Title: INNERSIGHT- Insight
Size: 57mb
Description: Second album (3 EPs in one).

Download:
http://innersight.hu/

What do we have here?
This is labeled as INNERSIGHT's second full length album on their website, but it is actually 3 separate (and quite different) EPs compiled into one long LP. The 3 EPs included are 2000's "A Divine Quest In Hell", 2001's "The Most Powerful Weakness", and 2002's "My Death of Dream".

Review
This is every bit as great as the first LP, just exploding with variety!

The album opens with the 2002 EP, which is a crazy mix of instrumental, clean, harsh, and female vocals with varying degrees of melodeath. It's awesome. It then leads into the 2000 EP, which is full on melodeath at its (almost) finest. The last EP is instrumental, and a bit of a mixed bag all in all. Rearrange them however you'd like on a playlist and you'll love it as a whole. This works great as a followup to "Blue Shadow", and is definitely not where you would have expected a band like that to go.

Go to their website now and download it!

Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.10- Better With Dancing Girls

Title: Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.10- Better With Dancing Girls
Size: 126.5mb
Description: More Kpop Metal Mashups from Youtube!

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?fz3ccnz377cz335

Back to kpop!
Be mine, Jessica Jung, be mine. In other news, after the failed experiment that was the Jpop compilation, I decided I'd go back to Kpop. Unfortunately, I was unable to credit a couple user creators again, but I'll try and remedy that for next time.

Review
This is another big collection, and I think it's pretty on par with Vol.8, aside from only having one track by BoyGenerationJKT (an acoustic version of Gee). Tracks by KmetalPT are always pretty good.

While there's a severe lack of SNSD on this volume, it's still pretty awesome. Standout tracks with time are Kara's "Wanna", LukHash's short little diddy, and well... pretty much all the untitled ones I couldn't find again.

Classical Metal Vol.6

Title: Classical Metal Vol.6
Size: 129mb
Description: Metal covers of Classical music.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?l47gnxdx1h9iakh

Halfway through!
Only 6 more to post after this and we're through the whole series. It's actually pretty amazing how many of these there are out there, and props to the original compiler for finding all of these. It's quite the feet. I actually tried tracking down his original website, but couldn't find anything attached to his name. Oh well.

Review
This holds up better than the last one for sure. There's a lot more variety to be had here, and most songs are standout tracks themselves.

The two that absolutely astounded me on this one would be the consecutively placed tracks by Metalmaniac and Kenziner (tracks 5 and 6). Friggin' awesome. The collection begins and ends really strong, so it feels like this is my favorite so far of the bunch. There's a steady mix of tracks with and without vocals, so that's a plus as well for those who aren't as into the instrumental-only ones, or vice versa. I did find most of the vocals pretty generic though, but it didn't take away from the experience too much.

IN ELEMENT- Evolution: Begins in Chaos

Title: IN ELEMENT- Evolution: Begins in Chaos
Size: 75mb
Description: Atmospheric/Progressive Melodic Death Metal.

Download:
http://freemetalalbums.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/in-element-evolution-begins-in-chaos/

Another good one here.
The above link is actually where I found INNERSIGHT as well. It's a decent site overall, but a lot of the links need updating, as I was only able to get a select few working. This was one of them, thankfully. Anyways, have a look through yourself and see if there's anything you like.

Review
I can't recommend this one enough. It's one of those "I can't believe it's free" sorta deals that come up oh so rarely in life. I loved every track on this beast. I wasn't sure how exactly to label them in terms of genre, but I found them very atmospheric in their approach to melodeath, and there were definitely elements of progressive metal in there as well.

When I was a writer for Metaleater, I liked to occasionally find new and rare albums to review. Ashamedly, I think I actually downloaded this when it was first released and never got around to listening to it. Glad I did now, as this is one of the most impressive debuts I've heard in a long time. It says a lot about the state of the industry that bands like this are being completely overlooked. Anyways, they're still active. They also have a free live album, their second release (an EP) is also available, and I believe their newest LP is available to buy. Moving up in the world, I guess!

INNERSIGHT- Blue Shadow

Title: INNERSIGHT- Blue Shadow
Size: 66mb
Description: A Post-rock instrumental trip.

