Xephyr's Forum Replies

I'm sure Daniel loves seeing my name pop up in these Horde Feature Releases by now, and this classic Goregrind album will be no exception. I will say though that guys do have a killer tone and killer riffs, at least occasionally when I can pick out any differences between the songs. The drumming was impressive as well, with it being surprisingly clear without losing any of the aggression. Personally I end up thinking of the less than 2 minute grind song structures as "riff exhibits", and there are definitely some good ones in here. It didn't even really feel like 38 minutes had passed when I was done, which is a testament to...something, considering that's pretty long for something like a Goregrind release. The aspects that make up the Goregrind genre still strike me with a feeling of complete indifference though, with extremely heavy and vulgar Metal like this only causing me to think "that's cool I guess". 

2/5

City is Devin Townsend at his most unhinged, and its so absurdly aggressive and heavy that it's hard not to like at least some parts of this album. The strange but somehow endearing lyrics on "AAA", the pure insanity of "Oh My Fucking God", and the distortion drenched "Spirituality" all come together in this strange package that somehow works out in the end. I feel like on paper this album has no chance of working, with its flurry of random chug riffs alongside Devin's unsystematic vocals and corny sound effects, but it creates such a unique package that shows that extreme metal can take on many different forms, even if that different form is a strangely sung ballad-type thing with piano and pounding industrial drums on "Room 429". Devin's eccentricity is one of this things that always draws me back to him, and while I agree with Daniel and Chris in that I'm unsure about the "classic" status of this album, it certainly represents something sincerely different and something that only Devin could feasibly pull off. It certainly has its weak points and has a ton of issues in terms of structure and just overall strangeness, especially when it's trying so hard to be heavy and angry, but I still think that City is a must for Devin Townsend fans and an interesting excursion for anyone looking for something different in their extreme and angry Metal. 

4/5

Thanks for the heads up Saxy, I really enjoyed this. Some parts were really amazing, some parts not so much. I think they tried to push the spoken word narrative and certain themes on the album a bit too hard, but that barely takes anything away from the rest of the record. I'll be coming back to this one in the coming weeks to see if I can push my rating up even higher, I think it maybe has the potential? 

4/5

Great review too, nice on actually elaborating on the production! It feels like good or bad "production" is such a meaningless buzzword to many nowadays. 

I love shred albums, and this one was no exception. This one struck me a bit differently though, since many of these neoclassical jam sessions are more or less the same once you get down to the nitty-gritty of what they really are. Maximum Security felt like it had a bit more meaning and substance to it apart from the shred, more movement and feeling. It's most likely because the shredding is used more sparingly, but there's also some great choices of melody and extra bits and pieces like the piano interlude that make this feel like a fleshed out album rather than just notes crammed onto a late 80's disk. I found this collection of instrumentals to be immediately more recognizable and memorable than the likes of Malmsteen, but maybe not as much as someone like Joe Satriani. The piano interlude is great as it really plays into the neo-classical style that these 80's shredders worshiped, and the synth aspects are smoothly incorporated, not sounding too forced whatsoever. 

I found Maximum Security a pleasure just to have on in the background, which is a huge testament to Tony Macalpine's smooth and more subdued songwriting. While not the most adventurous record, I definitely prefer the likes of this over the 1,000 notes per second scales that have been played one too many times before. Maximum Security also succeeds in keeping the song length lower, with only a few tracks reaching the 4 and a half minute mark, which I think is fair for guitar noodling like this. Just a classy instrumental shred album through and through. 

4/5

I'm really glad that Deftones grew out of this initial style. They managed to pick out the strongest elements and expand upon those, leaving the choppy Nu-Metal songwriting and terrible production behind for Around The Fur. While sufficiently aggressive, the guitar tone is pretty atrocious and each song feels haphazard and pointless, mirroring my thoughts on other early Nu-Metal groups like Korn. The smooth, ever-present vocals don't mesh too well with the style of riffs they chose, making the whole thing a pretty confusing affair. I also find a lot of early Nu-Metal like this to be incredibly awkward with all of the whispering and free-form vocals like in "Nosebleed". I guess these are supposed to be emotional and angsty? Whatever the intent was, it definitely doesn't work on me. There are some good riffs in here and it's definitely a piece of Nu-Metal history, but I couldn't help but get more and more annoyed the longer I listened. I'm really grateful that they smoothed out their sound to something way more unique and interesting in such a short period of time after Adrenaline. 

