I am extremely impressed by Eternal Helcaraxe's latest album "Against All Odds". So impressed in fact that I have already gone on record in another publication as saying that I felt it is one of the best album's to be released so far in 2012.

For those of you who don't know yet, Eternal Helcaraxe are an Irish band that sounds like a cross between black metal and Amon Amarth. Unlike most black metal bands that do their best to sound as evil as possible, Eternal Helcaraxe pile on the viking/pagan metal sound and the result is so profoundly awesome that words can hardly describe it.

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Released in December last year by the British label Seven Kingdoms, Forefather’s sixth full-length work “Last of the Line” now sees an exclusive release for the US through the hyperactive Metalhit. It would be a shame if this one escaped notice and fell through the cracks ‘cause this is a finely crafted effort that deserves a handful of spins.

The press release describes Forefather’s sound as pagan/folk metal and as it turns out “Last of the Line” is clearly rooted in epic pagan metal and incorporates some folk touches that add a feeling of grandness to these songs.

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Over the past fifteen years France’s Gorod has been busy as heck establishing themselves as one of most consistent and challenging technical death metal acts. The five-piece recently released their fourth full-length work entitled “A Perfect Absolution” via Listenable Records and Unique Leader and I caught up with guitarist Mat to discuss the details behind this remarkable new effort. 

You guys just got back from a tour with Obscura and Spawn of Possession. How did that go? Were the crowds receptive to your new songs?

“This was the best tour we ever did! Everyone in the crew was nice, friendly and professional, the shows were ridiculously crazy, every band was appreciated and it was like a party every night! Our new songs were expected, and many people came to us to tell us how killer these new songs sound live! We played “Birds of Sulphur”, “The Axe of God” and “Carved in the Wind”. This last one was the most appreciated by the crowd, despite of its duration and its rather cool tempo.”

Any memorable moments happen for you guys on this tour?

“Oh, I think about our show in Vienna, where nobody seemed to know about us. At the door opening, everybody charged the merch booth of Obscura and Spawn, we felt alone behind our merch table. We did the show, and the crowd started to headbang, shake the hands, coming into the pit, and when the show was over, it looked like everybody rushed to the merch booth to have a talk, buy cds and take silly pictures with us! It's really rewarding for us when we can conquer new people, in new places. The welcoming in France was also wonderful, especially in Toulouse and Paris, but we didn't expect less from the crowd here, it's always good to come back in these cities!”

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Odium is a band from my home country of Canada who are most similar to Killswitch Engage and In Flames. That statement right there should tell you everything you need to know about whether or not you will like "Burning the Bridges to Nowhere." The thing with Odium however, is that unlike the legions of bands inspired by Killswitch and In Flames, Odium actually have the chops and the tunes to put them at the top of the pack.

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Seemingly out of nowhere, this unknown Spanish act comes along and delivers a treasure of an album with “Deeply from the Earth”.

The press sheet describes Moonloop’s sound as a blend of Opeth at their early days with Gojira and there’s certainly a great deal of influences on offer that reminds us of these two names as this album delves into a musical space that falls somewhere between the progressive-flavoured sounds of Opeth and the massive energy of Gojira.

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Apparently Angelus Apatrida is a fairly well known band, which surprises me as I had personally not heard of them until I was assigned to review this, their latest album. From what I can find about the band on the internet, they are a Spanish band that has been around since 2000 and tearing up the thrash scene in Spain ever since.

At first I was a bit leery of listening to this as I've recently reviewed several thrash albums for both this and other publication-Too much of one genre can lead to burnout and taint one's ear's after all. Luckily for me however, "The Call" starts off with the absolutely ripping "You Are Next" which blew me away with it's neck snapping riffs. The band then continued the pace for the rest of the album with song after song of high quality thrash.

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Abrasive, angry and unforgiving the new album from US hardcore band When Tigers Fight, shakes and challenges the foundations whilst pulling one in with some mightily crafted pinpoint grooves and caustic melodic play that re-inspires the buckling senses from the surrounding attack. "Dead Songs" is a persistent wearing down of the ear and beyond but a provocative and testing release that offers more substantial rewards than many other similarly aggressive confrontations.

Released through Closed Casket Activities, "Death Songs" is the follow up to the band’s debut album "Ghost Story" of 2006 which succeeded a self titled EP the year before. Though not prolific the band do leave a mark with each release that is hard to shrug off.

