ACID DEATH is a great band, with four talents Savvas-Jake Betinis on bass and vocals, Dennis Kostopoulos & Themis Catsimihas on lead guitars and Costas Tsombanos on drums, coming from Greece. First of all, they musically on an experimental way, something between Death/Thrash and Jazz. Through this 10-song album you can take a journey to a new dimension, to the dimension of technical and mysterious solutions. All musicians does a big job on this album. Their music simply original without nowadays clichés in these styles. Every time when I listening to this material I feel the energy coming from their instruments. This band is full of ideas so keep your eyes on ACID DEATH in the future and for those who are interested in this brilliant masterpiece the chance is yours to order it from ACID DEATH.

At present, DEMENTOR is the totally leading Death Metal band in Slovakia. After their killer debut album "The Church Dies" (1994), they got out of my horizon. Fortunately not long ago, I've received their second masterpiece "Kill The Thought On Christ"... Let's go into details: DEMENTOR is a trio featuring Rene on guitar and vocals, Roman on guitar and Pike on drums. The album contains eight ass-kicking Death/Grind tracks and one cover: TUBLATANKA's "Prometheus". All this coming with professional sound in thirty-nine minutes. The songs have a special and raw atmosphere that sometimes reminds me to the old-school Thrash bands. By the way, three songs are taken from the debut album but here Pike, the new drummer, plays the drums parts a little bit differently, which is pleasant for me. Both guitar players play fantastic riffs and the solos, done by Rene, are simply amazing to my ears. Songs like "Fate Of Emptiness", "Suppuration Of My Soul" and the album's title track are my favourites. I recommend this Slovakian band to everyone who is into brutal Death Metal. I'm sure most of you will enjoy these nine songs. These guys are rule!!!

What we have, 13 songs in about 40 minutes. All songs have different atmosphere. This four guys mixed everything from folk to grindcore. Well, if you like the mixture of various styles that's it. You can find there like hyms as the "Metal Will Never Die" song which is very influenced by MANOWAR and there are songs like "Iron Fist" where used the flutes with a big dose of harmonies through songs of classical orientation as "Human End". This is a very interesting experience from a band whom I've never heard before.

FATAL EPITAPH fluctate between Death and Doom Metal. This 5-song album is the second edition by Izmira Productions. The bandmembers are Igor-bass, Vic-guitars, Tarick-vocal and Vlad-drums. Their music is not too original although they've some good moments. The best song for me is "Mercyless" which consists of additional vocal parts of Yury from APOSTATE. I'm not surprised by this album maybe the next will do it.

It is the first album of this very promising Death Metal band. 8 tracks of brutal and brainwashing devastation in about 40 minutes. Their sound similar to the American bands such as MONSTROSITY, BRUTALITY, etc. Very interesting for me were the following songs "Ahriman's Heart", "A Memorable Fancy" and "When Madness Rules". Lyrically they are on the right way. Some more words? Just check it and you'll understand everything. Great album!

Another band that support the restauration of 80's styles came from Canada. Their music is a mix of old Power Metal (Not modern Power Metal, but such music that was called Power Metal in 80s), Speed Metal and Heavy Metal. Sometimes it reminds me BLIND GUARDIAN, HELLOWEEN, METAL CHURCH... There are also some songs with KING DIAMOND influences. This material about 10 songs is a deep nostalgy to the old good times. My favourite songs are "The Clown" and "United We Stand, Divided We Fall". The ones who are deep in Power and Speed Metal MUST check this masterpiece up, it's a high quality professional music. This goes to their previous MC "In Our World" (which more harder I think).

This compilation CD shows us that the Slovakian Metal Scene is stronger than ever. Eight experienced bands (six Slovak and two Czech), sixteen tracks in sixty-four minutes, each of them with two songs. The CD includes infos about the bands, thank and tracklists and of course addresses. INSEPULTUS (Slo) starts the CD with their mid-paced Death Metal. Both songs are taken from their brilliant cassette-EP "Considerations" and it sounds quite original. ACOASMA (Slo) follows with their technical Death Metal. Solos are amazing and the structure of songs reminds me to the classic ones like DEATH. VIRTUAL VOID (Cz) is the next band and the booklet says that they're the followers of the bands such as BATHORY, HELLHAMMER and VENOM. I think that the previous sentence prop up their style and the music too. CARRION (Slo) is the next one whom both songs bring tears into your eyes with their incredible melodies and attractive keyboard tunes (especially on the first track "Return To Innocence"). After the beautiest part, let's see the heaviest. SUFFOCATE (Slo) plays extreme Death/Grind tunes with deeply growling vocals. These guys really know how to play Brutal Death Metal. IMPERIAL FOETICIDE is the second band from Czech Republic, which plays their fast Death Metal on high quality. MENTALITY (Slo) is something strange for me. Psycho/Death/Grind with a big dose of keyboards, which kicks some ass as well. The last band is DEMENTOR, the oldest Death Metal act in Slovakia. This band is doing something original! I've never heard such an interesting compilation CD before!!! KILLER!!!

