Daniel's Forum Replies

In 1997, 5 bands began to bring symphonic metal into prominent ground, and many of those bands have done so by adding symphonic elements to an existing metal subgenre including the debut albums of Nightwish, Rhapsody of Fire (symphonic power metal), and Within Temptation (symphonic gothic metal), the second album of Emperor (symphonic black metal), and the third album of Septicflesh (symphonic death metal). 

I've been testing my memory over the Septicflesh album you mentioned overnight Andi. It's certainly been a long time since I've heard these releases but I don't remember "The Obsidian Wheel" being the record where they completely converted to a totally symphonic approach. Wasn't it 1998's "A Fallen Temple" album where they did that?

Ok I'm gonna call it as I think the data I'm seeing is pretty unanimous that Ozzy Osbourne is worthy of a spot given his enormous popularity & marketability so let's move on.

How about a Big Four of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal then? Iron Maiden is obviously a given but what of the other three places? Here are the four main contenders as I see it:

Venom

Diamond Head

Angel Witch

Saxon

Feel free to add additional contenders if you think they should be in contention.

I actually don't ever plan to write a review any more as I simply don't have the time. What eventuates is that I start to write a short synopsis in the forums & sometimes find that I end up writing so much that it organically becomes a review, at which point I'll cut & paste it into the release page. I like it that way because it essentially means that I'm never under pressure to write a review. I just end up writing them when a) I have the time & b) I have a lot to say. I don't even need to make a decision on whether or not I'll do it. It just happens naturally.

Sure you can. You actually get to join three clans initially. Which ones most accurately reflect your musical comfort zone? I'll arrange for Ben to change them in the back end.

Atmospheric black metal from Sheffield, England.

I checked "Trisagion" out over the last couple of days too actually & ended up really enjoying it. It's much more melodic & uplifting than I'm usually able to tolerate so it definitely had me putting my guard up on first listen, particularly the 27 minute opener "Chasmal Fires" which offers some epic melodic passages that even Moonsorrow would be proud of. However subsequent listens while doing early morning walks along the beautiful Narrabeen lakes saw me giving in to what can only be described as a stunning realization of a fairly ambitious creative vision. All three tracks may be lengthy however they never feel like they've been needlessly extended despite a fair amount of repetition because there's always thematic development going on & it's done with the utmost class. Plus, the synthesizer work & orchestration is beautifully done. I love the way these tracks slowly build up to huge crescendos at times which reminds me heavily of post-metal. I do think that the doom element is being overstated. There's really only a few minutes of it across the 64 minute run time & that comes entirely on the closing track. Ben will absolutely love this shit though. 

4/5

I'm so sorry to hear that mate. One last knife in the back from 2021, eh? I know there's not much that anyone can say that will make things feel any better at a time like this but I'm thinking about you & your family & are really hoping that the coming weeks bring as few challenges as possible.

That was an interesting read Andi. I'd suggest that it was actually 1994 when the whole symphonic black metal thing began off the back of arguably the most important symphonic metal release of all time in Emperor's classic "In The Nightside Eclipse" album. It would take a couple more years before we'd see that sound solidifying into a genuine subgenre of any significance though with 1996 seeing a whole bunch of black metal artists going fully symphonic, most notably Cradle Of Filth & Dimmu Borgir.

It's staggering to think that Ozzy has sold as many solo albums as Judas Priest have across their career. I mean he's sold more than four times the amount of records that Iron Maiden have in America.

WTF?! Metallica's "The Black Album" has sold over 35 million copies & is still sitting at number 96 in the Billboard charts today. It's still selling over 30,000 copies a week in the US alone! It seems weird to not include them in a Big Four of heavy metal on that basis but I'd still prefer not to.

It’s not important who Loudwire are Sonny as they’re clearly none of our business if their big fours are anything to go by. I just thought it’d be fun to hypothesise on who the biggest & most significant artists are for each subgenre anyway cause I’m a total nerd. The sales figures approach is likely only valid for the more commercial stuff as the data won’t be available for the smaller subgenres.

