Rexorcist's Forum Replies

Yellow Magic Orchestra - "Yellow Magic Orchestra" (1979)

The 1979 sophomore release from Tokyo synthpop act Yellow Magic Orchestra is a complete remake of their self-titled debut from the previous year, this time being achieved with a greater level of clarity & crispness in the production. I hated the original if I'm being honest &, interestingly, I've found myself going a little against the grain by hating the remake even more. This shit is as cheesy as absolute fuck & I really struggle with the vast majority of the material with only the annoyingly catchy "La femme chinoise" managing to break through my defenses. I'm quite simply not the intended audience for these early YMO records & will be giving them a wide birth in future.

For fans of Kraftwerk, Isao Tomita & Yukihiro Takahashi.

1.5/5

As I've said before, I tend to like cheesy music when it's done right.  Back when I was first starting on music forums, I was a bit of a nut for Meat Loaf.  These are the kinds of guys that can rock Japanese electronic cheese like tuxedos IMO.  Honestly, I consider YMO one of the top synthpop acts, and this remix album is a part of the reason why.

Art Pepper - The Trip

Genres: Post-Bop

It appears that Art pepper isn't very popular on Jazz Music Archives. That feels a little awkward since I've seen some darn good praise for his works on other websites. This album in particular, The Trip, is part of what looks to be a comeback period after a ten-year hiatus from 1963 - 1973. But I've heard quite a few Art Pepper albums before this one, and I have to say, I'm not terribly impressed. Out of the seven I've heard, this is the second worst.

And why? Now the moods are alright, nothing that hasn't been done before but nothing that doesn't at least get to the back of your neck. But the real issue is that only half of the six tracks have any engaging melodies or sax solos, so it's only really enjoyable half the time. Three tracks are pretty boring, two are only pretty good, and the only track worth bobbing your head to is Sweet Love of Mine due to its slight Latin flair. So suffice it to say, even though some people seem to love this one, I really can't see myself going back to this anytime soon. It's got some finely-tuned aspects, but the melodies can get quite dull. 

67

New addition to my top 100 albums of all-time, not just jazz.

Charles Mingus - Town Hall Concert 1964

Genres: Post-Bop, Avant-Garde Jazz

I struggle with finding post-bop albums that really amaze me.  This has the same evershifting consistency and wide-ranging delivery of Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and almost all of the melodic prowess.  But of course, when you put Mingus with Eric Dolphy, amazing things are likely to happen.  I mean, So Long Eric is flawless jazz on its own, but Playing With Eric is just otherworldly.  I felt lifted into space with this one, especially during the first nine minute section.  There wasn't anything like this before.  This basically did the same favor for jazz that Shpongle would do for EDM with their debut.  Currently, Town Hall Concert 1964 is my number 1 post-bop album, and a much needed addition to my top 10 jazz albums considering the plethora of jazz fusion and spiritual jazz that rules it.

I agree, 7/10.  This sophomore had a better metal-energy sound to it, but it came in lieu of the songwriting strengths of the debut, and later albums, notably Follow the Leader and Issues.

Some of the best melodic progressive metal occurs in one of my favorite tracks by this band, filled with neoclassical madness:

Playing Symphony X music was extremely important in setting up the moods for my debut novel.  This is one of the specific songs I put on repeat for that reason, along with Evolution, Egypt, Set the World on Fire and Paradise Lost.

Taking a small break from post-bop to re0-evaluate a couple of avant-garde jazz albums.  I'm going back on Tauhid right now, and if things continue to go the way they do, it might become my new #1 avant-garde jazz album.  It has some of the wild behavior of Black Saint but with a much more spiritual presence, and plenty of room for soft meditation as opposed to filling it with catchy hyperactivity, which is either charming and meditative or dark and surreal depending on how the flow goes.  There's a much more astral presence to it, and I'll even consider this a healthier album than Karma if the second half is just as good as the first.  Hell, three minutes in, the guitar tricks sound almost exactly like a proto-Merzbow piece or something.  So I think this'll make it.

THE DALE COOPER QUARTET.  And as I predicted, not a single Dale Cooper.  Thanks for letting me know that exists; they're totally on my to-do list when I get around to dark jazz.

Today is a Roland Kirk day.  I just finished I Talk With the Spirits.  I like its childlike approach, almost like a bedtime story told through music.  The jingles of the first half greatly outweigh the second half.  83.  Now I'm starting Volunteered Slavery and it's starting off great.

Here's my new jazz fusion top 100.  Ratings go from 100-89.

In saying that, I don't believe that metal is less conducive to absolute garbage than other genres. In fact, the bottom end of my ratings database if littered with metal filth, most of it being far worse than Justin Bieber. 

Me as well.   I've got quite a few metal albums ranked at 0/100, including Attila's Fallacy and the two Thrash Queen albums.  Metal's some incredible stuff, but sometimes somebody puts out something that only manages to be an embarrassment to it's genre.  Hell, that's the only reason to check out Psycho Synner or Keydragon.

Merzbow - Metalvelodrome

Genres: Harsh Noise

On my noise ventures I found myself mostly driven by the challenge of finding truly artistic music from the more extreme variants: harsh noise and harsh noise wall. And I've found some that I've liked, but mostly when it plays with other genres like a Uboa album. But this 4-hour Merzbow album is at the top of the RYM harsh noise charts. Was that a good sign, or is this an album that only the ones who would listen to four hours would finish anyway, thus allowing less people who see problems with it to even rate it in the first place? Since I have the capacity to enjoy noise music and am mostly a rocker, I felt I had to say something.

And this is what I have to say: it's definitely the latter. If Merzbow, a man who had been doing noise albums for 15 years up to that point, wanted to make a 4-hour behemoth of ugly sound, then he should've done more to play with the sound. By this point, the vast majority of noise tricks pulled in these four hours can be done by literally anybody if you ask me. I've heard imitators that were much more intriguing. It starts out cool, but the entire first half is just generic noise music at this point. Now a lot of wacky and cool ideas are played in the 45-minute track, Another Crash for High Tide. The weird sounds, the vocal effects, it's all pretty cool. But there's so much packed into it that most of these ideas only get about 20 seconds of album time. And the worst part? THIS SONG STARTS AFTER THE FIRST TWO HOURS ARE OVER. In other words, it's two hours of generic noise before creativity has a say. Why the hell didn't Merzbow flesh all of these ideas out into better songs throughout the whole? That's pretty infuriating, especially since it goes back to generic noise for the rest of it, mostly.

