Rexorcist's Forum Replies

Ayreon - The Final Experiment (1995)

Genres: Prog Metal, Metal Opera

Time for the next project for my Metal Academy prog metal challenge: Ayreon.  I've been putting these guys off for quite a while due to the nature of my charts and the necessity for more jazz, EDM, folk, etc.  So I'm gonna listen to this band a little slowly overtime, as I shouldn't only listen to ONE Ayreon album for the challenge and am aware that these guys have several essentials in the prog metal community.  I'm honestly a bit impatient to get through them, but won't forsake my jazz and EDM studies for it.

Ayreon is the first band formed by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, who later formed the sci-fi movie concept act Star One.  This is the album that launched his career in prog metal, and focused on a conceptual story from the getgo.  And since the lead character shares the band's name, the story won't end with one album, much like Rhapsody.  I totally admire that a band's willing to stick with a recurring original concept rather than writing about the same metal and pop tops we're all familiar with.

As far as what the album did right: the structures of these songs felt totally fine to me.  Ayreon wasn't afraid to stick an eleven-minute song in this album four tracks in, and that track held itself throughout the entire runtime.  So when it comes to structuring a song, Ayreon already had some skill in it.  Having said that, I felt like sometimes the trumpets and violins came on a little too strongly, and were more there for show rather than for a core, despite the fact that the compositions were still fun and spirited.  I mean, even when the tempos are slower, this album is pretty high energy.  Of course, not everything is all 2112 and Dream Theater.  Nice, softer, shorter and folksy songs like Nature's Dance recall shorter tracks like Mother on Pink Floyd's The Wall.  So one definite pro is that the album isn't beating us over our fragile little noggins over guitar wankery.  They're certainly not one of those sellouts catering to a specific generic group: they're thoughtful.

But what did it sacrifice to get this end result?  Well, first of all, despite all the time travel themes, it starts off with futuristic cyberpunk vibes and then makes a complete 180 to Arthurian mythology.  So thematically, it's a bit challenged.  On top of that, the story certainly didn't amaze me.  It's basically no different than any Bible tale.  Thankfully it's never fully gone.  The prog electronic backdrops of Computer-Reign are a nice recall, but that one song certainly wasn't enough for me.  In fact, the song itself wasn't even long enough for me to really fall in love with.  After the skillfully crafted 11-minute epic, I figured that concept certainly needed more album time.  if I were to be specific, I know these guys could've doubled the time.

So now for the four questions:

1. What is the goal of this album?  To be a diverse, well-written and new concept in fantasy metal, recalling the prog rock albums of the 70's.

2. Does this album meet it's goal?  Yes, it totally does.  There's a lot of spirit here, and you can tell that the band not only wrote the songs fairly well at least, but had fun with it.

3. What did the band neglect or sacrifice to meet this goal?  I'd say a thicker story and more instances of the sci-fi vibe are necessary.

4. Are the sacrifices made up for by other aspects of the album?  Not really.  I still miss the sci-fi and wanted more of a mingling of the two genres.

Well, Ayreon made it perfectly clear that they were willing to maximize on the popular tropes of yesteryears prog concepts and structures.  There are faint hints of Rush, Floyd, Dream Theater, etc. here that you may enjoy.  But even if this fun and spirited album never reaches truly glorious prog heights, it's still a fun and varied debut with the same sense of fun as a good 80's fantasy movie.  If I had to compare the quality and the vibes of this album to a movie, I'd easily choose Clash of the Titans.

77 / 100

Gonna get through an Ayreon marathon.  I need to get through many of their albums, anyway.  All the reviews will be posted here, so stay tuned.

I'm getting tired of this idea where I have to watch what I say around people but they don't have to watch what they say around me.  They've been saying it for 30 years, my whole life, usually because Im autistic, and I'm done.

I distinctly say "it seems to me," meaning I could be wrong, and I distinctly expected Sonny to explain his opinion rather than run away.  I gave everyone here, including Sonny, the benefit of a doubt by believing we all thought about the albums we review, and I'm still willing to talk about it with him.  My posts will be READ PROPERLY.

OK, but just clarifying...

You, of course, can say whatever you want, Rex, I just want no part of it anymore, as is my right. I'm not "scolding" anyone - get on with it, good luck, I'm gone!

Just making sure the former isn't scolding, in case things get misconstrued again.

To the rest of the website, this is Metal Academy.  The whole point of this website is to discuss the albums and potentially the way we rate them as a result, and that is exactly the purpose of my more serious reply.  I'm more than willing to discuss the way people rate and review albums, including the Blasphemy one, and I never once said my way is the only way.  However, I do not and never have believed in simply listening to one aspect and sticking with it since I started listening to albums on a regular basis, and that was nearly 12 years ago.  Those days are gone.  So while I can't and will never try to force my "four question method" on other people, I will suggest looking at multiple angles.