For the sake of the bands like this the scene will be boring. Typical riffs, I've heard this type of riffs very long time ago. Nothing interesting. This band stands in the shadows of DISSECTION. So I don't want to degrade this band just want to say bands like this must disappeared or must find their own original way to play this type of music on high quality.

The cult is back again with a strong album. It is unfortunate that Michael Denner is no longer part of the band. The band turned back to the old days. All songs have an old mood but with sound of 90's. I really like the "Don't Break The Oath" album and "Dead Again" seems to me the continuation of that masterpiece. Buy or Die!!!

This is the debut album from Slovakian band PATHOLOGY STENCH. Eleven songs of incredible crushing Death Metal with actual thought put into every song. This is forty-one minutes of brutal music with deeply growling vocals, megafast double bass and superb guitar solos. I wouldn't say that this is pure originality but I don't even care. This four piece band is doing everything professionally and the drummer does a great job. My fave songs are "My Painful Paradise" and "No Interest". So if you are into bands such as BROKEN HOPE and MONSTROSITY, then don't hesitate to buy it! That's for you!

RAMPAGE is a horrible mix of all styles I've ever heard. They mixed everything from dirty rock'n'roll to grindcore. The band features the following brains Vic Naughty - guitar/vocals, Paul Bearer - drums, backing vocals, Earwhig Ringworm - guitar and Tom Coffinmasher - bass. Yes, it's an elite band. The guys doing something new with this mixing of Death/Black/Doom/Grind/etc. styles but I still prefer if the band use maximum two styles for its music. There are a lot of cool thrashy riffs and brutal voices. But I had surprised on hearing the coverversion of MAYHEM's "Deathcrush" (???) which sounds very similar to the original one. They're really good musicians. Unfortunately I don't like this confusion in styles. If you think it is your dream band, hurry up to get this 5-song EP!

TALES OF DARKNORD is one of the most powerful bands hailing from Russia. I've never heard such an amazing Death Metal material before. These guys really know how to kick some ass off. The album is full of killer riffs, grinding drumparts and awesome vocals. Though the vocals sometimes reminds me to the typical Glen Benton style. The material consists of 7 studio tracks and 5 live tracks in circa 60 minutes. The level of musicians is quite high, though the album features guest musicians as well. Anton (bass/vocals) use more colourful tones to his growling but Alex (guitars, black vox.) helps him in some tunes. Brutal, fast, aggresive and total destructive material. It will crush every parts of your body, so don't waste your time to buy this megakiller material for $15 from: R.I.P. Productions, Vladimir Korolenko, P.O. Box 72, 214004 Smolensk, Russia.

It is the new material by this brutalers. Their line-up is the following on this album: Alex Kantemirov - guitars/black vox, Anton Shirl - bass/vocals and John Kuznetsoff - drums. Their material still crushing but the pace a bit less than ever. What a sound! The bass sounds like a roar of cannon, and the rest of instruments give the cannon-balls to this brutal massacre. This 10-song album features three coverversions: ACHERON's "Overturning Prayer-Book", SIX FEET UNDER's "Lycanthropy" (Three-times faster than the original version, KILLER!) and UNPURED's "Surrounded By Darkness". This material shows how a Death Metal album can be. Cool stuff!

Finally, the long awaited second album of SODOM's frontman Tom Angelripper was released. Here we have 17 songs full of alcoholic madness. This album is more Sodomish, due to the appearance of 2/3 of SODOM. The guitar sound became more hard and the music in general became more faster. My favourites are Komaclub, Ballermann 666, Medley I and II. Just check this masterpiece up. It's worth to be praised!!! TOM RULES!!!

This is an album with first two materials, demo Necrolust (tracks 1-4) and the first official EP Morbid Reich (tracks 5-10), of Poland's death metal act number one VADER. These demos gave them the deal to Earache Records. For those who have heard the first album "The Ultimate Incantation" this material will be not unknown. Though the atmosphere here is another and a bit thrashy with raw sounding of instruments. I like this album very much. I think it will be looks out great in my collection.