Vinny's Forum Replies

Mork - Dypet (2023)

Bought this whilst drunk on the internet one night and so held little promise for it.  I liked Katedralen from a couple of years back though so made the impulse buy based on that alone I guess.  Listening through to Dypet, you get pretty much what you had on the 2021 release.  As the album artwork suggests, this is a suitably cold affair, utilising the minimal approach to bm that we would all expect it to well.  Full of sublimely drab melodicism, this is an album that revels in its own ravishing grimness.  Which I do not mind of course, this accessibility coupled with some of the more dismal tropes I look for in my bm makes for a refreshing switch up from standard icy cold blasting that I find spinning on my turntable more often than not.  

In fact, Dypet has an almost heavy metal undertone to parts of it.  The riffs overall are relatively clean and as such make the transitions clearer which makes it very easy to connect with the record.  Whether you are going from the beginning or jumping into a track on a playlist it is not hard to find parts of Dypet ringing around your head after just a few minutes of sampling its content.  Still more or less exclusive performed by Thomas Eriksen himself (Hjelvik's Erlend Hjelvik does vocals on Høye murer), this is consistently played stuff that never strays into the realm of outstanding but needs no level of exceptional musicianship to shine.

That's not say there are not moments of unexpected sounds.  The synth/organ on closing track Tilbake til opprinnelsen add a surreal dimension to proceedings to keep things interesting to the very end of the record.  Then with some element of an anti-climax, Dypet is done with.  No extended outro, no epic build to end, just a slight crescendo of a riff to end the album on the note of consistency that thrives throughout.  So, for a drunken purchase, this proved wiser than you may have first thought.  It holds its own against the previous release if not ever really topping it but still does a perfectly respectable job in the process.

3.5/5

Excellent idea, Morpheus! Having a similar feature to RYM so you can only see suggestive album covers when you're logged in and have certain filters off, with the ability to turn those filters on to hide specific topics, might get more people on to the site with no fear of anything they may be sensitive to, and therefore might boost the website's popularity. It might certainly help me a bit, as I'm still living with my sometimes suspicious parents. I know Cannibal Corpse and other standard/brutal death metal bands would get the hidden album cover treatment for their violence and gore. Same with the first few Type O Negative albums (pair of naked women about to kiss, close-up of the frontman's a****le, etc.), which is a good reason I stopped listening to that band besides my break from gothic/doom metal. So what do you think of Morpheus' idea, all?

Not a fan.  I simply skip over/hit the back button on anything I see I don't like (I find most of the depiction of women on metal album covers unpleasant but simply ignore them).  Do you really think Andi that the reason why MA isn't crawling with users is because there are some album covers that are offensive?  Creating a cottage industry out of album cover content (which I imagine can soon become a laborious task for admins) is precisely the wrong thing to do on a site that needs more members, surely a more open and transparent site is what would attract people. 

Let's stop believing that everyone else out there lives by our values, needs and wants - there are some out there who would actively seek such artwork as described on this thread (for whatever reason).  I am not saying it is wrong to be offended by violence, fascism, sexism, gore etc just that I believe that it is my own responsibility to decide if I want to look at it or not.

I have been wondering if there is any chance of a "Collection" feature with a button on each release that says "add to my collection" and then a link on each member's homepage to a "My Collection" page. I know a lot of people just d/l or stream their metal nowadays, but an avid collector like myself (and possibly Vinny) may get some good use out of it - I know I would like to be able to see my collection here on Metal Academy - and maybe it would entice new members to stick around a bit.

Also, in a similar vein, how about a "Wishlist" feature to allow member's to keep tabs on albums they want to check out?

They have this on Metal Storm and of course Discogs.  I think it would be a neat idea.  I have slowed down on the physical copies so far this year (he says with an Aosoth album about to be shipped from Season of Mist - ahem) largely due to other financial priorities.  Will always have a physical collection of some kind alongside streaming which is still my majority means of listening to music.

Yeah, I've had to slow down too. Prices have become a bit silly just lately. A couple of examples - a charity shop in town wanted £9 for My Dying Bride's For Lies I Sire secondhand, HMV want £55 for a vinyl of Jethro Tull's Aqualung and I just tried to order the new Lord Mountain CD from Bandcamp and the CD was £9 but postage was £20!! Got it for £13 off amazon in the end.

I have got (most of) my collection logged on both Discogs and Metal Storm, but I would really like to be able to have it here on the #1 metal website too. I really do think it might encourage some new members to return to the site as well, to update their collections.

That Aosoth album cost me just as much for shipping as it did for the record.  Bonkers.

