Official Chart Reviewers Club Thread (Purely Optional)

I'm not the biggest Behemoth fan myself, but I'm not gonna lie: I was really looking forward to this one.  After a busy day of work and some heavier shopping than usual, I needed to rest.  Somehow, their brand of death metal really did the job for me.  Something about the quality of their music put a part of me at ease.  I checked out a few Behemoth works before just because I wanted to get some blackened death under my belt, even though these guys are largely pure death, and even though they didn't live up to the legend I had heard about, I was eager to check out more and more, but didn't get to this album until months after I put them aside to focus on a bunch of other acts.  I chose this one specifically because I felt an obligation to them after hearing all their early works.

There seems to be the occasional switch between melodeath and typical death.  There are moments that are more focused in the blastbeats and moments more focused in the rhythm.  Other than style, there really aren't very many similarities between these songs.  Each song is about maintaining a presence that never really wavers while adding a little something new to each entry, although originality does wane a little by the end.  But among the weaker, less fleshed out moments are some serious bangers like the extremely melodic intro and the more blastbeat-focused Mysterium, constantly maintaining that menacing atmosphere and never losing strength.  I have to wonder how much methylene blue these guys put in their coffee before recording this album.  But I'd say the real star of this show belongs to Inferno Prominski, whose creativity on the percussions is displayed at incredible force.  Demigod shows several of his best performances so far.  The guy's a whirlwind that keeps switching from one drum to the other and even overshadows the rest of the band.

I think people who are more into Behemoth will get a stronger kick out of this album, but I'm still really happy with the results here.  Demigod shows excellent growth from their early days and shows real promise for their future which is later lived up to on The Satanist.  That drummer is a wild wild menace in his field, and he makes what could've been just another decent death album much better by leading the bands as the melodies work around him.

83

Hint for tomorrow's INFINITE album:

This week's INFINITE album:

Star One - Space Metal (2002)

Genre: Prog Metal

Votes: 1

Reason: this is an understated classic which I've been meaning to revisit.

I actually want to revisit that Star One album too. Thanks for this, Rex, I'll check it out soon.

I've done my review. Here's its summary:

You gotta admit, Arjen Lucassen is a true talented space metal genius. He can make a song with just a couple riffs and transform it into something beyond belief. I was once a fan of Ayreon and remembered the mind-blowing status of his albums. I suppose one day I can check out some of his former projects that I missed out on like Stream of Passion, but for now, let's escape into a wonderous dimension of progressive space metal! Musically, Star One's debut picks up where Ayreon left off in Flight of the Migrator, including that album's heavier D-tuned sound. This time, only one of the two discs is the main album, and there are 4 vocalists in every song; Russell Allen (Symphony X), Floor Jansen (ex-After Forever, Nightwish), Damien Wilson (ex-Threshold), and Dan Swano (ex-Edge of Sanity, Nightingale). The music speaks in loud fury while in spacey beauty. The deep synth/guitar momentum adds to the heaviness factor, though a few tracks lean closer to the earlier hard rock of Deep Purple, and there are some moments that sound a little too pompous. But the main verdict is an Ayreon spin-off project of progressive metal with the speed of power metal and the cosmic vibe of Hawkwind that you shouldn't miss out on. This man's a true genius!

4.5/5

When I first heard this album, I chose it on a whim, never once considering that it was an album about sci-fi movies until I recognized the plot of Stargate in track 6, The Eye of Ra.  Most of these sci-fi topics weren't things I was familiar with, and I totally missed The Empire Strikes Back references in Master of Darkness the first time since there are many dark lords in this world and none of them should be taken lightly.

Star One is effectively an understated supergroup.  I was about to compare the vocalist to Symphony X's Russell Allen until I realized... is that him?  Turns out, this album has two members of Ayreon, a touring member of Ayreon, Dan Swano the founder of Edge of Sanity, and the replacement for Nightwish's Tarja, Floor Jansen.  It goes as no surprise that these people are taking turns being lead singers.  Much of the instrumentation was done by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, while the others helped out.

