Disturbed
Immortalized
Warner Brothers
As with the Motorhead below… Disturbed know what they do… catchy hard rock stuff that a lot of people will like. The hiatus probably did them a little good.  The band members all went and did their own thing or took time off and came back all recharged instead of just churning out another “ok” album.  This one is yeah, “ok” but actually pretty good as Disturbed goes. It might be a little bit overproduced, but it’s still crisp and clean.

Ghost
Meliora
Loma Vista
What can we say about Ghost.  The 3rd album here.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the second album… well, I can say right now that I’m a huge fan of this one.  The songs all just have a big huge sound (like the bass drum is 5 feet wide), the music is right on with their throwback sound, but yet modern and yeah, I use this word too much, catchy.  You’ll be headbanging along then just shake your head at how it sounds so familiar but yet still new and fresh.  This one is up there for one of the best of the year in my book.

Kobra and the Lotus
Words of the Prophets EP
Titan Music
Well, I had the single for SPirit of Radio a week or two ago, now we got the full EP.  “Lay it On The Line” “Sign of the Gypsy Queen” and others… so yeah Canadian band doing Candadian band covers. They don’t deviate too far from the style of the orginal, so it’s all pretty straightforward, but good stuff.

The Devil Wears Prada
Space EP
Rise Records
Heavy and catchy metalcore… first new stuff from these guys in a few years.  I can’t say anything is too groundbreaking here… just some good quality melodic metalcore without getting all wussy.

Wolfheart
Shadow World
Spinefarm Records
Doomy melodic death metal, catchy riffs and maybe a bit of a viking metal feel too.

The Sword
High Country
Razor & Tie
One of the better stoner metal bands around these days.  Great meaty catchy stoner metal (hard rock) anthems going on all over the place here.

WASP
Radio Single “Last Runaway”
Napalm Records
Been a while since I’ve heard some new WASP… This one isn’t quite as over the top as their older stuff, but some decent traditional WASP-ed metal… catchy chorus and song and stuff.

Deafheaven
“Brought To The Water” (single)
Epitaph
I guess I missed the boat on their first album, as it made a bunch of folks’ best of the year.  This single is some decent black metal with some melodic, more accessible doomy jam type stuff.

Blood Divisions
Blood Divisions
Metal Blade Records
Kind of a traditional metal feel with Jericho’s vocals, but also doomy proggy metal thing too… This is a supergroup thing going on here… “BLOOD DIVISIONS features a “who’s who” of metal musicians, including Chris Jericho, Dave Austin, Ralph Santola, Terry Butler, Greg Gall, Bill Owen, John Mahoney and Ben Meyer.  This EP is just 2 cover songs with $$ benefitting a charity.

Motorhead
Bad Magic
UDR Music GMBH
Motorhead doesn’t mess around, they (Lemmy) knows what their deal is and they keep on doing it…. and good for them.  We only have 2 songs so far, but they sound like Motorhead and not deviating from their formula… good stuff.

Soilwork
The Ride Majestic
Nuclear Blast USA
Being a Soilwork fanboy I knew I’d like this right off the bat… but really it didn’t grab me right away, while it’s great, it almost is “too much” melody and “too much” heavy going on all at once, but really on a couple listens, this is pretty awesome stuff.  Takes a bit to absorb all the great stuff going on.

Pop Evil
Up
eOne Entertainment
The word “pop” in their band name to me says “pop” metal, or maybe just pop hard rock… so yeah, all catch and commercial-ish.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s not really for our show.

Defeater
Abandoned
Epitaph Records
Hardcore/metalcore… a bit of a raw pissed off thing.  (I just have one song, pretty good though.)

Renaissance Of Fools
Spring
Metalville Records
A sort of prog hard rock type thing… started up from a guy that was in PAin of Salvation… so it’s along those lines… not really getting too heavy, but not being all soft prog rock.  There’s a heavy feeling, but really just a prog hard/rock type thing with a pinch of power metal maybe.

Vinnie Jonez Band
Supernothing
Narcotica
Hard rockin’ stuff… fairly straightforward a little bit of an edge, maybe like a Kings X or something on the hard rock side of things, but probably not really stuff for the Mosh Pit.

Plaguewielder
Chambers Of Death CD
Horror Pain Gore Death
This one is a bit out there… musically, it’s a bit of a doomy melodic post-metal type thing… vocally it’s got scary creepy black metal-ish (raw produced) vocals.  I guess what’s good about it is there aren’t a whole lot of vocals on the album (just skimming through)

FUCK THE FACTS
Desire Will Rot
Noise Salvation
Raw deathy metal but with some thrashy punk type stuff going on too.  Songs are quick and to the point.  Some have a bit of a slower dooomy melodic thing going on as well

Riwen
The Cold
Hardfall
A good metal/hardcore band you know like a Hatebreed… but maybe a bit heavier?  Some cool catchy stuff with a groove too.

Grim Vision
War Agony
Bastardized Recordings
Raw blackened thrashy death/grind stuff.

Simulacrum
Sky Divided
Inverse Records
A power metal thing with a bit of that “epic” feel. There’s a bit of a prog metal thing where they get a bit more heavy.

Embassy Of Silence
Verisimilitude
Inverse
Female fronted hard rock, probably a bit too commercial-ish for us.

Frank Palangi
Break These Chains (Single)
Label: Frank Palangi
Decent hard rock.  Mostly “solid rock” with some good driving riffage and guitar work… but probably something not quite mosh pit material.

Rifftera
Pitch Black
Inverse
Heavy catchy melodic thrashy almost death metal.  I mean with a name like Rifftera, you kind of think a Riffy Pantera… but it’s more of a melodic death thing.  Great stuff.

Creeping
Revenant LP
Iron Bonehead
This is some pretty decent classic black metal.  The growly vox, cold guitars some melodic stuff, mostly evil sounding, etc.  Good stuff.

THEOLOGIAN
A Means By Which To Break The Surface Of The Real
Nothing Under The Sun
Not sure what to say about this… noisy doomy post experimental post doom post-something.  No thanks.

Thera Roya
Unraveling
Label: Self-Released
Doomy stoner metal… just 3 long tracks and a lot of sludge too.

SPEEDWHORE
THE FUTURE IS NOW
WITCHES BREW
Fast intense black metal.  SOme raw production, but the music has a little bit of a thrashy element to it too.

Designs Of Chaos
The Darkest Storm
Self Released
Thrashy groove death metal type stuff.

My Silent Wake
Damnatio Memoriae
House of Ashes
I guess this would qualify as melodic death metal… lots of melodic metal stuff, but extreme vocals and some heavier deathy stuff too… and of course, yeah, that thrashy stuff too.

Nihilosaur
Icebreaker Hope
Self-Released
Some electronic stuff in the interludes throws me off a bit, but the “real” tracks are melodic hardcore-ey death stuff.

So Hideous
Yesteryear (Single)
Prosthetic Records
Post melodic metal.