Obsessions - "Obsessions" [EP]

A classy rock / punk rock offering (8/10) Obsessions powstał na początku 2013 roku jako poboczny projekt osób związanych z takimi warszawskimi zespołami jak The Black Tapes i Capital. Szybko okazało się, że taka mieszanka osobowości i pomysłów oznacza, że Obsessions wyjdzie poza salę prób i zacznie funkcjonować jako pełnoprawny zespół. I tak się stało. Po debiutanckim występie przed amerykańskim Obits w warszawskiej Cafe Kulturalna zespół wszedł do studia i zarejestrował cztery autorskie utwory, który złożyły się na debiutancki materiał, który wyda Antena Krzyku. Na winylowej siódemce, bo to jest odpowiedni nośnik dla takiej muzyki! Pomyśl o Hot Snakes i przefiltruj to przez całą brytyjską scenę muzyczną końca lat 70. a otrzymasz Obsessions w pełnej krasie. This is a really surprisingly good minialbum from the Polish band Obsessions. I know nothing about them except that supposedly this is a side project of the three musicians connected with another Polish act The Black Tapes. They claim they play punk rock, but in my humble opinion this is just a straightforward rock. It is uptempo and loud, definitely influenced by punk, but lacking punkish aggressiveness. Anyhow, they are good. They know how to play, the songs are well recorded, riffs are great, vocal lines are catchy, the singer's singing manner is adequately slovenly. No genre bending here - pure rock at its best. So keep rocking, boys - it is nice to hear such classic approach for a change. The album has been released on vinyl only (sic!) by the Antena Krzyku label and you cannot officially download it in any digital format. You can buy a vinyl in some online stores for around 7 euros (serpent.pl, seeyousoon.pl). But you have to act fast, as only 250 records have been made. You can also listen to the full album online on Bandcamp, but downloads are switched off. Of course, it is possible to download it anyhow in Bandcamp's preview quality (mp3 @ 128 kbit). No option to pay the artist this way, though. What a pity.

Therapy? - "Infernal Love" (1995)

Therapy? is an outstanding hard rock / metal band from Ireland. Influenced by such stylistically diverse bands as Black Sabbath or Hüsker Dü they managed to build their own distinct sound, based on a wall of noise constructed from loud guitars and powerful drums on the one hand and melodic vocal lines, catchy tunes and clever emotional lyrics passionately delivered by the singer Andy Cairns on the other hand. The final vocal line on Infernal Love might be "There is a light at the end of the tunnel," but there's no denying that Infernal Love is anything but optimistic; it's an unrelentingly dark and sometimes bluntly turgid record. Anyone familiar with the band had grown accustomed to Andy Cairns' spins on depression, anger, bitterness, and self-destruction, but even the most devoted listener probably screamed "Snap out of it!" while first listening to this third record. Darker chords and slower tempos prevail, and the pop-punk hooks are all but washed away. The sequentially buried, bouncing "Loose" is an anomaly, sounding like a refugee from Troublegum that reads like a dystopian "Jack and Diane." Other than that, it's nothing but despair and heartache. [Read more --->] Tracklist: 01. Epilepsy [3:50] 02. Stories [3:11] 03. A Moment of Clarity [6:02] 04. Jude the Obscene [3:32] 05. Bowels of Love [2:53] 06. Misery [3:40] 07. Bad Mother [5:46] 08. Me Vs You [6:24] 09. Loose [3:00] 10. Diane [5:00] 11. 30 Seconds [5:25] Playing Time.........: 48:42

Wikipedia (band) Wikipedia (album) Biography Review Official Website Official Merchandise (please support the artist, if you can afford it)

