Compilations: Metal Maniacs November 2008

God, I've slowed down on posting here lately. Well, let's get another compilation thingie out of the way quickly. Hopefully it won't be too painful.

GUILLOTINE: "INTENSE OPPRESSION"
Guillotine is a fantastic Swedish thrash metal band. I already own this CD and it fucking slays, so yes, I absolutely recommend this. Go get it.

DRAGONSLAYER: "THE SLAYER"
Someone's looking at a lawsuit. Not really. Apparently this is a NWOBHM band whose album was reissued in 2008. It's pretty decent. I wonder how many of these bands slipped through the cracks. It's like discovering fossils.

SCALERA: "GET OUT ALIVE"
Lots of drums, way too high in the mix. It's hard to hear what else is going on, which is a shame because this sounds like reasonably decent death metal on the opening riff, until the clean singing part. Spoke too soon. That killed it, now it's basically metalcore. Next.

MENDACITY: "AWAY"
More metalcore, and some progressive noodling. Yikes, this is starting to scare me.

KRISIUN: "COMBUSTION INFERNO"
This is the Editor's Pick. This band of three brothers from Brazil picks up where countrymen Sepultura left off. Absolutely fucking brutal, pounding intensity. Great band. I own this album too.

WRETCHED: "ABORNING"
Pretty decent melodeath/thrash. I enjoy this. I had a bad feeling based on the song name, a word I don't understand. But the music is quite good.

THREAT LEVEL: "STAND YOUR GROUND"
Completely unoriginal. It's okay musically, but offers absolutely nothing new.

BOWELS OUT: "A CHAINSAW AUTOPSY"
Ugh. Mental picture is disgusting. Who guessed death metal? Well, duh. It's pretty grimy stuff. I like it pretty well.

MAGNUS: "DREAMS"
I was expecting possibly some sort of doom metal here. Instead we got some metal/hardcore hybrid. Huh, guess you can't judge a band by it's name all the time.

ENTHRALLER: "OF THE SUN"
What a terrible band name. Sounds like a glam rock band trying to come up with something to thrill the ladies and Exciter was taken, albeit by a great band. And then the music is as far removed from glam as possible. It's death/grind. Why the stupid name?

COFFIN BIRTH: "SPIDERS OF INSOMNIA"
Let's play the name game. How about "Grasshoppers of Influenza", "Caterpillars of Irritable Bowel Syndrome", "Ants of Mononucleosis", "Earwigs of Catatonia", "Boll Weevils of Juvenile Diabetes", "Stinkbugs of Dementia", or "Aphids of Stockholm Syndrome"? Musically, it's pretty good though.

APOCALYPTIC VISIONS: "MOVE AND APPEAR"
I really like this band's sound. Lots of technicality and some damn impressive guitar work. This is pretty decent. This band could have a future.

ARABYSS: "ETERNAL SILENCE"
The compilation ends on another strong note. This is symphonic metal tinged with death metal elements and yes, some metalcore, but it works. A great song and a great ending for this thing.