Sonny's Forum Replies

I have checked out the Cryptic Shift album and I hear why it is so well liked by so many, but I am not as on board with it as most at this point. Now I fully accept that it isn't an album that you can jump to conclusions about, certainly after only a single listen and I do intend to revisit it soon. However, for me, there is just so much going on that I can't really get my head round it and it is very long. Ironically, though, the track that jumped out at me is the longest of them all, "Stratocumulus Evergaol" which gave itself enough space (as in half a fucking hour) to make all that was going on there less jarring and more natural sounding, feeling like a genuinely epic piece of metal. I suspect this may be an album that might just 'click' with me all of a sudden, a bit like Archspire did, so I certainly haven't given up on it yet. Three and a half stars from me for now, but that may change at a future date.

There are ten releases from the Infinite's 2026 release schedule that have already hit the minimum number of ratings. Interestingly, a number of them also lead the rankings in several other clans as well as here in The Infinite.

1. Neurosis - An Undying Love for a Burning World [4.50] (#1 by virtue of higher number of ratings) Also #1 in The Fallen

2. Kaatayra - Caminhos de água [4.50] #1 in The North

3. Cryptic Shift - Overspace & Supertime [4.33] #1 in both the Horde and The Pit

4. Protest the Hero - Within [4.17]

5. Myrath - Wilderness of Mirrors [4.00] #1 in The Guardians

6. Crimson Glory - Chasing the Hydra [4.00]

7. Plini - An Unnameable Desire [3.83]

8. Urne - Setting Fire to the Sky [3.38]

9. Stam1na Apnea [3.33]

10. ERRA Silence Outlives the Earth [3.13]

It is quite incredible that releases that sit under The Infinite umbrella are leading in six out of the nine clans. I guess the Metal Academy likes progressiveness in their metal more than is immediately apparent.

The Infinite is another clan from which I have listened to nothing so far this year (although I have got Cryptic Shift on as I type this) so please post any red hot recs for myself and anyone else who is interested to check out.

So far ten releases have gained sufficient ratings to be considered and currently sit thus:

1= Cryptic Shift - Overspace & Supertime [4.33]

1= Fires in the Distance - Circadian Promise [4.33]

3. Immolation - Descent [4.25]

4. Slaughterday - Dread Emperor [3.83]

5. At the Gates - The Ghost of a Future Dead [3.67]

6= Fossilization - Advent of Wounds [3.50]

6= Inferi - Heaven Wept [3.50]

6= Invictus - Nocturnal Visions [3.50]

9. Ectovoid - In Unreality's Coffin [3.13]

10. Enshine - Elevation [2.67]

I have listened to and rated a few of these but, tellingly, not the first two. I have just got my vinyl copy of the Immolation album and that would be my pick for the top at the minute, with Invictus and Fossilization not far behind.

Other decent-scoring albums in need of at least one further rating are:

Archspire - Too Fast to Die

Funebrarum - Beckoning the Void of Eternal Silence

Ripper (CHL) - Towards Rebirth

Exhumed - Red Asphalt

Growth - Under the Under

At the Gates - The Ghost of a Future Dead

A recent Fallen feature release is 10 years old today. Formed after Gates of Slumber split, this was Wretch's only full-length release and damn fine it is too. Also celebrating a decade of existence is the serially underrated The Wounded Kings final album "Visions in Bone". Ironically, it is my least favourite of their releases (and the only one on Spotify), but it is still a decent slab of doom metal.

At this point six releases from The Guardians have received three or more ratings and are:

1. Myrath - Wilderness of Mirrors [4.00] (Myrath is #1 by virtue of more ratings than Crimson Glory)

2. Crimson Glory - Chasing the Hydra [4.00]

3. Lovebites - Outstanding Power [3.50]

4. Edenbridge - Set the Dark on Fire [3.33]

5. Exxûl - Sealed Into None [3.17]

6. Wildhunt - Aletheia [2.83]

There are several bubbling under with a couple of ratings each and the following actually have higher average ratings than Myrath:

Therion - Con orquesta

Iron Savior - Awesome Anthems of the Galaxy

Beyond the Black - Break the Silence

Masterplan - Metalmorphosis

Personally, it appears I haven't rated anything from this year in The Guardians so if anyone has any hot recommendations that I should check out then I would be glad to hear them.

The gorgeously melancholic true Fallen classic from Shape of Despair is a quarter century old today.

At 2/3 of the way through the year, only four releases have so far achieved three or more votes. 

These are:

1. Soen - Reliance [3.38]

2. Karnivool - In Verses [2.83]

3. Gaerea - Loss [2.67]

4. Mirrorcell - Long Nights in Lovescape [2.50]

None of these have a particularly high site rating, so there is plenty of scope for others to stake a claim.

Some other releases that have gained at least one decent rating are albums by Alter Bridge, Clawfinger, Evanescence, Black Veil Brides, Dead Air Divine and Machinae Supremacy. Let us know what you think we should all be checking out from the Gateway this year.

There is currently an obvious leader in the race for The Fallen award with Neurosis' "An Undying Love for a Burning World" having both the highest site rating (4.5) and the most number of ratings (as well as sitting at #11 on the all-time charts at the minute). I haven't checked it out myself yet, but expect to pretty soon.