Support artists, not recording industry Pay the artists directly. They do not profit from CD sales. If you buy brand new mainstream albums in regular record stores (no matter whether online or offline, CDs or downloads), almost all the money goes to the recording industry mafia and is later used for committing crimes such as unlawful harassment of fans and bribing authorities to implement changes in law, which would infringe basic human rights. If you really want to support mainstream artists (and you should, if you love their music!), go to concerts or buy merchandise off the official websites. If you can afford buying music, but it is not possible to pay a particular artist without a mafia tribute, consider supporting some independent artists instead. You can find many great acts on such websites as magnatune.com, jamendo.com, cdbaby.com, bandcamp.com, megatotal.pl. Supporting independent artists helps fight the recording industry mafia. Log translation at http://eachelper.uphero.com/ EAC extraction logfile from 2. June 2004, 11:59 for CD Therapy? / Infernal Love Used drive : TEAC CD-W54E Adapter: 0 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure with C2, accurate stream, NO disable cache Combined read/write offset correction : 0 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Used output format : D:\audio\Monkey's Audio\MAC.exe (Monkey's Audio Lossless Encoder) High Lossless Compression Other options : Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Track 1 Filename F:\upload\(01) Epilepsy.wav Peak level 94.9 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 4F055E5E Copy OK Track 2 Filename F:\upload\(02) Stories.wav Peak level 94.4 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC D7397074 Copy OK Track 3 Filename F:\upload\(03) A Moment Of Clarity.wav Peak level 94.4 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 8B90DBA8 Copy OK Track 4 Filename F:\upload\(04) Jude The Obscene.wav Peak level 96.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC AF417E90 Copy OK Track 5 Filename F:\upload\(05) Bowels Of Love.wav Peak level 96.1 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 2ACB71A1 Copy OK Track 6 Filename F:\upload\(06) Misery.wav Peak level 91.0 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 533D3C19 Copy OK Track 7 Filename F:\upload\(07) Bad Mother.wav Peak level 94.9 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC CDC707C3 Copy OK Track 8 Filename F:\upload\(08) Me Vs You.wav Peak level 95.4 % Track quality 99.9 % Copy CRC 213EC073 Copy OK Track 9 Filename F:\upload\(09) Loose.wav Peak level 95.5 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 3F0B381C Copy OK Track 10 Filename F:\upload\(10) Diane.wav Peak level 94.4 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 8E224C1C Copy OK Track 11 Filename F:\upload\(11) 30 Seconds.wav Peak level 96.3 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 8D4F532F Copy OK No errors occured End of status report ----------------------- DON'T MODIFY THIS FILE ----------------------- PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.5.1RC4 build 1.5.1.5 Copyright (c) 2008-2010 y-soft. All rights reserved http://y-soft.org ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2 Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved. FILE: 11 - 30 Seconds.flac Size: 40209506 Hash: E3ED3AEADDF1E8964F4FBF371602E64E Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: AD73A19782887B20675BF0B4FAF17B377B490168 FILE: 10 - Diane.flac Size: 29755009 Hash: 24179F579E36AC07264A625EE7B36329 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 9FC334D429754AEE6A46D36F077A8EBDA269BEB6 FILE: 09 - Loose.flac Size: 24402481 Hash: B7519DE6AC8FBA2B7923B41FE7849742 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 99% Signature: AE7138CAD9FF9D6A3736CECF92EEAC8D8E13C5A5 FILE: 08 - Me Vs. You.flac Size: 39218855 Hash: FD5571B7F3AB751BEFAF76472A178102 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 46317E4B51EB5CF729FB65DA79AE6E62C44D3B98 FILE: 07 - Bad Mother.flac Size: 39890190 Hash: 15845B49729F86CCE9D48CC1D96F294F Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: E2CE5AC6D1DCA2960A28E2BF0E3AB99802678648 FILE: 06 - Misery.flac Size: 28434375 Hash: 01AEFCF6D4B94D207E9F3FC85F16B771 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 99% Signature: AF16F9E12DB5044B5A6066ADD1E78E06F1D54E0F FILE: 05 - Bowels Of Love.flac Size: 20155063 Hash: 3CFB348D9AA91AB645BC743B76D8E541 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 2D8D3962B0DA487C966ED38CD113286F2B0E0AD0 FILE: 04 - Jude The Obscene.flac Size: 27292041 Hash: BF2402ED26E602A473D0D9555B0507F2 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: DC97E8FB0297938B5E6AD9B37BB39DCD3ED11070 FILE: 03 - A Moment Of Clarity.flac Size: 39232592 Hash: D4139D794D19B34C1E5804AB7879683E Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 0AB60D56781A96B6BF138802CC328EDB4FDC9F1D FILE: 02 - Stories.flac Size: 23991853 Hash: D3A20D4B89BBD232B13F51C90BB505DC Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 62F32917559ACF21CF0884022339527ED4ADE85D FILE: 01 - Epilepsy.flac Size: 27855181 Hash: F80285E5C0AE4BA0E62B8B3870D05480 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: BB917F85ACAE54BFBC9EC42A1ECC4913A7394DB7 Disclaimer: As you can see in the EAC log, the person that ripped this CD used some settings that make "secure mode" much less secure: use of C2 pointers, use of cache, 1-pass rip (no test). Further, "Combined read/write offset correction" set to "0" probably means there are some missing samples (but it does not mean these differences are audible - it just means the copy is not "exact"). I carefully listened to this rip and I heard no audible ripping errors. CUETools database contains 4 different pressings of this album and all the checksums are different to this rip. I suppose it means this release is from another pressing (or maybe it's the result of the wrong offset set in EAC?). Interested? Ask Uncle Google the magic question: E3ED3AEADDF1E8964F4FBF371602E64E avax More by Therapy?: Therapy? - "Iron Man" (live in Firenze, Italy, 1994) Therapy? - "Lonely, Cryin', Only" [CDS] (1998)

