This is another great release by R.I.P. Productions. FESTERGUTS is a three-men band consists of Michael Nickolayev - vocals/bass, Sergey Vasiliev - guitars/drum-programming and Olga Mitronkina - vocals. "Bloodsoaked" is their four-song tape where they combines brutal Death/Black Metal along with majestic keyboard parts. The first song "The Portraits (Disfigured By Ghastly Grimaces)" is a quite melodic tune filled with a lot of female vocals. The second one "On The Bloodsoaked Bridal Bed" is a more brutal song full of grinding drum parts and deep-growls. The third one "Mistress Of Putridity" is the best track though it has some early CRADLE OF FILTH motives in it. And the last track "Enticing Scraps Of Torn Entrails" can be characterized only as a typical Death Metal based song with fast and crushing song-structure. The keyboards were dominated on the whole material and were performed by two session musicians. It's an atmospheric stuff with a good sound. So if you prefer to listen to Brutal Death/Black Metal with a big dose of female vocals, that's for you!

Eh man, this album just amazing... I have no words to describe the music this 6-men band created on "Thots". It's indescribably… Though, I'll try to step over the borders of impossibility and give you some approaches of their music. Well, "Thots" represents 70 minutes of incredibly original mixture from Death/Doom/Thrash/Heavy to progressive/jazz-influenced Metal. If you think it's impossible to fit all these styles together, then you make the fatal error. Because they did it and performed all the 13 songs at its best form. The "Side of the Spirits" contains seven songs till the "Side of the Time" six. The album has the feeling of a motion picture which guide the listener to another dimension where emotions, abstract melodies and forgotten thoughts are reign. The musicians are high-skilled, especially I like the drummer's work who tends not only technical playing but shows a lot of amazing fast and grinding beats as well. Of course, there are lots of atmospheric keyboard tunes and wide-ranging vocals, which vary from deep growls to clear-sung male/female voices. In short, if you like weird mixture of Death/Doom Metal, that's it.

Oh man, this is the new masterpiece by the Czech motion picture dealers No.1. In their line-up became some changes and nowadays the band looks like a quintet: Krusty - bass/vocals, Medvéd - all guitars, Hanka - female vocals, Hanka - synth's and Chrobis - drums. "Senyaan" is their 86 minutes long concept album which mostly deal with Death/Doom/Gothic/etc. styles and contains 13 well-crafted songs with top quality. The album divide into two parts again, those are the "Side Of Growing Madness" and the "Side Of Winter Insanity". Musically, it follows the line of "Thots" album but this time they added more female vocals, cool effects, noises, whispers, etc. to their stuff. The album has lots of captivating, memorable, mediative parts even as grotesque and quite weird ones. To all this you can add some raging thrashy guitar riffs, confused bass lines, charming female vocals and dynamic drumming. This things together make their repertory essentially original and thoughtful. You will definitely like this album, even if you don't like Death or Doom styles particularly. Get this flawless production for only $6 (Europe)/$7 (World). At present, "Senyaan" was released by Redblack Productions in double-CD format with two bonus tracks, so hurry up to get your copy first (Redbalck released also the 2nd album "Behind The Shadows" of the Czech Doom band No.1 SILENT STREAM OF GODLESS ELEGY).

FORGOTTEN SPIRIT is one of the most talentful ukrainian bands ever. Musically, the band stands for symphonic folk influenced Black Metal. There are six well-crafted compositions on "The Masters Of Slavonic Forests" which were composed by six masters of majestic hymns, namely Izot (vox), Ratibor (keyboards), Ares (drums), Vladigor (guitar), Virem (bass) and Svetozor (guitar). These guys really know how to make a song as exquisite as possible. All the songs come with a quite variable drumming and extraordinary guitar riffing which add a big dose of originality to their music. The solos are mostly the so-called classic music oriented ones which displays the high level of guitarists as well (Especially in the songs like "Black Rose Of War" and "Ukraine"). By the way, I forgot to mention the symphonic atmosphere of keyborads which are in the basis of their songs. I like a lot how this guy crossed the tunes based on classical music along with the folk motives. The parts of vocalist sounds a bit silent, sometimes like whispers or so... Anyway, this is one of the best ukrainian albums ever created too much different from the typical primitive Black Metal products. It's a flawless material with excellent sound. So, the chance is yours to make a trip to the spirits of ancient slavonic forests together with FORGOTTEN SPIRIT.

