Daniel's Forum Replies

Bow Wow - "Signal Fire" (1977)

A seminal record in the Japanese metal scene. It's just not very good though & it certainly shouldn't qualify as metal either in my opinion. Of the ten tracks there's only two that I'd consider as being metal. The occasional Black Sabbath or Judas Priest style riff pops up here & there & the vocals do try for their best Rob Halford impersonation at times too but the rest is a fairly light-weight take on 70's hard rock. The musicianship is very good but the vocals & song-writing aren't really up to it to be honest.

For fans of Deep Purple, Budgie & Loudness.

3/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Death Doom Metal Releases Of All Time list which has seen My Dying Bride's "Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium" E.P. jumping a few spots up the list after yesterday's revisit:

01. diSEMBOWELMENT – “Transcendence Into The Peripheral” (1993)

02. Anathema – “Serenades” (1993)

03. My Dying Bride – “Turn Loose The Swans” (1993)

04. The Ruins Of Beverast - "Exuvia" (2017)

05. Anathema – “The Silent Enigma” (1995)

06. My Dying Bride – “Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium” E.P. (1992)

07. Evoken - "Quietus" (2001)

08. Katatonia – “Brave Murder Day” (1996)

09. Mar de Grises – “Streams Inwards” (2010)

10. Daylight Dies – “A Frail Becoming” (2012)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/131

I revisited this release a few times yesterday & have to say that I still find it to be an amazing release all these years later. I'd already heard the "Towards The Sinister" demo by that point but it hadn't done very much for me to be honest so this was the first MDB release that I could really connect with. The gothic monster that is the classic doom/death title track was a revelation while the heavily Bolt Thrower influenced "God Is Alone" is some of the finest death metal you'll hear. It really doesn't matter all that much that the instrumentalists technical skills were still very basic & the production job isn't all that strong.

For fans of Paradise Lost, Anathema & Novembers Doom.

4.5/5

I have to say that I agree with your submission Andi as only "God Is Alone" could be classed as legitimate death metal. It's a YES vote from me.

I struggled with this one a bit to be honest. The drumming is certainly nice & brutal but the symphonics are pulled straight out of European power metal which takes most of that edge off & everything sounds far too clinical. It's records like this one that make me question the relevance of the -core reference in the deathcore tagging too because this E.P. is about as far away from the DIY hardcore punk ethos as you're likely to find. 

For fans of Worm Shepherd, Mental Cruelty & Make Them Suffer.

3/5

I really enjoyed this one. It was right inside my wheelhouse. "No Life Forms" is suitably aggressive & just techy enough without seeming to be consciously so. The song structures never stay on the one thing for very long & are constantly changing. The musicianship is excellent too, particularly the bass playing which benefits from a great mix. I don't mind the typically South American vocal style either to be honest. I must say that it's great to hear some high quality thrash metal in 2022. Well done gents.

For fans of Ripper, Kreator & Slayer.

4/5

I didn't mind this one. The death metal influence of Esoctrilihum's past seems to have been cast aside for a purely black metal oriented sound with a significant symphonic component to it on this occasion. I'm not the biggest fan of symphonic metal in general but this example is highly gothic with an epic, grandiose atmosphere that doesn't see me wanting to shy away at any point. The cover art is the perfect fit for the music too actually. "Saopth's" is certainly a very brutal record with it's consistent use of machine-gun style blast-beats & that's generally a positive for someone with my long-standing preference for ultra-extreme metal. Unfortunately I find the programmed nature of the drums to be a bit annoying, particularly the lack of drum rolls which could of added a lot of impact in my opinion. A bigger weakness is the vocals though as I'm not really sure they're up to the task. Overall I found this to be an enjoyable yet flawed release that gave me some enjoyment but it is unlikely to receive return visits.

For fans of Emperor, Hecate Enthroned & Necromantia.

3.5/5

Cool Feet - "Burning Desire" (1976)

I saw this record pop up quite often while researching the early metal scene during my Metal Academy podcast preparations back in the mid-2010’s & it seems to be quite highly regarded but I can’t say that I’ve ever gotten around to checking out Luxembourg four-piece Cool Feet before now. This 1976 debut album goes for ridiculous money on the second-hand vinyl market these days but if my experience tells me anything it’s that value doesn’t necessarily equate to quality. I couldn’t imagine that “Burning Desire” was likely to break any records in regard to intensity so a long drive with the kids over the weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to see what this obscure proto-metal outfit had to offer before heading off in a much poppier direction in the early 1990’s.

I think it’s fair to say that the poor production & mastering jobs are a definite weakness for “Burning Desire” as the guitars aren’t prominent enough & the levels of the individual tracks differ from each other. This doesn’t prevent the stronger material from making the desired impact though & I find the heavier tracks to all be very enjoyable, particularly the metallic “The Man From Marakesh” & closing hard rocker “Alone In Your Cage” which are both very solid tracks in their own right. There are really only two tracks of the eight included that I regard as fitting the criteria for metal classification though (i.e. "The Man From Marakesh" & opening title track) &, as with so many 70’s proto-metal releases, I find it to be a significant stretch to claim this album as an early metal record.

It sounds to me like Cool Feet were still trying to find their sound with “Burning Desire” as it jumps around sporadically in regard to feel & accessibility. A couple of the more traditional bluesy hard rock numbers sound pretty uneventful when placed around the more melodically expansive metal tunes but the real failing of this record comes with the two awful attempts at commercialism that reside on the B side. Cool Feet are often claimed to be Scorpions disciples & “The Fool” provides a clear indication of that & had me instantly reaching for my plagiarism card given just how close it is to the German hard rock legends' seminal “He’s A Woman – She’s A Man”. Strangely it took a day or so before I realized that “Burning Desire” was actually released a full two years before Scorpions’ “Taken By Force” album which had me wondering whether I had it completely ass about. “The Fool” is a terrible track so I find it hard to believe that Scorpions would have wanted to copy it. Perhaps "Shes A Woman - He's A Man" was an old Scorpions song that didn’t hit an album until later on? I’m not sure but one of the two bands is guilty. The other major failure is even worse though with “Now I Know I’m Free” seeing the entire tracklisting falling on its ass. Thankfully Cool Feet were able to turn things around with a very strong ending to the album.

There are some high quality moments to be found on “Burning Desire” & I found a good half of the tracklisting to be very enjoyable. Front man Don Cardwell has a great hard rock voice & leads the band with confidence during the heavier material but unfortunately the band’s attempts at pop stardom & the generic nature of a couple of the bluesier rock tunes combine with a thin production job to derail Cool Feet’s chances of rock immortality. This is very much the sort of album where you’d be best served by adding the highlight tracks to your Spotify playlist & turfing the remainder.

For fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell & Scorpions.

3/5

Here's my review:

I wasn’t familiar with Brooklyn-based retro four-piece Tanith prior to investigating this month’s The Guardians feature release but they’re hardly a household name in metal circles. A quick look at the band photos left me wondering what I was in store for as they look a little more seasoned than most bands releasing their debut albums these days while the presence on Satan guitarist Russ Tippins intrigued me as I’ve always admired his work on an album like 1983’s “Court In The Act”. Could I expect another metal-as-fuck shred-fest like that one? Well, the reality is anything but.

Tanith place their cards down on the table right from the offset with a warm & organic production job that’s much more in line with 70’s rock than it is with the modern metal model. I really like the way they’ve left plenty of room for the guitars & bass to interact with each other. It’s light-years from the dense metal production we’ve come to expect in more recent times. The dual vocal approach of Tippins & bassist Cindy Maynard is interesting too with both opting for a clean & fairly light-weight delivery that never heads into overly aggressive territory, instead sticking to melodic tones that draw to mind the greats of 1970’s progressive rock. The lead guitar work amplifies that feel further through the consistent execution of simple yet emotive guitar harmonies that showcase a strong Thin Lizzy influence. It’s not the heaviest sound you’ll find but there’s a certain magic about it nonetheless.

