Rexorcist's Forum Replies

The sound that people are calling "thall" is so clearly just a slight variation on djent that I see no real reason to consider it as it won't add much (if any) benefit for our members. My personal preference is to avoid dissecting our music into more & more silly pigeonholes wherever possible. The more we do it, the less variety there is in each subgenre for people to discover. 

Metalcore djent, really?  It should only really be c onsidered a subgenre if it sounds THAT different.  But what with the name origin, this kinda does sound like a "silly pigeonhole."  I use "prog metalcore" as an easy descriptor on my charts, but if it's gonna convince me it's a legit genre, it really has to have a different presence that multiple bands can relate to, not a select few.  I imagine either way, even if Daniel thought this was legit, it would just be ignored anyway because it's one genre falling into two clans.

Arcade Fire - Pink Elephant (2025)

Genres: Indie Rock

I'm actually huge on Arcade Fire, believe it or not.  They introduced me to the glory that is indie rock and were the first steps intro exploring genres beyond classic rock.  Their debut, Funeral, changed my life.  I find their first three albums to be an unbeatable indie trilogy, so I've been holding onto the hope that this Everything Now behavior would end soon.  And it looked like it would from the album WE, but Pink Elephant says otherwise, gruelingly otherwise.

I got excited when I heard there was a new Arcade Fire album, but upon hearing the Year of the Snake single, I lost interest.  This album goes for ambient tracks, indie pop, indie rock and a little alt-dance, neo-psych, and yet, NOTHING is given any real focus.  These songs hardly even feel "written."  They feel like AI generated knockoffs where the order is specifically "try not to use any rhythm."  This is especially painful dureing the songs that are longer than five minutes.  There's barely any melody involved in the instrumentation until Ride or Die, which is seven of the ten tracks in!  How could Arcade Fire of all people forget to include a rhythm?  I mean, I'm willing to defend Everything Now as a palatable pop album, but not this.  The melodies that raised the rating slightly on Ride or Die are once again betrayed just to include some basic sound effects and distortions that fail to justify anything.  I mean, even our two lead singers sound completely bored.  Are the even trying to be passionate about their music anymore?

No, I really don't think they are.  It seems obvious to me that the band has lost their passion and are trying to let ambiance fill in that gap, not realizing that the "gap" is really a "hole in the heart."  This is one time where I really can't defend their actions.  Pink Elephant's very existence is an insult to their glory days and the poopularity of indie rock in the 2000's kickstarted by albums like their first three.  This is the first time I have been unable to defend an Arcade Fire album.

28/100

Blood Incantation - Absolute Everywhere (2024)

Genres: Prog Death Metal

This is it, the conclusion of my Blood Incantation marathon.  This is the album that gave me reason to check them out, and I finally have room for them on my albums log as my need to explore other genres made me late to this party.  A death metal album taking influence from the 70's German rock and electronic scene?  For a wacko like me, that's a dream to good to be true.  But what with all the dick-sucking going around for this album, one can't help but wonder, does it live up to the legend, or is it overhyped?

Immediately the prog rock and prog electronic influences are used as key ingredients in the hyperactive death metal, but the album also makes a point of switching genres mid-song from death metal to prog rock two minutes into Stargate Pt. 1.  I have to admit, while the instrumentation was beyond magnificent, rivaling the best aspects of their incredible debut, the sudden genre switch was a little jarring.  I would've preferred a little more buildup and a little more death in the beginning.  Was this a bad omen, or would I learn to accept that after hearing the rest of the album?  Stargate Pt. 2 was an intriguing and powerful prog electronic track that recalled all the best aspects of Tangerine Dream and Vangelis while remaining a Blood Incantation song, proving that they've mastered the art of electronics after having struggled so much with it on their previous ambient EP, Timewave Zero.  In the last two minutes, it carefully turns into a prog rock song with some beautiful Tullian flute.  Even the last bit of death metal feels pretty naturally handled.  Pt. 3 makes for some fantastic death metal in both technique and production.  There's this middle section of acoustic guitars mimicking the worldbeat vibes of The Tea Party, but it doesn't last long enough, unfortunately.  And some of the electronics that make the album so unique are present at the end, but not for long.

The next epic, the three part Message, begins with a more upbeat, melodic and almost alternative take on death metal, one that recalls the noisy but anthemic and somewhat aquatic atmospheres of Biomech.  But after 50 seconds, they switch back to the same old death metal.  Thankfully, the extremities are met at a capacity I have only ever dreamed about!  They go back to the original format after another 50 seconds or so, which is an interesting take and makes me glad there's more of that new sound involved. But once again, the standard but impressive death metal sound overtakes the balance.  I mean, they're playing some excellent riffs that make me wanna rip my shirt off and fly into the sun with a bottle of whiskey, but shouldn't they take the time to really expand on the new tricks?  Part 2 goes right into the prog rock, pulled right out of the 70's British scene with surprisingly authentic melodies that blend with the death sound on occasion.  It even has vocals that sound way too much like Roger Waters.  But if they could do that all along, then they SHOULD'VE used them a little more in previous tracks to expand on the various tricks they were trying to play.  Still, this one revived both the Pink Floyd prog and the more conventional kind of prog in one go while maintaining the atmospheric strengths of previous Blood Incantation albums.

And then... Part 3 took me by 100% surprise by introducing itself with a power metal riff of all things.  It has a tendency to switch things around though, as, once again, the power metal was not lived up to.  But it DID do an excellent job of maintaining many of the past sounds and tricks at a reasonable balance beyond that while delivering on of their best epics since Vitrification.  This one is easily the most epic-feeling song on the album, recalling the whole spirit of the band and its improved sense of effects and reverberations, as well as Faulk's wonderful drumming.  This song is also an excellent example of how our two guitarists have impeccable synchronization.  All is a relatively perfect harmony until in fades into aquatic sound effects, bringing our epic to a close.

This also closes my epic adventure in the Blood Incantation catalog.  What with this genre-tagging including space rock and Berlin school, I was stunned that a death metal album was finally attempting these things.  It's been 30 years since Emperor put synths in black metal, so an album like this is way late.  However, was it perfect?  While I admire a band for trying to reinvent the genre, there were some areas where the unique tricks and extra genre choices needed a little more balance.  If they fix that on the next album, you may end up having the greatest death metal album in the world.

97

Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race (2019)

Genres: Tech Death Metal, Prog Death Metal

Although I've heard largely raw praise for this sophomore album by Blood Incantation, there's an ongoing debate as to whether or not this is an improvement over Starspawn.  My immediate thought was that it was due to a change in pace.  Normally, I like changes in pace, but only if the artist keeps the established identity as well.  I had no way of knowing which would reign supreme on this album.

Its opener, Slave Species of the Gods, is absolutely brutal and a little sludgy.  This was obviously going to be a deeper album that before, and I appreciated the stronger focus on heaviness and progression, especially since this means they're attempting a new direction.  However, despite all the skill they put into it, this is a more generic song on the whole.  On Starspawn, the band took all familiar traits of death and maximized the full potential.  There seems to be less trickery on this opener, so hopefully that would be remedied on later tracks.  I had an 18-minute closer to look forward to, after all.  The Giza Power Plant was seven minutes, which would normally leave a lot of room for some new tricks.  But the most it did was switch from a brutal song to a slower and more ambient one for four minutes before ending on the brutal note.  Now this had incredible moments about it, but it was largely boasting things that were done with more creativity on Starspawn.  Track 3, Inner Paths (To Outer Space), goes into a very deep and sombre opening before slowly emerging as a prog metal track in a similar vein to the folk track on Star Spawn, Meticulous Soul Devourment.  Taking MSD's place as the "vibe" track, this one also includes drowned dialogues like in the cut ambient track from Live Vetrification before fully crossing the bridge into prog death metal, and then finally into brutal death, never once losing sight of the balance, pacing or atmosphere, feeling right at home with Giza Power Plant and artistically contradicting Slave Species of the Gods.  Obviously, the intro song is totally outshined, and would've been more properly placed as the second track.

Now it was time for the majesty.  I had full faith that Blood Incantation would amaze me with another nearly 20-minute epic of raw art, but kept the idea of monotony in mind due to the poorly placed intro song's generic behavior.  It was obvious from the start that the heaviness had been improved on.  This is probably their heaviest and most thunderous track, or at least it starts that way.  And let me tell you, it's very good.  They put together something that remains brutal and challenging throughout.  A few surprises wait throughout the eighteen minutes, but that's only a few.  Otherwise, this is simply a great effort technically and production-wise, but I was hoping for something mindblowing.

This sophomore, in my opinion, is a little more generic.  It carries some of the Starspawn weirdness and a few little traces of what's to come on their legendary third album, but otherwise, I'll say it's simply a great way to introduce death metal to someone.  Another great effort on their part, but not five-stars.  Honestly, I wonder if they were simply trying to sell or to get noticed?  They didn't betray their talents, but much of the identity was gone.

93, just like Live Vitrification.

Blood Incantation - Timewave Zero (2021)

Genres: Space Ambient

I've mentioned before that, while I like ambient, I've struggled with it as well.  Even in a slow-paced ambient album, things need to mutate and change for it to draw me in.  A fine example of sluggish non-rock that mutates over a long period of time would be Basinski's Disintegration Loops.  Excellent delivery of its theme.  But if things aren't really going to happen, then I'll lose interest.  Timewave Zero seems to be a good example of how little can happen in an ambient album.

It looks like this was their practice run in developing what would come to be Absolute Everywhere, so a couple of lesser-known failures may be expected, but it would still be nice if this were a good album.  These two long tracks, sometimes separated in four movements depending on the release, are very simple and very "easy."  A band like Blood Incantation likely knows by now that activity is a large part of their identity.  Such rambunctious behavior was made present as early as Demo II (I have yet to find a complete Demo I).  But from hoew easygoing and predictable this 40-minute EP is, it's safe to say that the band decided to make a little extra money by passing off this practice run in the world of space ambient as a release.   Every atmospheric trick they try to pull off might be reminiscent of space, but only because these tricks were perfected with much more originality by the likes of Tangerine Dream.  It finally takes a turn by introducing a guitar melody halfway through the second 20-minute track, and even then it just fades away after a few minutes without changing gears at all.

I'd really have to say that this is the worst of the Blood Incantation releases so far.  I understand that the practice is necessary, but the idea of releasing it was nothing more than a cash grab.  Maybe they'll be much better at the space ambient thing one day, but this practice run is nothing more than that.

58

Blood Incantation - Starspawn (2016)

Genres: Tech Death Metal

I'm extraordinarily happy that I finally get to catch up on Blood Incantation.  Checking out all of their earlier demos and EP's that I could find, I was flat-out excited for their debut album, Starspawn, which was the album that put them on the metal map.  At first I didn't pay a lot of attention to them, as death isn't necessarily my favorite metal subgenre and RYM year chart ratings are practically dominated by metalheads.  Hell, right now the number one album for 2025 is the new Deafheaven.  However, to be able to say that I am the first to write a Metal Academy review for this album after having been released for almost ten years seems almost impossible to me, so I'll just roll with it and accept the honor.  But before I review it, lemme fill you in on something the band confirmed about this debut album: "Everything was done live with tubes, tape, etc – there are no triggers, click-tracks or quantized anything on the recording, no cut & paste and very few punch-ins."

A minute and a half in and I was already wide-eyed.  Blood Incantation struggled to find their sound and the proper structural techniques needed to really standout for a while, but this album seemed to make a point of harmony in the whole band pretty damn early on.  This one is CREEPY.  Right on the opening 13-minute epic (super bold move for a 35-minute album with five tracks), the band makes their their darkest release so far, ripping the very idea of riffs in half with some incredible and very disturbing tricks that suck you right into a psychedelic black hole and then, as Sarris would say, "tears through it like tissue paper."  It's not even a new step forward in death metal by any means whatsoever.  This is the standard, straightforward death metal sound with masterful progressive behavior.  The build-up issues and unpredictability of their previous EP, Interdimensional Extinction, are fixed to perfection, made seemingly effortless, like if Fix-It Felix just lightly struck his golden magic hammer to it.  The outstanding production works in tandem with Reidl's and Kolontyrsky's guitars.  Although everyone is working at max power, the show stealers are the two guitarists.  There's a beautiful presence their just forged from dark matter, driving the amazing, disturbing and sometimes psychedelic guitar work through the production's incredible ambiance.  I may even go as far as to say that this became my new favorite death metal track.

Next was Choaplasm, and I began it immediately thinking to myself, "There's no way they're going to top that first track, right?  But they can at least come close with the upcoming songs."  This one's more metronomical, and a bit more brutal and effectively primitive because of it.  It's also much more vocal, allowing our singer Riedl to make the most of the verses he sings and the ambient textures created through the production.  At a short five minutes, this song did a great job of continuing the presence of the previous song with a more primitive approach.  The real challenge was how to put a spin on things with track three, Hidden Species (ViB Pt. II).  Now as it's a part two, does that mean the wild balance of varying elements becomes the determining factor in yet another song, hinting at repetition?  Yes and no.  This song shoves astral ambiance down your throat without getting in the way of the rest of the band doing its job while giving Riegl plenty of time to sing.  It appears that the dark ambient genre had a say in the atmospheric choices of this song, allowing drawn out reverb to take over the atmosphere and leaving drummer Isaac Faulk to take over with his incredible jazz timing.

Track four kicks off with dark ambient noise backgrounds, combining noise with winds in a familiar yet skillful and chilling way.  I was a bit nervous about this song due to RYM tagging it a dark folk song, but the way they introduce the song and the sound effect choices they made work perfectly with the darker, sombre tones.  It was the right thing to do to include such a creepy yet somewhat metallic folk track on an album that occasionally played with sound effects and death doom.  And appropriately after the winds have died down, the final track, the title track, slams you with extreme death metal like you're a contestant on Takeshi's Castle.  Right in the face.  When I think about it, going for this type of extreme may have been done before as early as the earliest, but stylistically, it's the proper way to end the album: raw, unhinged, unadulterated extreme metal.  It's the same way Metallica began Ride the Lightning.  This doesn't stop the band from being Blood Incantation.  This song goes into unconventional riffs and repetitive progression in a way that says, "you've seen the weirder side of us.  Now that you know who and what we are, have some traditional death, on the house."

My metal fanboyism considered the possibility that this would be a flawless debut, but I didn't think it was actually going to happen.  It has been a long time since I've had this much fun with a death metal album.  The band masters all the familiar essentials like they're bringing them to the stage for the first time in human history.  Starspawn serves as a focused yet beautifully unhinged reminder that traditional death metal is not dead, and can still be among the best of the best even 40 years after its inception.

