ZeroSymbolic7188's Reviews

Mind-blowingly intense, brutal, technical, and really fuckin' fun. Those are the best adjectives I could come up with, and they don't even begin to do justice to the contents of this album. You need to put like a X100 multiplier between each of those words and even then you're still not doing it justice. I am not super familiar with deathcore and it's timeline-this album is a little outside of my usual wheel house, but I can tell you that I've been more open to the "core" subgenres because of how this album changed my view it. I think Cattle Decapitation's -Monolith of Inhumanity falls under the same category. If not that's my ignorance on display. 

With that in mind you are probably better served to take queues from other reviewers who are more specialized in that category. However, what I can tell is that this thing is a masterpiece, and that you need to hear it. Ideally you want to hear it with a good speaker system that can carry low end, because there are some extremely deep bass sounds (808 drops?) on this album that a phone/laptop/or standard car stereo are not going to do justice too. It's still great without them but I really get a kick out of that sort of thing.

If you can point me in the "more like this" direction or help me understand deathcore and other types of core music I'm a ready and willing student. Hit the DMs or comment below-I read everything and respond to most things.

PS. BRIEEE   BRIEEEE   BRIEEEEEEEEEEEEE 

Conrad "Cronos" Lant, is the most under-appreciated man in all of Heavy Metal. In the way that I consider Lemmy Kilmister to be the living avatar of Rock and Rock, I consider Cronos to be the living avatar of Heavy Metal. He is without a doubt the single strongest influence on the way that I approach playing bass guitar, and the way that I think about heavy music in general. I can not praise this man highly enough. 

I've heard and read many critics of Venom that say they weren't strong musicians, and that their work was amateur. I've also watched Cronos get more reaction from growling and smashing his bass with with his fist than countless "technically accomplished" musician will get shredding the paint off the walls. This is because Cronos understands his art and his audience. Heavy Metal is not about showing the world how smart you are, or how proficient you are at your instrument-it is about primal savage energy and making evil fucking sounds with your instruments. Venom taps into that inner-child I think a lot of metalheads have that just want to make noise. "Cronos make good sound. Cronos best chief," he's got a couple other tricks up his sleeve; The man can write a song and dial in a fucking heavy bass tone! His voice is a crystal clear animalistic growl that oozes charisma and fits the music perfectly. The other musicians on this album aren't rubbish either, it's just that Cronos is one of those front men with a presence that dwarves everything around him. If you need an analogue, John Deacon, Roger Taylor, and Brian May are all excellent musicians too, but when you think of Queen you think of Freddy Mercury, and so it is with Mantas, Abaddon, and Cronos.

Black Metal is the second album from Venom and while the production is still as raw as I like my steak, it's a big step up from the debut effort. Put bluntly this album sounds like a party being thrown by demons in hell, and it's lyrical content reinforces that imagine. For as dark and satanic as it is, it's primary focus is to entertain. It doesn't take itself so seriously that it stops being fun. The songs on it are all filled with not just catchy riffs, but catchy vocal phrasings. You can't listen to it without joining Cronos in whatever subject he's growling about, whether that be a trip to "Hell and Back", a telling of the evil deeds of "Countess Bathory", detailing a "S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E", or the benefits of being "Teacher's Pet". 

so what are you waiting for? LAY DOWN YOUR SOUL TO THE GOD'S ROCK AND ROLL! BLACK METAL!... BLACK METAL!!!!!.. BLACK METALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite a lot of people take vacations to Florida; Universal Studios, Disneyland, Beaches, and Margaritas. Not me though, I made the 17hour 1,000+mile journey from Detroit to Tampa because I wanted to tour Morrissound Studios, because that's where Chuck Recorded. Now it's not in the same building anymore, but nonetheless I felt his energy within it's walls. 

On my battle jacket, which I nearly never take off, there are 3 Patches strategically positioned. The largest patch on my back is Motorhead's Snaggletooth encircled in ROCK AND ROLL, and the Ace of Spades. My right pocket displays Black Sabbath in the purple Master of Reality font flanked by two demons, and finally on my left pocket, closest to my heart is the DEATH patch.

I listen to an epic fuck-ton of heavy metal, and while the albums in my top 20 shuffle around some, The Sound of Perseverance is always #1. 

For me this is an album beyond criticism. It represents my concept of perfect music. It has crystal clear production, and every instrument sits in it's own place complimented by the vocals. Those vocals are dirty enough to keep this an undeniably heavy album, but they aren't so piercing as in black metal, nor are they so low and guttural as to become indecipherable. Chuck belts out the lyrics in a banshee wail but you can make out everything he says. I guess that he was critical of his vocals, but I never will be. 

The technicality and progressive elements on display between guitars, bass, and drums are such that there is never any doubt that these guys are at the top of their game, but it never becomes a technical showcase at the expense of the music. Everybody is working together to serve the music, not themselves. The lyrics are just awesome, go read them as though it were a collection of poetry. I sometimes to refer to Chuck as the Bob Dylan of Death metal, because of how poetic his lyricism can be. I don't want to spoil them here for you if you haven't heard them. Just know that at this stage in the game Chuck was tackling ideas much deeper than zombies, gore, and the various ways one can expire.

If you need a single. "Spirit Crusher" is incredibly catchy and has the greatest chorus riff of all time.
If you want instrumental ambience "Voice of the Soul" is right there.
If you're into covers the final track is "Painkiller' originally by Judas Priest...

And if you just simply want the best possible music ever recorded-that's every song on the album. 

If you only listen to one heavy metal album in your life. Make it this one.