1. Neurosis - An Undying Love for a Burning World [4.50]

2= Ennui - Qroba 3 [4.33]

2= Fires in the Distance - Circadian Promise [4.33]

2= Warning - Rituals of Shame [4.33]

5. Draconian - In Somnolent Ruin [3.80]

6. Ruins of Beverast - Tempelschlaf [3.60]

7. Urne - Setting Fire to the Sky [3.38]

8. Exxûl - Sealed Into None [3.17]

9. Temple of Void - The Crawl [3.17]

10. Lone Wanderer Exequiae [3.00]

My personal recommendations so far would be Ennui, Warning, Temple of Void and Lone Wanderer, but I have a whole lot of catching up to do as I haven't given new releases as much attention as they deserve so far this year.

Another six-year old thread I have dug up from the abyssal depths. To be fair, though, at this time I was very much a newbie to death metal and wasn't even a member of The Horde at this point and only now feel confident enough to pass judgement on two such iconic albums. I love me some Pestilence and Martin van Drunen is one of my favourite extreme metal vocalists. On "Consuming Impulse" the Dutchmen had upped their game and turned in a career best release that sits pretty well up on my favourite death metal releases list. However, to pit it against one of, if not the, defining releases of a genre as huge as death metal is a little bit unfair and, let's face it, not many would stand a chance in such a match-up. Its a bit like the Muhammad Ali vs. ex-soldier Richard Dunn fight in '76 (look it up kids), Dunn put up a plucky display but was completely out of his depth and got his arse handed to him by Ali. So, ultimately what I am saying is that Pestilence are the *Richard Dunn of death metal!

*They aren't - they are much better than that.

Altars Of Madness 3 - Consuming Impulse 0

I was digging through the archives and unearthed this thread from six years ago, so I thought I would compare my top 10 now to my top 10 then:

1. [3]Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion (1985)

2. [1]Slayer - Reign in Blood (1986)

3. [NA] Metallica - Ride the Lightning (1984)

4. [7] Dark Angel - Darkness Descends (1986)

5. [NA] Demoniac - So It Goes (2020)

6. [NA] Anthrax - Among the Living (1987)

7. [2] Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)

8. [4] Kreator - Coma of Souls (1990)

9. [NA] Possessed - Seven Churches (1985)

10. [8] Sacrilege - Behind the Realms of Madness (1985)

These have dropped out of my top ten altogether:

Sabbat - History of a Time to Come (1988)

Razor - Violent Restitution (1988)

Kreator - Pleasure to Kill (1986)

Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death (1990)

There is a quite considerable variation from my old list to the latest, but I think all this proves is that I don't know my own mind from one year to another.

Still, I have listened to all these relatively recently and I am pretty confident that this reflects my current preferences.

Here's a bit of a weird one. We are two-thirds of the way through the year and looking at the 5+ ratings chart, there are only two entries in the top 500 from the current year, Neurosis and Converge, which are sitting in the pretty lofty positions of 11th and 23rd of all time. OK, fine, both are bands that have very committed fans, but for there to be nothing else from 2026 in the top 500 while the two that are sit so high seems a bit of an anomaly to me. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Hi Ben, could you add the following please:

Warcoe - doom / trad doom Italy

Bastard Lord - doom / stoner USA [Their S/T is listed on RYM as a demo, but it had a proper release on CD on Twin Earth Records three months after its Bandcamp release and metal-archives lists it as an official EP].

Caskets Open - doom / trad doom Finland

According to AI, "pizza thrash" is a semi-derogatory term for modern crossover & thrash metal bands that reject serious or dark themes in favor of fast, party-centric music, 1980s retro aesthetics & lyrics about beer, cartoons & pizza. See Municipal Waste, Lich King & Gama Bomb as examples.

There has always been a section of the thrash scene that has embraced that philosophy and, although those themes don't particularly appeal to me personally, I don't hate the bands that do, yet there seems to be quite a vitriolic disdain for them amongst certain members of the metal community. Is this what we would call gatekeeping, similar to Metal Archives 'mallcore' aversion?

Checking this out as I type this and yes, I definitely get the comparisons with Neuropath. I am really digging what I hear and I think the earlier brutal death metal scene is something I am going to have to dig into deeper as it is an area of death metal I haven't covered so much. I often feel I have got so much catching up to do when it comes to death metal!

Note: Overkill's "Feel the Fire" would have made the list at number seven if I wasn't so pedantic about including their 1985 self-titled E.P. as their first proper release.

And also, I'm gonna leave a hot take here by saying that at the time "Bonded by Blood" hit the shelves it was the best metal record ever released up to that point in time.

The same is true for Celtic Frost, though, maybe even more so, as later re-issues of "Morbid Tales" are considered to be full-lengths. I think I am going to have to revisit Overkill at some point because I have never really taken to them that much. Maybe it is because they didn't register on my radar at the time and so I have only related to them in hindsight.

What the hell happened to Exodus, though, because you are right, Daniel, "Bonded By Blood" is a great record, but after that they kind of dropped off a cliff whereas nearly all major thrash bands went onwards and upwards (at least for four or five years anyway). I have often seen them labelled 'pizza thrash'. I have no idea what that phrase means, though. Could someone enlighten me please?

Ripper - "Towards Rebirth" (2026)

It has been a decade since Ripper's terrific "Experiment of Existence" album was released and there have been wholesale lineup changes with mainman, guitarist and vocalist Patricio Spalinger, the only member remaining from the lineup that recorded that sophomore album. For most of the intervening decade Patricio has been concentrating on his Venus Torment solo project as well as featuring in several other outfits such as Slaughterhousse and The Missings, but has now decided that the time is ripe for a new Ripper offering. He has assembled an impressive array of talent this time around with guitarist Nicolás Young (Critical Defiance, Demoniac) and drummer Javier Buzeta, who appeared on Mayhemic' s excellent 2024 "Toba" album, being joined by bassist Tomás Barriga of heavy metallers Axe Battler.

