Xephyr's Forum Replies

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. 

Simply put, I like the way the Monthly Release works right now in terms of choosing albums. Having an "important release" for each Clan each month is a good system, rather than trying to pander towards certain groups. But I also think that new releases should have some kind of presence in the spotlight, especially when it's obviously something that the music community as a whole is talking about. For example I don't think that anyone would have a problem with seeing Im Wald as a Monthly Release for The North after it's out since it's currently the talk of the town for Atmospheric Black Metal. 

I just think that moving forward with whatever ideas the community comes up with for Clans/Reviews/Discussion it's important to not limit them to the Forums, since I think that will garner more interest for people passing by the site. Even though it will require much more back-end work.

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. 

What a hilarious and entertaining album. I expected satire when I came into this, and I wasn't disappointed at all. Is it the best Crossover Thrash album? Not sure about that, but it's certainly the one that kept me extremely entertained through it's short runtime. The punk influence is massive and plays into the theme of the album really well, and every riff is just unchained madness. Some tracks definitely miss the mark, like "Pussy Whipped" for me personally, but for an album as sporadic and short as this it's tough to dwell on a few misses when the rest of the riffs and drumming is so good. I'm not afraid to give an album high marks just for amusement factor, and I had a blast with this album, even if I don't think it's the best quality overall. 

4/5 

And with that I think I'm finally all caught up with monthly releases, just in time for the new ones for May. WHEW. 

I really, really wanted to be pleasantly surprised by this, but this just didn't do anything for me. In the end this is math-y Metalcore with a keyboard turned to 8-bit sounds, and while it has some good moments, it doesn't really go beyond the labels for me. I don't think the retro sound effects add that much to the feel of the album and they even come off as annoying most of the time. The guitar work can be good, but none of it is very memorable past a few decent Metalcore breakdowns here and there. I do like the more complex structure these guys use while trying to maintain a heavier sound, but many other progressive/math metal bands do what they're doing in a much more interesting way. 

I'm glad I know that this exists now, that's for sure, but I'm not sure how you can make something like this feel really fleshed out or interesting. 

2.5/5

This was one of those albums that I wish I liked more, but there's just something about it that didn't click in the end. It's been a while since I've listened to some good, old-fashioned, Pagan Black Metal inspired Folk Metal, so An deiz ruz was definitely refreshing. It has a ton of things I like, from the acoustic but still heavy riffing to the flute and folk elements playing perfectly with the Black Metal harsh vocals, but I wasn't thrilled at the end of it. Maybe an hour of this is a bit too much, or maybe the constant flute on top of the riffing began to feel uninspired during the second half of the album, but this one is going to have to be one that I revisit. I love what's going on, but I think they decided to write too many similar songs for the entire album to be as exciting as the first half. While the flute can sound fantastic, it feels like more of a nuisance when it copies exactly what the lead guitar is doing, like in "Epona, Part 2". Some of the Celtic elements feel a bit overblown too, like they don't exactly fit, especially when the vocalist gets involved in the folky-tunes on tracks like "Son ar Everezh". 

3.5/5, but it has potential for me. 

Wow. This goes hard. 

I think this is the first Brutal Death Metal release I've been able to enjoy, since the riffs and beats are so well written and heavy. It takes all the foundations of Death Metal riffing and just cranks it up to 11 with insane drumming, disgusting chord and scale progressions, and compositions that have a ton going on but are still clear and headbang-able. The album definitely loses me when it dips into the brutal side of things with certain vocal passages just sounding random and thrown together with no real structure, but those are surprisingly few and far between.

I still have a really difficult time getting into this kind of stuff, and the brutal sections I mentioned before really ruin the experience for me overall, but this is a new high for me in a genre I normally can't stand. 

3/5, which is high praise considering the average Brutal Death Metal album for me is a 2/5.

Back to Godflesh it seems.