Download:
http://innersight.hu/

A delightful surprise!
So I was trying to come up with some new albums to post, and I ran across these guys. They have like 11 or 12 albums, so it's gonna be a fun ride if this cd is any indication. You can download it directly from their site (link above), and if that goes down I'll post a link myself.

Review
This album is fucking beautiful. It's relaxing, but not overly slow or repetitive, and it's quite technical for what it is. If you're a fan of Omnium Gatherum, Nightingale, Amorphis, or even Katatonia, you may just find yourself getting right into this. Not to say they're a lot alike, but there are definitely moments when I though of all those bands.

Of course, if instrumental-only albums aren't your thing, you should probably stay away. It'd be a real shame though. I believe later albums include vocals, and experiment with different genres of music, so don't write them off completely.

Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.9- Jpop Goes The Weasel

Title: Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.9- Jpop Goes The Weasel
Size: 119mb
Description: (Jpop Metal Renditions from Youtube).

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?s65tz8sgv2mgrae

Not one of the better ones...
This little experiment didn't turn out nearly as well as the last one did. And is it just me, or does that chick on the cover have man hands?  Anyways, this is technically the only Jpop compilation in the series, so it's not so bad as a one-off. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the user creators for this one because the songs were all titles something like dhfoe9rjfi33kf or whatever, so I'm sorry about that.

Review
Where to begin...? The metal instrumentals themselves are actually really good! Like, all of them! The problem lies with the jpop itself. Have you ever listened to it? It's terrible. Not only do each and every one of these chicks sounds exactly the same when they sing, but they're completely off key and have the thinnest range I've ever heard. It isn't Macy Gray bad, but it's bad enough. Simply put, it makes this collection feel boring and annoying, which is really too bad, because the user creators do a bang up job on the metal parts.

To describe the instrumentals themselves, the artists really capture the spirit of Japanese styled Metal itself. If you haven't ever heard it before, think 80s NWOBHM with a twangy, ancient Japanese vibe to it. It's spectacular! Again though, bogged down completely by the songs being covered. It's a rare occurrence for catchiness to ensue.

I threw in a couple of tracks from Baby Metal for laughs. They're a pop metal band that uses three 10 year olds as the vocalists, it's quite amusing. Anyways, I still recommend this since it's different, shall not be repeated, and the cover parts are really well done.

Classical Metal Vol.5

Title: Classical Metal Vol.5
Size: 122mb
Description: More classical metal works.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dpry40qvi33wd7a

This one is huge!
Definitely the meatiest of these thus far, I have very mixed thoughts about it overall. I'm starting to see patterns of bands covering the same songs over and over again. It's nice when they are able to put their own spins on the material, but some of them just aren't able to do that as well as others.

Review
By this point, there will be those that you'll want to skip over since you've already heard them a number of times before (and virtually unchanged in some cases). That being said, there are still some great renditions to be heard here from bands that you probably won't recognize. The Speed Metal Symphony by Cacophony deserves special mention for blowing me away, and Immortal's Lair by Derdian was a nice change of pace. There are actually quite a few great ones here, amongst a few cookie cutter covers along the way.

I really wanted to get into Rainbow's track, but it's much too crackly. And where's Dio? Anyways, this is really long and in-depth. I don't recommend listening to it all in one sitting, and I highly doubt it will all fit on a burned cd (I'll find out soon enough). Another essential for those who are digging this collection though, accessible or not.

Torture Division- With Endless Wrath We Bring Upon Thee Our Eternal Torture

Title: Torture Division- With Endless Wrath We Bring Upon Thee Our Eternal Torture
Size: 67mb
Description: Traditional Death Metal from the Project Hate MCMXCIX guys. (3 EPs/demos)

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1voilygvsfosjtm

EP Compilation.
Ever heard of The Project Hate MCMXCIX? No? Go buy every album from them that you can get your hands on. NOW! Anyways, Torture Division is a side project/subgroup/affiliate to that, and they play traditional Death Metal (as opposed to the Symphonic/Progressive/Orchestral/Blackened/Dark/Experimental Death Metal they play in TPH). This compilation includes their first 3 demos, which I consider to work pretty well as a whole. Visit their site to learn more:

http://www.torturedivision.net/biography

Review
I'll admit, while TPH is one of my favorite bands ever (read: top 5), traditional death metal has never really been my thing. That said, this is pretty decent for what it is, and definitely brutal as hell. The three demos included here feel pretty cohesive as one, so I decided I'd mash 'em together.

