Initial Impressions: Overkill: The Years of Decay

Recently I found this CD hiding in the used section of the local Hastings and snatched it up. Being a big Overkill fan, any deal on their music is a good one. This was their 1989 release, which came right before Horrorscope, an album that I would classify as my favorite one by the band. So, I figured I knew what I was getting into. I was actually very surprised by this album.

Typically with Overkill albums, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. You are going to get songs that are going to kick your ass. They are going to be fast and energetic and aggressive as all hell with a punk attitude and killer riffs. However, on this album we hear some departures from the typical Overkill sound. Obviously the elements that have made Overkill Overkill are still present and in great numbers, but this was a more experimental release by the band.

Let's start with the epic length songs. Overkill until this point played mostly fast and shorter songs. But this album features the ten minute "Playing with Spiders/Skullcrusher" and two additional eight minute tracks. This makes this a longer than usual Overkill album at nearly an hour long.

The first half of the album thunders along in typical Overkill style, but the second half features a lot more melodic moments. The title track is a surprisingly good ballad track. Many thrash bands were attempting these in the late 1980's and Overkill succeeded in putting together a decent one. "Who Tends the Fire?" features a number of impressive tempo changes.

In the late 1980's many thrash metal bands were trying a number of things to stay relevant. They were experimenting with progressive song structures, softening their sound, and trying to be more diverse. Overkill attempted all of these things on this release and largely succeeded. This is a tremendous album by the band and one of their highlights.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I am Irish, along with quite a bit of other stuff, so I thought I would take the opportunity today to play some Irish metal bands. Here is what is in store:

CRUACHAN: FOLK-LORE
Cruachan is a folk metal band with a heavy emphasis on the folk elements. They use a variety of traditional instruments such as tin whistles, banjos, pipes, and a violin. The result is an album that sounds a lot like a traditional Celtic folk album. The metal elements are impressive when they are there, but they are not present as often. The vocals are handled by a female lead and a male backing vocalist. The male does some rougher yells along with clean vocals while the female simply sings cleanly.

GAMA BOMB: TALES FROM THE GRAVE IN SPACE
Gama Bomb is a part of the retro thrash metal wave. They happen to be from Ireland, but do not play anything that sounds uniquely Irish. They are more from the Anthrax/Overkill East Coast style of thrash metal. It's fast and it's a lot of fun. Gama Bomb deliver a lot of humor in their lyrics, as can probably be deduced from the album's title. They are one of the better bands in the retro thrash scene.

MOURNING BELOVETH: A DISEASE FOR THE AGES
Death/doom metal merchants Mourning Beloveth certainly know how to put together a morose and depressing album. Holy shit is this thing oppressive. It's five tracks and damn near an hour's worth of music. The music crawls at an exhaustingly slow pace. Gama Bomb above is a lot of fun, it's pretty clear that Mourning Beloveth are on the complete opposite end of that spectrum.

PRIMORDIAL: TO THE NAMELESS DEAD
I will also be listening to A Journey's End, but discussing the above-listed album more because it is absolutely amazing. It's one of my favorite albums from 2007. Primordial plays folk metal mixed with some black metal elements. The band actually started out as a black metal band but slowly diminished much of those elements in favor of a melodic and hauntingly powerful overall sound. The lyrical themes mostly involve historical topics, making this a truly Irish metal album.

WAYLANDER: HONOUR AMONGST CHAOS
Finally, we have Waylander, another Celtic/folk metal band, but unlike Cruachan, Waylander has much more metal influences and in fact, Waylander is far closer to a black metal band than any of the above bands. Waylander's album is one of the bright spots in folk metal. Yes, there are lots of folk instruments and melodies, but this is also very clearly a metal album.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Several other bands have played Irish-sounding metal but are not actually from Ireland. They deserve a mention.

ELUVEITIE

SKYCLAD

THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG

Iced Earth Brings in New Singer

Link.