This four hour behemoth needs a serious re-evaluation on RYM by more serious and diversified explorers. This is a pretty standard noise album for most of it with some creativity attached, going into unholy lengths to get 1 job done for three out of the four hours. Merzbow would do much better in the close-by following years, so while this album shouldn't need to be heard, historically speaking, it doesn't deserve to be the highest rated harsh noise album on RYM at all, let alone any website that covers noise music. If you wanna hear REAL Merzbow music, try Electric Salad.

52

Jeff Buckley - Grace (1994)

Genres: Alt-Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Art Rock

I'm looking forward to an opportunity to catch the new Jeff Buckley documentary on Prime, but it's been way too long since I checked out any Jeff Buckley.  Truth is, I had been so bent on checking out and discovering albums since I first heard this in my first year of album logging that I haven't heard this in 13 years.  Poor guy only met his dad Tim once, but that made all the difference.  This guy clearly listened hard and smartly, not only to the works of his father, but to all the classical and rock artists that influenced him.  You can hear mild bits of the Mozart and even Siouxsie influence in his singing and his melodies.  But in the end, the many ingredients that make this album all become the Jeff Buckley identity, nothing short.  Hell, even when Dream Brother practically sounds like a cover of a Siouxsie song, it's still a Buckley song.  This is rock at some of its most gorgeous and heartfelt.  His singing has a falsetto range even beating Thom Yorke, and his ability to go from soft and folksy to rough and noisy is some of the most carefully constructed and carefully flowing transitioning I've ever heard.  Hell, he's the only one who can sing Hallelujah and make me think "Buckley" instead of "Shrek."  God, I wish he didn't drown.  One album into his career, he proved that he was a musical genius.

I've made the move to Florida and I am immediately a much happier man. Sunshine everyday is nice after 10months per year of darkness up north. People are friendlier too and my wife is happier at her new school so far. I just have to get my own ball rolling. All in due time. 

I haven't felt inspired to write reviews for a while.

I got to see Crowbar live down here, and that was amazing, Kirk's wife was working merch, so I know he got the hallmark card from my wife and I.  Life is good  down in dixie.

Awesome that you're happier down there.  My sister lives in Florida, but we haven't been speaking much.  She's had an awkward history with my family, even though we always tried to be friends.  But she seems to be making a lot of things private.  I've always wanted to go to Florida myself, though.

Ground-Zero - Consume Red (1997)

Genres: Drone, Exp. Rock, Noise

On my noise ventures I had been putting off an album I've been needing to get to for a while, Ground-Zero's Consume Red.  Now I've heard one of their albums before, Revolutionary Pekinese Opera Ver.1.28, and despite giving it a perfect score, I didn't go back to any of their other albums because it seems that each album goes for a different collective of genres.  And I also put this one off during my noise studies because I wasn't sure from the genre-tagging that it would start out with the noise I needed to drown out certain outside work.  But just look at the RYM tagging for the secondaries: Turntable Music, Free Improvisation, Noise, Korean Folk Music, Fusion Gugak, Sound Collage, Sanjo, Totalism.  All of that in an experimental hour?  Sounds like heaven to a Zappa fan like me!

At least the idea did.  The first twenty five minutes are dominated by the abuse of the same few jazz notes over and over and over again with only slight instances of noise building up overtime.  It got so utterly infuriating.  And then finally, almost halfway through the album's single-track hour, it finally brings in a lot more noise and some rock drumming.  Now at first they're welcome additions, but them the combination of the three practically refuses to change pace once the three are in place, so once again I'm stuck with a drawn-out work that completely fails to utilize the best of Ground-Zero's proven experimental prowess.  You can barely even hear the fourth major component, the shamisen.  For twenty minutes this goes on until around the 45-minute mark, where it mostly becomes a noise album.

I was really hoping for something much more insane and much less repetitive, but I didn't get that.  This feels like pussy when compared to Ver. 1.28.  How did this get nearly a 4.00 score with almost 7,000 on RYM?  I certainly don't know, but it failed to be an atmospheric experience and only got to the mania in the last 12 minutes, so I left largely dissatisfied that the genre-tagging caves in on itself via the repetition and annoyance.

58

Drudkh - Shadow Play (2025)

Genres: Atmo-Black Metal

Now we all know that Drudkh had a leading say in the development of nature-themed black metal.  They were basically THE band for the job.  They had a bit of a rocky road after their 2009 album Microcosmos, as the people say, but there seemed to be, ahem, light in the forest, during recent years.  So while I came into 2025's Shadow Play with some good expectations, I remained aware that those expectations wouldn't be met.  So while the album's getting great reviews, I have to say that they've once again become a passable and generic black metal band.  This whole album is all about relying on, and drawing out, half of the basics they had already mastered in the 2000's from Forgotten Legends to Blood in Our Wells.  The album's going for finely-tuned production above everything else, so black metal riffs and melodies come off as unoriginal.  As well, the production doesn't always balance out the ambient backgrounds and the riffs in the foreground, occasionally coming off as muddily-handled despite the ambiance.  I mean, Drudkh influenced so many bands that have done this album so many times that it's not a joke.  Did you know, if you just check the RYM charts and filter it by year and with only black metal, you'll get 25 pages of 40 black metal albums?  And 25 is the maximum they show in custom charts.  That means every year, we get over 1000 black metal albums.  These days, thanks to other nature-themed atmo-black bands like Panopticon and Ashenspire, I can guarantee you a good portion of those albums is nature-themed.  That means Drudkh has gone from influencing a classic form of metal to producing the same tripe that their own imitators make every year, just with better studio production that sometimes gets in the way.  What an overrated disappointment.  Production will keep it tolerable throughout, but otherwise this is kinda bogus.

