Revocation - Empire Of The Obscene (2008)

Revocation

Genre: Technical Death Metal
Origin: Boston, USA
Website: http://www.myspace.com/revocation

Empire Of The Obscene





























Track List:
1: Unattained
2: Tail From The Crypt
3: Exhumed Identity
4: Fields Of Predation
5: Alliance And Tyranny
6: Suffer These Wounds
7: Summon The Spawn
8: None Shall Be Spared (All Shall Be Speared)
9: Stillness
10: Age Of Iniquity
11: Empire Of The Obscene

You have absoutely no reason not to listen to this right now, for it's one of the best albums of 2008. The band were even unsigned at the time.
This album struck most of us from the first note. It'll quickly become clear that Revocation isn't your ordinary tech death band. There is a sort of playfulness to their music, one could say. A playfulness that the band aren't afraid to expose. You see, most of these songs aren't technical wanking per say. Yes, the riffs are mostly technical thrash riffs, technical beyond all hell might I add. Yes, the bass backs it all up with some superb riffs as well. And yes, the drums pound away like there's no tommorow, though there's not a single blast beat to be heard, thank God.
But Revocation makes all this technicalness that would usually call for shouts of faggotry..... well, awesome! Seriously, these are some of the most rocking songs I've ever heard, all filled with fantastic lead guitar and awesome bass sections (that are actually audible). It makes for a unique listen. At times sounding like a heavier Dream Theater, at times sounding like a more technical Morbid Angel, and at other times just being.. themselves. I seriously can't think of any bands or any songs to which I can relate "Unattained" and "Age Of Iniquity". And I have heard a lot of death metal songs.
The rest of the songs stand out as well, especially Fields Of Predation that stands as one of my favourite metal songs from 2008, quite an achievement considering all the fantastic albums that were released last year.
These guys were apperantly just signed to Relapse, after the release of this album. No wonder, they should've been signed long ago! I'm happy on the behalf of these guys, getting signed to Relapse is the best thing that could possibly happen to them!
They're writing a new album as I write this, supposed to be released in the fourth quarter. But in the mean time, if you're in the mood for some rockin' "smash your head against the wall" tech death that I guarantee you have not heard anything like, then download this album by all means! Infact, any fan of extreme metal should listen to this.

320 kbps CBR

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SAW9GP15

iLiKETRAiNS - Elegies To Lessons Learnt (2007)

Elegies To Lessons Learnt (2007)
















Track list:

1. "We All Fall Down" – 6:12
2. "Twenty Five Sins" – 3:39
3. "The Deception" – 3:58
4. "Voice of Reason" – 5:00
5. "Death of an Idealist" – 3:25
6. "Remnants of an Army" – 3:57
7. "We Go Hunting" – 3:24
8. "Come Over" – 4:10
9. "Spencer Perceval" – 9:09
10. "Epiphany" – 2:18
11. "Death is the End" – 5:21

iLiKETRAiNS are quite an odd band. First of all, they have a quite unique post-rock sound. Slow and steady post-rock with a predominiately indie sound attached, with some absolutely stunning vocals. This singer has an awesome deep baritone voice that makes all these songs even more depressing than they'd be without him.
iLiKETRAiNS' lyrics are about war, death and tragedy. And it certainly shows, I mean, just look at the titles! The songs are as depressing as you'd think. Slow droning drums coupled with some pretty fast tremolo riffing make this an entertaining listen, though at times, one would like to see how it would sound if they played their songs further out.
Elegies To Lessons Learnt is a great album, if you're into this sort of thing. If you like pretty flowers and rainbows, this is the wrong album to listen to. It's bleak, and at times, downright depressing.

