DEATH
Leprosy (2-Disc Reissue)
Relapse Records
Any excuse to play Death… Bonus stuff on this release are rehearsal versions of tracks.

MUSHROOMHEAD
The Righteous & The Butterfly
Megaforce
Well, below I mention Avatar being a bit simliar to Slipknot… well, this band doesn’t even need to be mentioned in the same breath… they had a history of bad blood which is apparently all cleared up.  And I guess if there IS any band that is similar to Slipknot in just about all ways, it’s this one.  They always have put out solid albums and live shows sticking mostly to their formula… This keeps the Mushroomhead machine going… not all brutal and heavy – they never really were, but they

SYLAR
To Whom It May Concern
Razor & Tie
It’s a bit metalcore, some Linkin Park, some hardcore and some thrashy metal.  I’m a little on the fence, because of the Linkin Park and metalcore parts…

THE LAST VEGAS
Sweet Salvation
Culvert
A cool catchy hard rock with a little nod to some hair metal sound.

DOWN
Down IV Part II
(Down/ADA)
Damn… This just reminds me of the first Down album… and it’s still a wow factor.  Amazing that they can capture this same magic after all these years.  Good stuff.

Avatar
Hail The Apocalypse
eOne Entertainment
These guys have the image that they’d be some mall-core band, but they just make catchy semi-brutal tracks… The closest thing I can think of that they remind me of is Slipknot… but not quite as serious.  There’s a little bit of a folk element, and melodic stuff, but catchy as all hell and fun to listen to.

Dio
Live From London Hammersmith Apollo 1993
Eagle Rock Entertainment
A live dio show from 21 years ago… this sort of setlist from this time is more or less a greatest hits played live too.  It actually sounds really live, not all “fixed” in post.   This is a previously unreleased show… also on DVD too…

Pet The Preacher
The Cave & The Sunlight
Napalm Records
A heavy stoner metal band with a loud grungy guitar sound, kind of sung with a bit of an edge – almost Down-like sound. A little bit of a Clutch vibe too.

Vallenfyre
Splinters
Century Media
Brutal old school death metal sound with a pinch of grind and black metal.

Miasmal
Cursed Redeemer
Century Media
Kind of an Entombed-like Death Metal thing with a bit of melody, these Gothenburg Swedes keep it brutal while still making it interesting.

Psychotic Gardening
Hymnosis
Self-Release  (asher media)
Death Metal with monster heavy riffage, a bit of a freight train gallop, classic cookie monster vocals.

Dominium
War Ritual
Horror Pain Gore Death
A bit of an old school black metal thing… so I’m sitting here, doing these reviews and stuff… but let this play in the backround while doing some other ‘net surfing… good stuff

Strafk
Phaseshifting
Wraith Productions
A bit of a disjointed sounding ambient “metal” thing.

HOLY SHIRE
Midgard
Bakerteam Records
Power metal with a bit of folksie stuff (flutey-keyboard stuff) There are some female vocals and symphonic type stuff too.  But then there’s some cool heavier thrashy stuff going on here and there too.

Noctooa
Adaptation
Pesanta Urfolk
Not quite sure this belongs in my inbox… not sure where it would even go.  strings, low pitch vocals, not even sure if this is rock!?

Hell (oregon)
Trilogy
Pesanta Urfolk
More post metal noise type stuff.  I’m not sure if I’ve liked anything on this label.

Blood and Sun
White Storms Fall
Pesanta Urfolk
Folky rock stuff.  see above… I supposed if the word “folk” is in the label name… that might say something.

Abbey ov Thelema
Liber DCLXVI
Wraith Productions
An interesting mix of symphonic metal, black metal, and some atmospheric stuff?   Encyclopaedia Metallum has them as Avant-Garde Black Metal.  So yeah it’s a bit all over the place, but all dark and evil.

Various Artists
Salud Mortales (Free Download)
Icarus Music (Online Metal Promo)
A 50+ song sampler of a metal radio show from Argentina.  Lots of bands, lots of tracks, haven’t even listened to it yet!  I’m sure it’s cool, cuz metal shows on the radio are cool. 😀

Hades Archer / Slaughtbbath
Circus of Abominations / Antichristos Thanatos – split LP
Iron Bonehead
Hades Archer is 5 tracks and Slaughtbbath is 2… both are fairly straightforward brutal black metal.  Slaughtbbath has 2 long songs and maybe digs a little deeper… but both are pretty decent.

Landskap
I LP
Iron Bonehead
70’s metal throwback stuff, Sabbath meets Blue Oyster Cult type stuff.

Ranger
Shock Skull 7″
Ektro
Raw thrashy stuff, over the top screamy vocals (almost like The Darkness)… but also there’s a bit of an edge and growl in parts too.