52

Dave Mustaine has announced that next year's Megadeth album will be their last & that the associated tour will be their farewell.

What a crazy day for thrash.  One's coming and the other's going.

THEY'RE FUCKING BACK!

This is the three year anniversary of my of my first ever review: Ride the Lightning.  But I never posted it on this thread. :P

In my younger days, like many other young peeps, my knowledge of Metallica was practically limited to The Black Album and a couple of singles from the earlier days like “Master of Puppets” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” I wasn't fully in tune with thrash. Well as I got more in-tune with thrash I had Master of Puppets ranked as the number 1 metal album of all time. But I didn't put in in my top 20 despite how much I love metal because I always considered it a little bit bloated. Well after a lot of personal growth and re-evaluation of my life, I also re-evaluated how I rate some music, especially metal.

At first I was NOT willing to give Ride the Lightning a spot above Master of Puppets (I even had And Justice for All ranked above it). Why? Simple. Puppets' production is much cleaner, the rhythms are more developed and progressive, and Metallica's style fully matured. After re-assessing myself, I realized that the big question was not “What's the best Metallica album,” but “what's the best METAL album?” If my metalcore phase taught me anything, it's that any type of production is acceptable depending on the situation. Let's be honest. Ride the Lightning's production but not be as clear as that of Puppet's, but it really is way more metallic. They obviously came a long way in that short one-year time when the were one of the best up-and-coming metal acts playing typical early thrash, and became the very band that defined thrash.

Believe it or not, my first encounter with Metallica's “Fight Fire with Fire” was not a pleasant one. Before I was used to the idea of thrash metal (or even heard of it for that matter), I would originally type the name in to look for a Kansas song. I wouldn't hear the actual album until four years later when I first started exploring music forums and charts. It would take a few years more for me to grow fully accustomed to the harshest side of metal, and that included death metal and black metal. I have Symbolic by Death to thank for that. It was the first death metal album I had ever heard and I gave it a 100/100 right then and there. The whole point of making this the opener is to give you an idea of how much power your exposing yourself to. By the time you're done with the album, you'll already be glowing blue. Da ba dee. I mean, after that soothing guitar solo at the beginning, you're dealing with BOOM BOOM BOOM! They don't call it “Ride the Lightning” for nothing! The way that atmosphere in the production works just makes it more metallic! Sure, the intro to the opener isn't as good as the one from Puppets, but it's overall a better song than “Battery.”

I admit, I'm not so well emotionally connected to “For Whom the Bell Tolls” as many other Metallica fans are, but I'm not denying that it's one of the high points of an album loaded with high points. Taking a literally dramatic shift from the thrashing thunder of the gods, the early stages of the poetry that would be seen on Master of Puppets drives this song as much as the heavy metal melody. “Take a look to the sky just before you die, It is the last time you will. Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky, shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry.” Edgar Allen Poe's getting owned here. Screw the talking raven (OK, that's my screamo band name). Much of Metallica's best "guitartistry" is boasted on “For whom the Bell Tolls,” each player doing their part to add their unique vibe to the aura and all work as well as any harmonized group while still being very creative.

Now we get to the crown jewel of Metallica's songs: “Fade to Black.” This was Metallica's first ballad, and it was recorded at a time when James Hetfield not only had some obsession with death, but had to deal with much of the band's equipment being STOLEN, including his favorite Marshall amp! Damn. As you can imagine, that helps set the mood for one of Metallica's most iconic songs. The poetry of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” continues as one of the most beautiful and emotional moods in all of power ballad history ends side B of this album. There's no need for crazy solos when you can feel the sadness touching you. How human can a song get? It does get heavier towards the end, but that's a Metallica staple right there. That doesn't stop Hetfield from delivering some of his most heartfelt vocals in his career.

Alright, the first half of side B is considered the weak point of Ride the Lightning, but what album doesn't have a weakness? I admit, I'm not in love with the intro to “Trapped Under Ice.” It slowly gets better until WEEDLY-WEEDLY-WEEDLY comes along, returning to the raw thunder of the first two songs! Even though it's more like one of the basic thrash songs like on Kill 'Em All, the Ride the Lightning energy is still there, never damaging the album's flow or consistency. I mean, come on. Is speed metal not the perfect subgenre to feature on a thrash album? Besides, for a song about literally being trapped under ice, the lyrics are really freakin' good. The song almost feels crossover-thrash-esque the way it rides on energy and quick reactions.

“Escape” is considered the worst song on the album, but I like the intro more than I like the intro of “Trapped Under Ice.” It's more rhythmic and true to the Metallica style. I think the problem here is that it's written more like a song from your average hard rock / heavy metal album instead of one of the first thrash albums. Maybe that actually works, considering that the roots of thrash come from acts like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Hell, I wouldn't mind a good Scorps cover. Besides, the song still rules overall. The solos are still great and the lyrics are still human and relatable.

“Creeping Death” is one that I find particularly interesting because of its lyrical content. As opposed to the satanism often showing in albums at that time, Metallica decided to write a song about the Angel of Death from the book of Exodus! Well, you gotta keep the concept strong somehow. Although the song is more formulaic to the thrash stereotype, the badassery is at its peak. “Creeping Death” is balanced out between Metallica's energy, sense of rhythm, and lyrical drive. Unlike every other song on the album, it doesn't rely on solos to make its mark because of its balance.

“The Call of Ktulu” is the closer, and the only instrumental on the album. This nearly nine-minute epic pretty much covers everything that was going on throughout the album but with a deeper sense of mystery than every other song. Starting out with that slightly creepy solo was the perfect way to go. Like other prog-infused epics of its time, it slowly gets heavier and relies on a clever collection of combined solos to make its mark on the album. I don't know about you, but I think that's a perfectly epic way to end such an incredible album.

It's so utterly weird when you finally catch on to why an album is so great, because a whole new world opens afterwards. Ride the Lightning opened up a whole new level of understanding in the world of thrash (and maybe metal) for me, and I plan on making the most of it. In my opinion, it's the single greatest example of metal in the world. It's atmosphere is flawless, the energy of the album is rivaled only by a select few like Pleasure to Kill by Kreator, and the theme and concept never suffer. In fact, Ride the Lightning is much better at delivering its concept (of death and humanity) than most albums are at delivering their own concepts. It goes without saying that Ride the Lightning is an indisputable essential for any metal collection, and I'm glad I love the album as much as I do now.

