ABORTED:

• The Necrotorous Chronicles (1998, Demo)
• The Purity of Perversion (1999) 8 songs, decent production but quite bass heavy and somewhat muffled. While all the usual elements are here, the songs aren't as unique, fast or intense as the stuff that comes later (ie, "Goremageddon"), so after a listen all the way through, chances are you'll want to put on a different cd instead of hitting the repeat button. Overall an average CD that's good but not great, check out Goremageddon instead.
• Aborted/Christ Denied (2000, Split CD)
• Engineering the Dead (2002) A glimpse of the future, "Engineering" is far better than their earlier "The Purity of Perversion" but not quite as good as "Goremageddon". Same general sound as "Goremageddon", just not quite as loudly mixed and a little dryer. The songs also don't have quite as many "That's a great riff" moments to them, but it's still better than most of the stuff out there. And plenty of horror film related sound clips to keep things spooky.
• Goremageddon: The Saw And The Carnage Done (2003) I've had a number of Carcass influenced bands drop on my desk recently, such as the new Exhumed, and an older Impaled album, and I have to admit, of them all, Aborted is the one I find myself most often placing in my CD player. And you know why, it's because it has great and memorable riffs, and they are taking some of the spirit and intensity of Carcass without really copying the band. We have plenty of blasting, double bass, thick wall of sound guitars, lowish vocals. A few songs are sort of reminiscent of Iniquity's "The Hidden Lore" album, or Blood Duster, but not as wacky. Production is great, thick without being too noisy. The album ends with a cover of Carcass' 'Carnal Forge', which isn't super different from the Carcass version, but different enough to be entertaining. The band has an intensity to them which I'm really getting into, they're writing real songs here, not just a collection of riffs, and it's performed with such conviction you just want to hop up on a stage with them and scream along. Good shit.
• The Haematobic (2004, EP) 6 song EP, three new songs from the band, in a similar style to "Goremageddon", although productionwise some of the highend has been shaved off, but it's only a little tiny bit. Also an entombed cover ('Drowned') played in the standard Aborted style. It's well done, but I still prefer the original since it had that patented Entombed wall-o-sound. Then 2 live tracks which are both good, but very bass heavy with almost no treble. 4 videoclips come with this cd as well, all avis, so you'll need a computer. 3 are live from the same show as the cd portion, same very bass heavy production. There's actually some decent camera work on this with plenty of cameras, but the editing is a bit odd, they seem to linger far too long on the same thing, or show static shots of the audience from high above the stage as opposed to cutting things to the music a bit more. Also, since they're avis, the quality of the video isn't perfect, although certainly watchable. Last they have 1 avi of a music video, which is basically a lot of shots of the band playing intermixed with shots of a guy doing an autopsy on a girl (plenty of blood splattered about). Worth getting.
• The Archaic Abattoir (2005) Does "More Of The Same" count for a review? A bit too short? Ok, I'll elaborate, but that's basically what we've got, the next installment in the "Goremageddon" series (even the covers have similarities). And that's certainly not a bad thing at all, since that album was awesome, and this album is awesome too. Great song after great song comin atcha, lots of fantastic riffs to be had by all from the main squawk riff of 'Gestated Rabidity', to the thunderous main theme to 'Threading on Vermilion Deception' to the fade in intro of 'Descend To Expiration', vaguely reminiscent of Metallica's 'Eye Of The Beholder'. The songs overall may be a tad slower and groovier than the last album, but only a tad, there's still plenty of speed to be had. In a world without new Carcass, I can truly say that this band fills that void, a void that so many other bands have tried and failed to fill. Fantastic release, this needs to be on your must buy list.
  
• The Auricular Chronicles (2006, DVD)
• Slaughter & Apparatus: A Methodical Overture (2007) Another solid album from Aborted. Really, if you enjoyed their last 2 cds, this is more of the same, with only minor differences. One difference is this album seems lower than their previous albums. I'm not sure if that's because they detuned their guitars even further, if the production just favors the low end, or if they're just playing more low notes, but either way, it's cool. The drums are also a bit faster, what with session drummer David Haley from Psycroptic behind the skins. The only real downside to the album is that despite many many great riffs, the songs tend to blend together a bit too much. Multiple listens improve the situation, but I think their previous 2 cds are just a bit catchier. It's a small knit though, overall, this is a kick ass album and a must buy.
• Strychnine.213 (2008) A good album, but not as good as their last few. My main beef is there are too many riffs on this album where they rock out, with simpler riff structures and chord progressions we've all heard before a million times, like the second part of the solo in 'Ophiolatry On A Hemocite Platter', or the main riff under the solos in 'Pestiferous Subterfuge'. And their last album was overall faster and more vicious. This is slower paced, and more meandering. There are still some good riffs here, the middle of 'Enterrement Of An Idol' contains an awesome doublebass part. But in general this album just seems kind of bland. Decent, but their last 3 albums were better.
  

ABRAMELIN:

• Transgression from Acheron (1994, EP)
• Abramelin (1995)
• Deadspeak (2000) 2nd (and sadly last) album for the band. There's no one particular band Abramelin sounds like, but they mix all of the sounds of the early 90s death metal pioneers, much in the same way Bloodbath has tried to capture the classic sounds of old school death metal. The production is good, perhaps a tiny bit fuzzy, but the guitar sound is really chunky, the palm muting really slugs your gut. The drums are done with a drum machine, but you may not notice that on your first listen. It's not that the drum sound is particularly organic (it isn't), it's just that the drums were obviously programmed by someone who knows how to write drum music. Many drum machines are setup very simply, with almost no fills, wheras the drumming on this album has all of the fills, tricks and flair of a real drummer (note: I have since been told that drum parts were written by Blood Duster drummer Rizzo). Vocals are midrange growling. The thing that really makes this CD though are the riffs. Every song on the album has at least one riff that just makes me jump out of seat, yell "fuck ya" and then sends me off searching for something to slam into. Spectacular material, it's so sad that the band dissolved after this release. This CD is really hard to find, but it is so worth the money.

ABSENT SOCIETY:

• Absent Society (2004, Demo) With influences ranging from Tool to Corrosion Of Confirmity to Lung Brush to Korn, Absent Society exist in that undefinable area of metal best described as simply "metal", not nu, death or thrash. This 5 song demo is as professional as they get, with basically perfect production (recorded at the plant in Sausalito of Metallica and Joe Satriani fame). Vocal wise, lots of screamed stuff mixed with some spooky sung vocals. Guitars range from heavy chunky stuff to textural chords. Drumming is straight forward yet highly effective at setting up a groove or a pounding beat. Basically think of Korn's first album and you get the idea. The band is very talented in the song writing department, writing some good clean, simple, angry riffs. Not much more to say, this album kicks some serious ass, and I assume a full length debut won't be far behind.
• The Plastic Parade (2005) Another demo from the band, this one with 9 songs though, so it's almost an album's worth. Pretty similar to their former material with a bit of extra stuff, like for example this cd seems to shift vocal wise far more into the hardcore screams, with far fewer sung parts. Track 3, 'Never Trust a Preacher With A Boner' is especially brutal in the vocals department, the screaming at the end are pretty hard on the ears (in a good way). Also, the guitar tone is even heavier than before, and it was already pretty heavy. As well as track 3 which is quite memorable, track 2 'Plastic Parade' is a standout for it's brutal guitar riffs, and track 8 'Oasis Slaughter' is both cool and odd at the same time, sort of a Broadway style music number but with crazy heavy guitars. The band may still have a little bit of work to do taking all their influences and combining them into a completely seamless package (they're already pretty close), but I feel they are past the demo stage and are certainly ready to move to the full length album part of their career.
  