Everyone of us has a personal craft to it, and I firmly believe that if we let the talent go to waste it's a problem.  So if Sonny sees something that I don't, I should think that the rules as well as myself should encourage it.  If he has a problem, he should be willing to discuss it instead of claiming that he won't voice his opinions again.  If he sees multiple angles of its "greatness," let him explain it, please and thank you.  He's on a music website, and if someone made a statement about opinion that I didn't agree with, I would explain my case and see if I can convince the other party otherwise.  Sure, a long paragraph or two can be seen as "wanting to hear myself talk," but once again, I'm exploring multiple angles.  So if I come across like Mojo Jojo, it's because I'm proving points.

I am more than willing to discuss it with him, but I won't accept responsibility for someone getting hurt about a simple disagreement or a sarcastic remark in a metal community of all things.  I tried that route years ago when I was first starting on forums and album reviewing, and it contributed to many fights.  I was told not to let my emotions get the best of me in these instances, and I was also told that a little bit of sarcasm is alright, and I've held true to these for years.

So to end this, I will accept none of the responsibility for another user leaving this thread.  I ask Sonny to write a review of the album for me to read.

Metal Academy is not a site where we want the "people who like Metallica are total posers" style comments. You're correct that everyone should feel free to not like things as passionately as they want, but there's simply no need to be offensive to others.

I never said this site was the place where that happens.  I said that was a different place called "Metal for the Masses."  I detailed the difference between enjoyment and analysis, and I fail to see how this is offensive.  I repeat: the original comment was simply a piece of sarcasm, nothing more.  And I really don't see how I should be scolded for detailing my opinions on why (not how) things should be analyzed further.

Also, I just realized an important typo that I missed when I was editing a sentence, so please reread the first paragraph again.  Apologies for that part, at least.

::  People are going to disagree about albums, and I don't scold anyone when they say "people who like Metallica are total posers." ::

War metal fans need taste...

Meaning what?

That was half sarcasm, but there's also a reason I feel the album's overrated.  It seems to me that the only thing these people who love that album are focusing on is the level of brutality.  It's like songwriting, recording quality and musicianship don't exist.  I mean, I love brutality as well, but no matter exactly how different one music forumer or critic might judge things from another person, good judgement should look at things from even more angles.

The simple fact is, I enjoy that album and the effect it has upon me. I don't have to justify that to anyone and throwing insults around because you disagree is disrespectful to the opinions of others. All this does is reminds me why I tend to avoid internet forums, so fuck it, I don't need your bad vibes, so I'll keep my opinions to myself.

Dude.  The first post was a sarcastic remark, and the second was simply my beliefs on critiquing and judgement.  People are going to disagree about albums, and I don't scold anyone when they say "people who like Metallica are total posers."  And that happens on Metal for the Masses all the time and I'm still there.

Besides, I am also aware of the difference between "enjoying" something and admitting something is technically good or bad.  Good Burger and Kung Pow are two of my favorite movies for how hilarious they are, but I'm not going to act like I don't think the writing and direction are as good as other comedies I don't often watch like The Truman Show or Nice Guys.  I'm not going to act like people shouldn't discuss awareness of quality.  This is something people should be aware of, and because it's still opinionated in the end, it is NOT objectivity vs. subjectivity as it still requires belief.

Nothing I said had anything to do with offending you.  I might be autistic, but I have the mental capacity to realize when I reasonably offend someone and when someone misconstrues something I said.  If Bieber is influential and no one online likes him, then anyone is justified for not liking Blasphemy, or even my favorite metal band Metallica for that matter.

War metal fans need taste...

Meaning what?

That was half sarcasm, but there's also a reason I feel the album's overrated.  It seems to me that the only thing these people who love that album are focusing on is the level of brutality.  It's like songwriting, recording quality and musicianship don't exist.  I mean, I love brutality as well, but no matter exactly how different one music forumer or critic might judge things from another person, good judgement should look at things from even more angles.

War metal fans need taste...

All genres:

1. Vengelis - 1492 (Neoclassical New Age, Electronic)

2. Eric Claption - Unplugged (Acoustic Blues, Acoustic Rock)

3. Current 93 - Thunder Perfecr Mind (Neofolk)

4. The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde (West Coast Hip Hop, Jazzy Hip Hop)

5. Änglagård - Hybris (Symphonic Prog Rock)

6. Alice in Chains - Dirt (Grunge, Alt-Metal)

7. Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain (Stoner Doom Metal)

8. Dream Theater - Images and Words (Prog Metal)

9. David Zinman / Dawn Upshaw - Symphony No. 3 (Modern Classical, Symphony)

10. Fluffy - Go, Fluffy, Go! (Grunge, Noise Rock)

Metal:

1. Alice in Chains - Dirt (Grunge, Alt-Metal)

2. Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain (Stoner Doom Metal)

3. Dream Theater - Images and Words (Prog Metal)

4. Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond (Power Metal)

5. Neurosis - Souls at Zero (Sludge Metal)

6. Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses (Deathgrind)

7. Type O Negative - The Origin of the Feces: Not Live at Brighton Beach (Goth Doom Metal)

8. Nine Inch Nails - Broken (Industrial Rock, Industrial Metal)

9. Ministry - Psalm 69 (Industrial Metal)

10. Melvins - Lysol (Sludge Metal, Drone Metal)

Total argument from me.  I really disliked that album.  I love lo-fi when it's done right, but this wasn't "lo-fi," this was just "bad garage recording" that tried to confuse simple songwriting with tropes.  That Conqueror album is twice as good (meaning 3.0 vs. 6.0).  The way I see it, the albums should be both influential AND GOOD.  I'm completely on board if the Conquerer album makes it, but I'm gonna be saying that Blasphemy album is way overhyped until I die.