To be fair Andi, the majority of Motorhead's material was actually closer to hard rock or blues rock than it was to metal. The links to metal are based mainly on some influential tracks & Lemmy's gruff vocal tone.

Back on the topic, Ozzy's solo material has sold well over 50 million copies versus Dio's 20 million & Motorhead's 15 million. If those three were on a festival lineup there's little doubt that Ozzy would be headlining as he's significantly more famous than the other two. Do Dio even qualify given that they're no longer active?

I honestly think that while I agree about the position the commercial successful bands are in, the bands that deserve as much recognition are those that the majority of fans know and enjoy, and represent the important aspects of those genres, such as elements and development.

But how is there any difference between "the commercial successful bands" & "those that the majority of fans know & enjoy", Andi? Surely those two things mean the same thing. Anyway... I like the topic as a point of discussion but would suggest that we only analyse one subgenre at a time so that we don't overcomplicate things.

Let's start with traditional heavy metal, shall we? I can see that Loudwire have gone with Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest & Ozzy Osbourne. I'd suggest that the first three are complete no-brainers as they're by far the most accomplished & dominant heavy metal bands in the history of metal music. The fourth position is open for discussion though. It's actually interesting when you think that Metallica have by far & away the highest selling heavy metal record of all time & Megadeth have also played a significant role in heavy metal since 1990 so there's a case for both. Should either of those be considered?  I tend to think that they've both played a more significant role in thrash metal & should be happy with their current positions in the Big Four of thrash. Other contenders in the popularity stakes might be Motorhead, Avenged Sevenfold, Dio, Queensryche, Mercyful Fate, Venom, Accept, King Diamond, etc. Personally, I'm happy with Ozzy. His US sales are a clear second to Metallica for metal overall with his debut solo record being primarily responsible for metal finally breaking through in the US in the early 80's (along with Judas Priest's "British Steel"). I would think that he'd have at least four records in the top 100 most well-known heavy metal records of all time too, not to mention his record for discovering killer guitarists. Thoughts?

Ultra raw lo-fi Norwegian black metal for fans of Darkthrone, Immortal & Gorgoroth.

"Leviathan" would have been high up in my list if I allowed it to qualify.

Well, the whole Big Four of thrash metal concept is based around sales & commercial success. Is that the metric you're using here Andi?

French post-black metal for fans of Menace Ruine, Mamaleek & Xothist.

I think I am in a very small minority of people whose favourite Burzum album is the debut (especially the version that includes the Aske EP). I know that the three subsequent albums are actually more accomplished affairs and I certainly can't argue with people who like them better (except maybe Filosofem - that endless ambient track does my head in, to be honest) but I just really love the raw and rabid delivery of the debut.

Interesting. I regard "Filosofem" as the pinnacle of black metal & place it only behind "Reign In Blood" for metal overall.

Is it true that they sped the recording up artificially though? I've never heard that before.

It was common knowledge in the scene at the time & I've since seen reference to both albums being artificially sped up by 13%. I believe Abbath has confirmed it in interviews however I don't have any actual evidence of it handy. It certainly sounds likely given that Abbath's drumming skills weren't exactly amazing on the evidence of "Pure Holocaust". They played the songs at album tempo in a live environment though so one would assume that it was simply to tighten things up on the recordings.

Russion slam death metal for fans of Devourment, Pathology & Katalepsy.

