Xephyr's Forum Replies

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:

https://metal.academy/reviews/19542/1682

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:

Leaves' Eyes - The Last Viking

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.

Thanks for the reminder about the playlists. 

Just to make myself perfectly clear, I don't actually want to remove The Sphere, I think it makes sense the way it is, but just to play devil's advocate if a change were to be made, I would personally be okay with what I proposed.

Tell you what though, I'm going to intentionally mince Andi's words here and take his "The turning of the year will decide on a sacrifice or victory!" and take it upon myself to specifically check out a few Industrial releases from 2020. It's honestly making me curious as to what the genre is even like anymore, since it's been so quiet on RYM and other places I check for music. 

I agree that The Sphere is a bit out of place, with notable Industrial Metal being few and far between. Even though it's an important genre for popular bands like Godflesh, Rammstein, and others like Fear Factory, I can't really see the use of the clan moving forward. I've listened to a lotta modern albums in the past 2 or 3 years, and I don't pigeonhole myself into certain Metal genres, and there have been next to zero notable Industrial Metal releases since 2017 apart from Rammstein's return album, which hardly categorizes as Industrial. 

If a change were to be made, I personally wouldn't mind pulling bands like Godflesh or Ministry into The Gateway, while putting Cyber or the more Electronic/Industrial side of The Sphere, like Sybreed, into The Revolution. I'm sure that there are examples where these categorizations don't quite hit the mark, but the blanket of "Alternative + Industrial Metal" might work out considering we're also talking about acts like Strapping Young Lad being moved around? 

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:

https://metal.academy/reviews/19202/19843

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

Regarding The Roundhouse Tapes, really solid set. Pretty much a perfect selection of songs that sound fantastic live, which is a pretty big feat given how production focused some of Opeth's stuff is. The only complaint is that "Bleak" sounded a bit thin, but you're absolutely right when you said it was what I hoped it would be. I saw Opeth live here in the states in 2016 or so, when they were touring with Sorceress, and they only played one song that had harsh vocals, I think it was off of Your Arms, My Hearse? In any case, it's exciting to hear Akerfeldt excited and willing to play Opeth's heavy material since this was before the prog-rock swap of Heritage, because during the show I attended he definitely only played one song with growling in order to appease the crowd, not because he really wanted to. You could just kinda tell.

I think the biggest recurring theme on all of the feedback sessions we've had is "This would be really great, but we don't have enough people!". There isn't a particular solution to this, since the internet is incredibly random with what becomes popular and what doesn't and there's not much you can do about it. But I do think that most of the things that we do here are for the hardcore. I don't know actual statistics, but the number of people who actually write thought out reviews is astronomically low. It looks to be around 10% for popular, new releases on RYM that have around 2,000 ratings, but dips down into the 2% range on known classics that have even more ratings. More likely than not, those 2% of people are the ones who are going to be perusing the Academy Forums, making playlist contributions, and sharing their new favorite Metal album they found that no one else has ever heard of. But to get more people involved, appealing to only the "super-hardcore" fanbase is going to land us in the exact same feedback position every single time. 

Personally, The Academy lets me curate my listening outside of checking out all the new albums that come out every year. It's been fantastic being pushed to check out a ton of 80's and 90's Metal that I wouldn't have otherwise thanks to the monthly features and recommendation threads. But I think I'm one of the extreme cases since, as Sonny said in his reply, a lot of people are more interested in the modern and upcoming music scene rather than constantly reminiscing about the past one. Deep cuts are always amazing to find (Artillery's By Inheritance for example, turned out to be one of my favorite classic Thrash albums), but I think that trying to find creative ways to push new music will garner more attention to the site. That's why whenever I suggest ideas to the site, I always pose the question of how can we make this as accessible and appealing as possible to anyone who comes in here, not just people who have listened to over 1,000 Metal albums and can discern an exact Slayer riff from 1000 yards away. The playlists are a great start, since I'm able to share them with friends and post them in other servers I'm around.

I think as more features are being pushed forward, like the Monthly Features, the Monthly Playlists, as well as the Anniversaries tab, I can't help but agree that the Hall of Judgement feels a bit out of place. I never cared for genre discussion since I always consider my knowledge of older metal to be few and far between, so it's not a feature I'm interested in keeping up with. I gave it a fair and honest shot with my Manowar submission and trying to go back and forth with Daniel about a Voivod release, and it really wasn't something I particularly enjoyed. It's tough because I agree that since the Clan system is so important there needs to be a way to properly move releases around Clans if something isn't properly labelled. But I don't think facilitating genre disputes on the forums has the most welcoming atmosphere to it for your average metalhead. It's a tough problem to solve. 

