Orphaned Land - Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven

This album is a must for fans of Opeth, Dark Suns, Iron Maiden, Paradise Lost, etc. Seamlessly blending traditional Israeli music and Eastern/Oriental instruments with death, doom and classic metal, Orphaned Land have created something unique and fresh amidst the all the clones of black, melodic death, and metalcore bands. Kobi Farhi's voice goes from pure death roars to soaring clean vocals in the blink of an eye and exhibits a maturity shared only by the likes of Mikael Äkerfeldt, Nick Holmes and other vocalists of such high repute. Mabool is a welcome change of pace from the ever-increasing monotony of the clone wars (no reference to Star Wars) that is the majority of metal these days.

Well said.I totally agree and also can't recommened this cd enough.Go out an get it! your life depends on it!

Oh god, Mabool is just too awesome for words. I'm loving the middle-eastern melodies and vocals. It's all just soooo good. I don't particularly like any of the bands Damaage mentioned in his review but I can say that this album has to be somewhere in my top 30 for all-time favorites. AWESOME album.

top 10 for me!

MoonSorrow - Kivenkantaja


Epic Progressive/Viking/Folk/ Metal from Finland.Features the Mr Trollhorn from the also mighty Finntroll on Keyboards/guitars.These guys are a less cheesy more epic Finntroll with Longer songs that feature the odd clean vocal line.There are the odd violin,Choir,acoustic guitar, female vocal and various other awesomely awesome instruments used.Seriously check these guys out.They're probably the most epic band i've heard.Anyone into their harsher yet beatifull music should dig them.They have a new cd coming out early this year i believe also..

[EphelDuath666]

Scar Symmetry - Symmetric In Design


Now this is one hell of a good Album! I recently discovered this Swedish band, read some reviews about it and thought I should give it a try after I read that this band was compared to Soilwork and well, it was definitely worth to check out because I think this Album is better than at least the last 3 Soilwork Albums, of course that´s just my opinion. And Scar Symmetry just seem to have a wider spectrum than Soilwork. Of course there are obvious similarities but I think that you can hear Illdisposed influences and also the choruses sometimes remind me of Raunchy. This band really has a talented singer who can switch between growling, screaming and beautiful clean vocals and also the drum and guitar work is really good. If you like Soilwork and the other mentioned bands, then you should give them a try. That´s what I call a good debut! Definitely already one of the highlights of this year for me.
The Album cover has been created by Pär Johansson by the way who was also responsible for the new SYL cover.
You can listen to one of their songs here but you´ll need RealPlayer for that:
http://www.metalblade.de/mp3/scarsymmetry-reborn.ram

I know these guys aren't too obscure, but I wanna recommend Monster Magnet. They seem to be rather overlooked, which is quit bizarre seeing as how cool rock seems to be these days, and these guys have been doing rock better than any fuckers since the late eighties.

I also want to recommend another not so obscure artist, but anyone interested in fuckin extremely creative music should check out David Bowie's 1976 album Low. Fuckin genius.

Monster Magnet - "Look To Your Orb For The Warning" extended version is trippingly magnificent! Good one G.R!

This one here is a real beauty:


Disillusion is a fairly new band from Germany, "Back To Times Of Splendor" is their first album and let me tell ya something: this, without a doubt, is one of the best metal albums I've ever listened to.

Their style is somewhat between proggresive metal and melodic deathmetal. If you really want to compare it to other bands i'd say they're somewhat between Opeth and Soilwork (which are definitely not the worst bands to be compared to =) ).

Disillusion somehow manages to just pick the good parts of these two styles of music which means that you won't find any nerv-wrecking guitar solos ( like Symphony X or Dream Theater sometimes have. In fact, the solos are awesome and touching! ) but the music is still challenging enough to keep you listening to the album without getting bored. The overall guitar work is really cool - many thrash and deathmetal riffs with nice acoustic breaks ( that's why they are often compared to Opeth. In my opinion Disillusion is a bit more chaotic than Opeth but therefore not as repetetive ).

Now to the point that really let's me freak out: the melodies. Due to my lack of english it's simply impossible to tell you how great they are! Due to the emotional singing of mainman Vurtox ( who uses this nice rolling "r" during the clean passages ) you will get addicted to each song.

The artwork, as you can see, is a true beauty ( you have to see the inlay! Travis Smith couldn't have done it better ) and the lyrics are great.