If you are in any way familiar with the chilean thrash scene then "Towards Rebirth" will be instantly familiar. After a short 'spooky synth' intro we are treated / subjected to an onslaght of breakneck riffs, pulsating basslines and screaming solos accompanied by gruff, bellowing vocals and an intensity that references death metal as much as thrash, with it all barely seeming to hold together as it tears past as a gale of energetic velocity. Buzeta sets the pace, battering away in a flurry of machine-gun double kicks and pulverising thrashbeats that goad the riffs into a demonic charge, ably bolstered by Barriga's busy and kinetic basslines. The two combine inordinately well and are as much a force of nature as a metal rhythm section. The riffs are mighty beasts indeed and are actually quite memorable and melodic, despite the fact that they hurtle past like an express train, providing more than enough ammunition for a damn good neck wrenching. As we have come to expect from chilean thrashers, the solos are where they like to go to town, with hyper kinetic shredding and smoking fretboards being the order of the day, providing the artistic flights of fantasy in contrast to the tightly focussed ballistics of the riffs and rhythm section. The album is, arguably, slightly front-loaded with the final three tracks from the instrumental "The Secret Dawn" onwards not feeling quite as awesome as the rest, but even these three are still pretty decent thrash workouts.

What I think appeals to me most about the chilean scene is that it takes the intensity and vitriol of the older, late eighties and early nineties, deaththrash records and transforms them with ultra-tight focus and undoubtedly superior technical skill into an even more impressive beast and, with ultra clear production, finally realising the potential that so many of those earlier records possessed. In so doing albums like "Towards Rebirth" don't just rehash a thirty-plus year-old trope, but present a thorougly modern sound that taps into the vigour and energy that thrash once possessed in spades, but which long ago had started to feel staid and stilted.

4.5/5 [86/100]

Midryasi - Corridors (2009)

Midryasi are an italian doom metal crew from Lombardy and they take their name from a condition which results in excessive dilation of the pupils, ususally from disease or chronic drug use and the music they produce tends to suggest they are referencing the latter cause rather than the former. "Corridors" is their sophomore full-length, although the self-titled debut is often cited as a demo rather than an official debut album. They take Sabbathian traditional doom metal and infuse it with a heavy late-60s / 1970s psychedelic vibe for a very trippy take on doom metal. This is achieved chiefly through a liberal layering of Sixties' Hammond-like keyboards and loose jam-style guitar solos alongside some pretty funky riffs. The band quite often choose to employ layered gang vocals which does feel quite anachronistic in music that is attempting to recreate the atmosphere of the late Sixties. The psychedelia-infused leads and often pretty groovy riffs give "Corridors" more of a positive atmosphere than we would normally expect to hear on a doom metal record and, as such, it may well appeal more to stoners than to dyed-in-the-wool doomheads. That is until the mightily filthy riff of closing track "Another Hell Within (Space Suite Version)" kicks in and causes the ears of those with darker preferences to prick up. There is still a psychedelic edge to the track, but this feels like the dark underbelly of psychedelia summed up by Altamont and Manson, not the Woodstock and Sgt, Pepper of the rest of the album. Its fourteen minutes is a dark, hallucinatory jam through the inner workings of a mind trapped in its own personal hell and, for me, is a clear standout and a great way to end the album and send the listener away with a sobering reality check. "Corridors" isn't a perfect album by any means and the two tracks immediately before the titanic closer feel like filler, but the two longest tracks that bookend the album, the title track and "Another Hell Within" certainly make it worth checking out if you are partial to a bit of drug-induced trippiness in your doom metal.

4/5 [82/100]

I thought it would be interesting to look at how ratings compared between clan and site ratings, so I looked at the chart for 10+ ratings to hopefully give a reaonable number of clan and non-clan ratings for most of the releases. Unsurprisingly the majority seemed to have higher clan ratings than site ratings although there are a significant number that have a slightly lower clan rating (0.1-0.2 less). I think it is reasonable to expect better clan ratings than overall site ratings as a clan member presumably has a better disposition towards a particular clan's releases. However, there were a few outliers that stood out as having decidedly lower clan ratings than site ratings and I wondered why this would be.

A number are from The Sphere, which we know has fewest members, so if a Sphere release doesn't hit with the one or two active clan members then it is entirely possible the site rating will exceed the clan rating. In Flames has four releases on the above list. I am not really that familiar with them, so is there something about them that appeals more to those outside The Horde than hardcore death metallers? Converge, Meshuggah and a couple of Devin Townsend releases also have a negative clan/site rating ration so, again, is there something about those acts that appeals more outside their respective clans?

Taubra - "Therizo" (2023)

Taubra was founded in 2022 by swiss guitarist Berg, who also plies his trade as the multi-instrumentalist behind Aara. Now, Taubra are a new one on me, but I am quite familiar with Aara, particular the earlier releases and I would count myself as a fan. I got to hear the track "Rembrandt of Death" whilst compiling the North playlist (nice nomination Vinny) and I kept sneaking back to it as it stood out to me, so good vibes abounded as I dived in to check out the full album.

The band hit an aggressive and vicious pose with some vibrantly brutal riffing thanks to a death metal style production job that beefs up their sound with a significant amount of bottom end and is perhaps a bit more bludgeoning than usual with the tremolo riffs not quite as dominant and high in the mix as you might normally expect. This pummelling viciousness is counterbalanced, though, by a degree of melodicism that gives it more memorability than an unrelenting blast-fest would and I am getting a decided Mgla vibe from a significant proportion of the material on offer. Vocals are provided by Norway's Ruben Haug who has been around the scene for many years and is a writer for the Heavymetal.no website. He does a damn good job too and has a ragged, barking scream that is aggressive, savage sounding and very much in your face.