100

Blood Incantation - Live Vitrification (2018)

Genres: Tech Death Metal, Dark Ambient

After having fallen in love with Starspawn, especially its thirteen minute openerand six minute sequel that serves as the namesake for this album, I was excited for this live piece.  Both pieces are played in one whole on this album.  I was really hoping for something incredible after the disappointment of their attempt at putting a live B-side on one of their earlier demos, so I was slightly weary of another life album that early in their career.  But as soon as I turn this on and the cheering stops, I'm practically shot in the head by death metal extremes with a giant-ass Remington.  Not only are the extremes on this live rendition of my favorite death metal song improved on, but I hear everything among the blackened noise.  Everything from the spoace-like ambiance to the blastbeats outperforms the studio comparison, so already half of the album is one of the greatest life performances I've ever heard.  Cloud 99, and you read that right.

But I listened to the ORIGINAL edition with the second track, which takes a dark / black ambient approach.  A real fan would check that out.  As well, I don't like the idea of cutting an album in half for future releases, so I'm sticking with this edition.  Now my first thought was that they could easily make it work, considering the inclusion of that effects-oriented folk song on side B of Starspawn.  The moment it turns on it sounds lo-fi, which isn't necessarily bad, but is usually bad.  A number of problems can associate from including a side B of a totally different genre, including loss of flow, loss of interest and an obvious inferiority from one genre to another.  But this is BLOOD INCANTATION.  We'll see how it goes.

Now even though I have given 100's to some special ambient pieces, I still often struggle with ten-minute plus ambient songs.  Even two minutes in, while I liked the direction it was going in well enough, it took a while for that wild personality the band cemented on their first EP to really show its colors.  Blodd Incantation had developed a habit of forcing the point on your in a quick yet lovable way, and although the dark ambient aspects are properly chilling throughout and do a damn good job relaxing me in tandem with my cinnamon coffee, this is also their first time in ambient.  They didn't manage to bring all the charm of their skills in reverb to this otherwise nice and calming track.  There are vocals in the background that give you some interesting dialogue on the natural world, life on other planets, and other sci-fi topics that work well for the vibe they're going for.  This is the kind of ambient track that successfully plants images in your head throughout the whole run.

It's pretty cute that Blood Incantation thinks they can just cut out a whole half.  I say, DEAL WITH IT.  You dug your own grave just as easily as you released practice EP's.  Besides, I believe every artist has the right to expand their horizons and practice.  If not for tracks like this, they wouldn't have ever made an album like their beloved Absolute Everywhere, so that second half is a piece of history, and I will judge the album with it in mind.  SO while the live track is easily one of the finest metal performances I've ever heard, this otherwise good ambient track doesn't fit perfectly well.  I still highly recommend this album for metalheads, though.

93

Blood Incantation - Astral Spells (2014)

Genres: Death Metal

This one made a point of going a step forward pretty quickly.  On this demo, the band gets a vocalist who's perfect for the music but doesn't amaze on his own.  Instead, the much clearer though still imperfect production and updated proggy technicality help it stand out on the first side.  Now is this the most innovative progression?  Not really.  It's fun to listen to and keeps things alive for the short runtime, but I feel like I could've thought of some of these tricks.  The percussions feel a bit weak in comparison to everything else, and even though vocals should be a little drowned by the instrumentation at times, there were times where I could barely hear the singer.

And then I got mental whiplash from a poorly produced live side.  What was the point of even including this recording on anything?  If the fuzz wasn't bad enough, the angle at which this live side was recorded couldn't properly capture everything.  Instruments, especially the percussions, were constantly drowning out others, and I could only barely hear the singing.  I would go as far as to say that this live side ruined what was already a perfectly functional EP.

Strangely enough, this album sometimes felt like an Immortal release, so it was pretty easy to compare one extreme album to another, no pun intended.  Even after having re-evaluated Battles in the North and giving it only 3-stars while Immortal's debut kept the same rating, I feel like this album lands somewhere in the middle of the two. With the first side being so good, I was going to go for the higher side of middle, but this live side confirmed that I'm going with the lower side.

Blood Incantation - Interdimensional Extinction (2015)

Genres: Tech Death Metal

Now for the real Blood Incantation.  This is the first of their releases to get great ratings online.  Starting this short EP with The Vth Tablet, I found that the song's production was practically perfect, but as far as a progressive metal song goes, I'm not quite sure I haven't heard this before.  It's great to hear them expanding their horizons, and finding very careful ways to include synths, but this track didn't greatly interest me until 3-minutes in when the guitar solo started, and that's when things got rough.  Unfortunatley, the song ended like 30 seconds later... Not the best way to introduce the new production.  Thankfully, Obfuscating the Linear Threshold showed a major improvement in how the "convoluted" (as one Bandcamp reviewer mentioned) percussions and riffs came together.  This one was a much more unpredictable song that often jolted into different vibes so quickly that they may have been different songs.  So while all of these parts are cool, this song feels more like a disjointed collective rather than a perfectly fleshed out piece of art.  But don't get me wrong, there are easily some 9/10 bits in this otherwise 8/10 song.  I'd just prefer less "Look what I can do" and more "listen to the song."

Hovering Lifeless kicks off side B with a quieter guitar tone but a complex and somewhat jazzy drum session.  This song, once again, is done before, but maintains the both the intrigue and the structural flaws of the previous track.  These guys are incredible at blast beats, but the constant jolts into totally different vibes with no sense of build up kind of goes against itself.  Death's Symbolic had a damn good sense of build up and maintained the technical aspects they invented on Human quite flawlessly.  It was nice, however, to get a synth solo, even though it was short as hell, and even ends the damn song.  Finally, there's Subterranean Eon.  This one starts out with a stronger sense of balance between complexity, melody and the switches between different levels of heaviness.  This maintained a straightforward yet ever-shifting composition that remained interesting throughout most of its length.  Easily the best track, IMO.

So if I had to describe this album quickly, I'd say it's "much cooler than it is good."  It's a largely riff-oriented album that shows the band sometimes confusing unpredictability with "prog metal."  The general vibes are great and the production is almost perfect, but there needs to be more death metal vocals and more time to flesh all these ideas into other songs.  Still, this is easily the best of the three so far.  Kinda glad this isn't getting on the 80-100 chart and taking up space, which means I may have room for the new Deafheaven.

78/100

I'll be skipping the split with Spectral Voice for the time being, and moving onto the debut next.

Today's the day I'm finally back on metal.  I've gotten my list percentages in a comfortable spot and can check out an entire catalog right now without undoing the hard work I put into expanding my horizons for months.  And I'll start with this particular catalog's demo era onwards.

Blood Incantation - Demo II (2013)

Genre: Death Metal

Unable to find the first demo's first track, I moved right onto the second one in disappointment.  This one's a bit fuzzy, naturally, but the helps just as much as it hinders.  There's a bit more charm here than there is distraction.  These early attempts aren't the heaviest songs, but the compositions show some definite early traces of major skill.  I could hear things largely clearly, although it's pretty clear that the group didn't intend to use the fuzziness to their advantage, meaning it helped on its own.  Having heard many demos and bootlegs, I was still able to enjoy this as the riffs and the layouts were just fine.

