Lollipop Magazine

Antropomorphia – Evangelivm Nekromantia – Music Stream

December 25, 2012

Want your artwork to overshadow your band’s musical accomplishments? Feature two bloody naked chicks making out while hooded, skull-faced phantoms watch.

Abiotic – Symbiosis – Music Stream

December 24, 2012

“To Burgeon and Languish” will assault your ears with a handful of death metal vocal styles, a few solos, and a billion highly technical riffs.

My Dying Bride – A Map of All Our Failures – Music Stream

December 20, 2012

Doom titans My Dying Bride hit all the right notes on 2009’s crushingly bleak For Lies I Sire, and its proper follow up treads along that same darkened path.

Bison b.c. – Lovelessness – Music Stream

December 19, 2012

Dark Ages was a supremely confident slice of sludge metal. Perhaps emboldened by the praise it received, the band gets little adventurous on Lovelessness.

As I Lay Dying – Awakened – Music Stream

December 18, 2012

Metalcore stalwarts As I Lay Dying make good, sometimes not great, melodic metal. Their catalog feels a little clogged with solid rather than stellar material.

Satan’s Wrath – Galloping Blasphemy – Music Stream

December 17, 2012

Greece’s Satan’s Wrath play excellent blackened thrash metal.

Aeon – Aeons Black – Music Stream

December 14, 2012

These Swedes unleash a lurching death metal plague, one that creeps up from your toes to your eyeballs until you’re just a quivering, blackened mess.

Downfall of Gaia – Suffocating in the Swarm of Cranes – Music Stream

December 12, 2012

A thoughtful, expansive take on metal, one that seems perfectly in sync with the foggy, monochrome mountain-scape of the album artwork.

Texas In July – Music Stream

December 7, 2012

Once past the disappointment that this isn’t an Alice Cooper cover, “Bed of Nails” is a pretty cool slice of lean metalcore from this young Pennsylvania crew.

Doro – Raise Your Fist In The Air – Music Stream

December 4, 2012

Still hot, still German, still posing like a metal warrior on the cover, still blasting out confident anthems with no ironic nods or apology.

Devin Townsend Project – Epicloud – Music Stream

November 30, 2012

“Lucky Animals” from his latest, Epicloud, continues the bizarre carnival. Are we really hearing Pink Floyd, Mr. Bungle, and Strapping Young Lad all at once?

Korpiklaani – Manala – Music Stream

November 26, 2012

“Kunnia,” a track from the Finnish folk metallers’ new album, Manala, may not reach quite the same high as “Vodka,” but it makes us want to party nonetheless.

Mortillery – Murder Death Kill – Music Stream

November 15, 2012

With a name like Mortillery, yup, it’s thrash to the bone (or “Thrash as fuck!” according to their Facebook page).

Def-Con-One – Warface – Music Stream

November 14, 2012

Seriously chunky, pit-friendly fare. They’re looking to expand beyond the north east of England, and killer beatdowns like “Warface” should help them do that.

Nachtblut – Dogma – Music Stream

November 13, 2012

This German black metal crew forgoes the traditional wall of Satanic sound approach for something more mid-paced and symphonic. T

Moonspell – Alpha Noir – Music Stream

November 12, 2012

A solid slice of modern metal and another interesting chapter in the Portuguese band’s 20-year history.

Enslaved – Riitiir – Music Stream

November 2, 2012

Extreme progressive metal OGs Enslaved have rocketed past 20 years of existence as a band and are showing no signs of abandoning their adventurous spirit.

Nervosa – Time Of Death – Music Stream

October 30, 2012

Sao Paulo female thrash trio Nervosa are heads-down and all business on their debut three-song EP.

Vision of Disorder – The Cursed Remain Cursed – Music Stream

October 29, 2012

Vision of Disorder changed up their sound a bunch for 2002’s From Bliss to Devastation, but not much has changed in the ten years since.

Thy Majestie – ShiHuangDi – Music Stream

October 28, 2012

This Italian power metal crew has never shied away from mining history for album themes. ShiHuangDi tells the story of the brutal Chinese emperor.

Our Last Night – Age Of Ignorance – Music Stream

October 25, 2012

A typical emo band name, but you might need stuff like “Act of Ignorance” the next time your girlfriend (or boyfriend) leaves your ass on the curb.

The Foreshadowing – Oionos – Music Stream

October 24, 2012

Italian doomsters The Foreshadowing get props from Katatonia’s Anders Nyström for being “one of the finest quality doom acts around these days.” High praise indeed.

In This Moment – Blood – Music Stream

October 23, 2012

In This Moment’s metal attack lives and dies by the energy of singer Maria Brink, so luckily she’s in an especially cathartic mood on “Blood.”

Darkness by Oath – Near Death Experience – Music Stream

October 22, 2012

It’s hard not to have a sweet spot for all of the killer riffs of the “Gothenburg sound.” Darkness by Oath even snags The Haunted’s Anders Bjorler for a solo.

Vintersorg – Orkan – Music Stream

October 19, 2012

Folk metal can sometimes be goofy or just boring, but it’s neither when it’s from the mind of Borknagar frontman Andreas Hedlund.