All the diehard readers of ENCOMIUM 'zine should remember GARDEN OF SHADOWS' demo stuff I reviewed in the very first issue. Now they're back with their first MCD released by the Mexican underground label X-Rated Records. This MCD contains the whole stuff of "Heart Of The Corona" demo, which meant to be 5 tracks, plus a new track called "Shards Of The Sphere". Because the demo tracks were reviewed earlier I'd like to concentrate more on their newer song which was recorded yet with the add of a bass-player. So the line-up is the following: Brian (guitar), Mary (guitar), Bret (drums), Chad (vocals), Owen (bass) and Scott (keyboards, who recently no longer part of the band). "Shards Of The Sphere" shows another brilliant Death Metal composition and talented work of musicians. This time the atmospheric line got its best interpretation in it. They use to mix fast drums, complex guitar riffs along with ultra deep growls, galloping bass lines, emotional tunes of keyboards and, of course, all this came in the most precisious way you can imagine. However, the aggression and melodies are still dominant part of their repertory as well. To all this I must add the totally re-mastered sound of the demo tracks and the new lay-out of the booklet. The MCD has a playing time of almost 40 minutes and available for $10 (U.S.A. & Canada) / $12 (World)! Meanwhile, the band signed a contract with Wicked World and the first full-length album should be out by the end of this year. Be sure to check their new stuff as well as this MCD.

After a couple of successfully released demos GOOSEFLESH came with its debut MCD called "Welcome To Suffer Age", which contains five intense Metal tracks with the influences of crossover and hard core styles. The songs mostly based on massive yet melodic guitar riffs and dynamic drum parts, while the vocals filled with lots of aggression and sometimes come in a quite thrashy way. Songs like "Killing Stone", "Seeds Of Terror" and "Suffer Age" are worth of mention, 'coz these ones shows GOOSEFLESH’s own face the best. In a word, if you into bands like MACHINE HEAD or stuff like that then it won’t be a dissapointment for you.

GREAT HORN is a brand new Black Metal band coming from Nezhin, Ukraine. Its line-up consists of Sereda Dmitry (guitar), Roman Doroshenko (vocals/guitar), Viacheslav Dirda (bass), Yuri Kovalev (keyboards) and Sergey Lego (guest drummer). The best description of their music you can get after mixing norwegian type Black Metal along with a big dose of folk- and symphonic-oriented keyboardish stuff. There are 7 songs on "Trizna..." written in the DARK THRONE meets CRADLE OF FILTH vein, but with less originality, of course. However, their songs have some potential as they combine not only usual blackish riffs but use, for example, a couple of Death Metal-based riffs too. The keyboards are dominant all the way and brings the folkish mood to their stuff till the buzz-saw guitars and rasping screeches responsible for the norwegian marks. In a word, it's a decent release with good sound quality, glossy b/w cover and lyrics about paganism.

Canadian Blast Metal is the style HORDE OF WORMS stands for. A bit unusual style name but who cares. If you’d like to get a more wide description of their music you can imagine a mix of Brutal Death Metal twisted by Black elements and with extremely ultra-deep growling vocals. The CD contains 9 songs of pure brutality. All compositions have a great ripping sound along with the mega-blasting energy coming from their instruments. But do not think that there are no melodies just only the brutality in their songs. For example "When The Forest Reigns (Desire)" and "Celestial Void" are full of enchanting melodies. The only bad thing in the whole album is the mechanical sound of the drums. In spite of that fact it’s a highly recommended album for all the fans of fast, brutal and crushing Death/Black Metal. Dive in this 28 minutes of nuclear assault together with HORDE OF WORMS and be sure to check this material out.

