Xephyr's Forum Replies

Drudkh - Autumn Aurora (2004)

After seriously enjoying Drudkh's Blood in Our Wells, I knew I had to check out their other albums, so I immediately went for Autumn Aurora and the more I listened to it the more I can't fathom how this one even comes close to Blood in Our Wells. Sure the atmosphere is different and unique from other Atmospheric Black Metal albums, but it's so uneventful in the way that it presents its style. It's lush and gorgeous, but the novelty of it wore off pretty quick for me and it became no more than nice sounding background noise. It's far from a bad album but I can't place this album even near the same level as Blood in Our Wells. 

3.5/5

I've been pretty harsh on The Work since it came out, but it feels warranted since I haven't really wanted to go back to the album after listening to it 3 or 4 times the first week it dropped. While the concept and shift in their sound is interesting I guess, I can't help but be bored by the whole thing looking back. When the band decides to finally kick it up a notch from the Prog Rock and more atmospheric musings, it's the same old Progressive Death chug note over and over again. Maybe the songwriting isn't clicking with me or something, but Where Owls Know My Name was so much more vibrant, focused, and memorable than The Work. I might force myself to listen to it once or twice more to get a review out but it was a massive disappointment for me. 

New Enslaved EP is pretty great though. Nothing spectacular but I've been really warming up to their new sound, makes me want to go back and give Utgard another shot.

You'd be right Daniel, this one was fantastic. Going to check out their other albums today. 

I just realized I never checked out Wreche though, gonna have to remedy that. 

4.5/5

November

"Vingt Sieges, Cent Assauts" - Aorlhac - Pierres Brûlées (5:21)

"Reduced To Submission And Slavery" - Lamp Of Murmuur - Submission And Slavery (11:05)

"Aavevalo" - Havukruunu - Havulinnaan (4:35)

November

"Caravans to the Outer Worlds" - Enslaved (6:36)

"The Dance of Eternity" - Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2 Scenes From a Memory (6:13)

"Renormalization" - Canvas Solaris - Chromosphere (6:20)

"Dreaming Black Clockwork" - Rivers of Nihil - The Work (6:39)

November

"Heroin" - Unto Others - Strength (3:41) (I think this is Heavy Metal enough?)

"Hell on Earth" - Blazon Stone - Damnation (4:37)

"Shadow on an Endless Sea" - Seven Spires - Gods of Debauchery (5:10)

"Storming The Castle" - Cauldron Born - Legacy Of Atlantean Kings (7:18)

"Last Bearer's Song" - Vexillum - When Good Men Go to War (5:07)

So I've been...persuaded by this thread to check this one out first this month. For no particular reason.

And I'm really glad I reread Vinny's post because I just got to "Mate Spawn & Die" and it completely stopped me in my tracks because I said to myself "Wait, this is just 'Holiday In Cambodia'. Isn't it?" Looked up "Holiday In Cambodia" for the first time in years, and wow, it's just "Holiday In Cambodia", almost note for note. I had no idea that one of the members was from The Dead Kennedys, and I'm not sure whether that makes it better or worse. 

This should be a fun one to finish. 

As much as I want to agree with Saxy here since we both had similar experiences of having to start this album over 3 or 4 times to get all the way through it, I think it's unfair to the Funeral Doom genre to have any sort of set-in-stone opinion after only one listen. I've always been one to rate fairly concretely after only one listen, which is something that I'm sure some other music fans despise, but I think there's a place for having an initial impression rating vs one that may fluctuate over time. If I don't want to spend 5 hours and 5 spins of an album to know that it's a 2/5 then I don't think that I should have to take that time. 

Although for Monolithe, it feels wrong giving this a score that may not reflect the potential I feel like this album has. It's one of those where I feel like playing the middleman between Saxy and Sonny because while I do have a hard time getting lost in most Funeral Doom albums, there have been plenty of releases from Bell Witch, Evoken, and Esoteric that have seriously captivated me. Monolithe II isn't one that instantly captivated me and, like Saxy, I found it to be pretty dull through and through despite enjoying the slightly more spacey atmosphere and the accordion features. It has almost zero standout moments hardly even dips below the general monotony apart from once in the beginning of the song and briefly at the 22-minute mark to attempt to build towards something. However, the atmosphere of it all also puts me Sonny's camp where the repetition is kind of the point and letting the music and feelings envelop you rather than expecting the composition to completely hold your hand. 

I think where I stand is that while I consider myself to be a pretty patient listener when it comes to all genres of Metal, the band should still have to put in some of the legwork to make their ideas compelling. While I enjoy putting together my own ideas for one album every once and a while, when it comes to a genre as crushing and repetitive as Funeral Doom, the albums that I find to be the best do a great job of having one or two tangible rewards hidden beneath the rubble that most listeners should be able to pick up on even during their first listen. The best one that comes to my mind is the transition portion between "As Above" and "So Below" during Bell Witch's Mirror Reaper, which even on my first listen made me shiver all the way down to my bones. I'm all for having to look deep within an album for its best qualities, but something has to be present in the first place to make me want to dig that deep. 