A few weeks ago, Matt Barlow announced he was leaving Iced Earth. The band hired Stu Block of Into Eternity to replace him. I have mixed feelings about this. I love Block's vocals with Into Eternity. He, like Scar Symmetry's former vocalist, is able to switch between a variety of vocal styles with ease, but I am not sure how this will help with Iced Earth, who has always used cleaner vocal styles. Also, Iced Earth's last album was kind of disappointing, resembling much more of a hard rock album than a metal album.

I guess time will tell.

Compilations: Metal Maniacs February 2009

VELVET CACOON: "P.S. NAUTICAL"
This is extremely raw black metal that sounds like it was recorded in someone's bedroom. There is apparently a market for this. I kind of draw the line at Xasthur and I Shalt Become, but there are plenty out there eating this stuff up.

WINO: "RELEASE ME"
The Editor's pick this month is from the venerable stoner doom pioneer. For some reason, I have not looked into Wino's music with any of his bands. Perhaps lack of opportunity, I don't really know. What I have heard from Wino I have enjoyed, including this song. Perhaps it's just a matter of time before I check his work out further.

HELLRAZOR: "THE PAWN"
This is kind of a more melodic Testament-style thrash metal band. Not too bad, but not overly impressive either.

BILE MOVEMENT: "SPREADING HERPES"
That's just great. The song is also absolutely terrible. Just some irritating clanging and yelling. I don't even know how to describe it musically because there just is no substance to the music.

HARLEQUIN'S VOICE: "THE CUSP OF REBIRTH PT. II"
Screamo/metalcore. I did not expect to hear this on a Metal Maniacs compilation. Blech.

LACRIMAE: "COURSE TO ARSONING"
I am pretty sure "arson" is not a verb. I am a criminal defense attorney and I have had a client charged with arson and the County Attorney did not in his complaint allege that the defendant arsoned. Musically, it's black/death metal with a sinister sound. Not too bad actually. But then it throws in some electronics and that's just fucking weird. Also, if you're going to have a song on a compilation, edit the two-plus minutes of ambience and feedback at the end so the fucking song will actually end.

EXECRATION: "SUBMISSION TO FALSITIES"
Pretty decent brutal death. Nothing groundbreaking, but entertaining nonetheless. I like it.

SYMPATHY: "ENSLAVED BY DEPRAVITY"
Oddly, it's death metal. Kind of a bad name for a death metal band, but it's well-crafted. Production is not great and the guitars are kind of buried, but it sounds okay nonetheless.

SICARUS: "BREAKING FREE"
Ugh. More metalcore with awful vocals. Definitely more on the core side.

TRASHER: "REANIMATION PROCLAMATION"
Really amateurish thrash/hardcore. The thing sounds like something a garage band would put out. Not too impressive.

Ugh. That was mostly completely awful. I suppose highlights were Wino, Sympathy, and Execration.

Initial Impressions: Lamb of God: "Hit the Wall" Flexi-Disc from Decibel

Huh. I could not have described Lamb of God's present career any better than they did with that song title. Unless maybe it was "Treading Water" or "Splat". Lamb of God has been stuck in neutral for several years now. Once a promising groove metal band with the occasional thrash and metalcore influence, the band really has not done anything truly worthwhile since their move to big-time record label Epic for their 2006 release. Obviously the hyphenated words "sell-out" have been bandied about for awhile and probably with good reason.

"Hit the Wall" actually appeared on the Iron Man 2 soundtrack, apparently. I was under the impression that only AC/DC was on that soundtrack, which was enough reason to cause me to steer clear of it. Lamb of God is not much of a step in the right direction.

Enough of my bitching though, how is this thing? Well, it's pretty typical. That is to say, Pantera and Machine Head worshipping groove metal. Lamb of God have always tried to do some interesting things with their riffs, and the opening melody is somewhat entertaining, but it just devolves from there.

