Saxy S's Reviews
Spectral Lore & Mare Cognitum are both solo black metal artists who decided to team up and create an absolute mammoth of a record in order to create a modern, metal version of Gustav Holst’s The Planets.
And yes, that comparison does have a lot more in common than you think: Mars is subtitled as the “Bringer of War” and “The Warrior” in their respective suites and in both cases, it is the loudest and most aggressive piece in the work. Venus is the “Bringer of Peace” and “The Priestess” respectfully, and while both parties subtitle Neptune as “The Mystic”, it is clear that Spectral Lore & Mare Cognitum took a lot of influence from Holst’s Neptune in the creation of Pluto, from the ethereal nature of the entirety of Part I, and of course, the outro to Part II.
Beyond the comparisons, this album is a lot of work. And it has to do with the simple fact that there are two different artists here making two very different styles of black metal. Spectral Lore is making music with more blackgaze tendencies, while Mare Cognitum makes music that is more technically demanding and perhaps, even more melodically driven. As a result, if I ever do come back to this album again, it would be for the Mare Cognitum tracks over Spectral Lore, as Spectral Lore’s tunes are a lot less interesting.
That being said, “Pluto (The Gatekeeper Part II - The Astral Bridge)” brings both ideas together into one grand finale, but the jarring change of pace with the electronic to acoustic percussion, high screeching vocals to devilishly low gutturals, and soaring tremolo strumming guitars to downtuned, chugging riffs, makes for a very disjointed closer, even if I do appreciate what the duo was going for here.
This is an album that has a lot of excellent ideas, but only some of them are executed all that well. I know that I will be checking much of Mare Cognitum’s back catalogue after this, but I can't say the same for Spectral Lore. The album’s length along with alternating styles certainly make this feel like an intergalactic journey so props for that. But for me, I’ll remember this trip for it’s memories; I don’t think I’m going to travel all this way again for a while.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Code Orange are a metalcore band from Pittsburgh who made waves on my radar back in 2017, when a number of rock/metal critics who I follow rated Forever surprisingly well; even going so far as to include it on their respective AOTY lists. But then I came here and noticed it was far more controversial than it would seem. So I checked it out… it was pretty good. Granted, I was certainly not the target audience for that album.
And so when I heard Underneath, I thought that the album could have been better and was absolutely a step down from their previous effort. Why? Because Code Orange seems to have doubled down on the electronic/industrial elements, and it does make for a fairly enjoyable, if somewhat jarring project.
And this group is playing into two styles. The first is the heavy breakdown influence of metalcore, and an industrial element not dissimilar to a band such as Fear Factory. And I like the Fear Factory influence on this album more, simply because the industrial elements are not pushed to the front of the mix to create peak dissonance. I would say the same thing about the worst moments on clipping.’s last album There Existed An Addiction To Blood.
I prefer this music when (I assume) Reba Meyers takes over lead vocals because those tunes typically have a distinctive hook or melodic idea that is then contorted into some pretty nasty stuff. I like it more than when (again, I assume) Eric Balderose is on lead as the songs feel more like heavy mathcore such as Converge; kind of ironic since this album is not produced by Kurt Ballou.
I didn’t mind this album, even though some of the production choices infuriated me. However, unlike what I said in my review for I Let It In and It Took Everything by Loathe a few weeks ago, this album could have been much better and streamlined if the band knew how to incorporate both of these sounds together into the same tracks, rather than isolating them into their respective tracks.
Genres: Industrial Metal Metalcore
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Every few years I am always perplexed when I see a new Body Count album released and the leadoff single/cover get tossed into every new metal playlist on spotify. And I wonder how they even got there. It was quite obvious to me that during their 2010s revival and the album Manslaughter that this was a comedic act; not meant to be taken seriously. They modernized the song “Institutionalized” by the Suicidal Tendencies for god sake!
Anyway, here’s the album Carnivore and I can tell that albums like this are gonna get eaten up by the meatheads of the world with its over the top hyperviolence. But then this album has two very strange moments of contemplation. The first being a cover of “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead, the other is “When I’m Gone” featuring Amy Lee, dedicated to Nipsey Hussle and the overall message of the song is bizarre. I guess in the context of the album it fits, but it isn’t much of a dedication song. More of a “You’ll only care about me when I’m dead” song, a very selfish, nihilistic way of looking at it.
Jamey Jasta does some guest vocals on “Another Level” which did not fit at all over the slow groove, he would have fit better over a song such as “No Remorse”. An Ice-T as a performer is very bare bones with this hyper aggressive beatdown stuff. Not reinventing the wheel in any way, but again: novelty act. They don’t need to invent anything.
What it all boils down to is a pretty weak album overall. The album is called Carnivore because it is the blandest meat and potatoes metal album I’ve heard in quite some time. No need to feast on this meat for very long.
Genres: Alternative Metal Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
I don't listen to very much in the way of this brand of virtuoso, neo-classical guitar music, but I have heard enough of it that when I saw this album appear as one of the monthly listens, I felt I had to review, however brief this may turn out to be.
Jason Becker's debut album was released when he was only nineteen years old and I can kind of tell. While his performances are very impressive, showing off an unprecedented virtuosity of his instrument, the songs themselves are little bit more than your standard power chords, occasional synth backgrounds, very simple percussion, and a bass that could have recorded in a different studio, in a different country! All the focus is on Becker, but as an observer, it can get overwhelming at times; all I'm saying is, an instrumental break would be nice every now and again.
I do really enjoy how this album manages the neo-classical elements, specifically in the compositions. Becker and the rest of the ensemble know the basics and even some more of the advanced harmonies of classical music; lots of sweeping dominant/diminished arpeggios as well as a real understanding of major/minor chord progressions. That being said, I do have to criticize the first half for not really getting how these sorts of showman pieces work in a truly classical idiom. Later on, on tracks like "Eleven Blue Egyptians" and "Opus Pocus", an actual melodic idea is formed and gives Becker something to play off of rather than just wankery. But the first half, tracks such as "Perpetual Burn" and "Mabel's Fatal Fable" are not memorable in the slightest. And while I do like what Becker was going for on "Air", that song too devolves into a wank fest with no melodic momentum.
The ability was there and on full display with this album, but honestly, this feels like what every kid who just got accepted to a college/university jazz programs solos sound like: lots of notes, not a lot of substance. If I'm comparing this to the virtuoso, neo-classical guitarists that I know more about (Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Paul Gilbert), I could take it or leave it.
Genres: Neoclassical Metal Progressive Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1988
Well, it was only a matter of time until we had to talk about this. That just comes with the nature of the Gateway clan I guess. Last months album challenge for the Gateway was S/T from Rage Against the Machine; the precursor. And today we're talking about the OG. Let's talk about nu-metal.
I spent a lot of time during my adolescence listening to this sub-genre of metal as it was just accessible enough that it did receive quite a bit of radio airplay, and it sounded really heavy in comparison to other mainstream rock of the time. Korn were one of the first groups to really define this new genre and they are still making music to this day. Unfortunately, they were one of the groups that I liked the least. And going back to their self titled album, it all but confirmed what I already knew about this band.
