Vinny's Forum Replies

Usnea - Portals Into Futility (2017)

Metal Archives lists Usnea as “Blackened Funeral Doom Metal” which instantly coloured me interested. Having snapped up this album into my digital library after hearing the track ‘Eidolons and the Increate’ on the April Fallen playlist, I was eager to explore the whole record in some more critical detail. A backlog of albums to review that seems to only get longer, has meant that I am only just now getting around to dumping my thoughts into type. Thankfully though, this period has not seen any of my initial enthusiasm for Portals Into Futility dulled at all. When your band sounds like a cross between Bell Witch and Graves at Sea, you are guaranteed to drag a smile out of my otherwise grizzled expression. That’s right, music that explores the hopelessness of existence, the depravity of a dystopian world whilst also introducing themes of cosmic horror is a pleasing concept to me. A sort of much needed dose of reality being laid bare alongside some extra metaphors to really underline what a shitshow this planet is most of the time.

Whilst I may have just laid praise at Usnea’s door for their blunt summary of life, it is the more cosmic sound to their funereal atmospheres that I think keeps me more interested. Portals Into Futility has a clever way of hinting things always have the capacity to get worse, to spiral further out of our control, to reach levels of despondency that are frankly unearthly. Whilst I am going to flat-out challenge the “blackened” description of their sound, the sterility of their bleaker passages of music simply asks, “is this is as good as things get this side of the dirt”? It is perhaps only their general disdain for life that I can match to any blackened references that are inferred. Vocally, there is a definitive desperation to how Joel or Justin (both appear to be credited for the vocals) deliver their musings. Yet I would not compare this to anything in the black metal realm, if anything they are clearly more sludge orientated. The guitars also may possess a swarming quality on tracks such as ‘Lathe of Heaven’ but he pacing here is very much funeral doom or glacial sludge riffs.

Give me the murky and unfathomable depths of ‘Demon Haunted World’ all day, any day and I will gladly bathe in them until that mire is engrained in my skin. When that Bell Witch bass kicks in I am in utter joy on this track even if it suggests one of the more positive sounding moments on the whole album (that’s how bleak this thing is). The album artwork (which Justin is also credited with collaboration on – busy chap) sums up the contents perfectly. Ultimately, there is no comfort to be found is what that artwork says to me, and Portals Into Futility is an uncomfortable listen. Closing with a punishing, nineteen-minute track shows that the end is more agonising than the run up. Buckle up folks. Strap on in. This is going to be a rough one.

4/5

I listened to this in two halves today and gave a firm "no" to For My Pain (Gothic ain't my thing), Unearthly Trance (cannot get my head around this band), Concept of God (Rob Lowe is someone I have to really be in the mood for) and the dreadful attempt to sound like Messiah Marcolin that was Dawn of Winter.

On the plus side, I am lapping up the sludgey goodness of Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean, a band who I have long admired from afar.  That Departure NH track piqued my pecker too.  I have also been lured in by that Sumac track, albeit warily after I sat through The Healer once and genuinely wanted to pull my ears off.  Ennui where a superb ending to the playlist, I thought.  

The "obscure" bands still work best for me though Sonny so keep them coming.

I have found myself increasingly interested in hardcore since picking up the new Terror record in the past week or so and I have also seen my interest in metalcore developing over the last 12 months or so.  Both have been of interest historically but I have never really bothered to embed my interest in them.  I am watching documentaries/interviews, listening to podcasts, as well as listening to records of course.  Could all change next week though as I do lack discipline with music exploration and tend to veer off.  I am a very disciplined person in life in terms of eating a strict diet and following a stringent fitness routine.  If I could transpose that discipline into my music exploration habits, I would be a lot better versed in music in general. 

Submission accepted, thanks Vinny! I've heard of Harms Way but haven't actually listened to them yet, so that track would be a great start. RIP Bo Lueders

An internet acquaintance introduced me after Bo's suicide.  So many heartfelt expressions of grief across the music community he revolved around.  He was clearly a much loved and respected man.

I'd recommend going with the album Common Suffering as a starting point with Harms Way, Andi.

Andi? If you are still accepting nominations from non-clan members then I would like to suggest a track for June please - fine if not accepting any.

Harms Way - "Heaven's Call" (from "Common Suffering", 2023)

Might as well do this one too:

Gorrch - "Vorago" (from "Stillamentum", 2026)

Fire Magic - "Siege of Eternity" (from "Memories of Fire", 2026)

Graufar - "Buried in Flames" (from "Via Necropolis", 2026)

Primordial - "Empire Falls" (from "To the Nameless Dead", 2007)

Svartkonst - "Death Magic" (from "Black Waves", 2020)

Here we are:

Foetorem - "Oozing with Pustulent Fluids" (from "Incongruous Forms of Everlasting Rot", 2026)

Monstrosity - "Veil of Disillusionment" ( from "Screams from Beneath the Surface", 2026)

Blood Incantation - "Slave Species of the Gods" (from "Hidden History of the Human Race", 2019)

Decapitated - "Mother" (from "War Nihility", 2002)

Frozen Soul - "Wraith of Death" (from "Crypt of Ice", 2021)

Immolation - "Attrition" (from "Descent", 2026)

Fluids - "Humanity Reviled" (from "Not Dark Yet", 2021)

Vacuous Depths - "Worshippers of Death" (from "Humiliation", 2022)

Here you go:

Eternal Rot - "Crawler" (from "Grave Grooves", 2014)

ISIS - "The Other" (from "Oceanic", 2002)

Ophis - "The Perennial Wound" (from "Spew Forth Odium", 2021)

Wildspeaker - "Cinders" (from "Spreading Adder", 2017)

Graves at Sea - "The Waco 177" (from "The Curse That Is", 2016)

Had this issue again this morning (10am UK time) consistent 502 errors.