Randy Blythe is trying to alter his voice to try to sound like a badass, but he ends up affecting a vocal tone that sounds like the microphone is stuck in his mouth and he is trying to call for help.

So, yeah. More of the same from Lamb of God. Perhaps "Retired" should be the name of the next one.

Initial Impressions: Crowbar: Sever the Wicked Hand

The fact that this is the first 2011 album I bought tells you a few things. First, I have not been ordering much music online due to my ongoing efforts at starting my own firm, and second, Hastings has been really horrendously bad at getting new metal in lately. So with that out of the way, this is the first 2011 album I have bought. I did review those albums for Metal on Metal Records but that does not really count.

Now, on to the actual review.

Crowbar is of course a legendary band from the swamps of Louisiana. This is their first album since 2005 and features most of the things you would expect from a Crowbar release. Crowbar is the baby of Kirk Windstein, who uses the band as a vehicle for expressing his own personal struggles and hardships, in particular with this album, his ongoing attempt at sobriety.

Windstein's sludgy, doom-laden riffs are of course the main highlight in any Crowbar album. His Sabbathian riffs are extremely distorted and down-tuned and they twist and writhe along with the pounding rhythms. The rest of the instrumentation is impressive as well, but let's be honest here, this is Windstein's show at this point. The other musicians are just along for the ride.

The lyrical theme of the album is, as I mentioned, Windstein becoming sober. Even the cover art and title of the album allude to it. Windstein has a gift for writing heart-wrenching and somber songs and he takes full advantage of it with the tracks "Liquid Sky and Cold Black Earth" and "Let Me Mourn".

This is a powerfully emotional album. It's often slow, but oppressively heavy. Windstein has done a lot of work with other bands, such as Down and Kingdom of Sorrow, but he always saves some of his best work for Crowbar. This is an early frontrunner for Album of the Year.

Nebraska Metal Pt. 5: Deadechoes: Case File I: The Dead Will Walk

I am always on the lookout for metal bands from my home state of Nebraska. I first heard about Deadechoes some time last year when they were a part of some Next Big Metal Band contest through various independent record stores and handpicked by Brian Slagel of Metal Blade.

Deadechoes definitely has a more modern approach to metal, blending influences from thrash metal, death metal, groove metal, and some nu-metal as well. That is probably more a function of where they developed as Nebraska is hopelessly several years behind the times and is one of the few places where nu-metal bands are still very popular. Nevertheless, the band does combine their influences reasonably well and the music is still quite interesting. The better tracks are the more clearly metal ones, while tracks like the very Mudvayne-esque "Everything" tend to bring things down a bit.

The vocals are delivered in a harsh yell with some clean vocals thrown in for good measure. The earlier Mudvayne reference is probably the best comparison vocally, along with Slipknot's Corey Taylor. The riffs are typically reminiscent of groove metal era Machine Head and Pantera. There are some industrial elements and electronics thrown in occasionally and the bass is a driving force in the riffs.

This particular album from Deadechoes is a bit heavy on the nu-metal side, with some definite metal riffs present, but also quite a bit of the dreaded 1990's genre present. I would still argue it is clearly a metal album, but it is pretty close. The band did focus more on the metal riffs on their next album though.

It is not a bad album, but it all depends on your view of nu-metal influences in metal bands.

Year in Metal: 2002

BEHEMOTH: ZOS KIA CULTUS (HERE AND BEYOND)
The sixth album from the Polish metal band represented a bit more of a departure in musical style from their previous albums. At this point, the band existed far more on the death metal side of the fence with some black metal influences. Behemoth has always had a very dark sound and this album took that to even more of an extreme. Of course, the twisted Morbid Angel-style riffs, the deep vocals of Nergal, and the mystical and occult lyrics are all present. This is one of my favorite albums by Behemoth.

