Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Reviews

Back in 2004, metalheads in high-school/college, ages ranging from 16 to 21, first started listen to an emerging yet cool band. That band is Unearth, and the album they were listening to from that band is The Oncoming Storm! 16 years later (2020), here I am, a 21-years-old dude listening to and reviewing their discography, having enjoyed them for about a year now. After their weak debut The Stings of Conscience, their second album The Oncoming Storm really made up for that with all its great strength containing super-powerful metalcore anthems you just gotta appreciate. Growing up, I've had major metal taste changes, but with metalcore bands like Trivium, Darkest Hour, and of course, Unearth, my interest is cemented into a great blend of melody and brutality, hence my 3 main Metal Academy clans. Anyway, In the Eyes of Fire continued the band's destined path of success, although the success wasn't as great as the preceding album, wearing out the originality with lighter salt. With that, Unearth was left out of the sight and mind of metalheads for a couple years. And just when those metalheads were about to fall into the deathcore scene, Unearth released their 2008 album The March, and it was a total rediscovery! The concept themes are more mature and metalheads could breathe in fresh air in many songs on the album. So talking about this album Darkness in the Light, it's as enjoyable as their previous efforts (except The Stings of Conscience). With better practice in composition and better compilation of tracks, this is another album worth an entire listen. Darkness in the Light is slightly more digestible than The March with tunes that have drifting riffs and melodies. This album shows more proof of their notability in the metalcore scene, keeping the unique elements metalcore fans know and love since The Oncoming Storm. What's even more unique about those elements in this album is how elaborate they deliver them here.

Say anything you want about US metalcore, but truthfully there are a few masters of New Wave of American Heavy Metal, not just Unearth and the aforementioned Darkest Hour, but also Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, and The Black Dahlia Murder. Unearth and Darkest Hour still produce better stuff and that's why I enjoy them, unlike those other bands that already lost their charm at that time. Those two bands I enjoy also really move far away from the awful emo/screamo scene that many other metalcore bands switch to nowadays. There still metalcore darkness in the emo light when Darkness in the Light came out in 2011, and metalheads who are tired of listen what they have from the 2000s were excited to finally find a new decent metalcore record. This album still has the band's power from 7 years before it came out. Unearth might not have reached superstar fame, but at they didn't change their style under the pressure of making money. So respect the New American Wave, emo b***hes!

Opening song "Watch It Burn" is a great extreme start to this metalcore journey, containing lots of melody, plus clean vocals rarely heard from this band until now. The punishing open-chord breakdown is the best breakdown in this album. "Ruination of the Lost" is another example of extreme melody, this time having impacted harmonies and impressive solos. The semi-title track "Shadows of the Light" packs a punch with trading guitar solos and more clean singing. "Eyes of Black" continues the heavy usage of melody and impressive solos, this time sounding more thrashy in the same level as Bay Area bands like Testament and Exodus. There are breakdowns but they sound like they've been tamed down a bit.

"Last Wish" is kind of a letdown because while there are clean vocals, they aren't as delivered as nicely as the other songs that have them, but that doesn't matter too much. "Arise the War Cry" really pumps you up for a war between melody and intensity. "Equinox" is a short atmospheric piano song with some heaviness in the middle.

"Coming of the Dark" sounds almost like a Killswitch Engage song because of the melodic metalcore sound and the C-minor key common in drop-C tuning. Actually I think they raised the tuning for this song to 7-string C tuning, which is rare and great because the guitars sound lower and at the same time have higher notes. Another personal favorite is "The Fallen", is NOT related to one of the Metal Academy clans. The melodic riffs are memorable than different, and the solo ends with a clean passage to break the chaos. "Overcome" once again has All That Remains-like clean vocals. The gravelly riffs in the finale "Disillusion" make this song sound like death 'n' roll era Entombed.

This album is definitely strong and never disappointing to any Unearth fans. This is probably their best album besides The Oncoming Storm! While The March was heavier, Darkness in the Light has the impressive familiar melodies the previous album didn't have a lot of. However, once again there isn't anything new Unearth has offered except the clean vocals being used much more often. Despite that, Darkness in the Light would remain a true memory in our recent metalcore lives!

Favorites: "Watch It Burn", "Shadows in the Light", "Arise the War Cry", "The Fallen", "Overcome"

Unearth returned with their 4th album The March, and it has a slightly better idea of what the band should have than In the Eyes of Fire. While their previous album was great and not terrible at all, most songs weren't different or thought-out well, but there were still a few solid songs showing how much the band loves technicality and speed. Some inconsistencies just lose the band's attempt in what they're trying to accomplish.

The band really learned their lesson here! The March is a greater step into powerful speed, fitting breakdowns, and important melodies. Unlike their previous album that focuses on technicality way more than melody, The March keeps the technical aspect simple and allows the melody to flow like a river.

"My Will Be Done" really shows the melody right way. The whammy bar used in the solo must be inspired by Dimebag Darrell, and I think the band toured with Damageplan when that band was still active and Dimebag was still alive. Great tribute! RIP Dimebag. "Hail The Shrine" once again has the band doing an homage to another band, Testament. "Crow Killer" once again has 3-string arpeggios in the 20-second intro, this sounding a bit like some solos from Bleeding Through and Atreyu, two metalcore bands the band has "done a butt-load of touring with".

More influences can be found in "Grave of Opportunity", reminiscent of Trivium in their first 4 albums, especially in the dual harmonies. "We Are Not Anonymous" has a moderately high tempo in the drums over driving bass. That along with the power metal solos, melodic harmonies, and gang choir vocals (performed by Norma Jean members at the time in this song and the previous one), makes the song sound like DragonForce gone metalcore! The title track is enjoyable while being a little predictable.

"Cutman" sounds a bit similar to a few songs earlier in the album while still having epic guitars over average drums and vocals. "The Chosen" shows some tasty leads, and was chosen as part of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters soundtrack, recorded a year before the rest of the album. The ballad-ish "Letting Go" can be considered the negative of the album, though it adds some deep restraint to the album. "Truth or Consequences" has a good intro but it trails off until the nice melodic chorus. The special edition bonus track "Our Callous Skin" is OK, but its hidden track is more interesting. "Silence Caught The Stubborn Tongue" begins with 2 minutes of rising white noise before blasting into the sturdy song itself. I personally think there should've been a piano intro or something during that white noise, just super sayin'.

All in all, The March is slightly more solid and stellar than In the Eyes of Fire, while certainly not overthrowing the Oncoming Storm. It makes up for a lot of what's missing in their third album, though having a few songwriting flaws. I would recommend this for any Unearth fan wanting more of their previous two albums. Unearth shall march on!

Favorites: "My Will Be Done", "Crow Killer", "Grave of Opportunity", "We Are Not Anonymous", "The Chosen"

After the superb The Oncoming Storm, Unearth gained huge mainstream fame in the hardcore and metal communities for releasing what melodic metalcore really sounds like; no sung choruses or pig squeals, just sweet shouting for the vocals, and guitars playing clean technical riffing and a few tapping solos. The breakdowns in almost every song aren't so wonderful, but they are when you get used to enjoying the experience. They're true metalcore ninjas!

One notable thing different in III: In The Eyes of Fire is the production. The previous album triggered incredible production done well by professional producer Adam Dutkiewicz who plays in Killswitch Engage and produced many other metalcore albums. For this album, the producer is the older and more experienced Terry Date, and the band wrote and played lots of songs in the studio. You might hate the different production, but you just need to let it grow on you to enjoy it. The quality is more organic and natural. Although this album doesn't pack a punch as big as the previous album and the vocals are fuzzier, the band still feels like one you are destined to listen to.

"This Glorious Nightmare" is the aptly-named opener that's almost weaker than the other songs and should've been placed later in the album. With that, you know this album is gonna be more collective than concerted. "Giles" is based on Giles Corey, a 17th century farmer who was accused of witchcraft and was crushed to death by stones. That song should've been the album's opener, all fun and metal with enjoyable guitar leads and drum fills. On second thought, "March of the Mutes" (based on the Great Fire of Rome) should've really been the album opener followed by "Giles" and then "This Glorious Nightmare", starting with a dramatic guitar intro before really kicking in killer metalcore action. "Sanctity of Brothers" is another killer metalcore song, this time more thrashy.

"The Devil Has Risen" sounds closer to technical melodeath with impressive intensity. Same with "This Time Was Mine", starting with Nevermore-like riffing. The technical intensity comes in yet again on "Unstoppable", one of only a few Unearth songs to surpass the 5-minute mark, and they're unstoppable throughout that length. Incredible!

"So It Goes" is another song to surpass the 5-minute mark, and it sounds like a sequel to the previous album's "Zombie Autopilot", especially in the lead. Sadly, that "sequel" attempt is just pathetic. The dueling solo is still excellent, though. I definitely prefer "Zombie Autopilot" over that song any day. "Impostors Kingdom" has some killer tech-death power. "Bled Dry" is a little too excessive in the breakdowns, and the last breakdown with the screams of "THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!!" sounds a bit like one of the more aggressive songs by Linkin Park in the older Hybrid Theory (EP and album)-era. The only track that's kinda bad and one of the many reasons why this album can never get a perfect 5-star rating is the 3-minute outro "Big Bear and the Hour of Chaos". You might be listening to that track and thinking, "Were those guys drunk?!?" Yes, they actually were drunk off a liquor brand called "Big Bear", and it took a full hour of chaos to record it, hence that track title.

III: In the Eyes of Fire is not terribly bad at all, but it's not really different from The Oncoming Storm. But at least after this album, they would never go the alt-metal "sung choruses" route taken by All That Remains. This album might not be different, but their next album would be in the concept. But for now, enjoy the 44 minutes of chaos!

Favorites: Giles, March of the Mutes, Sanctity of Brothers, Unstoppable, Impostors Kingdom

Now this is a kick-A album! Unearth started as one of those metalcore bands who didn't have the b*lls to make top tier music and lyrics when they released their dreaded debut The Stings of Conscience. However, they completely turned the tables with The Oncoming Storm. It's too good to be considered just good!

2004 has been widely considered one of the greatest years of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, placing this album next to Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache and Lamb of God's Ashes of the Wake, though 2005 was a great year too. The Oncoming Storm is mainly melodic metalcore with elements of melodeath, thrash, and groove metal. The album is infested with good melodic riffs, way better than modern metalcore riffs from most other bands, and Unearth plays them with pride!

The opening track "The Great Dividers" is a tough crusher with great riffs and decent breakdowns. The spoken-ish section in the last minute is awfully odd but it doesn't affect the album's perfect source. "Failure" once again has good riffs, solos, and breakdowns that all never fail, proving the band's melodeath-ish metalcore identity. That's right, there are solos here, unlike in their debut! "This Lying World" has another good solo, and the breakdowns stay solid and strong, unlike their debut album and other bands who overuse them repeatedly. "Black Hearts Now Reign" also has great melodies, plus riffs and breakdowns all over!

Seguing out of the previous track in an acoustic interlude, the next one "Zombie Autopilot" totally rules! The extreme action starts with an awesome melodic riff and dueling leads. The band really shines there, giving them the fame they deserve! As if the song title doesn't tribute to In Flames enough, the song soars with an amazing soaring duel solo that the band was missing out in their debut. However, if there are a couple very small flaws to point out, they would be the spoken section ("all days are lost") and the overused breakdowns breaking part of the melodic flow. Remove those small flaws and that's an awesome extreme metalcore song! "Bloodlust of the Human Condition" is a little excessive in the breakdowns, but still all right. "Lies to Purify" once again has some breakdowns, but with more quality than quantity.

"Endless" is a killer song with a bit of a Hatebreed vibe, re-recorded from the Endless EP. The lyrics are notable for being inspired and inspiring; the first verse lyrics inspired the name of symphonic deathcore band Winds of Plague, and the "ENDLESS FIGHT!!" breakdown was inspired by Endless Fight Records, the label that released their demo EP Above the Fall of Man. The soft interlude "Aries" is a bit out of place, but it's mainly piano and clean guitars with background screaming, which is a nice change of pace from the acoustic folk interludes from melodeath/metalcore bands. "Predetermined Sky" has more of those melodic crushing riffs. "False Idols" sounds too hardcore but a good ending to the standard edition. The 2005 reissue contains two bonus tracks that are both re-recorded songs, "One Step Away" (from The Stings of Conscience) which is better and cleaner than the original but the near-ending leads still annoy me (Why did they keep them?!), and "The Charm" (from the Endless EP) which has great heavy leads.

Overall, The Oncoming Storm is one of the best albums in the metalcore world, and a true pinnacle in the genre and the band. It would be a few years after its release when its heights gets surpassed. This is a must for every metalcore fan, plus some melodeath/thrash fans too. Unearth had achieved their goal to unearth a metalcore storm!

Favorites: The Great Dividers, Black Hearts Now Reign, Zombie Autopilot, Endless, Predetermined Sky

It's so easy for most metalheads to hate hardcore metal bands. Though the metalcore genre has some hardcore cliches, it still has modern metal elements that I enjoy and other should've, such as melodic leads, thrashy passages, and downtuned guitars. Unearth is definitely one of those modern metalcore bands with those elements, along with other bands like Shadows Fall. Unearth really kept their promise to "unearth" impressive modern metalcore albums, but their debut album? BULLSH*T!! The Stings of Conscience shows the band trying to fuel the fire but end up descending into almost fully hardcore garbage, an indecent exposure in modern music!

Don't get me wrong, I like modern hardcore when it's mixed together with metal, that's what metalcore is. But this album has almost every potential hardcore cliche; dissonant riffs, screamo vocals, whiny lyrics, and nauseating drums and bass (the instruments, not the electronic genre). Thank God there are no clean emo passages! How can they have mostly all that and call this metal!? Oh wait, there are some metal elements that are good enough for me to give this album a 3-star rating; harmonized riffs and lead melodies. What would actually make this album metalcore would be actual downtuned thrash solos, which sadly they don't f***ing have here! At least the guitarists try going through greater convincing lengths. The lead melodies actually sound like they're imitating a solo by going in a significant length of time.

Again, I won't go into too much detail in the songs because of their sh*ttiness, but "One Step Away" has some obnoxiously repeated leads in a poor attempt of a hardcore band at the time sounding metal, especially towards the end. The songwriting is more formula-focused and barely catchy, once again making you think twice before ever listening to the album again. I suppose the only good song personally is "Stronghold", a strong indication of the more metal sound the next album would have.

I'm sure other hardcore/metalcore fans have different opinions, but I found barely any unique metal aspects. So please, avoid this sh*t and move on to the rest of Unearth's discography. Well I guess die-hard fans of Unearth and Shadows Fall might give this album a listen, and that's somewhat fine. Don't say I didn't warn you....

Favorites: "Stronghold"

We've already come to the realization that August Burns Red has been prominent in the metalcore scene since 2003. We've expected them with the same usual metalcore formula with a few tweaks from their metalcore past to their more experimental present. Those tweaks are good because who would want to listen to a carbon copy of the same album? But even then, they still use several same ideas with the risk of becoming stale. If the staleness keeps up, they would have lower scores and the audience would dwindle to only the dedicated fans. Fortunately, their previous two albums received higher acclaim and even a Grammy nomination, thanks to the new elements.

Now about their eighth album, Phantom Anthem... Once again, August Burns Red delivers a balance between relentless brutality and sonic melody with this efficient 11-track disc. Having stayed together for a decade and a half, they're still a lean mean metalcore machine! While some boundaries are broken when they are meant to be, the band has captured the metalcore flag and kept defending from all that destructive criticism.

Opening track "King of Sorrow" shows a great example of that, unleashing lethal waves over melodic tides, with inventive furious riff-wrath from the two guitarists. The heavier side continues "Hero of the Half Truth", which is apparently about the national nightmare of Trump ruling America. There are some heavy bass-lines in "The Frost", impressively soaring over the Pit while having an uplifting vibe. "Lifeline" features more progressive guitar riffs and sections, all in a good amount of time.

"Invisible Enemy" starts with a few eastern sitar strums before breaking into a killer breakdown. "Quake" continues the band's perfect mix of melody and brutality, and it has an epic intro. Some songs here show vocalist Jake Luhrs trying clean vocals for the first time, most notably "Coordinates". The song itself has some twangy blues vibes.

"Generations" can kinda be considered an epic, due to its epic vibe, including repetitive choral chants. That's also used in "Float", another emotional uplifting anthem-like metalcore song. The last two tracks really go out in the bang, with the former track, "Dangerous" being just brutal, hard, fast, epic metalcore. The latter track, "Carbon Copy" is not a carbon copy at all! It's totally original, especially the unique lyrics that show concern about preserving the planet for the future.

