Xephyr's Forum Replies

Could you please add Marko Hietala? (Nightwish frontman's solo project)

I've always enjoyed Protest the Hero, so going back to their debut was a nice reminder of just how creative these guys were and still are. There's no one that sounds quite like them in the way each one of their songs is super fast, super technical, but still catchy and melodic at a base level. There's absolutely a method to the madness with these guys even though it wears on me pretty fast. They're just so tight and confident with how they transition seemingly at random to different rhythms and ideas that, although there is never really a cohesive flow to their music, it all somehow makes sense in the end. 

This debut is still some of the best stuff they've ever made, especially since they're already cramming so much into each song due to their style it's very hard for them to evolve past what they started with. I still really enjoyed their later albums like Pacific Myth and Volition, but Kezia just has that edge and confidence that certain debuts have that can never really be recaptured. I couldn't listen to this all the time as it does wear me down pretty fast, and there are certainly some goofy and unnecessary parts, but Protest the Hero is easily one of the few bands I genuinely like that falls into The Revolution. 

Oh boy, time for me to rant about Grindcore for a second. 

I don't shy away from Grind because it's a genre that I do want to become more familiar with, but it's just so, so rough for me. I'm not the kind of metal listener that gets any enjoyment out of pure 24/7 aggression, so I'm really going against the grain here. I can appreciate the furious tempos, riffs, and the insanely angry vocals and atmosphere, but nothing ever sounds interesting to me. It's the case of having so much going on at once at all times that everything just blurs together and it just isn't...enjoyable. The song structures are also so short and condensed that things like buildups, climaxes, solos, and other portions of song structure that I tend to really enjoy just don't exist. 

That being said, from what little Grind I've listened to this is definitely some of the best sounding and...most cohesive? I found myself treating each small song simply like part of the entire 26 minute album rather than focusing on when a song ends and begins, which helped me a little bit. The back part of the album was definitely better for me, but that's probably because the songs actually had some length to them. 

Tiamat is another one of those classic bands that has consistently slipped through my fingers over the years, until now of course. Wildhoney is the perfect mix of atmospheric and emotional but not overpowering synths, punchy guitar riffs, powerful drumming, and right in the pocket vocals that help to pull together that signature Gothic atmosphere. The album doesn't sound cheesy or over-theatrical like some Gothic Metal can, plus it's surprisingly progressive with its extended atmospheric sections in tracks like "Gaia" and "Planets". This is definitely an album that deserves more than one listen but my initial impressions are extremely strong, easily deserving a 4/5 from me. I very much prefer this style over any other earlier Gothic Metal I've heard thus far, so call me a fan. 

Put up a review on the album page, but it was a pleasure going back and actually checking out old Dream Theater, which was surprisingly something I never did. Everything you would want from Dream Theater is here, and if it would have been ten years ago I would have given this album an easy 5/5. 

However, like I said in my review, my concept of what is impressive and awesome changes over time as I've listened to more and more things. What was incredibly impressive to me ten years ago is no longer nearly as impressive now that I've listened to more Progressive Metal bands. So while Images and Words is still a very solid album it's flaws are much more apparent to me, especially since Dream Theater was the first band to really let me down in terms of their modern releases. 

I loved this album and was one of my favorites in 2018 since Metal didn't have too much going for it that year, but after listening to it so much the mixing on the drums was just too much for me. They just stick out like a sore thumb after a while. I still enjoy the album, but definitely not as much as I used to.

Could WelicoRuss be added?

Thank you.

Oh yeah, now this is what I'm talking about. This was legitimately my first time listening to Ministry ever and these guys are riff and chug masters. "N.W.O.", "Just One Fix", "Scare Crow", and even "Corrosion" have some of the heaviest riffs I've heard in quite some time. Some bands are just able to nail that guitar and drum tone that just makes the the riffs chug, and Ministry is definitely one of those. The whole album is dark and gritty but still has an insane amount of energy and momentum as well as some hilarious tongue-in-cheek political and religious commentary, which surprisingly doesn't take away from the album. 

While I think I could build up to appreciating something more grating and monotonous, this is an easy 4/5 for me even on the first listen. The amount of influence this album had must have been insane, because through "N.W.O.", "Just One Fix", and "Scare Crow" I was reminded of so many other heavy metal songs that came out much, much later than this did. 