For what it's worth I definitely see the importance of Streetcleaner and I enjoyed it more than Selfless, but I still don't get a whole lot out of it. The interesting topic that springs to mind though is comparing Godflesh to Ministry in terms of the beginning of Industrial Metal as a genre. Streetcleaner is a cold and grinding hulk of music that is raw and repetitive in all the right ways, even though I'm not necessarily a fan of it. Ministry, on the other hand, has more song structure and melody to them, as Daniel explained to me a few months ago. I find this interesting because it shows how some bands that come out swinging with a new genre for their first album have such different qualities than other bands that may decide to dip into something new after being established. Streetcleaner was Godflesh's debut album, which is a feat in of itself, while The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste and Psalm 69 were Ministry's fourth and fifth albums respectively after shifting from synthpop and electronic. Therefore, Godflesh has that rawness that you can only really get from greenhorn bands wanting to come out and just make something incredibly angry and dark. It's still not my thing, but I can see where the hype is coming from now rather than when I listened to Selfless. 

3.5/5

Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough (June 26, 2020)

Bell Witch have announced a collaboration with Aerial Ruin for a new concept album, really looking forward to seeing if this will be close to Mirror Reaper's style or something different entirely. 

I gave Meshuggah another shot after enjoying their 2016 album The Violent Sleep Of Reason by checking out Catch 33 and Nothing (2002) to mixed results. My taste in metal has shifted since 2016, since I was definitely more fond of Meshuggah back them, but I can see where the hype for Catch 33 was coming from. I came out one year before Catch 33, and it's an extremely interesting EP because it feels like a test run of Catch 33 with Nothing's production and style, which is inferior in my opinion. It's hard to really analyze Meshuggah because, like Saxy explains above me, they can be very one dimensional in how they write their music. It's all about the chug, the aggression, and the dark themes, which works well for some people and for others it turns into grinding monotony that you can't get away from. 

In terms of this album versus Catch 33, I can see how die-hard Meshuggah fans would enjoy this one more, because it's aggression overload. Catch 33 has more variety and atmosphere, but I just has that Djent chug for a solid 16 or 17 minutes of the 21 minute song. If you're into that, this album is a paradise for you, especially if you prefer Meshuggah's old production style with more trigger-sounding snare and bass drums and deeper but slightly messier sounding guitar tone. I still have a few Meshuggah albums to check out, like 2006's Nothing, but the straight-up Djent style isn't for me. They vastly improved over Nothing (2002) though, so I think that warrants a slightly higher score than what it seemed like I might give. 

3.5/5

I should also do a review of this classic at some point as well, but I'm in agreement that Number of the Beast, on the whole, is vastly overrated. At the end of the day, it's an album of singles, with "Children of the Damned", "Number of the Beast", "Run to the Hills", and "Hallowed Be Thy Name" being the only tracks that really matter on this one. The other songs are good, but not what you would expect from a so-called 5 star Maiden release. Since those other songs are a full half of the album, it's hard to say that this album is a true classic compared to the other Maiden albums that normally vie for that top spot. While none of the other 4 songs that make up Number of the Beast left any sort of impression on me, the rest of the album is a true classic so I can't give it any less than a 4/5.

Everyone seems to have a different favorite Maiden album though, and in the end Powerslave wins out for me personally. 

Primus' debut record is about everything you would expect out of Primus, from the technical but downright funky Les Claypool bass lines to the overall weird atmosphere this album gives off. From an objective musical standpoint this album is incredible, with the guitar, bass, and drums playing very complex and well written passages that have incredible coordination with each other. I've obviously listened to Primus before, but I've never sat through an entire album of theirs, and while their gimmicky weirdness does start to wane after a few songs, I was surprised at how much I ended up liking this album. There are a few duds, but no one does heavy, funky, and nasty slap bass lines quite like Mr. Claypool in this kind of genre. Obviously slap bass gets used in Jazz to similar and even more outrageous effect, but it's refreshing to hear bass used so well in Alternative music like this. I feel like this record could grow on me even more, so I'm going to throw a 4/5 on it. 

