Judgement Submissions

Cool Feet's 1976 debut album "Burning Desire" is generally labelled as "Hard Rock/Heavy Metal" but there's really only a couple of metal tunes amongst the eight included so I'd like to see it removed from The Guardians & added to Non-Metal.

I've subsequently added the release to the Hall of Judgement.

Saw this one coming, haha. 

I'm in full agreement on this though. 

This feels like another case of a Metal guitarist being on a project, so it must be Metal, right?

Although The Ocean is known for their blend of post-sludge and progressive metal, Pelagial is definitely a more progressive ocean. You can only find a small bit of ambience around the surface, and a couple sludgy tracks at the crushing bottom, with practically everything else in between being as progressive as progressive metal can be. So I agree with you on this one, Daniel.

With a vote tally of YES 5 NO 0, I've decided to uphold my submission to have "Misanthropy" added to The Horde under the Death Metal (Conventional) genre.

OK, thanks Daniel.

I've decided to pass this Hall nomination based on the conclusive YES 6 NO 1 vote tally. "Know Your Enemy" has been added to The Guardians under the eavy Metal genre.

I completely agree with you here Andi. This record has no business in The Horde despite the clear At The Gates influence.

This is an interesting one Andi as I've never felt that "Energetic Disassembly" was a thrash metal record to tell you the truth. To my ears it's a progressive metal release with a few thrashy parts. I can't say that I remember much in the way of speed metal though so I've gone with a YES on one Hall entry & a NO on the other.

Bewitcher's 2021 third album "Cursed Be Thy Kingdom" sees the trio dropping the speed metal tempo on half of the material, instead utilizing a heavy metal sound that's not all that dissimilar to Judas Priest. When combined with the blackened vocals of Unholy Weaver of Shadows & Incantations I find this material to sound very much like black 'n' roll so I'd like to see the album added to The North under the black 'n' roll subgenre while remaining in The Pit under speed metal.

This nomination has been added to the Hall of Judgement.

Agent Steel's 1986 "Mad Locust Rising" E.P. includes just the three tracks, two of which are clearly thrash metal & the other being a fairly faithful (if slightly more metallic) Judas Priest cover version. There really isn't any genuine speed metal on offer so I'd like to make two nominations:

1. Add the release to the Thrash Metal genre under Thrash Metal (Conventional).

2. If successful, remove the release from the Speed Metal genre.

The first nomination has been added to the Hall of Judgement.

OK, thanks Daniel!

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

This release has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

I've decided that a YES 1 NO 6 tally is close enough to a consensus on this one so I've denied my submission & "Nothingface" will remain in The Infinite under the Progressive Metal genre.

Exciter may well be the definitive speed metal band but 1986's "Unveiling The Wicked" album saw them slowing things down with a more commercially accessible heavy metal approach. As a result, I'd like to nominate the release for two Hall submissions:

1. Add it to The Guardians under Heavy Metal.

2. If that's successful then remove it from The Pit & remove the Speed Metal genre.

The first nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

2015's "Abyss of Longing Throats" album from Surinamese producer Gnaw Their Tongues is generally labelled as Black Metal/Black Noise however I feel that there's enough Industrial Metal to warrant inclusion in The Sphere on top of its existing position in The North.

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

The lone self-titled full-length from US Black Noise artist Nahvalr offers just as much in the way of Post-Metal so I'd like to see it added to The infinite on top of its existing position in The North.

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

It may be very extreme but Gnaw Their Tongues' "Genocidal Majesty" album is clearly a Power Electronics record in my opinion with very little actual metal on offer. As a result I'd like to see the release removed from The North & placed under Non-Metal.

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

The 1993 debut album from unusual Swedish artist Abruptum is generally tagged as Black Metal & Black Noise however I don't think the Black Metal component is prevalent enough to be deemed a primary genre. I'd suggest that the Avant-Garde Metal tag is much more appropriate to I'd like to post two submissions:

1. Have the album added to The Infinite under Avant-Garde Metal &

2. Have the album removed from The North.

I've just posted the first submission in the Hall of Judgement.

The 2017 fourth album from Canadian artist La Torture des ténèbres really doesn't contain much in the way of metal. It's much more of traditional Noise release so I'd like to see it removed from The North & added to Non-Metal.

I've posted this release in the Hall of Judgement.

