After only listening to this album for a few seconds, I could already guess that Within Y were a Swedish band because "Extended Mental Dimensions" really looks (artwork by Niklas Sundin) and sounds totally like a Swedish product. You can easily hear influences from bands like DARK TRANQUILLITY, old IN FLAMES and especially AT THE […]
To call this album "an unstoppable Death-Thrash assault" sounds insulting when one calls to mind what Death / Thrash in its original sense is about and that is definitely not an IN FLAMES-like sound!!! Production, technical skill, songwriting and variation certainly leave no room for any complaints on the Danes fourth full-length, but it feels […]
As usual we have this "Had this album been released a decade ago it would have been a classic…". Well, I’m sure it would, but as it is released today I’d say it’s just another Thrash album. And it doesn’t make any impact, sadly. We get short tracks which are mostly rapid and monotonous. Besides […]
I’ve crossed paths with WITCHERY material when they released their "Dead, Hot & Ready" ’99 album and right from the first glance I considered them to be a third rate Thrash, poorly attractive or even hard to spin twice in my player. Two albums after that they continue to be as sterile as before but […]
Third album, third line-up… It seems Germany’s WITCHBURNER are still struggeling when it comes to a steady solution of the involved musicians. But all that obviously didn’t really affect their musical path as guitarist Simon Seegel (the only remaining original member nowadays) luckily managed to keep the spirit of the band alive, so that "Incarnation […]
Standard riffing, standard vocals, standard lyrics and layout, this US Black Metal band that was formed out of the smouldering carcass of THY INFERNAL (their 2nd album "Warlords Of Hell" is pretty good!) is not either very bad or very good, it’s just another case of superfluous mediocrity. BURZUM, JUDAS ISCARIOT come to mind, as […]
Anyone out there who has been interested in American Black Metal the last couple of years??? I definitely did not care much about the US Black Metal scene and focused on the Death Metal underground, but I think it is time for a change of mind, because bands like SUMMON, IBEX THRONE, THORNSPAWN, BLACK WITCHERY […]
If you are into eerie, cold, dark and atmospheric suicide Black Metal you will probably have crossed ways with US one-man-band XASTHUR. Darker than SHINING, more ghostlike than BURZUM the band got quite a name within the underground. Having released their last albums on Southernlord Records and contributing some vocals on the last European show […]
US Black Metal one-man project XASTHUR is certainly an act that polarizes people into utter worshippers and loathers, whereas I am somehow caught in between. The haunting, eerie moods and gloomy yet hateful depressiveness is capturing, unique and addictive, but the sterility caused by the drum computer and the lengthiness of most songs create a […]
As far as I know, this is the first release of this North German band. After a short intro the opener ‘K.A.T.P.’ starts out pretty thrashy and turns into a deadly groover. Unfortunately, like on a few more songs (e. g. ‘Clown’ or ‘Feel The Pain’), the chorus gets a little on my nerves: too […]