 After our sci-fi synth opener, track 1, Set Your Controls, is all about Doctor Who.  Now there are too many doctors for me to get into this series, and even episode 2 of the reboot couldn't keep my interest.  I'm a Farscape guy.  But I like the song.  It seems to be a neoclassical organ side with hard rock undertones in the vein of pre-Highway Star Deep Purple, which is a welcome and unique addition to 2000's metal.  It's a jammer.  But track two, High Moon (Outland) is different.  it's slow, deep, menacing and repetitive.  Now I can't really relate to Outland either, but the real problem for me is that there's practically no melody in the overpowering backing bass, and the melodies are a bit weaker than Set Your Controls, despite the new direction.  Next is Songs of the Ocean, which recounts Star Trek IV, a movie I know nothing about except that it has whales.  I appreciate the synthier backdrops for its aquatic vibe, recalling other aquatic albums, notably electronic ones like Sirens of the Sea of Behind the Sun.  We also see the organs from track one used in a more atmospheric way and finally hear Floor Jansen singing.  But it's hardly a progressive song, mostly just decent heavy metal.  Master of Darkness is out Empire Strikes Back song, and gets right into a metalcore riff to up the modern-day progginess of the album, but otherwise it's still built on a heavy metal vibe with simplicity attached, leading the lyrics to do all the "dark atmosphere" work.  But the second half of the song pumps things up to a neoclassical power metal level without ever letting go of the space vibe, at least, which is a good surprise.

The Eye of Ra is where I originally picked up of the themes.  I couldn't actually believe I recognized it since it had been years since I had watched that movie, but I remembered enough of it after the second watch to recognize it years later.  Maybe it was the "seventh sign" line.  As far as the song goes, the band used the slower pacing in metal along with heavy atmo-synths to not only bring out science fiction, but fantasy as well, as the movie had to do with Egyptian mythology.  Next is Sandrider (Dune), which immediately takes a very energetic approach with upgraded progginess.  It's a pretty catchy tune for the longrun, but it doesn't really progress after a while.  Next comes Perfect Survivor, which is a darker and creepier song, perfect for a song about the movie Alien.  Our next song has a title that doesn't shy away from the honesty about their themes: Intergalactic Space Crusaders.  Unfortunately, the source material doesn't share this name.  It's Blake's 7, a British space TV show from the late-70's and early 80's.  So, yeah, never had any experience with this, nope.  And I gotta admit, I am NOT into the rhytmhs or melodies of this song.  It feels like pointless filler that should've been left off.  Our final track is a nine-minute epic called Starchild, written about the movies 2001 and 2010.  Now I never saw the latter, but it's on my to-do list.  I've seen the original three times (and gave it the exact same rating each time), so I couldn't fully relate to this, but took in as much as I could.  I liked the more melodic approach taken after the slow synthy intro was over.  But this lasts throughout the whole song, which means this prog epic isn't as proggy as it should be.

Well, I love the general concept.  All these well-recieved prog players banded together to make an album for nerds, and they did a pretty decent job of it.  They mostly focus on atmosphere and lyrical content, and do a bang up job.  But I feel that the progginess and melodies sometimes suffered.  Overall, pretty good album.

76/100

Today's NORTH album:

Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Symfonia

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Votes: 4

Reason: Arcturus is a classic experimental band, but this provides an interesting look at what they used to be, like Amorphis.

Another album I've been meaning to revisit. You're on a roll, Rex, thanks!

Thanks a bunch!

I've not done much stat examination for a while and so I have been looking at some stats relating to the Clan charts.

For each clan I looked at how many releases were on the chart with a minimum of 5 ratings and then how many were in each clan with a minimum of 4 ratings, thus seeing how many were a single rating away from making the 5 rating minimum chart:

The Fallen - 180 / 257 = 77

The Gateway - 98 / 161 = 63

The Guardians - 344 / 471 = 127

The Horde - 242 / 346 = 104

The Infinite - 237 / 326 = 89

The North - 249 / 362 = 113

The Pit - 232 / 312 = 80

The Revolution - 60 / 101 = 41

The Sphere - 57 / 71 = 14

I think for the New Year I will set myself to the task of converting whichever of those fours I can into fives, at least for my clans anyway.

I'd love to see one of the clan charts get to 500 entries.

Noticing a lot of releases in the charts with only 3 or 4 ratings, I decided to revive this thread started by Rex, with some slight changes. The thread will be focused on releases with 3 or 4 ratings, so that it can be easy for one or two members to get them up to the minimum 5 ratings in the main section of the charts, and it is for every clan monthly, just to keep things in a quick but steady pace. Depending on how this turns out, I might keep it going with different releases updated every 8th of the month (because the first week of the month is when I focus on checking out the feature releases and monthly playlists for my clans and assembling the Revolution/Sphere playlists). This thread will NOT compete with the monthly feature releases. This is PURELY OPTIONAL, and anyone (including myself for some releases) can join if they want to. I'll be selecting the releases from the charts, whether or not I've heard them before, but suggestions for any other releases are welcome. For this month, March 2024, the chosen releases are:

THE FALLEN: Moonspell - Night Eternal (2008)

THE GATEWAY: Bad Omens - The Death of Peace of Mind (2022)

THE GUARDIANS: Grand Magus - The Hunt (2012)

THE HORDE: Mercenary - The Hours That Remain (2006)

THE INFINITE: Seventh Wonder - Mercy Falls (2008)

THE NORTH: Nehëmah - Requiem Tenebrae (2004)

THE PIT: Viper - Theatre of Fate (1989)

THE REVOLUTION: Car Bomb - Meta (2016)

THE SPHERE: Waltari - Space Avenue (1997)

I've already rated the releases for The Infinite, The Revolution, and The Sphere, with reviews that I'll post in summaries here shortly. Same with The Gateway and The Horde, though I'll review those albums and the rest of the Bad Omens and Mercenary discographies later this month. For The Fallen and The Guardians, I haven't heard anything from Moonspell and Grand Magus for a long time, so their selected albums are good ones to revisit. But the releases from The North and The Pit? NAH. But if any of you want to check them out and any of the other selected releases, feel free to do so, but only if you want to. Let's convert those 3's and 4's into 5's. Get them into the charts!

Here are the releases I've already reviewed beforehand:

A fantastic concept album that brought me back into the melodic side of progressive metal in my first listen 4 years ago. Here are my thoughts:

Let's start with the fact that the vocalist Tommy Karevik is also the current vocalist for Kamelot, and some Kamelot songs are touching and emotional, as much as gothic metal bands like Sentenced and Elis. Seventh Wonder, however, released a groundbreaking progressive metal album worth shedding a lot of tears. (SPOILER ALERT!!!) Mercy Falls is a concept album about a man who was in a car crash and ends up in a comatose world called Mercy Falls. Inspired by The Human Equation, huh? Beautiful melodies and Tommy Karevik's strong singing are what keep everything in place alongside the concept, so as the lyrics of one of the songs instruct you, "Let the music play! Let it go all the way!!" You won't be disappointed one bit.

Car Bomb's Meta is an exciting mathcore madhouse of technical heaviness that would surely please metalheads looking for that kind of aspect! Here are my thoughts:

So, 2016 was the year when metal/hardcore bands like Norma Jean, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Meshuggah were releasing new albums to please their respective fanbases, and it doesn't end there! Car Bomb, a band heavily influenced by and often compared to those other bands, would make their addition to that year with their third offering Meta. An awesome standout to this year for that metal/hardcore league! Colossal riffing and raw vocals thunder through mathcore complexity, with the riffing unleashed from buzzsaw guitars. In one song, Joe Duplantier of Gojira makes a guest appearance with clean vocals in some softer sections to set an excellent mood. Then another song has an ULTRA-BRUTAL bridge of growls by Suffocation’s Frank Mullen over some of the most intense rhythm Car Bomb or any other band has generated. For 48 minutes, the band has made a brutal quest to level up their mathcore aura with an essential album to please fans of the genre. The riffing has heavy creativity and superb chemistry for the band members and their product. There's no denying how rewarding Meta is as one of the most consistent albums of the 2010s. Creative yet brutal, Car Bomb has made recent history with one of the most meta metal gems of 2016. Absolutely well-written mathcore for the daring!

A more industrial take on the alternative metal from one of the longest-running Finnish metal bands still active today. Here are my thoughts:

Waltari is known for their huge blend of genres, with Space Avenue focusing on industrial/alternative metal. The album features a lineup with notable members including former Stone guitarist Roope Latvala, taking temporary place of Sami Yli-Sirniö who would also join Kreator, and drummer Janne Parviainen. Latvala and Parviainen would later join Sinergy, and the former would perform with Children of Bodom and the latter with Ensiferum. Absolutely solid! As for the album, a fantastic lineup doesn't necessary show evolution to the band, but Space Avenue is still in the line of perfection. Manning the production is Front Line Assembly's Rhys Fulber, another reason for the album's slick audio appearance. Throughout this release, Waltari shines with their industrial/alternative metal sound, while often going poppy with their cosmic keyboards and vocal fuzz, then later rocking out with heavy mid-paced groove before incredible hyper-thrash soloing. The band had fun making their material, and so did I with listening to what they've made there!