It’s interesting that “In Another Time” has been embraced by the metal audience as I’m not really sure it should qualify as metal to be honest. Opening track “Citadel (Galantia Pt. 1)” & “Dionysus” are close enough to metal as they certainly draw upon familiar tools but the rest of the album sits predominantly in hard rock & progressive rock territory. In fact, I’m baffled as to why most metal websites have this record tagged as a hard rock/heavy metal hybrid because the predominant subgenre is comfortably prog rock in my opinion with bands like Yes & Rush being the source of inspiration for much of the content. There’s a magical atmosphere to some of this material that’s seeped in fantasy & wonder & I can see this being a major drawcard for some metalheads. As the album title indicates, this is music from another time only it’s presented with a modern professionalism that showcases the skills of some experienced campaigners who possess a deep understanding of tone & texture.

The thing with “In Another Time” though is that I’m not sure I’m ever completely comfortable with its unintimidating & whispy nature. Apart from the clear album highlight in the gorgeous “Book Of Changes”, I’m not sure I ever find myself engaging with the album on a deeply emotional level. Despite being very well executed, the song-writing is more pleasant than it is enthralling. I very much enjoy those lovely guitar harmonies but the vocals are a little too clean-cut for my taste while the basslines conduct themselves predominantly in fairly unintimidating spaces too. The folky acoustic sections sound sweet enough but I’m not sure that I can say that they pull on my heart-strings. It probably doesn’t help that the album loses its way through the middle of the tracklisting either with both “Cassini's Deadly Plunge” & “Under The Stars” being a bit flat. I’m glad that Tanith could recover for the remainder of the album but I don’t think I ever found myself in a space where I could say that I loved most of the material.

“In Another Time” certainly sounds pretty fresh & there’s a lot to like about the guitar tone but it’s just missing a bit of danger for mine. I appreciate the sentiment but I crave a little more in the way of intensity as the musicians seem to stay very much within themselves for the most part. Give it some more dynamic vocals & this could have been another story. Perhaps even go a little further with the psychedelia. As it is though I find this to be an entertaining little record that should bring Tanith quite a bit of crossover appeal, perhaps not always from the metal market though.

For fans of Wytch Hazel, Thin Lizzy & Night.

3.5/5

Buffalo - "Volcanic Rock" (1973)

The sophomore album from this seminal band from the beloved town of my birth in Sydney, Australia was pretty much regarded as heavy music royalty by the older metalheads when I was first getting into underground metal in the very late 80's. It's not a metal release as such although I'd suggest that the opening & closing tracks should qualify as they're not all that far off Black Sabbath. The rest of the tracklisting is closer to heavy psych & hard rock in my opinion but "Volcanic Rock" is a high quality release in its own right with no weak tunes included. Front man Dave Tice sounds almost exactly like my all-time favourite singer in Soundgarden's Chris Cornell & is the clear focal point of the album although the more stripped back, repetitive & psychedelic guitar work is a real treat too, especially the nine minute album highlight "Freedom" which is nothing short of mind-blowing. If you dig 70's psychedelic/hard rock & proto-metal then you can't go wrong with this record.

For fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Flower Travellin' Band & Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

4/5

Here's my review:

For someone that’s built such a long & passionate history with the death metal genre, I have to say that my relationship with Swedish melodic death metal outfit Edge of Sanity has never been anywhere near as strong as that of most of my extreme metal loving peers. I first became aware of them very early on in their recording career through their 1991 debut album “Nothing But Death Remains” & continued to be kept up to date as they continued on their musical journey via an Aussie tape trading colleague of mine who was utterly obsessed with the Swedish death metal phenomenon. Edge of Sanity’s 1996 fifth full-length “Crimson” (a forty minute single track progressive affair) would obviously become their pièce de resistance & I do have some time for that particular release but I still can’t say that I regard it as anything particularly special so I think it’s fair to say that Edge of Sanity’s true value has always managed to elude me, even though I’m across pretty much their entire back-catalogue to some extent. I was reminded of this fact a couple of weeks ago while contributing to a conversation with a couple of very enthusiastic fans on Twitter & that encounter got me wondering if it might be time to take another crack at Edge of Sanity’s highly regarded 1994 fourth album “Purgatory Afterglow” as it certainly seems to have grown in stature over the years & I can’t say that I’ve listened to much from the band in the last decade or so outside of “Crimson”. This month’s The Horde feature release seemed like a good way to open up some healthy discussion with listeners who will inevitably have differing opinions too so here we are.

The production job on “Purgatory Afterglow” is full & bright which gives the album every chance to impress the listener right from the offset. It’s interesting that Bathory mastermind Quorthon’s father Börje Forsberg is credited as the executive producer & it begs the question as to whether band leader Dan Swanö took any significant learnings away from his time with Börje given the long & illustrious production career that Dan's created for himself since. The sound of the album is quintessentially Swedish as it straddles the two major strands of death metal the country is known for with the melodic death metal sound of At The Gates & Hypocrisy being offset by glimpses of the classic Dismember/Entombed crunch. The use of clean vocals seems to draw influence from gothic rock legends Sisters of Mercy in their phrasing (although admittedly nowhere near as deep) while there are several rockier beats employed across the tracklisting. We even see the band tackling an alternative metalcore sound on closer “Song of Sirens”. Despite the attempts at creative variation, I’m not sure I hear too many signs of the progressive direction that Edge of Sanity would employ in the near future although I've admittedly been known to question how progressive a record like "Crimson" really is at times.

As with so many melodic death metal records, I unfortunately find myself struggling with the more melodically inclined & accessible material included here. I’m kinda used to this with the melodeath subgenre after all these years & it’s no surprise at all that I find the most popular tracks like “Twilight” & “Black Tears” to offer the least appeal while the songs that steer closer to the conventional death metal model (see “Of Darksome Origin” or album highlight “The Sinner & the Sadness”) got my ears pricking up the most. The better melodic moments offer hints at the quality of a record like Amorphis' classic "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" album from the same year but these glimmers of hope are sadly nowhere near as consistent as the Fins were able to achieve. The length of the album seems appropriate at 44 minutes & there’s definitely enough variety on offer to see the individual songs owning their own unique character but the whole thing just seems to feel a little bit short of the final product due to a lack of focus & perhaps the subsequent existence of “Crimson” has proven that statement to be true. It doesn’t explain the significant following that “Purgatory Afterglow” seems to enjoy these days though & I have to wonder whether that would be the case if “Crimson” had never eventuated. I suspect not but then this album was always going to see me being dragged from my musical comfort zone kicking & screaming so what would I know.

For fans of Hypocrisy, At The Gates & “Tales From The Thousand Lakes”-era Amorphis.

3/5

Here's my review:

Despite the fact that German post-sludge metal icons The Ocean have been regarded as one of the premier exponents in their field for a full two decades now, I haven’t been particularly impressed with my limited encounters with them over the years &, as a result, I’m afraid to say that I’ve got a fairly significant gap in my knowledge of their back catalogue when you consider my passion for the post-sludge subgenre in general. My initial experiences with the band came through their pair of 2010 albums “Heliocentric” & “Anthropocentric”, neither of which I had much time for which resulted in me giving The Ocean a wide berth ever since so it’s probably time for me to review that position given that they're so highly revered by fans of the more progressive end of post-metal.

2013’s ocean-themed seventh full-length album “Pelagial” immediately saw me pricking my ears up due to its highly professional packaging & execution. The technicality is the composition & performances is outstanding & compares very well alongside the gods of the progressive metal world. In fact, despite what you may read to the contrary, “Pelagial” isn’t actually a post-sludge metal record at all. If you look closely you’ll discover that there’s only really a short one minute interlude that fits that description across the entire 53 minutes duration of the album. Instead I’d suggest that what we have here is a progressive metal record at its core with the post-metal & sludge metal components being more or less secondary in the grand scheme of things. This imaginative & creative record will see your more educated metal fans picking out the influence of bands like Mastodon, Tool, Opeth & Dream Theater a lot more than the Cult of Luna & Isis references that highlighted most of The Ocean’s earlier works with the band only turning their focus towards sludgier territory for any extended period of time right at the end of the tracklisting via progressive sludge epic “Demersal: Cognitive Dissonance” & the pure sludge-fest of closer “Benthic: The Origin of Our Wishes”. I’d suggest that it’s only the gruff hardcore vocal delivery of front man Loïc Rossetti that sees people being tempted into the sludgier genre tags but in truth he spends just as much time (if not more) exploring his cleaner & more melodic side of his creative repertoire.