To cap this off, I think the thing I like most about this community is that there's a lot of emphasis placed on reviews and discussion rather than just the RYM shoutbox, with members being able to comment under reviews to spark discussions, as well as the Clan Challenges aspect. Not everyone is a reviewer, but it helps the site push towards having more content rather than just rating albums and moving on.

Writing a review for this one is going to be a massive task, even though I've been thinking about doing it for quite a while. Eons has been on the top end of my year-end list for a while now and I really, really enjoy it just because of how much it caught me off guard at first and how it kept me coming back despite it's gargantuan length. It's an experience like I haven't had before, and it reminds me a lot of Empath from last year in that regard. 

Since it's just so strange though, it's hard for me to really nail down any solid opinions for a review. I'm going to try my best though, since it's a review I want to have finished before the end of 2020 to go along with my year-end list. It's definitely not an album for everyone, but I think that everyone should check it out because it is incredibly unique, unless you've listened to some really off-the-wall avant-garde Jazz in the past. 

4.5/5

Hate is a strong word, so I'll say that I strongly dislike System of a Down. It's been one of my hot musical opinions for quite a while, and sadly it hasn't changed when revisiting Toxicity. I can see the appeal since, like Saxy said, SOAD reinvigorated the Nu-Metal genre in a way that only they could have. Their songs are manic and crazy, keeping the listener on their toes at all points with their constant swaps between stripped down, but still complex melodic sections and crunchy chug sections. 

There's only one problem with their style though; I find it incredibly, unbearably annoying. I can't point to any individual part of SOAD's sound and say it's objectively bad, like I don't think that Serj is a bad vocalist and their riffs hit pretty hard, but something strange happens when you put it all together. It's incredible how much willpower it takes me to listen to Toxicity cover to cover, since there's always this urge to just skip to something else with none of the riffs or sections getting any sort of reaction out of me. 

"Chop Suey!" is obviously a classic that's been joked about for almost two decades now, "Aerials" is always a nice one to go back to every now and again, but no matter how many times I try, SOAD can't win me over. I think this'll continue to age well for the people who enjoy it since I doubt any other band will be able to capture the same sort of style as SOAD has, but I'll be seeing myself out now. 

2/5

Chaos Divine - Legacies

Legacies shows a much needed return to form from one of the old Progressive Metal bands I found when first started to really branch out and search for new music. I've always really enjoyed their style of having a great blend and balance between more atmospheric Progressive Metal sections with decent-enough Death Metal vocals and riffing. While I still don't think the tracks have the overall quality of The Human Connection, it's a step up from Colliding Skies where they focused a bit too much on portraying a heavenly atmosphere which ended up grinding most of their songs to a halt, save for a few standouts like "Landmines". Legacies has more memorable songwriting and hits pretty hard for a Chaos Divine album, so I'm pretty happy right now. 

I honestly even don't care for Fleshgod that much, even though I do think they're doing solid work. I'll be checking out those live albums since I'm pretty curious as to how Kamelot sounds nowadays with performing their old material, since their new stuff has become so generic since Haven, like you said. Definitely check out Dawn of the Dragonstar, "With The Light Of A Thousand Suns" is probably the best orchestral piece to come out of Metal in 2019. There's even an orchestral version in the deluxe edition that sounds just as good without the Metal guitar, drums, and vocals, which is a pretty impressive feat. 

It's just hard to even imagine where all these bands can go from here, since writing generic Symphonic Metal isn't working out for anyone right now. Which is a shame, because "meat and potatoes" Death Metal and "generic" Black Metal still seem to have their place in the new, modern releases, but man is generic Symphonic Metal such a slog to get through in comparison. I'm not even a big fan of meat and potatoes Death Metal and I'd rather relisten to this year's Skeletal Remains or Necrot than try and go back to Terra Atlantica or Seven Spires. Maybe because the albums are longer and more drawn out in general rather than the straight-to-the-point Death Metal? Not really sure, but man, Symphonic Metal really needs something new right now. I'd even take a return to the classic form at this point, let's regress a bit so maybe the genre can progress again, who knows.

When I first came across Swallow The Sun I really, really enjoyed them, and they put on a great live show when I saw them in 2019, but as time as passed they started to drift to the wayside as I found other Doom and Death Doom bands that grabbed my attention. They still have a very unique sound even to this day though, with their Death Doom style leaning way to the Doom side and creating creepy and haunting atmospheres rather than suffocating and crushing ones. Their songs always had so much more depth thanks to the background strings and other slightly progressive elements and their confidence to really slow down their compositions with cleaner, melodic parts before transitioning back into the heavy stuff. 

