A you’ve all noticed we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus today, but now it’s Friday night and the large part of my exams are over, so I’ll just throw down some of the music I’m digging at the moment. Nothing special, just some bands to keep you busy.

First up is a song by Enslaved, which seems to be a band of contradiction to me. I’m not very familiar with them, but I was really attracted to this song called Ethica Odini, an 8-minute long hybrid of Black Metal and Progressive Rock. It’s really a fabulous piece of music, but when I look at the list of album reviews at the Metal Encyclopedia, I actually find people who are angry with Enslaved for putting out this album Axioma Ethica Odini. I really like it though, because the balance between Black Metal and edgy Prog Rock is just perfect.

Two Paths came to me by means of two CD-ROMs, in one jewel case, in a box which was in theory able to hold fifty jewel cases, but was filled with polystyrene foam. These guys do handle their babies with care for sure, and after some heedful listening I can see why. Two Paths is an album which is very worthwhile and which should be appreciated to the fullest.

At the first few listens, I didn’t know what to make of this album. I heard influences from all different kinds of Extreme Metal-genres, but none of them was dominating the others really. The above mentioned genre is the closest I could fit without resorting to ridiculously long and extended genre identifications.

Knowing that you will have picked up this news already some time ago, I still deemed it just for me to serve you this. You know, there may always be people that missed it and shit.

7 Horns 7 Eyes, from Seattle, is an absolute novelty to me, but I guess that’s because their first record is yet to be released. Still, the band are leaving a major buzz across the web already. Quite an achievement, and I’m not quite sure what’s fueling it. Other than that the upcoming shit sounds hot, of course.

So you write five songs that you name Bodhi Zephyr, Jean-Luc Picard, John Jameson, K’nuckles and Walter White and you stick ‘em all on an EP that you title Captains. I find that pretty original.

Why? I have no clue, I guess that’s why it’s original. At first I thought all of them were going to be captains, but that shit flies only for Jean-Luc Picard and K’nuckles. You can pull it wider and say all of them are TV / movie / comic characters, but even then I’m left with Bodhi Zephyr. Who / what the fuck is that? Well, the cool thing is that the music on Captains works about in the same way: it makes you think you see patterns and then proves you wrong about them.

I can’t really find anything about Into the Storm, except that they’re four dudes out of Seattle and that they released Captains as a sophomore to their 2010 album Amidst a Sea of Chaos, which I haven’t heard, by the way. I’ve heard plenty of Captains though, and it’s hot shit.

It’s been a while since I wrote anything, but it seems to me that I kind of fell out off the Metal-boat for some reason. This morning I listened to Depth’s latest EP which appealed to me, but what really brought me back here was the song Eyez by Rap Metal-legends P.O.D. Earlier this year the guys already released the song On Fire, which came as a total surprise, but this totally shook my balls.

The lyrics take me back to a video, which showed some Black Metal artists commenting on the concept of Christian Black Metal, and one of the guys on there said that he was alright with the idea, only if they would actually scare the hell out of him with the might of God. I can tell you that not many Christian Black Metal bands do that, but P.O.D. here are doing just fine, with a mixture of unforgiven blasphemy, rising dead, guillotines and killing fields.

If you’re a fan of Tool, you’ll love this – or perhaps hate it for sometimes being a copy. Another link dumped by Rufio!

Rishloo, out of Seattle, formed in 2002 and aims to push the boundaries of Rock. Indeed, this isn’t really Metal. But it isn’t really Rock either. Well, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. What I can say is that it’s mostly psychedelic and progressive, sometimes nuts and freaky. In short, it’s absolutely great!

Hail Metal people! I’m back again. Can I get an Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh?

I’ve got a quicky today, because, as always, I’m in over my head. It’s by suggestion of Rufio: Denial Machine.

This Chicago-based outfit arose in 2009 and completed its first record in 2010, followed in the same year by an EP. Encyclopaedia Metallum lists them as Groove Metal / Metalcore, but I’m more inclined to give them a little Progressive label as well. I dug up a couple of songs for you to enjoy.

Some news to open up the stream of write up’s coming after the silence. I’ve been very busy with some stuff related to school and college applications etc. and Niek is away on a trip, so it’s been quiet for some time. But for today we’re happy to announce that Antivenom have completed their debut full-length Sacred Funeral.

Antivenom are a Christian Black Metal supergroup who got together earlier this year. The band consists of the members of Armath Sargon and White Funeral, both critically acclaimed bands on the scene. From what I’ve heard Antivenom is a natural extension on what both bands have been producing before: Raw Black Metal.

Nearly two years ago we served up a dose of Black Breath by way of their song Razor to Oblivion which is the title track of their 2008 EP. In 2010 they released their first full-length Heavy Breathing which we neglected to cover, but with the impending release of the follow up Sentenced to Life just a week or so away, what better time to get these guys back on your minds?

This is just a little friendly reminder that Cannibal Corpse released their eleventh full-length nearly a week ago. Titled Torture it is Cannibal Corpse doing what they do best, straight up Death-fuckin-Metal. If you’re not a fan of CC Torture probably won’t win you over, but if you love their riff-fest style and horror themes don’t pass this one up. A couple of tracks await you ahead along with the uncensored album art, which for some reason I haven’t seen anywhere else.