Inferi's new album the path of Apotheosis is pretty good so far. Would it be weird to call them a tech death dragonforce? Some of the guitar solos are so blazing fast I dunno what else to compare them to.

yes! My friend did the art for that album too, actually. I listened to it several times a couple weeks ago and still need to come back to it. As textbook as it comes for "monstrous" Death Metal.

Really is cavernous as fuck, though.

A new Unique Leader band, The Kennedy Veil, has an album out called Trinity of Falsehood. I really like it, but they are definitely a Unique Leader band, a little techy, a little brutal, and it has the requisite awesome artwork:



Not exactly a band that blazes with singular identity, but they do enough to keep it interesting and have a "get in and get out" philosophy for quick, engaging songs.

(full album stream is after the review:)
http://www.nocleansinging.com/2014/01/2 ... falsehood/

Omnizide - Death Metal Holocaust

I almost didn't want to check this band out just because of the stupid way they chose to spell their name. But then I saw that the band is composed of Black Metal musicians and became curious, plus I'm a huge Avsky fan.
Anyways this sounds exactly how I hoped it would - like Black Metal musicians giving their own interpretation of classic Swedish Death Metal, and they do a terrific job. Its mostly mid-paced with some blackened sections with a healthy helping of evil tremolo riffs, but it also contains some very nice doomy parts. My only complain is the high pitch vocals which can get quite monotonous but its not enough to ruin a very good debut.

Really? That's cool.

They tuned their guitars to Ab on this album, which really adds to the menacing sound. For a seasoned death metal fan, the album is quite pleasant and easily listened, while it still packs a lot of power and darkness. A very good effort indeed.

Wow, I heard the Aenaon's Extance and I must say that I'm surprised by it. I liked this one better than Hail Spirit Noir, it's faster, it's heavier There isn't a song that I didn't like. I'll check their debut later.

Stormwarrior - Thunder & Steele was pretty good too. Initially I didn't like the sound of the drums, but later I got it, just fits the production. Pretty straight forward power/speed metal that you all should enjoy.

The new Kampfar wasn't bad, but it hasn't something new. It sounded a lot like Mare to me.

The new Behemoth might not be as bad as I was expecting. From what I've already heard, there's 3 slow tracks (blow your trumpets... the satanist, o father, o satan...) which I really don't like and the rest are faster, but it doesnt mean that they're awesome either. Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer just drags after the 3:30 mark, unnecessary long. Looks like half boring, half good.

The new Primal Fear is so....ugh...typical Primal Fear. It hits all the right heavy metal marks and remains completely uninspiring to me. From the opener "King for a Day" to that weird slow single "When Death Comes Knocking" to the fucking terrible "Road to Asylum" that straight up sounds like a leftover Sinner song. These guys are all capable of so much more yet they crank out the same lame material every year. I won't delete it yet...but jesus, put a bit more 'oomph' into those choruses.

On the flipside of that, really like the new Throwdown despite the one or two garbage 'straight edge' songs. They do classic Pantera way better than Lamb of God.

Also heard the new Iron Savior track. Typical, super positive fare.

Checked out this Aenaon with an attempt for open-minded attitude, but man. This is some real queer black metal, 100% fitting what you could expect upon seeing the band photo and "progressive black metal" tag.

Can't say I agree with you. I'm a Magnus Karlsson fan so that got me on board Primal Fear when he joined. This new album of theirs isn't bad at all. Still kicking ass as far as my ears are concerned. Polished, competent power metal with crunch. I'd sort of agree that they could use stronger choruses, but I've got no big issues with the ones on here.

Listening to Woods of Desolation - As the Stars. Not heard any of their previous material, but this is really cool. Despite their name and their claims to play "depressive black metal" this is some of the most upbeat Black Metal ever made, sounding very post-rock influenced. Definitely worth a listen, it's got a lot of warmth to it.

I haven't heard that album, but I heard from a friend that it's even more happy sounding than the earlier albums, and those aren't exactly depressive music. The band is actually histrionically upbeat, so it's definitely odd that it's labelled as depressive black metal. It's probably since the lyrics are typical sad guy drivel that maybe Anders Fridén might find inspiring.

Been listening to Black Magic's Wizard's Spell and its quite catchy, I really like the production of the vocals, gives an very "rehearsal" feeling that I love in old school metal bands. Overall decent effort, not oscar worthy (?) but decent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8qoqQ_EOZw


First Nocturnal's single from their new album Storming Evil sounded really cool, as expected. I must get the full album by any means.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3SqpCTuhLY

Love that Black Magic. Straight outta 1983.

Grand magus's Triumph and Power is the only 2014 album i've heard this year and it's quite good. towards the end of the album it falls away somewhat, but it has plenty of grand heavy metal tracks. Nothing they haven't done before, but just very well executed. Great band with another strong album.

Listening to the new Prostitute Disfigurement right now ( 'From Crotch to Crown'), and holy shit, this is surprisingly well executed brutal death metal... The Suffocation fans here might wanna check this out, great stuff, seriously!

Exmortus - Slave to the Sword might already be my album of the year, not even overstating that.

Really ? I still think their debut it's their best and I didn't really like this one.

Hanness Grossnmann's debut sounded pretty good. Much better than anything that I heard from Obscura. The guests on that album are awesome (can't get enough of Christian Muenzner and Ron Jarzombek), definetly worth a listen.

Shrapnel - The Virus Conspires was a good surprise. The first half of the album is just awesome and full of great moments, the title track is just , after that you have some good tunes and some fillers... but still awesome.

Salvacion's new one is also very good, never heard of them before and I'm glad that their artwork had my atention haha, the album feels short, but the songs are really good.