The mix was done by none other than legendary Metal producer/performer/creator Dan Swano, of oh so many different sources of fame (Nightingale anyone?). Dude is just the best there is when it comes to this, and if you don't believe me, check out any TPH album or the 2 latest Omnium Gatherum albums.

Anyways, download now if you're into this kinda stuff.

8BIT Metal Vol.6- Ultimate 8Bit Metal

Title: 8BIT Metal Vol.6- Ultimate 8Bit Metal
Size: 81mb
Description: Another collection of 8bit Metal songs.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ibyzenfz224ewvw

Coming to an end. 
This is the last complete compilation of 8bit Metal I have, although a seventh one is almost finished. I guess I'll have to put that together pretty soon. Shit, I'll hafta find some other stuff to post pretty soon or the blog will be full of nothing but Classical Metal in no time! Eep!

Review
A couple Amorphis ones this time. Sweet! No new bands though, aside from Pain (Peter Tagtgren FTW). A lot of the regular ones that have been popping up are here  (Bodom, Born of Osiris, Soilwork, Sonata Arctica, etc).

Anywho, yet another fine collection of 15 tracks here.

Orchestral Metal

This one has no image. I'm lazy.










Title: Orchestral Metal
Size: 58.5mb
Description: Orchestral Metal renditions ripped from Youtube.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?6uh11dv7c2p9g6g

Small one this time.
13 tracks in all, another one-off (like Piano Metal before it). I feel like this one wasn't really completed, but here it is. I found it on a disc with the 8bit compilations yesterday, which was a nice little bonus (I thought I had lost it for good). Anyways, lost the credits, and they're most likely pretty hard to find, but have a look yourself if you're interested in hearing more.

Review
Same bands as Piano Metal, so don't expect anything new or really different. They're all pretty well done though, so check 'em out if you liked that one.

Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.8- Run, Kpop, Run

Title: Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.8- Run, Kpop, Run
Size: 109mb
Description: Kpop/metal mashups ripped from Youtube.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5ercuc5jbe0mcuw

A. Maze. Zing!
Bored of the regular pop/metal mashups yet? Enter the world of kpop metal. It's much cooler. I'm not really sure why, but there seems to be a whole bunch of metalheads who love kpop as well, or at least judging from the comments underneath the vids for all these. Something about the speed or something? Maybe it's that some of these chicks actually have talent, unlike the Katy Perrys, Britney Spearses, Keshas (who incidentally passed on "Run Devil Run", which is on here by SNSD), etc. Or maybe it's because they actually switch things up from time to time, making it easier to fit with metal covers and renditions (good ones, anyway). Or maybe it just feels nostalgic, since kpop is a lot like 90s western pop.

Review
I can't tell you how many listens I've had of this. It's awesome, through and through. Pretty much everything is a highlight here. Even Soshi Boy's boring guitar work on "Tell Me Your Wish" fits so well, I don't even care if it never changes (that song is actually pretty good on its own).

I don't normally put full covers in these, as I find tracks that leave the original singers in them, but this had to change for BoysGenerationJKT. They cover Girls Generation songs only (SNSD), and I have to say, they are amongst the best full on covers I have ever heard. They even manage to make "The Girls" sound epic as fuck at the end, which is an amazing feet, 'cause the original (The Boys) bleeds of lame.

Other special mention goes out to KmetalPT. While their recording equipment isn't the greatest, they still manage to make some awesome stuff.

Get this NOW.

Classical Metal Vol.4

Title: Classical Metal Vol.4
Size: 134mb
Description: Classical works performed by Metal Artists.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?g1h3cqy5h5iesks

The journey continues!
I've made it my mission to listen through at least one of these per day. They're fun listens, for the most part, but so very long. It's a lot to digest in one sitting, so please take my reviews with a grain of salt. They're more like first impressions than real reviews, nor do I bother to try and go in depth with them. Anyways, I've already managed to meet my quota for the day.

