Notable Anniversary Chat
I'm sure gonna miss when I used to enjoy that My Dying Bride album...
That comment doesn't make any sense to me Andi. If you really like that record then why would you deny yourself the opportunity for further enjoyment? You've been making cryptic comments about cutting yourself off from gothic/doom metal for weeks now but have never really elaborated on why. I have to admit that I'm curious because it just seems so insane to me.
As a matter of fact, Daniel, I'm gonna make my official announcement about my gothic/doom metal departure and the reasons for it tomorrow morning. I've enjoyed My Dying Bride and other gothic/doom bands during my Fallen years, but enjoyment isn't forever. We all have our taste changes with good reasons. Soon would be, like that Hopesfall song, the end of an era. Stay tuned for my announcement tomorrow...
Is everything ok? I'm genuinely asking in general because taking such a black and white approach towards most things you talk about here is getting worrying man. People grow and change but it feels very extreme for no reason from the outside looking in, just wanna make sure everything's good.
Well, the Anniversaries section continues to make me feel old with Benediction and Pungent Stench both hitting the 30 year mark today. I have very little time for The Grand Leveller but it has always been there on the periphery of my death metal listening. I only ever really listened to that one Pungent Stench record and really should probably stretch my legs through their discography.
Today is the anniversaries of not one, not two, but 3 albums from the Pit that cross over with each band's main clan:
You know how much I like that Trivium album (though not as much as most of their other albums because in that album, they focused less on metalcore while still having it)! The 5FDP album is one of my brother's favorite albums from the band, and I listened to a few songs from that album when following his alt-metal footsteps. I'm feeling up to giving that album another listen and a review (this one's for you, bro!).
Well, the Anniversaries section continues to make me feel old with Benediction and Pungent Stench both hitting the 30 year mark today. I have very little time for The Grand Leveller but it has always been there on the periphery of my death metal listening. I only ever really listened to that one Pungent Stench record and really should probably stretch my legs through their discography.
I'm right there with ya Vinny. I bought both of those albums on cassette at the time. They were both amusing listens without ever really making a huge impact on me.
I can't believe Providence by Immolation is 10 years old today. From memory that was one of the free releases on Scion Audio Visual (now closed) and it was actually quite good. Decent artwork too. Where does the time go?
Huge anniversary for me today... Death's Human turns 30!
1991 was such an exciting year in my life. I was 14, with all the freedoms and experiences that come with that age. I think it was the year that I really started moving beyond my Metallica / Slayer / Iron Maiden roots, and into the formerly scary world of extreme metal. This album, along with Morbid Angel's Blessed Are the Sick, Sepultura's Arise, Carcass' Necroticism, Entombed's Clandestine, Pestilence's Testimony of the Ancients and Bolt Thrower's War Master set me on an extraordinary journey of extremity, darkness, and dare I say beauty. It's a journey I'm still on today, and there have been very few destinations on the way that are as perfect as Death's Human.
I want to take this moment to thank my big brother Daniel for guiding me down this path. I'm fairly certain I would never have found it without him.
R.I.P. Chuck! I still genuinely feel like crying when I think about the loss. I'm not ashamed to say that I did cry on the day I found out that he'd passed away. I'd be shocked if Daniel didn't shed a tear too.
Two special 20-year album anniversaries today:
A cool live album from a neo-classical progressive metal band I've listened to long ago.
I've never really felt up to listening to Sodom, not now anyway, but my dad likes a couple songs from this album; "Napalm in the Morning" and their cover of "Surfin' Bird".
Huge anniversary for me today... Death's Human turns 30!
1991 was such an exciting year in my life. I was 14, with all the freedoms and experiences that come with that age. I think it was the year that I really started moving beyond my Metallica / Slayer / Iron Maiden roots, and into the formerly scary world of extreme metal. This album, along with Morbid Angel's Blessed Are the Sick, Sepultura's Arise, Carcass' Necroticism, Entombed's Clandestine, Pestilence's Testimony of the Ancients and Bolt Thrower's War Master set me on an extraordinary journey of extremity, darkness, and dare I say beauty. It's a journey I'm still on today, and there have been very few destinations on the way that are as perfect as Death's Human.
I want to take this moment to thank my big brother Daniel for guiding me down this path. I'm fairly certain I would never have found it without him.
R.I.P. Chuck! I still genuinely feel like crying when I think about the loss. I'm not ashamed to say that I did cry on the day I found out that he'd passed away. I'd be shocked if Daniel didn't shed a tear too.
Aaaaawwwww shucks..... This was an absolutely life-changing record for me. Death's sophomore album "Leprosy" was my introduction to death metal back in 1989 & I thoroughly enjoyed exploring "Scream Bloody Gore" & "Spiritual Healing" too but none of those records ever managed to break Death into my favourite bands. "Human" changed all that. It was comfortably the most sophisticated & ambitious record the death metal scene had produced to the time & asked a lot more questions than Chuck's previous work had. I still rate it as my second favourite death metal release of all time behind Morbid Angel's "Altars Of Madness" & death metal is kinda my thing so you can't get much higher recommendation than that.
It's been a full 30 years since another yet death metal classic was released today. I picked this one up upon release after their 1989 sophomore album "Symphonies Of Sickness" had made such a major contribution to me veering off towards death metal from my thrash roots a year or two earlier. "Necroticism - Descanting The Insalubrious" was more ambitous, more sophisticated & more melodic than its older sibling but, despite the fact that Carcass had dropped their grindcore roots almost entirely, they'd lose none of their underground credibility. The dual vocal attack was more potent & the lead guitar work had taken a good couple of steps up too. It's still one of my all-time favourite death metal records & is easily Carcass' best work in my opinion.