3/5

Considering Alcest's discography, this pick was to force me to revisit my once hot opinion that Kodama is my favorite album of theirs. Plus after the fact I realized that, like Daniel said, it's pretty interesting to see how little metal is actually in this thing. I was planning to write a review this month but it wasn't in the cards, although I can give a very quick breakdown now. 

Long story short I still think that this album is absolutely gorgeous and I still prefer songs like "Kodama" and "Je suis d'ailleurs" over pretty much anything else Alcest have ever done, but revisiting it made me realize how weak the back half of Kodama really is. Like Saxy said this is a slow album, but I completely forgot how much "Onyx" and "Notre sang et nos pensees" drag after "Oiseaux de proie" retreads a bit too much of the same ground already established by stronger songs in the first half. I still think very highly of this album because the overall sound is perfect for what I look for out of Alcest and any other bands like them, but it's not as much of a personal classic as I led myself to believe. I'll have to go back and revisit some of their earlier albums to see if Kodama is still my favorite, but its pedestal has been lowered a few feet for sure. 

Rivers of Nihil - The Work

So Rivers of Nihil released their new album today and it's one of the only albums this year I've been seriously looking forward to since Where Owls Know My Name was a fantastic album with a few massive production flaws that could easily have been cleaned up. However the initial listen was...very mixed for me. It looks like they're going farther and farther away from their Technical Death Metal chugging in favor of cleaner and softer passages. When they do decide to turn the volume up on the riffing, it's extremely forgettable compared to their previous releases. The transitions between the more Progressive Rock sounding sections and everything else doesn't exactly flow very well despite being an album with an obvious overarching concept. The sax is back from Where Owls Know My Name but it isn't woven into the riffs in as creative ways as before. Everything feels very segmented and it ends up feeling rather dull at the end of it all. 

Really hoping that a few more spins uncovers some sort of album flow or interesting concept that I missed because my initial thoughts are pretty negative overall. 

2/5

I'm really glad I gave this one a second chance after letting it sit for a bit, because it really clicked compared to the first listen. I don't have too much to say about Mathcore in general since I'm grossly unfamiliar with it outside of the big names, so I'm not sure what else to say other than this is great. Converge in their Jane Doe era was always a bit too abrasive and chaotic for me, so Botch having a cleaner sound and more focused songwriting really helps them play to my preferences. Definitely going to be going back to this one, I can see why it's spoken of so highly. 

4.5/5

Well then, this thing is a beast, isn't it? You'd think I'd have the same reaction as Saxy and Sonny considering my disposition towards the more brutal, suffocating, and fiery styles of Death Metal, but this one caught me off guard. Although some of the more ruthless sections didn't exactly keep my attention past the first listen, I personally think this is a very complete album in what it tries to do. There's a ton of depth and massiveness to the production that absolutely sound messy and chaotic, but I found that to be a positive at the end of the day in the context of Succumb. The lack of clarity really helps the standout riffs to pop out of the mayhem in cool ways. It's sort of a shame that the vocals are completely lost behind everything else, serving as another slightly different layer than actual vocals. The drumming is in the perfect spot for me too, being powerful enough to be felt but not being absolutely piercing like so many other albums like this. 

Compositionally Altarage nails it because while the 21-minute closer is admittedly a bit of a snooze-fest after the first listen, Succumb sets up for it extremely well with tracks like "Foregone", "Lavath", and "Vour Concession" containing hints of the coming Drone Metal excursion. Those slight hints do a ton to have the eventual transition feels like it fits in with the rest of the album. Even though I'm capable of giving a ton of praise to this one, I can't say that I'm in a rush to go back and listen to it though. It's one of the more captivating brutal walls of chaos I've listened to, but I don't think I'd be able to get any extra enjoyment out of it past the 3 or 4 listens I've given it. So although this started out as a 4/5 for me, I feel like I can't keep basing my rating off of my first experience with it alone. 

3.5/5

Epiphanic Truth - Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms To A Sordid Species (2021)

I've been sinking my teeth into this one for the past week and really enjoying myself, it's the kind of Progressive Death Metal that really keeps me interested no matter how drawn out the tracks can be. I think the songwriting on the 22-minute closer could have been stronger which is what is keeping me from absolutely raving about this one. It gets a bit too repetitive around the 15-minute mark and doesn't fully reward the listener for sticking with it the full way through, but there's still a ton of great moments, especially in the first track, that keep me coming back. 

4/5

Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia (2021)

So 2021 has gotten to the point where I'm checking out things very outside of my wheelhouse, and this one was one of the standouts that definitely wasn't for me but at the same time I could feel like there was something there. I'm going to have to spend some more time with this one as it's extremely dense and long, with the album consisting of two 24-minute tracks.