The rattling production is flat out intolerable! It sounds like someone partially loosened one of the screws in either the bass or his amplifier, and then got Fieldy to play. The percussion sounds like trash (literally), as if David is just bashing on some garbage cans. And Jonathan Davis' vocal timbre is... an acquired taste. He would later go on to influence the vocal timbres of early Mudvayne and Skindred (remember them?). At least in Mudvayne's case, Chad Gray updated his vocals on later albums, as well as his work in HELLYEAH.
As an overall sound, I like to think that their are two schools of nu-metal; the dank metal influenced by bands like Korn, and the cleaner stuff that was popularized by bands like Disturbed and Linkin Park. On this record, we are clearly in the former category, as many of the songs here sound like rough drafts. Jonathan Davis is terribly out of tune when he's singing and his screams sound more like whimpers. The guitars are out of time with the drums & bass, assuming you can hear the bass at all beyond the rattling that I mentioned earlier.
From a lyrical standpoint... what is there to even say? This is 20 year old's singing about angsty teenagers who complain about their parents not giving them their allowance money, even though they did nothing to deserve it. This album's worst moments of this happen on "Clown" and "Faget", while "Shoots and Ladders" could have been saved by the bagpipe instrumental, but then Davis start reciting children's nursery rhymes, further confirming my assumption of who this music is for.
Yeah the debut Korn album is bad... like really bad. It isn't melodic in any way, the production is laughable, Jonathan Davis can't hold his own over these instrumentals, and the lyrical content is laughable. The fact that THIS group threw down the supposed first nu-metal album is pretty disappointing. Zach de la Rocha sounding f*cking pissed when he was angry on the self titled RATM album, and he also benefited from having some fat hooks and grooves. This album has none of that. Even Slipknot, for as much as I can't stand them, albums such as Iowa and The Subliminal Verses were more likable than anything Korn has ever made. Their refusal to grow up and given their reputation in the genre, I now see why nu-metal gets an almost universally negative reputation.
Genres: Alternative Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1994
I wish I could come on here and tell you guys how much I loved this new album from Skyforest. They are a blackgaze band from Moscow who released their newest album, A New Dawn a couple of weeks ago. There are a lot of great ideas on display here. Unfortunately they are held back by some really cheap sounding production.
The rhythm and acoustic guitars sound tinny, the percussion has issues all over the place, but the ones that stand out for me are the rattling hi-hat and toms that sound like the drummer is literally hitting garbage cans. And the singers… bless the singers for trying their best, but whenever the vocalist goes into their high screams, they are so poorly mixed and quiet, I started questioning whether or not the vocalist wasn’t whispering like they did earlier on in the record!
But I won’t go without talking about the good stuff. The melodies in both the clean vocals and lead guitar are very solid. The bass lines are very good when they are separated from the rhythm guitar. The clean singing between male and female leads is respectable. And the compositions themselves could have been magnificent if it had been mixed better all around.
To put it bluntly, this is the kind of album that hurts to review, because I can tell this group has potential to be great, but makes some baffling decisions and places them right at the front. If you want epic sounding black metal with symphonic elements, try the newest Dzö-nga album Thunder in the Mountains instead. This isn’t all bad, but it deserves a lot better.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Let me take you back to 2004, a year in which two monumental sludge metal albums came out, but took the genre in two very different directions. The first is Mastodon and their album Leviathan, one of the most accessible and universally legendary albums of the 2000s, perhaps even the entire 21st century at this moment. On the other side you have ISIS and Panopticon, an album that dives more into the post-metal and atmospheric sides of doom/sludge metal. Both albums are heralded as all time greats by those who have heard them, so this begs the question, who was more influential?
Well if we go from a mainstream point of view, that answer is Mastodon. They have been the flag bearers for modern metal in the 2000s and even followed up their 2004 album with one that is objectively better with Crack the Skye. ISIS are coming off of one great album with Oceanic and deliver atmospheric bliss.
As a result, their songs are long and drawn out as opposed to many of their contemporaries, making their music much less accessible, but influenced many great similar sounding post-metal bands later on, including The Ocean and Cult of Luna. But much like their step siblings in the black metal scene, ISIS are much more for creating an environment that is brimming with melodic ideas and phrases from the lead guitar, vocals, and even bass lines (on a track such as "Wills Dissolve")! I love how the album begins with "So Did We", an excellent indicator that this isn't going to be a dirge-fest. When "In Fiction" comes on later in the track listing, the vocals don't enter until about half way through, however the slow build to a release is pulled off so well. A true indicator that this group has been focused on creating anticipation, as well as re-routing the listener's expectations.
Now when you have an album like this, where dynamics are key, it becomes integral for the production to sound really good, and this sounds excellent. The guitars always seem to draw albums like this back, specifically modulating from soft to loud. With this, the guitars sound full and gritty, without sounding like they have simply been turned up behind the mixing board. The drums are also sound very developed as well; like with the guitars, dynamic control from Aaron Harris is on complete display instead of feeling like simply being turned down by the producer later on.
I will say that like with many post-metal albums in a similar vein to this one, while the extended sections do sound nice and build up to some incredible highs, this album (and the individual tracks themselves) can get a little tiresome after a while. I really enjoy "In Fiction", but it is very easy to get lost in the extended intro as it builds in what feels like a snails pace. Also, I do wish that the group would have implemented Aaron's vocals more than they did; it would have made for some incredible payoffs on tracks such as "In Fiction" and "Altered Course".
I really do enjoy when heavy metal groups decide to take a pre-existing genre and add progressive/post-metal elements to it and Panopticon is just that. Although this would have been expected at the time considering the sky high expectations following Oceanic. There is a reason why this album is revered in the heavy metal community by those willing to take the dive in. This is an experience that should not be missed.
Genres: Sludge Metal Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2004
The newest album from Boston based symphonic black metal band, Dzö-nga, has all of the makings of one of this year's best heavy metal albums. There is so much to love here. The compositions of these songs are effortless, blending clean and harsh vocals, leads guitar, flutes and strings, not to mention the fantastic dynamic contrast between loud and soft sections. I really enjoyed how the band was able to build through the first half of “The Death of Minnehaha”, slowly adding new elements to a previous idea and making it grow in intensity.
“Heart of Coal” and “Flames in the Sky” both have some fantastic melodic hooks to come back to, making them instant standouts for me. The mixing is stellar, as it deals with the heavy guitar work that owes a lot to symphonic/power metal, while the melodic touches from the strings, flutes and other instruments are wonderful. The bass lines are fruitful and forward thinking, the percussion work is pretty crazy at times, and the tour de force of clean female vocals and harsh black metal screeching makes for a wonderful dichotomy and allows for the group to be able to make all of these crazy transitions without having any of them sound forced.
If I had to criticize this album for anything, the album does feel like it ends abruptly with “The Death of Minnehaha” fading out rather than a clean finish. Also, while the penultimate track “Starlight, Moonlight, Firelight” does sound very nice, its sole purpose feels like a musical reprieve; allowing the listener to catch their breath before the eleven minute closer. But these are just minor quibbles on what is an excellent album. If you are a fan of the symphonic or folk sides of atmospheric black metal, then this will be essential listening in 2020. Don’t leave these mountains untraversed.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
The Arrows of Our Ways is the debut album from Izthmi, an atmospheric black metal quintet out of Seattle, and I enjoyed what I heard out of this opening display.
Their sound is hard to explain; I do hear some influence from a band such as Saor, but without the folk/pagan effects. Some of the more traditional black metal sections reminded me of bands such as Harikari For The Sky. Regardless of who they sound like, this album is produced very well. The wall of sound guitars are very pretty and the lead guitar parts are effective at breaking up the wall of sound sections and the vocal howls. Speaking of the vocals, Jakob Keizer has one hell of a performance on this record. I really enjoyed the sound of his low gutturals that take influence more from death metal. The way that they are used in between passages of fast tremolo picking blast beats is stellar.
I do wish this album had a bit more of a bass presence; having two guitars is great when one takes on a lead role, but most of the time the rhythm guitar is just playing root passages, leaving the bass in the back. Also, while the clean singing sections aren’t distracting on “Useless Is the Song of Man, From Throats Calloused by Name”, the fact that it’s the only time on the album clean vocals are used, makes them feel like an afterthought. There were also a couple of moments on that song as well as “The Arrows of Our Ways” where Keizer’s vocals cracked at the ends of phrases, something that could have been easily fixed.
But as it stands, I really liked this. The melodies are equal parts crunchy and pummeling, but also soaring and beautiful. Give these guys a chance and check this out. Can’t wait to hear what comes next.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
I figured that I would rewrite this review considering the first review I did of this album was after I listened to the record while on painkillers and it turned out very poor. So Loathe, an English based trancecore(?) band whose defining feature is their incorporation of Deftones influenced shoegaze/alternative metal sounds.
And on their newest album, I Let It in and It Took Everything, the band seems to be trying to split the difference between abrasive guitar riffage that isn’t that dissimilar to what Daughters did on their last album, and the aforementioned Deftones sound. And they have the sound down to a tea, to the point where lead vocalist, Kadeem France, even has Chino’s unique vocal articulation. And I do respect what this band is able to do with these influences and try to turn them into something new and exciting.
However what I said before still stands and that is that this record is all over the place in its framing and mood. At one moment, it frenzied and hectic and at others, calm and collected. “Aggressive Evolution” has these ideas spliced together into one song, let alone between the different tracks! Songs such as “Screaming” and “New Face in the Dark” balance the two moods a little bit better.
The album is still inconsistent from a production standpoint as well. The bass drum on “Gored” is so poorly mixed I can barely hear anything else. The harsh vocals are usually tossed on with an absurd amount of feedback making them sound muddy. The guitars fall victim to this as well, although less frequently. In my original review, I was less interested in these mathcore sounding tunes (and I still don’t care for them that much now), but can hear how these two very different ideas work well together at points. Honestly, I would have liked this album better if the band fully embraced the Daughters influence or the Deftones influence, not both at the same time. It isn’t as bad as I originally thought, but I still don’t know if I’ll come back to this very often.
Genres: Alternative Metal Metalcore
Format: Album
Year: 2020
The third studio album from Italian progressive/post-metal band Nero di Marte was my first exposure to this group. They have been around since around 2007, but their last album came out in 2014, so it has been quite a layoff since the last full length release and man is this something great.
Let's start off by getting on my soapbox for a second: this is how tonal dissonance is done! I've listened to way too many albums in recent days that follow the philosophy that loud noises, distorted through after effects and compression, and heavy percussion does make for tonally challenging music, but not anything that I would want to listen to again. Nero di Marte seem to get this and use dissonance in the actual instruments! Guitar and vocals tend to take many of the crunchy sounds, but are used effectively throughout these seven tracks. And these songs can get pretty hectic when they want to be. "Sisyphos" and the title track "Immoto" both have some black metal or perhaps technical death metal inspired passages that are prepared with such nuance and they hit like a ton of bricks.
Tonally speaking, this kind of reminds me of a band like Astronoid with its spacey atmosphere, complimented by some heavier sections. Unlike Astronoid, these compositions are not of the pleasant, shoegaze variety. Instead, I heard a fair bit of Fen and their seemingly effortless control of dynamics and pacing. These songs are long and the band uses this to their benefit, by having extended quiet, psychedelic passages to build anticipation before the eighteen wheeler just runs straight into you.
And these compositions are what you would expect from those comparisons. From progressive music, you have complex song structures, odd time signatures, multiple melodic ideas used together to give the songs a creative arch. And from post-metal, the atmospherics that are most common in the wall of sound subsets of sludge and black metal, melodic importance with the guitars and bass independence.
I think we may have found our first true contended for AOTY for 2020. Nero di Marte's Immoto is mixed incredibly well, shows off some solid instrumental efficiency, and the compositions themselves are exceptional. If this brand of progressive metal interests you, you need to hear this. You won't regret it.
Genres: Progressive Metal Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Yeah... no
The second record from English metalcore band Leeched is not very good. The guitars and bass sound horrendous on this album. The low tuning of them doesn't help matters, but they are so poorly mixed and are constantly clipping the mix, which prevents either the vocals or percussion to ever be heard. I would have had more fun plucking on an elastic band or the springs that prevent the door from slamming into the wall. If you like down tuned guitars that play just open strings, pinch harmonics and forced distortion, then maybe this is the album for you.
The album 36 minutes, which should be a good sign for a brisk and quick listen, but no. This was one of the longest 36 minute albums I've ever heard. If sounding "bro0tal" was the bands objective, then mission accomplished. But for me, simply playing loud without any substance does not make for pleasing music. Please send it back.
Genres: Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
This is sophomore record from Swedish black metal band Jordablod and I am very impressed by the musicianship put on display here. The guitar work on this album is very damn solid and reminds me some of the most popular names in black metal of years past. The vocals are pretty intense and have just the right amount of reverb to contribute to the ethereal atmosphere that is on display here. The percussion is pretty solid as well, even if there are a couple of moments where it does sound like it is being drowned out in the mix.
The compositions are fresh and exciting. I really enjoyed the acoustic/clean guitar sections that lead you on with a false sense of calm before the distorted guitars, percussion and vocals enter. And they are balanced exceptionally well on this album. And I also really like how the guitar is given plenty of opportunity to branch out and take a melodic role, providing some excellent melodies that are anchored by some pretty decent bass work.
This is just a very pretty sounding black metal record, or at least as pretty as a black metal record can sound. The songwriting on display is well thought out and put together, the mixing does not feel forced or sloppy, and every member of the band show off a very strong display of musical proficiency. This is certainly one of 2020's first bright patches in black metal. Take the time and check this out!
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Hopefully this review doesn't get started off on the wrong foot and pisses off too many metal purists, but here it goes... I've never really cared for Sepultura.