I really love this album ( I hope you recognized that =) ) and recommend it to every open-minded metal fan out there.

For another review ( which fits my feelings about this album quite well and is written in better english ), check:
http://www.aversionline.com/reviews/1595/

[EphelDuath666]

good one. Disillusion are really worth to check out!

SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM
totally fucking awesome!

Yes! Very nice guys too.

[Blazingmonga]

I know these guys aren't too obscure, but I wanna recommend Monster Magnet. They seem to be rather overlooked, which is quit bizarre seeing as how cool rock seems to be these days, and these guys have been doing rock better than any fuckers since the late eighties.

I also want to recommend another not so obscure artist, but anyone interested in fuckin extremely creative music should check out David Bowie's 1976 album Low. Fuckin genius.

I second the Monster Magnet recommendation. Dopes to Infinity is one of the best stoner/psychadelic rock albums ever! Very good band, Dave's voice is really cool. The older stuff takes a lot from bands such as Hawkwind, but it does it all so well that it doesnt matter. Excellent stuff.

Welcome To Sky Valley by Kyuss (I always cock on about this album)

Also, check out the Zoombombs if you can find any, particularly if you like cooky stuff like Bungle.

I'M NEVER GONNA WORK ANOTHER DAY IN MY LIFE!!!

godaaaaaamn I love monster magnet. \m/ Dopes to Infinity \m/ But all their stuff has it's wonderful charm. Dave writes the most bitter rock lyrics. He's like the stoned out Axel Rose.

Disillusion are an awe inpsiring band
The Amenta is spinning up a storm in my cd player
Myrkskog shit all over the Amenta and Zyklon put together IMO
I'll have to dig around for some of the other bands
But I'll recommend some nasty gore metal for the sickos out there

Aborted - Goremageddon,the saw and carnage done
this is probably the best gore orientated technical DM album period.
not many bands have captured such power and intenstity
But Aborted have nailed it,....right in the gaping wound in your stomach
This is unrelenting, gore drenched pathological metal at its best
And it sounds IN-FUCKING-CREDIBLE on sub woofers in a large home or car stereo(big sonic booms on the drop outs....viscious)
Mp3 available on http://www.Listenable.net

Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition II
This is an aquired taste, grindgore if you will
No lyrics or vocal effects just under half an hour of gut squashing
fecal throwing noise
Fully instrumental in sense with vocals bieng comprised of an incredible array of grunts burps growls frantic screams and gargles
The guitars a drop turned to rediculousness and the drumming is quite impressive, almost an origional style, kind of like Flo Monier(Cryptopsy) on speed, LSD,Acid and in desperate need of a shit or cigarette.
Like bieng yelled at by three very insane people inside a tumble dryer full of bricks, brilliant
Check out mp3s at the Osmose productions site

Vehemence - God was created
I can rant about how great this one is but I'll write the reveiw that made me buy it
"God was created" is that rarest of things: a story based death metal concept album. That story revolves around religious fetishism,mental illness,incestuous anal rape, murder necrophilia and suicide. so,like count me in.
Luckily Vehemence have the musical savvy and talent to back up such a deeply twisted lyrical approach.
One can pick up elements of Cryptopsy , Opeth, Suffocation and dissection, throughout its ten tracks
Wether you like your death metal melodic brutal grinding or gory theres something for all of you on this remarkable album.
Nuff said eh?
Mp3s available at http://www.metalblade.com

Try if you wish, but these are the top three on my heavy as heavy stuff list

Shadow Gallery - Legacy



http://www.magnacartarecords.com/releases/legacy.html

Older but as good... Carved In Stone



http://www.magnacartarecords.com/releas ... stone.html

Orgasm guaranteed.

If you want some killer prog metal grab this bad boy!



I grabbed this in Boston over the weekend for $4 and it's awesome! Usually prog-metal is hit or miss with me, most often a miss, but this album is killer! Imagine Into Eternity without the death metal vocals, mix that with the symphonic classical metal band Winds and you've got yourself a pretty good idea of what this band will sound like. The piano (keyboard style) on this album standouts even more than the guitar! It's amazing how they've intertwined both of them. Definitely check this out!

The whore of CD cover design Travis Smith designed the cover, usually an indication of a pretty good band.

EDIT: I just read that some of the guys from Winds are actually in this band! What's even more surprising is that members of fucking Mayhem are in this band! Weird!!