I'd be really interested to see how Daniel and Vinny feel about this one, since it's pretty dense and somewhat similar to this month's feature album minus all of the Drone Metal leanings, replaced with more atmospheric passages. It's a 3/5 for me after one listen but I can see it gaining some stock if I give it another shot. 

New VOD on the text below. Really impromptu one this time since my weekend plans got completely screwed up. Talked about one or two of the Monthly Features, the regrettable Cauldron Born situation, and a few new releases I've found in the past week. Forgot to talk about the subgenre discussion I started though, I'll have to catch up on that tonight.

The Nocturne Live - Ep. 2

This was a really fun one, it fits into the kind of old-school Thrash that I really enjoy. Fast, ripping riffs, interesting vocal melodies, strong bass lines, it seems to have it all. I'm hit or miss on the whole album though, with "Overlord", "None Shall Defy", "Anthology of Death", and "Hell on Earth" (wonky production issues aside) being very high quality but the rest of the album being extremely lukewarm. I can see myself coming back to this one or recommending it to people looking for a lesser known classic thrash album. 

3.5/5

I think that having an aversion to Folk within Metal is rougher going than something like Gothic influence or, in my certain case, having Death Metal steer clear of grind influences. There are a good number of North albums that, although they aren't necessarily Folk Metal, tend to use folky tendencies as a natural progression of their sound even if they're playing a traditional style of Black Metal, which is why I agree in that it's a pretty tough deciding factor for The North in general. 

I still have yet to revisit this one in full, although I can see my score dropping by a bit I think, but I also have to agree with Daniel's analysis that there isn't a whole lot of Viking Metal in this. It honestly got me thinking about whether Viking Metal even exists or not, considering Månegarm was one of my go-to "that's a Viking Metal band" bands. Obviously Hammerheart was the beginning of the genre, but Nordland I and II are the albums that I base around what Viking Metal should sound like and what characteristics it has. From what I can tell:

• Slower tempos with big, sweeping, simple riffs. Not a whole lot of complex percussion
• Storytelling-like vocals, not necessarily growls, accompanied by backing choir 
• If orchestration is used, it's used to create atmosphere and not necessarily take over the melody 
• Emphasis on a larger than life atmosphere

I can tell you that there aren't a lot of albums like this, with Moonsorrow seeming to have the most natural evolution of Bathory's sound and most other bands playing straight up Folk Metal like Ensiferum or just Melodic Death Metal like Obscurity and their new "Viking Metal" album. Maybe I should make a post like Daniel's Nintendocore post and see what discussion can come from it. That being said the closest that Vredens tid gets is either "Sigrblot" or "Vredens tid", but the moment the double bass comes in it's back into straight Folk territory. 

October

Fluisteraars - "Verscheuring in de schemering" - Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking (2021) 20:15

Duskmourn - "Deathless" - Fallen Kings and Rusted Crowns (2021) 7:18

27:33

October

Between the Buried and Me - "Revolution In Limbo" - Colors II (2021) 9:12

Syncatto - "Möbius" - A Place To Breathe (2021) 6:21

OSI - "ShutDOWN" - Office of Strategic Influence (2003) 10:24

Scale the Summit - "Narrow Salient" - The Migration (2013) 3:34

29:31

October:

Spirit Adrift - "Invisible Enemy" - Forge Your Future (2021) 7:31

Cauldron Born - "The Final Incantation / In the Dreaming City" - Born of the Cauldron (1997) 5:30

Allen Lande - "Hymn for the Fallen" - The Great Divide (2014) 5:30

Lunar Shadow - "Red Nails (For the Pillar of Death)" - The Smokeless Fires (2019) 8:05

26:36

Been thinking about this one a lot this week so I ended up writing a pretty interesting review on the strange journey I had with this album. I think it reaches an agreeable middle ground that I didn't really have when I put this one up as the feature. I try to choose "interesting" albums rather than obvious classics, but I think this one was a pretty big miss nonetheless. 

Xephyr's "Born of the Cauldron" Review

After thinking quite a bit on whether to stand my ground on this release after swapping my old Feature request, I think I'm willing to waiver a bit after going back to it again earlier this week. Cauldron Born seems to be a tale of potential and I was initially enamored by what I heard because it was so different than the conventional Power Metal I was expecting. Upon further review I have to agree with Daniel wholeheartedly about the performances in general, even though it didn't quite jump out at me at first. The melody shifts and riff transitions are so hectic and constant that I figured I was just missing the groove when I first listened to Born of the Cauldron, but it turns out there's some serious mistakes on this record that the band just decided they would roll with on the final recording. However I'll still stick up for Born of the Cauldron because I genuinely still enjoy all the songs on this record despite all the blemishes. 

