CZAR - Life Is No Way To Treat An Animal Review

Czar - Life Is No Way To Treat An Animal (Self-released)

Release date : January 20th, 2017

Of all the things that I love in my life being critical is one of those things I don’t get bored with easily. Sometimes, in album reviews, you already know how the music is going to sound and how you are going to write those few lines trying to point its better and weaker elements. Other times you get a real challenge and even genre description won’t even help you trying to make out of what you have listened. The case of Czar and their full length album Life Is No Way To Treat An Animal is of the later kind.

ASHENSPIRE - Speak Not Of The Laudanum Quandary Review

Ashenspire - Speak Not Of The Laudanum Quandary (2017, Code666)

Release date : January 20th, 2017

Lately, we have been receiving promo from the label Code666 and we have been mostly impressed by their quality and their variety of offerings; Aenaon and Terra are two of the albums we reviewed on this blog. Avant-garde Metal band Ashenspire formed in 2013 in the United Kingdom are the latest to be released on Code666. Mixing the speed of both Primordial and Ved Buens Ende with a vision that’s closer to Dodheimsgard and Arcturus, Ashenspire might have created the most theatrical record to have moved this critic for a long time.

HEAVY BABY SEA SLUGS - Teenage Graveyard Party EP Review

Heavy Baby Sea Slugs - Teenage Graveyard Party EP (2017, Heavy Baby Records)

Release date : January 21st, 2017

Recorded as a companion CD to their Japan/Taiwan tour in January 2017, Heavy Baby Sea Slugs’ EP Teenage Graveyard Party sounds like a business card where the band presents itself as a Sludge/Punk American band that isn’t afraid to get to experimental places.

UNDRASK - Battle Through Time Review

Undrask - Battle Through Time (2017, Self-released)

Release date : January 27th, 2017

Melodic Death Metal isn’t our cup of tea around here on LMDM and the last two records we reviewed earned each a 7.0 rating. Which is not bad at all if you look at the rating system on your right. However, it takes a lot for the genre to wow us especially since the golden age of Melo Death back with the early albums of In Flames, Dark Tranquility, At The Gates, and Darkest Hour. In fact, Melodic metal isn’t our forte but we know when an album will make history or not. Let’s see if North Carolina’s Undrask’s first LP Battle Through Time is a winner.

MOURNING DAWN - Waste EP Review

Mourning Dawn - Waste EP (2017, Aesthetic Death)

Release date : Late January, 2017

Consisting of two track of the same length 25 mins and 14 seconds, ‘’Waste’’ the song and the EP is the overlaid of ‘’The One I Never Was’’ and ‘’The One I’ll Never Be’’. So the running time of this EP of behemoth grandeur is 75 minutes and 42 seconds. Coming from Montpellier, France, Mourning Dawn is atmospheric and Doom.

ECFERUS - Shamaniacal Essence EP Review

Ecferus - Shamaniacal Essence EP (2017, Hellthrasher Productions)

This four songs EP, not to be confused with the previous three songs EP released this past November, Ecferus’ kind of infectious Black Metal is far from the usual American Black Metal trending right now. Out of Indiana, Ecferus is another one man band of dissonant Black Metal and claustrophobic barrier of noise.

AXIS OF DESPAIR - Mankind Crawl EP Review

Axis Of Despair - Mankind Crawl EP (2017, Give Praise Records)

As many fans of Punk and Metal I have a soft spot for Grindcore and its many incarnations. Sweden’s Axis Of Despair formed of members of Nasum, Coldworker, Infanticide, Volturyon, Livet som insats, Nervgift, and Overtorture is close to be a replacement of the aforementioned defunct Nasum in this writer’s heart.

KETCH - The Anthems Of Dread Review

Ketch - The Anthems Of Dread (2016, Aesthetic Death)

Named after the infamous King Charles II’s executioner, John or Jack Ketch, Ketch the band is a Doom/Sludge Metal outfit from Colorado. Their sound is as aggressive as Indian and navigates in many waters like Funeral Doom pace, Black Metal tremolo, and heavy Doomish drumming. Self-released in April 2016 but recently released by Aesthetic Death with four songs from a previous EP, The Anthems Of Dread is one of the latest surprises of late 2016. We decided that the album was enough important to be on the early 2017 review schedule.

BEHEADED - Beast Incarnate Review

Beheaded - Beast Incarnate (2017, Unique Leader Records)

Malta’s own Brutal Death Metal oddity in Beheaded has released another punishing album on the Extreme Metal label of Unique Leader Records. Formed in 1991, those veterans of the genre are coming with a Brutal yet Melodic album with a renewed lineup and more than twenty five years of existence getting among the likes of Suffocation and Dying Fetus.

FLEURETY - Fragmenta Cuinsvis Aetatis Contemporaneae EP Review

Fleurety - Fragmenta Cuinsvis Aetatis Contemporaneae EP (2017, Aesthetic Death)

Formed in Norway during the most prolific era of the Second Wave of Black Metal, Fleurety have their feet into the BM scene while always carrying the Avant-Garde flag just as Arcturus did. With a new EP consisting of two songs over 12 minutes, Fragmenta Cuinsvis Aetatis Contemporanaea might be longer to write than to listen.

BALFOR - Black Serpent Rising Review

Balfor - Black Serpent Rising (2017, Drakkar Productions)

With the coming of 2017, many things are on the way and we have our first review of an album we received way before 2016 ended and we started getting our ears on it since many weeks. Ukraine has been a huge provider of new Black Metal acts and Balfor is one of the front runners of the Barbaric Black Metal coming from Ukraine. Their new album Black Serpent Rising pinpoints every element one must expect from a Melodic Black Metal record. To many, Melodic Black Metal has been defined by Windir, personally Dissection did the original path on this and its best successor is Mgla.