We all know how far and wide the black metal umbrellaI spreads nowadays and it seems to widen every year as the genre always seems to be innovating, so I can almost feel a fair few black metal fans rolling their eyes and shrugging their shoulders at Taubra, but I have never hidden the fact that I am perfectly happy to listen to metal that isn't particularly original or groundbreaking as long as it is done well and provides some kind of buzz to my cynical soul and on that level "Therizo" hits the mark for me. It is powerful and aggressive-sounding, yet is still reasonably accessible and passes the test of getting this old dog nodding his head and pummelling imaginary kick drums in an ankle-strain-threatening flurry of flapping feet. What can I say, I love this sort of shit and I love metal that makes me feel alive as much as metal that makes me think, so a big thumbs up from me.

4.5/5 [86/100]

I have put together a list of the most significant thrash metal debut full-lengths that were released from 1983 - 1985, excluding crossover thrash and ordered chronologically. Some bands came flying out of the gates on fire and others less so, needing a record or two to get into their stride. So, of those on the list, who do you think nailed it from the off and who stuttered - and who never really got going at all for that matter.

Link to the list:

https://metal.academy/lists/single/358

The band who absolutely nailed it for me was Celtic Frost with "To Mega Therion", although their "Morbid Tales" EP that preceded it was one hell of a warm-up record. Probably most disappointing, in light of future excellence, is Kreator's "Endless Pain" and "Pleasure To Kill" is a world away from the debut.

Bathory, Possessed and Sacrilege all put out absolute top-knotch debuts too and Exodus never bettered theirs.

Of course the influence of "Kill 'Em All" can't be overstated. It contains some classic tracks and although it is patchy it is much superior to Mustaine's debut. Then, of course, I love "Show No Mercy" and "The Antichrist" is still one of my all-time favourite Slayer tracks. 

Xephyr, be aware that today is the last day for nominations for the North playlist for September as I want to start working on it tomorrow.

Hi Ben, could you add Belarusian melo-death band Asguard please.

Hi Ben, please add US black metal band Abbess from Freiburg, Maryland. They only have one album to date and not much is known about them, but I did buy the album from Bandcamp ages ago.

https://abbessband.bandcamp.com/album/abbess

Also Scottish atmospheric black metal project Adabroc please, Ben.
https://adabroc.bandcamp.com/

Hi Ben, could you add Denver doomsters Black Magic Darkness, please.

Could you add a couple of 'Stone' bands please Ben. They are the now defunct Stone Magnum from Indiana in the US and Melbourne's Stonethroat.

Also canadian stoner doom band Astral Witch and german stoners Aleph Null, please.

I like all stats to be honest. Let me know if you want any stats added to the new site. I can pretty easily add anything we want.

I will give it some thought. I am sure there are some I can think of.

Off the top of my head, the same stats that we can access for the top genres would be good to have for the sub-genres, so we could see how our ratings for, say, black metal were distributed among the various sub-genres. 

Personally, I would like to be able to quickly see how many releases for a given genre there are year by year. This is one thing I think RYM have done well:

If you hover over each year, as it shows above, then the graphic tells you how many releases there were for that genre that particular year.

As I occasionally dip my toes into the waters of The Revolution I am most often pleasantly surprised by what I hear from the very earliest releases in the Metalcore genre. There is so much more of a Eighties' hardcore vibe to those earlier releases that I don't really get from more recent (post-2000) stuff. Being a big fan of 80s hardcore myself then it is obvious that this is going to appeal to me on some level. Whilst "Remain Sedate" does contain more metal than, say, Minor Threat, it feels more like there has been an evolution from the one to the other rather than a revolutionary upheavel that rejects the former, taking the passion and aggression of hardcore and sharpening it with a metallic edge that cuts deeper whilst still possessing the sheer dynamic force of the originators. I like this very much and I am beginning to understand some of the attraction of metalcore that I just didn't get from listening to later bands first. As I found with death metal, a journey through the earlier releases of a genre gives a deeper and more detailed understanding of it and a better appreciation of later acts who may have moved the genre further on and who are best appreciated in context.

I think I would actually go as far as to say that I much prefer the metalcore approach to the metallisation of punk than I do that of crossover thrash. Whereas crossover often tried to be flippant or light-hearted metalcore approached hardcore in a much more respectful way and seems to have retained the principals and integrity of the hardcore scene, which I personally find more palatable.

So, yeah, a big thumbs up from me and a 4 star rating, which has the potential to go up a notch with repeat listens.

Hour of 13 - "Hour of 13" (2007)

Formed in 2003 by multi-instrumentalist Chad Davis, Hour of 13 also featured veteran doom metal vocalist Phil Swanson on the first three albums, although he seemed to be in and out of the lineup fairly regularly. This debut full-length sees Davis taking on nearly all the instrumental duties, although the album's recording engineer Corey Leonard contributes leads on a couple of tracks, whilst Swanson handles vocal duties. Musically, Hour of 13 is pretty conservative, its traditional doom metal very much stressing the traditional with fuzzed-up, Sabbathian riffs and Swanson having a fairly high pitch and rough edge to his vocals in the vein of Ozzy with a similar intonation and delivery that suggests Phil very much modelled his vocal style on Birmingham's Prince of Darkness.