I have managed to get across my suggestions this time around, so here you go Vinny:

Aggressive Perfector - "Return of the Axe" (from "Come Creeping Fiends", 2026)

Slayer - "Captor of Sin" (from "Haunting the Chapel EP", 1984)

Destruction -"Satan's Vengeance" (from "Sentence of Death EP", 1984)

Voivod - "Live for Violence" (from "War and Pain", 1984)

Exciter - "Scream in the Night" (from "Violence & Force", 1984)

Acid - "Satan" (from "Acid", 1983)

Epidemic - "Territories" (from "Decameron", 1992)

Razor - "Escape the Fire" (from "Executioner's Song", 1985)

Sacrilege - "Shadow From Mordor" (from "Behind the Realms of Madness", 1985)

Torturer - "Demoniac Possession" (from "Oppressed by the Force", 1992)

Sorry there is so much '84 / '85 stuff, but that is what I have been listening to!!

No need to apologise for being focused on the old school era Sonny.

I have recently discovered this artist.  There's a track on one of my playlists (playlist is simply called "Chill") from their Music Has The Right To Children album, called 'Sixtyten' that I absolutely love.  I have spun Geogaddi a couple of times but need spend more time with them for sure.

Been like this all week for me.

Gorrch - "Stillamentum" (2026)

Gorrch are over fifteen years into their existence and are only just getting around to their sophomore album. The duo of Chimsicrin (drums, vocals and keyboards) and Droich (guitars and bass) make for a quite a melodic take on the sound stylised by DSO. They lack the foreboding edge of the DSO sound, forming a more urgent and dashing movement to the music with a frankly excessive use of the tremolo. Nonetheless, the comparison is unavoidable.

Over only six tracks, the repetition of the guitar does get a little tiresome, however. That sounds like a dumb thing to say for a black metal record, given that repetition is a key factor of black metal in general. However, I do feel that the tremolo is simply overused, certainly across the first half of the album at least. For the latter three tracks there does appear to be a little more variation, and the album improves for it.

The drums are perhaps the best part of the whole album for me. Well produced and unobtrusive, yet at the same time they are as varied as they are prominent. I do not get the sense that they are particularly complex in their patterns, yet the skill of the musician is still obvious. The other standout from the second half of Stillamentum is the use of dark choral vocals. Their inclusion gives tracks a ritualistic theme that grabs the attention well.

Eleven years between records is a long time, and I have not heard their debut record to know how marked a difference, or not, there is to what goes on throughout Stillamentum. Both members have roles in other bands I can see which may explain the huge gap in output. I cannot say that Stillamentum suffers in any regard, more that it labours somewhat. If the guitars could match the drums in both variety and positioning in the overall sound, then I would enjoy the album more. However, this is not a bad record by any means, and I will be keeping an ear out for album number three if it ever arrives.

3.5/5

Aara "Eiger" (2024)

 I suppose that comparisons with Darkspace are par for the course with Aara. Two atmospheric black metal bands, both from Switzerland and both rather good at what they do. Although the ambient streak that runs through Darkspace material is perhaps not as prevalent in the sound of their fellow Swiss counterparts. There is possibly a straighter line to be drawn to Mare Cognitum in all honesty. At least to my ear also. Whatever comparison you want to draw, Aara makes atmospheric, melodic and very enduring black metal on Eiger. The enduring nature of the sound feels like a sound representation of the tragic story of one climb undertaken by a handful of individuals that resulted in significant loss of life on the mountain. The Eiger is a mountain that has claimed multiple lives over the years. Those brave enough to try and take on not only its perilous climbing height but also avalanches, treacherous weather and of course freezing temperatures have certainly helped it live up to its nickname of “Murder Wall”.

The freezing cold represented on the album resonates with a crystal-clear hue out of the melodic and poignant notes of the riffs. The blizzard like conditions is summarised wonderfully in the blitz of drums and guitar and the harsh environment could not be better represented overall by those scathing vocals. One of the main successes of Eiger is that despite all this multitude of metaphors, a listener can easily still hear the storytelling as it narrates. The swarming guitars of ‘Felsensang’ suggests the fingering stealth of icy flakes of snow, jabbing at the faces of the mountaineers as they make their way along this imperilled journey. Unafraid to bring a folk-tinged element to the strings at times, Aara are at home in all tempos it seems here. They can have quite forthright drums with the most subtle of guitar strings atop of them and still make it all sound cohesive.

Given the dark outcome of the story here, there are a lot of hopeful and positive sounding moments in play across the record. As such, the songs feel very human. To me they capture a lot of the determination of those who did try and reach the top (five turned back and the remaining four were killed in trying to complete the ascent) as well as leaving the listener in no doubt of the dangers in front of them at any given moment. The songwriting here is so well balanced that it is difficult not marvel at it. It seeks to remind us I think, that regardless of the respect the album affords to the mountain itself, ultimately this is a story of human endeavour.