IMMORTAL DOMINION is a four-men band coming from Northern Colorado, USA. Actually, "Endure" is their first full-length album which consists of ten well-composed and performed Death/Thrash songs filled with a big dose of Hardcore influences. It’s a powerful and quality release with an excellent sound. I like their music a lot but it’s a pity that the style of their vocalist is very close to Phil Anselmo’s vocal style of PANTERA which I don’t prefer for such an intense Death/Thrash influenced band at all. The songs are different in the whole concept. Here we have songs like "Demon Voices" and the title-track "Endure" which are full of fast grind elements or the ones like "Brighter Days" and "Piece Of Meat" from the sort of melodic stuff with instrumental inclusions. There are also very dynamic tracks as "I Won’t Kill You" and "Time To Die" which is my fave song from the album. All musicians do a great job on this album. To begin with the tough bass sound through the quite well-structured guitar riffs and ending with the killer guitar solos. I would like to mention here their fantastic booklet which is full of amazing paintings of Juha Vuorma. You see it’s a perfect album but there is one thing I can’t endure at all. And it is in the vocal style. In my opinion it would be better for them to left this vocal style and become with a more brutal and growling one. Their music should be played only with a brutal voice I think so. However, if you like professional Death/Thrash Metal that’s it.

From the infernal depths of Trollhättan comes IMPIOUS to evilize the earth by their fast yet melodic Thrash influenced Death Metal stuff. The main goal of the quartet lies in the good use of classical elements through the entire album. Non-stop devastation of drums and complex structure of songs are what IMPIOUS propagates in their 51 minutes long debut album. Moreover, there are a big number of instrumental guitar parts and dual harmonies of ripping guitar riffs as well as quite thoughtful solos in the 11-song album. My favorite song became "Evilization", where the vocals got a rather interesting way of expression trying to inject some Heavy Metal-ish shrieks to mostly aggressive type vocals. The only weak element in "Evilized" is the sound, which isn't so impressive as I get accustomed to bands recorded their albums in Sunlight Studios (DISMEMBER, ENTOMBED, etc.). However it has a straight and powerful interpretation of what Death Metal is all about. That's why I'd like to recommend you to check this masterpiece out, before it's too late!

Eh, I thought INTENSE will follow the way of its predecessor band, namely INTENSE AGONIZING, but they didn't do that unfortunately. The music INTENSE plays on "Indifference" is far from the brutal grinding Death Metal and mostly deal with modern styles like Hard Core, industrial or alternative for instance. However, this 10-song album contains some Death Metal-based motives and a few grinding parts in general, but mostly it takes a few seconds in all songs giving more space for the new influences such as industrial samplers and groovy Hard Core riffs. Basically, their songs are well-composed and have a good sound quality, but nowadays it's not enough if the band has no originality, though. That's why, I can't pick any songs up, because there's no tracks I entirely satisfied with. If you claim to be a fan of semi-Death/Industrial Metal, that's definitely for you. Otherwise, "Indifference" was released also on CD by Kosch-Vox Records and recently the band released two more stuff, the "Black Dawn" MCD (1997) and the "Darkest Space" CD.

