Xephyr's Forum Replies

Basically nothing from me this year; Sphere releases seem to get fewer and farther between. Fange ran away with it as I just couldn't get into Godflesh's new offering. 

1. Fange - Privation
2. Godflesh - Purge
3. Mechina - Cenotaph

1. The Acacia Strain - Step Into the Light
2. END - The Sin of Human Frailty
3. Invent, Animate - Heavener
4. August Burns Red - Death Below
5. Graphic Nature - A Mind Waiting to Die
6. Fromjoy - Fromjoy
7. Currents - The Death We Seek
8. Soulkeeper - Holy Design
9. Jesus Piece - ...So Unknown
10. Drain - Living Proof
11. Mental Cruelty - Zwielicht
12. OLTH - Every Day Is Someone's Special Day
13. Pupil Slicer - Blossom
14. Unearth - The Wretched; The Ruinous
15. Storm{O} - Endocannibalismo
16. Dragoncorpse - The Drakketh Saga

I don't really go out of my way to check out much Alternative Metal so let's see how much I ended up listening to this year: 

1. Klone - Meanwhile
2. Narrow Head - Moments of Clarity
3. Graphic Nature - A Mind Waiting to Die
4. Soen - Memorial
5. Katatonia - A Sky Void of Stars

Wow, really not a whole lot. Klone is the real winner here, since Graphic Nature and Narrow Head only got one or two listens from me throughout the year and were overall forgettable at the end of the day.

Meanwhile is an extremely consistent and solid album that I've gone back to here and there for my fix of some powerful lead vocals and more airy, spacious riffing. 

Other than that, the new Soen and Katatonia albums were letdowns for me, but at this point, i wasn't expecting anything more or less.

I actually went back to Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean as well after you posted about it Sonny and I can definitely see why it received high marks from you, even though the relisten wasn't enough to sway my score away from a 3.5. Definitely one of the more memorable crushing and slow albums to come out this year. I'm actually opposite from you where I enjoyed their 2023 EP a bit more than the full album, which is kind of strange for me given how grimy the EP production is. Probably has to do with overall length, but I'll be interested to see where that project goes in the future. 

I wish I had more time to spend with Distortions this year as I think this proves Godthrymm to be an incredibly consistent modern Doom act.

Let's see here, this should be a pretty big list. Horrendous knocked it out of the park with way more staying power than Ne Obliviscaris, even though both are very good. I ended up going back to Ontological Mysterium way more often, so the choice is pretty clear there. I gotta move some of these out of here once I'm finished with the rest of the roundups since "Nahab" definitely doesn't belong here, even though it definitely deserves the Avant-Garde tag. I'll probably be posting quite a bit of discussion about a few of these as I work through everything.

1. Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium 
2. Ne Obliviscaris - Exul
3. Victory Over the Sun - Dance You Monster to My Soft Song!
4. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse
5. Earthside - Let the Truth Speak
6. Thy Catafalque - Alföld
7. Blut Aus Nord - Nahab (Move to North, Avant-Garde Black Metal)
8. Sarmat - Determined to Strike
9. Periphery - Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre
10. Enslaved - Heimdal
11. Hypno5e - Sheol
12. Haken - Fauna
13. Night Verses - Every Sound Has a Color in the Valley of Night: Part 1
14. Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit
15. Fleshvessel - Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed
16. Lunar Chamber - Shambhallic Vibrations
17. Ostraca - Disaster
18. TesseracT - War of Being
19. Aviations - Luminaria
20. Invent, Animate - Heavener
21. Anubis Gate - Interference
22. Ok Goodnight - The Fox and the Bird
23. The Ocean - Holocene
24. Hasard - Malivore (Move to North, Avant-Garde Black Metal)
25. Krallice - Porous Resonance Abyss
26. Liturgy - 93696
27. Sermon - Of Golden Verse
28. Entropia - Total
29. Omnerod - The Amensal Rise
30. Gorod - The Orb

I thought the same thing Sonny.

Nothing wrong with it, enjoyed it for a listen, but I've had zero want to go back to it. It scratched the itch for some classic stoner tunes at the time but like you said, it feels hard to get truly excited about something like this. 3/5 as well from me, hence why it didn't make it onto The Fallen 2023 roundup list.

I'm going to have to do something different for my big list this year as I haven't had enough time / bandwidth to really put a ton of effort into it. So I'm thinking about doing individual lists for each clan then maybe a top 15 or 20 overall, just to split it up and make it easier to rank stuff. Might as well start here. Honestly, not a whole lot in terms of Fallen stuff for me this year, as I'd be inclined to take Sól án varma off the list as it's much more at home in The North. 

This will probably be getting updates from me as the year closes out, but I think this is close enough for now. I have a few other Fallen releases I've listened to but didn't feel like they made the list.  

1. Sól án varma - Sól án varma
2. Dream Unending / Worm - Starpath
3. Fires in the Distance - Air Not Meant For Us
4. Godthrymm - Distortions
5. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - Obsession Destruction
6. Oromet - Oromet
7. Asphodelus - Sculpting From Time
8. Ahab - The Coral Tombs
9. Fange - Privation
10. The Acacia Strain - Failure Will Follow
11. Ocean of Grief - Pale Existence 
12. FVNERALS - Let The Earth Be Silent
13. Runemagick - Beyond the Cenotaph of Mankind
14. Oozing Wound - We Cater To Cowards
15. Tribunal - The Weight Of Rememberance
16. Church Of Misery - Born Under a Mad Sign
17. Mansion - Second Death

Panopticon - The Rime of Memory (2023)

Even though I've gone through some Panopticon releases in the past, this is the first one that has really struck a certain chord with me. I can't exactly explain what's different since I enjoyed ...And Again Into The Light, but nowhere near this degree. I don't think there's a single thing I'd change about this one. Despite some sections feeling a bit too long, the overall pacing is handled with absolute perfection. Awesome stuff and I want to start being a bit more liberal with perfect scores, can always change 'em later if it ends up not holding up. Also, everyone seems to be talking about "Winter's Ghost" versus "The Blue Against the White", but as someone who didn't hear the single before the album, the ending of "Cedar Skeletons" is absolutely sublime in my opinion. 

5/5

"In The Time Of Job When Mammon Was A Yippie" - Hard Rock

"Lucifer's Friend" - Closer, but still Hard Rock

Onto Budgie, a band that I'm entirely unfamiliar with:

"Guts" - Can't call it Metal personally, but it's in the middle of so many things that it's hard to say.

"Everything In My Heart" - Folk

"The Author" - Hard Rock

"Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman" - I'm with Daniel, Hard Rock / Heavy Blues Rock

"Rape of the Locks" - Blues Rock

"All Night Petrol" - Agreed with Stoner Rock

"You and I" - Folk

"Homicidal Suicidal" - Blues / Stoner Rock, too swingy

Nothing doing for me on that Budgie album, even though I liked what I heard.

Onto another Black Sabbath:

"Sweet Leaf" - Agreed with Stoner Metal.

"After Forever" - Sabbath's overall sound and riff structure still put this into Heavy Metal for me.

"Embryo" - Interlude, doesn't count for much in my opinion, but not Metal.

"Children of the Grave" - Probably the most Metal out of the ones that have been posted so far. The repetitive chug riff into the ending squeals is just synonymous with Heavy Metal riffing.

Earthside - Let The Truth Speak (2023)

It's been a while since it felt like there was a Progressive Metal album to really sink my teeth into, but I think Earthside has finally delivered something for me. The sophomore album from this somewhat mysterious band from Connecticut comes eight years after their impressive debut and has a ton of featured artists attached to it, including some heavy hitters from bands like TesseracT. Most of the Progressive Metal I find myself listening to nowadays is on the heavier side with more extreme metal influences, so it's kind of a breath of fresh air to get back to my roots a bit with some gorgeous soundscapes and more melodic, technical structures. Earthside still have some chug in them like on "Tyranny", so it's been a nice balance so far. I think there are some ideas that don't exactly work in here, but it's the first time in a while where I'm far from satisfied with one or two listens with a Progressive Metal album. Let The Truth Speak has intrigued me in a positive way so far, so I'm excited to see how it holds up over the next week or so.

Both are Hard Rock / Heavy Psych to me.

December

TesseracT - "Of Reality - Eclipse" (from Altered State, 2013)

Aviations - "Legend" (from Luminaria, 2023)

Caligula's Horse - "Slow Violence" (from Rise Radiant, 2020)

Pomegranate Tiger - "The Cryptographer" (from All Input Is Error, 2023)

December

Vertebra Atlantis - "Drown in Aether, Sovereign of Withered Ardor" (from A Dialogue With the Eeriest Sublime", 2023)

Malokarpatan - "Mnohoraké Útrapy Milostpána Kelleyho" (from "Vertumnus Caesar", 2023)

Moonlight Sorcery - "In Coldest Embrace" (from "Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle", 2023)

Feel like it's pertinent to put this here rather than anywhere else, just found out that my old college radio station has moved away from music for the most part and is just another NPR station that spouts pre-recorded talking shows and such. Dunno how I feel really, other than sad. As someone who enjoys music and sharing it, I'm just glad that I was able to take advantage of that opportunity when I could. It really shaped how I look at music, and especially Metal music, when I was able to share it with so many people that would legitimately call in and cared about what they were listening to on some random college station in their hometown. As things move forward I can only see it getting worse for these kinds of stations, so I can only be thankful what what I was able to do in my 3 years there. 

Catching up again: 

"Kingdom Come" - Yeah this more in line with what Sabbath were doing, sinister vocals and all. Even though the production might not be all the way there for Metal, I'd be willing to throw Heavy or Doom Metal onto this. There's too many similarities to what Doom Metal or more Classic Heavy Metal is doing nowadays. 

"I Got A Woman" - Rock, I'd hesitate to even call this Hard Rock. 

"Hell Hound" - Daniel hits it outta the park, Zeppelin worship. If Zeppelin ain't Metal, then this ain't either. 

"Helium Head" - I think it's close in some places but I still have to say Hard Rock. 

"Ain't Got Hung On You" - More Bluesy Hard Rock. 

"Ride The Sky" - Heavy Metal easy. 

"Everybody's Clown" - I think this is too close to some Zeppelin or Rush in the sections that Daniel talks about for me to say Heavy Metal, the first track had a different energy about it. Hard Rock. 

"Keep Going" - Man...it's so close...I think I have to go Heavy Psych here. Begrudgingly. 

Now then, what have we here? This sole release from a mysterious & anonymous metal collective is the perfect example of a Metal Academy feature release in my opinion.

4.5/5

I'm a big fan of how I went from "Xephyr, why in the hell would you pick this as a Feature Release" to "Xephyr, this is exactly what I'm looking for in a Feature Release" this month hahaha

(Daniel's not wrong here for the record)

My fault, I'll add to the Playlist tonight. Getting back into the swing of things.

November 2023

1. Iced Earth - "Written on the Walls" from Iced Earth (1990)

2. Venator - "Creatures of the Sea" from Paradiser / Angel Blade (2020)

3. Sumerlands - "Edge of the Knife" from Dreamkiller (2022)

4. Black Sabbath - "Lord of This World" from Master of Reality (2014 Remaster)

5. Primal Fear - "Deep In The Night" from Code Red (2023)

6. Kobra and the Lotus - "Triggerpulse" from Prevail I (2017)

7. Sacred Outcry - "Symphony Of The Night" from Towers of Gold (2023)

8. Xandria - "Call of the Wind" from The Neverworld's End (2013)

9. Marko Hietala - "Stones" from Pyre of the Black Heart (2020)

10. Therion - "Black Sun" from Vovin (1998)

11. Ravenous E.H. - "Space and Time" from Eat the Fallen (2019)

12. Cirith Ungol - "Velocity (S.E.P.)" from Dark Parade (2023)

13. The Ferrymen - "Ferryman" from The Ferrymen (2017)

14. Iron Maiden - "Lost in a Lost World" from Senjutsu (2021)

15. Lost Horizon - "Think Not Forever" from A Flame To The Ground Below (2002)

16. Century - "Master Of Hell" from The Conquest Of Time (2023)

17. Traveler - "Street Machine" from Traveler (2019)

18. Malokarpatan - "Maharal A Golem" from Vertumnus Caesar (2023)

19. Falconer - "Lord of the Blacksmiths" from Falconer (2001)

20. Iron Savior - "Rising from Ashes" from Firestar (2023)

21. Saxon - "Atila the Hun" from The Inner Sanctum (2007)

As much as Djent gets meme'd on, Djent Is Not A Genre is proving to be a solid part of my year end list this year. It's definitely a taste thing with the way the clean vocals are used, especially with the length of the full album, but this is definitely my favorite Periphery album to date. Something about the hooks, songwriting, and riff choice really brought me to their side after the disappointment that was Hail Stan from 2019. 

Hope everything goes well Daniel, I had a 2.5-3 hour total commute for a little over a year so I feel your pain, it ain't easy. I got through a lot of podcasts to pass the time but not much else. 

Catching up: 

"Hard Rain Fallin'" - Hard Rock, no Metal. 

"Lady of Fire" - Daniel describes it perfectly here, no Metal. 

"Lake Isle of Innersfree" - In the context of the rest of the album, still Psych Rock / Prog Rock. No Metal.

"Pumped Up" - Still Hard Rock to me now that I'm getting more acclimated to the spread of albums around 1970. No Metal.

Hey so I passed that exam I've been dreading about for 1.5+ years now. Failed once in February, passed it this time. I'm done with pointless exams forever and I can't be happier. So (hopefully) I'm back in full force, I've been missing having the brain power to actually think about music, reviews, and posting thoughts and stuff.

Awesome news Daniel, glad to hear that you found something new, huge relief. 

As a glasses wearer since like...forever glad that the new pair is treating you well Rex. 

This is very testing for me as well, since I'm not the best at remembering stuff like that. Especially since I grew up with the start of ITunes and IPods, meaning I heard a lot of individual songs rather than full albums for the longest time. The ones that stick out to me as full albums are: 

1. Dream Theater - Octavarium
2. Avantasia - The Scarecrow
3. Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
4. Tool - Lateralus
5. Opeth - Blackwater Park

I'm not entirely sure in what chronological order these were, but I'd say these are the ones that I distinctly remember sitting through the full album experience. Dream Theater was really my first foray into Metal and I want to say it was Octavarium before Scenes From a Memory Part II. I remember downloading a single song by Dream Theater, "Forsaken" from Systematic Chaos. And I fuckin' hated it. Somehow, someway, I kept on the Dream Theater train and dived deeper into their discography and Octavarium with its 24-minute closer along with "The Root of All Evil", "These Walls", and "Panic Attack" really hooked me. Nowadays the rose-tinted glasses have been thrown off my face as I have it rated a 3.5, but Dream Theater is truthfully what got me into the long, theatrical, and crazy side of Metal. 

Avantasia and Nightwish go hand in hand since, to be honest, I can't remember how I got into either band. It was most likely off of ITunes' recommended, but these are the two albums that I remember hearing from these bands first. Both bands had insane 10+ minute epics in "The Scarecrow" and "Dark Passion Play", which reinforced that original Dream Theater shtick of heavier and more intense music being this massive, complicated, and drawn out affair. I loved the strings and variety that both bands gave, but I was much more into Nightwish as a full-album band than Avantasia, even though I quickly got the entire Wicked Trilogy shortly after. 

I'm not entirely sure when I got into Tool in all this but I remember heading into FYE (a mall music store in the states) to find as many Tool albums as I could for my car, starting with Lateralus then moving onto 10,000 Days, Undertow, and eventually Aenima. I remember really enjoying Lateralus but it remains a singles album to me, much to most other Tool fan's despair. I found myself way more enthralled by 10,000 Day's interludes and overall album pacing, which is a hot take in some circles. Nevertheless, Lateralus seems like a pretty standard choice given my history, so the big elephant in the room is next. 

I hated Blackwater Park when I first heard it. I don't know how the entire album got on my Ipod, but I remember enjoying the instrumentals and songs like "Harvest" but couldn't understand the appeal in the vocals. Why does this dude sound like the Cookie Monster? What does this add? It's just grating and annoying, his clean vocals sound way better. Obviously, I eventually came around to it, but if you read my massive Blackwater Park review, the cleans were incredibly important in slowly wading me into the harsher stuff, which is kind of missed by a lot of bands nowadays. I think I'm sort of unique where I wasn't instantly hooked on this stuff; I constantly experimented and eventually came around to certain things. Pretty much every Metal subgenre was like that for me, except for maybe Progressive Metal. Death, Black, Industrial, etc. all needed their own sort of warmup before I could really handle what the deep cuts had in store for me. It's been a cool ride.

I was a pretty big fan of Draconian's 2020 album, but never made the jump back to their earlier stuff. Seems like I might have to remedy that as it looks like they're incredibly consistent straight from the start. I only have a few go-to Gothic Metal bands so it'd probably be worth branching out a bit. 

I don't have very strong feelings on this one, but I agree that it REALLY toes the line. The ideas in the beginning are very doom-y, but I'm not sure if the execution backs it up. The tempo change is still super borderline because it comes across as a more bouncy rock riff rather than a chugging heavy metal one, but I wouldn't be able to explain why. 

I'd have to go with Daniel on Hard Rock / Stoner

I'd agree with the traditional doom metal tag.

Speaking of that from Daniel's post, hi I'm back, Daniel summoned me and I'll try to paraphrase what I wrote back to him in regards to In Rock. So, gonna backpedal the discussion a little bit, but I've missed most of this since I'm not a diehard genre discusser. 

I think it's an interesting perspective to have been born in the mid-90's since most of the dust between Rock, Hard Rock, and Heavy Metal had definitely subsided by then. Growing up, bands like Led Zeppelin, Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, and Deep Purple were kind of just Rock and not necessary Hard Rock like people who grew up during those bands' heyday would say. Those bands were heavier for the time, but for me they all got lumped into the same Classic Rock stations and overall umbrella, so there seemed to only be a distinction between Led Zeppelin Rock vs like...Yes or Pink Floyd's Prog Rock and The Beatles for Soft Rock. What does that mean for Deep Purple's In Rock?

Well...the funny thing is that Deep Purple were a two hit wonder by the 90's and 2000's. They were the band that did the funny "Smoke On the Water" riff that everyone makes fun of as baby's first guitar riff, and "Highway Star" for the awesome opening then not really caring about the rest of the song for some reason. Because of this, I never checked out Deep Purple. I was fuckin' wrong for that, In Rock is an incredible album that made me rethink Deep Purple as a band entirely. I thoroughly enjoyed In Rock way more than I thought I would, but...I still don't think it's quite there as a Metal album. I initially thought it was, but after sleeping on it and relistening to other 1970's Hard Rock/Metal albums, it's still too much in the grey area for me personally. The ideas are there, but they're muddied up by too many other influences much in the same way as Black Sabbath's debut. If anything, I'm more skeptical of Black Sabbath than I am In Rock just due to the massive Blues Rock influence that Sabbath has. 

It's very apparent that Sabbath and Deep Purple were going for very different things though, since the Sabbath debut sounds definitely evil and plodding whereas In Rock is way more energetic and loose. It's cool to see the different Metal subgenre ideas appear before Metal was even really a thing, since like others have said before in this thread, Metal can take on many forms. 

If anything, these sorts of discussions make me wonder about the validity and line that the Hard Rock genre has more than the Heavy or Doom Metal one. Hard Rock, to me, seems to have lost its footing as music continues to push its extremes and "Heavier Rock" just doesn't seem to cut it for a distinction sometimes. Especially for someone like me who, as said in the first paragraph, grew up in a world where Rock and Hard Rock were kind of the same thing. 

After all that rambling, In Rock is a fantastic album but after reading all the arguments for and against it, I don't think it has quite enough teeth to it to really be considered Heavy Metal for me. Hopefully I can try to be more active in the discussion now that things have calmed down on the personal side of things, glad to see people still sticking around!

At the risk of showing my ignorance, what is a discord?

Quoted Sonny

Discord is a social app where you can create a Server and invite people to it. You can then craft the server to your liking with text channels where people can send messages, or create voice channels that people can join and talk. It's highly customizable since you can have bots do automated things or give people certain roles that allows/disallows them to do things that you specify. With how MA is currently set up, it'd basically be an alternate version of what we already have here if set up. Separate text channels for each clan, running announcement channels that would alert everyone of the new Features of the month. It's just more immediate than forums, since people use it to chat in real time like text messaging. 

Just to chime in since I'm technically a regular, sites like Metal Academy take a tremendous amount of effort compared to normal social media sites. And honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way since it makes the content on here more interesting and based less on engagement farming for the sake of a number going up. Algorithms and all that junk. 

But again, it takes effort. Right now my schedule and brain capacity between work, studying, and the rest of my life doesn't allow me to get the creative review juices flowing. As I'm sure you've seen from my lack of reviews or engagement on a lot of monthly things. Hopefully this'll turn around eventually but the framework of the site does ask for a lot out of people. Which again, is fine.

Huh, I'm glad I looked into this because I'm with Rex in MUCH preferring this over Nosferatu. I didn't get the hype behind that release and even though it wasn't bad, it kind of put me off from diving any deeper into Helstar's discography. A Distant Thunder was overall way more interesting and kept my attention with some extremely solid US Power Metal riffing that borrows a bit from Thrash here and there. The vocal performance isn't my favorite but it fits right in the pocket of what I prefer out of the more shrieky Power Metal vocalists. Strong first impression from this one and it makes me want to check out more Helstar in the future. 

4/5

Godthrymm - Distortions (2023)

Godthrymm's newest album just came out last week and it's more of what you'd expect from the band, but at the same time I'd expect nothing less. So far this one is just as quality as their first, so if Sonny hasn't seen that this one dropped yet I'd highly recommend to check it out. 

Seconding what Vinny said, I'm glad to hear they gave you severance benefits at the very least. The job market is just ridiculous nowadays so I'm wishing the best for you and that something comes along quick. 

Sonny nails it in the last paragraph and with "...the artist's view should have primary consideration as it is their work and vision". 

This makes it awkward for people who catalogue things because what if the artist releases something but never claims it to be a full release or not? I don't know if there's a good way to go about it. 

As for how to think about EP's versus LP's, it's something I definitely struggle with. I tend to like longer songs and more drawn out ideas, so when a Grindcore, Hardcore, or even a Thrash song comes in for a minute and a half and just ends, there's an unending, nagging feeling of 'what, that's it?' that I always get. That goes for albums too. I find myself having to shove my expectations away and looking at 10-20 minute projects for what they present rather than what I think they lack. Riff, chorus, riff, done and leaving the stage in 45 seconds? Not really my thing but I've been trying to get better about looking at it objectively. 

EP's are kind of the same way where I always seem to have a hesitation of giving full marks to 2 or 3 songs and saying it's a perfect project. It's the same reason why I don't like rating individual songs; I enjoy looking at things more holistically. This is where certain EP's definitely feel like EP's and others definitely feel like albums. I gave Hordanes Land by Enslaved a 4.5 and it feels like a full experience from start to finish in its 30 minute runtime. I wouldn't want to tack on anything else. Meanwhile, Worm released an EP called Bluenothing, which I gave a 4, but walked away from it more excited for the coming full-length than the actual EP. It's such a weird case-by-case basis.

I spent way too long thinking about the absurd story behind this pretty disappointing album, and finally had a few hours and the motivation to write a way too long review outlining what in the hell happened this year in the world of silly, dumb Power Metal. After writing this much about an album that doesn't even really matter (it's a 2/5 for me), I feel like I'm somehow contractually obligated to write something about the newest Gloryhammer since that album is somehow on-par with the rest of their material. 

I mean, look at that album cover, what was I even expecting here? 

Full review is below, I probably went overboard but I thought it was important considering how confused I was through this whole thing.

A Baffling Resurrection

I'm not the best historian so I can't accurately say when, but at some point, Power Metal became excessively silly. To most, Power Metal is probably synonymous with cheesy, simple, and hook-laden choruses about the lead singer's Dungeons and Dragons campaign or the band's self-insert in a Lord of the Rings inspired fantasy world. The modern scene has certainly employed a ton of high-fantasy ideas more often than not, but genre pioneers like Helloween, Blind Guardian, and Running Wild kept their topics rather tame and simple and their Metal writing suitably blazing for Power Metal overall. Theatrical and over-the-top musings about ancient warriors and spells, hobbits, and pirates may have been a bit silly when compared to the rest of the Metal landscape, but it never stepped into the absolutely absurd. Then, atop a fearsome dragon screaming across a blackened sky lit only by bolts of magical lightning, Rhapsody began their mighty conquest of the ludicrous side of Power Metal. More and more Power Metal bands embraced the idea of going full bore with fantastical storytelling, replacing tame song titles like "Wizard's Crown" or "March of Time" with incredibly wild ones like "Dargor, Shadowlord Of The Black Mountain" or "In The Mighty Hall Of The Fire King". In the early 2010's, a certain band from Scotland decided to take the joke and run with it. Gloryhammer, a side project created by Alestorm's Christopher Bowes, uses a set cast of characters, real places like Dundee or the Kingdom of Fife, and facetious lyrics and storytelling that's meant to be silly. Gloryhammer's initial trilogy of albums was led by vocalist Thomas Winkler as the central hero Angus McFife, but after some rough behind-the-scenes behavior on the rest of the band's part, Winkler was replaced in mid-2021. I enjoyed Gloryhammer's slightly stupid but fun take on creating their own little Power Metal universe, so losing the original Angus was a bit disheartening.

I felt like this longwinded foreword was necessary because Angus McSix and the Sword of Power might be one of the most confusing album experiences I've ever had. In the middle of 2022 I heard whisperings that Gloryhammer was back in the studio and released a pretty disappointing single with "Fly Away", the first new track with new vocalist Sozos Michael. This new track felt incredibly generic after the tragic death of Angus McFife in Legends From Beyond the Galactic Terrorvortex and I started to wonder why the band didn't just lean into the situation at hand. The original Angus McFife literally threw himself into a volcano at the end of the album, why not just reincarnate him as the next Angus in the timeline, or shove his burned skeleton into a magical time-travelling robot? It felt like such a wasted opportunity. Then, earlier this year, a single day after I joked to a friend about calling the new guy Angus McSix, Angus McSix was officially born as Winkler's new project. Well I'll be damned, the guy actually just ran with the joke. The Sword of Power released about a month before the newest Gloryhammer offering, so I was very curious about what Winkler would do to separate himself from his previous gig. Something wasn't exactly adding up on the first listen though, since the story seemed to be utterly incomprehensible with an intro track being haphazardly shoved into the middle of the album. A few days later I learned that the stock track listing is completely wrong and there is a "lore order" that the tracks are meant to be played in to get the full album experience. Great. This was a massive realization in album sequencing for me as the true order of the album makes the final product flow way better than what's initially listed.

After all the dust, confusion, and drama around this album settled, I gotta say that it's just not very good. Which, after all this exposition, is pretty disappointing, not gonna lie. Angus McSix intentionally ripping off Gloryhammer had all the means to be an absolute blast, but neither the music or the lyrics amount to much at all in the end. Angus McSix pushes their Power Metal guitars all the way to the back of the mix in favor of overpowering synths and choirs that flatten everything into a drab wall of nothing. The more electronic-forward approach has its highlights like "Eternal Warrior" or "In A Past Reality" where there's some interesting interplay between the more rhythmic guitar chugs as the synths take charge of the melody. Most of those moments are short lived, though, as The Sword of Power quickly veers into truly embarrassing territory outside of its four or so passable tracks. "Ride To Hell's" awkward, synthetic sounding gang vocals alongside thumping EDM bass was a bit much for me, but that was just the warmup to the total mess that is "Laser-Shooting Dinosaur". At least I can give it points for fully committing to Angus McSix's attempted theme of pumping electronic music supported by semblances of Power Metal riffs, whereas "Fireflies of Doom" with its awful chorus, eye-rolling key change, and uninteresting synth choices is the key example for how this all went wrong. After a bit more research I found out that the culprit behind all the musical choices I generally dislike is Sebastian Levermann of Orden Ogan, debuting as Arch Demon Seebulon, The Origin of all Evil. Incredibly fitting, to say the least, since Orden Ogan's synth-drenched style was never really my thing.

There are a few highlights on The Sword of Power, though, and these give a short glimpse into how this parody of a parody could have panned out if a bit more care was put into the identity and ideas of this thing. "Master of the Universe" is legitimately funny (if not petty) with its direct callouts to Gloryhammer, declaring Angus McSix reincarnated as a shining upgrade clad in gleaming gold. "Sixcalibur" is basically what I expected out of this project as Winkler provides some powerful verses and a fun, catchy chorus alongside forced lore about Angus McSix's weapon replacement to smite interstellar goblins. The closing "Starlord Of The Sixtus Stellar System" is the closest the album gets to a ripping guitar riff and although it pales in comparison to Gloryhammer's ten minute finales, the "Angus!" chants still get me to crack a smile. The rest of the album doesn't manage to keep up the energy level as the more sweeping "Amazons Of Caledonia" and "The Key To Eternity" come across as dull and tired despite the high energy synths. Winkler's vocal performance isn't anything to write home about either, which is wild considering The Sword of Power seems to be his direct rebuttal towards the Angus of old. "Master Of The Universe", "Sixcalibur", and "Eternal Warrior" showcase his skills well, but it's nothing that eclipses his performances on Gloryhammer. The constant use of choir, backing vocals, and overdubs causes Winkler to lose a ton of power and identity as he's drowned out by mediocre melodies and barely memorable riffs.

The Sword of Power is an unfortunate case study in what feels like the eventual culmination of silly Power Metal losing the backbone of what made it interesting in the first place. While Gloryhammer was no stranger to overpowering synth and orchestral melodies, the Power Metal portion along with the theming and overall sound design on their synths gave them the energy and audacity to make their whole shtick work out. Winkler and Levermann sought to differentiate Angus McSix by going for a more stellar and godlike theme, but the heavenly soundscapes suck out most of the energy from the compositions without adding much to the feel of the story. The story itself is disappointing as well since it's filled to the brim with Gloryhammer pandering that feels like it's included to desperately try to pull fans to Angus McSix's side rather than just running with the joke. Instead of getting a new epic tale of Angus McSix across the solar systems, The Sword of Power throws in demon fireflies as undead unicorn substitutes, the Key of Eternity as the bauble that Angus must quest to find, and Thalestris from Caledonia as the beginning of Angus' cast of stage mates. All of it feels like a lame rehash without adding anything new or exciting, especially when the storytelling aspect of the album is basically nonexistent. For as dumb as Gloryhammer can be, they still understand how to set up a concept album with clear protagonists, antagonists, and stakes of any kind. The Sword of Power is entirely a prologue piece from what I can tell, which is a pretty disappointing choice considering they took an entire album to get through two or three plot points without even mentioning any sort of main villain.

Is all of this complaining about a parody of a parody Power Metal band worthless and unfounded considering it's just supposed to be fun? Probably, but I think there's room to have higher standards for silly Power Metal, especially since other bands have shown that it's possible. Angus McSix took what made Gloryhammer fun and created a cheap and, quite frankly, lazy knockoff that stripped back the Power Metal energy in favor of Trance Metal electronics and uninspired symphonics. I respect them for trying to go in a musically different direction even though it doesn't appeal to me at all, but when the lyrical content and theme of the album tries to compete directly with the obvious competition, it becomes a bit confusing. Adding the track order debacle on top of that, something doesn't quite add up here. Maybe it was a time crunch, maybe it was a misunderstanding with the label, or maybe this is all they could muster to try and salvage their own lore out of alternate reality Kingdom of Fife. As a fan of silly Power Metal, I'm hoping Winkler and company can eventually find their footing and provide something with a bit more identity and pizzazz than what's on display here.

Lore Order Track Listing

7, 8, 9, 5, 2, 1, 10, 11, 3, 4, 6

I remember giving this album a chance in 2021 since it was getting a lot of traction early in the year, plus it was definitely out of my comfort zone at the time. In some aspects the 40-minute runtime was excruciatingly long, but in the end I was able to get what they were going for. I was able to get past a lot of the abrasive aspects and it started to become pretty compelling in the end. However, I never went back to it after those initial listens and, through remembering what this album sounded like, I can only imagine my patience with it would wane if I would try to jump back in. I don't find this kind of sound design inherently interesting on a mechanical level, so I'm probably going to leave this one as a nice listening experiment for me. 

Incredibly insightful review Daniel, I learned a ton since I didn't think to really delve into the band members yet. It makes a lot of sense that someone from Imperial Triumphant would have their hand in a project like this, but having Artificial Brain's guitarist in there made something click together in my head for where I've heard this sort of dissonant style from. Obviously Sarmat is very much it's own unique project but it's cool to see that all these extreme metal musicians are still hopping on a ton of side projects that allow them to try and push the boundaries. 

I say "try" because I'm 100% with you on your final paragraph. I think the insanity of it all resonated with me pretty well at first, but I'll be interested to see how I feel about it after letting the dust settle for a bit. I want to say it's more of a proof of concept rather than a fully fleshed out product, but I think that description doesn't do Determined To Strike justice as it's still a cool and wild piece of music. 

My favorite Metal album is still (slightly boringly) Opeth's Blackwater Park but my gut says that Ne Obliviscaris' Portal Of I reflects what I get most excited about when checking out new albums. I like my complex melodies, extended song structures, progressive experimentation, a nice mix of clean and harsh vocals, don't mind a bit of cheesiness here and there, but still enjoy the harsh and brutal aspect of Metal when done well and with intention. A lot of those vague qualities carry over into what I enjoy about Power Metal or Atmospheric Black Metal as well. 

I've actually only listened to the most recent High On Fire album from 2018, somehow I didn't realize they were so prolific and will definitely have to go back and check out some of their other stuff. Hell, I even saw them live and for some reason never went past the one album they were touring for. 