Review
This one was a bit more hit and miss for me. 3 Epica songs... I know I'm the only Metal fan on the planet that can't seem to get into them, but I liked their works enough on the previous volumes. Not so much here.

On the other hand, there are of course the standout tracks here and there. Dies Irae by Liva was a pleasant surprise, and probably my favorite one on here. There are a bunch of bands I don't recognize on this one, which is always a welcome feature. I feel like the latter portion of the cd is the better half, so stick with it.

Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.7- City of Popportunity

Title: Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.7- City of Popportunity
Size: 134mb
Description: A final collection of Metal Renditions of bad Western pop music.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?3o3lf783xkx0x5j

Okay, not really "final", but for a while.
This was the point at which I got bored and moved on to something else afterward. It's actually a pretty decent collection, all in all, but much too similar in feel to the previous 2 or 3.

Review
Expect to hear a few more Master Farsheed mixes, some from a guy called wenca who's crazy about T.A.T.U... There's a cool Game of Thrones TV series intro done in metal, some more Gagacore, and Fallen Superhero does a pretty good job making a J.Lo song listenable. Lol, and there's also Ricky Martin.

By this point you'll most likely be ready to move on to the next thing as well, assuming you listened to the other 6 in the series thus far. The novelty wore off, I guess you could say. Still, it fits the bill, so here it is, take it or leave it. Might be worth at least a couple of listens.

Up next we have kpop metal. Oh. Fuck. Yes.

8BIT Metal Vol.5- ULTRA 8Bit Metal

Title: 8BIT Metal Vol.5- ULTRA 8Bit Metal
Size: 65.5mb
Description: Metal songs converted to 8bit. A few more this time.

Download
http://www.mediafire.com/?4kubmurh34bemwa

I found it!
I didn't have to dig out the old computer to find this one after all! Which is a good thing too, because that bugger takes forever to load up and I really don't feel like doing that right now. Or tonight. Or this week. Or ever, really. Anyways, here it is. I even managed to find my Orchestral Metal compilation along with it! What a great day this is turning out to be.

Review
16 tracks long this time. Mostly the same bands as usual, but a couple other ones pop up like Catamenia, Decrepit Birth, Opeth, Threat Signal, All Shall Perish, and Katatonia. Pretty awesome.

Unlike the previous ones, I haven't used the music from this one in any of my game making exploits. Maybe I will someday though. They really are pretty cool, given the right gameplay style. Anyways, being the longest so far, and the most varied (as well as having another Soilwork conversion), I'd say this is the best of them all of the ones I've posted. Get it now!

Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.6- We Found Hate in a Really Gay Place

Title: Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.6- We Found Hate in a Really Gay Place
Size: 108.5mb
Description: Even more pop metal renditions from Youtube.

Download
http://www.mediafire.com/?3wn7rm95xmp7dph

More of the same.
I figured I'd post another one right now, since I have nothing better to do. Only one more left after this and we enter the realm of Kpop, Jpop, memes, and anime metal renditions. Did I forget to mention "spoiler alert"? Woops.

Review
This one is almost on par with the two previous ones. It is, however, more of the same, and I started to get a little bored with these at this point. If you liked those two though, you'll still like this one (tired of it or not).

Highlights: 2 Shakira renditions, 2 Cascada ones, a death metal rendition of "Like a G6", and the end of "Frozen" by Madonna is really well done too. Oh, and there's a power metal version of Katy Perry's most famous slut tune in there as well. I was finally able to find an Ace of Base one to put in there, it's not as heavy as I'd like it to be though.

Just another worthy addition to this ever-expanding series, and nothing more.

Classical Metal Vol.3

Title: Classical Metal Vol.3
Size: 99mb
Description: More awesome Classical to Metal conversions from great Metal bands.

Download
http://www.mediafire.com/?13zmw3ntd1vwyxo

Now THAT is a cool album cover!
As mentioned before, I'll post these as I listen to them. It's quite a lot to take in, this one especially really gripped me from start to finish. They're all pretty long too (and yes, each volume is roughly as long as these have been).

