Xephyr's Forum Replies

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

For me, there's a subtle feeling in Prog Metal I love where an album just takes you along for the ride. You don't necessarily know where you're going, you don't know why you're here or there and don't have a singular clue as to how the hell you ended up where you did, but you enjoyed the journey immensely. Dream Theater originally gave me that feeling, but as I've explored more bands and albums within the Prog/Infinite I've found their extremely angular and basically random style unable to hold my interest anymore. Altesia's direction is much, much better, showing that Progressive Metal has actually progressed in a few ways over the past 20 or so years. These guys are a true fusion of all of the heavy-hitting Prog influences all at once and even though I mostly get an augmented Haken vibe from them, they cram so many familiar sounds together that it actually ends up sounding very original and interesting. They still have the angularity of Dream Theater's wild transitions but they're more gracefully written, adding small transitions within the transitional sections that makes everything flow rather well. It helps that the album isn't overly long either, with only 3 extended tracks and 2 interludes.

I don't really get a whole lot of Opeth from this to be honest, apart from the sweeping 6/8 time signatures in "Amdist the Smoke" and "Hex Reverse" being scarily close to a track straight off of Damnation. Plus the beginning of "Cassandra's Prophecy" as well. Maybe now that I look at closer, there might be a bit more Opeth in here than I originally thought. In any case this is a fantastic example of modern Progressive Metal that doesn't make me roll my eyes at obvious clichés or overly complex and confusing song structures. It has cool twists and turns and doesn't meander around too much, even in the 18-minute closer. I don't know if it has enough truly awe-inspiring parts to be incredible at the end of the day, but this is leaps and bounds above most of the Prog Metal I end up checking out. I'll look to get a full review written out for this one, have quite a bit to say. 

4/5

It looks like the last time Converge was in the MA spotlight was back in September of 2020 and I gotta say, I'm still in a tough spot with them. Converge is easily my most respected Metalcore band considering how genuine to the actual genre they are, but I still just don't know how to feel about them. All We Love We Leave Behind was an obvious winner for me, but this one puts me in a similar position that Jane Doe did where I think I get it, but I still can't form any meaningful opinions on how I feel about it. They've definitely cleaned a lot of things up to make it less of the relentless cluster that Jane Doe was an while to some people that may make You Fail Me a bit less heartfelt, it works to give the album a bit more structure for people with my listening biases. I think I prefer this one slightly over Jane Doe but at the same time it has a bit less of that shock factor. Still an impressive showing of what tried and true professionals of more classic sounding Metalcore can do, but man, I'm going to have to figure out a way to meaningfully collect my thoughts on a single Converge album to write out what I actually think about them instead of not really knowing what to say every 6 or so months. 

3.5/5

I'm with Vinny on this one sadly, this one became pretty unlistenable after the 3rd attempt. "Thieves" starts out fine with its opening riff, introducing the Industrial style and metallic sound effects that sets the tone for what the rest of the album will be, but the repetitiveness of the whole thing mercilessly dashes most positive things I can say about this album. Each track has something that I like about it, like the instrumental transition after the chorus of "Burning Inside" or the repetitive bassline that actually works out on "Cannibal Song", but man, some of these songs I just can't get behind at all. "So What" has relentlessly annoying ad-libs and refuses to end while offering nothing of value past the first two minutes, the synth-y "Never Believe" is wholly uninteresting, the premise behind "Test" is interesting at first but falls flat on its face after repeated listens, "Faith Collapsing" feels like a rehash of "Cannibal Song", and "Dream Song" is an admittedly interesting but still totally dull atmospheric ender. I guess this kind of repetitive riffing and use of ideas isn't for me because I can't see myself returning to this one, which is a shame because I seriously enjoy Psalm 69 to this day. I'm starting to think that Ministry are a one album band for me after I didn't really enjoy Houses of the Molé too much either. 

2.5/5

I can't deny that this absolutely rips, the deepness of the chugs is brutal but still discernable and most of the transitions are on point, but like Sonny this isn't exactly my style when it comes to Death Metal. The vocals are a bit too one note and too vomited-out for me personally and I lose interest in the whole affair by track 8 or 9, but this definitely isn't low quality stuff and I'm surprised that, according to Ben, seasoned Death Metal listeners seem to write this one off. Even though I can't see myself going back to this one it's definitely above average when it comes to slightly-less-than Brutal/Slam Death Metal. The riffs are on point, the more melodic and technical stuff like at the end of "Mephitication" is cool and interesting, so I'm willing to rate it fairly highly. 