Along with this release you can get a more clear picture about the bands INVASION Records deal with and what bands are worth of interest. The CD presents 12 hordes with one or two songs from each other. LUNATIC INVASION starts the CD with an atmospheric sympho-influenced psycho Death/Thrash track namely "BlutGott". VARGAVINTER follows the massacre with their non-stop grinding Black Metal attack. The next band is SCHEITAN which from the kind of fast Black Metal stuff. And their track "Riding The Icewinds" is very close to ENSLAVED’s materials. The fourth band is GODGORY which surprised me a lot with its well-played quality Death/Thrash Metal. Their 8 minutes long song "Abandon" filled with many changes and great classical influenced solos. Wow, INFESTDEAD’s "The New Empire" and "Sacrifice The Saviour" are full of brutality! Their two songs are in the vein of early DEICIDE and HYPOCRISY materials. Amazingly Brutal Death Metal it is in the way it was supposed to be! The next band is GATES OF ISHTAR with its "Perpetual Dawn". I like that song a lot, ‘cause they know how to combine catchy melodies with aggressive Death Metal together. MITHOTYN is another band whose musically stands for Viking Metal. And their song "Upon Raging Waves" prop it up entirely. THE EVERDAWN plays its two tracks in the Gothenburg way which means Melodic Death Metal in the vein of AT THE GATES, DARK TRANQUILLITY and others. MIDVINTER is the following band with melodic keyboardish Black Metal tune. Nothing special! The next song is from NON SERVIAM which comes in the typical raging Black/Death form. EMBRACING’s two tracks are performed in melodic way with some clear male vocals and mediative solos as well. DEFLESHED is the last band and seems to me the best on this CD. Two crushing Death/Thrash Metal songs in the best way is what they offers here. "Under The Blade" is my favourite track which is a fantastic piece with great song-structure, piercing guitar riffs and devastating sound. Order this 71 minutes long compilation CD!

Another great compilation CD which is a split label release this time. The CD features 13 bands: NON SERVIAM, MORTUM, NINNGHIZHIDDA, SARGOTH, GATES OF ISHTAR, MITHOTYN, SCHEITAN, DEFLESHED, SKYMNING, HELLSPELL, BLAZING SKIES, ILLDISPOSED and ETERNAL AUTUMN. Some of the tracks were taken from the above mentioned INVASION Records compilation though only the older songs. And the second point is that some of these bands’ new materials are reviewed in this section as well. So I’d like to concentrate more on the other bands. I begin with GATES OF ISHTAR’s "Always" song. This one is from their "At Dusk And Forever" album. Of course it’s melodic and ripping Death Metal tune in the Swedish line again. It’s a pity that GATES OF ISHTAR ended its career with this album. However, the ex-members started a new band called DUSKFALL and that’s honourable. MITHOTYN is the next band. They progressed a lot and that’s great. Now they play somekind of Heavy Metal influenced Black Metal stuff. "Master Of The Wilderness" is the song presented here. SCHEITAN follows and this time its a slow piece from their "Berzerk 2000" album. Interesting track which includes awesome shrieks crossed with female vocals and of course some keyboard parts too. DEFLESHED comes like a stormy hurricane brought along its fast Brutal Death Metal assault. Flawless song! SKYMNING is a new name for me. Their song "Fields Of Megiddo" is very close to a Black Metal influenced version of german speeders BLIND GUARDIAN. Not bad! And here comes the next band which actually HELLSPELL, what a cliché name for a band. Shitty sound, primitive song-structure is the characteristic lines of their "Warlust" track. Though its a demo track I found nothing interesting there. BLAZING SKIES shows a much better production to its predecessor. "Same" is a quite melodic a bit Gothenburg influenced Black Metal piece. "Near The Gates" is next song from ILLDISPOSED. I’ve never expect such a melodic track from these guys. It’s a great track. Nevertheless, AT THE GATES has a big influence on their new material as well. The last band I would like to mention here is ETERNAL AUTUMN. Their first track "Autumn Opus No.1" is a classic music oriented tune. Just excellent! "Floating" is their second track which is in the melodic Black Metal vein with lots of Heavy Metal and classical influences in the solos and riff-strucures again. Worthy stuff! Check this CD out! The chance is yours to get a more wide insight into these two label’s activity. The CD is almost 78 minutes long.

INWARD PATH is from the sort of progressive bands, combining the fusion of Heavy Metal and jazz with other unusual styles. There are seven tracks full of complex rhythm changes and breaks composed by five musicians: Grigory Velchev - drums, Pavel Korsun - bass, Vladimir Pysmenny - guitars/viola/keyboards, Denis Tikhonov - guitars/keyboards and Alexander Melnik - vocals. Basically, their music lies in the tight harmony of the guitar-players' and drummer's work. As for the vocal style, it is clear and understandable, though it's not my cup of tea. Nevertheless, I'd like to pick out their song "Desolation" which seems to me their best one along with the coverversion of OZZY OSBOURNE's "Perry Mason". The album lasts nearly 45 minutes and comes with pro-printed color cover, photo and additional info. For fans of progressive Metal it's a highly recommended stuff.

