Falconer-The Sceptre of Deception
(Metal Blade, 2003)

I believe this is my first time hearing Falconer, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed. The band plays melodic power metal, but they have a heavy edge to the sound. They also seem to be one of the first bands to have the keyboards low enough in the mix that they accent the guitars and not the other way around. Noting ruins an album quicker for me then keyboards being the main focus in the mix.

I’m not sure how to put it into words, but the band has almost a medieval vibe to the music. It’s more mid paced, and the melodies bring to mind a time when armor and swordfights were common place. It’s nice to see a band play music that suits the subject matter of the lyrics. I did say that this for the most part is mid paced, but you probably won’t believe me but this band actually uses a blast beat in one song. A power metal band with blasting? How unique is that! They also have the somewhat standard thrash tempo parts as well, which usually come to play mainly in choruses. I don’t think any power metal bands are generally called original, but these guys are definitely carving out their own niche within the genre.

Lyrically I’m not very intrigued by this release to be honest. It’s a concept album that does tell a pretty interesting story, but I’m more impressed with the bands sound and the vocal delivery then the actual substance of the lyrics. It however is very well written, and those into epic concept albums, especially lyrically, will get a lot out of this album.

This was produced by Andy LaRocque so it’s safe to assume that I definitely have no complaints about the production at all. The band uses a lot of guitar riffs that utilize the bottom end of the guitar, which definitely benefits from the thick guitar tone on the album. Even the more melodic sections still remain heavy, and almost sound more like a Swedish death metal band then a power metal band. In short, it’s a heavy album with an amazing production.

Figure Four-Suffering The Loss
(Solid State, 2003)

You know, in every review I've seen of Figure Four they always get compared to Hatebreed. Why? Because, well, they sound an awfully lot like Hatebreed. I've always thought they sounded like a faster version of Hatebreed. Musically, they share a lot of similarities, but I hear it mainly in the vocals. The singer bears a very strong resemblance to Jamey Jasta.

So like I said these guys sound a lot like Hatebreed. They have the shouted vocals, lots of fast riffing, and some of the heaviest riffs hardcore has ever seen. It's not like Figure Four is the only band playing the style, but they are definitely one of the better ones. I'd say that in a lot of ways they are even better then Hatebreed. They keep the speed up more, and offer a more metallic approach. Hatebreed is more about the mid-tempo chugging these days, and Figure Four is all about the speed. Of course they have slower sections, but they serve mainly as a break from the breakdown tempos that make up the majority of this album.

I'm definitely into the packaging of Suffering The Loss. It has very unique artwork which is different from what you'd expect from a hardcore release. It definitely stands out. I'm not sure how the name of the album ties in with the artwork exactly, but it definitely would look good on a t-shirt!

Along with Comeback Kid, Figure Four are one of the best hardcore bands Canada has to offer. It's somewhat funny that the two best bands in Canadian hardcore share a lot of the same members. It's even stranger that the two bands sound nothing alike. Back on topic now, Figure Four have released a monster of a hardcore album. It may not be original, but it'll still kick your ass like there's no tomorrow.

Finntroll-Visor om slutet
(Spikefarm/PHD, 2003)

This is just too weird for me. I liked what I've heard in the past, but this one fails to keep my interest or attention. It basically sounds like a collection of intros more so then an actual album. It's cool for what it is I guess, but I've never really thought "I wish I had an album of midevil folk music to listen to." It's interesting, but I miss the metal? Where did the metal go? I can definitely say that I won't listen to this very much. Fans of the band will want to pick this up, but if you are new to Finntroll start somewhere else.

Finnugor-Black Flames
(Adipocere, 2002)


I really feel bad giving this many bad reviews to Adipocere bands because I know they have a lot of great bands, but these last few have just been plain awful. I guess this band strives to be black metal, but the guitar tone is very wussy and I’m not into the distorted vocals or drum machine at all. They also over use keyboards, which is a definite, no no in my book. Honestly, this is so bad that it hurts to listen to.

Fleshcrawl-Made of Flesh
(Metal Blade, 2004)

Some people say that this band hasn’t progressed much in their career. They started out playing old school Swedish death metal, and well they still do. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that. As far as I’m concerned the best death metal has always come from Sweden, and any band that reminds me of the early days of Grave, Dismember, and Carnage is very welcome to me. These guys have been together for years anyway, so they pretty much are an old school band anyway,

So what you can basically expect from this band is melodic yet gritty guitar riffs, on top of somewhat simple drum beats and guttural vocals with quite a bit of clarity. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hear a lot of Dismember in a lot of the riffs. The way the band plays straight forward riffs and then adds almost bluesy fills at the end is right out of the Dismember handbook. Tempo changes aren’t really a big part of the bands sound either. Entire songs tend to stay around the same tempo. Slower songs especially tend to remain around the same tempo. The faster songs move around more, but not a whole lot more. Thrash style riffing might give way to a slower melodic riff once in awhile, or into a more rhythm based chorus, but that’s about it.

