Rating: 3/5
…
Even though Blackguard ends on a high note, I don’t sense replay value overall. Perhaps invoking their regional history will help them find their voice, because otherwise it’s interchangeable.

Rating: 4.5/5
…
Amon Amarth does not simply stand on the shoulders of giants—they ARE the fucking mountain.

“It’s gotta be all five of us really digging the stuff, or we don’t even work with it.” ~Olavi Mikkonen

Rating: 3/5
…
Mind Over Metal Limerick Number Two!

Rating: 4/5
…
The Absence have produced another great CD and definitely cemented their position at the top of the list of American Melodic Death Metal bands. Absolutely worth buying.

Rating: 4/5

What Persefone does is take Dream Theater’s use of keyboards and progressive elements, Avenged Sevenfold’s melodic hard rock-meets-metalcore ability, and The Black Dahlia Murder’s razor-sharp ferocity and make an entire sound based on it. Once again, this looks horrendous on paper, but they execute it so well that I’m even close to putting this up as a best of 2010 nomination.

Rating : 3.5/5

Be’lakor have a clear course set to become the southern hemisphere’s most prominent melodic death metal band.