This has been my first Aara record, and what a place to start. From reading other reviews, this is a break from what is usually a more gothic-themed storytelling, which would also be right up my alley and so I do plan to build on this positive experience by exploring more of the discography. Meanwhile, Eiger is a mature piece of black metal delivered with a level of melody that often eclipses its atmospheric promise. Yet this is by no means a bad thing.

4.5/5

Nerdy spreadsheet time for April folks:

Deeds of Flesh steal it this month for me ahead of that Smote album which is a devious little bugger that needs more time to be spent with it still.  I respectfully decline to rate or review The Guardians or The Sphere features this month as I would only be bashing them having tolerated the briefest of listens through (with a lot of skipping).  Unexpected find was definitely that Excessive Force record though, unexpected even ahead of my enjoyment for the first time ever of Operation Mindcrime.

Deeds of Flesh are a blast. Anyone who admires the technical brutality of Suffocation, Decrepit Birth Dying Fetus or Defeated Sanity would struggle to find much to dislike with the quartet who put together Path of the Weakening. Released at the end of the 90s, this album is played with the vigour of a band releasing their debut album in 1989 or 1990 when the world was just warming up to the wonder of death metal. It is a record that has aged well too, still managing to sound relevant nearly three decades after its release. The band are still active some thirty-three-years after their inception and run Unique Leader Records, the label ran by the late vocalist/guitarist for the band Erik Lindmark.

With my interest in death metal starting to pique again, it is records like this one that remind me of just why I was drawn to this style of music nearly forty years ago. There’s something to be said about bands who can take an already arcane form of music and not only squeeze every drop of brutality from it whilst also keeping things interesting at the same time. On Path of the Weakening, Deeds of Flesh make no attempt to provide any accessibility to proceedings, however. Yet there is a clarity to those riffs. Even though the listener will experience multiple changes to tempo and time throughout the album and individual tracks even, they remain prominent, not being allowed to get lost in the mix or indeed the listeners experience either. Given the barrage of percussion that is going on at times here, this is even more of an achievement. I can see there was a returning drummer on this record and Joey Heatley managed to make an impact on his return without going overboard and dominating proceedings.

There is underlying groove toa lot of these tracks also, again this is something which helps the interest levels for me. Vocally, we are treated to consistent death metal fare. Cruel shrieks dash out at you from seemingly out of nowhere, yet we are never to far away from the guttural gurns that dredge up untold hells from the underworld itself. I am unsure why I have not tapped into Deeds of Flesh before this feature release. I could see as I streamed the record that I had saved one of the tracks (‘Summarily Killed’) to my Liked Songs, which could also easily mean this was a nomination for me in The Horde playlist at some point in the past. Either way, I am glad I have completed the full listening experience now as I may well have found a new cult favourite.

4/5

Early call for the nominations for the June playlist please all. 

I will accept one nomination from non-clan members also. 

40 mins for clan members.

Entries by 15th May please so you have lots of time.

This has been my first time listening to a full length by Melechesh, with the band having only ever managed to previously float on the periphery of my black metal listening taste. You see, I have never really been possessed by the urge to explore Melechesh in depth and off the basis of this record I doubt that this will change very much moving forwards. Despite some early promise on The Epigenesis it falls some way short for me in being a complete experience. Which seems like an odd statement given just how much is going on during the hour and eleven-minutes duration of the record. Somehow though, it just doesn’t all fit together for me.

I am not surprised to hear the musical influences on the record. The band bill themselves as Sumerian/Mesopotamian themed extreme metal and this certainly shows on this album. Those black metal roots are obvious underneath all the middle eastern sounds and the potency of technical death metal and the swarming sounds of progressive metal each get turns to take the steering wheel at times during the album also. For the first five tracks of the album, I don’t really have much of a problem. Tracks like ‘Grand Gathas of Baal Sin’ are absolute romps, full of pace and energy. Regrettably though, this is an album of two halves, and the second half is a very lost sounding and directionless affair to my ears.

The middle eastern influences just seem to take over after the instrumental track, ‘When Halos of Candles Collide’ and the tracks seem to lose a large portion of their metal credentials along the way and my attention starts to fade, badly. Whereas the non-metal instruments seem to blend relatively well with the more standard fare for the first part of the record, they seem to almost take over the longer the record goes on for. Add to this there is a definite accessible edge to tracks such as ‘Sacred Geometry’ which has a really irritating chorus section, which is not how I like my black metal I am afraid. Fair play to them for trying and I can see this works for other members, based on comments on the site already. However, this is a bit of a bugger’s muddle to me overall.

3/5

FALLEN: Candlemass

HORDE: Obituary

NORTH: Mayhem

PIT: Metallica

I will be honest, when I saw this record put forward for a feature release this month, I groaned inwardly. Having tried to understand the hype around this album on many occasions previously, I could never quite fathom its cult status. For me personally, it has always been Empire that is my go-to Queensrÿche album. A factor in my opinion of Operation Mindcrime has always been its arrangement. Metal/rock operas are tedious affairs to me, often where songs get snarled up in acts at various points in the record, completely disrupting the flow of the album usually. Here on this record, there is the double whammy of two, largely non-musical intro tracks to open proceedings, so my irritation soon becomes difficult to control.

Arrangement challenges aside, this outing with album has been much more fruitful than I expected. If I divert my attention away from the actual storytelling, I can acknowledge that there are some fantastic tracks on this record. I recalled that I had always liked ‘I Don’t Believe in Love’, but on this outing the class of ‘Suite Sister Mary’ shone through. I am confident that with future listens I will be able to expand on the list of standout tracks as some made a more subconscious impact this time around.