After the more atmospheric approach to fascinating melody in their previous album Found in Far Away Places, this album Phantom Anthem is filled with pure metalcore power. With all this success and innovation, the music of August Burns Red shall be preserved for many future generations....

Favorites: "King of Sorrow", "The Frost", "Lifeline", "Quake", "Generations", "Dangerous"

As a metalcore fan among other metal genres, I never think August Burns Red is a bad band, but there are some metalheads who dislike them because they were one of those 2000s metalcore bands that sound nearly identical. Well, they want to have their own identity, so what should be noticeable is the newer elements the band keeps adding for every album. Now that the band is more popular than they were 10 years before this album, they can easily be FOUND IN FAR AWAY PLACES!

The seventh August Burns Red album, Found in Far Away Places, should help change your opinion about this band and their genre. With this album, they can run faster than other bands by a mile! Sure they were playing the same old sound of metalcore 5 years prior to this album, but since then they added so much more different stuff that they're practically reinventing metalcore. As much as there are breakdowns, there are much more heavy metal solos and innovative instrumental bridges. In other words, they've balanced out their kind of heavy with a different kind of heavy.

The opening track "The Wake" crashes open the gateway to listeners' ears, with wild chaos reminiscent of the band's older material. That's the heaviest song in the album and kind of a dirty trick for people who are tired of the heaviness. However, "Martyr" is more melodic, having a seamless atmospheric break in the middle with violin fitting flawlessly with the clean guitar. One of the band's more mainstream songs is "Identity", a modern metalcore song with a twangy classic surf rock bridge that escalates into a solo. "Separating the Seas" is the third song in a row to have a unique bridge; near the 2-minute mark, it switches takes a turn into Middle Eastern chamber folk mixed with Latin flamenco-inspired guitar and violin.

"Ghosts" starts with what almost sounds like the intro to one of the slower In Flames songs. But the song itself is interesting with clean vocals by Jeremy McKinnon from A Day to Remember, balancing out the melody with the mood that haunts you as much as ghosts. "Majoring in the Minors" really majors in emotionally charged minor chords. Then there's another country-like dark folk hoedown. Some of the band's more progressive elements can be heard in "Everlasting Ending", especially in the guest guitar solo by Paul Waggoner from Between the Buried and Me. Some of the more progressive heaviness is heard in "Broken Promises". Same thing with "Blackwood".

In the song "Twenty-One Grams", some of the more impressive lyrics can be heard about doubts in everyone's beliefs. The closing anthem "Vanguard" really blends the stoner metal of Torche with the electronic rock of Muse in the instrumentation. With that kind of instrumentation, we can hear more of the structure. This is an impressive track with no lyrical pattern to follow. A great cathartic way to end the album!

The member of the band who deserves the most praise is J.B. Brubaker, whose guitar skills and songwriting really paid off. Many of his solos balance out the metalcore-plaguing Meshuggah-like breakdowns. He should be recognized by many heavy/progressive/metalcore fans as a true metalcore mastermind. Hail Brubaker!

Favorites: "The Wake", "Martyr", "Identity", "Ghosts", "Everlasting Ending", "Vanguard"

The sixth August Burns Red album (including Sleddin' Hill) really has a unique style from start to finish. Rescue & Restore is a continuation of the band's at the time decade-long experience. They've been clearly solidified as one of the more popular bands of metalcore and the metal industry with this 11-track powerhouse.

Rescue & Restore is... well it's like when you're training for a sprint; you have to go fast all the way and keep the momentum. DON'T SLOW DOWN!!! Everything's put into place, including the technical guitars, lightning-speed drums, and solid screaming vocals.

The opening track "Provision" is a clear example of that instrumentation, one of the heaviest and most popular songs on the album! The enjoyable opening makes the song an honest preview to the album's technicality. "Treatment" has some of the greatest twists of the album, first starting with the C minor key signature heard constantly in previous albums, then at the last minute switching to its exact opposite in the key signature wheel, F-sharp minor. "Spirit Breaker" starts with an intro similar to some Darkest Hour song intros but with rising and falling strings before starting the standard August Burns Red attack. That song also has a soft break with emotive spoken reading.

"Count It All as Lost" continues the twists along with the devastating breakdowns and aggressive guitars. Same thing with "Sincerity", which has cool gang vocals, escalating compositions, and an insincere breakdown. Metalcore sensibilities are compounded in frantic guitars and thunderous drums, maintaining the striking emotion within. The most interesting track in the album is "Creative Captivity", which does not have a lot of lyrics, but more experimentation than expectations. It starts with an eastern-like intro then later ends with a happy horn section. "Fault Line" is a song that should've been in Leveler because of the title and sound. The song itself shows their sound branching out farther than ever with different styles. They would go from crushing breakdown for one moment then an enjoyable melody the next.

The next track "Beauty in Tragedy" would really please the live crowd, putting existential dilemmas into dark melodic metalcore. "Animals" also has heartfelt lyrics of thoughtful, emphatic faith, yet it has more torrential mathcore influences similar to the Dillinger Escape Plan. There's also a chugging rhythm along with an impressive technical solo, showing an organic evolution in their sound. "Echoes" displays a broad sweeping sound of intimacy and has one of the memorable outros ever done by August Burns Red. That should've been the end of the album, but NOPE!! We still have "The First Step", which marks the true chaotic ending to this album.

Each song is filled with pounding music and fresh lyrics. The album is produced and engineered in flawless beauty. Yet another album that helps August Burns Red stay in their throne. Long live the Christian metalcore kings!

Favorites: "Provision", "Spirit Breaker", "Sincerity", "Creative Captivity", "Beauty in Tragedy", "Echoes"

LOL, it's only two months before Christmas and I'm writing review about a Christmas album! August Burns Red had released a few Christmas instrumentals before including their notable epic metalcore version of "Carol of the Bells" (Eat your heart out, Trans-Siberian Orchestra!!). After their fourth album Leveler, I'm guessing vocalist Jake Luhrs wanted his vocal chords to rest. So the band made their first ever mostly instrumental Christmas record with a few of the Christmas songs the band released in the past, including "Carol of the Bells", remastered and revised. Any August Burns Red fan would be thrilled, and anyone looking for Christmas metal would be pleased. This is... Sleddin' Hill: A Holiday Album!

August Burns Red brings a lot of new elements into their hardcore/metalcore table, probably even some stronger punk vibes while still staying metal. Of the 13 tracks in the standard edition, 11 are traditional Christmas classics while the other two are original instrumentals. Musically, the band continues to mix punk guitar with metal breakdowns, along with shredding soloing in tune of the melody of each song. The best thing is, they're not just rock versions of old songs; the band shows some of their best creativity by adding many different memorable influences into each song.

I don't really go full song detail on cover albums but there are still a few songs worth mentioning. The opening track, "Flurries" is one of the two original tracks in this album. It really fits in both the band's metalcore sound and the Christmas spirit with a bell-chiming breakdown. Even "Frosty the Snowman" ends up having some blast beat action! That might not be totally enjoyable as a Christmas song, but it really brings the usual August Burns Red fanfare. "Sleigh Ride" is one of the most complex songs by the album and even the band, blending many different genres flawlessly. It builds up from a slow rock feel to a more hardcore punk pace. Then there's a jazzy piano/horn section before breaking into a metalcore breakdown. Then it heads through the ending MxPx style. A worthwhile Christmas metal cover! "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" is one of the best songs on the album, an epic extreme Christmas metal cover with more blast beats.

"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" is the only song in the album with vocals. The original song is a fun one to sing, so I guess the band wanted to add vocals by having all members perform gang vocals - "Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose (like a light bulb!)" The other original track, the title track has some traditional instrumentation like acoustic guitar, banjo, and fiddle for a real American Christmas vibe before adding the distorted guitars. And there are some honorable mentions like the epic "Carol of the Bells" and the terrific closer "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", but I have enough mentioning Christmas in October (as of writing this).

Now before I come to the conclusion of this review, I'd like to show a short story I've written around last Christmas, based on this entire album. I'm hoping for someone to take my story and turn it into a 50-minute film with the entire album used as its visual soundtrack realization (just like that film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, based on Discovery by Daft Punk). Anyway, here's my story - August Burns Red Presents: Sleddin' Hill - the Movie:

Flurries - 'Twas the day before Christmas 2002.. In the town of Metalvania, the citizens all love heavy metal so much that the music is part of celebrating Christmas, snow flurries occur signifying that the holidays are coming near, bring excitement to everyone in the town. A young 17-year-old guy named Matt has always dreamed of being a professional metal drummer, but everyone else is occupied in their own metal bands.

Frosty the Snowman - Matt decides to build 4 snowmen to help start his own band. With the power of his magic metal drums, he brings the snowmen to life and they all have their own instruments (lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, vocals). Matt and his snowman band practice playing some songs ("Frosty the Snowman").

Sleigh Ride - After all that practicing, Matt and his snowman band have a sled race down a hill, with the snowmen using Matt's 4 spare sleds. At the base of the hill, there's Metal Claus next to his sleigh and herd of 8 reindeer. Metal Claus is like Santa Claus but he hands out metal gifts. Metal Claus asks Matt what he would like for Christmas, and Matt wishes for new drums to impress people enough to form a real band.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman - Suddenly, the Jazz Grinch shows up, riding a spare sleigh he stole from Metal Claus. The Jazz Grinch is the villain of the story who wants to kidnap Metal Claus, steal all the metal decorations and presents, and hypnotize the citizens of Metalvania to listen to smooth jazz. Matt and his snowman band start a battle against the Jazz Grinch with snowballs and snow instruments, but the snowmen soon retreat because of the Jazz Grinch threatening to use a flamethrower on them. The Jazz Grinch also has a hypno-blaster to do the hypnotizing, but Matt dodges the laser bullet shot from the blaster. However, that doesn't stop the Jazz Grinch from kidnapping Metal Claus and fulfilling his mission to steal Christmas from Metalvania.

Jingle Bells - Matt and his snowman band gather together to plan out how they're going to save Metal Claus and stop the Jazz Grinch. They start tricking out Metal Claus' sleigh to make it big enough to fit them all and add in rocket engines to make it fly higher and farther than ever before.

Oh Holy Night - The sun begins to set and Matt and his snowman band have just all night for their mission to save Christmas. After a test run, riding down a hill with Metal Claus' rocket-powered sleigh and reindeer and flying all over the city, they decide that they need more reindeer and a much higher hill.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Matt and his snowman band travel with their sleigh and 8 reindeer to a deep forest past the border of Metalvania to find 8 more reindeer. They decide to play a song they've been practicing to attract some reindeer ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"). Long story short, it works! They now have the 8 more reindeer they need.

Sleddin' Hill - Matt and his snowman band travel with their sleigh and 16 reindeer beyond the deep forest to Sleddin' Hill, a super high mountain tall enough for all the citizens of Metalvania to see, half the size of Mount Everest! With the strength of 16 reindeer, they pull the sleigh with Matt and his snowmen riding it and climb up the high mountain faster than a train. Once they reach the top, they ride down the mountain and a ramp at the base launches them into the sky. The rocket engines activate and away they fly!

Little Drummer Boy - During the flight, Matt decides to play a tin drum he has brought along for the ride, and his snowman band join in, playing their respective instruments ("Little Drummer Boy").

Winter Wonderland - Soon, they reach their destination, a distant uncharted island in the middle of the ocean, Jazzpit Island, where the Jazz Grinch lives in a lair on top of another high mountain. Matt and his snowman band wander around the snowy base of the mountain, gathering enough snow to make weapons like snow-swords, snowball blasters, and snow grenades.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Matt now has an army of 4 snowmen and 16 reindeer, all wielding snow weapons. All ready for battle, they march up the path to the Jazz Grinch's mountain, just in time to see the Jazz Grinch getting ready to dump Metal Claus and all the stolen metal presents and decorations off a cliff high above the shallow rocky shores, but Matt stops him before he could get the chance, and they both do some emotional talking. The Jazz Grinch explains that he wants to rid the world of heavy metal because he really can't stand that kind of music and thinks it's nothing but noise, and Matt says that it is just a music genre and just because the Jazz Grinch doesn't like metal, doesn't mean he can just take it all away. However, the Jazz Grinch doesn't care, so Matt prepared his army for the big battle with a rousing speech.

Carol of the Bells - The duel between Matt's army and the Jazz Grinch begins! The snowmen and the reindeer attack with their snow weapons, but the Jazz Grinch uses his flamethrower to melt the snowmen and their weapons, and uses his hypno-blaster to hypnotize the reindeer to chase Matt, but Matt outruns them, unties Metal Claus, and takes him and the stolen decorations and presents to the sleigh. Soon, Matt and the Jazz Grinch are cornered by Matt's hypnotized reindeer at the edge of the cliff. The Jazz Grinch prepares to use his flamethrower on the army, but Matt, not wanting the reindeer to get burned, snatches and throws the flamethrower and hypno-blaster over the cliff. The reindeer gets closer until Matt and the Jazz Grinch slip and fall off the cliff. At the same time, the Jazz Grinch's weapons hit the ground and break, undoing the hypnosis and turning the reindeer and the Metalvania citizens back to normal. The reindeer notice Matt and the Jazz Grinch falling, so Metal Claus flies his sleigh and the reindeer off the mountain and rescues them. As they all fly home, the Jazz Grinch decides that he should make amends to what he did wrong.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas - Once the team returns to Metalvania on Christmas morning, the Jazz Grinch returns all the stolen stuff to the metalhead citizens, admits his theft and apologizes. Matt invites him to a special Christmas party happening later that night. The party includes an all-you-can-eat buffet with food including a roast beast, and Matt has a live performance with a real human band that would later be August Burns Red ("We Wish You a Merry Christmas"). And the story ends with a nice little toast from the party-enjoying Jazz Grinch..

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - First end credits song.

Joy to the World - Second end credits song.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this long Christmas story! If any of you feel like turning all this into an actual film with the soundtrack (as mentioned above), please do so and credit me for the idea and credit August Burns Red for the soundtrack. Now back to the review... I would really recommend this for August Burns Red fans and people wanting to find a nice mix of Christmas and metalcore. If you're NOT a metal fan, then I would say at least half of it would be enjoyable for you because of Christmas music, and the other half not so much. Some sections may be heavier, but the album is mostly fun Christmas instrumentals enjoyable for the holiday spirit. To be honest, I kinda thought the album would be half instrumental, half vocals, like some Trans-Siberian Orchestra albums. Well even so, this album still has a lot that I hoped for. Sleddin' Hill is definitely worth the holiday season! 'Tis the metalcore album to be jolly....

Favorites: "Flurries", "Sleigh Ride", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Sleddin' Hill", "Carol of the Bells"

Let's look back at August Burns Red from the beginning to their fourth album. The band started their journey with their debut Thrill Seeker, a long climb up the metalcore mountain with nothing too similarly identical. After their chaotic debut, the band continuing ascending the metalcore mountain, finding sturdier footing on the jagged embrace of Thrill Seeker and Messengers before they reach the summit balanced with the smooth color-sprouting perfection of Constellations. But there's an undiscovered plateau waiting to be found, and that is...Leveler!

The fourth album Leveler continues the band's hype that had already been building for a couple years. Anyone expecting an August Burns Red album would find some moments of dazing surprises. August Burns Red isn't exactly a typical metal band. Since their brutal 2005 debut, they've gained more experimentation in each consecutive release. The band doesn't care about the expectations. They just don't want to do the same album all over again!

"Empire" starts in a 7/8 time signature, which can really throw you off, whether you're listening to it or performing it. It's a standard August Burns Red song that should've been in their previous album Constellations, specifically right after "Meddler" because it picks up where "Meddler" left off. Other than that, a good fast start to this album. "Internal Cannon" starts as another standard August Burns Red song. Then something comes in that really stands out; a Latin flamenco-influenced section! That's the first part of the diversity to be heard throughout the album. Then after a short soft country-influenced interlude with cowbell, there's a great heavy metal solo!! "Divisions" is one of my favorites in the album, with powerful technical drumming in the beginning. It has a really heavy tone with deep lyrics as vocalist Jake Luhrs keeps screaming, "I threw you away, I failed you". The part between the crescendo and the breakdown reminds me of their 2007 album Messengers. "Cutting the Ties" starts with a killer lead guitar riff, then the band starts smashing through the chaos before it gets slow and melodic in unexpected diversity. Then near the 3-minute mark, it's back to kick-A full gear.

