Greece has always been a Mediterranean country with vast and beautiful black and death metal scene with so many original and great bands coming to mind immediately, their unique music put Greece on a map of world extreme music scene and Mind Erasure is one of the bands from that country that will certainly help put Greece to the front even more. This is the debut full length opus and it contains 11 songs. Mind Erasure play epic and at times raw black metal with some thrash and death metal parts thrown in the songs. From the atmospheric intro of Proem and aggressive death black of Pray For Salvation, real jewels come afterwards. One of my personal favorites is beautiful epic, almost symphonic Azrael with all those clean vocal parts, epic synth and quire background and that Greek trademark mid tempo which turns into beating thrash last part of the song. I must also mention as my favorite the trilogy of songs at the end of the album with title As Firs Light Never Comes, those being Seal´s Break, Apocalypse and Life´s Epilogue, great symphony of melody and darkness. This is an excellent album, a real little dark jewel in the crown of mighty Greek scene.
Svalinn´s Rift are new to the scene and they are hailing from Hungary. This trio is playing black metal, more of Norse oriented in thematic and lyrics with a touch of folk thrown in like in awesome Ice Waves And The Primordial Giant. This is their debut e.p. opus and it contains four songs of minimalistic yet complex mixture of epic and raw pagan black metal with warrior attitude and mixes emotions with warrior spirit, some thing that is quickly forgotten in nowadays black metal. There are not so much blast beats, this band is rather oriented on varied tempo from mid to aggressive and almost ritualistic parts in some songs. Lyrics are in English but I would rather if these guys sang in their native Hungarian, because that country has a beautiful language. Anyway, strong debut release.
Poland is one of the Europe´s most vital and prolific scenes regarding extreme music meaning death and black metal with so many names coming to mind right away, both more and less known in the genre. Baalzagoth are new band in the scene and this is their debut full length opus. This is, how they say it, intergenerational band with singer being 46 years old and drummer being only 13. No matter, music has no boundaries and Baalzagoth deliver on this opus, with intro plus eight songs of death metal with some black metal influences thrown here and there. Songs range from thrashy and blast beats speed to more slower rythmic approach, like panzer rolling over helpless infantry in some frozen field. Underneath aggression and brutality, you can find some melody and melancholy influenced by black metal touches. Vocals are superb, death metal growl, brutal yet understandable. Songs like Unholy War, Suffering, Pagan´s Hell are sure to be your favorite if you check out this record, but you will hear it for yourself. Good and strong debut.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 