” shorter version of “Epos,” from last year’s Endless Procession of Souls album. And finally, a re-recorded demo track (“Reality of Life”) written about a quarter-century ago, initially appearing on the 1989 Sexual Mutilation demo, and evidently never deemed worthy to be redone for an album in all this time. Everything may possibly be leftovers from the Endless Procession of Souls recording sessions, which I bring up because I am hoping that they are, and thus not necessarily indicative of whatever Ola and company will do next. Make no mistake, this EP is good, solid Death Metal, and if some unknown band handed it to me, by now I’d be deep into how amazing it is, if not exactly memorable. But this is Grave! Go back and listen to anything from Into the Grave (the perfection!). Or You’ll Never See…. Or …and Here I Die… Satisfied. Or even some of Soulless. Holy fucking HELL. It’s not my fault that Ola set the bar so high that even he can’t reach it anymore. Don’t feel bad, man, very few can or ever could. Morbid Ascent is certainly worth a listen, and I know that I’m being a dick for expecting the Grave of old, but I can’t help it. Hating life 2013.

This is my first exposure to Canada’s Ov Hollowness, but I can immediately tell that Mark R., the sole member of the band, is a huge fan of Burzum. The entirety of The World Ends is the abject worship of Varg’s minimalistic, yet dark, style. While this isn’t an out-and-out clone, you can’t help but see the Burzum influences coming to the fore. The sound on this LP, though, is nothing like what Varg has done before or after his incarceration. While the other worshippers at the altar of Det Som Engang Var prefer the “cold and empty” sound, Ov Hollowness has a slick, bass-heavy production that adds considerable heft to the band’s songs. This is some heavy shit. I mean borderline Doom heavy. As someone who has dabbled in playing the bass guitar, I like that The World Ends both mesmerizes with its near-hypnotic ambience and shakes my fucking walls. Fans of other Burzum-esque bands (Weakling, Wolves in the Throneroom and Chasma, to name a few) will surely enjoy this. The World Ends has definitely made me interested in tracking down the rest of the Ov Hollowness back catalog. I play this LP and Dead As Dreams by Weakling back to back a lot these days. On repeat.

It’s been a while since I’ve heard from Ireland’s Mourning Beloveth, and it isn’t for the lack of trying. I only own two previous releases by this band, the 2001 debut LP, Dust, and its follow-up, The Sullen Sulcus. There have been two other full-length LPs since then, A Murderous Circus (2005) and A Disease for the Ages (2008). They also have a trio of split releases out there, too. Considering how good these guys are, I’m surprised they aren’t on a bigger label. I’d actually like that because their records are kind of hard to find unless you like downloading MP3 files from iTunes or Amazon. Frankly, Mourning Beloveth is as dark and heavy as you’re going to get when it comes to guitar-based Doom/Death Metal. Imagine My Dying Bride or Eye of Solitude, but without keyboards or violins. These guys squeeze a lot of atmosphere and heaviness out of their basic instrumentation. Using varying vocal styles (ranging from the brutal Death Growl to clean) and slow but melodic riffing, Mourning Beloveth has managed to capture an air of anguish and despair that flows throughout the entirety of the first of the two CDs that make up this album. The second disc only contains one track, “Transmissions,” which stands out as an oddball because it is mostly acoustic guitar and vocals. It still has a dark and ominous atmosphere, but it contrasts sharply with the other songs. I consider it to be an outro or a bonus track. It keeps this from perfection because it breaks up the flow of the album, but I don’t consider it a serious detraction. The other five tracks are more than enough to highly recommend this LP if you’re a serious Doom/Death Metal fan.