Demonic Resurrection – The Return to Darkness
Candlelight Records

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Written by Niek of Deathmetalbaboon.com

From one of the less obvious countries in the world, as far as metal is concerned. Demonic Resurrection is from Mumbai, India and they’ve been having a crack at making music since 2000. The Return to Darkness is their third full-length album and I have to say it’s a lovely piece of work.

Provided you like your Death Metal with a black sauce though. Because the stuff sure does sound dark! Look past that though, friend or foe of black metal, and listen to the musical excellence. This is some very well composed stuff and quite technical too. Nothing like anything that ever penetrated your ears before. A classical approach to song writing, no fixed structures and shear brilliance to be honest.

One of the songs, Lord of Pestillence is particularly long (11:29 minutes) and describes an epic story with an unhappy ending. Other tracks, such as A Tragedy Befallen (scroll down in the interview), are slightly lighter, but only slightly.

Apart from the synthetic sounding keys that are meant to sound like real classical instruments, I can say nothing but good things about this record. We’ll call that one minus a result of limited funds, not of bad intentions. Fact is, you should definately buy this baby and once you’ve received it play it for twelve hours straight. Enjoy!

Kalmah – 12 Gauge
Spinefarm Records

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Written by Niek of Deathmetalbaboon.com

Fins are crazy people! For one, they are the most death-searching rally drivers (look up the video of Ari Vatanen on Pikes Peak!) on this chunk of earth. For two, about 95 percent of the population digs metal. And for three, around 94 percent of ‘em is active in a metal band. That’s crazy in the good way and you won’t hear me complaining! Kalmah is one of Finland’s great melodeath bands and some crazy Fin came up with the term “Swamp Metal” for their stuff. Always looking to be different those Fins.

The band has been active for just over ten years now and in that time they turned out a good six full-length albums. That’s an excellent rate if you ask me. Their last one, 12 Gauge, got out earlier this year. So, what have we got?

The short answer is: a pretty decent album. Traditionally, what you get with Kalmah are a thrashy guitar feel (their previous album was an exception in this respect), a bunch of neo-classical key work, alternating or battling guitar-keyboard solos and some of the best composed acoustic tracks you can possibly imagine. The bad news is that that last thing will have to be missed on 12 Gauge. There is some acoustic stuff, but it’s all short and all part of more. The good news is that you do get the other stuff again.

And especially those keyboard vs. guitar solos are worth the decrease in hearing capacity you’ll end up with when you play this. And your hearing capacity will drop, because you’ll be cranking up the volume. Luckily Kalmah has been smart enough not to stuff every track with such a solo section. For one, it would take the sting out of it and secondly it’s better for our ears!

Kalmah’s 12 Gauge is definitely recommended to those that have enjoyed Kalmah’s The Black Waltz (2006), the album before the last one. It is also definitely worth the try for everyone else with a taste for quality melodic Death Metal. (And be sure to check out all their previous work as well!)

Two Ton Anvil – Two Ton Anvil
Dark Star Records

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Written by Niek of Deathmetalbaboon.com

This heavy metal band, going by the name of Two Ton Anvil, formed just a few years ago, in 2007, in Chicago, Illinois. Now, some three years later, they have just released their self-titled debut record. Twelve originally composed tracks and one Alice in Chains cover. I have something to say about both.

Starting with the latter here, the Alice in Chains cover is of the song Them Bones. Admittedly, that’s a pretty cool song and Two Ton Anvil does a good job at playing it precisely right too. That then is exactly the problem, because for a version of Them Bones sounding just like the original, I’ll, you won’t believe it, just listen to the original! No biggie though, as it’s only one track at the back of the pack. Consider it as a bonus that didn’t turn out much of an extra.

There are also twelve homegrown heavy metal tracks packed with kick-ass riffs. No shortage of those really. Unfortunately though, most of the songs stop being interesting after the intro, a verse and a chorus (some make it till after another verse). Songs start interesting, with a variety of cool guitar parts, but all end up in catchy sung choruses tending towards those of the most commercial of hard rock bands, making the whole thing “little girl’s metal”.

A few exceptions to the rule are What We’ve Made (best track on the album), The Wicked and Glass Houses. Tracks that manage to keep me interested all the way to the end. In fact, What We’ve Made is a track that I must have heard at least thirty times by now. It kicks!

The singing is performed by both Brian Ericson and Chris Chubb and they’re not without talent for it. It is a bit of an average hard rock/heavy metal style though. Somehow clone-crossbreed Nickelback’s, Creed’s and Alice in Chain’s vocalists into a pair of twins and you’ll get the same result.

Can’t really say it’s bad music though. It sounds fair. Fairer when you consider it’s a debut release. I would urge the band to search for more originality and variation in their songs though. Make it so it sticks. And I know they can do it, because What We’ve Made, The Wicked and Glass Houses are the proof!

My favorite track: What We’ve Made (by a MILE!)

