KOSMOS
'From Innocence To Pervesity'

French Black Metal has always been a hit and miss area and from time to time bands or projects emerge that wipe the floor with the rest of the scene, unfortunately its projects like Kosmos who loiter on the fence. The debut album 'From Innocence To Pervesity' delivers sensational musical compositions via insane drumming, raw riffs and a dark grim atmosphere, but what lets it down is the vocals, sure there is meant to be vocals, but it just sounds like static on the microphone. Overall the album is fairly well done, but the vocals need more work to be done rather than making pretty designs using corpse paint.

[6] RHYS STEVENSON

SPIRITS WAY
'Brainless Puppets Are Enslaved'

Polish Death Metal quartet Spirits Way take no time out to release their next opus as a year after their 2011 debut EP, they release their debut album 'Brainless Puppets Are Enslaved'. Kicking off with technical metal simmering in the background and Death Metal delivering the goods in extreme form, this is a solid prime example of how Death Metal should be conducted. 'Brainless Puppets Are Enslaved' features seven tracks of nitty-gritty music and twenty-one minutes worth of complete annihilation of the hearing senses. It would be really odd if no record label snaps this lot up, brimming with potential and attitude, 'Brainless Puppets Are Enslaved' may as well be Polish Metal album of the year.

[8.5] RHYS STEVENSON

BURNING SHADOWS
'Gather, Darkness!'

The question is 'Why on earth aren't these guys signed'? Listeners would most probably agree when checking out Burning Shadows and their sophomore album 'Gather, Darkness!', lashing together majestic Power Metal vocals with the traditional sounds of Heavy Metal to create a folklorish album. Mixing their intricate music with the lyrical topics of mythology, war and Tolkien themes, no wonder the overall product sounds like a thousand horses galloping; it's fast-paced, full of unexpected twists and turns and ultimately truly American. For the Maryland quartet this is a step forward and is sure to get attention across the globe.

[7.5] RHYS STEVENSON

HELLSPAWN
'The Great Red Dragon'
Wydawnictwo Muzyczne Psycho

Hellspawn return to shed out their sophomore album 'The Great Red Dragon', the Polish quartet clearly have influence from titans Behemoth as there are very identical riffs between the two, even so 'The Great Red Dragon' is a well-produced slab of no-bullsh*t Death Metal. It is fast, brutal and a skull-smashing piece of musicianship. From the first second to the last riff, 'The Great Red Dragon' wipes the floor with their previous releases and is sure to garner much attention across Europe. With the drums blazing and the guitars shedding out notes like as if he has the runs, Hellspawn have done it again and brought their signature sound to the table for a second round.

[7] RHYS STEVENSON

IBLIS
'Menthell'
D.T.M PRODS

Strange things happen and sometimes they cannot be explained, such a chase is the debut album by Iblis from Poland, their album 'Menthell' covers much of the old school Black 'N' Roll that they seemed to play, but in fact most of the album dives into the Avant-Garde Metal pool and plucks out some of the most bizarre sounds ever imaginable. Playing in the style of bands like December Wolves, Aarni and Sunn O))), the quartet produce a unique sound that is hard to compare with any other bands. Weaving the Avant-Garde influences with their style of Post-Black Metal, Iblis are a one of a kind.

[7] RHYS STEVENSON

PANDEMONIUM
'Misanthropy'
PAGAN

Number four has dropped and strangely enough it's a nothing, the drums pummel away as it says in the script, but with no build-up or anti-climax, this failed to break the box office, enough of the film language, this is music, or so it should be. For Poland's Pandemonium, it couldn't get any bizarre, for starters the album tends to lack presence, yet the music is fine, the atmosphere is dull, yet the feeling is there. 'Misanthropy' in question is indeed a question mark over the band's excellent record of decent albums, but this is one they should quickly forget, from such a long-running band and a well known one at that, much was more to be expected than has been delivered.

[5] RHYS STEVENSON

WARHEAD
'The End Is Here'

Sometimes you just think that recording studios can go from absolute perfection to backyard trash, sadly the album in question got beaten up in the backyard. 'The End Is Here' by American Thrashers Warhead is their debut album, yet to listen to it, you need speakers at maximum, it is that bad. The music itself is well done, a straight-edge production in the vein of Thrash Metal and clearly shows signs that they stuck to it and did not deviate, but for the level of the sound that is produced at a normal level, well you would need a huge speaker system to make it sound ok, sad to say but 'The End Is Here' for Warhead.

[2.5] RHYS STEVENSON

SVENTOYAR (Свентояр)
'Our Strength'
BLACK DEATH PROD.

Those Eastern Europeans, lavish and deep in their beloved folk music and beliefs, so when Sventoyar (Свентояр) come back to release their sophomore album 'Our Strength', it cannot be helped but to notice this is a band singing about Slavonic Paganism, folklore and nationalism, but don't dub them as a Nazi band, this is not the case. The Ukrainian quintet come together to produce a beautiful display of traditional folk music with the harsh sounds of Metal music to create something extraordinary. Singing in their native Ukrainian language, you get that truly glorious feel of being taken into the ancient history of their lands and with 'Our Strength' now firmly set in stone, Sventoyar are taking Ukrainian Metal to greater heights.

[7] RHYS STEVENSON
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YOSSI SASSI
'Melting Clocks'
VERYCORDS

Most of the albums coming from the Middle East tend to have that exotic feel about them, 'Melting Clocks' is no different, the total instrumental album by Orphaned Land's Yossi Sassi delivers the best sounds of traditional Hebrew and Israeli music with the solid backbone of rock music. Composed in such a way that even at Yom Kippur, this would be a perfect soundtrack to the colourful festival. Garnered by the authentic Oriental sounds of the native homeland of Christianity, Yossi Sassi delivers a masterpiece classic to the world in a thousand colours and with his 'Melting Clocks' album now firmly set in the music world; this is just the start of something rather epic.

[8] RHYS STEVENSON

DARK AMBITION
'Gallows Of Empire'
ROCK SPACE KOREA

On the other side of the globe in South Korea, comes a return for the sextet Dark Ambition and their sophomore album 'Gallows Of Empire'. The Seoul-based band deliver another round of their unique Melodic Black / Folk / Death Metal sound combo and their historical legends as lyrics once more, such a fine album this is and especially since it's the bands tenth anniversary. Mixing heavenly keyboard notes with the harsh brutality executed by the drums, vocals and guitars, altogether come as one to produce one of the finest dark albums South Korea has ever seen. 'Gallows Of Empire' is in fact for fans of Cradle Of Filth, Hecate Enthroned, Ancient Rites and general Extreme Dark Metal.

[7.5] RHYS STEVENSON