ADRAMELECH:

• Human Extermination (1991, Demo)
• Grip Of Darkness (1992, Demo)
• Spring of Recovery (1992, EP)
• The Fall (1994, EP)
• Psychostasia (1996)
• Seven (1998, EP) Not much to report here. Technical death metal with all the usual perks, fast drums, shouted lyrics, big thick guitar and bass sound. Three new tracks and 2 live tracks round out the CD. It's good, but nothing spectacular, and even though they try to include some more melodious parts to the music, it won't save this band from being lumped in with everyone else who's doing the same sort of thing.

• Dark Order (2001)
• Bleeding The False (2005) Highly anti religious death metal. While the closest comparisons I can come to are Origin and Krisiun, Aeon really sound like neither of these two. Productionwise, the band sounds like Origin due to the trebly nature of the music and the guitar riffing style. However, the music is not nearly as fast, more midpaced (closer to Origin's first album). The drumming style is like Krisiun in that there's basically continuous double kicks underneath all the songs, however, unlike krisiun, this guy has several speeds, so it's not quite as repetitive. Guitarwise, some tremolo, some chunky bits, a few sweep picks etc. Vocals are midrange and screams, mostly discussing how evil christians are (lyrics like "I love you satan, my father, my pride" or "Join your fagot god".) The band really does have a pretty distinct sound, which is nice. The songs are well written, the choruses have enough variety to give each song a distinct feel, although fighting against that is the lack of variety to the doubebass patterns. I learned about the band when Cannibal Corpse recommended them in several interviews, and I'm glad I checked them out, I highly recommend you do the same, this is great stuff.
• Rise to Dominate (2007) Another impressive album from the band. Similar in style and sound to their last album, although there's a little more variety to the song speeds this time, with a few slow chugging songs (vaguely reminiscent to material off of Morbid Angel's "Covenant" album). The rest of the album is uber fast, with the same trademark loud and precise doublebass. The songs are all really well written. While this album continues the theme of anti-christianity, the vocals aren't as immediately catchy. No awesome catch phrases like last album's "God Gives Head In Heaven". But it's a small nit. Overall, this album is brutal, fast, angry, and well produced. The extra variety to the tempos really helps break the songs up a bit more. Impressive stuff, this will be in my daily rotation for quite some time.
  

• Dark Pantheons Again Will Reign (2002) Death metal with a slight symphonic touch. As far as the metal portion goes, lots of tremolo picking, sweeps and fast doublebass with midrange/high vocals. Certainly a very fastpaced band with only minimal use of slow riffs. Tim Yeung, apparently the newest blaster-for-hire style drummer does a great job, he seems to be going the slightly more complex route this time, and he seems a little less worried about super robotic precision here, not to say he's not tight, but he does sound a little more relaxed at the kit instead of being all "If I make a single mistake, my whole family dies" kind of perfect. The symphonic touch comes from the use of keyboards as a background instrument. So the band will be screaming all kinds of stuff and blasting away, and off in the distance you here these held chords. While not as integrated as in say the band Nile, these elements do allow this cd to stand out a bit from the other stuff, and certainly gives it that vaguely egyptian feel to it, there's even a keyboard solo or two (Yngwie would be proud). Come on, pyramids and death metal were meant to be together! Productionwise, it's quite clear and powerful, with a slight touch of reverb, and possibly a little too much highend (if there is a bass here, I can't hear it except in very specific circumstances, and the guitars spend most of their time on the higher strings, hence there isn't too much bass from them either). Not bad, while none of the songs really standout as super unique, the slightly different sound quality the keyboards bring to the music will probably persuade me to play this once in awhile to break up the usual grind.
  

• Eve of Destruction (1003, Demo)
  
• Apocalyptic Dawning (1995) I've seen Agony live a few times, and they have some potential. The songs on the demo have some interesting riffs, technical, the production isn't bad. They also have some French vocals here and there. It's worth the $5.
• L.I.F.E. (1999) 6 new songs of brutal death, plus about 15 minutes of their earlier demo as a bonus track at the end. The new songs are pretty good, some nice riffs, but they could have spent more time writing some more coherent song structures. Screams and growls, the super fast switches to slower, epic oriented held chord stuff and back again. The production is great at times (there are some parts where the guitar is super chunky and could peel paint off your wall), but other times it gets messy, or all the bottom end disappears. A complete lack of all reverb, especially on the solos, makes the sound quite dry. L.I.F.E. sounds a lot like your crazy cousin who's set up some amps and a drum kit in your basement, works through some songs with his friends, and then performs them in front of a small audience. It's an enjoyable listen, but I feel it should have been polished a bit more.
• Apocalyptic Dawning (2007, Reissue) Their first demo "Eve of Destruction" and first album "Apocalyptic Dawning", remastered and on CD for the first time. Get this chunk of classic Montreal metal (you'll love the song 'Death By Suffocation In a Vagina').
  

• Promo Tape (1998, Demo) This band reminds me of Gorguts (from the "The Erosion of Sanity" album). Good quality death metal with squawks, low vocals, double kicks and blast beats. The production could be better, but maybe it's just my tape copy, everything sounds really muffled. A little more time EQing everything would be well worth it. The band is very tight, there are no bad riffs here, but no spectacular ones either. I'm told these guys are quite evil and intense live, hopefully we'll see a longer demo from them soon. All in all, high quality, the best way to describe them is they've made some really good cake, now they need some icing. You can contact Akercocke by writing to akercocke@hotmail.com.
• Rape Of The Bastard of Nazarene (1999) One of the most original death metal releases I've heard in awhile. They combine standard death metal (along with the usual midrange angry male vocals), sound bytes of holy men, black metal screams, some death-core, chanting, and all these symphonic vocals done by a chorus of female voices. The female vibe is continued with lots of scantily clad women all over the cover and interior art. Obviously a concept album, that concept might get a little over the top sometimes, but it holds together with some good riffs, good song writing, and talented musicians. Production wise, the sound is pretty muffled with almost no treble at all, hope they change that in future releases. If you enjoy european death metal mixed with symphonic elements and some dominatrix inspired theatrics, check this out.
• The Goat Of Mendes (2001) Once again, this black / death metal hybrid band slaps us around with their own personal mix of brutal riffs, tremolo picking and soundclips of young virgins having sex with the devil. Lots of triggered blasting, screams and low growling, these guys do a great job of mixing the two styles. Production wise, still a little bass heavy, but there's a little more treble this time. If you like the black metal aesthetic, but prefer to little more technicality than unending monotonous tremolo picking and blasts, check this out.
• Choronzon (2003) Only minor tweaks to the direction of the band are evident on this album, another example that many metal genres can live together in peace and harmony (or is that war and disharmony?) The sound has slightly more reverb in general, a little bit of a louder mix with a more live feeling drummer, the album shifts a little more to the black metal direction than their last album, but there's still plenty of variety here from black to death to symphonic. Several blasphemous sound clips, basically, before you can get tired of any particular direction they shift into something new. Good songwriting keep it all together. Original and angry, a good combination.
• Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone (2005) While their last album was more black metal influenced, this one is slightly more death metal oriented, with less reverb and more low growls instead of shrieks. But that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of gothic, black metal and melodic death metal influences to enjoy. And some nice spooky instrumental interludes between the crazy blasts as well. I think I'd have to rate this one ever so slightly higher than "Choronzon" due to the slightly more memorable songs, otherwise, no giant shift in style or expectations. If you dig the variety the band has presented in their previous 3 albums, you'll like this too.
  