There are still some gripes, however. I struggle to describe much of this as metal in all honesty. The extravagance of the leads perhaps is all that keeps the sound this side of the hard rock style that I recognise as being more prevalent. I don’t really buy the progressive tag either. I doubt if it were all that progressive, I would have found as much positivity in the album as I have. However, let’s try to keep those positive vibes coming and end on a high note. This has been a successful revisit for me, albeit an unexpected one. I have a feeling if I edit the track listing myself on this, I could even get a higher rating for this album in the future.

3.5/5

Just so everyone is aware. Void has been banned. They clearly had no intention of being respectful towards others, so I made the call before things got out of hand.

Good news.

As you can see from the rating, The Search is not without its challenges for me. Notwithstanding that this album was recorded nearly forty-years ago and that I suspect that they did not have the most advanced studio to work with, this took me back to the wrong side of the old school, blunting some of the sharper nostalgia that can normally carry a portion of such albums. I mean, I hve no experience of Necrosis before this month and so I had no familiarity to work from that may have been triggered somewhere in my aging brain. Hence, the performance, although adept enough, is not captured as well as it could be.

In the main though, I just can't get past the vocals. They are just too weak to the point of being whiny; unable to stack up against the rest of the instrumentation, especially the guitar work which is good few notches above the vocal performance. Increasingly, as I listened through the record, I found it hard to penetrate the skin of the record and pick out any individual moments to reflect upon. The album as a result just became this mass of thrash music, without any clear delineation between tracks. In short, it soon became a bit of a slog.

In the end I found myself listening to the album to almost try and outrun the vocals, just so I could hopefully get long enough away from them to enjoy the music itself. Alas, I did not have the legs to last the course of that little mindgame and so The Search remains a discovery that I am unlikely to revisit.

3/5

You've arrived with quite a bang Void. It appears you didn't enjoy it much when someone was condescending and / or patronising towards you, and yet you're very first comment here suggested that anyone that enjoys the more extreme side of metal is a lesser person than you.

As the admin for the site, I genuinely welcome you to Metal Academy and hope you find something useful and interesting. I ask only that you be respectful of others, including their taste in metal music. I know it's unusual in this day and age for somewhere on the internet to encourage / expect friendly and respectful behaviour, but here we are.

I note you've only chosen the Infinite clan rather than selecting three clans. Let me know if you want to add two more and I'll sort it.

 It's not the more Extreme side of metal, it's the shite talentless side (with no heart or soul). I blame the Norwegians & Brazilians. In certain circles, there are those who consider me the 'Simon Cowell" Of the Metal & Hard rock world ...but hey I'm insignificant according to Vin.

What the hell are clans for? Am I totally ignorant? Is this a gamers community? Cannot stand videogames or gaming culture,  entertainment for people like Vin the virgin to waste their financial aid on.

Based on your Scorpions album post you are more interested in collecting images of naked children, clearly.  Rest assured, whatever your illicit tastes are, this is not a community for you.

Oh, if you request an image of children and then caveat it with "I'm not a paedo" then that must be the case.

Of every censored album cover out there, that's the one you pick.

I don't know what this place is.. or what the point of it is?

I mean I initially thought it was some kind of community board which shared Rapidgator links of releases (on account of the orange tab icons everywhere). Wow that was a pretty ridiculous assumption, wasn't it?

A whole bunch of reviews (using pretentious flowery descriptive terms). Why should I care wtf Johnny Briggs from the States thinks of the new 'craved flesh' release? A made up band name btw ...but it just as well be authentic in accordance with taste here.

Seriously, develop some -beyond growls & scales featuring Cookie monster croaking about aborted fetuses and the Apocalypse (Yawn Zzzzz)

Jesus... melody and chord progression people...

Nobody is forcing you stay.  For all the "flowery descriptive terms" you're bemoaning about, you still joined up and made a post. What's wrong?  Couldn't prove your age on PornHub anymore so now need a new internet hobby?

Wow Vinny, that's incredibly unwelcoming to a newcomer not to mention condscending and patronising. What I really resent though is the assumption I'm unaware  of accessing porn via any VPN. Think you're so much better than everyone don't you Vin? Think you're a bit of a rocker eh? Bit of a rebel, bit of a 'non-conformist' who challanges authority? Nah, wrong - YOU'RE A NERD Vin. A NERD.

None of the above.  I just called out the irony of you introducing yourself by slagging off the forum and now you’re playing the victim as the wounded newcomer.  Calling you out is not ‘non-conformist’ and you definitely have no authority to be challenged.  Challenging your frankly immature introduction is not me believing I am better than you, it’s an opportunity for you to take stock and maybe think twice.  You’re a blip on the internet, stop overselling yourself.

p.s. You spelt condescending wrong.  Now that is me being patronising.

p.p.s. What the hell is “a bit of a rocker”?

I don't know what this place is.. or what the point of it is?

I mean I initially thought it was some kind of community board which shared Rapidgator links of releases (on account of the orange tab icons everywhere). Wow that was a pretty ridiculous assumption, wasn't it?

A whole bunch of reviews (using pretentious flowery descriptive terms). Why should I care wtf Johnny Briggs from the States thinks of the new 'craved flesh' release? A made up band name btw ...but it just as well be authentic in accordance with taste here.