2.5/5

Vektor in general just absolutely rips. They've been a favorite of mine from the more progressive but still aggressive Thrash scene for quite some time now and even though they don't make it onto my normal listening rotations very often, it's always a treat when they do. I only listened to snippets of their first two albums so getting to check out Black Future in full was a fantastic, albeit drawn out experience. For me, these guys just do everything right when it comes to Progressive and Technical Thrash with only a few minor gripes getting in the way of giving this album perfect marks. The high-pitched squeals are an important element to Vektor's sound, but they're a bit too random and overused on this one compared to their next two albums which use them a bit more tastefully. The length is also an issue, with certain songs and the album itself feeling a bit too drug out at times since Vektor hardly ever give you any room to breathe. 

I would have to really buckle down and listen to all three of their albums to pick favorites and compare, but as for now both Black Future and Outer Isolation live up to Terminal Redux, the first Vektor album I heard, in terms of raw Progressive Thrash power. This band seriously hasn't missed a beat yet. 

4.5/5

This is a VERY strange one since Folk Metal normally isn't paired with modern style riffs and ideas, hence the Korn comparison. Tracks like "Krummavisur" and "Nature Nous Semont" REALLY caught me off guard as they just don't sound right with the modern style of riffing, no matter how hard they try. I want to give them kudos for the attempt, but at the same time I really kind of question what they were thinking. This one just rubs me the wrong way, so I'm going to be harsher on it than even you, Daniel. My personal short answer would be no, this is not a very good representation of what Medieval Folk Metal is, even though I haven't checked out too much of it just because there isn't much of it flying around. 

Medieval Folk Metal to me is just a distinction rather than a genre. It means that the kind of folk the band tends to use is Renaissance era instruments, melody, and performance ideas, meaning things like hurdy-gurdy, harpsichord, a very plucking oriented style of acoustic guitar, etc.. It's just a helpful tag to let the person know what kind of Folk Metal they're getting into, rather than its own genre with its own unique ideas, because from what I've heard there isn't exactly anything too exceptional apart from the instrument choice. You can say that the genre makes you "think of Medieval times", but that's so subjective that it's hardly worth pinning a genre on those feelings. 

As for an example of Medieval Folk Metal, I was personally impressed by last year's The Palms of Sorrowed Kings by Obsequiae, a primarily Atmospheric Black Metal album with beautiful Medieval style interludes and flourishes. It's absolutely a Black Metal album first and foremost, but they do a great job of carrying the atmosphere created by the Folk portions into the shimmering Black Metal tracks that it creates that "Medieval Times" atmosphere that I alluded to before. 

Also I'm curious Daniel, and this isn't meant to be a jab since I'm genuinely curious, are all folk melodies cheesy for people who don't care for Folk Metal? I ask because I saw a few comments about Nokturnal Mortum's Голос сталі saying it was the cheesiest thing they've ever heard, and I honestly don't get where they're coming from. It can get a bit over the top, sure, but I try not to instantly equate that to "cheesiness". 

2/5 (The more I listened and thought about this album the more it just rubbed me the completely wrong way with what it was trying to do)

I'm glad that I gave this EP a second chance as I bumped my score up a bit afterwards. I've checked out my fair share of modern and electronic focused Metalcore and personally I don't think this is anything particularly special. It's not egregiously bad, "Radiant" is the obvious highlight on here as "The Paddington Frisk" and "Rat Race" seem to just be experiments rather than anything polished. I think the mainstream Pop Rock influence is what rubs me the wrong way with "Radiant", with the constant "Woahs" going on in the background, but it's not all bad. The track is varied with Metalcore buildups, rewarding Trance/EDM elements and a pretty killer Metalcore riff here and there, with an "emotional" soft portion that actually doesn't sound half bad. 

Since I try to keep up with modern releases and there are quite a few Metalcore names that I constantly recognize and check out. Most of them are moving towards this very poppy modern Rock mixed with EDM influences kind of sound, so I'm personally worn out on it since it doesn't bring too many new or exciting things to the table for me. The final remix of "Radiant" was pretty nice, while it doesn't take any risks whatsoever that's kind of what Trance is all about, at least on the EDM side of things. Getting into a melody or rhythm and just kind of riding it until it decides to end. I think this album would have made more sense if I was ever an Enter Shikari fan, as from what I can gather this was a short return to form for them. Overall not the worst example of modern Pop Metalcore I've heard. 

2.5/5

I checked out Nepunian Maximalism last week and it's a journey. I'm going to have to give it another shot to see if it holds up to my initial reactions, which were really, really positive. This is such a unique album that anyone who keeps up with modern music shouldn't miss. 