72/100

OK, I've got about 40 albums to go before the 100 - 80 section of my albums log is down to 20% metal.  After that, I'll listen to another 30 or so to stay ahead for the metal band I'm super late on.  Today I've got a Steamhammer marathon.  First album was a trippy if not samey experience in smooth yet raw riffage, 85, but MK II's progressive route allows the band to expand their talents.  Not done with that one yet.

The entire world has waited 50 years for this day.

Bands like the above are right up my alley.  BUT, I think I'll take some time to focus on this "occult rock" scene that RYM just brought in.  It got me to check out the BOC live album On Your Feet Or On Your Knees.  God, that was a testament to 70's rock with some incredible riffs, and it convinced me to re-evaluate Secret Treaties, which I'm about to do right now.

Today I checked out Mountain's Nantucket Sleighride, and the first two albums by Damnation of Adam Blessing.

That's an interesting take Rex. Godflesh have a very original sound of their own as you certainly know them when you hear them. Their albums all have their own unique personalities too as they tend to change their sound up a bit with each release. I can see why you might say that those releases tend to stick with similar formulas across their tracklistings though as the cold industrial atmosphere is unanimous throughout the vast majority of their classic material. There's no doubt that they are less song-writing oriented than the other artists you mentioned too, instead tending to focus more on riffs & textures which sees them coming across as more blatantly industrial than most other artists from the genre.

I mean, I'm all for slow progression and all.  I think The Disintegration Loops is still in my top 100.  But the sound changes in their albums get a little drowned out.  My mind goes for the balance between texture, writing / theme, production, etc., and I feel like the texture and production greatly outweighed the songwriting capabilities, as opposed to the intriguing and Lynchian mutation of TDL.  Still 9.5 to Streetcleaner at least for how original the "general" sound is, and major kudos to them for finding a signature.  The rest kinda fluctuates between 7 and 9.

I've personally had some difficulty "getting" into Godflesh.  I can acknowledge their talent easily, but with all of their albums facing the sameyness problem, whether that means the album is unique to the catalog but gets overdrawn or that they're rewriting an old album, it's difficult to give the highest marks to on my part.  Selfless, however, got an 88/100 from me, so it's more or less the same rating.  Honestly, that Broken EP, as well as a few Killing Joke albums, are all higher on my chart.

I don't use Spotify because I don't support companies with terrible customer service.  But It's super cool to see someone else checked out Opus III.  Good stuff; their career ended way too early.  And of course, how do you go wrong with David Sylvian?

I guess in your case it would be more appropriate to see if you have one of those top tens.

Not as yet but it would be an interesting undertaking at some point.

It's that interesting undertaking that drives me.

I don't dish out the full five stars very often Rex as there are very few releases in music as a whole that I regard as being perfect. I doubt very much I'd find a Celtic new age release that I'd be tempted with but it would certainly have to omit the cheese & the moments that see me thinking of a cross between Christmas music & Riverdance (which is a comparison I found myself drawing upon during "Ommadawn" on a couple of occasions).

I noticed, but I figured it didn't hurt to ask.  I guess in your case it would be more appropriate to see if you have one of those top tens.

I just went on a Fairport Convention marathon today.  Here are my ratings:

1. Fairport Convention - fun and catchy, sounds like a lot of folk albums from that era but with the healthy spirit needed to get noticed.  82

2. What We Did on Our Holidays - This boasted the spirit I was hoping to find in a classic folk rock band that the music community loves.  It has quite a few different types of beautiful songs and some incredible shared vocals between the band members.  96

3. Unhalfbricking - This is where they go for a more straightforward and traditional folk sound, rocking their instrumentals while handing full vocal duty to Sandy Denny.  This new format doesn't have quite the same originality as before, but for a traditional-stayle folk album, this features some wonderful instrumentation and a magical feel.

4. Liege and Lief - A more traditional album.  It boasts all of the strengths of the previous album with one flaw: it's a bit more drawn out for the same length range.  92

5. Full House - Even though Denny's departure was beyond unfortunate, the band largely made up for that with some beautiful and yet surprisingly poppy tunes that don't break new ground but constantly entertain.  91.

6. Angel Delight - And this is where the scars are showing.  The group is still writing pretty enjoyable tunes in the long run, but the magic seems largely missing in the first half, and the progressive aspects don't carry melody well.  72.

I assumed you haven't been educating yourself in Celtic new age exclusively, not in new age as a whole.  I remember you talking about new age as a whole, and remember that you said it was the Celtic stuff that you had difficulty with.  And if we all have an obsession with it, then I see no reason for me to be called out.  Perhaps the phrase "certainly not" seemed demanding, but even if I compare one user's awareness of a specific genre towards my own of the same genre, this is not the same thing as comparing the whole of two users' musical knowledge.  For all I know, you've heard 50,000 albums, but I'm still proud of the 1500 I've heard.  I do have my favorites, but they are strictly for musical fun rather than the education I put myself through.  And some of my favorites have obvious flaws to them, like the overlength of Bat Out of Hell II which I have to address as a technical issue if I'm being perfectly honest.  If you struggle with something, then there's a part of me that wishes to suggest an alternative outlook and method into approaching it.  This is what lead me to favorite albums from outside my comfort zone, including Music for the Jilted Generation, Celtic Woman for the nostalgia and especially Graceland.  If I talk about my own traits that I view as skills, then I expect the rest of the community to boast the same pride because we're all trying to educate ourselves.  But we all have weak points as well.  Example, I'm grossly uneducated in drum and bass as well as country, which I've struggled to get into.  But I'm still going to give them another shot someday.  I expect the same pride from other users here, especially the veterans, and I'd never complain as it is never my intention to challenge another user's pride.

But I do have to wonder, if you could give a Celtic new age album 5.0, what would it be?  I assume one that feels less cheesy.

I love it when you get all condescending & elitist Rex, looking down on all of us mere mortals from above. It makes me feel all warm & fuzzy. My point stands though as nothing you said attempts to combat it. In my world, a rating is simply a numerical representation of how much you enjoy a release in comparison to all other music you've heard. Enjoyment is the only criteria that matters. Not originality, variety, cultural impact, whether it's the best example I've heard from its subgenre or any other element. It's all about how many jollies it gives me. That's how I see it & you can feel free to disagree with me at your leisure.

It's probably worth mentioning that labelling Tim Hecker as a drone artist is stretching the truth a bit too. That's probably why you like him more than artists with a genuine claim to the tag.

What the hell was that about?  I'm literally talking about something that I love and am attempting to have a conversation.  I happen to legitimately like cariety and originality, and I never said anything about cultural impact.  You've known for a long time that I get bored with samey albums.  And just so you know, he's voted as drone all the time on RYM.  How DARE you talk like that.  Boss or not, that was fifty kinds of rude.  You're literally acting like I was never allowed to have a different criteria from you to begin with.  If you weren't the head honcho here, I'd report you.  I never said I was better than you.  I was speaking my beliefs, and you allowed me to do that.  I was having a happy conversation with you until you misguidedly assumed I was trying to condescend to you.  I don't know the name of the Martian who came down to you and taught you that line of thinking, but I love talking about ratings and reviews.  I am literally here for that.

I love being a critic, and I treat all genres fairly because I want to treat all artists fairly.  That means I treat the original stuff YOU create fairly, too.  There isn't a single album in my top 200 that didn't amaze me ON THE STANDARDS OF THE GENRES, so don't go acting like I've been faking my way through these forums for the last twelve years.

I love variety.

I love making lists.

I love talking about music.