I was a much bigger fan of this Predatory Light album last year than the Negative Plane album that seemed to grab all the attention. I remember Negative Plane being a bit too goofy sounding to me while Death and the Twilight Hours was able to blend Black and Heavy Metal in a cooler and more exciting way for me personally. Even though the songs are super long the album itself is nicely concise, made it easy and fun to go back to. 

I'm glad that the review date issue has finally been fixed, and it's nice to know that backend stuff is being noted and taken care of. Good work guys. 

It seems like 6:33 have a Dog Fashion Disco thing going on so I'm down to try that out. 

September

Odz Manouk - "I Will Crush To Marrow This Crow Of Ill" - Odz Manouk (2010)

RUIM - "Black Royal Spiritism" - Black Royal Spiritism - I - O Sino da Igreja (2023)

For September: 

Ashbreather - "Hivemind VIII" from Hivemind (2022)

Psychonaut - "Violate Consensus Reality" from Violate Consensus Reality (2022)

Ostraca - "Heaven is Still" from Disaster (2023)

I guess to give a real world example, my coworker is a serial genre-hopper and listens to anything and everything. He wasn't that much into Metal, but when we started talking more at work, sharing music, and posting my album listen on one of my desk walls, he started delving deeper. He's a massive shoegaze/noise rock/post punk fan, and the subgenre that has clicked for him the most has undoubtedly been Black Metal. He still likes a ton of other Metal stuff but always seems to hold Black Metal in high regards coming from the background that he did, so I would say that The North aligns the best. 

I was skeptical at first but after listening to more of his stuff I can see some decent similarities between the vocals, the production, and the overall feel of everything. He even had Ultha, Asunojokei, Bríi, and White Ward as part of his Top 50 of 2022 list, so even though it's an extremely small sample size of one singular person, I can personally see the connection here.

I want to say that I gave this one a fair shake but in all honesty I didn't get too far. 

Darkmoon Blade are just not my thing as I don't really have any nostalgia for this kind of thing and the way that the vocal melodies fit in with the rest of what the band was trying to do made my skin crawl. I guess I can say that the instrumental portion of Darkmoon Rising does okay for what it is, but there wasn't a single riff that really caught my ear the entire time. Couple that with some rough songwriting in how they incorporate the riffs with the vocals and this one was an absolute disaster for me, sadly. I'm sure there are albums in this style that I'd enjoy, like that one Nite album from last year Voices of the Kronian Moon, but that's more aligned with Black Metal whereas this is definitely trying to be Heavy Metal.

1.5/5

No Daniel, it's even less of a Thrash album than Rats' Nest in my opinion. I've personally labeled it as Progressive Stoner with a few flashes of Thrash-like riffing here and there. 

I'm not a Hall of Judgement kind of guy but Thrash would definitely need to be removed from the main genres in my opinion. 

I like it better than Rats' Nest (see my rather lengthy review) because it leans into King Gizz's jammy, psych tendencies in a way that produces something pretty exciting and unique for Metal, so it's definitely worth a listen, but a Thrash album this is not. 

Welcome, glad to have ya around!

Profane Order - One Nightmare Unto Another

It may be a little cleaner than some like their War Metal, but I've been throroughly enjoying Profane Order's new 2023 offering One Nightmare Unto Another, and this is coming from someone who genuinely does not car for War Metal all that much. It's probably because One Nightmare Unto Another is a bit less chaotic than other War Metal albums I've come across with riffs that I can follow along with and more succinct songwriting centered around those riffs. There's a distinct lack of any atmospheric touches that the Infernal Coil or Teitanblood albums from Daniel's list have, making it a bit more one-dimensional, but I think it works for an album that's only 25 minutes long. All in all this one has been hitting the spot when I'm in the need for something that just sounds mean. Real mean.

https://metal.academy/releases/42625

Saxy's review reminded me to check this one out at the beginning of the week and it's right up my alley with the added melodicism you alluded to, Sonny. I came to many of the same conclusions in that it's very well crafted and it'll definitely receive high marks and a few relistens from me this year as the atmosphere is something I really enjoy, but it lacks a bit of "excitement" throughout the runtime, even though Death Doom doesn't follow normal excitement parameters for it to be effective. Solid, but lacks a bit of that unquantifiable magic. 

Funny enough, I managed to come across Stormwitch in 2018 with their newest album Bound to the Witch which was...okay at best, but it had a few songs in there that I thought were genuinely good. That's coming from a Power Metal fan, though, as it was still very much generic and forgettable at the end of the day. Never decided to go back to their earlier material, so you've got me a little more interested now? I'm sure it won't be anything mind-blowing, especially since 80's Heavy Metal can be hit or miss for me since I can't say I've ever had too much of a soft spot for classic Heavy Metal in general, apart from the obvious giants of the era. You'll most likely be seeing an early Stormwitch song in the Guardians playlist next month, I'm sure I've had their stuff on there before but not with any sort of consistency.