One of the main differences between this band and the bands I mentioned before is that these guys use the blast beat quite a bit. The riffing underneath the blasts is still very Swedish influenced though. A lot of bands let a black metal influence creep in when they decide to blast, but you won’t find that here. This is gritty death metal from start to finish, just the way I like it.

It would be tough to call this band original, and I’m not even sure that’s way they are striving to be. If you are into the early days of Dismember, Carnage, Grave, or even Edge of Sanity, I’m sure you’ll be easily be able to get into Fleshcrawl. Chances are you already are.

Forever is Forgotten-Dying Beautiful
(Thorp, 2004)

What we have here is a re-release of Forever is Forgotten's debut MCD, with a couple of bonus live tracks. This definitely shows where the bands sound started and while not as technical as their debut cd, it definitely has many of the same elements that made The Architecture is Still Burning so great.

The songwriting is a bit more start and stop here. They play one section and then move on to the next, usually using a pause or a break of some sort. It's not as dizzying as they are now, but it somewhat allows some of the sections to stand out a bit more. This MCD also shows the band utilizing a little bit more melody at times. They definitely have always shunned typical songwriting standards though. You won't hear anything that really stands out as a chorus, or even a verse. The songs move in a much more linear type of way. It somewhat takes away a bit of the songs ability to stay with you, but with repeat listens you become familiar with the songs. Little things start to stand out the more you listen.

The new artwork is fairly simple, but also effective. It has an interesting booklet that folds open and has the lyrics on the inside. The MCD has also been remastered, but I haven't heard the original so I couldn't really say how much of a difference it really makes. It sounds pretty damned good to my ears though. The technicality isn't lost at all, and the band is as tight as humanly possible while playing this style of music and still having it sound human.

If you checked out the debut album you'll definitely want to pick this up as well. It's definitely in the same vein and you can hear where the band started.

Forever is Forgotten-The Architecture is Still Burning
(Thorp, 2003)

When you hear that a lot of bands playing hardcore music are heavy, they usually are pretty heavy, but this band is fucking heavy! Suffocatingly heavy even. It's like Nora or Poison the Well butting heads with Cryptopsy and Dillinger Esacpe Plan. It's heavy, technical, and actually pretty unique in a time when it's tough to stand out in the hardcore genre.

One thing I'm definitely a big fan of is the production. It may not be the tightest recording ever, but it is incredibly heavy. In most ways it reminds me of a total death metal production. The double bass drums are loud and powerful, and the guitar tone is scooped of all mids and sounds tremendously huge. I guess they could have used a more hardcore sounding production, but as is this is the perfect production for the band and their style. I wish more bands playing heavy music, would try to get a production like this.

If I had to complain about something I would say that they possibly could have made the songs a bit more memorable, but that doesn't seem to be what they were going for. The technical and crazy nature of the songwriting just doesn't always lend itself to instantly memorable songs. With repeated listens however you'll remember certain things. They have some great riffs, full of quirks that definitely will stick in your head. It's just the compositions as a whole don't really follow the verse/chorus/verse structure and there isn't much to latch on to.

You'll hear a lot of things you wouldn't necessarily expect to hear in hardcore, finger tapping, whammy bar dives, tons of double bass, blast beats, etc. It's all very metal, and damn if it isn't a great combination. The heavy hardcore influences butting heads with the technical, and death metal influences makes for one of the most interesting listens I've heard in awhile.

Forgotten Tomb-Springtime Depression
(Adipocere, 2003)


I have to admit that pretty much everything about this had me thinking that I wasn't going to like it. That was just judging from the cover art and layout, but I was really surprised by the musical approach of this band. I was expecting harsh black metal, and while this band is harsh black metal, it's much slower and doom influenced then what I was expecting. The riffing is slow, cold and dilebrate, while the drums plod and the vocals spew over top.

The band does have the odd fast moment, but this isn't a band that is about speed. It's pretty much the musical equivalent of the suicide march. It's somewhat similar to bands like Evoken, but it has a more harsh black metal feel to it. If you like your music, slow, dark and depressing, this is defnitely for you. The bands sound is mainly detuned power chord riffs with melancholy melodies added to give the element of despair.

This band definitely doesn't mind writing fairly lenghty songs. There are only 6 songs on this album and the running time is almost 47 minutes. They don't mind repeating riffs to get the point across, and are in no ways in a rush to make it to the end of the song. I'm definitely a big fan of fast agressive music, but it's nice to have a slow band to listen to every now and again. You'd go crazy if you listened to it all of the time, but it's good when the mood suits.

While this may not be everyone if you are into slow, yet heavy and depressing music you'll definitely want to check out Forgotten Tomb.

