Xephyr's Forum Replies

October 2022

1. Borealis – “Forgotten Forever” (from “Fall From Grace”, 2017)

2. Saviour Machine – “A World Alone” (from “Saviour Machine”, 2004) [Submitted by Andi]

3. Sacred Outcry – “Legion of the Fallen” (from “Damned for All Time”, 2020)

4. Pharaoh – “By the Night Sky” (from “The Longest Night”, 2006)

5. Stormrider – “The Patroller" (from "Heavy Metal Machine”, 2018)

6. Rusty Cooley – “War of the Angels” (from “The Alchemists", 2002)

7. Amebix – “Chain Reaction” (from “Monolith”, 1987) [Submitted by Daniel]

8. Manilla Road – “The Deluge - Eye of the Sea, The Drowned Lands, Engulfed Cathedral” (from “The Deluge”, 1986)

9. Blind Guardian – “Damnation” (from “The God Machine", 2022)

10. Manticora – "Enigma” (from “8 Deadly Sins”, 2005)

11. Trial – “In the Highest" (from “Feed the Fire", 2022)

12. Acid Blade – “King Killer” (from “Power Dive", 2022)

13. Paladin – “The River Dragon Has Come” (from “Anamnesis”, 2019)

14. Delain – “See Me in Shadow” (from “Lucidity", 2006)

15. Gloryhammer – “Fly Away” (from “Fly Away" 2022)

16. Leaves' Eyes – “Hymn to the Lone Sands” (from “Symphonies of the Night", 2013)

17. Judicator – “Lucid Nightmare” (from “At the Expense of Humanity", 2015)

18. Stratovarius – “Voice of Thunder" (from “Survive”, 2022)

I recognize NONE of these. But the Mickey Mouse hand speaks to me. 

I'll take Akth Ganaheth, Crowned In Shadows.

Wowza, lot to go over here. 

1. I'd like to offer that virality and popularity are different when it comes to examples like Metallica or Ozzy being played at football or hockey events. Sure it's exposure for the Metal genre, but those riffs and songs that any layman would get excited for are played just because they're catchy and make people chant things. The riff to "Seven Nation Army" is still being used at a ton of events and I don't think that necessarily equates to any argument regarding the current popularity (or lack thereof) of Alternative Rock. It's very cool to hear, but I think it falls in line with Daniel's thoughts; no one is jumping out of their seats and getting hype for Deathspell Omega, Oranssi Pazuzu, or Vektor, although Gojira and Mastodon have been able to win over the mainstream crowd quite a bit recently. Even then, those bands' careers still started 20-ish years ago!

2. Going off of that, I do think that Metal is more popular than its ever been just due to the ease of access of Spotify, YouTube, insert the rest of the social media platforms here. The ability to share and discover bands is at an all-time high and people LOVE seeking out random Metal playlists for their workouts without necessarily delving much deeper. However, I think that if you want to talk about the "Metal Scene" as a whole, it's the most divided its ever been in terms of where the traffic goes. You have nerds like us who will throw out names like Imperial Triumphant, Kaatayra, Bell Witch, and Blut Aus Nord for impressive bands that have an impressive modern album catalogue, but we're a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the Metal crowd who divides itself much like our Clan system. After all, someone is giving bands like Sabaton, In Flames, Unleash The Archers, Epica, and Nightwish millions of views on YouTube and while Power Metal is definitely more popular in the mainstream right now, other genres like Metalcore, more Melodic styles of Death Metal, and some Progressive Metal still have horse in the race of vying for listeners. In short I think that there are more people listening to Metal than ever, but no one can really agree on a so-called mega-band anymore. 

3. For the original question, though, I'm someone who has never really made Metal music part of my societal identity. Metal is definitely a part of my own identity and how I interact culturally, but it never drove my opinions or who I associate with in your original "Metal is for the working class" statement. That being said, I think Metal has reached a point where the more accessible stuff appeals to the wider crowd and people won't look at you funny, and the more "extreme" stuff that we tend to listen to mostly gets a "wow I hate this" instead of a "you're a lesser person for liking this". Metal shows are still packed with people that are passionate about the music, but there's definitely a hard divide between the people who are ready to go into the pit and throw shoulders; the entire crowd almost never gets involved. Smaller shows are more about enjoying the music with likeminded people instead of punching each other, especially since it gets dangerous when there aren't enough bodies around to cushion falls or trips. I always have a fun time at shows but I have to choose my battles as Metal tends to attract bigger "tough guys" due to the moshing aspect; I'm in good shape but 6'3", 220+ lbs is a bit out of my weight class. I also tend to be wary of some Metalcore/Deathcore/Death Metal shows as some of the fans are a bit too aggressive for me, throwing spinkicks and punches around for the adrenaline rush doesn't exactly make someone like me feel safe, even though 99% of the crowd is considerate when throwing shoulders. 

Most concert goers are there for a good time though, with crowds for lesser known, but still very talent bands like Allegeaon or Black Crown Initiate sporting all sorts of "underground" band shirts like Wilderun. The overall atmosphere, for me at least, has always been a few hours of escape to enjoy music with likeminded individuals in a way that only Metal concerts can provide, but I can't say I've felt it go as deep as you've said, Sonny. Maybe that's just my personality, but it kind of ends with the music, which is fine for me, if that makes sense. I also can't really say that the Metal concert-goer scene is very diverse either, with shows attracting mostly younger to middle-aged white males, at least in my part of East Coast USA. Hopefully that helps further the discussion in the way you were hoping, Sonny.

