Hate Forest/The Ocean/Soul Embraced

Sorrow-A good album by hate forest with a title to fit. This album is atmospheric black with hints of ambient and pagan elements. The biggest issue for me is that this album isn't much different from "Scythia" (the album being reviewed below). Besides all that, again, nothing much to say about this release. Recommended for fans of: Drudkh and Astrofaes. Overall Rating: 6/10
Scythia-The bands first demo that has since been reissued multiple times on different labels. This album is a big difference from their other material obviously because it's their first release and they changed in style quite a bit since they started with this album. These albums i've been reviewing recently haven't had much to say about them really. Recommended for fans of: Drudkh and Astrofaes. Overall Rating: 6/10
Aeolian-A very good symphonic sludge release. This band is a collective, and one of the only collectives i listen to. Basically there are core musicians and many many musicians that come and go that add a certain part to the band. I never listen to collectives (grateful dead and other bands of the such) because i don't understand how a band can stay the same style if they don't have the same members all the time. This album is very experimenting in the genres of death, sludge, metalcore, and groove.  Recommended for fans of: Kehlvin, Irreversible, Atmospheric Sludge/death metal. Overall Rating: 8.2/10
Immune-From the man who brought you Living Sacrifice and Shredded Corpse comes Soul Embraced. This is Rocky Gray's side that he formed to get out some pent up emotions aside from Living Sacrifice. This release is very good quality and is very hardcore influenced. It is very melodic and it is half deathcore half death metal. Recommended to fans of: Ancient Existence and Melodeath metal. Overall Rating: 8.3/10
The Most Ancient Ones-Another good Hate Forest release. Not much to say about it, besides that is a pretty damn good release. Recommended to fans of : Drudkh and Astrofaes. Overall Rating: 6/10

Staple/Mortification/Project 86/Zao/Hate Forest

Staple-An ok release. Really on the cutting edge of it's awkward genre of alt-rock meets metalcore meets emocore. Not really too much to say about the release besides that i wouldn't recommend it unless you heard their sophomore release first and liked it. Recommended to fans of: Project 86 and Sordid. Overall Rating: 5/10
Primitive Rhythm Machine-A middle age Mortification release, not really bad, but not amazing. This album is basically a copy of "Relentless" but with tribal influences and guest musicians to fill in the void due to the fact Steve Rowe had no filling members at the time. Not really much to say about this release either besides the fact its another mediocre release. Overall Rating: 5/10
Songs To Burn Your Bridges By-A good followup to the previous album "Truthless Heroes". Sadly their other releases really blew asshole. Their first 2 were too rapcore, and the later ones after the release after this one, i don't know, they just really sucked. This ones best tracks are 1, 3, and 5. Look into those 3 first. The album doesn't really follow a layout like the previous; it has no flow; but it's still rather good. Recommended to fans of: Sordid and Staple. Overall Rating: 5.6/10
(Self-Titled)-A good transitional album. This is where all their material is electronicized but less industrial than previous releases. The album was written in studio by 2 of the 3 members in a short time. Dan weyandt hits his 3rd album mark with the band at this point, and there weren't any original members left in the band at that point. Zao just keeps evolving and changing, and thats why they are likable. Recommended to fans of: Prodigy and Project 86. Overall Rating: 7.8/10
Nietzscheism-A compilation of hard to find HF releases ("Darkness", "Blood And Fire", "Ritual", and "Resistance"). Basically my second favorite release (to the EP "The Gates" of course). I love this album for it's intro track, which is actually "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" by Carl Orff, which is an amazing orchestral piece. Recommended for fans of: Drudkh, Pagan/NS black metal. Overall Rating: 8/10

Ancient Existence/Inversion/Zao/Molested

Hate Is The Law-A release i stayed away from for a long time after i burn it to a cd-r, but once listened, i thought was awesome. The music is very new age standard death metal (think of a mix of dismember, darkest hour, in flames, but more slow paced 4/4 standard death). The music didn't really catch my eyes until the vocalist started singing. All he does is low pitched gutterals (relative to standard brutal death metal). Ancient Existence infuses elements of brutal death, old school death, and new school into this new genre or new wave death with melodic elements. A good listen all the way through although it all sounds alike. It gets to almost a bore at some points, but worth listening to if you want to get into melo-death and new school death metal. Recommended to fans of: new wave Dismember, In Flames, Jungle Rot, Darkest Hour. Overall Rating: 6.5/10
The Nature Of Depravity-The rarest release i have yet to find and purchase in the christian death underground. (I found a brazilian site selling it for 30$ but never contacted me back after i conversed with the owner of the store and he promised me the link to his paypal account). This release is very different to other christian releases, it has a different flare and is rather unorthodox. It has elements of some black metal in the tracks, but this is mainly in the vocals. My favorite track was actually acoustic, and i loved how they undertoned in death metal whispers and at the end added a fast paced acoustic part paired with black metal vocals. Recommended to fans of: Dieversion, Discern, Crimson Thorn, old school american christian death metal. Overall Rating: 7/10
The Splinter Shards The Birth Of Separation-Probably my least favorite Zao release. Not too memorable; but if i was to take another listen again, i'd probably remember each song. Recommended to fans of: Six Feet Deep. Overall Rating: 5./10
Blod Draum-Good old school death metal formed by later frontman of Borknagar and Cronian Oystein Brun. The release has some folk elements and is a rare gem that alot people are looking forward to it's rerelease due out early 09 with Stormvold (look below) as a bonus addition. The Cd will be released on Oystein's label Ars Magna, which recently signed Vuurdood. If you want great old school death, this is a must. Recommended for fans of: Demilich. Overall Rating: 5.9/10 (due to it's raw quality)
Stormvold-The last Molested release, and a pretty good one too. I would say not really a change from Blod Draum but still good old school death. The rereleas will be so much more insane. Dan Swano is going to remaster it, so i'm expecting alot of good to come out of something that was great when it was only raw. Recommended for fans of: Demilich. Overall Rating: 5.9/10 (for raw quality again)