Two special 15-year album anniversaries today (with odd cover arts):
A cool album from a progressive-ish power metal band I've listened to long ago. Seems like this album has joined the "conjoined twins cover art" trend that first started with Exodus' Bonded by Blood, though the Angra album's cover art was based on an illustration of a book that also inspired its title.
The deathcore debut from Bring Me the Horizon, before their golden metalcore years and subsequent Linkin Park-like route of going alt-pop rock, then experimental, then alt-metal. Fluxion-era The Ocean Collective called, they want their aquarium-themed cover art back!
Black Sabbath - "Mob Rules" (1981)
40 years young today!! I first heard this one through my best mate's older brother when I was in my early high school years back in the late 1980's & it's still my pick of the Dio-fronted Sabbath albums to this day. It's darker & heavier than the widely preferred but slightly more commercially focused "Heaven & Hell" which gives it the edge. Still sounds great all these years later too.
Today we celebrate a fantastic 4 cool albums' anniversaries:
HammerFall and Dark Tranquillity, despite being completely different in sound, have quite some things in common, besides both releasing albums on the same day; They're both from Gothenburg (Swedish melodeath central), vocalist Mikael Stanne was involved in both bands (he was the original HammerFall lead singer (before Joacim Cans) until he left due to increased activity in his main band Dark Tranquillity), and those two albums were the last I've heard before abandoning my like for them for the most part when leaving my earlier epic metal taste. All of these coincidences? I think NOT.
Unlike the other albums I'm mentioning that were released in 2016, the Animals as Leaders album was released 5 years prior (exactly 10 years before today). A cool jazzy instrumental progressive metal album!
Attila's album Chaos is where they've gotten much less serious than before in their nu-ish metalcore sound with occasional rapping. Not a lot of people might like it, but I say it's really cool as long as they know what they're doing. Rapping in metal is fine as long as it's proper! While I haven't listened to that ASP album, well... Remember when Chris Van Etten was searching for Neue Deutschland Harte bands besides Rammstein: https://metal.academy/forum/15/thread/460 I think I found a good suggestion...
Black Sabbath - "Mob Rules" (1981)
40 years young today!! I first heard this one through my best mate's older brother when I was in my early high school years back in the late 1980's & it's still my pick of the Dio-fronted Sabbath albums to this day. It's darker & heavier than the widely preferred but slightly more commercially focused "Heaven & Hell" which gives it the edge. Still sounds great all these years later too.
Agreed and Falling Off the Edge of the World is Sabbath's best Dio era track.
Vektor's Outer Isolation hits ten years old today. Noticed a couple of these more modern releases hitting their first key milestones lately. I tend to think that records that I acknowledge in the daily Anniversaries section (one of my favourite parts of the site) are the ones that have left a lasting impression on me as I recognise their maturity on their anniversary date. Remember finding this a tad of a step down from the debut album yet still enjoyable enough.
Vektor's Outer Isolation hits ten years old today. Noticed a couple of these more modern releases hitting their first key milestones lately. I tend to think that records that I acknowledge in the daily Anniversaries section (one of my favourite parts of the site) are the ones that have left a lasting impression on me as I recognise their maturity on their anniversary date. Remember finding this a tad of a step down from the debut album yet still enjoyable enough.
Another perfect album from one of my absolute favorite progressive thrash metal bands! And here's one more album celebrating its 10th anniversary today:
An amazing recap of the first 3 fifths of this power-ish progressive metal band's 25-year ongoing tenure. I bet in 5 years from now, if the band is still active then, they'll probably make a second compilation, "Another Decade in a Half" that would compile albums 9 to 13 or 14, similar to Edenbridge's Chronicle of Eden compilations.
Couldn't help noticing that there are 4 releases celebrating 25 year anniversaries today (from 4 different clans). I can't really talk much about the Angizia or Within Temptation offerings, but I do know that I raced out and purchased both Enslaved's Eld and Septic Flesh's The Ophidian Wheel on CD (from Utopia Records) within a few weeks of their release. I was a big fan of both bands at the time, and I distinctly recall being a bit disappointed with both of these efforts. I was shocked by the drum sound on Eld, and it took a long time for me get past it enough to actually enjoy quite a bit of what the album offers. As for The Ophidian Wheel, I struggled with the increase in operatic vocals and symphonics, after the more death metal focussed first two Septic Flesh albums that I adored. I don't think I've ever totally clicked with this release, and it wouldn't be until Sumerian Daemons in 2003 that I'd fall in love with this amazing Greek band all over again.
A few good albums from when I used to listen to those bands (except Angizia which I still haven't heard of)! And here's a recent anniversary-celebrating album from a band that I've enjoyed since last week:
A very notable anniversary for me today, being 20 years since the release of Arcturus' The Sham Mirrors. I was already a huge fan of the band's previous works when this came out, and it would only strengthen my love for this talented and endlessly creative entity. Sadly, it would be the last Arcturus release that Kristoffer Rygg (Trickster G. Rex) would be involved in, and while the band's subsequent releases would still be entertaining, they'd never reach these heights again.
Great album from when I used to listen to that band, along with...
Not one, but two fantastic albums turn thirty years old today - Baphomet's The Dead Shall Inherit and Incantation's Onward to Golgotha.
That was some day that 5th May 1992!
Also on this day, the 5th anniversary of an amazing mix of alt-metal, metalcore, and industrial metal, the way I like it! Still glad that the 3-clan releases didn't break the Anniversaries page, though they do cover some part of the details:
