Xephyr's Forum Replies
I'm glad I spent a bit more time with this one, because even though I still don't think Hexecutor is a true sleeper hit, there's definitely some cool stuff in here. I was wanting to write it off after the first two listens since nothing really gripped me and I didn't quite get what it was trying to do, but after letting it settle for a few weeks I got a lot more out of it than I thought.
Hexecutor are really carving their own path in this record, with the jarring transitions between Thrash and more traditional Heavy Metal proving to be rather unique, at least to me. The vocals are always Thrash/Black Metal centric, leading to some...interesting portions where the Thrash riffs haven't kicked in yet. I found myself really enjoying the riffing and thrashy ideas on tracks like the opening "Buried Alive with her White Silk Dress" and the more Heavy/Speed metal oriented "Eternal Impenitence". It strikes such an interesting balance between two styles that both do and don't work together.
The record is still extremely clumsy though, with most of the transitions being almost nonexistent and thrown together with no effort. Beyond Any Human Conception of Knowledge feels like an album with a ton of concepts it wants to explore but has no real tact on how to display those concepts in a way that makes sense. I've found I love individual parts of this album, but the complaints of those above me still hold true with how thrown together it all feels. Part of me really enjoys unfocused albums just because you never quite know where the band is going to go next, but Hexecutor doesn't exactly blow my mind with how haphazard they are with riffs coming and going after the same old drum fill for 8 tracks straight.
Seems like I got more out of this than most, probably thanks to the non-thrash parts having some great riffs and moments, but I agree in that I'm not sure where all the hype for this one came from.
3.5/5
March
Alcest - "Kodama" - Kodama
Soen - "Lumerian" - Imperial
Caligula's Horse - "Dark Hair Down" - The Thief, The Tide, And River's End
March
Nightwish - "Sahara" - Dark Passion Play
Allen Lande - "The Artist" - The Showdown
Galneryus - "End of the Line" - Into The Purgatory
March
Yoth Iria - "The Mantis" - As The Flame Withers
Grima - "Rotten Garden" - Rotten Garden
Mefitis - "Fenshaden Deeps" - Offscourings
Persefone is one of those bands that I used to listen to quite a bit, with Aathma turning into my favorite release from them after initially listening to Spiritual Migration. Shin-Ken was an interesting concept album too, but I kind of fell out of them after a while. Never checked out Core though, and I think they're due for a revisit for sure.
I decided to check out a few of these this month after misplacing my flash drive that I use to listen to music at work.
Bands I need to check out from this:
More Draconian, great track.
Old The Ocean, I only know their more modern stuff and they sound way better on this 2010 album from what I'm used to.
That Warning album seems essential for Doom Metal, need to get around to it.
Need to go back to last month's feature and check out Rosetta, impressive stuff.
Could Labÿrinth's new 2021 be added please? Awful cover art and all?
Could Second to Sun be added please?
Ohms really grew on me after giving it more chances from being featured on here, and after hearing how they sound on this album compared to White Pony, it might put Ohms into better perspective. I didn't find Ohms to be as impactful and emotional as you're saying Daniel, but Koi no Yokan was much closer to achieving that for me. I still don't think Deftones are the kind of band that I would go out of my way to listen to on the regular, but they're good enough that I really enjoy coming back to them every now and again.
I think the reason why I constantly go back to the point of Deftones sounding like Deftones is that there's a fine line for music commenters between bands that are bad and stagnant because they consistently sound the same and bands that are brilliant because they consistently sound the same. If I were to ever do a full Deftones review for any of their albums I'd definitely want to explain my stance on that a bit better, since Deftones and other bands like Bolt Thrower get to hone their craft playing one style with minimal overall changes with no backlash. Obviously it's because the style they landed on is incredibly good and no one cares if, at the surface level, many of the albums follow and use similar ideas. Deftones are an interesting case because while they obviously deliver exactly what the listener expects, there's a ton of nuance between this album and White Pony as well as even this album and Ohms, even though they do many of the same things.
Good band is good.
Riot have popped up on my radar as one of the slightly more underground classic Heavy Metal bands, and I was never a big enough fan of what I heard to really take the plunge into their material. Thankfully it looks like the band turned over a bit of a new leaf at the end of the 80's and released ThunderSteel, which is way more up my alley in terms of early, proto-Power Metal. I always have had a soft spot for the higher pitched, androgynous vocals that have become a staple for the more traditional, classic style of Heavy and Speed Metal even for modern bands, so ThunderSteel wins out in that regard.
