Xephyr's Forum Replies
When I write reviews I often use the blanket term Extreme Metal to mean the heavier and more grotesque offshoots from the main "Heavy Metal" genre established early on, normally starting with Black, Death, or more aggressive Thrash. Like in my Witches Hammer Damnation Is My Salvation review I use the term a bunch when talking about the Canadian Metal scene that band is from just because it's easier to say Extreme Metal rather than always having to explain the blend of Thrash, Black, and Death Metal that they play. It gives the reader a quick and easy word to create an expectation of what kind of metal it is without going into deeper semantics.
Your actual question though...I think it's when covers and bands glorify gore and violence in a way that's uncomfortable in their imagery, or don't adhere to what most would consider conventional songwriting. Grindcore instantly comes to mind with its 40 second songs and parental advisory covers, but I'd consider albums like the newest Esoctrilihum to be "extreme" as well just because of how dense and somewhat unwelcoming it is. I've never been a fan of any sort of shock factor employed by bands to try and prove how "Metal Extremist" they are, so that kind of stuff bounces right off of me. Bands like Archspire are in a different category, but their style of pushing metal to its most extreme heaviness and technicality is lost on me as well, although I don't hate it altogether.
Oh yeah, there was that one song in a Horde Playlist with some dude in a skit saying he was having sex with an elephant or something? Mmm yes, "Raped By Elephants" by Torsofuck. Not a massive fan of that either, gotta say. Tongue-in-cheek or not, highly uncomfortable having that come on during my drive.
Steel Bearing Hand - Steel Bearing Hand (2015)
I decided to go back to Steel Bearing Hand's debut album this year after spinning Slay In Hell into dust all through 2021. These guys even started out strong, with this one being Death with a side of Thrash Metal rather than Slay In Hell's Thrash with a side of Death Metal. Just that small change makes this one an interesting look back into what Steel Bearing Hand may have sounded like if they didn't swap over to a more Thrash oriented style. There's still plenty of aggression even though the production is a bit more muted, but the song lengths are a bit too extended for what they're worth, but these guys are a fantastic underground find.
A few I'll champion here:
Trhä - Endlhëtonëg (Atmospheric Black Metal / Ambient)
Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime (US Symphonic Black Metal)
Untamed Land - Like Creatures Seeking Their Own Forms (US Atmospheric Black/Folk Metal)
Another big year for The North in general, tons of fantastic albums.
Two others I'd like to champion here:
Ravenous - Hubris (Canadian Power Metal)
Eternity's End - Embers of War (German Power Metal)
Herzel and Epica all the way though.
Some extra ones that I'll champion here:
Kaatayra - Inpariquipê (Brazilian Folk/Avant-Garde Metal)
Epiphanic Truth - Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species (UK Progressive Death Metal)
Altesia - Embryo (French Progressive Metal)
Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa - Corrupted Pillars of Vanity (French Progressive/Black Metal)
Turbulence - Frontal (Lebanese Progressive Metal)
This year was a pretty big one for Infinite Releases, turns out.
Thank you, I was away visiting a buddy for New Years and got home extremely late. Hope this one is a bit more balanced this month.
Well, it's been a year and while I'm sure it'll be more of the same response as last year, I definitely successfully upped my game from 2020. I wrote less reviews overall this year, but I feel like the quality of my stuff has continued to climb. I noticed that I'm writing longer reviews in order to get my point across, normally ending up with 4 pretty substantial paragraphs during any review, some being even longer. I don't think that's a bad thing as it shows I generally have more things to say about the album, but I still try to limit myself to that 4 paragraph zone in order to stop rambling and not make it look daunting to the reader. I started valuing conciseness this year as my reviews got longer and longer.
I also feel like I didn't end up finishing as many reviews this year because my standards skyrocketed, which is a good and a bad thing I guess. Actually, I just went back to count and 41 reviews was more than I thought to be honest, so this year was more productive than I thought. Of those 41 reviews I can't point to any that I'm not happy with, apart from the Black Metal Clan Challenge where I was forced to write about albums that I didn't have a lot to say towards, like Thy Mighty Contract and Black Vampires of Imperial Blood. Clan Challenges and Monthly Feature reviews have proved to be incredibly difficult for me, as sometimes I just can't figure out the base to center the review around. I've tried to do the more off-the-cuff method, but just like in 2020 it's ended up with me reverting back to my normal style of writing as I feel like I'm not really providing anything of value if I'm not structured.