3.5/5

Massive fan of this one and I'm not quite getting the "untapped potential" aspect that Daniel/Vinny are describing even though I can see where they're coming from. I haven't listened to any Attila outside of Mayhem so it might be hard for me to tell whether he's phoning it in or not, but I never thought I'd consider myself a fan of his vocal style outside of De mysteriis dom Sathanas. His strange croaks work really well with the more extreme edge this album has with its insanely fast drumming and more thrashy style of tremolo riffing that balances melody and aggression really well. I'm also inclined to agree with Daniel in that there isn't too much Melodic Black Metal here apart from having a few more riff transitions than normal in tracks like "Come Damnation". I think this album works so well for me because it's an EP and not a full-length, since I could see myself getting tired of the relentless and somewhat repetitive aggression past the 40-minute mark. All in all though this release is exactly what I want and expect from a star lineup of Black Metal musicians and I thoroughly enjoy every single song on this album, although "Obliterator" is where I can start to understand Vinny's "jumbled ideas" comment since it definitely lags behind the 3 other full songs on the album. "Come Damnation" is probably the best Black Metal track I've heard in months though, so it's a small price to pay. 

4.5/5

In that case I'll forego this month to start fresh on the 1st of the month from now on, I always held off until the 15th because it felt weird submitting "last month's music" for next month's playlist, but I wasn't aware of how they were made. Thanks for letting us know. 

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments (2021)

Been really enjoying Perturbator's newest album since it's a decently big style shift for him. Lot of darker, gothic elements that push him farther away from the slightly cheesy 80's Synthwave style that he's so known for. Most of the vocals sound like they could have come directly from a Gothic Metal record, minus some of the enthusiasm. Managed to write a full review linked below. 

Xephyr's Lustful Sacraments Review

Absolutely incredible track; probably the best, more extreme leaning Black Metal track I've heard in months. The opening riff is killer, the slow buildup is intense, and the transition between the melody set up by the buildup and a callback to the opening riff is great. This made me check out the monthly feature way sooner than I was going to this month. 

Yesterday was a surprise Death Metal day for me; checked out two more visceral looking 2021 releases. 

Drawn and Quartered - Congregation Pestilence

A bit too brutal for me, but still has impressively heavy and winding riffing that probably sounds all too familiar to seasoned Death Metal listeners. Fans of the more chaotic and suffocating style of older school Death Metal will probably enjoy this way more than I did. 

2.5/5

Cerebral Rot - Excretion of Mortality

This one, though, is more my speed for when I decide to stick my toe into The Horde. Disgustingly festering chugs behind satisfyingly complex and more technical riffing with a suffocating, but not exactly downright brutal atmosphere like Drawn and Quartered. I dug Cerebral Rot's debut for the first half, but then it got pretty dull towards the end. Excretion of Mortality kept me hooked throughout and their frequent dives into Death Doom kept everything way more fresh than before. I doubt I'll go back to this too often but it definitely scratched the itch I was looking for this week.

3.5/5

Pain of Salvation: I first heard Pain of Salvation probably 10 years ago when I randomly stumbled upon Be and was blown away because I hadn't heard anything like it before. It was theatrical, heavy, strange, and progressive in a different way than something like Dream Theater. I left them behind as I listened to more stuff though, since the theatrics and their overall style wore thin; I never really had a strong urge to go back to any of their records even if I enjoyed them in the moment. 

The Perfect Element I rekindled my respect for this band though, especially after their lukewarm 2020 release Panther. Pain of Salvation normally makes my eyes roll a bit due to some of the singing and songwriting choices, but this one feels like they got it all just right. Everything fits nicely together and while it's still eccentric and all over the place, it has a nice sense of progression that I didn't get from their other albums. I still like In the Passing Light of Day just as much due to it having great individual songs, but The Perfect Element is more of a full package that really exemplifies who Pain of Salvation are and their strengths as a band. 