"Pangaea" starts as another powerful song. Drummer Matt Greiner lays a nice, fast drum track here. It's not my total favorite drumming, but it really fits the song. The song also has a great solo that would qualify as one of the 3 great solos of the album. "Carpe Diem" is another one of my favorite songs of the album. It stands out as a nice follow-up from the previous track. It's slower than most other August Burns Red songs except "Meridian" from Constellations, both of those songs each being the slowest and longest song in one of their albums. This song is far more superior than "Meridian" having much more lyrics with vocals differentiating between Luhrs' shouts and bassist Dustin Davidson's higher screams. Too bad that awesome diverse song ends too abruptly. "40 Nights" is another powerful song with killer bass. If you think that's incredible, get a load of this next song...

"Salt & Light" is a song to be remembered for years to come, showing how all members of the band have more musical talent than in the past, especially Dustin's bass work. I'm a huge fan of the next track, "Poor Millionaire" which has some of the best drumming of this album. The band really raises the volume in the lyrics higher than rap. Yeah, who needs rap when you have this song for lyrical greatness? It's also one of the heaviest songs of the album with many different elements mixed into the song's consistent heaviness. And it ends with a brutal breakdown flashing back to Thrill Seeker, as Luhrs yells, "Where is the life in the life you live?!" The interlude "1/16/2011" was dedicated to a few Manheim high school boys who were killed in a car accident. The tribute continues when the interlude segues to "Boys of Fall", another heavy song. Crazy guitars, audible bass, nice technical drumming, epic soloing, and darker vocals, all making it another standard August Burns Red song. The title track starts with an awesome drum intro, and it's a great leveling ending to this album. Killer drums, bass, and guitars, making it an epic song despite not being an epic. There are heavy breakdowns worth headbanging. This proves that August Burns Red are more than just a metalcore band, heading in an almost progressive direction.

Since the hot chaotic debut Thrill Seeker, it took the band almost 6 years to sword-smith the diverse gem that is Leveler. This album has some surprises you won't see coming, but there's never any reason to complain about this album. If you need music that would better suit you heavier taste, there are more metal options to explore. If you're up to a huge supply of breakdowns, then I'd recommend Messengers or, if you want a more colorful, warped, flawless album produced by Jason Suecof, Leveler. Every member of the band continues improving with new and old sounds, and it makes me very interested in the band and their later albums. More metalcore greatness continues as the band goes on....

Favorites: Internal Cannon, Divisions, Salt and Light, Poor Millionaire, Boys of Fall, Leveler

August Burns Red is never like any band who wants to change their sound after a couple albums. This band prefers to keep their basic metalcore intact with some fine-tuning. That's good because making a different mix of sounds isn't always a good idea. These peanut butter M&Ms rather not be strawberry-infused!

With their third album Constellations, August Burns Red keeps going with their powerful signatures and sweeping. Does this band believe in Jesus? Yes! Do they believe in breakdowns? ABSOLUTELY!! You'll find more Christian metalcore songs with breakdowns in Constellations.

"Thirty and Seven" kicks off the brutal fury, with vocalist Jake Luhrs' searing vocals, and the two guitarists JB Brubaker and Brent Rambler shredding before a devastating breakdown. I sense a bit of a DragonForce influence there! "Existence" is a weaker song that doesn't affect the rest of the album, but at least it's elevated by another one of their uncommon guitar solos. "Ocean of Apathy" really stands out with layered rhythms and subtle complexity in this otherwise simple brutality.

"White Washed" is just filled with breakdowns! This is followed by "Marianas Trench" which starts with a gentle intro, before dropping into some more riffs interjected into breakdowns in a consistent pace. The next track, "The Escape Artist" ends with a delicate piano outro, which even though it doesn't totally suit them, it doesn't dwindle the band's fury needed for the next song. "Indonesia" is my favorite song on this album and probably the band. It is dedicated to David Clapper, drummer Matt Greiner's second cousin, who was a missionary killed in a plane crash in Indonesia. There's a lot of sweeping and breakdowns, plus a guest clean vocal appearance by Tommy Rogers from Between the Buried and Me. "Paradox" has some weaving guitar lines.

"Meridian" is still awesome, but the weakest track of the album. It's just a draggy 6-minute instrumental...well, not entirely instrumental. In the middle of the song, Jake Luhrs says and shouts some of Jeremiah's quotes. "Rationalist" picks up the riveting guitar work from the two guitarists. "Meddler" is an epic-sounding metalcore song with lyrics of hopeless rationalism. However, the 5-minute closer "Crusades" is a much better epic than "Meridian", finding an equal balance between fast and slow. After some insane intensity, there's a small blues break that builds up into an epic final verse. That marks the band's third album in a row to end on a perfect note.

Jake Luhrs may not have the most exceptional vocal range, but on each track, he unleashes an energy that can't be matched. Each band member can really master their ability while doing the same stuff they were doing in their previous two albums. The lyrical themes of drowning in isolation are vague and can be interpreted. While people think Constellations is redundant, it sounds consistent to me. This album would bring more current followers than newcomers. It is the band's pinnacle. Metalcore shall rule!

Favorites: Thirty and Seven, Ocean of Apathy, White Washed, Indonesia, Meddler, Crusades

Rising from a rookie act to a metalcore band liked by thousands of metalheads worldwide, August Burns Red was already almost reaching a higher level of fame with their debut Thrill Seeker. Because of that, the band had much higher confidence to start the next chapter of the metalcore legacy...

Messengers is a satisfying album that surpasses the standard expectations from the band's 2005 debut. The musicianship from each member of the band is just so incredibly phenomenal! It makes them stand out among other bands that are less elite in the genre. Pretty much every song in this album has the signature part of the metalcore arsenal; technical breakdowns in an intricate compound with yelling/screaming vocals, all in a heavy fast sequence with songs being the average song length being around 4 minutes.

"The Truth of a Liar" opens with a small throwback to the past; a Black Sabbath-style riff with a vintage metal scream. After that, the band stays with their present-day sound for the rest of that song and the album. There's some blazing drumming in "Up Against the Ropes", with furious rolls and cymbal patterns. "Back Burner" is a heavy song about the emptiness of the world.

The over 5-minute "The Blinding Light" starts with a brief atmospheric opening before crashing into a heavy verse. After a breakdown, clean guitar work comes out in a slower pace. Then there's another drastically better breakdown! Lots of varying passages to keep you waiting for the next twist or at least the next song. "Composure" is one of the band's most popular songs, with lyrics about keeping yourself together and carrying on. The song itself features an exciting headbanging breakdown with dual guitar harmony. The intro of "Vital Signs" has a clear bass line over the dual harmony before being lost again in the heavy drums. "The Eleventh Hour" is lyrically about handling the truth. That song opens with a drum fill, and rolls in with more fills and blast beats with great double-pedaling and cymbals. It works flawlessly with the lead/rhythm work!

There's another rare metal solo in "The Balance" which fits the metal and hardcore sides into an absolutely perfect balance. The relentless song "Black Sheep" has a high-level amount of tempo changes and breakdowns. "An American Dream" is an OK song, but it helps fulfill the band's American metalcore dream. The final track, "Redemption" continues the tradition of ending the album with a religious metalcore epic. The melodic guitars mixed with brutal blast beats and vocals unleash a balanced atmosphere. After countless sections and riffs, it all comes down to a slower emotional passage with what sounds like a screamed honest prayer to God, “Lord show me the way, As I give myself to you, Never let me go, Hold me with your everlasting love, Be my strength, Be my voice, Be my glory, Set me free”. An incredible perfect moment to end the album! Well, not entirely perfect; the song ends abruptly in the middle of the fade-out, but that's fixed in the 2018 remixed version.

Despite small complaints from a few of the more metal listeners, the sophomore August Burns Red album Messengers clearly establishes them as a powerful modern metalcore archetype. God bless the kings of modern Christian metalcore!

Favorites: The Truth of a Liar, The Blinding Light, Composure, The Eleventh Hour, The Balance, Redemption

Metalcore is a form of music which even though it makes you choose whether you want to stay in the metal side or the hardcore side (I'm still on the metal side), it has enslaved many parts of the world from America to England and other countries since the dawn of the new millennium. The music is never outlawed, despite lyrics of suffering, injustice, war, discontent, freedom, and more importantly, rebellion, hence this genre's clan The Revolution! August Burns Red is another band that marches along the course of The Revolution.

With their thrilling debut Thrill Seeker, the band has a sweet blend of melody and brutality with everything bands like Zao, Norma Jean, and even Between the Buried and Me don't quite have. Headbanging groove riffs scattered through metalcore fit well in the band's nice variety of sound, unleashing a sonic assault to maintain.

The album comes in a brutal start with the blazing "Your Suburbia is in Ruins". The opening has a catchy riff and fast drums, leading into an earth-shattering breakdown. That's a fast song with interesting riffs that are never cliche. Then the next track is the melodic but still heavy "Speech Impediment". One of the stronger tracks, "Endorphins" shines in with a cool breakdown with background gang vocals near the midway point.

"Too Late for Roses" starts off with the spectacular riffing and drumming that would become a standard part of August Burns Red, but at the one-minute mark, that's when the song becomes a brilliant endeavor. The slow breakdown of overwhelming intensity gives the song more touch and feeling. "Barbarian" is one of the best songs in this album. With some catchy riff-wrath and a rare metal solo, that song definitely has some of the band's best talent. It is a good song to start for anyone trying metal for the first time. "The Reflective Property" can be considered a metalcore call to arms. "A Wish Full of Dreams" is a great well-written song with nice chord progression. That song, along with "Consumer", both have more stellar riffing, drumming, and breakdowns.

The last 3 tracks show a slower side, starting with the mid-paced "A Shot Below the Belt". The band shows their influences from Metallica instrumentals with their own melodic interlude, "Eve of the End". A perfect lead-in to the strong apocalyptic epic, "The Seventh Trumpet", which I'm guessing they were influenced by old-school Avenged Sevenfold because of that song title. At 8 minutes, it is the longest track of the album and still remains the band's longest song. The lyrics show the band's Christianity, written about the rapture, with metaphors about the blood moon, stars falling, and the incoming end of the world, a prime example being this lyric, "I take one last look at the moon and the stars begin to fall..." There's 5 minutes of brutal guitars and finally a melodic yet heavy passage that goes on until the end. That song is a total standout and my favorite song of the album, an epic progressive song that sounds like something Meshuggah could've done. A perfect dramatic album ending!

Strong music, potential lyrics, good debut, STRONG debut. Enough said....

Favorites: Your Suburbia is in Ruins, Too Late for Roses, Barbarian, A Wish Full of Dreams, Consumer, The Seventh Trumpet

Many progressive metal bands have appeared in my mind as favorites over the years. First there was Dream Theater, then there was Pain of Salvation, along with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and when I switched to the more extreme progressive metal, Between the Buried and Me. Then a year and a half before this review came Ne Obliviscaris, which soon became a progressive metal revelation! They have all the skill, emotion, creativity and concept you can wish for. You want all of that? You got it right here!

Some progressive purists might put the band down for having their public displays for attention, such as their name, the nude (but amazing) cover art, twisted song titles, and the "out of pattern" violin. However, what lies beneath is the pure material that proves all of that isn't for show. Although I didn't expect much when I first discovered this band, when I went deep into this album, I found lots of better things in there. No way can anyone complain about the technical professionalism, nor the storm of instrumental musical skill. Everything in a perfect balance. Face the facts, these guys are absolute geniuses in flawless songwriting and interpretation.

The opening suite "Libera" begins with the main first part, "Saturnine Spheres", and what you're gonna witness is an extreme progressive metal symphony unleashing savage guitar riffs, fabulous bass, raw death growls, soft clean vocals, mellow violin, and a bit of acoustic guitar playing. The blast beats are merciless and the time patterns keep transitioning throughout the almost 10-minute length of this part. Daniel Presland is practically a drum god with his storming beastly power. The suite itself has a diverse dose of everything this album has, standing out in this majestic creation! Extreme elements and progressive themes come at the right moments. This is indeed an epic extreme progressive metal song with more than just loud adrenaline. Things quiet down with the acoustic/violin second part, "Ascent of Burning Moths".

"Intra Venus" is a great attention-seeker that has the best dueling vocal moment at the end. The next track "Eyrie" starts a little eerie, but gets more uplifting and has the best of Tim Charles' violins and vocals. This song can almost be considered an extreme progressive metal ballad. There's a blend of ethereal beauty and bad-a** power coming from that screaming violin.

And now it's on to the final two-part title suite! The first part, "And Within the Void We Are Breathless" is where everything makes more sense. The ultra-heavy apocalypse commences with a blazing aura. Xenoyr has some of the wildest growls and screams while Tim Charles plays his violin with all his might while doing some majestic Fabio Lione-like singing. But it's the second part "As Embers Dance in Our Eyes" that primarily fires up heavier elements. The atmosphere is just explosive! And things close out perfectly with an epic riff, an amazing solo, and the screaming last lyrics of life put in the past, "We are the ones that were what once was".

So that epic experience all happened in just 46 minutes. How in the world did the band managed to cram it in a short amount of time and still play it out smoothly? That's quite a mystery. And the experience is worth repeating. Ne Obliviscaris shall never be forgotten!

Favorites: All, but my #1 favorite is the full suite "Libera".

There are so many awesome progressive metal bands I can listen to, but Ne Obliviscaris tops most of them off! And I'm not sure if any of those other progressive metal bands can pull off something as glorious as Portal of I, yet we have another grand masterpiece from Ne Obliviscaris, Citadel.

While this album isn't as epic as Portal of I (but a close second) and it's only two thirds of that album length, this one of those breathtaking albums I would always be in a mood for. The album has 3 long monolithic songs, but the intro and outros are separated as interlude tracks. I think listening to each song as a full suite with the intro and outros connected to their respective suites would give the songs larger quality than quantity. This album is stunning enough to make up for that separation!

With those first few piano notes drawing you in, the first part of "Painters of the Tempest", "Wyrmholes" is an amazing soft overture. Slow haunting piano gets surrounded by symphonic elements for a dark mysterious mood, along with a violin screeching like fingernails scratching a chalkboard. That haunting intro goes on for 3 minutes. Then the chaos is unleashed with part 2 of "Painters of the Tempest", "Triptych Lux". Even though the entire suite is 23 minutes long, this part would still be Ne Obliviscaris' longest song at 16 and a half minutes! This is perhaps my favorite Ne Obliviscaris song even though it's NOT in Portal of I. There are so many brilliant ideas! This part is actually is split into 3 smaller movements. The first movement, "Creator" has a couple transitions between fast storms and soft melodies. Then the second movement "Cynosure" is more acoustic/violin oriented, unlike the overpowering guitars in the other two movements. The avant-garde jazz themes are more apparent with only clean vocals and mid-tempo melodic grooves, until it builds back up to a crescendo of metal and growls. The last movement "Curator" is back to some of the most intense powerful chaos of the album until a nice ethereal ending. The third part, "Reveries from the Stained Glass Womb" is a beautiful outro of colorful chords and excellent melodies.

The second suite is "Pyrrhic", which is only a single-part song. It's not as epic as the other two suites but it still fits the godly skills of Ne Obliviscaris. The drums are beyond incredible with seamless transitions and perfect rhythms in impressive passages. The rhythm riffing and harsh vocals give the song a violent atmosphere, while the lead melodies and violin give the atmosphere a sense of despair. After all that epic chaos, there's a quiet section with just soft marching drums and a bit of guitar. Then it carries on through an excellent transition to an emotional ending of beautiful screaming violins atop growling/screaming vocals.

Finally, we have one more suite, "Devour Me, Colossus", the first part "Blackholes" starting off with a brutal riff and sinister growls give the song an evil atmosphere. Then you get an unexpected hit by one of the most brilliant drum grooves ever alongside emotional clean vocals and crazy riff-wrath. The bass draws you in further. Then all of the members unleash their instrument power at once with overwhelming section at once before transitioning to another quiet acoustic/violin section. The amazing violin solo soon gives in to more great clean vocals and some nice bass work... Then BOOM!! The brilliant chaos explodes in before quieting down again for that groovy bass riff. Soon the instrument layers of riffing and drumming build up with a godly guitar solo. And finally all of the intense instrument power is unleashed together with the (male) beauty and the beast vocals before ending in joy and sorrow. The second part, "Contortions" is an outro with the same format as the album intro, thereby closing the cycle.

Citadel has an absolutely brilliant and satisfying mix of epic and extreme. The suites are all bombastic with emotional purpose. Ne Obliviscaris has made albums that are some of the best progressive metal experiences ever and I would totally recommend this to any extreme/progressive metalhead. Forget not!

Favorites: All, but my #1 favorite is the full suite "Painters of the Tempest".