Highlights this year were:
- Dog Fashion Disco's Adultery which took months of thought and 3 full re-writes to get right.
- Lucid Planet's Lucid Planet II for being incredibly detailed and getting noticed by the band for the Infinite Feature.
- The vocalist for Ravenous sending me a nice message about my review of Hubris and (surprisingly) agreeing with one of my criticisms.
- My review of Kaatayra's Inpariquipê making the front page feature of RYM.
Plus a bunch of other more lengthy reviews like Frontierer's Oxidized or finally getting around to Ocean Machine's Biomech. I'm happy with how my review process and output is going so, honestly, I doubt I'll make any sort of goal for 2021. Forcing myself to write more reviews or finish X amount of Clan Challenges just seems like a way to be in perpetual writer's block, so maybe I'll make a point to try to write more creative, unique reviews like Adultery more often. Also to just have more confidence overall, since I stop writing about albums I really enjoy because I feel like my thoughts or conclusions aren't good enough.
Especially for something like Traditional Heavy Metal, there are the big truths that come with the Big 4 in terms of mainstream popularity:
- Everyone knows Black Sabbath started it all and everyone knows the riff to "Iron Man".
- Everyone has a favorite Iron Maiden album, even if they haven't listened to one.
- If someone doesn't know a classic Judas Priest song, they know "Painkiller", and they know the exact name of their vocalist.
- Ozzy will still somehow be alive for another 50 years through sheer force of will.
I don't think that any of the other bands that Daniel listed have that kind of staying power. If we wanted to be nerds about it I would obviously say Mercyful Fate because of how influential and ahead of their time they were, yada yada...but Ozzy is such an icon that you can't really ignore it. Dio is also an icon and I personally prefer Dio over Ozzy in terms of what he produced and his style, but the lead that Ozzy has over him is basically insurmountable considering when he passed away and how radio stations act like "Rainbow in the Dark" is the only song he ever made.
I can actually agree with this...conditionally. After going through the 1st Decade Black Metal challenge and 3 years of listening to a ton of recent Black Metal, atmospheric sections are often overused or pointless. It may sound like I'm a hypocrite, considering Im Wald was my favorite album of 2020, but I think that's an instance when the ambient stuff is woven very well into the progression of the album and becomes a part of the experience, rather than a sideshow.
Your average Atmospheric Black Metal album seems to put these sections in either because historically that's part of the genre, or they want to make sure they're getting their point across. However, most Atmospheric Black Metal albums either take place in a forest or space. In all honesty I'm getting pretty tired of hearing the same old forest recordings on a forest themed album that's named "something something Forest" in a language I can't read. The music itself can give off the feeling of walking through the woods, so the addition of these recordings really doesn't add anything of value most of the time. Obviously there are the exceptions, but I'd love to hear more bands be more creative with how they incorporate this element of Atmospheric Black Metal. Trhä's Endlhëtonëg is a prime example from this year how well done ambient sections can fit in extremely well with Atmospheric Black Metal, but those sorts of examples only come around once or twice a year.
- Hooded Menace - The Tritonus Bell
- Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I
- Papangu - Holoceno
- Cult of Luna - The Raging River
- The Ruins of Beverast - The Thule Grimoires
- The Flight of Sleipnir - Eventide
- Worm - Foreverglade
- Ophis - Spew Forth Odium
- Unto Others - Strength
- Dvne - Etemen Aenka
Hey there, welcome! I currently run The Guardians playlist so if you want to add any songs for January check out the submissions thread by the end of the month. I've always enjoyed the more symphonic side of metal but I've found I'm extremely picky within the genre, so it's cool to see someone with a different Guardians taste check out the site. You'll definitely find a ton of stuff you would have never listened to otherwise if you stick around, especially through the monthly features.
