Paradise Lost are known for slow, Doomy, Gothic Death Metal with occasional female, opera-like vocals. As of this album, they have transcended even that broad description. Gone are the female opera vocals, they have been reduced to whispers and backing assistance, and what has taken their place is the excellent production that was missing before. Paradise Lost have expanded on what Doom Metal means. Favorite song: The CD-only bonus track, “As I Die.”

Let me start by saying that Johnny Hedlund is the coolest freak on earth. Even cool enough to cover Venom’s “Countess Bathory” (if only on the CD). This album is an all time classic. The songs are heavy, brutal, and memorable. The vocals are understandable enough that I can even growl along. This ranks among the top 10 albums of the year, if not all time. Buy or die. Favorite title: “Never Ending Hate.”

Hail another awesome Death Metal band from Chicago. It seems that this four-piece really got their act together since their Random Decay demo. Brad is a great singer and sounds a little like Luc Lemey [Gorguts]. This demo has great sound and a cool & weird cover. The song “Random Decay” is slower than the rest, but still awesome. However, “Personality Conflict” is the high point of the tape.

This is solid Death Metal. Pretty speedy and lots of double bass. Good production, too. Great vocals. The songs are even sorta memorable. I don’t like this as much as I think I should, though. They just don’t have a very unique sound or style. This is good, but they need an identity. They need something to set them apart from all the other “good” bands. I predict their next release will do just that.

Robert Deathrage has really outdone himself with this release. It’s the most complex, and heaviest thing I’ve heard from the Meat Shits. Also the most memorable, and I think the best. Of course all the gore and porn are still very much present, but this is a new level of sickness, beyond and above what has come (uhh, I mean “cum”) before. This is really a work of art, and encompasses the entire spectrum of Death from Industrial, to Grind. And the packaging expertly combines, you guessed it, porn and gore, with emphasis on porn. You’ll fucking puke up a lung, pal.

The flanger effect is detracting as hell, it completely fucks up both the vox and guitar of the first track. Thank Satan it ends with that song. After such a fucking poor start, this album really picks up. Yeah, it could use better production, but these guys don’t have all the cash on Earth, and I’m sure Turbo gave ‘em about $3. Anyway, the song “Beyond Evil” is just cool. It’s worth the cost alone. And the rest are good as well. I wasn’t too sure if this would be good at all, but actually it’s great.

More focused than From Beyond. Better production and everything else. Especially vox. I really liked Kam’s vocals before, but now they are way more brutal. Fucking way more! Holy shit! These monsters even cover Venom’s “Warhead” and get Cronos to sing and play “Buffalo Bass” on this track! This is brilliant. Not as instantly memorable as the stuff on their debut, but this is more accomplished.

Like the other Moribund 7-inch EPs, this has excellent sound quality, and both these songs are intense Death Metal. Also memorable, which is an unbeatable combination. Sick cover art and red vinyl add the final touches to this great release.

This album was a bit disappointing, but it’s still a great piece of work. It’s just not as good as the Deliverance… 7-inch. This only has a few new songs, one of which is the totally kick-ass title track. Craig’s vocals are still awesome, but the production could have been a little better. But this still kills.

Like Immortal, this is also more Death Metal sounding than I was ready for. Of course, still most unholy, and fairly weird, this manages to even inject a bit of evil atmosphere, which only adds to a good thing. Of course, this isn’t a Black Metal band - they’re “Industrial Cyber Punk Sado Metal.”

Not exactly what I was expecting. This is less atmospheric than most Black Metal, but this is not to say that it is less evil - only different. Give this a listen.

This is some fucking evil Death Metal. Hypocrisy’s debut is above average, but the weird thing about the album is that the drummer only played on three tracks; the guitarist plays on the rest. All songs are totally Satanic, the best being “Take the Throne.” This will be a band to look for in the future. If you have time, pick it up for the ultra-brutal riffing and godslaying lyrics.

This is Grave’s second album, and for a band that did not like the Sunlight sound, they seem to be stuck with it. But this album is great. The opening riff of the title track is so fucking cool, I almost blew a wad when I heard it. Although absent one bass player, Jorgen Sandstrom (vocals and guitar) manages the bass tracks just fine. This is the second best album to come out of Sweden this year, following closely behind Unleashed’s Shadows in the Deep. Brutal album, buy it.

Holy shit! Heavier and more brutal (and more memorable!) than their impressive debut, Mindloss. Plus cool lyrics and Jan-Chris’ truly stunning vocals. Again produced by Death god Colin Richardson, who manages to make this one of the best sounding Death Metal albums of all time. Really, this has no faults. No brutality is sacrificed in making the songs memorable. I don’t really know how this could be any better. [I also have no idea why the hell I didn’t give this the 10 it deserves! -Editor]

Two tracks of intense Death Metal. The rawness of the production adds to the energy, and heaviness of the music, but I’d be interested to hear what these guys could do with a better sound.

After Slavestate, Godflesh had lost a few notches on my respect level, however, this album puts them on the road to redemption. A distinctive Industrial groove, and at 79 minutes, a good value. But upon careful scrutiny, flaws become clear. The majority of the songs are redundant- a bit too free form. Not enough structure, sort of like Industrial Jazz. This Industrial/Grind/Dance stuff is still trying to find its wings, so this should be considered ground breaking stuff - sort of. After Streetcleaner, I just expected more.

The keyboards and other “extra” instruments make this sound pretty strange, but also very interesting. Possibly not totally successful in their experimental fusion of different styles into what I suppose will also be called Doom, The Gathering have certainly attempted to do more on this album than almost any other band I can quickly think of. And it nearly always works for them. I expect their next release to be utterly flawless.

Pretty energetic and fairly Punky sounding. I think perhaps if the songs were a little shorter, I might like this better, as they seem to occasionally drag. Sometimes the lyrics are sorta wrong too. Every now and then, something really great happens, but it’s almost never sustained. This has a lot of good elements, but they’re spread out among the songs.

A bit more Thrashy than I was expecting. And definitely more commercial, at least on the track “Encased in Glass.” But having said all this, The Benediction is actually pretty good. Not as good as their unbelievable After the Battle album, but that could well be impossible, and they are trying to incorporate some new styles.

Their first song is called “Into the Void” and it’s not a Black Sabbath cover. However they do cover a Beastie Boys song. Sorry, guys, I don’ think so.