Demilich/Ataraxie

Rehearsal '91: 2/18 & 9/12-Very rare underground techdeath metal greats Demilich. This band is truly legends of their own kind. These were rough demos posted for free download off the bands official website. The songs are moreso a set of songs in one. Each song is very raw and hard to hear, but great if you are able to analyze it. Recommended to fans of: Drottnar, Aspiration, Opeth, Cannibal Corpse. Overall Rating: 4/10
Live At Joensuu '91 2/23 & Fleshcrawl cover song-Another raw demo posted on Demilich's website available for free. The song is a full live set they played in Joensuu Finland. It's again hard to hear, but if you get past the rawness and crowd cheering it has its good sides. Recommended to fans of: Fleshcrawl and Fleshgrind. Overall Rating: 4/10
The Echo-Better quality release by techdeath greats Demilich. Sadly, again, still too raw for me to fall in love with. Recommended to fans of: Ancient Existence. Overall Rating: 5.4/10
...Somewhere Inside The Bowels Of Endlessness...-Best quality of all the demos due to the marketability as a promo to labels. This was the one they marketed around to get signed so they could release "Nespithe". Good collection of techdeath again. Still a bit raw, but no where near as raw as the previous releases. Recommended to fans of: Slow pace technical death metal. Overall Rating: 6/10
Slow Transcending Agony-Enjoyable release from french funeral death/doom musicians Ataraxie. I like the pieces where they speed up and go into more death metal material. It gets you up and wanting to enjoy the funeral doomy pieces more. Recommended to fans of: Esoteric and Imindain. Overall Rating: 7.6/10

As I Lay Dying/Darkest Hour/Project 86/Mortification

A Long March: The First Recordings-A compilation of As I Lay Dying's Rare first album "Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes", their split release material with American Tragedy, and a reissued version of the split songs that come on prior to the BTEOA on the tracklisting. The artwork, like the other 2 AILD CD's, is very elaborate. The beauty of skulls and magnolias is awe-shocking. The material from the 1st album are pretty good, but the recycled material that went on the 2nd release were alot better. The split material was good, even better reissued. "Illusions" will always be my favorite of the early releases (It's better than the 3rd album version with the dumb 2 minute wait before the song starts to fade in). Recommended for fans of: new wave Zao, For The Fallen Dreams, As Blood Runs Black, Metalcore. Overall Rating: 7/10
The Mark Of Judas-Shit release by early Darkest Hour. The material is more thrashy "Gothencore" (gothenburg melodeath meets hardcore/metalcore). The release isn't worth it unless you like thrash or are a true Darkest Hour fan. Recommended to fans of: Thrash or Gothencore. Overall Rating: 3.9/10
Archives-Again, more shit material from early age Darkest Hour. This is a compilation of some of their material that was on demos and splits that were alot harder to find than the album/EPs. Again, only recommended to true thrash/gothencore and darkest hour fans. Overall Rating: 3.8/10
...And The Rest Will Follow-A good release that signed Project 86's deathwish to go towards boring crap material. After this release project 86 went off and started playing more alternative borecore rock. Songs like "Sincerely, Ichabod", "Doomsday Stomp", and "My Will Be A Dead Man" are all keys for any bumping ballsy hard rock fan. The artwork for the release is awkward, with a fold-out from center layout for the slip and a sticker on the plastic casing for the CD (which i personally hate alot). Recommended for fans of: Blindside, Chevelle, Trapt, Breaking Benjamin. Overall Rating: 8/10
The Silver Chord Is Severed-Officially considered by 98% of all Mortification fans as their worst release to date. This was post "Triumph Of Mercy" and the band members didn't seem to mesh well with Steve Rowe. The only song worth listening to was "Standing At The Door Of Death" which was very catchy. Again, like "Triumph Of Mercy", the rest get lost in the static and fade out of your head when you're listening to it. Recommended to fans of: middle-age Mortification. Overall Rating: 4.9/10

