SLIPKNOT
.05: The Gray Chapter
Roadrunner
Kind of hard to know what to expect with this one, were they going to be all pissed off and make one of their heaviest albums yet?  or would they be a bit emo about losing some band members or whatever.  Well, As they get older and more mature, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be full on brutal, but it is destinctively Slipknot, but to me with leanings to Stone Sour. (mainly because of more clean vox from Corey Taylor).

I.N.C.  (Indestructible Noise Command)
Black Hearse Serenade
Ferocious Records
Great catchy modern thrash

Noturnall
Noturnall
Metalville Records
Proggy metal from Brazil, vocals are a dead ringer for Russell Allen, music has a little bit of an old Pantera-like groove.

Old Thunder
Slings & Arrows
Self-Released
Kind of some doomy black metal with “meh” production.

NekKralai
Kliudžiau
Self-Released
Raw black metal with some ambient melodic stuff too.

NACHTBLUT
Chimonas
Napalm Records
This to me is kind of truly a blackened thrash.  It has a black metal feel, but really a half thrash feel too but with some bonus catchy melodic stuff too.

ALLEN / LANDE
The Great Divide
Frontiers Music srl
Two of the better metal/power metal/prog metal vocalists out there are back for their fourth album with Timo Tolkki doing just about all of the music aside from drums.  Pretty decent power metal album here and you know the vocals are going to be good… and yeah, they are.

Holy Dragons
Dragon Inferno
Pitch Black Records
Fast, German sounding thrashy power metal (but they’re from Kazakhstan!) Some cool proggy stuff going on too.

DIMENZION: PSYCHOSPHERE
COLLAPSE
CRIME RECORDS
Kind of a modern thrashy metal band.  A bit of a groove, maybe a pinch of something like a Devin Townsend thing, as it’s a bit of a wall of sound and just has a lot going on in your face.

Amulet
The First
Century Media
Catchy throwback stoner metal.

A Breach of Silence
The Darkest Road
Eclipse Records
Kind of “classic” metalcore. Growls, screams, some clean vox, breakdowns, melodic death sounds, some thrashy riffs too.

VARGSANG
In the Mist of Night
Obscure Abhorrence Productions
A pretty cool, raw, old school black metal with good melodies, decent production and a nice touch of evil!

Inferion
This Will Decay
Horror Pain Gore Death
Brutal sounding melodic black metal.

CEMETERY FILTH
Screams From The Catacombs EP
White Ship Records
old school black metal with some thrashy sounding guitars and a bit of an old Morbid Angel feel too, but with some “eh” production.