Abominable Putridity - "The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin" (2012)

I thought I'd give the sophomore album from this Russian slam death metal outfit a revisit this week after really fucking digging it at the time of release. It hasn't quite made the same impact on this occasion & I've dropped it back a half star as a result but I still can't deny that it's somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me given my background in the brutal death metal scene. You know exactly what to expect as there's nothing new whatsoever on offer here. It's pretty much an entire album of slam breakdowns modelled on "Effigy Of The Forgotten" period Suffocation with a super gutteral & completely unintelligible vocalist, only the production is super crisp & the performances are as perfect as you'll ever find. In fact, I'd be very surprised if the drums haven't been programmed as they're simply too precise to be human but if that's the case they've done a wonderful job of it as there's a lot of complexity & nuance about it. The vocals are definitely the weak point here & I think this could have been an amazing record if there had been some attempt at actual words. It's also true that all of the tracks meld into one as there's very little variation of display but this is offset by the fact that the run time is limited to a ridiculously short 25 minutes which makes it the perfect length for a short & undeniably fun blastfest. I'm absolutely certain that I'll be the only contributing member that enjoys this album as I simply can't go past well produced brutal death metal but you know what... sue me!

For fans of Devourment, Pathology & Katalepsy.

4/5

My listening habits have had to be adjusted to suit a post-COVID environment. I used to do the majority of my listening while driving to & from work each day but now that I'm working from home as often as not & my kids are at a more demanding age I find that my time for dedicated & active listening has become increasingly valuable. For that reason the last couple of years have seen me steering away from having much structure around what I'll listen to other than committing to exploring the nine monthly feature releases. There's an absolute crap load of releases that I'm very familiar with but have never rated so I do spend a portion of my music time trying to get through those (like I did today with Immortal's "Pure Holocaust" for example) but the rest of my listening time goes to whatever the hell I feel like at the time. Sometimes that will be indulging in my favourite subgenres & others it'll be experimenting outside of my comfort zone to expand my horizons. I don't have any quota for new releases & don't give them any more attention than I do to releases from any other year. In the days when I used to focus much more heavily on new releases I found that it tended to add additional time pressures to listening to metal because I'm a completist by nature. These days I just want to take the time to appreciate what's in front of me rather than always worrying about what's around the corner. My only rule is that I give everything I listen to at least three full & active listens to allow them to sink in properly.

Classic Norwegian black metal for fans of Inquisition, Abbath & Mayhem.

Immortal - "Pure Holocaust" (1993)

Norwegian black metal legends Immortal's sophomore record certainly took the underground by storm back at the time of release. I'd already come across their early material through the tape trading scene by this stage but it was this release that made me sit up & pay attention as it's atmosphere is as cold, icy & frost-bitten as any of the Second Wave black metal of the time. The tracklisting is very consistent although the band do spend the remainder of the album struggling to match the unrelenting power & majesty of the opening couple of tracks which are genuine black metal classics (particularly opener "Unsilent Storms In The North Abyss"). I'm very much onboard with the blazing ferocity of the faster sections & the croaky goblin-like vocals but Immortal also had plenty of melody in their sound when they chose to tone the tempo back a bit. Unfortunately it was during those sections that it became fairly evident that the duo's technical chops weren't quite up to the task & there are a number of sections where they lose their grip on the song structure. These moments are a little cringe-worthy if I'm being completely honest. In fact, you can easily see why they'd record their next album at a slower tempo & then speed the recording up artificially to give them a more unified sound. Regardless though, this is a fine example of black metal in the fine Norwegian tradition & I enjoy it significantly more than their highly acclaimed 1999 album "At The Heart of Winter". As with that album though, I'm not sure it's the classic that people make it out to be & I prefer the ultra-brutal follow-up "Battles In the North".

For fans of Inquisition, Abbath & Mayhem.

4/5

My family are spending Xmas/Boxing Day at my mother-in-law's place so I'm really hoping that I get the opportunity to watch most of Day One of the Boxing Day Ashes Test on TV today. So pumped for it! Go Aussies!

Gothic doom metal from Liverpool, England. For fans of Katatonia, Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride.

