The Great Commission/I Killed The Prom Queen/Zao/Living Sacrifice/A Plea For Purging

And Every Knee Shall Bow: Balls out hardcore. This is the heaviest hardcore band to date i have heard and love. It smacks you to the ground and punches you in the face. Crunching guitar from the 3 guitarists. Hardcore yells from a male and female screamer. A guest in every song (including musicians from: xDeathstarx, For Today, Impending Doom, Sleeping Giant, Point Of Recognition, and more). The guitar running back and forth from one side of the speaker to the other is the best. One song also has amazing drum solos in between the breakdown. Recommended for fans of: xDeathstarx, Point Of Recognition, No Innocent Victim, xBishopx, etc. Overall Rating: 9.3/10

Music For The Recently Deceased: I underestimated this the first time i heard it years ago. This time i gave it a serious listen for once because i was checking out bands my girlfriend listens to. I listened to one song at first on occasion "Sharks In Your Mouth" and progressed to the whole album. It wasn't bad, and it grew on me. It is an extremely melodic metalcore band, but still has quite the heavy tendencies. And on top of it have heavy ties to the metal scene, having albums recorded by the such of people who did The Haunted, In Flames, and many more. Recommended for fans of: Unearth (EWEWEW) & Killswitch Engage. Overall Rating: 7/10

Awake?-Are you really awake? Sadly i was not. I really love Zao, growing up on them. But i am very dissapointed in the last 2 releases. They have gone in a slightly lighter direction with this release and i am very skeptical about it. Maybe one day it will grow on me; but not for a long time. Overall Rating: 6.7/10

Nonexistent: Early Living Sacrifice album. It sticks more towards their thrash roots, but is the start of their extreme overhaul into straight death metal. "Haven Of Blasphemy" a great example of their old thrash (especially because that song was on their first ever demo), and other tracks showing almost the complete opposite. Great drumming and guitar riffwork. Very catchy. Recommended for fans of: Mortification. Overall Rating: 7.3/10

A Plea For Purging-Completely different from the new material. Extremely influenced by power metal early on, AP4P played technical math/metalcore with power metal tendencies. Andy screamed less like a fat man and more like a throaty teenager. Even though it seemed like a bunch of rookies pulling something off in the big picture, you can go in with a fine tooth comb and see how beautiful it is. The overtly technical guitar riffs and double bass especially. Overall Rating: 9.7/10

In Grief/Beneath The Massacre/Blind Witness/Armor For Sleep/Winds Of Sorrow

Deserted Soul-Odd music for odd people. This band is a very avant-garde progressive black/death metal band. They are signed to bombworks records which is a very up and coming christian metal label. The songs have extreme atmosphere, but in a norwegian black metal way; overlaying strong progressive death metal riffing. Most of all they overload the keyboars, in the best way possible. The band is great due to the strong vocals and keyboards in all the songs. It's a spacey release, recommended for late nite drives, where it will get you relaxed, but not tired. Recommended for fans of: Phlebotomized & Disaffected. Overall Rating: 7.8/10

Mechanics Of Dysfunction-Ballsiest f**kin' release since the stoneage. BTM is burly technical brutal death. They rumble your ass, even through headphones. Makes you want to get up and strangle your neighbor for not mowing the lawn. even though they play tech BDM they have burly breakdowns too. The breakdowns just make you want to murder. Recommended for fans of: Carnifex, Suffocation, & Oceano. Overall Rating: 9.6/10

Silences Are Words-Although they are a pretty commercial band; preferring to market their material through Hot Topic, mainly due to the fact they are signed to victory records. They are surprisingly good melodic death/metalcore. Nothing very amazing that juts out on the cd. I recommend purchasing a copy if you are a melodeath connoisseur. Recommended for fans of: German melo-death/metalcore, Darkest Hour, & early Killswitch Engage. Overall Rating: 6.9/10

What To Do When You Are Dead-Yes i know all the other releases i reviewed in this section are metal haha. I do have a light side =]. Armor For Sleep to me is classic Emotive music, remeniscent of early 90's emotive over new era "Emo" Post-Hardcore music. Every song is based on the storyline of a boy dying and following the girl he loved and finding things out about her. A reoccuring line throughout the whole album "Don't Believe, That The Weather, Is Perfect The Day That You Die" stands out very strong in context of every song. The idea they have has been done before but it is very unique the way they performed it. I am frustrated they went into playing indie pop instead of staying this style. Recommended for fans of: Hawthorne Heights & Sunny Day Real Estate. Overall Rating 9.7/10

Through Twilight...-A beautifully choreographed ambient misanthropic suicidal black metal release. Mort who is in many ambient/depressive black metal bands in the auckland new zealand scene; has learned how to perfect the art of depressive darkness mixed with the natural beauties of life. It makes you feel depressed how the world is so beautiful and people are so ugly, destroying the earth and scouring its natural resources. Recommended to fans of: Happy Days, Exiled From Light, & all depressive black ambient. Overall Rating: 9.8/10

As Cities Burn/Allatus Adeo/Amongst The Ruin/Beneath A Blackened Sky/Beneath The Massacre

