July 2022 - "The Fallen" Playlist - Metal Academy Radio

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2rSh9MnfQo9HmPLo2W5MBa

1. Caronte - "Black Mandala" from "Church of Shamanic Goetia" (2014) [submitted by Sonny]
2. Moonspell - "Dreamless (Lucifer and Lilith)" from "Night Eternal" (2008)
3. Epitaphe - "Insignificant" from "II" (2022) [submitted by Ben]
4. Chelsea Wolfe - "16 Psyche" from "Hiss Spun" (2017) [submitted by Sonny]
5. Reverend Bizarre - "Burn in Hell!" from "In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend " (2002) [submitted by Sonny]
6. Mournful Congregation - "Mountainous Shadows, Cast Through Time" from "The Exuviae of Gods - Part I" (2022)
7. Kyuss - "Green Machine" from "Blues for the Red Sun" (1992)
8. Ramesses - "Witchampton" from "We Will Lead You to Glorious Times" (2005)
9. Primitive Man - "This Life" from "Insurmountable" (2022) [submitted by Ben]
10. Doomraiser - "In Winter" from "Reverse (Passaggio inverso)" (2015) [submitted by Sonny]
11. Earth - "Like Gold and Faceted" from "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version" (1993) [submitted by Daniel]

For some reason I can't seem to see the Mournful Congregation track on Spotify Sonny. I also had to go with the German version of the Reverend Bizarre one.

For some reason I can't seem to see the Mournful Congregation track on Spotify Sonny. I also had to go with the German version of the Reverend Bizarre one.

That must be an Australian rights issue with Mournful Congregation because I have listened to it several times on Spotify and I ran through the whole playlist earlier this week with no problems. I found no issue with Reverend Bizarre either. Do you want me to change anything?

Don't do anything as yet Sonny. Let's wait until I get my work laptop going again because it seems that there's quite a few tracks that I can't see on my old personal laptop but I didn't experience similar problems with my work one. FYI my kids knocked a full glass of wine on the keyboard last night & now the ENTER button doesn't work so I can't even enter the BitLocker code to start to laptop up.

I can see those two tracks in your Spotify playlist now that I'm on my usual work laptop Sonny but they're still not accessioble in my region. I've added them to the playlist.

I can see those two tracks in your Spotify playlist now that I'm on my usual work laptop Sonny but they're still not accessioble in my region. I've added them to the playlist.

I guess the vagaries of licensing deals are likely to be an issue from time to time. Luckily we don't seem to come up against it too often. It's an unfortunate coincidence that two consecutive tracks are affected this time and a bit of a shame as it eviscerates the list a to some extent. Sadly, as yourself and Ben are probably the only others who listen to it, this Pacific region issue will affect most of it's audience! 

Do you want me to substitute either or both of them?

Nah... I'll just listen to those tracks elsewhere. The irony of Mournful Congregation being unavailable to the Aussie audience though.

Nah... I'll just listen to those tracks elsewhere. The irony of Mournful Congregation being unavailable to the Aussie audience though.

Maybe they feel they should get a better deal from Spotify in their own country, or perhaps they released the ep on a different label that doesn't have a deal with Spotify in Australia. Out of interest, can you see any of their other stuff?

Yes. There's nine other Mournful Congregation releases available to us.

This was quite a tricky playlist to programme, mainly due to the inclusion of a couple of monumental tracks that amounted to fifty minutes of the scheduled two hours and resulted in there only being eleven in total. I though the best way to handle them was to keep them well apart from each other, hence their appearance at either end of the playlist. Other than that there has been some issues with a couple of tracks not being available in certain areas on Spotify, although they were all OK here in the UK. Anyway here's my takes on this month's tracks:

1. Caronte - "Black Mandala" from "Church of Shamanic Goetia" (2014) [submitted by Sonny]
I love these underrated Italian stoner doom exponents and this is a great track from my favourite album of theirs.

2. Moonspell - "Dreamless (Lucifer and Lilith)" from "Night Eternal" (2008)
My previous experience with Moonspell wasn't very good to be honest, but I quite liked this slice of gothic metal when I heard it and thought it would fit in nicely here.

3. Epitaphe - "Insignificant" from "II" (2022) [submitted by Ben]
The first of those two monster tracks is a huge slab of progressive-tinged death doom that is a quite sublime extreme metal journey with an ever-increasing build-up and a satisfying climax.

4. Chelsea Wolfe - "16 Psyche" from "Hiss Spun" (2017) [submitted by Sonny]
I decided to follow the epic and titanic previous track with something a bit airier and Chelsea Wolfe's take on gothic doom seemed to fit the bill admirably.

5. Reverend Bizarre - "Burn in Hell!" from "In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend " (2002) [submitted by Sonny]
RB are for me the epitome of traditional doom metal and the opener from their debut LP was a brilliantly relentless calling card from these Finnish doom lords.

6. Mournful Congregation - "Mountainous Shadows, Cast Through Time" from "The Exuviae of Gods - Part I" (2022)
Gorgeous slab of funeral doom from this year's two-track EP by ridiculously consistent Aussies Mournful Congregation.

7. Kyuss - "Green Machine" from "Blues for the Red Sun" (1992)
I'm not the biggest fan of uptempo stoners Kyuss, but I do like this one and felt this fitted in rather well at this point and provided a striking counterpoint to the previous track and led well into the Ramesses track.

8. Ramesses - "Witchampton" from "We Will Lead You to Glorious Times" (2005)
Thick as fuck stonerized sludge metal from ex-Electric Wizards Greening and Bagshaw that can only be listened to loudly. I really dig this kind of shit.

9. Primitive Man - "This Life" from "Insurmountable" (2022) [submitted by Ben]
I must admit that I only know Primitive Man through a split EP they put out with Hell, but that was pretty damn good and they are a good fit with MSW's nightmarish Hell project. This new track is also extremely dark-sounding and bodes well for the (almost forty-minute) ep which I shall have to check out forthwith.

10. Doomraiser - "In Winter" from "Reverse (Passaggio inverso)" (2015) [submitted by Sonny]
The second Italian doomsters on this month's list are another massively underrated outfit. I love this track and it wipes the floor with recent releases from better-appreciated bands like Pallbearer and Monolord.

11. Earth - "Like Gold and Faceted" from "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version" (1993) [submitted by Daniel]
My favourite track from an album that absolutely blew me away when I first heard it not so long ago. Meditative and contemplative metal that worms it's way into your psyche and overwhelms your senses. Although it is a daunting slab of drone metal I love having it on this month's list, although I suspect not everyone would agree!

Yeah it’s probably worth doing but there’s really not a lot we can do about it to be honest. I don’t think it’s worth changing the playlists when there could be any number of licensing concerns depending on what part of the world you’re streaming from.