There’s a lot of new stuff this week, so each review (or whatever you wanna call it) will be a bit shorter!

Krisiun
AssassiNation
Century Media
Krisiun always puts out great albums, but they seem to get forgotten. This new CD starts off with a machine gun assault of metal. Being from Brazil, they probably live in the shadow of Sepultura… you can hear some influence in the guitars. For a 3 piece, their wall of sound is aggressive, evil and in your face. Another great new death metal release! You’ll hear this on the pit!!

Kataklysm
In The Arms of Devastation
Nuclear Blast
41:07 – 9 Tracks
We’ve become some big fans of Kataklysm over the years. I was suprised to see a new release from them so soon, as we have still been playing their last release fairly often. This new one doesn’t let up much at all. Intense drumming, guitars and vocals make this a par for the course album from these guys. They start off brutal and don’t let up for the 41 minutes of this album. This is what REAL metal should be sounding like! You’ll hear this a lot on the “Pit!”

Devin Townsend Band
Synchestra
Inside Out Music
You all know Devin from Strapping Young Lad… he seems to be one of the most prolific dudes in heavy music these days, cranking out albums from all of his projects while producing other bands along the way. DTB is the more proggy-less intense not as metal project. The CD starts off pretty mellow, and then goes in different places. There will be some synth keyboard/mandolin sounding stuff, then he’ll just tear into something really heavy. Since he used to sing for Steve Vai, you can kind of hear some of that in this release. Any fan of Devin will like this CD. DTB tours with Opeth in the next month or two. This is definately not SYL, but still great and will probably be played more on the “Pit” in the upcoming weeks.

Folly
Resist Convenience
Triple Crown/EastWest
This kind of has that same old angry metalcore sound. There’s a bit more of a punk feel in the music though. The vocals are kind of the high screachy growling, with some chorus of dudes yelling. The sticker on the cd says that “FOLLY returns with their unique mix of metal, hardcore with a touch of ska.” Normally just an indication of the “touch of ska” would turn me away, but I haven’t really found much of it on the CD… there’s a little on the later tracks, which really it doesn’t fit!! It’s not too bad… you’ll probably hear this on the pit here and there.

Remembering Never
God Save Us
Ferret Music
Another metalcore type of release. Sounds decent. I’m not sure how the powers that be expect the public, let alone poor radio people like me to figure out the difference between all of these metalcore bands. It’s okay… I’ll probably play it this week and maybe in the upcoming weeks.

Suicide Silence
Suicide Silence
Third Degree Records
This was the suprise of the week. I had no idea what it was when I put it in, but it was some really good solid death metal. While just a 5 song EP, these guys really crushed. They’re on an up and coming label called Third Degree Records. You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit… it’s great stuff and truly “underground”

Torture Killer
Swarm
Metal Blade
Chris Barnes handles vocals in this side project thing. What originally started off as some dudes hanging around playing Six Feet Under songs turned into what it is today. They had a few EPs and releases and eventually lost their singer, when Chris Barnes got wind of their situation and offered to step in as their “singer.” So, you can guess, it sounds a bit like SFU, Obituary and well, what else can you say. It’s good, I like Chris Barnes’ vocals and the music fits with everything he’s done. Good stuff here… you’ll hear this!!

Twilight Odyssey
Twilight Odyssey
TO Records
We haven’t gotten much power metal in lately… So it’s always nice to get something! At first listen, the production is a little mushy in the bass drum end. The vocals are handled by a female, with the rest of the band doing pretty simple prog-power metal Judas Priestey / Iron Maideney stuff. It’s okay… we’ll probably give it a play, but not much after that.

The Sword
Age of Winters
Kemado Records
Just as I said above with the power metal, we haven’t gotten much “stoner metal” lately. This falls in that category, with huge meaty riffs and a powerful low end. This makes me wanna drink some beer and chill and just watch them play. They have a bit of the Black Sabbath thing going on. They’ll be playing on March 3rd at the High Noon Saloon here in Madison!

There are a few things I haven’t gotten in the mail yet, so it’s a bit tough to review/preview…

Wicked Wisdom’s full length, Torture (Escapi Music) and Naio Ssaion.

A lot of stuff out this week… so tune in and call/email if you like or hate any of it!!