Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

November 2025

1. Hope for the Dying - "City of Corpses" from Hope for the Dying (2008)

2. Darkest Hour - "The Sadist Nation" from Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation (2003)

3. Bury Tomorrow - "Villain Arc" from Will You Haunt Me, With That Same Patience? (2025)

4. SEGA Sound Team, Tomoya Ohtani, Kellin Quinn - "Break Through It All" from Sonic Frontiers Original Soundtrack (2022)

5. Fit for a King - "Slave to Nothing" from Slave to Nothing (2014) [submitted by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

6. Parkway Drive - "Carrion" from Horizons (2007) [submitted by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

7. It Dies Today - "Sirens" from Sirens (2006)

8. Neaera - "Caesura" from Omnicide – Creation Unleashed (2009) [submitted by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

9. Equilibrium - "I'll Be Thunder" from I'll Be Thunder (2025)

10. I Prevail - "Rain" from Violent Nature (2025)

11. VENUES - "Duality" from Duality (2025)

12. Ten After Two - "Truth Is..." from Truth Is... (2011)

13. Babymetal, Slaughter to Prevail - "Song 3" from Song 3 (2025)

14. Confessions of a Traitor - "Noble Bloom" from This Pain Will Serve You (2025)

15. Our Promise - "Bitter" from Bitter (2025)

16. Tuesday's Too Late - "Bitter" from Bitter (2025)

17. Mavis - "The Great Attractor" from The Great Attractor (2025)

18. Eighteen Visions - "Prelude to an Epic" from Until the Ink Runs Out (2025)

19. Bury Your Dead - "The Forgotten" from It's Nothing Personal (2009) [submitted by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

20. DIESECT - "SHURA" from HIDE FROM THE LIGHT (2025)

21. Frontierer - "Heirloom" from Oxidized (2021)

22. Cult Leader - "Hate Offering" from Lightless Walk (2015) [submitted by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

23. The Dillinger Escape Plan - "*#.." from Calculating Infinity (1999)

24. Coalesce - "One on the Ground" from Give Them Rope (1997)

25. Converge - "In Her Blood" from You Fail Me (2004)

26. Wolves at the Gate - "Evil are the Kings" from Eclipse (2019)

27. Keep Close - "Bury the Pain" from Bury the Pain (2025)

28. Whitechapel - "Faces" from Whitechapel (2012) [submitted by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

29. Shadow of Intent - "Imperium Delirium" from Imperium Delirium (2025) [submitted by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

30. Lorna Shore - "Forevermore" from I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me (2025)

November 2025

1. Warmen - "Japanese Hospitality" from Japanese Hospitality (2009) [Suggested by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

2. Visions of Atlantis - "Clocks" from Pirates (2022) [Suggested by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

3. Black Sabbath - "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)

4. Ozzy Osbourne - "Dreamer" from Down to Earth (2001)

5. Budgie - "Guts" from Budgie (1971)

6. Battle Beast - "Angel of Midnight" from Angel of Midnight (2025)

7. Bang - "Lions, Christians" from Bang (1972)

8. Manowar - "Blood Brothers" from Gods of War (2007)

9. 3 Inches of Blood - "Silent Killer" from Here Waits Thy Doom (2009)

10. Scorpions - "In Trance" from In Trance (1975)

11. Lorna Shore - "Glenwood" from I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me (2025) [Suggested by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

12. Arch Enemy - "Vivre Libre" from Blood Dynasty (2025)

13. Stevie T - "Jojo" from Jojo (2020)

14. SEGA Sound Team, Tomoya Ohtani, Kellin Quinn - "Undefeatable" from Sonic Frontiers Original Soundtrack (2022)

15. Amorphis - "Dancing Shadow" from Borderland (2025)

16. Sabaton - "To Hell and Back" from Heroes (2014)

17. Galneryus - "Destinations" from Resurrection (2010) [Suggested by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

18. Stratovarius - "Fright Night" from Fright Night (1989)

19. Primal Fear - "Nation in Fear" from Jaws of Death (1999) [Suggested by Shadowdoom9 (Andi)]

20. Stream of Passion - "The Hunter" from Beautiful Warrior (2023)

21. Amberian Dawn - "Valkyries" from Rover of Tuoni (2008)

22. Savatage - "Sirens" from Sirens (1983)

23. Fates Warning - "The Apparition" from Spectre Within (1985)

24. Yngwie Malmsteen - "(Fight) the Good Fight" from Parabellum (2021)

25. DragonForce - "Wildest Dreams" from Warp Speed Warriors (2024)

Here's my review summary:

Any Fear Factory fans new and old can enjoy a lot of this album, with the longtime listeners experiencing nostalgia. As highly selling as this album is, reception might've been divisive due to leaning a bit into nu metal territory. However, the excellent writing is what make this album essential. Basically, the band is following the then-common idea of dumping all traces of death metal for a more pop-ish mainstream path, while staying in industrial metal. The tough lyrics and hip-hop beat sound odd in the band's attempt to discard their death metal roots, yet it brings me great delight. Brushing aside the accessibility, the greatly written songs are worth listening to, and even pure metalheads should try at least one of them. And it's a brilliant start for metal newcomers in extreme metal, starting off with poppy accessibility before digging into the heavier underground. All of this makes Obsolete an amazing experience!