Ark - Ark (200)

Genres: Prog Metal

Subgenres: Prog Rock

 I never really hear anyone talk about Ark, probably because the band broke up too quickly to get noticed.  However, both of their albums are considered quite good, so as a prog fan I was looking forward to this for a while.  I finally have some time for metal among all my EDM studies, so why not tackle one of the Metal Academy list challenges?  This time, it's 2nd wave of prog metal.  Unfortunately, when I check out a band, I don't like to look up only one album.  So this list challenge is going to take some extra effort on my part.  Thankfully, the next album on this prog challenge belongs to a band with only two albums, so it's onto this one and off to Burn the Sun.

I noticed that Jorn Lande, also known simply as Jorn, has a similar growl in his vocals to one of my favorite metal vocalists: Russell Allen of Symphony X, who recorded a few albums with him.  Jorn, however, has a bit of traditional hard rock in his voice as well, like just a hint of Robert Plant of another Russell: Jack of Great White.  Along with some traditional vibes, this prog metal album had a nice retro flair to it. The organs in the background are a bit reminiscent of this time as well, recalling moments of Deep Purple and krautrock.  The organ is all-too familiar in prog.  And thankfully, the album mixed it up a little.  pop and prog structures both make their way into this album while we get cute surprises like acoustic Spanish guitar.

Unfortunately, there are two huge problems that got in the way of my enjoyment.  First: the percussion.  The drummer they got was good at what he did, but the distinct sound of the drums was too high and light for a prog metal album.  This hindered the album's ability to maximize the metal energy and constantly got in the way of me fully enjoying any of the songs.  Second: the progressive layouts.  They're are standard as a poppier Rush album.  It's like these prog elements are just prog enough to get the tag.  Eventually, all of its tricks start to feel standard.  On top of that, lyrics like "Roll the dice, pay the price" can be written by Crush 40.

OK, so this debut had some ups that lasted a little while before the downs made it feel less original.  it's a decently cool prog debut, but a standard one with both strong highs and a couple effective lows.  They say the second one is much better, so here's hoping it lives up to the legend when I get to it.  I feel no reason to return to this one, though.

68/100

I'm not referring to the quality of the riffs. I'm referring to the fact that Abbath can't play them cleanly. Admittedly Demonaz wasn't exactly a virtuoso on "Pure Holocaust" either but Abbath really struggles on "At the Heart of Winter". Perhaps you need to be a trained guitarist to notice it but it really taints the whole experience for me.

That dirty sound makes for a proper blackened experience to me.  Sometimes a little dirt goes a long way.  In fact, that WAS the album that introduced me to black metal, and I had a good experience with it because of that dirty sound.

I would argue that "Sons of Northern Darkness" saw Immortal watering down the sound that made them so special to begin with to be honest. It's a pretty decent record in its own right but I don't buy into the concept of it (or "At The Heart of Winter" for that matter) being any sort of classic/essential release. I would have thought that a list like this one would call for a "Pure Holocaust" or "Battles In The North" well before either of those releases.

My position on Marduk is similar to that of Sonny's. I love my black metal to be dark, aggressive & brutal but I'm not sure that I'd call any of Marduk's releases essential even though there are a few that give some serious jollies.

And for the record Ben, after giving it some thought over the last day or so I'm tending to favour "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" over "Dusk and Her Embrace".

Pure Holocuast was great, but it was more or less doing what Darkthrone already did.  By adding more melody and thrash to it, Immortal set themselves apart with At the Heart of Winter.

I mean, Sons of Northern Darkness is one of their best, but taking into account 1st and 2nd wave acts being on the list in general, any album released in 2002 is kinda late to the party.

I read that Dimmu Borgir are the biggest selling black metal band of all time recently. It wouldn't seem right not to consider one of their releases when you take that into account.

Really!?  I mean, they're certainly not bad at all, but I think about that sometimes and I never would've guessed it was them.

Going through a bit of a marathon, re-evaluating albums I heard years ago for the sake of perfecting my charts.

If you're going for most influencial then you have to include Black Metal. Which IS a first-wave black metal album, and it gave the sub-genre it's name. Quite a lot of the first and second wave artists site it as a primary influence. 

