The Fallen

For my first time listening to this behemoth, I can safely say that this was a test of patience more than anything else. Normally when bands release an hour long song or jam session it's divided into different parts that house different ideas and qualities, but in Sleep's case "Dopesmoker" legitimately revolves around a single riff. And most of the time that riff is a single note or small chord progression repeated over, and over, and over. That being said, this album is easily the most Stoner of any Stoner Metal album I've heard, beating out Electric Wizard's Dopethrone in terms of faithfulness to the genre itself. It's slow, almost trance-like, and drowned in distortion in a cleaner but just as heavy way. The solos are also really impressive, since they really dip into the psychedelic aspects of Stoner Metal, which are probably my favorite parts of the genre. 

This album, well song, isn't something that can be properly dissected after one listen though. At around the 25 minute mark I had just about enough and wanted to take a break, but by the 45 minute mark the song had reeled me back in somehow, which is pretty impressive. However I can't give it a very high score due to the sheer monotony of the composition and especially the monotony of the vocals, but this sits directly below Dopethrone in terms of Stoner Metal for me, and I can see it climbing even higher if I spend time giving it a few more spins. 

4/5

I find this one a very difficult proposition to be honest. Neither record have made a particularly big impression on my life despite the fact that I find them both to be pretty enjoyable. Witchfinder General have the advantage in the riffs department of course however they do sound like a poor man's Black Sabbath most of the time. I love the challenging early 70’s progressive & psychedelic rock elements in Pagan Altar's sound as well as the more epic feel. The more expansive musicianship (particularly the guitar work of Alan Jones) gives Pagan Altar an edge over the much sloppier Witchfinder General sound too but interestingly it's the repetitive vocals on "Pagan Altar" that I struggle with rather than Zeeb's on "Death Penalty". Terry Jones sometimes sounds like he’s just singing the same phrase over & over again.

I think "Death Penalty" is the more consistent record however it doesn't have quite as many highlights as "Pagan Altar". Some of the remaining Pagan Altar material lacks the hooks that "Death Penalty" has though & the songs sometimes have a tendency to go past without leaving much of an impression even though I generally like what I’m hearing. The doomier moments on "Pagan Altar" are amazing for the time but there really isn’t a song which fully harnesses that sound without diluting it with more bouncy up-tempo material which is a real shame in my opinion. So I'm gonna go with "Death Penalty" by the barest of margins. Mainly due to the Pagan Altar record finishing with a nearly nine minute track that I find to be a bit disappointing.

Death Penalty  1 - Pagan Altar 1

I remember randomly checking Panopticon out without knowing what it was or why it is such an important album and just glazing over it with a resounding "Meh, it's okay I guess". Now that I'm a bit more acquainted with atmospheric sludge/post-metal I think this is an extremely beautiful record but I still don't necessarily find it that...interesting. The type of progressive and atmospheric songwriting is top notch and obviously shows how it influenced so many other bands like Saxy mentioned, Cult of Luna being the biggest one for me. However I can't find many other strong opinions about this record past it sounds pretty and being incredibly written and accessible stuff that still dips its toes into Metal enough to please both ends of the spectrum. I think bands like Cult of Luna as well as Agalloch took this type of formula and created, at least to me, much more interesting sounding music than Isis did with Panopticon. I still rated it highly because it's still a fantastic album but not necessarily better than the later projects it ended up influencing. 

4/5

I...didn't get anything out of this. It's definitely one of the more interesting Drone experiences I've heard, but it just went one in ear and out the other. Need to revisit it, since I can tell there's something cool in here that I must have missed. Since I listened to this a week or so ago I can't really give anything more than that, it was that forgettable to me. 

I finally got around to giving "Wildhoney" a revisit over the last couple of days & I have to say that I still fucking love it. It's just so classy & may be my favourite gothic metal release overall. I'd actually suggest that less the half of the runtime is actually metal with a variety of interesting influences (The Cure, Dead Can Dance, Pink Floyd, etc.) being utilized to create something genuinely original & thoroughly captivating. The guitar solos are the clear highlight. That lead tone is utterly sensational & the execution is quite stunning too.

4.5/5

Echoing Sonny's sentiments of 2019, here's 10 from me:

1. Inter Arma – Sulphur English

2. Cult of Luna – A Dawn to Fear 

3. Runemagick – Into Desolate Realms

4. Weeping Sores – False Confession 

5. Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard – Yn Ol I Annwn 

6. Troll – Legend Master 

7. Esoteric – A Pyrrhic Existence 

8. Lord Vicar – The Black Powder 

9. Waste of Space Orchestra – Syntheosis 

10. Asphodelus – Stygian Dreams

I think the appreciation of this EP (and Paul Chain as a whole) really depends on how you approach him. I look on this as an early-ish doom metal demo and Mr. Chain himself as an innovative ingenue who's ideas sometimes outreach his abilities to deliver them. Personally I love this record, Chain's vision of the early doom sound, particularly of Witchfinder General and Pentagram, expanded on with all manner of synths and effects has the hallmark of a true mad genius reaching for the stars. The lo-fi production quality and his sometime questionable vocal performance, coupled with his killer riffs,  only increase the charm of this record for me. Then again, I have always been a sucker for lo-fi demos and feeling over technicality, but if your taste tends more to well-produced and technically adept metal, then this probably isn't going to be the record for you. Personally, I was made up that Daniel chose this as the first feature release of The Fallen - great choice, my man!

My brother who is usually a rock fan, at one point was listening to gothic metal band Lacuna Coil. I was still in my epic metal taste (power/progressive/folk), and didn't intend to make my music interest go goth. But then I found out that band's female vocalist Cristina Scabbia was in one of my favorite albums at the time, progressive metal opera album The Theory of Everything by Ayreon, and that's what made me interested in Lacuna Coil. Other gothic metal bands that entered my epic metal arsenal included The Gathering, Anathema, and Theatre of Tragedy (including those bands' post-1998 industrial/alt-prog rock material for the sake of completion). After my grand switch to a heavier modern side of metal, I guess you can say I regained my Fallen virginity, then lost it again when I became interested in Tiamat and a few other gothic metal bands later. The gothic part of my metal taste is kinda off-and-on, which is why The Fallen isn't one of my top 3 clans. I'm pretty much more interested in being a metalhead than a goth...