Older stuff:
Blinded Colony - Divine (Digipak)
I found this for only 5 Euro at my local cd-shop. Yeah!
I love this album and think it's WAAAYYY better than the new Blinded Colony album from this year.
dONT - Massacre For Love
Bought this as part of a special offer sale of the Forever It Shall Be album and it's good & really funny. It always reminds me of a mixture of good old
Schweisser & some -core sound. It even has german lyrics from time to time... (or at least they sound german ^^)
New stuff:
Forever It Shall Be - Reluming The Embers
Very good & straightforward german metalcore but it doesn't sound similar to other famous german metalcore acts like Heaven Shall Burn or Caliban (which sound different, but FISB isn't following either way).
If you like your metalcore plain & straight to your face, check these guys out!
Forever In Terror - Restless in the Tides
Actually a bit similar to Forever It Shall Be, but in my opinion with a little bit more swedish influence. Also a very solid album and worth spending the money for.
DevilDriver - The Last Kind Words
It sounds like Devildriver, it sounds very good (and better than most releases by other bands) but it's still lacking a bit of raw power & hit factor in comparison to The Fury Of Our Maker's Hand, but it contains more groove parts. It's a bit like with the new Hatesphere album compared to the one before.
Almost everyone who liked / loved The Fury Of Our Makers Hand will also like this album, but i'm not sure if the album's good enough to fall in love with it.
Maybe some live action on tour or more listenings will change this for me...
Becoming the Archetype - The Physics Of Fire
Hehe, it's Becoming The Archetype so if you don't want to hear lyrics about god & believing: DON'T buy this album.
If you can ignore (or you don't care) about lyrics at all or christian lyrics don't matter for you: BUY this album, if you're into (progressive) death metal (core).
Progressive & Core are in brackets because there are passages which could be named progressive or core, but they get dominated by the (modern) death metal factor in my opinion.
And, ere i forget it, this is a very entertaining album, musically, and as a non-native speaker i don't understand a lot of the lyrics if i resign looking into the booklet. ^^
3 Inches of Blood - Fire Up The Blades
Only the two singers remain the same in comparison to the unbelievably fantastic last album, and you can hear the changes on the guitars as much as you can hear the more "mature" approach on making an album.
It's lacking those over-the-top high speed melody craziness passages from the last album, but the songs are better structured & elaborated and they still have a higher energy level than 99% of all other bands.
I already love this album but without crazy masterpieces like Deadly Sinners or Destroy The Orcs this album will probably never reach the Advance & Vanquish status in my personal all-time favourite list.
If you're into metal at all, there's no way around this album!
(ok, the crazy singing is a reason, but one's got to love it! :) )
Winner of the month:
Darkest Hour - Deliver Us
1. It gets better with every spin.
2. It's another step in a logical development in the band's sound, if you take a look at the last two albums before.
3. It contains some hits which keep on playing in your head even after the first listen (Demon(s) & Fire In The Skies f.e.)
4. The design of booklet, print on the cd etc. seems much more thought-through than on any of the other albums mentioned this month (though i really like f.e. the cover artwork of 3 Inches Of Blood).
5. It's great & i love it!
Today i've bought the first 3 releases for next months "Recent Purchases" issue, and it will get interesting...
:) (3 of the most anticipated releases even not to be released until the 24th of August (Neaera, As I Lay Dying & the allmighty Slough Feg!).
Have a nice week, take care and listen to the music you like (and i hope you like good music...)!