The album is still pretty hit or miss though, with the front side being quite a bit stronger than the back. "Johnny's Back" and "Blood Streets" are noticably weak and "Buried Alive" goes on for a bit too long, plus "Run For Your Life" teeters right on the edge of being irredeemably cheesy with its robotic backing vocals. The first few songs are great though, with "Thundersteel", "Sign of the Crimson Storm", and "On Wings of Eagles" really showcasing what Riot can do with their lineup. I also really like the Rock and NWOBHM influences with all of the crazy guitar solos and flourishes, even though I might be misplacing those genre comparisons.
Overall I'm just happy that I found a Riot release that I liked, considering how highly acclaimed they seem to be. They still don't stack up to any of the other older Power Metal bands I enjoy, but I enjoyed my time with this record, even though the B side really wore on me enough to bump my score down by half a star.
3.5/5
Massive snoozefest for me, plus the raspy vocal style isn't something I'm particularly fond of, comes off as a bit weak sounding for the most part. There were a few decent songs like "Mount Skull" and "The Nameless Elite" but this is definitely just another Death Metal record in my opinion, not too much reason to go back to it. And Necroceros loses out to the other standard Death Metal albums I've had recently like Frozen Soul's Crypt of Ice (Highly recommend!), or even Omegavortex and Necrot from last year. Just some run of the mill stuff here sadly.
Y'know, after 5 featured albums I'm starting to think that Deftones might just be a good band.
And surprisingly enough, Koi No Yokan might actually be my favorite one yet. Even though I haven't revisited White Pony for a month or so and Around the Fur for a few months now, this one has some serious replayability for me. Still, as I said with Ohms, Deftones are ridiculously consistent when it comes to their acclaimed albums, so this is another record where you get exactly what you expect. But thanks to some slight differences in the production of the vocals and songwriting, Koi No Yokan has really smoothed out some of the issues I've had with other Deftones albums.
After discovering Deftones really late given I listened to quite a bit of Alternative Metal in the past, I'm inclined to agree that they're essential to the subgenre. However, their shtick on Around the Fur and White Pony wears on me quickly, even though I do really like those albums, especially White Pony. The vocal performance of Moreno is a blessing and a curse, since I think it obviously makes Deftones who they are, but I can only handle his voice having unmitigated sexual intercourse with my eardrums for so long. Koi No Yokan, however, puts a limiter on Moreno's microphone so that you don't hear every single slight sound that comes from his mouth, and it's a game changer for me. I listened to this one almost on repeat for the past 2 days and it hasn't worn thin, showing that Deftones still have something special 12 years after their "quintessential" release. Plus with Ohms being so well received, it doesn't seem like they're finished anytime soon, despite some duds in-between.
I'll probably change my mind on this later but Koi No Yokan tops White Pony for me overall, just due to ease of listening and some fantastic sounding riffs and memorable songs. It's not exactly challenging, but it's essential Deftones material that's just well done.
The only bad thing about this is that Daniel is quickly running out of Deftones albums for easy Gateway monthly features!
4/5
I think I'm going to end up right in the middle of you two after revisiting this. I found Katatonia years ago and while I really enjoy most of their material I never had a strong desire to go back and listen to albums like The Great Cold Distance more than a few times. Obviously three or four years ago me had some strong enough feelings to initially rate it a 4.5/5, but going back to it left me feeling a bit lukewarm.
Since I'm not familiar with their earlier Death Doom days, Katatonia was always one of those groups that just sounded extremely clean, polished, and consistent throughout all the material I've heard from them. The Great Cold Distance is no different in that regard because even though there isn't a whole lot of variety through the 12 songs, I never really get tired of their style. They know what they want to do and do it extremely well, which I think is worthy of a lot of praise. However, this time around The Great Cold Distance didn't really grip me in the same way that Daniel begins to explain this time around. Katatonia always manages to create extremely complex atmospheres out of very simple and easy to understand passages and layering, but eventually the album started to drag on with too similar of ideas. It's fortunate that Katatonia have carved out their signature sound so heavily that it doesn't bother me too much in the end, but I still think it's a criticism that I have.