Unstoppable Power is definitely more than solid and is above every other random, average Thrash record in every way. The energy and aggression is there, the vocals are more passionate than most, the bass lines are great, and the riff progressions and transitions on tracks like "Chained Victims" are fantastic. In terms of the older-school, messier production, my only complaint is that the cymbals sound extremely blown out to the point where I wasn't enjoying it, but I could get through it most of the time. I can see how this would be a deep cut hit for massive Thrash fans, but I fall on the same side as Saxy in that this is kind of just another Thrash album for me, even though I'll give it more praise overall. While it's extremely consistent in quality, none of the songs really jumped out at me other than "Chained Victims", leaving Unstoppable Power as a nice experience that probably isn't going to stick with me.
It's starting to become pretty apparent why I tend to lean towards Thrash Metal hybrids like Tech Thrash or Thrashy Death Metal, since a pristine old school Thrash package leaves me feeling like something is missing.
3.5/5
Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion (2021)
Hey Sonny, HIGHLY recommend checking this one out before finalizing your 2021 list. I was looking to get to this one later in the week but had to check it out when I saw it hit the front page of RYM, and I think it's incredible. Really great Atmospheric Black Metal with some seriously Doom-y riffs in there.
Dark Folk is definitely one of the biggest ones, I remember finding out about Wardruna earlier this year and constantly checking back to see if the album was added here to rate it even though it's not Metal. Seems like every Atmospheric Black Metal project with any sort of slight folk leaning has something that sounds like that.
Stuff like the Breakcore and Speedcore that's so popular in rhythm games could fit nicely in The Horde, to go along with Daniel's "Hard Techno", some of it can get pretty abrasive.
Something like Shoegaze would probably just go in the Infinite, since normal Shoegaze fits more into Post-Metal than the Blackgaze variant.
Kind of hard to place Darksynth now that I think about it, Sphere or Revolution?
This playlist is going to be a challenging wakeup call for me as straight up Heavy Metal is one of my least listened to genres. Anything that would be close to Heavy Metal that I seem to enjoy either falls too much on the Doom Metal side (Crypt Sermon) or is just Power Metal in disguise, plus traditional Heavy Metal isn't a genre that gets a whole lot of buzz in the modern era so I end up brushing over any notable new releases. I knew coming into this that my playlists would be very Power Metal skewed, so I'll have to see what I can do moving forward once the year end list rush is over.
Forgot my flash drive for work today so I had to make due with only 3 locally saved albums and a whole lotta Spotify ads. I threw this one on and had a pretty good time, getting about halfway through it on shuffle due to not having Spotify Premium. I was surprised by the Prong track too, pretty killer. The "Khomaniac" version doesn't have quite the same effect as the By Inheritance version, but it's the best Spotify can do I guess. Toxicull and Tankard jumped out at me for bands I didn't know existed, so good stuff this month Vinny.
I'm glad that I didn't have to explain myself out of this one, since I was pretty nervous about throwing this one up. Obviously it's for the Christmas season but I'll be the first to admit that this is a really, really dumb album. But it's a dumb album done stupidly well.
I hadn't heard of Majestica before finding this last year around the holidays and, like everyone else, was extremely apprehensive as to what the album would actually be. Would it just be a retelling of "A Christmas Carol" with generic Power Metal riffs? Would it be their own spin of it with generic Power Metal riffs? Would it even be a Christmas album at all and still have generic Power Metal riffs? Incredibly, Majestica found a way to incorporate actual Christmas songs into a format that actually makes sense around the main story, which moves at an acceptable pace and is explained in just enough detail for the listener to follow Scrooge along his classic tale. Each melody and riff is, as Saxy listed, a well known Christmas song and I had a smile from ear to ear on my first listen as I couldn't believe they were mad enough to actually do it.
This one was just a shot in the dark to get everyone into whatever spirit they want for the Christmas season, whether you celebrate it or not, so I'm real happy that my patience for over the top Power Metal didn't backfire on me here. Obviously A Christmas Carol is going to blind the likes of Daniel with its rays of shiny, polished production and hilarious attempts at Christmas cheer, but that's kind of the point at the end of the day. Although it's a pretty complex album when it comes to how Majestica weaves in and out of various Christmas tunes and how they write the story, it's entirely surface level junk food of music. And that's cool with me because they nail it.