I have been wondering if there is any chance of a "Collection" feature with a button on each release that says "add to my collection" and then a link on each member's homepage to a "My Collection" page. I know a lot of people just d/l or stream their metal nowadays, but an avid collector like myself (and possibly Vinny) may get some good use out of it - I know I would like to be able to see my collection here on Metal Academy - and maybe it would entice new members to stick around a bit.

Also, in a similar vein, how about a "Wishlist" feature to allow member's to keep tabs on albums they want to check out?

They have this on Metal Storm and of course Discogs.  I think it would be a neat idea.  I have slowed down on the physical copies so far this year (he says with an Aosoth album about to be shipped from Season of Mist - ahem) largely due to other financial priorities.  Will always have a physical collection of some kind alongside streaming which is still my majority means of listening to music.

New Enforced, War Remains came out yesterday.  Vinny approved.

So, a quick question to the playlist compilers: Which of the sub-genres you encounter when compiling the playlists do you least enjoy checking out for new playlist entries. I think I have never made any secret of my aversion to a lot of gothic metal, so it is that which irritates me most when I need to find new tracks to include in The Fallen playlist. Which are your particular sub-genres where you have to bite the bullet for the greater good?

Groove metal has sort of become a guilty pleasure after me loathing to source it for the playlist.  There's still some shit out there in groove metal of course but I have always enjoyed the crossover research I have done by comparison.  Biggest ballache is technical thrash metal which I have all but given up including unless I stumble across something on my travels.  Seen a better focus on death/thrash since I started compiling the list though and always try to throw in some blackened speed or thrash also for good measure.  Still use the site quite extensively for new finds though as the releases section is a bit of a gold mine for any sub-genre I am unsure of.

A Diadem of Dead Stars - Kingdoms Bathe in Golden Light (2016)

Described as “Misty Lowland's Black Metal”, one-man Greek atmo-black artist A Diadem of Dead Stars went bold on his 2016 release. With track lengths ranging from 3 and a half to over 27 minutes long over the course of 5 tracks, Kingdoms Bathed in Golden Light is an ambitious piece. If you can give it the time, the ambition does get realised too.

I struggle with the time aspect though and so will be continuing to enjoy this album long after my review as I believe that with more time spent with it, the experience will only get better. For the time being, I am pleased to report that this record is a fine slab of atmospheric black metal with a splash of ambient to close the album nicely. The bm itself is rich and luscious in nature with a distinct non-hellenic sound to it considering the artist is from Greece, although it never quite fully immerses itself in the icy cold, sub-zero temperatures of the second wave either. Think of Drudkh, WITTR or Saor and you are on a fair path to comparable sound.

Although I would argue that the musicianship here lacks the panache of any of the above artists it is still perfectly acceptable a level of competence. The balance of haunting atmosphere alongside the harsher elements of the instrumentation is done very well and considering this is an independent release recorded, and mixed by the artist himself, The Pilgrim clearly knows what he is doing. That ambient track at the end is a nice palate cleanser to finish a neat find from this month’s Review Draft.

4/5

Hi Ben,

Please could you add Norwegian experimental black metallers Tilintetgjort to the site?

Hi Ben,

Can you please add the latest release from thrash veterans Overkill - "Scorched"?

Vinny, I just noticed that we both nominated Suffocation tracks for the May playlist. I'll include your Suffocation nomination on top of your other submissions in the June playlist as I only have half as many submissions as you do this month.

Fine with that mate.

I had previously heard The Hecatomb back when it was released. It was another one of those releases that was getting lots of underground praise back when I bothered to try and keep track of new material. Whilst I had played it a couple of times before I recalled none of it going into this revisit which makes me think I most certainly did not give it the attention it deserved at the time.

Aside from being monolithically cavernous, The Hecatomb is perhaps one of the most desolate and bleakly devastating records I have ever heard. Listen to how those drums are deliberately suppressed in the mix to still allow them to have rumbling and at times thunderous impact and then note how the rest of the instrumentation still does not occupy much of front and centre at all. This album is all about the atmosphere. This is not just a bit of atmosphere either, this is the kind of atmosphere that coats the walls of the room as you listen, clogs your throat if you breath in too much of it and clouds your vision if you stand too close.

The riffs here mine the absolute shit of everything around them, spiralling the listener in their dark serpentine majesty, bristling your skin with their dank scales. Hecatomb means an extensive loss of life, historically seen through a great public sacrifice. The ancient Greeks and Romans would sacrifice 100 cattle to the Gods as a “hecatomb”. Based on these nine tracks, I cannot think of any better soundtrack to such events.