To sort of agree with Andi's point though, The Great Cold Distance is wholly accessible, but not necessarily in a bad way. There's still a ton of complexity to be had and I agree that this album may very well be a grower, to Daniel's point about subtlety. Alternative Metal styled Katatonia are one of those bands that I consider to be a gateway into the genre for people who say they hate Metal because all the music has is the same guitar riff over and over and someone screaming into the microphone. Alternative/Prog Metal like this shows that you can have a substantial and heavy emotional edge to something without necessarily going overboard with crazy Death or Black Metal riffing. The nice thing is that there are still plenty of heavy riffs to be had in this, so not much is lost by going towards the realm of accessibility. Great album, even if I don't quite think it's a full-blown masterpiece anymore.
4/5
Well, I guess this is what you get when you just go and listen to random Power Metal albums from lesser known bands. I have zero clue what they were going for here, but man does it not work. At all.
Edit: Apparently the other YouTube video didn't work? Region locked maybe?
Bolt Thrower - For Those Once Loyal & ...For Victory
Since it's the beginning of the year I've been trying to knock out some albums and bands that I know I should have been listening to for years now. Bolt Thrower is definitely one of them, and For Those Once Loyal and ...For Victory didn't disappoint. Straight up quintessential Death Metal that doesn't necessarily do anything special solely because it doesn't have to in order to be outstanding.
I was really looking forward to Serpent Column's 2020 release Kathodos since I was such a big fan of Mirror In Darkness back in 2019. On first listen I thought that Kathodos was an interesting spin on their style and rated it highly, but on subsequent listens it felt like it was missing something that Mirror In Darkness had. Obviously Serpent Column decided to go down a different route with less aggression and more theatric atmosphere, but it didn't have the same chaotic replayability as their previous effort.
So, imagine my surprise when I see a 2020 Serpent Column album that isn't Kathodos pop up on the Academy. I had completely missed this one, since I was so focused on Kathodos. And because of how much I tried to like Kathodos, this album satisfied me immensely with the complete chaos that Serpent Column can bring. Apparently they took all the unmitigated aggression and just threw it onto this short 20 minute EP that never slows down and has some serious energy about it. Even though I don't normally care for this stuff, there's something about the way Serpent Column does it that got me really excited for this one, even for repeat listens. I honestly prefer this over Kathodos, which is kind of crazy to say but that album really fell off for me. This EP has zero fluff and is a prime example of one of the many style Serpent Column can play in. Normally they do a bit more compositionally, but sometimes it's a nice change of pace for a band to just put all their effort into one thing and just run with it. So, surprisingly, I really enjoyed Endless Detainment and it'll probably be making its way onto my 2020 list as something I missed.
4/5
I'll take it Sonny, I remember a long time ago you had the same reaction to Elvenking's 2019 album so I'm glad I'm 2 for 2 on Power Metal rec's so far. Eternal Champion is nothing fancy, but it has some nuanced differences to how they approach the Power Metal formula that really grew on me after 10+ listens. Definitely a grower for me, but maybe a BIT overrated, especially since 2020 was completely devoid of any truly great Power Metal releases apart from Falconer's swan song album. So towards the end of 2020 when this album dropped I was really looking for something to satiate my Guardians itch.
Review is up for me:
Eternal Champion - Ravening Iron Review
I originally had this rated at a solid 4/5, with it jumping high up into my year-end list when I listened to it in the beginning of December. US Power Metal normally isn't my thing but I was really impressed by these guys.
While I was writing this review I went back to their debut and listened to Ravening Iron a ton more. By the end of writing I had to bump it up to a 4.5/5, since I just wasn't getting tired of having it on repeat. The riffs are fantastic and the vocals and overall production are unique enough to have this be one of my favorite Power Metal albums I've heard in a while. It's short, sweet, straight to the point, and uses the general US Power Metal ideas in a way that resonates with me way more than any other band I've heard.
4.5/5
I think I've done a good job of avoiding burnout thus far, I never completely force myself to listen to new albums or write X amount of reviews a week. I revisit music that I actually feel like listening to whenever it pops into my head through the day, so I've been able to listen to over 250 new 2020 albums and over 900 in total in the past 2 years without necessarily feeling put off by it.
I wish I could do more of Sonny's review style so I could be more casual about reviews on occasion, but whenever I start writing something in that vein I either end up writing a multi-paragraph review or get one or two sentences in, run out of things to say, and scrap it. Just not my style.
