What happens when you take incredible depressive/atmospheric black metal and add some orchestra to it? You get Germ, a talented act putting two polar opposite styles of music and making them sound so supersonic and amazing. Perfect timing because I’ve been listening to a lot of Austere and Coldworld lately and this is definitely hitting that nerve and need to listen to that style of music. Germ’s new album “Loss” also features two other things that make this album completely unique. Clean vocals and electronic influences. It’s not overly done like The Browning and similar bands like that. It’s more like a touch of Nine Inch Nails in a way. Very odd, very different….very good. I like this album quite a bit.
4 out of 5
Shadows in the Crypt is a more aggressive styled black metal act. Carrying speeds and aggression similar to thrash metal at times, Shadows album “Fanatical (Ready To Die)” is a welcome difference of black metal. It’s been a year of post/depressive/doom styled black metal and this headbanging whirlwind black metal that Shadows in the Crypt creates is exactly what I needed to change the darkness up just a little bit.
This blasphemous storm of a release is only 18 minutes long so be sure to rinse and repeat with this one. It’ll have you headbanging for sure!
4.5 out of 5
Providing one of the coolest album covers comes Bloodbeast with their new album “Bloodlust”. Adding to the bloodfest is the charming sounds of death/grind coming out of my headphones. The sound is remarkably good, and their music is fierce. Violent and relentless, Bloodbeast attacks you with amazing force. This band reminds me of some really good underground bands I’ve heard before. Troglodyte definitely comes to mind when I listen to these guys. Bloodbeast has this bassy groove and explosive sound about them. Aggressive in every aspect, old school grind whores will enjoy this.
One thing I did notice was that sometimes the drumming just didn’t go well with the riffs at all. The rhythm and tempo was very far off and I went cross eyed at times. Still a good half hour of music. Good stuff.