• Antichrist (2007) This album is a little more atmospheric than their last outing, but still a good mix of angry crazy death/black metal and evil symphonic interludes. The most notable thing about this album compared to their previous albums is the reduced production value. As an example, at the end of the CD, they do a cover of Morbid Angel's 'Chapel Of Ghouls', and it sounds just like the original in both style and sound. I have no idea why Akercocke would want their album to have the production quality of a mid 80s band, but, that's what they got. 10 tracks which include a number of intros (although most of the intros are folded into the songs, so you still get a good amount of music). The riffs aren't quite as good as their previous album, but the memorability of some of the interludes keeps the album from becoming generic. As I mentioned, they do some covers, the Morbid Angel one seems a bit redundant, although I did enjoy what they did to the solo in the middle. They also do a cover of Death's 'Leprosy', which is enjoyable, and a bigger departure from the original song. "Antichrist" is a bit  weaker than their last few albums, but still enjoyable, especially the atmospheric bits, and fans should dig it.

• A Great Artist (2003) Not even a passing resemblance, this is Meshuggah, down to all the details. The vocalist is a total ringer for Jens Kidman, honestly, if no one told me, I'd assume this was the new Meshuggah record except it's missing the spacey guitar solos. So you may not want to believe the hype of this band having a sound all their own. That aside, this album sounds a lot like "Chaosphere", a lot of repeated complex patterns, not as riff based as what the band did on "Destroy Erase Improve", oh wait, ya, I was not talking about Meshuggah, I'm talking about A Life Once Lost, sorry about that, I got confused again. The riffs are ok, but the riffs aren't sticking with me really, nothing stands out enough to really grab my brain and hold on, so in the end, you feel like you've had a lot of icing with no cake. The production is good and the band is obviously tight, but considering the no originality factor, and riffs that aren't all that memorable, I may have to recommend a miss unless you just really love meshuggah's last two albums and want to hear similar material.

• From Everything (2005) In the same vein as Eighteen Visions, Hum, On A Dead Machine, or Hopesfall comes A Life Away, a thrashin hardcorish band with a focus on solid songs. This 7 song demo/EP includes some nice riff based guitarwork, possibly a little simple but it has good groove. The vocals are primarily sung with a few hardcore shouts, the band's push is definitely melody over aggression (although the song does have some good strong energy like any of the Deftones' material) Productionwise, the sound is good, big thick guitars, everything else is clear and well mixed, for future releases, especially a debut they may wish to be a little less dry though, perhaps just a touch of reverb to give the sound a little more dimension to it. Otherwise, some catchy songs, if you're a fan of any of the above influences and are into the demo scene (the production is good enough on this CD that I can barely even refer to it as a demo) it's worth checking out.

• The Price Of Existence (2006) Similar in style to Job For A Cowboy, The Black Dahlia Murder, or any of the other bands in the recent deathcore invasion (they also have some elements of the Red Chord, but they're not as super crazy all the time as those guys are). A great deal of speed variation between super fast blasted parts and slow sludgy parts. Vocals are the usual mix of screaming, low gargling and shouting. The selling point for this band isn't that they're doing something new, it's that they do it so well. With songs that are more memorable than most, excellent musicianship and a good variation to their speed and mood, they manage to rise above many of the similar bands in their class. Not a first tier band, but at the very top of the second one. All they need is a bit of something to distinguish their sound or songs and they'd be a major, major player.

• Descend | All That Is Evil Split CD (2000, Split CD) A much more straight forward band than the radical style shifting of their label-mate Descend. Standard thrash / death metal, they have decent drumming, good production with a nice mix, twin vocals ala carcass, and a tight performance. They're obviously good at what they do, however, all in all, I find the riffs to be a bit flat and uninspired, I've heard a lot worse, but there's nothing here to get excited about, they definitely need to work on the songs if they want to make it big. Contact the band at chrisdora@webtv.net, and write to their label Cutting Edge Records at POBox 770376 Cleveland, OH 44107 USA.

• And God Created Satan To Blame For His Mistake (1992, Demo)
• Youth Against Christ (1994) Very similar to later releases from the band. Good riffs, tight production, lots of anti-christian sentiment here.
• Ego Art (1996) The riffs are very brutal, very crunchy, fast, pounding drumming. I'll be watching these guys more carefully in the future. Excellent sound quality.
• Provoke (1998) The standard Altar sound is there, lots of brutal riffs, crunchy guitar, excellent production, etc., but their sound is a little more commercial now. Some passages and solos remind me of something MegaDeth would release. Mind you, this album is also better than anything MegaDeth has produced in the last 3 years, so don't let this discourage you. There's still lots of good song writing, and it remains pretty abrasive even with the inclusion of some more melodic parts that Dave Mustaine only wishes he could write. Buy this if you liked the last CD.
• In The Name Of The Father (2000) A lot closer to their Ego Art cd. After prolonged listening to Provoke, I sorta got bored with it, the riffs were good but sounded too derivative. But this cd has a lot of original riffs, and songs you keep wanting to listen to again and again. Good production as well, and the doublekicks got a lot faster and larger in the mix. So large in fact, it's hard to believe they're not computer generated. I guess the drummer is just using triggers now, but they sound so even, and his timing is perfect, I don't know, human or machine? Anyways, I'm very impressed with this cd, and glad to see Altar with such a strong release after a mediocre last release, the band is obviously pissed, and so will you be if you don't buy this album.
• Until Heaven Forbids (2000, EP) EP with 2 covers (available as bonus tracks on "In The Name Of The Father"), 2 live tracks with decent production, 4 songs off of "And God Created Satan...", and a videoclip for those of us who are computer enhanced. Well, since you can get almost the entire cd as parts of their previous recordings, I say only get this if you're missing the songs from your collection, it's worth getting if you don't already have this material from somewhere else.
• Red Harvest (2001) Weird, again, the altar sound is still there, but this album overall isn't as pissed off sounding as their previous album. It's like all their even numbered cds shows them more pissed off, and their odd number cds are more laid back. The riffs are more melodic overall, there's two songs in the middle where the band gets fast again, but then right back to the melodic harmonized guitar stuff. If you enjoyed "Provoke" over "Ego Art", you may like this cd better. I'll probably wait for cd number 6.

• Am I Blood (1996)
• Agitation (1998) Old school thrash (old-Metallica style) mixed with cleaner vocals. Things remain rather mid-tempo the entire record, with a few nice riffs and hooks. The singer sounds a lot like the guy from Slapdash, but without the intensity. That seems to be the problem with the whole CD in fact, a lack of intensity or aggression. The production is good, there are some good songs and some excellent riffs, but the cleaner symphonic parts mixed with the ultra-commercial vocal style and singing makes the album "rock" a it too much, and without any blasts of speed or anger, it just falls flat. Still ok, but nothing spectacular.

• Abominable (2004) Pretty advanced death metal for such a young band (the average age looks to be about 15 or so, the kids of Switzerland must be sent down the dark path really early in life). Style wise, something akin to early Internal Bleeding or the groovier parts of Dying Fetus (Amagortis sticks to the low vocals route). Production is good generally, but there is some variation to the recording quality of the cd. While it was recorded in one studio, it says it was recorded "live", which basically means some of the songs are mixed higher than others, one has a more prominent bass, and some are a little more fuzzy, etc. Each of the different "sounds" would be fine with me, I just wish it were consistent between songs. Songwise, this material is pretty good, with enough good riffs to keep you interested, and playingwise, these guys do have plenty of talent all round. I think it'll take another release or two before these guys (and one gal) get really good, but for a self produced independently released album from such a young band, there's a lot of good stuff and a lot of promise for the future.
• Promo 2007 (Promo)
• Pre-Natal Cannibalism (2007) A nice improvement over their debut album. First, the production is a lot more consistent. Again, they did record the album in two sessions, and you can tell if you really listen, but it's not as instantly obvious. The sound is a little muffled, but it has plenty of bass and is certainly professional sounding. The core style is the same as their last CD, but the song writing is improved, songs like 'Shatter The Spinal Chord', 'Severed In The Cemetery' or 'Chainsaw Ass Massacre' are more catchy and a step up from the material on "Abominable". The usual silly sound clips between songs provide a brief break from the crazy music. While nothing super new or inventive, this cd is high quality low gargling death metal was good songs and good sound, and well worth picking up.
  