Are you all going to criticize me for that?  HOW DARE YOU.  You invite people who love music here.  I am autistic.  I do things MY way, and who gives a damn if it's normal or not?  And yes, you can do things you way, but you never wrote a rule that says I can't help you to enjoy a new kind of music, and you never wrote one that says I have to rewrite a list of 15000 ranked albums just because I don't do things your way.  That is all I was trying to do, and you will not speak out for me by trying to rewrite my intentions.  If you're gonna burn me at the stake, lemme know so I can leave my will and testament to leave everything I owe to you because you're just that painfully hurt from me talking about what I love.

All you could've said was, "If I didn't get into it then, I'm likely not going to get into it now" and left it at that.  I would've accepted that, and since I'm the first to think about it, what does that say about your behavior towards me?  And what, in any possible universe, is wrong with a guy suggesting you open yourself to a new world of music?  Tell me how learning to love a new genre is a negative?  Tell me how it's so painful, please do.  Tell me how it's so horribly rude to even suggest that.

You're the one who turned a friendly suggestion into an entitlement issue and a rank issue.  You wanna play that game?  Let's play.  You can say you heard it as a kid and didn't get into it, but that doesn't mean you gave it a proper shot.  The distance between now and the first time you did something is NOT the same thing as experience.  Anybody can spend thirty years being familiar with a concept, but the actual time spent trying to study it is what matters.  So if you say you're not into it and I say I am and I say something that suggests it's a better genre than you think, you deliberately told me that there's something I accomplished that you didn't.  And then you get mad at me suggesting to you the way I went about it and detailing it for you?  So much for this place being called "Academy" if the creator isn't gonna bother learning new things.  Your limited clan system defeats the very idea that a person can love music as a whole.  I played along with the clan system because I wanted an account, but I grew to love other metal genres on this site, and you're trying to deny me that.  Totally hypocritical.  You deliberately said there's something I achieved that you didn't, and I suggested a way for you to achieve it.  Period.  Etc. Bottom line, all its variants on a silver platter.

I haven't been this mad on the forums in years.  Congratulations, Daniel.  You achieved something nearly impossible at this point.

I have a pretty reasonable understanding of the subgenre Rex as almost all of the artists you mentioned were played around our family home when Ben & I were young. I disagree that we should put our own personal taste preferences & prejudices aside when rating a release though. On the contrary, I believe that a rating should solely be a reflection of how much you enjoy a release when compared to every other release in existence, otherwise it comes across as disingenuous as it's not a true reflection of the reviewer's feelings. It's like me saying "if I liked folk metal then this release would be the pinnacle" & awarding it five stars when the fact is that I enjoy even a subpar death metal release over the most highly regarded folk metal records. That's why we have this whole clan system in the first place i.e. so that we can voice our honest opinions without tainting the potential for a release to appeal to others. That's just my two cents though so please take it for what it is.

Certainly not.  Awareness of how another genre operates allows you to learn about those standards and eventually come to a reasonable consensus.  It takes practice as literally every genre does.  It's possible to like at least one album in a genre you don't like.  Example, my least favorite genre is drone, but the works of Tim Hecker have touched me in ways most musicians, even great ones, have failed to do so, while still holding true to the base technical criteria (if nor more so) that is demanded from the tech perspective.  This is why I have an honest top 100 that holds practically every genre imaginable, save drone simply because Tim Hecker was recently kicked out and I haven't thoroughly explored drone the way I have, say, symphonic prog, which I've recently put together a top 100 of 9/10 minimums for.  This doesn't mean I'll never explore it, though.  There is certainly nothing disingenuous about attempting to train yourself in this awareness.  I have absolutely no intention of being dishonest.

It didn't take me long to rely on my criteria while acknowledging personal experiences.  If a strong personal vibe can be achieved through the experience, even if you wouldn't call it a favorite, you can still greatly acknowledge the experience you were given.  This is how I avoid discrimination.  And yes, there will be times where I may need to re-evaluate albums due to changed standards.  In fact, I re-evaluated several Pink Floyd albums last week after having discovered Banco, and I'm overdo on re-evaluations of Never Mind the Bollocks, the first two Oasis albums and a few others.  But if you have a willingness to explore everything, then it should be maximized.  This is what led me to create a decent top 100 for doom, and good top 100's for death and black, all outside of my clans.

You need a little cheese to properly get into prog, IMO, as much of it is rooted in classical cheese.

I don't think that's the case at all Rex. But then it's already been well established that you have a much higher threshold for cheese than I do so I guess that's hardly surprising. I enjoy myself some new age music on occasion but the cheesier Celtic end of the spectrum is often too much for me.

But that's on new age music, and not all new age is cheesy.  This is also about prog.  Cheesiness is an aspect that can be done just as properly as something more serious.  And of course, there are cases where the balance is much more noticeable, such as the different between Solaris's two albums, 1990 which doesn't maintain a balance between the electronics and classical as well as it should, and Nostradamus which features all the same elements tamed for a more cinematic and emotional approach, displaying incredible maturity after one album.  Cheesiness can also get in the way, but it can also be an instrument in its own right.  I guess the finest example would be the difference between Bat Out of Hell and Space Jazz.

Of course, as an aspiring critic I learned early on to show absolutely no prejudice towards any genre, which includes accepting the genre for what it is and judging based on the standards you receive from some key releases.  This is why I often start out with fairly popular albums in the genre to wet my beak before heading to the raw classics.  Now in Celtic new age's case, I had already been a fan of Celtic Woman since I saw the PBS special when I was 10.  Comparing them to Enya and Clannad before going to McKennitt and Oldfield made things extremely easy.  There's real seriousness and professionalism in the latter two which may be drowned out for those who haven't gone on an educational binge for the genre.

Now 7/10 was the rating I originally gave to Master of Puppets when I first started albumming 12.5 years ago.  After exploring more thrash, that all changed.  And lemme tell you, Celtic new age can be the best thing for a stressful day, if you're willing to try and get into multiple genres.  Moving from hard rock to Arcade Fire, jazz, even some ambient, EDM, it's been the best ride of my life.

Ommadawn is #350 in my top 500 right between Alive 2007 and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.  You need a little cheese to properly get into prog, IMO, as much of it is rooted in classical cheese.  Of course, this is coming from a guy who owns Meat Loaf's biography.  Ommadawn showcases a flawless combination of Oldfield's strongest traits.  I've heard a decent deal of new age already, so it's easy to compare him to acts like McKennit, Vangelis, Enya, Yanni and Arkenstone.  His atmospheres are perfect from flying you right into the middle of nature while being able to show off instrumental prowess without making it feel like "showing off."

Ah, yes.  I remember when I went on a Moody Blues binge here last year.  A couple relistens put this in my top 100, and it's still there.  In Search of the Lost Chord is also brilliant while being a very different record.

Speaking of prog, I've been on a neo-prog binge lately in my efforts to expand my prog knowledge.  Right now it's Drifting Sun's On the Rebound.

I just finished the Motley Crue movie The Dirt again.  For a generic rock biopic, it's got legit acting and some seriously powerful, if not potentially NC-17, humor.

That movie inspired me to check out the three Wildside albums.

1. Under the Influence.  Would've been a moderate success if the group formed six years earlier.  Sleaze rock didn't get far.  86/100

2. Wildside.  So now they're ripping off Alice in Chains the year after Cobain killed himself and the grunge scene?  52/100

3. Formerly Known as Young Gunns.  More of the first, but a little more generic.  Not bad.  Not done yet, halfway, but for this first half but I'm thinking about a 73/100.