Anathema - "The Silent Enigma" (1995)

The 1995 sophomore album from Liverpool-based doom/death exponents Anathema was a hugely influential release for me personally. Ben & I had gotten aboard the Anathema train very early on with their debut album "Serenades" having become nothing short of iconic in our household but "The Silent Enigma" brought with it some significant changes. Front man Darren White had departed with guitarist Vincent Cavanagh having taken over the vocal duties which had given the band a decidedly more gothic edge in comparison to their more deathly roots. In fact, I'd suggest that Anathema were no longer a death/doom band by this stage & were more of a gothic/doom one. The other change was the incorporation of more atmospherics. Theses sections definitely require a bit of patience as they're often drawn out but the pay-off is significant with the whole album possessing an immeasurable beauty. You'll rarely find a more emotionally charged metal release & it set the groundwork for Anathema's transition away from metal altogether over the next few albums.

For fans of Katatonia, Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride.

4.5/5

P.S. I've moved this release up a couple of notches in my Top Ten Death Doom Metal Releases Of All Time to number four ahead of Katatonia's "Brave Murder Day" & My Dying Bride's "Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium" E.P. after this revisit.

Hahaha… it’s all good. Kriss doesn’t play on “The Magus”. It was their previous guitarist Sandy.

I know it very well Sonny. In fact, I used to hang out in the same circles as Sadistik Exekution back in the day & knew them all personally. Bassist & band leader Dave Slave was actually my ex-girlfriend’s best friend & came round to my house for lunch every now & then. He gave me my copy of “The Magus” for free. Guitarist Kriss Hades was her ex-boyfriend & there was no love lost between us.

Russian technical thrash metal for fans of Vektor, Coroner & Obliveon.

 Кровоизлияние - "Кровоизлияние" (1993)

I picked up the sole album from this Russian tech thrash outfit through tape trading shortly after release & recall thinking that it would only be a matter of time before Аспид blew up across the underground metal scene. It ended up taking a lot longer than I expected but they eventually got the recognition they deserved, even it it did come well after they'd disbanded. "Кровоизлияние" is a very complex record for a debut & showcases a band that already well & truly understood their sound. The production job is outstanding & is a real highlight in that It beautifully balances raw savagery with controlled power. The performances are well & truly good enough to back it up too with the rhythmic experimentation being particularly impressive for a newcomer from such an obscure location. I'm not the biggest fan of some of the Russion vocals & they're the clear weakness in Аспид's armoury in my opinion however there's plenty of instrumental fireworks to make up for it. The lengthy intro track in pretty cheesy & weak but there's a solid consistency to the rest of the material without ever pushing out into classic territory. It's very hard to fault a release of this sort of quality & ambition really. It's a feather in the cap of the mid-90's underground extreme metal scene.

For fans of Vektor, Coroner & Obliveon.

4/5

For me there's a few reasons. Firstly, both Ben & I seem to be drawn to niche things in general & are collectors & completists by nature. If it wasn't music it'd be something else but the extreme metal scene is fantastic because it's so underground & therefore represents something intriguing because I hate commercialism & the mainstream in general. I like to challenge myself by trying to understand more & more extreme examples of art & that's not isolated to metal. I'm just as obsessive about other styles of music like techno, drone & ambient but they all have one thing in common.... they take me outside of my everyday life to foreign & unfamiliar places & can be inherently dark & cerebral which I think this is the key because I'm very much an introspective loner who enjoys his own company & is fascinated by the darker side of life. I'm generally a very laidback & stress-free kinda guy. I'm non-confrontational & are a glass-half-full kinda guy. Therefore, extreme metal takes me the furthest from my comfort zone & challenges me the most. It also represents the ultimate avenue for the release of aggression & the more extreme it is the more successful it is at that task. Extreme metal gives me an adrenaline rush like no other & makes me feel a sense of power & belonging to something. Plus, it has the added bonus of shocking people when they first hear about my passion as you'd never pick it from looking at me (at least not these days).