Ritualistic in the most solemn manner possible this is an album that delivers exactly what it sets out to do in the first place. Agonisingly heavy and anguish laden from start to finish, The Hecatomb is an extraordinary record. My only grumble being that the first of the three interludes is completely forgettable in the grander scheme of things and for me adds nothing to the record. On the flipside, aside from being the album highlight, final track Charnel Winds is perhaps one of the best closing tracks I have ever heard. It is one of the most immersive pieces of death doom I can recall hearing, period.

5/5

P.S. I agree.  What fucking black metal?

Will be taking time to check out FVNERALS, Head of the Demon and Shape of Despair from this list.  Not a fan of Dark Buddha Rising or Om upon first listen but may revisit later.

Vote added.  In complete agreement, no doom here.

Macabre - Sinister Slaughter (1993)

As someone who normally shuns lyrics, I must confess that Macabre are not anywhere near as entertaining without their hilarious lyric sheet close at hand when listening to any of their records. For the uninitiated, Macabre write exclusively about serial killers/murderers and take a spoof stance on their song content. Example:

Mary Bell

In nineteen sixty-eight

An eleven year old girl named Mary Bell

Killed four year old Martin Brown

Two months later, strangled Brian Howe

Mary Bell, child from hell

Where are you now?

Are you doing well?

This simplistic (maybe childish to some) sense of humour appeals to me all day if I am honest and although I will not pretend to listen to Macabre all that often, they are a welcome reprise from the usual death metal content that although may have similar themes, they usually take them far more seriously. I view Macabre as something of very dark comedy palate cleanser from the usual worship of Satan or general political angst that dominates my usual listening habits.

Like I said above though, this is not a band I go to in order to wonder at their technical prowess and sonic wizardry. I mean this guys are not prehistoric in their playing ability by any means (check out that proggy passage in Vampire of Dusseldorf) but I am not here to score them on musicianship. Generally, one sitting of any Macabre release is enough for a while. After 40+ minutes of this release I was ready to get back to my regular fodder and there being 21 tracks made it feel a lot longer than it actually is. At about the halfway point I stopped reading the lyrics and just let them trio bash and grind their way through the remaining tracks.

For entertainment value alone, Macabre are in the higher end of the scores but if we consolidate that into the content then the longevity soon becomes questionable. Worth checking out if you have never heard of them and like me have a dark sense of humour but if you like your death metal/death grind taken seriously then you probably want to look elsewhere for your kicks.

3.5/5

The oppressive and alienating sound of Coffinworm's final full length release first landed on my radar back in the year of its inception. Back then I was flirting with sludge metal on and off and as such IV.I.VIII was one of my gateway records into the sub-genre. Returning to it now probably some 5 years since my last full play through there is a sense of nostalgia that needs to be supressed somewhat in order to give the album a fair review based on its merits alone. Thankfully the positives are obvious from the off and no airy vibes from a skip down memory lane are required on my part.

The pestilential qualities of this album are still ridiculously infectious some nine years after I first heard them. I read an article this past week on some mummies in some Mexican museum that have done the rounds of the planet on exhibition at various other museums and scientists have just noticed spores growing on the mummified bodies (many of whom are still wearing the clothes they died in) that they believe harmful to humans despite the bodies being buried and exhumed into glass cases over several years. This record is a little bit like those "screaming mummies". Agonisingly vibrant in its presentation, this album has the capacity to make very horrible things grow on the listener - and you should jolly well fucking let it in my opinion.

It is a tragedy that Coffinworm called it quits some two years after this release as based on this performance they had a lot to offer as a collective. This is sickening sludge metal, like some wonderful tasting food that you know is out of date and instantly makes you projectile vomit as soon as it hits your stomach but you still go back for more because it tastes so delicious. IV.I.VIII will have you convulsing and contorting as its violence and cataclysmic dankness strikes you in your very central nervous system. Swarming tracks like Black Tears that cleverly deploys instrumentation that sounds like a car alarm in the final third of the track to add to its terrifying appeal are real album highlights and the slamming and bludgeoning opening of Lust vs Vengeance will stay with you for a long time after the record comes to a stop.

Unlike Daniel, I do not find this album to be as much of an all out assault - I mean it fucking clobbers you repeatedly yeah, but I do also pick up on the lighter moments were the pace and intensity gets paired back enough to let me enjoy some of the rhythms in use, it is these moments that really make me feel that Coffinworm are crawling all over my shit in all honesty. As well as the traditional instruments we would all expect here of guitars, drums etc there are also pianos, keyboards and percussion thrown into the mix which all add to the atmospheric horror that the band create here.

