Dethklok's Dethalbum II is More Metal, Less Dethklok

Dethalbum II is undoubtedly a great metal album.  

The riffs are both heavy and catchy.  The solos are intense.  The churning beats will have you unable to stop bobbing your head.  

What the album is not is a great Dethklok album.

Dethalbum II sounds to me like what might happen in Dethklok’s fictional universe if lead singer Nathan Explosion were to do a solo album.  The product wouldn’t fall too from from the Dethklok tree, but it would have its own spin to the sound and be, despite the similarities, distinctly un-Dethklok.

Not too unlike the solo album from Serj Tankien of System of a Down, as it happens.

The feeling I get upon listening to Dethalbum II is a little hard to explain.

Click to read more ...

Wtichbreed's Heretic Rapture Different, Yet Still the Same

Heretic Rapture by Witchbreed is a fairly impressive debut disk on one hand and yet somehow unremarkable on another.

The fusion of metal with a female singer to add melody is hardly anything new in the music scene.  Nightwish, Within Temptation, Krypteria, and countless others have adopted this tactic and tried to put their own spin on it to stand out from the crowd.

Even though this is perhaps an overused trend and there is a veritable boatload of mediocre music released in this category, this is a trend I’m all for on the whole.  When done correctly, this fusion of melody and aggression can be simply captivating.  

Witchbreed doesn’t sound terribly original in concept, but in execution they actually manage to stand out from the crowd nicely.

Click to read more ...