“Pelagial” is an extremely consistent record with every one of the eleven tracks being very solid indeed. There are a few really impressive highlight tracks included (see “Bathyalpelagic I: Impasses”, “Abyssopelagic II: Signals of Anxiety” & “Benthic: The Origin of Our Wishes”) but they don’t tend to be the lengthier inclusions which sees me tending to steer away from my higher ratings. The rest of the songs are all very well written & executed but I’m not sure they have the hooks to fully differentiate themselves from each other. I do think it was a bit of a strange decision to tie the two 9+ minute epics together at the back end of the tracklisting as this makes the album drag a bit & seem a little more elongated than it actually is. On the positive side of things though, both of the short interludes are outstanding inclusions & add a lot to the album in my opinion.

It's hard to be too critical of an album that possesses the sheer class that “Pelagial” undeniably does. It’s challenging in all the right ways & I rarely find myself losing engagement. Perhaps it’s just the victim of a little “style over substance” at times but it’s not easy to get the technically vs memorability ratio exactly right & The Ocean come a lot closer to the mark than the vast majority of their peers so I’d have to say that I’ve been converted by this record. I’ll not only be returning to it in the future but will also make a point of doing a little more experimentation with the band’s back catalogue in the future too.

For fans of Mastodon, Intronaut & Ghost Brigade.

4/5

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.

Here's my review:

I must admit that I’ve experienced relatively little of Atlanta alternative metal legends Sevendust for such a significant band. My only targeted effort to explore what they’re all about came at the end of 2010 when I gave their eighth full-length “Cold Day Memory” (3.5/5) a few spins & found it to be a reasonably enjoyable yet largely forgettable experience. I’ve since heard many of the band’s individual tracks due to their inclusion in the monthly The Gateway playlists but have never ventured any further so I’ve gone into this month’s feature release with an open mind & a hopeful attitude.

The first thing I noticed about Sevendust’s highly successful third album is that it contains a stronger nu metal component than I remember from “Cold Day Memory”. In fact, the record kicks off with a song that sounds noticeably similar to Korn while album highlight “Dead Set” also leans very heavily in that direction too. A large percentage of the other tracks contain nu-metal riffs or sections even though the highly melodic chorus hooks & vocals in general see “Animosity” still tending to leave the overarching impression of being an alternative metal album at its core. At the end of the day I think we have a bit of a hybrid here though with a few tracks steering away from metal altogether via some more commercially accessible alternative rock or post-grunge sounds.

As seems to be the norm for Sevendust, “Animosity” relies very heavily on the chorus hooks of front man Lejon Witherspoon & the listener’s final impressions will no doubt hang on their ability to connect with his performance. He’s a class act for the most part & can really sing but I find those hooks to be a little hit & miss. There aren’t any absolute bombs here, despite songs like “Crucified”, “Dead Set”, “Beautiful” & “Angel’s Son” all being high quality examples of their type. There are a couple of pretty flat tracks though with hit single “Praise” & album weak point “Live Again” failing to connect with me. The rest of the album is just kinda middling to be honest. It’s definitely a pleasant listen but I just don’t find it to have the hooks to offer the sort of memorability that will have me singing along to them in my head for the rest of the day. The gruffer backing vocals of guitarist Clint Lowery do offer a nice juxtaposition to Lajon's more clean cut sound though, it must be said.

Sevendust are certainly very good at what they do & I don’t think “Animosity” will disappoint too many alternative/nu metal fans but it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve never reached the same levels of popularity as the elite bands in their field. The band is very tight & everything's executed in a highly professional manner but I rarely find the song-writing to command the same level of excitement as Tool or Deftones seem to muster up quite regularly. Perhaps Sevendust are simply a little closer to the dreaded accessibility line than I'd like. In saying that, I’d probably take "Animosity" over “Cold Day Memory” (from what I can remember of that record anyway) & are glad to have conducted the exercise as there’s really very little to regret here. It’s a more than decent example of its chosen subgenre set, nothing more, nothing less.

For fans of Taproot, Staind & Adema.

3.5/5

Here's my review of this outstanding feature release nomination:

I hadn’t had the pleasure of being introduced to Californian five-piece Dvvell before Sonny selected their brand new debut full-length “Quiescent” as the November feature release for our The Fallen clan but you can mark me down as being emphatically converted in a short space of time because this four-track album fits my taste profile to a tee. What we have here is a crushingly heavy & unapologetically dark piece of work that is relentless in its commitment to undiluted doom & it sounds just as good as that description sounds. That’s not to say that it’s a perfect record as there are some small challenges to overcome if you're to fully uncover the album's charms but there’s certainly enough quality here to satisfy the vast majority of the extreme doom audience.

“Quiescent” is benefitted from a thick & super-heavy production job which highlights the superbly tight rhythm section through a big bass guitar sound. The riffs invariably sit in the slow to medium-slow range & if the album has a weakness it’s definitely in its lack of variety because Dvvell define their sound very early on & stick to their guns throughout the entire hour’s duration. The Dvvell sound is really very simple to describe in all honesty. Slow riffs based entirely on open power-chords, ethereal tremolo-picked higher-register melodies that draw influence from post-rock & anguished female black metal screams… yep, that about sums it up really. So why is it so effective? I think it’s because of the execution which is absolutely top notch, particularly that of drummer Brett Weiser who is the clear highlight with his powerful metronomic performance giving the material the extra clout & precision it requires to consistently pummel the listener into submission. Brett’s kick drum hits in exact unity with every dinosauric power chord & his fills maintain my interest during the sections where the music is completely devoid of hooks. The melodies I mentioned don’t always hit exactly on the sweet spot they’re aiming for but when they do (as in the first half of closing track & album highlight “Daughter”) they can be seriously effective & I find myself hanging out for those moments while sitting through the album as a whole.

It's interesting that most websites seem to label “Quiescent” (& most albums like it) as sludge metal, often with the doom component being tagged as funeral doom metal. I struggle to find the sludge metal in this release to be honest as there’s not a lot of abrasive hardcore anger going on. Personally, I’d suggest that this release represents a strong case for the “blackened doom metal” tag as the music is clearly doom metal & the vocals just as obviously come from black metal realms rather than sludge metal aggression. The consistently slow tempos do hint at funeral doom metal at times & I find myself being reminded of England’s Moss in that regard but I don’t think the atmosphere is ever in line with the mournful slumbers that we generally expect from that particular subgenre. Instead I'd suggest that it shares more similarities with that of artists like fellow Californians Chrch or Oregon’s Hell although those bands admittedly change things up a bit more than Dvvell do.

Despite the saminess that “Quiescent” is undeniably guilty of, I simply can’t deny the appeal of an unapologetically dark & doomy release like this one, particularly when the execution is as powerful as it is here. “Quiescent” commands the listener to play it super-loud so as to become engulfed by the sheer weight of sound with the blackened vocals of Kristy Senko-Hall beckoning you to embrace the darkness.

For fans of Chrch, Hell & Moss.

4.5/5

Here's my review:

It’s been fifteen months since I boldly opted to select New Jersey industrial metallers O.L.D.’s 1991 “Lo Flux Tube” sophomore album for feature release status here at the Metal Academy. I was familiar with their 1988 debut album “Old Lady Drivers” from my early tape trading days & it was essentially a fairly uneventful novelty grindcore release but their second effort saw the trio taking a succession of bold creative risks whose combined merits amounted to a unique & much more challenging avant-garde industrial metal record. It wasn’t without its faults of course but I generally enjoyed the experience & became interested to see where O.L.D. might take things from there given their undeniable passion for the obscure & unusual.

1993’s “The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak” album definitely takes things to the next logical level with the psychedelic cover artwork giving the listener a pretty accurate impression of what lies beneath. The production job is greatly improved from “Lo Flux Tube” which is a definite plus given that record’s obvious flaws in that department. This time most of the tracks are given a lot more scope to create layers of mind-bending noise with your cerebellum being tweaked by high-pitched electronic wails & bizarre dissonance with great regularity. The influence of Godflesh in the beats & bass guitar work is still plain to see but I can’t say that “The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak” is as obviously industrial as its predecessor. Some tracks definitely push that sound harder than others but to my ears there’s more in the way of avant-garde metal & experimental rock included here with the rock-to-metal ratio finishing in fairly even proportions. Voivod is also still a huge player in the O.L.D. sound & it’s hard to imagine a record like this one being created without records like “Dimension Hatross” having first existed.