IMMORTAL: SONS OF NORTHERN DARKNESS
Norwegian black metal goofballs Immortal released their seventh album, and at the time, their final album in 2002. The band would reunite years later, but at this time, this was to be it. This album was a bit more of a streamlined blackened thrash metal album and was a little on the slower side than their previous hyperfast material. Nevertheless it is one of the catchiest releases in Immortal's impressive discography.

LACUNA COIL: COMALIES
I have a bit of a soft spot for this release from Lacuna Coil. The music is fairly standard gothic metal/rock, but it is Cristina Scabbia's voice that makes this one worthwhile. Her sensual crooning is definitely the highlight of this album. This is much more of a romantic metal album than aggressive or angry. This album garnered the band quite a bit of attention and they were often compared to Evanescence, although their music was significantly better.

NIGHTWISH: CENTURY CHILD
I apologize about having two albums from groups with female lead singers that are more geared towards the mall-goth demographic this year, but this is my favorite album by Nightwish and one which my fiancee really enjoys as well. The symphonic power metal band's fourth album featured the first male vocals of the band's career which were delivered in more of a gruff style and some of the darkest music.

SYMPHONY X: THE ODYSSEY
Progressive metal band Symphony X released one hell of an epic album in this, their sixth album. This was the first time I had heard of the band though and was interested in checking them out due to the 24 minute take on the travels of Odysseus after the Trojan War. I have always been interested in Greek mythology and The Odyssey is one of my favorites. Musically, this album reminds me a lot of Kansas's progressive rock albums, with more of a metal bent.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: IN FLAMES: REROUTE TO REMAIN; KATAKLYSM: SHADOWS AND DUST; OPETH: DELIVERANCE; SHADOWS FALL: THE ART OF BALANCE.

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 2002: DevilDriver, Eluveitie.

Random Thoughts: Promo Discs

When I was unpacking some things recently, I came across a couple of promo discs from Century Media. One was for Dimmu Borgir's In Sorte Diaboli, and features two of the tracks from the album. But, the songs fade out at the end instead of being complete songs. The other is two tracks each from Exodus's The Atrocity Exhibition-Exhibit A and Soilwork's Sworn to the Great Divide. I don't recall listening to this much at all.

I was wondering, what is the point of these? I have never seen promos in stores. Maybe I am not going to the right stores I suppose. I have occasionally gotten one attached to some other CD, but that's pretty rare. I have only really gotten them when I placed an order with a label. Even then, typically I will get a compilation, not a promo with two tracks on it. I just don't really understand the point of making a CD with two songs on it as a promo and then not having a way to get it out to people. Maybe that's just me.

Flashback Video: Exodus: "The Toxic Waltz"

Story Behind the Song: Cathedral: "Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)"

One of my favorite songs from the pioneering British death/doom metal band Cathedral is "Hopkins (Witchfinder General)". The song starts off with the very distinctive great horror actor Vincent Price introducing himself:

"My name is Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder."

So, I assumed that it was just based on an older British horror movie, which is of course where the samples came from as well as clips in the music video.


I was unaware that Matthew Hopkins was a real person and held the self-made office of Witchfinder General around the mid 1600's in England. He was active from 1645 to 1647 and during that time, he and his associates were responsible for more hangings than anyone else in the previous 100 years.

Hopkins used a variety of methods to elicit confessions, even though torture was unlawful at the time. He would also cut the arm of an accused witch with a dull knife, and if they bled, they were considered to be a witch. He also used the swimming test to see if the accused would float or sink. It was a swimming test in name only though as the accused would be tied to a chair and thrown in the water. If they floated, the water had rejected them and they were a witch.

Hopkins wrote a book about his time as a witch hunter called The Discovery of Witches, which was published in 1647. Some of his methods were used in the Salem Witch Trials in the United States.

Initial Impressions: Voivod: Dimension Hatross

We have reached the final post for Voivod week. Today, I will be covering the band's fourth album, which was the predecessor to the groundbreaking Nothingface, perhaps the band's most famous album.