Weighing Souls With Sand is a heavy album. Heavy in emotion, heavy in distortion, heavy in feel and style. Even though it feels like I'm echoing Daniel's exact thoughts here, it's definitely a one-trick album with a solid premise but not that much exploration. It appeals to a very niche audience that can milk its style for all its worth, finding some sort of deeper meaning and, in the process, evoking some sort of crushing primal emotion. I'm not one of those people either, so this record falls pretty flat after the first track. It's beautiful, it's certainly unique in the way that it uses abrasively loud distortion to layer in other sounds to create something admittedly beautiful, but it all just sounds the same after the first ten minutes. Even the more minimalist percussion sections get played out by the end, despite sounding amazingly echo-y and vast. This is just one of those albums where I can admit that I see why some think it's a masterpiece, but I certainly think it's overrated as well. 

3.5/5

Cult of Luna - Somewhere Along the Highway

Cult of Luna became one of my favorite bands with A Dawn To Fear in 2019 plus hearing songs here and there from Vertikal and Mariner, so I thought it was about time I went back in their discography to their popular 2006 release Somewhere Along the Highway and man was I disappointed. For me, this was an extremely boring and repetitive Post-Metal album that was a lot softer than I thought Cult of Luna would be. Not that soft automatically equates to bad, but there was almost no impact in this album for me whatsoever, I can't believe how overrated I think this album is. This doesn't even come close to A Dawn to Fear for my tastes.

Please add Aerial Ruin (US) as well as their 2020 split with Bell Witch, Stygian Bough Volume I. Thank you!

Please add Gravity (US), thank you!

Please add VoidCeremony, thank you!

Speaking of Cynic, I found a fairly obscure release that reminded me of them due to the bass tone and more complex Death Metal songwriting. It's absolutely not as progressive as Focus but I think it's still worth a listen as its a very unique one for 2020, it's a pretty short listen too. 

VoidCeremony - Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel

Insomnium - "Winter's Gate" (Is this cheating?)

Bell Witch - "Mirror Reaper" (I think this is cheating.)

Dream Theater - "A Change Of Seasons" (This is definitely cheating.)

Opeth - "Blackwater Park"

Blind Guardian - "Another Holy War"

Moonsorrow - "Pimeä"

Gojira - "Flying Whales"

In Flames - "The Jester Race"

Inter Arma - "Citadel"

Wilderun - "Far From Where Dreams Unfurl"

Favorite songs have always been impossible for me to personally nail down, but I figured I'd throw something in here anyway. 

You've forced my hand Daniel, Blackwater Park is my favorite album of all time and I've been too afraid to write a real review for it since it's sometimes difficult to put into words how important certain albums are. I've been a massive Opeth fan for quite some time now, even with their modern Progressive Rock style, and surprisingly no other album by them has dethroned Blackwater Park. I love Still Life, Ghost Reveries, Orchid, Deliverance, all of them, but Blackwater Park still sticks out to me as their most polished and interesting even after all these years. Expect a very, very long review by the end of the month. 

5/5 (the best)

What a strange album. I can safely say that I wasn't able to unpack most of this in one listen, but I think that would apply to most people. The Black Metal really took me off guard since I came into this album completely blind, and it's definitely hit or miss. The tremolo riffs still have that progressive edge to them, with the chord progressions being longer and more fleshed out than most Black Metal, but it's not necessarily groundbreaking. It definitely has a shock factor though, with the Black Metal not fully coming in until the end of "Den Saakaldte", a full 23 or so minutes into the album. There are teases of heavier Black Metal before that, but the band skirts around the influence and doesn't fully commit. 

Written In Waters really does have to be broken down piece by piece, since each transition offers something completely different than what came before it, and it's up to the listener to piece it all together. I've listened to a few influence-salad releases but none sound as alien as this one. The release date of 1995 is also impressive, putting this right smack in the middle of the more experimental wave of Black Metal, which makes a lot of sense looking back. On a first-listen basis though, this album failed to come together in any capacity for me, with the different tones they attempted to merge not making any sense whatsoever. The weaker Black Metal sections didn't hold up to the more progressive sections, and the progressive sections didn't fit together with the atmospheric or avant-garde sections. I'll have to take some time to really delve into this release if I want to re-score it. 

3/5

Although Falkenbach sounds extremely clean when it comes to Black Metal tinged Folk Metal, I found this one to be a pretty dull slog for the most part. There were definitely some standout sections, especially when the harsh vocals started coming into play, but I felt like a lot of similar riffs and ideas were overused throughout the album. Heralding hits its stride in the middle of the album with "Roman Land", "Heralder", and "Laekmishendr", but the rest of it has a very sluggish triplet or 6/8 feel that didn't really interest me. It's still a very pretty album with great dynamics on the folk elements, don't get me wrong, but I wish there was a bit more to it. I'll have to check out some more Falkenbach to see if any of their other stuff interests me, or maybe I need to come back to this one for another round. 

