MP3: Rising - Mausoleum
Rising represent to me the direction that Metallica should have gone post-"Black album". Heavy and bellowing, but still incredibly melodic and song-based; the exact sort of qualities that made them one of the biggest bands on the planet, albeit in a more streamlined form. Of course that did not come to pass, but we still have Rising and on their new record "To solemn ash" they take the directness of their hardcore background and put it to good use. Not a single note out of place, just straight-up head-banging riffs from front-to-back. Kinda in the same way that countrymates The Psyke Project stripped out all the bullshit to remake themselves into a brutal war-machine, except that Rising have more melodies than all-out mosh. Denmark must be sick and tired of being the Scandinavian underdogs because they sure sound pissed!
Rising - Mausoleum