Therapy? - "Lonely, Cryin', Only" [CDS] (1998)

Therapy? is an outstanding hard rock / metal band from Ireland. Influenced by such stylistically diverse bands as Black Sabbath or Hüsker Dü they managed to build their own distinct sound, based on a wall of noise constructed from loud guitars and powerful drums on the one hand and melodic vocal lines, catchy tunes and clever emotional lyrics delivered by the singer Andy Cairns on the other hand. "Lonely, Cryin', Only" comes from the Semi-Detached album and it was released on A&M Records on May 18, 1998. This single reached number 32 in the UK Singles Chart. Semi-Detached is not the best album by Therapy? and "Lonely, Cryin', Only" is not the best song on this album. Still, it leaves many contemporary rockers' efforts behind. But forget the single track - you can find it on the regular album, anyhow. The B-Side tracks are much more interesting and should be more than enough for a fan to get this single. "High Noon" is a cover of the song by DJ Shadow, a prominent DJ and electronic music artist. It sounds like a typical Therapy?'s song, while still being faithful to the original and catchy as hell. Brilliant work. The remaining two songs are reworked versions of their past masterpieces, so they should be interesting for fans as well. Tracklist: 1. Lonely, Cryin', Only [02:40] 2. High Noon [05:09] 3. Diane (new recording) [06:23] 4. Teethgrinder (new recording) [03:20] Playing Time.........: 17:34

Wikipedia Allmusic Official Website Official Merchandise (please support the artist, if you can afford it)