I'm back from vacation and stayed in a Hard Rock Hotel, they don't exactly have the most...Metal-centric collection but I did come across a very cool Anthrax guitar they had in their massive collection of stuff littered around.

Big fan of the Sons of Kehmet album, I definitely need to go back to that one. It was brought up in an album-club type thing a few years ago and I got a ton of listens out of it; it hit the right spot for someone who doesn't listen to too much jazz overall. I think the only problem with the album's full runtime is that a few tracks feel derivative of others, but like you said it's still a great time.

I've been listening to The God Machine pretty much all week and I have to agree that it's a massive comeback for Blind Guardian, not sure where these "fan club" guys are getting their info from. I've already spun this album more times than Beyond the Red Mirror, At the Edge of Time, and A Twist in the Myth combined and it hasn't lost any of its energy, but I'm not sure that it quite compares to their 1990's material. It's definitely not a rehash to echo Rexorcist's viewpoint, but with Somewhere Far Beyond and Imaginations From the Other Side being two of my favorite albums of all time, this one doesn't quite reach that legendary status. I may go back and forth on this since it's hard for me to be objective with Blind Guardian, but it's easily their best album since Nightfall in Middle-Earth and may even surpass it due to its more straightforward and rewarding approach. The riffs and songwriting are incredible throughout, Hansi's vocals have refined to a point where he still has the aggression of his 1990's material but has noticeably more control over his voice, and the consistency of the entire band is great. But...I can't help but feel the album doesn't quite compare to their best material. "Secrets of the American Gods" has definitely grown on me considering it was one of the tracks initially keeping The God Machine at a 4/5 for me, but I can't say it's exactly strong considering its long runtime. "Let It Be No More" pales in comparison to their older ballads and "Destiny" is a pretty lackluster end to an awesome album. 

This is me being nitpicky at the end of the day, since Blind Guardian is one of the only bands to have more than one 5 out of 5 on my ratings. Easily one of, if not the best, Power Metal releases of 2022 and I doubt it'll be dethroned by the end of the year at this rate. Blind Guardian has shown that they've still got it in the best of ways, even though some of the tracks don't really jive with me in the way that their older material did. Incredibly glad to see one of my favorite bands still able to belt out a fantastic release after so long. I have a feeling I'm gonna keep this one in rotation for quite a while; already 5 or 6 listens in. 

4.5/5

Adorior - Author of Incest

I won't be able to do a full review right away, but I can at least make my outline and give a pretty detailed breakdown of this one.

I mostly chose this one as a joke to push myself out of my reviewing comfort zone and while that's still the case, Adorior are a bit more familiar than I originally thought. Despite being based in the UK, this group features one of the guitarists from Destroyer 666 and it’s very apparent from the riffing structure and overall production that band was a massive influence, since Destroyer’s two big albums came out a few years earlier. This makes their more extreme Blackened Thrash / almost War Metal style make a ton of sense given how close knit the Australian scene seems; these guys have a ton of different projects under their belt including Bestial Warlust, whose names I've heard tossed around a bit. I'm only familiar with Destroyer 666 but the high tempo aggression that I recognize from them is all too present in Author of Incest.

In addition the vocalist, who goes by Melissa, is one of the more surprising performances in this extreme Black Metal hybrid genre. Very cool to hear a woman step up to the plate, especially in an album like this. She's really trying hard to sell the evil atmosphere as much as possible and she's pretty successful at it, since this whole album legitimately makes me uncomfortable after a while. I'm sure that's a positive for people who are more into this kind of thing and while I want to spin it as such, I can't say it helps Adorior's case for me. The evil laughs, the spat out lyrics, and the varied sheiks and impromptu yells all work with what Author of Incest is trying to do, but it gets to be a bit much for me. 

This album is mostly trying to be as brutal and as shocking as possible, but not in a cheap or easy sort of way. It's a massive conglomeration of Black, Death, and Thrash ideas that come together in a shockingly technical style, but I think that's part of the reason it's bounced off of me a bit. The whole album is a huge burst of aggression, but certain tracks like "Birth of Disease" and "Vitriolic Megalomaniac" are over 8 minutes long and feel like they never want to end. Most of the songs on here are extended past where you'd expect and I feel like they're close to getting to that Tech Death zone where the length of the songs becomes a "feature", but the approach is so straightforwardly brutal that I'm entirely done listening to it after "To Split A Lamb". I'm still very impressed by the guitar work and overall production on this one though, it sounds absolutely massive and the Destroyer 666 guitarist basically never runs out of ferocious riffs and ideas to transition between. The scope and variety of the vocals help to keep the album moving and interesting too.

Overall I definitely didn’t hate this as much as I thought I would, I think it’s a hidden gem for people who like more aggressive, almost War-Metal stuff, but I can’t see myself going back to it and getting much more out of it than past two or three listens. I don’t think it’s that deep and the theatrics were getting old despite the performances and ideas being good. Just a bit too brutal for my fragile soul, I suppose.

3/5

Sad Wings Of Destiny was kind of shocking to go back to as someone who never really listened to too much Judas Priest; I'd agree that it's a decent benchmark. I think there's a lot of back and forth for a lot of Scorpions content as well, since those Guns N' Roses adjacent Hard Rock/Hair Metal bands seem to really toe the line from a modern perspective. 