I've been on Progarchives lately.  Gave a shout out to MartinDavey there.  I've been looking for recommendations for more diversified albums since so many of them are samey, but I need to educate myself in the essentials as well.

Arena - Songs from the Lions Cage (1995)

Genres: Neo-Prog, Prog Rock

Impressive first attempt.  Energetic and focused on melody and personality.

8. Frank Zappa
Genres: Exp. Rock, Jazz-Rock, Jazz Fusion, Comedy Rock

When I was first getting into albums, Freak Out was my first venture into experimental rock, and I loved every effed-up second of it. That raw level of boldness in Zappa's music is justified by his absurd personality. The guy knows how to write what's potentially the worst music on Earth, and make it more fun than a drunken night out on the town. And why? Why did we need Zappa? Simple. Sometimes, we just need to let loose.

Freak Out!: 100
Hot Rats: 100
Apostrophe: 100
Over-Nite-Sensation: 99
Joe's Garage, Act I: 97

Score: 99.2 / 5
Staying Score: 100

Didn't you say that you were separating Frank Zappa's solo work from the Mothers of Invention releases Rex? "Freak Out!" was the debut album from the Mothers & I'm pretty sure that "Over-Nite Sensation" is also considered to be a Mothers release.

There's the "Rule of Names."

Before I post this, I must note that there has been an update to the rules that I forgot to mention. Because certain bands like say "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" are also counted as part of an artist's main career, there will be a "namesake rule" that states that a solo act can count their time with a band as part of their major career, especially since some bands continue without their frontman, and can still be two separate entries, such as the difference between The Mothers of Invention and Frank Zappa. Thus, the band and the frontman can have two separate entries. This does not count for duets like Simon and Garfunkel, but for a frontman and a named band sharing album title credits.

The Mothers of Invention are also known all over the internet as "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention."  This rule is based on the notion that the band itself is just as relevant to the solo artist's career under his name.  This means that Zappa can count his time with The Mothers under his slot, and Tom petty can do so as well.  But this is only true if extra credit to the frontman is established by name in the fanbase or the album releases.  Nobody really refers to Petty's band as just, "The Heartbreakers."  Alice Cooper could do the same thing had he made it, and "The Alice Cooper Band" would have a separate entry as well.  RYM does this, too, and it was pretty obvious why.

This is one of those cases where an idealist has to have every little thing be perfect without realizing that "evil" itself is based in justifying a low opinion of a whole group by pointing out something they often do that may be perceived as "wrong."  There is no such thing as "perfectly evil" or "perfectly good," thus there's no merit to attacking a persona's musical abilities along with their beliefs in many cases.  He's doing the same thing that Burzum's doing, stereotyping.  Evil keeps placing blame and then justifying cruelty.  And zealousness is a form of cruelty, as it's built on drastically low opinions of people.  The way he's thinking, it's like saying "You can't say Hitler was good at strategy!  He's evil!"  But if he wasn't good at strategy, then he wouldn't have been a major dictator.  Basically, the lie that a person needs to either be good at everything or bad at everything is a disappointment, and I honestly believe people who think like that shouldn't even be allowed to vote...

I would say all of this to this person and then reply with, "and how do I know you don't support something evil?  Did it ever occur to you that someone you support could be doing something evil and hiding it?  Don't tell me you can confirm that none of your favorite artists do that."  Then I would block him.  People like that tend to focus on the last thing said, which will either make this person more mad or plant a seed in the head that might grow larger or both.

Marillion - Seasons End (1989)

Genres: Neo-Prog, Prog Rock

This was exactly what I needed for my 1989 chart.

There are many of us music reviewers who can't stand it when a band betrays their classic sound or when a major player in a band leaves, and then there are those of us who will accept the change if it's necessary. In this instance, it was the departure of England's most obvious Peter Gabriel wannabe, Fish. With the new AOR-oriented vocals of Steve Hogarth in play, it was time for Marillion to try something new. And is this a good thing? Well, for most neo- prog fans, Marillion is practically the go-to band for the rawest quality and for an introduction. But I treat all genres equally. I have favorites, but I never judge them unfairly towards other genres. And in this case, all Marillion is to me is a very catchy pop group that kept rewriting the same damn pop songs every album during the whole Fish era.

Seasons End might take slack for the chance in sound, but after four albums of the exact same thing which drew me away from neo-prog in the first place (after 12 years I haven't even gotten to 30 neo albums yet), I welcome it with arms more open than the range. Right from the glorious intro, The King of Sunset Town, I was taken in by the more progressive instrumental behavior and its raw beauty. Throughout the whole eight minutes, I was thinking to myself, "It's about time Marillion started acting like a prog band." This proves that Fish's whole vision for the band was, "What would Genesis sound like today is Gabriel didn't leave?" But of course, there's some room for hard- hitting AOR with songs like The Uninvited Guest and Holloway Girl. This gives us a stronger taste of what we had before, the poppier melodies but with a stylistic choice of bands such as Magnum. And as a man who believes On a Storyteller's Night almost rivals the Boston debut, I am not complaining about this. The album will also take time to soak in its atmospheres with the beautiful but potentially overlong titular track. And I even get a little jazziness in Berlin, and jazziness is something neo-prog needs. Do the smooth jazz aspects right, and it's perfect for the subgenre.

This is the Marillion album I wanted: a multi-faceted one. With a more serious and less obvious style, Marillion have finally distanced themselves from the Genesis sound and took some time to expand. I suppose the legal issues that caused Fish's departure were just what the band needed to finally expand their horizons. Seasons End is the more intriguing album of the classic era, and it gives me hope for the albums after this one, even going as far as to potentially ignore the negative reviews.

97/100

Paco de Lucia - Almoraima (1976)

Genre: Flamenco

Returning to this to see if I still consider it a perfect album.  It's extraordinarily rare for me to consider an album where every song is practically the same genre a perfect one these days, but this is getting really, really close to it after five tracks.  Three to go.

Premiata Forneria Marconi - L'Isola Di Niente (1974)

Genres: Symphonic Prog Rock

So there are only about 50 prog albums in my 80-100 section on my log.  Fixing that.  It's about time I got around to these guys again.

Not listed as crossover on RYM, but this is 100% crossover.

Garlic Boys - Smegmania (1990)

Genres: Street Punk, Crossover Thrash

The genre-tagging on RYM's a bit on the screwy side.  There's a seriously metallic side to this album that rules almost the whole 36 minute runtime.  Having recently re-evaluated some Ratos de Porao and Wehrmacht just a couple days ago, I'm fully convinced this is crossover.  Having said that, I don't really need to put this on Metal Academy, and why?  Because it's just an alright album.  It has some of the melodic tendencies of the previous more punk-rooted album, and the production's clear enough to grasp everything.  There's also the fact that the metallic edge was a total and somewhat pleasant surprise.  But since the major focus seems to be the crossover sound, there's a little less of that weird variety present in the previous album.  Consider that the previous was only 24 minutes and this was 36, we have yet another Master of Puppets scenario with a noticeable drop in quality.