Dark Tranquillity – We Are the Void
Century Media

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Written by Niek of Deathmetalbaboon.com

We Are the Void is already the ninth album of these fathers of Swedish melodeath, a.k.a. the Gothenburn style. Their previous one was Fiction and was released in 2007. We Are the Void has been baptized to be the second part of a duology in which Fiction was part 1. And what do you get with sequels?

Yep, more of the same, usually not as well performed either (Terminator 2 being the exception). Thus, if you liked Fiction, don’t buy this one and keep your memories pure. If you’re a diehard Dark Tranquillity fan, then you surely will buy this album. The key then is to employ it for the right moods. This is no stuff for when you’re in the good mood, because it’ll slow you down. Instead, play this when your cat just got mangled by an SUV or something.

The piano parts on this album don’t add much in terms of emotion. It’s all very flat and simplistic, as if it were a rhythm guitar. Waste of a good piano, because a whole lot could have been achieved with it on this album. The music lends itself well for that.

Still, there are a few enjoyable tracks on the record. Tune in to Dream Oblivion, Iridium and Star of Nothingness and you’ll have the best songs of the album in your ears. The rest is pretty much void.

My favorite tracks: Dream Oblivion and Iridium.

Solution .45 – For Aeons Past
AFM Records

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Written by Niek of Deathmetalbaboon.com

Solution .45 is the joining of forces of musical talents of several Swedish Death Metal bands, making this a genuine metal supergroup. The project was founded by masterminds Jani Stefanovic (Miseration, Essence of Sorrow, The Few Against Many, and many other bands) and Christian Älvestam, best know as the former Scar Symmetry multi-style vocalist half the metal world adores. With that in mind, it’s not a surprise that my (and anybody else’s) expectations for the group’s debut release were sky high.

Unfortunately, anticipation is a big spoiler, because expectations grow bigger and bigger in your head. Solution .45 knew this when they set out and so they must have had a pretty good amount of confidence in their own abilities that they would be able to pull this off. So, have they?

Well, not completely. True, the supply of musical talent within this group is indisputable, as are Älvestam vocal capabilities. The man can make any mainstream, popular or whatever other type musician feel like an utter zero and then seamlessly provide a bombardment of growling, grunting violence without blinking. And he knows it! That then is exactly the problem, as his clean vocals on For Aeons Past not infrequently tend towards sugar-pop, with too much scale singing and pitch changing. Beyoncé does it too and she annoys the hell out of me.

His growls and grunts on the other hand are superb as they’ve always been. And they come in countless subtle variations too, which is all the better. So, skip the ballad Lethean Tears and instead listen to the more violent tracks, such as Wirethrone. Much better!

Musically this album is very much virtuoso, yet well balanced, despite the fact that it often feels much too polished. There are more than a few cheesy, ‘kitchy’ melodies to be found, but the majority of tunes is quite appealing.

So, lose your expectations. Expect nothing and you’ll get a few not-so-good songs and a bunch of good ones. One of those is of course the more than sixteen-minute Clandestinity Now, which is an absolute masterpiece. That alone will justify your spendings on this release!

My favorite tracks: On Embered Fields Adust and Clandestinity Now.

Sonata Arctica – The Days of Grays
Nuclear Blast Records

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In my opinion, Power metal is one of the best styles of Metal you can find and one of the bands that has been a round for a while to represent that style is Sonata Arctica. In their newest/sixth full length release entitled The Days of Grays, Sonata Arctica continues to represent the Power metal style as well as continuing to add some of the Progressive metal style just as they have in some of their other newer releases. One thing I really like about this album/band is the fact that the vocals of singer Tony Kakko really fit well with the music made by the rest of the band. Power metal bands are under a lot more critique by me since I love the style so much and since it’s hard to find really great vocalists to make the band whole. Sonata Arctica has no problem with the combination of music and vocals, and The Days of Grays is only one piece of proof. Getting more into the tracks, the one track that really jumped out at me as a favorite track is “Flag in the Ground” (Track 4), but that certainly doesn’t mean the rest of the album is bad. In fact, some of the other tracks I would recommend listening to for a great listening experience are: “Zeroes” (Track 6), “No Dream Can Heal a Broken Heart” (Track 9), and “Everything Fades to Gray (Full Version)” (Track 12) (Everything Fades to Gray (Full Version) is the “full version” because Track 1 is an instrumental version). Each of these songs brings different elements of the bands talents to help create a great album. Overall, The Days of Grays is an album I would certainly recommend to any Progressive metal and Power metal fans as well as anyone looking to get into either of those two styles and expand their metal arsenal.

