Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

I'll give my vote to Black Sabbath's debut as ground zero for metal. Half of the tracklisting wasn't metal but all of the most important tracks were clearly metal as fuck so it certainly qualifies in my opinion.

Deep Purple had a few albums before "In Rock" Rex. Is "In Rock" the only one of their first four that you consider to be metal or would you like us to consider any of those earlier releases? I completely agree with you on Led Zeppelin. The greatest hard rock band that's ever lived but certainly not a metal band.

Andi, Morpheus, Ben, Vinny, Saxy, Xephyr, SilentScream, etc? Would any of you like to be involved in this exercise?

I'm busy with a couple reviewing projects that I have planned, but this looks like an interesting exercise I might consider doing.

Another sh*tty trainwreck that shouldn't have f***ing existed:

The perfect key to Danzig's industrial metal era:

A sh*tty slow trainwreck (no pun intended, maybe):

An awesome inspiring mix of guitars and electronics definitely worth your downtime:

Cold industrial rock/metal riffing and beats done the right way:

If you thought In This Moment could add R-rated sexiness to industrial metal, the dark sinister power of Genitorturers had already preceded them by about 20 years and put them to shame:

Dominating US power metal madness:

A shred-tastic instrumental of neo-classical-infused progressive US power metal:

I've given this Helstar album some listening and a review to test out my strength in the progressive power metal I once loved, and indeed this is a progressive US power metal offering with some technical scales of neoclassical metal incorporated into the mix. There's a lot of speed and complexity spawning from this sound. So yeah, the Infinite Hall entry is getting a YES vote from me.

Cool lists, Sonny! Do you have any favorite cover arts by the talented Travis Smith? Check out a lot of his work in his official website: https://www.seempieces.com/

Amazing guitar work, Daniel! The death metal community will certainly be headbanging to this blazing brutality.

Yes, it is sufficient, Daniel. I'm not suggesting creating a cross-clan subgenre, I just like the tag and this is more of just a discussion thread. There are key bands of this hybrid such as all that's been mentioned so far here, but not enough beyond those bands to constitute a new subgenre, and probably just as well.

In This Moment is never afraid to add a dark alt-/industrial metal twist to a classic pop hit, such as in their brand-new ominous take on this Bjork single:

That vote is from me. Here's my review summary:

The perfection of Zao's second and last album with the original lineup carries on to a new one. 1998 marked a new era for the band who have been grateful to God for where their ongoing lives took them. The remaining founding member Jesse Smith continued with new members Daniel Weyandt, Russ Cogdell, and Brett Detar, the latter from rock band The Juliana Theory for a dark turning point in hardcore/metal. Where would bands like Underoath and Haste the Day be without this offering? Dan Weyandt's screaming is perfect! Besides that, the two guitarists have heavy guitar riffs that would surely blow your minds. While they maintain the Christian lyrical themes, they have less focus on the spiritual side and the topics are more about Weyandt's fallen loved ones, with one track written in memory of a friend of the band who committed suicide, and another for Weyandt's late relative. The message in those songs is basically his faith shining to keep him alive after all the losses he and the band suffered. Its heavy impact has caused many Christians and non-Christians to relate. Musically, the songs show how well they've planted the seed for the modern metallic side of metalcore that can be heard in bands like Trivium, Eighteen Visions, Bleeding Through, and Bring Me the Horizon. All in all, Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest marks a different transition from The Splinter Shards The Birth Of Separation, including shorter songs, though both albums are the best. You like As I Lay Dying and all those bands I've mentioned earlier? Pick this up! Whether you're Christian or not, this is for the heavier metalcore fans. Zao is still alive!

5/5 (potential future Revolution feature release!)

The first non-split EP by Parkway Drive has some killer metalcore highlights like this one:

And the bonus section with tracks from their earlier split EPs has some awesome standouts like this too:

I think I know what that band is, but I'll let you do the big reveal tomorrow, Rex.

An epic underrated journey that can be experienced in just 4 minutes:

I don't know if you're also talking about atmospheric sludge, Rex, but I'll just start with several standard sludge metal recommendations for you (a couple of them aren't super sludgy, but they're key to the diverse variation):

Cult of Luna - Cult of Luna (2001)

Gaza - He Is Never Coming Back (2009)

Godflesh - Hymns (2001)

Isis - The Mosquito Control EP (1998) (this month's Fallen feature release!)