Hell Or High Water-Something different from ACB. I always loved their kickback screamo material, and then "Come Now Sleep" hit the shelves and they became lighter. I was knocked back in the change. This album totally took me off guard. This release is really light indie rock with some atmosphere. Their first song has the original singer that comes in and screams in it, and i think that was my favorite song. The rest of the tracks had no screaming, but still made it so that i liked them in some way. It was enjoyable, but i still really miss old ACB. Recommended for fans of: Emarosa, Death Cab For Cutie, & Mewithoutyou. Overall Rating: 6.4/10

Common Logic-Great release from a band that needs alot more attention. This band is very odd metalcore/mallcore with some balls and keyboards. To me they are like if TDWP and IWABO got in a fight. The songs jump to different sizes of heavy and liteness. The best part of the band as a whole is the keyboards. They make this band. "Goodbye Cylinder" in particular, with its funneling oscillator keyboard was amazing. Recommended for fans of: The Devil Wears Prada, I Wrestled A Bear Once, & The Number Twelve Looks Like You. Overall Rating: 7.9/10

My Dear My Love-Sludgy Metalcore/Mallcore. Not the best band i ever heard, but one i would buy a CD from if i knew how. Recommended for fans of: Oceana, Dance Gavin Dance, early Emarosa. Overall Rating: 6.3/10The Art Of Suffering-Broadcasted as deathcore, the more i hear it, the less i hear the deathcore. I liked this band at first, but the more i listen, the less i like it. The band has more groove/metalcore tendencies than deathcore all together. Now that i've listened to this band in full i will not listen to them again. Recommended for fans of: Pantera. Overall Rating: 4/10

Evidence Of Iniquity-GREAT!! Blasting brutal death/deathcore from canada. I always tended to think canada sucked until i heard about stutterfly, cry of the afflicted, secret & whisper, and Beneath The Massacre. The riffs and blasts shudder you, even on computer speakers. I can't wait to get a hold of a hard copy of the release and have the blasting breaks brutallize my asshole when i drive. Recommended to fans of: Whitechapel, Suicide Silence, Jasad. Overall Rating: 8.8/10

Beneath The Massacre/A Plea For Purging/Death/Living Sacrifice

Dystopia-The first time i had finally given Beneath The Massacre and I really like them!! Slamming brutal death metal with the occasional breakdowns. It is sick! Along the lines of most the stuff i like listening to. Recommended for fans of: Necrophagist, The Roman Holiday, Suffocation, Impending Doom, & The Faceless. Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Depravity-Best release of 2009. Nothing like anything i've ever heard before. The band went in a new direction and started to play deathcore/metalcore. The change was for the better. People tell me "O I don't like it! I can hear the fat of the singer in his voice!!!" Well i think this fat guy has some sick pipes. He gives a great sound. The guitars are immense and the dribbling of the double bass pedal make you tremble. Recommended for fans of: Impending Doom & For Today. Overall Rating: 78934526813795326234/10

Individual Thought Patterns-Where Death started to change their direction to prog death metal. Really good talentwise. Best song was the single "The Philosopher"; which is Death's, probably most popular song. Recommended for fans of: Phlebotomized, Horror Of Horrors, Pathology Stench. Overall Rating: 6.9/10

Living Sacrifice-First release from the band, and is 200% thrash. I really hate thrash, but LS is one of the few bands i grew up on that i still like. Songs like Anorexia Spiritual really get you revved up to go do something. This cd is a pocket full of energy if u need that extra boost to wake up. Recommended to fans of: early early early Metallica. Overall rating: 7.7/10A Critique Of Mind And Thought-Nothing like the new album at all!! Heavily influenced power elements for this band. They played metalcore with crazy, constant sweeping guitar and bass. I don't recollect alot. It was great, but not a CD i'd listen to alot. Recommended for fans of: Straight Reads The Line & Protest The Hero. Overall Rating: 6/10

Mortal Treason/Living Sacrifice/Death/Impending Doom/Trouble

Reborn-LS is the only band i could ever stand that plays thrash. This release was more along an industrial side, relative to Meshuggah. Most memorable track is the single "Reject". Recommended for fans of: Ten Feet From Murder & Meshuggah. Overall Rating: 6.2/10

Symbolic-My favorite Death release. In Schuldiner's late days he went from Death metal more towards Prog Death. The CD has Gene Hoglan, from bands like Dethklok, Old Man's Child, Zimmer's Hole, Unearth, and many many more. Gene shows his supremacy of the double bass mixed with his technical jazz influenced cymbal and snare patterns. Chuck has amazing solos. The album has great grooves, lyrics, old school breakdowns. Anything a metalhead can ask for. Recommended for fans of: DEATH. Overall Rating: 387125/10

The Serpent Servant-Newest release by Impending Doom and their sophomore full-length. They went more in a ballsier deathcore direction with very dark atmospheric melodic lines fit in sporadicly, much like meshuggah. Their breakdowns are great and the bass drops (when heard) are immense. The CD's biggest two tracks to me are the one that the album is named after and of course "Anything Goes". Recommended for fans of: Meshuggah & Beneath The Massacre's breakdowns. Overall Rating: 8.9/10