The first thing to notice is that vocalist Snake has dramatically altered his vocal style. Gone for the most part are the harsh and aggressive sneering vocals he exhibited on the previous albums. In their place are vocals that can best be described as sounding like a Britpop singer from the mid 90's.

Musically, Voivod continued their progression to the next logical step. This time, they had more of a sound foundation and understanding of how best to accomplish their unique riffs and song structures. Voivod also made a conscious attempt to avoid recycling ideas on this album, which was fairly common on their previous three.

This is a truly unique and mind-bending piece of work from these guys. It is also a harbinger of things to come as Voivod would continue to expand on the ideas present in this album on their next one.

R.I.P. Mike Starr

Link.

Taking a break from Voivod week to express my condolences to the family and friends of original Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr who was found dead yesterday. Starr appeared on all AiC albums through 1993, including the groundbreaking Facelift and Dirt albums. Rest in peace.

Initial Impressions: Voivod: Killing Technology

The title cut from this album is actually the first Voivod song I ever heard. I think. It's kind of hard to pin these things down sometimes. But it was a track on one of my favorite compilations I own, the Skullcrushers compilation which can be found here. I recall enjoying it quite a bit but I did not really pursue the band much, other than getting their then-new album Negatron. This is probably most likely due to the difficulty of finding Voivod albums in mid 1990's Nebraska.

This is the first of Voivod's albums to have more of a progressive tendency. The raw punk feel and aggressive nature is still present, and it is clear that this is still a very thrashy Voivod, but the song structures are much more complicated, the riffing style more diverse, and the vocals slightly less angry. The lyrics are also more geared towards science-fiction storytelling.

The atmosphere is very impressive. One gets the feel of an industrial juggernaut in outer space. Difficult to describe without sounding completely crazy.

This is undoubtedly one of my favorite albums from the band. It combines their aggressive thrash side with their later spacey prog side. It also has some of their best songs on it. An amazing album.

Initial Impressions: Voivod: Rrroooaaarrr

It's Day 2 of Voivod week and today I will be looking at the band's sophomore album, the strangely titled Rrroooaaarrr. This is the band's last album before going in a more progressive direction and it mostly builds on the ideas from their debut album with a bit more of a straightforward thrash metal sound.

The music on this release is very fast and aggressive. The riffs are powerful and the vocals are in-your-face with a sneering punk inflection. This is particularly evident in second track "Fuck Off and Die". The bass is a very strong element of Voivod's sound on this release, being a major driving force in the riffs.

The thing that is most impressive about this album is that the production quality makes it sound as if the band is live in your living room while listening to it. Voivod has a raw energy that is infectious and comes through loud and clear while playing this album.

This still does not hold a candle to Voivod's progressive era, but it's still pretty damn good. Yes, they still have a little bit of a punk-band-doing-metal sound, but it's a catchy and damn fun album.

Initial Impressions: Voivod: War and Pain

It's Voivod week here at the Metallattorney Law Office. I recently picked up four Voivod albums and plan to take an initial look at each one this week.

To begin with, I have the debut album from the Canadian sci-fi prog-thrashers. At this point, the band was quite a ways away from finding the sound that rocketed their popularity. No, at this point, Voivod was still very rough around the edges and raw. They sounded more like a punk band experimenting with some thrash metal elements than the spacey thrash metal band they would later become.

That is certainly not to say that this is a bad release. In fact, it's quite the opposite. This is an intriguing look at what the band once sounded like. The rawness of their sound is endearing actually. There are enough thrash and heavy metal influences present to keep the metalheads interested while also appealing to punk fans. One must remember that thrash started with groups like Metallica and Overkill combining metal with punk. This is just a further example of that.

This is actually an amazing debut album. Voivod's sound is a cross between the early albums of Slayer and Venom, mixed with Motorhead for good measure. The sci-fi leanings are present in the atmosphere and lyrical content, but it would be a while before they would be major factors in the band's sound. To really understand Voivod, you have to hear their evolution. There is no better start than their debut.