The production very much emphasises the riffs with the bass and, in particular, the drums sitting low in the mix and taking a back seat to the guitars and vocals. Obviously guitar and vocals are most often the focus but, especially in doom metal, the rhythm section usually has a deeper and more foundational feel than is present here and it would have been nice to hear a bit more depth and richness of tone in the backing track. There isn't a lot of focus on solos here either with Davis only really letting rip on "Grim Reality" and Leonard handling the solos on "Submissive to Evil" and "Allowance of Sin". I don't know whether Davis' reluctance to take on the leads is down to a lack of confidence on his part or it just being something he was less interested in than riffing his balls off. All that aside, those riffs are generally pretty damn good and although there isn't anything new or challenging, they deliver exactly what you would expect from a fundamentalist trad doom act and should satisfy any adherent of the style looking for a new fix. Phil Swanson's vocals suit the instrumentation exceedingly well and his doom metal credentials would have given the band a leg up in the doom scene that Davis would not have reasonably expected with a less well-known vocalist. Lyrically, once more the duo stick to the well-trodden occult path that is a feature / plague of trad doom lyricists since Ozzy intoned his words of doom on their eponymous opener, oh so many years ago.

Overall, I would have to admit that "Hour of 13" is unlikely to garner much attention outside of hardcore trad doom fanatics, but, despite a couple of reservations, I actually think this is a quite endearing example of the genre that is worthy of your time if trad doom is your bag and you just can't get enough Pentagram, Saint Vitus or Trouble. If you constantly need to be challenged or seek musical innovation, however, you should probably move along as there is nothing for you here.

4/5 [82/100]

The simple fact is that there are just so many more black and death metal releases than any others. Rym has 59k death metal and 79k black metal releases. Compare that to 36k heavy metal, 32k metalcore, 23k thrash, 17k doom, 13k power and less than 6k symphonic metal. In fact, of the 329k total metal releases on RYM, 42% are black and/or death metal and that means it is almost physically impossible for anyone to have listened to more than a fraction of those. Does this mean that death and black metal fanatics have to be more discerning in what they listen to than devotees of other genres?

As I said at the outset, these stats are largely meaningless, but do make for a bit of a talking point nonetheless. 

For completions sake, here is the table showing the results for releases with any ratings at all.

A big jump for Metalcore from the 5+ rankings when it was next to lowest to top 5 - largely thanks to Andi's efforts I should guess. A relative improvement for doom metal into second highest, so all those endless obscure doom bands I have had Ben adding over the years has finally had some impact after all!!

It's CRAZY to me how many Black and Death Metal releases there are though. I've never thought to crunch the numbers like this and it's starting to make sense as to why I get the feeling that I can't get away from Black and Death Metal releases when trying to vary it up when checking out new albums each year. Obviously Death and Black Metal cast a wide umbrella that encapsulates so many other genres with modern trends, but man, Death/Black Metal makes up more of the share than Power/Progressive/Heavy/Thrash/Metalcore combined.

Yeah, to have rated only 10% of the death and black metal releases on the site you would have had to have listened to almost 3000 releases from those two top level genres alone!

The River - "Drawing Down the Sun" (2006)

Croydon's The River formed in 1999 and released several demos before this, their debut album, came out in June of 2006. They have since undergone an evolution into an alternative slowcore / post-metal act, but this was unmistakeably, female-fronted doom metal and a pretty good example of it at that. Built upon highly distorted, rumbling riffs that present a huge wall of sound, even back then they had a degree of a shoegaze influence, an example of what would be called doomgaze, albeit with a bit more bite than I usually associate with the term. Deep basslines that follow the riffs and fairly sparse and wholly functional drumming (with guitarist Christian Leitch doubling up behind the kit) underpin the lethargic riffing and provide a deep and formidable foundation. Over this wave of distorted rumbling, singer Vicky Walters' clear, clean, but oh so melancholy, vocals describe heartbreakingly of a life trapped in a cold, abusive relationship and the hopelessness and despair such a life means for the victim. It is well worth the time to read and get to know the lyrics because it really does twist the experience of the album into a whole new dimension and is as affecting and, frankly, upsetting as any doom metal I have ever listened to. It is heavy stuff, but doom metal shouldn't be afraid to face real-world suffering if it is serious about exploring melancholy and loss, not just loss of others, but of self also. You cannot fail to have empathy for someone who has been stripped of any identity of their own and who are left feeling empty and invisible.

As I said at the start, the band eventually went in another direction, with Vicky Walters leaving around 2010, but with this debut they released one of the most profound doom metal albums it has been my privelege to hear and it still stands as one of my favourite female-fronted doom releases.

4.5/5 [90/100]

I don't find it terribly surprising to see the genres at the top of the list as they align closely with the listening preferences of one of our most committed members.

That is still only one person, though. What I take away from these results is that there are a number of 'silent' members who are fans and raters of those genres.

I also think it shows that there are probably a lot more obscure releases in death and black metal on the site as both of those have a significantly greater number of entries than any others, but that sheer breadth of releases make it more difficult for consensus listening and rating.

Most still hold up when you go to a 5+ rating with Metalcore experiencing the biggest drop off. Here the site average is 3.3%:

Using these stats it seems that the demographic of the wider Metal Academy members' tastes is quite different to what I would have guessed.

Completely meaningless I know, but I thought I would push a bit of a talking point and, as a bit of a stat nerd, I thought I would look at each of the Academy genres and compare the number of releases that have been rated by more than one person compared to the total number of releases within said genres and see which genres fared better. The results are seen below and are quite interesting (well I think so anyway).

