Various

As the title indicates, this compilation is Skyscraper’s second venture chronicling the path of Canadian metal. Even with 19 tracks, Chapter II is far from comprehensive, but stylistically it covers a lot of ground — death, thrash, progressive, power, black metal, and more. Still, new material by repeat performers like Martyr, Blood of Christ and Devin Townsend (this time from Terria instead of Strapping Young Lad) leaves less room to showcase other talent, and while the CD features several bands not on the first collection, including some "classics” in the form of Aggression, DBC and Necrotic Mutation, where’s the prairie metal? And what makes Quebec so heavy and evil? Indications that Into the Blizzard is an ongoing series make up for a lot of the blanks, and there are just so many great songs (Quo Vadis’s "The Hunted,” Anonymus’s "Invisible Man,” Water Depth’s "Premonition,” Moonlyght’s "From Honour to Nothingness”…) that it’s hard to sustain any serious complaints.