Track by track reviews are interesting, since I share the same opinion as Daniel. My eyes just glaze over and I keep scrolling. Technically my Blackwater Park is a track by track review, but I still structure it in a way that reads like an analysis instead of a bulleted list. I think it works out, but it's a lot of work if you really want to talk about every single one of the tracks.
I've been trying to get acquainted with more music theory related stuff because it goes along with how I write, but having never taken any classes or anything it's pretty tough to truly talk about music in that way. Nor do I really want to. I think that the objective music theory aspect can be interesting but loses its luster after a while because at the end of the day the question is always if you thought the album sounded good, not how many different chords there are or 5th major harmonic pinches the guitar did.
I'd be interested to hear others' strong thoughts because, turns out, I have some unexpected strong thoughts about Terria as well.
I've known about Devin for almost a decade now but only really started to delve into his other stuff after Empath came out in the beginning of 2019. I was aware and listening to stuff off of Transcendence and City, but didn't go back to the likes of Biomech or Terria until mid-2019 and early 2020. Biomech has become one of my favorites, no surprise there, but I was kind of taken aback by how much love Terria gets compared to the rest of his discography, at least on sites like RYM. Even though Biomech saw Devin experimenting with his initial "wall of dreamy sound" shtick, Terria is where he really brings his unique style into what people know him for and...it doesn't do a whole lot honestly.
Yeah it's a massive sounding, dreamy soundscape of echoing bits and bobs with Devin's signature vocal lines and quirks, but I always find myself bored by this album. None of the songs stick out to me at all, it's not memorable, it just...sounds nice? I mean, it sounds nice enough for me to give it a 4/5 just because I do really like Devin Townsend in a pretty biased way, but I really don't see how this is considered to be one of his best. The choruses and hooks are corny and weird even for Devin, like him screaming "RECYCLE" and "It's your birthday, it's on Earth Day!", which have almost no zing to them whatsoever. At least on Empath's "Why?" I can chuckle at how ridiculous Devin's lyrics are since he plays them up so much, but it's like Terria exists in this weird middle ground where I'm not sure whether I should be taking him seriously or not.
I'll give it a few more spins and probably tackle a full review for it, since it's such a strange blip on Devin's discography for me. It might be my most overrated 4, looking back. Might have to lower it after more thought.
4/5
Cleaning out my ratings for the new year, could we please add:
Oubliette
Cleaning out my ratings for the new year, could we please add:
Blue Stahli
Cleaning out my ratings for the new year, could we please add:
Megaton Sword
Iron Savior - Skycrest (2020)
Lèpoka
The Lightbringer Of Sweden
Cleaning out my ratings for the new year, could we please add:
Singularity
Pulchra Morte - Ex Rosa Ceremonia (2020)
(There's a double entry for Venom Prison when you search in Bands)
Cleaning out my ratings for the new year, could we please add:
Coexistence
Soilwork - A Whisp of the Atlantic (2020)
Lucid Planet
Pyramid Theorem
Chaos Divine - Legacies (2020)
Mick Gordon - Doom: Horrible. I'm sorry but I hated this. If a two-hour computer game soundtrack is the best a clan can come up with, then I guess it's not for me. 1/5
Quoted Sonny92
I struggle with this too sometimes, primarily because videogame OST's are completely separate from "actual music" in my brain. I've always been deep in the gaming community but one thing I've noticed as I've socialized with more and more different sectors of the community online is that people LOVE their OST's. It seems like it's all they listen to sometimes, with all the songs they share being songs from videogames. It still feels wrong to me to judge OST's on the same playing field as normal albums because these songs are made for a distinct purpose inside the game, not just purely for listening.
One thing I will say to try and suade you is that game OST's have come an INCREDIBLY long way in recent years. The days of a track simply playing start to finish behind the gameplay then looping are pretty much behind us, with most worthwhile OST's being dynamically programmed to go along with what's going on in the game. It's why people who play these games latch onto some of these newer soundtracks so much, like DOOM or Hades, because the way the music swells and changes with what's happening really leaves an impact on the experience. DOOM is pretty much the perfect example of this, since the atmosphere is dark and brooding as you're making your way through a dark hallway, then the guitar riff builds slowly once you walk into a room with demons to kill, then kicks into overdrive once you fire your first shot. Music is becoming an experience through the gaming medium, which is awesome, but it makes it really hard to objectively rate/discuss OST's as standalone things in my opinion. People will overrate game OST's because of the experience the music gave them while enjoying some of their favorite games, and I'm definitely guilty of this (see the Hades OST), so it's just something to look out for and think about.