Remember the first wave was little bit more relaxed in it's parameters than the second wave. Mercyful Fate is also considered a first-wave black metal band, and they are farther away than Venom from what became the "pure" template.

Every time I listen to Venom I think "a couple feet away from true black metal."  Maybe I'm being a little purist about it, but when I think "black metal," I think Mayhem, Immortal and Darkthrone.

That's 2nd wave Black Metal.

First wave doesn't even qualify, for the same reasons that Daniel just described.  1st wave is nothing more than a capitalization on the proto-roots to attempt to differentiate the sound from other bands who were doing the same thing with different subject matter.  This is effectively no different than calling many proto-metal albums of the 70's metal as is being studied here on MA.

David Sylvain - Gone to Earth

Genres: Ambient Pop, Art Pop

If you're going for most influencial then you have to include Black Metal. Which IS a first-wave black metal album, and it gave the sub-genre it's name. Quite a lot of the first and second wave artists site it as a primary influence. 

Remember the first wave was little bit more relaxed in it's parameters than the second wave. Mercyful Fate is also considered a first-wave black metal band, and they are farther away than Venom from what became the "pure" template.

Every time I listen to Venom I think "a couple feet away from true black metal."  Maybe I'm being a little purist about it, but when I think "black metal," I think Mayhem, Immortal and Darkthrone.

Deafheaven - Sunbather NO

Behemoth - The Satanist FUCK NO

Why would anyone be against Sunbather?  It has like a million emulators in the blackgaze scene and is considered the definitive album for the variant.  The Satanist is also very big for helping with the black death combo in a time where the two are in constant war with each other.

The Satanist helped popularize the black death combo a little, so I'll give it that.  But yeah, I agree that this list tries to appear standard and comes off as below that.

Just finished up a Cult Member marathon in my outsider house ventures.  This guy understands the balance between atmosphere and complex beats.  Not quite on par with Cross by Justice, but it maintains a consistent sound through various influences and surprises with plenty of complexity. There are acid techno songs which fit perfectly in this ambient / outsider house sound.

It might sound strange for someone that has such a lengthy metal story but I've never owned a battle jacket/vest. I always wore leather motorcycle jacket or a full-length trench coat back in my days playing in metal bands. I wear metal shirts exclusively, even today at 48 years of age.

I've got a few rock shirts myself, but only for those I really love.  I got Zeppelin, Meat Loaf (concert), Alice Cooper (concert), Metallica, AC/DC (this was one of my first from when I barely had any so I bought it without loving them), two Bowie's, Rolling Stones, Queen and Pink Floyd.  it's more fun to find random rock shirts in stores than to order online, although I don't get a lot of options for real metal.

Apparently DJ Sabrina has a four-hour album from last year.  I'm thinkin' I'm gonna save that one for next Saturday.  I'll get through her debut once I'm done with AL-90.  Right now I'm starting the debut, SCR.  And you guys HAVE to hear this.  It's a very soothing, ambient type of lo-fi electronic that works wonders.  The track Martin Eden Broadcast blew me away.

https://reckno.bandcamp.com/album/al-90-scr

I don't know where you're looking for releases to explore Rex but I'd suggest that RYM's coverage of dance music leaves a lot to be desired with most releases receiving almost no coverage there. I guess this is impacted by the fact that most of the best dance music isn't artist album-based which is RYM's main focus & also the fact that RYM is fairly heavily driven by the USA which isn't the strongest market for more mature dance music. If you really want to dig into the best that dance music has to offer then I'd be more inclined to look at dance-oriented sites. The more popular DJ mixes are also a good place to find great material too.

Looking at the artists you've already listed like The Prodigy & Underworld, have you already explored Chemical Brothers, Leftfield & Orbital?

Shoot me a private message with your email address if you'd like me to Dropbox you some of my DJ sets from the 2000's.

I've got Chemical Bros. down.  My current favorite in EDM is breakbeat, so I've got a bit of that down.  But I look up a lot of obscurities around the EDM spectrum as well as other spectrums.  That's how I found Pizzamachine, Constantine Hastalis and The Deer, and some fantastic trance.  A trick I often use is to search the back of the RYM charts for the less popular releases with high ratings.  Lemme see if I can throw together a good EDM list.

1. The Prodigy - Jilted Generation (Breakbeat)

2. Shpongle - Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongle Land (Chillout, Trance)

3. Juno Reactor - Labyrinth (Trance)

4. Naked Flames - Miracle in Transit (House)

5. Nicolas Jarr (Against All Logic) - 2012-2017 (House)

6. Underworld - Everything, Everything (Techno, House)

7. Chicane - Behind the Sun (Trance)

8. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (Techno)

9. Aphex Twin (as The Tuss) - Rushup Edge (Techno, Breakbeat)

10. Amon Tobin - Permutation (Drum and Bass)

11. Charli XCX - Pop 2 (Bubblegum Bass)

12. Daft Punk - Alive 2007 (House)

13. Justice - Cross (House)

14. DJ Close Your Eyes to Find Me - Angel Trance Edits Volume 1 (Trance, Breakbeat)

15. Machine Girl - WLFGRL (Breakbeat, UK Bass, Footwork)

16. Au5 and Fractal - Secret Weapon EP (Dubstep, House)

17. Juno Reactor - Shango (Trance)

These are the ones I consider perfect albums.  Keep in mind, I'm an album review by nature, and I love keeping lists.  I don't have much need for singles or live sets.  Although, I'm doing a tad better on house than I thought.