3/5

Well, this was horrendous for me. Let's break this down I guess:

Delusional Parasitosis

• "Ping snare", or open snare as I know it, was something new to me in this genre so it was initially somewhat exciting. 
• Drums are EXTREMELY high in the mix, I can't focus on anything else. 
• The vocal effects are atrocious. 
• Why are tracks 3 and 4 the exact same song? 

Ecchymosis

• Drums are thankfully less pronounced except for the kick.
• Vocals are even worse since they have this annoying warble to them. 
• Breakdowns and riffs are pretty awful and mostly unintelligible. 

Dissevered

• Vocals aren't that bad compared to Ecchymosis.
• Better guitar mixing, the riffs are actually interesting! 
• The open snare effect/gimmick is really starting to get old, even though it's less pronounced than Delusional Parasitosis.

Bleeding

• What even are these vocals, they sound like a half-formed flesh demon arising from steaming goo pits, to spin it positively. Or a squeaky door creaking open. 
• The guitar tone is much more grindy, at least it sounds different.
• The extra cymbals and percussion composition is much more interesting than the other 3 bands. 

Brutal/Slam Death Metal is just not for me and even though there were some distinct differences between this and something like Disembowlment, I can't find anything positive to say. So I'll just end it there. 

1/5

I've never been too much of a Gothic Metal fan, with most of it either trying way too hard to be serious or being generally uninteresting to me. That being said I really enjoyed October Rust; it shows that I have some holes in my knowledge of the genre and it's more or less what I'm looking for when the Gothic Metal tag shows up. It's a genuinely emotional record that does a great job of selling its somber atmosphere while only being a little bit silly here and there, which is offset slightly by the fact that the band is in on the joke to begin with. The singer has a fantastic voice for this style and really sells the style they're going for and the guitar is surprisingly percussive with how the tone sounds and how the riffs are set up. 

I've been enjoying this album even more the second time around, so I'll have to invest some more time to see if I can throw up an actual review at a later date. I do agree with Saxy's observation that each song appears to be cut short, which is a shame. i think the abrupt transitions work occasionally, like between "Green Man" and "Red Water (Christmas Mourning)", but I would have liked to hear many of these songs reach their logical conclusions rather than just end where they do. Incredible record that is extremely accessible and has become the cornerstone for the Gothic Metal sub-genre for me. 

4/5

I feel like you should check out the new Witches Hammer Daniel, they are a Canadian band formed in 1984 who reemerged to release their first full album here in 2020. Old school production, heavy as hell Thrash with some other extreme metal influences thrown in there. 

After writing out my review and listening to both Theli and Secret of the Runes many, many times as well as checking out Vovin (What happened there guys, god that was boring), I have to say I prefer Secret of the Runes even though it's very close. Theli is the classic Symphonic Metal experience with galloping riffs and bombastic strings, but Secret of the Runes really brings a progressive thematic element to Therion that I really enjoy. I love the premise behind this album of being about the nine realms of Norse Mythology and even though it can get repetitive I think the tracks are meant to share some similarities to really sell the theme. It's a totally unique Symphonic Metal album that, in my opinion, goes hand in hand with Theli to show how classical music influences can work extremely well with darker and more mysterious themes. 

I do like speedy Neoclassical and shredding albums quite a bit, but this one didn't live up to the hype. I think Macabre put it best when they said it was clunky, there's a flow that's missing and it makes everything not terribly exciting. I didn't dislike it, there were some great instrumental parts and certain choruses and vocals were nice, but it didn't leave any lasting impressions on me at all. It just made me want to go and listen to more energetic power metal with the same sort of shreddy-Neoclassical leanings. I wanted to write its apparent popularity off as it being an older classic, but this was released in 1989, well into the life cycle of Speed/Power Metal, and I can't say I like it near as much as all the other big names of the 80's.

3/5

Protest The Hero - Palimpsest

Protest The Hero are back with their first new album since 2013. I'm going to be putting quite a bit of time into this one, I like what I hear. I've really warmed up to Protest over the years, so this should be exciting. 

