Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genres: Heavy, Rock
Label: Nasty Prick Records

My last encounter with St. Madness was their album “Vampires In The Church” with left me with a “meh” feeling all over. Now, I get to check out a slightly more mature St. Madness with “Saintanic”. First off, vocalist Prophet has grown substantially as both a lyricist (with songs like The Art Of Terror and They Walk The Earth) and a vocalist (shown well in their cover of Ozzy Osborne’s Crazy Train). Hell, the band as a whole have done a lot of growing since 2006. The overall feel has gone from pseudo-nu metal to almost completely thrashin’ with a touch of heavy metal infused with rock ‘n’ roll. I’m especially tickled pink with the track Death Drives A Buick. Apparently the reaper drives a 1989 Buick Regal Custom… which is what I happen to be driving… it’s fun when the third wall is broken, isn’t it? Also appreciated is the hot-as-the-manifold-after-a-hundred-mile-drive solos the pop up at least once a song! Hurray for Madness!

Overall: “Saintanic” is head and shoulders above St. Madness’s last record, with more memorable songs than a British mop-topped quartet and more hooks than a bait shop!

8.5/10

www.myspace.com/stmadness

Originally posted at E-MetalSpace

Genres: Death, Brutal, Black
Label: Dynamic Art Records

An appropriate name for this band, through and through. “Begin The Celebrations Of Sin” is, in most aspects an exercise in brutality with it’s unrelenting presence of blacken atmosphere. The rapid fire death beats that are brought home by the frantic pedal abuse are the highlight of this release. Not to be left out, the vocalist switches from hateful growls to skin flaying blackened screams in an instant, leaving you little time to recover. As far as the axe attack goes, let me just put it this way: if a single note of awesome shredding could leave a single nick in your flesh, I’d be completely skinless! “Begin The Celebrations Of Sin” keeps up this ferocious assault for nine tracks (not counting the intro) and never loses steam or starts to feel old, a feat that’s astounding for any death metal band!

Overall: A memorable release from a bludgeoningly brutal death metal band! For fans of with a hankering for the macabre an all things evil.

9/10

www.dynamicartrecords.com

Originally posted at E-MetalSpace

Genre: Heavy, Power, Progressive

Label: Dynamic Art Records

With an appropriate title on the most superficial level (as in, a great wind down album before bedtime or during), “Sleep” is a solid power/heavy metal album that implements elements of progressive rock in the most delicious of ways. The vocalist has a powerful voice that is reminiscent of a certain Deadite monster man, except that this guy doesn’t need a computer’s help to sound awesome! The heavy and simultaneously melodic guitars are forcefully crammed into your ear at the speed of rock! Songs like Turn Away and The Circle work an aggressive angle that blends ferocity and melancholy with surprisingly wicked results! “Sleep” is not without it’s faults though. There doesn’t seem to be any real variation throughout the ten tracks (barring the two I just mentioned), which is actually fine with me since the formula they concocted works for ten tracks anyway, but I know that a lot of you hate that sort of thing.

Overall: With a vocalist that sounds like a actually talented Mr. Lordi and catchy-as-herpes choruses and riffs, Masterstroke is a welcome addition to any power/heavy/progressive metal fans library. Dig it!

8.5/10

www.myspace.com/masterstrokefinland
www.dynamicartrecords.com

Originally posted at E-MetalSpace

Genres: Melodic Death Metal, Progressive

Label: Punishment 18 Records

This Italian based band is probably one of the most original sounding melodic death metal/metalcore bands to come around in a long time! Like a freight train that’s able to barrel up hill at a ninety degree angle, these chugging riffs have POWAH! Followed closely by ethereally the melodic breakdowns of guitarist “Big”, the complex lines laid down by badass bassist “Miki” and hellfire summoning roars that transform into the slowly unfurling cleans of guitarist/vocalist “Mavce”, drummer “Mendosa” stands out as an intricate, blast beatin’, flourish factory! Listen to his skills in songs like Generator, Onirical and My Sweetest Whore and then come back to this blog and post about how awesome he, hell this whole fucking band, is!

Overall: This band is not to be overlooked! Check them out if you dig metal that’s violently brutal and delicately melodic at the same time!

8.5/10

www.myspace.com/bleedingyouth
www.punishment18records.com

Originally posted at E-MetalSpace

Genres: Thrash

Label: Punishment 18 Records

I wonder if these guys like Tankard? Hmm…

Anyway, Alkoholizer bring on the booze soaked thrash in their debut album “Drunk Or Dead…”! Pulling influences from the likes of thrashmeisters such as Artillery, Tankard (yep) and Sodom, Alkoholizer present a sound that’s all together familiar (also fitting in extremely well with the current trend of old school sounding/retro thrash), yet full of an uncompromising energy that saturates every track! The vocals are at times a dead ringer for either Gerre or an Italian Tom Araya, making for a meaty treat for the ears right off the hook. The use of sound bytes is fairly sparse, but enough to slightly annoy since it detracts from zee thrash! But once you get into the riffing, there’s no going back! Aggressive as fuck and served in a giant bowl of pretzels, the guitar work in “Drunk Or Dead…” is metal thrashing mad! This album definitely ranks up in the top ten list of my favorite thrash albums of 2009!

Overall: “Drunk Or Dead…” is rippin’ Italian thrash that comes at you like a flaming eighty foot keg of one hundred proof, thrashoholic rage!

8.5/10

www.myspace.com/alkoholizer
www.punishment18records.com

Originally posted at E-MetalSpace