American tech death metallers Vale Of Pnath's 2011 debut album 'The Prodigal Empire' was real masterpiece and probably my favorite death metal album that particular year, and I still play that album every now and then. Now they are back with the follow up simply entitled 'II'. The album has actually been out for quite a while already, it only took me about a year to realize that it...

It's not a big secret that I've always been a huge Vintersorg fan, and I consider every single album in their discography pure quality. With that said, I must add that the first two albums, not counting the Hedniskhjärtad EP, had this indefineable magical atmosphere that still make them my go-to Vintersorg albums. Some of the later albums had more complex song structures and way better production, but even...

Those of you with musical preferences within the AOR/melodic hard rock genre, Harem Scarem is probably a familiar name since these Canadians have been around for thirty years now. Forming members Pete Lesperance (guitars) and singer Harry Hess are still going strong, rejoined by original drummer Darren Smith while new guy Stan Miczek is handeling the bass duties. According to the biography Smith's contribution on this album is limited...

Hideous Divinity has been through several line-up changes since the start back in 2007 with Enrico Schettino (ex-Hour Of Penance) as the only remaining member from the original line-up. Their previous two albums were both quite good, but with their latest effort entitled 'Adveniens' Hideous Divinity proves that they really mean business and in my opinion this is by far their best effort to date. Their style is technical...

Arjen Anthony Lucassen is finally back with a brand new Ayreon album to follow up The Theory Of Everything which saw the light of day in 2013, and as always it's a massive piece of music to consume. I'm not going to spend much time on the conseptual story other than saying that instead of continuing the original story from previous albums, The Source takes us back to the...

The history of this Japanese brutal death metal act goes way back to 1997. Their debut album was released in '99 before the band split up in 2001, then they reformed from 2001 to 2005 before taking another long break until they once again rose from the ashes in 2015. Finally the follow up to 'Supreme Entity' is here, released through reknowned death metal label Unique Leader Records. The...

Chicago based doom/death metal veterans are back with the 10th studio album of their carreer, and as always my expectations are quite high since we're talking about a band that very rarely disappoint their fans. We could hear a slight change of direction on their 2014 album 'Bled White' and it's even more obvious this time around. It still sounds unmistakable Novembers Doom, but where the earlier albums were...

I have to admit that it's been a while since I paid attention to Italian melodic power metal/progressive metal light band Labyrinth in the later years. Their 1998 masterpiece 'Return To Heaven Denied' is still one of my favorite albums within this genre, but their following albums were pretty average to be honest and therefore I kind of lost my interest in the band. Labyrint today consists of guitar...

Fruit Of The Poisoned Tree is the debut album of American technical death metal band Virulent Depravity, and it's a remarkable strong debut as well. The music is quite complex with thundering drums as the foundation with blastbeats, breaks and tempo changes, but what really makes this album stand out are the guitars. If you're into riffing guitars, insane but yet tasteful guitar harmonies and leads then you've come...

San Diego based death metal band Condemned has been around for a while, it's actually ten years since their debut album 'Desecrate the Vile' saw the light of day. Now the band is back with their third effort entitled 'His Divine Shadow'. There's been quite a few line-up changes in the band over the years, actually guitarist Steve Crow is the only remaining member from the line-up that recorded...