Babymetal
Metal Resistance
RAL
Such a tough band to judge here, musically it’s heavy, brutal-ish, catchy… like heavy slipknot meets dragonforce, but then 3 japanese girls singing on top makes you smile and kinda laugh, but then you don’t really find yourself turning it off.  It’s weird…but cool.

All Hail The Yeti
Screams From A Black Wilderness
MinusHEAD
A bit hardcore, metalcore, sludge and screamy stuff along with melodic almost nu-metal… while still staying all heavy and nearly broootal. Catchy stuff, the clean vox aren’t whiney, just good clean vox mixed in with the growly stuff.

Ihsahn
Arktis
Candlelight
Proggy black metal.  Ihsahn is back and keeping it real… black metal influences, prog metal stuff, epic stuff, it’s all good.

TREAT
Ghost of Graceland – RADIO SINGLE
Frontiers Music s.r.l.
Swedish metal band.  Just a standard hard rock/metal thing.  Clean vox

Metal Church
XI
Rat Pak
Whoa… great technical thrashy/traditional metal.  These guys were always under-rated and this one just has heavy headbanging classics… and with Mike Rowe back in the fold, even better!

RavenEye
Breaking Out
Kobalt
Just a big hard rockin’ sound.  Good classic rock type stuff… not really all that metal.

The Bones
Dirty Pretty Things
Independent
A melodic hard rock, maybe with a little bit of a southern rock thing too.  Can’t say this is metal… just some groovin’ rock n roll.

Trigger The Rising
Trigger The Rising
Eye Of The Enemy Records
Melodic hard rock/”solid rock” type stuff and kind of a pop-metal feel.

Grand Magus
Sward Songs
Nuclear Blast USA
Kind of an epic viking stoner metal.  Catchy with a little bit of a folk metal feel, but no flutes or accordions or anything.

Discharge
End Of Days
Nuclear Blast USA
A bit punky/hardcore.  Not familiar with their history, but they’ve been around a long time.  This has a good punky/hardcore/thrashy sound going on.

Various Artists
Metal Massacre 14
Metal Blade Records
Kind of tough to review a compilation… but just going overall?  Lots of great stuff on here. A good variety of sub-genres represented, just like Metal Blade’s roster!  Most of the bands/tracks on here are a bit thrashy, and they seem like original submitted recordings, like they aren’t all recorded/mastered in one spot, they vary to nice and crisp to a bit more raw. Overall, good compilation!

Desaster
The Oath of an Iron Ritual
Metal Blade Records
This band has been around for a long time, they get a distinction of being probably the most “black metal” band on Metal Blade’s roster.  Kind of an old school thrash/black metal thing.  Brutal, heavy, evil, dark and melodic and cathcy too.  cool stuff!

VOLKER
“s/t”
MVD
Kind of a modern metal thing meets some doomy post-metal.  A bit doomy/goth/femetal and black metal all at the same time.

Mad Hatter’s Den
Excelsior
Inverse
Melodic/symphonic hard rock. A bit prog hard rock, a bit keyboard/epic heavy.  Good catchy stuff too.

Sarvas
The Throne
Inverse Records
3 Track EP, some doomy doom metal… down tempo, decent production, growly vox.

SHE HUNTS KOALAS
Terra Dementia
Argonauta Records
Depressing doom metal, kind of out there and down tempo and depressing.  Some doom gets a little bit going… this doesn’t.

EYES FRONT NORTH
From Shape to Name
Argonauta Records
Melodic post metal/doom.  Again, dark, depressing, down tempo “shoegaze”  cuz I’m so depressed, i’m just gazing at my shoes.

Palace of Worms
The Ladder
Broken Limbs
Doomy in parts, some melodic blackened doom in parts too.  Overall, depressing doom, but it does get going into some melodic black metal in the heavier parts.

GERYON
The Wound And The Bow
Profound Lore
Experimental death metal. A bit doomy, a bit post metal and for the most part seemingly disjointed.   I had to check that I didn’t have two things playing at the same time… makes it hard to listen to.

WODE
S/T
Broken Limbs
Heavy modern brutal black metal.  Headbanging, pissed off, even melodic in the longer tracks. A bit of the old school black metal, but decent production and stuff.

Zakk Wylde
Book Of Shadows II
eOne Music
8 April 2016

Unnatural
The Path To Ruin
Horror Pain Gore Death
Classic death metal.  A bit down tempo, but decent cookie monster vox and catchy groove.

Artist: Throw the Fight
Title: Transmissions
Bullet Tooth
Modern metal-core type stuff.  Happy vox, melodic stuff.  After listening to 10 doom and black metal albums, this actually sounds good… but really it’s a bit of that warped tour type metal.

Ill Omen (Australia) / Slaughtbbath
Pestilential Hierophanies – split 7″ EP
Iron Bonehead
Ill Omen is creepy doomy black metal.  Slaughtbbath is more of a classib black metal with a little bit of doom too.

Band: Darkyra
Album: Fool
Self Released
Female fronted prog metal… kind of an epic symphonic thing, but pretty basic and not big and over the top.  Pretty much just some normal, good prog metal with clean female vox.

Sindrome
Resurrection – The Complete Collection
Century Media
Good brutal thrash metal with a bit of a deathy edge.  This is reissue of their demos from the late 80’s/early 90’s.  Sounds great though!

Band: Styxian Industries
Album: Zero.Void.Nullified {Of Apathy And Armageddon}
Label: Satanath records
Sort of an industrial meets black/death metal.

Band: Malamorte
Album: Devilish Illusions
Label: Satanath records
Classic black metal with that catchy melodic stuff.  A little doomy in parts, but some cool bit of a groove too.

Band: Fimbulvinter
Album: Ancient Spell’s Inscribed Cuts
Label: Symbol Of Domination
Russian thrashy black metal.  Pretty good stuff that came out at the end of last year.

Necromantic Worship
The Calling… TAPE
Nuclear War Now! Productions / New Era Productions
So they say it’s released on tape… but I get it digitally… what do they do, master it to a crappy tape using 1960’s tech, then hold a computer mic up to a cassete player speaker to make mp3s?  Sorry, but crappy production ruins just about anything for me.  (BTW, it’s grindy doomy death metal type stuff)

Band: Reabilitator
Album: Global Degeneration [re-release]
Label: Symbol Of Domination
Old school thrash maybe along the lines of a Nuclear Assault type thing.

Band: Old Pagan
Album: Ogdrun Jarhar
Label: Symbol Of Domination
Good old classic black metal.

Idolatry
Visions From The Throne Of Eyes
Label: Humanity’s Plague Productions
Another decent old school black metal release… a bit raw, but still decent.

Band: Auðn
Album: Auðn
Label: Symbol Of Domination
Atmospheric and melodic black metal.

Band: Morth
Album: Towards The Endless Path
Label: Symbol Of Domination
Epic Atmospheric Black Metal, long songs, a bit doomy too.

ZEIT
Gram
Label:  Self-Released
Doomy classic black metal with a little bit of a groove and some sludge.

Band: Black Whispers
Album: Shades Of Bleakness
Label: Symbol Of Domination
“Atmospheric Depressive Black Metal” is the description and yeah, sure I’ll go with that.  meh.