Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genres: Dark Ambient, Noise
Label: Shadowgraph Records

Oh Shadowgraph, how you hear my cries. “I want some dark ambient that’s not boring!” “Oh, is that so, Blaspheme? Well, here’s some Aderlating up your ass!”
The Nectar of Perversity Springs from the Well of Repression is a tortured look into a tortured man’s view of a tortured society. I think. But if I’m wrong, at least the album is amazing.
“A Circle Drawn with Chalk on Wood” and the title track are my favorites. “Cut Off My Penis in Praise of Black Satan” wins the Coolest Song Title on the Album Award.
8 out of 10.

Aderlating on MySpace.

Genres: Industrial, Noise
Label: Shadowgraph Records

You know those albums that once to start listening to it, you can’t stop? The ones that make you skip school or work just to hear? This is one of those albums.
Aphelion is one man from Seattle making noise mixed with industrial that reminds me a lot of Skinny Puppy, who apparently are an inspiration for these sounds. Then again, so is bitterness, hatred for what seems to be 99.9% or more of the human race, and apathy towards modern music.
So basically, I could have known all of this about Mr. C. McBain and still given him a very high rating for this album without even hearing it. But instead, I’ve listened to it twice and after blowing my mind twice, my favorite track is what I think is “Be Still” (there’s 11 tracks on the CD, 10 track titles on the back). “Car, Bus, Plane or Coffin” (or at least track nine) is second place favorite.
10 out of 10.

Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: Hell’s Headbangers

Keeping the metal flame alive is no easy feat nowadays. A lot of people look at classic 80′s sounding metal as something that should not be revisited, but that is not stopping Finland’s Armour from doing what they want. And judging from this fucking awesome sounding album, they want to “Rock’n'Roll Tonite”.
Riffs are a little bit more technical than the modern ‘classic’ metal most people are getting exposed to at times, which is a nice change. Mind you though, they’re still designed for optimum headbanging. The tone reminds me of a colder sound too, which might be the Finnish in the band getting shown off. It’s like Accept or U.D.O. with more of a slow burning anger underneath.
Favorite tracks are “The Time is Right”, “Sex Demon”, and “Heavy Metal Drinkers”.
7.5 out of 10.

Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: The Grind-House Records

Looking at the cover of the album, one thinks something like 3 Inches of Blood crossed with some touches of black metal or something. Maybe some death metal.
But then, after listening to this monster of  a band, it seems they are just that and more. Definitely reminding me of Advance and Vanquish 3IoB, but without the high pitched vocals, there seems to be some other influences, each obviously an Evil Power (pun intended) controlling what these Chicago natives write.
Catchier riffs, catchier choruses, catchier verses, catchier everything, I’m a fan of Lair of the Minotaur now, officially.
Favorite tracks are “We Are Hades”, “Let’s Kill These Motherfuckers”, and the title track.
A bonus for you Scott Hull fans/stalkers – this album was mastered by him.
8 out of 10.

Genres: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal
Label: Black Lodge

AC/DC! WHOO!
Oh wait, this isn’t AC/DC? What are you talking about? These guys sound just like the legendary Aussies.
Oh, this is Bullet, a Swedish band? Ah. Cool.
Well then, now that I know these guys aren’t AC/DC, I can tell you flat out that if you are craving that classic Australian flavour, you can look towards the guys in Bullet to fill your plate beyond heaping with the sound and feel of almost any AC/DC album, except for Back In Black, which I doubt even the legends themselves could recreate. It’s a fucking great, fast, beer soaked hard rock album about such topics as rock curing aliments (“Rock N Roll Remedy”), what’s happening tonight (“Rock Us Tonight”), driving a lot (“Roadking”, “Wheels Keep On Turning”), and the like.
Which goes to show, that even though this album is nowhere near original in sound, feel, or subject matter, it’s still awesome.
8 out of 10.