Lollipop Music Streams

Secret Sphere
Portrait of a Dying Heart (Scarlet Records)
release date: 11/25/12

Before the phrase "Italian power metal" sends you screaming for the exits, know that these dudes craft a pretty sweet Dream Theater-style instrumental opener for their seventh album, Portrait of a Dying Heart. That, plus they've got a song called "The Rising of Love" which is just begging to be played in a Cialis ad while two middle-aged dummies sit in claw-footed bathtubs. That's about all I've got to slow you down, though, since "The Fall" has all of the melodramatic vocals and masturbatory guitar solos one would expect from Italian power metal. But maybe you're into that.

Destinity
Resolve In Crimson (Lifeforce Records)
release date: 11/19/12

You can throw the lame-o name of this French melodic death metal band right in the garbage, but the music is worth saving. Having evolved from a black metal band to a symphonic-tinged one to their current form, these guys have covered a lot of ground in eight albums and 15 years. "Aiming A Fist In Enmity" is representative of the standard melo-death on their 2012 effort, Resolve In Crimson (somebody please take the responsibility of naming albums and songs away from these dudes). Nothing here to blow your mind, but if you're weary of the different directions that In Flames and Soilwork have gone in recent years and just want something that you know will be cooked right, here ya go.

Sister Sin
From Now And Forever (Victory Records)
release date: 10/23/12

Maybe it's just too late at night, but the bland drum sound on "End Of The Line," from female-fronted Swedish metal crew Sister Sin, sounds like a door slamming rhythmically against my head for four minutes. There may be enough old-school/glam metal flavor on the track and the rest of the band's fourth album, Now And Forever, to make up for that annoyance. I gotta admit, I'm digging a lot of the Mick Mars-worshipping riffage on this album.

Ill Nino
Epidemia (Victory Records)
release date: 10/22/12

"The Depression," the opening track from perennial opening act Ill Niño's sixth album, Epidemia, has a dark, moody chorus that'll stick with you, and the album as a whole has more than enough energy and polished craft to forgive any minor annoyances.

Angra
Best Reached Horizons (SPV Music)
release date: 10/30/12

The generous 20-track best-of compilation from this long-running Brazilian metal crew doesn't offer many surprises beyond the opening track (a cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights"), but it does have enough grandiose theatricality to make DragonForce sound like a garage band. Check out "Arising Thunder" for a good idea of their Maiden-meets-Dream Theater sound.

This Or The Apocalypse
Dead Years (Lifeforce Records)
release date: 9/24/12

"We like our rhythms complicated and our messages loud," proclaims Lancaster, PA metalcore crew This Or The Apocalypse. Best of luck trying to figure out what message is being screamed on "Hell Praiser," the lead track from their third album Dead Years, but musically, I like what they're sendin'. Complex but not confusing, accessible but still menacing: Gotcha loud and clear.

Machine Head
Machine Fucking Head Live (Roadrunner Records)
release date: 12/12/12

It's up for debate, but I think Machine Head lost a step coming off the incredible The Blackening with Unto the Locust in 2011 (although the title track of the latter was pretty damn sweet). One thing that's never been up for debate, though, is the strength of their live shows, so it's surprising that it's taken this long for a proper live album. Machine Fucking Head Live corrects that problem, though, and in grand fashion. "The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears (Live)" may be a song from their critically reviled phase, but it still sounds good to me.

Grand Supreme Blood Court
Bow Down Before The Blood Court (Century Media Records)
release date: 11/20/12

This is what Martin van Drunen does in his spare time, when he's not crushing it with Asphyx or Hail of Bullets. But rather than a van Drunen's side project, it turns out the impetus of this new band is former Asphyx guitarist Eric Daniels and his desire to get back into the heavy music scene. To no one's surprise, Bow Down Before The Blood Court is packed with crushing, brutal death metal, with little room to breathe, like on the bludgeoning "Piled Up For The Scavengers."

Tesseract
Nocturne (single) (Century Media Records)
release date: 10/13/12

UK prog metal act Tesseract released this single to whet appetites during the lead-up to their new album, which is scheduled for 2013. It's the band's first recorded work with new singer Ashe O'Hara, and all signs point to a fruitful relationship: He brings a very cool, dramatic James LaBrie-style vibe to "Nocturne." But seeing as how Dream Theater writes a four-minute song once in a blue moon, you gotta admire these Brits for being so concise with their epic tendencies.

