Daniel's Forum Replies

Ben, I think you'd likely dig this one given that you enjoy their 1982 self-titled release.

One of the earliest examples of traditional doom metal from London's NWOBHM masters. For fans of Ozzy-period Black Sabbath, 70's Pentagram & Manilla Road.

Pagan Altar - "The Time Lord" E.P. (2004)

A compilation of the 1978/79 demo recordings from these NWOBHM/traditional doom metal pioneers. The timing of these recordings may well make this the earliest legitimate example of the traditional doom metal subgenre that I've encountered & I actually like it a touch better than Pagan Altar's 1982 self-titled release due to its greater level of consistency & cool 70's psychedelic rock vibe. Fans of Ozzy-period Black Sabbath, 70's Pentagram & Manilla Road should find some enjoyment here despite the demo-quality production.

3.5/5

Cryptic Slaughter's sophomore album "Money Talks" is overrated in m y opinion. The guitar sound is weak & thin, the performances are sloppy & the dilution of their sound through the regular use of groovy mid-tempo breakdowns doesn't interest me as much as their up-tempo blasting stuff. There's always debate over which of the first two albums is the better record but I don't actually think it's all that close actually.

Aggressive Californian thrashcore for fans of DRI, Attitude Adjustment & Wehrmacht.

Cryptic Slaughter - "Money Talks" (1987)

The sophomore album from these Californian thrashcore exponents. I've never warmed to it as much as most crossover fans seem to & comfortably prefer the more consistently fast debut "Convicted". The production & performances are subpar & the addition of mid-tempo breakdowns isn't as effective as the light-speed blast-fests. The aggressive vocals are good though. For fans of DRI, Attitude Adjustment & Wehrmacht.

3/5

Celtic Frost get this one but not by as much as most people would probably think for an old school thrasher like myself. I actually rate both of these releases at 4/5 as they're both very strong but I don't regard either as sitting among the greatest releases in my life. "To Mega Therion" is just a slightly more consistent record than "Skeptics Apocalypse" in my opinion. It has a greater quantity of highlight tracks.

Ben, please add Darkness (Germany).

Hmmm.... it's a very interesting idea. I look forward to exploring this idea with Ben over the next week or so. Keep 'em coming guys!

This is something we've discussed before actually & I think it would be a positive move.

Great idea Sonny. I like it a lot.

Possibly the greatest Swedish death metal track ever recorded. For fans of Dismember, Grave & Carnage.

You know what Sonny? You're 100% right. I've reconsidered my position on this critical issue & as a result:  

Ben, please add Amethyst Colored Chameleon, Amphibians Performing Surgery, Battus, Botfly, Cicada Molting, Crustacea Zoëa Larvae, Emitting Pentatomid, Macrophagous Gilled Larvae, olm, Omphalectoicxanthopsia,  Purplemouth, Slug in Garden, Toad Birth & Unconcentrated Faeces Otengeny.

That seems pretty straight forward to me Ben. Is it possible that people are pressing the wrong thing after selecting their first clan & sacrificing their additional ones inadvertently?

Hey! I thought we were an equal opportunity, non-discriminatory & all-welcoming site. Stop oppressing me & the rest of the immensely populous frog-themed gorenoise community!

I'm considering working with my developer in the next few months, so if anyone has anything they think could improve Metal Academy, please speak up. I'm not sure that there has been anything that anyone has requested so far that I haven't implemented or at least considered very carefully.

Ben, can you see if there's a way that we can better inform people that they have the option to select three clans when registering on the site? It's obviously not intuitive as we get so many people selecting just the one.

The brand new Enslaved single "Homebound" which is taken from their new album "Utgard" which is due for release later in the year.

The new E.P. from Maryland's finest frog-themed gorenoise exponent Phyllomedusa was released last week. It's entitled "0% Survival Rate".

Fuck! I totally forgot!

*rushes out to buy 37 birthday presents*

I'm so glad that this feature has successfully brought "Monotheist" to at least a couple of people's attention as I think it's a fucking brilliant record. I've been a Celtic Frost & Hellhammer fan since way back in the late 80's & early 90's when I used to parade around like a cocky fuck in my self-mutilated Hellhammer tank top but I have to admit that I hadn't ever considered any of their releases to be a genuine classic. "Monotheist" changed that & I now regard it as their finest work.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit that "Chaos A.D." wasn't a bit of a disappointment for me at first. I mean I was absolutely crazy for all of Sepultura's previous material & picked it up on the day of release expecting more of the same. What I got was significantly different to my expectations but I gave it a chance & over time I definitely warmed to it. I'm not gonna say that I regard it as a classic or anything but I certainly consider it to be a very strong release in its own right.

