Pennsylvanian quartet Black Crown Initiate has become one of the best progressive extreme metal bands since the release of its excellent extended play Song of the Crippled Bull followed by the successful full length debut The Wreckage of Stars and the adventurous second output Selves We Cannot Forgive. New guitarist Ethan McKenna joined the band two years ago while the drumming position is still an issue but the band has been releasing five different singles over ten months leading to the release of Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape.

This third full length effort that comes four years after its predecessor is a logical continuation of the previous outputs. The band still combines calm and melodic passages based upon technically appealing guitar harmonies and emotive clean vocals with energetic outbursts around unchained harsh vocals, brutal riffs and a dynamic rhythm section. The instrumental work has become even more progressive over the past few years as even the most brutal riffs have complex chord progressions. The rhythm section has become more adventurous, experimental and playful as well. Despite a few shorter tunes, especially the song writing in the longer tunes has become even more ambitious than before.

These are the reasons why this album in particular needs a few spins to unfold. The complex opener ''Invitation'' with its numerous sudden breaks and the complicated ''Holy Silence'' would have benefited from a more concise song writing with less ideas and a more compact running time for instance. Especially the opener starts the album on a rather complicated note and would fit much better towards the end of the record.

There are no immediately appealing tunes such as ''A Great Mistake'' or ''Belie the Machine'' on the two predecessors but the band hasn't lost its ability to mix ambitious ideas with fluid songwriting. The atmospheric, coherent and structured ''Trauma Bonds'' flirts with post metal elements and fluently combines melodic parts with harsh outbursts. ''Years in Frigid Light'' similarly contrasts unchained growls breaking through noisy instrumental work with appeasing, calm and floating passages domineered by comforting, dreamy and fragile clean vocals without forgetting about instrumental transitions that keep the ambitious songwriting together. The latter song can be considered the album's highlight and has appropriately been chosen as first single.

Fans of Black Crown Initiate's predecessors should also like Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape. The band's ability to contrast brutal extreme metal outbursts based upon complex riffs and unchained growls with calm passages around acoustic guitar tones and dreamy clean vocals still shines on this output. Since the musicianship has become even more technical and the songwriting even more ambitious, the new tracks need even more time to unfold than usual. The record even includes a filler with the weird nerve-firing throat-singing interlude ''Bellows''. Still, the final result should appeal to fans of old date and Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape would also be an appropriate starting point to discover one of the world's greatest contemporary progressive extreme metal bands.

Final rating: 85%

Swedish melodic death metal veterans In Flames release another output and the majority of metal fans are shitting all over it once again. So far, that's nothing surprising anymore - except this time the haters are absolutely right. This extended play by the Swedish quintet is by far the worst release in its thirty years of existence. 

I must admit that even I had seen that coming. I had defended the band up to and including Siren Charms six years ago. I didn't do so to be contrarian but because I genuinely liked the band's raw take on alternative rock it had been shifting to since the beginning of the millennium. However, some cracks began to show for me on Battles four years ago, an overall unimaginative effort saved by a couple of standout tunes. Last year's I, the Mask was even worse in that regard as that painfully average output was the worst in the band's career up to that point. I had already expected the rerecorded versions of four Clayman tracks from twenty years ago to be underwhelming. However, they are worse than that. They are abysmal to be absolutely honest.

One thing one shouldn't forget is that Clayman was an incredibly popular record twenty years ago. For those who despise contemporary In Flames, it is the last great album by the Swedish pioneers. For those who have known and appreciated the band over the past two decades, it was the first album they could truly identify with. The songs from this album are still regularly played in concert. I have attended concerts of the bands on multiple occasions and can guarantee you that the Swedish quintet still does these songs justice.

That isn't the case here however. Everything that could be wrong with these songs actually went wrong. The production is a disaster. It's fluffy, flat and artificial and sounds as if it had been on a particularly low budget. It's not even mellow anymore, it's already soulless. The vocals are lacking energy and especially the melodic parts remind of an unskilled singer of an alternative rock band with purely commercial intentions. The worst offender however is the musicianship. The guitar play sounds toothless and vapid. The rhythm section is missing energy, plodding along and at times barely audible. The bass and drums could come from a cheap computer program and wouldn't sound less convincing and energetic. The result is however worse than its different parts as it feels completely powerless. It's a mystery why and how the band could have been convinced that recording these songs in new versions would be a good idea. Singer Anders Fridén had even stated not so long ago that rerecording old material would be absolutely pointless. Sometimes, you should really stick with your first impression.

One has has to wonder why Clayman was even rereleased at this point. The band's entire back catalog had been remastered and rereleased with bonus material for reasonable prices only six years ago. Clayman in particular had included two excellent bonus tracks and two energetic live songs. This new release here doesn't include those excellent four tracks and opts for four terrible rerecorded tunes and an instrumental track.

The latter is the only reason why this release even gets more than the worst possible rating. ''Themes and Variations in D-Minor'' recalls several tracks from the album in symphonic arrangements that remind of instrumental symphonic metal in the key of Apocalyptica. This song is varied, creative and atmospheric and would fit perfectly on a movie score or video game soundtrack. If you like this type of music, you should appreciate this song. If it isn't your cup of tea, then it would even make sense to give this release the lowest of all ratings.

There is nothing to say in this release's defense. Don't waste your time as this extended play isn't even worth checking out. If you have lived under a rock and don't own In Flames' Clayman yet, do yourself a favour and go for the excellent remastered rerelease that came out less than six years ago. Let's just cross our fingers and hope that the band won't rerecord any other old songs for potential anniversary editions and has learned from its mistakes. The next regular studio record needs to be a solid step in the right direction to make everyone forget about this abysmal extended play.

Final rating: 20%

Ensiferum offers a conceptual record about the sea with nine excellent songs that make for the band's greatest release in a very long time. Each song offers something new but they are all kept together by the conceptual guideline as well as the band's focus on epic, melodic and powerful songwriting where clean and harsh vocals harmonize better than ever before. Any fan of folk or power metal should certainly get his or her hands on this strong effort.

The album starts convincingly with the vibrant, fast and catchy party anthem ''Rum, Women, Victory'' that will certainly make for an excellent song in concert. 

''The Defence of the Sanpo'' comes around with atmospheric sound samples, neoclassical keyboard partitions and colourful acoustic guitar and bouzouki sounds.

''For Sirens'' even offers this record's most beautiful guitar and keyboard melodies while the chorus features a perfect combination of clean and harsh vocals.

 ''One with the Sea'' is an atmospheric, elegiac and inspired ballad of epic proportions recalling the band's greatest moments that grows with every single spin. 

Some people were afraid that the closing epic ''Cold Northland (Väinämöinen Part III)'' might not be as great as the previous two parts from the band's early days but I'm glad to announce that this cinematic tune perfectly combines the band's numerous strength from calm balladry over epic storytelling to unchained folk metal eruptions in one single song. Despite its conceptual boundaries and imposing length, the song never gets boring and makes you want to listen to it again as soon as it's over. This is the kind of song to choose when someone asks you to introduce the band to her or him because it represents everything this band stands for.

If I had to describe Ensiferum's Thalassic briefly, I would say that it has all the band's classic trademarks pushed to the limit thanks to perfect chemistry, boundless passion and epic songwriting. New member Pekka Montin on keyboards and clean vocals makes a thunderous first appearance and has already pushed the band to the next level. The future looks bright for the band and as soon as the quintet comes back playing a show in my region, I'm certainly going to be attending.

Final rating: 87%