Destruction - The Least Successful Human Cannonball (1998)

Genres: Thrash Metal, Groove Metal

Despite being in the Pit for my love of Metallica, can't say I'm very in tune with groove metal.  I give it chances on and off, but have little interest in a deep exploration at this time.  This is partially because so many classic thrash bands made the switch to at as quickly as the European prog giants of the 70's switched to AOR and pop rock, and the results were about the same: middling and generic.  Of course, I can't deny that a part of me absolutely loves the album Invisible Touch by Genesis more than my technical rating states (which is already sitting pretty at 93).  But how can I complete my Destruction marathon without getting through an album so bad it might as well be Lulu?  It's a key part of their history just like Risk is for Megadeth, and I plan on stopping at their comeback album, The Antichrist.  So, here we go.

Aside from a half-cocked album cover that looks less like a thrash album and more like a screenshot of a Monty Python animation with a quickly placed cheap font for a logo because "money's tight," I found it easy not to hate the album, shall we put it.  Now I encourage change and variety so that a band can prove they're capable of many other things, thus potentially improving greatness by virtue of multiple talents.  But how does this groove album stack up against the others?  Well, with the groove aspect and slower tempos maintaining SOME of the thrash genre that defined them, this newfound love of the 90's sound fails to stand out.  Catchiness is spotty and riffs are pretty done before.  On top of which, it's pretty obvious how much of their previous identity they forsook for this new route.  I'm sure if they had bothered to diversify their earliest albums more so that stuff like this feels a little more natural, this wouldn't have happened. I mean, the vast majority of these groove songs do more or less the same thing, which in itself is hardly a surprise considering that it's a Destruction album.  There's a rare exeption in Brother of Cain which goes into some major thrash power.  Otherwise, it hardly gets interesting at all, and mostly just worries about getting on 90's radio.  So this really doesn't do Destruction, or the groove world, any favors.  Having said that, it's still a bit better than those two groove EP's they did in the eight years between this album and their last, Cracked Brain, so it's not terrible, just not promising.

57

Destruction - Eternal Devastation (1986)

Genres: Teutonic Thrash Metal

Big three of Teutonic thrash?  I was starting to question such a decision made by 80's society with Destruction's debut EP and debut studio album failing to meet my standards for greatness.  I was really hoping for something more artistic this time.  judging from the way Curse the Gods put up a couple more tricks, making six minutes feel like four at the same time, I thought to myself I might finally get that are I was lookin6 for.  I mean, sure, they fall in the same tempo and stylistic tropes for the most part, but it seemed like they were really trying to get something historical out there.  Or so I thought at first.  Unfortunately, there are still times where things feel too drawn out yet again.  It's obvious that the five-to-six minute edge doesn't generally work for them.What really bothers me about this album is the way the percussion sounds.  It's not heavy enough, being almost entirely drowned out by the lead and rhythm guitars.  Now the unpredictable sense of art comes back for the shorter songs on Side B, making things interesting again.  The drums can even be heard properly.  The last track is even a much better example of the aggression and technique that the band's been largely relying on, being much heavier and more powerful than ever.  So while this managed to be a slight improvement in writing, it also fixed its production problem in the first half.

71

I'll be posting other Destruction reviews on their album pages.  I don't want to flood this forum.

Destruction - Infernal Overkill (1985)

Genres: Teutonic Thrash Metal

It's obvious that the band was trying a little harder in the art department to keep things a little more sophisticated, especially from such a progressive intro track.  Much more interesting things are done with the hardcore-style riffs, finding clever ways to combine multiple repetitive riffs together for some grand new idea.  A very goo example of that is the middle-section to The Ritual, which found ways to be unpredictable despite its lacking progression of, ahem, different notes.  But this usually isn't the case.  There's still the filler aspect in which production and speed are the major factors.  For example, Death Trap just goes on for far too long.  It's got some damn good riffs, but it's a bit easy for these guys to draw out five minutes when their biggest concerns are speed and atmosphere.  And Tormentor sounds like a broken record until you get to the guitar solo.  Hell, the eight-minute closer, Black Death, is basically switching between the same two riffs throughout the run, managing to do less imaginitive things than the four-minute opener.  So in a way, it feels like they didn't really care about the fans enough to really write their own Stairway.  There are noticeable improvements in the production and a few of the riffs, so there's that, but the fact that they went from the three-minute songs to five minuts with little change in most instances is a little of an insult.

69

Destruction - Sentence of Death (1984)

Genres: Teutonic Thrash Metal

I never hear anyone talk about the band Destruction these days, but they still get really good reviews.  I guess they're one of those bands you just check out if you like thrash history or have a soft spot for the Teutonic stuff.  Since I need to review one of their albums for the list challenges on Metal Academy, I started with their debut extended play, Sentence of Death.  The apocalyptic spoken intro was cheesy enough as I expect, but even though there's some pretty good riffage here, at this point, I've just heard so much thrash like this, even though this is the really early stuff.  Having been released about four months after Metallica's game-changing Ride the Lightning, this sounds pretty generic in comparison and many other thrash albums, even better ones, would sound just like this.  I suppose all the dark and thunderous sound effects are their attempt at a sense of art, which is fine, but I'd prefer if their riffs more greatly reflected that.  Now for early thrash, this relies on darkened screams, general speed, and decent riffs.  They go for a speed metal route that comes off a bit punkish, and can even be seen as a small factor in the early development of black metal.  But other than that, there's nothing here that Metallica, or even Venom, didn't do better.  It's obvious that writing was of least concern as long as they could be fast and edgy, and they kind of succeed at that.  But since it's only a debut EP, it';s obviously not the most well-produced thing on Earth.  These guys were obviously young and just wanted to rock the basics of a new world and grab a piece of that Metallica action.  Decent, but only really necessary if you're a thrash history buff.

68

The Gerogerigege - Instruments Disorder

Genres: Harsh Noise

Listening to noise albums helps drown out unwanted sounds when doing outside work, so I've kind of forced my subconscious to become interested in critiquing noise music.  Just started this iconic one, and it's not the first of their albums I've heard.  I heard a couple of their "Senzuri" ones ages ago in prep for this and later forgot.

Current top 10 noise albums (not including noise rock, pop, punk, etc., unless the album falls under both straightforward noise and one of these genres.)

1. Uboa - Impossible Light (100)

2. Full of Hell & Merzbow - Sister Fawn (100)

3. Man Is the Bastard - The Lost MITB Sessions (100)

4. Uboa - The Origin of My Depression (97)

5. Cabinet - Hydrolysated Ordination (96)

6. Full of Hell & Merzbow - Full of Hell & Merzbow (96)

7. The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time: Stage 5 (95)

8. Lingua Ignota - Caligula (95)

9. Uboa - All the Dead Melt Down as Rain (95)

10. Alder Deep - Chapter 2: Kobolds, Goblins, Cretins, Fiends (95)

WHOA.  Didn't think I had ten five-stars.

This Heat - "Health & Efficiency" single (1980)

This single from a critically acclaimed London experimental rock outfit contains just the two lengthy tracks but spans over nineteen minutes in duration. The title track is an ambitious & highly engaging eight-minute rock effort while the B side "Graphic/Varispeed" represents one of the earlier forays into drone territory & sounds nothing like the rest of This Heat's material. I thoroughly enjoy the title track as it possesses a live electricity & vitality that's rarely found in rock music these days. "Graphic/Varispeed" is probably the reason a lot of people discover this E.P. & it's not bad but does tend to suffer from being overly long at over eleven minutes with very little variation on its theme.

For fans of Can, The Fiery Furnaces & Matmos.

3.5/5

I binged the two studio albums and this EP a while back.  Overlong yes, but fun,  You know, those were two of the first post-punk albums I ever heard, and I couldn't get into them at the time, even though I admited they were pretty good.  I feel similarly to the debut, but Deciet is just phenomenal.

My jazz fusion studies will conclude with just a couple more albums by the following artists: Casiopea, Bela Fleck and Henry Threadgill.  Just when I think I'm done with the jazz fusion studies, I find a couple extra details I need to get done.  After that's all done, I'll head onto post-bop.  But first!  I'm at the point to where I can safely binge another metal band for the list challenges.  I only have four bands to get through.  This time, it'll likely be Destruction.

Right now I'm on UFO Tofu by Bela Fleck.  So far, it's pretty good, but nowhere near the heights of the debut.

I suppose I'll end my Hiromi study with this year's release, Out There, and then likely move onto Hermeto Pascoal for the next couple days.

Didn't think Takanaka was gonna do a country fusion track, but it's pretty bitchin'.

Uboa - All the Dead Melt Down as Rain (2025)

Genres: Death Industrial, Dark Ambient

I had no idea Uboa had a new EP out a couple months ago.  I just now checked wondering if she had a new album announced.  Didn't expect one so soon, and I'm super happy about this because Impossible Light and Origin of My Depression are just flatout phenomenal, doing much of what Lingua Ignota does but creepier and more wild.  Sitting pretty at 37 minutes, this EP manages to do A LOT and never break its horrifying vibes.  This one was extra-diversified in its range of ambiance, noise and industrial sounds.  This is as freakishly creepy as I'd expect from Uboa, and almost reaches the heights of Impossible Light.

95

Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane (2002)

Genres: Prog Metal

Here it is, the final of the four Pain of Salvation albums for my marathon, and the final album before I complete my Prog Metal Challenge List.  To recap, my ratings for the first three albums fluctuated drastically from the general consensus.  People say that Entropia was a great metal debut, but to me it was a bit imbalanced and not heavy enough.  I almost adored Concrete Lake, and I thought the much-beloved Perfect Element was a good but somewhat overdrawn album with too much fixation on post-metal influence that seemed to take away from the identity of the first two albums.  And now, here I am, at the general opus.

While I loved the instrumental direction the short opener took, the next track, ironically named Ending Theme, so was I in for more of the typical prog metal sound that I was so weary of when my marathon began with the debut's first couple tracks?  Fandango seemed to answer my question: not entirely.  Fandango's general sense of rhythm is totally xylophonic, not built in metal energy while the backing effects and percussion deliver a strong sense of surrealism.  This is basically an experimental track, and I mean almost Residents level, even though it clearly uses the same instruments as previous efforts, so that was a damn good sign.  But unfortunately, the next two tracks, while great and beautifully melodic, only provide faint ventures from the standard to other areas, so I'm not so sure what'll happen next.  The eight minute Trace of Blood has some nice piano melodies scattered around, but remains high-level typical.  The next track, This Heart of Mine, seems to have some Gabriel-era Genesis influence in the vibes, but not very strongly.  Undertow was kinda lame in comparison.  It just repeate the same slow melody over and over again and only differentiated itself by being more quiet.

Things got pretty proggy again on the more active track, Rope Ends, which knows how to put together a decent rhythm while maintaining the very reason I listen to prog in the first place.  This one didn't stop being catchy, even when it was going wild.  I get a nice follow-up with some Latin folk influence on Chain Sling, which showcases the best of the band's previously established strengths.  Easily a winner of a song.  Dryad of the woods continues the folk rock focus and is a nice and soft tune on its own, but even slow songs have more pizazz, and while this was nice and emotional, it was also missing that special something.  After the title track, which is a largely prog electronic two-minute segue with a tamed but epic approach, the next track is immediately shamed as it falls into only decent melody and standard behavior for the band.  Purely palatable, not remarkable.  Same with the track after that, but then the ending, Beyond the Pale, gets back on track with a proper ending that takes the overall vibe of the band to a good strength, ending with one of their more emotional and rhythmically healthy takes of the modern prog sound.

Well, I didn't get the magnum opus everyone was bragging about, but it has plenty of strengths among the traditional sound.  This was a very enjoyable album overall, but I'd say that instead of it being one of the greatest I've heard, it's more on the level of Dream Theater's underrated debut.

