Falconer - Falconer
Heavy/Power Metal featuring former members of Mithotyn and Dawn. Strong and aggressive guitar melodies backed by impressive double-bass drumming give this release a huge sound. Some songs have a melodic Viking Metal rhythm while others have that galloping pace that fans of Power Metal will definitely appreciate. The vocals may take some getting used to though. Singer Mathias Blad doesn’t have the range of a Michael Kiske or a Hansi Kursch, but he does deliver an energetic effort nevertheless. Recorded in Los Angered studio in November of 2000, the production is outstanding. An excellent debut for Falconer.
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Excommunion - Superion
If it wasn’t for one thing, I would say that Superion is a great CD. It has a powerful sound, the playing is tight and there is brutality and aggressiveness to spare. The problem with this? There isn’t one bit of originality on this whole album. There is so much Morbid Angel on this disc that Trey Azagthoth should be getting royalty checks. Honestly, I thought I had thrown the wrong CD in my player. Superion sounds like a cross between all of the Morbid Angel albums that had David Vincent on them, with an emphasis on the last two. You get the brutality, the speed and the ferocity without Trey’s “I’d kill to be Eddie Van Halen” soloing. If ** Excommunion** had done something to add something to the blatant Morbid Angel worship, I would have rated this a whole lot higher. Even something as simple as blended clean vocals with Death growls could have elevated this above clone status. If you love Morbid Angel to no end and you don’t mind getting more of the same, ** Excommunion** is definitely a band to check out. My advice is to wait for their next album, because truthfully, if you own a couple Morbid Angel CDs, you already have everything you’re going to get from Superion. This is as high as I rate a clone band. I don’t want to sell this band short because the ability is there. They just have to take this to the next level and expand on the foundation they’ve laid down.
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Evoken - Quietus
Fans of Death/Doom rejoice, for Quietus has come! This album brings to mind such Doom perfection as Turn Loose the Swans, Forest of Equilibrium, and Stormcrowfleet. In other words, Death Metal influenced Doom does not get any better than this. Somehow they have managed to improve even on their own Embrace the Emptiness, making this masterpiece truly an all-time classic. Open the vaults!
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Eve to Adam - Auburn Slip
Holy fuck, this is so queer it’s almost beyond belief. I guess it’s supposed to be “Hard” in a really safe, mainstream way, but it’s so surgery and weak, I thought I’d get diabetes if I listened to the entire disc, so for my safety, I had to eject during the fourth track. The rest of the album may be better, but I’d bet against it.
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Evanesce - Sower of Sedition
Sometimes the best stuff is the most difficult to describe. Or, maybe it’s just that I’ve had about seven bottles of NyQuil today. Anyway, this band really covers the range Extreme Metal, often blending everything together at once, vocally and musically. Thrash, Death, Black Metal, and Hardcore - that combination could easily turn into shit in the wrong hands, but Evanesce somehow manages to always find the exact balance of styles necessary to keep this close to perfection. Extremely close.
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Entwine - Gone
A bad Alice in Chains rip off, including an even more annoying singer. Musically this isn’t completely lame, but the hillbilly Butt Rock vocals just destroy everything (in the bad way).
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Enthroned (Belgium) - Armoured Bestial Hell
It’s hard for me to get excited about Black Metal these days, but Norway’s Enthroned have always been firmly planted in their roots, and they have the talent to match the look. Having said that, this LP is fairly decent. All you would expect: speed, buzzsaw guitars, blasphemous shrieking. The playing is a bit shaky in spots, which was a surprise, but mostly this is worthy. Not the greatest material these pioneers have put out, but I suppose the ominous epic “When Hell Freezes Over” has to rank at the top somewhere.
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Enter My Silence - Remotecontrolled Scythe
Stellar, majestic, an absolute gem of a find. Any trouser stain that tells you that the Swedish Death Metal sound has lost its kick needs to listen to this masterpiece repeatedly and then immediately castrate himself in order to prevent reproduction. And for the losers who don’t feel that melody has any place in Death Metal, beat yourselves to death with your Akercocke records, you clueless fucks! Simple melody is the divine strategy Finland’s Enter My Silence employ throughout this magnum opus of heavy-hearted musical mastery. Every single riff, solo, breakdown, and guitar harmony is designed with a compelling, razor-sharp sadness, and the use of dynamics is spine-chilling. Whether it be the swirling riffs of “Six Nothing,” the all-out hopelessness of “Irrelevant,” the pit-inducing start/stop precision of “Loss of the Leading One,” or the intoxicatingly euphoric chorus of the album’s power closer, “Mindfill Effect,” this album crushes non-stop. Oh, and the vocals? The perfect tormented scream with just the right touch of depth. This gets my undisputed vote for the best Metal record of 2001. I think that pretty much sums up how I feel.
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Ensoph - Bleeding Womb of Ananke
Post Black Metal, Goth/Industrial goofiness, complete with the most limp-wristed vocals and wimpy keyboards you’ve ever heard.
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