Ikuinen Kaamos - Closure (2008)

Ikuinen Kaamos are from Finland and play melodic death metal. This freely available EP has three tracks. The title track and "Your Gallows" are both very derivative of Opeth, though they are quite well done. The last track, the 12-minute "The Absence", is more original, reminding me a little of Novembre's Classica. Given that I like both Novembre and Opeth, it should come as no surprise that I like these guys too. The playing is very solid and the production is crystal clear -- this is a top-quality product all around. I'll have to check out their previous release, The Forlorn, and I'll eagerly wait their next recording. With a little more originality, they could be great.

Trizna - Out of Step (1995)

After the first track, the awesomely titled instrumental "Flash In A.S.S.", I had high hopes for this, figuring it would be melodic, semi-technical, mid-90's thrash. Unfortunately, after that point, it devolves into something halfway between thrash and glam metal, perhaps like the bastard son of Deathrow and Warrant. Occasionally, they also throw in some jazzier bits, sounding at times like Steps-era Sieges Even. If you're a fan of cheese metal, you'll probably like this, as it's well-played and moderately diverse. But for me, the first track is the only thing worthwhile.

Interestingly enough, these guys went on to form Faktor Straha, whose 2008 release Tvoy Idealniy Mir has some similarities to this album.

T3h Shred Boiz - LOL (2006)

These guys have quite possibly the stupidest image ever. It's a mix of corpse-painted black metal, shred, and internet geekiness. So who's it supposed to appeal to? Well, people like me I guess. But I'm sure as hell not laughing. This 2006 demo contains three songs, each horrible in its own unique way. It starts off with "Grim Skiez" -- a three minute hyperblast noise fest. Any song that features references to the band playing it automatically sucks, and this one is no exception ("T3h Shred Boiz are in the house"?). Next is "Dead Sky Dawningz", the best track on here, which is a four minute melodic instrumental. It sounds like it would be the backing music for a shred piece, but there's not actually any shredding. Snore. Finally, we have the twelve minute "Grim and Frosbitten Necrophallus", which pointlessly switches between ambient black metal, raw black metal, and acoustic passages.

You can download this demo free from the band's MySpace, if for some reason you are feeling masochistic today.

The Bedlam - Inside Ash (1994)

After the disappointing SoulDaemon, I put on The Bedlam, not knowing what to expect. And I'm still not really sure what I heard. I guess I'd describe it as groovy, alterna-lite-metal. I'm reminded of my (very vague) recollections of Last Crack and the alternative scene in the mid-90's. The vocals are all clean and the guitars are not heavily distorted, giving it a very "rock" vibe, with very little that I'd call metal. The playing is competent, though not at all challenging, but the songs are missing anything to keep me interested.

SoulDaemon - Dead World (2006)

SoulDaemon's claim to fame is that they don't use any guitars -- just bass, vocals, and drum machine. Well, that's a nice gimmick, but are the songs any good? Nope. They're very straightforward, almost punk-simple, and although SD employ death growls, the music isn't aggressive at all. I don't really find much interesting here, and I could barely get through two songs on my way home before turning to something else.

But don't believe me -- hear it for yourself. They've put most of the album free on their website.

Rectum - Enforced Prick (1992)

I was 1 for 3 today. And the one I liked was called Rectum. Go figure. This is a moderately technical thrash demo from a Finnish band that apparently never released anything else. That's a shame, because this is quite good. The songs do a good job of mixing traditional thrash riffs with more intricate sections without overdoing either style, though I could personally go for a little bit less of the traditional thrash. I can't really think of anyone they sound like in particular, but at the same time, this isn't really groundbreaking. It's just a quality demo all around -- playing-wise, production, and composition -- and worth tracking down for those into technical metal.

Warhead - Strange Age (2002)

I'm not really sure what to say about this. It's supposed to be "progressive death metal", but I find it neither progressive nor deathy. Sure, it's got growly vocals, but there's no aggression to the music, it's all mid-paced, samey, and just downright boring. It reminds me a little of some of the melodic death albums from the early-90's like Babylon Sad and Dark Millennium, when bands were starting to branch out and try new things. However, in the early 90's death metal was still pretty new, and it was a whole different genre in 2002. Despite some pretty crisp production and decent playing (and even a few catchy riffs), there's really nothing to recommend tracking this down.