As for the discussion that's going on above me, it's a very interesting one for this album. I'm in agreement with Daniel's toolbox analogy; a Metal release should be judged on how many Metal elements it consistently uses. But that can come down to musical theory as well as overall composition. The more I write and figure out my review style, the more I wish I studied a little bit more music theory, because that sort of knowledge helps in being more objective about music, for better or worse. Metal tends to have much more dissonance than Rock/Hard Rock, and that all depends on the types of chords and scales used, which give Metal its signature dark/evil/grating sound. Obviously other genres that aren't metal use minor scales, but couple that note choice with a lot of gain from your gear, crank that volume up, and suddenly you have something that sounds like metal. Frizzle Fry does have those dissonant chords plus driving and loud riffs, especially on the signature track "John The Fisherman", but I agree that it's hard to definitively say that it's distinctly Metal. While you can call it "Funk Metal", it can easily be called "Progressive Hard Rock With Slap Bass". Funk Metal itself doesn't have much ground to stand on in my opinion, especially since upon further research the main bands for it are apparently Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, Rage Against the Machine, Faith No More, and of course Primus. I'm guessing people felt the need to distinguish bands that used slap bass or bass heavy elements from other Alternative Metal/Rock bands? Because I wouldn't really call any of those particular bands as mainly "Funk Metal". 

In any case I'm also with Saxy in that I never want to be one of those people who judge an album based on how much gain the band puts on their guitar. It's silly to judge albums on genre placement alone, even though it can be a fun discussion for these kinds of albums that sit on the edge of many, many genre classifications. If I was able to cast my vote in the Hall, though, I'd have to say this belongs in non-metal. 

For my first time listening to this behemoth, I can safely say that this was a test of patience more than anything else. Normally when bands release an hour long song or jam session it's divided into different parts that house different ideas and qualities, but in Sleep's case "Dopesmoker" legitimately revolves around a single riff. And most of the time that riff is a single note or small chord progression repeated over, and over, and over. That being said, this album is easily the most Stoner of any Stoner Metal album I've heard, beating out Electric Wizard's Dopethrone in terms of faithfulness to the genre itself. It's slow, almost trance-like, and drowned in distortion in a cleaner but just as heavy way. The solos are also really impressive, since they really dip into the psychedelic aspects of Stoner Metal, which are probably my favorite parts of the genre. 

This album, well song, isn't something that can be properly dissected after one listen though. At around the 25 minute mark I had just about enough and wanted to take a break, but by the 45 minute mark the song had reeled me back in somehow, which is pretty impressive. However I can't give it a very high score due to the sheer monotony of the composition and especially the monotony of the vocals, but this sits directly below Dopethrone in terms of Stoner Metal for me, and I can see it climbing even higher if I spend time giving it a few more spins. 

4/5

Immediately when I threw this on, I was reminded of something, and I couldn't put my finger on it until the third or fourth track. Sybreed, at least on this album, sounds like what modern In Flames should have sounded like if they knew how to write interesting riffs and melodies that complemented the softer Melodic Death Metal approach. While I don't really care for modern In Flames, especially compared to their classic material, I never thought it was terrible, so this album was a treat for me. I'm already a pretty big fan of heavier electronic music, like Darksynth for instance, so hearing well written riffs with complex electronic beats really resonates well with me. There are some tracks in here that feel pretty uninspired though, like "Isolate" and "Permafrost", but overall it maintains a solid quality throughout the whole thing. I wish it would lean into the EDM side a bit more, especially towards the end where it just feels like more of the same Melodic Death riff over and over, but I still like what's going on here. 

3.5/5, but it may get repetitive if I end up listening to it again. 

