Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Death Metal
Label: Candlelight Records

Right from the first track, “List of Dead”, Darkest Day shows Obituary still in top form. The feel and sound of their classic albums is still present, with an improvement in production that allows John’s normally decipherable voice to be even better sounding.
“Blood to Give” and “Lost” keep up the old school Obituary assault, while “Outside of My Head” throws in some more thrashy elements with a gorgeous chugging riff and a slower tempo. Gorgeous solos salt and pepper “Payback”, “Your Darkest Day”, and “Violent Dreams”, and Donald’s drumming is as solid as the cornerstone it’s always been.
In all, Darkest Day is one of the best albums Obituary have ever released.
8 out of 10.

Obituary on MySpace.

Genres: Doom, Melodic Death Metal
Label: Candlelight Records

What would happen if My Dying Bride fathered a bastard son with Dark Tranquillity? What if this bastard son was later adopted by Paradise Lost? Insomnium would be his name.
Gorgeous singing is coupled with sorrow inducing death vocals on Across the Dark, tied with wonderful leads held together with a rock solid rhythm section. It really is perfect for the fans of the above mentioned bands, and I think some fans of gothic metal like Edenbridge and Elis may find something inside of Insomnium.
My favorite track is “The Harrowing Years”, with “Down With The Sun” right behind it and the fast as hell In Flames/Dark Tranquillity sounding “Against the Stream” rounding my top 3.
7 out of 10.

Insomnium on MySpace.

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Candlelight Records

Eastern Front have been around for awhile, and up until now I’ve never heard them, nor have I even heard OF them. Sure seems I was missing out.
When I first started playing the album I was immediately impressed by the pure ferocity of the playing; there is a lot more than just passion being pushed through these guys’ amps.
Extremely aggressive and still retaining a large amount of melody, Eastern Front’s ‘War Torn Black Metal’ (as they call it) brings some elements of death metal, doom, folk, and classical to the blackened aspects and create a new beast.
I was ready to give these guys a high rating, then I saw their MySpace page, and now they’re getting an even HIGHER rating. It’s wonderful to see a black metal band with this kind of professionalism with their MySpace. Band member shots, past shows, band history, reviews, videos, and more, and it’s all so nice and neat. Must be the English in them.
Straight up, this is some of the best black metal I’ve heard out of the UK; right up there with Wodensthrone (but very different), Primordial’s old stuff, and Intra Tenebrae.
8.5 out of 10.

Eastern Front on MySpace.

Genre: Deathcore, Crap
Label: Candlelight Records

Honestly, I don’t think there’s any topping G.B.’s review of this album. It fucking blows.

Don’t get me wrong though. I’m not one of those guys that goes around spouting off about how shitty deathcore is. I actually think deathcore is pretty fucking badass if it doesn’t saturate everything. Keep it in moderation and it’s a heavy dose of brutality. But acts like this, Oceano, Impending Doom and a few others are what make people think that all deathcore is, is just a bunch of kids with gauged ears and sleeve tats grunting into a mic, blast beating songs to death and playing “complex” riffs. Ugh.

Waking The Cadaver lacks passion. There, I said it. You could literally play this back to back with any Disturbed album and I’d feel equally nauseated by the sheer lack of feeling or interest.

The vocalist just repeats the same burping gurgles over and over and adds some incredibly shitty pig squeals in from time to time, the bass is nonexistent, more so than usual in this genre, and the guitars are phoned in with one of those twelve pound grey bricks that you had to lug around in the eighties (which is ironic and sad considering both guitarists where in a band call The Adpet before joining up with Waking The Cadaver).

Overall: *Grooooooaaaaaan*

2/10*

* The 2 rating is simply for the effort the drummer throws out there and the pretty badass cover art. That’s it. Sedate The Cadaver…

Waking The Cadaver On MySpace
Waking The Cadaver Official

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Candlelight

Holy shit folks. HOLY. SHIT.
Black metal without any pretense, just anger. Raw hatred. And disgust. Yeah, that about sums this up.
Gorgeous instrument work, vocals that are as violent as they emotional, and a ‘raw’ sound that does not equate to ‘shitty’. These Americans have even foregone the grim stage names and corpse paint, choosing to let their music do the talking for them.
Just fucking brilliant. This is the future of American black metal, right up there with Twilight and The Atlas Moth (who aren’t pure black metal, but whatever).
10 out of 10.