My phone never really gets turned off from a work perspective and so although I am on leave already I have spent most of the morning working on an emergency at one of my customer sites and I know this is going to rumble on through the coming weekend.

I can totally relate to that Vinny. I rarely go a day without some form of work.

Life is a bit tough in my home right now. My wife was three months pregnant with my third daughter when we found out that the baby had died due to a chromosome issue last Wednesday. She had to have surgery to remove the foetus the following day & has been an emotional wreck ever since.

Aggressive Californian thrash metal for fans of Sadus, Slayer & Demolition Hammer.

Dark Angel - "Leave Scars" (1989)

The Californian thrash legends returned from their classic 1986 sophomore album "Darkness Descends" with a more ambitious sound as well as a brand new lineup. Unlike many fans, I actually prefer new front man Ron Rinehart over the rawer & less refined Don Doty. The more complex & lengthy song structures see the band taking more expansive musical journeys too however the production job is absolutely disgusting & manages to nullify a good portion of the band's handy work. This is a real shame as you can still hear the potential in a lot of this material despite the album suffering from a significant quality gap in the middle of the tracklisting with inclusions like "Older Than Time Itself", lengthy instrumental "Cauterization" & pointless ambient piece "Worms" sounding pretty flat for the most part. The short cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", while not being bad as such, does tend to stick out like a sore thumb too. This really was a missed opportunity for Dark Angel & I end up having similar feelings to Suffocation's "Breeding The Spawn" in that I'm willing to wade through the poor sound quality to pull out the gold nuggets (like classic thrash opener "The Death of Innocence") but can't help but think that there was so much more that was possible with this material.

For fans of Sadus, Slayer & Demolition Hammer.

3.5/5

Sorry guys but this is basically the anti-Daniel. How can I unhear this? I'll pay top dollar!

This one is cheesy as all fuck. Simply awful stuff!

Savatage - "Streets: A Rock Opera" (1991)

Another Savatage classic, another failure to keep me engaged. I really dig some of Savatage's first attempt at a heavy metal rock opera, particularly the more metal oriented tracks like "Streets" & "Ghost In The Ruins". The stunning guitar solos from Criss Oliva may be the finest of his career & there's a hefty dose of Van Halen worship going on throughout a good chunk of the song-writing too. Unfortunately though, Jon Oliva's overly theatrical & often out of key banshee wails will never sit well with me & neither will the wall of pure cheese that's thrust upon me every few tracks as the band indulge themselves in some of their more cringe-worthy story-telling balladry to the time. I just don't get the universal appeal these guys seem to offer the metal community. The tracks that are the most highly celebrated from this band are generally the ones that I have the most difficulty accepting. There's some good shit on this record but it's simply too hard to sit through the filler. This isn't a patch on 1993's "Edge Of Thorns" which is still the only Savatage record I've enjoyed. No surprise that Jon Oliva wasn't behind the mike for that one.

For fans of Jon Oliva's Pain, Virgin Steele & WASP's "The Crimson Idol" album.

3/5

The fantastic opener from Savatage's first attempt at a heavy metal rock opera. For fans of Jon Oliva's Pain, Virgin Steele & WASP's "The Crimson Idol" album.

Finnish war metal for fans of Blasphemy, Black Witchery & Proclamation.

Archgoat - "Whore Of Bethlehem" (2006)

I first encountered the debut album from this Finnish trio back in 2009 & was instantly drawn to its simple yet effective medium for pure blasphemic torment. The band members may not have the most amazing technical skills but they work very well within the confines of their limitations to create a well defined sound that reminds me a lot like Blasphemy meets Celtic Frost. The beast of a guitar sound is particularly effective while the fairly basic riff structures possess more of a groove than you'll find with most war metal acts. Lord Angelslayer's vocals sound truly monstrous & inhuman too which can never be a bad thing but I could have done with some psychotic guitar solos to break things up a bit. The intro track "Invocation" is worth mentioning as it sets the scene for the onslaught that's to come quite beautifully with an atmosphere of pure menace.