320 kbps cbr
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=D7OOOW5I

Cynic - Traced In Air (2008)

Traced In Air (2008)


















Track List:
1: Nunc Fluens
2: The Space For This
3: Evolutionary Sleeper
4: Integral Birth
5: The Unknown Guest
6: Adam's Murmur
7: King Of Those Who Know
8: Nunc Stans

One of the most unique metal outfits of all time, no doubt, Cynic absolutely amazed the world back in 1993 with their debut focus. They managed to seamleasly integrate jazz, electronica and death metal in a way that no band had ever done before. Not only was it entirely unique, it also sounded amazing, and quickly became a favorite of many a progressive fan. Cynic disbanded before they could make a second album, but in 2007, woopdido, they reunited and made a new album!
Traced In Air doesn't sound as heavy or technical as Focus, instead, Cynic this time focus on creating melodies that are upbeat, with vocals that are beyond beautiful at times, and choruses that are basically singalong. The result is a short (a mere 34 minutes), but incredibly catchy and conscise effort. It's clear from the very first note where Cynic are heading with this album, and they never stray away from this! Even the complementary headbanger song, Integral Birth (perhaps also the highlight of the album), manages to encompass all these mid-tempo, beautifully inticrate guitar melodies. The drums are mixed masterfully, and played just as well.
Stylistically, no, they don't stray far away from their jazz fusion roots, but this is definately a more focused and respectable effort than Focus ever was. Dropping the death metal and going completely progressive was a great choice, especially considering that Cynic had been copied about a million times in these 15 years between Focus and Traced In Air. I doubt anyone would've wanted "Focus II".

This album has a little bit for everyone. Technical madness for people who like that (The Space For This), space for headbanging and singing along (Integral Birth) and beautifully composed songs like Adam's Murmur.

Any fan of progressive music should listen to this album, if you're not shy of some.. unconventional vocals.

320 kbps CBR

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WJ6ZIXR7

Opeth - The Roundhouse Tapes (2007)

Opeth

The Roundhouse Tapes (2007)




















Track List:
1: When
2: Ghost Of Perdition
3: Under The Weeping Moon
4: Bleak
5: Face Of Melinda
6: The Night And The Silent Water
7: Windowpane
8: Blackwater Park
9: Demon Of The Fall

This is one of the greatest live albums of all time. So damn perfect right from the first note down to the very last one. Everything here has excactly the right sound, the right volume, the right tone.
For Opeth fans, that should be enough.

For everyone else, who are unaware of Opeth, let me introduce you to perhaps the greatest progressive death metal band of all time. Starting out by creating 2 great melodic death metal albums (to be honest, two of the best swedish death metal albums ever), Opeth went in a whole new direction with their third album, "My Arms, Your Hearse". It sounded like nothing anyone had ever heard, it was quite revolutionary. From that point on, Opeth have managed to become hugely sucessful, despite how heavy, dark and menacing their music is. Their newest album, Watershed (which I will give you soon enough), debuted at number 28 in the states, despite the second song on the album being downright brutal.

Regardless, 'nuf rambling. This 'ere live album is from the Lord's year 2007. Opeth decided to play a great big mishmash of all their greatest songs during this live set, and the result is indeed very im-fucking-pressive. Many of their songs sound much better than their album counterparts (perhaps due to the fact that you can actually hear the bass, long live live albums!) and Mikael Åkerfeldts voice is just as beautiful - and dark, as you would expect. He has perhaps the best death growl in existence. And his clean vocals are certainly not bad either! How they manage to perform so profoundly awesome during this 2 disc, 1½ hour beast is beyond me. But it sure is impressive, that's for sure.

The fact that this album was released on Peaceville is enough testimony to it's quality. Just listen to it already, if you aren't into Opeth yet, maybe this can persuade you.