Still going through The Infinite clan challenge, I've just reached Ne Obliviscaris, one of the most epic extreme progressive bands in my playlist, possibly in the world! This band has everything including "(male) Beauty and the Beast" vocals, brilliant guitars, creative drums, groovy melodic bass, and top-notch violin. It's hard to say exactly what style they play, but I say it's a mix of mixes; neo-classical death metal, jazz-fused black metal, avant-garde thrash metal, and melodic flamenco metal.

And wow! Just WOW!! What an album this is! First part of Ne Obliviscaris' discography, and they absolutely nailed it! This album, along with the band's other material, clearly establishes that Ne Obliviscaris is one of my favorite progressive metal bands of all time.

"Tapestry of the Starless Abstract" starts the album in a vicious bang, 40 seconds of blasting black metal. Then things start calming down a little with some violin plucking. After those first 4 minutes of progressive/black metal greatness, there's a quick violin solo (if another progressive metal band did a cover of this song, that would probably be keyboards instead), and a long almost 3-minute acoustic section in the middle with more violin. Then the systematic chaos continues for the last 5 minutes. "Xenoflux" has a perfect blend of loud and emotional, especially in its climax that comes to a sudden stop. "Of the Leper Butterflies" is a shorter song (6 minutes) that has a good acoustic intro before heading into dynamic chaos.

The title of this track, "Forget Not" is the English translation for Ne Obliviscaris. The first half is a long quiet atmospheric passage that tries to build up to heaviness but ends up falling back down. Then in a second attempt, it gets up much higher and closer to metal, and by the midway point, it made it! The violin stops and let the instrumentation and vocals do their work for the rest of this song. Another clever song title, "And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope" shows what the music is about. beautifully sinister words over fantastic music that make time fly for like the third 12-minute epic this album has.

"As Icicles Fall" once again has a great balance of epic and extreme, plus a violin solo switching into a Dream Theater-like guitar solo. "Of Petrichor Weaves Black Noise" is another awesome song that continues that balance. When the song reaches the last 3 minutes, the heaviness is over. There's nothing left but ambient ambiance and an operatic voice that rises to a layered choir alongside a bit more violin. Then pink noise static fades in before stopping abruptly... TOO abruptly, but I will let it slide.

This is definitely one of my favorite progressive metal albums ever with the best and most consistent songwriting. This album flows like a captivating emotional roller-coaster. The production is appropriately clean. I'm saying, completely certainly, that this is a masterpiece you just gotta enjoy. Do not forget this album!

Favorites: All, but my #1 favorite is "Forget Not".

Somewhere in Southern Europe lies a small land between borders, a great distance away from wherever you live but smaller than your country's average state... Andorra! And over there is one group who has taken both eastern philosophy and western-cultural music in a great attempt to let people about Andorra's existence, and that is... melo-deathly progressive metal band Persefone! Since their rise to prominence in the mid-2000s, they've phased through different trends while their sound stays put. Their influences pack quite a punch with the hard Gojira, the technical Dream Theater, and the eclectic Threshold, all in unique otherworldly lyrics. Aathma continues their journey!

The band's spiritual philosophy continues from their previous album as they maintain their atmosphere-flavored extreme impact that has kinda put them in rivalry against the Australian Ne Obliviscaris (friendly rivals, of course, Ne Obliviscaris' Tim Charles would perform guest vocals and violin in a special single later), yet there's the slight addition of traditional prog ala Dream Theater. Persefone's previous two albums established their motive of songs ranging one-minute interludes to 10-minute epic. For this album though, they've spiced it up by including a 4-part 20-minute epic that we'll talk about later. The esoteric amount of subjects is in strong symmetry with the clean and unclean vocals, plus a small bit of robotic vocals from a certain Cynic vocalist. Besides that, Dream Theater's John Petrucci would be proud of the technical guitar twists here.

In "An Infinitesimal Spark", the first part of the intro, digital narration by said Cynic vocalist, Paul Masvidal makes the intro one of the most amazing ever, for ideal mood. The second part of the intro, "One of Many" is where the progressive riffing kicks off, and we're not in the heavier songs yet! The first actual song starts when you've confined yourself in a state of unawareness within the dark "Prison Skin" that you refuse to be held captive in. You start to struggle to find your way through without any distracting assaults holding you back, before getting to positive power... The pummeling "Spirals Within Thy Being" encourages you to battle through harsh vocals and rhythms.

The climatic break "Cosmic Walkers" offers you to rest after that battle before you continue your journey. "No Faced Mindless" hits you with The Faceless-like progressive death metal mixed with the clean beauty of trad-prog metal bands like Dream Theater. Paul Masvidal returns once more with his cyber chanting and additional guitar in "Living Waves", another 5-minute technical part of the journey.

The spacey soundscape continues in one more instrumental, "Vacuum". The nearly 10-minute "Stillness is Timeless" continues the fight between the two split personalities that are the clean vocals and the harsh vocals. There's more impressive soloing there. To end this towering album is the 20-minute closing title epic, split into 4 parts. "Universal Oneness" jazzes up the heavy guitar groove. "Spiritual Bliss" starts as a slow ballad with narration by Merethe Soltvedt (best known from a few songs by Two Steps From Hell) before more dynamic riffs and shredding solos come in. "One with the Light" hits heavier with guitars by Øystein Landsverk who recently left Leprous. And finally, "Many of One" ends it all as a closing ballad with Soltvedt's serene singing.

Wow, what a vast daunting task Persefone has taken into making Aathma, packing loads of great content into an incredible mind-trip, all in conceptual flow. While they've done this approach since their 2009 album Shin-Ken, the greatness has never hugely worn off. Aathma marks probably the band's most ambitious album yet, though it probably wouldn't be a long-run classic as much as Spiritual Migration with some hooks being overly symmetrical. Nonetheless, any fan of Persefone should get Aathma, and probably start with an earlier album if they're newcomers. It has been Persefone's quest to expand their horizons, and they have a promising path to please the Earth!

Favorites: "Spirals Within Thy Being", "No Faced Mindless", "Living Waves", "Stillness is Timeless", "Aathma" (all 4 parts)

Progressive metal is for those who can expect the unexpected. You know a lot more to find than the back of your hand. With so many influences from other genres, it is one of the most widely varied genres in the world. Persefone are known as the Andorran kings of the progressive realm. From such a small country hidden subtly in the world map, this band deserves to spread all over the metal map. The godly music and lyrical info will surely blow your mind. Your brain will be twisted while having a smooth soul. Your senses will buried in storming energy. The band continues their unpredictability with their most memorable album for the ages, Spiritual Migration!

What to find in Persefone is technical complexity and powerful virtuosity beyond limits, and Spiritual Migration has it all, marking probably their most extreme album yet. Complex rhythms load up structured melodies, with unique instrumentation blending together in deathly progressive metal perfection. Everything is here from technical riffs and fast solos to clean guitars, and from harsh to clean vocals, along with booming bass, show-stealing keyboards, and drumming superior to almost every other band.

From the intro "Flying Sea Dragons" you hear the album begin with the incantation bowl like the one used in a yoga class I was in, for a sense of meditative tranquility. Then guitar tapping fades in and rises in a crescendo, introducing more instruments one by one for an epic orchestral metal overture. Then begins the first full song, "Mind as Universe", quick getting straight into the fast metal action. Trust me, after giving that song a few listens, you'll want more of it! The clean soloing of "The Great Reality" really makes that song a great highlight. Don't get caught off-guard by the mighty perspective changes! "Zazen Meditation" is the first of two relaxing "Meditation" interludes.

The majestic "The Majestic of Gaia" has a memorable fast solo and a slow bridge. "Consciousness" is an expressive instrumental piece of different moods and no lyrics, and both parts should be listened together for the full experience. "Sitting in Silence" is the softer part, but "A Path ton Enlightenment" is heavier. The most memorable solo here is in "Inner Fullness", along with the clean/harsh vocals balance to keep you aware. "Metta Meditation" is the second "Meditation" interlude with calm trance-like keyboard.

"Upward Explosion" explodes out of the quietness again with a loud deathly progressive metal attack. The title track continues the memorable soloing again after a synth-heavy midsection. The last full song "Returning to the Source" describes your soul dying and returning to whence it came. The "Outro" ends the journey in relaxing positivity.

Persefone is like your friendly neighborhood metal band. Their unique music is what makes them stand out, so listening to them would help set your judgement straight, and Spiritual Migration has helped with that. One of many great reasons why metal is my way of life!

Favorites: "Mind as Universe", "The Great Reality", "The Majestic of Gaia", "Consciousness" (both parts), "Inner Fullness", "Spiritual Migration", "Returning to the Source"

So after reviewing Persefone's demo-gone-debut-album Truth Inside the Shades and their legendary concept album Core (the latter being this month's Infinite feature release chosen by me), why stop there?! I'm ready to continue my Persefone album reviewing journey, and up next is another concept album, this based on an old-school Japanese samurai movie. This is Shin-Ken!

Just from seeing the awesome album cover below, you know you're in for a wild ride. The album is incredible as well, with lots of variation, enough to turn what would've been just death metal into full-on deathly progressive metal.

Throughout this album, you'll find a few "Book" element interludes that meant for listening, not reading, starting with "The Ground Book". Then the shredding heaviness and melody rises with "Fall to Rise", a fine song to start the conceptual pattern. "Death Before Dishonour" is, for me, the best song of the album, with superb drumming. A killer melo-deathly progressive metal highlight! Then there's "The Water Book" interlude, reminding me of some of The Ocean's ambient-sounding symphonic interludes. The super insanely awesome shredding solos of "The Endless Path" really make my day.

"The Wind Book" is an interlude that sounds like something Mastodon would use as part of one of their songs. The wonderful piano-led ballad-ish song "Purity" is great in the lyrics, soloing, and riffing that still stays metal in the calm nature. "Rage Stained Blade" brings back the usual deathly rage, and it's still good but not so memorable. Strangely that amount of fire was used up before "The Fire Book", another calm interlude.

"Kusanagi" is the second-best song and the most metal-sounding one in the album, with awesome shredding riffs and cool piano melodies. However, the lyrics are a slight flaw because while they're in English, if you haven't read the lyrics, they would be hard to understand. I guess that's growling and screaming for you! The 11-minute title track is split into two parts, and I can hear why. "Part I" is very fast and often pounding with lots of growling in an overall great composition. Whereas "Part II" is softer in contrast with some metal. "The Void Book" is so short, consisting of ominous ambience and the slash of a sword. The outro "Japanese Poem" is where you can find your inner peace on a rainy day at the gates. Just like the previous two albums, this one's Japanese edition has a bonus track, a wicked heavy cover of Cacophony's "Sword of the Warrior".

Shin-Ken is an awesome album to love, though some of the lyrics and unclean vocals are hard to like. But that's just SOME, the rest is great! The lyrics are more tolerable in the softer songs than the metal songs in which the instrumentation is the key. Another killer album to get!

Favorites: "Death Before Dishonour", "The Endless Path", "Purity", "Kusanagi", "Shin-Ken Part I", "Shin-Ken Part II", "Sword of the Warrior (Cacophony cover) (bonus track)"

With an album name like Core, you might expect the band to add some metalcore/hardcore/grindcore... I wish! Though what I ended up getting is perfect too. See, what this album centers around is the legend of Core (pronounced "KOR-ee"), the female maiden goddess of life and death, whose other name, Persephone is the inspiration for the band's name with a slight different spelling, Persefone. The part of the legend dealt with here is her abduction and exile to the underworld, very fitting for the music aspect...

A couple years after their debut that started as a demo but became a full-length album, Truth Inside the Shades, Core evolves the sound from an already unique album into something greater. Simply in greater depth, the addition of female vocals, and consisting of 3 long songs that could fill in a 3-part mini-TV-series!

The first of those 3 long tracks, "Sanctuary" already shows what the real deal is gonna be. Besides those 3 elements that shape up the album evolve their sound (greater depth, female vocals, long songs). The heaviness often calms for something softer and restrained, and that's good because if you're gonna make three 20+ minute epics, you gotta add some variety. Clean guitars are more prominent with Hispanic vibe from famous composers in countries surrounding their homeland of Andorra, such as Emilio Pujol from Spain. The guitar soloing can be a bit bluesy, but in a pleasant way. The lead and rhythm guitars are what power up the nice riffing. There's prominent bass, and nice piano and keyboards. Is it just me or are there 4 vocalists in this album? A growler, a screamer, a male singer, and a female singer... I bet this ambitious aspect inspired Amaranthe's multi-vocalist style. All these vocal styles share the spotlight, shining at different moments after moments, though while I enjoy the unclean vocals, the clean vocals fit better for the atmosphere. I'm used to the balance of clean and unclean vocals since Trivium. And did I mention the epic progressive length of beyond 20 minutes??

"Underworld" continues the lengthiness with everything I just mentioned. All 3 of these tracks are epic, but what really stands out is the last of them, "Seed". It starts with an amazing oriental-ish section with male cleans, and the rest is absolute beauty and fury, until a peaceful ending. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that the tracks are all split into multiple parts, split even further in the lyrics. Lo and behold (sorry if takes up long-a** space in the review):

"Sanctuary: Light and Grief":

"Act I: Goddess Wrath":

"Drowning the Light", "The Reaction", "Goddess Wrath"

"Act II: Light's Memories":

"Mother's Memories"

"Act III: Exiled to the Void":

"The Light Punishes the Earth", "Exile", "The Message from the Father of Gods", "Denial"

"Act IV: To Face the Truth":

"Hermes Arrival", "Core's Transgression", "Consequences"

"Underworld: The Fallen and the Butterfly":

"Act I: Clash of the Titans":

"The Battle Ends", "A Mighty Crash"

"Act II: Dark Thoughts from a Dark Heart":

"Dark Thoughts from a Dark Heart"

"Act III: When the Earth Breaks":

"And So It Happens", "Nine Days"

"Act IV: Released":

"Doubts Are Seed", "Hermes Journey", "Tasting the Forbidden Fruit", "The Underworld", "Meeting the Light"

"Seed: Core and Persephone":

"Act I: A Ray of Hope":

"Held Captive"

"Act II: Self Betraying":

"Memories", "Betraying Herself"

"Act III: Doubts Are Seed":

"A Pure Heart Succumbs"

"Act IV: Dark Inner Transition":

"Transition to Persephone"

"Act V: The End":

"The End", "Epilogue"

Hello again! Hope I didn't lose you during that huge list of all the parts and micro-parts of the tracks. Anyway, however you would like to consider these tracks, they're all for great enjoyment. However, there a couple more editions that each have a bonus track. For the Japanese edition, "Train of Consequences" is a cover of a Megadeth song, separate from the concept, being just pure epic blackened death metal with a nice solo. And if you get the international reissue, the "Star Wars Medley" would have you squealing in joy, especially if you're a Star Wars fan like I am. You'll definitely have fun headbanging there! The songs used in that medley are: "Star Wars Theme", "The Imperial March", a brief yet epic fragment of "Duel of the Fates", "Cantina Band", and "The Force Theme".

All in all, I would recommend Core to any metalhead, especially if the album's sound deathly progressive metal with symphonic gothic metal elements is your thing. How can you ever dislike something so good that it deserves more recognition? Get it now!!

Favorites: Seed (Core & Persefone) (though the other two long tracks are also epic)

Forget the critics who consider this band an "Opeth clone that deserves to stay forgotten". Persefone is a band that has their own sound going that deserves far more attention, and while they do have prominent Opeth influences, their sound I would say is melo-deathly progressive metal with neo-classical/gothic touches.

This unique sound isn't totally new. It utilizes the classic formula that combines fast heaviness and harsh vocals with soft sections of neo-classical piano, acoustic guitar, and clean vocals. And yet it stays fresh! The Andorran kings of metal know how to not heavily rely on technical structural sh*t but to give the formula a new taste of a contrast between beauty and chaos, all in songs that mostly go beyond 7 minutes.

The calm before the storm is the intro "My Unwithered Shrine" with a minute and a half of piano to make sure the album doesn't start off like any Dream Theater album you might know. Then with no hesitation, "The Whisper of Men" shocks you with the first ever heaviness to hear from this band, though it's short at just 5 minutes long.

The main dish of this meal is the 11-minute title track. Check it out for a great heap of brilliant deathly progressive metal! Following that is "Niflheim (The Eyes that Hold the Edge)", also a grand contender for the best structural song here.

Could you ever miss how "Atemporal Divinity" ends? No, you can't! However, the rest of that song seems to lack the method the previous songs have, sounding out of place. The majestic instrumental complexity of "The Demise of Oblivion" is never weak. It's Persefone's Crusade! Definitely get the Japanese edition with bonus track "The Haunting of Human's Denial". Here you find more progressive speed, darker mood, and a bit of acoustic flamenco. A must-have track, especially if you've listened to Spiritual Migration!