Now granted, I never listened to Sepultura until much, MUCH later into my lifetime; probably around the time I started college which would have been ten years ago. I always thought their music was decent, certainly better than super early Slayer, but their music has just never been that recognizable in the same way as a band like... Testament or Kreator.
Now I will give Quadra some credit: this is the most interesting Sepultura album since Roots, regardless of what that might mean for some. This album has some genuine heart put into it and you can tell through the songwriting and album structure. Tracks like "Capital Enslavement" and "Guardians of Earth" lead you on some pretty great musical experiences, rather than just a straight up mosh-fest.
Some of these ideas sound like they are borrowing from technical thrash metal, but not necessarily in the way that I would typically soak in. This is technical/progressive music in the vein of Meshuggah, in which some technically proficient and very impressive percussion work masks the fact that the guitars are just chugging some open strings endlessly. Make no mistake, this is still very much thrash/groove Sepultura that anybody who knows anything about this group will be accepting of.
So what the hell then is "Agony of Defeat"? It's slow, groovy as f*ck, melodically enthralling from both the vocalist and lead guitar, and the main heavy groove is so damn thick; I fully expect to hear it in a "Try Not To Headbang" challenge on YouTube in the near future. It almost sounds like the band wanted a redo of their crossover appeal tat happened with Roots, but with a more natural Sepultura sound. The album ends with "Fear, Pain, Chaos, Suffering", which basically just sounds like a love letter to Pantera. And come on, who wouldn't fall to their knees for something like that?
In summary, Quadra is Sepultura's best album since Chaos A.D. and it sees the band taking a different road than the one they helped pave back in the day. I remember hearing snippets of progressive tendencies beginning to sneak their way into this bands sound in 2017 with Machine Messiah, but I had no idea that it might very well become their new niche.
Genres: Groove Metal Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
The sophomore album from Belgian thrashers Bütcher is a nonstop assault of thrash metal tendencies in the vein of early style Slayer. For some, that will be an easy sell. But for others (myself included), not so much. This album, to put it lightly, is incredibly one dimensional. Yes, the group can play blazing fast grooves and keep up the intensity for a long period of time. But I found myself becoming drained and less interested the longer the album went on. I was surprised when the title track came on, since it borrows a lot from black metal and turned out to be the best track on the album. Not just because it was the longest song on the album, but because its composition was rewarding and left me looking to play it again.
Now this album is produced a lot better than a 1980s Slayer album; The bass lines are fluent and powerful, the guitar work is crisp and precise, the percussion is absolutely ridiculous, while the vocals are probably more inline with the more black metal leaning thrash bands. Think Bathory or perhaps even Vektor.
Honestly, I don't really have much to say about 666 Goats Carry My Chariot. For what it is, this album is a very serviceable thrash metal album that will wow based on its technical proficiency alone. But again, it's a one dimensional listen. If you are looking for any nuance or development, you won't find it here. The title track is a wonderful song and I look to keep it in my rotation for a while, but the rest of the album is hit or miss for me. Maybe in smaller doses, not as apart of a full album, would these tracks resonate better.
Genres: Speed Metal Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
When you think of rap rock, I'm sure most of us probably think of nu-metal and the horrible stench left by bands such as Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Linkin Park among others. But those roots are actually entrenched in metal long before nu-metal became big in the late 90s/early 2000s. Faith No More started, and then there was Rage Against the Machine (RATM). They were clearly influenced by punk rock, but that didn't stop them from getting pretty damn heavy.
Starting off with "Killing In The Name", these riffs are filthy. Tom Morello takes the instrument and does things with it that you might have expected to hear on a Joe Satriani or Steve Vai album. And because of this, the bass lines are plentiful and give this album some incredible rhythm. If I may use a term that we use a lot in funk, these grooves are fat. Zach de la Rocha genuinely sounds pissed on this track as he howls the lyrics (and that's before the final chorus).
And this carries on throughout the album. "Take The Power Back", "Bullet In The Head", "Know Your Enemy" and "Wake Up" are awesome standouts. They are anthemic and ballsy as well. So why does it work? Well, compared to many other rap-rock bands that came later, the lyricism is not littered with men in their twenties/thirties who still act like children. The drama is petty and very immature. RATM meanwhile, are political revolutionaries, perhaps even more so than the heaviest hardcore punk bands: Dead Kennedys, Descendants, hell even Discharge and Husker Du. And rap is the only way in which they can make their message. And they have to; there is no subtlety on display here. This might be one of the most blunt and in your face politically charged albums ever made.
For the reasons mentioned above, this album can be a tough sell to a lot of people. It also does make for a very challenging listening experience, even if you are prepared for it. It isn't a brutal record, but it is poignant, anthemic, and it can start one hell of a pit. It's too bad what rap-metal would become later on, but this album still slaps and a stark reminder of what this genre could sound like.
Genres: Alternative Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1992
Well power metal doesn’t seem to be off to a blazing start in 2020, so we are going to talk about Temperance, an Italian based power metal band that might make the B listers in the power metal pyramid. They have always been about two steps behind their influences (Within Temptation, Nightwish, etc.), but did make prominent steps forward in 2018 on Of Jupiter and Moons after almost half the band was substituted for. So did they make any more improvements on Viridian? Are they in the A tier of power metal?
Well… no. Viridian is a serviceable power metal record that will certainly make their audience happy and tide them over until Nightwish release their new album later this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s forgotten about in record time after.
The production is pretty lackluster on this album; the synth choices are very blocky and don’t mesh well with most songs. The guitars are loud and near the front of the mix, but never give way for any nuance or subtlety. The bass parts are practically non-existent, and the parts of the vocals that I can hear over the guitars sound promising enough, but once again, they are very quiet in the overall mixing.
The other big issue is the songwriting. All of these songs follow the same formula of verse/chorus/bridge, followed by a key change final chorus and outro. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good key change, but most of these songs don’t deserve their key change since they never evolve from the very start. This album is quite formulaic overall.
I mean it isn’t bad, but I won’t return to this very much. Temperance are just one producer away from really clicking with me and becoming one of the elite tier names in modern power metal.
Genres: Power Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
This is the debut album from a black metal band hailing from Guangdong, China and it's pretty damn effective. Six tracks (basically five since "Hermit" serves as an interlude) of pure, aggressive black metal with a distinctly Chinese twist. The songwriting on this album is pretty damn excellent; the guitar play on these tracks is memorable and engaging. The bass does have a little bit of a problem projecting throughout, but that seems mostly because of its lack of unique and separate lines from the rhythm guitar. The drum work on this album is pretty over the top and very impressive. The vocals are probably my least favourite part of the album since they do sound like they are being filtered through studio effects, as well the overall timbre of the shrieking style has never truly been my thing to begin with. They remind me more in the vein of a band like The Black Dahlia Murder.
But I can look over these vocals because, once again, where this album separates itself from so many other black metal albums are in the song constructions. This unique brand of East Asian oriental instrumentation, including flutes and guzheng is one of a kind in heavy metal in 2020 as far as I can tell. And they are wonderfully incorporated into the heavier sections; there is a section on "Rainy Night Carnage" in which the guzheng is given an extended solo and whoever is playing it does their best shredding impression. I do have to dock some points however because almost all of these songs do follow a very similar formula with their ambient, nature introductions before exploding into the metal ideas.