I don't find myself listening to a lot of straight up Heavy Metal these days though and that's where I think a lot of these genres start to get into a real grey area as Metal has evolved. I'll always name drop Caio Lemos from Kataayra and multiple other projects though, as he's recently been taking Black/Avant-Garde Metal songwriting tendencies and paring them with musical characteristics that go against Metal's fundamental definition. The fully acoustic and Brazilian Folk inspired Só quem viu o relâmpago à sua direita sabe and the even more egregious Inpariquipê have this strange sense that it feels like you're listening to something that could be considered Metal, but the content itself says otherwise. It's an entirely different case rather than finding the sweet spot where Hard Rock rocks hard enough to be considered Heavy Metal and sadly I'm not enough of a genre enthusiast to really get into the weeds, unless it comes up in a review.

I mean, who am I to refuse something like Author of Incest? I'm sure it'll be top quality, no way this'll backfire.

September 2022

1. Persuader – “Twisted Eyes” (from “When Eden Burns”, 2006)

2. Blind Guardian – “Violent Shadows” (from “Violent Shadows”, 2022)

3. Fellowship – “Atlas” (from “The Saberlight Chronicles”, 2022) 

4. Ravenous E.H. – “Bridgeburner” (from “Hubris”, 2021)

5. Falconer – “The Clarion Call" (from "Chapters from a Vale Forlorn”, 2002)

6. Pagan Altar – “Samhein” (from “Mythical & Magical", 2006) [Submitted by Daniel]

7. Witchkiller – “Day of the Saxons” (from “Day of the Saxons - EP”, 1984)

8. W.A.S.P. – “Mean Man” (from “The Headless Children”, 1989)

9. Freedom Call – “Metal Is For Everyone” (from “Master of Light", 2016) [Submitted by Andi]

10. The Sword – "Arrows in the Dark” (from “Warp Riders”, 2010)

11. Avantasia – “The Moonflower Society" (from “The Moonflower Society", 2022)

12. Running Wild – “Black Hand Inn” (from “Black Hand Inn", 1994)

13. Steelwing – “Full Speed Ahead!” (from “Zone of Alienation”, 2012)

14. Grave Digger – “Excalibur” (from “The Middleage Trilogy", 2002)

15. Tad Morose – “Anubis” (from “Modus Vivendi" 2004)

16. Civil War – “Brother Judas” (from “The Killer Angels", 2013)

17. Impellitteri – “Fly Away” (from “Answer To The Master", 2004) 

18. Stormwitch – “Odins Ravens" (from “Bound to the Witch”, 2018)

19. Sacred Rite – “High Society" (from “Resurrection”, 2007)

20. Kamelot – “The Spell” (from “Karma”, 2001) 

21. Metal Church – “Over My Dead Body” (from “The Dark”, 1986)

22. Marlokarpatan - "V Okresnem Rybniku Hastrman Uz Po Staroca Vycina" (from "Nordkarpatenland", 2017)

Could the strangely niche album The Alchemists released by Liquid Note Records be added please? It's not all metal but there's enough tracks that are Guardians/Neoclassical shredfests that it earns its place among the other guitar shredder albums. 

RYM link below as the album is quite difficult to find.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/various-artists/the-alchemists/

Sorry to throw a wrench into this, just got home to check the site, but I could try doing a North one? I can just go last, doesn't bother me. It's been hard to think about music reviews lately so maybe something that forces me to be creative will help me with my writing process.

I was holding off on checking out Gnosis since there wasn't a whole lot of buzz around it. Felt like it was going to be just another instrumental album of sorts, but consider me intrigued Sonny. I've enjoyed Russian Circles in the past but they never really stuck. Maybe this'll be the one, I've got it lined up for Monday probably. 

There are a ton of Metal classics that I've missed since I tend to gear my listening more towards newer releases, and Close To A World Below was one of them. I'm usually pretty torn when it comes to renowned, "indisputable" classics since I never want to psyche myself out and be amazed by it because, well, of course it's going to be good. I mean, I've listened to a ton of modern and quite a few classic Death Metal albums, so what could Immolation have done back at the turn of the century? 

A whole lot, it turns out. This album is an absolute beast and is worth all the band wagoning. 

4.5/5

As a Devin Townsend fan and as someone who loves Empath, Deconstruction was still a bit of a sucker punch since I'm not too familiar with the middle portion of his discography. I always knew his style was overblown from Empath and Transcendence, but it took me a few years to eventually go back to Ocean Machine, Terria, or other albums like Accelerated Universe to get the full picture of Devin's music. Turns out he was a nutjob (in an endearing way) for way longer than I thought, since Empath was my first foray into the more insane and eclectic brand of Devin's music. I knew that Ziltoid was a thing but haven't gotten around to it, but I didn't realize that Empath wasn't exactly breaking new ground in the way I thought it did after listening to Deconstruction this month. All of the zaniness that I loved about Empath is shown off in full force here, but it's definitely more aggressive and a bit less mature. Devin's brand of sensory overloading walls of sound have always entertained me, but I'd say Deconstruction has more intrigue and interesting songwriting than his other, similar albums. 

This post was going to be about how Deconstructed fell into the same bin as most of Devin's other albums for me, but as I put off writing this because I couldn't quite gather my thoughts, I found myself listening to it more and more. To be honest, it's basically like watching a car crash or some embarrassing stand up comedy act that you can't look away from. It's such a stupid album in some truly irredeemable ways, but at the same it's it's incredibly good at being stupid that I've come full circle with it. Hell, it was apparently so stupid that I missed every single guest vocalist on here until I read Andi's post. I know my audio/voice recognition is really bad but this was a new low for me. I think part of that is because Devin is, in fact, a very talented vocalist with a ton of range so I didn't really notice it, but also because there's so much going on in each song that you hardly have time to figure out whether that random growl in the background sounded like Opeth or not. Once I wrapped my head around the different guests and their places in each song, the album as a whole got much more enjoyable as I'm always a fan of all-star lineups, for the most part. 

