Lamb Of God – Resolution (2012)

If there is such thing (music) as “post-Pantera Metal”, Lamb Of God are definitively the kings of it. No better album to kick in into 2012 then this furiously raging “Resolution”, the band’s seventh studio album scheduled for a January 24 release. Hard – actually quite impossible – not to jump up and bang on this. Maybe this is (still) so Pantera, but this is still murderous and those bloody riffs, those killer screams and growls, this brutal Metal still have so much anger and energy that’s gonna rip your head off. Randy Blythe learned and applied all the tricks of Anselmo perfectly, Mark Morton and Willie Adler bring to the surface the most cutting edge riffs while the rhythm section made by drummer Chris Adler and bass player John Campbell delivered the most intense grooves extremely precisely. 14 tracks, almost one hour of massacre, call it Groove, Nu or whatever Metal, this is so brutal and so good that if it wouldn’t be invented, it would have. But no use to re-invent the Steel ( 😀 ), it’s essential to play it straight from your heart and with guts and loud enough. Read more Lamb Of God – Resolution (2012)

Dungeon Elite [**] – New World Disorder (2011)

Emocore, NintendoCore, Happy GrindCore, Electro Metal, label it as you please, this is extremely intense and murderous s*it. Fada (Screaming), Becko (Synthesizers and Vocals), and finally Maia (Vocals) formed the group in Rome, Italy and their released their debut, “Make Love Not Warcraft” in 2007. Described on their MySpace profile as “Techno/Grindcore/Emotronic”, their music is a refreshing mixture of Hardcore, Nintendo and Game sounds like elements with Dance and Electronic musics, it’s extremely pulsing, dynamic, Metal and Techno melt into one and explode. Read more Dungeon Elite [**] – New World Disorder (2011)

Rorcal vs. Solar Flare – Split (2011)

From Hollywood to Melbourne and from soul to pop and from blues to metal, Solar Flare (in different forms) seems to be a quite popular name among artists. I dug till China and back, but it was kind of “mission impossible” to find anything about this particular Solar Flare. Finally I get some help from the Domino Media Agency and about this “Swiss doom conspiracy”.
Switzerland already delivered several exciting products this year, and the land of 26 cantons seems to be very resourceful also in metal. Rocal was formed in 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland and last year their released their fifth record, “HELIOGABALUS” – which is a single 70 minutes monolithic piece. Solar Flare is a side-project from Impure Wilhemina formed also in Geneva by Michael Schindl (Guitar, vocals), David Schindl (Drums), Thierry Baertschiger (Guitar) and Didier Baertschiger (Bass) in 1998. In 2006, the band suffered several line-up changes: David and Thierry leaved Geneva, and were replaced by Mario Togni (drums) and Alexandre Müller (guitar).
This collaborative split is exclusively available on Call of Ror label’s e-shop and for entire streaming on SoundCloud. Read more Rorcal vs. Solar Flare – Split (2011)

Neurotech – 2011, free downloads

I was damn sure I did write about “Antagonist”, the band’s debut album back in March when it was released, but hell no, I could not dig out that review, but with all the troubles and errors I had faced this year with this site and my hosting, I’m not surprised of anything anymore. Anyway, “Antagonist” and their brand new EP entitled “Blue Screen Planet” are available at their official site for free download, respectively “name your price” as digital release, while you can still buy the “Antagonist” special CD+T-Shirt pack for only 15€.
Although “name your price” means even zero, I still believe artist deserves and needs all of our support, mostly artists from the underground who bring to the surface alternatives for the usual mainstream bulls*its.
Neurotech from Ljubljana, Slovenia, formed back in 2007 by Wulf delivering a pounding mixture of metal riffing and electronic layers merging powerful metal with spacy, cinematic trance/ambiental electro music. It’s a quite electrifying and refreshing experiment, harmonies, strong choruses and deep textures, grinding guitars are make perfect match here melting into one. Gothic romanticism and heavy brutality collide in their music resulting something beautiful and gloomy, mysterious and heavy. And just as I said, they efforts needs to be rewarded. Read more Neurotech – 2011, free downloads