I chose this record to show off this month because, above all else, it's just a very interesting record through and through to me. There are a ton of great riff ideas in here as Cauldron Born throw caution to the wind on any sort of normal song structure. I think the production and mixing of the album is great for what they want to do, with the bass melodies being extremely present and the vocals fitting nicely in between everything. It's a shame that the kick drum has to be so pushed forward because, as Daniel said, the drummer definitely has some issues keeping up with the constant tempo and melody shifts, causing audible mistakes that are almost impossible to miss. These guys obviously overstepped their boundaries, but I find that to be an interesting side of this record rather than a complete failure. It's interesting to hear a group really try to knock it out of the park with overly complex songwriting in a genre that generally doesn't need or support it. It's absolutely clunky and jerky at times as the band members point fingers at who is ahead or behind the click, but when it works it really works for me. The twists and turns in "Synchronicity at Midnight" are exciting, the hooks for most of the choruses are memorable to me, and Cauldron Born offer a unique experience overall that makes me respect what they attempted quite a bit. They have some moments of brilliance when everything lines up, but that's few and far between on some tracks. The vocals are also an acquired taste I'd say, falling a bit shy of the annoying King Diamond falsetto and having some pretty clashing but interesting melodies overtop of the rest of the band. 

I definitely overrated this album after my first two or three listens, so I'm going to bump it down to a 4/5 for now just because I do think that this is a unique release that stands out among the crowd despite all the issues. 

Since there's only 3 months left in 2021 I've found myself a bit behind on checking out what the year has to offer, even though I've found quite a few winners. I had a strange feeling that I've just been way too happy and content with my life right now so I decided to fix that by starting to go through some of Sonny's Top 2021 Albums from his list since there are a ton of Fallen albums that I skipped over. Wolvennest is up first and Sonny's right in saying that this one takes some patience. I enjoyed it, but I don't think the extended, hypnotic songwriting ended up gripping me in the same way as it did for him. All the different vocal styles really help to keep it moving and the Gothic Metal influence on tracks like "Succubus" and "Disappear" is definitely neat, but the really slow tracks like the closer "Souffle De Mort" kept me from getting too far into this one. The atmosphere is well done but a bit subtle for me I guess? A solid 3.5/5 from me. 

I'm honestly really disappointed with my final opinion on this album. Thanks to my adept recognition skills, it only took me two full listens to realize that Mikael Akerfeldt was a session vocalist for all the harsh vocals, all the while wondering why it reminded me of Opeth so much. I've found that I really enjoy Katatonia's material in general, whether it be their more classic albums like The Great Cold Distance or their newer stuff like Fall of Hearts. Given their consistency if you told me they never released a poor album, I'd absolutely believe you without getting around to checking out even half of their discography yet. But to say that I was underwhelmed by Brave Murder Day is a bit of an understatement. 

The dreary melancholy that Katatonia are able to convey through their style is very much the highlight of the band for me, but I don't really get that too much with Brave Murder Day thanks to Akerfeldt's Death Metal vocals bringing some serious confusion into the atmosphere. The riffs are good, but I don't think they reach the level of heft and aggression to warrant the vocal style. "Brave" is especially good though, and I have to slightly disagree with Saxy about it since I think the way they reincorporate the main riff at the end from all of the other shifts in melody is pretty great. From then on, though, Brave Murder Day kind of just goes about its business being somewhat doomy, somewhat gothic, somewhat death-y, and overall kind of uninteresting to me after a while. 

Even though this album has reached somewhat classic status, I can't help but think that Katatonia are stuck between two or three styles that don't really fit together on this one. The fact that I really enjoy The Great Cold Distance and not this one has to come down to Katatonia honing down their sound with more haunting, subtle vocals that go with their style of songwriting much better than Akerfeldt's death growls. It pains me to be so harsh on an Opeth side project, but I can't see myself going back to this one that much. It definitely makes me want to check out Katatonia's other, earlier records to see where the shift exactly happened. 

3/5

I had a bit of fun with Game Over, but I don't think I can say it was good. I've found myself struggling with a lot of the more old-school Thrash releases that come up on here, and this one was no exception thanks to its weak guitar tone, the strange mixing between the blistering guitar riffs and bass lines, and pretty disinteresting songs in the second half. I like how snappy it is, certainly goes along with the more aggressive, devil-may-care attitude this album has, and the two interlude tracks "Hang the Pope" and "Mr. Softee Theme" got a pretty good chuckle out of me. Other than that there isn't too much for me to really enjoy about this one, sadly. 

The vocals are really cool though, for some reason it reminds me of a Thrash Metal Geddy Lee from Rush with the higher pitched, more Rock-ish screams and flourishes. Still not sure if that's technically a positive or not, but it is in my book. 

2.5/5

I've been loving Colors II, it made me rethink my initial assumptions about Colors I  and Between the Buried and Me in general, it's a fantastic album. Easily going to make my Top 10 of the year and maybe even break into the Top 5 at this point. 