Front man & former Khanate vocalist Alan Dubin’s blackened scream is consistent with his approach on “Lo Flux Tube” but don’t expect to hear much in the way of traditional metal guitar work on this album because Phantomsmasher/Khanate axeman James Plotkin uses his instrument in ways that it was never originally intended & in the process makes one hell of a feedback-drenched racket. He also goes to town on the electronics which play the role of the protagonist on most occasions. The vast majority of the album absolutely oozes of space rock style psychedelia with the use of noise being a strong feature. It’s interesting that I pick up a Kraftwerk influence in some parts too which wasn’t something I was expecting at all. Does it work? Well yeah it does if being honest but I’m not too sure I want it to if I'm being honest.

The first fifteen minutes of the record are really interesting & I found myself immediately engaged but things don’t really reach their full potential until the amazing fourth track “Peri Cynthion” & the cerebral drone of “Creyap’nilla”, both of which are genuine classics of whatever bizarre amalgamation of subgenres this fucking record might be pushing. It’s really unfortunate though that the tracklisting finishes on such a weak note with the eleven minute “Backwards Through The Greedo Compressor” being not only the longest track but also a real stinker. I can’t help but think that O.L.D. could easily have left that track out given the lengthy 66 minute duration of the album & we would all have been happier campers for it. As it is though, “The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak” seems to tamely peter out after promising so much for an audience that’s actively looking for drug-fuelled shenanigans. Thankfully I was able to see past that error in judgement because the rest of the album sees O.L.D. producing sounds that are as much art as they are music.

Once again O.L.D. have produced an intriguing & highly original record that certainly won’t be for everyone. I fully appreciate the effort the band members have gone to to come up with such a whacked-out sound & when they get all of their ducks in a row it can be pretty fucking mind-blowing. It’s too bad that they can’t hit that mark consistently enough to see me wanting to come back for return visits in the future & some of that can be put down to the terrible way they’ve elected to close the album out. If pushed I’d probably suggest that “Lo Flux Tube” is still my O.L.D. record of choice but there’s very little in it so if you liked that release then you shouldn’t hesitate to check this one out too.

For fans of Voivod, Godflesh & Disharmonic Orchestra.

3.5/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Technical Death Metal Releases of All Time list:

01. 7 Horns 7 Eyes - "Throes Of Absolution" (2012)

02. Death - "Human" (1991)

03. Suffocation - "Despise The Sun" E.P. (1998)

04. Suffocation - "Pinnacle Of Bedlam" (2013)

05. Death – “Individual Thought Patterns” (1993)

06. Gorguts – “Colored Sands” (2013)

07. Cynic - "Focus"

08. Ulcerate – “Everything Is Fire” (2009)

09. Ad Nauseam - "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" (2021)

10. Death – “Symbolic” (1995)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/148

Ulcerate - "Stare Into Death & Be Still" (2020)

New Zealand death metal trio Ulcerate have been somewhat of a mainstay at the top of my musical ladder since first discovering them through their classic sophomore album “Everything Is Fire” back in 2009. It may have taken me some time to fully come to grips with the dissonant arm of the death metal scene at the time as it still sounded fairly foreign to my old-school ears but once I’d become accustomed to the more textural sonic palate with which these artists draw from I quickly became engulfed in a journey of discovery that found me ultimately placing the niche subgenre up on one of my higher musical pedestals. Ulcerate haven’t released anything that wasn’t of a sublime quality since those initial impressions either which certainly hasn’t hurt. The more traditional brutal tech death of their 2004 “The Coming of Genocide” E.P. may not have been anything terribly flash & their 2007 debut album “Of Fracture & Failure” might well have been more of an interesting transitional release than a record to be particularly revered but ever since that time the band have been in devastating form & have destroyed a great many fragile minds in the process.

Dissonant death metal bands like Ulcerate will inevitably always be at a higher risk of sounding “samey” than bands from other genres. When you make extreme music that doesn’t conform to traditional theoretical structures or melodic sensibilities then it can often be hard to give the song-writing the unique elements required to differentiate themselves from one another. I have to admit that I’ve kinda been waiting for Ulcerate to fall over in that regard but they just never seem to even stumble. With their 2020 sixth full-length “Stare Into Death & Be Still” we find Ulcerate sticking to their tried-&-tested dissonant model but infusing it with enough melody to make it appear to be a complete contradiction of terms. The use of open strings & dissonant chords is undeniably still the root of the band’s evil however they’ve managed to make it sound almost beautiful at the same time which is really pretty remarkable. There’s plenty of variation in tempo with a number of exploratory & introspective post-sludge sections adding layers to the glorious atmosphere. In fact, the slower & more stripped back post-metal sections are inevitably my favourite parts of the album & are responsible for giving each inclusion in the tracklisting its own identity.

The production job on “Stare Into Death & Be Still” is nothing short of splendid with the layers of dissonant guitars sounding full & lush & the drums offering plenty of clarity, power & brightness. If I had to be critical, I’d suggest that the bass guitar could have been louder in the mix but I don’t think it detracts from the overall product. The composition & execution are simply stunning with the three musicians being given the freedom to take expansive & quite intricate excursions through some of the band’s most ambitious yet strangely accessible material.

The vocals of Paul Kelland are aggressive & powerful, perhaps more so than I remember them being which is a nice contrast to some of the more stripped back material. Sole guitarist Michael Hoggard must have some major challenges on his hands when it comes to live performance as I’m honestly not sure how he could pull off the many layers of dense guitar work that are presented here. I really love the interplay between the different guitar tracks actually & find them to possess an artistic flair that’s pretty rare in extreme metal. While it may be Hoggard who ensures that Ulcerate always maintain some level of accessibility while never losing an ounce of integrity, it’s drummer Jamie Saint Merat that steals the show in no uncertain terms as he’s quite simply unparalleled in skill & creativity. Sure, he can blast 99% of the opposition away with relative ease but it’s the more subdued moments which offer him the most room to move & his cymbal work during these more atmospheric sections is nothing short of astounding. What a drummer this guy is! I’m not sure we’ve seen better in metal music to tell you the truth.

“Stare Into Death & Be Still” is yet another wonderful example of modern death from one of the absolute elite exponents of the craft. It's undoubtedly Ulcerate’s most melodic album to date but its also their most creatively advanced too. I count myself as being a big fan of the dissonant death metal sound these days but I’m not sure I’ve hear a better example of it than this one right here & that includes Ulcerate's most highly celebrated releases like "Everything Is Fire".

For fans of Gorguts, Portal & Baring Teeth.

4.5/5

I've just adjusted my Top Ten Dissonant Death Metal Releases of All Time list following this week's spectacular revisit of Ulcerate's "Stare Into Death & Be Still" album:

01. Ulcerate - "Stare Into Death & Be Still" (2020)

02. Gorguts - "Colored Sands" (2013)

03. Ulcerate - "Everything Is Fire" (2009)

04. Ad Nauseam - "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" (2021)

05. Gorguts - "From Wisdom To Hate" (2001)

06. Ulcerate - "The Destroyers Of All" (2011)

07. Ulcerate - "Vermis" (2013)

08. Gorguts - "Obscura" (1998)

09. Portal - "Seepia" (2003)

10. Flourishing - "The Sum Of All Fossils" (2011)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/181

Here's the schedule for the December feature release nominations:

THE FALLEN: Ben, Daniel, Sonny

THE GATEWAY: Andi, Saxy

THE GUARDIANS: Daniel, Xephyr

THE HORDE: Vinny, Ben, Daniel

THE INFINITE: Xephyr, Saxy, Andi

THE NORTH: Daniel, Ben, Vinny, Xephyr

THE PIT: Vinny, Daniel, Ben

THE REVOLUTION: Daniel, Andi

THE SPHERE: Andi, Daniel

Here's my submission for the December playlist Andi:

Godflesh - "Anthem" (from "Hymns", 2001)

Here's my submission for the December playlist Andi:

Bleeding Through - "Buried" (from "Love Will Kill All", 2018)

Here are my submissions for the December playlist Vinny:

Agent Steel - "Mad Locust Rising" (from "Mad Locust Rising" E.P., 1986)

Liege Lord - "Rapture" (from "Master Control", 1988)

Rage - "Deceiver" (from "Reign of Fear", 1986)

Midnight - "Telepathic Nightmare" (from "Let There Be Witchery", 2022)