Justice - Cross

Genres: French Electro House, Electro House (Standard)

Subgenres: Nu-Disco, Electro-Industrial, French House, Synth Funk

It's time I finally got back to this one.  This one's only 50 minutes and not very saturated, so it's easier-going and more lightweight in comparison to Charmed, which I really needed.  I heard this once over ten years ago when I was starting my "albuming," butI haven't revisited it for ten years.  I gave it an 8.5 when I first heard it, but that's because it's a much more accessible house album than before.  I didn't feel the need to go back and revisit it before since the ratings on RYM seemed to kind of match mine when I did the math.  But the ratings for that album are shared among the most lauded house albums, and they had two other albums out recently, so why not check it out again before checking out the rest?

At first I was a little turned off by the cheesy organ sound of "Let There Be Light," rapidly playing an organ-like sound to an odd rhythm.  But as the cheesier stuff came in smaller doses, I came to appreciate it as part of the album's unique persona and forbade myself from criticizing the album based on my original feelings.  There are quite a few elements here that all work in a beautiful harmony, and everything stays original with a perfect "Look at us, we're Justice" flow.  They really set their standard on the first try.  Even the kiddy approach to "D.A.N.C.E." didn't bug me anymore, thank God.

Among the cheesy Disneyland Electrical parade vibes are some really funky bangers like DVNO, which is surprisingly vocal as well, almost feeling like a crunk track.  Because the production isn't saturated, this extremely catchy album gives off a vibe of easygoing pop.  But the complexity is there in spades.  Not everything is super-poppy although it certainly puts on that facade.  Everything requires twists and turns and precision, even when things get cheesy, like with "Let There Be Light" or the dramatic beginning of "Stress."  It would immediately be followed by deep, brostepy mechanical riffs on "Waters of Nazareth" and it felt perfectly fine and even cool.

This debut pleased me even more the second time.  Minor flaws in certain tracks are easily made a part of the charm when gone back to and thought about thanks to an eclectic and imaginative EDM album that manages to stay accessible during all of its instrumental wankery.  Never too much, not too little thanks to a 50-minute runtime, this is now a personal choice for a top house album, and my new number one standard for electro house replacing the Secret Weapon EP by Au5 and Fractal.  This may change with a visit to Woman Worldwide or Planisphere, but I'm never gonna consider the idea that I shouldn't revisit this album again.

See, this is the kind of thing where all the fibers of my body keep poking at each other until I say, "Challenge accepted."

There's a common phrase that says "Jack of all trades, master of none" & I think it pretty accurately describes my position on the topic.

I have top 100s of hard rock and prog rock entirely made up of five-stars.  It took ten years to do that while I was working on other genres, too.  I think I got two of those in the bag.

DJ Sabrina - Charmed

Genres: House

As I mentioned before, I plan on getting into house.  A big reason why I didn't before was because one of the most lauded house artists of all time is constantly putting out two-three hour albums.  This someone is DJ Sabrina.  Well, I have a day off and plenty of time on my hands.  I was gonna start with the debut, Making Magick.  However, after the impressive first track, I got this strong itch in me saying, "Fuck it.  Get the three-hour one that everyone loves outta the way first.  You won't have to worry about it later."  So I switched, having made myself familiar with the way DJ Sabrina sounded like starting out.

This is a rarity among music, lemme tell you.  This is the kind of album that can blow through genre after genre while maintaining its vapor-inflused summer fun presence.  Predominantly, this is a house album, steering into the French sound of Daft Punk and the deep sound of Against All Logic with occasional ventures back into outsider house.  But we're all over the place here.  Even the synth funk, synthpop and vaporwave songs sound like this.  The standard is set by an amazing intro and we get many slight variations in tone and tempo with different genres along the way.  This might be my first DJ Sabrina album, but the results are obvious: anything she touches, she destroys.  And I mean that in the good way.  Some of these songs have a collection of various vocal tricks including spoken word, sampling, singing and rapping.  Sometimes all four will appear in one song, and it only makes these songs much more intriguing.  There are a few skits in the first half, and they're pretty much completely betrayed in the second half in place of nine-to-fifteen-minute epics.  This is certainly not a bad thing, really, because these are the songs that focus more on progression, even if they might reach overlength.

