Swallow The Sun – New Moon

The last couple of months I developed quite an affection to Finish metal bands. Their music oozes a delicate form of melancholy combined with proficient musical skills to satisfy my other need for progressive sounds. One of my recent discoveries is a doom/death metal band called Swallow The Moon. Their New Moon is the centre piece of this review.

Protest The Hero – Scurrilous

Progressive metal band Protest The Hero hail from Canada and they’ve released two full-length albums so far. The band recently completed  work on their sophomore album, entitled Scurrilous. Their latest offering is the centre piece of this review, so let’s take a closer look.

Moonsorrow – Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

Moonsorrow are a band from Finland with strong ties to fellow folk/black metal band Fintroll. Unlike many peers Moonsorrow specialises in long and epic tracks rooted in black metal, folk metal and some viking metal in between. Over the years they released a string of albums, such as Voimasta Ja Kunniasta (2001), Kivenkantaja (2003), Verisäkeet (2005) and V: Hävitetty (2007). The band are about to unleash their latest offering, entitled Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa.

Sólstafir – Köld

Iceland is a rather small rocky and icy country on the northern edge of Europe, surrounded by rough seas. Besides a lot of volcanoes the island has spawned some cutting edge musicians and bands, like Björk, Sigur Rós and The Sugarcubes. When it comes to cutting edge hybrids of metal and postcore, Sólstafir is the band to look out for. After releasing a string of demo’s and EP’s the band released their first full length album under the guise of Masterpiece Of Pain (2005), which got raving reviews. Sólstafir’s current album, entitled Köld, was released in 2009. Let’s take a closer look.