For fans of Blasphemy, Black Witchery & Proclamation.

4/5

Highly inventive progressive/technical death metal from the Czech Republic. For fans of Appalling Spawn, Nile & !T.O.O.H.!.

For this weekend's top ten list I've decided to go with grindcore. Please be aware that I've omitted releases that are generally regarded as deathgrind as I'll do a separate list for that particular subgenre. Here's my Top Ten Grindcore Releases Of All Time:

01. Discordance Axis – “The Inalienable Dreamless” (2000)

02. Pig Destroyer – “Prowler In The Yard” (2001)

03. Pig Destroyer – “Terrifyer” (2004)

04. Repulsion – “Horrified” (1989)

05. Unseen Terror – “The Peel Sessions” (1989)

06. Cretin – “Stranger” (2014)

07. Napalm Death – “The Peel Sessions” (1987)

08. Napalm Death – “From Enslavement To Obliteration” (1988)

09. Napalm Death – “Scum” (1987)

10. Fuck The Facts – “Die Miserable” (2011)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/149

What do you top tens look like?

Adjusted my list after Ben has added the Isis live releases yesterday:

01. Rosetta – “The Galilean Satellites” (2005)

02. Neurosis – “Souls At Zero” (1992)

03. Isis – “Panopticon” (2004)

04. Neurosis – “Times Of Grace” (1999)

05. Neurosis – “A Sun That Never Sets” (2001)

06. Cult Of Luna – “Somewhere Along The Highway” (2006)

07. Neurosis – “The Eye Of Every Storm” (2004)

08. Isis – “Oceanic” (2002)

09. Isis - "Live II 03.19.03" (2004)

10. Neurosis – “Through Silver In Blood” (1996)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/140

Welcome Scarecrow! It's always great to see well-informed new academics joining our ranks. We're a very accommodating bunch so don't be shy. Feel free to have as much or as little involvement with the site as you wish. Ben & I administer the site & would be more than happy to help you with any queries you may have.

Here are some of the cool site activities you have available to you if you choose to participate:

1. Clan Challenges - where you can work to secure a fourth clan.

2. Public Lists - where you can create your own release lists i.e. best-of, year-end, etc.

3. Monthly clan playlists - you'll find track submission threads in each clan forum where you can contribute tracks you've been digging throughout the previous month. Let me know if you'd like to contribute & I can adjust the time allocations for each member to accommodate you.

4. Feature releases - Clan members take turns in nominating the monthly feature release for each clan which we all listen to & discuss. This is probably my favourite part of the site to be honest. Let me know if you'd like to be added to the rosters to nominate the releases for your three clans.

Canadian brutal death metal for fans of Wormed, Dying Fetus & "Human Waste"-era Suffocation.

Cryptopsy - "Blasphemy Made Flesh" (1994)

Canadian brutal death metal outfit Cryptopsy popped up at the perfect time to grab my interest as I'd become totally infatuated with the more extreme end of death metal through Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse & the like a couple of years earlier & was totally obsessed with tape trading so when their 1993 "Ungentle Exhumation" demo tape made its way into my eager hands shortly after release I really wanted to like it. I think I managed to convince myself that I did too as I'd never heard blast beats that possessed the speed & fury of Flo Mounier's & the sheer insanity of Lord Worm's vocals were nothing short of hilarious. I guess you could say that it held far more novelty value than it did substance & the same can be said for their 1994 debut album "Blasphemy Made Flesh" which contains mostly the same material.

