This Swedish band honed their melodic death metal sound for the better part of the 2000s, releasing three albums on a tiny label, never quite giving the rest of the world a clue as to how good the band really is. Now, with 'Black Waltz,' they burst onto the global stage ready to impress the masses that will surely respond to what they're offering. Avatar may be rooted in melodic death metal, but their sound has since expanded to something a little more timeless yet also more modern, something that fans of In Flames, Rammstein and System of a Down will appreciate.

Stahlmann is back with it's unique blend of industrial German Electro-rock! Huge in Europe, Stahlmann will become a household name with this blazing.The songs reign in the Teutonic propensity for the heavy atmosphere of goth foreboding and let the dance beat have a bit of head creating a glorious chunk of German menace, the formula of which first appeared in the mid 90s with the likes of Die Krupps and was later perfected by Rammstein.Basically 'Quecksilber' is the sort of mix the Germans seem very good at. 'Mein Leib', 'Tanzmaschine' (and its club remix) and 'Spring Nicht' are great stompers and 'Schermz' is simply immense.

Robert Erickson (1917-1997) is one of the most interesting and neglected American composers of the latter half of the twentieth century. This recording features compositions from 1963 to 1977 that embody the characteristics for which his work became most recognized: a heightened interest in the atmosphere of a piece, an obsession with timbre, ways of varying the sound of a work with experiments in new technique, and explorations into the new worlds uncovered through the invention of tape recording.

Like the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, much of the music here has a quality of timeless lament, of inconsolable sorrow. Tenderly human in expression yet superhuman in scale, it seems to contemplate our condition from a very great height. Mr. Marshall (b. 1942) enhances this effect by interweaving conventional instruments with prerecorded, computer-manipulated sounds or with live devices, like digital delay. The fusion of electronic manipulation and human intention is seamless but never slick.

A sequel of sorts to his earlier On the Beach, King of the Beach continues the laid-back mood of the earlier album but is (despite the goofy title) a more mature and unified work. It's one of his best albums and is a return to form after the film soundtrack La Passione and the more electronic sounds of The Road to Hell Part 2. Written primarily during a vacation in the Turks and Caicos Islands, it's replete with lots of beach and summer imagery in the titles ("King of the Beach," "All Summer Long," "Sandwriting," "Sail Away") as well as the lyrics, which were originally written as poems. A remix of "All Summer Long" was a big dance hit in Ibiza and other Mediterranean hot spots. A good album for a summer day, with a soulful mellowness flowing through the tracks.

Largely continuing the blueprint of A Sense of Direction, Relativity finds Walt Dickerson mixing standards with adventurous yet upbeat originals. This time around, though, there's a subtext to Dickerson's standards selection: all three – "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Can't Get Started," and "Autumn in New York" – had been previously recorded by Milt Jackson, which invited explicit comparisons and gave Dickerson a chance to show off how distinctive and pioneering his Coltrane-influenced approach to vibes really was.