Well, here's the latest release of INWARD PATH, which is a straight continuation of "Antiar". Their line-up enriched with Yegor Golovachov, who responsible for the keyboards this time. The album consists of six polished tracks placed into the labyrinth of musical instruments. The songs have a more complicated structure and sometimes they became truly abstract. I don't know why, but when I imagine their music without vocals I bump into the atmosphere of PESTILENCE's "Spheres" album. Of course, don't take it seriously, it's only my opinion. As for the genuine influences of INWARD PATH, I think the right band is DREAM THEATER for them, especially it goes to the songs as "Soulcollapsed", "One Sweet Day" and "After Beginning". Concerning the sound on "Labyrinth" it is more tougher than on "Antiar" was. The tape comes with glossy color cover, photo and other info.

The time has come for the "Citadel". It's ready to invade the world of progressiveness. Seven brand new tracks plus one coverversion of mighty DEATH will tear your soul to pieces. There's no any drastic changes in their music, though besides the usual INWARD PATH elements I've noticed a strong influence coming from classic music in songs like "Visions Of Twilights" and "The Pale Horse" for example. The album also contains some special songs like "The Clarity, The Consciousness, The Stream" (this is the longest composition of the album) plus the instrumental track "Citadel" and, of course, DEATH's "Sacred Serenity". Regarding "Sacred Serenity" it's got a new interpretation with the add of keyboards, clear vocals and characteristic sound of INWARD PATH. What can I say? Interesting!!! The only thing I dislike on this album goes to the puffing sound of the double-bass. In spite of this fact, I advise you, progressive-minded people, to check this circa 60 minutes long stuff out! Oh, I almost forgot to mention the changes took place in the band, their line-up shriveled up to five musicians: Grigory Velchev - drums, Pavel Korsun - bass, Yegor Golovachov - keyboards, Alexander Melnik - vocals and Vitaly Yatsuk - guitars. All is left to say, the MC available for $1.5 (Ukraine), $2 (C.I.S.), $5 (World) and the CD-R version of it for $6 (Ukraine), $7 (C.I.S.), $10 (World).

Well, what can I say here? This is the third album of these Canadian Death dealers. After they departed ways with Sylvain Houde (Aquarius, the Moon, the image of the band, infernal vocals, etc.) and Nick Miller (drums) they lost all the brutality and lyrical conception they had till now. Just look at the cover and hair-do of the members. That’s horrible... The new line-up consists of Maurizio Iacono who thrown away his bass guitar and this time he became as the full-time vocalist, Jean-Francois Dagenais on guitars, Stéphane Barbe on bass (he’s the new guy) and Max Duhamel on drums who known by his great works on "Mystical Gates..." MCD and "Sorcery" CD. This album still Death Metal oriented but the pace is less than ever. However, the album presents some brutal grinding parts but just for short time. What a pity! Moreover, they turned their music into a more melodic and dynamic kind of Death Metal. It’s not bad though... It seems to me that "Victims Of This Fallen World" came as a new chapter in KATAKLYSM’s history. This 12 songs album shows a medium material to its predecessors. By my point of view they’ll never reach again the level they had on "Temple Of Knowledge" album. Nevertheless this album has not bad songs at all. My faves are "As My World Burns", "Caged In" and "World Of Treason II". By the way, if you mostly into mid-paced melodic Death Metal stuffs, that’s surely for you.