Whilst most sit in a 10-15% spread, there are a few interesting outliers. The most obvious being the relatively lofty 20% coverage of power / symphonic metal. I was surprised to see grindcore at the bottom of the list with a measly 5% coverage as I always felt that grindcore fans were fairly rabid. Death and black metal, whilst having the actual highest number of releases with 2+ ratings score relatively low due to the huge total number of releases in each. If the overall totals are calculated then the average for Metal Academy as a whole is 11.2%, so it is easy to see how your favourite genres compare to the average. Unsurprisingly I suppose it looks like the more 'palatable' (to the wider public) genres have generally fared better.

I know that the premise that releases with more than a single rating indicate popularity is flawed and I will probably have a look at varying numbers when I am at a loose end again, but I still feel the results are probably valid.

Karl, Xephyr, don't forget to get those nominations in by the 15th - max 25 minutes each.

IAN were reommended to me by someone over on RYM, I do love this atmospheric sludge/post-metal type stuff and recently there has been a few bands that have stood out to me. I think there was a tendency at one time that there were too many copies of bands like Neurosis, Isis and Cult of Luna, but I really enjoy some of these newer releases. I think I have another one lined up in next months playlist.

Quoted dk

Cheers, David. I agree with you that atmospheric sludge / post-metal has now moved beyond the blatant copyism that plagued it for so long and a number of the recent bands are a lot more interesing as a result. I love CoL, Neurosis and Isis as much as anyone, but those guys have nailed that style down and new bands aping them have got to be something really special to even come close, so those doing something a bit different with it are developing the genre whilst forging themselves a more interesting path for the listener.

Bearing in mind the above conversation, relistening to this for the first time in a little while I think I am feeling it even more than I did originally. I believe my review from the time still holds and I feel no necessity to increase my 4 star rating, it is just hitting harder this time around, which may or may not be down to mood. Anyway here is my original review:

I stumbled across Crawl and their third full-length whilst compiling the Fallen playlist and was pretty damn impressed by what I heard. Crawl is apparently the work of a single individual, Michael A. Engle who doesn't just record all the instruments separately, but, remarkably, performs bass, drums, vocals and samples simultaneously, both live and in a studio setting for a genuine one-man band experience. Damned was recorded by Hell mainman MSW twiddling the knobs and it is easy to see why he was drawn to working with Crawl as the latter has the same bleak, nihilistic vibe going on as Hell.

Musically, Damned is a mix of drone metal, black ambient and a sludgy kind of doom metal that spans four tracks with a total 37 minutes runtime. Opener, Renaissance Of Worthlessness, acts as an intro with a droning bass sound and a black ambient soundscape that conjures images of some godsforsaken charnel house setting with water running down the walls and blood pooling on the floor and where unspeakable acts of cruelty occur. After this six minutes of unsettling ambience we get into the meat of matters, ...This Lesser Form comes oozing out of the speakers with droning, heavily distorted guitar and langorous piano chords combined with chant-like samples over which Engle shrieks his fury like a banshee howling into a gale, a desperate voice facing off against an implacable force. The atmosphere produced by Crawl is one of utter darkness, very similar to the effect that MSW himself often achieves under his Hell monicker and even though the music is quite sparsely produced, it still feels impenetrably dense and crushing.

10,000 Polehammers follows a similar template, but feels even more dense than the preceeding track, the drums here being pushed quite far forward and taking a prominent position in the mix, each snare hit seemingly increasing the protagonist's suffering as he wails and howls his protestations impotently into the darkness. The cover of Damned is a black and white drawing of a medieval knight, seemingly defeated and broken down by the horrors he has witnessed rather than the enemies he has defeated and, I must admit, that is a perfect metaphor for the sound of the closing track, Poisoned and Shadowmad which is as bleak a piece of metal as you are likely to hear this year.

Damned is filthy-sounding, impenetrable, unremittingly bleak and a pretty damn great illustration of what extreme doom drone should sound like.

4/5 [80/100]

Nope.  Not feeling this one I am afraid.  My usual understanding of progressive elements on a record usually sound to me like it is all over the place as an opus, and this is exactly my experience here.  Not for me.

Thanks for checking it out anyway, Vinny. 

Through no conscious effort on my part, I completely missed the Blaze-era albums that Maiden put out in the 90s. The fact that I have never heard or read a good word about that period anywhere has ensured that I have never bothered to find out if I was missing anything at all.

Trust me when I say that you are not missing out in any way. Those two records may well be worst pair I have ever heard by a major metal act. At least by one that I formerly respected. 

Close for me, but I have Judas Priest's "Turbo" and "Ram It Down" even lower - yes even lower than the 'Ripper' Owens' pair.

Yeah, definitely a top 10 war metal release for me too.

It'll be interesting to see if "Tightened Noose of Sanctimony" & "Slave Morality" do end up forcing their way into my top ten as well once I finally get around to giving them an attentive revisit.

I haven't actually listened to any other PO releases, but I enjoyed this one so much that I really should. There is just so fucking much to listen to that it ends up being a bit of a lottery as to what I eventually get round to. Oh, to be better organised!

The great thing about The Fallen playlists is that because of my personal preferences there are very few entries that I actively dislike. At worst I might consider the odd gothic metal, stoner or trad doom track to be a bit 'meh' and, even rarer, there might be something extreme that just asks too much of me and causes sensory overload. Generally speaking, though, I enjoy almost every entry to a greater or slightly less great degree. Here are my thoughts on this month's entries:

1. Age of Taurus - "The Bull and the Bear" (from "Desperate Souls of Tortured Times", 2013) [submitted by Sonny]

"Desperate Souls of Tortured Times" sits pretty comfortably on my favourite trad doom albums list and "The Bull and the Bear" is the second best track on it after "Sinking City" (which has featured on the playlist before, so is given a miss here).