Review
I'm gonna hafta pick me up some of these bands' albums! Rhapsody (of Fire) especially. There are so many highlights here, I don't even know where to begin. Okay, that's not completely true. Virtuosity's "Secret Visions" is pretty much the best thing I've heard yet on any of these. That could change though, with 9 more volumes to go. Concerto Moon has a great one here too, right after said track. We also finally get to hear one from Yngwie Malmsteen (I was wondering when we'd run into one of his).

This is even better than the second volume, I think. Even though only slightly. There were a few I recognized, and a bunch that I didn't, but they're all damn good. Yet another essential compilation album for Metal and Classical fans alike, and not compiled by me (damnit!). Download now!

Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.5- Whip It Out

Title: Pop/Metal Mashups Vol.5- Whip It Out!
Size: 89mb
Description: More Metal renditions of bad pop, ripped from Youtube.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?z9vvel3jrskt0xi

12 posts in 2 days? 
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Yes, I should have re-thought that title when making the cover art. Totally not my fault her song's called "Whip My Hair". Anyways, I hope to post a bunch more of these tomorrow as well. Just finished making cd number 15 too, so there are plenty more to come!

Review
This is one of the better ones again. Painfulexistence1 makes a return from volume 1 with his "Moves Like Jagger" rendition (which is just awesome). Other really good ones feature Adele, Shakira, Enrique (seriously), and yes, "Whip My Hair" is also a riot. Actually, anything done by Karl0939 is pretty awesome here, so check out his Youtube page if ya like it.

I guess this is kinda where I found my swing in finding these, as it's arguably the best one thus far. The two that follow kinda follow the same line, and it becomes a bit dull. Still, that's no reason to disregard this one at all. There's a bit more djent goodness to be had here as well, if that's your thing.

Classical Metal Vol.2

Title: Classical Metal Vol.2
Size: 98mb
Description: More Metal covers of Classical music.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?qaimubmrrav5wtv

Confession time...
I actually just heard this one for the first time today, although there are a couple I recognized. I'll give the other ones a listen before I post them here, for the sake of my quick reviews. One thing of note before you download, the Nightwish track (Phantom of the Opera) seems to be skipping a bit, which is too bad, because it's really good. You all have their albums anyway though, right? Righttttt... moving on.

Review
This one holds up a bit better than the first volume because it is much more varied. I didn't recognize some of the songs, so that was also a nice surprise and a breath of fresh air. There are 17 songs in total, and a lot of them have vocals accompanying them this time.

Again, this feels pretty essential if you like both Metal and Classical music.

8BIT Metal Vol.4- Super Duper 8Bit Metal

Title: 8BIT Metal Vol.4- Super Duper 8Bit Metal
Size: 48.5mb
Description: Even more 8bit metal track conversions.

Download
http://www.mediafire.com/?k0jtlc5c8ai0lbt

This may hafta tide you over for a bit.
I left the fifth volume on another computer, so this is probably it for these (for now). Of the four uploaded so far though, this is probably my favorite. Either that or I just got sick of listening to the other ones due to my games.

Review
13 more 8bit metal conversions this time. It's familiar ground, with a mix of Soilwork, Sonata Arctica, Eluveitie, etc. In fact, I think the only fresh appearance comes from Mors Principium Est. Anyways, epic as hell, as always.

Piano Metal

Title: Piano Metal
Size: 76mb
Description: Piano covers of heavy metal tracks ripped from Youtube. Plus some extra stuff by accident.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ct7y7a3dzctdw54

Finally, a one-off!
This is one compilation I most likely won't ever compile a follow-up volume to, as I remember them being pretty difficult to find (mostly because I wanted high quality sounding ones). When my RPG series graduated to 16bit, I decided to move to piano music instead of more 8bit stuff, so that's where this came from.

Review
This is a pretty awesome collection. Some very talented cover artists are included here, and again, I wish I were able to find all of them again.

There are a few non-metal covers that were included by accident, but you can probably pick them out pretty easily. Sorry about that. Some of my favorites include bands like Disarmonia Mundi, Insomnium, and Nightwish. Despite my little accidental inclusions, it's well worth the download!