I also liked the new Leprous way more than I expected, it's a pretty large step up from Pitfalls or Malina in my opinion. I still wish it dipped back into Metal territory since Aphelion lacks some punch on some tracks, but I'll take what I can get. 

I thought about making a Hall post about whether Aphelion can be considered Progressive Metal which would put them into Ben's criteria for Non-Metal releases to be added to the Academy, but I can't even really champion that cause because the "Metal" moments are extremely few and far between. Aphelion sometimes has Metal tendencies, but I don't think it ever really gets there, even though I wish it did. 

I had to break the illusion, the cat assumptions have been going on for way too long. 

But yeah, Twitch is fickle with music, especially if I want to throw the VOD's around places. They'll automatically mute portions of your VOD that their automated sweepers deem to be "DMCA'able", and since I play music over most of my streams, I get a decent idea of what gets flagged and what doesn't. It's a complete crap shoot, with most obscure Thrash and Death Metal able to get past but something like Battle Dagorath got muted completely, which I honestly couldn't believe. It only takes a few seconds for the system to decide whether to mute it, so having any sort of track play would be pretty catastrophic since I'd lose my audio as well and the highlights could be flagged, taken down, or be used for a strike against my channel. Just gotta do the best I can. 

Surprisingly, I've struggled with Nevermore quite a bit and never really got what all of the hype is about, so I'll see what I think about this one on Monday. 

Yo Daniel, I've been trying to get into this one all week and it didn't quite do it for me, but I'm sure you'll get something more out of it. 

Diskord - Degenerations (2021)

This had me at writer's block for an entire month. This was incredibly hard to do, hopefully now I can get to some other stuff I wanna talk about. 

Review:

Xephyr's Adultery Review

I knew I forgot something, so Esoctrilihum's days were extremely numbered. Auld Ridge has a fantastic album out that could go even higher since I have to revisit it again.

1. Mare Cognitum - Solar Paroxysm
2. Forhist - Forhist
3. Panopticon - ...And Again Into the Light
4. Les Chants de Nihil - Le tyran et l'esthète
5. Auld Ridge - Consanguineous Tales of Bloodshed and Treachery
6. Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa - Corrupted Pillars of Vanity
7. Grima - Rotten Garden
8. Wolves in the Throne Room - Primordial Arcana
9. The Ruins of Beverast - The Thule Grimoires
10. Old Nick - A New Generation of Vampiric Conspiracies

As well as the forum pages at the top please, so I don't have to scroll or hit END to go to a different page, especially since a lot of the threads have massive pictures that makes each page incredibly long. 

I've been thinking about this kind of stuff recently, especially from Ben's 30,000 album post and call for new features, because part of me has wanted to push for an album comment box without necessarily having to comment on a review to boost easy engagement. After more thought, I think the fact that The Academy doesn't have that sort of things is what has and will keep things like Sonny's example out of the site, for the most part. The fact that you have to respond to someone's full review makes it more awkward to shitpost, plus the comment doesn't even show up on the album's main page until you click on the review itself, keeping everything cleaner. 

I like the emphasis that this site puts on the reviews, forum posts, and actual thoughts rather than 5 or 6 word comments in a random box off to the side. Hope the site can continue to add more features without necessarily messing with that emphasis, even though it might mean that less people engage with things. 

I used to be a pretty casual Leprous fan when I found their 2015 album The Congregation and played a ton of songs from it on my radio show back in college. They were a band that I really liked, but I never really raved about them in the same way as other Progressive Metal bands. The Congregation showed them pivot into a less Metal and more progressive/art rock direction, and as I've gone back through their discography it's been interesting to hear them have more bite in the past. Obviously Daniel showing me their live performance album netted them a 5/5 and that performance had mostly songs from The Congregation and Coal, but the live setting and performing live with Ihsahn gave their sound the out-of-studio punch it needed to be absolutely phenomenal. What's interesting about that live album is that is features zero songs from Tall Poppy Syndrome, and from what I've read the band hasn't played anything from this album in a very, very long time, making a lot of these tracks seemingly forgotten by the band. 

Which is an absolute shame because Tall Poppy Syndrome is easily one of Leprous's best works, maybe even their best in my opinion with Coal coming in extremely close behind. "He Will Kill Again" is phenomenal in almost every way. It really showcases the entirety of Leprous' sound, from the haunting intro, to the heavy riff, to the more progressive vocal melodies and harmonies from Einar, to a very good payoff towards the end. The few slower parts drag a bit, since the band seemed to not be too overzealous with Einar's writing at this point, but those parts are very few and far between. I think that Tall Poppy Syndrome strikes an amazing balance for the band especially since they were early in their career, since Bilateral and Coal begin to shift the focus towards Einar and being more "artsy" in general. Just see Daniel's writeup for pretty much the rest of my thoughts, he nailed it without me really sitting down and analyzing this to come up with a different avenue to give this album more praise. 