On top of this, rhythm and atmosphere are on a drunken parade here.  They work together most of the time and often show amazing levels of creativity and awareness of what's demanded of this type of album.  Take a look at "Nyakuza Metro Cats" and tell me this isn't one of the catchiest and most rhythmic house tracks you've ever heard.  And then you have atmospheric songs like "My Baby, I Become Unhinged" which last eleven minutes and focus on atmosphere and experience more than anything.  The two seriously feel like they belong on the same album despite all the technical differences.  The whole album is like this.

Now the big question remains: did this album really have to be three hours long?  Well, I'm going to have to say no.  There is some filler here.  The first fifth has a few samey moments.  I could've easily done without Love Foundation as it follows a bit too closely to the two actual tracks that preceded it, especially because the next song, Pool party, added a lot to the album without changing the summer presence.  In fact, it improved it with aquatic themes replacing the vapor qualities temporarily.  Despite the compliment I gave "My Baby, I Become Unhinged," it did NOT need to last eleven minutes.  And eventually, the abundant sampling in the three hours gets a little samey by the end.

I braved the three-hour house album that the world fell in love with and I survived.  Of course, I have a minor headache vaguely reminiscent of the bigger one I had when I speedread The Shining in one night a couple months ago.  This album shows a lot of ambition and creativity from DJ Sabrina, who was fully aware of the presence she wanted the entire time she recorded that album.  She's not like those electronic artists who put out a few EP's every year and sees if one sells.  She takes a lot of time to record some very creative things, as well as consistent.  Unfortunately, three hours was a little much.  With a couple tracks taken off, this might've been a 100.  Instead, I'm giving it a 96.

It's my firm opinion that no one has a comprehensive enough taste in metal to achieve that for all nine clans

See, this is the kind of thing where all the fibers of my body keep poking at each other until I say, "Challenge accepted."

Nevertheless, the moment I saw the clan selection screen, I thought to myself, "Sweet!  Classification and identity!"  For the most part, I think four clans is the max we should go with for now because we're still a bit of a small community.  We all have certain forms of one genre or another that we're the most passionate about, like how my favorite brand of EDM is breakbeat whereas I struggle with house.  Having said that, the struggle intrigues me to improve, so I fully accept and even love the whole clan challenge system, not only as a way to test our dedication to our identities and loyalty of it therein, but also acts as a way to in part actually live the attitude spoken about in many metal albums, considering we can't slay dragons and command evil spirits.  On top of this, the idea of focusing on specifics gives us the ability to fully comprehend something for the purpose of writing the best reviews possible.  Having said all this, I learned the difference between "favoritism" and "discrimination" years ago, and would like to finish at least one of every clan challenge once I gain my fourth clan as I am a bit greedy and want to understand as much about music as possible.

Before this gets locked for no further use (if that happens since some websites do it and some don't), Pelle, your top 20's missing entries 6 and 18.  Figured it'd be better to post here because we still need PM notifications.

Here's a concept I quickly threw together for a Fallen-specific shading to start with, using one of my previous posts.

This looks great

Thanks!

Thanks guys!

Here's a concept I quickly threw together for a Fallen-specific shading to start with, using one of my previous posts.

Forum Themes

Right now every Forum page looks the same, It would be cool if their were forum themes so that each clan board had a diferent look and feel. Alternatively you could offer users a drop down to select a theme for the whole site. 

Members of specific clans should discuss which aesthetics must be represented first before settling on a layout.  We'll need a thread for this, though.

Deadmau5 - Random Album Title (2008)

Genres: Prog House, Tech House

This is where I'm getting serious about exploring house.  Deadmau5 is a seriously popular name in the genre, and apparently he pioneered a sound or two everyone wanted to emulate.  I hoped this album lived up to the hype because I heard some very mixed things about Deadmau5.  His debut, Get Scraped, was a pretty cool one that proved that Deadmau5 knew how to work around various genres while maintaining a consistent flow, with genres including house, techno, IDM, breakbeat and a little trance.  Unfortunately, his second album, Vexillology, through ALL OF THAT out the window and was just a bunch of repetitive and empty house tracks with some interesting beats.  This third album is considered one of his big ones, so I was gripping the idea that it would be his best like a vengeful maniac squeezing another man's crotch.

Now we start off with a couple of decent tracks that go hand in hand, an opener and a follow up.  I have to say that I didn't really care for the way the follow-up copied the previous track's sound at first, but after thirty seconds, new effects and a heart monitor sample or two made it more like a sequel song than anything, justifying the decision.  But the album gets good on track 3, Slip, where its poppy but experimental riff screws with the 4x4 tempo of the beats to create a poppier brand of Trout mask Replica appeal.  Sure, it's repetitive.  But the sci-fi expands into more Vangelis-style and video game territory with Some Kind of Blue, which both slams and relaxes with its complex and eclectic approach to house simplicity.  So I'm sitting here on track four thinking, "This album's getting a little better with each track.  Please tell me it keeps doing that."