I've just reviewed all the Bad Omens and Mercenary albums, and here's what I gotta say about the releases I've selected as part of the thread for this month:

The Death of Peace of Mind is where Bad Omens continue their alt-metal path with more electronic influences then before. Here are my thoughts:

The ambitious sound will surely win some fans in the rock/metal realms in The Death of Peace of Mind. They even got a surge of popularity from one of their songs being used a lot in TikTok, that song being "Just Pretend", a single greatly balanced heaviness and emotion. All the other songs are either metal-focused or electronic-focused, and there's no doubting the obvious nods to Bring Me the Horizon that sometimes work and sometimes doesn't. Either way, Noah Sebastian performs some of his best, most widely-ranged vocals yet. Bad Omens continues to bring their career to a more global light as they create music for the modern metal masses!

4.5/5

Mercenary's unique sound of melodeath with progressive/power metal tendencies has stirred up another perfect masterpiece in the gem that is The Hours That Remain. Here are my thoughts:

Mercenary continues to be the respectable ensemble they are here. The music shines with its production that allows easy clarity for the instruments. Everything's perfectly produced and your mind can focus on the music without any troubling thing. The vocals are quite unique here. Kral left the band right before the album was to be recorded, and while producer Jacob Hansen took over on bass, clean vocalist Mikkel Sandager decided to test out his growling/screaming abilities. His harsh vocals are so perfectly kick-A that I wish he could do them full-time, though I also enjoy his beautiful singing voice and I don't want that to get strained. Though in a couple songs, the harsh vocals are performed by guests Björn "Speed" Strid of Soilwork and Marcus Bischoff of Heaven Shall Burn. There are songs that are more focused on clean singing and adding a fair amount of keyboard melody, and other songs that are heavy highlights with harsh vocals. The stellar sound has slightly improved from 11 Dreams and is able to maintain the perfect glory of Everblack. They continue to level up their greatness that would decrease in later releases while staying strong. Any metalhead should get The Hours That Remain. A fantastic confident offering of epic melodeath!

5/5

And here are the Moonspell and Grand Magus releases I've selected as part of the thread for this month, both of which earn a rating of 4-stars:

The first signs of the band returning to their harsher blackened roots of Wolfheart were hinted in The Antidote and expanded upon in Memorial, even adding some deathly aspects. The heaviness continues in Night Eternal while making some room for their atmospheric side. The heavier songs rule with blackened death-ish riffing and vocals, while the lighter songs go back to the mid-period gothic rock/metal. One of the songs has female vocals by Anneke van Giersbergen (ex-The Gathering). I loved her guest appearance more about 5 years before this review, but not so much now in my recent revisit. Maybe because the more serious heavy modern side of my metal taste has grown recently. But I still enjoy the brilliant female background choirs in the heavier tracks. Although I don't enjoy Night Eternal as perfectly as I had 5 years ago, it's still highly interesting, and a much better deal than their experimental albums like The Butterfly Effect. Moonspell fans wanting their earlier heaviness to return got their wish. With that and great lyrics, this shall give gothic metal listeners their money's worth....

Similarly with Moonspell, I was listening to a lot of Grand Magus until a couple years ago when I decided to have my hiatus from The Fallen (due to this band's first two albums that are stoner/doom metal). I'm glad to be able to revisit an album from those bands and bring back some good memories... However, as interesting as the lyrics are, in some albums, they seem to lean into a more atheist pagan theme. I'm not saying they're as antichristian as black metal bands, but they might cause some religious discomfort. At least the sound is pretty cool, moving away from their old doom metal roots while having a moderately mid-tempo pace in the majority songs. And that wicked cover art reminds me a lot of Assassin's Creed. The stronger tracks are where the band sounds the best, playing fast and heavy. Though I also enjoy the exceptional two-part epic "Son of the Last Breath". The Hunt is a pretty great album with many excellent tracks and only a couple week ones that could've been much more improved....

Once again, I'll skip out on the selected releases from The North (Nehëmah - Requiem Tenebrae) and The Pit (Viper - Theatre of Fate). But if anyone is up to checking them out and any of the other selected releases, feel free to do so, but only if you want to. Let's get them into the charts, fellow metalheads!

Thanks for trying to keep this thread alive, but you gotta choose only one album every week, switching out clans.

We've had minimal interest in the clan feature releases of late which is mainly because our regular contributors having tired of having their listening habits dictated to them so any additional options in that space are likely doomed for failure. I also think we'd be better served by pushing the Hall of Judgement outcomes than general rating tallies.

Yeah, I guess you're right, Daniel. But it was worth a good experiment. I don't think my packed schedule both here and in the outside world would let me do just one album/clan per week anyway.