BAD TASTE! LOUD RIFFS! TOO MUCH CUM!
Wind Rose
Wintersaga turns a tightly defined fantasy-metal identity into huge hooks, brisk pacing and near-constant replay value.
HammerFall
HammerFall deliver sturdy choruses and bright steel, but Dominion spends too long marching through familiar territory.
Children Of Bodom
Children of Bodom at full velocity: vicious, melodic, absurdly catchy and nearly flawless in its balance of hooks and aggression.
Sabaton
The Great War is compact, rhythmically sturdy and hook-heavy, though Sabaton’s formula occasionally turns history into assembly-line spectacle.
Eluveitie
Ategnatos contains flashes of Eluveitie’s old force, but its crowded arrangement and uneven pacing blunt the impact.
Arsis
Technically dazzling melodic death metal that impresses immediately, though its relentless density eventually becomes exhausting.
Emperor
A landmark of symphonic black metal: vast, hostile and atmospheric, with grandeur outweighing its occasional murk.
Beast In Black
From Hell with Love turns shameless synth-metal excess into a near-perfect sequence of hooks, riffs and heroic nonsense.
Gamma Ray
Gamma Ray’s cosmic power metal marathon delivers speed and strong choruses, but its bloated running order weakens the impact.
Wintersun
Wintersun’s debut fuses melodic death metal speed, folk-inflected melody and grand ambition into a technically dazzling, emotionally uneven whole.
Edge Of Sanity
On Unorthodox, Edge of Sanity break beyond Swedish death metal’s standard frame without losing its weight or hostility.
Amorphis
Queen of Time carries Amorphis through rich melodic terrain, though its long journey sometimes mistakes ornament for forward motion.