Death of a Dryad – Hameln (2021) – Review

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Sometimes you encounter records that just stop you dead in your tracks. A jumble of sounds that somehow interacts with your blackened metal soul just hit ye. And spooked, you turn around to check who’s knocking. But nobody’s there.

That’s the somewhat haunting atmosphere Death of a Dryad‘s newest record Hameln immediately generates. With the powerful legend of the Pied Piper as your guide, courtesy of Robert Browning.

You know, the infamous tale of this multi-colored dude who marched all of them rats out of town in 1284 and sent them to drown. And when the misers of … [...] Click to raid more!

Exanimis – Marionnettiste (2021) – Review

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Well, I always thought the kings and queens of totally epic Symphonic Death Metal resided in Italy. From the beautiful city of Perugia, Fleshgod Apocalypse reigned supreme in that realm of the baroque world of Borgia-like undertones and crazy cinematic shenanigans. A style so full of garish colors and bizarre soundscapes that it actually should drown in a ton of cheese, yet it never did.

So far, at least.

And indeed, their reign remained pretty much unchecked. Until the RMR deck crew got a visitation from the French band Exanimis with their debut album Marionnettiste, that is. A bunch … [...] Click to raid more!

Red Cain – Kindred: Act II (2020) – Review

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For a while, I was very worried. These bad quality sound tidbits of Red Cain‘s Kindred: Act II that I had the displeasure to find throughout 2020 sounded so Amaranthe, I almost hit a depression worse than Covid. I mean, I love the talented Elize Ryd, but the stuff this particular band struts often sounds like a hangover grown stale.

So, I was ready to sacrifice everything to the mighty Cthulhu1 only to avoid that yet another talented band would start to surf the sickeningly sweet wave of the Pop Metal mainstream. Because – you see – we … [...] Click to raid more!

Need – Norchestrion: a song for the end (2021) – Review

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In 2020 we bemoaned the fact that there weren’t enough prog outfits to come forward. That good players in this embattled genre had become a dying breed with folks like Steven Wilson opting for the pop highway.1

Only to find that Haken made it to the top spot of our annual top 10 contest2. In other words, suddenly we had a choice where there was none at first. And a pretty difficult one at that, with Scardust following more or less directly on their heels.

Now, it looks like the movement continues with the somewhat unexpected arrival … [...] Click to raid more!