• Suffering Hour (1988)
• Reason (1990)
• Manic Impressions (1991)
• Screams And Whispers (1993) Combining old school thrash and orchestral keyboards, this is technical music with a strong groove. First off, the orchestral parts are not soft by any means, the music doesn't jump between thrashy guitars and then serene keyboards, the keyboards are integrated into the high energy riffs, adding accents and mood, not unlike Fear Factory in later years, although this band is a little more concerned with melody in the guitars vs single note patterns. For vocals, think of Testament's first 2 albums, although slightly less agitated. While not exactly my favorite style, the memorable riffs, the excellent dual guitar work and solid song writing makes this one of the more impressive albums in the genre, these guys were the Arch Enemy of the day, if not in popularity, then in skill and overall musical direction.
  

• Vaginal Vempire (1998) Straight ahead brutal grind with low growling and high pitched screams. Tons of really short songs with titles that put Cannibal Corpse to shame, and some really funny soundbytes. The production is good with lots of bass, and the songs are generally well written, check it out if you're into this style.

• The Infernal Depths Of Hatred (1998)
• Dreams Of Death And Dismay (2001)
• Under A Stone With No Inscription (2004) Reasonably standard death metal, but what makes this slightly different is that the band loves using twin guitar harmonized scale based riffs and repeated tapping riffs. Think Death, but the band doesn't sound like Death. Think MegaDeth but the band doesn't sound like MegaDeth. If I had to pick one band Anata sounds a little like it would have to be Krisiun, in general song structure and attitude, and in the sound of the vocalist, although the drummer here has a much wider repertoire instead of just playing double kicks the whole time. The result is both familiar and unique in it's own way. The guitar parts can be a little playful at times, which interfere with the seriousness of the music (it's hard to be evil when the guitars are constantly going dee-dll-doo dee-dll-doo), but the good songs and strong performance from the band members keep it all held together. Not brilliant, but good stuff and well worth a listen.
• The Conductor's Departure (2006) A big improvement over their last album. Not that their last album was bad, but I just don't remember the last album exciting me as much as this one did after I gave it a spin. First off, the production is way better, the guitar sounds is far less muffled. Second, the songs are a little more coherent without giving up the complexity that is the foundation of the band. The album still has that Death / Gorguts type of feel, but everything's more polished. They've obviously put some serious time and effort into improving their sound, songs and performance, and this album shows off that progression. Really good stuff, if you enjoyed their last album, this is similar but better across the board. And if you thought their last album was so-so, try this one instead, you may be pleasantly surprised.
  

• Goats To Azazael (1996, Demo)
• Hammer Of Gods (1996)
• Nuclear Hell (1997, EP)
• Wolflust (1997, EP)
• Exterminate (1998) Expecting something different? Nah, this is Angelcorpse, it's all about consistency. If I had to pick a connection between this cd and material already out there, I'd have to draw parallels to Morbid Angel's "Alters Of Madness" or "Blessed Are The Sick". Plenty of fast paced blasting and tremolo picking, good riffs, slightly muffled production but fine for the style they're going for. Features John Longstreth on drums (of Origin and now Skinless fame), nothing as fancy as Origin, just straight ahead speedy and accurate.
  
• The Inexorable (1999) Good high quality death metal. The vocalist sounds like the high pitched guy from Carcass, the guitar tone is razor sharp, like a horde of attacking bees (which, unfortunately, means not a whole lot of low end). Lots of double kicks and blasts as fast as they come. And the songs are all quite memorable (the song structures remind me of the most recent Monstrosity album, "In Dark Purity"). In short, nothing terribly experimental or original, but what they don't have in originality they have in good songs and a good performance.
• Of Lucifer and Lightning (2007) New album from the band after an 8 year break. Again, a nice album from a speed and riff perspective, but it's just amazing how single minded this group is. It's almost like you could take their albums and place them back to back and it would be one continuous cd. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, some bands evolve, some just continue doing what they do, Angelcorpse is definitely in the later category. The only difference between this CD and their others is the production, which I feel is kind of muffled and thin, the mix on "The Inexorable" was much better. I found it enjoyable even with the inferior production, many of the riffs are really cool. "Of Lucifer" starts right where the band left off 8 years ago, so fans should have plenty to enjoy.

• Shut It Down (2003)
  
• Empires (2005) Hard to believe that this band is made up of teenagers, but it is, and they show a surprising level of rage and technical skill for their age. The best way to describe them is imagine the groovy parts of Dying Fetus mixed with a little metalcore, and maybe just a touch of Blood Duster. Low gargled vocals mix with a few high screams overtop of complex song structures, which actually is the only problem I have with this cd. The songs are just a little too complex for my liking, similar to a Disgorge release, at the end you have trouble distinguishing one song from the next since riffs are rarely repeated during the course of a song. But from a production and intensity standpoint, this cd is top notch, and the band is really tight. If you love brutal music and don't need specific song memorability, this cd is just what the doctor ordered.
• Animal (2007) This will be a pretty straight forward review, considering "Animal" is more of the same from the band. Did you like the crazy guitar work? Well, here it is again. The shifting time signatures? The blasting drums? All here in spades. The differences? Well, the album is produced a bit better. The sound is not quite as scooped, and it adds some extra clarity to the riffs. And I feel the song writing is a bit better this time around. It's still kinda random, but more memorable (in a random way). If you dig bands like Dying Fetus or Despised Icon, you'll really dig this album. Highly recommended.
  

• Steep Trails (2006) Wow, Latin flavored metal. And I don't just mean people of Latin decent playing metal, I mean music that contains full fledged traditional latin instruments and influences. And why not? Nile has been so effective at combining traditional Middle Eastern and Egyptian influences into their music, it can really help make the music distinct. So for Ankla, imagine a cross between Slipknot and Sepultura with Congas! The vocalist sounds a lot like Cory Taylor from Slipknot (his slight accent reminds me of Max Cavalera of Sepultura/Soulfly), and the addition of the extra percussion element also reminds me of Slipknot's first album. Lots of good groovy metal, with a nice distorted guitar tone, and some good doublebass. And the important part, the songs, are masterfully written and performed. Super angry riffs, I wanted to jump put of my chair and smash into something more than once during this album. And I really do dig the latin parts, some nice Flamenco guitarwork, latin style percussion, and some spanish shouting too. My only complaint is that the band may wish to find ways to distance themselves from sounding too much like Slipknot. I love that band, but they already exist, and so no reason to copy them. But otherwise, this is an impressive metal album, and a really great combination of styles.
  