4.5/5

Recommended tracks: "Securitron (Police State 2000)", "Descent", "Freedom or Fire", "Resurrection", "Timelessness"

For fans of: Static-X, Strapping Young Lad, Sybreed

Here's my review summary:

Hope for the Dying's official full-length debut masterpiece Dissimulation is an album in which the "epic" label fits in quite appropriately. Before recording this album, the band made a self-titled release that was released as an EP then repackaged as a studio album released via Strike First Records. The band would then be signed to the label's more well-known older sibling Facedown Records. Just imagine Unearth and All That Remains with more progressive structures and Two Steps From Hell-esque orchestra. The metal guitars alternate from riffing to shredding, bringing out that neoclassical vibe. The screams and clean vocals are all in brilliant balance. The orchestra makes its bombastic flow through the heavy guitars, drums, and vocals. Dissimulation may not surpass Trivium's In Waves for the eternal reign of my personal best albums of 2011, but it's still one of the best that I wished I had discovered sooner. The older fans would get a kick of nostalgia while still sounding fresh the newer fans including myself. Orchestral metalcore is a sound that should've caught on a lot more. A must-have for anyone up for something both epic and extreme!

5/5

Recommended tracks: "Vacillation", "Orison", "Transcend", "The Awakening" (full suite), "Vile Reflections"

For fans of: Trivium, Unearth, Make Them Suffer's Neverbloom

Here's my review summary:

Skillet was part of the league of my brother's favorite alt-rock/metal bands alongside others such as Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, and Disturbed. Back around the Rise era, shortly before getting into "true" metal, I was following his footsteps and liked some songs from those bands. I consider Skillet more of a rock band than metal, but when I gave that album some listening for the first time in many years, I realized it has the most metal Skillet has ever sounded in their career, as heavy as frontman John Cooper's side-project Fight the Fury. The electronics of the band's prior albums were reduced in favor of pure guitar intensity, with John's singing having a bit of a screamy edge. This is total riff aggression that the band has barely done before and after. Synths still pop out occasionally while still having the heavy riffing. There are a couple softer ballads here and there, but they still mainly go from bliss to devastation (not to be confused with that Vision of Disorder album with a similar sound). Collide has shown Skillet really making their way to the alt-rock/metal generation. And it has still pleased listeners in the next couple decades that would follow. If my brother and I both end up saying goodbye to alt-rock/metal for real one day, this offering can still be something for us to remember....

4/5

Recommended tracks: "Forsaken", "Savior", "My Obsession", "Collide", "Imperfection", "Energy"

For fans of: Fight the Fury, Breaking Benjamin, Vision of Disorder's From Bliss to Devastation

Update for December:

THE FALLEN: VINNY, Sonny

THE GATEWAY: SAXY, Andi

THE GUARDIANS: KARL, Andi, Sonny

THE HORDE: SONNY, Karl, Vinny

THE INFINITE: ANDI, Saxy

THE NORTH: VINNY, Sonny, Karl

THE PIT: SONNY, Vinny

THE REVOLUTION: ANDI

THE SPHERE: ANDI

Here's my submission for the December Gateway playlist:

Skillet - "Collide" (from Collide, 2003)

That band is already added here, Emir. I think the problem is, you forgot the second "p" in Cryptopsy. Here's the band's page: https://metal.academy/bands/38

Ben, please add the new Trivium EP Struck Dead.

Despite the departure of Butcher Babies co-lead vocalist Carla Harvey, Heidi Shepherd and co. can still carry on with perhaps the ultimate modern alt-metal collab:

Dark Tranquillity's tribute to the fallen vocalist of fellow Gothenburg melodeath pioneers At the Gates. And honestly, we need a studio recording of this kick-A cover. RIP Tomas Lindberg

A Skillet song from my pre-metal past that I still love today, perhaps their own Linkin Park "Krwlng":

Epic symphonic/folk metal from Finland, though they can sometimes have fun with cover songs like this one:

Just clean pop-ish filler sh*t that sounds awful in both the music and lyrics:

The absolute pinnacle of this album, and that's my true opinion:

I've heard it! Lots of wild thrash energy in many of the new Coroner album's tracks, plus a few more progressive ones. Back on track indeed...

A perfect mix of atmosphere and heaviness in the best of the track of the album's progressive side:

A modern-ish take on the band's earlier thrash, spiced up with a dash of melodeath:

Besides getting interested in more of the earlier metalcore bands like Poison the Well and Snapcase, I also enjoy a couple later metalcore/deathcore bands that have some symphonic/blackened tendencies similar to the new wave of epic deathcore but not as much:

My return to the heavy/power/symphonic metal part of my taste has also led me to discovering (and rediscovering) melodic progressive metal bands that I somehow missed when I was deep in that zone 10 years ago:

Swedish melodeath/groove metal, sounding like a blend of Metallica, Gojira, and Opeth, minus the progressive side of the latter two bands:

German heavy/power metal with their albums covering a sci-fi space saga similar to Mechina lyrically:

Ben, please add the new Iron Savior album Reforged: Machine World.

