Monthly playlists

1. Gateway playlist - 5/5 (number of songs commented: 12)

2. Guardians playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 7)

3. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 9)

4. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 30)

5. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 24)

So far, I've only commented on 12 tracks in the Gateway playlist, 7 tracks in the Guardians playlist, and 9 tracks in the Infinite playlist, but for the other 2 of my own clans I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy, Xephyr, and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig what I've listened in the Gateway playlist made by Saxy, and I'm glad the Revolution and Sphere playlists made by me paid off. I recommend them to any fan of those respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 9)

2. Revolution playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 29)

3. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 26)

So far, I've only commented on 9 tracks in the Gateway playlist and skipped out on the Infinite playlist, but for the other 2 of my own clans I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig what I've listened to in the Gateway playlist made by Saxy, and I'm glad the Revolution and Sphere playlists made by me paid off. I recommend them to any fan of those respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

1. Gateway playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: 12)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 6)

3. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 30)

4. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 25)

So far, I've only commented on 12 tracks in the Gateway playlist and 6 tracks in the Infinite playlist, but for the other 2 of my own clans I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig what I've listened to in the Gateway and Infinite playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad the Revolution and Sphere playlists made by me paid off. I recommend them to any fan of those respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

Ben & I are considering doing away with the concept of maintaining all of the historical clan Spotify playlists & simplifying things by simply keeping the nine active ones. I doubt anyone's actually going back & listening to the old ones so it seems like wasted space & effort to keep maintaining an ever-growing list playlists. Before I go & delete anything though, does anyone have any strong feelings on this?

Agreed, I'd be okay with having a rotating playlist rather than an endless backlog of stuff.

I also agree. If any of us clan playlist creators want to check on playlist tracks that have appeared in the past few months to make sure they don't repeat too many too soon, that's what the past tracklistings threads are for.

I have no issue with this.

Yeah, I have no problem with this, Daniel.

Excellent! Thanks for your input everyone. I won't be creating these from today & will delete the historical playlists some time in the next couple of days too.

Also on this topic, I've noticed that I now have the option to "Invite collaborators" on each Spotify playlist. Ben & I just trialed this functionality & it enabled him to update The North playlist without my involvement which reduced my workload & empowered him to take full control of that playlist moving forwards. It's my preference that each playlist owner becomes a collaborator so that you can do the same. I'm not sure how it will work if you don't have a paid Spotify account but let's test it out & see what happens. I'll communicate with each of you over the next day or so to see if we can give you the required privileges.

1. Gateway playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 20)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 10)

3. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 29)

4. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 24)

So far, I've only commented on 10 tracks in the Infinite playlist, but for the other 3 of my own clans I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig what I've listened to in the Gateway and Infinite playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad the Revolution and Sphere playlists made by me paid off. I recommend them to any fan of those respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

1. Gateway playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 21)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 11, formerly ALL 19)

3. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 29)

4. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 27)

For all my own clans, I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig many of the tracks in the Gateway and Infinite playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad the Revolution and Sphere playlists made by me paid off. I recommend them to any fan of those respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 8)

2. Guardians playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 24)

3. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 10)

4. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 29)

5. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 27)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for, I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Gateway and Infinite playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad the Guardians, Revolution, and Sphere playlists made by me paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all! Once again, all the best with your exam, Xephyr!

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 9)

2. Guardians playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 25)

3. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 11, formerly ALL 16)

4. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 28)

5. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 26)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for, along with the one for the Infinite, I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Gateway playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad all those other playlists I've reviewed paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all! Once again, all the best with your exam, Xephyr, and see you again next month!

So, a quick question to the playlist compilers: Which of the sub-genres you encounter when compiling the playlists do you least enjoy checking out for new playlist entries. I think I have never made any secret of my aversion to a lot of gothic metal, so it is that which irritates me most when I need to find new tracks to include in The Fallen playlist. Which are your particular sub-genres where you have to bite the bullet for the greater good?

So, a quick question to the playlist compilers: Which of the sub-genres you encounter when compiling the playlists do you least enjoy checking out for new playlist entries. I think I have never made any secret of my aversion to a lot of gothic metal, so it is that which irritates me most when I need to find new tracks to include in The Fallen playlist. Which are your particular sub-genres where you have to bite the bullet for the greater good?

Groove metal has sort of become a guilty pleasure after me loathing to source it for the playlist.  There's still some shit out there in groove metal of course but I have always enjoyed the crossover research I have done by comparison.  Biggest ballache is technical thrash metal which I have all but given up including unless I stumble across something on my travels.  Seen a better focus on death/thrash since I started compiling the list though and always try to throw in some blackened speed or thrash also for good measure.  Still use the site quite extensively for new finds though as the releases section is a bit of a gold mine for any sub-genre I am unsure of.

There are a number of The Horde subgenres that I'm not crazy about. Thankfully there aren't all that many releases from niche subgenres like gorenoise, death 'n' roll & cybergrind so I've already included most of the more significant material. Melodeath is a challenge for me a lot of the time but gorenoise would have to be the one I struggle with the most.

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 22)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 10)

3. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 27)

4. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 27)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for, along with the one for the Gateway, I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Infinite playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad all those other playlists I've reviewed paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

1. Gateway playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: 12)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 18)

3. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 30)

4. Sphere playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 28)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for, along with the one for the Infinite, I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Gateway playlist made by Saxy, and I'm glad all those other playlists I've reviewed paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all! Also, all the best with overcoming your struggles, Saxy, and see you next month or two!

As part of my semi-hiatus, like I said, I asked someone else to work on The Revolution playlists. You'll find out who it is when he posts the thread for his first Revolution playlist in the beginning of August (unless he would like me to reveal who it is early, to which I'll just edit this comment). Don't worry, I'll still be submitting some tracks in the playlist suggestion threads so he won't have to do it all on his own when doing The Revolution playlists. However, I think I have time to squeeze in working on The Sphere playlists during those 3 months. They're easier for me to do than the playlists for other clans because there are only two subgenres in the clan (industrial metal and cyber metal, now I consider Neue Deutsche Härte as part of conventional industrial metal instead of its own subgenre), and since I seem to be the only active Metal Academy member familiar with The Sphere, I don't wanna have to put the Sphere playlists to a halt. Anyway, I'll still comment on my Sphere playlists, but for each of the playlists for my other clans that I worked on for July, I'll spread out the commenting throughout these next couple months. I'll comment on my Gateway playlist on Monday (slight delay as I need some rest due to a saw throat- Sorry, sore throat and cough), my Infinite playlist in the beginning of August, and my Revolution playlist in the beginning of September. Stay tuned...

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 16)

2. Guardians playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 23)

3. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 7)

4. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 12)

5. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 25)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for (The Guardians and The Sphere), I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Gateway, Infinite, and Revolution playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad all the two other playlists I've made have paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 10)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 11)

3. Revolution playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 31)

4. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 29)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for, I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Gateway and Infinite playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad the two playlists I've made have paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

1. Gateway playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: 14)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 12)

3. Pit playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 7)

4. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 27)

5. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 28)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for (The Revolution and The Sphere), I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy, Vinny, and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Gateway, Infinite, and Pit playlists made by Saxy and Vinny, and I'm glad the two other playlists I've made have paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!