As a fervent Metalcore hater through high school and even somewhat today, I'm glad that a group like Converge existed at the turn of the century to really show the genre how it's done. Much of this style of music banks on the emotional factor of being unreasonably angry and expressing it in a way that can easily become angst filled or whiny, but Jane Doe dodges that bullet by being overly chaotic and heavy as hell. It's hard to pick out too many things after just one or two listens since so much of the album is just an abrasive mess, but there is obviously something under the rough exterior. What's under there still doesn't appeal to me too much, since even though the vocals are emotional and raw I can't say I like how low quality-like they sound. The technicality of the riffing and seamless transitions into the breakdowns are impressive, but get old pretty quickly for me after the first half of the album. The whole experience is just a whirlwind of interesting but random riffs amidst fuzzed out screaming that somehow comes together to form a cohesive but sometimes annoying package. 

I think this album has the potential to really grow on me though, as its an obviously tough one to completely unpack. I really wish more modern Metalcore sounded like this, I'd be willing to change my mind about the genre as a whole if that was the case. 

3.5/5

I think I'll try to write out reviews for Theli as well as Secret of the Runes in the next few days, but as I said before I really disliked Therion before coming back to their material. I can see where Saxy is coming from with their music being a slog as I grew up with Nightwish/Epica/Rhapsody as well, but I think Therion represents a very classic version of Symphonic Metal that is wholly different than the standard modern version of the genre. This style is less riff based, slower and heavier, and draws more inspiration from older styles of Metal rather than trying to completely modernize. With Nightwish exploding onto the Metal scene with 1998's Oceanborn and 2001's Wishmaster they proved themselves to be much more accessible than Therion, and for good reason. Nightwish's sound is overly bombastic in a different way than Therion's, which leans closer to Power Metal and really aims to showcase their fantastic female vocalist. Most Nightwish-esque Symphonic Metal is high tempo, high energy, and takes advantage of more memorable riffing as the orchestration takes more of a backseat compared to the vocals. I think Therion's approach showcases the Symphonic Metal package much better than Nightwish/Epica even though it is admittedly less exciting at face value. Secret of the Runes is a surprisingly beautiful album and while it lacks some of the energy that Theli had it does a fantastic job at really merging the orchestra with the Metal based songwriting. The bouncing male choir and female operatic voices also give it a unique feel as well. 

4/5

Sadly I think it's unfair for Ministry to include any album other than Psalm 69 in this head to head because many of their albums are massive drops in quality, and Houses Of The Mole is no exception. I heard that this was a return to form from Ministry, which is good since the industrial riffs and energy are still there, but the political ranting and overall style of the album is just trying way too hard to be shocking and edgy. There are a few good tracks here and there but nothing you couldn't get off of Psalm 69. 

Rammstein's Reise Reise, however, is just a great album pretty much through and through. It's an extension of Mutter with a slightly lighter tone overall and even less EDM influences, but has the signature Rammstein riffs on "Mein Teil", "Moskau", and "Keine Lust" to really carry the album. 

From the albums shown here, Rammstein takes it. 

Ministry - 0

Rammstein - 1

Ben I think I remember you commenting before about how much you enjoyed Exuvia from The Ruins of Beverast, have you heard his two new 2020 splits with Almyrkvi and Mourning Beloveth? They're both extremely good in my opinion. 

I had to check out Broken to finally take part in one of these and wow, I must be missing something with Nine Inch Nails. I was never really a fan of them but this isn't even close, Ministry all the way. 

Ministry - 3

NIN - 0

Got around to writing a full review on this one. After revisiting it again, I think it is on par with their debut but both succeed in different ways. I'm surprised at how much their sound matured since their song structure remained the same for their entire time as a band. 

4/5

This is also my first time hearing ...And Oceans and it's very interesting hearing Cyber/Industrial from a band that started with Black Metal rather than something more groove oriented like most Industrial bands. While there are some great riffs on "Tears Have No Name" and "Of Devilish Tongues", the rest falls into this cool but sometimes awkward atmospheric Black Metal tremolo riffing that has limited substance but plays off the electronic tidbits well enough. The addition of the synth/cyber elements does add some much needed spice and Identity to A.M. G.O.D. rather than feeling like an afterthought, which is always appreciated. The dance beat on "White Synthetic Noise" is a bit out of nowhere, but the way they crescendo out of it is pretty incredible, and the rest of the electronic beats fit in well with the chaos of the Black Metal riffing.