Esoteric/Prodigy/Zao/Sectioned

Epistemological Despondency-First off, one of the most metal album titles for a cd. Very quality funeral doom, and the most revered of all funeral doom bands. Esoteric ironically has a very esoteric take on their material. The songs on some occasions escape the cliche "funeral doom" and go on to experimental material with jazz, death, and doom metal all mixed. I'm pretty sure one song had saxophone, but it might be one of their other releases. This Cd has gotten much praise, i personally prefer Ea more than Esoteric, but Esoteric is an excellent band to introduce someone to funeral doom. Their songs range from 10-30 minutes. Their 6 tracks are so long that it had to be released on 2 discs. I look forward to purchasing the release to see this artwork that makes your eyes go crazy. Recommended to fans of: Ataraxie, Ea, Imindain. Overall Rating: 7.5/10
The Fat Of The Land-A release i have grown up listening to. I've had really odd musically influenced roots. (From Bush, to System Of A Down, Prodigy, Rammstein, etc) This release is sometimes considered an industrial masterpiece, but prodigy goes very light on the industrial elements for this release and its all dance music. This is basically a compilation of all their best songs, because none of their other full length albums were good in my view and this was their best album that everyone knows. Everyone knows their songs somehow; "Smack My Bitch Up" was in the movie Charlie's Angels, and "Narayan" was the anthem for a wrestler in the WWF in the 90's named Viscera. I have basically memorized and know all the songs on this release, and it's fun to dance and mosh to, alot of breakbeat elements added into their music. Recommended to fans of: KMFDM, Rammstein, Industrial and Dance fanatics. Overall Rating: 9.4/10Parade Of Chaos-A good zao release, but not in my group of favorites. This release was more of their progression era away from their industrial era ("(Self-Titled)") into the pure metalcore era ("The Funeral Of God") This didn't jump out too far at me, but it did have 2 key tracks i keep on my favorite zao songs list, "Suspend/Suspension" and "Angel Without Wings". I would say if you want to start listening to zao to keep away from this release until you know you will like all their material. Recommended to fans of: "(Self Titled)" era Zao. Overall Rating: 6.7/10

Zao/Secret And Whisper/Bubblegum Octopus/Mortal Treason

Where Blood And Fire Bring Rest-The pinnacle of Zao. This album is considered by magazines as the most influential album of 1995. It is blasting melodic hardcore mixed with dark metal/metalcore. This album is before Self-Titled where they actually added a drum machine and industrial (so it was their pre-industrial era), but you see how some of their material on the album have some industrial tendencies. One of my 3 favorite Zao albums. I love how some of the songs have whispering and just blast in. This album is so brutal. If i was to make a cover album, i would defenitely cover a song off this CD. Recommended to fans of: Training For Utopia, (early) Demon Hunter. Overall Rating: 11/10
Great White Whale-Very reminescent of Stutterfly, but totally different at the same time. This is the follow-up to the band's old project Stutterfly. Their singer had decided to leave and they got a new singer and their style totally change, but stayed the same somehow. They dropped all the scream vocals, but their vocals have a higher range that doesn't go low like the Stutterfly material; which has alot more of a really "full" range on vocals. The album is really catchy and beautiful. One of my favorites for 2008. Recommended to fans of: Stutterfly. Overall Rating: 300000/10
This is not an actual Bubblegum Octopus release, but it is a mix disc of close to all of his recorded songs. I keep this so i can hear all the material that he won't end up including on the project's first release. I really hate the genre "computergrind" aka "Compucore" (etc.); But M@ the C@ has alot of my respect. He was one of the main influences on present day Compucore, with bands that play video-game/bubblegum poppy based material. He has also been in plenty of bands, atleast 15-20 by what i know. I'm really excited to hear this local musician's CD. It will hopefully come out by next month (December 08). Recommended to fans of: One Oreo Killed My Reeses, Shove Your Dick In A Meat Grinder, That Ain't Your Grandpa's Rifle, 1000 Dead Rabbits, all computercore/bubblegum pop/8-bit. Overall Rating: 9.8/10
Sunrise Over A Sea Of Blood-Good melo-death/black metal. Not as good as the original album, but has a totally different luster to the release compared to the first. It has a more epic feel, but i just wasn't really into the album. Recommended to fans of: Soul Embraced, Abigail Williams, The Black Dahlia Murder. Overall Rating: 6/10