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Gotsu Totsu Kotsu
Moryou (魍魎)
2009
Full Length
Bang the Head
Death Metal

Usually bands that give themselves non-conventional labels or genres tend not to be taken seriously by me, with some of the bands guilty of these being those that call themselves "shadow metal" or "pirate metal" (most turned out surprisingly good though). But Gotsu Totsu Kotsu was a different experience for me, being a band that boasts the excellent bassist Haruhisa, who is also a part of Japanese brutal/technical death metal outfit Defiled. Furthermore, his work on In Crisis was simply stellar, and there was simply no…

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Nachtvorst
Silence
2012
Full Length
Code666 Records
Black Metal

After the highly acclaimed 2009 debut Stills, Dutch black metal duo Nachtvorst this year returns with their follow up, Silence, with the aim to instil even more depression and sadness into followers of the band with their broody brand of black metal.

And this happens right from the beginning of the album. Despite the rather chaotic introductory sound sample of The Serpent's Tongue, Nachtvorst mostly goes at an extremely slow pace compared to the usual high pace that most black metal bands tend to play at, and this definitely works…

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Antropofagus
Architecture of Lust
2012
Full Length
Comatose Music
Brutal Death Metal

Since the release of the band's debut full length album in 1999, Italy's Antropofagus has gone rather quiet, and this year sees them breaking the silence with a brand new album in more than 12 years, entitled Architecture of Lust, featuring an almost completely new lineup, other than original guitarist and founder, Meatgrinder.

There are usually two main possibilities when a band comes back from such a long hiatus, with an album that far exceeds expectations or one that usually ends up disappointing older fans of the…

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Ne Obliviscarist
Portal of I
2012
Full Length
Code666 Records
Progressive Metal/Black Metal

Australia's Ne Obliviscaris has managed to cause a storm in the international metal underground, with just a single demo, 2007's The Aurora Veil under their belt. Despite the release being a demo release, the quality of the demo was extremely high, both musically and in terms of production, easily being of a full length quality. Five years (and some visa-related drama) later, the band finally releases their highly anticipated debut full length album, Portal of I, containing updated versions of the three tracks that…

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Hayagriva
Descendant XII
2012
Full Length
Symphonic Black Metal
Khakan Productions

My first encounter with Malaysian extreme metal outfit Hayagriva was their 2011 EP, Emperor Awaits, featuring different mixes of the title track, Emperor Awaits, along with 3 other heavily electronic-influenced tracks. The production quality of the album certainly left me rather impressed, and with the release of Descendant XII, the band promises an expansion of the sound that was presented on Emperor Awaits.

Opening track Descendant XII immediately displays Hayagriva's atmospheric side, with the heavy synths and the spoken samples that greet the listener providing a nice, wide…

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Abusiveness
Trioditis
2010
Full Length
Old Temple
Black Metal

Poland's Abusiveness has had a rather long history, forming all the way back in 1991 despite Trioditis being only their third full length album in their long career. The band's first 2 albums garnered pretty raving reviews despite rather long gaps between them, and so Trioditis left me with a rather high level of expectations as well, with my first exposure to the band being the excellent split release with fellow Poles, Saltus.

From the opening riffs of Odmrocze/Trioditis, one is already reminded of bands like Thunderbolt but it doesn't…

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Wolf Spider
Wilczy pająk
1987/2009 (Reissue)
Full Length
Polmark/Metal Mind Productions (Reissue)
Thrash Metal

While in recent years Poland has been known more as the fertile land of aggressive black/death metal bands such as Infernal War and Behemoth, in the 80s saw the country's fair share of other metal genres as well, such as technical thrash metallers Wolf Spider. The self-titled Wilczy pająk is the band's debut full length album, originally released in 1987, just a short period after high-profile releases in the thrash metal arena such as the Bay Area bands and Teutonic bands.

All in good time…

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Anhedonist
Netherwards
2012
Full Length
Dark Descent Records
Death metal/Doom Metal

After the highly revered demo release in the form of 2010's The Drear, death/doom metal band Anhedonist this year finally returns with their debut full length album, Netherwards. While the album contains just four tracks, the entirety of the album spans 40 minutes, with each track averaging 10 minutes, and this certainly makes for a rather interesting format. One's curiosity is further piqued by the captivating album artwork, the coalescing of numerous bodies into one large haunting yet mystical pattern.

The mysteriousness and insanity of the…

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Septekh
The Seth Avalanche
2012
EP
Abyss Records
Death Metal/Thrash Metal

Death/thrash metal is a genre that has a large spectrum for me, with one end containing the brutal and bestial style originated by pioneers such as Sarcofago, and the other end being the more ballsy, old-school heavy metal style that Japanese bands like Sabbat and Abigail prefer to play in. Fortunately, both styles happen to be stuff that I enjoy from time to time, and Septekh's new EP, The Seth Avalanche certainly captivates, with the running coyote theme that is present on the album artwork.

One…

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TOAD
Rotten Tide
2011
EP
Independent
Black/Sludge Metal

When I first came into contact with TOAD, my instinctive reaction was to scratch my head, wondering what kind of band would ever come up with such a name. It wasn't only until slightly later that I found out that this was simply an abbreviation of Take over and Destroy, and Rotten Tide is this black/sludge metal outfit's debut EP.

Unlike what the album cover depicts (which could easily mislead people into expecting an atmospheric or ambient black metal album), Rotten Tide presents to listener an extremely groovy form of black…