The biggest problem I've found I have with Swallow The Sun is the sheer length of their albums and ideas, with most of their albums being a massive undertaking to slog through since their style, as refined as it can be, doesn't change a whole lot. They always seem to find new, little ways to add to their creepy atmosphere, but their Death Doom formula has pretty much remained the same old stuff. In this case, the same old same old turns into plodding monotony that I've seldom had the motivation to go back to. So, what does that mean for the 1 hour "EP" Plague of Butterflies?

The title track is obviously the focus, and it does a fantastic job of boiling down Swallow The Sun's style into one extended piece that touches on pretty much everything that lets them stand out. The transitions in and out of the more Death focused riffs are great, the overall atmosphere is haunting and mysterious, and the track progression through all its different movements is impressive, even though I didn't think it was very cohesive on my first listen. "Plague of Butterflies" is definitely a grower in my eyes, since there's so much song to get through. Even though it's technically broken up into three separate parts, it's not as clear-cut in where these begin and end, leaving the listener fully responsible for piecing this 35 minute mammoth together. Although their style can be incredible to listen to whenever it all comes together, Swallow The Sun have always been slightly wonky to me, with their harsh vocals not quite hitting the mark it feels like they should, and the clean vocals being extremely hit or miss, especially on this one. I've gone back and forth as to how much I truly enjoy this track, and I think I'm settling on a higher score than I initially thought just due to the amazing use of the strings and choir elements throughout, since it's so easy to have these elements come off as corny in Doom Metal like this. 

I do think that this 35-minute track is quintessential Swallow The Sun and probably their greatest release. It's a more succinct package that shows what Swallow The Sun does best rather than their other, even more extended works. The rest of the songs are so-so, pretty much just B-sides or maybe songs that didn't make the cut for New Moon at the time. 

4/5

Serpent Column - Kathados (2020)

After Mirror In Darkness ended up highly regarded on my 2019 list, Serpent Column is back already in 2020 with another extremely dissonant and aggressive Black Metal offering. Kathados is slightly less chaotic but still has a ton of technicality while keeping the despair-laden atmosphere. Definitely worth a listen if you like Deathspell Omega styled Black Metal.

Please add local-to-me band Earthworm Von Doom (USA) and their strange 2018 album 8279.

Thanks Ben.

Great to hear, they just released a new album today actually, which is why I included it! I wasn't able to check it out, I'll be sure to put it in the New Music Thread when I get a chance. I'm real excited but Colliding Skies was a bit dull compared to The Human Connection, so I'm hoping for the best.

DGM - Tragic Separation

New no-holds-barred Progressive Metal from these Italians, which is a continuation of their more aggressive style off of their 2016 release The Passage. Although it covers a lot of similar ground, DGM are just fantastic at what they do, which is writing technically impressive but condensed Prog Metal that doesn't fall into the meandering 10+ minute song trap. 

November

Almyrkvi / The Ruins of Beverast - "Asomatous Grove" - Almyrkvi / The Ruins of Beverast Split

Plus the extra you had down for me

Intervals - "Slight Of Hand" - The Shape of Color

Amorphis - "Heart of the Giant" - Queen of Time

DGM - "Daydreamer" - The Passage

Avantasia - "Runaway Train"  - The Wicked Symphony

Gloryhammer - "Beneath Cowdenbeath" (Instrumental) - Tales from the Kingdom of Fife

(Plus the Running Wild from last month)

Pulchra Morte - Ex Rosa Ceremonia (November 6th)

Pulchra Morte's Divina Autem et Aniles was one of the many standout debuts for me last year with a solid mix of Death and Doom (mostly death), so I'm pretty stoked to see them announcing another album so soon. 

I think that Falkenbach exists in the "this is pretty good I guess" zone of Folk Metal for me. After listening to this and Heralding I might have to admit that straight up Folk Metal doesn't really do it for me, especially in the way that Falkenbach presents it. This album is incredibly smooth, pretty, and easy to listen to, but I can't help but feel like nothing really happens. I don't necessarily get any atmosphere the same way I do with other Folk Metal bands I tend to gravitate towards, like Moonsorrow. I'm sure that these guys are massive favorites for people that enjoy straight up Folk Metal because, again, this album was admittedly gorgeous. But I still can't exactly recommend it because of the reasons said above me, it wasn't engaging nor particularly exciting for me. 

