Category: Album Reviews

You can figure this one out can’t you?

Deaf Havana – Old Souls

Merry Christmas all, while I’m waiting for Dr Who to come on I decided to write up a review.  In case anyone is wondering I will actually be doing all my end of year lists in 2014… I’m weird like that.

If you had asked me which of the albums on my big list of those I want to review before the end of this year that I was most likely to dislike, I would have pointed towards Deaf Havana’s Old Souls.  Somewhere down the line this band got filed away in my brain as being in with all the alternative kids with their tight green jeans and stupid hats.  Now don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of bands those kids have adopted, but my sub-consciousness has at some point decided that Deaf Havana were not worth checking out.  Therefore I know absolutely nothing about them, but Wikipedia informs me that Old Souls is their third album.

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Devildriver – Winter Kills

Despite Dez Fafara’s return to the well that made him famous in the first place, with the reuniting of Coal Chamber, it hasn’t spelt the end of groove metal heavyweights Devildriver, who are back with their  sixth album, Winter Kills.  With previous release Beast having been received well, but not lasting long in the memory of most, this album came out without much fanfare, which may not have been helped by Dez’s continued dalliances with his old band mates.  It also see’s Chris Towning take up bass duties on record for the first time, having been touring with the band since 2012.

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Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks

Nine Inch Nails return to our world was always going to happen, but that’s not a fact that made it any less sweet when it finally did.  The return of Trent Reznor and co was always going to be a big event and because of that any album they released is destined to be picked over with a fine tooth comb.  Thankfully, Mr Reznor is a man used to pressure and having done quite well for himself in his time off, even picking up an Oscar, he was obviously willing to take on the task and rebirth his baby with the release of Hesitation Marks.

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Carcass – Surgical Steel

Carcass, their very name screams pure bloody metal.  The British grindcore legends were favourites of the brilliant John Peel and reigned supreme in their original run between 1985 and 1995.  Their return in 2007 was therefore greeted with glee while the announcement they were to write and record an album, which was released earlier this year. induced full blown delirium.  With Daniel Wildling (Trigger the Bloodshed) coming in on drums and Ben Ash (Pig Iron) on guitar to join original original members Jeff Walker and Bill Steer Surgical Steel was created.

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Dream Theater – Dream Theater

Dream Theater used to be so ingrained with the idea of Mike Portnoy that to have an album that doesn’t incorporate any of his ideas seems strange.  However, that’s exactly what they’ve done and they’ve only gone and made it a self-titled release.  With Mike Mangini in from the start this is the album that will represent exactly where a Portnoyless Dream Theater will be going in the future and their fans will be desperate for them to smash it out of the park.

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Children of Bodom – Halo of Blood

It wasn’t that long ago that Children of Bodom were one of the next big things in heavy metal.  They perfected a melodic death metal sound that was winning them fans left right and centre.  Sadly things begun to go a bit pear shaped, as personal problems and a few dud albums left quite a lot of people scratching their heads wondering what had happened to the Finnish maestro’s.  With that in mind latest release Halo of Blood has a lot of pressure on it’s shoulders as it seeks to prove that Alexi Lahio and co still have it.

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Letlive – The Blackest Beautiful

letlive. are one of those rare bands who appear to be the whole package.  Whether they are writing songs that blend melody and insanity together in a concoction that is sweet yet sour, heavy yet gentle and all in all just simply intoxicating or taking the time smashing the shit out of things, in a very literal sense sometimes, in live shows which in my own experience bring audiences together in a way that few can do, they seem to do it perfectly.  So quite frankly it’s a disgrace that I’ve taken this long to write up a review of The Blackest Beautiful.  Particularly as it is without a doubt one of the albums of the year.

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Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegal’s – Walk Through Exits Only

The words Phil Anselmo and extreme metal are probably enough to have any right minded metal fan excited.   Well that’s exactly what Walk Through Exits Only is and it’s full of a apparently very pissed off Philip H. Anselmo (as he is now apparently known) teaming up with his band The Illegal’s to release an album chock full of heavy as fuck metal.

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TesseracT – Altered State

When the Djeent scene exploded a few years back TesseracT were quickly pinpointed as MVPs.  Their brand of progressive metal is more intelligent, and better crafted, than nearly anything on the market at the moment and their second album Altered State will be looking to expand upon their already lofty reputation.  It features Ashe O’Hara on vocals for the first time and is also their first release to feature entirely clean vocals.

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