Flashback Video: Slayer: "Serenity in Murder"

This is the first Slayer video I remember seeing.

Cover Songs: The 80's

I am a child of the 1980's. It's true. Growing up, MTV was enormously popular and everyone wore really stupid fashions. I remember the music very well. It was all terrible. No, that's not true. It always intrigues me when a band decides against all reasonable judgment to cover a song from the 1980's. Let's look at a few such tracks.

DELIGHT-"CARELESS WHISPER" (GEORGE MICHAEL)


TWILIGHT GUARDIANS-"LA ISLA BONITA" (MADONNA)


TEN MASKED MEN-"BEAT IT" (MICHAEL JACKSON)


GRAVEWORM-"IT'S A SIN" (PET SHOP BOYS)


TO/DIE/FOR-"(I JUST) DIED IN YOUR ARMS" (CUTTING CREW)


BLUDGEOND-"MAD WORLD" (GARY JULES)


IN FLAMES-"LAND OF CONFUSION" (GENESIS)


ATROCITY-"HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN" (EURYTHMICS)


STEEL PROPHET-"(DON'T YOU) FORGET ABOUT ME" (SIMPLE MINDS)


SENTENCED-"WHITE WEDDING" (BILLY IDOL)


VISION DIVINE-"TAKE ON ME" (A-HA)


WARMEN-"SEPARATE WAYS" (JOURNEY)

Compilations: Metal Maniacs January 2009

This one was pretty heavy on lesser-known bands. There were really only three bands I was familiar with before hearing this compilation.

BLACK TEMPLE: "PARTY MATERIAL"
This one took me by surprise. I was not expecting this kind of gothic metal. The vocals remind me of Rammstein's singer. They are a little bit laughable. This is not a bad song, but I have outgrown this type of music. When I was in my late teens I probably would have liked it better.

SATYRICON: "BLACK CROW ON A TOMBSTONE"
Satyricon has become more of a black 'n roll band at this point. That is not to say that this is bad at all, but it has lost that epic and majestic feel that helped them stand out from the other Norwegian black metal bands of the early 1990's. I do own this album, so I do still enjoy them. They just are not the same.

GRAVE DIGGER: "BALLAD OF A HANGMAN"
German trad/power metal band Grave Digger has been around for a LONG time. This is off of their 13th album. This is not European "flower" metal, it is real power metal and I enjoyed this song so much that I bought this album.

AGONY WITHIN: "OBLITERATING MEMORIES"
This is kind of a death metal/hardcore hybrid. The vocals remind me a bit of Gwar. They are pretty bad. The music is pretty simple, relying on ever-repeating crunching riffs before the final melodic ending. There are a lot of ideas here but none get really fleshed out. I think I would pass.

TORRID FLESH: "ASYLUM OF THE DAMNED"
As you might guess from the band's name, this is death metal, plain and simple. The vocals are delivered in a deep roar, similar to Cannibal Corpse's vocalists. Upon checking this band out on Metal Archives, the vocalist here is a woman. That is a shock.

FIFTYWATTHEAD: "WHITEOUT"
This is sludge/stoner doom that sounds a lot like early Mastodon with a little bit of Acid Bath thrown in for good measure. I am pretty impressed with this one. It is a good song with some pretty decent riffing and great vocals. I may have to look further into this band.

SUCCESS WILL WRITE APOCALYPSE ACROSS THE SKY: "10,000 SERMONS. ONE SOLUTION"
I have no idea what this band's name is supposed to mean. Despite the name, this is more of a death/grind band instead of some terrible haircut deathcore group. I am not sure I really care for it at all though.

BLACK REIGN: "VIKING"
Fairly standard thrash metal reminiscent of Sacred Reich, which has never really been a favorite of mine. I love thrash metal, but this really does not do a whole lot for me. It just is not anything that has not been done a thousand times before. Not bad, just not at all original.