Clear winner in the album highlight stakes is Of Eating Disorders and Restraining Orders, the drop that starts the track proper resonating against my skeleton, heralding the start of one of the most sprawling and corrosive tracks on the whole album. In all honesty though, this album is so close to full marks. Agonisingly close in fact. The only blip I can identify is that some elements feel a bit over-repeated, like the full juice from some ideas is properly getting squeezed out instead of accepting that it has already been used to good effect already. Seriously though, I was nervous about presenting my first feature release in The Fallen, especially given the length of time that had passed since I last gave this album a full spin. I am so happy with my choice though and should have more confidence in my instincts because even with nostalgia put aside this is a fucking great record.

4.5/5

Despite missing their stop and staying on the bus for too long enough for them to ever get back in time for the heyday of 80's thrash metal, Wargasm still made a good go of trying to make a relevant thrash metal record in 1988. There's no use in pretending there is much of anything new here from a point in time when we had already had the peak outputs from the genre. Lost in a landscape of metal that was now growing at a rate that Wargasm could not keep up with they could not even justifiably be considered a revivalist act by the time Why Play Around? dropped. However, there is still lots to enjoy here.

Wargasm certainly knew their stuff. That mid-paced, choppy and rhythmical riffing with the stabs of melody gets the head nodding along suitably quick enough by the time I am just a few minutes into the record. Despite the drums sounding a little bit too far back in the mix they are still making sufficient enough contribution for me to enjoy them, but where's the bass gone guys?? The riffs and vocals do dominate the mix but the bass here is given as a little regard as it famously was on And Justice For All released in the very same year as this. As a result of this bass-less sound the album struggles to generate any presence for me overall. It sounds more like 3 guys jamming in someone's garage and they just did not know anyone who had a bass guitar.

Rampant tracks such as album highlight Revenge really cannot be rescued by the lead wizardry of Rich Spillberg alone. They just need more of a complete band performance (or complete contribution all round) in order to elevate them beyond this sense of lacking impetus. Add to this that I find Rob Mayo's vocal style to be a bit of an odd fix for a thrash metal band. It has a crude melodicism to it that lacks any screech factor to add some dimension to it and as such I find his performance to be quite flat over the course of the record. I sense it is supposed to come across as punky but I just cannot quite marry it with the rest of the sound here.

Criticism aside, Why Play Around? is still a solid enough thrash metal record in terms of being a simple plug in and play type of album. If we were to put any track from this album in an 80's only thrash playlist and leave it playing, it would not standout as being an inappropriate inclusion. Unfortunately, it would not standout as being anything exceptional either.

3/5

Thanks both, all added.

 There needs to be that separation I agree.

All seems perfectly sensible to me.

Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full (2020)

The prolific release schedule of Thou is mesmerising. Not that I have tried to keep up mind, but they seem to spit out EPs and splits for fun. Odd then that I have never sat through an entire release before this one. With Emma Ruth Rundle, I have the advantage of being familiar with her 2018 album On Dark Horses which is from memory a very decent indie/alternative release – not that it gets much in the way of being revisited.

The combination of these two musical forces presents something of an untested concept to me, therefore. Although I am more familiar with Emma’s work I would hardly call myself a fan and despite having heard little of Thou I can sort of predict how they are going to say. Key in this album assessment though is not just how the individual artist contributions rate but more how they first work together. They are opposites in terms of vocal style for a start. Emma’s tuneful yet earthy vocals possessing an ethereal allure to them, with Bryan Funck’s stye being the more traditional deathly rasp that we would associate with sludge. There are times here where one of the vocalists are allowed to perform in isolation to great effect and other occasions were things work just as well when the two are layered one atop of the other. In either scenario I prefer Emma though. She just has more presence regardless of the backdrop she sings against.

No combination of heavy, distorted riffs can contain her voice from bleeding through to become the most memorable part of nearly every track. However, there is not any element of conflict between the instrumentation and the vocals, both work in complete tandem throughout. That is not to say that I always want them too though. There are times when I do find myself just wanting a little respite to be able to focus on one half of the contributions (clearly Emma) as although the album as a whole is perfectly acceptable a listen there is very little sense of completion to many of the ideas explored here. Again, this feels more like one part not giving the other enough room to breathe as opposed to any noticeable conflict.

Only the opening and closing tracks seem to draw breath long enough for the fruits of their exploits to be realised. As a one-off project, this release was never going to see the complete blending of Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou into an exceptional outfit. That withstanding, time could have been taken here to fuse the emotions of the component parts better to make things more final. As a result I listen to May Our Chambers Be Full with a virtual “draft” watermark across most tracks.

