Children of Bodom - Relentless Reckless Forever (2011)

The new hyped COB album is here. Children of Bodom was one of my personal favourites years ago when the new unique styled band Children of Bodom, were nothing more than an underground band. COB released epic album like "Follow the Reaper" and "Hatebreeder". Those albums were very melodic, and intense albums with classical glances. Now COB has released their seventh album, and it really disappointed me.

'Relentless Reckless Forever" begins with a song called "Not my funeral", which is kinda the best that this album can offer. It starts with a bit boring riff, but the chorus is the best one in this album. It's really melodic and innovative. Rest of the song is nothing special, just some typical later Bodom styled riffs and stuff. Alexi's vocals have gone, in my opinion, more bad every album. You can hear it from the first song too. Drums in this album are much more weaker sounding than in Blooddrunk, which had too powerful sounding bass drum. Now the bass drum kicks are too weak. That makes the bass drum sound like tom, and when the drummer has lost he's wanting to showoff, theres nearly nothing virtuoso like in the drumming section.

  Second song "Shovel Knockout" has it good parts, but nothing special. It's bit more fast and intense than others. It has some nice riffs and nice guitar playing, but the entirety stays kinda bad. And there's nothing, that gets stuck in to your head. Third song "Roundtrip to Hell" is the album slowest and most beautiful song. It has its good parts too, but nothing really special compared to other COB's slower songs like "Everytime i die". Next song "Pussyfoot Miss Suicide" is just a filler and nothing to say about it, nothings is really good in it.

  The next one is the one carrying the album's name. "Relentless Reckless Forever" is just normal Bodom song with no epic melodies nor guitar playing. just a bit catchy chorus. Ugly is just another filler, just to get the album 8th tracks long. "Cry of the Nihiilst" is one of the best songs in this album. Some new unique riffs and nice melodies. It's a bit shame that the chorus sounds exactly like "Blooddrunk"'s "Tie my rope". When your listening the chorus it starts really bugging you. "Was it Worth?" is the next song, the "radio friendly one", which every mainstream metal bands have to have in their albums. It's really bad song too, in my opinion. And it's shame that COB started to make "pop-songs" for money.  Last song "Northpole throwdown. isnt really even worth mentioning. And really this album asks "Was it Worth it?", well it wasn't.

Rating: 1/5 stars
 
Tracklist:

1. 'Not My Funeral'
2. 'Shovel Knockout'
3. 'Roundtrip to Hell and Back
4. 'Pussyfoot Miss Suicide'
5. 'Relentless Reckless Forever'
6. 'Ugly'
7. 'Cry of the Nihilist'
8. 'Was It Worth It?'
9. 'Northpole Throwdown'
10. 'Party All the Time' (Eddie Murphy cover)
 

        -C-Drop

Beyond Creation - The aura (2011)

Okey.. Beyond Creation has soon released their first full-lenght album and it contains 10 tracks. First I must say this album is something I've never heard before. If you like technical death metal or some kind of death metal with some melodic elements, you will love this album. I'm sure there will be people, who say that technical death metal is only overtechnical shit, but they aren't right.

My first feelings about this album were, that this cannot be true. But it still is...All musicians has done their jobs as carefully as they could. There's no mistakes on this album. Only success.

What can I say about these 10 tracks? The album starts with the song ''No request for the corrupted'' (which maybe contains the most epic bass playing, I've ever heard.) In this song guitarists show their skills too. Next track is ''Co Existance'', which is very good song too. The acoustic part on this song, gives a bit alternation between more brutal parts. ''Chromatic horizons'' is very short, under two minutes long instrumental track, but it still contains everything that is needed. ''Omnipresent perception'' shows that Beyond Creation can handle breakdowns too. I'm still amazed by the blastbeat on this song...''Injustice revealed'', ''Social disability'' and ''Le detenteur'' are good songs too, but nothing special compared to other songs. ''The Aura'' starts with a beautiful bass intro. This is maybe the most melodic song of these 10, but still stays in the brutal area. Last two songs ''Elevation path'' and ''The deported'' together create an epic, almost 13 minutes long track, that i can only admire.. ''Elevation path'' is a short acoustic song. It's a bit like Santana's ''Black magic woman'' and it's a very good opening for the last song. ''The deported" is just a pure perfection, without any boring parts. I just never get fed up with it...

I really recommend this album for every tech-death fans. You won't be disappointed. This too unknown band consists of four very, very talented guys and I'm sure that we will hear about them in the future.