Dino Simonetti, the chief of Hospice Records/Diaper Pail Productions and the musical creator of such projects as K.G.B., THERMOSS, VERB, DYSTONIA, PIUS, etc. was sent me four CDs to review them here. But there is a little problem concerning those CDs because the musical line of them are tend from industrial electronic things to sample-based noise music and these styles are too far from my musical tastes. That’s why I decided to review all those materials at once. The CDs are the following: the above mentioned K.G.B.’s "A Kinder, Gentler..." (1997), THERMOSS’ "Meat Harness" (1997), VERB’s "Cautions" (1997) and THE KLANDESTINE’s "Blind Drive" (1998). In general, all CDs came in the same noisy here and there guitar-filled psychotic industrial line which I don’t prefer to listen at all. Nevertheless, there are some hard core influenced parts in those tracks as well as some weird effects which mainly disturb the listener’s mind. In my opinion it’s rather monotonous music. Due to that fact, I leave you alone with this review. However, if you consider yourself a fan of electronic music or you like MINISTRY and NINE INCH NAILS then I can only add: These CDs are surely for you dude!

Hell, LUCIFUGUM strikes back in its best form! This time their line-up includes Faunus on vocals/bass, Bal-a-Myth on guitars/bass and two musicians from NOKTURNAL MORTUM, namely Saturious on keyboards and Munruthel on drums. Their 9-track album is an awesome Black Metal masterpiece which sounds like a blasphemic orgy of the most unholier music ever performed, that's for sure! There's no slow parts in it, just pure blasting aggression and hatred. Their compositions are simply great and come with amazing sound quality. All the instruments audible here. Drums mostly fast as hell and the guitars sounds like a rasping grinder till the vocals shows no mercy with its raucous ravaging. By the way, the album presents a couple of really well-constructed bass lines with clearly interpreted sound. Moreover, they use the keyboards constantly hereby giving a fantastic symphonic feeling to all the tunes. This is one of the most essential sonic devastations ever created in Ukraine.

This slovakian 6-men band made a rather unusual mix of Metal styles in their 10-song album. The main line of music fluctate from melodic Heavy Metal through grinding Death Metal to classic- and atmospheric-based keyboardish stuff. But I can assure you that this definition isn't completely fit the music - Hirax (guitars), Psycho (drums), Mortis (vocals), Emil (vocals), Richard (bass) and King (keyboards) - created here. They combined aggression with melodies, complexity with brutality, classic music with fusion, and so on… It's too much to describe all here. To cut it short, "Sitting By The Fire" is a professional quality album without any limits or borders in styles representing the different but very skilled level of musicians' capabilities. As you see, there are two vocalists in LUNATIC GODS whose works are add some positive sign to the whole stuff. Their range of vocals mostly tends to clear-sung ones. And what is more the rhythm section is precise all the way and the guitarplayer's work just amazed me with their remarkable riffs and full speed ahead solos. I guess this description is enough for every die-hard fans of progressive Metal. So get it or be cursed for ever!

"Surface" is the fourth album of Milwaukee’s brutalers MORTA SKULD. And this time they did their best one which includes eight uncompromising Brutal Death Metal tracks. The songs are mostly mid-paced with rolling double-bass parts and ultra deep Death grunts. However, there are some hyper fast grinding beats as well as weird bass guitar inclusions in their repertory too. Raging Death Metal is what they offers for us on this 34 minutes long album with superb sound quality and precise song-structures. But concerning the originality this stuff a bit lack of it ‘cause their music many times turn into their mates’ music such as CANNIBAL CORPSE, MONSTROSITY or MORBID ANGEL for instance. Nevertheless, it’s a killer product with the main emphasis on brutality! My fave tracks are "The Killing Machines" and "In Nothing We Trust".

What can we expect from a swedish band which works with female singer? Only Melodic Death Metal! So, MORTUM stands for the well-known Gothenburg style and it means their music is closer to IN FLAMES and DARK TRANQUILLITY. The band combines of Chrille Andersson - vocals and guitars, Rille Svensson - guitars, Michael Hakansson - bass, Bartek Nalezinski - drums and Tinna Carlsdotter - female vocals. "The Druid Ceremony" includes 10 songs of well-played emotional Death Metal filled with beautiful harmonies of colorful female vocalist. The sound is excellent due to the gold hands of Andy La Rocque. Some more words? Just check it and you'll understand everything. I’m sure most of you will like this 38 minutes long CD.