Ben, please add Blood of the Martyrs.

Ben, please add these albums that qualify as Alternative Metal within the RYM 2:1 ratio:

Poison the Well - The Tropic Rot (FOR - 9, AGAINST - 4)

Skillet - Collide (FOR - 26, AGAINST - 13)

Sleeping with Sirens - How It Feels to Be Lost (FOR - 12, AGAINST - 4)

Ben, please add Dark Sermon.

RIP Sam Rivers

OK, thanks Daniel.

OK, thanks Daniel.

Even though Psyclon Nine was more of an electronic/aggrotech band in their first two albums, their cover of a Ministry track is perhaps the first hint of their later industrial metal sound that would build up in their next two albums and taking full form from Order of the Shadow Act 1 onwards:

I've decided to list some albums from industrial metal bands I enjoy that are electronic rather than metal. I'm not a big fan of these albums, though I can revisit them sometimes to get my occasional electronic fix. Here they are, in no particular order (only albums I really consider electronic with 0 to 10% metal count in my list):

Psyclon Nine - Divine Infekt (2003)

Psyclon Nine - INRI (2005)

Argyle Park - Misguided (1994)

Celldweller - Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 03 (2016)

Celldweller - Offworld (2017) (Ben, please add that album to the site to fill the gap)

Blue Stahli - Antisleep Vol. 01 (2008)

Blue Stahli - Antisleep Vol. 02 (2011)

Blue Stahli - Antisleep Vol. 03 (2012)

Blue Stahli - Antisleep Vol. 04 (2017)

Neurotech - Evasive (2015)

Honorable mentions (electronic releases I've listened to long ago, before I first got into metal):

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die (2009)

Skrillex - Bangarang (2011)

Yes, Miles. Anyone can.

Still in the Sonic video game metal songs zone, here's another heavy epic alt-/rap metal track featuring Tyler Smyth and his Dangerkids bandmate Andy Bane:

It's usually Saxy who assembles the Gateway playlist, Vinny, and yes, submissions from non-clan members are accepted.

These two metalcore album covers both have the same "bobcut hand-bra girl" image! Coincidence? Rip-off?!? I have no idea, but I should really check out that Ten After Two album sometime.

As I Lay Dying has a brand-new banger of a single! Not sure how long the new lineup will last though, considering the troubling tales of Tim Lambesis.

One of only two tracks I like from this Zaraza album, having great potential for doom metal fans:

One of only two tracks I like from this Zaraza album, having more of the industrial side:

This is the only video I could find that has the highlight with the heaviest this Inner Thought album has to offer. I enjoy "Drowning in Sorrow" too, but it's more like sitting on the line between The Horde and The Sphere.

The title track of this Inner Thought album reigns supreme in the industrial metal side (I could only find the video that includes this haunting church organ intro that may be more suitable for a black metal album):

Ben, please add Mono Inc. I consider the album Together Till the End gothic Neue Deutsche Härte, and their new album Darkness is considered gothic metal.

A noise-filled atmospheric black metal highlight with guitar aggression:

Hardcore death 'n' roll from the depths similar to Entombed's Wolverine Blues:

The Beginning of Times starts with perhaps the best track to introduce to Amorphis newcomers:

But it also has this bonus track which is one of the most memorable songs from their soft side:

The most progressive standout to end another spectacular live show, with the gorgeous singing of ex-The Gathering vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen:

This medley is perhaps the centerpiece of this Amorphis show and DVD, throwing back to an amazing album with all its diversity:

Fates Warning's first ever 10+ minute epic that would hint at the ones they would make in later albums:

My favorite track of this Fates Warning album on the US power metal side, with the best vocals from John Arch:

I've done my review, here's its summary:

The Spectre Within is a true progressive/US power metal gem! It even has a slight edge over their next album Awaken the Guardian that other fans prefer. Their second album with they really start to add progressiveness to their US power metal sound. My first full experience with this band's material was 5 years ago. I was more focused on heavier modern metal than the more melodic old-school metal of yore. I enjoyed the music a lot but eventually got tired of it, especially the vocals. Some things need some time away from me to restore the glory, and when I came back just a few days before this review, I can hear it again as the masterpiece I first thought it was. And I've realized that I enjoy the earlier heavy/progressive metal era of their first 3 albums more than their subsequent melodic progressive metal era. John Arch is one of the best vocalists of the genre. He may sound annoying at first but then you realize how amazing he is with his unique voice. The classic heavy/US power metal side is mixed together with the progressiveness of the band's subsequent albums, the latter best hinted at in a long 12-minute closing epic. In fact, I may just say that The Spectre Within is the true start to the progressive metal genre. Every metalhead should get that offering and listen to this incredible talent. All praise Fates Warning!

5/5

Recommended tracks: "Traveler in Time", "Without a Trace", "The Apparition", "Epitaph"

For fans of: Crimson Glory, Dream Theater, Queensryche (especially their earlier material at that time)