2. Khemmis – “Carrion King” (from “Khemmis”, 2026) [submitted by dk]

The Khemmis track is really nice slab of bombastic epic doom and methinks I even detect a bit of a gothic tinge to it.

3. Kal-El - "Juno" (from "Astral Voyager Vol. 2", 2026) [submitted by Sonny]

Not a band I am familiar with, the Kal-El track actually popped up after something else I was listening to on Spotify had finished and its killer stoner grooves caught my ear sufficiently to get it a pick here - I still need to check out the whole album though.

4. Godthrymm - "Endure My Skin" (from "Projections", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

Godthrymm are a decent band, their relationship to My Dying Bride being evident throughout their short career and the mainman Aaron Stainthorpe himself even makes a guest appearance here. A nice piece of melodic gothic death doom, although Stainthorpe's rich vocals do put Hamish's reedier-sounding voice in the shade.

5. Black Sheep Wall – “Nihility” (from “I am God Songs”, 2008) [submitted by dk]

Anyway, enough of all this melody nonesense, its time for some sludgey noise. I haven't listened to Black Sheep Wall before, mainly being put off by their shitty album covers, but this is pretty intense stuff. In all honesty, I am not sure I could sit through a full album of it as it leans a bit too heavily on the noise side of the noise / sludge equation, but in the context of the playlist it fits in nicely and contrats heavily with the melodicism of the early tracks.

6. Solystalgia - "Conflagration" (from "Solystalgia", 2026)

Brandon from Nameless Graves Records asked me if I would check out the Solystalgia debut released on his label, although I have still to review the album, I found it to be solid, if not especially earth-shattering, slab of death doom with "Conflagration" arguably the best track on it.

7. Monolord - "Iodine" (from "Neverending", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

Monolord are back with a new album and this is pretty much what we have come to expect from them by now. Doom metal with washed-out, distant-sounding vocals and melodic guitar leads. I think they got a little too lightweight earlier in the decade, but they have now rediscovered their old heaviness and are much the better for it.

8. Crypt Sermon - "Christ is Dead" (from "The Ruins of Fading Light", 2019)

Crypt Sermon aren't a band I have listened to extensively but the kids seem to like them, so here they are. Pretty melodic doom / epic doom metal that may actually be a little too catchy for my particular taste.

9. Crowbar - "Planets Collide" (from "Oddfellows Rest", 1998) [submitted by Vinny]

Crowbar meanwhile show how to really do catchy and heavy, a trick at which they are masters and for which I have found increasing respect over recent years. That guitar tone is just so fucking cool man.

10. The Old Dead Tree - "It Can't Be!" (from "The Nameless Disease", 2003)

I stumbled on the "Old Dead Tree" whilst trying to find gothic metal acts that hadn't featured on the playlist before and although they have had a track featured previously this stood out as gothic metal that I could actually get behind and, I felt, deserved a spot on the playlist. I like it - it is pretty heavy and is completely cheese-free.

11. Dauðaró & Pantheïst - "Iron Dominion" (from "Af holdi og málmi", (2026) [submitted by Sonny]

Basically this is a Dauðaró album that features Pantheist's Kostas Panagiotou on vocals and keys. I am familar with Pantheist, but haven't listened to Dauðaró previously. To be honest this is a little too post-metally for my taste, I prefer my funeral doom much heavier and all-enveloping than this more lightweight style, but it's OK.

12. WitchSorrow – “Hades Chains” (from “Hades Chains” single, 2026) [submitted by dk]

I have followed Witchsorrow from their earliest releases and own all their previous releases on CD, really enjoying their uncompromising and unapologetically conventional doom metal, but I was beginning to suspect that they had called it a day as it has been eight years since their previous album. This is actually quicker-paced than their usual fare and is even a little bit thrashy. I like it and will have to check out the whole album soon.

13. Flame, Dear Flame - "The Millennial Heartbeat Part I" (from "Aegis", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]

I am unfamiliar with this german five-piece, but really enjoyed this, Their brand of female-fronted doom is right up my street. I have checked the album out since and thought it was very good. I will hopefully be able to summon up a review soon because it is certainly worthy of the effort.

14. IAN – “Manuel” (from “Come on Everybody, Let's Do Nothing!”, 2025) [submitted by dk]

Another act I am unfamilar with, but which I enjoyed. Post-metal and atmospheric sludge are sub-genres I have come to appreciate more over recent years and this is a nice example of the heavy / light atmospheric trade-off that is often used as a compositional device in this very modern style of metal and the climactic build-up is very effective. I will certainly check this the whole album out at some time in the near future.

15. Melvins - "Queen" (from "Stoner Witch", 1994) [submitted by Vinny]

I do like a fair bit of Melvins, although I am never too sure what to expect from them. I do like it when they are in this sludgy, stoner mood though and this is a pretty groovy m-fer, so definitely gets a thumbs-up from me.

16. Ablaze in Hatred - "A Walk Through the Silence" (from "The Quietude Plains", 2009)

I was looking for some gothicy death doom, similar to My Dying Bride, that hadn't featured on the playlist before and stumbled upon these Finns. Instrumentally I think this is fairly impressive and a decent example of the style, although I have reservations with the deathly male vocals which sound terribly forced to my ears, The female backing vocals are pretty good however and I generally enjoyed it.

17. Messa - "Thicker Blood" (from "The Spin", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

It is Messa, so of course it is great - end of story.

