A Hill to Die Upon released their debut album, "Infinite Titanic Immortal," on Bombworks Label few months ago. I have to say this is an amazing debut album and I am still blown away by the fact that almost all of the members are only 20 years old or younger. The music sound like it's all been done by bunch of veterans, but at the same time it has that excitement of young musicians motivated to put out great music.

A lot of people call them a black metal band but I am not entirely sure about that. I look at them more as an extreme metal band because they don't play purely black metal. It's heavily mixed with death metal, some thrash, and even core influences. That might put off the "tr00" metal elitist when they read that part about core influences but I'm serious when I said its really good music that all metalheads will enjoy, even the core kids and the elitists!

The best part of the music has to be the vocals and the guitar riffs. Even drumming was great on this album. The thing that bothers me a little bit is the bass. It's not as strong as rest of the instruments being used. The lyrics are awesome and the artwork is definitely amazing! One look at the cover art and you know for sure it's going to be a killer cd!


Best Song: "Twin Heads of Vengeance" and "This King Never Smiles" are my two favorites songs off this album. The second song is actually from their demo which they rerecorded in much better quality.


Worst Song: "Rime"-still good song but at same time I kept skipping this song to listen to other better songs that interest me more.


Score: 8.5/10

Definitely a solid album that everyone should definitely pick up!

http://www.myspace.com/ahilltodieuponband

D.R.I. is an very interesting band. They are considered one of the godfathers of the crossover scene. They originally were a hardcore punk band that put out couple of albums in 80s. They gradually absorb thrash influences as they progress. This album probably is my favorite album by them. It has the perfect blend of hardcore punk and thrash metal.

I absolutely love their guitar riffs and drumming. Very thrashy and full of energy that is so well known in the hardcore punk music. Every time I listen to one of their songs, I feel like I just want to go out and mosh around! I also really dig the lyrics because they all deal with something that is important to them such as society issues, media censorship, and some personal conflicts they've experienced.

Best Song: Thrashard-the perfect blend!

Worst Song: Beneath The Wheel-good song but bit too long which makes it bit boring. If they cut it shorter then it would be much better.


Score: 8/10

www.myspace.com/dri2

Labels: crossover metal, d.r.i., hardcore punk, review, thrash metal

Hailing from Netherlands, Dormant is an one man black metal project by Nain-User. He released this album on now defunct Son of Man records in 2006, limited to only 100 copies.

This is some great black metal! When I listened to it at work, I actually felt like I'm alone in my cubicle and it's all cold... almost like I'm imaging myself in one giant frozen barren lands. This is one of few black metal albums where a real drums is actually being used which is great. It's actually refreshing to hear that because I honestly am getting sick of programming drums. It simply is not the same.

I really love the variety of vocals being used in this album. There's screaming, clean singing, whispers, and I can really see that the guy behind this project really have a talent for vocals. I also dig the fact that some songs are in English and some are in Dutch. I always have a thing for bands singing in their native language. It just makes it more beautiful and emotional for me because I have to rely on the music to feel the emotions more deeply than I would've if I listened to English songs.

There is an album in the works for years. Let's hope it will be released soon because this is some quality black metal. Too bad this album is long out of print so good luck obtaining a copy folks!


Best Song: The Grevious Children- this is where the drumming part absolutely shines!

Worst Song: Dromant Souls-could use some more creativity in vocals and riffs. However it still is a good song.

Score: 8/10

http://www.myspace.com/dormantmetal

Labels: black metal, dormant, review, son of man records, unblack

Normally, I am not crazy for covers album because, well you have to admit most covers album that got released within last several years pretty much sucked. However, this album, Lex Metalix, by Ultimatum, is absolutely excellent! They recorded 13 songs, covering variety of influences from different eras. Mostly are from 80s which doesn't really surprise me since many bands from that era are big influences on Ultimatum's sound.

One thing I really appreciate about this album is the band doesn't play those songs exactly the same note by note. They actually added their own ideas yet still retain the classic sound those songs are so famous for. They selected excellent songs that are not covered that often like "Steeler" by Judas Priest, and "Gut Wrench" by Mortification. Its actually nice to have a mixture of secular songs and Christian songs. It shows that a Christian doesn't have to listen to Christian only music. Heck, I'm not fan of using "Christian" to label those bands. Those bands are metal bands and they just happens to be Christian... /end ranting.