4/5

Voivod: I've read some opinions that say Angel Rat is a grower and I'm inclined to agree, but I don't see it growing any more on me past the third listen. You can never really know what Voivod is going to do from album to album, but I certainly wasn't expecting this. It's slightly thrashy, slightly punky, slightly rocky, slightly proggy...it's a lot of things but at the same time it's a pretty simple and straightforward album. Most of the songs are pretty high quality once you get past your initial expectations of a Voivod record, but I don't know if this album is the massive, underrated sleeper hit that people are starting to claim it is. 

3/5

My struggle with Gamma Ray continues. As I said about 2 weeks ago for my new self-titled Helloween review, I'm not exactly a Helloween fan even though I rate some of their albums fairly highly. By extension, I really can't say that I was ever a fan of Gamma Ray considering they're just an augmentation of Helloween at their core. I've always considered Gamma Ray to be the stale and boring version of classic, Speed Metal influenced Power Metal and apart from a few gems in Power Plant I think it's still the case. The album starts out with the ripping "Anywhere in the Galaxy" which instantly made me rethink my bias and got me pretty excited for what was to come, but the album peters out extremely quickly for me. "Razorblade Sigh" is okay at best, "Send Me a Sign" is a little too cheesy, upbeat, and straightforward even for me, and it only gets stranger from there. I can only describe "Strangers in the Night" as Hansen's half-baked audition tape to Rhapsody and after two tracks that I have no complaints about there's a strange Pet Shop Boys cover inclusion that's more confusing than anything. "Heavy Metal Universe" is the classic, eye-rolling Heavy Metal "stadium anthem" song that I've heard a million times by a million bands and it never seems to get any better no matter who takes it on. The back portion with "Wings of Destiny" and "Hands of Fate" is admittedly solid, but the opening half of "Armageddon" rubs me the wrong way with its dragging vocal melodies and weirdly generic riffing that you can hardly hear behind the drums. The transition at 4:45 is fantastic and the second half of the song is probably my favorite portion of the album, so it puts me in a weird spot. 

I still can't say that I really like Gamma Ray. There are so many other Power Metal bands that I'd recommend to new and old listeners alike, and I don't think that Power Plant is their strongest material to begin with. Struggling with this album gave me the motivation to go and check out Somewhere Out in Space and wow, what an improvement! For whatever reason, contrary to Daniel's opinion, Somewhere Out in Space is way more consistent, energetic, and exciting than this album by a longshot. Even though Power Plant didn't really do it for me, at least I can say that there's a Gamma Ray album I definitively like now.

3/5

Teramaze - I Wonder

Sometimes I just want to turn my brain off and listen to stuff that I think sounds good. After checking out Teramaze's 2021 album Sorella minore I went back a year prior to I Wonder and while it's definitely not as complex or "progressive" as its successor, it's incredibly addicting and fun to listen to. I've had "Ocean Floor", "A Deep State of Awake", and "Sleeping Man" stuck in my head for going on 2 weeks now. 

This is some mean, aggressive as hell stuff right here. I'll be spending some more time with this in the coming weeks since I feel like I'll warm up to it even more than I already have after 2 or so listens today. Most of the album is a sludgy onslaught of riffs and basslines that can get a bit monotonous here and there but the album isn't stretched out to a length where it matters too much. The more industrial and scratchy electronic elements are used sparsely which I think works out considering Red Harvest's approach seems to boil down to being as Metal as possible, as Daniel alluded to. I didn't necessarily care for the sludge inspired vocals at first, but I'm starting to appreciate them more as I give the album more spins, it adds a nice new dimension to the industrial-style riffing. To me Red Harvest are more grounded in Death Metal than other Sphere albums I've heard so far, and I have to say that I dig it, kind of to my surprise. I'm normally put off from a lot of Sphere releases just due to the abrasiveness, but Red Harvest might have found my preferred middle ground between grindy, metallic riffs and slightly more clear and downtuned Death Metal riffs. Very cool album, will return to it and it has a fair chance of getting bumped up to a 4. 