87

Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element I

Genres: Prog Metal

After turning this album on, immediately after concluding One Hour by the Concrete Lake, I certainly wasn't expecting the verses to be orchestrated in NU METAL.  But that didn't tell me this was gonna end up a nu metal album, just that this album was gonna end up wild and varied just like the previous efforts.  Honestly, there's really no way to tell with these guys.  But it's pretty obvious from the slow melodic structures and the nu metal influence that they were trying to appeal to the modern alternative crowd without being an alternative band.  You can easily tell from the way our singer occasionally shouts in a very similar manner to Wayne Static.  Despite this, post-metal also reigns pretty strong in the background, having a larger say than any other kind of influence in the album.  This creates a strong sense of ballad-based serenity throughout a good chunk of it.  These are good tracks with a strong sense of progession and some fine melodies, but in comparison to the wide range they went with on the debut and managed to balance out beautifully on the second, this seems a bit less inventive.  For example, the first half of Her Voices is made up of this until it takes an immediate shift into speedy Arabic influence, as if they suddenly became The Tea Party.  But there are songs that are practically entirely made up of the post-metal influence, like the titular closer.  And unfortunately, the songs, while quite enjoyable, are a bit too similar too each other in moods, and the melodies are often a bit light.  So in short, this was a GOOD album for me, but not brilliant.

82

Pain of Salvation - One Hour by the Concrete Lake (1998)

Genres: Prog Metal

I don't feel like doing another track-by-track review today, so I'll just cover the most important stuff.  Hearing the actual music kickstart with a beautiful piano metal intro already told me there was a Symphony X similarity that might end up going through the whole album.  As a huge fan of Symphony X, I adored the neoclassical piano focus.  While I can't say this was "groundbreaking," I was certainly impressed with the healthy upgrade in balance between melody and progression, as well as a totally new sound for the band.  On top of which, metallic moments seem to be a bit heavier and more layered, which was an issue for the more metal-oriented songs of the debut.  The occasional industrial backdrops also help with that, as well as with more robotic guitar tones and riffs.  And of course, there's always a little room for a softer and more contemplative song with some violin attached.  But these elements don't often overpower the standard dramatic prog metal aspects, but rather add light influences for the most part.  In fact, it's enough to make sure most of these songs feel different enough from each other to almost be different subgenres of prog metal.  Handful of Nothing, for example, is quite mechanical in its handling of hardcore punk influence, never really steering into "metalcore," though.

I gotta say, though.  Only about half the time the melodies manage to really impress me.  For example, a wonderful collective of rhythms takes up the bulk of Home, but in comparison, a track like Water feels a bit empty.  Thankfully, the former happens a bit more often.  A track like Home is followed by an incredibly proggy yet catchy track like Black Hills, making for an excellent pairing.  Hell, I'd say Black Hills even astounded me, managing to be better than the already grand Home.  On top of all that, the various sounds and feelings connect well with the emotional focus of the theme, centering around the dystopian devastation and pollution of the world due to man's lack of sympathy for the world around them.  The theme isn't very story-based, but it does an excellent job sharing the lead character's feelings of despair.  Of course, it goes without saying that it takes a while for that hidden track to really pick up, about four out of six minutes.  But once it does, it really does, going into some beautiful avant-garde that perfectly covers what the album went through in a very quick time.

Major improvement over the last.  This is considered the weakest of the first four Pain of Salvation albums?  I might not agree with people's general consensus on the debut, but the improvement here seems like a very good sign for what's coming next.

93

Pain of Salvation - Entropia (1997)

Genres: Prog Metal, Prog Rock

Today is the day I finally finish my second list challenge: the Prog Metal 2nd Decade Challenge, and it'll happen on my Pain of Salvation marathon.  I'll be getting through at least the first four PaS albums, potentially ending at the album I need for the final review on this challenge list: Remedy Lane, the fourth album.  I never really got interested in Pain of Salvation for some reason, but I'll gladly check them out for the challenge.

Entropia is a concept album about a struggling family in a fictional titular world, and the main characters are basically detailed in a pretty poetic collection of lyrics that are also standardly "prog concept album."  I an't say there was anything here that made me feel too heavily.  Now I'm not saying that I didn't have any good expectations for Pain of Salvation's debut, but with the genre-tagging on RYM simple saying Prog Metal for primary and Prog Rock for secondary, I had a pretty good idea of what this album would sound like: standard guitar tones for prog metal and catchy mid-level progression that's only proggy enough not to stay off the radio.  The opener and the next song (not counting the pretty lame trip hop segue in between) are so standardly 1990's prog metal that it's not even funny.  Dream Theater obviously ended up manifesting a lot of emulators, such as Shadow Gallery and Evergrey.  Is it catchy?  Yeah, but I've totally heard this before.  In fact, I need it to be a little proggier.  Save the radio prog for Rush, guys.

Now I was pretty thrown off by the funk aspects that kicked off the nine-minute People Passing By.  That's considered to be one of their better songs on this album.  The song has a tendency to switch between these and blackened riffs in the same percussion tone like they naturally go together.  I wouldn't say that, but at least the prog improves here.  But it just isn't catchy enough or even heavy enough to really support my prog metal needs until the end when it pretty much just goes back into the standard behavior of the album.  After a totally standard ballad, the album takes a much catchier and outlandish turn with Stress, boasting instrumentation that even goes into Cardiacs territory with its hyper-melodic nature.  Unfortunately, while the instrumentation's awesome, singer Daniel Gildenlow's melodies are just lame and don't pair well with the song much.

Things get largely standard again on Revival, which tries to capture the same spirit as Stress but only really succeeds in one aspect: matching the singer's melodies to the instrumentation.  Now for the most part, To the End is the best the album had to offer.  Everything was energetic, in perfect harmony, and catchy while maintaining that intriguing unpredictability of People Passing By, even though its style is standard.  Next comes Nightmist, which is much less melodic and more built on maintaining an ever shifting atmosphere between fast and funky, slow and dramitic, and surprisingly hyperactive for a couple seconds, but I don't feel like banging my head to this one, even as the funk returns in small bits.  It seems more like a display of how proggy they can be without setting up the experience as a "song."  Plains of Dawn feels like it's going for more of a tonal balance as a slightly-symphonic prog rock song, and it kind of works, but also just tells me that they should've done some more about balance and behavior from previous songs on the album.  And finally, there's that ending segue (the segues have been largely unremarkable, by the way), Leaving Entropia.