I can really appreciate this one, especially since I normally don't care for Deathcore. There's some really technical and progressively melodic stuff in here, the transitions are great, the harsh vocals are well done, just an overall well done product. Some of the more Djent-like chugging sections miss their mark, like in the middle of "Rareform", and some of the riffs really lose their way in "Aspiration", but it still sounds heavy and even straight up nasty at times. This album seems to use all the bits and pieces of Metalcore, Death Metal, and Djent in a way that works really well for them, as well as sprinkling a bit of progressiveness on top of it. It's not going to completely win me over to the genre, but it was enough for me to give it a solid 3.5 out of 5. Nice pick. 

I was pretty disappointed by Human Nature, but it's not bad. I have no idea why they're not using Floor's voice in more ways, she's a fantastic singer, she's just written so one dimensional to me through the entire album. While the symphony was beautiful, it felt mostly pointless to me? I wish they would have incorporated it in a different way or built up to it better, I'm not sure. It just wasn't what I wanted out of a B-Side of an album like that. 

It looks like I need to check out Almanac, Nightfear, and Ilium to catch up a bit on 2020 Power Metal, and those are pretty obscure, so I think Power Metal has been pretty quiet overall this year so far. 

I honestly haven't checked out too much Power Metal this year, there's just an influx of amazing Black Metal releases that has kept my attention. Demons and Wizards was disappointing to me, so I guess it would have to be Brothers of Metal - Emblas Saga? Even then that one is a guilty pleasure since it's just so absurd. Really fun listen. I'm gonna have to catch up and try to seek some more stuff out as the year progresses. 

While immensely beautiful, Choirs of the Eye shoots itself in the foot a bit with its droning spoken word during the lulls in the album. I personally try to stay away from the word "pretentious" when reviewing music since I feel like it's just a blanket statement that gets thrown around needlessly, but in this case I think it's warranted. The way it tries very, very hard to sound profound and deep definitely made me roll my eyes quite a few times. It takes an entire 28 minutes to get any sort of vocal contrast, with the first harsh vocals of the album showing up at the climax of "Manifold of Curiosity".

From a composition standpoint this album is obviously fantastic, with all sorts of orchestral, acoustic, and extreme metal styles being flung around every which way to somehow form a cohesive product. As impressive as it is, certain parts definitely lag and Kayo Dot relishes in their minimalism a bit too much for me on tracks like "Wayfarer". It's beautiful, there's a ton of interesting atmosphere, but not a whole lot happens, so it really depends on the listener if they emotionally connect with the slower parts or not. Some of the transitions seemed overlooked as well, with some being very jarring and almost unnecessary at times. 

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this, enough to give it a 4/5. But for something like this to be truly great it needs to pull out all the stops and everything has to be composed in a way that is exciting and feels right. If some of the transitions are wacky and there just isn't enough payoff for spending 8 to 10 minutes listening to soft orchestral and acoustic sections with whispering vocals, then the album is going to suffer. If someone is really into the slower sections though, this would be an easy 5/5 for them, since the ideas in this album are fascinating. 

In an attempt to catch up with these monthly releases and get back on track, might as well throw something at what I think is the best Rammstein has to offer. Although Rammstein are now a recognizable, mainstream, and international super group, I feel like few people talk about their albums as a whole. As someone who's gone through most of their discography in the past, Mutter just has this band's best ideas and songs when compared to any of their other releases. Rammstein hasn't exactly evolved too much over the years, which is somewhat of a downfall for them since Liebe ist fur alle da and Rammstein are lukewarm at best, so Mutter is filled to the brim with exactly what you would expect out of the German Industrial powerhouses. "Mein Herz Brennt", "Links 2 3 4", "Ich Will", "Mutter", and "Rein Raus" are the highlights for me, each having crushing industrial riffs with a theatrical electronic edge that showcase what Rammstein does best. Part of me wishes that Neue Deutsche Härte is explored a bit more by other groups and comes back into the spotlight, since I think there's a lot of potential past what Rammstein accomplished in the early 2000's.