Nightwish have just announced their new album titled Human :||: Nature, set to be released on April 10th. I really loved Endless Forms Most Beautiful when it came out but looking back now it certainly had its problems, but I could only imagine they're going to keep going down the theatrical film score path, so hopefully it's not too overblown. 

Congratulations, that was incredibly quick work. Not enough hours in the day for me, I'm currently still chipping away at the 1st Decade Black Metal one.

If I didn't look at the tags I would have said a very progressive sort of Melodic Black Metal. The raw and messy guitar tone and lack of chug throws it out of Melodic Death Metal, but the lack of consistent double-bass and slower than average blast-beats and tempos means it's not fully Black Metal either. "As Rome Burns" dips into the more sweeping Viking/Folk Metal feel, but it never quite gets there either. Even though I'm not great at discerning genres yet, I would've settled on some strange hybrid child of Black, Viking, and Progressive. 

But of course since I saw it was tagged as Folk by a majority of people I can definitely see where they're coming from. 

The vocal style and riff structure is very unique and smooth! I don't instantly dig it as much as you did judging by your other post giving it a 4.5, but this could easily grow on me. It's just so clean! It really gives off that Irish folk vibe without necessarily using other string instruments or something like bagpipes to force it, which is cool.

Verisäkeet is probably my favorite Folk/Black Metal album that I've heard so far, so this one will be easy for me since I've listened to this MANY times already. I'm back from vacation and am going to have to dig deep to get all these reviewed starting tomorrow!

I'm definitely guilty of the "rate after one listen" mentality, but I always listen twice or more if I'm writing a review or giving an opinion past "I gave it this score". There's so many new albums always coming out that I wouldn't be able to keep up if I give every single release 3+ listens, especially for the ones that I know that I won't like to begin with.

My 4 ratings tend to change the most, either dropping to a 3.5 or moving up to a 4.5.

I've been learning to just embrace the bias most of the time. As long as you have an idea of what exactly your bias is, you can make educated decisions on what you think is better than what. It's cool seeing wildly different lists depending on the person, especially when they can explain their biases well.

Sometimes I'll leave an album at a lower score because I think I'll overrate it compared to other releases, example being this year's Gloryhammer, but that happens very rarely. 

I'm gonna take a risk and rec Elvenking's Reader of the Runes. It's still very much Power Metal with a ton of folk thrown in there, but it has the most serious and heaviest riffs of all the albums on my list. It even has some harsh vocals and tremolo picking on "Malefica Doctrine", so it's more varied than other Power Metal albums. It's still very much fantasy DnD metal though, so if that's going to be a sticking point for you then I'll just have to take the L here. 

A lot of Black Metal this year. An overflowing amount. Here's what I ended up with for a Top 10:

1. Funereal Presence – Achatius 

2. Serpent Column – Mirror In Darkness 

3. Saor – Forgotten Paths 

4. Obsequiae – The Palms of Sorrowed Kings 

5. Deathspell Omega – The Furnaces of Palingenesia 

6. Stormlord – Far 

7. Grima – Will of the Primordial 

8. Mgla – Age of Excuse 

9. Fen – The Dead Light 

10. The Great Old Ones – Cosmicism 

Devin Townsend and Wilderun absolutely crushed it this year, but here's the rest of the 2019 Progressive Metal Top 10 from me:

1. Devin Townsend – Empath 

2. Wilderun – Veil of Imagination 

3. Opeth – In Cauda Venenum (Metal In-Spirit)

4. Tool – Fear Inoculum 

5. Soen – Lotus 

6. Liturgy –  H.A.Q.Q. 

7. Evergrey – The Atlantic 

8. Myrath – Sehili 

9. Richard Henshall – The Cocoon

10. Alcest – Spiritual Instinct

As said in my other post from this year, it's a great time to be a Power Metal fan. There were also a ton of great straight up heavy metal releases this year too, so here's my Top 10:

1. Avantasia – Moonglow 

2. Twilight Force – Dawn of the Dragonstar 

3. Elvenking – Reader of the Runes – Divination 

4. Gloryhammer – Legends From Beyond the Galactic Terrorvortex

5. Turilli/Lione Rhapsody – Zero Gravity 

6. Lunar Shadow – The Smokeless Fires 

7. Galneryus – Into The Purgatory 

8. Tyr – Hel 

9. Beast in Black – From Hell with Love 

10. Steel Prophet – The God Machine 

I ended up listening to a surprising amount of Death Metal this year. While it may not have the most deep cuts, here's 10 from me:

1. Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race 

2. Tomb Mold – Planetary Clairvoyance 

3. Insomnium – Heart Like A Grave

4. Pulchra Morte – Divina Autem et Aniles 

5. Allegaeon – Apoptosis 

6. In Mourning – Garden of Storms 

7. Ossuarium – Living Tomb 

8. Hath – Of Rot and Ruin 

9. Belzebubs – Pantheon of the Nightside Gods 

10. Children of Bodom – Hexed 

Echoing Sonny's sentiments of 2019, here's 10 from me:

1. Inter Arma – Sulphur English

2. Cult of Luna – A Dawn to Fear 

3. Runemagick – Into Desolate Realms

4. Weeping Sores – False Confession 

5. Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard – Yn Ol I Annwn 

6. Troll – Legend Master 

7. Esoteric – A Pyrrhic Existence 

8. Lord Vicar – The Black Powder 

9. Waste of Space Orchestra – Syntheosis 

10. Asphodelus – Stygian Dreams

I listened to about 260 albums from 2019 so expect many more releases in the Clan specific top 10's. 2019 was such a fantastic year for new metal in all sub-genres.

1. Inter Arma – Sulphur English

2. Devin Townsend – Empath 

3. Wilderun – Veil of Imagination 

4. Avantasia – Moonglow

5. Cult of Luna – A Dawn to Fear

6. Funereal Presence – Achatius

7. Twilight Force – Dawn of the Dragonstar

8. Runemagick – Into Into Desolate Realms

9. Weeping Sores – False Confession

10. Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race

I should probably check out Ministry next, I've heard their name tossed around enough and I've never checked them out. 

Runemagick

Runemagick had one of my favorite 2019 releases with Into Desolate Realms, so I'm currently chipping away at their discography. They seem to release very regularly, about once a year, and their sound doesn't seem to change all too much, but I'm not complaining. 

While I can say I enjoyed Earth Crisis more than modern Metalcore, this was just absolutely exhausting for me. I can appreciate the aggression and anger as well as keeping more to hardcore punk with more of an edge, but something just doesn't draw me into this. 

I think I look for more than just pure aggression when I listen to Metal or any kind of music, which is why I stray away from genres like Industrial, Metalcore, and Slam/Grind. There has to be something more substantial within the music for me to really connect with it, rather than just looking for raw evil and anger. Thankfully Earth Crisis does have something more substantial with some dirty riffs and climactic breakdowns that I found way more interesting and heavy than something like Bring Me The Horizon or Parkway Drive, so at least I can rest easy knowing that 90's Metalcore kicks the teeth out of 2010's Metalcore. 

Still though, I can't say I'll be going back to this by my own volition. 

From this release alone, I can already tell Industrial is going to be the toughest metal genre for me to crack. It's not like I dislike this, I just find it boring and grating, which is sort of the point of the genre to begin with. I think I need to keep listening to other Industrial releases and see if I can find my niche in it and what makes the most sense to me. 

After my first listen of Selfless, though, initial impressions are that it was boring, repetitive, and definitely not for me. I'll probably force another one or two listens of this at some point since I do want to try and edge into the Industrial side of metal, but this was rough for me. I may check out Streetcleaner before going back to this one just to get some kind of comparison. 

Although they've been gaining some more traction, I still believe Caligula's Horse to be underrated. I've been pushing these guys for years now, especially when I first started my college radio gig. While they may not be the most technically impressive and don't push too many boundaries, they're overall one of the most universally liked bands I've ever come across. If someone doesn't listen to Metal in the slightest and they want a recommendation from me, I always start with Caligula's Horse, and so far they have a 100% success rate. Since In Contact was released in 2017 I'm expecting an album in 2020 and I couldn't be more excited. 