Seriously, develop some -beyond growls & scales featuring Cookie monster croaking about aborted fetuses and the Apocalypse (Yawn Zzzzz)

Jesus... melody and chord progression people...

Nobody is forcing you stay.  For all the "flowery descriptive terms" you're bemoaning about, you still joined up and made a post. What's wrong?  Couldn't prove your age on PornHub anymore so now need a new internet hobby?

A good few pick ups from this month's list.  currenty spinning that Argentum album and have Solar Temple and Cabinet lined up for later also.  Good to see Drautran on the list, another band who put out one good record and then went on indefinite hiatus. Even more awesome is the Cirith Gorgor track from one of bm's more underrated albums.  That Misotheist album arrived on vinyl last week and is my bm record of the year so far.

You can't go wrong with Leviathan, ever.  I listened to that Woe track and remembered how great it was and then recalled how I went off the album really quickly (after about three listens), but still can't figure out why.

Not digging Caladan Brood or that Kostnatění track (was a bit too obscure for me and there was a saxophone on one of the tracks which also got an instant skip response.

I actually took time to click through this yesterday.  I won't pretend I listened the whole way through as it still confuses me terribly what gets classed as metalcore sometimes when it sounds more like pop-music (which has its place somewhere, just not in my wheelhouse, usually).  The more actual metallic hardcore a track is the better, which is why I enjoyed The Revolution feature release this month.  I added some tracks to my workout playlist (Varials, Fox Lake and August Burns Red) but still got along with Carnifex and Sylosis well enough to explore more.

A quick question: do you enjoy me picking more obscure bands that may not have had too much exposure (I have hundreds), or would you prefer to hear better established acts?

The former, every time.

My takeaways this month are Usnea and Boghaunter.  Another solid month.

Went through this today.  Although I am still not massively as in to death metal as I was I still took some recs in that Solstice album and Rotten Sound.  Good mix of classics and more modern stuff here which kept me listening whilst I was working.

Cool suggestions, Vinny, but David has already submitted a Smote track.

Probably be busy around the time for the next selections Sonny. Here are 3 around 29 minutes, leaving an extra 6 minutes for someone. 

Unearthly Trance – “Raised by Wolves” (from “Season of Seance, Science of Silence”, 2003): 9:39

Smote – “Lof” (from “Clyppan”, 2025): 9:33

Sumac – “Will to Reach” (from “What One Becomes”, 2016): 9:48

Thanks Andi.

Sonny please substitute that Smote track for ISIS - "The Other" (from "Oceanic", 2002)

Hi Sonny:

Smote - "The Linton Wyrm" (from "Songs from the Free House", 2025)

Neurosis - "Blind" (from "An Undying Love For a Burning World", 2026)

Purple Lung - "Beware the Bog Witch" (from "Mystic Vision", 2026)

Space Sugar - "Graveyard Keeper" (from "Ride Your Panic", 2025)

Oreyeon - "Nothing but Impurities Pt.2" (from "The Grotesque Within", 2026)

For May Sonny:

Kings Rot - "Fall of the Witch King" (from "The Shadow of the Accursed", 2021)

LVME - "Third Flame of Disorder" (from "The Blazing Iniquity", 2024)

Bosse-de-Nage - "Leviathan" (from "Hidden Fires Burn Hottest", 2026)

Veter Daemonaz - "The Awakening" (from "Trivmph", 2016)

I was about two minutes into In Your Blood before I a) checked this wasn’t Biohazard and b) where Biohazard’s two first releases came out in relation to this one. By 1995, we had already had two Biohazard records, and I was a bit of a fan at that point, so the similarities were obvious to me from the start of this album. This got me to thinking about how close my listening tastes could have gotten too early metalcore had my teenage years been more driven by the internet. Then again, I am not sure how much of what passes as metalcore nowadays can be compared to this record, it certainly sounds more hardcore than the increasingly rap metal-based style of Biohazard, albeit those gang chants are still very much prevalent here also.

As usual with my forays into The Revolution clan features, if I am not totally alienated and horrified by what I hear on the first track then chances are that I am going to stay for the album duration and that I will have some positives to highlight, and this is the case once again here with Excessive Force. There is no point that I lose interest in In Your Blood, since it maintains a frantic and pummelling pace for its entire duration, it is hard for me not to be engaged throughout. The punk elements get room to shine (‘Backtrack’) whilst the metallic riffs remain the order of the day very much. I like how this stays true to that 90s hardcore sound whilst still being able to inject some new life into that sound.

Vocally speaking, the style is desperate sounding whilst still maintaining that very aggressive front at the same time. I don’t mind the gang chants, although I suspect my entertainment levels wouldn’t drop if they were absent. Whilst I will not pretend that In Your Blood is big on variation, it is one of the reasons why it works for me, I think. When I look at what carries the “metalcore’’ tag nowadays, I cannot help but feel it is a heavily distorted tag that is perhaps overused. If this is what 90s metalcore sounded like, then it is not very far away from a familiar format in all honesty. In Your Blood is most certainly under my skin, if not quite able to penetrate my veins as the title suggests. What it has done is opened my eyes and ears to a scene I had written off too early it appears.

3.5/5

The “boxes” argument used to come up quite a lot back on the old Terrorizer forum days. Any member trying to conveniently place anything even slightly eclectic into a specific genre, sub-genre, niche, thimble or mere tag usually found themselves suffering the ire of one or more of the regulars on that board. For a forum that was associated with the extreme metal and was billed as the” world’s most dangerous music magazine”, there was a surprisingly open-minded group of regulars present there and as such an album like this month’s The Fallen feature release would have proved to be a divisive discussion point.