But hell yeah I can jive to this! Maybe with time the band can do something about the vocal mixing, as well as come up with some more original ideas, but this is a very solid debut record and I'm looking forward to seeing what these guys can do next.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Another year, another Thy Catafalque album, and another great one at that. This Hungarian band has been the pillar of consistency over the last ten years and have always done a wonderful job of blending. This album blends together progressive rock/metal alongside Hungarian classical/folk music, as well as electronic elements. The hooks are as wonderful as ever, the instrumentals themselves are some of the best in recent Thy Catafalque's discography, and the counterpoint between the vocal timbres makes for a truly wonderful storytelling experience. This album never feels self indulgent even through the multitude of different places this album visits. This band is one of the most unique bands in metal right now and this was a pleasure to listen to. What a great way to start off the new year and with luck, hopefully the rest of this year can follow this up.
Genres: Avant-Garde Metal Progressive Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
This is the debut album from Grimah, a black metal band hailing from Spain. And I do want to be a little more favorable towards this initial project because I can hear plenty of potential on display, even if it doesn't live up to the expectations.
For one, this album sounds really damn great! The guitar work is luscious and downright breathtaking at times. These songs have a tendency to fall into the melodic black metal side of things and can even border on the fringes of atmospheric black metal near the end. The bass lines are not flawless and they do tend to bow out more frequently than one would expect.
The vocalist needs work. Kellicos sounds like he's performing through a cold and is unable to hold many of his notes for extended periods of time without cracking. I think that this is the part that needs refinement. Think about what the faux spoken word delivery of a Rotting Christ album could sound like. It doesn't even have to be changing the vocal style all that much. It would only improve the performances that much more!
The songwriting is commendable, even if it does get a tad bit boring during the middle of the album. I really enjoyed the opener, "Blaze Against Grime", but then "Thus Spake The Stone" and "Veiled By Blossom's Essence" both sound like they not only treading water, but are also extended in their length. It wasn't until the next track "Façade of Futile Reflections" delivered a quasi doom metal extended intro that carried into the more expected black metal stuff. While the closer "Pénudo de Agonía y Desdén" is pure ABM bliss. It sounds unique for the record and warrants its ten minute runtime.
This album has plenty of flaws, but I can look over them for now in hopes that they can be reconciled on further releases. I hope that Grimah is a name that we hear about in metal for years to come.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Yep, this is a power metal record with all of the over the top mythological lyricism that one might expect. This album has a nice variety of styles and ideas, highlighted by its duality of male and female vocalists. The male performs in in a half sung, half scream delivery that is interesting, if a little grading at times, reminiscent of a band like Overkill or Kreator. The female vocals are clean and expansive and make up the best portions of this album on their own. When the two voices sing together, it sounds very decent, such as on "Kaunaz Dagaz", the title track and "Ride of the Valkyries".
The music on this album is very strong power metal, if a little redundant. But I am a sucker for this kind of stuff. It's produced very well and I'm a big fan of the melodic songwriting throughout. Such standouts include the tunes mentioned earlier, as well as "Hel", "Powersnake" and "Njord". The guitar work is fluent as well as the bass having a greater presence than has come to be expected from this style of music in the modern day. The percussion sounds great, even if it doesn't feel very memorable.
This is solid enough power metal to start off the year 2020. I'm not sure how long it will stick around, but it's a very solid album to tide you over until we get our first great metal album of the year.
Genres: Power Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Kawir's blend of melodic black metal, combined with some of the traditional pagan elements of Greek folk music is certainly an interesting experience for someone who has never heard it before. The album sounds quite excellent most of the time. The percussion element is this album's strongest element; some of the drum work on this record is pretty ridiculous. As for the bass, you can't really hear much of it. This is very much a black metal album in the traditional sense of the phrase, in which rhythm guitars are used as replacements for organic, warm bass lines. Which is a shame because when the guitars are given a lead passage, they do sound quite good. The lead guitar on "Atalanti" and "Medea" are very strong. The vocals are also quite prominent and are produced / performed very well.
The songwriting on this record isn't quite great. This album does tread a little long at times, and this is mostly in part due to some very repetitive motifs that are never developed, with "Colchis" being the most egregious example. "Danaides" is not too far behind. But most of all, these songs don't fully embrace the pagan and folk influences that they should. They are used sparingly and in isolated fragments, rather than as an integral part of the sound. It reminds me a lot of Obsequaie's The Palms of Sorrowed Kings from late last year. Other pagan black metal bands like Drudkh and Saor have nothing to worry about.
As it stands, Adrasteia is a pretty decent record in terms of its black metal core, but fails to really deliver outside of that.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Deftones were one of the first metal bands that I ever listened to, although in hindsight that probably wasn't a very good choice. For a "nu-metal" record, this is one of the least sounding nu-metal records that came out of that time period. Sure it does have its clear influences in the genre, but this has more in common with late 90s to early 2000s post-hardcore.
And how does it hold up? Well, surprisingly well, even if the Deftones themselves have moved further and further away from the nu-metal influences of their early years in the time since. And there is a reason why; it's because nu-metal hasn't aged very well.
The moments on this album that portray the most anger and frustration are typically its worst elements. "Rickets" and "Headup" highlight this albums least entertaining moments, as the bass is swamped out and replaced exclusively by chugging, rhythmic guitars, to the point where one wonders whether or not this album actually needed a drummer. I also have a problem with Chino as a performer. Whenever he dips into his softer almost whisper like delivery, it almost always seems to be paired with a clipping vocal effect that emphasizes some of his harsher syllables.
But the first half of this record does make up for some of the second half's faults. "My Own Summer (Shove It)" has a great exchange of ideas and play styles, "Around The Fur" has a pretty sticky guitar melody, and "Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)" is the most melodic track on the album and one of the standout moments. Chino's cleans are very enjoyable and his screams are usually paired with genuine frustration.
I think that for a nu-metal album, Around the Fur has the potential to be one of the best albums of that descriptor... if the Deftones actually decided to make a nu-metal album. But I still don't think that they did. And going back and listening to it again, I still feel that this record is more of a post-hardcore album with nu-metal tendencies. It's still a good album, but not a great one. Deftones would wait a couple more years to release their magnum opus, but this album helped to get them there.
Genres: Alternative Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1997
An early taste of atmospheric black metal / blackgaze in 2020 with a solo Hungarian artist who doesn’t mind adding in some folk elements along the way. I think that this album has some very interesting ideas associated with it, but the execution of those ideas hold this album back from greatness.
For starters, the poetry on this album is wonderful. I am a really big fan of the word painting and general ambiguity of the lyrics, which leave the door open for plenty of interpretation. The song “Havasok / Snowy Mountains” goes so far as to borrow from Hungarian folklore and becomes very regional. It’s pretty cool to hear. “Danu’s Tears”, “Mist Pillars ‘19” and “Dark Waters” all follow suit with some great storytelling.