Daylight Dies
A Frail Becoming (Candlelight Records)
release date: 10/9/12

With Katatonia embarking on a full-on (not entirely un-enjoyable) trip into prog-land, we need bands like 40 Watt Sun and Daylight Dies to satiate our need for melancholy, mid-paced metal. "A Final Vestige" is from this North Carolina quintet's first record in four years, A Frail Becoming.

Anaal Nathrakh
Vanitas (Candlelight Records)
release date: 11/6/12

Superior black metal from the UK. Anaal Nathrakh mix in all sorts of extreme sounds into their attack, from grind to industrial, and unlike other bands that try to expand their sound and it ends up sounding forced and unnatural, these dudes do it with style. Dave Hunt's (or V.I.T.R.I.O.L., as he's known in AN) vocals truly earn the description "unhinged," and the whole new album, Vanitas, is just so life-affirmingly extreme. Witness this terrible reality on "Of Fire, and Fucking Pigs."

Axewound
Vultures (The End Records)
release date: 10/1/2012

A "supergroup" of sorts (although if you looked at the combined album sales for all of these guys, they might not seem so super), Axewound gathers Liam Cormier of Cancer Bats, Matthew Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine, Mike Kingswood of Glamour Of The Kill, Joe Copcutt ex-Rise to Remain, and Jason Bowld of Pitchshifter. They've combined their forces to play some pretty decent, lean and mean modern metal that recalls Every Time I Die, although much more in sound than in spirit. Lead single "Post Apocalyptic Party" lets the foot off the gas somewhat unnecessarily, but if you poke around elsewhere on these 10 tracks you'll find plenty of no-nonsense fare.

The Amity Affliction
Chasing Ghosts (Roadrunner Records)
release date: 9/18/12

Boilerplate metalcore from Down Under, The Amity Affliction have offered up three albums since 2008. Their latest, Chasing Ghosts, is bound to wear on your nerves with "cute" song titles that reference Pabst Blue Ribbon and ancient Office Space jokes. Nonetheless, this is pretty polished stuff, and the title track from the album is a good example of the sheen within.

Khors
Wisdom of Centuries (Candlelight Records)
release date: 9/17/2012

UKRAINIAN BLACK METAL. C'mon people, your street cred will go through the roof (and your sex life through the floor) once you bust out in conversation that you have some UKRAINIAN BLACK METAL in your collection. It's your ace card, a winner is you. Even better, Khors is actually good. "Black Forest's Flaming Eyes" from their fifth album, Wisdom of Centuries, has an epic atmosphere and it's earned, not manufactured through corny strings or horns. It's like waves from the black metal ocean rhythmically crashing against your skull at night.

Vampires Everywhere!
Hellbound & Heartless (Hollywood Waste Records)
release date: 6/19/2012

Proud owners of one of the worst band names in recent memory (and considering what brain farts you can find in any given issue of Alternative Press, that's saying a lot!), L.A. metal act Vampires Everywhere! has some energy on their 2012 album, Hellbound & Heartless, but not much direction. There are heavy traces of nü metal and pop-tinged industrial metal here, but there are also elements of H.I.M. and Avenged Sevenfold, and it's all mixed into a bubbling mess (complete with a dumb Nirvana cover). Do your best to make sense of it all on the aggressive opener "I Can't Breathe."

Lions Lions
To Carve Our Names (Hollywood Waste Records)
release date: 6/19/2012

Lions Lions bring solid post-hardcore from Boston. There's nothing terribly surprising on To Carve Our Names: The band's focus on balance (the polished pop sensibilities of "The Undertow" are given an immediate response with the aggressive growls of "Stable As Stone") means that there aren't many highs or lows, just a safe, steady middle ground. That's not to say their straight line signifies flatlining, but Lions Lions might need something to help them stand out from the crowd on their recordings, where they don't have the give and take energy of a live audience.

Voivod
Target Earth (Century Media Records)
release date: 01/22/2013

The pride of the progressive Canadian sci-fi-themed cyber metal scene, Voivod stretch out on this nearly eight-minute track from their 13th studio album. "Mechanical Mind" is from Target Earth, the band's first release with Daniel Mongrain on guitar, replacing the late founding guitarist Denis D'Amour.

Cradle of Filth
The Manticore And Other Horrors (Nuclear Blast USA)
release date: 10/30/2012

Deathless British black metallers Cradle of Filth have been piling on the releases for the past few years, with new music popping up with incredible frequency. "For Your Vulgar Delectation" is prime latter-day COF, bringing a rock 'n' roll sensibility that sets it far apart from more "true" (and oftentimes lifeless) black metal recordings.