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Presenting The Problem from Norwegian rock/metal band RIBOZYME is what all releases should be like, unpredictable, thoughtfully crafted, bursting with ideas and imagination, and most of all unreservedly infectious. The fifth album from the band and the first released through Indie Recordings, the release is a marvellous delicious weave of captivating melodies, mesmeric harmonies and a thoroughly engaging blend of rock and metal. The term of crossover is used a lot but it certainly applies to the deeply diverse and wide spreading sounds of RIBOZYME. 

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Scythe is the new band of Rick Scythe, formerly of Chicago’s finest metallers Usurper, and one could say both bands plunge into the same no-bullshit and no-trends form of old-school, inflammable thrash/death-metal. “Beware the Scythe” is another impressive outing from this metal veteran, offering a bone-crushing sound is massively intoxicating and feral. Hit play and check it out yourself. 

More info at: www.scythe.us

Subrosa got a lot of attention in 2011 for their excellent album "No Help for the Mighty Ones", and for good reason. The band's brand of unique heavy music fuses elements of doom and sludge with violins and female vocals. It is one of those albums that once you put on, hooks you in and won't let go. I caught up with band leader Rebecca Vernon to talk about "No Help for the Mighty Ones" and Subrosa in general. 

"No Help for the Mighty Ones" was extremely well received by critics, and even managed to show up on Decibel Magazines Top 40 of 2011 list. I personally also thought it was one of the best albums of last year. You didn't get much press prior to that album, so could you fill in the blanks and give some background on the band?

“Subrosa started in 2005. We self-released our first album, ‘The Worm has Turned’. It's really lo-fi and was only meant to be an internal band demo. But then it turned out well enough that we released it. After ‘The Worm has Turned’, I became friends with the owner of I Hate Records in Sweden, Ola Blomkvist. He liked Subrosa but said there was no way he could sign us; we were too different from what I Hate usually signs. But after I sent him "Strega," our next album, he liked it better than ‘The Worm has Turned’, and somehow convinced his partner to sign us. :) We had a couple features in Terrorizer and Metal Maniacs and some European music magazines, but you're right, we didn't receive as much press as with ‘No Help…’ Definitely no year-end lists."

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Two years on from the release of their critically acclaimed EP “The Moulting”, Mares of Thrace are back with a new album that essentially refines some aspects and potentiates the rawer and harsher elements of its predecessor. 
Don’t be fooled by the charming and attractive looks of these two Canadian ladies for they have penned a highly intimidating and raucous record that eschews all that is commercially accessible and aurally pleasing. The aggression in their primal riffs and feral, piercing screams is palpable as the duo comprised by guitarist Thérèse Lanz and drummer Stef MacKichan sound utterly fierce and nasty throughout most of these 43 minutes.

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According to the press release accompanying this album, Russia's Pseudogod play "Satanic Black Death" which I suppose is supposed to mean that they play some heavy shit. I guess that's true as "Deathwomb Catechesis" is definitely an extremely heavy album that relentlessly pummels the listener's senses for the duration of the entire album. The band certainly has the chops to become a major player in the underground metal world with songs like opener "Vehement Decimation" and "Saturnalia (The Night of the Return) the highlights of the album.

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Authors of one of the best metal albums released in 2008 the great “This City Speaks in Tongues”, Norwegians She Said Destroy are back with a new EP featuring just one theme that lasts for nearly 28 minutes.

Now divided between three different countries, which may explain the delay in the writing of a new full-length album, She Said Destroy will surely surprise some of their older fans with this new creation. Gone are those unbridled explosions of rage that the band were happy to unleash before, and in its place there’s a newfound fondness for a evolving post-metal atmosphere that hints at Ghost Brigade and Cult of Luna.

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I'm not the world's biggest hardcore fan, but I can get into it at the same time when it's well-played. One of the things I do like about hardcore is that it is generally short and to the point and when done well it's a lot of fun. Fortunately The Love Below's "Every Tongue Shall Caress" was able to keep my interest throughout the album's 24 minutes. Some of the songs are really good like "Family Entertainment" and "Buyers Remorse" while others are kind of "mehish".

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Witchtrap's "Vengeance is My Name" will probably get overlooked by all but the most hardcore of metal fans. This is too bad as the band have a great 80s era thrash sound. To my earrs, Witchtrap sounds better than most of the other "retro thrash" bands out there, with the band sounding musically like a cross between "Reign in Blood" era Slayer and the "Peace Sells" version of Megadeth.

Musically there is nothing revolutionary here, but the thing about retro metal that makes it so great is the fact that musically and lyrically it's pure escapism.