"Blasphemy Made Flesh" has gone on to become somewhat of an underground classic over the years but I feel that this is largely off the back of the band's sophomore album "None So Vile" as it really isn't terribly special when you examine it closely with a number of obvious flaws being hard to overlook. Despite what people might tell you, I'd suggest that it's sound possesses just as much old-school death metal as it does blasting brutal death metal. It's just the ultra-fast blast beats & stupidly gutteral vocal delivery that see it so unanimously slated as the most brutal of the brutal. There's definitely a strong deathgrind influence to some of it too actually. The production is often criticized & rightly so but it's not the fuzzy rhythm guitar sound that annoys me as that was pretty common at the time. The things that I struggle with are the poppy bass guitar sound which is too high is the mix & stands out too obviously over the top of the guitars & the heavily reverbed & quite pingy snare sound that's really hard not to obsess over given the amount of times that Mounier is capable of hitting it per second. Plus, Lord Worm makes no attempt whatsoever to enunciate words, instead choosing to act like a drunken fan who has grabbed the mike but has no understanding of the lyrics. Are there some good riffs here? Sure there are (particularly during the half-time sections where Mounier goes double-time on his ride cymbal) but the reality is that this style of death metal can be done so much better than this. The melodic guitar solos seem almost a touch TOO melodic in the context of Cryptopsy's sound & Flo needed to lay off those bouncy 1-2 beats he had a habit of turning to once or twice every track too. Admittedly Flo doesn't over-extend the human ability for speed as often as he does on "None So Vile" where you can obviously hear his endurance failing at the end of the faster blast beats sections which was something that really annoyed me about that record at times.

Ultimately I just think that once the novelty factor wears off there's not a lot of meat on these bones & I don't actually find myself getting all that much enjoyment out of the experience these days even though I can definitely see why an 18 year-old me would have got into it. "None So Vile" was a much stronger & more mature record but I can't say that I can understand the unbridled obsession that fans seem to have with it either. Never mind... I'll always have my beloved Suffocation.

For fans of Wormed, Dying Fetus & "Human Waste"-era Suffocation.

3/5

P.S. Please be advised that (despite the common tendency to incorrectly label Cryptopsy's first two albums as technical death metal) there's nothing technical about this record whatsoever.

Powerviolence would definitely go into The Horde Andi. It's got very close ties to grindcore.

Trance would definitely go in The Guardians too. It's essentially the symphonic power metal of electronic dance music.

Electronic would go under The Gateway as it's usually a hybrid when used as a term in its own right.

Here's some of my own thoughts:

Trip Hop would go under The Gateway.

Techno would go into The Sphere.

Hard Techno (i.e. Schranz) & Hard Trance would go under the Horde.

Ambient would go under The Infinite.

Dark Ambient would go under The North.

Progressive House, Progressive Trance & Psytrance would go under The Infinite.

Psychedelic Rock would be a dual clan entry under The Fallen & The Infinite.

Heavy Psych would go under The Fallen.

Electro would go under The Gateway.

It was a very successful month of feature releases for me personally with a couple of newly discovered underground classics & only the one blemish due to my irreconcilable differences with a Christmas-themed symphonic power metal record. Here are my scores in order of preference. Interestingly, neither of the two major wins for me come from my chosen clans which is a clear indication of just how exciting & powerful our clan feature releases can be if you're willing to tread outside of your comfort zone.

THE SPHERE: Kill The Thrill - "Tellurique" (2005)  4.5/5

THE INFINITE: Kayo Dot - "Moss Grew On The Swords & Plowshares Alike" (2021)  4.5/5

THE FALLEN: Rapture - "Futile" (1999)  4/5

THE NORTH: Wodensthrone - "Loss" (2009)  4/5

THE HORDE: Cretin - "Stranger" (2014)  4/5

THE PIT: Condor - "Unstoppable Power" (2017)  3.5/5

THE GATEWAY: Bad Wolves - "Dear Monsters" (2021)  3.5/5

THE REVOLUTION: Cold As Life - "Born To Land Hard" (1998)  3.5/5

THE GUARDIANS: Majestica - "A Christmas Carol" (2020)  2/5

Californian grindcore for fans of Repulsion, Brutal Truth & Machetazo.