Vintersorg – Jordpuls

After a four year hiatus Andreas Hedlund and his Vintersorg crew return to the fold with a brand new album, entitled Jordpuls. As on its predecessor the album is entirely sung in Swedish with lyrics revolving around mankind and its relationship with nature. Let’s see what Vintersorg’s latest album has to offer.

Vintersorg – The Focussing Blur

After exploring the progressive metal realm with Visions Of The Spiral Generator, Andreas Hedlund and Vintersorg returned in 2004 with The Focussing Blur, their most ambitious record to date. The grandiose themes about physics and astronomy are back in full swing and once again the collective talents of Steve DiGiorgio (bass) and Asgeir Mickelson (drums) are brought in to provide the necessary musical muscle.

Vintersorg – Visions From The Spiral Generator

Andreas Hedlund, better known as Mr V, is the main composer behind Vintersorg. He’s also active as a vocalist in Borknagar. Furthermore he keeps himself occupied with several other projects, including Waterclime and Cronian. Before the release of Visions From The Spiral Generator (2002) he released several albums under the Vintersorg moniker, like Till Fjälls (1998) and Ödermarkens Son (1999). However, it’s with Visions From The Spiral Generator where he really managed to break new ground.

Battlelore – Doombound

Many bands within the metal genre are inspired by the epic tales of J.R.R Tolkien and his Lord Of The Rings. Battlelore from Finland are such a band. They specialize in grand anthems about glory, heroes en bloodshed in the best Tolkien tradition. Their latest offering is a true concept album about the tragic story of Túrin Turambar, one of the greatest heroes of the First Era of Middle Earth. Let’s take a trip into a world full of sorcerers, elves and dragons.

Falkenbach – Tiurida

After an absence of several years Vratyas Vakyas returns to the stage with Falkenbach, his brainchild. It’s basically a one-man project, heavily inspired by Norwegian mythology and ancient Viking lore. His latest offering is entitled Tiurida, which can be translated as glory in regular English. Let’s take a closer look to Falkenbach’s latest offering.

Isole – Silent Ruins

There is a lot to be said for consistency. Churning out exactly what the fans expect, ticking all the boxes- guitar solo here, drum roll there, guttural death scream to finish.

There’s a lot more to be said for artistic endeavour and progression: watching an artist grow and develop a vision and sense of place.  With the release of their fourth album, Silent Ruins, the Swedish doom-meisters of Isole have managed to achieve both: an album that delights their existing fan base should have more casual listeners take the opportunity to investigate their very particular brand of proggy doom metal.

Draconian – Turning Season Within

When I was growing up, the term Goth was not one of endearment. It generally referred to sullen faced sulky teenagers, often with unwashed back-combed hair, black nail polish and an unrequited love for The Cure’s Robert Smith. Of late, gothic has become a much more fashionable genre, both musically and cinematically. The popularity of Amy Lee’s band Evanescence, the DVD Box set favourite True Blood, the seemingly ubiquitous Twilight movies.

Monster Magnet – Mastermind

The last couple of years it seemed that Monster Magnet were on the verge of disappearing into obscurity. Albums such as God Says No, Monolithic Baby and 4-Way Diablo were decent albums, but never quite managed to recapture the magic of Superjudge and Dopes To Infinity. On top of this all singer, guitarist and mastermind Dave Wyndorf overdosed on prescription drugs, yet he luckily survived. Not the best of circumstances to release a new album, but  nevertheless here’s Mastermind!