A lot of people were very impressed with this debut, but it seemed generic at times, proggy but imbalanced at times, and showed a lot of compositional strengths that weren't always lived up to.

73

Tyler the Creatore - Don't Tap the Glass (2025)

Genres: Pop Rap, Dance

So one of modern hip hop's most experimental and wide-ranging artists, a total genius in the field, has now done a pop rap and dance album.  Is this selling out?  What reason would Tyler have to sell out?  It's his right to do a pop album if he wants, so judging it based on that merit, this is extraordinarily catchy and clever.  This so-called pop album might not be "experimental," but it's totally unpredictable.  The behavior of the album fits perfectly within the Tyler the Crator canon, cleverly combining many of the tricks and techniques this guy used in the past, even if he's using more pop-oritented genres than soul-oriented ones.  The production is almost constantly balancing out multiple facets with ease.  Maybe fans will miss the more thematic elements of his lyrics and music, but sometimes, a guy just needs to have some fun.  Tyler obviously considered that, and I'd say this is a very fun album full of good bangers.  I'm putting it in the same league as Bjork's Post.

93.5

Behemoth - The Shit ov God (2025)

Genres: Blackened Death Metal

Even though I believe in God, I've made a point of forgiving people for sins that don't really affect me. Now matter how much I bitch and whine, there will be people who disagree with me on philosophy, so might as well accept it as a part of the natural world while acknowledging the difference in philosophy. So I've heard all the Slayer albums, a good deal of Bathory, and am of the opinion that the best death metal band is Septicflesh. But Behemoth really made their point of hatred towards religion a million times over, so do we really need it again?

Considering how familiar this album is, I'm going to have to say "not this time." Behemoth's "The Shit ov God" is obviously built specifically to get anti-religious people to buy the album, as if they're relying on edge factor. Newsflash: that's how people LOSE interest. Hell, Wes Craven used to think being edgy was what mattered most, and his early career was pretty downhill once he hated and disowned his own porn flick, and switched right to THEMES, which made his movies much better overtime. But Behemoth took the opposite route.

Now the two good things that can be said about this album are that the production is absolutely perfect. The crystal clarity is some of the finest in metal, but that's to be expected from veterans. As well, half the riffs are quite catchy, which really does help. I found myself really enjoying the bits that got quite proggy, like the midtro of O Venvs, Come. So there's a strong metal energy here that can help everything be at least fairly enjoyable to some, but this is also an extremely typical album for them. I said half the riffs were catchy, but the other half are so standard that you can pull them off of any obscure crap lost in the RYM charts. So only half the time does the production justify these performances. As well, taking a look at the lyrics, they feel thrown together and basic. The overabundance of old-timey / medieval phrasing seems to distract from that aggressive, angry nature that they're trying to promote so brutally, so the ancient vibes and the religious anger kind of contradict each other like matter and antimatter.

So this most recent entry in the Behemoth catalogue was an attempt at bringing back the vibes of their most beloved work, The Satanist, but the quality steers a bit closer to their middling debut, Sventevith. Fun moments and boring moments are held together with a strong metallic presence and pure diamond production, so while it's perfectly listenable, it has its problems.

64

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo 2

I;d say this is in the same league as Alfredo 1.  Might be slightly better, might be slightly worse.

This sucks so much. I cannot express how much this guy and his music has meant to me over the years. I guess we all saw it coming one day soon, but we kept hoping that it would be tomorrow and not today. Now today is here and another metal icon has gone to join Lemmy in metal Valhalla. R.I.P. Ozzy.

On the major plus side, his farewell tour just got done.  So he did what he wanted to do throughout his life, and went out with a bang bigger than the theory.  Gonna blast Paranoid today in his honor.

So soon after his grand farewell tour with his iconic band, we've lost the forefather of metal himself... Ozzy Osbourne.  He struggled with Parkinson's for years.

As Yahweh heard you pray every concert, so may the world hear your legacy until the End Times.  Goodbye, beloved Ozzy.

There are very few DJs that can get away with playing 10+ minute tracks as you risk boring your audience & losing the dancefloor with club-goers becoming less & less patient in the Spotify age. Most DJs would only play a portion of an eleven-minute track. It's really just the big-name international stars that can confidently get away with playing the full run time as their audiences will generally lap up whatever they dish out & are usually off their heads anyway. For your average club DJ, the full length of a track like "Undisputed Attitude" would probably only be safe as a closer to a headline or closing set. The uplifting, euphoric atmosphere making it work really well in that capacity too.

That's true for any genre, but it's quite common in EDM for people to try, about as common as in prog rock, and that's what makes it a key factor.  Bands like Shpongle prove that.  Even Deadmau5 has his ten minute hits.  His fans typically listen to Strobe in its full form.  But yes, it takes a special artist to pull it off continuously.

As a defender of Naked Flames and his side of the controversy after reading his quite lengthy description of it, I was quite excited to learn that he had a new album out.  But sheesh, 7 HOURS LONG?  I mean, I consider the guy a house genius, but this had better be the most creative 7 hours on Earth.  I might only get through an hour or two a day for a week or so.  I can safely say, track Undisputed Attitude is a little bit hard to follow the beat of, but it sounds freaking brilliant.  Very nice to have my choice for #1 house artist back, or at least #1 outsider house artist back.  Not like I'm a master of house music or anything, but hey.  At least the guy knows how to keep an 11 minute song going.  That's an essential factor for club music.

Yep... along with most country music outside of the gothic stuff, although I admittedly have a Townes cover album that I absolutely love.

Does that include Johnny Cash (preparing mace)?

Yay! Now I’ll know which folk records to steer clear of. ;)

Staying clear of John Denver and Townes van Zandt...???