The album is pretty all over the place though, with tons of different influences and riffing styles flying right and left until they decide to stick to one for a few minutes. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing, it just makes for a more confusing experience when listening to the album cover to cover. Even though this is a Black Metal album with enough electronic elements to call it Cyber Metal, it really did feel like there was just a bit too much bland and generic Black Metal stuff going on for me to really get excited about this one in the end. It certainly has its moments, but to me this is another Black Metal album that decided to add something to sort-of-kind-of-but-not-really change up its formula. I'd have to listen to it a few more times in order to get a full review written, but for now:

3.5/5

Glad to find another Caligula's Horse fan around here, I had a feeling you'd enjoy Rise Radiant a bit more than I did from what you said about the singles when they dropped. 

Could the new Alestorm album be added please? Curse of the Crystal Coconut.

I used to have this album on repeat on bus rides to and from school, definitely a childhood classic for me. I never listened to any other RATM albums until writing up my review for their self titled a few months ago, so I'll have to take some time to write another for this one. I'm really glad I listened to their debut though, since I think that'll help keep my nostalgia in check. Because I definitely know I prefer the debut over The Battle of Los Angeles nowadays. 

I think it's incredible that this is the album that preceded Mutter, because this is so much less refined and overall kind of boring. The EDM portion of Rammstein's music is one of the things that makes it Neue Deutsche Härte, and Rammstein really wanted to hammer that home on this album. It's incredibly hokey on tracks like "Sehnsucht", "Eifersucht" and "Küss Mich (Fellfrosch)" where they really try to make their electronic beats sound like bumping club music. The electronics work really well in normal Rammstein fashion on tracks like "Engel" and of course "Du Hast" where they're used to inject another interesting melody alongside the signature guitar riffing and heavy tone, but the rest of the tracks were duds for me. It's not bad by any means but you can really tell that they were really dead set on trying to integrate as many wacky sound effects or EDM beats as possible amidst the riffing. The vocal performance is still strong though, although from what I know it's better if you don't know what the lyrics actually mean and settle for "German sounds cool for this kind of music". 

This is an important stepping stone album for Neue Deutsche Härte since Mutter, released 4 years later, abandons a lot of the silliness and shows the band maturing a ton. I think this album is great for people who really want a true Neue Deutsche Härte experience since they really dig into the EDM roots, but it pales in comparison to their next two or three albums for me. 

3/5

As someone who wasn't too impressed by 2018's Helix and only enjoyed their cover of Powerwolf's "Army of the Night" as a guilty pleasure, I can say that this is probably Amaranthe at their best. Making accessible Metal is difficult, since a lot of Metal genres at their core are made to be inaccessible! With 12 tracks all at 3 and a half minutes and all having huge hooks and choruses, this album is basically begging to be played on mainstream radio, and that's perfectly okay! What separates this album from other albums vying for mainstream playtime, though, is that it still has the things people love about Metal mostly intact. The guitar tone is chunky and chugs well, the harsh vocals aren't laughably bad, the band in general has a great energy to them, there are some good guitar solos, and the balance between synth melodies and the rest of the band is well done.

It's pretty repetitive though, with the band having one or two ideas and rolling with them through the entire album, but since the songs are so short and don't try to overstay their welcome I don't really have a problem with it. Elize Ryd's vocals can come off as a bit flat sometimes but I think she works wonderfully as a front woman and has enough power behind her voice that it doesn't feel thin and compliments the piano and synths very well. Massive Addictive is a surface level album though, and even though it does what it set out to do very well, there's nothing too crazy on this one. This is a great recommendation for anyone who wants some electronics in their Metal and for a "mainstream album" this is pretty dang good. I'd rather listen to this every day of the week rather than what's on mainstream Hard Rock radio nowadays, which I'm pretty sure is like...Godsmack. Or Breaking Benjamin. Or Disturbed. 

3.5/5

My review that I have up for A Blaze In the Northern Sky is pretty shallow compared to what I normally write, but I think it still summarizes my feelings pretty closely. I first listened to this album when I started the 1st Decade Black Metal challenge, and the album stood out an incredible amount compared to its peers at that time. There were few other bands that really captured that evil and cold feeling better than Darkthrone with this album, and I feel like it is one of the massive stepping stones between Bathory's 1987 album Under the Sign of the Black Mark and Mayhem's 1994 album De mysteriis dom Sathanas. The extended song structure and overall chaos of it is more akin to what I'm used to in modern Black Metal and while it is definitely rough around the edges in terms of guitar clarity and such, it still has clarity to it, which was rare for a lot of Black Metal bands in the late 80's and early 90's. A Blaze In the Northern Sky just gives me exactly what I want from a genre that is supposed to sound cold and evil, simple as that. 