The production on this album is pretty hit or miss. For one, the incorporation of traditional Hungarian instruments is used very well on the second half of this album, especially with the bagpipes on the atmospheric, instrumental closer “Wilderness”. Beyond that, the vocalist, which is very far in the back of the mix, could have been given a lot more presence given what I mentioned earlier about this albums poetry.
The general sound of this album however is… not good. The guitars are way too compressed for this style of music and the bass gets the short end of the stick because of it. The softer sections on tracks like “Mist Pillars ‘19” and “Havasok / Snowy Mountains” sound great, but the clean / acoustic guitars are louder than the distorted, heavier stuff.
This album does deserve a better fate. This kind of folk metal that is literally based off of Hungarian folklore should be right up my alley, but is held back considerably by its lackluster production. If this sounded better, it could have been great. As it is, Dark Waters is decent, but it could have been made better by some chlorine.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Well, it looks like 2020 is starting off the same way that 2019 ended, so welcome to controversial hot takes with me, saxystephens.
Granted I don’t know how long this will last since this album is a very weak #1. Poppy’s newest album, I Disagree, is a test in sanity. Perhaps being able to stay steady as this album ferociously flails you across the room with its whiplash. Perhaps it’s patience in Poppy to find a hook to make these songs memorable. Perhaps it’s patience in me trying to find a critically acclaimed album that I actually like!
This album is hard to get through and most of it has to do with all of the influences Poppy tries to fit into this ten track, thirty-five minute album, as she tries to infuse pop music with metalcore, industrial, and nu-metal. She already tried this on Am I A Girl? A couple of years ago, and it got her a record deal with Sumerian!
This wouldn’t be a problem on its own if it was backed by the same artistic prowess (i.e. hooks) that made Poppy Computer such a great album. Instead, it sounds formulaic to modern metal. The hooks are sparse, Poppy’s vocals are not remotely engaging in the same way as many of her clear influences from Japanese metal are, and the songwriting has taken a massive step down. The mixing between pop and metal transitions is poorly executed. And it's redundant at times; “Anything Like Me” sounds like it stole the instrumental straight from Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend”.
Songs like “Nothing I Need” and “Sick of the Sun” are acceptable pop songs, while “Concrete” is an okay hybrid of styles, and “Fill the Crowd” has the best blend of styles as well as hooks on the album. The rest just sounds unfinished. We already had a great rock/pop hybrid album come out last year with A Boat on the Sea by Moron Police. Why couldn't we have gotten that huge instead?
Genres: Alternative Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
As a complete pleb when it comes to the band Emperor, I had to go into Ihsahn's solo project with a pair of fresh ears. I had no expectations as to what to expect from Ihsahn at the start of the decade. And what I found is that Ihsahn has a metric f*ck tonne of achieved potential that I feel like was never tapped into under the Emperor name.
Oh they came close with Prometheus, but unfortunately for the band, it would be their final official studio album before the calling it quits. And it's clear to me that Ihsahn was the primary songwriter behind Prometheus because this album is beautiful. The way in which this album effortlessly transitions back and forth between harsh and clean vocals, atmosphere and technicality, soft and aggressive; this album has it all and set the benchmark for Ihsahn as well as black metal in general at the turn of the decade. The way in which saxophone is incorporated into these compositions is brilliant. Even when it is used over a heavier passage, it is still prominent in the mix. This is about as close as I've heard to a saxophone shredding like its guitar counterpart.
Without all of the additional madness taking place in the instrumental, Ihsahn's vocals take center stage and they are prominent. You can literally hear every word on this album. You don't need to have the lyric sheet in front of you to understand every word and what these lyrics are saying, which is itself a glorious achievement.
All in all, Ihsahn's 2010 epic is a magnum opus to behold in the black metal community. Almost everything is tuned with the finest brush. It takes a lot of work for me to call both 10 minute tracks my two favourites on the album. Ihsahn proceeded to have a very solid decade, but never lived up to the sky high potential that was put on display with After. This is something truly special. If you enjoy progressive black metal, you are doing yourself a disservice by omitting this from your collection.
Genres: Progressive Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2010
I truthfully don't have a lot to say about this album. What I will say however is that High on Fire had themselves a very impressive 2010s. They were one of the decades most consistent bands who just kept making killer music. And their music was impressive; stoner/sludge metal with a hint of thrash thrown in on top of it all to make it super dense and encapsulating. I'm not much of a stoner myself, but this album is so easy to get lost in even if you are sober, which makes for a truly transcendent experience.
This album is heavy, relentless and unforgiving, which does lead me to one of its biggest strengths: its precision. This record doesn't sound like it was recorded in the drummers basement late on a Tuesday night. It's very clean and very easy to digest. I know that Matt Pike is a legend in the sludge metal scene, and this album is proof of that for me. Very solid stuff.
Genres: Sludge Metal Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2012
I vividly remember seeing The Faceless perform live along with The HAARP Machine in St. Catherines, Ontario in 2013. And while I was mostly there to hear the opening act, I was familiar with The Faceless from their album Planetary Duality. I remember them playing "Accelerated Evolution" and liking what I heard that I had to go back home after and find their album that song was on. So, I actually saw this band play live before ever listening to one of their albums in full.
Anyways, here's Autotheism, one of the better albums to split the difference between the melodic side of progressive metal, and the more punishing insanity of technical death metal. This album is all over the place production wise. And most of it comes in the percussion. And it's a shame because it's also in the one place that I have consistently criticized tech death for: the bass drum. When this album gets locked into a double bass groove, or a technical section where guitar and drums are in unison, it gets very loud and messes with the mixing of the remainder of the performers.
Still, songs like "Accelerated Evolution", "Autotheist Movement III: Deconsecrate" and "Ten Billion Years" all sound quite good, even excellent. And of course, to fit my namesake, when the saxophone comes in during "Deconsecrate", I really enjoyed it. I wish that it could have been projected more; sometimes the sax gets buried underneath the guitar backgrounds.
Technical Death Metal is still not my thing, but I can appreciate when it is done well. And The Faceless do create very solid tech death that doesn't rely on blazing fast song structures to cover up for unfinished songwriting. Good stuff.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2012
I was looking forward to hearing this: an atmospheric black metal band that borrows from bands like Summoning with symphonic and Celtic flare in it as well. Too bad the album sounds terrible!
The guitars sound like they are being recorded in 8-bit; almost like what you would expect heavy metal to sound like if it was coming out of your NES. Actually, when the opening track, "City of Azure Fire" started and I heard those woodwinds for the first time, I had to do a double take because those woodwinds to me, were unmistakable. That is the same melody that plays during a game of Age of Empires II. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was really damn close.
This album is corny as hell and not in the good way. This is meant to be listened to with masks off and something real and authentic, but all I hear is a bunch of trolling. Not a good way to start your career.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2013
Album of the Decade? Not Quite
If you were to ask me what the most important albums of the decade were; the ones that we can look back on in another ten years from now and say "that's what the 2010s were all about!" I would assume most people would say Behemoth's The Satanist somewhere in their top ten. And I would have to agree. This album is pretty filthy blackened death metal that someone like me would come to appreciate. It doesn't sound sloppy or unfinished. The production is solid and Nergal's vocal delivery is some of the best it has been in Behemoth's entire discography.
