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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is album number two for this all-female Goth Rock band and once again, they give us some fairly gloomy (or is that spooky?) guitar-based Goth. The weird thing about this album and any other release by this band is that I always find it in the Metal section of any record store I go to. This is not Metal. This is Goth. If I wanted to listen to Goth, I would look in the Goth section. Once again, we have another band being marketed to the wrong people. I found myself comparing them to bands such as The Shroud or Switchblade Symphony quite a lot and the comparisons are quite valid. These ladies sound a lot like their peers. I guess the Goth sound is fairly derivative to some extent and though the songs are good, give Switchblade or The Shroud a spin and you will find that you could stick a cut by Cybele on one of their CDs and not even notice the difference. The fact that these ladies are from Norway has little bearing on the fact that they could be from the Bay Area (where the previously mentioned Shroud and Switchblade are from) and nobody would notice the difference in their sound. I’m not saying that this band sucks. They just sound so derivative that there is virtually nothing that distinguishes them from others of their kind.

This seems to be a lot better than their Brightly Blackhearted album, but this all female Goth Rock band still bores me to tears. And much to the dismay of whoever wrote their press release, this is anything but “a fine blend of Swans, Dead Can Dance, and Type O Negative.” Maybe they just don’t understand what makes those bands good.

An album like this can only come from Japan. Of all the people out there, the Japanese seem to be the only ones that can play raw, dirty, ugly-ass Thrash Metal like they did back in the early ’80s and still capture the feeling of the period. Of course, when you consider the fact that this band is composed of members of Sigh and Abigail (Japanese Black Metal Yakuza!), this comes as no surprise. The sound on this is so raw that if it were a steak, it would still be mooing. I’m generally not a fan of production this raw but for whatever reason, it works for Cutthroat. I seriously don’t think a band like this can have slick, polished sound. Rape Rape Rape is released in only 500 copies so if you want it, don’t wait around.

You know what? After reviewing the Monumentum demo repress (Musaeum Hermeticum - out on Necropolis Records), I had to wonder, did these guys just pick up where that demo left off? I’m pretty sure that one of the members of Cultus Sanguine was once part of Monumentum. In a way, if you listen to the Monumentum demo and then listen to this, it almost sounds like the same band. Monumentum became more symphonic and keyboard-heavy (though containing similar feelings), but Cultus Sanguine is more guitar driven, with the keyboards taking a back seat. This is not to say that the keyboards are not an integral part of this band’s sound. They add atmosphere and flourish but they never overpower the guitars. This is Gothic Metal with the emphasis on Gothic rather than Metal. There is still plenty of Metal in this, creating a solid foundation for their other influences to build on. There are places on this when Cultus Sanguine get heavy and brutal, but these places are always tempered with somber atmospheric parts. Don’t listen to this if you get depressed easily. Trust me, you’ll end up slashing your own wrists.

While I’m not a huge fan of big Power Metal riffs, I must admit that Crematory’s approach is different enough to make it seem fresh sounding. Excellent blending of keyboard parts and occasional melodic vocals with standard Metal guitars and Death lead vocals. End result, an interesting, if not overwhelming listening experience. I’m not sure who they’re trying to appeal to, but I wish them luck.

More or less Dead and Gone with a new singer, C on C retain a bit of their sludgy style, but mostly just their intensity, and crank things up a little, keeping it speedy. It’s a weird style to explain, that the press release describes as being “reminiscent of Jesus Lizard.” I’ll have to take their word on that one, but this is an entertaining listen.

This is fairly passable Speed/Thrash, until the horrible vocals start. This geek-with-delusions-of-grandeur always tries to shout way too fast, and so that strains him well beyond his limits and has him, at beast, sounding ridiculous. But that’s not even the real problem. No, what totally ruins what would otherwise be an okay Thrash attack, is when Cranium’s “singer” starts screeching like a little kid being mauled by a pit bull. Okay, the lyrics are funny (occasionally stupid), and the music is generally not bad (although 100% by-the-numbers - and sometimes just as goofy as the vox), but I just can’t stand this kind of queerbait vocal delivery anymore, and that makes this very difficult to listen to.

The Anathema cover (“Sleepless”) makes sense in an insane sort of way, but I’m still having trouble grasping the concept of these blasphemers covering The Misfits’ “Death Comes Ripping.” And even more absolutely insane (considering Kam Lee’s religious beliefs and all [Kam had a pro-god period, but I think eventually regained his senses. -Editor]) is their cover of Massacre’s awesome “Dawn of Eternity.” The other two (yes, even The Misfits, believe it or not) covers come off pretty well, but somehow “Dawn…” doesn’t translate very well into this style. Maybe it would have helped to have listened to Dethronement’s version of this classic to see how it should have been done. As for the original material on here, it’s the epic, highly polished Black Metal you’ve come to expect, which is to say it’s fairly awesome.

A word of advice to “bands” of Conqueror’s “caliber.” Learning to play your instruments, as time-consuming as the process may be, will definitely result in a more enjoyable listening experience for both band and audience. One last helpful tip: using more than a single $6 GPX microphone to record all the instruments at once just might produce a higher sound quality. Perhaps an after school part-time job is the ticket.

This is the debut album for Canada’s Conqueror, and much like their fellow countrymen, Blasphemy, these guys play ugly-ass Black Grinding Death Metal. The similarities to Blasphemy are all over the place. The riffs are primitive as fuck, the guitars are tuned down real low and the drumming is just one long blast beat. The only real difference between this band and Blasphemy is the fact that Conqueror uses some strange vocal effects every now and then. I liked the split CD that they did with Black Witchery, but I think this style is a bit too monotonous for a full-length album. Face it, blast-beat drumming and noisy guitars get boring after a while. In fact, I think the split CD had better production! This one has guitars that are noisy and so buried underneath the snare drum that you can barely make anything out. In effect, you’re listening to a drum solo that lasts for 10 songs and never really changes. What Conqueror really needs to do is change things up a bit. Blast-beats are nice but 45 minutes of constant blast-beating is boring. This whole album sounded like ten different versions of the same song because the drumming was pretty much the same for every song and the guitars were so buried that you could barely hear them half the time. And speaking of the guitars, turn them up next time!!! If I wanted to listen to 45 minutes of drumming, I’d buy a fucking Rap album. I kind of expected this to happen with this band, but I was hoping that they would do something unexpected and different, but they didn’t. Maybe their next album…

Hailing from Denmark, this group of angry young lads have put together a very tight, brutal package. Big sound keeps the tone of this groove-oriented Metal supported. The songs have a lot of stops that are very tight and precise. Their “verbal agitator” sounds like he gargled with broken glass and is still bleeding in his throat. I usually don’t like this type of Metal, but these songs are well thought out and chug along very well.