• Fistfull Of Metal (1984)
• Armed And Dangerous (1985)
• Spreading The Disease (1985)
• I'm The Man (1987, EP)
• Among The Living (1987)
• State Of Euphoria (1988)
• Penikufesin (1988, EP)
• Persistence Of Time (1990) Lots of catchy songs. Not much else to say, it's not brutal, but it rocks and it's full of energy. The sound is ok for 1990, although weak by today's standards.
• Attack Of The Killer B's (1991, EP) Probably the most wacky metal CD of all time. A mixture of crushing riffs and lyrics about milk, how could you go wrong? Even some rap-metal songs. They've got variety all right.
• Sound Of White Noise (1993) Although the guitar tone on the album bugs me, there's still some really good catchy songs on this album. And a few songs that are god awful. A mixed bag, but still a worthy Anthrax album.
• Anthrax Live The Island Years (1994, Live) For some reason, no matter how good an Anthrax album is, hearing them live is just that much better. They have this energy live that just can't be captured in a studio, and this album is an excellent example. 8 Tracks from a show in California, and 4 songs performed in front of a live studio audience, excellent production and the usual Anthrax charm makes this a must have live album for any fans. My only complaint is I wish it had been longer, 70 minutes of music isn't enough :) Or maybe they could have removed the "Live studio audience" stuff and just included more of the live show, which is the better performance.
• Stomp 422 (1995) I wish I hadn't waited so long before trying this CD. When their lead guitar player (Dan Spitz) left the band, Scott Ian (the rhythm player) must have thought "Well, I'd better fill up all those empty spaces with insanely brutal riffs". And that's just what he did. Explosive bass, incredibly chunky sound, lots of great riffs and hooks. Anthrax on steroids. Excellent album.
• Volume 8: The Threat Is Real (1998) Sorry to say it, but after the first few listens, I'm not terribly impressed. It's still Anthrax, but most of the riffs seem unoriginal, and the guitar tone, while still bassy, seems tired and unoriginal. There are still some nice songs here and there, like 'Crush', but it didn't impress me like their previous album did. A mediocre album that, over time, will probably strike me as a good album, but nothing terribly exciting or fresh.
• Return Of The Killer B's A's (1999, BestOf) What can I say, it's a best of album. It includes lots of songs from older albums, newer albums, and a few unreleased or hard to find tracks. All in all, a good mix of most of the songs that made Anthrax one of THE thrash bands of the 80s and 90s. But the real question I suppose is should you buy this when you already own all their previous albums? With CD copying and mp3 technology, the novelty of having a "mixed album" using material from previous releases is sort of no longer an issue, any of us can make a similar album in a matter of an hour. And the two remixed tracks, and a short new songs that only lasts about 2 minutes (right after the last track on the album) is probably not a good reason to plop down the cash. "Killer B's" was a great EP  because it was filled with unreleased stuff, this album really is a true BestOf, and as such, only consider it if you somehow missed buying their albums or your collection just needs the best stuff the band has released in one convenient disc.
• Return Of The Killer B's A's Video Collection (1999, Video DVD) Pretty much what you'd expect from a video, 75 minutes, lots of music videos (I never much liked music videos, so that doesn't excite me much), half a dozen live performances from the Persistence Of Time tour (very high quality professional camerawork and mixing), which are all great, I think the band's live performances are what makes the band so cool. And of course, lots of backstage and on tour stuff with the band doing weird shit, jamming, running around etc., all to the overdubbed sound of Anthrax songs. A decent video, I just wish they'd included some live performances from some of their other more recent tours.
• We've Come For You All (2003) All signs looked good. After a mediocre last album, a soundclip emerges on the net, the song 'What Doesn't Die', and shit it's good! Fast double bass, a catchy yet angry chorus, chunky guitar riffs. Anthrax is indeed back! The much anticipated album finally arrives at my doorstep, I quickly flip to track 3, then track 4, track 5, d'oh! What's going on? Acoustic guitars? Radio Friendly hits? Where are those really tasty songs I had imagined would immediately precede the new track I had heard? Fortunately, as I continued through the album, I did manage to find some other brilliant pieces, like 'Nobody Knows Anything' which has a really nice drum/guitar start and stop riff, 'Black Dahlia' with blast beats (???), and even the strangely named 'Strap It On' rocks with some of the better tunes off Stomp 422, but there are too many filler songs on the album for my taste like 'Safe Home' or 'Cadillac Rock Box' or 'Taking Back The Music'. So the album gets a mixed review, it certainly grew on me a bit after multiple listening, and it's a must own due to a few really great songs on it, but it's not as consistently good as "Stomp" or "Persistence Of Time".
• Music Of Mass Destruction (2004, CD / DVD) Live CD / DVD from the band (in one glorious package). Does a great job in all the categories a live album needs to be good in, first off, a good selection of newer and older songs, we've got everything from the mind-blowing first song off "We've Come For You All" 'What Doesn't Die' all the way to 'Got The Time' and 'Antisocial'. Second, the production is great, very, very clear and crisp, although I'll admit, some of that clarity probably comes from the bass being ever so slightly low in the mix. So maybe it's a 9 out of 10, not perfect but plenty good (the bassdrum sound on this is exceptionally clean and fullbodied, like a good beer). And third, you need to feel the band is really into the performance, and this certainly gets high points in that category. Twelve songs on the CD, the DVD contains these and six more tunes, including the encore with 'Indians' and 'Bring The Noise', probably the most moshable song ever (it got me thrashing around in my living room, that's for sure). Also, you know I never really gave it to much thought, but Charlie is one hell of a drummer, I mean this guy does a lot of fast and complicated work, like the main riff in 'Nobody Knows Anything', when I heard it on the cd I thought it was a cool drum riff, but then I actually saw him play it, and god damn that's tough. My only complaint is that whomever was in control of the cameras needed to be slapped around. The camera angles themselves are fine, but they change angles like 40 times a second, and use all the filters in the book. "Yah, I know how to make everything greyscale! I know what button to press to do split screen, or picture in picture. Aren't I cool?" The editor just pisses me off, this is not your chance to show us how you read the Adobe After Effects manual, this is your chance to make a DVD that enhances the band's music. I'd like to say you eventually get used to it after a few songs, but really it's not the case, at least at the end we get two songs where we can watch from multiple angles and be our own editor. Quite a contrast to the album artwork by Alex Ross, which is absolutely brilliant (there's even an interview with him on the DVD). Also, I do have to admit, I really wish you could squeeze more music on the CD so we didn't need to play the DVD to hear the entire show. But anyways, this is a very satisfying CD / DVD combo, and I highly recommend it for all Anthrax fans.
• The Greater Of Two Evils (2004) This album is meant to be a chance to hear a lot of old classic Anthrax songs rerecorded with newer vocalist John Bush doing the vocals instead of Joey Belladonna. My first reaction to this cd is "why?" I mean, with the recent release of a live album, we've all heard John sing 'Caught In A Mosh' and 'I Am The Law', so the whole concept of the album doesn't strike me as something really necessary. But after a good long listen to this 14 track album, I ended up saying "Well, why not". While not totally necessary, they did it anyways, and so I might as well enjoy it, and the album does everything to facilitate that enjoyment since the songs are indeed classic and hearing them with a more modern production is certainly fun. And a few of the songs such as "Keep It In The Family" are perhaps even better than their originally recorded version, faster, angrier, louder, chunkier. Yes, it's true! So I expected to be underwhelmed, but came away with a big smile on my face, and perhaps the same will happen to you.
• Alive 2: The Music (2005, Live) Does counting to 10 really help when you're angry? Because I've counted to about a hundred and I'm still not over this CD. For god sakes, why??? So we have a live album with John Bush on vocals (CD and DVD). We then have a studio album with John Bush singing most of the exact same songs. Now here we are with another live album (CD and DVD), and a best of album (CD and DVD), the same fucking songs, just now we have the former vocalist Joey Belladonna doing the singing. You know what? I don't care! There is nothing about this performance that is better than their most recent live cd. Nothing different, nothing special. It's the same songs performed in almost the exact same way. Why do I want to buy this again? And why would I want to buy the Anthology CDs that they just released? Stop being caught in the past, you've released 7 pieces of media in the past 2 years with the exact same old songs. Are they good songs? Yes, amazing songs. But it's the same stuff over and over again. Stop it guys! Write new material, move forward with your lives! You last REAL album was good, take the energy from that and make some new stuff. But please god stop producing live / best-of / whatever albums. Recommended to no one except the most diehard fans.
• Alive 2: The DVD (2005, DVD) Ok, I know I just trashed the CD something awful, but I'll go a bit easier on the DVD. First, it is a well filmed concert, with great sound and good camerawork. Also, seeing the band live with Joey and Danny, well, it's a lot different than listening to them, the visual in this case does help it to be something a bit different from the Bush era Anthrax. And second, it has a 45 min documentary about the band's reunion, which includes some good and very candid interviews, footage and stories from the old days, and is a step above the usual "watch the band smash shit while on tour" sort of DVD. Otherwise, I do have the same problems, the set list is almost identical to the "The Greater Of Two Evils" cd, and I really don't think it was necessary to release yet another live concert. The DVD is certainly better than the CD, but it's still time to move on and get to making some new music guys.
  