Speed Metal Rush

An infectiously fun album cover to cover. It was a pleasant surprise hearing a female vocalist on an album like this who has the pipes to really drive the act home. When I first put this on I could have sworn I was listening to an alternate universe version of Rush, which is still a compliment in my book. Maniac slows down a little too much after the two blistering openers "Max Overload" and "Maniac", with "Black Car" and "America" being noticeably less energetic. "Bottoms Up" also overstays its welcome just a bit, but any of these songs are far from being bad. All of the ingredients of great Speed Metal are here, from the tight and accurate 16th note shredding to the intense and heavy chugging of "Prince Of Hell And Fire", which turned out to be my favorite track in the end.

Although they're overlooked, Acid delivers a fantastic Speed Metal performance for its time with a unique and talented female vocalist at the front of well written Speed Metal riffs.

Fvneral Fvkk - Carnal Confessions (2019)

As I've been trying to round out my year end listening, I came across this Doom Metal album I skipped over. Despite the awful name, this despondent Doom release is top notch, keeping to a heavier more traditional style with plenty of crunchy riffs with a slightly monotone but effective vocalist that sounds suspiciously like Volbeat at times. I think the package works very well and delivers some powerful tracks with better than average lyrics.  

I may take time to write a full review later since I found this album very interesting, but I gotta say this was a strangely charming release with some well done electronic experiments. It's absolutely silly with the cartoon-character-like growling vocals and experimental synth-pop parts, but that didn't turn me off from the album at all. I've never heard anything quite like this and it's definitely a product of its early-80's time period, but I think that's what makes it so enjoyable. The chugging and riffs in the back of all the weird experimental stuff are engaging and compliment whatever the hell else is going on remarkably well. 

I think this is one of those releases that just shouldn't work on paper, but in practice it comes together to form a strangely alluring piece of music. This will definitely be my go-to if for some reason anyone wants to know how to properly use cheesy 80's synth in a strangely metal way. 

Since my review was short I'll just copy and paste it here for discussion sake:

A Molten Foundation

Bestial Devastation shows the remarkable beginnings of a young Sepultura as they recorded this fiery but disheveled EP in just two days. While obviously messy and laden with performance issues, the amount of ideas and concepts for an even darker and more aggressive take on Thrash Metal is ambitious and impressive. I think their ambition got the best of them as they struggle to keep up with the intense tempos and compositions that require the band to play perfectly on time together, but the messiness on an already lower quality EP adds that classic grime that early Death Metal thrives on. It's raw, furious, and somewhat exciting even by today's standards. Certain parts and melodies sometimes just end out of nowhere and could have been written better and expanded more, but for what Sepultura had to work with at the time the riffs and solos that come out of Bestial Devastation are more than sufficient. Not to mention the drummer goes absolutely nuts on the entire album, showing that Thrash style drumming can be expanded upon to hit even harder than it already did. A fun but definitely dirty EP that shouldn't be skipped over when looking at the classics of Death Metal.

This track (and the entire album, honestly) has been my go-to for one of the worst things I've ever heard. I feel like this is how metal sounds to people who really dislike metal. 

I read over Daniel's review after giving this a listen and I'm inclined to agree, this is some high quality, straight up and to the point early 80's heavy metal with a fantastic vocalist. I have a soft spot for that powerful but high pitched wailing that legends like Dio and Halford were and are so adept at. It's a shame that Avigal was only around for one album and never really caught a big break. Seems like he has released a solo venture, but not much else past his 80's Dutch heavy metal days. 

This album just has that heavy metal attitude about it that a lot of other bands like them fail to capture. I don't think there are many standout tracks, but there aren't any lackluster ones either, the album is great through and through. "Diamond Dreamer" and "Message From Hell" sound exactly like premier 80's heavy metal songs that could still be rocking out on classic rock radio stations, but for some reason got completely skipped over. 

While Picture doesn't reinvent anything or create anything particularly fantastic on Diamond Dreamer, the quality of the entire album definitely rivals some of the greats of that time, which is no easy feat. 

I really thought that I'd enjoy this more than Hammerheart, but by listening to them both back to back they evened out for me. Cleaning up the production for the guitar tone and drums makes Twilight of the Gods sound infinitely better than Hammerheart, but it also makes it lose that dirty edge that Bathory's old production had which helped to sell the Viking theme. Twilight of the Gods sounds like it's telling the tales of Gods rather than the mere mortals present on Hammerheart. The dirty old production is replaced with full and clean sounding guitar tones and bass rhythms, distant but bombastic sounding drums, and folky but powerful acoustics, creating a more familiar atmosphere for me in terms of viking and folk metal. 

