General Chat

I also like to feel my rating system is absolute, in that it holds for all genres of music, so a rating of 0.5 is for absolute shit that I really can't stand, probably the likes of Justin Bieber, Crazy Frog or some other crime against music. A 0.5 or 1.0 is only meted out to metal albums on extremely rare occasions ( Adema and Atreyu are the only metal bands that I've ever given 0.5s to).

My feelings exactly. I remember having a debate with a couple of mates about the fact that my scoring tends to be in a bell curve with 3.5/5 at the centre. One believed that 2.5/5 should be the centre of the bell & the other thought that my rating distribution should be equal across the various possibilities. My argument was pretty simple really. I know what I'm likely to enjoy after all these years so I expect that I won't be selecting too many releases that I'm gonna hate. In reality I expect to enjoy the stuff I listen to more often than not & that naturally leads to an average of around 3.5/5.

Yeah, I think that makes sense. After all, most of us are usually listening to things we think we'll enjoy. Occasionally something will be a letdown, or we might be trying something different on a whim or because it got a lot of attention elsewhere, or we might be reviewing something for a publication, but or the most part I don't listen to stuff without expecting to at least somewhat enjoy it.

Looking at it, my most common rating is 4 (though 3.5 is close behind) so I guess I lean on the generous side :p

That's the one! Also Powerwolf and Metallica shirts, and all from both her and her (very cool) mother too.

I listened to about 260 albums from 2019 so expect many more releases in the Clan specific top 10's. 2019 was such a fantastic year for new metal in all sub-genres.

1. Inter Arma – Sulphur English

2. Devin Townsend – Empath 

3. Wilderun – Veil of Imagination 

4. Avantasia – Moonglow

5. Cult of Luna – A Dawn to Fear

6. Funereal Presence – Achatius

7. Twilight Force – Dawn of the Dragonstar

8. Runemagick – Into Into Desolate Realms

9. Weeping Sores – False Confession

10. Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race

I've heard some of you aren't really fans of song covers, but I think there are some other members of this site (such as myself) who are tired of hearing the same boring radio pop frappe practically everywhere. So I found a couple YouTube playlists of some of the best metal covers of pop songs. These covers are the best (at least for me) because now you get to hear some of the most popular songs in the world in a genre you really love like metal, and like I said before, NOT the song's original style. The first playlist is for metalheads in the "Epic Side", and the second playlist is for those in the "Island of the Revolution" (metalcore) and the "Rebel Sea" (post-hardcore/screamo):

COVERS (POP to METAL): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdtc350h7ULOz4-56IEfbFWABeMJTzi24

Best metal covers of pop songs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-eqYqo4XkD8_laSN7ENp6n7qFPOGo0Hk

Metal Academy clan map (if you don't know what I'm talking about when describing the playlists): https://metal.academy/forum/25/thread/25?page=1#topic_1144

If there's a metalized pop song cover you like that isn't in one of the two playlists, please let me know. Enjoy!

Glad you like them! Anthrax and the W.A.S.P. was the main reason I made all this. I was writing a list of songs from popular metal bands as a metal playlist for a movie or something, and the first two bands listed were Anthrax and W.A.S.P. Hence the Metal Cinematic Universe!