4.5/5

Duskmourn - Fallen Kings and Rusted Crowns (2021)

A surprise Folk/Melodic Death Metal hybrid album that scratches an itch I'm not able to all that often, given the overall lack of good Folk Metal coming out of newer releases. There's a bit of Moonsorrow here and there, but it's firmly within Melodic Death Metal instead of Black Metal territory for most of the riffing. The folk elements are used well and while it may not be an absolutely stellar release, hearing a Folk Metal album that I want to continue to spin after once or twice is always a win nowadays. Reminds me a bit of Sojourner with less atmosphere and more riffs as well.

3.5/5

Symphonic Metal is pretty much always going to be grounded in Power Metal just because that's generally how the riffs and drums are written for the metal band portion, unless you're going the Fleshgod or Septicflesh route. I think what may separate The Black Halo is that it retains a darkness that a lot of other Symphonic Metal albums don't have, since the orchestra makes them sound brighter and, to some, inherently cheesy. Even in their most sincere, Kamelot rarely stray into the generic, arena pleasing Power Metal tropes, even though they get close in songs like "Soul Society", "Moonlight", and "Serenade". They also don't technically have an operatic singer, even though Roy Khan does an incredible job nonetheless.

As for other bands...it's kind of tough, I've found that Symphonic Metal has a lot of lackluster releases and the 2000-2010 era gave us pretty much the best that the genre has to offer. Therion is the obvious choice and I'd say Secret of the Runes is more akin to the normal Symphonic Metal that Kamelot plays rather than their earlier, more Death Metal inspired stuff, but even that lacks a lot of the Power Metal tendencies you wanna get over. Even Epica is more rooted in a Melodic Death Metal style with their more aggressive drumming and harsh vocalist, so recommending Omega or The Holographic Principle still isn't really what you're looking for. Maybe Turilli/Lione Rhapsody with their 2019 Zero Gravity, but it might stray into the "too cheesy" territory since this is the classic guitarist/vocalist from Rhapsody we're talking about here? I've had success recommending Elvenking's Reader of the Runes - Divination, but that leans more towards Folk than Symphonic. It's a tough genre, Kamelot are one of the classics for a reason, there's just not a lot of other great examples out there that I've personally heard, especially since I've found I'm not a big fan of Stratovarius or Sonata Arctica.

This is a really interesting one that I've come back to now after first checking it out early in the month and while I still enjoy it, I didn't find myself bumping it up a grade like I thought I would. Given how adverse I can be towards the monotony of some Industrial Metal Lo Flux Tube is definitely more up my alley in being more progressive and sometimes downright weird, moving much closer to being a full fledged Infinite release rather than the Sphere. I didn't get a chance to get out their supposed Grindcore beginnings, but I can take a guess and say that I'm glad I'm putting it off since I probably enjoy this release infinitely more. Given this was released in 1991 I'm really surprised to hear vocals and an overall avant-garde-ness that reminds me of the more off-the-wall Black Metal releases in the mid-1990's. Really goes to show how interconnected everything can be. 

The drums are just mechanical enough to give it that base industrial sound and while the guitar riffs can be grindy and monotonous on some tracks they definitely lean into the more random and crazy side on the more compelling tracks like "Outlive", "Citient Null", and "Z.U.". The bass is what impressed me the most on Lo Flux Tube though, having a powerful presence that overshadows the guitar in a good way during key moments. Even though the avant-garde industrial guitar whining can be cool, the killer bass lines really help to keep the album grounded and not something that I just zone out to. Even though I like the seemingly Black Metal inspired harsh vocals they get pretty old by the time "Marzuraan" rolls around since there isn't a whole lot of variety to them. I'd say there isn't a whole lot of variety in Lo Flux Tube from an album standpoint either, since even though what they're doing is crazy and unique, it's repeated in a way where I eventually find the grinding guitar noodling to be kind of dull. It's still a very cool album that showed me a side of Industrial Metal that I didn't really know existed, and the fact that this came out in the early 1990's makes it even more impressive and strange. I think I can throw this one on once and a while if I'm feeling it, but I think it lacks some substance in the ideas it tries to explore. 

3.5/5

I'm inclined to agree, even though I really enjoyed Karma I've gone back to The Black Halo way more than that one. Kamelot always kind of took the backseat in my Symphonic Metal listening but as I go back with some hindsight their run from The Fourth Legacy to The Black Halo is pretty damn solid. 

So Christopher Bowes, the dude behind Alestorm and Gloryhammer, is back at it again with another hilariously over the top and slightly questionable band called Wizardthrone who seem to specialize in a slightly Gloryhammer-esque brand of Melodic Death Metal about mathematics, hyperdimensional space wizards, and a ton of other very long and bombastic words. It's not great, don't get me wrong, but I expected much, much worse. It's definitely fun for a few spins here and there. I want to believe this release exists in the same world as the current Gloryhammer story but there aren't any references that I've picked up on. 