3.5/5

Agressor "The Spirit of Evil" (2002)

Agressor are something of a cult entity it seems. Around for nearly forty-years, they have been banging out death/thrash metal for most of their time together. I had previously reviewed their debut album from back in 1990, gracing it with 3.5 stars due to a lack of variety. For this outing the band have done a further 12 years of output and the improvement clearly shows, working well over a shorter format also.

I located the version of this EP that contains three live tracks which are neither here nor there for me but the actual studio content here is rabid as fuck death/thrash metal. Guitarists Alex Colin-Tocquaine and Joss Sarroche are a vicious pairing and the EP even gets adorned with input from legendary death metal guitarist James Murphy on two of the studio tracks.

Overall, this is a more death metal orientated release and it is supercharged with a dark energy throughout. It is not brilliantly produced however and the drums in particular sound tepid in the mix but somehow the sound keeps a fullness to the flow, driven in the main by those superb riffs and luscious leads. Structurally, there is little fault to find here with tracks such as Wandering Soul and God From the Sky being of particular note for the quality of the writing on show.

Review Draft has unearthed a treat this month for me (after the debacle of Outrage of course).

4/5

I will take that Diadem of Dead Stars album.

Thanks for adding me on this Ben.  I will take Thou "May Our Chambers Be Full".

Macabre all day long for me.

No fucking way am I picking that Savage Steel album, that has "power/heavy/thrash" metal (in that order) written all over it.  I will go with the Japanese band Outrage, heard of them but never anything by them.

EDIT - turns out that Outrage album is not thrash - in fact it is not even metal.  Hall of Judgement submission done (yes, I know, check me out).  Not reviewing it for the Review Draft therefore.  I will pick up Aggressor instead.

May =

Machine Head - "Struck A Nerve" (from "The More Things Change…", 1997)

4arm "Headhunter" (from "Pathway to Oblivion", 2023)

Venemous - "Merciless Divinity" (from "Rise to Glory", 2017)

Strike Master - "Black Violence" (from "Vicious Nightmare", 2009)

Tungsteno - "Escuadron Del Thrash" (from "Inminente aniquilación", 2011)

Toxic Wine - "Alcoholocausto" (from "No hay lugar para los débiles", 2016)

May =

Sarastus - "Open the Noxious Veins" (from "The Deceased Dwell in Darkness", 2019)

imperium Dekadenz - "The Night Whispers to the Wise" (from "Dämmerung der Szenarien", 2007)

Nordicwinter - "A Blissful Twilight Death" (from "Threnody", 2007)

May =

Entombed - "Supposed to Rot" (from "Left Hand Path", 1990)

Benediction - "Forged In Fire" (from "Dark is the Season", 1992)

Nightmarer - "III: Stasis (Obliterated Shrine)" (from "Monolith of Corrosion", 2021)

Suffocation - "Sullen Eyes" (from "Pinnacle of Bedlam", 2013)

Defeated Sanity - "Perspectives" (from "Passages Into Deformity", 2013)

Autopsy - "Flesh Strewn Temple" (from "Morbidity Triumphant", 2022)

May =

Spectrum Mortis "U-Anne-Dugga" (from "Bit Meseri - The Incantation", 2022)

Neurosis "The Tide" (from "A Sun That Never Sets", 2001)