There are just so many different elements in this sound. I've focused a lot less on neo-classical metal now than 5 years ago, and I've moved out of melodeath. Yet they're mixed into a progressive metal sound that I enjoy, and fans of those other genres might. Who knew something big would rise from the unknown small country of Andorra....

Favorites: Truth inside the Shades, Niflheim (The Eyes that Hold the Edge), The Demise of Oblivion, The Haunting of Human's Denial (bonus track)

Since their formation in 1999 (same year I was born), Bleeding Through have been touring different countries, signing into different labels, facing stylistic genre definitions, releasing immense albums, and influencing young new generations. This Californian band's style is a metalcore combo of hardcore and symphonic death metal, weaving a magnificent maelstrom of melody and mayhem together in chaotic aggression. Bleeding Through is cited by many extreme metalheads as one of the first metalcore bands to be truly heavy. Years later, here they are, strong as strong can be. The band split up for 4 years from 2014 to 2018, except for a benefit show in 2016 for another metalcore band The Ghost Inside that was in a horrific traffic accident. During their split-up, the heavy metal landscape was facing really serious changes. Metalcore has fallen into the mainstream trap, with A Day to Remember adding more poppy elements and Bring Me the Horizon switching to completely electropop-rock.

Fortunately, not only has Bleeding Through returned, so has their symphonic death/hardcore-influenced metalcore sound, with no pop in sight. The force of aggression is strong in their epic comeback album, Love Will Kill All! Vocalist Brandan Schieppati wasn't really happy about how the metalcore scene was going and decided that the only way to restore balance to the metal universe is to "do it our f***ing selves again". Good to know that he still has metalcore fury within...

While this album is perfect as h*ll, the only weak part is the intro "Darkness A Feeling I Know", which just consists of church organs and poetry that sounds like a 7th grade heartbroken goth emo wrote it. It sounds a little more appropriate as the intro to a recent Avatar album. However, "Fade Into the Ash" completely makes up for it!! A blistering mix of epic and extreme and one of the most glorious metalcore songs ever! It displays the band's crushing music with huge hooks and one of the greatest choruses in the album and the band, topped off by symphonic keyboards. Pretty much every element the band has is served in just 3 and a half minutes. WELCOME F***ING BACK!!! "End Us" once again shows a new beginning for the band. "Cold World" has spectacular melodic singing beyond better than their previous work, especially near the two-minute mark.

"Dead Eyes" shows more of their epic death metal influences. "Buried" brings back the crushing heaviness from their first 3 albums. "No Friends" is a song that can cause a roomful of metalhead kids whipping their long hair that they keep uncut against parents' orders to create a violent mosh pit to practically tear that place down, while bringing back their early 2000s Gothenburg-inspired guitar melodies. "Set Me Free" is the first song to be released by the band after returning, one month before the rest of the album. It's all filled with symphonic death-influenced metalcore! How sinister can that song get??

"No One From Nowhere" just punches you in the face right out of nowhere with crushing guitars before easing things up with ethereal strings while still having suffocating lyrics. That's a great killer callback to This is Love This is Murderous! "Remains" once again proves that Bleeding Through is one of two bands who can return to their heavier metalcore sound, the other band being All That Remains with their album Victim of the New Disease released later that year. The album's best song in terms of heaviness is "Slave", but it's also where the keyboards have the least presence. That chorus is so brutal yet memorable. And finally, "Life" is a perfect ending song, once again mixing epic with extreme. Keyboardist Marta Peterson sings background vocals for the first time in the choruses. I want more of her vocals in the band's next album!

If Love Will Kill All has never made it to any "best metal of 2018" lists, well I personally think it easily should! This album puts Bleeding Through back in the higher metal tier. I love this album slightly more than This is Love, This is Murderous and definitely The Truth, and everything you love from those two older albums with all their influences, new and old, executed perfectly. The band still has their true side which proves that they haven't lost any steam in their 4-year split. Bleeding Through is definitely my favorite symphonic death/metalcore band along with Winds of Plague. Here's to more epic extreme metalcore awaiting!

Favorites: "Fade Into the Ash", "Cold World", "No Friends", "No One From Nowhere", "Slave", "Life"

Bleeding Through is known as one of the originators of the heavier side of metalcore, and even though their more popular times with about 5 or 6 years before this album, they never seem to creatively decline. But after 7 albums in a career spanning decade and a half, it was their time to split. They would spend 4 years of silence before an epic return. But before then, this album The Great Fire shows more of their O.G. metalcore re-energized from the previous self-titled album.

The album is more furious with merciless power, and Brandan Schieppati’s roars and screams can cause a tall mountain avalanche. With the song lengths much shorter, from one and a half to 4 minutes, average 3 minutes, and more punk-ish guitar work, this album has a greater hardcore pulse than melodeath.

The album starts with the marching opener "The March", a heavy crushing intro with thrash influences and keyboard tones. Then the fire blazes through "Faith in Fire", kicking off the brutal screams. The music becomes fast without any forgiveness, adding more death metal influence to the metalcore hooks. "Goodbye to Death"... Does that mean they're saying goodbye to the death metal influences they had in previous albums? Definitely not, because their next album comeback has those influences returning. It continues the speedy pace, but the guitars and rhythms are a little low beneath the screams. Still there's some subtle melody weaved into the berserk aggression. "Final Hours" is the first song here with clean singing, reminiscent of their earlier times a decade prior. "Starving Vultures" has more of the power the band is hungry for.

"Everything You Love is Gone" is another short merciless attack with powered up roars and screams. "Walking Dead" is the only song in the album that's over 4 minutes long. After an epic piano intro, brutality is unleashed, a flashback to This is Love, This is Murderous. "The Devil and Self Doubt" once again blasts through melody and aggression perfectly, but the rock-ish solo is a little too excessive. "Step Back in Line" is a step back into the line of fire from their previous two albums. "Trail Of Seduction" starts with a cool prog-ish organ intro followed by a classic guitar solo before more screams. The vocal harmonies make a great chorus.

"Deaf Ears" is a ruthless song, charging through with sharp bursting noises of metal that can indeed make you have deaf ears if you're hearing-sensitive. Same with "One by One" a shorter tune that can slay listeners one by one, alongside a gang refrain. "Entrenched" begins with an Alice in Chains-like vocal harmony intro before turning into a bludgeoning standout. "Back to Life" has more keys and melody to drag you in through death metal fury before ending with an uplifting chorus.

Though not reaching the heights and most of their other albums, and including a couple songs that could've been edited out, The Great Fire is still very impressive, and a great end of their first era in the bang. Even though it looked like the end of Bleeding Through when their 4-year split-up started, the band would later come back to life....

Favorites: "Faith in Fire", "Final Hours", "Walking Dead", "Trail of Seduction", "Entrenched", "Back to Life"

What is it about metalcore getting such a bad rap?! Is it too emo? It is too hardcore? Is there not enough metal? I love metalcore as much as other metal genres and a few of those bands really stand out. Bleeding Through is one of the most elite. And that's mostly because they almost perfectly blend metal and hardcore.

The majority of Bleeding Through's material before Declaration is basically At the Gates-style death metal/melodeath mixed with hardcore. Declaration shows the band's black metal influence, and now they have more of that in their self-titled sixth album! The symphonic black metal influence is caused by the higher role of keyboards. They have the atmosphere and melody of black metal. Most songs have hyper-speed black metal riffing while mixing it with breakdowns and thrashy riffs.

The keyboard-symphonic opener "A Resurrection" is a fresh start in both of the song and title after leaving that trust-killing label Trustkill. Then in "Anti-Hero", the band time-travels back to 1995 Sweden for death metal bands At the Gates and Therion in that year and borrow their sound and adds some punk-like lyrics ("I’ve heard enough of you, f***ing go away!”). The tremolo riffs are sprinkled in there. "Your Abandonment" never abandons the band's mix of hardcore punk and symphonic black metal. For a song titled "Fifteen Minutes", they kept only about a quarter of that length. Still a kick-A song!

"Salvation Never Found" is an epic extreme anthem that tears your lungs apart until you can no longer breathe, and it has some clean singing only found in a few songs in this album. "Breathing in the Wrath" explores some mid-tempo while breathing in the faster wrath. "This Time Nothing Is Sacred" shows in the music and lyrics that there's nothing sacred, all just chaos and disarray. "Divide the Armies" has an interesting solo and more clean singing.

"Drag Me to the Ocean" drags you through more suspenseful chaos. "Light My Eyes" is shorter and a little cleaner but stands out more. "Slow Your Roll" is never slow! It has more significant black metal development, especially in the lyrics of searing poetry ("This sinking feeling in your soul will forever haunt you, disgusting apathy, no freedom from suffering"). "Distortion Devotion" is the album's 6-minute epic that stands out the most. I mean it's not as glorious as the previous album's "Sister Charlatan", but still... well, glorious! Once again, there's more clean-vocal drama.

The last 3 tracks stand out more than everything else in this album, but those other songs are still good and never suffer. Despite this album being not as great as most of the others, Bleeding Through has sealed their position in the small amount of metalcore bands that can please listeners. I'm so proud of this band....

Favorites: "Anti-Hero", "Salvation Never Found", "Divide the Armies", "Light My Eyes", "Distortion, Devotion"

Trustkill Records is a rather aptly named record label, because they really killed many signed bands' trust, including Bleeding Through. Their bitter battle started when Trustkill rejected the band's suggestion of re-releasing their previous album The Truth one year after its original release. Then that label released their own special edition reissue The Complete Truth with bonus tracks include two B-sides, two covers, and a remix, plus a bonus DVD, without the band's knowledge or permission. As for this album Declaration, Trustkill only funded 25% of recording costs and spent the rest on unpaid royalties. Boy did this band take their anger out on making this album...

Bleeding Through continues their trend of uncompromising music since The Truth while distancing themselves from being associated with standard metalcore saturation. After the wide variety of metal influences from their previous album, this one Declaration sees a more extreme direction, proving their usage of the harder brutal faster darker cliche. The songs have much stronger black metal tones than ever in their instrumentation. The most apparent example is the atmospheric keyboards from Marta Peterson. Her keyboards have higher roles reminiscent of symphonic black metal bands like Dimmu Borgir and Abigail Williams (the latter also having metalcore influences at the time). The drums are also in extreme waves by Derek Youngsma. His drumming is now in a more complex death metal style, blasting more in some songs than in the complete Truth album. The bass is faster and more frequent. The guitars have darker aggression. A lot more tremolo-riffs are doubled by the ominous keyboards for more black metal-like moments. Vocalist Brandan Schieppati does more of his mid-to-high vocals while still doing his lower ones. There are less clean vocals, here at the same level as Dust to Ashes. Don't worry if you think this sounds too different. The breakdowns and Gothenburg-like riffs will still shake around in this album.

It all begins with the intro, "Finis Fatalis Spei", beginning with a dramatic orchestral intro that builds up until a final announcement of war from, I assume it's Brandan. Then it's time for the war! The title track, "Declaration (You Can't Destroy What You Can Not Replace)" barges in with blast beats, atmospheric keyboards, and dark-sounding guitars. As the darker tone increases throughout, the guitars and keyboards unite for something sinister, associated with black metal far more than metalcore. Then guess what? There's the first breakdown of this album! However, dark guitars and driving bass are layered over the breakdown for a dark aggressive feel with less force. Oh I almost didn't mention that the notorious Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying guest appears in that song (you'll know why I called him "notorious" if you know more about him). Next up is "Orange County Blonde and Blue", a short mean lean thrashing machine, adding new touches to their old sound. Slaying guitars, metalcore screams, raging drums, and breakdowns are all served in a small metalcore dish. There's an extreme side-order of blast-beats with tremolo-riffs and keyboards. Another part of the song to highlight is the drumming that's working well, along with the improving bass. "Germany" continues smashing the listener into oblivion with black metal riffs, metalcore breakdowns, and melodic death metal hyper-aggression.

Bleeding Through really shines with the much longer atmospheric flood of "There Was a Flood". Clean guitars open the song then evolve into power chords alongside keyboards that continue the black metal undertones when the intro gets cut by the expected high-octane attack. That's also one of a few tracks in the album with clean singing. "French Inquisition" is another chaotic extreme metalcore song. Think of any French black metal band that comes to your mind and mix it with metalcore. That's what that song is! "Reborn From Isolation" continues the pummeling melodic black/deathcore action with strong low growls mixed with his high screams that continue to shine. "Death Anxiety" blends the melodeath of The Black Dahlia Murder with the metalcore of All That Remains at that time, plus more orchestration.

"The Loving Memory of England" is a soft one-and-a-half-minute interlude that reminds me of English death-doom masters My Dying Bride. "Beneath the Grey" continues the extreme action again. The hardcore/thrash influenced "Seller's Market" just speeds through without care. That's probably the least interesting song of this album, right before the most interesting! The epic black metal-like closer "Sister Charlatan" is the most atmospheric song of this album and the longest by the band at 9 minutes, though only the first 5 minutes count. This is my personal favorite here! After the epic orchestral intro, the band comes back to their furious business once more. The guitars switch from tremolo lines to dark riffs. The blast-beat drums range from traditional to Suffocation-like technical. The keyboards have ominous atmosphere and intricate melody, even in the brief breakdown. There's even a greatly placed guitar solo. Like I said, the actual song ends after 5 minutes, then for the last 3 minutes, the soft somber piano melody from the intro plays again in a rainy thunderstorm. That's a little unsettling for me because (don't laugh) I'm scared of thunder and lightning.

The expanding evolution of Bleeding Through's sound continues, and they went down their path to the dark side of extreme aggression, thus making the great solid album that is Declaration. Half of the amount of songs are more memorable than in previous albums. I have all the Bleeding Through albums, but I keep remembering this one a lot more than others despite a few other albums being better than this one. Must be the better songwriting or sound, I don't know. This is still the true Bleeding Through, only with more extreme influences than before. Sometimes even the small things can be more interesting in every listen. The production is notably handled by Devin Townsend. The sound has much clear power and the instruments can be heard better with overpowering each other. It's not the ultimate best Bleeding Through album, but it has some of the strongest cohesive material they have to offer. Purchase or no purchase, this album will get you interested in Bleeding Through in no time. I declare a warlike listen!

Favorites: "Declaration (You Can't Destroy What You Can Not Replace)", "Orange County Blonde and Blue", "There Was a Flood", "Reborn From Isolation", "Sister Charlatan"

Once again, Bleeding Through is one of the few remaining metalcore bands to avoid the generic monotony of sadness, happiness, and sappiness. I'm a true die-hard fan of Bleeding Through who would never suck up to the band and instead say the truth, the complete truth, and nothing but the truth, which is this: They take metalcore to a whole different level. I already made that point clear in my This Is Love, This Is Murderous review, and in order to completely agree with my opinions, you have to listen to this album and think as honestly as possible before slapping in the one-word label metalcore. You know how good this album is when you realize the truth of...The Truth!

A big difference compared to previous Bleeding Through albums in the neater production, which is often for bands as their discography goes on. For The Truth, a lot of depth and power is polished by the mixing and mastering with multiple layers. Besides Bleeding Through's standard instrumentation, they use multiple effects, all you can ever ask for. The guitar texture is more varied due to its unique tone. Vocalist Brandan Schieppati is really pushing his vocal range harder than I can ever do. His clean vocals are more acceptably emotional and not as dramatically used as in previous releases. Those vocals are more frequently reserved for actual choruses, making some big unforgettable parts of The Truth. As for his screaming, he started using higher screams while keeping the growling you would always hear in their usual incredible aggressive metalcore, in which the sonic heaviness is turned down by the lyrics of heartbreak usually delivered in the more emo kind. Of course none of their other albums are softer, but this album really hits you hard in the face without intending any facial injuries. There's never any intentional empty space! So now you have a full metalcore package that's half heavily pounding, half melodically emotional. And if you really hate this album, well...

"I DON'T GIVE A F***!!" That's the first line you ever hear in this album's first track, "For Love and Failing". Now that's a rude awakening! That song mainly focuses on a thrashy riff, whereas the spooky keyboard melody in the middle reminds me of gothic rock/metal band HIM. "Confession" shows some of their melodeath influences. "Love is Slow Motion" is a song that would have the loud audience singing and shouting along. "The Painkiller" is another short yet killer highlight.