However, Behemoth are a band that have been doing this shtick for a long time and it should come as no surprise to anyone. Ghost get a lot of flack for being a satantic worship cult even though their music is way too safe and mainstream. If normies are worried about cults, this is the group that they should be worried about! But where Behemoth falls short of Ghost is those grooves and hooks that are desperately lacking.Most people who listen to this won't need them and I can understand. But outside of some great riffage and technical proficiency, this album just lacks the core to keep me coming back.
This isn't a bad record. In fact, it's pretty damn excellent. I just wish that Behemoth could do something more with the genre, the subject matter and the songwriting than this. Behemoth created this album almost as a jumping on point into death metal and it serves its purpose surprisingly well. But I like my melodic metal, which does make me feel isolated from the rest of the crowd at times, but I'll stick with Omnium Gatherum, Insomnium, and Scar Symmetry.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2014
When a band loses an integral member due to untimely death, it seems like an impossible task to replace them. Avenged Sevenfold dealt with this is 2009 with the passing of their drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. After Mike Portnoy filled in for the remainder of that tour, Brooks Wackerman took over in 2015 and the band would release one of their most diverse albums of their careers. One of the reasons I will never fully respect Slipknot ever again is because of how poorly they treated touring bassist, Donnie Steele after the passing of Paul Gray.
The same can be said for Alice in Chains after the passing of Layne Stayley. William Duvall was tasked with attempting to win back all of those people who enjoyed this band during the 1990s who would, inevitably, call it half-assed Alice in Chains and that it would never be as good as Dirt or the self titled album. 2009 was proof of that with Black Gives Way to Blue, a serviceable record that lacked the sort of growth that one would hope from an artist with almost fifteen years layover.
So what did Alice in Chains do in 2013 with The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here? How about creating the most unique AiC album that changed the direction of the band completely, but also established this as not being Layne Stayley's group anymore. And while I will admit, this album did not click with me right away, but going back and listening to it again years later, I think it helps appreciate Rainier Fog even more when you see where many of the bones were planted (pun intended).
To begin, this album is immediately better than BGWTB because of its production. The guitars are seismic in their delivery, but they don't clip the mixing. As a result, the bass lines are also distinguishable and give even the albums slowest moments a sense of direction and forward momentum. And I would be remissed if I didn't mention the fantastic sounding vocal harmonies between Duvall and Cantrell here. I mentioned it during the last AiC review, but it almost sounds like Stayley never left us.
The songwriting feels heavier than ever before. The riffs are chunkier, the harmonies in the background vocals and melodic guitar passages are superb. The hooks from "Hollow", "Stone", "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here", "Scalpel", and "Phantom Limb" are among some of the best Alice in Chains have had in this new era of the band. I love how this band moved away from the traditional grunge sound that made them so popular, but without losing much in the way of their unique identity.
Alice in Chains were always a dark and depressive group when it came to lyrical content. Many of the bands most influential songs: "Down in a Hole", "Nutshell", and "Angry Chair" were all deeply personal to Layne Stayley and his personal struggles that inevitably did him in. Where BGWTB was about coping with the loss of someone close to you, TDPDH addresses more general social issues; specifically the hypocrisy of religion. I love how songs like "Hollow" and "Phantom Limb" really flip off people who think that they can morally grandstand the plebs, but the mob is too large and the dissenting voices ring their words meaningless. Or how on "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here", how these same people in power would denounce scientific evidence that the earth is a sphere or, as the title suggests, that dinosaurs never truly existed as a living species. They were instead placed by the devil to please the ever learning human mind. Who are you more likely to believe?
I'm not sure that Alice in Chains will ever be able to live up to the cosmic levels (pun intended?) of expectations that myself and a lot of other fans have unjustly placed upon this group. This isn't Dirt by any stretch, but it isn't supposed to be. This is the new Alice in Chains. Whether we like it or not, Layne Stayley is not coming back. This is William Duvall's Alice in Chains now. And it is magnificent. Many people were unjustly harsh on this album when it came out, myself included. I suggest you give this another listen. You never know what bones you might uncover.
Genres: Alternative Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2013
Much like the bands namesake, The Boats of the Glen Carrig is a seafaring horror novel that Ahab has created as incidental music to the 1907 novel. And wow does it really live up to its predecessor because this album can get pretty haunting at times.
This is death doom metal with elements of progressive rock and/or post-rock/metal interludes that really help encapsulate the feeling of being all alone on the water and the abandonment that one would feel upon shipwreck with no one around to guide or help them. The progressive sections are beautifully encapsulating of the moments of calm that one might feel when they are attempting to return to a stable state of mind, only to become engulfed once again in the fear and anxiety of a nightmare that feels like it is strangling you.
Unsurprisingly, the first thing that I thought of before I gave this album a listen was Mastodon's 2004 album, Leviathan, considering that they are built around similar concepts. And to be fair to Ahab, there are several similarities in the songwriting techniques used on this album as Mastodon's epic. Such as the invaluable importance of the guitar as melodic instrument, the fruitful bass and powerful vocal delivery. Unlike Leviathan, this album is long and it feels like it, and it's supposed to. The fear of isolation is so pulsating on this album that you start to question when salvation will finally come and rescue you and return to your life as it was before.
My criticisms of this album are few and far between, but they are significant critiques. For one, the vocalists low end is powerful, but it does sound a little too much like the Cookie Monster. And he alternates between the deep low gutturals to a more aggressive screams and there is just no comparison between the two. Also, the album is long. I said that it is a large part of this albums appeal, but some of these songs could have been cut down and given the same emotional impact, otherwise, the tracks could have been split up, making for a more streamlined experience.
Ahab's epic is a pretty damn great album in the death doom library. The atmosphere fits the source material extremely well, as well as the lyrical content. This album may hit you like the weight of the sea as it did the Glen Carrig. But the trip is worth the emotional roller-coaster that is displayed within.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
Picture this if you will. One of your favourite bands of all time have been disbanded for well over a decade and you know fully well that their will NEVER be a reunion. But then, suddenly, it happens. The band reunites for a new tour as well as a brand spanking new album just to get the juices flowing. Who wouldn't be excited?
That's how I felt in the year 2009 when Alice in Chains release their first studio album in fourteen years; the first to feature William Duvall as the primary vocalist since the passing of legendary former frontman, Layne Stayley (R.I.P.). I wanted this album to be phenomenal. I have made it no secret that Alice in Chains were my first love in heavy metal and Dirt is my favourite of the big four "grunge" albums.
And what we ended up with was... this. I mean it's a respectable album for Alice in Chains and I would have never expected this group to top one of the most influential albums of a generation. But this album suffers hard.