61/100

Dark Angel - Leave Scars (1989)

Genres: Thrash Metal

Ironic that the first post on this thread is a Dark Angel review.  This is a return to the album after having it in my thrash chart for a couple of years.  But a return to Darkness Descends a while back and a lowered rating  made it necessary to return to this and see if it still belongs in my top 100 of thrash or my top 100 of 1989.  It seems pretty obvious from the first track that the primary focus of this album is simply to thrash and be heavy, so that's not necessarily a good sign despite appealing to the metalhead in me with its raw power, especially where Hoglan is concerned.  This guy's prowess goes far beyond the standard thrash that these guys play.  But in this raw power is also some subpar mixing.  Things are a little fuzzier than I like, and combined with the ambiance of the vocals, I can barely make out what Rinehart's saying.  So the production alone has a big pro and a big con.  On top of that, the guitarists' solos aren't really doing anything for me anymore.  Thankfully, there are some instances of real compositional skill.  The seven-minute song No One Answers gets better as it goes along, for example.  But the mixing can also really screw things up.  The instrumental Cauterization's maxing is constantly getting in the way of the guitars, almost making it sound more like a harsh noise album than a metal album.  I get it, they have power.  Now can that power be molded with SONGWRITING?  You know, like Butcher the Weak, Ride the Lightning, any Emperor album, PAINKILLER?

I'm not sure why I ever gave this album a 9/10.  Did the heaviness really hypnotize me that much when I first heard it?  Damn. That actually hurts.  They didn't even manage to do justice to that Zeppelin cover.  Was I even paying attention to the album?  It really is a brutal album.  This is the kind of brutality that slam death metal bands wish they could achieve, and thankfully the band makes it look easy.  Unfortunately, everything is album the album is just OK.  Having said this, even though I'm disappointed in myself for betraying my long-time standards for heaviness back then, I'm happy about this major correction.

65 / 100

Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl (1989)

Genres: Pop Rock

My first venture into Roy Orbison, still working on my 1989 chart.

Astor Piazzolla - Libertango (1974)

Genre: Tango Nuevo

Heard two of his albums a couple days ago and was utterly wowed, and this is said to be better than the two I heard.  I made some decent progress on my 1989 chart today with a couple of other albums, and need to keep up with that, but I still need to check out some other genres, so thankfully I found the tango master to help with that.

I'm gonna blow through all four Lounge Lizards albums today while I polish off The Drawing of the Three.  This first one is brilliant so far.  Extremely catchy, highly intriguing.  There's only one flaw: a couple of these brilliant jazz-rock songs are WAY too short.  Two minutes?  Really?  With a little more length in these tracks, this would be a perfect album.  I'm on the second to last track, Epistrophe, which is the longest track at 4:15, and this is looking a lot like this album's getting a 96/100.  Really can't wait to get through the rest.

The book's also very well done as well.  I'm about to see Odetta getting drawn.

Peter Gabriel - Passion (Music for The Last Temptation of Christ)

Genre: New Age

This is extraordinarily difficult for me to find.  The only band of this example with more four albums that I can think of is Boston, and they aren't even metal.  Yes, each one did get gradually worse, and they only have six.

Klaus Schulze is a big part of the reason why 70's Germany was so incredible and revolutionary.  With Tangerine Dream, these two bands redefined atmosphere.  Irrlicht is a wonderful debut and one of his best.

Pat Metheny - Imaginary Day (1997)

Metheny's just perfect for introducing jazz to newbies.  He's the perfect mish-mash of jazz's more traditional wild nature and accessibility.  So far, these first three tracks are much more spiritual than his usual output.  Nice to know I have another jazz favorite.

Dream Theater: Parasomnia (2025)

Genres: Prog Metal

I've been avoiding to many potential "sure-fire" metal albums to get my yearly top 100's more diversified, but this is a new year, and there are some bands I will make that exception for.  Dream Theater was the band that got me into prog metal, and although they're not my favorite anymore, if they've got an album the fans like then I will check it out on the day of its release.  And this is an event to look forward to for fans everywhere, and why?  Simple...

Portnoy's back.

Since Dream Theater mastered the standard style early in their career, we must already deal with some sense of familiarity.  So all that's left is how far they drive it.  And they're driving it all the way from NY to CA.  Some of these bits here are straight-up thrash metal with a strong edge backed up by some of their most clever riffs since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and especially Portnoy's drumming.  This is the album where he blew the mercury out of the meter.  He outperforms everybody here without even thinking.  Anything familiar or maybe even only decent about the songwriting is empowered by him.  This is easily some of the best metal drumming I've ever heard, IMO.

As for the rest of it, the short story is that this is yet another "cool" entry into their catalog.  Instead of choosing more meta concepts like the "octave," or telling another rock opera, they went right into a more conventional type of concept.  Much like Metallica's Ride the Lightning covered various forms and themes concerning death, this album's all in the title.  This is probably the perfect theme for Dream Theater of all people to tackle.  I mean, if the band name didn't say it all, albums like Scenes from a Memory should tell you.  Lyrically, they're doing everything they can to bring out the fear factor in each song, almost like we're hearing horror stories but we're supposed to pity the subjects rather than be scared for them.  Instrumentally, even though their riffs aren't always the most original, they're effortlessly heavy and easier to get behind.  Although, once again, Portnoy's masterful performance helps.

Parasomnia seems like a creative splurge for the band, but it doesn't get in the way of the style they developed for a single second.  In fact, I could even say it makes the same mistake as Paramainomeni in the sense that all tracks are following the same goal, but every song shows them doing everything they can at that point to recall the classic era with something a little new.  They never really stopped being relevant, but this feels kind of like a comeback album in a sense.  Dream Theater, ever since Metropolis Pt. 2, has been the kind of prog metal band you need to immerse yourself in, much like a good old ambient album.  And this is the album where they got that back.  No overdoing metal themes like Octavarium, no 2112 knockoffs, just Dream Theater being dreamy and heavy.

90 / 100

Oh, yeah.  I've heard all 12 Slayer albums.

1. South of Heaven

2. Seasons in the Abyss

3. Reign in Blood

4. Decade of Aggression

5. Hell Awaits

6. Show No Mercy

7. Divine Intervention

8. Undisputed Attitude

9. Christ Illusion

10. God Hates Us All

11. Diabolus in Musica

12. World Painted Blood

13. Repentless

I was thinking about checking that one out today, but I decided to focus on artists I've already experienced, so to satisfy my electronic mood I headed to quite the brilliant little obscurity: Susumu Hirasawa's Ice-9.  Highly recommended for anyone into atmospheric electronic music.

The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies

Genres: Country Rock, Pop Rock, Roots Rock

Gotta say, when I first checked out the Kinks years ago, I had zero interest in them as a country rock band.  But I'm 31 and I'm tired of putting off this shit.  So far, I'm really loving it, but Acute Schizophrenia's tempo and vibe, as great as they are, only make me wanna sing "I'M JUST A SWEET TRAAANS-VES-TIIIIIGHT-AH!"  Did my coworker really have to play THAT today?

Darkthrone

1. A Blaze in the Northern Sky

2. Transilvanian Gunher

3. Under a Funeral Moon

4. Panzerfaust

5. Soulside Journey

6. Ravishing Grimness

7. Arctic Thunder

8. Total Death

9. Eternal Hails

10. Goatlord (Demo)

11. Land of Frost (Demo)

12. Oldstar

Alright, jumpin' on the Crazy Train.

