Warbringer - Waking Into Nightmares

Title: Waking into Nightmares
Artist: Warbringer
Released: 2009                                            RATING: 4/5

The Good: Warbringer's second album is vicious, aggressive, and completely awesome. The difference between Nightmares and the albums bookending it (The debut War Without End and third album Worlds Torn Asunder) is that the overall quality of each and every song individually is better, and the combined result is a real kick in the ass. The intense thrashing and plain-ol', brutal goodness of  "Jackal", "Living in a Whirlwind", "Severed Reality", "Shadow from the Tomb" and "Senseless Life" establish Warbringer as go-to guys for fans of seriously heavy, but still seriously good, metal. As mentioned before, Warbringer at times sound similar to Demolition Hammer with their Thrash/Death combo (with singer John Kevill even offering a startlingly Chuck Schuldiner-esque growl at one point), but their sound is their own. Nic Ritter's drum work is spectacular; his super-technical style makes for many high points throughout the album. The Guitars are great, the bass is HUGE. This is the best place to start for anyone interested in the band.

The Bad: There is an instrumental track that sounds somewhat like Metallica's "The Call of Ktulu", just without the Metal fireworks. That's all.

Nile - Annihilation of the Wicked

Title: Annihilation of the Wicked
Artist: Nile
Released: 2005                                             RATING - 4/5

The Good: Nile is well known for their combination of brutal, uber-technical death metal and Middle Eastern/Egyptian elements. While some of the band's fans regard Black Seeds of Vengeance or In Their Darkened Shrines as superior albums, Annihilation boasts a tremendous set of songs, as well as super-clear production, which allows the band's extraordinary musicianship to be fully appreciated. "Cast Down the Heretic" is an awesome first song, especially because of its contrasting brutality to the relaxed, instrumental track that officially kicks off the album. There are some very long songs, but they are not without variety, thus preventing any boring, adreniline filled riff-fests that plague lesser works (think Pleasures of the Flesh, for example). The album as a whole is fantastic, and should be at the top of anyone's list when checking out Death Metal for the first time.

The Bad: The vocals are an acquired taste, even by Death Metal standards, as they are sung at such a deep pitch. Some of the songs can be a bit obnoxious, with three lasting over eight minutes long.

Deicide - Deicide

Title: Deicide
Artist: Deicide
Released: 1990                                           RATING: 4/5

The Good: Deicide's self-titled debut album is fast, heavy, and super evil; it is not unlike Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness in this regard, but Morbid Angel's eerieness and epicness is replaced here by sheer malice. "Lunatic of God's Creation" is a seriously good song, and even a catchy one by Death Metal standards. The album as a whole is strong, combining strong, furious playing with over the top lyrical themes to create a soound that can be very intimidating to the unfamiliar ear, indeed. A highly reccommended listen for Death Metal fans.

The Bad: Sometimes the songs tend to blend together, what with the repetitive themes and deliveries. The solos, which are highly energetic and dexterous, is completely indebted to the classic Slayer atonal squeeling style; that's not really a negative, but it's still there, especially since they aren't quite as, well, good as the source. Some of the solos can sound like super-fast flurries of random notes, at times.

Ripping Corpse - Dreaming With The Dead

Title: Dreaming With The Dead
Artist: Ripping Corpse
Released: 1991                                            RATING: 4/5

The Good: Standing at the very crossroads of Death Metal and Thrash Metal is Ripping Corpse's sole LP Dreaming With The Dead. The album is a bit of an enigma; while not necesarily ground-breaking, Dreaming's overall sound and approach are not very common. Full-blown guitar solos are, for the most part, replaced by solo fills throughout the songs, carefully woven in-between and alongside the lyrics. The musicianship is top-notch, and the songs just sound brutal. With songs of varying lengths from about two-to-four minutes each, the album is best experienced when listened to as a whole. A lost gem from the golden era of extreme music.

The Bad: The production helps add to the album's doomy, erie feel, but one gets the feeling that the music itself would be more enjoyable if it could be heard properly. The album's murky tone does little to help identify the complicated guitar and bass playing throughout.

Demolition Hammer - Epidemic of Violence

Title: Epidemic Of ViolenceArtist: Demolition Hammer
Released: 1992                                             RATING: 3.8/5

The Good: Demolition Hammer's second full-length album, Epidemic Of Violence, showcases the band's masterful, brutal Death/Thrash combination (an approach later refined by Warbringer) at it's best. The classic "Skull Fracturing Nightmare" stands tall here, with it's high-speed attack that gives way to a crushing breakdown; a true Metal anthem. The title track, "Aborticide", and "Human Dissection" are also memorable. As a whole, Epidemic of Violence is a strong release that is absolutely worth tracking down. (Released as part of Century Media's Necrology, which is a collection of D.H.'s three albums in full)

The Bad: To people not familiar with the band, some of the songs may seem to blend together and not stand out well. The material is strong, but it's hardly groundbreaking, either.

Beyond Unknown - Reflections in Time (EP)

Title: Reflections in Time (EP)
Artist: Beyond Unknown
Released: 2011                                              RATING: 3.5/5

The Good: This band has nothing other than this EP in their catalogue, as far as I know. Beyond Unknown, led by former Death/Control Denied guitarist Shannon Hamm, plays a brand of heavy metal not unlike that of Control Denied. The band has their own style, though, and the music, progressive, melodic, and still heavy, is quite good. "Jungle" and "Time" stand out most among the EP's five songs, two of which are instrumentals. This EP is worth a listen because it is far from being "cookie cutter", and sounds great. The band plays well throughout.

The Bad: A "3.5" is about as high as I can go for a partial release. Reflections in Time is good, but it would be great to hear more from the band, who have seemed to be lying low since the EP was released. The singer's voice can be somewhat inconsistent; it fits in well with the music, but some of the vocal lines are a bit, well, all over the place.

Vektor - Black Future

Title: Black Future
Artist: Vektor
Released: 2009                                            RATING: 4.5/5

The Good: While I continue to find more good stuff to recommend, I figured I would go with a work I previously mentioned, Vektor's debut album Black Future. While Outer Isolation, their second album, was a tremendous release, Black Future just stands out better in my opinion. Vektor play a perfect mix of technical, melodic, progressive, heavy, fast music throughout the record. "Forests of Legend", other than having a cool name, is a multi-faceted song of epic proportions, clocking in at over ten-minutes long. Every band member exhibits master musicianship, but it never really feels "showy"; blastbeats are used to great effect, and the shredding solos fit perfectly in with the songs. Black Future is really the sound of the future, an incredible blend of old-school and new-school metal traditions and sensibilities. Absolutely essential to any fan of extreme metal.

The Bad: The record runs a bit over one hour long, which can wear on the nerves a bit if one is not familiar with Vektor's music. This issue is magnified if one also dislikes David DiSanto's shrieking vocal style. But these are minor concerns; the music is awesome. Black Future is as close to an instant classic as you can get these days.