Next is Brazil (2nd Edit), which rings of the ibiza trance sounds of acts like Chicane while still remaining a Deadmau5 song.  its rhythm is both repetitive and complex, and the atmospheres are quite pretty.  So after five tracks, its progression as a continuous tempo seemed to be justified at the time.  But in the case of Alone with You, it started out cute and pretty with a nice charm to it, but it's not the kind of song that needs to last seven minutes doing it.  It should've just been four.  And after that came the popular one from the album and a staple of his career, "I Remember."  This one's more trance-oriented, and is the first to include singing.  It had an extremely simple beat and some pretty singing, and that was it for the first two minutes when I thought to myself, "this better pick up soon or I'm gonna be really disappointed."  And before I knew it, I was HALFWAY DONE WITH THE SONG.  The song pretty much lasted that way throughout the whole nine minutes, which spelled bad omens for when I realized it might be the same with Strobe.  EDM or not, creativity is practically a virtue to me.  The album has plenty of consistency, but without creativity as well, it's not gonna get super high points from me.

The next two tracks are a short orchestral variation and a normal variation of "Faxing Berlin," which somehow manages to be repetitive and unimaginitive at two minutes each.  This hinted to me that the meat of the album was spent.  "Not Exactly" spent a full minute out of eight just going about a simple beat before finally going to some new rhythmic sounds, still largely relying on playing the same sound over and over again four times a second.

The variations are often really slow-moving and add very little that hasn't already been heard on the album.  Was I really supposed to sit through all eight minutes of that?  Thankfully, "Arguru" was able to come in and save the day.  The main riffs were experimental, and various sounds and techniques were utilized to keep it a pretty strong track throughout.  It's trance-like, techno-like and purely Deadmau5 all at the same time.  Might be my favorite track on the album.  And finally, the deciding factor: "So There I Was."  Started typically with a noirish feel and more lacking melodies, so I was forced right back into Vexillology.  Two minutes in it starts to play with a hypnotic rhythm a little, and it certainly makes things better by adding a little glitter to this noirish track, but that's only for a little bit.  Otherwise, it's another repetitive song.

Final consensus: it's got more creativity than Vexillology in the first half, but it steers back into typical house territory in the second.  This big giant is alright, but nothing compared to the debut.

67 / 100

I was a techno DJ during the 2000’s & still hold a deep passion for electronic music Rex.

Anything recorded?

Here's an idea.  When someone wants to "officially" submit a review specifically for the challenges, they can press a "submit for acceptance" button and a mod can review it later.  This can separate the actual reviews from the commentary.  And of course, it would only be for clan challenge albums.  The only drawback I can think of right now is that there are currently two mods for that kind of thing.

To partially answer your rhetorical question and risking repetition, only read reviews for albums I've already heard.  And since I spend so much time looking up other genres (I am currently exploring more house music) I've been progressing on the clan challenges very slowly.

I'd have to refuse, too.  I don't support toxic communities, or at least I try to avoid it as much as possible.  Plus, Discord's layout annoys me.

So the world's going crazy over this new K-pop album called Dall by ARTMS.  I don't discriminate, and they've only got the one album, so what the hell, right?  As far as K-Pop goes, its exact genre is more than standard.  It's made up of all the same elements of thopse before them: dance-pop and con-R&B switching, synthpop, electropop, alt-pop and future bass.  Nothing special, right?

Wrong.  These ladies' voices go fantastically together.  Their harmonics are out of this world.  On top of that, the songs are uber catchy, have memorable melodies and each song feels a little different.  I'd even go as fare as to say that Candy Crush feel's like a very artistic take on your average vaporwave EP, and it fits.  Some of these songs just make you wanna jump up while others are smoother than raspberry chocolate mousse.  If it weren't for the fact that the genre choices are uber-standard, I'd give it a ten.  But right now, I'm having difficulty deciding if it's a 9.0 like Last in Line or a 9.5 like Holy Diver.

Beyonce - Renaissance (2022)

Genres: Dance-Pop, House, Contemporary R&B

it's so weird how much she's grown as an artist since her Destiny's Child days.  it's like The Flaming Lips in the sense that their heyday came way later.  Beyonce knows how to stay relevant and how to grow as an artist.  Renaissance is basically a testament to everything she's tackled before but with a freakishly consistent vibe.  The album takes little bits of various genres and maintains a very cool presence by allowing the instruments in each song to be both complex and yet not so melodic.  The melody is handled by Beyonce and the backing vocalists 80% of the time, and it always works well-enough.  Although, if you're addicted to melody, you might find an occasionally empty feeling if the technicality doesn't impress you.  But boy does the presence of this album assault you.   In fact, I'd even say that All Up in Your Mind, in its two-minute fifty-second runtime, is one of the best things Beyonce has ever done, and it wasn't even a single.

So far, this is Beyonce's strongest studio album, still falling second to her live album, Homecoming.  The unexpected switch to house allowed her to maximize her experience, even if this is a little overlong, I found myself placing it in the high 97's on my chart.