Support artists, not recording industry Pay the artists directly. They do not profit from CD sales. If you buy brand new mainstream albums in regular record stores (no matter whether online or offline, CDs or downloads), almost all the money goes to the recording industry mafia and is later used for committing crimes such as unlawful harassment of fans and bribing authorities to implement changes in law, which would infringe basic human rights. If you really want to support mainstream artists (and you should, if you love their music!), go to concerts or buy merchandise off the official websites. If you can afford buying music, but it is not possible to pay a particular artist without a mafia tribute, consider supporting some independent artists instead. You can find many great acts on such websites as magnatune.com, jamendo.com, cdbaby.com, bandcamp.com, megatotal.pl. Supporting independent artists helps fight the recording industry mafia. Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011 EAC extraction logfile from 9. January 2012, 11:26 Therapy? / Lonely, Cryin', Only Used drive : PLDS DVD+-RW DH-16AAS Adapter: 1 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : No Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 6 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Gap handling : Appended to previous track Used output format : Microsoft PCM Converter Sample format : 44,100 kHz; bitów: 16 ; Stereo TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.32 | 2:40.18 | 32 | 12049 2 | 2:40.50 | 5:09.65 | 12050 | 35289 3 | 7:50.40 | 6:23.20 | 35290 | 64034 4 | 14:13.60 | 3:20.72 | 64035 | 79106 Track 1 Filename c:\Temp\01 - Lonely, Cryin', Only.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.42 Peak level 97.9 % Extraction speed 5.6 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 81932BF9 Copy CRC 81932BF9 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [F1CE457A] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 2 Filename c:\Temp\02 - High Noon.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:00.44 Peak level 98.0 % Extraction speed 6.3 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 7FDF3991 Copy CRC 7FDF3991 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [1FB82682] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 3 Filename c:\Temp\03 - Diane (new recording).wav Pre-gap length 0:00:01.04 Peak level 98.0 % Extraction speed 7.1 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 66849A63 Copy CRC 66849A63 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [E6098FCD] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 4 Filename c:\Temp\04 - Teethgrinder (new recording).wav Peak level 98.0 % Extraction speed 7.8 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 31FD2F75 Copy CRC 31FD2F75 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [F1873252] (AR v1) Copy OK All tracks accurately ripped No errors occurred End of status report ==== Log checksum 25C424B4DAF3FB88973024500FE33EE14245F51AFF39BEA175B276584764B8F9 ==== ----------------------- DON'T MODIFY THIS FILE ----------------------- PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.5.1RC4 build 1.5.1.5 Copyright (c) 2008-2010 y-soft. All rights reserved http://y-soft.org ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2 Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved. FILE: 04 - Teethgrinder (new recording).flac Size: 25396288 Hash: F0D0B8ECE2724FD85F91176E3A99D8EF Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 99% Signature: F518522A3EEDCD61746CDD9E39542BB042D1083E FILE: 03 - Diane (new recording).flac Size: 38254952 Hash: 67C06C3E0E427378C85D95FB3545F71E Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 269056DC7834188E663FE0459106EA1934F45B32 FILE: 02 - High Noon.flac Size: 33888957 Hash: C5A8EDBDADF93B4B4D40CD2B8FBF1CBD Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 99% Signature: 4192DBB3B37AF2255525FE4AFB69564AB729E916 FILE: 01 - Lonely, Cryin', Only.flac Size: 18672938 Hash: 8F7BE53FE2D672429917A5023B7C76C7 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 23BB8FF9F8821ED51EC9BFDCAA0CF5AC2E7476D2 Interested? Ask Uncle Google the magic question: 25C424B4DAF3FB88973024500FE33EE14245F51AFF39BEA175B276584764B8F9 avax More by Therapy?: Therapy? - "Infernal Love" (1995) Therapy? - "Iron Man" (live in Firenze, Italy, 1994)

Embolism - "This Means Fucking War!"

Speedcore classic (7/10) Early Embolism speedcore action! 6 tracks built on an Amiga 500. released 15 December 1995 Written and produced by a 14-year old Ryan Leeman in his bedroom on an Amiga 500 running through a small television speaker, whilst bunking off school in mid-1995. Originally released on 12" vinyl December 1995. A speedcore classic written by then 14-year old Ryan Leeman, one of the pioneers of hardcore techno, recording for the famous label Bloody Fist Records. It is not a secret that hardcore techno is not my favorite genre of electronic music, because of its repetitiveness, monotony and overuse of irritating sampled speeches. Yet this album is another proof that with enough talent, one can write great tunes in each and every style. Only the final track Pillow Talk suffer from these weaknesses. All the rest is great - original, creative and catchy (in the wicked "hardcore techno" sense of this word), while still being fast, aggressive and uncompromising. And it was made by a 14-year old kid on an Amiga 500 computer. Wow. The album is available on Bandcamp for 6 Australian dollars in a variety of formats, including a FLAC version. You can also listen to the full album before making a decision on purchase.