Smote don’t have any recognition on Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives. To be honest, I can almost understand why. As much as there is a heavy streak to Songs from the Free House, there is a lot of other elements for the listener to contend with. Drone, psych, folk and doom all occupy the forty-minute space in front of the listener. To my ear this record embraces a very similar sound to that of Wolvserpent, a band who despite my tendency to avoid drone metal, get regular revisits each year. When I pick up such reference points, I do wonder if it is just that Smote have simply not been put forward for submission at The Metal Archives as opposed to being outright rejected. Clearly, these tracks are not always arranged with the heavier elements in sharp focus; the chaos of psych often disrupts any sense of outright doom metal from topping the charts of influences driving the bus. You may easily find then that Songs from the Free House is a little too rarified a listen if there are no albums by Hawkwind in your collection.

At the same time, I do not think that you must be a fan of the output by Sunn O))), Earth or Boris to enjoy this release. The drone elements here possess an atmosphere I have rarely been able to pick up with the above artist’s releases that I have ventured into. The haunting pipes of ‘Chamber’ and those dense, droning keys and vocals create a real sense of immersion around me as I listen. But above all else, in comparison to other albums I have experienced across these multiple genres/sub-genres, there is still a sense of very definite start and end points to tracks. There is no blurring of all tracks into one and as such tracks are permitted a good expanse of individual identity.

I could use the word ‘enchanting’ to describe this record. It has a sultry, brooding appeal to it that lures me in; perhaps at this early stage of listening even without me being able to fully understand why it connects with me so well. There is something primal about the tribal percussion that is on display. The uncertainty of the deep drones and bass lines only seem to add to the allure of proceedings as opposed to alienating me from them. And so, it eventually comes back to the fact that there is no “box” to put this record in, which is sort of why I like it so much.

4/5

My review still seems correct following a revisit to this one tonight:

I posted Private Music in a thread on another forum I frequent and got asked by one of the regulars there to help them understand the appeal of Deftones. After a lot of words, I came to the overall conclusion that I respect Deftones because they never attempt to “be” anything. Their range of musical styles and influences could take up a whole paragraph of this review quite easily. However, the comparison I eventually made was that in my experience of metalcore/deathcore, there are some acts who like to step around inside Bilie Elish style electro-pop ecosystems for a few minutes before landing a twenty-second breakdown of crushing riffs to keep some semblance of metal relevant in their sound. For some of these acts, they could quite easily for go the metal parts and just stick with the non-metal if they do it well enough. However, although Deftones work with a blueprint, it is one that exists in such a size already that on their best records, the sky is literally the limit and metal may not always obviously be on the cards.

That having been said. I cannot recall the last time I actively waited for a Deftones album, let alone really enjoyed one in its entirety. Following the huge impact that Diamond Eyes had on me when I returned from a hiatus from metal in 2010 was realistically never going to be repeated, I know. When Koi No Yokan dropped some two years later, I lapped it up most definitely but my levels of fascination with its predecessor were never repeated. Working back from Diamond Eyes into their discography rewarded me with White Pony of course, which will go down as one of my all-time favourite alt metal releases, albeit I do not have an extensive listening history within that sub-set of metal music. When it came then to their more modern records, Gore and Ohms just failed to hold my interest and I drifted from the Deftones world of gazey, alt-metal, trip-hop, dream-pop music altogether.

With more of a focus on new music this year, I soon got wind of the singles ahead of the release of Private Music itself. Whilst neither ‘My Mind is a Mountain’ or ‘Milk of the Madonna’ bristled with any true sense of a reinvigorated intensity returning to the Deftones sound, I have hung fire passing any judgement until the album itself was available. Whilst they were both perfectly inoffensive tracks in isolation, I was more interested in how they fitted into the usual multi-textured layers of a whole album by Chino and co. It does not take long for me to find things that I like very much about Private Music. Whilst in isolation ‘My Mind is a Mountain’ is an appetiser, as an album opener it sets out the stall of the record well. Bold in the riff department, whilst also letting the percussion do its thing it marries perfectly with ‘Locked In’ which then follows a similar blueprint, leading into the chugging ‘Ecdysis’. Exploring the bass to get the pace going before establishing a very familiar sound to the Diamond Eyes era that I am such a fan of adds much needed familiarity for me to this track.

The stories within stories layering of the Deftones writing is alive and kicking still on Private Music. Watch the video to ‘My Mind is a Mountain’ and see Chino dancing to a very different theme to what is playing. This is a good thing for me, seeing the heavier end of their sound being embraced a little more whilst still having an agenda the listener must work on uncovering. Whilst far from perfect, the flow of tracks this time around feels more cohesive than it has in a while. Running the usual musical gauntlet over forty-two minutes there are still some golden runs of tracks, especially towards the end of the record. ‘Cut Hands’ through to album closer ‘Departing the Body’ springs to mind. Two up-tempo pieces followed by a more poised track to finish shows the maturity that the band clearly have at this stage.

Caution remains on calling this a return to form perhaps. If I was ranking the record against the last few over the past fifteen years, then Private Music sits in third behind Koi No Yokan and Diamond Eyes respectively. A large part of me doubts the band can achieve the heights they once enjoyed, but Private Music is evidence enough that the potential remains.

