Even though it's the shortest month, there were still plenty of strong releases in February. There hasn't been a 5 star CD yet this year, but there were a couple with 4.5 stars this month. Here's the latest in the continuing series of the best heavy metal CDs released each month, which will culminate in the year end list.
On their latest album, In Flames has done a great job in keeping with their classic sound while also doing some experimenting and being relevant with today's metal scene. This album is the complete package that's both brutal and melodic. It's diverse in both style and vocals and has everything you want and expect from an In Flames album plus a few surprises.
It's not enough just to have all the right parts to make a good death metal album. You have to know how to put it all together, and the long-running Canadian band Kataklysm has done just that. Diverse and creative songs, great guitar work, hooky choruses and solid vocals. Those are the ingredients Kataklysm put together into one tasty album.
Krisiun's brand of death metal is very heavy, but also very technical. All of the guitar and drum riffs are crisp and precise, but still really intense and powerful while maintaining a decent groove. It's hard to believe just three people can deliver such an aural assault.
The Swedish band Satariel mixes a lot of different influences into a very satisfying album. The songs are mainly slow in tempo, but they are still very heavy. There are also some acoustic guitar parts that make for a nice change of pace. Stylistically it's probably falls under the black metal umbrella, but there are also a lot of melodic death metal sections.
The cool thing about the Polish death metal band Decapitated is that their music is so technically precise you can still keep up with everything they are doing. Instead of sounding like a muddy mess, every lightning fast note can be heard.