I'll still be relistening to a bunch of 2020 stuff trying to nail down a list I feel happy with. It's getting really close, so I'll probably end out 2020 with some pop and rap albums that had a lot of buzz in 2020, just to fill out the year. There might be one or two metal albums from the random lists I've been seeing pop up that I might check out, and maybe try and write reviews for Neptunian Maximalism, that Spectral Lore / Mare Cognitum collab, Oranssi Pazuzu and Imperial Triumphant? Those are some difficult albums to review though, so I'll have to see how I feel about it.
I also want to catch up with the Feature Releases again, try to make it more of a habit in 2021. Work has been escalating so I've found myself being forgetful about grabbing new music for the day, since my workplace blocks Spotify for some reason. No, I don't work in a prison, even though some of the stuff they do around here makes it seem like it. Looking back, I had a very productive 2020 music-wise and the Academy has definitely been a cornerstone for that.
I didn't realize that MA even had the DOOM soundtrack on here, so I finally pulled my old review over. I have some interesting takes on this one, since it's no doubt one of the best videogame OST's in the modern era, or ever for that matter, but it's kind of a slog on its own. The extremely high rating has to do with how I choose to rate OST's, which is thinking of them while you're actually in the game and playing, but I keep going back and forth on whether that's the "correct" way to go about it. I gave the Hades soundtrack from this year a 4.5/5 as well because the music for that game is phenomenal and holds up on its own extremely well, much like DOOM, but the 4.5 is still because of that rush you get when you hear the guitar kick in as you walk into a room or into a boss fight. Maybe I'll make a thread to talk about how others go about rating videogame music, because I'm always so torn. If I had to rate this album completely on its own without the DOOM demon massacring experience, it would probably be a 3.5 or even a 3.
It's a shame that the DOOM Eternal soundtrack had production issues with Gordon versus Bethesda, so he didn't even master most of the tracks for the OST release. I think people overstate how "bad" it is, but you can definitely tell. Eternal's OST is also extremely bloated compared to DOOM 2016's, clocking in at 4 and a half hours instead of 2 hours. I already thought that 2 hours was a bit too much DOOM, so Eternal was really too much in that regard.
Review:
January
Lucid Planet - "Anamnesis" - Lucid Planet II (2020)
Caligula's Horse - "Valkyries" - Rise Radiant (2020)
Imperial Triumphant - "The Greater Good" - Alphaville (2020)
January
Eternal Champion - "Skullseeker" - Ravening Iron (2020)
Falconer - "Rapture" - From A Dying Ember (2020)
The Lightbringer of Sweden - "Skeletor" - Rise of the Beast (2020)
Oh hey I remember stumbling on this group years ago, didn't realize they were still coming out with new stuff. I'll have to check it out before the year ends.
After giving this another spin alongside White Pony for comparison, I have to slightly retract my first statement and align more with Daniel, even though I still don't think it's worthy of 4.5/5 praise. Ohms is definitely a modernization of their style and while I may have missed the stepping stone considering I haven't checked out Koi no Yokan, it's definitely a bit more than "just another Deftones album". It's much cleaner and tighter than White Pony, and while I think that makes it a bit less interesting overall, I also think that the mixing and balance of this album falls more in line with what I like. Although White Pony has this sort of unhinged and in-your-face atmosphere, most of that comes from Moreno's moans and breathing being piped directly into the listener's eardrums at all points in time. Ohms is more moderate and puts the mixing right in the pocket of where Deftones' sound probably should be, for better or worse. There are some tracks that go back to the older sound, like the beginning of "This Link Is Dead" and "The Spell of Mathematics", but it's not a constant assault. The synth experimentation also fits in really well, never feeling like it's out of place. It also should be noted that there are some hefty riffs in this one that are great as standalone features instead of always being accented by the vocals like White Pony tended to do. "Genesis", "Urantia", and "Headless" all have great chuggy riffs that hit harder than most of their previous material.
So yeah, I think I wrote this one off a bit too soon. It's still a Deftones album, but it's a good Deftones album. Not good enough for me to bump it up to a 4/5, but I came around to it after a few more listens.