1. Paranoid

2. Master of Reality

3. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

4. Black Sabbath

5. Heaven and Hell

6. Sabotage

7. Mob Rules

8. Vol. 4

9. Past Lives

10. Technical Ecstasy

11. Born Again

12. The Eternal Idol

13. Never Say Die

14. The Seventh Star

Blind Guardian

1. Imaginations from the Other Side

2. The God Machine

3. Nightfall in Middle-Earth

4. Live

5. Somewhere Far Beyond

6. A Night at the Opera

7. At the Edge of Time

8. Tales From the Twilight World

9. A Twist in the Myth

10. Beyond the Red Mirror

11. Follow the Blind

12. Batallions of Fear

Helloween (I'll do this one in reverse, because no. 1 might surprise you, as the ads say.

19. Rabbit Don't Come Easy

18. Chameleon

17. Pink Bubbles Go Ape

16. My God-Given Right

15. Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy

14. Straight Out of Hell

13. Master of the Rings

12. 7 Sinners

11. Gambling with the Devil

10. The Dark Ride

9. Helloween EP

8. Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy World Tour

7. Live in the UK

6. Time of the Oath

5. Walls of Jericho

4. Kepper Pt. 1

3. Keeper Pt. 2

2. Better Than Raw

1. Helloween (2021)

Exodus: Bonded By Blood

In the eyes of many metalheads, heaviness canbe a more defining factor than writing ability. This is why some more simplistic albums, like Kreator's Pleasure to Kill, are more well-received than many of their more creative efforts later on. So since this is Exodus' debut, it's not much of a surprise that a few of the songs have the same tempo and vibe. This album helped to push the limits of what was generally accepted in metal at the time. You can tell from the structures of the songs that these guys listened to a fair bit of that old-fashioned NWOBHM stuff like Iron Maiden, which explains the thankful focus on melody and riffs being handled and treated like equals. That's a difficult thing to do for a lot of thrash bands. Unfortunately for me, I'm a Metallica guy, and I'm that way because their golden age is diversified, exceptionally poetic and has a vocalist who doesn't need all those effects to maintain a form of power. I'm certain this singer here's done that without effects on other albums, but it was a faint distraction for me.

Now if I wanna pump myself up, I might choose a couple of songs from this album for the sake of that. The fact that each song goes for the same vibe, core and genre does in fact mean it's not a very creative effort in that vein, but the balance of melody and riffs is quite impressive, ensuring that Bonded By Blood is a consistently great effort and a good example of how to do thrash right, even if it's technically just one way.

90/100

Never could get into Mechina.  A lot of their songs are overlong and sound the same.

It's not a perfect process, but then there really isn't one. It's the one that I enjoy using and feel happiest with the results.

That's the only thing that matters.

I take all of those things into account in my individual track ratings Rex. That's one of the reasons that I'm so meticulous about listening to releases from start to finish & in their entirety as a complete piece of art.

Another place where I find that the methodology Ben & I use isn't perfect is when you've got a lengthy single-track release like Meshuggah's "I" E.P. for example. You end up with a flat score for the release that doesn't differentiate it with smaller percentages. It's not a major problem but it's worth noting nonetheless. It's better when those lengthy tracks are broken up so that you can score the individual parts (see the Spotify version of Edge of Sanity's "Crimson" for example).

Something that long is typically a chance to see how long the thrill of the ride lasts, to put it basically.  It's kind of like the one-hour piece I just heard by Pat Metheny, for whatever reason separated into four tracks: The Way Up.  It's really one long piece dividing the audio clip, but for a hour of Metheny-style jazz fusion it was absolutely wonderful.  The thing is, if it's one piece, I'd rather treat it as one piece instead of judging individual parts, so if the ride keep all its thrills throughout, even if a couple parts are a little weaker, it's still an incredible achievement because it's so rare to get something like that right.  In the end, it still gets a numerical score to compare with all the others, so even though we must remain analytical, the end result will be the same.

It's an average track rating Rexorcist (that also takes into account the length of each track).

As for Daniel's comment that it's extremely difficult for a release to achieve a 5 star rating using our technique, that's very true. It's for this reason that I tinkered with mine a bit. For me, any release that scores a 4.60 or higher gets 5 stars (I've also made it easier to get 3 stars and less). When I wasn't doing that, I found that about 90% of releases I was checking out were getting between 3.5 and 4.5, which wasn't a particularly good use of the 5 star rating spectrum. I now have a wider spectrum of ratings, but it results in Daniel and I not agreeing on what albums are rated, despite us pretty much giving them the same decimal score (I think I rated one of Sepultura's releases 5 stars and he gave it 4.5, but when we were comparing notes we found we had exactly the same track ratings).

I likely don't have to tell anyone who's been in this field longer than I have this, but looking at the album as a whole is just as important as the track-by-track basis, and in my opinion can make up for less-than-ideal averages.  For example, I'm willing to forgive a 7/10 track on a collective of nine songs, ex. The Lady in My Life.  The album is only 40 minutes, anyway.  A different example would be an hour-long album like Hysteria, where Love and Affection is just a nerfed version of previous tracks, while The Lady in My Life has its own identity which is similar to Human Nature at the very most.  So that's one song I won't forgive.  It could've been left off easily, thus Thriller gets a 100 and Hysteria gets a 98.

Now I won't forgive a song I don't like.  No 100's there.  The first example that comes to my mind is Rape Me on in utero.  It's just a recycled and more noisy Smells Like Teen Spirit with overly repetitive lyrics that are somehow praised by "What If" haters.  If not for that one song, in utero would be my IDEAL grunge album.  It's actually extraordinarily rare that I get an album with more than six tracks and all of them are five-stars.  The idea of raw perfection throughout is nearly impossible in that vein.  Closest I can think of is Paranoid, which has a 95/100 minimum for all eight in my opinion.

This is where I take into account other things.  The flow of the album is extremely important in that vein and can potentially forgive any imprefect yet enjoyable song, and I'll allow for some experimentation as long as the emotional boundaries feel consistent, such as the occasional dark humor on Bloody Kisses or the point of variety made early on in Planet Hemp's A invasão do sagaz homem fumaça.  Sticking within the same genre is a good idea on paper, but unless you can work within all the constraints of that one genre like Slayer showed in South of Heaven, chances are you could end up overlong or monotonous very quickly, like any Trapt album.

One example of flow being totally fucked with is an album everyone loves: In the Court of the Crimson King.  21st Century Schizoid Man is a flawless, hyperactive, jazz-rock gemstone, and I'll forgive the immediately shift into folksy rock on the second song.  I encourage that.  But the other three songs follow in the vein of the second and not in the first, making the best song feel out of place.  This is why I favor Red: none of it feels out of place.

Of course, taking into account the length isn't something I ever thought of.  I typically only do that when it comes to determining genres in the event that many songs of a genre are too short or long.

Daniel's correct. I use the exact same technique. It has been extremely helpful in my latest attempt to finally put together a list of my top 50 metal albums of all time, as it allows me to rank them quite precisely. As Daniel mentioned, things can be massaged when I'm not entirely comfortable where a release sits, but for the most part it works pretty well. I still have another 250 releases to thoroughly listen to and rank before I'll have covered all the releases I know will be around the 4.5 to 5.0 rating, along with a stack of releases I've never heard before but that I feel have a possibility to achieving such a rating.

I plan to unveil my top 50 at some point, so won't display any of that just yet (no spoilers!), but to give you an idea, here are the releases currently ranking 100 to 120 on my list. It's all completely subjective of course.

And to think I was afraid of rating something 99.4.  I might actually start using more in-depth decimals.  Or is that an average track rating?