• Anthrology: No Hit Wonders 1985-1991 (2005, Bestof)
• Anthrology: No Hit Wonders 1985-1991 The Videos (2005, DVD)

• Plays Metallica With Four Cellos (1996) Get this, a band that makes a Metallica tribute album, except all the songs are played on 4 cellos. It's definitely a fun album, the older stuff from Puppets and Justice are really the highlights of the album. Maybe this will finally prove to the older generation that metal is real music.
• Christmassingle (1996, Single)
• Inquisition Symphony (1998) Even though the novelty has worn off, this is still a good album. The band was presented with a problem, people bought their first album because it was just so cool hearing Metallica riffs done on cellos. So what to do now? The answer: some more of the same, as well as Pantera, Faith No More and Sepultura covers, and several original songs. It works. The band tends to experiment a bit more this time, with distorted cellos, delay and other effects, and some really strange sounds, but they still manage to keep things quite classical (well, as classical as you can get playing power chords). Their cover of Refuse / Resist is really good, those cellos just sound scary. The original pieces are pretty good as well, maybe one day someone will arrange those pieces for guitar and drums <G>.
• Harmageddon (1998, Single)
• Cult (2000) Well their first album was all covers, their second had covers and half original songs, so I guess it follows their 3rd album would be all original material (not totally true, they have 3 bonus tracks which include a cover of 'Hall of the Mountain King' and Metallica's 'Fight Fire With Fire'.) Overall, I really enjoy this cd, they experiment with distortion and thrash styles riffing without ever loosing sites of their classical roots. And, of course, there's some real music here, memorable riffs, this is the kind of stuff you want to play at 3 in the morning when you want to get in a slightly softer mood, and you've already heard all the music in your ambient collection a few too many times. If you enjoyed the last two cds, there's plenty to love here.
• Live (2001, DVD) Four spotlights shine down on a blank stage, blank save for four chairs. Suddenly, the band appears, and proceeds to give us over 90 minutes of fantastic music, music that manages to remain both angry and beautiful at the same time. A very energetic concert, you can see these guys are really into what they're doing, plenty of highly inspired head banging, and they do leave their chairs now and again to keep things from being too static. Will it be everyone's cup of tea watching cellos for 90 minutes? Maybe not, but even if the video doesn't keep you glued to the screen, this is fantastic to have on in the background somewhere as music to enjoy while doing other stuff. The audience really gets into it, frequently clapping along and singing the lyrics to some of the covers, an enthusiastic addition to the otherwise instrumental dvd. The audience also seem equally excited about the band's own compositions as they are with the Metallica covers (which included 'Fight Fire With Fire', 'Master Of Puppets', and a very soulful version of 'One', whose intro sounds like it was always meant to be played on a cello). As far as production goes, the sound is great and the video is very professional. They close with 'Hall Of The Mountain King', which just proves if Grieg were born today, he would have been a metal head. 17 songs, and 7 music videos. Well worth grabbing.
  
• Cult Special Edition (2001, Digipak) A 2 disc set containing the original "Cult", followed by a bonus disk, the bonus disk includes 'Path' and 'Hope' with vocals, the vocals do a good job of  complimenting the music, although are quite mellow, don't expect any screaming or yelling. Then 3 live tracks, which are produced quite well.
• Hope Vol 2 (2001, Single) Contains a radio edit of 'Hope Vol2', the original album copy of the song, Metallica's 'My friend of Misery' and a Slayer medley of 'South Of Heaven / Mandatory Suicide'. All high quality.
• Path Vol 2 (2001, Single) Contains the copy of Path 2 that include vocals (also available as part of the Cult Digipak), the original path, and then two live tracks, 'Pray' and 'Romance'.
• Reflections (2003) The first thing that will strike you when putting this album on is, well, drums? Yes, metal god Dave Lombardo adds drums to several tunes off this cd. And while initially they may seem a little out of place, it's hard to imagine many of these songs any other way. A collection of all original compositions, you'll almost forget on some of these tracks that you're listening to cellos, what with the distortion and the drums. But then you're brought back to reality by the calmer ballads, where you're reminded about how soulful an instrument a cello can actually be. Always pushing the envelope, this band does it again, experimentation and risk taking over top a strong foundation of solid songwriting and performance.
• Faraway Vol. 2 (2003, Single) Contains 2 tracks, Faraway with Linda Sunbled on vocals, and the original instrumental version of the song from the Reflections album. While Linda does a good job of adding vocals to the song, in the end I find myself preferring the original instrumental version, that may just be because I'm used to that version, or it may just be that the song has a certain beautiful simplicity to it that I like and I don't think it needs any extra layers, regardless, if the price is right, picking this up isn't a bad idea to see if you agree.
• Seemann (2003, Single) Contains the album version and a radio version of 'Seemann', which isn't all that great a song IMO, I think mainly because of its use of keyboards, which aren't all that necessary. The whole song comes off a little too melodic, and not enough metal. Not to mention 90% of the song is the same chord progression over and over again. Then the third track is a song called 'Heat', which is from their "Reflections" album. I'm not sure if it's 100% the same song, but close enough that I don't hear a big difference. Overall, I'd probably rate this single a miss.
• Reflections Revised (2003, Digipak). 2 disc set, the first starts off with the original reflections cd, followed by two tracks off of "Faraway Vol2" and "Seemann Single", then 3 new songs which are all very good. The 2nd disc is a DVD with 5 live songs, 3 music videos, and a few making of segments. The live songs are fun, I mean, when you first hear this music, you sorta go "what the fuck?" Well you get that all over again when you see these guys actually perform the music live. You get long haired shirtless men thrashing around (ok, two of them do have shorter hair), yet at the same time they're sitting on chairs and playing the cello. All together now..."What the fuck?". They do actually move around quite a bit, which keeps the stage shows interesting, and include a live drummer in much of their music now. Lets put it this way, after a few songs of a normal live show with standard instruments, you basically know what to expect for the rest of the show. These guys are jumping around, and sitting, and standing, and throwing their instruments on the ground, and overall keep the audience engaged with a lot of variety to the performance. These guys are REALLY into the music and it shows. The recording quality is excellent as well as the videotography. As usual, no opinion on the videos, they're fine, but music videos just aren't my thing. The 3 making ofs are good (maybe 4 minutes a piece), although both the way the interviewees pronounce certain english words, as well as the overall structure of their sentences can make it difficult to understand them sometimes, but they're trying their best, so I can't fault them for that. Even if you have Reflections, I advise getting this enhanced version, there's enough interesting material here to make it worth it.
• Bittersweet (2004, Single) Just the fact the song is called 'Bittersweet' should give you some indication of what to expect. The song is very calm, serene and haunting, and you get it 3 times! The original, an acoustic version and an instrumental version without Ville Valo and Lauri Ylonen singing on it. Then there's a final song called 'Misconstruction' that is more upbeat (and includes drums), but not as angry as one might want to offset the first 3 songs. If you're a fan of the band's "harder stuff", you're not going to find it here, so I'd recommend this only if you've heard 'Bittersweet' already on the website or somewhere and really dig the song.
• Apocalyptica (2005) I've sort of come to expect certain things from Apocalyptica at this point. It's not that they're repetitive, they've progressed in their music any number of times from a cover band to their own compositions to the introduction of drums. But through it all, they have retained a certain quality level, and signature sound, a sound that's thrown right out the window for the first song of the cd. What we have instead is a rockin ski-movie song that could easily be in any of those teen mischief movies from the early 80s (complete with silly vocals). In fact, it takes you a moment to realize it is cellos being played and not guitars. Thankfully track 2 goes back to their more trademark instrumental compositions, although that track is a little repetitive. Then track 3 is sort of derivative. Then track 4, 'Bittersweet', well, I don't dig the vocals and the song is only ok. The album really starts for me on Track 5, 'Misconstruction', and the good songs have returned, from the heartfelt 'Farewell' or the fastpaced gallop of 'Fatal Error'. No more vocals thankfully, I definitely prefer the instrumental songs. Only one other stumble occurs with a riff in 'Betrayal/Forgiviness' that sounds an awful lot like Metallica's 'Battery', before quickly moves on to far more original material. Overall, a bit of an uneven cd, I really like the second half of the album, the first half is pretty much a consistent miss, so be forewarned, still worth getting for tracks 5-11. Stick around (or don't) for a bonus song at the end, track 2 but with french vocals.
• Worlds Collide (2007) Apocalyptica certainly have evolved over the years. They started out as simply 4 cellos playing covers. Their second album was a bit more experimental in their cello sound, and had a few original songs on it. They further experimented in later albums with guest vocalists, drums on a few songs, and the covers got fewer and fewer. Which brings us to this album, which is almost all originals, and every song has drums in it. For all intensive purposes, this might as well be a regular metal band now, except that most of the songs are instrumental, and there's a slightly different sound to their string instrument of choice. This is also possibly their heaviest album yet, with some really thunderous guit---errr cello riffs. There are a few guest vocalists, Corey Taylor from Slipknot and Christina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil. And Dave Lombardo from Slayer does drums on a track. Plenty of memorable songs on this one, and, as mentioned before, I'm really happy with the level of heaviness this album achieves. Much better than their previous self titled album, I'd recommend picking this one up instead.
  