I'll add more to this after I relisten to it, but I'll leave the description that I put for it on my 2020 list here for starters:
"Deftones are back with another Deftones album. This Deftones album has some serious Deftones in it as they attempt to be as Deftones as possible in this new Deftones album. They really Deftones it up in every possible Deftones way.
...It's a Deftones album, what else do you want from me?"
Still liked it.
3.5/5
I'd be interested to see what the analytics of split releases are in terms of streaming services and how Spotify handles split releases.
There's no doubt that there have been some amazing splits this year, as my ratings have shown as well, but I wonder if the question to ask is if the band was better off just releasing a short EP rather than sticking themselves on top of another artist. My gut instinct is to say that splits still have a purpose through what you said, giving a smaller band exposure by being released alongside a more popular artist, but do these songs and splits even show up on people's Spotify recommended lists and such? If the algorithm throws these albums into some weird middle ground where they're stuck in limbo, then the whole point of discovery with the split is pretty much lost to modernization. As long as sites categorize them correctly I agree with you in that they're a fantastic way to shed some light on upcoming artists.
Splits are relatively new for me to be honest, with 2020 being the first year they've really shown up on my radar.
With my limited experience I'd say there's a stark difference between something like the Spectral Lore/Mare Cognitum split and the Almyrkvi/The Ruins of Beverast split and they should be treated as such. I'm a much bigger fan of Astrology since Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum are able to exchange the spotlight with almost no disturbance in album flow. The two acts are so close to one another in sound that they're able to bounce off each other in a really cool fashion. Some of the other splits are exactly what they're called: splits. There's an obvious gap between one band and the other and it's incredibly easy to tell, since most of the splits from 2020 have one band carrying a ton of weight. (See the Nechochwen/Pantopicon split with "Rune's Heart").
Splits are another form of album I've yet to really dive into, and I'll definitely start to look out for more of them, but as of right now I prefer splits that have a true collaboration between two artists rather than two acts mashing a few of their songs together.
I've fallen off the a bit with the monthly releases but looking to recommit to it, since I was always trying to do all 9 each month. Here are the ones that I got through this month, hopefully spurring me to actually post on the page with some more thoughts:
1. Neptunian Maximalism - "Eons" (2020) 4.5/5
Eons is going to be one of my top albums of the year, I've been consistently impressed going back to it over and over the past few months. It's such a unique blend of so many things that it defies classification sometimes. It's heavy, wacky, atmospheric, jazzy, and many, many other things all at once.
2. Faith No More - "Angel Dust" (1992) 4.5/5
Angel Dust is such an improvement over Introduce Yourself that I couldn't believe my ears. I never really cared to try and understand why Faith No More are held in such high regard, and now I get it.
3. Gaza - "I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die" (2006) 3/5
This was a tough one, because I understand the appeal, but it still doesn't appeal to me. It's visceral, but not exactly emotional for me, if that makes sense. There's still some great stuff but it's a bit too aggressive in ways that I'm not a fan of overall. I'm not going to let my bias get the best of me, hence the 3/5 score, because there's some impressively disgusting stuff in this one.
4. Strapping Young Lad - "Alien" (2005)
I remember listening to Alien once a long time ago, but I apparently never rated it. If I remember correctly my opinion was "This is kind of just worse than City", but I'd have to actually go back to it to see.
6. Disillusion - "Back To Times Of Splendor" (2004) 3.5/5
I actually wasn't a fan of this one, although I'd have to listen to it again because the album's already completely left my memory. I just remember not being too interested in it, feels like a very love it or hate it kind of album. Still great, but I'm not sure what all the hype was about, going to have to go back to it.
7. Undeath - "Lesions Of A Different Kind" (2020) 3.5/5
I had checked this out in my 2020 listening and I'm really glad it made the cut for The Horde this month, there's a ton of great stuff in it. It obviously doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's leaps and bounds above other "generic" Death Metal released this year.
9. Warbringer - "Weapons Of Tomorrow" (2020) 3/5
I listened to this 2020 Thrash album earlier in the year and it was undeniably forgettable for me, another one that I'd have to give another spin to have some actual thoughts about it. Apparently wasn't bad though.
Hey Ben, could you possibly take a look at the "Apply other person's ratings" button whenever you click into a list? I think that a descriptor or heading would make it much more clear as to what it actually does. Even though I was able to figure it out on my own, it looks out of place since its use isn't immediately apparent. I originally assumed that it was used for Clan Challenges to filter the list of albums to only show the ones the person had completed, but if it's going to be at the top of every list then I think some direction is important.