The Skull-One of the 2 doom metal releases created by Trouble in their early life as a band. This one was the 2nd Doom Metal release and was headed more towards the psychadellic stoner metal direction, but still had doom as the huge picture. This one didn't have as many big tracks as "Psalm 9" but it was a good doom metal release for the early 80s. Recommended for fans of: Black Sabbath. Overall Rating: 6.7/10

Drudkh/Demilich/Misery Chastain

Anti-Urban-Probably my favorite of all the Drudkh releases. Instead of taking their atmosphere from nature; this 2 track EP was recorded with a glum, dark, anti-urban nature. By using atmosphere of what felt like a dark industrial city. What i hate is the fact i don't own this. Because my burned CD of this is broken and sounds horrible and cut-off both songs halfway through. Recommended for fans of: Hate Forest, Astrofaes, Blood Of Kingu, Sunwheel. Overall Rating: 8/10

Autumn Aurora-Another Drudkh release. This one more traditional to their style. This post-Hate Forest project takes alot of atmosphere of nature. I'm surprised that they are not like the stereotypical atmospheric black (with ambient tendencies) band that uses strictly winter influenced atmosphere. Drudkh experiments with various ones. This album is obviously using the fall. Great sound, but again, it was on the burned CD with the release above, and it only played a couple tracks in full and the rest broke. Recommended for fans of: All bands related to Hate Forest & In The Woods. Overall Rating: 4.8/10

The Four Instructive Tales...Of Decomposition-The earliest Demilich release. Later rereleased with Nespithe as a special edition. This release has been bootlegged through ebay so many times it would make your eyes spin. People seem to love Demilich and Antti hasn't done much to get them popular. Every time he releases a small pressing of CD's they sell out almost immediately. He should really go full out and repress them with a large record label and get their name out there, although they won't get back together besides a few possible reunion shows? Recommended for fans of: Old Tech Death, Suffocation, Etc.. Overall Rating: 6/10 (rawness of cassettes)

Nespithe-The only full length release by the band and probably one of the most coveted metal releases along with "Spiritual Healing" by Death. Antti rereleased this with one label, rereleased it again on another including the demo seen above, rereleased again on another label the same way, and then another one that rereleased the same on vinyl. I really don't see why they don't mass rerelease it on a label like relapse, because so many people love them and want their merch. The CD is codeword for "The Spine" and Demilich uses this cunning 3 word grouping pattern throughout the CD. The CD is raw, but very technical and Antti is very talented; being able to do such tech guitar lines and do his signature lowlowlow burping, gutterals. Recommended for fans of: Demilich haha. Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Awaiting The End-Only available through purchasing it through the band. This release is intense and immense. The singer of the band, the infamous Seth Kimbrough of BMX biking fame and also was singer of Mortal Treason, a large melodic death band in the early 2000's. When you listen to this release, it's hard not to contrast this to Mortal Treason. Seth carried on with making another christian project but his screams are alot more distinct and he jumps around more instead of having his same pitch screams. The CD is technical with its guitar lines and melodic. The CD has its occasional breakdowns, which are well worth the waiting. For a short EP, it really packs a punch. Recommended for fans of: Mortal Treason & Symphony In Peril. Overall Rating: 8.8/10

Trouble/Liars/Parabstruse/Isis

One For The Road-Nothing much to say about the release. It's an unheard of demo by doom metallers Trouble. Contained stuff not on other albums, but nothing too memorable about it. Recommended for fans of: Sir Lord Baltimore. Overall Rating: 4/10

Run To The Light-Mid-era album by Trouble. Released post "Manic Frustration"; this release contains quite a bit of the Jimi Hendrix sound they had on the earlier release mixed with alot of their old material. Again, another Trouble release that didn't make too much of an impact on me when i listened to it. Only memorable when you hear the CD, but not after the fact. Recommended for fans of: Jimi Hendrix & Black Sabbath. Overall Rating: 4/10

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned-The wierdest release that i listen to and actually like alot. This is probably the creepiest when it comes to atmosphere and vocal stylings. Heavily avant-garde, artistic lyrics. Recommended for fans of: Avant-Garde indie & The Blood Brothers. Overall Rating: 8.3/10

Back And Forth-One of the more beautiful post-rock releases i have in my collection. It's very contained but also has floods of emotion that just fade in and give you the chills, as if there was an outer body being (in my religion, God) touching you. I listened to this over in over while lying in bed with a smile on my face. The music is uplifting and i thank my friend Gary for saving one of the last copies he had left to mail me. Recommended for fans of: Godspeed You Black Emperor! & Sigur Ros. Overall Rating: 8.9/10

In The Absence Of Truth-1/3 of my top 3 favorite Isis releases (soon to be 4 once i hear "Wavering Radiant"). This one concentrates alot more on intricate drum work, guitar atmosphere, and singing with moreso occasional screams. Like Parabstruse (above); I would get floods of emotion when I sit in bed listening to this. The artwork is amazing and like nothing i've ever seen. Recommended to fans of: Parabstruse & Pelican. Overall Rating: 389206523/10