• Black Earth (1996) First album for the band, similar to their second album, but the production is a little rougher (still clear, but not as slick sounding). A few really good songs here, if you're a fan of the band's later work, this album mis worth picking up to hear the original versions of some older material they play live once inawhile.
  
• Stigmata (1998) This release, while technically excellent and well produced, never manages to find it's own voice. Ex-Carcass Guitarist / Songwriter Mike Amott leads the group, and so a lot of its sound comes from Carcass, from riffs similar to stuff of "Heartwork" to his distinctive soloing style. At the same time, there are Megadeth style solos and more melodic, neoclassical solo passages with tons of reverb that sound like something off an Yngwie record (or possibly Marty Friendman's solo recordings). The overall impression is that the band has taken elements from all kinds of different styles, from death to black metal to symphonic, written a bunch of Carcass riffs around these styles, added a bit of extra noise and reverb, and voila, Arch Enemy. All in all, a good album with it's share of great moments and killer riffs and hooks, but possibly a bit too derived and unoriginal for my taste.
• Burning Bridges (1999) Same mishmash of stuff as last time, but the riffs are brutal enough to make the album worth a listen. Even more styles are touched on here, from black to death, and several riffs that sound like they could be straight off the intro of Beverly Hills 90210 or something, except they're being done using a noisy guitar tone. That makes for a very strange combination, you're sitting there saying "I'm watching an abc sitcom, and yet it's got people screaming in anger over top." All the songs have a very epic feel to them, lots of reverb and melodic parts more commonly seen in black metal but many riffs are far too chunky which places them more in a death metal area of riffage. Excellent production, good songs, nice performance. They're a little odd, but check it out.
• Burning Japan - Live 1999 (2000) 11 tracks of live material from their most recent tour of Japan. The sound quality is studio quality, which makes me wonder if any overdubbing was done, and for that matter, what good is a live album if they sound exactly like their studio counterparts in every way? But if you get over that fact, then this is a well done, well executed live show that sounds great.
• Wages of Sin (2001) I remember during the recording of this album the band claiming they'd come up with their best material yet. And I have to agree. This album is definitely in my cd rotation for quite some time. Still the same genre, sorta epic feel, lots of reverb, but the guitars are still tight and crunchy. The drumming is excellent, with a lot of good sustained clear double kicks. And the vocals. Damn! The band now has a new female vocalist, and she just sounds fucking evil. Her style is this really raspy gravely screech, you can really tell she put her heart and soul into this performance. The riffs are great too. I guess just imagine their previous material, but refined, perfected, and focused like never before. Excellent album.
• Anthems Of Rebellion (2003) I hate it when expectations get too high. Their last album, brilliant, fresh, fantastic on so many levels. This album is great as well, but due to all the hype, you may start off being slightly disappointed. But I really do recommend giving this cd several listens, because the material does grow on you. The first listen it's like "cool, not as good as "Wages of Sin"", then as you listen again, you start hearing things like the low part in 'Instinct' with the fast double bass and you go "fuck ya, that's what metal is all about." The album has excellent production, the vocals are slightly drier this time (not as much reverb), guitars as usual are excellent, technical but not too technical. While not every song is brilliant, there's some fantastic material on this. A double CD version exists with a 2nd audio DVD that contains 3 live tracks and 3 songs in Dolby Digital 5.1. The live tracks have great production without sounding too much like studio tracks, and the band always had a good energy live.
• Dead Eyes See No Future (2004, EP) 7 song EP. First comes the title track, originally from their "Anthems Of Rebellion" album. Then 3 live tracks 'Burning Angel', 'We Will Rise' and 'Heart Of Darkness' which don't really sound all that different from the album version in either production of execution (although you can hear the crowd during the songs, which is a good thing). Then 3 covers, the first, 'Symphony Of Destruction' from Megadeth is really cool, it's neat to hear the usually snappy bassline performed with a highly distorted bass. Then 'Kill With Power' by Manowar, which is ok, but not a great song IMO. Then they do a Carcass cover (which is amusing since Michael Ammott used to be in Carcass, I guess he's covering himself as it where), 'Incarnated Solvent Abuse', which has a little more bounce than the original. Basically, the only reasons I found to buy this was the Megadeth and Carcass cover, so if you're not into either of those songs, I'd give it a miss, otherwise, it's a fun little EP, and cheap enough to not be a big deal.
• Doomsday Machine (2005) When you listen to a lot of albums, you eventually start to see trends. For example, the Breakthrough-dip-rebound trend. As in, a band will release a breakthrough album, then their next album isn't as good, then without the pressure of trying to produce a follow-up to a huge hit, releases a much better third album. This pattern is certainly present here, except in this case, it's actually possible that this third album in the trend is even better than their breakthrough "Wages of Sin". No joke! I mean, yes, you don't have the freshness of a brand new vocalist, but the band has managed to produce some very heavy, very angry music, and it's probably their best song writing and performance to date. After a big metal anthem beginning, the band immediately jumps into a cool start-stop riff, which is then expanded upon with the addition of some well placed harmonics. Then Gossow comes in with some seriously vicious vocals (the vocals on their last album were a bit too dry). Later the chorus gets reiterated with machinegun style double bass underneath. Again, awesome! Moving on to track 3, they start with this sick precision picking guitar riff, and continue at breakneck speed for most of the song. Track 4 slows it down just a bit, and its verse consists of this unsettling bend-on-the-low-string riff on guitar that's very cool. What can I say, each and every song has some standout quality to them (if not several) which makes each track unique, and performance wise the band is super tight, heavy, angry and still melodic in the way we've come to expect. The group's song writing at its best. My only complaint is a few bits seem to be grabbed from other sources, for example, there's this high pitched screaming sample that's from Seance's "Salt Rubbed Eyes" (well, more precisely, they probably stole it from the same place, but Seance stole it first), and the beginning to 'Machtkamft' is the exact drum part from the beginning of Sepultura's 'Territory' before going off into something different. Ok, enough praise from me, go buy this thing already, "Doomsday Machine" is bound to be one of the standout albums of the year.
• Live Apocalypse (2006, DVD) 2 DVD set, the first is 2 concerts, the second is extras. The main concert is in London and it's well done. The sound is excellent, and they have 4 to 5 million cameras it seems. There are some annoying bits, mostly that they switch cameras too fast a lot of the time to really digest what you're seeing. They also do this strobe film effect that's super annoying, but thankfully they don't do it too much. Still, if you're a musician and want to see any of the licks and how they're played, this is not the show for you. The concert is from 2004, so it's all material from "Anthems of Rebellion" and earlier, and they play a really excellent mix of songs, don't think they missed a single one of my personal favorites. Then there's 3 songs from a show in 2005, all songs are off their new album "Doomsday Machine". This show's production is a bit skewed in the treble direction, but it's only 3 songs, so it's not too bad. The 2nd DVD is sort of a write-off. They really don't do any in-depth interviews or anything, mostly just quick clips of the band on tour running around set to their own music. They do have a gear talk where the musicians talk about their gear which is mildly interesting, otherwise I think you'll be sticking to the first disc. The main concert is high quality in both picture and sound, and should please all fans of the group.
• Rise of the Tyrant (2007) Not quite as good as their last one, but still a very worthy Arch Enemy album. First off, the production is a little fuzzy this time, you get used to it pretty fast, and it's not really that egregious, but I would prefer the crystal clear and sharp production of "Doomsday Machine". Songwise, the band delivers again. They're really good at making their songs distinct, whether it's with an awesome riff, an interesting fill, some bit of melody. Overall the songs are a little more melodic this time, don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of brutal blasting and angry guitars, but maybe an extra 10% angry riffs would have rounded out the album better. Fans of the band should be pleased, there's a lot of soon to be classic songs on this CD.
  