My Top 100 Heavy Metal Albums

Thanks a bunch to Ben for putting up Scorpions' World Wide Live so I could complete this accurately.  And yes, I included the four Metallica albums I tagged as "heavy metal," including RtL and MoP.  But that barely represents the whole of my feelings here.  I'm also very happy to say that my newfound love for Priest has allowed SEVEN of their albums here.

Try reading some other people's reviews to get an idea of the terminology and overall structure used.

I hear you on that, but my approach is this; why spend a 1,000 words to say what can be said in 10? As far as pacing, I've been listening to metal for a LONG time, and like the description says; the clan lists deliberately use a lot of the bigger albums. The result being that I've already heard most of them, some of them many many times. The most common rating I give is a 2.5 which signifies average, most things are average, that's why it's the average. Along with that comes the idea that about half of the stuff is below average. 

If a piece of music is just average to me, I don't have feelings for it that warrant a lengthy response. There are only so many ways to say "This was OK."

If the music is below average to my ears, I don't think it's a cool thing to write a lengthily tirade and tear it apart. To someone else it might be very cherished. Additionally I am a bassist, and I know how difficult, time consuming, and expensive it is just to get something recorded. I don't feel right bashing another artists art simply because I don't resonate with it. 

If I had my druthers I wouldn't write a review at all for anything scoring below a 4 (If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything). However, as it stands that is the only path I'm aware of to lock in your starting clans, and make additional ones available at this time, so I try to keep my reviews of 0-3 stars fairly brief. Once I get the homework done and can freely choose what I review you will see more fleshed out takes.

The other issue is when an album has a legacy status. We are all on a metal forum, do I really need to tell you that Black Sabbath's Master of Reality is a good album? What could I possibly say about such an icon that hasn't been said since it's release 53 Years ago?

These are the questions? scenarios? I wrestle with when I write reviews. Believe me, I don't like coming away from an hour long listen (which can be a REALLY long hour if we are talking about early funeral doom) with little to say, but I can't manufacture words for words sake. 

What's more ill-conceived, a short concise statement that does the job, or a rambling for rambling sake? Especially when we all have access to the medium itself a few short mouse clicks away?

I've been thinking about all of this a lot the last couple of days. What do you think? How do you approach writing your reviews?

Thanks for the reply, but this is predominantly a "review" site. It's not a "short concise statement on some music I heard once" site.  Also, you are missing the point of a review.  A review is to tell us why you enjoy an album, not necessarily why we would because you couldn't possibly know.  Your post here shows you are an articulate guy, whereas your reviews come across as a click bait, smash and grab, social media style expression which I don't think necessarily does you justice.

Accepting the point about limited time but we have all managed to lock in our clans by going into at least some detail, which does take more than one listen over a few days (hell even weeks) around jobs, family and other commitments.  

I am not being a dick here and apologies if it comes across that way.  I am not representing the views of the site either.  As a musician I just sense there's more depth and experience you could get into your reviews to share with us.  Entirely your choice though.

Agreed on most of this, although the only disagreement is really more of a preference than an actual contradiction: I rarely feel the need to listen to an album more than once to form my opinions, but since some people here do, it's not something I'd ever choose to gripe about.  It's probably because I write a review and edit it as I'm listening to the album in most cases, but lots of people tend to collect their emotions before writing.  For the sake of example, I decided to check out one of yours on your profile, and read the first paragraph of your previous review for Thergothon:

"Exploring early funeral doom is fast becoming my favourite way to relax.  It really is testimony to the knowledge of the creator of this clan challenge (The Fallen: Doom Metal - The Early Days) as to how good an introduction to the clan this list of releases is."

I didn't finish the review since I haven't heard the album, but that's not the point.  To Zero: This is the kind of intro that establishes a personal connection between the viewer and the reader, calling to mind the conception and familiarity of relaxation to keep in mind for the rest of the review, kind of like good character development in a novel.  So whatever's needed to make things more personal is an absolute necessity, even if it takes more than one play of the album.  Hell, that's why Kid A exists.

On top of that, aren't reviews verified and unaccepted if they don't meet certain standards?  I mean, I can't be alone in this: I took one look at the standards and decided I'd try to meet them the best I could when I first got here.

When I say "like albums" I meant the genre or the behavior of the album rather than the quality.

Personally, I love going into detail.  But when I need to write a review for a clan challenge's average album, I often use the more average albums and compare them to like albums in order to fully explain it.  This helps out with an extra five sentences or so and makes the review acceptable enough to complete a clan challenge.

I agree that funeral doom is quite literally doomed to constant repetition.  It's been a bit difficult to find an album in the genre I that really amazed me, considering I need constant invention and consistency balanced to give something a great rating.  There are only two funeral doom albums that ever made it to my top 100 metal albums: Antithesis of Light by Evoken and Metamorphosis by Esoteric.

But I really do admire doom's diversity overall.  Some metal genres only have so much they can work with, but doom's all over the spectrum with its own variants like trad and funeral as well as how it easily incorporates itself into death, stoner, gothic and even black sometimes.