Majesty In Ruin-All Light Shall Fade (Demo 2014)

There are very few traces of  aggression on this demo, voice is great...he does some singing here which includes some of the most haunting and heartbreaking moments in this band. His voice is stronger, his vibrato and range is cool, and vocal harmonies appear consistently, and he employs some interesting and highly memorable melodies, that is how good the vocalist is here. The music is equal parts excellent melodic guitar harmonies, convincing your typical doom sections which are very dark, and some great experimentation on a large protion of the songs and heavy riffs.There is also a noticeable change in the style of drumming at times,these three tracks are good and this is a band  staying true to their inherent sense of sorrowful doom. Absolutely fantastic stuff here, Doom is back!
www.facebook.com/majestyinruin
soundcloud.com/majesty-in-ruin

Review by Paul Caravasi

Edge Of Haze-Illumine (2014)

To get an idea of the mood of this album, just imagine you’re standing on a desolate plain by a very gloomy stormy night, looking in an old well filled with utterly dark water. Indeed, dark is the key word here,this sounds depressive and, the band has managed to take the best of traditional doom metal (I’m referring to early Paradise Lost) and gothic metal without forgetting the death metal touch to combine them into this unique piece of pure DESPAIR, this album so exceptional. Because this work shows an undeniable GOTHIC feeling – Almost every song begins with a lively (hell, for doom metal of course) guitar-driven verse which generally in the middle of the track turns into a very slow melodic and emotional (in the best way) part more or less interrupted by heavier growled passages. Song structures are indeed complex and exhibiting a single pattern for the whole album would be rather hard. Clean vocals (predominant), growls, short atmospheric interludes, straightforward death-metal parts, spoken passages sometimes and RIFFS alternate in the most perfect manner. Because yes, this album has riffs, both slow and raspy doom metal riffs which account for much in the melancholy of the work, and prevent it from falling into unstructured gothic/atmospheric garbage. Here might well be the secret of this genuine piece of art, the music itself being amongst the saddest you might ever imagine. Some may prefer the more direct, black-sabbath-ish doom metal of the 80’s doom bands, As far as I’m concerned I consider this album as a cool release. Check it out!
www.facebook.com/edgeofhaze
Promoter: Curtis Dewar: dewarpr@gmail.com
Review by Paul Caravasi

Krow-Relentless Disease (Ep-2014)

These two songs absolutely fuckin' slays! headbangable riffage and a raw primal swagger that runs a gauntlet of styles and tones with ease -- the residual after-effect equivalent to several tons of pure cocaine, a straight-up adrenaline shot and one of my favorite musical experiences. Maybe I hold a minority opinion on this. And that there is an inherent generational bias in my abiding love for this Ep. But I truly feel it can appeal to fans of Entombed, and Autopsy and I cannot see how that is a bad thing.  And personally speaking, since i discovered this Brazilian band now, I've listened to it pretty much non-stop and will forever do so, sickeningly vicious, and heavy as hell, Krow tips the scale as a great and enduring metal band. Looking forward to hear their full lenght album soon!
www.facebook.com/krowmetalzone
Review by Paul Caravasi

Haemophagus-Atrocious (2014)

A mix between death and thrash metal, most of the riffs and leads are played more in a thrash manner while the drumming, vocals, and solos are more firmly in the death metal style. In essence you could call it an extreme thrash album, with a technical edge. First off the songs themselves are mainly played at very high tempos and the solos are almost entirely played in the Slayer style which is fast guitar picked distorted soloing that lasts for a short time, the songs are still very entertaining. The band’s playing is very tight which shows they are highly capable musicians who exhibit incredible skill since most of their songs are played at very high tempos. The vocals are quite brutal in death metal because they are bellowed in way that is easily decipherable to the listener. The guitar work has a technical aspect to it, the riff work is superb, The drumming is nearly flawless and is very double kick bass driven with some absolutely old school style. The bass guitar is almost inaudible which is far from unusual for either death or thrash metal. It belongs in any thrash or death metal collector’s collection. I recommend "Atrocious"  to any extreme metal fan who likes technically challenging death/thrash albums.
www.facebook.com/Haemophagus
haemophagus.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/razorbackrecordings
Review by Paul Caravasi

Imperial-Chaos

Unholy black metal from Francemixed with devastating thrash.The production here is very thin and high end. The drums favor the thrash style, but you will find plenty of blastbeats as well. The songs overall are a bit faster than your average thrash however. There are a couple gallop beats here and there as well, the drummer does a good job of keeping it fresh, yet staying aggressive throughout.The guitars are pure Hellish riffage. Sounding something like Venom. Comparable to Destroyer 666, but more intense - evil thrash and black riffage with just a hint of melody.The vocals are something of a throaty mid to low thrash styled yell with an occasional black metal scream over top.Though, there are a couple minor flaws. Overall these factors do not hold this album back. Like blackened thrash? Then get this.
www.facebook.com/ImperialOfficial
www.facebook.com/pages/Triumph-Ov-Death-records/133171970133853
E-mail: triumphovdeath@gmail.com
Review by Paul Caravasi

Flesh Engine-Purging Existence (2014)

Not a lot of people have actually heard of Flesh Engine but they have been on the road for a while, "Purging Existence" is an example of mixing a fair amount of drumming, as Pantera and Machine Head styled riffs as well. Overall it's a good album but I think some of the greatness of this album has been lost because of the midtempos. I would say that the first three songs have a bit more of a melodic edge than the rest of the album and don't base themselves almost exclusively on heavy and fast tunes...thus making this a great start to the album as it creates a bit of variation, although not enough to make it a truly great disc. The rest of the album though prides itself almost exclusively on heavy groove riffs (although there are some hints of melody from the first three songs scattered through a couple songs). There two things that hurt this disc: 1. The aforementioned problem of many bands having this sound...especially nowadays which really doesn't make this album stand out today and 2. Not enough variety or atleast not enough defining pieces in each song. N
ot bad at all, but i prefer fast drumming and fast killer riffs than midtempos, I would certainly say that if you like bands like Pantera, Machine Head you will atleast like this disc,i could say these guys are good musicians and i'm sure they can do it better next time.
www.fleshengine.com
www.facebook.com/fleshengine
www.fleshengine.bandcamp.com
Review by Paul Caravasi

Review by Byron Mena -Costra Records, Ecuador