4.5/5

I wish I had more to say about Sólstafir other than "I really enjoyed it", but that's all I got for my first go at Köld. I really went back and forth, with the album losing me a bit towards the middle but pulling me back in at the end. I think I was expecting a bit more aggression or experimentation in general, but once I reoriented my expectations for a more Post-Metal experience I really had a great time with this one. Some of the songs definitely drag, but the slowness and overall aimlessness is definitely a feature rather than a downfall in this case. 

This is an album that needs more than one listen and a bit of patience, so it's very possible that I'm giving it too much praise. However, the rich Post-Metal riffs with an admittedly hit or miss vocal performance and a great sense of atmosphere made me really enjoy this one in the end. Definitely going to go back to it and see if it was a fluke in the future, and check out more Sólstafir in general, since the band seems to have a very interesting history. 

4/5

I originally had this album at a 3, being very surprised at how much I enjoyed its unique blend of super heavy extreme metal with legitimately beautiful atmospheric sections with a flourish of electronic Breakcore thrown in for good measure. As I went back to the album to write my review, I felt the need to bump it up to a 3.5 just because I realized how seriously unique this album is. 

Don't get me wrong, it has a ton of stuff I still dislike just because extreme metal is a difficult pill for me to swallow just due to certain elements that make it extreme, but I was very, very interested by this album nonetheless. Pound for pound, this 30 minute album doesn't even have that much Grindcore in it. Maybe 15 minutes maximum. The rest is a cool blend of atmospheric, electronic breakcore, and actually good riffs and grooves that are intelligible and not just playing some riff so fast that it blends in with the electronic drum sounds in the background. 

I think this album is a fantastic example of moderation. This "Cybergrind" album could have easily been what the genre is alluding to, which is just Grind with crazy electronic melodies thrown in there for who knows what reason. But Genghis Tron really tried to experiment and made a legitimate album that is more than just anger, aggression, and yelling. Even though I'm only giving it a 3.5, a 3.5 is incredibly high praise from me regarding anything with "Grind" in the description. My full review is on the album page.

Like Sonny said, this thread has been a treat, and I think one important thing to remember about an extensive site like this is that being as active and passionate about music like the regulars in here are is hard work! Having informed discussions in a forum format and interacting with people the way that we do right now isn't for everyone. Obviously we don't expect everyone or anyone to come in and write novels, but it can be difficult to constantly engage in discussions that require a lot of thought/critiquing/opinions. Obviously Daniel and Ben would love to get more members like us in here, but I think it's also important to think about features that require less commitment, while still maintaining the atmosphere the people above me have commented on. I don't have any ideas at this moment, but I think it's an important perspective to keep in mind in order to make the site more accessible to more people. There's an endless amount of possibilities thanks to the Clan system though!

Caligula's Horse - Rise Radiant (May 22nd)

I know at least one other person in the Metal Academy community is excited for Caligula's Horse's new album, which drops tomorrow. I was pretty lukewarm on the first single, but I listened to another single and have started to warm up to it. Caligula's Horse is a pretty important band to me, so it'll be very interesting to see if Rise Radiant has what it takes to contend with their previous 3 albums. Although I love In Contact, I was always afraid of them going even farther down the poetic/theatrical rabbit hole, and it seems like they're pivoting towards a heavier and more synth heavy sound on this new one, so hopefully it's another winner. 

I'll be doing my best to write a full review by the end of the day tomorrow, so be on the lookout!

Celtic Frost is a massive classic metal name that I've only checked out a few times, meaning I listened to To Mega Therion once or twice, thoroughly enjoyed my time, and sadly never really went back. When I saw a Celtic Frost album as part of The Fallen monthly release, I was very, very interested since for Monotheist to be considered Doom Metal it would have to be quite a departure from their earlier works. And wow, what an amazing departure. 

Coming in with a pair of fresh ears and not having any sort of prior experience with Celtic Frost probably makes my opinion more interesting, since I don't have any attachment to what they were in the mid-80's, their downfall in the 90's, and their triumphant return in this 2006 album. Nonetheless, I thought this album was absolutely fantastic. There are very few Doom Metal albums I've heard that are able to create as much atmosphere and emotion as Monotheist does, and nothing sounds quite like it even to this day. The riffs are fantastic and have that grinding Black Metal tinged production quality that make them sound more weighted and raw, and coupled with an extremely passionate and evil sounding vocal performance, you can't go wrong. I think the album is a bit drawn out sometimes, but there's still enough variety and great moments that it doesn't every feel like a slog. 

This is one I'm going to come back to for sure, there's just something about it that nails all the right ideas to create an incredibly dark and heavy experience that all heavier Doom Metal bands aspire to write. Even though I've given it only praise I don't think it's an instant 5/5 classic or anything from my first listen, but it has the chance to get there with some time. Very, very good stuff.