Rating: 4/5

Tracklist:

1. No request for the corrupted

2. Coexistence

3. Chromatic horizon

4. Omnipresent

5. Injustice revealed

6. Le detenteur

7. The Aura

8. Social disability

9. Elevation path

10. The deported

Emmure - Speaker of the Dead (2011)

Emmure's style divides even the deathcore-scene.Some people just dont get the slow breakdowns and brutal sounding screams/vocals, which sound awfully out of tune. Emmure's music consist mostly of brutal slow breakdowns and some breakdown styled riffs. So you wont hear any super fast blast beats or machine gun double pedal kicks in Emmure's albums. That's for the Emmure introduction. Now to the album review!

Speaker of the Dead consists of 15 songs, which is kinda lot. Mostly pretty short songs, and some are just simple breakdown all song long. Thats Emmure's style though. When you're listening song, you will notice that there's some fill-songs.You can hear Emmure's epicness in the first song Children of Cybertron, which only consist of 1 Breakdown, ONE. It's still amazing song and the Emmures style to make breakdowns is so brutal, that you just want to start moshing instantly. It's just so god damn brutal....

  Next few songs are pretty much solid Emmure songs. Then it gets to song number five, that's the best song in this album. "Solar Flare Homicide"  has epic deathcore riffs and so brutal breakdowns(if you havent heard the word brutal yet), that you just want to headbang your head off(literally). This song is Emmure at its best, and everybody who's intrested in Emmure should listen it.next few songs are pretty simple good Emmure songs.

  Nothing special until the 9:th song called "Last words to rose". It's like some kind of a love song , or just "beautiful" side of Emmure.Nothing really special in this song, but its randomly different from the other songs so worth mentioning. Rest of the songs are the same Emmure that the whole album has been, just breakdowns and brutal riffs with very harsh vocals.

 Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Tracklist
1. Children of Cybertron
2. Area 64-66
3. Dogs Get Put Down
4. Demons With Ryu
5. Solar Flare Homicide
6. Eulogy of Giants
7. Bohemian Grove
8. 4 Poisons 3 Word
9. Cries of Credo
10. Last Words To Rose
11. A Voice From Below
12. Drug Dealer Friend
13. My Name Is Thanos
14. Lights Bring Salvation
15. Word of Intulo
                                                                                                              -C-Drop

Amon Amarth - Surtur Rising (2011)

When I first heard the song ''War of the gods'' (when it was on pre-listening) I just thought that it was the same old Amon Amarth as always. Not so good, but not so bad either. After a few listenings I found some new elements there. The guitar solo (or melody part whatever ) sounded very fresh and new. Another thing was that in the chorus there was no superfast bassdrum comp, as it had been since the first Amon Amarth album (not counting a few exceptions). So, i really started to wait this new album...

''Surtur Rising'' sounds cool. Feels like the album is some kind of second level, on the way that ''Twilight of the thunder god'' started. There is lots of new elements on this album, and still you can hear the old Amon Amarth somewehere there. Again Amon Amarth has managed to come up with many good melodies and riffs.

Even if this album was the best Amon Amarth album, there's still too many fill up songs like it's been in the last albums. For example the songs ''Wrath of the Norsemen'' and ''The last stand of frej'' are both quite qualityless. But on the other hand, songs like ''War of the gods'', ''Destroyer of the universe'' and particularly ''For victory or death'' are much better, and the best that this album can offer. And of course ''Doom over dead man'' deserves mentioning because of it's pretty synthesizer melody. But what can i say about the bonus track ''Aerials'' (''System of a down'' cover). it just doesn't work because it needs clean vocals on the chorus too. It's still a nice try...

So, in the end i can say that this new album is really worth listening and it's very good Amon Amarth album. Guitar work is good as always before, drumming is just awesome and Johan Hegg's vocals has developed and is much deeper now. I still think Amon Amarth is a bit overrated band because there is too many fill up songs and similarities between all of it's albums.

Rating: 3/5

Tracklist:
1. War Of The Gods
2. Töck's Taunt - Loke's Treachery Part II
3. Destroyer Of The Universe
4. Slaves of Fear
5. Live Without Regrets
6. The Last Stand Of Frej
7. For Victory Or Death
8. Wrath Of The Norsemen
9. A Beast I Am
10. Doom Over Dead Man
11. Aerials (bonus track)

Obscura - Omnivium (2011)

One of the technical death metal pioneers have released it's third album called ''Omnivium'' and expectations for this album were pretty high after their previous masterpiece ''Cosmogenesis''. However, Obscura proved that it's able to reform itself and released an even more epic album than ''Cosmogenesis'' was.