As other reviews have said this album is definitely an exercise in excess and throwing a gigantic middle finger to the expectation of professionalism in music. Granted I definitely wish there was a bit more professionalism here, considering I'm never a fan of toilet or fart noises. I'm sure there's some metaphor you could figure out regarding the music industry or the music scene in general, but Devin's antics tend to get the better of him throughout the entire album. Thankfully there are enough great riffs and soundscapes to make this a standout in his discography for me, but it's going to be an acquired taste no matter how you look at it. 

I've been horribly busy recently so trying to come up with things to say about albums has been the least of my worries, hopefully stuff like this will get me to be better about stream of consciousness writing because trying to form an opinion about this album has my head spinning. 

4/5

Even though I apparently enjoyed Epitaphe's debut quite a bit, I have zero recollection of it after rating it fairly highly at a 4. Something about immensely crushing Death Doom, regardless of how good it is, never quite allows me to go back to it with any sort of frequency. This follow-up has had way more replay-ability for me and due to the additions that Sonny listed, it's way more in line with my personal tastes than the debut. There's a ton to unpack through its drawn out songwriting, but I've found it to be all well worth it and I feel like I still haven't really gotten past the surface level of it at this point. Definitely one for me to go back to and give some more proper time before the end of the year. 

4.5/5

Blind Guardian will probably always be my favorite as well, they just have everything I love about the genre. They've been hit or miss past their 1990's run but have never been bad in my opinion, save for the Legacy of the Dark Lands experiment, but I'm actually really excited for The God Machine to come out in a few weeks. It sounds like it has some serious potential for a band that's almost going into their 35th year.

I've been doing some necessary catchup this week after binging Fellowship's debut album for a review and checking out Falconer's debut and follow-up, since I enjoyed their final album From a Dying Ember a ton. It's crazy how Falconer found their signature sound right off the rip and how well put together it all is. Chapters From A Vale Forlorn is a bit more varied and showcases their unique vocals in a more pronounced way, but the debut is still great in its straightforward approach. If anything, Chapters... was a pleasant surprise since Falconer's debut is the album that gets most of the attention, it seems. I'd have to go back to From a Dying Ember again but it still might remain my favorite since I think it does the best job of harnessing all of Falconer's different aspects and leans into the medieval fantasy elements just a bit more. 

Falconer - 4/5

Chapters From a Vale Forlorn - 4/5

Gave this one last listen today and I gotta agree, was expecting a bit more out of Solider of Fortune. The album starts out with the killer "Soldier of Fortune", the passable "You Shook Me" which I honestly can't take too seriously since my brain's wires get insanely crossed with the AC/DC song, and the song that inspired this Feature choice "Danger of Love". The album then quickly derails with the run between "Twenty-Five Days" and "Long After Midnight"; "Demon Disease" is a pretty great closer as it goes back to what made the opener "Soldier of Fortune" great, but the rest of the album is a weirdly middling affair of Hard Rock influences and chorus structures that doesn't offer any standout tracks compared to the beginning of the album. It's not like "Faces in the Fire" or "Long After Midnight" are below average songs, but they also don't do anything spectacular either. I'm not a big fan of "Red Light Shooter" and the two ballads don't really hold up for repeated listens, so Soldier of Fortune is basically a singles album for me. I wasn't aware of the vocalist change before posting this, so maybe the earlier vocalist and style would be more interesting to me, like Morpheus said? Guess I'll have to check that out someday but for now, this is very passable Heavy Metal with a few notable tunes. 

3/5

I was legitimately about to shoot you a message when I saw the album on the front page, Ben. Checked it out last week as I was familiar with Oceans of Slumber and not only was I not exactly impressed either, it's easily has some of the least Metal attributes for something that has 3 Metal tags. I don't think it's a bad album by any means, but it's always confused me as to why Oceans of Slumber can't nail down any sort of interesting sound considering they have a talented singer and have had glimpses of good ideas in the past. I get more Blues/Soul out of the singer than anything, although I only listened to the album once so that may be off base as well. Still, Starlight and Ash should definitely be tagged as Non-Metal, I didn't realize that it had three metal tags, unsure what people are hearing.

Hi Daniel, I'd be interested to see if you've heard of this pair of early albums from the Swedish Death Doom band Runemagick. This was in my backlog for a very long time and now I'm just disappointed that I didn't check them out sooner; I knew they had more of a Death Metal edge in their early days and while it might not be as grimy as some pre-2000's Death Metal, that's only a positive for me given all the big riffs they have stuffed into these two albums. I feel like these two albums have some real quality stuff in them given how skipped over it seems they are.

September

Grima - "Giant's Eternal Sleep" from Frostbitten (7:35)

Saidan - "I Am the Witch" from Onryo II: Her Spirit Eternal (6:22)

September

 Tómarúm - "Condemned to a Life of Grief" from Ash in Realms of Stone Icons (10:32)

Imperial Triumphant - "Merkurius Gilded" from Spirit of Ecstasy (6:09)

Ashenspire - "The Law of Asbestos" from Hostile Architecture (8:32)

There seems to be a trend on rym of labelling any heavy metal record with a slower section or two or a downtuned guitar tone as doom. I listened to Ecclesia's 2020 album De Ecclesiæ Universalis also yesterday and that is another egregious example of an album labelled as doom metal which it clearly is not. Both of those albums would be far more at home in The Guardians than The Fallen. I would maybe ageee with Doom metal as a secondary at a push. 