The 1988 debut album from English outfit Deviated Instinct is generally labelled as Stenchcore however I don't hear much in the way of metal. It's a conventional Crust Punk release in my opinion so I'd like to see it removed from The Pit & placed under Non-Metal.

I've posted this release in the Hall of Judgement.

This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

Look, if you agree with my argument Andi then I'm just gonna push this one through as the only reason the release was added to The Revolution in the first place was due to your deciding genre vote on RYM which left Metalcore at 2-1. 

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

Elder's sophomore album "Dead Roots Stirring" has far too strong a blues rock influence in both tone & structure to qualify as metal in my opinion & I'd subsequently like to see it removed from The Fallen & reside under Non-Metal.

This nomination has been added to the Hall of Judgement.

With a current vote tally of YES 7 NO 2, I've decided to pass the second of the two submissions so the Post-Metal genre has now been added to "Mestarin kynsi". Thank you to everyone who contributed to the vote & allowed us to achieve a majority outcome.

Most people seem to want to lump Boris' 2002 fourth album "Heavy Rocks" in with Stoner Metal but I don't feel that's entirely accurate. There’s far too much of a late 60's blues rock influence in this material for it to sit primarily in the metal space. In fact, I really struggle to see why "Heavy Rocks" is not unanimously tagged as Stoner Rock because it fits the description of that genre to a tee in my opinion. Subsequently, I'd like to see "Heavy Rocks" removed from The Fallen & placed under the Non-Metal banner.

Vote re-submitted. Thanks Daniel!

This submission has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

With a result of Yes 7 No 1, I've today decided to uphold this Hall of Judgement entry & add "Värähtelijä" to The Infinite clan as well as the the Post-Metal genre.

Also what the sh*t is this?! I checked on the release page for the Leave Everything Behind EP, and The Sphere clan appeared as part of the release's clan lineup! I enjoy The Sphere, but there's no way Amaranthe can be part of that clan...unless they can be considered cyber metal, but even that's way too far-fetched.

Well spotted Andi. I'd suggest that was simply a data-entry error from Ben. I've corrected that in the database now.

Also, I'm going to add an additional Hall entry to have "Leave Everything Behind" removed from Trance Metal as I don't think there's enough Trance there to justify it.

Given the lop-sided tally to date I've decided to pass this Hall nomination at YES 7 NO 1. As a result the Speed Metal genre has been added to the release on top of its existing Thrash Metal one. Thanks to everyone that contributed to this vote. 

This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

https://metal.academy/hall/260

This definitely doesn't sound like death metal to me. In fact it sounds more like a hardcore punk release. I guess it's a bit like SOD with the same immature humour. Personally I hated it!

I always felt that the classification was questionable.

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

This nomination has been posted in the the Hall of Judgement.

Thanks, Daniel.

Stormcrow's sole full-length "Enslaved in Darkness" is a an example of sludgy Death Metal but doesn't include much of a Crust Punk component so I'd like to see it removed from The Pit. I've already added a Hall of Judgement entry for this.

I've added an additional Hall of Judgement entry to have this release removed from the Stenchcore genre & The Pit.

Ok, so I've decided to pass this Hall entry given that the current vote tally is so conclusive at YES 7 No 0. I've now added a new Hall entry to have "Killing Technology" removed from The Pit given that it has a second clan to reside in now.

Yes, that's true. As you can probably tell, I've been trying to drum up some interest in the Hall of Judgement of late as it's an integral part of the site.

This doesn't sound like much of a problem to be honest. We'd simply swap out the album in the list & there'd be no implications of doing that. If someone had already completed a review of the album in question then we'd simply accept that as we're not here to nit-pick over technicalities. The intent of the clan lists was always to a) prove that someone has a reasonable understanding of a fourth clan before allowing them to take on membership & b) to promote activity on the site (particularly early on in the website's existence). Whether one of the releases changes doesn't really impede the process much at all & in the case of "Rising" it's still an important release for the early metal scene even it may not technically be metal enough to convince me that it's not more of a hard rock record than it is a metal one.

I didn't hear any guitars on "The Ashes of Light" at all to be honest. If they were there they must have been so far back in the mix that I couldn't pick them up. The programmed drums were nothing out of the ordinary for New Age music as far as I could see so I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Today IS the Sabbath.  Good day to give it another spin if I can fit it in.