4/5

Challenge done! It was really fun to try and write 3 extended reviews and being able to dust off the old normal writing skills for the fantasy intros. I tried to make the intro stories as closely connected to the albums as possible, so there's a lot of parallels and metaphors in there, or at least I tried to put them in there. I'm glad I did this since going back to 90's Blind Guardian really reminded me of how good their big three albums were. (Not counting Tales From the Twilight World) So there are now three pretty lengthy reviews for Somewhere Far Beyond, Imaginations From The Other Side, and Nightfall In Middle-Earth from me!

"Im Wald" is currently my Album of the Year. A truly incredible record. 

As a pretty massive Tool fan for a good part of my life (not in the pretentious asshole way), I'll one-up you on these controversial Tool opinions: I never thought Lateralus was that good. Whenever I hear people explain why Lateralus is the greatest Tool album, I feel like I take all their strong feelings and just convert them over to 10,000 Days, which is far and above my favorite Tool album. I've probably listened to Lateralus, Ænima, and 10,000 Days hundreds of times combined over the years, and while I don't listen to them much anymore, my opinions haven't really changed yet. 

Lateralus, to me, just has too much filler and portions that I don't really care to listen to. I agree that certain tracks are some of the best they've ever made, which include "The Grudge", "Schism", and "Lateralus", but I never got that "Full Body Experience" that everyone else seems to get from this album. Instead, I got it from 10,000 Days. I never felt the album was connected as people made it out to be, since I constantly wanted to skip "Eon Blue Apocalypse", "Mantra", "Parabol", among others. There's just so much downtime that doesn't feel like it gets a proper payoff in Lateralus, even though the album is still incredible. I would have to revisit it along with 10,000 Days and really listen to it intently to see if I can get a bit of what everyone else has been getting after all these years, but for now I'm going to stick to my guns and keep my 4/5 rating. 

Since 1990's Blind Guardian is one of my favorite bands of all time, I wanted to challenge myself to do a trilogy of reviews for Somewhere Far Beyond, Imaginations..., and Nightfall in Middle Earth, so be on the lookout for that. Just to try and gather my thoughts, I've always preferred Somewhere Far Beyond instead of Imaginations..., and I think it's because Somewhere Far Byeond has a more experimental and varied track listing, dipping more into classic Speed Metal on some tracks, but always returning to their classic and epic Power Metal sound. 

Imaginations From The Other Side, on the other hand, gave Blind Guardian fans exactly what they wanted, with an even more epic, grand, and full sound with less Speed Metal influenced drumming and more use of effects and choir. Hansi's voice is just as powerful as it was on Somewhere Far Beyond, maybe even more so given the less chaotic and more heavy songwriting choices that help to really accent his fantastic capabilities. The band plays extremely tightly and there's so many little nuances in each verse or chorus riff thanks to Blind Guardians amazing use of rhythm guitar that actually trades on and off with the lead to create some seriously fantastic riffs on every single song. I think "A Past and Future Secret" is a little weak compared to the two part "The Bard's Song", but it's still a great slower track that showcases Hansi's range even more. After that it's just hit after hit, with "Another Holy War" being my personal favorite off of the album. Imaginations... was indeed the pinnacle for Blind Guardian's craft in terms of hard hitting Power Metal, but for me Nightfall In Middle-Earth is just behind and Somewhere Far Beyond is slightly ahead of this one. I currently have Imaginations... as a 4.5/5, but that could very well change once I'm done reviewing all three of these fantastic albums. While Somewhere Far Beyond has more memorable moments for me, there's no arguing that Imaginations... is on another level of epic and fantastical prowess compared to other Power Metal bands and even Somewhere Far Beyond. 

I'm really glad that the rest of the Academy seems to be in agreement with this classic. The saturated market of bland Power Metal nowadays can be a really tough sell, but it's great to see an appreciation for the genre from the best of the best, coming from someone who much prefers Blind Guardian over Helloween, Iced Earth, or Rhapsody.

I normally don't comment on stuff that comes up here, but this one piqued my interest. And wow. This......just shouldn't exist. 

Her voice doesn't even fit with what they're trying to do, and I'm sure their guitarist was thrilled at the one power chord he got to play for 90% this. At least he got one scale shred in there for a 5 second solo. 

The YouTube comments are hilarious too. It doesn't matter if it's Metal or not. It doesn't matter if it's Amaranthe's normal style or not. If it's a boring and uninspired song then...that's what it is.