4/5
Witches Hammer - "Devourer of the Dead" (2021)
Daniel/Vinny, they're back at it again. This one has a bit more of a complex/wonky riff structure but still has the same crushing energy and old school production style. Definitely worth a listen, I don't think I care for it as much as Damnation Is My Salvation but this one might grow on me.
I'm happy with how this one turned out, I've needed some more Melodic Death Metal in my rotation after all of the heavier stuff. It didn't wow me as much as Garden of Storms did, but it shows In Mourning are extremely consistent with the quality of their stuff. It's not as hooky as something like Insomnium but not so technical that it loses itself, so it strikes a nice balance. I'd have to go back to Garden of Storms to see how it compares.
January
Stormkeep - "The Serpent's Stone" - Tales of Othertime (2021) 8:13
Archgoat - "Black Womb Gnosis" - Worship the Eternal Darkness (2021) 4:23
Cân Bardd - "Autumn Shore" - Devoured by the Oak (2021) 8:25
January
Turbulence - "Inside The Gage" - Frontal (2021) 11:13
Thank You Scientist - "Soul Diver" - Plague Accommodations (2021) 6:52
Cynic - "Mythical Serpents" - Ascension Codes (2021) 6:24
Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - "Tongues Playing Dead" - Bloodmoon I (2021) 4:12
Let me know if the Bloodmoon track isn't Infinite enough, I'd have no clue where else it would fit. It doesn't feel like a Fallen track to me.
Update dump for the end of the year:
Siderean
Teramaze - And the Beauty They Percieve
Turbulence
Coexistence
Canvas Solaris - Chromosphere
Syncatto
Thank you!
Update dump to end out the year:
Frummyrkrið
King of Asgard - Svartrviðr
Beastlor
Intig
Moongates Guardian - Till the Wind of the Morning
Wreche
Sphere (France)
Gråinheim
Sanctuaire
Леший [Leshiy]
Thank you!
Update dump to end out the year:
NecroticGoreBeast
Devil's Reef - A Whisper From the Cosmos
Creeping Death - The Edge of Existence
Obscurity
Esoctrilihum - Urionhsol
Thank you!
Massive update dump to end out the year:
Númenor
Sonic Haven
Timo Tolkki's Avalon - The Enigma Birth
Embrace of Souls
Ravenous E.H.
Lords of Black - Alchemy of Souls, Part II
Silent Winter
Hunted
Sunrise
Mentalist
Blazon Stone - Damnation
Ningen Isu - 2021 album
Cauldron Born - Legacy of Atlantean Kings
Vexillum - When Good Men Go To War
Thank you!
In my attempt to blast through all of November's Feature albums Core made me remember how much I enjoy Persefone overall, but also how dense their stuff is. I've attempted to fully sink my teeth into Spiritual Migration and Shin-ken before but could never quite do it, and Core falls under the same issue. They've shown that they're incredibly consistent with creating the full technical, eclectic Progressive Metal package since I don't think this one is any worse than their others, but it would take me way more listens of this one as well as their other albums to really come to terms with their proficiency as a whole. A cop out I know, but Persefone is just one of those bands that doesn't make it onto my normal rotation of albums I want to relisten to even though I enjoy their material. Hopefully someday I'll find some motivation and time to try and pick apart their albums a bit more, so with that said I gotta underrate this one overall I think.
3.5/5
Nile and I have a rough history. Back when I was first exploring the more extreme parts of Metal they inevitably came up on whatever search I was doing and man, did I not like it. After a few years of trudging through more and more Metal subgenres, I wonder how things have changed for me?
...somehow, someway, nothing's changed. There's just something about Nile's sound that is so uninteresting and bland to me that, after reading all the praise from the seasoned Horde members, I really tried my best to get into this album the best I could. Sadly there's something about the vocal style, the chaotic riff structure, or just the songwriting in general that just doesn't jive with me. I don't get invested in hardly any of the riffs, the bombastic orchestral breaks are just dull...I think it's safe to say that this is a me problem and not an everyone else problem, considering I have quite a few technically impressive Death Metal albums I thoroughly enjoy. My 3 or so old score, disappointingly, still stands.