Speedwolf - "Ride With Death" (from "Ride With Death", 2011)

Black Viper - "Hellions of Fire" (from "Hellions of Fire", 2018)

Bewitcher - "Death Returns..." (from "Cursed Be Thy Kingdom", 2021)

Here are my submissions for the December playlist:

Cryptopsy - "Carrionshine" (from "Once Was Not", 2005)

Deicide - "Revocate The Agitator" (from "Legion", 1992)

Ulcerate - "There Is No Horizon" (from "Staring Into Death & Be Still", 2020)

Here's my submission for the December playlist Xephyr:

King Diamond - "Behind These Walls" (from "The Eye", 1990)

Here's my submission for the December playlist Saxy:

Coldrain - "Boys & Girls" (from "Nonnegative", 2022)

Here's my submission for the December playlist Sonny:

Elder - "Gemini" (from "Dead Roots Stirring", 2011)

November 2022

01. Amken – “Somewhere Past the Burning Sun” (from “Passive Aggression”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

02. Sodom – “Nicht mehr mein Land” (from “Genesis XIX”, 2020) [Submitted by Vinny]

03. Demoniac – “Equilibrio Fatal” (from “So It Goes”, 2020) [Submitted by Sonny]

04. F.K.Ü. – “Corpse Mania” (from “1981”, 2017) [Submitted by Vinny]

05. Ghoul - “Off With Their Heads” (from “Transmission Zero”, 2011) [Submitted by Vinny]

06. Mace – “Drilling for Brains” (from “Process of Elimination”, 1985)

07. Concrete Sox – “No Trust No Faith” (from “Whoops Sorry Vicar”, 1987)

08. Fusion Bomb – “Bird of Prey” (from “Concrete Jungle”, 2019)

09. Machine Head – “Davidian” (from “Burn My Eyes”, 1994)

10. Texas Hippie Coalition – “Hands Up” (from “Peacemaker”, 2012)

11. Sepultura – “We Who Are Not As Others” (from “Chaos A.D.”, 1993) [Submitted by Daniel]

12. Ektomorf – “Fury” (from “Fury”, 2018)

13. Krushhammer – “Evil Domain” (from “Blood, Violence & Blasphemy”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

14. Intent – “Victims of Conquest” (from “Exile”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

15. Traitor – “Total Thrash” (from “Exiled to the Surface”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

16. Wraith – “Seven Serpents” (from “Faster Than The Fucking Devil”, 2020) [Submitted by Vinny]

17. Mezzrow – “Then Came the Killing” (from “Then Came the Killing”, 1990)

18. Mordred – “State of Mind” (from “Fool’s Game”, 1989)

19. Lucifuge – “Infernal Power” (from “Infernal Power”, 2021)

20. Maze of Terror – “Angels of Acid” (from “Offer to the Fucking Beasts”, 2021)

21. Killing – “Kill Everyone” (from “Face the Madness”, 2021)

22. Znöwhite – “Bringing the Hammer Down” (from “All Hail to Thee”, 1984)

23. Airwolf – “Victory Bells” (from “Victory Bells”, 1988)

24. Pessimist – “The Massacre of Nanking” (from “Call to War”, 2010)

25. Nuclear – “Eleventh Block” (from “Ten Broken Codes”, 2008) [Submitted by Sonny]

26. Dead Head – “Helhuizen” (from “Swine Plague” 2017)

27. Comaniac – “1,2 Rage” (from “Return to the Wasteland”, 2015)

28. Coroner – “Son of Lilith” (from “Mental Vortex”, 1991)

29. Vektor – “LCD (Liquid Crystal Disease” (from “Terminal Redux”, 2016)

November 2022

01. Deathsiege – “Throne Of Heresy” (from “Throne Of Heresy”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

02. At The Gates – “The Swarm” (from “Terminal Spirit Disease”, 1994)

03. Nocturnus – “Possess The Priest” (from “Nocturnus” E.P., 1993)

04. Brujeria – “Marijuana” (from “Marijuana” E.P., 1997)

05. Cynic – “Celestial Voyage” (from “Focus”, 1993) [Submitted by Daniel]

06. Genghis Tron – “Thing Don’t Look Good” (from “Board Up The House”, 2008)

07. An Abstract Illusion – “In The Heavens Above, You Will Become A Monster” (from “Woe”, 2022)

08. Autopsy – “Stab The Brain” (from “Morbidity Triumphant”, 2022)

09. Drumcorps – “Botch Up & Die” (from “Grist”, 2006)

10. Pharmacist – “Gardening On Human Soils” (from “Medical Renditions Of Grinding Decomposition”, 2020)

11. Demilich – “When The Sun Drank The Weight Of Water” (from “Nespithe”, 1993) [Submitted by Daniel]

12. Rotten Sound – “Dominion” (from “Under Pressure”, 1997)

13. Hypocrisy – “Reborn” (from “The Fourth Dimension”, 1994)

14. Rectal Smegma – “Hitler Only Had One Ball” (from “Keep On Smiling”, 2009)

15. Metrorrhagia – “Animalistic Defecation of Partially Digested Human Remains” (from “Metrorrhagia”, 2020)

16. Tribal Gaze – “And How They Wept For Eternity” (from “The Nine Choirs”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

17. Celestial Sanctuary – “Trapped Within The Rank Membrane” (from “Perilaxe Occlusion/Fumes/Celestial Sanctuary/Thorn” split E.P., 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

18. Portal – “Omnipotent Crawling Chaos” (from “Outre”, 2007)

19. Negativa – “Chaos In Motion” (from “Negativa” E.P., 2006)

20. Houkago Grind Time – “Bakyunsified (Moe To The Gore)“ (from “Bakyunsified (Moe To The Gore)”, 2020)

21. Mortuous – “Graveyard Rain” (from “Upon Desolation”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

22. Short Bus Pile Up – “Ball-Peen Beating” (from “Repulsive Display Of Human Upholstery”, 2010)

23. Brutal Truth – “Stench of Prophet” (from “Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses”, 1992) [Submitted by Daniel]

24. 1 Body 6 Graves – “Cleaved In Half” (from “1 Body 6 Graves” E.P., 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

25. Dying Fetus – “Ideological Subjugation” (from “Wrong One To Fuck With”, 2017) [Submitted by Daniel]

26. Pathology – “Code Injection” (from “Legacy Of The Ancients”, 2010)

27. Mortician – “Zombie Apocalypse” (from “Zombie Apocalypse” E.P., 1998)

28. Deeds of Flesh – “Feeding Time” (from “Inbreeding The Anthropophagi”, 1998)

29. Extreme Noise Terror – “One Truth, One Hate” (from “Being & Nothing”, 2001)

30. Inhume – “Gargling Guts” (from “Decomposing From Inside”, 2000)

31. Nails – “No Surrender” (from “Abandon All Life”, 2013) [Submitted by Daniel]

32. Fluids – “Hounded” (from “Nunslaughter/Fluids” split E.P., 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

You need to click the little picture of the video camera above the text box & paste your link in there.

Welcome to the club Vinny! 

Deicide - "Legion" (1992)

The 1990 self-titled debut album from notorious Florida death metallers Deicide came into my life at a time when I had only recently become infatuated with the genre so it enjoyed the perfect conditions to maximize its impact on my life & I think it’s fair to say that it couldn’t have been more influential on this young metalhead. I’d certainly never heard anything so evil before but despite the utter blasphemy & devastating brutality of the music, the song-writing was some of the catchiest you’ll find in death metal which gave “Deicide” the endurance to still reside in my top ten for the genre today. So by the time the follow-up album was released in 1992 I was absolutely chomping at the bit to throw myself into it. “Legion” certainly had a hard act to follow but I was very confident that it would deliver & there's no doubt that it did to an extent.

It’s probably been over a decade since I last revisited “Legion” but I listened to it enough in my teenage years to know very well what to expect. I’ve traditionally always regarded it as a classic death metal record but have never placed it alongside the debut at the very pinnacle of the genre. This revisit was something I’d planned for some time with the intention of being able to more accurately place “Legion” within the myriad of early 90’s classics & I had a little inkling that it might not be as good as I’d once thought. I knew it’d be full-on & confronting but would it be complete enough to play with the Morbid Angels of the world? Let’s see, shall we?