Knut - Challenger (2002)

Today is the Day - Today is the Day (1996)

Will Haven - WHVN (1999)

An atmospheric progressive metal epic with emotional structure:

Holy f***ing wars... The British speedy power metal heroes are back! Their new single is a catchy fun song to party to. And we'll have to wait to find out two things: 1. Will this appear in the band's next album? 2. Who's the new keyboardist/pianist?

While She Sleeps seems to have taken the alt-metal direction further than before, but this is still a killer banger that makes me up for their upcoming album Self Hell to be released 6 months from now:

Here's my top 10 of 1988:

1. Voivod - Dimension Hatröss

2. Godflesh - Godflesh

3. Sadus - Illusions

4. Coroner - Punishment for Decadence

5. Pestilence - Malleus Maleficarum

6. Anthrax - State of Euphoria

7. Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey

8. Blind Guardian - Battalions of Fear

9. Old - Old Lady Drivers

10. Adramelch - Irae Melanox

I can't vote in this judgement submission, but I agree, Daniel. Even in the album with the most thrash, Pestilence has always had their death metal sound (or in some albums, technical/progressive death metal).

I remember giving this album some listening and a review last year, but I think of it as more of a sludgy death-doom album. Sure they have the Celtic Frost-inspired sound in "Servant of the Warsmen", but they remind of that Delirium album from the same year that I also reviewed in my death-doom rediscovery trip, much more than Amebix and Crowbar. Personally, the closest to sludge I can find in the album is the groove-like speed of "Destiny". However, every other song has mostly the slow tempo, death growls, and abrasive riffing that are all more deathly and doomy than sludgy to my ears. I can't vote in this nomination because I'm not in The Fallen, but if I was, I would've voted NO there. And I would've definitely also voted against the doom metal tag removal.

I'm glad to revisit the earlier metal material of Swedish progressive titans Opeth, as my Infinite heart is strong in most of the songs from this live offering, including this classic from their 2001 breakthrough Blackwater Park...

...And heavy progressive compositions from their other albums as early as Orchid:

A dull sh*tter that doesn't please me at all:

An epic highlight of Egypt-inspired industrial rock/metal from a band once known as a post-punk developing group in the 80s:

Here's a great modern death metal/melodeath album released this year, for you to start with, Sonny: https://metal.academy/releases/46915

We can definitely do regular articles, Daniel. Interviews, I don’t know. We’ve rarely been in contact with any notable metal band members nowadays.

I have Discord, but due to some drama in a couple servers that I'm in, I'm not up for a Metal Academy server until further notice.

Solid list, Rex! One question though; the 2005 Suicide Silence EP or their 2017 album? The latter has their controversial one-time switch to full-on nu metal.

Another hit from those Welsh melodic metalcore masters:

I guess the "titles" would only measure how much "studying" we've done in our own clans.  Actually, a way to maintain clan integrity would be to make sure certain titles pertaining to completing outside list (meaning lists outside your clans) could NOT be achieved until you've completed a certain number of challenges from your own clans.  Obviously, completing ALL of them would have to be avoided considering that some clans have far more challenges than others.  The Sphere's industrial metal would need more challenge lists.  I can probably make a cyber metal one, but there aren't enough bands for New Dutch.  Of course, melodic metalcore and deathcore lists for the Revolution will be easy.  There's plenty of that going around.

Melodic metalcore has already been done, unless you want to expand on that: https://metal.academy/lists/single/56

Cyber metal and deathcore would make some great subgenre challenge lists, though there probably would only be enough for one list per subgenre. I would definitely like Deathstars in the former and Lorna Shore in the latter.

And this is coming from the autistic one.

You're autistic??? I thought I was the only one here! High-5!

Ben, please add Opeth's 2010 live album In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall. At least two CD issues of the release can be found in RYM.