• A Celebration Of Guilt (2004) Fans of Necrophagist or Death should know what to expect here, technical death metal with flurries of fast picked scales incorporated into the songs. The biggest difference however is the bigger sound Arsis goes for on this recording, I want to use a word like sloppy or muddy, but that's really not it. They're plenty precise, it's just they've sacrificed a bit of clean picking perfection for a thick and powerful overdubbed sound, and hey, that's fine by me, it takes all types and the results speak for themselves. The songs are technical but still with plenty of groove, the vocals are higher raspy stuff, not quite black metal but headed in that general direction. Certainly nothing here that's revolutionary, but it's well performed, well written, and the crazy scale stuff keeps things interesting.
• A Diamond For Disease (2005, EP) I think I like Arsis even more in EP form. I liked their last album a lot, but I do have to admit that there wasn't a lot to define one song from another. In EP form, your concentration isn't as divided, it's like if you eat just a little bit of cake, you'll savor the cake more then if you stuff your face with cake. And with the title track being a 13 minute song, you get repeating themes that help bind everything together. Apparently the song  is being used as a score for the NYC's Ballet Deviare, which, in their own words, is "the beauty and grace of ballet combined with the power and force of metal music". The song does have some melody to it, but even so, there's blasting and screaming, so I'd be very interested in seeing what sort of dance moves would work with this sort of music. Gotta give it to the band to try something a bit different. Style wise, basically the same sort of stuff as their last album. Track 2 is an Alice Cooper cover which I'm sure sounds very different from the original (I've personally never heard it), and another quick 3min new track which is cool. Worth getting, especially if you liked "A Celebration Of Guilt".
• United In Regret (2006) Very similar to their last album, with slightly better production. The songs are decent, and they certainly do know how to play their instruments, but, well, I just feel sorta like I've heard it before. I don't want to rain on their parade, the band is obviously very good at what they do, but I still feel they need something to differentiate them from all the other metal out there. Whether it be some really inventive riffs, some sort of odd gimmick, or such astounding speed or brutality that you can't help but take notice. But enough about that, I really don't want to sell this cd short, this is a strong metal album, and this strikes me as one of those releases that will grow on me the more I listen to it. Fans of technical death metal should find this enjoyable, and fans of their last few albums will find more to love.
• We Are The Nightmare (2008) Much better than their last album. First the production is excellent, the best the band has ever had (and I can't imagine how it could get any better). And second, I feel the song writing has gone up a notch. Still the same sort of music, their style hasn't changed at all, but overall the songs seem more memorable and interesting. Great album.
  

• The Game Of Life (2007) Similar in style to The Black Dahlia Murders or Between The Buried And Me. Lots of brutal blasting and pounding guitars. A few more melodic passages (but no sung vocals). Vocals are a mix of black metal screaming and more midrange death metal growling. And, to add variety, some really odd synth stuff that's probably best described as an old Atari system gone terribly wrong. It adds a certain degree of silliness to the music, although what should you expect with a band name like Arsonists Get All The Girls, and funny song titles (including starting and ending the album with a mullet reference). There's a number of super heavy and killer riffs on this album that are really impressive, and while I'm not a huge fan of the wackier side of the band, it does add variety to the music, and it's not so silly as to totally destroy the mood. These guys are certainly worth a listen, there's some really good bits and pieces that will keep it near my cd player for the foreseeable future.
  

• An Ocean Between Us (2007) Basically, this band sounds like In Flames, but with slightly more hardcorish vocals. The album starts strong with a soft intro that builds nicely (I am a sucker for a well done intro), then moves into the first real song 'Nothing Left', which is fast, thrashy and brutal. The rest of the album is a bit of a mixed bag. A few of the songs are slightly generic with vaguely familiar chord progressions, and a few lack energy. But a few of the songs stand out, I really enjoyed the ballad 'I Never Wanted', and some of the fast songs work really well (The beginning of 'Wrath Upon Ourselves' is especially awesome). Expect lots of harmonized guitars, lots of fast scales and lower trashy bits. Beyond the hardcore vocals, they keep the clean sung vocals pretty grungy, which is a plus. The production on the album is also excellent. If you're an In Flames fan, or maybe you dig Shadows Fall, this is a good band to look into, although don't expect every song to be gold.

• Total Brutal (2008) Lets start this review by saying I have always been a huge Arnold Schwarzenegger fan. It's just such a goofy story, a muscle-bound Austrian with a thick accent becomes a huge movie star in America, and eventually becomes the Governor of the 6th largest economy on the planet. And his movies have provided us with some of the best quotes and bad puns the world has ever seen. So when I found out a bunch of guys from As I Lay Dying are doing an Arnold metal tribute album, I was super excited. It's like reeses peanut butter cups, combining two of my favorite things. The results are both hilarious and brutal. First off, there's plenty of fun banter from an Arnold impersonator who does intros to many of the songs. Second, the songs all have fantastic titles based off those wonderful quotes I mentioned earlier, classics such as "It's Not A Tumor", "If It Bleeds We Can Kill It" and "Get To The Choppa". And then there's the music, generally modern thrash style. While the riffs won't win any awards for originality (and the band doesn't pretend that they would), they are certainly well played, well produced with a nice thick and powerful sound, and the songs are short enough to avoid getting old. Very enjoyable album, all fans of Arnold and metal will love this album, or if you're just into humorous metal in the style of "Dethklok" or "Zimmers Hole". It's just so nice to know I'm not alone in my morbid fascination with our favorite Governator of Cali-fornia.
  

• Hope Springs Eternal (1995, Demo)
• Embraced By The Absolute (1997)
• As Night Conquers Day (1999) Melodic death metal from Europe. This band has all the usual, huge guitar sound with lots of tremolo picking, reverb and overdubs. You can just picture in your head a battlefield of Norsemen killing each other as this CD plays in the distance. Excellent mix and production, things remain clear even taking all the reverb into account. Song wise, some nice riffs, the song writing is solid, but there are some points in the CD that I feel are a little too monotonous, and could use some extra spice to keep things interesting. This band certainly knows how to play their instruments, I found some of the solos especially well performed, quite fast but still well composed, not just a bunch of scales. I generally am not into this sort of music, but it's good quality for the genre.