The first thing I noticed upon digging my teeth into “Legion” was the messy production which is a little surprising given the involvement of Scott Burns behind the mixing desk. The rhythm guitar tone is pretty noisy which makes the whole album seem a little more chaotic than it might otherwise have appeared & this is amplified by the exhilarating opening track “Satan Spawn, The Caco-Daemon” which is completely off the hook from a structural point of view. Each song possesses a number of drastic tempo-changes with chuggy mid-paced riffage giving way to blast-beat driven annihilation & returning again quite often. The riff structures are much more technical than the debut which seems to have been a conscious decision but I’m not sure that Deicide were quite up to the task just yet as there are number of sections across the tracklisting that find the song structures falling apart. Drummer Steve Asheim is the main culprit here & (despite the fact the Steve was held up on a pedestal by most of the extreme metal scene at the time) he struggles a bit for control across the whole duration of the album. He’s certainly not helped by the production but I tend to think that he’d pushed himself a little farther than his capabilities could support at the time with some of this material.

On the positive side though, the enraged vocals of head Satanist Glen Benton sound positively demonic on “Legion” as he leads his band to Hell & back multiple times during the short 29 minute run time. The screamed backing vocals aren’t as effective but are helped by the intelligent use of delay for some cool effects at key moments. The rhythm guitar work is actually very solid & there are some ripper death metal riffs on offer with Deicide's real strength being in the mid-paced chuggers which sound genuinely evil. The highlight of the album for me though is the controlled chaos that is the lead guitar work. I’ve always loved the lead tone these boys achieved on the early Deicide albums & you won’t find a better example than the searing mid-range of these ultra-shredding efforts. In fact, I’d suggest that the solos represent the climax of many of the eight tracks included & I’m often reminded of Slayer & Morbid Angel in the way both brothers maintain their focus on face-ripping insanity rather than complementary melody.

Despite the flaws I mentioned above, there can be no denying that “Legion” slips very easily into my musical comfort zone & I don’t have to try very hard to get my jollies out of it. However the reason that it doesn’t compare all that favourably alongside the debut can be found in its consistency. None of the tracks are weak as such but I can’t deny that there are some lighter-weight sections in “Behead The Prophet (No Lord Shall Live)” & “In Hell I Burn” that see me dropping my score from the lofty heights of a good half of the album. The shorter & more focused tracks are the strongest with the unwavering brutality of “Trifixion” & “Revocate The Agitator” being the most successful in their unholy mission. There's no time for mucking around on those tracks which makes it clearer that Deicide's weaknesses generally appear when they have more time on their hands & become guilty of trying too hard to sound evil (see the unintelligent chorus from "In Hell I Burn" for example).

So, ultimately I think my suspicions that I may have overrated “Legion” were pretty accurate even though I still very much enjoyed revisiting this high quality death metal release from my youth. It’s not the classic I tried so hard to make it into back in 1992 (& I do remember really wanting it to be just quietly). It’s an over-the-top & relentless experience that will satisfy the vast majority of its audience though & shouldn’t be scoffed at by any means. It’s funny how sloppy it sounds when I listen to it today but that element also gives it an endearing quality that reminds me of a simpler time in my life when such concerns weren’t worth bothering about.

For fans of Vital Remains, Cannibal Corpse & Amon.

4/5

Andi, I've removed this release from The Horde, added it to The North & created a Hall of Judgement entry to have it added to the Sphere.

for those looking for a mix of Dimmu Borgir, Agathodaimon, and Fear Factory:

Isn't everyone?

Rainbow - "On Stage" (1977)

I have to admit that, despite the steady stream of unanimous praise that seems to be heaped on them, London supergroup Rainbow have never been my cup of tea, at least not when looking at their back catalogue holistically. Sure, their classic 1976 sophomore record “Rising” is certainly a very solid effort & I’m not denying that I get a lot of enjoyment out of it but the only other one of the band’s eight studio albums that I find much appeal in is 1982’s “Straight Between The Eyes” which is arguably Rainbow’s least popular release. This is a pretty good sign that Rainbow simply don’t play in the same playgrounds as I frequent & I’ve kinda found myself subconsciously accepting that I may never achieve the same sort of adoration that many of my metalhead peers do over the years. Recently though, I found myself in need of something to listen to while looking after my two young kids for the day & Rainbow’s 1977 “On Stage” live album popped up in my Spotify feed. For some reason I thought to myself “You know what? Everyone else seems to gush about this record. What can it hurt giving it a few spins, eh?”. So here I am…. full of high hopes & the promise to at least fill an obvious gap in my knowledge of rock/metal music history.

“On Stage” is made up of live tracks that were recorded between September & December 1976 when Rainbow were on tour in Germany & Japan so it’s not a showcase for a single performance but the best of several. Interestingly though given the timing of the shows, the tracklisting includes virtually nothing from the “Rising” album that the band were touring for at the time with only a short snippet of “Starstruck” (clearly the weakest track on “Rising” in my opinion) being represented. The majority of the record is made up of material from 1975’s “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” debut album with the addition of a cover version of Deep Purple’s “Mistreated” (which Ritchie obviously wrote) & a sneak peak at a future classic in “Kill The King” that wouldn’t see a proper album release until 1978’ “Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll” record. Most of the tracks are extended & include lengthy improvised jam sections which see the six tracks stretching out to a 64 minute run time.

The clear & organic production job is very good for a live album from that period & it does exactly what any good live production should do by giving the listener the feeling of actually being there in the audience. I could have done without the silly “Over The Rainbow” intro from the “Wizard Of Oz” but once the band kicks into gear you’ll be treated to some of the finest rock performances you’re ever likely to hear, highlighted of course by the legendary talents of Ritchie Blackmore & Ronnie James Dio. Now, let me get something else off my chest. Despite being a guitarist myself, I’ve never actually had a lot of time for Blackmore from a technical point of view. I’ve always appreciated his creativity but he seemed a little sloppy to me in comparison to some of my more favoured axemen. But here we see Ritchie confidently pulling the wool from over my eyes so that I can finally see what I’ve been missing & by George he pulls off quite the triumphant victory over my stubbornness in the process. I can very easily hear where people like Yngwie Malmsteen have cloned certain parts of his technique here & it’s hard to argue that Ritchie was ahead of his time after experiencing this record. RJD’s contribution is simply perfect as always. I don’t think there’s a musician alive that could have taken the limelight away from Ronnie as he’s a star among stars & you’re unlikely to find a better example of that than you do here.

Now a warning for all you diehard metalheads that are stuck in your ways, “On Stage” is NOT a metal record &, to be fair, it never tries to be. Contrary to popular opinion, Rainbow were never a metal band. They were a hard rock group that contained unique elements that heavily influenced metal. Hell, a lot of the jam sections of “On Stage” aren’t even rock with Rtichie & co taking their audience into a wide array of different territories from blues right through to classical & it’s worth noting that his ambitions have ultimately produced the definitive versions of many of these songs in the process. The 15 minute version of “Catch The Rainbow” is really quite stunning & has taken one of the couple of tracks that I found enjoyment in from the debut & transformed it into an epic centrepiece that rewrites the book on melody & atmosphere. I’ve never liked “Sixteen Century Greensleeves” but this version comes a little closer to being interesting while the new packaging of closer “Still I’m Sad” has seen me paying attention for the very first time.

Perhaps a release like this one is tailor made for an old musician like myself. I'm more than open to the idea of extended improvisation, I live to hear musicians pushing themselves & succeeding & I love to see an artist take their art & give it a fresh coat of paint. Rainbow may still not quite fit into my taste profile from a stylistic point of view but boy have they pulled off an entertaining release here. It’s really pretty surprising how successful “On Stage” is when you consider that I don’t have any time for the “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” album that most of the material is drawn from. How is it possible that they’ve not only managed to pull off an acceptable live album without drawing on any of the best material from clearly their best album in “Rising” but have actually gone one step further by forcing me to consider whether “On Stage” may just have pipped “Rising” out of the top spot for my favourite Rainbow release. Well done gents. This is a very fine performance indeed.

For fans of Deep Purple, Scorpions & Thin Lizzy.