Omnivium includes nine epic and mystical tracks. The first song ''Septuagint'' starts with a beautiful acoustic intro and after that, Obscura shows that it still knows how to give people a satisfying listening experience. Next song ''Vortex Omnivium'' is a great song too. It's a bit like new ''Anticosmic overload'' with it's fast blast beats and technical guitar riffs. There is still few songs, that were not so good than the other ones. For example the song ''Ocean gateways'' is a bit boring, maybe because of it's slow tempo and simple guitar work. Songs ''Prismal dawn'' and ''Velocity'' are very good examples of true masterpieces. ''Prismal Dawn'' combines a beautiful melody and brutality with an exellent way.You really must listen it over and over again, once you've heard it. ''Velocity'' is a very fresh song. It involves slower and faster parts with growling and clean vocals, and of course Velocity contains one of the most epic guitar solo of all time. In my opinion the clean vocals on this album were not so good at first, but after a few listening times you'll get used to them. There were some similarities in guitar solos compared to ''Cosmogenesis'', but still ''Omnivium'' is one of the best albums, that has been released this year. Its actually the best Obscura album for now.

Rating: 4,5/5 stars

Tracklist:


1. Septuagint
2. Vortex Omnivium
3. Ocean Gateways
4. Euclidean Elements
5. Prismal Dawn
6. Celestial Spheres
7. Velocity
8. Transcendental Serenade
9. Aevum

As Blood Runs Black - The Instict (2011)

  The new and only second ABRB's album is really a solid performance by these gentlemen. ABRB's first album Allegiance had epic riffs and technical playing with nice metalcore glances. First album fell with the similarity of the songs. If you would listen the whole album through, you'd heard the same kinda riffs in nearly all songs. The Insticts riffs arent anything like Allegiance's, but the same problem shows up after listening few songs. Once again the album riffs are solid and nice to hear, but the same kind riffs goes through the whole album. It's kinda a random element in this album, you can listen it, but you wont propably recognize when the song changes. (There's some few instrumental and easy going songs that you will notice, but after all its the same riffs all over again)

  The album isnt bad, it's solid like I've said before, but in my opinion it needs more diversity in the riffs. Theres really no song that stucks in to your head after listening, you can nearly listen any song, and its all good. Depends lots of how you like to listen music, and you like this style, making a few epic riffs and then with few changes using it in the whole album. It's very effective when your making an album and fear that theres some fill up songs that no-one listen, but those songs could be the thing that seperates the songs from the masses. This one's got more epic vocals in my opinion though, and the whole vocal presence is improved compared to the last album.

  I gotta admit i liked the first album better, the "good riffs" were better in the first album, but suit yourself. It's worth listening allright.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

01. Triumph
02. Legacy
03. Resist
04. Angel City Gamble
05. Reborn
06. Tribulations
07. Divided
08. King of Thieves
09. In Honor
10. Echoes of an Era
11. Instinct


Here's the second song titled: Legacy

                                         -C-Drop

Born of Osiris - The Discovery (2011)

 This album is the one epic album, that every BOO fan or progressive deathcore/ambient death metal (well theres so many genres that this album possesses, I cant even list them all) should check out! Originally one of the progressive deathcore pioneers from USA had so random and fresh style of playing that it amazed people all over the world. Now many years later their 3rd album was released. The music is simply epic in all sorts of ways, album's songs are epic, albums mixing is epic and so is the whole package.

  But what makes the album so great? Album`s riffs are new and even more technical and the variability between the singers and the keyboardists singing is very neat sounding. BOO's music has gone so ambient, with still being so catchy and so extremely experimental. This all makes it one of the best new albums out there, with the massive 15 songs on the album. The unique styles they posses is something out from this world. Its kinda hard to explain, but check it out your self!

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Song list:
1. Follow The Signs
2. Singularity
3. Ascension
4. Devastate
5. Recreate
6. Two Worlds Of Design
7. A Solution
8. Shaping The Masterpiece
9. Dissimulation
10. Automatic Motion
11. The Omniscient (An Interlude)
12. Last Straw
13. Regenerate
14. XIV
15. Behold 




Heres some quick samples:

 

                                                               -C-Drop