3/5
It's funny growing up around Classic Rock / popular 80's Hair Metal since it was the only thing on the radio around where I lived, but having these massive-at-the-time bands slip through the cracks after all these years. I want to say that I knew who W.A.S.P. was before listening to this, but that might have just been from glancing at a list of 80's Hair Metal bands. It's immediately apparent that they were shifting from that background as most of these tracks have that classic 80's riff and song structure, but dipping their toes in a more grounded Heavy Metal sound definitely elevated this album past a classic radio rerun.
I can't say I'm blown away by The Headless Children but I agree with its consistency. Apart from the obligatory, sappy power ballad and the awkward "The Real Me" every song has something going for it, even if some are more forgettable than others. I can't say this is my favorite style of Heavy Metal though, despite me enjoying the cheesier sides of Power Metal very liberally. Still a very solid album though, and songs like "Thunderhead" are just fun listens through and through.
3.5/5
I really enjoyed this one as it was much more complex and ethereal than the common sludgy/stoner album, propped up by a fantastic performance by Sara Bianchin and more jazzy influences like the always welcome sax solo in "Tulsi". While they don't necessarily riff as hard as other bands in their field, that's not necessarily Messa's focus, with most of my enjoyment coming out of the slower, more layered sections with a beautiful chord structure that gives Feast for Water an exquisite but still eerie sound. The overall theme of this album is properly supported the whole way through and while it does get a bit boring during tracks like "White Stains" and "The Seer", I appreciate the sound Messa are trying for. The guitar licks and melodies hearken back to old jazz and blues rhythms and are sufficiently dirty in their own right before transitioning into more sludgy distortion. A really cool pick for a feature and one that I'll have to go back to.
4/5
December 2021
1. Savatage – “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” (from “Dead Winter Dead”, 1995) [Submitted by shadowdoom9]
2. The Lord Weird Slough Feg – “Warriors Dawn” (from “Down Among the Deadmen”, 2000)
3. Sorcerer – “The Hammer of Witches” (from “Lamenting of the Innocent”, 2020) [Submitted by Vinny]
4. Ravenous E.H. – “...Of Beasts & Faust” (from “Hubris”, 2021)
5. Avantasia – “Seduction of Decay” (from “Ghostlights”, 2016)
6. Powerwolf – “Incense & Iron” (from “The Sacrament Of Sin”, 2018)
7. Rhapsody Of Fire – “Unholy Warcry” (from “Symphony of Enchanted Lands II (The Dark Secret)”, 2004) [Submitted by shadowdoom9]
8. Blind Guardian – “Journey Through the Dark” (from “Somewhere Far Beyond”, 1992) [Submitted by shadowdoom9]
9. Accept – “Princess of the Dawn” (from “Restless and Wild”, 1992) [Submitted by shadowdoom9]
10. Kryptos – “Cold Blood” (from “Afterburner”, 2019)
11. Primal Fear – “Eyes Of An Eagle” (from “Nuclear Fire”, 2000)
12. Night Cobra – “The Serpent's Kiss” (from “The Serpent's Kiss”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]
13. Iced Earth – “Anthem” (from “Dystopia”, 2011)
14. Iron Maiden – “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (from “Powerslave”, 1984)
15. Denner / Shermann – “War Witch” (from “Satan's Tomb” E.P., 2015)
16. Dragonforce – “The Last Journey Home” (from “Ultra Beatdown”, 2020) [Submitted by shadowdoom9]
17. Firewind – “Allegiance” (from “Allegiance, 2006)
18. Hunted – “Misled” (from “Deliver Us”, 2021)
19. Shadowland – “Ligeia” (from “The Necromancer's Castle”, 2021) [Submitted by Vinny]
20. Metal Church – “Dead on the Vine” (from “From the Vault”, 2020)
21. Majestica – “Ghost of Christmas Present” (from “A Christmas Carol”, 2020)
I think that there would have to be some sort of Clan nomination thing so each top album can have their case explained, but that goes into normal award show bullshit and we don't have the amount of people necessary so...I think that just keeping it as it is currently is the only way.