320 kbps cbr

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HBXAO4M2

Lis Er Stille - Apathobvious (2007) & The Construction Of The Amp-Train (2006)

Lis Er Stille

Genre: Post-Rock
Origin: Aarhus, Denmark
Website: www.myspace.com/liserstille



Apathobvious (2007)

















Track List:
1: Præludium
2: Lorelei
3: Land Mìtt
4: Hvalfangeren
5: Transition
6: Lys Over Tid
7: Spurven
8: Fyri Framman

This album is amazing, it's one of the best post-rock albums I have ever heard.
The second album from Lis Er Stille (Literally "Lis is quiet", but if said fast, means something more akin to "steadily") is a more conscise piece of work than their debut (Amp-Train, look further down in the post for that one). It manages to encompass everything that makes, well, anything beautiful. The some 6 epic songs on this album have amazing melodies and composissions, there's absolutely no question about that. Lis Er Stille have a very interessting post-rock sound, one that stands out amongst the other bands of the genre. There are no distorted guitars like in post-metal, but somehow, Lis Er Stille sound extremely heavy at times, bringing to mind other masters of the genre like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who are still unequaled in pure musical, denseful heaviness. The closest band that comes to mind when listening to Lis Er Stille are perhaps Sigur Rós (or, if you're into the bit more obscure, Tunturia), but Lis Er Stille are definately not copycats in any sense of the word.
Lis Er Stille aren't instrumental at all though. The vocals on this album are fantastic "Lys Over Tid" almost being singalong at times (and that is absolutely not a bad thing when you make music this beautiful).
Download this album if you're a fan of post-rock. You shouldn't even be thinking about this, just listen to it, and then go buy it. You WILL love it.

320 kbps CBR
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=44O0H53O

The Construction of The Amp-Train (2006)
















Track List:
1: Styrke
2: Forsyn
3: Løbetid
4: End Credits (End Of The Tracks)

What a stir this must have made in Denmark back in 2006. After releasing a couple of ep's (that are now basically impossible to locate), Lis Er Still released this. THIS. Speaks for itself doesn't it? An extremely strong debut from this fantastic band. It's a bit rockier than the followup, heck, at times it takes you somewhat back to the 70's, the peak of progressive rock. Regardless, if you like either album, chances are you'll like the other one too. I prefer Apathobvious to this, although this is still outstanding. The 4 songs on this album total up to 41 minutes of playtime, just the right amount of time Lis Er Still need to kick your ass with this heavy, fairly technical piece of post-rock.
Enjoy!

256 kbps VBR

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=57O7VJRC

Under Al Kritik - 2 demos

Under Al Kritik

Genre: Hardcore punk/Crossover thrash
Origin: Odense, Denmark
Website: www.myspace.com/underalkritik


Hold Kæft!




Track List:
1: Fingerkigger
2: Børnenes Skrig
3: Hold Kæft!
4: Ligeglad
5: Studenterdigtet
6: Sidste Skrig
7: Insomnia
8: Svæver Mellem Liv Og Død

Demo released in 2005. Limited to merely 120 copies!

Live - Den Grå Hal



Track List
1: Passiv/Aggresiv
2: Aldrig Mere!
3: Arbeit Macht Frei
4: Sort Psykose

Live demo/ep released in 2007. Limited to 40 (!) copies with handpainted covers.

---

Under Al Kritik is a hardcore band from Odense, Denmark. I heard of this band a year ago or so, and quickly found out why they are so big in the danish punk underground. Their shows are sprawling with energy, and they make fun of absolutely anyone and anything! These are their two demos that have gotten them most of this recognition. The first demo is a studio made one. Though the sound quality is terrible, it's incredibly fun to listen to, and you can clearly hear the band is having a fantastic time. The lyrical themes of this demo are about the usual punk stuff; hatred, society, politics. It also deals with some slightly comical sex topics too, though. It's a strong demo, definately.
The second demo is a live EP recorded at a place called "The Grey Hall" that has previously housed very well known bands. The sound quality is much improved over the Hold Kæft! and so has the songs. They really show this band at their best, and it makes you want that 12" record out much sooner.

Under Al Kritik recently released a 7" demo with professional engineering and the like. It sounds amazing (Robot on their myspace page is from it), however, I have not yet found a way to transfer the vinyl to the PC. Once I do, i'll post it, 'cause it kicks so much ass.

Download both demos in 320 kbps CBR, here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2IKFZ9IR