April 2023

01. Forced Entry – “Bone Crackin’ Fever”” (from “As Above So Below”, 1991)

02. Dark Angel – “The Burning of Sodom” (from “Darkness Descends”, 1986) [Submitted by Vinny]

03. Trastorned – “Metal Violence” (from “Into the Void”, 2023) [Submitted by Vinny]

04. Cryptosis – “Prospect of Immortality” (from “Bionic Swarm”, 2022) [Submitted by Sonny]

05. Artillery - “Crossroads to Conspiracy” (from “The Face of Fear”, 2018)

06. Exhorder – “Ripping Flesh” (from “Mourn the Southern Skies)”, 2019)

07. Torturer – “Perception of Life” (from “Conjuro IV”, 2005)

08. Terror Activator – “Self” (from “Moshing is Available”, 2019)

09. Wargasm – “Undead” (from “Why Play Around?”, 1988) [Submitted by Vinny]

10. Sodom – “Code Red” (from “Code Red”, 1999) [Submitted by Vinny]

11. Blood Tsunami – “Nothing but Contempt” (from “Grand Feast for Vultures”, 2009) [Submitted by Sonny]

12. Witchery– “Midnight at the Graveyard” (from “Restless & Dead”, 1998) [Submitted by Vinny]

13. Boris – “Czechoslovakia” (from “Heavy Rocks”, 2011) [Submitted by Daniel]

14. Once Human feat. Robb Flynn – “Deadlock” (from “Scarweaver”, 2022)

15. Anacrusis – “Grateful” (from “Screams and Whispers”, 1993) [Submitted by Daniel]

16. Excel – “Tapping into the Emotional Void” (from “The Joke’s on You”, 1989)

17. Warrant – “Torture in the Tower” (from “The Enforcer”, 1985)

18. Marty Friedman – “Anvils” (from “Dragon’s Kiss”, 1988)

19. Vendetta– “War” (from “Brain Damage”, 1988)

20. Witchseeker – “Lust for Dust” (from “Scene of the Wild”, 2021)

21. Kublai Khan – “Boomslang” (from “Absolute”, 2019)

22. Hatchet – “Silenced by Death” (from “Dawn of the End”, 2013)

23. Fog Of War – “Death Penalty” (from “Fog of War”, 2009) [Submitted by Sonny]

24. Killing – “Before Violence Strikes” (from “Face the Madness”, 2021)

25. Indestroy – “U.S.S.A.” (from “Indestroy”, 1987)

26. Abigail – “Blasphemy Night” (from “The Final Damnation”, 2016)

27. Occult – “Inquisition of the Unholy” (from “The Enemy Within”, 2009)

28. Wömit Angel – “Mr Barbie” (from “Impaling Force of Satan”, 2017)

29. Pessimist – “Another Day in Mania” (from “Call to War”, 2010)

30. Anthrax – “The Enemy” (from “Spreading the Disease”, 1985) [Submitted by Sonny]

Hi Ben,

Can you please add:

Venemous (Mexico)

Strike Master (Mexico)

Commando (Mexico)

Tungsteno (Argentina)

Disaster (Chile)

Piraña (Mexico)

Marthirio (Argentina)

Toxic Wine (Argentina)

Hi Ben,

Please could you add the latest from Mork?  "Dypet".

Revision to my list

1970 Black Sabbath - Paranoid

1971 Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

1972 Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

1973 Hawkwind - The Space Ritual Alive

1974 Kiss - s/t

1975 Black Sabbath - Sabotage

1976 Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny

1977 Motorhead - s/t

1978 Judas Priest - Stained Class

1979 Motorhead - Overkill

1980 Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden

1981 Iron Maiden - Killers

1982 Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance

1983 Metallica - Kill 'Em All

1984 Metallica - Ride The Lightning

1985 Iron Maiden - Live After Death

1986 Kreator - Pleasure to Kill

1987 Death - Scream Bloody Gore

1988 Metallica - …And Justice For All

1989 Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness

1990 Obituary - Cause of death

1991 Morbid Angel - Blessed Are The Sick

1992 Demolition Hammer - Epidemic of Violence

1993 Burzum - Det som engang var

1994 Mayhem - De mysteriis dom sathanas

1995 Suffocation - Pierced from Within

1996 Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood

1997 Borknagar -The Olden Domain

1998 Death - Sound of Perseverance

1999 Immortal - At the Heart of Winter

2000 Immolation - Close To A World Below

2001 Opeth - Blackwater Park

2002 Bloodbath - Resurrection Through Carnage

2003 Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

2004 Horna - split w/ Behexen

2005 Opeth - Ghost Reveries

2006 Drudkh - Blood In Our Wells

2007 WITTR - Two Hunters

2008 Darkspace - Dark Space III

2009 Drudkh - Microcosmos

2010 Hooded Menace - Never Cross The Dead

2011 Autopsy - Macabre Eternal

2012 Panopticon - Kentucky

2013 Gorguts - Colored Sands

2014 Varathron - Untrodden Corridors of Hades

2015 Akhlys - The Dreaming I

2016 Ulcerate - Shrines Of Paralysis

2017 Condor - Unstoppable Power

2018 Winterfylleth - The Harrowing of Heirdom

2019 Overkill - The Wings of War

2020 Akhlys - Melinoë

2021 Altarage - Succubus

2022 Messa - Close

I find this breakout of my ratings to be quite interesting too:

5 star             1.9%

4.5 star         11.3%

4 star             26.8%

3.5 star          30.6%

3 star             18.2%

2.5 star           7.7%

2 star              3.3%

1.5 star           1.5%

1 star               0.5%

0.5 star            0.2%

I'm comfortable with that spread to be honest. It shows that I save the 5/5 ratings for the elite of the elite & it also shows that I don't consciously go looking for music that's clearly not gonna fall anywhere near my wheelhouse all that often either.

Although I have only 93 releases that I have at 5 stars that still seems too high for me and so I am slowly revisiting these - I suppose 93 albums over 35 years of listening to metal isn't that high but I think there are one or two that probably got overrated.