"Kill to Believe" has brutal skull-f***ing verses along with sing-along choruses. Of course, the band would never stop their riff-wrath and breakdowns. "Dearly Demented" can kinda be the sequel to the previous album's "Number Seven With a Bullet"; it's over 5 minutes long and has more prominent keyboard parts. The chorus features haunting guest vocals by Nick 13 from psychobilly band Tiger Army. At one point, there is a moshing breakdown before focusing on a riff that would fit well in an Iced Earth album along with said haunting chorus. Then we have something completely different, "Line in the Sand", a Bleeding Through power ballad! It's so emotional yet has the softer feel of heartache with no harsh vocals at all. That still counts as a Bleeding Through song. "She's Gone" returns to melodeath-like chaos at just one-and-a-half minutes in length.

"Tragedy of Empty Streets" has ominous keyboards speeding through the frantic instrumentation. I enjoy that! "Return to Sender" is another enjoyable highlight with melodic singing, keyboard grandeur, and short guitar soloing. "Hollywood Prison" speeds through fast riffs, tough breakdowns, and bad-a** lyrics ("Now I'm struggling to find your f***ing spine, I'll rip out your spine!"). The title outro is a confusing ending, a dark instrumental post-metal song with a bass solo and symphonic keyboards reminiscent of the very early Within Temptation. This song would fit better in an Isis album. Then after the feedback fades out, you're left wondering, "What is the truth of all this??"

The truth of The Truth is, there's almost no need for inventive technicality because what works is how catchy the album is. Bleeding Through already has the usual signature formula, but this time they really pushed it to the limit. Is this my favorite from the band? Hmm, probably my third-favorite, still behind the genre-significant This is Love, This is Murderous, along with their new epic album Love Will Kill All in second place. Still, The Truth is a great recommendation for first-time listeners of Bleeding Through. If that "rude awakening" offends you, just ignore it! All that matters is the memorable accessibility of catchy riffs and choruses. It has so much accessibility, and yet it never loses its extreme edge of furious thrash-ish metalcore. The Truth is out there....

Favorites: For Love and Failing, The Painkiller, Line in the Sand, Tragedy of Empty Streets, Return to Sender

Many people, including the band themselves, have call Bleeding Through strictly metalcore. But it feels like a degrading limit. They have so many influences from other metal genres like melodeath, thrash, and a bit of symphonic black metal. Before the emo invasion, a few bands showed the true meaning of METALcore, from the prominent pioneers Converge and Hatebreed to newcomers at the time Bleeding Through and Avenged Sevenfold, the latter falling into the heavy metal/hard rock trap.

This is the epic climax to Bleeding Through's discography, This is Love, This is Murderous! Even Metallica elitists as old as my parents would realize the enjoyable heaviness metalcore used to have. By the way, that cover art is one of the sickest yet simplest album covers I enjoy. When I was dissecting a heart in a science class a couple years ago, I stabbed it with my penknife and took a picture of it to recreate the cover art. Unlike the original, it was a wimpy penknife instead of that big-a** kitchen knife, and not much blood came out, but still worth a try. And while young emos are cutting their wrists with that knife, this band packs bigger punches to your eardrums.

The beginning track "Love Lost in a Hail of Gun Fire" opens with a sound sample, a similar beginning format to their debut. This sample is from the movie The Boondock Saints (not to be confused with that comic strip The Boondocks). Then the band starts their attack of powerful riff energy and Brandan Schieppati's fueled-up harsh vocals. This song features one of only a few instances of clean vocals in this album, sounding not too tough and not at all nasal, but somewhere in between. "Sweet Vampirous" is very short at one and a half minutes, and it's a little awkward. "Number Seven with a Bullet" has the best riffing of this album, possibly the best by the band, with some breakdowns along the way. "On Wings of Lead" is a tricky song if you're trying to avoid emo, sounding excellent yet cheesy at the same time.

"What I Bleed Without You" starts strong, but the strength bleeds out a little in its second half caused by the chorus riff. The title track starts a little weak with a breakdown that might've inspired deathcore before pick up their hardcore pace with speedy riffs and an uplifting-sounding chorus before returning to that breakdown, this time with stronger leeway making it much better than the first time. Great song, but not the best in quality. The next one, "City of the Condemned" is a total n*t-hammerer. It sounds like a crossover between Integrity and Emperor, demonstrating the power of metalcore riffs in both the metal and hardcore sides, instead of faceless shades of grey. "Mutilation" picks up more of their hardcore pace with the most brutal moment of the album at the one-and-a-half-minute mark. Though the song itself is mutilated by a weak chorus that doesn't affect too much of its score.

"Murder by Numbers" continues the band's black metal influences that's amazing, despite the weak but not too harmful breakdown in the middle. "Dead Like Me" is a great death metal-influenced metalcore highlight that might have some potential as part of a soundtrack for an R-rated action film. "Shadow Walker" was re-recorded from their debut album Dust to Ashes, but to be honest, I don't love this new version as much as the original (NOT the alternate version, that's the worst!). The album ends with one of my favorite metalcore songs ever, "Revenge I Seek". It begins with another Boondock Saints audio clip before unleashing a catchy breakdown followed by a fast riff. After all that metalcore glory, towards the end there's another deathcore-inspiring breakdown and a final chorus. That was some dark violent metalcore you've just listened to!

This Is Love, This Is Murderous remains a turning point in metalcore history, showing you what metalcore should be. When the band had their 4-year split-up, it looked like this album and would stay their best...until their epic comeback album Love Will Kill All. But until then, this album would reign with its amazing rage. This. is. METALCORE!

Favorites: "Love Lost in a Hail of Gun Fire", "Number Seven with a Bullet", "City of the Condemned", "Dead Like Me", "Revenge I Seek"

"I think we're a hardcore band and I'll never say we are a metal band, we're all hardcore kids and we came from the hardcore scene. Ours is just a different version of hardcore, we're trying to do something which adds a different variety to the hardcore scene, which has been sounding the same way for so long."

Brandan Schieppati, listen to yourself! Your band, Bleeding Through combines the heavy riffs and vocals of death metal with straight-edge metallic hardcore, adding keyboards similar to some melodeath bands. There's some definite metal right there! If this band was all hardcore and no metal, they wouldn't be in this site or any other metal site. Their amazing metalcore sound would continue their second album and part of the best half of their discography, Portrait of the Goddess.

The first track "Rise" is really short at two minutes long, but it ain't an intro! It starts the head-banging melodeath-influenced metalcore action right away, with John Pettibone of Himsa on guest vocals. "Our Enemies" starts with epic keyboards that remind me of Comatose-era Skillet, before unleashing their death metal influences from Dismember and At the Gates. There's also a bit of Brandan's clean singing in the choruses. He's a good vocalist, NOT the best, but both his harsh and clean tones show that he means what he's singing. "Wake or Orion" displays some of their heavier Cannibal Corpse influences.

"Just Another Pretty Face" is a re-recorded song from their debut Dust to Ashes, having more prominent melodic elements in this album's version. "Savior Saint Salvation" is the 6 and a half minute middle epic. It starts with softly with nice keyboard touches, then the heavy chaos comes back. Brandan really his notes with no strain. M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold (a metalcore band at the time before morphing into a hard rock/metal band my brother likes) does guest clean singing in the slower epic sections. That was a great song, best in this album! "Turns Cold to the Touch" was also re-recorded from Dust to Ashes with their death metal elements more prominent. The soft clean bridge also has a nice colder touch. The slower heavy part after the first verse of the title track reminds me of Nile, but more in the keyboards than the guitars.

Shouldn't the re-recording of "Ill, Pt.2" be named "Ill, Pt.3"? Either way, the keyboards have nicer notability in their original version in Dust to Ashes. Same thing with the newer version of "I Dream of July". However, the issue with the harmonic guitar intro, hardcore/death metal riffs, and ending breakdown hasn't been entirely fixed. "Insomniac" is a killer melodeath-influenced metalcore ending track, though the final fade-out wasn't really necessary.

Overall, this is awesome, though not their best album. With crushing guitars, melodic keyboards, hardcore vocals, and decent drums, Portrait of the Goddess is a powerful serving of extreme-influenced metalcore. This is an excellent album whether you're into metalcore or new to metalcore. They've painted their portrait well!

Favorites: "Rise", "Our Enemies", "Savior, Saint, Salvation", "Turns Cold to the Touch", "Insomniac"

Let's think of a few metal and hardcore genres this way... Metalcore is the child of two genre parents, heavy metal and hardcore punk. 1996 was its possible birth year when Converge took intense hardcore fury to a different metal level. Mathcore was born in 1999 when Botch and The Dillinger Escape Plan took the hardcore realm by a storm of technical proficiency. Zao helped give metalcore a dark atmospheric side to balance it out with the Christian lightness. Then hardcore punk divorced from heavy metal for being too melodic and married heavy metal's more extreme sibling death metal and gave birth to deathcore in 2002, the year Suicide Silence was formed, destined for an a-bombed malice. And in 2008, metalcore started having an electronic phase with the attack of Attack Attack! There are a couple metalcore bands that might have influenced the divorce; Killswitch Engage whose melodic metalcore is watered down to radio-friendliness, and the brutal death metal influences of Bleeding Through! A little over-simplified as this point, the first couple albums from those two bands are what caused the metalcore scene to be split into two sides by the late 2000s, the melodic side impersonating Killswitch Engage and the brutal side copying Bleeding Through. Fortunately, Bleeding Through would be nicely balanced on both sides since the late 2000s.

Bleeding Through's debut Dust to Ashes shows their brutal side really greatly, being their most raw release by the band in both sound and production. It's a little startling to hear the jump in production in the second album, especially in that album's re-recordings of songs from this debut. Here, the vocals are obscured and a little distorted, the drums are flat, and the keyboards can barely be heard, just humming in the background. The guitars sound primarily clearer and nicely easier to hear, despite the low drop-B tuning. The sound is really interesting! The riffs show the band's stylistic blend of melodic death metal and straight-edge hardcore, influenced by At the Gates, In Flames at that time, and even Cannibal Corpse. The tremolos are also reminiscent of melodic death metal mixed with vile black metal. However, those riffs strike differently from the more traditional approach. While there are blast beats, the occasional pummeling breakdown really powers up a brutal riff, and all those breakdowns really connect well with the riffs, giving the songs more coherent fluid. And whenever the breakdown has appropriately killer rhythm, you know there's gonna be sh*t kicked in the pit.

The opening track "Turns Cold to the Touch" works well a great start to this band's discography, beginning with a sound sample of a choir singing and narration, before blasting into death metal-influenced metalcore chaos. While showing some heavy metalcore that would inspire As I Lay Dying, the soft bridge, in which vocalist Brandan Schieppati singing clean vocals for the first time while having his harsh vocals, has the despair of Katatonia at that time. "Hemlock Society" has some better extreme action. "Just Another Pretty Face" is just another heavy song that would be re-recorded in their next album along with the aforementioned "Turns Cold to the Touch". The next one, "Shadow Walker" is one of the greatest and most chaotic songs in the album. Short but killer! However, there is an alternate version at the end of this album that really ruins the song, but we'll get to that later.

"III Part 2" was also re-recorded in their next album Portrait of the Goddess. In case you're wondering, the "first part" is actually "Aurora III" in their demo. "Reflection" keeps up the wicked chaos. Sometimes the band would miss the memo of melodic direction and get lost in "I Dream of July". After a standard harmonic guitar intro, it gets discarded in space for hardcore/death metal riffs, then ending with a breakdown that is more forgettable than exciting.

The band also has trouble choosing an idea to develop in "Oedipus Complex". After a thrashy trio of riffs, they switch to a section with Nile-like keyboards. Both of those sections are each strong on their own and shouldn't be too close to each other. After yet another sound sample with narration, "Lay on the Train Tracks" brings back some riff-rage with more coherence. The last actual track "Thrones of Agony" is an epic extreme song, starting with a soft acoustic keyboard intro before returning to heaviness with occasional melodic harmonies. I said that's the last actual track, because of a horrendous hidden track; the "alternate version" of "Shadow Walker", where Brandan Schieppati adds his own improvised singing/shouting that sounds like one of Jim Carrey's meltdowns in Liar Liar. Way to ruin an awesome song! F*** THAT SH*T!!

Even with that hilariously awful hidden track and a few flaws in composition and production, it shows the band's passion for the sound they're willing to make, a lot more than you would expect. Not every band is passionate to make raw metalcore from the very start when they're all drowning in rip-off variations nowadays, but this album has what's real with no confusion. However, with the poor quality compared to later releases and half of its songs re-recorded in a couple albums, Dust to Ashes is a little more of a demo than an actual studio album and I would recommend it more to fans of the band's historical perspective. Still a good debut where listening is encouraged....

Favorites: "Turns Cold to the Touch", "Hemlock Society", "Shadow Walker", "Reflection", "Thrones of Agony"

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a band whom only the heavier brain-battle-ready hardcore listeners can enjoy. Despite only that small portion of the world population enjoy this band, it consists of a few of the most talented people in the modern musical spectrum. Each album has pushed music boundaries off the edge of sanity. Some moments are ravenous and maniacal, and others are just lucid-dreamy. Despite the band's intense brutal reputation, they knew they had to go some time, and that time was right then. 2 months before this album Dissociation was released, TDEP announced that it would be their last album and they planned on splitting up the following year. The apocalypse was coming... I think they're one of two bands I like that split up at the end of 2017, the other being gothic rock/metal heroes HIM.

Everyone who listens to TDEP knows that they're a good place to start when getting into mathcore, a genre that mixes bizarre time signature combos with heavy aggression. Sure you can still find some mathcore bands active today, but there aren't a lot that are notable.

The album opens in a standard mathcore bang with "Limerent Death", filled with complete manic insanity, plus some yelling and screaming from both guitar and vocals. The violent blast beats and complex time signatures are far beyond how much your brain can handle. After that perfect violent opening track, the band switches gears in the beautiful "Symptom of Terminal Illness", filled with beautiful dread. It's a grim mind-bender that makes you forget almost all your good feelings. "Wanting Not So Much to as To" is another mathcore masterpiece with so much more than you ever want, including irrationally controlled songwriting and structure. This is all just traditionally structural subversion that can tears your minds apart and rebuild them again. The electronic interlude "Fugue" is Dillinger's own "Fugue in D minor" (minus any creepy organ melodies). Grim electronic sounds revels through your ears and the skull and spine between them.

"Low Feels Blvd" is a killer return to the band's signature experimental mathcore, hiding jazz fusion in pulsating thrash metalcore. Then there's a clean solo section with a nice mix of jazzy Latin rock before a short progression into a rare melodic guitar solo. Then the chaos comes back again briefly. The next track "Surrogate" once again blends progressive metal with grind-punk. Then after a descending power chord chorus, a heavy brutal breakdown crashes through before another jazz fusion-fueling section with nice drums. After that, the extreme complexity comes back that shows the band's creative technical genius. "Honeysuckle" continues that technical creativity, switching back and forth from some of the heaviest thrashing in the album to Latin jazz fusion breaks, all with complex time signatures and pulsating grooves.

The next track "Manufacturing Discontent" once again brings out some mathcore surprises. Because TDEP fans understand why the band has to go, well.... "Apologies Not Included"! That song continues their fantastic journey of prodigious style of inventive song structures in a maniacal soundscape. "Nothing to Forget" is indeed nothing to forget! It shows Dillinger's one of last ever efforts in their usual mathcore mayhem before transitioning into an almost tender string arrangement with Greg Puciato singing in smooth falsetto. Then in the last minute, we get to hear the band's mathcore madness for the final time. You might think the album would end after using up all their usual chaos, but nope! They want to really say farewell, with the final title track. It starts with melancholic strings before electronic beats come in and Greg Puciato starts singing in a truly tender voice. It's NOT as soft as an acoustic ballad but at the same time obviously NOT heavy. And finally, strings and organic drums and cymbals keep playing as Puciato repeatedly sings "Finding a way to die alone" as the mix fades and he sings that line a couple more times and...it's over.

Dissociation is a real swan song- I mean, swan album for Dillinger, but it has never been accessible to the mainstream, and neither was the band throughout their 20-year career. Still a lot of mathcore listeners followed and watched them to the end. Those listeners are the ones I would recommend this album to, not casual pop-obsessed people. Not the perfect TDEP album, but their perfect ending. It's a nice album to try out, and if any of the band's listeners move on, it's no big deal. RIP TDEP.....

Favorites: Limerent Death, Wanting Not So Much To as To, Low Feels Blvd, Honeysuckle, Dissociation

Ever since their 1997 formation, The Dillinger Escape Plan have combined death metal, hardcore, and art-prog to spawn the genre mathcore, or more specifically grind-tech-math-metalcore. They've released 5 awesome albums at that point, and one of them is another killer album, One of Us is the Killer!