I can agree with this, but it's a complicated gray area that I don't really have a massive interest in figuring out. It's interesting though because if I was creating the playlist for The Guardians, I don't think I would be able to put any of the tracks on there since they sound a bit too Fallen-y to my ears. "The Verge Of Time" and "And Then The Planets Will Align" would be the closest, just due to how energetic the tempos are compared to the rest of the album and the "soaring" vocals, and I can see where US Power Metal may come into discussion there. At the end of the day though I think it's such a weird blend of influences and songwriting styles that what you pull out of it will be very different from person to person.

I'm not entirely sure why but I kinda dig this. The vocalist doesn't get on my nerves at all, if anything his delivery is very unique and cool sounding. There are definitely some parts that make me wince a bit, but I think that's more on the songwriting than the guy's actual voice. Maybe because it's definitely closer to a Heavy Metal record due to the driving tempos and overall theatrics, but the extra Doomy elements and the synths give it a neat flair. I'm not incredibly impressed by it, I think it gets a bit old by "As Silence Grows Old" and the robotic interludes could have definitely used some more thought, but it's been keeping my attention this week so far. I sort of agree with Sonny that the Epic Doom elements might be a bit overstated, but that isn't really a problem for me personally; the choir and slower melodic sections add enough contrast to the product to keep it from being a free-wheeling Heavy Metal album. Despite being pretty straightforward and consistent with its atmosphere and approach, I think Danse De Noir takes a bit to unpack, so I'll have to see how I feel about it throughout the month. Cool pick, Morpheus.

3.5/5

August 2022

1. Blind Guardian – “Deliver Us From Evil” (from “Blood Of The Elves”, 2022)

2. Fer de Lance – “The Mariner” (from “The Hyperborean”, 2022)

3. Black Label Society – “Death March” (from “Mafia”, 2005) [Submitted by Daniel]

4. White Whizzard – “High Roller” (from “Over the Top”, 2010)

5. Slough Feg – “Street Jammer" (from "Hardworlder”, 2007)

6. Rage – “Light Into the Darkness” (from “Secrets in a Weird World", 1989) [Submitted by Morpheus]

7. Grave Digger – “Spirits of the Dead” (from “The Grave Digger”, 2001)

8. Avantasia – “The Wicked Rule the Night” (from “The Moonflower Society”, 2022)

9. GALNERYUS – “DESTINY” (from “RESURRECTION", 2010)

10. Fellowship – "Oak and Ash” (from “The Saberlight Chronicles”, 2022)

11. Iron Maiden – “Heaven Can Wait" (from “Somewhere In Time”, 2015 Remaster)

12. Stormwarrior – “Iron Gods” (from “Heading Northe", 2008)

13. Iron Savior – “Mindfeeder” (from “Condition Red”, 2002)

14. Mercyful Fate – “Burn In Hell” (from “9", 1999) [Submitted by Morpheus]

15. LOUDNESS – “Clockwork Toy” (from “Thunder In The East" 1985)

16. The Lightbringer of Sweden – “Skeletor” (from “Rise of the Beast", 2020)

17. Manticora – “Playing God” (from “8 Deadly Sins", 2005) [Submitted by Morpheus]

18. Wisdom – “War of Angels" (from “Marching for Liberty”, 2013)

19. Haunt – “Heroes" (from “Burst into Flame”, 2018)

20. Dark Moor – “Somewhere in Dreams” (from “Project X”, 2015) [Submitted by Andi]

21. Virgin Steele – “Through the Ring of Fire” (from “Hymns to Victory”, 2018)

22. Scanner - "Terrion" (from "Hypertrace", 1988)

Could Fellowship (UK) be added please? 

I've been listening to this album off and on for the past 2 months or so, since a coworker recommended it before it showed up here. I think I was a bit too harsh on it at first when I bantered back and forth with my coworker, immediately going to the canned analysis of "Wow this sure is a Deftones record!". After coming back to it here and there and letting it marinate for a bit, I agree that it's definitely more than just a Deftones case study, but I still couldn't get into it all that much. 

Thornhill leans into some of the more modern Indie/Alt Metal/Rock and Shoegazy tendencies that help to distinguish their style from their early 2000's influences. Their sound is a bit more playful and upbeat, coming off as a bit less aggressive than other similar styles. Their vocalist is less sultry than Deftones, but he still conveys a lot of passion with how soulful his varied range can sound. For some reason I view their style as a bit more mysterious sounding, although I can't quite explain what exactly that means. 

Overall I think "Casanova" is a prime example of how Thornhill's style is able to take influential source material and put their own direct spin on it. It's a great song through and through, although the ending is disappointing in my opinion. "Hollywood" is another highlight but the harsh vocals aren't used very well for my tastes. Other than that, "Raw" really isn't something that I enjoyed and after the creative instrumental interlude "Something Terrible Came With the Rain" the album kind of grinds to a halt for me. The final two songs didn't grip me in any way, so it ends on a pretty poor note. 

This is a weird one where I enjoy coming back to it for the first half, but then I just never get into it by the time the final few songs roll around. I can see why everyone's enjoying it and it's awesome to see this style make some waves thanks to a newer band, but I guess it just ain't for me. 