]
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim (2021)
After Emperor of Sand, I really wasn't looking forward to the new Mastodon album. But here we are, after I went and saw them with Opeth live this past weekend, I actually really like this album. I can't say that it's anything amazing, but it's much, much more than I expected out of Mastodon at this point. The fact that it's a double album is a little out of place, since I feel like they could have condensed the tracklist into something more special, but I have zero complaints and this is a somewhat return to grace from Mastodon in my opinion.
3.5/5
Archspire - Bleed the Future (2021)
A new absolute mauling from one of the most brutal sounding Tech Death acts out there. While this one kind of bounces off of me, I can't deny the energy and grit that this release has. It's incomprehensively fast, unbearably loud, and a ton of fun. I can't exactly give it great marks on my account, but there's some serious technical prowess being shown off here.
3/5
Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I
As someone who isn't the biggest Converge fan and has never listened to Chelsea Wolfe before, this one was still heavily on my radar as the year winds down. It's a fantastic blend of both Converge's and Wolfe's style without cutting too many corners, but fans who were expecting a ripping Mathcore album are going to be incredibly disappointed. I don't think this is an instant classic collaboration, but it's absolutely one of the most interesting meeting of talented minds in 2021.
4/5
December
Altesia - "Sleep Paralysis" - Embryo
Dream Theater - "Awaken the Master" - A View From the Top of the World
Kayo Dot - "Void in Virgo (The Nature of Sacrifice)" - Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike
It's been and going to be a really busy month for me so I don't think I'm going to be getting around to many of the Feature Releases this month.
That being said I had listened to Spiritbox's debut album without knowing anything about the band when it first came out and enjoyed it, but didn't rush back to it. It was definitely a cut above the random modern Alt/Metalcore album with decent riffs, a great female vocalist who has the pipes to do entrancing cleans and sufficient harshes, and decently unique songwriting. After going back to it today I'm willing to give Spiritbox even more credit than last time, as I had this release as a 3 when I first listened to it. Some of the more boring sections in "Hurt You", "The Summit", "Eternal Blue", and "Halcyon" become a bit too similar for me, even though I like the more progressive backings of the synths and the soaring vocal lines. They definitely have and stick to their style and do it well, even though it doesn't resonate with me a whole lot after the album finishes. I think what changed my mind is how damn catchy this thing can be, since I remembered a lot of the hooks instantly without listening to Eternal Blue for months. Even though I think the Alt/Metalcore can do much better than this, Spiritbox are definitely a highlight as they offer something that is uniquely them in a genre than tends to seriously bore me.
3.5/5
December
Havukruunu - "Rautalintu" - Havulinnaan
Drudkh - "Sunwheel" - Autumn Aurora
Untamed Land - "A Nameless Shape" - Like Creatures Seeking Their Own Forms
In an attempt to get all the monthly features finished off, I picked a horrible day to listen to this one. Turns out long, drawn out Doom riffs don't pair well with a tight Friday deadline at the office. I'm looking forward to going back to this one in a better headspace because the sheer length of repetitiveness of it made me completely zone out, even though I recognized that there are some fantastic riffs in here. It's cool how great Doom bands are able to take such simple but effective riffs and stretch them out to enormous lengths thanks to great songwriting and progressions. Just wasn't the day for it, so my score will reflect that for now.
3.5/5
Foreverglade - Worm (US)
Big Florida Death Doom energy. Just the right amount of festering atmosphere while still having interesting, melodic riffs to back it up for me. Production may be a bit too clean for some but I think it works very well here.
I think that Linkin Park got the short end of the stick on this one, since it seems like most people were pretty done with this style of barely Alt-Metal with some rap influences tossed in there by the mid-2010's. All in all this album was very mediocre for me, but it wasn't bad at all. Although I grew up within the right timeframe to have Linkin Park be a major influence, I steered clear from that side of Rock/Metal, so coming into this album with zero nostalgia was kind of refreshing. Most of the songs sound perfectly at home on hard rock radio, but there were some riffs and moments that were genuinely interesting. Some moments fell flat, but overall this is an extremely inoffensive album with a few decent songs and a few misses. I can't help but think this one is over-hated just due to Linkin Park's overall style becoming cool to hate as the metal landscape evolved past the Nu and Alternative Metal of the late 90's and early 2000's.