On their fifth album, TDEP have a lot of extreme in their hands, but some of it is lost to construct songs with more melodic motifs. Their song-craft journey that they can still poly-rhythmic thrash metalcore choruses more barbaric than Conan the Barbarian while making more poppy numbers that would allow them to guest appear in Conan the talk show. It may sound selling out, but they can still be as extreme as they want to be.

The album's smashing opener "Prancer" once again continues the tradition of swinging straight into action. Off beat melodies shine in a considerate pace. The chaos doesn't come down when they kick off "When I Lost My Bet", probably the album's best song. It weaves riffs and setting off blast beats more powerful than a time bomb. This is a manic, intense song with no control. The title track is start of the straight-forward experimentation in the album, with dreamy jazz verses and more catchy than extreme choruses. Despite the song sounding a bit different, it still feels like something TDEP would do.

"Hero of the Soviet Union" is a nice comeback to the Miss Machine era. It has chaotic rhythms and a breakdown that drives you out of a city down a (survivable) cliff as Greg Puciato screams his lungs out, "YOU SMEAR YOUR FILTH ACROSS THE WORLD!!" The next track "Nothing's Funny" is a nice mathcore song with funny sound effects like licks that sound like a scurrying swarm of locusts. "Understanding Decay" sounds like a song that didn't make it into Option Paralysis which is understandable. Groovy hooks break down into creepy melodic bass sections. "Paranoia Shields" is definitely a typical TDEP song that can be in any of their albums. Vocals range from threatening singing to vicious shouting and screaming, and the instruments range between odd leads, driving rhythms, and intricate drums.

When you see a song title like "CH 375 268 277 ARS" that sounds a book ISBN or something, you know that there's going to be a digitally distorted hardcore interlude going on, and there is! "Magic That I Held You Prisoner" has some wild riff-wrath similar to many of their other songs along with uncontrolled drumming and a melodic chorus. Another outstanding track is the sludgy "Crossburner". "Phone Home" Part 2, baby!! Moody bass and mechanical distortion scatter over guitars while making the song more violent than a deadly earthquake. The madness would have a good grip on you and shake you hard. This is one of the best songs that don't make my top 5 favorites in this album. Then there's one more track, "The Threat Posed by Nuclear Weapons", a fitting raging finale. The band fires more shots of mathcore adrenaline with face-breaking screaming. Then after calming down for a bit, the chaos gets back up again to finish off the song and the album.

Unlike other hardcore metalheads who can cause abuse to the innocent with their music and lyrics, TDEP knows who or mostly what they can take their abuse out on. TDEP are not a college hardcore band anymore, and have evolved into functioning adults who have unleashed their precision with no denial of fun chaos. They released an album that has a little more slow melody balanced with the usual contorted rage. You'll definitely be headbanging at some extreme choruses like metalheads always do....

Favorites: Prancer, When I Lost My Bet, One of Us is the Killer, Nothing's Funny, Paranoia Shields

Technical metalcore has been scratched through many inches of speed and aggression. Part of it is maniacal proficiency, and the other part is primitive stripped-down rock-core. Dillinger's 1999 debut album Calculating Infinity is a game-changing easily-imitated album that is focused on said primitive proficiency. It looks easier than it really is! TDEP has controlled more arrangements than many of the bigger metal bands out there, but those arrangements are executed in raw energy and chaos.

Over a decade later, Option Paralysis continues the band's overthrowing power but while still critically successful, doesn't completely top the previous 3 albums. Once again, unlike the well-focused Calculating Infinity, the band continues to make their 21st century sound more stylistic while doing their best to keep their original sound. Calculating Infinity can never has its sound truly repeated by the band due to radical lineups changes affecting their direction. Miss Machine and Ire Works have a broadening crossover sound, where they do traditional melodic rock one minute, then hideously radical screaming mathcore the next. Option Paralysis continues that diverse style.

Say hello to their mathcore again with "Farewell, Mona Lisa"! It was a track that really teased what new direction the band might take in that album. The band gets really frantic in the first two minutes before the midsection artistry. The melodramatic chaotic ending breakdown is probably one of the band's heaviest moments since Miss Machine. "Good Neighbor" has some good elements of blistering heaviness. Now heading in less abrasive riffs, "Gold Teeth on a Bum" has some moments that can make a nice action-heist movie soundtrack, while bringing together a once-hated mix of metal and pop.

"Crystal Morning" continues the wild instrumentation and screams that punch deep into the bone. Same with "Endless Ending", where new drummer Billy Rymer shows some technical versatility riding through blast beat-cymbal adrenaline. "Widower" has a more open free structure and is one of the band's rare ballads with Greg Puciato's vast vocals alongside piano performed by Mike Garson, best known for performing in some of David Bowie's albums. Then the impulsive riff-barrage returns towards the end.

What's really spine-chilling is "Room Full of Eyes", not because of the creepy song title but also the song itself, especially when Greg Puciato screams "'CAUSE WE REAP WHAT WE SOW!!!" during the ending. "Chinese Whispers" has some more imperially thrilling lyrics like when he sings "Everything that you cling to will not last," during the black metal-like blast beat instrumentation. I wouldn't care if you didn't like "I Wouldn't If You Didn't", I would still listen to it. After a complex couple minutes of headbanging metal, there's seems to be a Latin swing section with more of Mike Garson's piano. Eat your heart out, Diablo Swing Orchestra!! The sinister closer "Parasitic Twins" mixes eerie experimental soundtrack with doo-wop harmonic vocals. It may sound unsettling to some listeners, but a satisfying ending nonetheless.

Forget Faith No More, TDEP is one of the more experimental bands out there. They can really do stuff like add blast beats into a Foreigner section. They have shown that they're not soft sell-outs, by making an album like Option Paralysis mostly astounding. This band should be in the compilation, Now That's What I Call Tech-Math-Metalcore!

Favorite Tracks: Farewell, Mona Lisa, Gold Teeth on a Bum, Widower, Room Full of Eyes, Parasitic Twins

The Dillinger Escape Plan have helped influence the metal/hardcore scene with their 1999 debut Calculating Infinity, though a couple bands like Daughters and The End kept their own mathcore sound for a couple albums before saying "Phuket!" and switching to something more...rock. While Dillinger's debut is known for all those crazy time signatures, riffs, and solos, those guys keep broadening their sound. Extreme metal fans love the technical dexterity but it won't be easy for them to get used to a more accessible turn. Accepting sudden changes can be a total challenge, but those changes get bolder each time. Their EP Irony is a Dead Scene has the famous Mike Patton on lead vocals, showing off his skills on 3 original songs and a cover of "Come to Daddy" by Aphex Twin. Their 2004 album Miss Machine balances the chaotic force of their debut with a couple streamlined melodic tracks, thanks to vocalist Greg Puciato. Then there's another EP, Plagiarism, that "plagiarizes" 4 popular songs.

With all those incredible moments and stylistic changes, Ire Works continues the awesome mathcore chaos. And we're all lucky that this album even made it. The band had a reputation of bizarre misfortunes over the years, a couple of which were lineup changes that happened sometime before the band was ready to record this album. Guitarist Brian Benoit left the band due to his left hand being injured in the nerve as a result from brachial plexus neuritis, then drummer Chris Pennie left to join Coheed and Cambria, just a few days before recording started. That meant that the band's founding guitarist Ben Weinman had to do all guitars on the album, but at least they got new drummer Gil Sharone (from avant-garde metal band Stolen Babies). Vocalist Greg Puciato and bassist Liam Wilson still got on board and are ready to really outdo their sound.

The brutal opening track "Fix Your Face" commences the second album in a row to start with a bang, an intense opener of destructive perfection with guest vocals by original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis. "Lurch" continues the chaotic rhythm-changes and jazz underlines. Those two songs both make a killer album opening! However, "Black Bubblegum" is a big surprise for long-time listeners. It's basically a more agitated Fall Out Boy gone Faith No More, a dark pop-core song with vocals switching between snarly singing and haunting falsetto. "Sick on Sunday" is also more experimental, basically heavy breakbeat electro-grind.

"When Acting As a Particle" is an interlude that starts with Gamelan-like percussion with suspenseful strings before the guitars start building up. "Nong Eye Gong" is a brutal vitriolic short grind song with more of Puciato's seething screams that makes up for those previous 3 mellow tracks. "When Acting As a Wave" is a great groovy instrumental that sounds like something 65daysofstatic wish they had done. The band's manic mathcore evolution continues in "82588" that could've worked better in Miss Machine.

Another experimental offering comes in with "Milk Lizard" that sounds almost like a tribute to the Jesus Lizard with Puciato easily pushing David Yow off the hardcore vocal throne. The song is just filled with guitar-wrath over trumpets and an out-of-nowhere piano motif. "Party Smasher" continues the typical time-changes worth moshing as another nice break from the experimentation. "Dead as History" starts with some static noises before beginning some cool riffing and chord progressions that almost come out as a Coheed and Cambria song. Perhaps it's a nice tribute to Chris Pennie leaving Dillinger for Coheed and Cambria, though some of the heavier listeners might hate it. The album's last two tracks are also amazing, starting with "Horse Hunter", first starting with the usual TDEP mathcore before going into their Zappa influences, more furious groove, spacey synths, and guest vocals by Mastodon's Brent Hinds. The moody "Mouth of Ghosts" is probably the longest TDEP song at almost 7 minutes. After 4 minutes of mellow jazz piano, things start building up before the guitars enter one last time in an almost theatrical conclusion.

At this point, The Dillinger Escape Plan is no longer just strictly obsessive mathcore and has accepted this eclectic new direction. Are you in or are you out? If you accuse them, go find some other band like Psyopus. Some of us prefer to appreciate the band's true talent in the most thrilling album of their career. Well played, Dillinger!

Favorites: Fix Your Face, Black Bubblegum, Sick on Sunday, Milk Lizard, Dead as History

There's no better word in any language than "intense" when describing The Dillinger Escape Plan, with everything including heavy jazz guitars, groovy bass, chaotic drums, and screaming vocals that are almost suicide for your vocal cords. The band has enough energy and power to really pack an uppercut punch. They've already proven that with their 1999 debut Calculating Infinity, filled with outbursts technical proficiency. Vocalist Dimitri Minakakis left the band after that album, leaving the band's future almost uncertain. At least he came to do the layout and design for the artwork for this album Miss Machine, which I have no idea what is going on in that cover art.

Then after their 2002 EP with the legendary Mike Patton, Irony is a Dead Scene, Greg Puciato steps in as the band's full-time vocalist. Though controversy struck in one of his first major concerts with the band; at the Reading Festival (the UK city Reading) that year, Puciato literally pooped in front of the audience, put it in a bag, chucked it into the crowd, and smeared the rest all over himself as a sign of "the s*** happening later that day" (referring to bands performing in the festival later such as Puddle of Mudd). WHAT THE FRAPPE?! That's gross and illegal!! Indeed, that band almost got banned from the UK for that. But did they fire Puciato? NOPE! That incident was set aside and TDEP fans finally get to hear him both scream and sing in this album, Miss Machine. Not as much energy as Calculating Infinity, but nonetheless a whole new direction.

The first track "Panasonic Youth" really blasts listeners in the face with punishing fury. There are many twists and turns with Puciato's thunderous screaming, relentless guitars, quick passages, and tapping rhythms. The band slows down a bit for some grating bass and more pummeling drumming. The song picks up the sonic aggression again toward the end. Impressive for 2 and a half minute song! The next track "Sunshine the Werewolf" shows the guitar skills keeping the pace and never slowing down. Chris Pennie's drumming is so amazing that it's baffling. Puciato's vocals are once again fantastic, especially when he unleashes a crying scream of "DESTROYER!!! There'll be another, just! Like!! YOU!!!" during a dramatic orchestral bridge. "Highway Robbery" has some prominent bass in the verses with the rest of the band having a riot in the chorus and a fun bridge section. Chris Pennie has an odd hip-hop beat going on before heading back into the bridge once more.

The album continues hitting the spot with "Van Damsel", featuring the same musicianship but less inspired. The guitar rhythm is a drag and the ambient ending doesn't help at all. "Phone Home" is a better but slower sludge track. After mellow ambiance, the drumming eventually gets crazier in weird static. Greg Puciato has some raspy clean vocals in the first verse that turns into savage shrieking in the chorus. That must really be what a serial killer sounds like. The guitars follow those vocals that get more angry, unsettling, and distorted every verse. It keeps violently seguing from one chorus to another in a wall of distortion. Excellent variation! "We Are the Storm" returns to the band's signature sonic storm attack of atoned chaos. This may be annoying for some of the lighter listeners, but being a heavy metalhead myself, I don't mind at all. There's a nice mellow guitar passage subdued into the next section, but it's a little draggy. Then the chaos returns in the last minute. "Crutch Field Tongs" is a really odd ambient interlude that sounds like a machine dying before fading into oblivion...

But it fades back into the next track, "Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants", the best song of the album, starting with a buildup with evil yet soft singing. Then the catchy guitar and drums come in with Puciato's soaring screaming. The verses have some intense energy with frantic drumming, pounding bass and primal screaming, before a chorus of cool clean singing. Then there's a jazzy chill passage with a beach sunset vibe and amazing guitar tone, followed by the unsettling intense pre-chorus and chorus once again. Honestly, the song sounds a bit like Fall Out Boy gone experimental metalcore. I love it, perfect song! Then there's "Baby's First Coffin", having the most intense song intro for this album, and probably should've been the album's opening track instead of "Panasonic Youth". The amazing guitars scream as intensely and Puciato's vocals. Then there's a weird ambient passage. Puciato's vocals are pretty much the best in that song. Next is "Unretrofied", the softest song on the album and good for popular radios. There's almost no screaming nor technicality. The strength in the vocals is more in the chorus than the verses. The song is a little interesting, but heavier listeners would not be satisfied. "The Perfect Design" has the typical mayhem; chaotic drums, earth-shaking guitars, a little ambient passage, and more painfully great guitars until the end.

So how is Miss Machine doing? Well, the album is somewhat spectacular with the continuation of the band's ridiculously extreme technicality while branching out in new mellower places. Greg Puciato has really given the band a more versatile ability to explore different styles. Sure, some moments don't work out well, but the band's mathcore style is still redeemed. Miss Machine is an excellent extreme hardcore album, and first-time listeners would be pumped up for their next move....

Favorites: Sunshine the Werewolf, Highway Robbery, Phone Home, Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants, Unretrofied

I thought I've reviewed all The Dillinger Escape Plan albums, but I missed a special release where they collaborate with one of the most legendary vocalists in the music world. The band consisting of Ben Weinman (Guitar), Brian Benoit (Guitar), Liam Wilson (Bass) and Chris Pennie (Drums), plus former bassist Adam Doll on keyboards collaborated with the one and only Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) for a killer mathcore EP!

While on the search for a suitable replacement for previous vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, The Dillinger Escape Plan came across Mike Patton who was touring with Mr. Bungle. He must've been such a big fan of TDEP's Calculating Infinity that he was interested in joining in some sort of record of theirs. Having been some time since their last album and this is THE Mike Patton, the band agreed and put their vocalist search on hold. It's pretty interesting that one of the craziest bands team up one of the craziest vocalists to create a super crazily awesome EP. If you thought the results would be much different than their usual material, Irony is a Dead Scene is an exception.

"Hollywood Squares" starts the chaos right at the press of the play button, with Patton screaming "GAME OVER! I WIN!! GAME OVER! YOU WIN!!!" The Intensity never stops and instead keeps twisting and turning through all this variety. As the fast pace speeds on, Patton shows off his astonishing vocals ranging from blood-curdling yelling and creepy whispering. What a great maniac! Things get quieter in the second half where Patton sounds closer to his more accessible time in Faith No More. There's still some more amazing creative talent! The furious extreme noisecore rages on once more as Patton snarls "We're Hollywood squares, going nowhere". After that amazing shocker, "Pig Latin" starts calm. First a slow haunting guitar riff plays, then keyboard joins in, followed by Patton's soft singing. It sounds accessible at first but you know it's gonna build up to more chaos. The heavier chorus as guitars explode into heaviness. Patton starts singing deep vocals that sound almost gibberish surrounded by squeals of "Chinga". The guitars get really chaotic as the chords get forcefully wrung out. That and Patton's chaotic squealing causes the guitar to sound like you're bending a pipe around its neck to strangle it. The intensity returns as Patton yells "Speaking Pig Latin, kiss me goodnight" as the band blows the roof off this dump. After a few strange beeps, the song then sounds like a lounge band with the lead vocalist being a psychotic murderer. Those deep lounge vocals work well there! Then it's back to the beginning with the first verse and chorus, except in the chorus, only "Chinga" remains, then ends with one more incomprehensible gibberish line. One of the best TDEP songs!