Now part of that has to do with the higher expectations. I have learned over countless disappointments to never place an album in an elite tier before I have even heard a note on it. And while hindsight is always 20/20, I was only eighteen and easily excitable. And for what it is, Black Gives Way to Blue is a more than solid Alice in Chains record. But, like I mentioned with Tool's most recent album, when you have a layoff of this long, just making more of the same stuff as you did before feels underwhelming.
First off, the production on this album is abysmal! Alice in Chains were not the group that needed to get involved in the "loudness wars" of the late 2000s. Their sludge-y brand of alternative metal/grunge was always slow and brooding. If you took songs like "Rooster" and modernized them with this production, the dynamic swells of the verse/chorus combos would have failed to deliver any emotional impact. "A Looking In View" has this problem right from the get go, and their is very little room for reprieve; you better not be listening to this song with headphones because you won't be able to hear yourself think for nearly seven minutes!
And if you go to the ballads, dear god the ballads! This dynamic swell ruins ballads such as "Your Decision", which could have been fantastic, is ruined by a guitar that is louder than Duvall! And any time the drums come in, you can forget it!
Some of my personal favourite moments happen on "Check My Brain", which is a pretty catchy tune, and the first promotional single that I heard. And oh boy I was immediately sold on William Duvall. He has a vocal timbre that is impeccable and very reminiscent of Stayley. While songs like "Last of My Kind" and "Lesson Learned" are dank, brooding pieces where the low end really shines through, even with the blown out mixing.
Now with time, albums like this as well as Metallica's Death Magnetic have been remastered and most people who didn't hear the album back in the day have no idea what I'm talking about! And that's fair. With that said, I have listened to the album again, this time the digital remastering, not my day one CD from HMV. So why do I still feel underwhelmed by this?
Part of that has to do with the songwriting. As mentioned previously, this is the band's first album in over a decade. Part of this may have been the group just trying to get their name out there and remind people that "hey! We're still here!" But from the death of Stayley in 2002, to the first days of recording this album, Cantrell has been away from AiC for six years. Surely over that time, you would think that they would have picked up some new tricks. But they didn't. Instead they released a serviceable record that got people's attention, but were unable to hold that attention into the next decade.
Which is a damn shame because Alice in Chains would redefine their style on their next album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, where Cantrell asserted to us, the fans, that this was no longer Lanye Stayley's Alice in Chains, but William Duvall's. But we will have to save that discussion for another time...
Genres: Alternative Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2009
What a strange album.
This is one of the weirdest black metal albums I've heard all year. This time, we're going to Switzerland to talk about some progressive black metal. I believe that the genre of "avant-garde" would be more understandable for an album like this. It doesn't seem to be intent on laying down pleasant melodic passages or brutal breakdown passages. This album is very atonal and takes all of the time it has to get going. This is further exemplified by the ritualistic nature of some of these song passages. It's faster than your typical drone metal dirge, but if slowed down, it could probably fit right in!
Overall, this album has some incredible highs, but also some very deep lows. When the album is at its best, it is transcendent, such as on "I Burn Within You" or "Ego Sum Omega". Otherwise you end up with "A Paradigm of Beauty", a song that does not feel like it fits in with the rest of the album at all. But I guess that is to be expected from an album like this. This feels like post-metal, but without any of the melodic importance. And yet I still can't turn away from it.
The vocals are clean and easily distinguishable, the guitar work is not extremely prominent, but it does create the atmosphere as one would expect from a post-metal project. The bass is strong and lays a steady foundation for most of the album, and the drum work is insane. The precision is commendable.
I have the sneaking suspicion that this album is going to grow on me more and more with repeated listens. But for now, I'm going to air on the side of caution and give it a recommendation, but not a full, unrestricted one. Perhaps a further endeavor into Schammasch's back catalog is required...
Genres: Avant-Garde Metal Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
A very solid dose of traditionalist doom metal, with a couple of new twists. For one, the guitar work on this album is pretty damn great! I like how the lead doesn't feel obliged to stay in the slower, melodic vein of the rest of the album and there are some pretty awesome shredding moments. The vocalist is pretty good at alternating between his cleaner lows and raspy high belting. I'm not a huge fan of when he growls though; it doesn't happen a lot, but it feels out of place and doesn't contribute much.
From a compositional standpoint, the album is pretty streamlined and most song ideas flow seamlessly from one into the next. The album does have quite a bit of meandering moments, highlighted by three interludes, two of them placed beside each other in the albums playthrough. Some songs also take their time reaching their conclusion, such as "The Snake Handler", even if the sum of its parts make it a pretty good song.
If I'm comparing this album to Spirit Adrift's album Divided By Darkness, this album is much heavier and more technically proficient. But from a melodic standpoint, it does feel like a lesser project. Still, the hybrid nature of this album is commendable. I hope these guys can iron out some of the kinks in the future because they have the potential to make something great. Keep an eye out for Crypt Sermon.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Since I don't listen to very much tech death, be sure to take my opinion with a massive grain of salt, but of the albums that I have heard in this vein over the last couple weeks, this is the one that sticks the most. It's pretty well produced (which is leaps and bounds ahead of any of its competition in 2019), and the ideas are still flowing from one track to the next. The album is still held back by many of my personal quips with the genre in general. It's scattered and it's played at such a blazing fast pace to attempt to hide the fact that many of these ideas are unfinished. I would still take this over Cattle Decapitation's Death Atlas, but it still doesn't sell me on the genre.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Sooner or later, these eighties thrash bands who were not arbitrarily chosen as "the big four" will have to realize that the reason albums like Master of Puppets, Rust in Peace, and Among the Living are all time classic records is because of their bass presence, not just their riffage. Death Angel have been around long enough to know this, yet they continue to push out the same album with the same mistakes every three or four years. I'll stick to modern Testament until they decide to stop make ...And Justice For All clones.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
These guys have a really good Pantera impression on "Yesterday's Bones", and some of their slower groovy tunes are pretty solid (with the exception of "Hallowed Sound"). But on the tunes when they pick up tempo, like "My Time", "Beware The Wolf" and "Ripping Flesh", it's fairly obvious that these guys have one thrash idea and are going to beat it into the dirt. Fairly solid melodic groove metal, but nothing special.
Genres: Groove Metal Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
An album that is only slightly better than Full of Hell's Weeping Choir because the mixing isn't horrendous, some adequate melodic flashes and the vocalists low end which is quite solid. Otherwise, the songwriting is terribly blended, the clean singing is okay, but our singer sounds too much like Bobby Ellsworth (Overkill) in the worst way, the high screeches sound like a mix between Donald Duck and a dying Chihuahua, and the bass drum is overblown in the mix! I'm starting to think that triggered bass drums are the primary focus of this style of music and I'm not a fan.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
I don't understand the appeal of this
Because I don't partake in the smoking the devil's lettuce on a regular basis, I find it incredibly difficult to decipher who this album is intended for.
If you are intoxicated while listening, you naturally become tired, and I can see this as great music to fall asleep to, or as just noise in a quiet room. But if you're sober, you're just wondering why the hell no development of ideas has happened for nearly fifteen minutes!
Genres: Drone Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019