A continuation of all things good on Wrath, plus some new wrinkles. I like.

This is beautifully composed Atmospheric Black. Flirting with the top spot.

This is a debut? A little dissonance, a little ambience, a little straightforward blasting, a little total weirdness. Something for everyone!

Crushing. That is all.

Cheesegrind? It certainly doesn't grate...

Boy can Attila Bakos sing! Following on strong from a stellar performance on Thy Catafalque's Rengeteg in 2011, the Hungarian puts out a cracker of his own. Genre-bending epic-ness abound! Though I couldn't help but think I was listening to a song from a Broadway or West End musical towards the end of "Storm". ;)

Solid, enjoyable stoner stuff from the UK veterans. Great fun to just rock out to.

Quite liking this sophomore sludge effort. Surprisingly tuneful, with a touch of post-whatever flavouring.

Troublegum it ain't, but this record ranges from the sublime, to the bizarre, to the decidedly patchy.

I haven't listened to any new power metal for a looooong time, but seeing this get a lot of praise by other MSers, I gave it a listen. It's actually very, very entertaining. Epic and powerful without cranking the cheese factor to 11. The vocals sound a bit strained here and there, but otherwise a good performance. Enjoyed the Rush-isms on "The Year Of The Blizzard".

First time I've ever bothered to check these Finns out. Seemed decent enough, if occasionally a bit saccharine in places.

Props to !J.O.O.E.! for this one. Wild, feral and lo-fi black with a distinctly doomy feel. Not an album you would choose to play at a wedding. Actually, some people on here might, now you come to mention it...

Who says we don't have decent death metal in the UK? Seriously impressed by this effort; it's got quite a few melodic turns, but still manages to retain a respectable amount of brutality too. Engaging lead guitar and a pretty varied vocal approach make this a solid modern death metal album with plenty of nods to genre staples. Listen.

Cross Uneven Structure with Joe Satriani and this is what you get. Impressive.

This was surprisingly decent, and surprisingly energetic for what's basically a bunch of old men. A couple of dodgy vocal passages let the side down a bit, and the boring instrumental closer means the album fizzles out instead of punching you in the jaw and running away.

I used to love Primal Fear, but drifted away from power metal in general as it all started to sound the same. Primal Fear always used to write Priest-worship songs which were decent enough in their own right. No change here - a mixture of quality songs with some more forgettable ones - but certainly worth a listen if power metal's your thing. If not, then I wouldn't bother.

I don't go in for much female fronted stuff these days so I was expecting to dislike this big time. There is something about Anachromie - in addition to a healthy scattering of decent riffs - that I really liked. Can't quite put my finger on it, but it makes it one of the pleasant surprises of 2012 so far. Perhaps it's because I can't speak French well enough to understand the lyrics...

New EP by these Danish black/post/sludge guys. Discovered by trawling Bandcamp. A good find - the swirling nature of the blackish elements of XI recall Deathspell and Blut Aus Nord, which can be no bad thing, can it!

This is a beautiful sounding record, but it does tend to wash over you somewhat - though I guess that's pretty much the point of Alcest. Some moments are downright bland, mind you.

Saw the artwork on Bandcamp and thought "Ooh, this looks cool!" Then saw the metalcore tags and went into closed-minded mode and thought "Uh-oh, maybe not." Downloaded it anyway and actually, it's not half bad. Only the occasional chug-a-lug breakdown and some really nice bits and pieces. Still not a huge fan of this vocal style, but I will be keeping an eye on these guys.

A solid, if unspectacular Thrash/Power effort from the UK. Will probably listen again.

Much more of a Pink Cream 69 flavour than Helloween, but nice to have Kiske & Hansen working together again. And Kiske sounds better than ever.

Imagine a desolate, frozen wasteland. Perhaps even a dark forest. The atmosphere envelops you and your mind drifts off into the ether. Then you are rudely awakened by a swarm of angry bees, buzzing around your head. Hiemal is like that too: beautiful, wide-open soundscapes -> irritatingly patchy guitar tone. A shame, because music like this should be enjoyed through a pair of headphones.

Was surprised to find these guys not featured on MS given the identity of their singer. Or maybe that's why they're not? ;). Anyway, this is a bog-standard, by the numbers hard rock album, nothing more, nothing less. Good to see Blaze keeping busy at least.

This is going on at the bottom because it rather passed me by on first listen. On paper it has a lot going for it - Marco Sneck; being from the Maldives - but I hear very little special at the moment.