3.5/5

Some good quality, cavernous Death Metal that dips into slower Death Doom when it needs to and falls a bit flat thanks to its slightly muted production during certain riffs. I think this is one of those dime-a-dozen Death Metal albums that I check out each year just to be thorough, but Charnel Passages has way more potential than most of them. The twisting riffs have some fantastic movement and transitions to them, the vocals are generic but good, and the background choirs and atmospheric bits give it some fantastic depth and don't feel wasted or thrown in on a whim. "Piety Carved From Flesh" is especially great, transitioning from one of the most aggressive and complex pieces of riffing to easily my favorite chug riff of the month after the guitar solo. However, that same chug riff really highlights how flat and muted the production is on this album, I feel like that moment could have hit so much harder if the lead guitar had some more depth and volume to it compared to the double bass and rhythm guitar riffing. 

A good but slightly run-of-the-mill Death Metal record for me, even though I'm with Sonny in that I'm a fan of the overall style of this compared to the more gory types of Death Metal. 

3.5/5

I gave this one a listen towards the middle of the month and even though I made it all the way through twice, I have zero motivation to go back to it. I can't deny that it's an intriguing and unique listen given all the stuff Dir En Grey stuffs into it, but Uroboros hits a certain chord in my biased brain that just makes the whole thing straight up annoying to me. I have the same issue with System of a Down; I don't find anything they're doing captivating or worthy of a deeper dive because the jagged song structure and constant grating dissonance of random elements just puts me off of listening to this kind of stuff so much. One of these days I'll be able to fully articulate why I can't stand stuff that sounds like this, but that's all I've got for this month, just some good old personal bias. 

2.5/5

Really enjoyed this one, some nice, aggressive Thrash with enough variation to keep me interested. I really enjoy the mid-tempo riffing much to Daniel's dismay since it provides a great offset to the ripping riffs that most will seek out Agent Orange for. I'll agree that "Remember the Fallen" falls a bit short thanks to its more generic riffs and structure, but the switch-up in "Tired and Red" and the opening chug in "Magic Dragon" makes these tracks much more interesting to me rather than if they were purely focused on the aggressive parts. I don't know enough about the history and state of Thrash Metal at this time to really give a full review, but I can say that while Agent Orange might be one of my favorite older and more heavy Thrash albums, I still prefer the more melodic and riff focused Megadeth and Artillery offerings over something like this. It's not going to keep me from giving it a good score, definitely an amazing Thrash record, but I'm starting to find out my preferred style in the world of Thrash. 

4/5

I'm willing to try it but it's going to take some digging, at least for me. I never really delved into any local metal scenes because I didn't grow up close to a city and I don't really have a big connection to the city close-ish to me now. Not sure if I could make it a monthly thing for each and every clan, I sometimes struggle with playlist inclusions some months to begin with. 

Even though I love Power Metal, I've always, always struggled with Gamma Ray. I meant to comment on your popcorn grabbing opinion about Land of the Free to, surprisingly, agree with you. I don't hate them, I'm just so indifferent to them that it's hard to say too many positive things about them compared to other classic Power Metal bands. I wouldn't mind checking out another one of their albums under the microscope for a monthly feature, though. 

Asking Alexandria - Metalcore

Attack Attack - Metalcore

Enter Shikari - Metalcore, more towards a full Trancecore label

Fear and Loathing - Metalcore, closest to a full Trancecore label

I was able to check this one out on an hour and a half drive over the weekend, The Infinite is definitely the wildcard Clan by design, huh? Pretty much every track on here is completely different from one another save for a few of the sludgier tracks like "Orosirian" and "Crawl Back In". I have a lot of catching up to do with Fates Warning, and that Jute Gyte track was a massive surprise that didn't really work out for car speaker listening.

Helloween - Helloween (2021)

So, the new Helloween reunion album is actually pretty damn good. Never would have called that one. It's way more symphonic than some people might like but I'm digging it so far, and Helloween is far from my favorite Power Metal act historically. 

Heh no sadly, however I'm sure I could given how much Opeth I've listened to. My Blackwater Park review on here is basically a full essay is what I was saying; I outlined the whole thing beforehand, had a friend proofread it, came out to be like 2,200 words or something. Worth it. 

