This album came in with a (now not so)recent load of physical Russian albums from the above record label, and Niek was so kind to share in this late Sinterklaas present, he even gave me a choice! I chose Last Wail as a starter because I never reviewed, and never owned a Folk Metal album before. Now we’re here, seeing whether this album is worth our time.

Last Wail are quite a cool band as they provide the listener with an alternative spin on the whole female Death growlers-concept; some Folk Metal, drenched in Melodic Death Metal. It certainly is a feature that lifts Last Wail out of an depthless pool of Folk- and Melodeath bands that are already out there.
The Tale of Endless Night starts of with a lovely acoustic instrumental, aptly called Intro. From there, the band seem to run through their songs with ease, although that same ease tends to lean to boringness sometimes. A sole light of recognition comes in at the end when the band plays a version of Ensiferium’s Windrider, which is well done, but stands miles apart from the rest of the music, leaving it in the shadows.

I am usually completely supportive of bands re-interpreting established styles of music, honoring the traditions set down by their influences and paying homage. However, there is a clear distinction between homage and copycat. French metalcore quintet In Trails haven’t quite crossed the border to the former, as proven in their début full-length Triumph In Suffering. Those acquainted with the Americanized version of Swedish melodeath will be instantly familiar with the sound here, combining elements of Threat Signal and Nightrage. Although doing In Trails do the metalcore genre justice, they never really establish an individual style, resulting in a feeling of re-hashing trodden ground.

After an intro made up of a melancholic guitar line and a continuous breakdown underneath, the album proper kicks off with “Kingdom Of Pit”. It’s a fairly standard metalcore number which does improve during the chorus with the Amenta-speed drumming of Leriche. The guitar and bass lines of Guerido and Allemand are entertaining on first spin, but quickly lose their appeal, especially during the frequent breakdown sections. The 4 solos on this album are evenly scattered throughout and provide light relief, particularly due to the over-powering crash cymbals exacerbating the breakdowns. In Trails do also employ some exceedingly fast sections which are more interesting (title track), but it’s not long before they drop into a slower ‘melodic section’ or a breakdown (“Virus Of Humanity”).

Random hit on YouTube today: Germany’s World of Farewell. Self-described as ”A pleasant punch in the face for every Melodic Death Metal loving creature out there”. Pretty accurate.

Apparently the band have just got an album out, titled Immersion, the band’s debut. Just got the one song for you, but it at least makes me want to check out more. Which is exactly what I’m going to do now. I suggest you do the same. Here’s a good starting point!

I’m dealing with limited intel here, as Encyclopaedia Metallum seems to have been brought down by the FBI – wouldn’t worry too much yet, it’s April 1^st – and the band’s own Facebook page contains a bulleted time line that I’m basically too lazy for to read.

I’m not completely in the dark though. I know EmpactiC is Polish and consists of five dudes. And that the band was formed in 2005 and has recently released its debut full-length. This album is titled Gods of Thousand Souls and contains eleven songs of a crusty sort of Melodeath. Has a bit of an Old-school flavor to it too. The album was released through Terrasound Records from Austria on January 20^th and is distributed through the German Twilight mail-order company.

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.

It’s been quiet for a long while with Noumena. At least as far as any releases from the Finnish Melodeath outfit go. Their last official release stems from 2006 and is called Anatomy of Life. Then things turned relatively silent, though the band is still doing gigs and does the occasional post on its website. Apparently, Rufio is a guy that regularly checks into that site, because he spotted a new song there that was aired in late November. He spotted it in early January already, it’s my fault that we didn’t run this post any sooner.

At this point I have absolutely no clue what’s going to happen with this song. New EP? New album? Beats me, all I know is that the song exists and I don’t feel attracted to the thought of digging out the rest. Don’t have time for it either. But if any of you knows more, please don’t hesitate to share! Hooray for lazy bloggers!

As you’ve perhaps noticed, I’ve been in a little bit of a dip for the past month, but I finally found myself on top again. Albums that bored me to death have come alive for me, but I’m not sure about Nowen’s Essence of Fear; a freight train of Finnish Melodeath.

The first thing that came to mind when the first tones of Essence of Fear reached my eardrums, was “Arch Enemy”. The vocals, the melodic guitars, they’re all reminiscent of especially the later work of the Swedish Death Metallers. Nowen however are faster, less catchy, but more groovy than the previously named giant. Essence of Fear delivers you just short of 50 minutes of Melodeath, with a splash of Thrash.

Later on in this short piece of writing you will find an embedded music video by a Finnish band named Stam1na. At some point you will see an act of dentistry being performed. Now, my girlfriend happens to be a dentist and so I showed it to her, asking her if it was how it’s usually done. She said “no, normally they bleed more”. But brutal dentistry isn’t the only thing painful that vocalist Antti Hyyrynen is subjected to in this video as you abso-fuckin’-lutely need to go find out after the jump.

But first a little more intel, as this band is apparently coming close to being a legend in Finland. They set things in motion in 1996, initially singing in English, but after only three demos switching to Finnish. Their list of releases is incredibly long, but contains mostly demos and splits. Full-length albums released count up to five so far, the last one, titled Nocebo, came out last week.

I noticed this thing pop online last week, but I was too much of a goddamn lame-ass to do anything with it. I just listened to it till my ears fell off and then I mangled my nuts. No idea why I did that, but it wasn’t nice. How different from the song that Eluveitie – which is Gaulish for The Helvetian, so basically The Swiss – launched last week!

Havoc is its name and it’s Eluveitie’s first single of a seventeen (!) song album they released last Friday. The album is titled after the band’s homeland, Switzerland, obviously: Helvetios. Not only is it long in terms of number of songs, it’s also long in terms of playing time: 48 seconds shy of an hour. As I’m intending to order this bugger the very minute I finish writing this post I have no idea yet what it will be like, but if it’s all as good as Havoc, I’m going to have an orgasm that lasts 48 seconds shy of an hour.

If you’ve been with us for a long time, you may remember that last May we had an out-of-the-ordinary post in which we presented just one thing: an album cover. It was the cover for an album then-to-be-titled The Ethereal Throne, in production by a Swedish band we’ve been following around for a while like a small dog sniffing a big dog’s arse. The band’s formed by two dudes, Patrik Carlsson and Andreas Åkerlind and though the album in question, their fourth since they started out in 2003, was supposed to be released still in 2011, they did launch it until January of this year.

I do not mind, for the simple reason that I know Patrik a little from over the internetz and I know these guys are a bunch of perfectionists. I’ve noticed it from their previous material as well. So a delay of a few months is probably fully attributable to this and must have had a beneficial effect on the record’s quality. I mean, it shows: this album is pure quality in a thick volumeous sauce of awesome with pinches of hot shit and drops of delicious old-school punch in the teeth. I mean: it’s good!