Thorium-Feral Creation
(Might Music, 2008)

Denmark based Thorium have been together since 1997 but Feral Creation marks the first time their dirty old school death metal has beaten my ear drums. This is honestly one of the best kept secrets of the underground metal scene. Combining Dismember like ugliness with Celtic Frost like gloom, the band has a sound that is both manic and depressive.

The riffing is thick and barbaric while the drums move with the fervor of a wild dog going for the throat. The vocals are throaty growls that never sacrifice clarity to sound "brutal." This is the type of vocal style that can make death metal be incredibly powerful making the cookie monster approach seem rather unneeded. On top of the performance being incredibly energetic, the songwriting itself manages to be quite memorable. The riff ideas are to the point and like early Dismember are darkly melodic without ever sacrificing the heaviness.

This one took me by surprise but it was definitely a pleasant surprise. If you are like me and think that the glory days of Swedish death metal was when death metal was at its pinnacle, this is definitely an album you will want to check out immediately. The band manages to take an old school sound and still make it sound fresh and modern. If you have even a passing interest in rapid fire death metal, this is essential.

Impiety-Dominator
(Pulverised Records, 2008)

The first line uttered on this MCD gives you a good idea as to what Impiety is all about. "Worship war, rape, Satan" is repeated a few times and if you are new to this long running black metal band you know that this is a band that does not mess around. This is pure go for the throat black metal that takes element from war metal and thrash metal.

Not counting the minute long intro that sets up the remaining song, this is essentially 4 songs that are extremely fast and bulldozing. The riffing is fierce and somewhat similar to early Celtic Frost but filtered through the cold riffing style of early black metal. It's an evil combination that makes for a bare bones yet extremely satisfying listen riff wise. The vocals are harsh shouts but have much more definition than most black metal vocal performances. It definitely helps to give the music a lot more power as the shrieking banshee vocals that are sometimes used in this genre are laughable at the best of times.

Also included is a cover of the Sarcofago classsic The Black Vomit. I'll assume you know who Sarcafago is and the cover is just as manic as the original, if not more so. This is a band that has been together for 18 years and it certainly is apparent with one listen to this latest MCD from the band. If you like your metal vicious, bare bones and of the evil side, it doesn't get much better than this.

Iced Earth-The Crucible of Man (Something Wicked Part 2)
(SPV USA, 2008)

Iced Earth have always been a band that I have been somewhat on the fence with. There are songs that I instantly latch to, yet there are a lot of riffs and songwriting ideas that just seem far too typical and in a lot of cases just too damn similar from song to song. While it was interesting to see the original vocalist return to the band, just like previous albums this one is a bit hit or miss in my opinion.

For starters the album is a bit lacking energy wise. I know this isn't exactly what you would consider extreme by any stretch of the imagination, but metal of any type can be energetic and that aspect just isn't there with this album. The songwriting is quite good in say a song like Minions of the Watch, yet the song is lackluster in its delivery. In fact the best aspect of the album is Matt Barlow's vocals. He is just as strong as ever and the incredibly infectious vocal hooks do a good job of saving the album from completely lacking in energy. Overall the album is good, but it just doesn't rise above your average heavy metal record.

Iced Earth is a band with a devoted following and while there are a few examples of why the band has earned those fans throughout the album, the shining moments definitely seem few and far between with this album. If the entire album was as strong as Crown of the Fallen and if the energy level was upped a bit the album would have hit with a lot more force. As it stands this is a surprisingly lackluster album from a band that can do much better.