It'd be really tough to do a genre you don't really care for, at least for the way I structure reviewing albums. I thought about going the weird route and doing the Atmospheric Sludge Metal list for The Infinite, but a quick browse through the list made me really dread thinking about having to write so many reviews for a genre that I'm not very passionate about outside of Cult of Luna and Inter Arma. Having 20 reviews saying "Yeah but this isn't as good as A Dawn To Fear" isn't exactly great content hahaha

Even though I could rough it and go for the 1st Decade Progressive Metal list like I did for Black Metal, I think I've decided to go for the 2nd Decade instead. Even though I'm more familiar with more of these albums and already have a review for Control Denied and a college thesis for Blackwater Park,  there are too many heavy hitters that I'd love to write about to say no.

I think I'd learn more about Prog Metal on the whole if I did the 1st Decade one, but how can I pass up having a reason to finally write reviews for From Mars to Sirius, Biomech, Metropolis Part 2, Evergrey's arguably best album, Bath, Catch Thirtythree, Light of Day, Day of Darkness, plus like 5 others that I'm excited about? 

Well time to dig up this thread again, just got through The North's 1st Decade of Black Metal challenge. Glad I chose this one to do out of all the others I could have, definitely a massive and interesting history lesson since Black Metal progressed an incredible amount within the span of 3 or 4 years in the early 90's. 

The only other order of business might be to update my Emperor review, since Nightside Eclipse deserves more than one paragraph, even though that one paragraph is enough to get my point across. Hopefully the next challenge I choose won't take as long as this first one, haven't even begun to decide which one it's going to be. 

I've really been enjoying Mandylion over the past week and a half or so, enough to sadly rescind some of my praise about Enter last month. While I still like Enter, The Gathering are undoubtedly higher quality in general thanks to a more mesmerizing vocal performance that fits the lush but spacey atmosphere and a more varied approach when it comes to songwriting and instrumentals. I'm with Daniel in that the back half of the album is where Mandylion really shines with its patient buildups and eerie atmosphere. This one is kind of just one that I really like and have a hard time breaking down exactly why, so I'll just leave it at that. It makes me want to go back to Wildhoney and see how how it stacks up, since I remember it being more similar to this than something like Type O Negative was. 

4/5

Since there's already a Panopticon thread here, I've been digging into ...And Again Into the Light all this week and really enjoying it, but there's one thing that I'm just not getting about the album even after multiple listens. It feels like the folk element completely leaves during the back half of "Rope Burn Exit" and for the entirety of "A Snowless Winter" plus "Moth Eaten Soul" and awkwardly comes back in full force in "As Golden Laughter Echoes" only to be replaced by Post-Metal for the final two songs. Maybe because I enjoy the atmosphere and style of the opening track into "Dead Loons" so much that having the album progress away from that feels out of place, even though the progression makes sense? Pretty torn on it, still one of the best albums of the year but I feel like I'm missing something. 

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FROGS??? (267 releases by the way)

July

Unleash the Archers - "Apex" - Apex (2017)

Bloodbound - "Eyes Come Alive" - Creatures of the Dark Realm (2021)

Judicator - "Autumn of Souls" - Let There Be Nothing (2020)

Iron Savior - "Roaring Thunder" - Kill Or Get Killed (2019)

King Diamond - "Abigail" - Abigail (1987)

Helloween - "March Of Time" - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 2 (1988)

July

Cult of Luna - "What I Leave Behind" - The Raging River (2021)

VOLA - "Stone Leader Falling Down" - Witness (2021)

Caligula's Horse - "Marigold" - Bloom (2015)

Lucid Planet - "On The Way" - Lucid Planet II (2020)

July

Sojourner - "Perennial" - Perennial (2021)

Djevel - "maanen skal være mine øine, den skinnende stierne mine ben, og her skal jeg vandre til evig tid" - Tanker Som Rir Natten (2021)

Esoctrilihum - "Xuiotg" - Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath (2021)

Oh man that's a blast from the past, Two Steps From Hell got pretty popular back in 2010 or something, I forget what movie they were in or what they covered but I definitely listened to quite a bit of their stuff back then. While I enjoy the Symphonic part of Symphonic Metal as much as the next guy I think that a whole album of Two Steps From Hell was always a bit repetitive since most of their pieces are broken down into shorter songs rather than traditional Classical music that has a much more drawn out length and normally multiple movements to it. I'm willing to give it another shot though, it's been YEARS by now. 

The end of the month came early. I brought my A-game for this one:

Xephyr's Lucid Planet II Review