Various Artists - "Newcastle Sampler"

Interesting hardcore techno compilation (6/10)

All Tracks Built In Newcastle, Australia Published By Len & Jen Music (ASCAP) Distributed By Soundbase Music Germany Newcastle Sampler is a compilation released by the label Bastard Loud Records, presenting several acts from the Newcastle hardcore techno scene, recording for the famous label Bloody Fist Records. This is an interesting album, offering quality tunes, and although I personally dig only two tracks out of six, the compilation remains a great insight into the history of hardcore techno. My favorites are Nasenbluten - Treadmill and Disassembler - Ants. They are fast, aggressive, disturbing, but without being too repetitive and without overuse of speech samples - two weaknesses of so many hardcore techno tunes. The other four do not fit my taste, being haunted by the said flaws. They represent the type of hardcore techno, which is totally boring for me, despite its aggressiveness and high tempos. Still, they should appeal to hardcore hardcore techno fans out there. If you happen to be one, you can safely add some points to my 6/10 rating. I guess this album is very rare now, but if you happen to run into it somewhere along the links, be sure to check it out, if you are a fan of hardcore techno. And do not forget to visit the official Bandcamp website of Bloody Fist Records, where you can listen to and buy some other releases from this label.

Rebolt - "Made In Spite" [EP] (bonus edition)

Nice hard rock EP with two unnecessary bonuses (6/10) «Made In Spite EP» is Rebolt’s first official release. It includes four original hard hitting rock tunes in the rock/metal vein. This is the bonus version, with two songs recorded in 2007. Despite their mixed backgrounds, the members of the Norwegian band came together for one single reason: The love for old fashioned heavy metal and hard rock! The songs featured on their debut EP is a humble batch of rock’n’roll which has got both soul and playfulness written all over it. In short, it is an honest attempt to make the audience dig up their air guitars and put their pedals to the metal (although rather not at the same time!). It was the guitar riffs and solos, the big choruses and the unpretentious joy of bands such as AC/DC, Rose Tattoo and Iron Maiden which lead to the foundation of Rebolt during the winter of 2004. The band had previously recorded two four-track demos under the ad-hoc name of Powerage back in 2004 and 2005. Although they were both crammed with impressive tunes, the sound quality of these early recordings left much to be desired. This time around there were much more studio time at hand, a fact which without doubt reveals itself on the refined finished product. The guitar sounds better than ever, the drums are solid and powerful, the bass is dense and rocksteady and the shining vocals are as dynamic and energetic as they are on stage. The sum of it all is a cliché, but still spot on: this is hard hitting as hell!

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Website]

Here's my review of the main EP:

It's extremely conservative classic rock. No traces of originality here. But the band knows how to play, they are very energetic and full of enthusiasm. They do not discover new lands or cross any borders, but if you like classic rock, you should enjoy their recording. The tracks 2 & 3 are the best, the first track is the worst, because it is too obviously crafted with the charts in mind.

And here's my review of the bonus tracks:

This time energy and technical skills does not compensate for complete lack of originality. The more so, their energy seems to be almost exhausted. They are fast and loud but somehow I felt like they were tired and the music lost its power and charm.

However, if somebody likes classic hard rock just because it's hard rock and is not discouraged by the album's derivativeness, he can check it out.

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation.

Rebolt - "Made In Spite" [EP]

Classic to the bone (7/10) «Made In Spite EP» is Rebolt’s first official release. It includes four original hard hitting rock tunes in the rock/metal vein. Despite their mixed backgrounds, the members of the Norwegian band came together for one single reason: The love for old fashioned heavy metal and hard rock! The songs featured on their debut EP is a humble batch of rock’n’roll which has got both soul and playfulness written all over it. In short, it is an honest attempt to make the audience dig up their air guitars and put their pedals to the metal (although rather not at the same time!). It was the guitar riffs and solos, the big choruses and the unpretentious joy of bands such as AC/DC, Rose Tattoo and Iron Maiden which lead to the foundation of Rebolt during the winter of 2004. The band had previously recorded two four-track demos under the ad-hoc name of Powerage back in 2004 and 2005. Although they were both crammed with impressive tunes, the sound quality of these early recordings left much to be desired. This time around there were much more studio time at hand, a fact which without doubt reveals itself on the refined finished product. The guitar sounds better than ever, the drums are solid and powerful, the bass is dense and rocksteady and the shining vocals are as dynamic and energetic as they are on stage. The sum of it all is a cliché, but still spot on: this is hard hitting as hell!