3.5/5

Hoping to get a couple of days away this weekend so this should be fine travel music to get me up and around Scotland.

Had a bit of a wake-up call this week. Last year I was feeling generally unwell and went to the doctor and they said I had very high blood pressure. I was resistant to being put on medication, so I changed my diet and increased exercise. I don't use gyms or anything organised, I have always had manually demanding jobs and walked a lot, so am reasonably fit for my age. Anyway, I shed over 20 lbs, improved my diet and felt a lot better. 

This week I went for a six-month check so they could see how I was doing. Annoyingly my blood pressure had gone up. The nurse took it four times to make sure then said it was worryingly high and she needed to speak to the doctor about it. She came back and said he had prescribed meds for me and I needed to take them straight away as I was now at very high risk of heart attack or stroke. I asked how this could be when I had done all that they told me to and she said that sometimes it is just genetics. 

So here I am stuck taking blood pressure meds and the cold reality that I am now officially old has slapped me in the face. I think it is that that pisses me off more than the actual health implications themselves. Hopefully the meds will work and I will still be here posting bollocks for a few more years yet!

Firstly, sorry to hear this Sonny.  Losing weight and improving your diet should have at least helped I would have thought, like you said.  The thing that annoys me about the response from the health care professional is that they appear to have done absolutely no investigation.  The culture in our health industry of “just take these pills” without looking to the root cause of the issue is just so frustrating.

I had a similar conversation last year when I had been unwell with some breathing difficulties and had been for some blood tests.  THREE MONTHS later the doctor’s surgery phoned me to say they had found some marginally high markers on my kidney function and that my cholesterol was higher than it should be.  Within 2 mins of the call the advanced nurse practitioner was talking about putting me on Statins.  I politely told him to Foxtrot Oscar.

I know they are trained professionals but they are only lapping up what big pharma funded studies tell them, or worse when it comes to diet they are just using data from research funded by food companies to justify their “healthly” products.  Just look up Ansell Keys and his “research” into how fat was bad for us all and so he undertook a study (paid for by Mr Kellogg and friends if memory serves me correctly) to show that meat, lard, butter and high fat content foods were bad for you.  He studied 22 countries.  15 of them disproved the theory as those with predominantly carbohydrate based diets all had similar health markers in their populations.  What did he do?  He kicked those 15 out of the study and therefore two thirds of his research base was just dismissed because it would not meet the criteria that his investors were looking for to justify pushing their branded diets.

New Great Falls comp released this month, Conscription.  Noise-rock/sludge turned up to eleven.

A new Darkthrone album out on May 8th entitled "Pre-Historic Metal".

The title track has been released as a preview single and, solely judging on this track, it sounds like a move away from the doomier stuff they have explored over the last two or three albums back to the crusty heavy metal of the 2010s.

I have listened to this track a couple of times today and I quite like it.  It sounds quite blackened to me, to begin with at least.  Holds some promise at least.

I am about a quarter way through "The Mercy of Gods", the first installment of the new space opera series from James S.A. Corey, the writers behind "The Expanse". Similar themes of political intrigue and humanity under threat are playing out so far and it is very readable, so anyone who did enjoy the earlier series should be well-served here too.

What's a "space opera"?  I have a feeling the immature image in my head of people singing loudly in space suits is actually far away from the reality?

I have done a fair bit of new and relistening over the last few days since I first published this list and have made some changes:

1. Mercyful Fate - "Melissa"

2. Iron Maiden - "Piece of Mind"

3. Slayer - "Show No Mercy"

4. Satan - "Court in the Act"

5. Metallica - "Kill 'Em All"

6. Dio - "Holy Diver"

7. Raven - "All For One"

8. Motörhead - "Another Perfect Day"

9. Sortilège - "Sortilège EP"

10. Acid - "Acid"

11. Warlord - "Deliver US EP"

12. Acid - Maniac

Even though I have learned to live better with King Diamond's vocals, I still would struggle to put anything he has been involved with in a top ten.  It is a very distinct style that I find is really hard for me to settle on the direction of.  Without the make up, I ask myself would it just come off as a bit shit?  Maiden definitely upped their game after "Number of the Beast" and I found "Piece of Mind" gave me exactly what the album titled inferred, settling me back into a place of faith in my (then - "then" being the 90's by the time I had discovered them) favourite band.  Great to see some love for "Another Perfect Day", an underrated Motörhead record.  As I read your list, I don't recall that I have ever listened to any Raven album other than "All for One".

Probably on your radar already Ben but can you please add the new Exodus record, "Goliath".

Last release left me a bit cold (and not in a cool bm way) but I recall them not really doing anything that different or wrong as such.  Maybe a change of style again could help me this time out.

Please add Annexation.

Already on https://metal.academy/bands/16319

There's only really Debemur Morti I have any faith in anymore but I haven't been purchasing a lot of physical stuff whilst I was waiting to see how my home situation panned out (turns out I am staying in this house so can start purchasing again).  Testing Amor Fati records with that Misotheist record I was loving yesterday to see how they fare.

I have the most recent Darkthrone albums on vinyl and thought I would like to get the earlier stuff on that format to. Nicely timed is the release of this beast of a boxset, a copy of which I have arriving tomorrow.

The Fist in the Face of God (2026)

The nine albums from "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" through to "Sardonic Wrath" in vinyl format with a shit ton of other stuff. Really looking forward to this baby's arrival!

