Everyone does a year end best of list. To help narrow the field as the year progresses, we'll have a monthly best of as well. These are the Top 5 CDs that were released in North America in January of 2006, as selected by the About Guide To Heavy Metal, Chad Bowar. In addition to the short description for each of the Top 5 CDs, there's also a link to the full CD review.
This album is just like Devin Townsend: a little strange but filled with moments of musical genius. Unlike his Strapping Young Lad project, this has a lot more progressive and melodic parts.
Cathedral have been mainstays of doom metal for 15 years now. They've always experimented and gone through different musical phases. On their eighth studio album they've pulled together elements from their previous work and added some new twists.
The Project Hate's style of death metal can be brutal, but they also add many symphonic sections and a lot of electronic parts. The length of the songs allows for plenty of key and tempo changes and also showcases the entire band.
The songs are generally very mellow with a lot of strings mixed in with the acoustic guitars. There are a few moments of intensity, but for the most part it's pretty laid back. Acoustic progressive would be a good description of the album, and if you listen with an open mind can appreciate the skill it took to make this record.
Callenish Circle have not abandoned their melodic death metal, they've just added some elements to it. The music is still heavy and thrashy with multiple tempo changes. The vocals are death metal style, but using both high pitched and low pitched growls adds even more diversity to their sound.
