The boundaries of Doom-Death Metal has been stretched again, this time by Greek act Hedon Cries. Their self-labeled “Atmospheric Doom-Death” is not quite as funereal or elegiac as expected, and adds a much faster tempo than the genre implies. After releasing two albums since 2001, the band underwent new changes in the form of bassist Stathis Karoutis and vocalist Christos Aidonis, and adding Thanos Lois on keyboard. The band, as a result, has shifted styles slightly into a gloomier Melodeath approach, akin to Novembre’s and Sentenced’s lovechild, with several other smaller influences hidden within The End of the Path is Nigh.

The record kicks off in style with a speedy number; the pounding drums from Papadoulas and Sentenced-like guitar-work of Boufas and Kopsaftopoulos keep the rhythm whilst injecting some melancholic melody in the chorus. The real center stage, and where the band excels, is in the guitar-work, combining a mixture of Tales…era Amorphis, Novembre and a touch of Agalloch circa Ashes… to create many a swirling melody within the songs.

While looking at Revolver Magazine’s favourite album covers of 2011, as Mhorgl’s Heresiarch was in there, I saw the cover of ChthoniC’s album Takasago Army come by and the album description certainly caught my mind. The first band that sprung to mind were the Finnish Whispered, who have a similar Japan-related theme spun through their music, and they also use the same weird string instrument. But where Whispered incorporates some traditional Finnish Melodeath influences in their music, ChthoniC uses more Folky elements.

Takao as a song is really good. First it got me craving for some melody which I later got, in the form of a bridge sung in Taiwanese. The song is very dynamic and diverse, and even though I generally despise Asian Metal (especially those weird Japanese bands), I think this is just great.

Thousand Year War. Nothing we think we’d would want of course, because we’re all friendly people at The Baboon and we don’t wish anyone dead. Except for pop music perhaps. But, because we’re talking about a band, who’d have thought, that is turning out precisely the type of music that tickles our fancy, we actually do want it.

The project was started at the end of 2008 / beginning of 2009 by Hiram Lohr from Alaska. He then got reinforcements in the form of Kellen Sharp and after hiring a session drummer they recorded their first EP, and self-titled it. Not long after, in the same year still, work was started on the group’s debut record. After proper mixing and mastering, and finding a lable, Tyrants and Men first saw the light of day last September. With help of more session musicians, Hiram, who’s currently the only official member again, has now started work on the next EP, which is to be titled Doom Rides These Mountains.

You could say we’re having two stragglers from 2011 today. Scartown and Deviant Syndrome have both released an album onto the market last year, on which we haven’t reported yet at all. We’re happy to fill that void today, because in terms of Melodeath, Russia has actually got some quality to offer.

[I'm just seeing I spend the last 15 minutes for nothing since the guys have been featured before. However, not with enough depth because they can do more than the song Sun of Ice. So, enjoy some more Uncreation!]

Since Niek made clear that he had been spoiled concerning Melodic Death Metal over the years, and that he was hard to impress, I decided to pull out some to see where I stood. Uncreation was one of the first bands I got into since they gave away their demo, which wasn’t bad at all, as a free download. Now, roughly six years since the release of that demo and some two years after I heard it they released their album Burning Blood, which is almost a year old now.

Burning Blood brings forth some really solid Melodeath, which, surprisingly, has some things in common with Immortal Souls. The melodies on this killer are very much in the same vain as those of our Finnish brothers, but this time they are drenched in some guttural vocals, and it’s all a tad heavier (and with that slower).

Servants of Justice was released back in December and is this German five-piece’s first full-length release. Still, the band defines itself as ”a true live-band” and to prove this, they’ve refrained from using a metronome in the recording process of the record. Not sure if that means they also recorded all the songs in one go, so all instruments at once, or not, but in the end I doubt it matters.

What does matter is that it all sounds fine and more importantly that the band has found its own weird-ass theme for the music. This is gallows-themed Melodic Death Metal and it’s apparent primarily in the song titles and lyrics – a couple of examples: The Gallow March, Crash Course Dying, Hang ‘em High, Withdraw the Hangmen – and the album cover featuring an executioner in the process of beheading some dude.

Roughly four months ago I brought you all some exciting news from Slovenia, remember Within Destruction? The young lads were able to impress us with their song Cardiomyopathy (yes, I’m able to spell that out by heart now), which came from their upcoming album From the Depths, to be released this year.

Seven days ago, they made me even more pumped by releasing the second single to From the Depths called King of Serpents. I must say that this is a tiny tad different from Cardiomyopathy, but it’s still typically Within Destruction. That is to say, that it’s still “a combination of Melodical Death Metal riffs, Metalcore rhythm section and melancholic and fast Black Metal melodies”, but in King of Serpents they have thrown in a splash of ‘normal’ Death Metal as well.

Hell, we’re up to date. Yesterday “Melodic Death Metal”-outfit Miseration put out a video for their song Dreamdecipher. Yeah, the Melodic Death Metal is in quotation marks because our holy bible (aka the Metal Encyclopedia) says that, but I can tell you, this is not Melodic Death Metal. Sounds more like Technical Grindcore to me.

Who are Miseration? You ask. Miseration are a Swedish band formed in 2006, and have since produced two full-lengths, on which they play a very heavy, Grindcore-influenced kind of Melodeath. Stylistically they are a very interesting band, and I haven’t really heard something like what they did on their first two albums before. Dreamdecipher however takes their sound to a less original height, although it’s still a good song of course.

The big moment! The top four of albums I’ve reviewed this year. If you’ve missed what came before this, these four were preceded by eleven other albums in Part 1 and Part 2 of this list. Today’s four are the absolute cream of the crop.

As you’ll read on, there’s one thing you might notice: Finland’s the winner. Each and every single band in this top 4 hails out of the most Metal nation on the planet. Something I only just discovered myself. I think the Finnish are to Metal what American are to hamburgers. What Germans are to cars. And what Dutchmen are to drugs and prostitutes.

Anyfuck, I can make this a long and boring speech up front, like they do with most award shows, but I think everyone would just prefer to fuckin’ get going with this! After all, it’s Christmas Eve tonight and I’m sure you’ll want to get back to spinning Metal albums sitting under the Christmas tree.

Yes! Part 2 of the most important list in the whole wide world of Metal. The list of best albums I have reviewed all year. You can’t possibly get a more complete overview of what happened in the Metallic world, anywhere.

Seriously though, this is just a list. My own little list of fifteen albums that struck a special chord with me this year. But then again, I do hear a fuckload of Metal over the course of a year and the fact that these fifteen stood out as the top albums does make them a little special, don’t you think? Hence they are albums that I highly recommend you to listen to, and buy when you can get your grubby hands on them and have no more fuckin’ debts to pay off.