Judgement Submissions

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.

Two Hall entries have been created for this nomination.

I've added "Aenima", "Lateralus" & "10,000 Days" to the Hall of Judgement.

For the record, people should feel free to submit as many releases for judgement as they feel like as long as they feel they're legitimately mistagged.

Sore Throat's 1989 "Inde$troy" album is generally referred to as a mixture of Crust Punk & Industrial Metal but I'd suggest that there's more Sludge Metal than there is Crust so I'd like to see the record added to The Fallen under the Sludge Metal genre.

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

Can't say I agree.  It's not as speed-oriented as Metallica, but it's certainly heavier and more thrash-oriented than any album Pantera ever released.  Some of it straight up fucking jams in that same way.

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

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

This submission has now been added to the Hall of Judgement.

OK, so the industrial metal tag for this album is quite a stretch, but a few songs are close to cyber metal in the synths, and I've already started expanding my cyber metal knowledge with that part of the Sphere playlists.

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

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

This release has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

I added an entry in the Hall of Judgement for this release to be added to The Pit. If that's successful then we'll add another one to have The Guardians removed. Otherwise we could potentially be left without a clan.

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

Thanks, Daniel!

This release has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

Thanks, Daniel! I’d also like the Atheist and Trivium albums I’ve submitted last month sent to the Hall when possible please:

https://metal.academy/forum/28/thread/1301

https://metal.academy/forum/28/thread/1305

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

Pantera's classic "Cowboys From Hell" album may well have been the birth place of the Groove Metal genre but it was also very much a transitional album & I feel that there's enough genuine Thrash Metal on offer to qualify for a dual tagging (see tracks like "Heresy", "Message In Blood" & "The Art Of Shredding" for example).

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

I can't seem to locate the original thread that Ben posted when he nominated Marduk's debut album "Dark Endless" for the Hall of Judgement so I thought I'd create a new one to announce the result. I've decided to pass Ben's submission to remove "Dark Endless" from The North based on the fact that the current vote count is 4-0 in the positive which gives a strong indication that the vote will eventually pass & also that if the album were added to the site today it wouldn't qualify for a position in The North. This was Ben's original argument:

"I've been listening to Marduk's Dark Endless this week and have been surprised by just how little black metal it contains. There are a couple of riffs that border on black metal, but the vast majority of it is clear-cut death metal. Despite Marduk's long discography of black metal material that they've released since this album was dropped, it feels very wrong for the debut to be associated with The North."

Finnish producer Heaven Pierce Her's "ULTRAKILL: INFINITE HYPERDEATH" release is a pretty typical video game soundtrack in that it mashes together a whole bunch of different subgenres, one of which is certainly industrial metal. Unfortunately I don't think that this component is significant enough to warrant inclusion as a metal release overall as it amounts to only around a third of the overall run time with the rest being made up of drum & bass, ambient, jazz, progressive electronic, breakbeat, classical, etc.  Therefore I'd like to see this release removed from The Sphere & placed into the Non-Metal bucket.

I gave this album four spins over the last few days & I'm not sure I agree that it should qualify as a metal release. It's worth noting that I don't consider Kyuss to be a metal band either though. For "Reflections Of A Floating World" I'd go with a dual Progressive Rock & Stoner Rock tag with a Heavy Psych secondary. I think the psychedelic component is being overstated on RYM. To my ears the most prominent attribute is progressive rock (with Yes being a major influence) so it's really surprising that there's no progressive primary.

There is just as much grungy Alice In Chains & Soundgarden style Alternative Metal on this release as there is Down-inspired Stoner Metal so I'd like to see Floodgate's sole 1996 album "Penalty" added to The Gateway on top of its existing position in The Fallen.

The 2014 "Free..." E.P. from San Francisco stoner metal outfit Acid King offer four tracks with the first two sitting in the space between stoner metal & doom metal, the third being a total doom-fest & the fourth sticking more in the stoner camp. For that reason I feel that it needs a Doom Metal tag on top of its existing Stoner Metal one.

The music compiled within Virginia-based stoner metallers Alabama Thunderpussy's 2006 album "Open Fire" is generally regarded as stoner/Southern metal however in reality it's more of a combination of your more traditional heavy metal riffs & song structures with a stoner metal production job & aesthetic. You definitely get your fair share of stoner groove but those moments are comfortably out-weighed by fast-paced Judas Priest riffage, Saxon-esque hard rock crunch & Iron Maiden style guitar harmonies. For that reason I'd like to see it sitting in The Guardians under Heavy Metal while maintaining its position in The Fallen under Stoner Metal.

These two submissions have now be posted in the Hall of Judgement.

If I had given this album a closer listen before, not just after, choosing this album as this month's Gateway feature release so I would remember more than just those metal tracks from all those years ago, I probably would chosen a different release. Memories can be tricky that way, huh? So I would have to agree with you on this one, Daniel, along with your submission for Code Orange's Underneath that offers far more than that band's earlier metalcore. We'll see the fate of those releases' clan positions in the Hall.