Weekly Round-Up: Feb 8th

The Haunted

After a brief and unexpected dalliance with Post-Grunge on 2011's Unseen, The Haunted have once again parted ways with vocalist Peter Dolving and with ex-vocalist Marco Aro (who replaced Dolving once before), firmly back in the fold, are back to doing what they do best -  namely a distinctive blend of Gothenburg-style Melodic Death Metal and Thrash. I actually really liked Unseen, but it never felt like a true The Haunted album. With that little "black sheep" behind them, the band are focusing, once again, on crushing our skulls with some straight-forward, in your face Metal. 

MaYaN

With this being a "side project" of Mark Jansen, it does predictably sound a little like a Death Metal version of his "day job", but whereas the first album just sounded like Epica with special guests, this time around the band has developed a more defined sound of its own and with the emphasis being placed on the heavier end of the musical spectrum, it comes across as a falling somewhere between Dream Theater meets Scar Symmetry.

Shrapnel

Has the new wave of Thrash run it's course? Has it hell. Formed in 2009, the UK's Shrapnel clearly have no interest in reinventing the wheel, but are instead clearly satisfied to be paying homage to their heroes, most obviously, (to my ears) Exodus. I have to say that Thrash isn't my area of expertise though, so I'm sure there are some of you who could pick out more influences on this. This group of young upstarts are flying the flag for old school Thrash and should please those raised on a diet of high velocity 80's Metal.

Exmortus

Absolutely cracking, Technical Melodic Death / Thrash / Heavy Metal. Superb musicianship throughout, with  jaw-dropping Classical-inspired solos, riffs to die for and great songs to boot. The one criticism I could level at it, is that the lyrics are a tad trite and predictable and the vocals are a little high up in the mix, but this doesn't spoil the finished product too much. Exmortus manage to pull of the near-impossible feat of sounding fresh, yet Classic at the same time. If you are a fan of Metal, you need to hear this.

Kampfar

Top notch Pagan Black Metal from the Norwegian veterans. Once again, they are clearly taking their influences as much from the mighty Bathory as from the early 90's wave of Norwegian Black Metal. Lyrically, they explore the now familiar territories of Norse mythology and nature. If you unfamiliar with this excellent band, but are a fan of bands such as Moonsorrow, Vreid, Thyrfing, Ereb Altor, etc this is an album not to be missed.