As usual bands coming from Slovakia plays Brutal Death Metal or something similar to that. And here I have a totally different stuff performed by MYSTIC DEATH which plays melodic keyboard-filled Black Metal. The band features Veles and Perun on guitars & bass, Simargl on vocals and Svarog on drums. These 8 tracks represents a quite dark, variable and well-composed material. You can find there everything from fast ass-kicking drumming, razor-sharp guitars, clear and rasping vocals to majestic keyboard tunes, acoustic inclusions and some awe-inspiring effects. The album comes with an excellent ripping sound and a bit boring lyrics-wise which mostly deal with heathen aspects, I think such lyrics are rather meaningless nowadays. Moreover, there are a few keyboardish parts as well as guitar riffs reminds me to ABIGOR and SUMMONING, though they mixed them with own ideas and that makes their music more valuable. In a few word, if you into storming hateful Black Metal then it's a must for you.

To begin with I must to admit that the music NEIN CREED stands for is totally not my cup of tea. These four guys - Reverend Soul (vocals/synth/rhythm guitar), Syn (keyboards/lead guitar), Kinetic Kid (bass) and Dany (percussion) - mixed distorted guitars and industrial electronic elements together to fashion their sound. Musically, they near to Hard Core bands’ sounding but the mechanical sound of samples and other alternative ingradients did it more unbearably. In short, if you like RAMMSTEIN, DIE KRUPPS or bands like that, I can restly recommend this stuff for you.

Steven Henry of NURAXIS/Neoblast Productions was cool enough and sent me their extraordinary masterpiece "Imagery". It contains 12 unbelievably complex Death Metal tunes that can leave a significant mark on extreme metal fans' minds. The album begins with a short intro and right after turns into the massive riffs of "Temporal Calamity". This track shows no mercy with its brutal and gut-ripping growling vocal parts and ultra fast drumming. Then comes "Oscillated to Intelligence" that follows the virtuoso massacre. "Cyberwar" is the next one and in my opinion it is the vertex of "Imagery". It combines the most melodious and sophisticated guitar riffs plus a quite precise drum work with lots of breaks and rhythm changes. The bass guitarist's work is also brilliant. He plays some really confused parts in songs as "Inquisition on Mortality" and "Lid to your Soul" to name a few. Musically NEURAXIS displays a very high level of creativity and therefore has its own original style. Nevertheless some of the guitar riffs in songs like "Reasons of Being" and "Psycho-Waves" were heavily influenced by the swedish Death Metal school, it's for sure. There are two instrumental tracks featured as well, both are well-executed. As for the sound quality it's excellent in spite of the weak sound of double basses, but it's only my point of view. What's left for the end is to recommend you to buy this futuristic Death Metal treasure called "Imagery"!

Well, NINNGHIZHIDDA is a four-men Black/Death formation hailing from Germany and featuring Mephistopheles (6-string, 4-string & grunts), Baalberith (6-string, leads & acoustic), Dr. Faustus (Orchestra, Piano & Organ) and Kerberos (Kettles, cymbals & screams). Eh, this album is a fantastic piece of rather thoughtful Black/Death Metal. It’s not so boring as many other Black bands nowadays. "Blasphemy" contains 11 well-crafted tracks which has a really catchy song-structures captivated by good use of keyboards and female vocals. Majestic symphonic atmosphere along with fast grinding drumming is rather interesting, don’t you think so? I think so. Some songs has pretty cool opening acoustic passages as well. The lyrics are deal with satanic topics, though they’re not included on inlay. To convince you I’d name some of them here: "Baphomet (In The Name Of...)", "Nailed Upon A Cross" or "Crucify The Lambs Of Christ". I guess it’s more than enough. It’s a warmly recommended stuff for the fans of Black/Death Metal, however it reminds me sometimes a bit to the mighty CRADLE OF FILTH!