3/5
Altesia - Embryo
It's here and it's fantastic.
Havukruunu - Kuu Erkylän yllä (2021) (EP)
Havukruunu continues to never miss on any of their records thus far, I think this is a phenomenal EP that makes me wonder why this isn't just the first half of a full album. Can't wait for their next full release. Any fan of Pagan Black Metal needs to check this out despite the cover being kind of silly, wish they would have kept the black and white motif.
Daniel's comparison to Ministry definitely made it clearer as to why this didn't resonate with me at all, considering I don't think there's any room for the vocals to grow on me. I didn't care for The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste so coming into a record with similar instrumentals and a subjectively worse vocalist means there wasn't too much for me to enjoy on this one. Maybe I'll give it another shot towards the end of the month just for to give it a fair shot?
I think I respect this album because I didn't get into listening to Technical Death Metal with any of the classics like Death or Atheist or Gorguts. I started with modern Tech Death which I can definitely agree with Vinny's 4th paragraph in that a lot of it can be a bloated mess that is complex as hell but doesn't really carry any weight. It's a fine line to walk and I can generally withstand more noodling than most angry commenters that lose their mind because somehow there's no substance in any Tech Death record, but Epitaph is pretty tame all things considered. No song goes above 5 minutes, is tightly written with interesting solos, and doesn't do anything out of the ordinary that ruins subsequent listens. I think Epitaphe's simplicity and straight-to-the-point nature is vastly overlooked in a landscape with 10-minute Death Metal epics that fail to produce any sort of enjoyable riff or impressive solo. I feel like I'm overrating this but I was able to get back-to-back listens with no problems at all, so I can't help but enjoy this one.
4/5
Is everything ok? I'm genuinely asking in general because taking such a black and white approach towards most things you talk about here is getting worrying man. People grow and change but it feels very extreme for no reason from the outside looking in, just wanna make sure everything's good.
Frontierer - Oxidized (2021)
Given what I've read about your feelings about Botch and Converge Daniel, I think you'll have to check this one out. As soon as possible. Like, right now. Immediately, even. It's just pure harshness and I surprisingly love it.
I've been waiting for this one to show up. I've told myself I need to write a review for it for months now so I guess this was the sign I was looking for. I bumped this album to a 5/5 after a few months of going back to it and contemplating its place in The Infinite landscape and I think that it's a true turning point for finally putting a new coat of paint onto Progressive Metal in the modern era. Even I've become tired of the Dream Theater and Opeth clones out there, and Ne Obliviscaris finally dropped something that was fresh and monolithic with how it incorporates some of the best songwriting in the genre with amazing performances and additions of other instruments that don't feel shoehorned in. Gonna be hashing out a (probably) massive review for this one this month.
Sooo yeah I'm never listening to that one again. I don't hate it with the burning passion of a thousand suns, but man there are just so many things wrong with this one. To echo Vinny, Jello Biafra is straight up annoying on this record and the surface level lyricism is painful at times. The only thing I found interesting about the topics on this album is that literally nothing has changed in terms of societal and economic problems in America since 1990, but I already kind of knew that, to the point where most of the "gotcha" moments fall on deaf ears. The only one that got a chuckle out of me was the ending of "Drug Raid At 4am" but I doubt it'll work a second time.
The rest of the album is filled with decent riffs that get run into the ground really quickly due to the Industrial Metal repetition, and the skits like "Can God Fill Teeth" are just absolutely silly, even though the overarching idea does hit the mark. After going through 7 tracks of not really caring for what I was listening to apart from a few moments in "Forkboy" and maybe "Bozo Skeleton", the last two tracks absolutely broke me as they're something that I never want to listen to ever again. "They're Coming To Take Me Away" could have been a decently weird track if it actually built up to something happening rather than slowly getting more and more insane until just ending in a fadeout. "I Am Your Clock" was excruciating to finish just due to its length.
I don't think this is as heinous of a crime against music as Vinny says, but it's still pretty bad and silly.
1.5/5