The fact that this album came out in 2012 blows my mind, since that was when everyone I knew was neck deep in rocking out to their respective Warped Tour Metalcore bands, whether it was A Day To Remember, August Burns Red, Atilla, Sleeping With Sirens, We Came As Romans, or whatever have you. If I had known that Converge released something like this during the heyday of whiny teenage angst in metal form my old opinions of Metalcore would have been a lot different, because wow was this good. 

Converge are a weird band for me, since I apparently didn't enjoy their 2017 album whatsoever, and Jane Doe left me pretty conflicted with what it was trying to do. Even though Jane Doe seems to be universally loved by critics, it felt so alienating to me. Like I wasn't angry or sad enough about something to "get it", even though I could tell where other people were coming from with their perfect scores. All We Love We Leave Behind reigns in the aggression just a touch and it makes all the difference for me. Instead of a blinding assault that I didn't get much out of at the end of the day (Jane Doe), this one struck me and just a stellar Metalcore album with some seriously heavy breakdowns, beautiful moments of respite ("Coral Blue"), and just a more balanced product. Like Daniel said above me, the vocals actually being slightly intelligible is a massive plus as well. This easily surpasses Jane Doe for me, at least for right now, and it really makes me want to go back and check out The Dusk In Us to see if I wrongly threw that album under the bus.

4/5

This is an interesting one because I don't really think that this OST is a very good standalone product outside of the game. They definitely chose vocalists to appeal to the modern Alt-Metal crowd which doesn't exactly go along with the rest of the cyber/industrial stuff, but it's not that terrible in the end. If this released as a normal album I'd have to say it's pretty weak even though it has a lot of energy. Like Daniel said the guitars are pushed behind the drums and synth so much that it takes some careful listening to glean anything out of this except the front and center drum beat. There's some great moments here and there, like the strings in "Collective Conciousness" and the guitar solos in "The Stains Of Time", but it all comes and goes so fast that I almost wish that some of these tracks were 4 or so minutes instead of 2 and a half. I think this still does a great job of being an energetic and futuristic inspired take on a game OST and I can definitely see the appeal, but it's pretty surface level all things considered. 

I did a pretty in-depth review of the DOOM 2016 OST (shamless plug to RYM if you're interested) so I've gone down this Industrial Metal inspired video game OST road before, and let me tell you, DOOM definitely spoils you when it comes to stuff like this. DOOM's soundtrack is made to rise and fall with what's happening in the game, so you'd think that it wouldn't make a great standalone OST, but that isn't the case. It's just so hefty, so layered, and has more to it than something like this even though it's almost purely instrumental. That being said, I think this OST is the perfect example of something working within the game and not necessarily outside of it. All of these vocal remixes sound pretty hammed up at times to go alongside pretty generic cyber-industrial ideas, but when you're in the game zipping around destroying robots and "RULES OF NATURE" screams out from behind the rest of the game's sound effects, it hits a bit different. I haven't played Revengeance but I've seen gameplay and this soundtrack absolutely fits perfectly, which is probably why it's so highly regarded since people normally rate OST's in respect to them being in the game rather than standalone products. I don't necessarily agree with that idea, which is why I gave the DOOM 2016 OST a 4/5 instead of the 5/5 it probably deserved since "Rip and Tear" blasting into your ears as you're removing a demon's jaw from its face gives the music just a bit more punch.

2.5/5

Draghkar - At The Crossroads Of Infinity

Hey all, a member of Draghkar (Brandon Corsair) recently reached out to me about their debut album and I think it's something pretty unique that quite a few people here would be interested in. It's got a great mix of Death and Black Metal with some old school style production and a ton of interesting ideas which don't overstay their welcome. I pointed Draghkar to The Academy and I'm assuming they'd enjoy hearing some feedback since they've been reaching out to RYM reviewers. Daniel, Ben, and Macabre are the ones off the top of my head that probably need to hear this.

For October:

Manegarm - "Sigrblot" - Vredens tid

Ensiferum - "Twilight Tavern" - From Afar

Nokturnal Mortum - " Україна" (Track 4) - Голос сталі (The Voice Of Steel)

For October

Isis - "1,000 Shards" - In The Absence Of Truth

John Petrucci - "Gemini" - Terminal Velocity

Chaos Divine - "Landmines" - Colliding Skies

For October:

Running Wild - "Renegade" - Death Or Glory

Luca Turilli - "Ancient Forest of Elves" - King of the Nordic Twilight

Bloodbound - "Nosferatu" - Nosferatu

Kaatayra - Só quem viu o relâmpago à sua direita sabe & Toda história pela frente