While I don't think it should be overlooked and it has its place in the classic Bathory discography, I think that it's definitely missing something compared to Hammerheart or Blood Fire Death. With the entire album being rather low tempo and plodding, it loses a bit of its luster after the first three or four songs. It's very well written and certainly epic, but Hammerheart and Bathory's other albums had more spice to them. 

Full review is posted on the album page, but man this was a tough one. 

I gave it about 4 and a half full listens and I just never cracked it. The more I listened to it the more awkward it became as a whole, just not for me. When their style worked it worked really well, like on "Faster Disco", "Chinese Arithmetic", and "We Care A Lot", but everything else ended up sounding...awkward. That's always the word that I kept coming back to when trying to write out the review. 

Richard Henshall - The Cocoon (2019)

Fairly dense Progressive Metal from the guitarist of Haken. The first half of the album is well performed and written but run-of-the-mill heavier prog metal, although that hardly means it's bad. Intricate solos and time signature changes galore form the silken backbone of this concept album and I quite enjoy it since I'm a sucker for self-indulgent prog metal. 

The second half of the album takes a few more risks that sometimes pay off and sometimes...don't. "Twisted Shadows" has a mean Dream Theater guitar solo tribute as Jordan Rudess pays a visit as well as some other well known prog musicians to form a pretty star-studded cast. 

I've posted my review on the album page itself, but I'll summarize quickly for here. 

A lot of the Doom Metal I've listened to hasn't been traditional, so this album is like stepping into a time machine and having to reorient my expectations when it comes to composition and guitar tone. The guitar work was fantastic, but I wish the production and other effects, such as the vocal echo and reverb as well as the poorly mixed drums, didn't muddy it up so much. I enjoyed pretty much every riff, especially the somewhat progressive-psych insanity of "Voyage To Hell", but everything else didn't give me that distinct Doom Metal vibe that I was expecting. When it tried to create some atmosphere with synths or effects, it came off as somewhat misguided and annoying rather than atmospheric and gripping. "17 Day" almost gets there, but the synth effects at the end taking up so much space and pushing all other sounds back really put me off. 

I should re-listen to Firepower apparently, because everyone except me seems to really like that album. I listened to it quite a few times last year and at the time just didn't get much out of it, but since then I've gone through pretty much all of their discography over again so maybe I'll get something different out of it.

It's always great to see that a legendary band is still making music, but I'd rather see a band like Preist go out on a "swan song" album like Firepower that fans really enjoyed rather than another attempt to capture what they had before. It sounds like they're really enthusiastic still so I'll slide over into the "high hopes" side of this. 

Equillibrium (pre-2014) - Rekreator is quite possibly my favorite metal album of all time. (Sagas is a close second, Rekreator just grabs me more personally) Symphonic Folk Metal at the absolute best.  New album is horrific, don't waste your time with it. 

I actually enjoyed Sagas more, but Rekreator is still a great album. I think I liked the folkier and more varied style of Sagas, whereas Rekreator felt safer and more straight up metal focused. There were more standout and memorable moments on Sagas for me personally. They're definitely two of the best examples of straight up Folk Metal I've heard though, can't believe I didn't go back and check out older Equilibrium sooner. 

Korpiklaani

Netherbird

Thanks!

Rings of Saturn

Eye of the Enemy

Great to see some new people migrating all their stuff and getting the walls of requests back in action!

Alter Bridge (2019 Release) (Up in the air to whether you would consider this metal)

Lacuna Coil (2019 Release)

BABYMETAL (2019 Release)

The Raven Age

Thanks!

I'll be checking out Equilibrium sometime today probably, since the only stuff I've heard from them has been Waldschrein and onward. I'm glad we can both agree that their new 2019 album is absolute garbage. 

The rare Revolution Requests from me:

Crown the Empire

The Dark Element (It says Symphonic/Power metal, but there is a LOT of synth in Songs the Night Sings)

Korn (2019 Release)

Equilibrium (2019 Release)

Thank you!

Hell yeah, I believe I posted about Wilderun somewhere else already. This album as absolutely incredible, it skyrocketed to the Top 3 of 2019 for me.