Well, everybody knows that U.S. bands play Black Metal otherwise than the norwegians, for instance. One can say NOCTUARY still being one of them, though they didn't afraid and added their music with lots of norwegian-based riffs. Moreover, they mixed not only awesome Blackish riffs together, but also injected some Thrash & Death Metal parts there as well. The band features Joseph Van Fossen on guitars/vocals and Edward Knecht on bass, plus there are some session musicians involved, whose work also remarkable. So, let's analyse "For Salvation...". It contains 11 well-constructed Black Metal songs with top quality sounding. The guitar riffs had been done professionally and the solos just amazed me, especially in the title song. As for the vocal parts, they are screamy ones all the time making the album more aggressive and hateful. There's also a great mid-paced song, called "Black Bleeding Soul" which reminded me SATYRICON's "Mother North" a bit. Overall, it's a worthy stuff which can be yours by sending $16 to Lost Disciple Records!

Two bands, two different materials, but perfomed by the same mastermind, namely Chris Stepniewski. Well, I start with NOISECORE FREAK, where Chris responsible for all the instruments, lyrics and vocals. There are 35 songs written in the most fast yet noisy way man can imagine. I've never heard such a fast grindcore till now. These rather short compositions can really blow anything away. And what's more, some songs were extremely well-connected with cool intros and effects. I like this stuff a lot! It's just brutal having the fastest grind parts and quite crazy vocals in it. As for the lyrics, I'll give you just some songnames to define what they're all about. Here they are "Cramped Cage", "Grinding Tooth And Face", "Hellkat", "Terror In The Whorehouse Slum", "Bonerack Shackled", "Goodnight Carnage" and "Lingerie Dissection" to name a few. The second band is MURDER BY STATIC, where all the instruments were handled by Chris too. There are 10 songs in the vein of electronic/industrial music with lots of weird effects. But I must say it's not my cup of tea at all. So, I leave you here.

NOKTURNAL MORTUM's new masterpiece follows the path of "To The Gates Of Blasphemous Fire" album. Having mixed the aggression, hatred and fierceness of Black Metal together with Slavonic folk elements they created a totally unique sound for "Íåõðèñòü". The raging screams of Varggoth are more extreme and sounds like a warning protest against christianity, preparing all of us to the final war. Just listen to "The Call of Aryan Spirit" and you'll be common with them. Munruthel brings again his precise, hyper fast double bass attacks, which can crush every inch of your body. The guitars got a raw thrashy sound in the most songs, e.g. "Night Before The Fight" (killer one!) and "Íåáåñíîå Ñåðåáðî Ïåðóíà" (it's a new re-mixed version of a song from their "Lunar Poetry" album). Xaar Quath's well-audible roaring bass parts are surprised me a lot, 'coz he was everytime backgrounded till now. As you might know, there are two keyboard-players, namely Sataroth & Saturious. They've done a great work having injected tons of majestic and folk-influenced parts on the entire album. See songs like "The Funeral Wind Born in Oriana", "Íåõðèñòü: Òàíåö Ìå÷åé" or the most powerful one called "jesus' blood" for instance. You'll get over 70 minutes of "mind-torturing" music. So don't be a fool and order this elite Aryan-Slavonic N.S. Black Metal band's new album right now!

NON SERVIAM progressed a lot from their previous album. "Necrotical" is a strong satanic Death Metal out-put which should be praised by the underground freaks everywhere. 11 songs of pure blasphemy with necronomicon and other evil-form filled lyrics is what we have here. The forces of this possession were Anders Nyander (guitars), Rikard ‘Amon’ Nilsson (vocals), Chrille ‘Tyr’ Andersson (bass, growling vocals), Magnus Emilsson (drums) and Daniel ‘Janos’ Andersson (guitars, clean vocals). The sound a bit under-produced, however it will crush all your parts with its brutal raw sounding. It’s fast, raging, unholy and at the same time melodic stuff. Three kinds of vocals add some points to their variety while the guitarists’ work above the average. At least the rhythm section works pretty well. And the cover is simply fantastic! Do you like Gothenburg Death Metal mixed with brutal heavy riffs? If so, then it’s a must for you. Buy it now 'cause it will be too late!