Some of you may recall me mentioning that a record label called Sphere of Apparition was interested in mastering & re-releasing the two mid-1990's demo tapes from my old brutal death metal band Neuropath. Well, things have been progressing nicely since I last provided an update. The mastering has been completed & both tapes sound as good as it's possible to get them. The CD cover layout is almost finalized. Options for the front cover artwork are being explored at the moment too. I'd guess that the final release date will be some time in the middle of the year depending on how quickly we can get the cover art signed off. It'll be starting in a CD only format but there's potential to expand on that depending on demand. There may be t-shirts too. It's very exciting stuff for an ol' metalhead like myself.

Congrats man.  Looking forward to hearing this.

Interesting thoughts here Sonny.  I strangely have not reviewed or rated this one despite me having a vinyl copy Mrs Vinny bought for me.  I am probably the opposite of you and would put this album above Carnage, although I agree that they are two differing beasts in that Dismember's offering is a much more savage entity.  I find with all Swedish death metal that it has limited playtime as opposed to other styles of death metal in that if I throw this or Left Hand Path on for a spin then the itch is scratched and I rarely (if ever) go on a three or four album listening spree back to back of pure Swedish death metal bangers, unlike Saturday when I was battering death doom for three hours.  Need to get my arse in gear and get a review done of this album though (and Left Hand Path as well it seems).

Hope mother and baby are both doing well Daniel.

This month's playlist was another success to my ears and I have a couple of new bands to check out form the list, namely Crawl and Black Oath.  I had already been listening to The Otolith (given they are basically part remnants of Subrosa who I have also been listening to).  That Ufomammut track reminded me that I already have that album in my digital library and it got quite a bashing when I was working away on the Isle of Wight one year.  I also really enjoyed that Tribulation track which is odd because I have not really gelled with much of their stuff to date.

I will be adding;

Dark Angel - "The Burning of Sodom" (from "Darkness Descends", 1986)

Trastorned - "Metal Violence" (from "Into the Void", 2023)

Sodom - "Code Red" (from "Code Red", 1999)

Witchery - "Midnight at the Graveyard" (from "Restless & Dead", 1998)

Onslaught - "Twisted Jesus" (from "Killing Peace", 2007)

Wargasm - "Undead" (from "Why Play Around?", 1988)

Anything coming from you Sonny?

I mean in Durkin's case yeah but Madsen was hit by a bus so not really age/illness related.

As if I needed any confirmation of Slayer's demise from thrash metal legends, Repentless more than nails the coffin lid shut.  Andi's right to my ears, this album soon degenerates into groove metal with some knock off Machine Head riffs and structures littered all over the place.

Good stuff Sonny, looking forward to following this journey in the thread.

Onslaught - Killing Peace (2007)

There is a perhaps negligible amount of Onslaught in my thrash music catalogue given my penchant for this sub-genre. I have not made this a conscious effort by any means but I can only surmise that nothing has grabbed me all that well during the various outings I have given the band over the years. Needless to say that Killing Peace is not what I expected, it is marginally more groove metal than it is thrash which does not make it a bad record, just an unexpected outcome I guess.

As a result, the album lacks a sense of rhythm overall. It is not devoid of rhythm by any means but lacks the requisite level of consistent chug and chop that you would expect of an established thrash act like Onslaught. It is still an album that is stacked full of riffs however and has a big sound behind the production job that compliments the vocals, guitars and drums superbly.

The delirious energy of Sy Keeler’s vocals (a la Blitz's style in Overkill) is endearing enough on its own to carry the album but the guitars of Jordan and Rockett fire out flares of monstrous Machine Head-like riffs. When the record does revert to a more thrashy format it is with a distinctly modern edge that resembles very little of the old-school thrash metal blueprint. Whilst the power and aggression is there this is an album that is consciously seeking catchiness from more 90’s groove references than anything the band put out themselves in the 80’s.  There are a lot of Slayer riffs hiding in here though from around the South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss era that you do not have to search all that hard to find.

However, this was a comeback album after more than fifteen years after they parted ways and they certainly came back with a bang. They proved they could match the younger crop of bands in the energy stakes without sounding contrived or indeed having to try all that hard. For an old-school thrasher like me, Killing Peace is not an album I will be revisiting any time soon but it is still a very solid groove metal album for fans of the sub-genre.

3.5/5

Hi Ben, can you consider me for inclusion on this next month please?