I don't consider starting with a band's 24th album to be great planning, but here I am given I never checked out a lot of the more classic Heavy Metal bands, Saxon included. I'm mostly going to parrot what Saxy said in his short post, since it's very hard to keep up the same act for 40 years while staying within the exact same genre confines. I think the way I want to spin this though is that Saxon still do a great job of delivering a solid album since they don't try and overstep their boundaries. I've listened to a lot of modern Heavy and Power Metal from bands that are on their 10th plus album and it all sounds so tired and uninspired most of the time, but Thunderbolt still has a good amount of energy and zest left in it. They don't try to overproduce or add a ton of fluff to their sound, the songs normally clock in at less than 4 minutes, and there's a ton of memorable but not pandering choruses. I'm sure they've done most of this before given they've probably written hundreds if not thousands of Heavy Metal songs by now, but they've definitely found a formula that works for them presented in a nice, compact package that doesn't overstay its welcome. 

"Predator" is especially cool, "Thunderbolt" is extremely catchy, I really like crunchy riff on "Sniper", and the slightly more orchestral "Nosferatu" gives Thunderbolt that splash of variety it needs. I think this still goes in the bin of being "another modern Heavy/Power Metal album", but it's a good one for sure. 

3.5/5

I normally never do these but I want to try and start, interested to see how it turns out. 

1. Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001)
2. Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet (2005)
3. Tool - 10,000 Days (2006)
4. Blind Guardian - Imaginations From the Other Side (1995)
5. Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (2012)
6. Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse (1994)
7. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (2017)
8. Inter Arma - Sulphur English (2019)
9. Bathory - Blood Fire Death (1988)
10. Leprous - Live at Rockefeller Music Hall (2016)
11. Wilderun - Veil of Imagination (2019)
12. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (1984)
13. Paysage d'Hiver - Im Wald (2020)
14. Opeth - Still Life (1999)
15. Saor - Aura (2014)
16. Insomnium - Winter's Gate (2016)
17. Cult of Luna - A Dawn to Fear (2019)
18. Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond (1992)
19. Inter Arma - Paradise Gallows (2016)
20. Thy Catafalque - Roka Hasa Radio (2009)
21. Megadeth - Rust In Peace (1990)
22. Devin Townsend - Empath (2019)
23. Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane (1995)
24. Moonsorrow - V: Hävitetty  (2007)
25. Esoctrilihum - Eternity of Shaog (2020)

Y'know, I didn't think that I'd see or hear from Dog Fashion Disco again after checking out their 2018 album Experiments In Embryos right as it came out solely because of the ridiculous band name. Upon further inspection, that album was apparently made of re-recordings of their earlier 2 albums Experiments In Alchemy and Embryos In Bloom. So after already being initially duped by this Alternative/Avant-Garde/downright strange band, I wanted to jump on Adultery right when I saw it to give Dog Fashion Disco another fair shot. Adultery seems to be their diamond in the rough between 11 albums spread between 1997 and 2019, and I'm inclined to agree that it's pretty fantastic. 

One other thing that has incessantly come up while shortly researching these guys are their supposed ties to Mr. Bungle and I have to admit that I haven't listened to a single one of their albums, so any possible influence of this just being a "diet Mr. Bungle" is completely worthless to me at this point. That being said, Dog Fashion Disco definitely bring the strangeness into their unique style of Avant-Garde/Alternative Metal that ranges from industrial chugging, to Jazz and Ska, to more Progressive Metal musings. Even though all of these elements come and go very erratically there's an undisclosed structure to them thanks to some well-written transitions that keep everything in place, for the most part. Even though I haven't spent too much time with Adultery yet, the coolest part about this album to me is that it very much exists in its own world and does a fantastic job of creating it in such a short time. As the cover might suggest, Dog Fashion Disco try and create a classic film noir world with a bit more style and spice as the story revolves around an extremely messed up main character. The whole album unravels like a fully-fledged mystery too, making me look up lyrics the first time through, which doesn't happen very often. 

I think what keeps this album from being absolutely outstanding is the flow between the tracks moreso than the transitions within them. "Sweet Insanity" to "Desert Grave" is one of the most jarringly unappealing transitions I've heard in a while, "Private Eye" into "The Darkest Days" is a bit too wacky for its own good, plus some others that could have been more well thought out considering this whole album is supposed to be one cohesive story. The singles are still great though, with "The Hitchhiker", "Moonlight City Drive" and especially "The Darkest Days" having killer riffs that give the listener a break from all the other stuff going on. The "reveal" that ties the whole album together during the closer is great and thought-provoking as well. It's definitely a weird one, but I highly recommend everyone give it a try to see if it captures you the same way it did for me, since I found this one to be extremely compelling and fun. 