4/5

Mestarin kynsi - Oranssi Pazuzu

The widely accepted Gods of modern Avant-Garde Metal have released a new one today to seemingly massive critical acclaim by everyone except for me. I'm still on the fence about this one, since Oranssi Pazuzu has always been a challenge for me for some reason. I have hopes that I'll warm up to it the same way I did with Värähtelijä, but for now it seems like a more compact package that has a pretty dull A-Side an a fantastic B-Side. I'm sure my thoughts will change once I give it some more time, but hopefully this album doesn't go down the same road of indifference that Syntheosis by Waste of Space Orchestra did. 

Can Stream Of Passion be added please? 

Thank you!

Dzö-nga definitely needs more attention this year, Thunder In The Mountains is such a huge step up from his other material it's not even funny. The Native American folklore touch is has is unique and interesting, I have it as a 4/5 right now but I could easily see it being a 4.5/5 by the end of the year, I haven't gotten tired of it yet. 

This is a tough one since it absolutely skirts right on the edge of being punk/hard rock rather than Metal. Using your comparisons of Rush and the even more progressive Yes though I think Nothingface still belongs in the Progressive Metal tag.

Although the riffs and vocals are definitely more Hard Rock-centric, the Thrash influence is still definitely noticeable in the bass, drums, and the overall tempos and feel of the songs. Zero songs on Nothingface have that free-wheeling Rock n' Roll impression because of the chug of the bass, slower double bass drum, and the overall dissonance of the minor keys and chords. While certain parts of it may have zero metal, like the beginning of "Inner Combustion" and the verses of "The Unknown Knows", there's still a darkness and slight aggression of the entire product that I think can only be categorized as having Metal influences still. 

Pleasantly surprised by this one, I didn't realize Helloween had such a unique sound even when they first started. This is pretty essential for over-the-top, thrashy, speedy metal that shows a ton of promise with a lot of room for the band to obviously grow into their trilogy of highly acclaimed late 80's albums. I think some of the vocal passages definitely miss their mark on "Murderer" and a bit on "Cry For Freedom", but the riffs are so good that I hardly care. It's incredible how many riffs and ideas from 1985 are still being used in Power/Heavy Metal today, whether it be the galloping rhythms from "Warrior" or the 16th note shredding coupled with aggressively over the top vocal shrieks from "Cry For Freedom". This honestly might be one of the best debut EP's I've heard, since it already sounds so refined and confident. Obviously there are issues, but there is a lot of amazing stuff here that helped to define the faster and more over the top Heavy and Power Metal genres. 

4 / 5

Hammerheart has had a slow burn for me over the last year and a half or so. When I initially checked out Bathory's discography I was looking forward to Hammerheart the most, since I knew it was the true start of the Viking Metal genre, but at the time Blood Fire Death captivated me so much more with its balanced split of slower, more extended tracks and classic early Black Metal thrash. As I come back to it more and more, though, Hammerheart is really starting to win me over. Each riff is absolutely stellar, having an unmistakable raw heft that only early Bathory production can provide. Since Hammerheart is slower and more restrained in terms of songwriting it really plays to the strengths of its pushed back and crunchy production style. Although Quorthon is known for his signature and furious Black Metal barking, he somehow manages to find a strained but clear clean voice that is still filled with emotion and fits the style of the album superbly. I think it still takes some getting used to if you're not familiar with Bathory, but I'm just always surprised that it sounds so natural and good although it sounds like his throat is about to give out during certain parts of "One Rode To Asa Bay". The choirs that are so heavily used really give a nice contrast to Quorthon's ragged voice as well, giving Hammerheart its epic sound and quality. 

I think I've finally reached the point of truly appreciating this release, since I was still skeptical of all the hype even after many listens. Something didn't click, and this time around the wheels have really begun to turn. I still think "Home Of Once Brave" holds the album back a little, but with "Baptised In Fire And Ice", "Father To Son," and "One Rode To Asa Bay" I'll forgive it. 