4/5

Cryptopsy - "Once Was Not" (2005)

In previous reviews I’ve been very open about the fact that, despite the brutal death metal subgenre being arguably my favourite sound in all of metal, I’ve never rated Canadian legends Cryptopsy’s supposedly classic first couple of albums as highly as almost everyone else on Earth seems to with a large portion of my issues lying with the two major drawcards in front man Lord Worm & influential drum virtuoso Flo Mounier. To be honest I just don’t think either are half as good at their craft as they’re made out to be. Hell, I didn’t even like the band’s highly regarded debut album “Blasphemy Made Flesh”. But 1998’s “Whisper Supremacy” brought with it a new & more traditional vocalist in Mike DiSalvo & also saw the band heading in a flashier & more technical direction which appealed to my taste significantly more than their supposedly genre-defining sophomore album “None So Vile”. “Whisper Supremacy” finally saw me getting onboard the Cryptopsy train with some level of confidence & I was hopeful that this revisit to Cryptopsy’s 2005 fifth album “Once Was Not” would provide further emphasis to my preference for slightly later Cryptopsy than most people are willing to admit to. Did it deliver in that regard? Well… kinda. Let’s take a look at one of the Canadian’s more underappreciated albums.

“Once Was Not” saw the return of Lord Worm to the fold after two albums with DiSalvo & I have to admit that I’ve probably taken longer than I might otherwise have to plan a revisit for that very fact alone as I’ve never been terribly enamoured with the Lord's over the top & often unintelligible death growls. He doesn’t waste any time at all in reminding as to why I’ve struggled with him over the years here either as his ranting, rabid-dog style delivery sounds pretty thin & unconvincing to my ears. In fact, he’s easily the weakest element of the album & I don’t doubt that DiSalvo’s more conventional approach to death growls played a strong role in my preference for an album like “Whisper Supremacy” over Cryptopsy’s classic releases.

Instrumentally though, we have a very well-produced, creative & artistic record on our hands here & one that I’d suggest no longer fits comfortably under the brutal death metal banner. “Once Was Not” is a highly technical effort sporting an impressively broad scope. It doesn’t always make sense mind you & can sound a little like a collection of good ideas that have been pasted together at times rather than a cohesive & fluent piece of artistic expression. I do really enjoy the jazzier moments, particularly those that feature ride cymbal work that sounds like it’s been borrowed from progressive rock or the early progressive death metal bands like Atheist or Cynic.

Extreme metal drummer extraordinaire Mounier puts in another blinding performance but he still can’t convince me that he’s the real deal here. His endurance seems to have improved over the years & his sheer velocity is no less impressive than the first time I heard him back in the early 1990's but unfortunately he’s still pretty messy with his timing as far as his ability to perfectly synchronize his kick drums & snare during the hyper-speed blast-beat sections go. He often sounds more like a possessed typewriter than a tight & clinical tech death time-keeper & it baffles me to see the consistent adoration he seems to draw at times when there are so many extreme drumming gods about these days. Perhaps it's all about his influence as he was certainly one of the first to be attempting the sort of speeds he's made his calling card throughout his career.

In saying that, it’s pretty hard to be too critical of “Once Was Not” as the tracklisting is extremely consistent with no weak tracks included among the eleven on offer. Unfortunately there aren’t any genuine standouts though & I find myself wondering if Cryptopsy have simply tried to be too clever with this record as the best parts usually come when they go in a more classic death metal direction rather than trying to be as wacky as they possibly can without breaking the death metal mold. The musicianship of Flo & Worm's counterparts is of a very high standard & it’s rare that I find myself getting bored across the relatively lengthy (for a record this extreme) 50 minute duration. The band don’t seem to be short of ideas & it’s hard to imagine that they’d fall from grace in such a dramatic fashion with their very next album when listening to this one so I’d suggest that most fans of the more brutal end of the technical death metal subgenre will find a fair bit to enjoy here. "Once Was Not" isn't as strong as "Whisper Supremacy" was by any means but I'd probably still take it over Cryptopsy's first two records nonetheless (yep I said it alright).

For fans of Lykathea Aflame, Origin & Wormed.

3.5/5

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.

Bleeding Through - "Love Will Kill All" (2018)

I’d heard quite a bit of Californian metalcore outfit Bleeding Through while preparing the monthly The Revolution playlists but had never felt the need to investigate them further upon until this point. Perhaps I’ve been put off by their associations with the more melodic side of the genre or it may be because they simply don’t seem all that likely to appeal to my taste. I’m not too sure but my commitment to the Hall of Judgement & a site with the highest level of accuracy in regard to our genre-tagging has finally brought me face to face with my very first Bleeding Through album & I’m gonna do my best to keep an open mind.

As is very much the norm with the more well-known metalcore acts, “Love Will Kill All” is a really well-produced & executed record with polished & shiny performances from all of the band members. It’s a big, in-your-face collection of short & catchy metal tunes that’s made to appeal to a particular audience. You see, while Bleeding Through certainly integrate various external influences into their sound to good effect, they also showcase all of the signature traits of the metalcore genre at the same time so fans will never find themselves feeling the slightest bit alienated. I wouldn’t describe Bleeding Through as sticking to the conventional metalcore model here but neither would I say that the album is a melodic metalcore release either. It kinda sits in the middle with the band jumping from a straight down the line aggressive tune to a more melodic one with a clean-sung chorus hook quite consistently. If anything I’d probably suggest that the melodic side wins out in the end but a dual tagging is probably the most appropriate result.

The points of difference for “Love Will Kill All” are twofold. On the one hand you have a clear melodic death metal influence with At The Gates seeming to be the obvious point of reference through the driving, up-tempo yet melodic tremolo-picked riffage. Then we also see a clear melodic black metal influence in the use of gothic symphonics & well-executed blast-beats. Cradle of Filth is undoubtedly the source of those sounds. Having never been the biggest Cradle of Filth fan, I have to admit to struggling a bit with the overly melodramatic gothicisms on offer even though they do make for something a little different which is certainly required with a record like this one. The clean choruses on the more melodic tracks remind me quite a bit of Fear Factory so I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that they were somewhat of an inspiration too.

One of the problems here though is the more generic elements of Bleeding Through’s sound as they kinda overshadow their more creative ones. The breakdowns are very much the standard model for metalcore & whenever they pop up I find myself snoozing a bit. The vocals of front man Brandan Schieppati are also terribly common. I mean he sounds EXACTLY like every other metalcore vocalist in America & that’s a big detractor for me personally. There are a couple of really enjoyable tracks here though & they generally occur when Bleeding Through simply release the shackles & go for broke like they do on album highlight “Buried” or the pretty decent “Cold World”. The rest of the album seems to drift into areas of insignificance though I’m afraid, even though there’s nothing particularly terrible here either.

At the end of the day I just don’t think I’m the target audience for a record like “Love Will Kill All”. I'd imagine that it’s exactly what the band were trying to achieve & that it’s disappointed very few of their rabid fanbase but it’s simply not something that would generally appeal to me. In fact, the only reason I’ve even found myself listening to it is to assist Andi with his Hall of Judgement entry to have it removed from The Horde & in that undertaking Andi will be receiving a resounding YES vote from me as (despite the At the Gates influence) there’s absolutely no way that this is a death metal record.

For fans of Unearth, The Agonist & early Shadows Fall.

3/5

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.

These two submissions have been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

To be fair Andi, most of the releases you mentioned in your earlier post about speed metal's heavy/power metal credentials were hybrids with The Guardians genres which does tend to skew your outcomes. For example, I regard "Walls Of Jericho" as the earliest European power metal release so it's not a good sample case in my opinion. That's why I elected to investigate only releases that were tagged solely as speed metal. It's a difficult one to decide on anyway as it became very clear to me quite early in the process that speed metal is pretty much a combination of heavy metal & thrash metal.

In regard to Neoclassical Metal, I consider Yngwie Malmsteen to be a heavy metal artist as I disagree that a genre should be created based on its aesthetics rather than its core roots. If we take Yngwie's sophomore album "Marching Out" for example, the base roots of that record clearly sit in heavy metal with a bit of early power metal. Yngwie doesn't change the genre by playing neoclassical guitar over the top of those roots because you can play neoclassical guitar over any style of metal. Fleshgod Apocalypse used neoclassical influences in their solos & structures & I'm sure that you'll agree that they should sit under a vastly different genre to Yngwie Malmsteen.

