July 2022 Feature Release - The Sphere Edition
So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.
This month’s feature release for The Sphere has been nominated by myself. It's the 2020 "ULTRAKILL: INFINITE HYPERDEATH" game soundtrack from Finnish producer Heaven Pierce Her, a release that's widely touted as successfully combining industrial metal with drum 'n' bass which is a concept that I look forward to experiencing.
https://metal.academy/releases/27879
OK, so I'm a couple of full listens into this release & I'll be interested to hear some of your thoughts around whether there's enough genuine metal on offer to qualify as a metal release at the Academy or not.
I listened to this one in 2020 but it wasn't on the site yet, going to have to give it another listen but I remember not being too thrilled by it; I remember it being overly grating for some reason.
Yeah, I've found this release to be pretty disappointing too Xephyr. It suffers from all of the trademark attributes of all but the elite video game soundtracks in that it jumps around all over the place & doesn't offer a lot of attention to detail. The industrial metal component is only evident for around a third of the run time so I don't actually think this is a genuine metal release either, particularly given that the metal elements tend to be used in more of a supporting capacity with drum & bass being the stronger contributor here. You also get smatterings of a bunch of other genres including jazz, breakbeat, ambient, classical, industrial & progressive electronic. The tracklisting is very inconsistent & this is further exacerbated by the fact that the release is generally too long as well. I do really enjoy some of this material but unfortunately the stronger inclusions are out-numbered by the ordinary ones so I can't see myself returning to "ULTRAKILL: INFINITE HYPERDEATH" any time soon.
For fans of The Blood Of Heroes, Andrew Hulshult's "DUSK" & Mick Gordon's "Doom" soundtracks.
3/5