The list creation is really nice by the way, the ability to search either artist name or album name without having to change a bunch of search options is way more convenient. Showing the full release information with the reviews/ratings on all the lists is a great call too in my opinion.
Nice pick on the Cloudkicker song Daniel, I didn't realize you included it in the playlist and, by coincidence, I've been listening to Solitude for the entire week so far, I think it's incredibly good.
I was writing out a request but re-read what you had in mind for the categorization aspect and it completely took care of my issue, so the system seems great to me. Having Lists filtered by Clan is really important and the other two are just icing on the cake for future-proofing searching for lists, so I'm all about it.
Would the thumbnail of the list default to the collage of album art like in the lists currently? Could we select the 4 albums that are shown? Allowing custom images obviously opens up the possibility for issues in the future, but it's something to think about.
The Lightbringer Of Sweden - Rise Of The Beast (2020)
This new project from Herbie Langhans has satiated my occasional need for some powerful, straight up Heavy Metal this year with some great vocal work and pretty catchy songwriting. I knew his voice sounded familiar because I've heard him on Avantasia's Ghostlights and Moonglow as a session vocalist, but the man has been around the block in the EU Metal scene it seems. Most notably for me is his work with Beyond the Bridge, a Progressive Metal project that's been dormant since 2012 since I've been waiting all this time to see if they had another release in store. Seems unlikely since all of the members are obviously off doing their own projects, so it's nice to hear Langhans show up on some new material at the very least.
Nothing really incredible about this release, just some well-written, mid-tempo Heavy Metal anthems.
3.5/5
Sorry I'm late:
December
Lamp of Murmuur - "Of Infernal Passion and Aberrations" - Heir of Ecliptical Romanticism
Selbst - "The Depths Of Selfishness" - Relatos de angustia
Necromantia - "Pretender To The Throne (Opus I: The Userper's Spawn)" - Scarlet Evil Witching Black
I took the opportunity to use the new Leaves' Eyes record to talk about what I outlined in this thread, and sadly they fall into the same expected traps.
Review below:
December
Chaos Divine - "Unspoken" - Legacies
Anubis Gate - "Airwaves" - Horizons
DGM - "Tragic Separation" - Tragic Separation
December
Edguy - "Mysteria" - Hellfire Club
Elvenking - "Reader of the Runes - Book I" - Reader of the Runes
Traveler - "Starbreaker" - Traveler
Please add the new Leaves' Eyes album The Last Viking, thank you.
Also Memories of Old and their new album The Zeramin Game.
Appreciate it Daniel. I sometimes wish my review style was a bit more freeform so I could crank them out more often instead of needing to wait for the creative juices to build up, but I'll always prefer quality over quantity.
(Shakes fist at 1st wave Black Metal Clan Challenge that I swear I'll finish eventually)
I finally got around to this, and I truly, truly hope that this is the last I'll hear of Big Frog and his gang of amphibians.
1/5
Full review here:
I'm really glad I came back and checked this one out because, for me, it shows how much my musical taste has grown throughout the years. I used to be a massive Dream Theater and Prog Metal guy, in awe of their 20+ minute songs and insanely technical writing and somewhat random transitions. However, over the years, I've gotten tired of that kind of "whiplash Prog Metal", and Green Carnation's extremely cohesive and gradual style is now much more appealing to me. The whole thing is superbly written and has great pacing, even though the album is generally more low energy than most Prog Metal since it dives into Doom/Gothic themes for its massive climaxes. There's a great deal of variety stuffed in here, especially with the sax/vocal interlude, and it all comes together like very few hour long tracks can.
I think I've grown to appreciate the progression of melodies and ideas more and more as I've drifted away from the likes of Dream Theater. Tracks like "Octavarium" and "Metropolis Pt. 2" are obviously stunning and impressive, but they're an entirely different beast compared to this. DT's brand of Prog lives off of subverting the listener's expectations by constantly swapping between ideas that sometimes have nothing to do with one another and are there to just sound cool. Light of Day, Day of Darkness has almost none of this and while it requires more patience to really get a solid listen out of it, the payoff is definitely worth it. I can see why people were so hyped up about Green Carnation's return album this year and while I wasn't too impressed with that one, I'm glad I finally came back and got to appreciate this album from them.
4.5/5