Edit: Almost forgot, Corpsessed outperformed any expectation I had from them. I didn't like their eps, but their debut, oh my... it's really beautiful, not a single track that I didn't like.

The only new release I've heard so far this year is Glossectomy's Impediments from Dysplasia, which is technically just a mastering of a bunch of songs recorded in 2002, but even if it's technically not a "2014 album", it makes up for it in kicking some major ass in terms of rhythm, slams, brevity (it's very short, to its advantage), vocals... everything about it is downright amazing, really. Check out the best song from it here, if you're interested.

Conan's new album Blood Eagle is absolutely monstrously heavy. Much better than their debut by a long way.

Really? Hmm, I might check it out if that's the case. I thought I'd like the debut a lot more than I actually did - it was heavy, sure, but it just didn't hold my attention.

Whispered's Shogunate Macabre released today. I've only listened once through, but, I think they did another great job of blending melodic death metal and Japanese folk. It seemed to get a little stagnant towards the middle, but picked up with Lady of the Wind and really stayed hot through the end.

The new Behemoth for sure, just heard it for the first time and holy shit it RULES! 2014 has barely just even started and I'm already willing to name this the album of the year.

Pripjat's (Ger) album Sons of Tschernobyl is the best thrash album I've heard all year. In fact it's probably the best thrash album since Target Earth. Definitely worth checking out for any fan of German thrash metal.

Decomposed - Devouring

This is Death Metal of the old school sort with a lot of Autopsy-like Doomy sections. They know how to write some wicked tremolo riffs, just listen to the track "Ode to the End". Its an enjoyable release from a band whose songwriting has improved since their debut.

Solid album right there. Sometimes it strays from BM entirely, but it is a pretty dynamic album. Check out their last album Torn Beyond Reason. Definitely got me into them.

So the new Forteresse, Monarque ect 4 way split is pretty killer, every song is really great and a good representation of the Quebec scene. The new Beast Within 7'' is also a really cool Quebec (proto) black metal thing, really cool vibe (these guys REALLY like Celtic Frost) and it totally rips.

I'm noticing this first quarter of 2014 is a deadzone for major releases. I've been downloading really random stuff because there's nothing else to check out. Grand Magus' effort was ok, like everything else they've done. Just always lacking something that I can't put my finger on. That goes for all their albums.

Primal Fear was again painfully average. I don't know why they bother.

Counting down to the new Iron Savior and Hatriot.

I couldn't disagree more. I can't remember ever having such a short period of time with so many major releases. Alcest, Behemoth, Cynic, Slough Feg, Indian, Ulver/Sunn O))), Grand Magus, Hail Spirit Noir, Kampfar, Iskald, Woods of Desolation - all within 6 weeks of each other.

There's certainly been plenty of stuff people have been exited about, I personally haven't liked any of it, but the year is certainly producing a decent volume of popular stuff.

Not much for me yet, but things get will rolling mid-February (and March/April are producing a lot of releases that I'm looking forward to).

I don't really listen to any of those groups (except that new Grand Magus) or consider them 'major' releases.

That's because you never have any idea what you're talking about, ever. Just look, the Behemoth thread is 9 pages long, the Alcest one would have been close to that. Cynic, Slough Feg, Sunn 0))) and Ulver are all massively well known bands even to the most basic of metal laymen. Admitted the other ones are more just popular underground albums, but still, there's a fair few there, and I could also argue that Corpsessed, Ea, and Blut Aus Nord are all big enough names to at least draw some attention.

Yeah I'm not sure what the hell you call major releases but those are some big names in metal, and most of them have been for many years, at least early 90's.

Admittedly I've been blown away by the fairly unknown bands more so than the big names. Dephosphorus, Thrall, Pripjat, Aenaon, Murmur and Lvcifyre have all released fantastic albums.

yeah i've given the new Dephosphorus a few listens last couple days. More good dissonant grindy stuff from them, well worth a listen

The new Amoral record is quite decent. In fact, it could be one of Finland's finest progressive metal albums if the vocals were better.

I have mixed feelings about this new whispered album, on one hand, you've got the really lackluster tracks like Jikinikki, where the riffs and that chorus just don't really go anywhere for me, as much of a cop out as it is the riffs just don't hold my attention half the time. Hold the Sword is definitely my favorite track on here, Upon my Honor being a close second with that almost dutiful, triumphant rhythm and those badass choral parts and the rest of the album being pretty unremarkable.. Maybe I'll give it a few more listens to

inferi - the path of apotheosis (melodic/tech death) is really good it is melodic fast and technical and just well put together highly recommended

lorelei - lore of lies (symphonic deathcore) kinda a lame album name if you ask me but the music is pretty sweet. pretty heavy, heavily symphonic some djenty parts. similar to ovid's withering but I would say it isnt as good. still a fun album if you like that type of stuff.

Artificial brain- labyrinth constellation (tech death) gorguts esque tech death but more coherent riffs. I prefer gorguts but this album is still a good listen.

cynic - kindly bent to free us (prog rock/metal) for those who have like cynics last few efforts this album is great. amazing mix on the album and just good catchy interesting songs.

warforged- essence of the land ep (progressive death) it sounds black metal influenced with a good amount of atmosphere.

hannes grossmann- the radial covenant (tech death/progressive) sounds like obscura though I would say it isnt as strong as obscuras omnivium album. this is still a good listen and has a few really solid tracks

That band's gimmick has promise but it needs to ditch the extreme parts and learn how to write a chorus.

Stick with Holy Martyr's "Invincible".

This new Murmur album is by far one of the most unexpected things I've ever heard. The drummer is just INSANE, and not in the way that he just blasts a lot, his technicality is just through the roof.

http://seasonofmist.bandcamp.com/album/murmur