Deathwitch - Monumental Mutilations
Continuing to get just a little more Death Metal influenced with each release, Deathwitch returns with a revamped line up and not a bad effort. You know, it’s not that I don’t like really fast stuff, it’s that only a handful of bands - just the very best ones - can make the super-speed stuff memorable, so that’s why when a band like this slows things down a little, they seem to get better. On another note, I don’t have the lyrics, so I can’t be sure (I would have checked them if I could have), but I think they rhyme “fire,” “higher,” “desire,” “liar,” “pyre,” and “gay porn buyer.” I had hoped that all bands worldwide had stopped that sort of thing by now. But, anyway, this is pretty intense, and does continue with their improvement.
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Dead Silent Slumber - Entombed in the Midnight Hour
Naglfar main-man Jens Ryden’s solo project, DSS combines Death, and Thrash with some modern Black Metal vibe and slick keyboards. It’s a good hybrid, and expertly executed. Also, very impressive if Jens really did do everything himself.
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Daylight Torn - Death Alone from Life Can Save
Sad and depressing, but not in a crushing Doom kind of way, more like a Metalized version of The Cure with both male and female vocals, that for once don’t compete, but rather compliment each other. There are a few Rock inspired riffs that I could have done without, and drag things down a touch, but for the most part, this is pretty damn good.
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Darzamat - In the Opium of Black Veil
This is the latest release by Poland’s Darzamat and like their previous work, this is still very much in the Symphonic Black Metal vein. This release sees Darzamat going from a three-piece to a five-piece band with live drums and a guy who does all the guitar and bass work on this album. Previously, the keyboardist, Simon (aka Darzamath) did everything, though he and the singer still write all the music. This album sees some progression but is essentially more of what you got before only better. This is only a five song affair but is worth looking out for if you can find it. Most likely it will be part of the 2 CD box set called Seven Golden Fires, which compiles the first album and this EP together. Why Faithless decided to do this is a mystery as I believe Darzamat is still around, but I’m not complaining as the music is really good.
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Darkthrone - Ravishing Grimness
This album was hyped as a “return to form” for Darkthrone. When I heard that, I wondered to myself, “Did they pull out their old Autopsy shirts and start worshipping Swedish Death Metal a-la Entombed’s Left Hand Path again?” Most people don’t remember Soulside Journey’s blatant Entombed worship, but I do. Hell, I still listen to that album! But this isn’t a return to it. This is just a continuation of the direction that they were headed with their last several releases. The production is better and the guitar tones are thicker than the old lo-fi Black Metal days of Under a Funeral Moon and A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The songs themselves are still in the same vein as the older stuff. If you played the new stuff and compared it to stuff from, say Transylvanian Hunger, you would generally find the same style of structures and patterns in the music. If you love Darkthrone, then you’ll love this album to no end. If you think Darkthrone sucks big fat donkey dicks, then this album won’t change your mind. At least they aren’t trying to be Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson like so many other Norse bands these days!
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Darkmoon - Seas of Unrest
This is album number 2 for US Epic Black Metal warriors Darkmoon and their debut for Music for Nations. I’m not sure about this but I also believe that there are former members of Demonic Christ (who released an album on Moribund Records a couple years back) in Darkmoon as well. Unlike most American Black Metal bands, this one doesn’t blatantly ape the styles of the more successful European (Norway or Sweden, mostly) acts. There are a variety of influences on here, ranging from a little Cradle of Filth, Emperor and more than a little Death Metal here and there. The epic feeling is mostly derived from the use of keyboards and the atmosphere they generate gives the songs much more intensity. The guitars are mostly buried underneath the keys, which isn’t a crime, but Darkmoon occasionally stops the keyboard and lets the guitars loose. The combination results in a really good blend of styles that works well for these guys.
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Dark Tranquillity - Projector
This retains a little aggression and rage, but I think that DT have wandered away from their past, towards almost a Progressive Metal direction. This can be great, but despite their obvious ability, it also seems to miss its mark just as often, leaving the album sounding confused.
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Danzig - 6:66 Satan’s Child
I’m not a huge fan of Glenn Danzig’s solo work. That’s the honest truth. I don’t have any of his previous albums - I’ve heard them, I just don’t have them. I haven’t bought an album that he sang on since Samhain. So what made me spend close to $20 on this new one? I’m not sure. It wasn’t the cover. Yeah, it looks cool but it ain’t Petagno or Giger. It wasn’t the famous Glenn Danzig name. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t even the fact that it had 666 in the album title. Something about this just grabbed me and I wasn’t able to put it down. Being one to trust my own instincts, I bought it. And I wasn’t disappointed. Danzig’s 6th full-length release is a beast worthy of the name Satan’s Child. It has just enough hard-driving Metal guitars, gloomy Gothic atmosphere, distorted Industrialized effects and plain old-fashioned memorability to make this one stick in your head and inside your CD player. Gothic people, take note. This is as dismal as the inside of a coffin. Metalheads, if you like your music dark and heavy, this one might just be for you.
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Daeonia - Craven
Gothic Death Rock. This has its somewhat more Metal moments, and it’s well played, but I’m having a hard time getting really excited about it.
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