So this brings me to the end of my speed metal deep dive after analyzing ten releases that generally only receive the speed metal tag (i.e. without other accompanying tags) & I have to say that I've been left with some fairly inconclusive results. A couple of the ten releases clearly weren't Speed Metal records & fell into either the Thrash Metal or Heavy Metal camps while the rest were evenly split as far as which clan they'd sit more comfortably in. In saying that though, I do feel that there a number of different ideas about what speed metal really is & the clan I ended up selecting generally depended on which bucket the release fell into:

1. Albums that contain both thrash metal & heavy metal tracks so people choose speed metal as a happy medium even though there's not really any genuine speed metal on offer.

2. Thrash metal with operatic vocals & melodic guitar harmonies. Too melodic for many people to call thrash so they reach for speed metal as it seems more appropriate.

3. Sped-up Iron Maiden/Judas Priest heavy metal that doesn't utilize thrash tools.

4. Dirty/punky Motorhead/Venom worship that often isn't all that fast (sometimes with blackened vocals).

5. Fast metal that utilizes predominantly thrash metal techniques only the riffs are kept a lot simpler in order to act as an accompaniment for the vocal hooks rather than to act as a rhythmic protagonist. Stronger focus on song-writing & often offers a bit more melody than thrash. This is the brand that European power metal borrows from the most.

I've always felt that the truest example of speed metal is the last of those five options as I believe that the palm-muted, tremolo-picked guitar work is essentially the main speed metal tool. Options three & four don't require the use of that tool & are the two that fall more regularly into The Guardians camp so I can't help but maintain my position that when you get a pure speed metal release it usually feels more comfortable in The Pit (at least it does for me). Therefore, the final outcome is that I'm reluctant to make any change to the clan that Speed Metal resides in as I don't feel there's any clear reason to. Thoughts guys?

Bewitcher - "Cursed Be Thy Kingdom" (2021)

I quite enjoyed my initial experience with Portland trio Bewitcher last week. Their 2019 sophomore album “Under The Witching Cross” proved to be an infectiously fun collection of well-produced & executed speed metal with a noticeably blackened edge so I’ve come into their follow-up album (2021’s “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom”) with hope for similar rewards. Unfortunately though, despite some strong similarities with its older sibling, there are some stylistic differences between the two that leave me unable to muster the same level of enthusiasm for Bewitcher’s latest effort.

Tracks like “In The Sign Of The Goat” from “Under The Witching Cross” hinted at a black ‘n’ roll sound that never quite transpired but on “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom” we see Bewitcher fully indulging in that side of their creative ambition & that element plays the role of the protagonist across the ten tracks included. A good half of the tracklisting also utilizes the speed metal of Bewitcher’s roots but there’s more space & openness to some of these songs which sees them leaning harder towards the traditional heavy metal sound of Judas Priest than it does any velocity-addicted speed metal outfit. The vocals of front man Unholy Weaver of Shadows & Incantations (his parents might have needed TWO birth certificates to fit that one in) may not be the nastiest you’ll find but his blackened snarl is enough to push me over the edge into black ‘n’ roll territory this time whereas I felt that subgenre was more of an influence on the previous Bewitcher album. Perhaps that’s because I found much less up-tempo Motorhead worship on this one with heavy metal tracks like album highlight “Valley Of The Ravens” tending to rock as much as they roll. I’d suggest that this is likely why I find less appeal in “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom” too actually as I can’t say that I’ve ever really enjoyed that sort of thing. The inadequate cover version of Pentagram’s “Sign Of The Wolf” that closes the album out doesn’t help much either.

“Cursed Be Thy Kingdom” isn’t a bad record for what it is & I’m sure it’ll have its audience but that doesn't include me I'm afraid. I look for more adventure & danger in my music & Bewitcher's latest effort comes across as being a little unimposing & lacking in genuine depth when compared with the more substantial acts in the modern metal scene.

For fans of Midnight, Venom & Hellripper.

3/5

This one definitely sits closer to the Guardians than it does The Pit which has likely contributed to me not enjoying it as much as I'd hoped.

Agent Steel - "Mad Locust Rising" E.P. (1986)

I’ve long regarded Los Angeles five-piece Agent Steel’s 1985 debut album “Skeptics Apocalypse” as one of the top few speed metal records I’ve ever experienced so it’s fair to say that I didn’t hesitate in considering the band’s next couple of releases for inclusion while putting together an outline of the records I’d investigate as a part of this month’s speed metal deep dive. Agent Steel’s debut kinda fell into the speed metal tag due to it being made up of tracks that belonged in either the thrash metal or heavy metal camps so speed metal seemed like a happy medium, particularly given the extra melody in the vocals & guitar lines that wouldn’t normally be associated with genuine thrash. My review of 1987’s “Unstoppable Force” sophomore album last week found that the band hadn’t diluted their commitment to velocity in the slightest & I’d describe it as a relentless assault on the senses although the production & vocal performances left a fair bit to be desired & a lot of the more aggressive material is more speed metal focused than it is thrash. Having now closed that chapter in my understanding of Agent Steel’s essential releases I’m left only to fill the gap between the two albums with 1986’s “Mad Locust Rising” E.P., a twelve-minute affair that makes full use of it’s short run time.

“Mad Locust Rising” is made up of just the four tracks with the first being an insignificant 17 second intro piece that might as well have been a part of the first proper song as it serves no purpose on its own. The opening title track however is an absolute rip-snorter & takes a super aggressive thrash metal approach that’s far more similar to Slayer & Kreator than it is to Exciter or Helstar. Even polarizing front man John Cyriis’ whiny performance seems to fit the music beautifully & I’m not sure that Agent Steel could have come up with a better opener to be honest. Why the hell this track wasn’t deemed worthy of inclusion on a proper album is anyone’s guess. Next up we get a very solid & well executed cover version of Judas Priest’s “The Ripper” which is pretty faithful to the original but adds some modern-day oomph with a delivery that’s more in line with the US power metal sound. And finally, the E.P. is closed out with another thrasher in “Let It Be Done/The Day At Guyana” which is the more complex of the three proper songs & offers some fantastic riffs, particularly the Slayer-esque outro section from “The Day At Guyana” which would become a highly praised instrumental track on the “Unstoppable Force” album.

The production job is nice & raw but possesses a wonderful energy that beautifully highlights the strengths of the consistently high quality tracklisting. The performances are all excellent too with the over the top shredding of Juan Garcia & Kurt Colfelt being a definite highlight, particularly their Kerry King/Jeff Hannemann style effort on the title track which takes an already superb track to another level altogether. It’s really very hard to fault this little E.P. & I have to say that I’m surprised that it hasn’t gained more notoriety over the years. I can only suggest that the short run time is the main reason behind that but the other may be that fans weren’t quite prepared for the onslaught of aggressive thrash as there’s not really any speed metal on offer here with thrash metal & US power metal being far more appropriate genre tags.

I have to say that “Mad Locust Rising” has torn off my face & handed it back to me in pieces in many respects. I wasn’t in any way prepared to enjoy it as much as I have & now regard it as my favourite Agent Steel record by a clear margin. Is that due to the fact that it takes a direction that’s much more in line with my personal taste profile? Well… yes it certainly is but isn’t that how we all judge the merits of our music? It certainly is for me & I’m very glad to have discovered this short but very sweet little E.P. from a very important band in the US power metal movement.

For fans of Metal Church, Lååz Rockit & Destructor.

4.5/5

This one obviously sits better in The Pit than it does in The Guardians.

Despite your feelings to the contrary Andi, I can assure you that Ben & I have never had any sort of urge to want you to explore any particular styles or subgenres of music & haven't seen any examples of anyone else pushing you in any sort of direction either. The perceived encouragement to move into The Guardians was simply a suggestion on a clan that we thought would fit your tastes well after your decision to relocate & was based on the clear evidence that was at hand at the time i.e. your consistently high ratings & rave reviews of Guardians releases. Even after your move into The Guardians you were still rating every Guardians-related band I suggested extremely highly & often frothing about them big-time in the forums which only provided us with further encouragement to recommend more music of that style. I'm honestly not concerned with what you or anyone else listen to as everyone's journey is their own so you shouldn't feel that you have to justify your musical decisions to anyone else. There's no expectations attached to being part of clans. They're simply a representation of where people's musical knowledge & preferences lie. I'm very glad that you're feeling comfortable in your current clans & are embracing the opportunity to fully explore the full scope of the music they contain.

This one should have qualified for inclusion in The Infinite so I've just added it under the Djent subgenre.

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.