Tine – The Forest Dreams of Black

 There are ever so many combinations that can be made with the various genres out there, and sometimes they make great matches while others not so much. Tine has decided to combine the three different genres of black, death, and little bit of symphonic metal for their debut album “The Forest Dreams of Black”. Stretching out to almost an hour long, this album is very interesting in every sense of the term as each track is its own little adventure with this two-man band. One such example is one track, “The Crusade of Dracul” (which is my favorite), being about … Continue reading Tine – The Forest Dreams of Black

Carnival of Flesh – Stories From a Fallen World

 Some combinations are just never thought of, like mixing symphonic metal with black metal and just seeing what will happen. And what happened in this case was Carnival of Flesh’s debut album “Stories From a Fallen World”. This piece brings the black metal with elements of symphonic metal in such a way that it made for this really interesting combination simply because I’ve never heard anything like it before and it made me excited to know that it’s possible to create this kind of hybrid metal genre and pull it off really well at the same time. Bringing in out … Continue reading Carnival of Flesh – Stories From a Fallen World

Subterranean Masquerade – The Great Bazaar

 “The Great Bazaar” is a little on the odd side of metal in the way it’s performed, and you may have already guessed that from the very different looking cover art. Subterranean Masquerade is a progressive symphonic metal group but some of the vocals were very deep and guttural much like death metal so I was really taken aback because I did not see that kind of shit coming, but it worked out pretty well so I’m okay with it. But there was also a nice variety of sounds played by instruments that I cannot place for whatever reason, so … Continue reading Subterranean Masquerade – The Great Bazaar

Kamelot – Haven

 I’ve never been really big into symphonic metal with the only real band from that genre that I listen to being Blind Guardian. I don’t know what it is exactly that turns me away from it, I’ve never thought about it. But Kamelot’s brand new album “Haven” is one of those exceptions of symphonic metal that left me in applause simply at how well done this album was. Emotion permeated each and every of the 13 tracks off of the album and it gave the tracks a great catchy sound to them that I haven’t heard a lot of recently … Continue reading Kamelot – Haven

Whorion – The Reign of the 7th Sector

 I’m not usually the biggest fan of symphonic metal with only a few bands of the genre out there that I know of that are actually good, but Whorion has gone with combining symphonic metal with technical and death metal to create something that I can really, really enjoy listening to. “The Reign of the 7th Sector” is an in-your-face album that is heavy and intense in several ways, but because I’m a lazy bastard I’m just going to say the vocals and the guitars because throughout the entire album they’re loud, they’re hardcore, and they will not give you … Continue reading Whorion – The Reign of the 7th Sector

RetConStruct – Denizens of the Depths

 I’ve never really like symphonic metal. Never really appealed to me. RetConStruct’s “Denizens of the Depths” was okay in my opinion, which is better than literally 90% of any symphonic metal I’ve listened to so these guys got the better end of the deal. Everything about this album was alright to me, nothing was amazing but nothing was bad either. The vocals had a nice sound to them being smooth flowing and have a good tone throughout the entire album. The guitars had an alright rhythm in each track and had a tone that went well with the lyrics that … Continue reading RetConStruct – Denizens of the Depths