So this finally arrived today - no fucking thanks to Amazon. Supposed to arrive Mar 6th. Nope - put back to Mar 13th. Nope - now due to arrive end of April. I have fallen for this shit with Amazon before and in the end they say they can't get hold of it anymore so you end up disappointed. Checked on the Peaceville online store and it was still available, so cancelled the Amazon order and bought it direct. Arrived in 3 days. Fucking Bezos!!

[It is every bit as great as I had hoped by the way.]

Yep, gave up with Amazon ages ago for this very same reason, although currently in dispute with Artoffact Records after the Mares of Thrace record I ordered directly at end of Dec 25 with a 7 Feb 26 delivery date has still not arrived.  Bandcamp can't even get an answer out of them either, four days left before I get a full refund ffrom Bandcamp and they deduct the cost out of future sales the label makes through the site.

Misotheist - "De Pinte" (2025)

Four albums into their career and I finally discover Misotheist. Hailing from the traditional black metal heartland of Norway (Trondheim in fact), their sound reminds me a lot more of Icelandic bm stalwarts Sinmara or Svartidauði with dissonant elements of DSO thrown in there also for good measure. This is the kind of chaotic, deranged black metal that grabs my interest nowadays. Quickly finding a foundation in the netherworld, this album stays in that territory for its full duration. The combination of solid riffs and suffocating atmospheres are a killer combo here. Make no mistake about it, Misotheist are here to do damage, and it is a lasting damage designed to inflict maximum suffering. After a year of keeping up with black metal releases last year, and toning that effort down somewhat this year, my attention is intended to be devoted only to exceptional black metal albums this year. De Pinte (“The Tormented”), absolutely qualifies.

Crawling and claustrophobic melodies do little to temper the threat of blasting fury that the artist can unleash forth at any moment. A feeling of unease permeates the slower tempos on display whilst the more aggressive sections soon activate the overwhelming flight mechanism as nobody in the right mind would want to fight against this sound. Tormented is a perfect description of how those vocals sound. With agonising cries against a constant sense of threat and menace, this is not intended to be a comfortable listen. Yet the dissonant aspect to the sound does help provide some stark comfort to me. On the title track it acts like some cold and dense fog enveloping my being, wrapping in me in the track itself as it scores a multitude of etchings upon my skin.

This is probably the darkest thing I have heard so far this year. It is not dramatic or theatrical as you might expect. Instead, there is just a real confidence behind the performance that exhibits a clear belief in their own ability and an absolute steadfastness in their devotion to their chosen artform. The title track that closes the album goes on for over twenty-one-minutes, but I love every one of those minutes. It builds so well and maintains such a presence when it does establish itself as fully formed; this is clearly written by a master of the genre. Misotheist have absolutely no hairs and graces about them, they are simply dedicated beyond belief and are able to produce one of the most organic, natural sounding black metal albums of the year so far.  

Vinyl ordered.

4.5/5

There's a lot to unpack there.  Let me start with the similarities that I have from my experience of metal.  Did I enjoy metal more when I was starting out and had less music to pick from (internet for me was well into the late 90's before I got connected up)?  Abso-fucking-lutely I did.  Will I ever hear a new album and get the same sense of joy and utter passion for the music that I had when I first played Slowly We Rot, Killers, Seasons in the Abyss or Arise (as examples of formative albums for me)?  Abso-fucking-lutely not.

My amygdala is far too depleted nowadays to experience anything with the same levels of wonder and enrichment as I would have some 30 years ago.  That is how that part of the brain works unfortunately and it is why life/time seems to go faster the older you get.   Whether it is books, films, comics or metal music - music in general in fact - I will never experience  it the same again.  I recently started to be intrigued by symbolist art, having admired the style for years but not realising that it was a specific style of painting, to me it was just "dark" art.  I have started reading books and wiki's about the whole movement and some of the key artists.  It is probably one of the first times since passing the age of 40 that I have had such alevel of interest in something that genuinely resonates with me.  Would it be better if I had gotten into this level of discovery as a teenager?  Abso-fucking-lutely it would.

Getting old sucks, end of debate.  I can relate to the yearn for former glories from my youthful music and arts experience in general (I was at one point hooked on amatuer film making, for example) but I cannot go as far as to say that I consider any discovery process, or review mechanism as a "job".  That's not knocking your personal thoughts on the matter Sonny, it is just not something that I can connect with.  My review schedule here is pretty consistent at the moment and I like to think that this is because I genuinely enjoy writing them.  If I get into a headspace where I feel I am just writing for the hell of it then its usually a time to step back, reflect and go and do something else, maybe coming back later.

All of the above withstanding, I will say that some of my fondest memories of the internet age of music discovery have been when I start off with a specific album for the first time and then I am off on an afternoon of discovery of a whole discography or series of albums I have never heard before.  So I can take the rough with the smooth to some degree.  At the end of the day, I am finishing my second marriage, getting divorced, constantly fighting to stay in a job I fucking hate, looking after my elderly parents and trying to keep a whole host of other life-challenges in order, yet I have always had another constant alongside all the troubles (and joys) I have experienced.  Metal music.  It has been here for three decades plus and is probably going to be around for however many more I can wing on the planet.  I may fall in and out of love with it, and I most definitely will never be as embedded/invested as I was in my youth, but it serves it's purpose.  It does take a lot more of my time and concentration to get under the skin of new stuff and my time is increasingly precious, but it does still reward.