Best Song: "Sin After Sin" by Twisted Sister and "Steeler" by Judas Priest. Both are excellent songs and I've been a huge fans of both bands so it was great to see Ultimatum covered songs by both of them.

Worst Song: "Denim and Leather" by Saxon. Personally, I never really got into this band so I don't really have nostalgic feelings when I heard this song. However, Ultimatum still made it a great song.


Score: 8/10


www.myspace.com/ultimatummetal

Labels: 80's, american metal, covers album, metal, review, thrash metal, ultimatum

Hail the Seventh Angel! This is their second full length album and my favorite. This is such an excellent thrash album with big doom influences. I honestly never heard of that mixture until I listened to this album. It is so obvious due to some members being involved in several doom bands.

Each song is so freaking heavy and the guitar riffs is still so dirty but much chunkier than the debut album. The production is so much better in this album. I really appreciate that the bass is much more listenable because I'm bass freak and I think bass is under appreciated in a lot of metal albums. The drums is even better due to production and the drummer improving his skills. Overall, all instruments are much improved and the debut album is tough to beat but they surely did so.

The lyrics is amazing and very emotional inspired. It's very dark and they spoke of topics that not so many bands are willing to sing about. Especially the song "No Longer A Child" about a child experiencing abuse and rape.

Every ounce of this album is amazing and I will have to say this album is near perfection. In fact I went ahead and gave this album the perfect 10/10 which is a first!


Best Song: "Lament For The Weary"-title track and the most balanced in this album.

Worst Song: “Life In All Of Its Emptiness”-still excellent song but just inferior to rest of the songs in this album.

Score:PERFECT 10/10


www.myspace.com/originalseventhangel

Labels: christian, doom, review, seventh angel, thrash metal

A sophomore album by Dagon and released by Bombworks Records. This is an excellent extreme metal album. I cannot really pinpoint what exactly kind of metal this album is because it has mixture of death, thrash, and a dash of black metal. It's actually refreshing to see a band that are trying something different and try to fuse all those excellent subgenres into something great. There's tons of thrash riffs and some nice groovy riffs mixed in. The vocals are mostly guttural with some high pitched being used in some songs.

The whole theme of this album should be pretty much obvious. Dagon's all about the ocean and the myths behind the oceans such as Poseidon and that kind of stuff. I really dig the concept and there isn't that many bands that are obsessed on the oceanic themes like Dagon.



Best Song: a tie between Terraphobic and Full Speed Ahead-excellent songs! Perfect mixture of thrash and death riffs with excellent vocals. I love the solos in those songs.

Worst Song:The Last- worst song on the album but it doesn't mean its bad though. I really dig this song too but it's a little bit boring compared to the rest of the songs on the album. Could use some more creative solos and variety of vocals in my opinion.


Score: 8.5/10

www.myspace.com/dagonmetal

Labels: american metal, christian, dagon, death metal, metal, ocean, review, thrash metal

A debut full length album by Erasmus, the one-man band, was just released on Sullen records. I finally got this CD last week and been listening to it a lot this week. I have to say this album is a lot more ambient than the EP. I'm really glad its much longer than the EP(duh!) and gotta love the song titles...very creative. It's not that lo-fi or raw like typical south american BM bands(hehe) but it's definitely not the most polished sounding, which is a good thing. The album art pretty much say it all...have the desolate/loneliness mood to the music.

The only thing that bother me about this album is the drumming. I don't know what it is about the drumming...it's just not memorable and it kind of ruined the awesome guitar riffs. Maybe with better mixing it would be much more productive.

I'll have to say good job with the debut album and I would love it if there is some more variety in the vocals and I really HOPE the drumming parts will be improved.


Best Song: To Weigh The Distance Burning Closer-really love the guitar riffs and the atmosphere in this song...drumming is not so bad either. If the next album has more songs in the veins of this one then it would def be a big improvement.

Worst Song: The Somnambulant's Lament-interesting song title..no idea what Somnambulant means...but this song is alright. Nothing memorable and the drumming pretty much ruined it for me.


Score: 7/10

Great album for black metal fans to obtain. Its limited to only 250 copies so you better grab one soon before it's sold out.


www.myspace.com/erasmustn