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According to Nexhymn's bio the band's name is derived from a combination of the Latin word Nex, defined as death, violent nature and slaughter, and the word Hymn which is a simple song of praise. The name fits as Nexyhmn are an old-school brutal death metal band a la Benediction, hailing from Colorado. Oh yeah, they're also fronted by a female named Holly Wedel who can growl with the best of them. “Black Horizon” is probably going to get a lot of notice and attention because of the fact that a woman is the face of the band; this is fine as the band deserves all the attention it can get.

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Drawing inspiration from some of the ugliest bashers in the sludge and doom scene like Sourvein, Rwake and Black Cobra, Biipiigwan’s new EP “Nibaak” is as dangerous and barbaric as the massive bear that adorns its cover.

This EP feels like a natural follow-up to their debut LP “God’s Hooks”, released two years ago as the songs seem to be cut from the same musical cloth. And that means more filthy, abrasive and sludgy doom metal.

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First thing I thought when I saw the name of the album and title of this album was that it was going to be a Black Metal album full of blasphemy, or possibly a Blackened Death Metal band. However, nothing could be further from the truth as Superchrist play some down and dirty Hard Rock and metal al la Motorhead and Iron Maiden.

Old school heavy metal has been getting lots of love lately with all sorts of bands getting into the sounds of the 70s and 80s and Superchrist is obviously one of the best of the bunch.

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Wizard Rifle are a very, very odd band. Odd in the sense that their music is quite frankly indescribable in that it is so schizophrenic. One moment the band is playing speed metal a la Megadeth, and the next they sound like Cream and then they start heavy and get into sludge metal. A really weird mix that at times can be refreshing, and at other times frustrating, kind of similar to how "Angel Dust" era Faith No More is generally either praised as genius or scoffed at as the worst piece of shit ever.

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Obolus has been making a bit of a stir lately in the Black Metal underground. Their demo from last year was well received and their label The Flenser has decided to get the word out on the band as broadly as possible by releasing "Lament" as a free download on Bandcamp until the album releases officially. This is an interesting way to promote sales and I am curious to see if it will work or if fans will be cheapasses and just download the album.

Now onto the music itself: "Lament" starts off with the appropriately titled "Desolation".

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From the moment that opening song "Sexual Overture/Away" started, I knew that I was going to like Bible of the Devil.

Bible of the Devil are not a great band, but they are an extremely good, band that harken back to the glory days of heavy metal such as Thin Lizzy, Priest and of course Maiden and all of the rest of the late 70s and early 80s metal bands. Anyone who is a fan of those bands will definitely like this and start pumping their fists along to anthems like "Yer Boy" and "Out for Blood".

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Rick Scythe has been playing blackened death metal for years. Some of you may know him from his former band Usurper, who were on Earache records for a while in the mid 2000s. Those of you who are not familiar with Rick's work need to get your head's out of your ass and take a listen to his new band Scythe. Scythe has recently released their debut album "Beware the Scythe" on CD, Vinyl and took the time to talk to me about Scythe, Usurper and the music business in general. Check out his Facebook page at ww.facebook.com/scythe.chicago to hear a couple of songs, then buy the album and prepare to get your face ripped off!

Congrats on your album "Beware the Scythe"! For those people who are unfamiliar with you or your work with Usurper, can you give a bit of a background on yourself?

“I'm Rick Scythe, I was the guitarist and primary songwriter of the band Usurper from 1992-2007. During that span Usurper managed to record 6 albums on such noteworthy labels as Head Not Found (Norway), R.I.P. Records (USA), Necropolis Records (USA), Earache Records (UK/USA). We also got to tour and play shows in 17 different countries and were amongst the first bands ever to bring back the old style of thrash/death/black metal of the mid-late 80's. Now I have a new band named SCYTHE. The debut album, ‘Beware the Scythe’ is out now on vinyl (R.I.P. Records) and CD (Primitive Reaction Records, Finland).”

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Here's an album that's probably going to be on every "Best of" list when everything is said and done in 2012. For those of you who don't know, Hung is a strange hybrid band featuring Lyris Hung, a classically trained violinist. If you think that sounds just wrong for a metal band, actually listen to the album and you will hardly believe that nobody has made the violin as a main feature of metal before.Of course violins have been in metal before, but not like this where it now becomes essential to the music.

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Bereft is a sludgy doom band that consists of members of Abysmal Dawn, Intronaut and The Faceless. Their album "Leichenhaus" (which apparently means morgue in German) is an absolute beast of an album. The songs are s-l-o-w as fuck with hooks that will stay in your head for days. Think early Cathedral or November's Doom, yet at the same time unique.

One issue I've had with many doom albums in the past is that many of the songs seem to drag on forever with no real point to them other than to be as oppressive and melancholic as possible.

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