All Reviews on this page are by Charlie from The Bringer of Truth in the Age of Darkness

ARCH ENEMY - "Wages of Sin" (Century Media)
Not horrible.

CREMATORIUM - A World Where Only Nightmares Prevail (Dismal Records)
Their "official bio" reads: "... Crematorium started off with the intent to create music which stretched the boundries of extreme music" Well, stretch all you want, but shit is shit.
Next.

DEATH - Live in L.A. (Century Media)
What can you say, it's Death. Fucking crazy musicianship. All the classics. Chuck Shludilingininingers latter-day vocal style. And for the love of god, Pull the Plug - hands down, their best. Having said that, I'm not a Death fan, never really have been. Anyone who likes them should definately pick it up. It's their last release. If you don't know why, figure it out for yourself.

DESTRUCTION - The Antichrist (Nuclear Blast)
All germans are bad people. These guys are no exception.

EBONY TEARS - Evil As Hell (Century Media)
Despite the gay name that would lead one to believe that this band is goth or black metal, Ebony Tears is suprisingly heavy. They should get rid of the gay name. The singer sounds like Max Cavalera. In fact, during "Soul Crusher," I was so convinced that it was him that I went searching through the credits. Couldn't find him, but god damn, even the Brazilian accent was right. Maybe whatever label puts out that gay Soulfly shit won't let Max do official guest spots. Moving on...

HYPOCRISY - Catch 22 (Nuclear Blast)
How the hell do you pronounce "Tagtgren"? I thought he was supposed to be a good producer. He kinda looks like Christopher Walken, don't you think?

IMPIOUS - Error Succeeds (Century Media)
Paint by the numbers, cookie-cutter death metal. Probably works faster than Nyquil.

IN FLAMES - The Tokyo Showdown (Nuclear Blast)
Shh. I like In Flames. Don't tell anyone.

IN THY DREAMS - Highest Beauty (Century Media)
Swedish. Wicked Swedish. In Thy Dreams (only in my dreams would I consider having such a gay name) is Swedish. I could tell before I read their address in the booklet. Not as heavy as The Haunted. Not as catchy as In Flames. Maybe faster than both, but not nearly as memorable. They use low death growls here and there, which is cool cuz most Gothenburg acts rely on the high end screaming. But by the second song, I felt like I had heard the whole album. And I had. That drum beat gets tired fast, fellas.
Yawn.

KALMAH - Swamplord (Century Media)
The only thing gayer than keyboards are over-done keyboards. And Harvey Firestein.

LULLACRY - Be My God (Spikefarm by way of Century Media)
Honestly, not a bad rock album. I'd probably like it if I didn't totally hate girl singers as a rule. Just from the GAY FUCKING NAME, I figured this was just another straight Goth album... but it's not really. It's more metallic rock - kinda like Queensryche if they just left the clamp on Jeff Tate's testes full-time.

NAGLFAR - Ex Inferis (Century Media)
Well, the cover art is cool. Not bad for a straight up Emperor clone. If you like that Black Metal shit. Really, nothing stands out about this band. From the cliched song titles like "Of Gorgons Spawned Through Witchcraft", "Emerging From Her Weepings" (how gay is that?) to the swiped "Welkin" harmonies, to the 5 guys on the back cover that look way too serious for their own good, nothing about this album would appeal to anyone who isn't a 19 year old face-painting Varg Vikernes wannabe who only goes to shows to cross his arms and look evil. What would Samoth think? Who cares. Fuck Samoth. Keyboards are gay. I'll never listen to it again.

SHADOW - Self-titled (Century Media)
God damn! Bitch-singers tearing it up this year! Death metal from from the small city of Gothenberg, Japan. Well played, melodic, mid-paced/fast. But that doesn't save an overall boring album.

SIGH - Imaginary Soniscape (Century Media)
"Once, I knew this kid who had to hide his LSD from the cops so he slipped it into his sock, and sweated it in, and now he thinks he's a glass of orange juice..."

KATAKLYSM - Epic (Nuclear Blast)
Well, that's 45 minutes I'm never getting back. I lied. I only listened for ten minutes. But you know what I mean.