18. Khanate - "No Joy" (from "Khanate", 2001) [submitted by Sonny]

OK, so I was worried that listeners would think I had gone soft and that the playlist as a whole had a more upbeat vibe than maybe some I have put together and I couldn't have people going away from it with a warm and fuzzy feeling of positivity now could I? So with that in mind I turned to one of the most negative and disturbing drone acts I know - Khanate. Absolutely no light, no positivity... no joy. Just pure, undiluted hopelessness and misery. Enjoy....

Yeah, definitely a top 10 war metal release for me too.

Hope never to hear again in my life:

ZOMBIESHARK!

Exactly the reaction I was hoping for!!

It is terrible isn't it, but I have to cover the whole range of Horde sub-genres and cyber metal hasn't had much representation during my tenure as playlist compiler, so I felt obliged to include a track. It'll probably be a little while before any features again, I am sure you will be glad to hear Vinny.

For September please Andi:

Megadeth - "Countdown to Extinction" (from "Countdown to Extinction", 1992)

My submissions for September Vinny - a touch over 41 minutes I think.

Amboog-A-Lard - "The Wounded" (from "Power from the Vault" [V/A compilation], 1997)

Demolition Hammer - "Hydrophobia" (from "Tortured Existence", 1990)

Demoniac - "La caída" (from "Nube Negra", 2023)

English Dogs - "The Final Conquest" (from "Forward Into Battle", 1985)

Epidemic - "Hate" (from "Decameron", 1992)

Kreator - "Impossible Brutality" (from "Enemy of God", 2005)

Mayhemic - "Kollarbone Crushed Neandertha" (from "Toba", 2024)

Pessimist - "Trommelfeuer" (from "Call To War", 2010)

Razor - "Speed Merchants" (from "Evil Invaders", 1985)

Thanks, guys. 

I had forgotten that I have already reviewed this. "Brave New World" definitely saw Maiden take a turn for the better after their awful 90s run, although this wasn't immediately apparent to me, as I will explain below. Blaze Bayley wasn't the only one to blame either, don't forget that "No Prayer for the Dying" and "Fear of the Dark" were sub-standard offerings and the mighty Maiden were on a downward trajectory long before Blaze took up the mic. For me  "Brave New World" and "A Matter of Life & Death" are really the only post-Eighties Maiden studio albums worth my time now (along with "Paschendale" from "Dance of Death"). Both have filler tracks, but also some genuinely classy stuff too, the first three tracks of both AMoL&D and "Brave New World" alongside BNW's "Nomad" which is one of my favourite latter-day Maiden tracks, are all brilliant. In fact, I really must put myself together an album-length playlist of the best tracks from those three albums. Anyway, here is my review:

Upon my return to metaldom in the late 90s / early 2000s, I thought a safe bet would be one of my old favourites, Iron Maiden, so I purchased their (then) new album Brave New World from my local recorded music emporium. The last "Irons" album I had listened to at this time was Seventh Son, a decent album but one I have always believed is a little overrated, that however is a story for another day. Like someone who's been in a coma for a decade and wakes up expecting everything and everybody to be the same as before, I was extremely disappointed with Brave New World. This was no Powerslave, this was no Piece of Mind or Number of the Beast so what the fuck went wrong with Iron Maiden I asked myself as I threw the CD to the back of the cupboard and acted like it never existed.

Anyway, after 20+ years and the release of possibly Maiden's final album Senjutsu, I decided to revisit this much-maligned (by me) album. I have more perspective on Brave New World now that I am aware of how disastrous the Blaze years were for Maiden and, indeed, how below-par Bruce's previously final album Fear of the Dark was. So with fresh ears and a greater appreciation of where Maiden were as a band at the time (or more accurately where they had been) I have given Brave New World a reappraisal.

Firstly the facts: Bruce's replacement, Blaze Bayley, was out and Bruce was back in. Adrian Smith also returned to the line-up for the first time since 1988's Seventh Son, but Janick Gers (who's addition is the one decent thing to come out of the Blaze era) stayed on making Maiden a triple guitar, six-headed beast of a band.

Well, in truth I really must have been in a foul mood when I first listened to this because I can't now for the life of me see why I was so pissed off with it at the time. It's not perfect for sure and there are a couple of tracks that I find a bit irritating, Blood Brothers especially has a terrible chorus and if it and The Fallen Angel had been exorcised to produce a more concise runtime I think the album would have been all the better for it. But there is some great stuff here too. Wicker Man is a decent opener and I love the longer tracks, Dream of Mirrors, The Nomad and Ghost of the Navigator, all of which are suitably epic in execution. There's some good 'bangers too - Brave New World, Out of the Silent Planet and the title track to name but three. All in all I would now have to renounce my former idiocy and revise my opinion to a considered and conditional thumbs up for Brave New World. It is a worthy successor to Maiden's eighties' output, whilst not quite achieving the same level of metal heaven due to the lack of any earth-shatteringly killer tracks like Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Trooper or Rime of the Ancient Mariner. But it most certainly is not the abject failure I originally had it pegged for.

4/5 [83/100]

It's okay to give things a pass though, especially if it preserves individual contentment at the time and a review being irrelevant also.  I have come to see the feature releases as an opportunity to share an album with others which is entirely at their own discretion to check out or not.  The ethos of the MA is that not of it is mandatory which is why the place works so well.

True.

It is definitely an issue with the feature releases. I very often think, "no I really can't face that at this time" and usually give it a pass. Sometimes I plough on regardless and neither do it nor myself any service by doing so.