3/5

I wish I had more time to return to October Rust as I think having more memory of that album would have done me a few favors in figuring out an opinion on this one. I've found that I generally enjoy my time with Type O Negative, but I never rush back to them or really feel the need to, considering I haven't listened to a single song off of October Rust or any of their other albums after it was featured months ago. I kind of felt the same way about World Coming Down, although I think I can agree that it's a step down from October Rust. It's definitely a darker, more brooding album, with the interludes painting some dark and interesting pictures. However I don't think they were utilized in a cohesive enough way for me to really get into the album's atmosphere or supposed concept if there is any; some of the transitions out of them are pretty rough sounding. I think that Type O Negative plays to their strengths extremely well and still are one of my favorite Gothic Metal bands behind maybe Tiamat, with the vocals having a ton of range and variety that contribute to the songwriting way more than any other element. The fuzzy, kind of weak sounding production sounds fine for what they were going for in my opinion, as it straddles the gap between their more gloomy but shiny sounding sections and the more dark and chuggy ones. Most songs have a ton of small transitions between the two moods and while I think it sounds great, I didn't necessarily find it compelling for the entire album's runtime. 

I'm with Daniel in that the first half of the album is stronger than the second, with the first three "real" tracks (White Slavery, Everyone I Love Is Dead, and Who Will Save The Sane?) sucking me in rather well but the final three "real" tracks (Everything Dies, Pyretta Blaze, and All Hallows Eve) felt like they were overstaying their welcome. "World Coming Down" feels like a bit of a letdown considering its length, but "Creepy Green Light" is easily one of my favorites. I think this'll be another case of me not returning to this band for quite some time, but it's nice to know I can still enjoy some Gothic Metal every now and again.

3.5/4

but I can't help but f3el I'll drop my rating after a few more spins. 

Yup, I stand corrected. Origins just doesn't feel like it has the depth or character it needs to really stand out. Easily Saor's weakest album, even though I still enjoy listening to it. 

Dropped to a 3.5 from a 4.

These aren't ordered but it was real interesting going through my ratings and seeing how many bands had their breakout album on their 2nd or 3rd instead of their debut. Way more than I imagined, these were some of the most interesting ones I could find without listing any duplicates, since Devin Townsend, Emperor, Ne Obliviscaris, and Ahab would have made the list for me.

1. Neptunian Maximalism - Éons (2020)
2. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine (1992)
3. Blood Incantation - Starspawn (2016)
4. Opeth - Orchid (1995)
5. Cryptic Shift - Visitations From Enceladus (2020)
6. Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime (2021)
7. Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye (2003)
8. Altesia - Paragon Circus (2019)
9. Epiphanic Truth - Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species (2021)
10. Herzel - Le dernier rempart (2021)

I listened to this one in 2020 but it wasn't on the site yet, going to have to give it another listen but I remember not being too thrilled by it; I remember it being overly grating for some reason. 

July 2022

1. Tony MacAlpine – “Death of Roses” (from “Death of Roses”, 1983)

2. Iron Mask – “Demon's Child” (from “Hordes of the Brave”, 2005)

3. Ambush – “Master of Pain” (from “Firestorm”, 2014) [Submitted by Daniel]

4. HammerFall – “Steel Meets Steel” (from “Glory to the Brave”, 1997)

5. Nocturnal Rites – “Awakening" (from "New World Messiah”, 2004) 

6. Corrosion Of Conformity – “Born Again for the Last Time” (from “Wiseblood", 1996)

7. Black Sabbath – “Falling Off the Edge of the World” (from “Mob Rules”, 1981) [Submitted by Sonny]

8. Vitalij Kuprij – “Destination” (from “Extreme Measures”, 1998)

9. Maule – “Maule” (from “Maule", 2022)

10. Sonic Haven – "Vagabond” (from “Vagabond”, 2021)

11. Within Temptation – “Iron” (from “The Unforgiving”, 2011) [Submitted by Andi]

12. Nightwish – “Nemo” (from “Once", 2004)

13. Astral Doors – “Cloudbreaker” (from “Testament of Rock”, 2011)

14. Anvil – “Concrete Jungle” (from “Strength of Steel", 1987)

15. LOUDNESS – “Danger of Love” (from “Soldier of Fortune" 1989)

16. Cirith Ungol – “Master of the Pit” (from “King of the Dead", 1984)

17. Satan – “Luciferic” (from “Earth Infernal", 2022)

18. Wizard – “The Powergod" (from “Odin”, 2003)

19. Stratovarius – “Infinity" (from “Infinite”, 2010)

20. Warmen – “First of the Five Elements” (from “First of the Five Elements”, 2015)

21. Tyr – “Nine Worlds of Lore” (from “The Lay of Thrym”, 2011)

22. Iced Earth - "The Hunter" (from "The Dark Saga", 1996)

23. Nite - "Heliopolis" (from "Voices of the Kronian Moon", 2022)

24. The Ferrymen - "The Last Ship" (from "One More River to Cross", 2022)

I just began listening to Origins this morning and despite having many of the same issues as you Sonny, Saor ended up winning me over with this one. The shorter tracks definitely leave something to be desired when compared to his previous songwriting progressions and atmospheres, the "extreme" side of his music is FULLY gone on Origins compared to the half and half of Forgotten Paths, and the folk elements do feel a bit phoned in...but Folk Metal done well is such a rarity for me that I can't help but give this album praise for managing to be a more Folk-centric album that I've immediately wanted to come back to. It's definitely shallower than his previous work, with a lot of the album's progression coming from individual song transitions rather than having a full experience packed into a 20 minute track, but I still found myself really enjoying the full album experience despite all the criticisms I can make. Saor fanboying has won again, but I can't help but f3el I'll drop my rating after a few more spins. 

