One of the longest running black-metal acts crawling through the Portuguese underground, In Tha Umbra have been around for 15 years now, always doing their own thing with little concern for trends or side-ways evolution. Or at least, that was the notion I had of this four-piece before I listened to this stopgap EP. “Noire” really shattered my perception of In Tha Umbra as it reveals the group’s penchant for giving their new compositions a slightly progressive bent.

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I have been avoiding listening to this album for the last three months now and I can’t tell exactly why. Probably it was the cheap-looking cover and the slightly amateurish song titles like "Mass Murderer's Ejaculation" and "Christ's Incest" that were telling me that “Subliminal Visions” wasn’t going to be my cup of tea. The truth is, as soon as I pressed play and the first song “Call of the Abyss” started creeping out the speakers I immediately knew that my suspicions were right ‘cause it sounds exactly like a thousand of other projects plying a doomy and minimal black-metal trade.

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This Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s quintet plays a folky, dark and melodic black-metal style in the same wavelength as their compatriots Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room. Not that you could tell by listening to opening song “Seeing One Last Ray of Light”, an entirely acoustic song with despondent melodies and clean vocalizations that probably has more things in common with The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” than anything the two aforementioned acts ever put out.

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This young quintet from Oporto, Portugal plays a strong and varied brand of metal that is hard to nail down in a few pair of words. Throughout six tracks, Equaleft veer from a groove-laden death-metal not too far removed from someone like Gojira to a progressive weirdness that crosses into Naked City territory, without ever appearing forced or unnatural. And that is a great feat for a young act such as Equaleft, usually this kind of dynamism and song-writing depth are only attained with years of practise and touring.

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After almost three years in torpor, Swedes One Man Army and the Undead Quartet emerge with a new album entitled “The Dark Epic” that shows a reinvigorated group determined to make up for the lost time. Below, vocalist Johan Lindstrand fills in the details behind the making of their latest work.

So why did it take the band three years to follow up your third full-length “Grim Tales”, I understand that the departure of long time guitarist Mikael Lagerblad in early 2009 was one of the major setbacks right?

“Yeah it was. He left us back in 2009 after the last tour for ‘Grim Tales’. He was one of the main songwriters so it kinda slowed down the machine for a while. But during Mikael’s final months I wrote “Inside the head of God” and recorded it at his house ‘cause I wanted to get on with the 4th album straight away after the touring was done. But when all this happened everything was just put to rest and now when looking back at it this was the best that could happen album-wise ‘cause we had a lot of time to figure out what we wanted to do and also having a new guy in the process also took more time. But as I said, this has definitely been a winning situation in the long run for this band.”

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Mark this band’s name on your agenda ‘cause you’ll be hearing a lot from them in the future. Birds in Row are a talented bunch from France with little concern for mass appeal or easy categorization, mixing the bile of punk, the rawness of crust and the muscular power of hardcore into a cohesive, exciting and abrasive whole. That melding is clearly still a work somewhat in progress, let’s not forget this is their debut work and some songs seem to work better than others, but on the overall “Cottbus” shows a band with an enormous potential.

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A couple of years ago, "There Was A Halo On Your Head" would have sounded a lot more interesting and surprising to me than it is now. See, this Greek quartet plays a sort of metalcore style that has long been considered tiresome and oversaturated, without offering the necessary individual and outstanding traits that could distinguish them from the slew of similar acts. This EP presents the typical blend of aggressive and chugging riffs with sporadic pit-friendly breakdowns and the standard death growls punctuated by melodic clean vocals.

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It should be underlined that “Posthuman Decadence” is not a metal record. Art of Empathy, the creation of Belgian neo-folk musician Jef Janssen presents us a dark-wave/neo-folk blend that shows some affinities with artists like Empyrium, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio and Of the Wand & the Moon.

But don’t let that put you off, because his work is actually rather enjoyable and captivating. It’s not meant for you to bang your head. Instead, Art of Empathy wants to move something a bit deeper, to disturb your intellect and if possible project some images in your mind. Something all you inflexible and die-hard metal fans would probably be too embarrassed to admit to.

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If you’re the type of person who likes to revel in all things melancholic and morose, then Apostate’s “Trapped in Sleep” might be the ideal companion for one of those lonely and depressive nights of yours. The sound of this Ukrainian five-piece reminds me of Anathema’s “Serenades” and Paradise Lost’s “Gothic”, there’s a similar feeling of sadness and anguish prevailing in these seven tracks. The pace is slow and dragging, the guitars shift between heavily melancholic riffs and heartfelt harmonies, keyboards add an atmosphere of desolation and the vocal interaction between growling and clean singing enhances the sense of drama and depression.

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Comprised of former and current members of General Surgery, Morbid, Afflicted and Regurgitate, Crucifyre is sort of a reunion of old buddies with a common desire to revive some of the favourite moments from their childhood heroes and drink a few beers along the way. I guess that’s one way of looking at Crucifyre since the originality factor is low and “Infernal Earthly Divine” merely regurgitates the lessons provided by Autopsy, Slayer, Motorhead and Dismember, without really adding anything new to the genre.

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I must confess that I’ve never heard of Uncanny until a digital promo of “MCMXCI – MCMXCIV” dropped in my mail-box a few months ago. A brief look at the press release tells me that Uncanny was a Swedish death-metal band that existed in the early 90’s and I’m listening not to a new record but a compilation featuring their debut work from 1994 “Splenium For Nyktophobia” and several tracks from their two demos and split releases. A further investigation also tells me that Uncanny was comprised of drummer Ken Englund who later on played with Centinex and Dellamorte among others and a young Fredrik Norrman who until very recently was the guitar player of Katatonia and is currently active in October Tide.

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Inspired by the words of first Portuguese female poet D. Leonor and dealing with themes of love, regret and solitude, “Abyss Masterpiece” is Heavenwood’s darkest, heaviest and surely greatest album to date. Its title will probably be misinterpreted by some casual listeners and will originate some ingenuous puns, but as guitarist Ricardo Dias clears in the following interview, “Abyss Masterpiece” has a thoughtful meaning that reflects the overall atmosphere of the new songs. 

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With all his much-publicised personal problems behind him now, Glen Benton seems determined to give Deicide a new lease of life following the mild disappointment that was “Till Death Do Us Part”.

To put it simply, “To Hell with God” proves that Deicide are a still a force to be reckoned within the death-metal scene. It’s infinitely more satisfying than its predecessor, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

I got into Deicide in my teens, not because of all the controversy surrounding the band and specially its frontman, but mostly due to the evil and brutal power emanating from such classic albums like “Deicide” and “Legion”.

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Claiming to be the best post-metal release of 2010 isn’t really a good start. The music of As We Draw is tense, heavy and well-played, but certainly not as unique or innovative as their press release suggests. I know the words “post” and “metal” conjured together are sufficient to scare most of you off. Believe me, I know. I’ve heard like a zillion of Neurosis and Isis wannabes in the past few years and to tell you the truth As We Draw doesn’t differ a lot from the load of acts utilizing the quiet-loud song structure.

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If you are familiar with the likes of Sothis and Abigail Williams, perhaps two of the most renowned USBM acts taking cues from their European counterparts, then you are halfway to understanding what “No Closure” from Withering Soul is all about.

The ten-tracker consists of a symphonic and melodic black-metal with a strong European bound, there’s a lot of variation in pace and a strong emphasis on keyboards to create a atmosphere that for better or for worst smoothes the more rough and fierce side of this Chicago four-piece.

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