Fragments of Unbecoming-Skywards-A Sylphe’s Ascension
(Metal Blade, 2004)

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this, but I had an idea that they played Swedish influenced death metal. Low and behold I was pretty much right. Taking influence from the first few Dark Tranquility albums, Fragments of Unbecoming play metal that is both melodic and technical. It’s not really a style that hasn’t been done before, but the band manages to play with enough energy to make this album worthwhile.

I think one thing that helps these guys stand out a little bit is the use of the blast beat. A lot of Swedish style bands mainly stick to a thrash type tempo and don’t explore the blast beat much. The band has a high energy approach and most of this album does travel at the aforementioned thrash tempo, but like I said they do also use the blast beat. When the band isn’t playing fast, they have a variety of slower melodies and tempos, sometimes even experimenting with acoustic guitar passages. Like I said earlier, it’s not really anything new, but this is still a pretty damned good band.

I think that if I possibly had a complaint, it might be that a lot of the songs tend to start sounding the same. Possibly in the future they need to make some adjustments to the structures to allow for more memorable moments. They are good riff writers, but these songs could have benefited from a chorus once in awhile. But, I guess we also should keep in mind that this is a young band and they still have lots of room to grow.

I really like the layout of this release. It has an interesting color scheme and doesn’t really look like a typical metal album cover. It’s a bit more abstract and doesn’t really give much away about the style of the band.

Like I’ve probably said too much in this review already, these guys aren’t reinventing the wheel. They are however playing energetic death metal that should appeal to fans of the Swedish side of death metal. I’m curious to see where the band goes from here. This is a great start that should earn them quite a few fans within the scene.

Freya-As the Last Light Drains
(Victory, 2003)

For those of you that don't know Freya is a new band featuring members of the long defunct Earth Crisis. For fans of the last Earth Crisis album, you'll be happy to hear that the band somewhat picks up where that album left off. You'll hear the trademark vocals that made Earth Crisis such a powerful band, and the guitar riffing is catchy and similar to the streamlined style they were going for with Slither. It's simple, yet still very heavy and very driving. Basically the band plays heavy hardcore that doesn't kick up the tempo very often, but they still keep things exciting and interesting with a lot of different ideas and varied vocals.

For those expecting these guys to have the same political agenda as Earth Crisis you'll be a bit disappointed. The lyrics are mainly personal and are very easy to get into. There's almost a poetic thread running throughout the music. It's cryptic enough that it could be mistaken for poetry, yet if you read the lyrics you should get an idea of what the songs are about. The varied vocals also really help the lyrics stand out. The band utilizes the heavy verse/clean chorus quite effectivly. The guitar player in the band contributes a lot of the clean vocals, which adds a lot of diversity to the music. His voice fits nicley with Karl's as well, there is a great chemistry between the two vocals.

I'm glad to see that the band has come out with a strong sounding debut album. The production is very heavy and energetic. The guitar playing utilzes a lot of chugging power chords, and while some bands using this style suffer because of a bad production, every note and chug is heard powerfully and clear. I love the heavy bass guitar sound of this album as well. Anytime that the bass is playing alone, you can really hear the power of it. Listen loud and be prepared to experience a heart murmer. It'll pound your chest into submission.

While I did compare these guys to Earth Crisis a lot, I'd definitely say Freya is an original band. They have the core sound that Earth Crisis had, but I hear a bit of emo and oddly enough even a bit of a Swedish death metal style creeps into some of the more melodic riffing. If someone asked me what I thought of this band, simply put, I'd say they flat out rock.

Frightmare-Midnight Murder Mania
(Razorback, 2003)

I’ve always been very impressed by everything that Razorback has released so far, but this is easily the best thing the label has released so far. Frightmare is basically grinding death metal that takes influences from both the slasher films of the 80’s as well as the early grindcore bands from the 80’s and early 90’s.

Musically, this band rips and tears. It’s like grindcore butting heads with death metal, with some thrash riffing and a hardcore punk rambunctious ness to the entire sound. It’s incredibly energetic and leaves me floored with each listen. I guess you could say they sound similar to label mates Ghoul, both bands being both very energetic and combining thrash with death metal. If you like what Ghoul does, you’ll absolutely be slain by Frightmare. You can expect lots of blast beats and guttural vocals, yet at the same time there are many thrashy/hardcore punk tempo riffs that add a lot to the music.

I usually don’t go into too much detail about the layout and cover of a cd, but this is easily one of the coolest looking cds I have ever seen. The cover was done by Jake from Tales from Uranus comics, and it can only be described as fucking cool. It’s gory, fun and fits the bands style perfectly. The rest of the layout is full of horror pics, and a very cool cartoon drawing inspired by the New York Ripper. All in all this cd is a horror fans nightmare come true.

If you are a fan of horror and grindcore this is a cd you don’t want to miss out on! This album is a doozy and if you aren’t prepared you’ll undoubtedly be left decapitated.