4/5

September

Nameless Mist - "Unearthed" - Nameless Mist

Auld Ridge - "Pant-Mawr, Boniarth" - Consanguineous Tales of Bloodshed and Treachery

frummyrkrið - "ég féll niður í tómið" - dauðans myrkri

Total Time: 26:30

September

Cirith Ungol - "Blood and Iron" - One Foot In Hell

Pharaoh - "The Powers That Be" - The Powers That Be

Elvenking - "Reader of the Runes - Book 1" - Reader of the Runes

Sonic Haven - "The Darker Side" - Vagabond

28:15

Edited.

September

Soen - "Pluton" - Tellurian

Thy Catafalque - "Köd utánam" - Róka Hasa Rádió

Dola - "-" - Czasy

Teramaze - "Deep State Of Awake" - I Wonder

Total Length: 30:01 (Sue me)

I've really enjoyed digging into the history of a lot of these subgenres and different Clans thanks to the more curated recommendations and featured albums rather than going blindly into a subgenre I probably won't like too much to begin with. I've learned so much more than I would have previously about the beginnings and driving forces of the major metal genres that aren't necessarily the massive heavy-hitters that everyone knows about. Going through the 1st Decade Black Metal challenge was an arduous but satisfying process that was definitely worth it in the end since it gave me a ton of new perspective. Plus I'm starting to really pinpoint my biases and preferences when it comes to more extreme styles of metal as well as the genres I'm more familiar and comfortable with. The Academy has also really helped my review process and, even though I'm not as consistent as some of the others here, it's helped to push me to have each of my reviews be higher and higher quality the more I learn about metal in general. While listening to metal is far from the only thing I do, I enjoy "mastering" things that I care deeply about, so The Academy has been a serious resource in filling in the holes in what I don't understand or know about in this vast section of music. Plus it gets me to listen to older/classic albums way more than I would normally, since I primarily go towards current year albums during my day to day. 

Thrash Metal is quickly becoming my weakest genre because, for one, I haven't heard a single Kreator album so I feel like I'm missing some serious influence knowledge apart from this sounding like messier Slayer. It's no doubt that the feel of this album is great with the low production values and overall death motif giving it an eviler than usual edge, but this veers too far into an undesirable type of Thrash without quite being Black Metal for me. The riffing is well performed but a little too all over the place and gets lost within the drumming and the classic Thrash style vocal melodies always seem to make me disinterested. The vocals themselves are great and unique, having a lot more character and personality to them rather than the slightly spoken-word style of 80's Thrash. From reading Daniel's comment it really does remind me of Sarcofago; just a band ripping through the recording studio by any means necessary and combining a ton of early extreme metal influences into one package, but this one is a bit less fun overall for me.

3/5

There's a lot to break down here. So much so that I listened to this on like, July 7th or something, I'm just now posting something, and I'm still not entirely sure what to say. I don't think I have the same reverence towards this that's being shown above, even though I completely get it. I think the most important distinction between The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here and something like Dirt or Jar of Flies is that this sounds incredibly mature in comparison. Most of the songs have more Alternative Rock sounding riffs with more chord strumming than hefty chug rhythms and the new vocalist keeps a somber and dark but not exactly aggressive tone going throughout the album. It doesn't have the bursting energy that the 90's Grunge scene had, but it doesn't really have to and it shows some serious evolution within the Alice In Chains sound. I think what impresses me the most is that this still sounds definitively like Alice In Chains even if the elements are a bit shuffled around. They've always had a sound that I've preferred over that of Nirvana or Stone Temple Pilots and even after all these years its still preserved in a somber and reflective feeling album that is distinctly Alice In Chains. 

That being said, something about this one doesn't exactly click with me. I'm not sure if it's because DuVall is an obvious attempt at a one-to-one Staley replacement and that doesn't sit well with me, or if at the end of the day I find TDPDH kind of boring in all honesty. Objectively I agree with Saxy about DuVall really coming into his own with this new shift in style and it sounds great, but there's still something that doesn't exactly feel right to me; maybe it's because it sounds so surface-level compared to the Alice In Chains of the past? At the same time that's a pretty terrible observation to make because wanting to hear legitimate suffering through music isn't exactly something that I'd want to promote, even if its been shown to create some of the most revered albums. Saxy's also correct in that this album is more universal in what it tries to convey and I think it's better off for it, but it leaves me wanting a bit more for some reason. 

I think TDPDH is going to be a slow, slow burner for me judging by how I've been thinking about it, trying to figure out how to put everything together for a review which obviously isn't going to happen this month, or maybe ever. I'm definitely glad that Alice In Chains went in this direction because it's objectively still uniquely them and high quality, but I think I need even more time with it to detach myself from my expectations. 

3/5