Deadlife - Between Hatred & Melancholy (2018)

Prolific artist, Anders Nord is the driving force behind Hermóðr (atmospheric black metal) and Mist (another depressive black metal outfit) as well as Deadlife. With nine full-lengths, twenty-two Ep's and nine splits in twelve years, he's a busy chap (his output with his other two bands is equally exhausting). As such, I would expect a fifteen-minute single length track to perhaps sound a little tired. In fact the exact opposite is true, considering this is depressive black metal it feels more positive than I would first imagine it should.

Elements of atmospheric bm seep into Between Hatred & Melancholy almost organically. Without getting all sweeping and whooshing, the tension it builds does serve the depressive tag reasonably well at the end of the day but there is an ever present uplifting element to a song that has such a negative title. It is like the basic elements of Coldworld blended with the lusher parts of Drudkh on Autumn Eternal or Forgotten Legends. There is no sense of let down with this Ep though, desite it not being what I first thought it is well arranged as a single track and holds my interest well enough for the duration.

It is a great accompaniment on a long walk out I discovered today but is equally just at home being played in my lair at home. Relying on whispered, ghastly vocals in the main, the track does allow some more calming chant-like accompaniments in towards the final third of the track. Although it varies little in terms of the instrumentation, this repetition works well alongside the aforementioned atmosphere and the track feels like it has a real depth to it overall. I am unlikely to visit it often but it was a neat discovery off the back of the Review Draft this month.

3.5/5

Hi Sonny, for April I would like to submit:

Subrosa - "Fat of the Ram" (from "More Constant Than the Gods", 2013)

Mournful Congregation - "A Slow March to the Burial" (from "The Unspoken Hymns", 2011)

I am not going to be writing a review of this album as there is one simple yet (for me) glaring issue which I am sure is only something I will have a challenge with and it would just look dumb in an actual review.  I get the musicianship and the quality of the performance on show here.  These guys are a talented bunch, that much is obvious.  What I cannot get past on this record is that bird song sample that is on every track.  I get that it is part of the aesthetic but it is so irritating.  It is the exact same sample that my wife has on her alarm so hearing the sound that wakes me up each morning and heralds the start of the working day is not something I want to hear on an album.  Bizarre I know, but that's my take on this one. 

April =

Liber Null - "Hexenblood Vessel" (from "For Whom Is the Night", 2022)

Cerberus - "Kingdom of Emptiness" (from "My Prophecy Will Come", 2022)

Panopticon - "Into the North Woods" (from "Autumn Eternal", 2015)

April = 

Languish - "Failed State" (from "Feeding the Flames of Annihilation", 2022)

Memoriam - "All Is Lost" (from "Rise to Power", 2023)

Ripspreader - "Slasher's Night Out" (from "Crypt World", 2022)

Autophagy - "Becoming" (from "Bacteriophage", 2022)

Deicide - "In Hell I Burn" (from "Legion", 1992)

Bolt Thrower - "Zeroed" (from "Mercenary", 1998)

Benediction - "Nightfear" (from "Transcend the Rubicon", 1993)

According to my music catalogue sheet 2002 is a poor year for metal. At least for my tastes anyway. Tsjuder's Demonic Possession sits as my top release for the year and as much as I like that release I find it hard to believe that this is the best that the year has to offer. So I have been on a mini-exploration of 2002 to see what else came out that year and I find myself now sat with Bloodbath's Resurrection Through Carnage and this the sophomore release from Poland's Decapitation. The bad news is that I do not particularly like technical death metal all that much. The good news is that I found Decapitated's debut album a real banger so it set up the sophomore as an opportunity to see if the band could continue this vein of rich form.

I acknowledge the prowess required to perform this style of music but I still cannot help but find Nihility a little bit dull. It is not like the band do not deploy riffs well - their arrangements are actually pretty good - more that they all sound the same and lack any real bite overall. Vogg can play most certainly and the lead work underlines this fact perfectly well but the guitars lack the heart of the drums (done by the late Vitek - Vogg's brother of course). Sauron's vocals are monstrous enough also and I like how Martin's bass is not all that obvious but carries a perfect tone in accompaniment to the guitar and so goes some way to maintaining a level of intensity that the strings of Vogg alone cannot achieve.

Other than the really well-known Spheres of Madness not a lot stands out on this album I am afraid. As technically proficient as it is, it is not entertaining and strays too far away from the gritty aggression that determined my relationship with death metal in the first place for the album to ever see any of the top end of my scoresheet. I kind of want to applaud what I hear but then immediately find myself going "now what? What's next guys? Oh. More of the same" and pretty quickly find myself caught in repetitive and predictable loop of regurgitated riffs and ideas after just a handful of tracks. My hopes for 2002 now lie with Bloodbath it seems.

3/5