K626: "DAMNATION"
Starting off with a sample from some Jim Carrey movie and then immediately jumping into some competent death metal, this is actually not too bad. Again, fairly unoriginal, but well-played and some decent elements.

AGONY ECLIPSED: "THE RAZOR EDGED WINGS OF AN ANGEL"
Fairly standard melodeath-influenced metalcore. The breakdown goes on and on and on and on and..... The song does get better as it goes along though and at the end it was not too bad. The guitar solo was pretty good.

I, YOUR LIEGE: "THE PHILOSOPHER'S LEGACY"
This is technical deathcore with some elements similar to Necrophagist and others more similar to Despised Icon and the like. It can be a little difficult to listen to at times, and ultimately, I do not think I would like it too much.

MOURNBLADE: "MACHINES OF WAR"
Decent thrash/hardcore. I can not find any information about this group anywhere. It is fairly simple music, but brutally effective.

KILLER OF THE RISE: "WAFFLE"
This is more deathcore. It is not too bad of a song, but it drags a little bit at times. I kind of lost interest.

MASTER: "SLAVES TO SOCIETY"
Finishing the compilation off is the legendary Master, one of the first death metal bands. This song is typical of their style, groove-laden death metal. A great song from a truly great band.

That's it for that. The highlights from the unknown bands were Torrid Flesh and Fiftywatthead.

Year in Metal: 2001

One of these days, I will get this series caught up.

AMORPHIS: AM UNIVERSUM
Amorphis continued to change their sound on this release, abandoning almost all of their prior death metal influences for a much more progressive and even psychedelic sound. Nevertheless, this remains a terrific album from the band. I actually prefer their more progressive metal sound to their death metal roots, but I may be in the minority there. The additions of the saxophone to several parts, especially the baritone sax in the last track, is my favorite part of this release. I used to play the sax in high school.

FINNTROLL: JAKTENS TID
This was the first folk metal album I ever heard, and I got it in a grab bag from Century Media. As it is, I cannot think of a better introduction into the world of folk metal. There is certainly more than enough influences from death and black metal here as well as the folk melodies. It does not stray too far into folk territory, clearly resting on the metal side of the fence. It is also catchy and memorable. A great introduction to this scene.

MOONSPELL: DARKNESS AND HOPE
Moonspell is another band whose sound is constantly evolving. On this release, the band has adopted more of a dark, gothic metal sound. This was the first album by the Portuguese band I had heard and it got me very interested in checking out further releases. This is a slower, somber, and darkly beautiful release. Vocalist Fernando Ribeiro's deep, soothing baritone is the highlight of the album. Moonspell even does a decent job at covering Ozzy's "Mr. Crowley" on this.

OPETH: BLACKWATER PARK
Often considered Opeth's masterpiece, this one is not my favorite but it is definitely up there. The band's fifth album features one of their most complete and well-formed combinations of their progressive rock side and their death metal side. This is definitely the album to point to as the best summation of the band's sound. It is a great album, full of excellent instrumental passages and of course Mikael Akerfeldt's terrific voice. It's not my favorite Opeth album, but it is amazing all the same.

SONATA ARCTICA: SILENCE
I have a bit of a soft spot for romantic, powerful European power metal and Sonata Arctica can definitely deliver on that. When they are not playing ballads on this release, their music is extremely fast and infectious. But the ballads also shine brightly on this album. "Tallulah" in particular is a very emotional song. This is a long album, but it never feels long. It is instead, an impressive take on European power metal and one of the best albums in the scene in my opinion.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: ARCH ENEMY: WAGES OF SIN, ICED EARTH: HORROR SHOW, MEGADETH: THE WORLD NEEDS A HERO, SLAYER: GOD HATES US ALL.

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 2001: The Black Dahlia Murder, Dragonlord.