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Website]

It's extremely conservative classic rock. No traces of originality here. But the band knows how to play, they are very energetic and full of enthusiasm. They do not discover new lands or cross any borders, but if you like classic rock, you should enjoy their recording. The tracks 2 & 3 are the best, the first track is the worst, because it is too obviously crafted with the charts in mind.

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation.

Rebolt - "Promo 2007"

Typical hard rock (5/10) These are two songs we recorded for the local compilation "Hits Out Of HiT" in April 2007. "SAM" is sort of a tribute to the sci-fi show "Stargate SG-1" and the character of "Samantha Carter" and the arrangement pays more tribute to basic hard rock of Danko Jones than the old school stuff, even though Danko himself also pays tribute to the same old heroes as ourselves. "Lemmy" is in fact one of the first songs we ever wrote back in 2004 and appeared in an early version on our 2004 demo, "You Should See Us Rock". You could see this song also as a tribute, to Lemmy in Motörhead, but it is also a statement from a "straight guy" that shares the equal passion of rock'n'roll as Lemmy, even though he doesn't drink as much and has tattoos all over his body. The song "Lemmy's Heart" is present in the ski movie "Kong Vinter 4 - The Lost Hygge" released in November 2007. Check it out! www.bigtrix.com

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

This time energy and technical skills does not compensate for complete lack of originality. The more so, their energy seems to be almost exhausted. They are fast and loud but somehow I felt like they were tired and the music lost its power and charm.

However, if somebody likes classic hard rock just because it's hard rock and is not discouraged by the album's derivativeness, he can check it out.

[Artist's Website]

Mesentery - "Behind Windows"

Producer kills the death metal star (7/10) Mesentery is Death Metal like Six feet under, Bolt Thrower, Heaven Shall Burn, Cataract with a mid tempo invasion with smashing riffs. For more details go to: www.mesentery.com.nu This album is better than the debut Jamendo album on every aspect except the most sucking one - production. When you listen to it on a good equipment, it sounds as if mikes were on the outside of the recording studio, while the band played somewhere in the basement. The sound is muffled and unselective. Just terrible. If not for this issue, I'd give 8 or even 9 points out of 10. It's generic death metal, but the melodies are good, the band is full of energy, even drums are OK this time. They even changed the cover artist and you can look at it without getting sick. In fact the cover is exceptionally good for a death metal album, as it breaks this stupid notion that a heavy metal cover art has to be full of monsters, warriors, profanity, blood, gore and "scary" lettering. Well done. But everybody with sensitive ears may consider skipping this one, because of bad production. (What?! Metal heads with good hearing? Come on!). ;-P

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Myspace]

Mesentery - "Blood Rain"

Nice death metal (7/10) Mesentery is Death Metal like Six feet under, Bolt Thrower, Heaven Shall Burn, Cataract with a mid tempo invasion with smashing riffs. For more details go to: www.mesentery.com.nu Nice death metal - not a masterpiece, but highly listenable generic work. It is very melodic, without losing heaviness. Growling is not overused like on so many death metal albums - you can even sometimes recognize the words! ;-) There are some cons, of course. First of all, production sucks - the mix is flat, without any space. The sound could also be better. And the drums are quite bad - for example, check out these hi-hats in the beginning of the first track - yuck! Fortunately, when the other instruments join in, drums melt in the background and stop being annoying, if only one doesn't try too hard to listen to them. So the key to this recording is to enjoy the pure power of melodic death metal, without analyzing too much (see all these 10/10 reviews). By the way - the designer of the cover art should be nailed to the cross for his/her crimes against the good taste (it has nothing to do with the naked female but rather with the picture being totally kitschy).

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Myspace]