Between The Buried And Me – The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues

So what do you do after you have pushed every conceivable musical envelope with your two previous records? In a nutshell that’s what Between The Buried And Me has done on Colors (2006) and The Great Misdirect (2009). The band’s latest effort, entitled The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues sees a slight change of direction…

Primordial – Storm Before Calm

Originally released in 2002 on Hammerheart Records, Storm Before Calm marked Primordial’s fourth full-length release. Their mix of Celtic tradition and Nordic bleakness was fairly unique, with only Cruachan really even attempting to cover similar ground (with some success too, I highly recommend seeking their records out!).

Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising

Viking mythology has always been a major source of inspiration for countless metal bands. The stories and exploits of these intrepid Scandinavians form the backbone of the Amon Amarth universe. These Swedes managed to carve out their own niche through the years, cemented by albums like The Crusher (2001), Versus The World (2002) and With Oden By Our Side (2006). Surtur Rising is Amon Amarth’s latest album, so let’s see what it’s made of.

Return To Earth – Automata

Return To Earth are a band founded by former The Dillinger Escape Plan and current Coheed And Cambria drummer Chris Pennie. Recently the band released their second album, entitled Automata. Let’s take a closer look.

God Dethroned – Under The Sign Of The Iron Cross

There’s nothing wrong with a healthy work ethic. This is demonstrated by Henri Sattler and his God Dethroned gang with their second instalment of World War One themed albums. Passiondale was released only a year ago and now the band are back with a new album, entitled Under The Sign Of The Iron Cross. Its predecessor is a tough act to follow up on in terms of quality and critical acclaim, but then again Henri Sattler and Co never failed in delivering quality albums. Let’s see how solid their latest album is.

God Dethroned – Passiondale

One of the best and most consistent extreme metal bands from The Netherlands are God Dethroned. Henri Sattler (guitars/vocals) is the band’s founder and main composer. Despite many line-up changes the overall quality stayed consistent on albums like The Grand Grimoire (1997), Bloody Blasphemies (1999) and In The Lair Of The White Worm (2002). After some years God Dethroned returned to form with the release of Passiondale, a concept album based upon the horrors of the Third Battle of Ypres (1917), better known as the Battle of Passiondale…

The Ocean – Anthropocentric

Anthropocentric by The Ocean is the heavier counterpart of Heliocentric. The whole idea of releasing lighter and heavier twin records has previously been done by Opeth with their Damnation and Deliverance records. Some years ago Arjen Lucassen did something similar with his Ayreon project under the guise of Universal Migrator parts 1 and 2. Let’s take a closer look at what Anthropocentric has to offer.

The Ocean – Heliocentric

Once an ever revolving collective of musicians and artists, The Ocean have established themselves as a band with guitarist Robin Staps as the main leader and creative force. They’re known for their intricate and artistic brand of post-rock/metal with progressive tendencies. Just as with Fluxion/Aeolian their latest effort is another two-disc behemoth in the form of Heliocentric and Anthropocentric. Subject of this article is Heliocentric, the more subtle and quieter of the two.

Bison BC – Dark Ages

It has been predicted that the year 2012 will end in disaster. Land will crumble into sea, flash floods will engulf cities and important buildings will collapse into thick clouds of concrete dust and rubble. Nature will finally wage her war on humanity and people will die. As bleak as it all sounds, I have the sneaking suspicion that if these predictions were to actually come to fruition the boys in Bison B.C. would be the first to crack open a beer and welcome the end of days.

The Red Chord – Fed Through The Teeth Machine

Some years ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Clients by The Red Chord. I was totally blown away by the intelligent diversity combined with technical violence displayed on that record. Its successor was a musical tour de force, but lacked the passion of the aforementioned Clients album. Last year The Red Chord released their fourth album, entitled Fed Through The Teeth Machine, which is the subject of dissection today by yours truly.