I should be fine with the Guardians playlist and such, I'll make sure to PM you if something comes up, thanks for asking

If it wasn't already apparent I'm going to be on a "hiatus" for a few months. I think I mentioned that I have an engineering exam coming up and now that it's 4 months out I've been buckling down and found out that there's no way my brain can handle learning all this new crap as well as thinking critically about music for reviews. I'll still be listening to a ton of music but I doubt I'll be penning too much stuff until this is all over with. 

Inanna - Void of Unending Depths (2022)

Chile continues to deliver with some excellent Death Metal that leans towards the progressive side of things, exactly how I like it. Very close to being a perfect example of the kind of Death Metal I'm most interested in, but the riffs and percussion lacks some punch from the mixing and production sometimes. Definitely interested in checking out their 2012 and 2008 albums as well, these guys might be one hell of a hidden gem.

Interesting way of doing it; an easy way to pull random albums definitely keeps it exciting. I'm sure I can speak for the rest of the frequent posters here that it's great to hear that the feature releases have been making their way into your collection, good luck!

July

Blut Aus Nord - "Keziah Mason" from Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses

Vehemence - "Au Blason Brule" from Ordalies

Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain (2022)

Never thought I'd be around these parts, but here we are I suppose. Even though the guttural vocals still rub me the wrong way sometimes, I've gotten a ton out of Artificial Brain's self-titled after a few initially rocky listens. Eventually it opened up and I've been enjoying my time with it as it's a swirling mess of chaotic passages and more than a few punchy riffs here and there. I'm surprising even myself with this one considering I really didn't like Artificial Brain's previous release. I don't think this is the start of something new for me, but I'm glad I'm starting to find a few albums in this genre that I genuinely enjoy, and I'm looking forward to spinning this one more throughout the rest of the year. 

4/5

As I'm familiar with most of these releases, I feel like I have to try and take a shot at this I guess. Pagan Black Metal has always been a pretty useless tag for me personally; whenever I see it I assume it's going to be some slightly more lo-fi Black Metal with a ton of tremolo progression with a lot of the melody coming from acoustic or other folky instruments. The fact that Paganism is attributed to the lyrics or themes never really did much to transform the music for me, as conventional Black Metal can commonly be (anti) religious in nature to begin with. I'm up for the discussion because to me Pagan Black Metal is on the heavier side of the spectrum spectrum of Folk Metal, leaning more towards traditional or atmospheric Black Metal songwriting styles while still using more traditional instruments or melodies and relishing in a more triumphant sound. Just like all other subgenres have their extremes, Pagan Black Metal is the opposite side of the coin to the Folk Metal that has people frolicking around at a Ren Faire with two pints of ale in their hand. I consider it to have a traditional or Atmospheric Black Metal primary and a Folk Metal secondary, not its own thing.

It definitely requires some experimentation because it obviously doesn't work the same for each of the Clan's playlists. 

I absolutely wouldn't use the same methodology if I was doing the playlists for The North or The Infinite; there's something about cheesy and bombastic Power/Symphonic Metal that feels more corny than usual if it's slotted in-between some Judas Priest or Iron Maiden.

I've found this playlist is pretty difficult to program due to the divide between Heavy Metal and Power/Symphonic, especially since I like creating playlists that flow between genres rather than jumping around. I'd rather program something that eases into the different genres so, like Sonny said, the final 45 minutes of the playlist isn't going to be something that everyone likes. At the same time, I think I'd rather keep doing this approach rather than randomly sprinkling different subgenres around so that people can skip past full sections instead of constantly getting interrupted by a style they don't like in-between stuff they're enjoying.