"When Good Dogs Do Bad Things" is much greater, one of my all-time favorites from this band! Everything's in the right place, and it would be a great song to perform live, though if they ever did, it would be with vocalist Greg Puciato. It begins with Patton yelling "I'm the best you've ever had!!" This song has the most intensity and variety in this EP. The riffs go all over the place in perfect sense. Pure genius!! After some strange gibbering, he starts chanting "mommy" similar to a Gregorian choir. It pauses a few times then his voice rises to screaming as if he was a little kid crying for his mommy. The riffs and vocal abilities get better as the song progresses. More screaming insanity! This song once again proves that Mike Patton is one of the best vocalists in the whole wide world amen. Then suddenly the wild intensity is interrupted by a sudden ambient section with good drumming and haunting vocals. Then it gets much cooler. The guitar sounds darker and more restrained as Patton sings some very low vocals. Then suddenly the crazy screams and mad guitars return again. Then it switches back to the low singing then back to the high screaming. The drums throughout those sections are amazing. Then the song fades out with a film reel, and you think it's all over. Then PSYCH!!! The song returns unexpectedly for one more heavy reprise, like an abrupt jump-scare! One of the most incredible songs by the band.

The final song is a cover of "Come to Daddy" by Aphex Twin. The original song by Aphex Twin might be weird, but a whole new weird dimension is opened by Dillinger. Patton's vocals sounds pretty odd there, sounding like an alien who's gagging and about to throw up the souls he ate, to fit the disturbing nature. It's not as impressive as other songs in this EP, but the drumming is pretty good. However, the guitar is just simple with a repetitive riff. There's a good midsection where they change the guitar line, and every time a new instrument or effect is played, another new one steps in as well. Patton does some pretty weird vocals here. After a strange trance section, it fades to a chilling piano outro. Probably the lowest point of the EP, but still awesome!

Irony is a Dead Scene is not an EP for the faint of heart. Even though it might seem surprisingly normal for a Dillinger EP, it's still a million light-years away from all that conventional radio sh*t. Dillinger truly has a chaotic insane sound of noise-mathcore. With this album, they seem to shine the spotlight further away from themselves onto Patton, the main star, though their musical creativity is still in this EP, hinting at what was to come next in Miss Machine. While not having the same level of insanity as Calculating Infinity, this EP takes and refines every aspect of that album. Dillinger had learnt some great tricks from this EP, and that's why Miss Machine is worth the wait!

Favorites: "Pig Latin", "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things"

Some of you know who Dillinger was, right? John Dillinger was a 1930s criminal known for his bank robberies and prison escapes. A friend of the band's, Matt Makowski was watching a documentary about John Dillinger which gave Matt the idea for the band name, The Dillinger Escape Plan! After that, TDEP went on to record two EPs; the self-titled EP and Under the Running Board. Both of those albums helped establish the genre mathcore, stemmed from a mix of grind-punk with thrash, experimental, and progressive metal. Then there was the first few of many line-up changes the band had throughout their career. Bassist Adam Doll suffered a major spinal injury in a minor car accident, which left him paralyzed from the chest below. He's OK, but he lost the dexterity to play bass and has since played keyboards with the band on brief occasions. Guitarist John Fulton left as well with Brian Benoit taking that spot. Vocalist Dimitri Minakakis would have his last studio effort with the band making this album.

The album title Calculating Infinity makes some sense because the music is so strange and complex that there are infinite possibilities of how their sound would go. That's one of the things about math metal that keeps it together. It's mathematical! After Dillinger's two grind-punk EPs, Calculating Infinity explodes in brilliant venomous combustion, expanding on the aggressive technical grindcore that would establish the band's signature mathcore.

Dillinger opens the gateway to mathcore with "Sugar Coated Sour" in a percussive barrage. Minakakis’ feral yells show some of the band's brutality, then around the 40-second mark, the band's inner jazz fusion comes in before continuing the artful yet punchy staccato descent into madness. Nothing else on this album can work on that compound inversion. Nothing except "43% Burnt", the most popular track in this album. The fans love it enough for the song to remain a staple in the band's stage setlist. The song opens with screeching chords, before continuing into what may be the anthem of mathcore. The last minute and a half is just a trance-inducing mantra that slowly fades out. I think that's the 43% of the song that's burnt. The song still has a lot of the potential the band has offered; a playful section, atmospheric guitar, enraged lyrics, and more tempo changes than most other bands' albums. Beautiful yet defiant! However, "Jim Fear" is pretty much more straight-forward than complicated. The mix is more overwhelming than impressive with visceral impact. "*#.." is an interlude that starts ambient before an aggressive yet soft-sounding metallic hardcore twist fades in.

"Destro's Secret" has more of Minakakis’ yelling along with grumbling and chanting, along with a jazzy interior before one of the more violent sections of the album. "The Running Board" is a song that probably works better in the Under the Running Board EP. After a chaotic minute, the song switches to a western noir theme that escalates into some more jazz fusion. Still there's no denying that the song is a hardcore anthem for metalheads. "Clip the Apex…Accept Instruction" continues the impeccable tightness with guitars of tangling destruction, then just when you think the band has settled their sound into sanity, the sound rises into an amp-ruining wall of noise.

Then just when your eardrums are about to burst, it switches to the title interlude. It's softer with some guitar crunch before building up building into the maximum tension needed for the next track. "4th Grade Dropout" continues the guitar string-striking terror, followed by a drum break that rises into melodic experimental post-hardcore. More hyper-speed repetition while keeping the band's creative steam! There's one more interlude here, "Weekend Sex Change" which is kind of a nice summarizing sound collage. "Variations on a Cocktail Dress" is a memorable closer for this album, once again putting together the band's destructive force with their small jazz movements. After Minakakis' roared out final lines, there's 3 minutes of silence, leading up to an eerie grating noise with samples from the 1959 Diary of Anne Frank film.

The album has the band's Cynic-like guitars, bass, and jazz breaks; extreme metal drumming that combines offbeat jazz with the aggressive technicality of Cryptopsy; and raw spine-chilling hardcore vocals. This would surely be appreciated by people who understand the band's chaotic complex genius. So mathematical!

Favorites: Sugar Coated Sour, 43% Burnt, The Running Board, Weekend Sex Change, Variations on a Cocktail Dress

Ladies and DJENTlemen, are you ready for THE djent album of 2016? It's the Violent Sleep of Reason! If you've been listening to Meshuggah since Destroy Erase Improve or Nothing, you know the journey. Djent riffs, random time signatures, robotic drums, and Jens Kidman's trademark loud vocals, all in here in a day's work...literally; they recorded it live simultaneously instead of separately! Can you believe it?? Despite most of the members being currently about the same age as my parents (average 50) and their signature sound continuing to be rebuilt, The Violent Sleep of Reason has some of the new elements and possibly the band's violently strongest content in a long time.

I still think Catch 33 is the best Meshuggah album (tied with Destroy Erase Improve). Catch 33 has a special concept of a 47-minute suite, and nothing can push that album off its throne. That's the kind of album that would help stay above the surface of water while swimming you back to the shore right when it ends. Next is obZen, a decent album with obvious highlights but doesn't have the same energy. Koloss, on the other hand, is nothing to worry about. It has good songs, some of them slower in a good groove way. It sounds a little stale, but that's okay because it's enough to really surpass obZen. If you thought a new Meshuggah album was nothing to be hyped about, well you had the wrong fears! This album really overthrows obZen and Koloss as another kick-A album, though Catch 33 is still in the higher competition.

You know how good and brutal the album starts with "Clockworks" as the kick-off. This is my favorite song of the bunch and one of the band's best recent songs. Drumming here is incredible, livening things up with the mechanical snare. The more enjoyable part of the song is the second half, where the djent riffs are more repetitive yet they make the complexity look so easy. It's easy to let the rhythm and energy take over your body. An opening track so good you listen to it on its own! "Born in Dissonance" is more dissonant yet simple, working well enough to get caught up in the game. "MonstroCity" is not totally the best song, but still monstrous with a sludgy thematic sound.

"By the Ton" retains a lot of energy BY THE TON. It's slower but has great riffs and a nice but still tough ending. The title track is filled with violent chaos, shining intensity, and uncertainty fitting altogether. "Ivory Tower" is simpler but still OK. "Stifled" is not at all bad, but not good enough to be a great highlight. However, it's still a nice tune worth headbanging and it has a fantastic clean synth outro. What's not to love about that?

Seguing out of that outro is "Nostrum", one of the album's best songs energetically. The traditional Meshuggah beats are on the loose there! "Our Rage Won't Die" really levels up the rage with a catchy djent riff that keeps playing from the beginning to other parts of the song. "Into Decay" is a fantastic closer; the slowest song yet more powerful. After vocalist Jens Kidman yells the last lyrics of the song at the top of his lungs, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! WHAT HAVE YOU BECOME?!?", many of the elements of the album's sound all keep crashing through one another until they finally collapse.

This album shows Meshuggah bringing back what they have to keep their throne as the djent masters. There's more character and life than the previous two albums. The production is similar to those albums, but it's actually more organic and lively due to the live recording technique. Every song keeps building incredible momentum and power without losing them. It's a grand djent experience, though it can't beat the superiority of albums 2-5. DJENT WON'T DIE!!

Favorites: Clockworks, By the Ton, Violent Sleep of Reason, Nostrum, Into Decay

Meshuggah has done a good job mesmerizing metalheads with their musicianship. With their poly-rhythmic structures, brilliant drumming, and diabolical guitars and vocals, they spawned a bigger fan-base and inspired many metal musicians to help develop the djent movement. But what has some of their best originality?

Koloss! A more colossal, cerebral side of Meshuggah has been unleashed. The duplicating musicians think they got everything with the sound and structure, but what they missed is the attitude and intelligently thought-up ideas Meshuggah has. They know when to go slow and when to speed things up with poly-rhythms warping through space and time. All that begins to shine in Koloss.

Starting in a colossal bang is the strong slow groove opener "I Am Colossus". Then it gets much faster charged in "The Demon's Name is Surveillance", bringing the two songs in an equal balance of slow and fast. Do not look away from the slow chugging that continues in "Do Not Look Down". On top of that song's slow groove, there's a really jazzy guitar solo that makes the groove groovier.

The slow chugging riffs keep going again in "Behind the Sun", another good djent song. "The Hurt That Finds You First" is just real charged-up supreme chaos. The trademark guitar moments really turn something aggressive into a work of art. "Marrow" is a song with just predatory eccentricity. "Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion" sums up a lot of the band's signature insanity. It's a nice glimpse of their sound from Nothing, something to be both loved and hated. It's slower, spacey and long, but still gets technical. What's new here is the random time signatures used in a way that's never before heard before, pushing through progressive math metal boundaries.

"Swarm" has a swarm of fast thrash similar to previous albums. Vocalist Jens Kidman's performance is spectacular in "Demiurge", along with that song's ambient intro and outro. The last track, "The Last Vigil" is basically a doom filled ambient clean guitar outro.

So if you thought Meshuggah would become outdated and obsolete around then, take it easy and think again. This album has the most accessibility for Meshuggah, while evolving from the speedy riff-wrath of their previous album obZen. With all that excellent essence that keeps the band's sound alive, Meshuggah would surely be one of my favorite metal bands ever! This is really something to buy, for sure....

Favorites: I Am Colossus, The Demon's Name Is Surveillance, Do Not Look Down, The Hurt That Finds You First, Demiurge

Meshuggah had emerged once again with another album, obZen. Metalheads who either love or hate Meshuggah would expect them to have horrendously crushing downtuned riffs, awesome drumming, and other stuff to form a rising wall of sound. All of that can be found in obZen with a little interesting difference.

The album opener, "Combustion" causes the album to combust into an explosive start. Straight forward complexity, yet there aren't any poly-rhythms and the song is just all-out thrash. A killer callback to Contradictions Collapse and a very upbeat album opening! "Electric Red" contains excellent riffing, especially in that sweet passage at 1:10. "Bleed" is probably the best song by Meshuggah since Chaosphere. Thrashy and memorable! At 1:24 is a total headbanging passage.

"Lethargica" is more technical and slower, but it comes out as one of the album's heaviest tracks. The riffs during the fade-out are excellent. The bone-crushing breakdowns continue in the album's title track. The sheer intensity of the astonishing "This Spiteful Snake" is just possessed with power, compelling the listener to hear this relentless attack whether or not the listener's brain would get confounded.

"Pineal Gland Optics" continues to deliver speed and has some excellent riffs with higher intelligence, especially in the fade-out. The opening riff of "Pravus" is simple enough for the drummer to follow, but leads into the song so perfectly. What may be vocalist Jens Kidman's best vocal performance yet is on the album's closing track, "Dancers to a Discordant System", along with some of the last prominent vocals from drummer Tomas Haake. Both of those vocals gave me chills! That song has far more intelligent riffs than most of the other songs and really brings the album to a great discordant end.

Whether you love it or hate it, you just have to face it, Meshuggah is a total winner in the European metal scene. The chemistry built up by the band members is astonishing, as well as the constant quality that still turns out well through the moderate experimentation one album after another. ObZen has the usual business, and that's NOT at all a problem with Meshuggah because it's the sort of level of music no other band can achieve after one album. Sadly it doesn't match the standards of their previous albums. Perhaps a good album to start with when you first get interested in Meshuggah, encompassing all the band's essentials. Newcomers' minds shall be blown away....

Favorites: Combustion, Bleed, Lethargica, Pravus, Dancers to a Discordant System

(Same review as 2002 version)

This is it. This is definitely the album that has spawned one of the deepest, heaviest genres known to mankind...DJENT! Slower tempos and heavier groove than the band's previous thrash metal albums, with occasional jazz-infused moments, and more importantly, downtuned 7-string guitars (though 8-string guitars would not be used until the album's 2006 re-recording). Nothing is an album that really turned Meshuggah from NOTHING into SOMETHING!

Before I started listening to this band, I never realized how heavy, brutal, and overall good they are. This album, Nothing, will surely show you what I mean. Well the repetition is a little unnecessary, but the album is still cool nonetheless.

Jumping into the action straight away is the opening track "Stengah", a sick brutal song that can sting your eardrums harder and more pleasantly than a hundred wasps with the downtuned jarring staccato guitars locked in by the tight drums. Then the vocals come in a big round of hardcore shouting. That's rather excellent! "Rational Gaze" is another killer song with a paradoxical lyrical theme. "Perpetual Black Second" is just amazing and a potential staple to the band's live set, with some of the heaviest riffs any band could create, bringing the odd time signatures to a new peak for the band.

Rising from staccato power chords, a new uncommon style of riffing really reminisces many bass techniques, evident on "Closed Eyed Visuals". Same with "Glints Collide", with that type of riffing at its clearest, sounding almost as if the album was entirely recorded with bass guitars, while the guitars stay notable with its super heavy crushing tone. The solo really sounds alien-like, bringing a twisted form of jazz fusion. "Organic Shadows" is once again chaotic, but it doesn't have a lot of sense in instrumentation. As technical as the band usually gets, the habit of repeating chords at that point is...well, repetitive. The vocals are still fine there but sound a little constipated. The opening riff of "Straws Pulled at Random" is really thrashy hardcore-sounding similar to The Dillinger Escape Plan, and I love that!

Other than all the guitars and drums being re-recorded and the vocals being remastered in the 2006 version, the only other notable differences are the last 3 songs. For some reason, my copy of the original 2002 version did not have "Spasm". Either it was accidentally removed from my copy, or my copy came from the UK where they removed the song because of "spastic" or "spaz" being an offensive swear there. That's a shame because drummer Tomas Haake's clean robotic vocals in that song sound bizarre yet still cool, and now I'm wondering what the original song sounds like. Haake's robotic vocals return in a small narration in "Nebulous". The only big difference for this song in the 2006 version is, it's slightly slower. "Obsidian" has a cool clean opening, before crashing into a small simple riff repeated so many times. The 2006 version is twice as long as the original version, extending both the front and back. Instead of fading out at 4:20, it goes on until 8:35 and ends abruptly!! Ain't that repetition annoying?!

In conclusion, it's not easy comparing this album to later Meshuggah albums, nor would it be easy to listen to entirely with a couple songs being a little repetitive. But after a few listens, then you would know that the band discovered a new gem that is djent. Even when not needed, you should buy this album. This is the beginning of djent!

Favorites: Rational Gaze, Perpetual Black Second, Closed Eye Visuals