JUSTIN’S METAL REVIEWS W/C
CANDLEMASS / DEATH, MAGIC, DOOM
The return of Candlemass is always
cause for celebration and although I do miss Messiahs
vocal style, there is no denying the quality of material on this album; this is
Swedish Doom Metal at its best.
If you want to check the validity of the above statement
then just play track two “Hammer Of Doom” and you will
see why Candlemass have been around for so long and
why they are successful, even when they lose such a charismatic character as
Messiah, other lesser bands would be and have been knocked back
considerably. This track is no
fluke either one listen to the epic roominess of “The Bleeding Baroness” will
convince you that, only the mighty Black Sabbath in the 70’s could do it
better. If your looking for
something a little more haunting then “Demon Of The Deep” is what you need, with
its simplistic, slower paced start that build into a lumbering giant of a
song.
If you like Candlemass then I’m
preaching to the converted, if you don’t know of the band but like Sabbath you
will like this too, also listen out for; the lengthy “House Of A Thousand
Voices”, the shorter, faster paced, commercialism of “Dead Angel” and evocative
and commanding “Funeral Dreams”.
This is anther fine CD from the guys and it gets the Justin Case seal of
approval, as I read in a blog recently, “this is not
Epicus Doomicus, Metallicus but it is Epic, Doom
Metal.
WEBSITE http://www.candlemass.se/ & http://www.nuclearblast.de/
TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 48 + 8 EPIC
TRACKS
TOTRURE KILLER / SEWERS
This is the latest album from Finnish Death Metal band
Torture Killer and if you like Six Feet Under and Cannibal Corpse I know you
will love this latest CD, that is just as good as the last one “Swamrm”.
Their last album featured Chris Barnes on lead vocals, which
made it an essential buy for me and despite the fact that Chris is not involved
in this one the new vocalist Juri Sallinen dose such a fine job that you cant help but warm to
the band. The songs are just as
dipping with blood and gore as ever, if not even more so, just listen to the
sheer quality of songs like “The Rats Can Smell The Murder”, “I Bathe In Their
Blood” or “The Art Of Impairment”, full of really great Death Metal riffs,
tempered with a some fantastic melodic solos that are brilliantly juxtaposed
against the sheer brutality and aggression of the
songs.
Trust me on this one, you wont miss Chris’s vocals because
Juri is just as good and a better compliment that you
cant get, there are only one questions that remain, why is so damned short?
WEBSITE http://www.torturekiller.com/ & http://www.dynamicartsrecords.com/
TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 29 mins + 8
TRACKS