Epica – Design Your Universe
Nuclear Blast Records

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Symphonic metal band Epica is back with their fifth full length release, entitled Design Your Universe, and they still sound phenomenal! The mixture of the epic and heavy music, the beautiful singing of Simone Simons, and the screams/growls of guitarist/vocalist Mark Jansen is excellent! This band really lives out their name, putting the “epic” in Epica. Design Your Universe includes 13 tracks on the Standard Release version of the album and lasts approximately 1 hour and 14 minutes with two songs lasting over 9 minutes (“Kingdom of Heaven” is approx. 13:35 and “Design Your Universe” is approx. 9:29). Within the 13 tracks, it’s definitely hard to find any stand alone tracks since all of them flow well together and support each other while keeping their own identities and being great as individual tracks, but there are certainly some I would recommend for a great listening experience before hearing the whole album. Some of the tracks I recommend include the two aforementioned tracks “Kingdom of Heaven” (Track 6) and “Design Your Universe” (Track 13/Title track), “Unleashed” (Track 3), “Tides of Time” (Track 9), and “White Waters” (Track 12) which features Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica. Again, each of these tracks are excellent, but they all have their own identities and serve their own purpose in making Design Your Universe such a great album. Overall, I would suggest this album to any Symphonic metal fans, people looking to get into Symphonic metal, and previous Epica fans.

Pan.A.Ce.A – We the Broken
Susquehanna Entertainment

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Pan.A.Ce.A is back with their follow-up album to their February 2009 release All Or Nothing entitled We the Broken, and they are back with a vengeance! Weighing in with 13 brand new tracks, We the Broken picks right up where All Or Nothing left off and packs a good punch. The overall sound of this album is definitely melodic, but it’s also not shy on the “Hard” in Hard rock, and really, the balance between the melodic aspects and the heavier aspects couldn’t be better. One thing in this record that kind of popped out for me is the relationship between the bass parts by Matt Jaffin and drum parts by Kevin Harry. The overall musical and vocal qualities are excellent all around and they mix perfectly, but on this record, I got a lot more drums and bass (which I enjoy, being a bassist myself). The first taste of this relationship you get jumps right of the speakers in the first fifteen seconds of the first track “Too Little Too Late” with a great drum roll/fill at the start, then the bass becomes prominent as the verse begins with the vocals. From there, the musicianship stays at an excellent skill level and, again, Tim Farley’s vocals really mix well with the music (even coming in with a mid range scream near the end of “Too Little Too Late” and later in “No More Secrets”). As usual, there are some tracks on this album I would recommend for your listening pleasures. The recommended tracks from We the Broken include: “Too Little Too Late” (Track 1), “Stay” (Track 4), “No More Secrets” (Track 8), “The Fix” (Track 11), and “Everything Is Different (When I’m With Her)” (Track 12). Now, these are recommended tracks from the whole album, but really, all of the tracks on this album are solid and worth listening too. Overall, We the Broken is an excellent album I recommend to any previous Pan.A.Ce.A fans as well as any Hard rock fans out there.

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Echoes of Eternity – As Shadows Burn
Nuclear Blast Records

(4.5/5)

For years, Heavy metal has been a male dominated style of music, but Progressive metal band Echoes of Eternity is one of the many bands out today that are proving that there is certainly a place for women in Metal. Echoes of Eternity’s place amongst the ranks has been proved through the release of their newest full length album As Shadows Burn. Combining several different styles of Metal, As Shadows Burn‘s 9 tracks nearly jump through the speakers as you listen to them with a subtle “epic” feel behind the pounding combination of double bass drums, Death metal style blast beats (used occasionally), and the speed of the guitar riffs behind the beautiful voice of Francine Boucher. The outcome is nothing short of incredible. Now, as great as each track is on this album, there are a few I have to make mention of for a good example of the album’s overall power: “Ten of Swords” (Track 1), “Descent of a Blackened Soul” (Track 5), and “Funeral in the Sky” (Track 9). Each of these tracks portrays the diversity used by Echoes of Eternity to make their mark on the Metal world. Overall, These tracks combined with the other 6 tracks make As Shadows Burn a great record I would recommend to Progressive metal fans as well as Power metal fans and even some Symphonic metal fans. All in all, it’s a great album for your Metal arsenal!

Oh, Sleeper – Son of the Morning
Solid State Records

(4/5)

Since the first time I heard Oh, Sleeper, they have been in the top of my list of favorite Metalcore bands and with releases like their newest full length album Son of the Morning, it shouldn’t be hard to see why they have stayed there! On top of being a great Metalcore band, the fact that Oh, Sleeper is a Christian band is a plus in my book, but either way, the onslaught brought by the 10 tracks on this album makes a hard argument for anyone to deny them despite whatever religious affiliation you may or may not have. Moving on to the tracks in the album, all 10 tracks bring their own identity to the table and make this album as great as it is, but there are a few I would recommend to get a really good preview of the overall album. The list of tracks I really enjoy consists of “Son of the Morning” (Track 1/Title track), “Breathing Blood” (Track 4), “World Without A Sun” (Track 6), and “The Finisher” (Track 10). Once again, the entire album is excellent, but these four tracks provide an excellent example of the overall talent this band has. Overall, if you’re already a Metalcore fan or you’re just getting into Metalcore/Oh, Sleeper, I certainly recommend Son of the Morning to help beef up your arsenal.