A live take on one of BTBAM's earlier classic hits:

An epic diverse progressive metalcore journey within a journey, in its live glory:

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

When I was still enjoying this band, their 2002 self-titled debut was a solid start that showed their metalcore side at their rawest. The Silent Circus began to display their more progressive tendencies. Then Alaska was a perfect phenomenon of progressive metalcore innovation. This is only surpassed by a few points by the stunning diamond gem that was Colors, in which their experimental deathly progressive metalcore sound is in full prodigious force throughout basically a 64-minute epic split into 8 tracks. And then came this live rendition of that colorful journey, as you get to hear to all the different twists into other genres while standing by their progressive metalcore. Pretty much all of the instruments and vocals have different variations that seamlessly transcend from one place to another, all in a range from beauty to brutality. The DVD version includes their second set songs from their first 3 albums voted by fans in a special online poll. And it's an amazing selection, I must say, a trip through their earlier, more metalcore days. Colors Live is a monstrous live experience like none other from this modern progressive metal fivesome BTBAM. This is an excellent live journey you just gotta hear to believe!

4.5/5

So are you five gonna call yourselves the Pentagram?

Actually, Rex, there are 4 of them, so how about the Extreme Foursome?

Killer melodic deathcore from Los Angeles, if you're up for a band similar to All Shall Perish and the 2000s eras of The Acacia Strain and Bring Me the Horizon:

Good lists, Rex! I think those can be good replacements for the one official Sphere clan challenge. Please talk to Ben about that idea. Anyway, I approve of those lists, except Samael's earlier black metal was still dominant in Ceremony of Opposites, maybe replace that album with Passage or Eternal?

Here are my submissions for the October Sphere playlist:

Code Orange - "Autumn and Carbine" (3:27) from Underneath (2020)

Fear Factory - "Powershifter" (3:49) from Mechanize (2010)

Godflesh - "Locust Furnace" (4:45) from Streetcleaner (1989)

Red Harvest - "Symbol of Decay" (7:46) from Internal Punishment Programs (2004)

Strapping Young Lad - "In the Rainy Season" (4:37) from Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing (1995)

The Kovenant - "New World Order" (4:30) from Animatronic (1999)

Total length: 28:54

Here are my submissions for the October Revolution playlist:

Crossfaith - "Xeno" (4:12) from Xeno (2015)

Earth Crisis - "All Out War" (2:45) from All Out War (1992)

Electric Callboy - "Parasite" (3:03) from Tekkno (2022)

Enda Vinera - "Unholy Incarnate" (8:07) from Unholy Incarnate (2023)

Miss May I - "Under Fire" (3:17) from Shadows Inside (2017)

Parkway Drive - "Atlas" (4:08) from Atlas (2012)

Trivium - "Beauty in the Sorrow" (4:31) from The Sin and the Sentence (2017)

Total length: 30:03 (pardon the slight overtime)

Here are my submissions for the October Infinite playlist:

Ayreon - "Collision" (3:26) from The Theory of Everything (2013) (though the album is non-metal, there's a lot of metal energy from the instrumentation and a couple vocalists from power metal bands, enough to justify being in an Infinite playlist)

Meshuggah - "Sane" (3:48) from Chaosphere (1998)

Sikth - "Days Are Dreamed" (6:15) from Opacities (2015)

The Ocean - "Isla Del Sol" (10:32) from Fluxion (2004)

Voivod - "Golem" (4:33) from Angel Rat (1991)

Total length: 28:34

Here are my submissions for the October Gateway playlist:

Annisokay - "Calamity" (2:53) from Calamity (2023)

Beartooth - "Doubt Me" (3:10) from Doubt Me (2023)

Breaking Benjamin - "Hollow" (3:51) from Dark Before Dawn (2015)

Five Finger Death Punch - "The Agony of Regret" (1:41) from The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell Volume 2 (2013)

In This Moment - "Black Wedding" (4:07) from Ritual (2017)

Mushroomhead - "Qwerty" (3:30) from The Righteous & the Butterfly (2014)

Soilwork - "Övergivenheten" (5:46) from Övergivenheten (2022)

Spiritbox - "Circle With Me" (3:57) from Eternal Blue (2021)

Total length: 28:55

An iconic highlight of Welsh melodic metalcore:

Impressive, Sonny! Looks like you're ready to enter the Horde.

A few awesome melodic death metal bands whose music I've encountered in the past, but was never fully interested in them until recently:

Ben, please add these new releases:

Asking Alexandria - Where Do We Go From Here?

Polaris - Fatalism

The Word Alive - Hard Reset