June 2022

1. Acid – “Hooked On Metal” (from “Acid”, 1983) 

2. Pharaoh – “I Am the Hammer” (from “The Longest Night”, 2006)

3. Angel Witch – “Angel of Light” (from “Angel of Light”, 2019) [Submitted by Sonny]

4. Megaton Sword – “Pristine War” (from “Pristine War”, 2019) 

5. Kamelot – “Wander" (from "Epica”, 2003) [Submitted by Daniel]

6. Power Quest – “Master of Illusion” (from “Master of Illusion", 2008)

7. Unlucky Morpheus – “The Black Death Mansion Murders” (from “evolution”, 2022)

8. Mercyful Fate – “Night of the Unborn” (from “Don't Break the Oath”, 1984)

9. Rage – “Death in the Afternoon” (from “Perfect Man (Deluxe Version)”, 1988)

10. Cloven Hoof – "Call of the Dark Ones” (from “Resist or Serve”, 2014)

11. Ozzy Osbourne – “No More Tears” (from “No More Tears (Expanded Edition)”, 1991) 

12. Lucifer – “Dreamer” (from “Lucifer II”, 2018)

13. Striker – “Phoenix Lights” (from “Stand in the Fire”, 2016)

14. Dionysus – “March for Freedom” (from “Anima Mundi”, 2004) 

15. Ostrogoth – “Queen of Desire” (from “Ecstasy and Danger" 1983)

16. Sanctuary – “Battle Angels” (from “Refuge Denied”, 1987)

17. Brainstorm – “Devil's Eye” (from “Midnight Ghost", 2018) 

18. Brothers of Metal – “Son of Odin" (from “Prophecy of Ragnarok”, 2017)

19. Beast In Black – “Zodd the Immortal" (from “Berserker”, 2017)

20. Blind Guardian – “Born in a Mourning Hall” (from “Imaginations from the Other Side”, 1995)

21. Sunrise – “The Bridge Across Infinity” (from “Equilibria”, 2021)

22. Ancient Bards - "To the Master of Darkness" (from "Soulless Child", 2011)

23. Avantasia - "The Wicked Symphony" (from "The Wicked Symphony", 2010)

Because I want to try and get through all the monthly features before leaving for a trip, I won't be able to give this any extra listens before giving some thoughts, which is a shame because I can tell this is an album that needs it. Dissonant, chaotic, dense, and slightly off-the-wall Black Metal is normally hit or miss for me, with stuff like Achatius really grabbing my attention and the rest of the stuff falling by the wayside. Onirik has piqued my interest in the short time I've spent with this album because it initially gives you the sense that it's just going to be a standard, more run-of-the-mill dense Black Metal album but then proceeds to veer off in a ton of different, but subtle paths that aren't immediately jaw dropping but are still interesting nonetheless. The suffocating production can leave some nuance to be desired at certain points but the seemingly out of place bass tone among the interwoven guitars becomes more and more compelling as its utilized in different ways as the album progresses. In a similar vein to Achatius, the lead guitar is always doing something, for better or worse. I think I could get a ton more out of this one on repeated listens so we'll have to see when I get back to it, since there's just too much going on to be fully absorbed initially. Definitely an album that requires insanely active listening and is made for people who enjoy that kind of thing, since many of the hard-hitting climaxes are well hidden amongst the dense songwriting. 

3.5/5

Hope everything turns out okay and none of the kids end up getting it, I've heard about enough families that managed not to spread it within their own homes so hoping that's how it works out for you guys.

I was a pretty big Contortionist fan when I first heard their 2017 album Clairvoyant and played that record into the ground for a year or so before checking out their previous records, with Language being noticeably heavier and just as good but their first two records seemed to be a bit lackluster in comparison. I guess I was a bigger Contortionist fan back when I first listened to Intrinsic as I think I have to drop my score from a 3.5 to a 3.0 after a quick relisten. There are some moments of brilliance in tracks like "Holomovement" and "Dreaming Schematic", which have the more progressive, dreamy-like qualities that I've always looked to The Contortionist for, but it all feels a bit messy when the Djent-y harsh stuff comes into play alongside all the other ideas. They show that they can make it work to some degree, like in "Cortical", but even then the transitions into the more melodic and progressive sections feels forced and choppy for the most part. With the pure Djent elements being the weakest link, I can't say it bodes well for Intrinsic as a full album experience. I still really enjoy The Contortionist so none of this is truly bad by any means, but it's a bit hard to go back and want to sit through all of the dull chug sections to just get progressive sections that are still weaker and less memorable than Clairvoyant or Language. Great band, pretty so-so album as they tried to find their unique sound.

3/5

I'd be super down with having a few tracks of cushion, I listen to enough of my own Guardians stuff each month but I don't venture out from my own Power Metal/whatever other bias I have. I feel like the playlists somewhat suffer from that, so any other input is appreciated.

It's been admittedly hard to keep up for me as I've only gotten more buried at work and my schedule after work has been insane since I'm practicing for an event at the end of the month, plus lifting/working out and trying to study for an exam, but I'm finding time. I'm glad everyone else is having a great time with compiling them and it shows in the quality, these playlists have become my go-to for throwing on during workouts and they were great driving partners until I decided to update my phone and now I don't have a headphone jack to plug an AUX into.  I don't pay for Spotify so I'm forced to listen to them on shuffle and they're still high quality for the most part, but a few dud tracks for such a rotating set of playlists are going to happen and that's sort of the fun of it in my opinion. 

I'm hoping I can carve out some more time to be more active after this month, I really enjoy it. Just can't make this a top priority right now, even though I'm still listening to a ton of music during work.

I'd just like to open up a discussion around the monthly clan playlists to see whether you're all enjoying the current format or would like to see some changes. Here's a few questions to consider:

1. How are you all enjoying them? Do you look forward to listening to & compiling them? I've been listening to more of them recently for workouts and such, so I enjoy having them each month. Compiling them is tough for me but I'm getting by, I think it'll be worth it in the long run.

2. Is the two hour length appropriate? I think ~20-25 tracks per month seems appropriate, which is what I end up with for The Guardians. Maybe certain clans like The North could use a slight extension due to longer track lengths overall.

3. Do you think monthly is the right release schedule? Would bi-monthly or quarterly be more suitable & encourage a higher quality of submissions? Could it be different for different clans? Even though it's more work, monthly seems to work out. I'd personally get tired of the same 2 hours of music for 2 full months.

4. Should we consider dissolving a couple of the less popular playlists altogether or would that potentially confuse things? Possibly reduce the length down to 1.5 or 1 hour for clans with less material. Data on the plays per month like Vinny said would be nice too, Spotify makes it hard to find smaller playlists so I don't have high hopes. 

5. Do we have the track submission limits right? Is there a better way to manage the compiling of the lists? 20 minutes for The North has been a bit restrictive for me but I think it works for how many people submit requests. 

5. Any other suggestions or comments? I just wish there was a better way to push Spotify playlists for engagement other than hustling/shilling, which I don't really have the energy nor want to do.