Lollipop Magazine

Amaran – Pristine In Bondage – Review

March 22, 2004

A combination of pounding, proggish but pedestrian power metal, fronted by a mid-operatic female vocalist, landed somewhere between the Goth metal world, old Gathering, low Nightwish, and Lullacry.

Notre Dame – Demi Monde Bizarros – Review

March 22, 2004

A combination of Motörhead, Entombed, and soundtrack music would be the best way to describe this, smacked upside the head with doses of progressive thrash and Italian doom.

The Thessalonian Dope Gods – High Idol Pulsation – Review

March 8, 2004

The claustrophobic drum programming and Ed’s lumberjack holler can fatigue, but steamy riffs erupt, sophisticated samples enter, an acoustic guitar or plain singing intrude.

Zyklon – Aeon – Review

March 8, 2004

Samoth and Destructhor have created a record where the songs have self-contained logic, the guitar tones are robust and bottom-heavy, and where Trym’s drum vibe is thick and warm.

Brides of Destruction – Here Come The Brides – Review

March 8, 2004

The closest thing we’re gonna see in terms of a major label new hard rock band made by old guys, save for uncomfortably similar doppelganger Velvet Revolver.

Norther – Mirror of Madness – Review

March 1, 2004

Oft considered a Children of Bodom clone, Norther actually don’t have their act together like the frosty, unit-shifting Finns.

Moonspell – The Antidote – Review

March 1, 2004

A record of high relief, offering crunching, sinister chords jarred by modern gloomy passages that recall the Paradise Lost albums of recent years.

Mercury Tide – Why? – Review

March 1, 2004

Why? doesn’t have a hope of capturing Sentenced or Rapture or Daylight Dies because the production is quite featureless, not to mention they’ve got a power metal guy at the helm.

Dimension Zero – This is Hell – Review

February 23, 2004

This In Flames and Marduk-connected side project gets in and out quickly, with a hilariously merciless, blurry-fast collection of Swedish death thrashers.

Krisiun – Works of Carnage – Review

February 23, 2004

Krisiun’s reputation has always slightly exceeded its substance, but the band are at the forefront of traditional death metal, Brazil’s new tireless ambassadors.