Mortification/Zao/Drudkh/Drottnar/Zao

Triumph Of Mercy-Sadly the most looked down upon release by Mortification. This was released after main man behind the band Steve Rowe was overcoming a sarcoma that almost made his life seem inevitably grim. But God said it wasn't time for him to go, and he made a full recovery. This is his thanks and praise to God that he kept him alive to spread the gospel and word through music. The music on the CD is overall not bad, but not the best of Mortification's material either. There are 2 really good songs on the album; "Influence" and "Raw Is The Stonewood Temple". The rest really get lost in the mind and sound alot like the ones off of the hammer of God and relentless albums. Reccommended for fans of: Mortification. Overall Rating: 6.6/10
Rare Trax-This is a compilation i made of extremely rare and raw material released by Zao in their early stages. The disk ranges from whole live sets to unreleased songs to demo versions of songs later to be released on "The Funeral Of God" and other albums. This is really only for true Zao fans due to the rawness and sheer rareness of the material of this compilation i created. Reccomended for fans of: early Zao. Overall Rating: 4/10
Lebedynyy Shiyakh (The Swan Road)-The project continued from bands like Hate Forest, Blood Of Kingu, and Astrofaes. The release is like a really atmospheric, even more folk influenced, alter ego to Hate Forest. The material on this album is alot more tame than Hate Forest and even some of the other Drudkh releases. Recommended to fans of: Atmospheric Black, Black Ambient, Hate Forest, Into The Woods, Astrofaes, Agalloch, Opeth. Overall Rating: 6.3/10
Welterwerk-A very fun proggy tech black metal release. The album has alot of industrial and death over/undertones. The guitar in each song bounces around on very technical riffs that can be compared to an uptight version of techdeath greats Demilich. The band seems like they would have a completely awesome stage performance. They dress up in WWII soldier uniforms and seem to have made this more of a theme for their band as the time grows on. Recommended for fans of: Aspiration & Demilich. Overall Rating: 7.8/10
Legendary-Alot of the time i wonder why the hell i even bought this release. I really from upon compilation releases unless it is a compilation of all of a bands demos on one/two CDs. The only reason i can think is because 3 previously unreleased songs (which i happen to have on my rare trax compilation anyway) were added onto the end of the release. What was exciting is that most of the songs on this greatest hits compilations though is the fact that i like almost every single song on the release and they are ironically my favorite ones from each album (even before i bought this). Recommended for fans of: People who are just being introduced to Zao and metalcore, As I Lay Dying, Becoming The Archetype, Solid State Record's bands. Overall Rating: 9/10

Agalloch/System Of A Down/Disaffected/Zao/Robin Trower

The Grey-An ok release from dark metal band Agalloch. This is part of an 2 EP series (The Grey and The White). This album was limited to 1,000 copies, so the odds of me getting a hard copy unless i pay alot on Ebay are pretty slim. The CD is more acoustic, reminiscing of the album "The Mantle". There are alot less black metal material in the release compared to others. Recommended to fans of: Dark Metal. Overall Rating: 5/10
Steal This Album-A CD compiling all the material by SOAD that didn't make it to their album "Toxicity". I surprisingly prefer the album compared to all the others. My favorite songs are "Mr. Jack" and "Roulette". This was the album that i listened to the most of all the others. Recommended to fans of: Frank Zappa and Soil. Overall Rating: 8.8/10

Vast-The only band from the western iberian peninsula that i like. This band started as death/thrash (a genre i'm not fond of) and then turned into Prog-death. This album was their only release and the best at that. Sadly they broke up right after. Luckily for fans of this band, they reformed in 2008 and are doing shows and writing new material. Recommended for fans of: Phlebotomized. Overall Rating: 7.8/10
The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here-Probably one of the worst releases by Zao. This release is their newest, but the band is writing new material for 2009 that i look forward to. This release is more grind and math influenced material compared to "The Funeral Of God" which was metalcore. The CD is only worth having if you're a real Zao fan. Recommended to fans of: Every Time I Die. Overall Rating: 5/10
Live-One of the most talented guitarists of his time. He puts so much spirit into his guitar and he is also naturally talented. Recommended for fans of: Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimmy Hendrix, Michael Angelo Batio, John Mayer, and all solo guitarists. Overall Rating: 8.5/10