I found out about Jason Becker and his story back in 2018 with the release of Triumphant Hearts, so I'm really glad that this album surfaced on here so I could check it out and see what he was capable of before his unfortunate circumstances arose.

In terms of pure shredding and technical skill this album is great, although a bit redundant. Obviously the neo-classical style revolves around a ton of scales played at lightning fast speed, but it's overused a bit much for it's own good for most of the album. It all starts to run together fairly quickly even though there are still standout tracks like "Altitudes", "Air", and "Eleven Blue Egyptians" that highlight Becker's skill in different ways from shredding scales, to softer and calming clean sections, to more riff and groove focused lines. 

However, all the skill in the world doesn't fix messy transitions and generally weak songwriting in general, which is where Perpetual Burn falters. This album is definitely just a showcase of skill, with Becker jumping from one lick and idea to the next with almost no regard for flow or how each part contributes to the song. If anything, when he plays riffs instead of the normal neo-classical scale jumping it comes off as awkward and weak, meaning this album is without a doubt just a solo showcase. 

That being said, I'm a huge fan of guitar noodling like this, so it's still solid enough for me to give it a 3.5 / 5. It's such a shame that life had other plans for Becker since from this point forward he wouldn't be able to play like this ever again, since there was a ton of room for him to grow as a songwriter on top of his immense skill with the guitar. 

Although I will agree that I prefer this over other Deathgrind/Grindcore stuff since it has some nasty riffs and actually decent song structure, I still can't get too far into it. The genre itself just melts together into something that sounds exactly the same at all points in time for me and I like my aggression to be delivered in a slightly different way than what Grindcore presents. If you're looking for absolutely mental shredding and insanely technical drums then this album is definitely the way to go, but as a package it still doesn't bring me over to the Grind side yet. Still glad I checked it out, classic Deathgrind is just a better put together product than the randomness that the genre has seemed to turn into in modern days. 

Wanderers: Astrology of the NIne (March 13, 2020)

This collaboration between Mare Cognitum and Spectral Lore has already started making its rounds on other sites, so I'll continue the trend. Although it clocks in at a whopping 2 hours and drags a bit too much in a few places, I think this is a new pinnacle of Atmospheric Black Metal in spaaaaace (or whatever you want to call this subgenre). Spectral Lore's offerings are dissonant and chaotic while Mare Cognitum focuses more on the riffs and heaviness of this project, finally concluding with a 24-minute full collaboration complete with a full atmospheric excursion into a suitable grand finale. I'm normally on the fence about this spacey kind of Black Metal but Wanderers has made me change my mind this time. 

Hashed out a review for this one as well even though I've never been a KoRn fan whatsoever. I have a pretty...aggressive opinion at the end that was very hard to write in a way that didn't call fans of KoRn out, but I still stand by that this album just feels like more of a personal project for singer Jonathan Davis than anything. 

Sometimes you just gotta yell into a creative void to help you get over your problems, and his experiences just happened to resonate with a large group of younger people at the time. I honestly really dislike KoRn, but I can't act like the start of Nu-Metal wasn't an important stepping stone to the other...questionable modern metal trends that have popped up from the 2000's onward. 

1.5/5

Emblas Saga fell a bit short for me as a Power Metal release compared to what 2019 has to offer, but it's still an incredibly fun album that I go back to every now and again just for the absurdity. "Powersnake", "Chainbreaker", and the title track "Emblas Saga" are easy favorites since they hover that tongue-in-cheek line you mentioned a bit more gracefully than some of the other tracks. 

Huntsmen - Mandala of Fear 

(Released March 13, 2020)

I wasn't impressed by this album at first, but after letting it sink in I'm a big fan. Definitely a grower of an album, should be on every Cult of Luna fan's radar. It's a bit slow and soft to get started, but after "God Will Stop Trying" I was hooked.