GODDAMN THEY FINALLY PUT COUNTRY FOLK ON RYM.  Man, that one makes me happy. I've been using that tag for a while but efforts to get it up in my time there didn't produce any fruit.  I'll give it a couple weeks to flesh out before I retag any albums I might've missed.  Not sure about Willi Carlisle getting the tag, but I'm on board with Gillian Welch.  And I'm really happy John Denver's getting the tag.

Green Carnation - Journey to the End of Night (2000)

Genres: Prog Metal

Green Carnation, a prog band formed by ex-Emperor bassist Tchort, is a band I've put off for a long time so I can focus on other kinds of metal and other genres in general, but I finally have the freedom to check out one of the three bands I need left for one of the Metal Academy prog metal list challenges. Even though I only need to review one of their albums, I wanted to go back to the beginning, as I believe a real student should expand further than just one album per band as the lists are exclusively formed.

So starting with the debut, I was quickly introduced to a psychedelic atmosphere that I had never heard before. The thirteen minute opener, In the Realm of the Midnight Sun, was an obvious effort in putting together various styles in a way that fit and could justify the length of 13 minutes. Now I'd say as far as progressing the various genres in one song goes, there wasn't any problem with that. But there's something that really needs to be addressed: some of the rhythms outshine other parts of the song by country miles, so the song still feels inconsistent in that way. I thought to myself, "I supposed that's where the leading criticism comes from?" I had other epics to check out before I could be certain of that. Another product of the inconsistency is how some metal moments are much heavier than others. I suppose the drums were improperly mixed, feeling a little faint for what they were striving to achieve. But by the third epic, which totals tracks 2-4 into 45 minutes, it kind of becomes a cycle of reused tricks in different epics, creating a sense of overlength. Even the fact that several shorter songs take up the end doesn't really detract from this.

For a first attempt, there's some good genre balance and ambition here, but the lack of original rhythmic ideas tells me that this was merely the band tackling too much at once and only fairly succeeding more at the intrigue rather than the music. It's a fine first attempt in that way, but more or less decent in other ways.

68

I think you'll find that if you've already rated a release & then add a review to it then it'll maintain the original date & won't be pushed onto the main page. Could that be the case here Rex? To get around that you need to delete your rating before posting your review.

Ah.  Okay.

The reviews are being misdated again.  I was scared that my multiple Darkthrone reviews from this week were accidentally deleted because of a glitch.

Fates Warning - A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997)

Genre: Prog Rock

I can always get behind the idea of changing your sound a bit. Fates Warning have slowly done that over the course of several albums, but typically, they will remain a metal band. It's not so apparent in A Pleasant Shade of Grey, in fact I'd go as far as to say it's not a full-on metal album, but rather rock with a couple metal influences. And I'm totally cool with that. I was hoping this album would be one of the absolute berst of its type, but Fates Warning has only impressed me once in that vein out of several albums, so my expectations were closer to the 9/10 vein.

From what I've studied, Fates Warning are basically a top 10 in prog metal as far as popularity and influence goes. Of course, when you're going to tackle prog, you have to be careful that your technical melodies and the harmony of the instruments don't come off as wonky. Part II was fairly guilty of that during the verses, so the first two parts didn't really do much for me musically, despite setting a good preconceived standard for the rest of the album. But it took way too long for me to get to a spot to where I could feel like absorbing an atmosphere, bobbing my head, getting intrigued, etc. Part 5 had a good level of psychedelic intrigue to it, but it simply wasn't strong enough to stand out amongst the masses of prog rock or metal IMO and it didn't justify the wonkiness in the other parts of the song. Things started to feel more fleshed out and make more sense in the second half, featuring better examples of prog that took a few key directions that cemented the second half as superior to the first. But when the band was trying out some metal in the fix, the softer focus of the album got in the way of heaviness, making it feel more like general rock, so while they have every right to make a rockier album, any metal should actually be metal.

it shows this vintage group of prog metal pioneers somehow struggling to maintain proper atmosphere, being more focused on maintaining a softer presence that they only occasionally succeed at. This is also to say that when it was trying to be metal, it wasn't heavy enough. They have every right to change their sound, and this was a pretty good attempt with a few good songs, some interesting technical ideas and a little bit of experimentation that never broke the flow. But sometimes it feels a little empty, and sometimes the rythms are a bit wonky, so the album feels incomplete.

74

Farewell to Tim Cronin, founding member and drummer of the incredible stoner act Monster Magnet.

I'd have to think about this.

1. Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side

2. Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood

3. Symphony X - Behind Smoke and Mirrors

4. Metal Church - Metal Church

5. Blood Incantation - Starspawn

6. Guns 'N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction

7. Judas Priest - Painkiller

8. Killing Joke - Killing Joke 2003

9. Wuthering Heights - Far from the Madding Crowd

10. Megadeth - Rust in Peace

Way back in 88, John Peel played 3 songs from 3 different SubPop singles in a row, Big Cheese by Nirvana, Trapped by Swallow and Sweet Young Thing Aint Sweet No More by Mudhoney. It didn't have the name grunge back then (or I may have been unaware of it), but this was the dirty guitar sound that I was looking for at that time. I have the Glitterhouse version of Superfuzz Bigmuff EP from 88, that opens with Touch me I'm Sick which is a better opener than the SubPop version, and for me this EP is the sound of grunge along with Bleach and the debut Tad album. I love every bit of it , but especially the opener and the epic closing tune In 'n' Out of Grace. I saw them touring the EP (supporting Sonic Youth who were on the Daydream Nation tour) at Strathclyde University and they were as electric as you imagined. I'm not sure they bettered this EP and the earlier singles, but for me this is a nostalgic 5/5.

A good 9.5 last I heard it and the best Mudhoney so far.  I went on a MAJOR grunge binge early one years ago when I started out as a music buff.  I was a bit more pretentious and rockist back then... but hey, I've gone through a few hundred grunge albums and have dedicatedly sought out rare obscurities everywhere.  For me, the ultimate grunge "sound" belongs to in utero, but it's not quite a perfect albums.  Thanks a lot, "Rape Me."