I'm relieved to read that actually Vinny. I figured I've been approaching it in the wrong way but perhaps I haven't & we'll simply have to rely on a slow build. Neither of us mind if that's the case but I'll continue to put in the effort as I genuinely want to give more people the opportunity to enjoy the site.

This track reminds me so much of KISS's "God Gave Rock & Roll To You" (I mean Wyld Stallyns) which was featured on the "Bill & ted's Bogus Journey" soundtrack. It's simply far too cheesy for me as it highlights all of the worst attributes of 80's rock/metal.

Other things I'm digging about the site:

1. The Hall Of Judgement concept. I think it gives the site a real edge & I really enjoy contributing to it. I can't wait to see what it looks like with a few more active members.

2. The Clan Challenges aren't something that appeals to me personally as I don't think I need to be a part of another clan & committing to a long list of reviews seems a little beyond me right now but I've been so pleasantly surprised by the response to Ben's concept. I wonder if we can expand on it in the future?

3. The monthly feature releases are a real passion of mine because they're a fantastic conversation starter & an avenue for people to learn about new bands & subgenres. I'm hoping that more & more people get involved with those so that we get to a stage where dozens of reviews & posts are coming in for each release. I really enjoy the process of selecting them too. I look forward to it each month & try to give us an even blend of classics & lesser known releases.

4. I want to continue to expand on the Metal Academy Lists section so that metal fans have a great resource for learning about specific subgenres or selected periods in the metal story.

5. I'm so grateful & flattered that our regular contributors see enough value in this concept to continue to return despite it only being early days. I'm convinced that your faith will pay off in time but until then I'm hoping that you're all enjoying it as much as I am.

6. Ben has put a huge amount of effort into the population & maintenance of the database & ensuring that the site looks amazing & functions correctly. He's really done an amazing job at building this site for our enjoyment.

I absolutely love it to be honest. It's everything we envisaged it would be & more & it's proven to be the perfect thing to fill the gap that was left when we realized that we couldn't continue with the podcast. I absolutely love talking about metal music with other passionate metalheads & it's been the perfect platform for that but it would be great if we could find a way to build the numbers a bit faster. I don't think I ever realized the sheer amount of effort that would have to go into marketing the site in order to keep the membership numbers trickling over & it took me a while to discover that most of our audience aren't necessarily the types to associate with large social groups of metal fans who they would progressively bring into the fold.That's not something that's going to discourage us from continuing but it's certainly a frustration & I'd be a happy man if anyone could suggest a better marketing plan than I'm currently employing. 

As for the future, I'm hoping that we can continue to develop the clan culture & add a little bit of competition at some point. I'd like to see the clans becoming mini-communities in themselves with their own leaders/moderators who share the marketing, population & maintenance load with us. I'm also looking forward to the charts becoming more & more relevant as our database grows. I'm actually planning to encourage more up-&-coming band members & labels to join the site as regular contributors as I'd like to be able to give our members band's an avenue for reaching a new market through our monthly feature releases & I'd also like to see more & more regular recommendations happening between the regulars as we find ourselves becoming more accustomed to each others unique tastes so as to make Metal Academy the very best resource to find new metal music.

How are you guys feeling about the site? Do you have any requests or suggestions that you feel would improve it?

I agree with you Vinny. I've always quite liked "Metal Church" but have never thought of it as anything particularly special. The first three tracks are amazing. Particularly the first two which are sensational but there's a big hole in the middle of the album with both "Gods Of Wrath" & "Hitman" being well below par in my opinion. I also agree that David Wayne has some very ordinary moments at times. When he's on form he's a real force to be reckoned with but then he'll throw in something like that out of key "Woh..woh..who..woh..woooohhhh" at the end of the chorus for "Hitman" & ruin it all. The closing Deep Purple cover version is surprisingly great but it's only a 3.5/5 album for mine.

Tymell, if you haven't already heard this then I'd highly recommend that you do as you'll definitely love it. It's not to my taste but if you dig Savatage then it'll more than float your boat.

Nup! I'm afraid I still don't get it even though I love Criss Oliva's guitar work.

Florida heavy metal. For fans of Metal Church, Virgin Steele & Queensryche.

Savatage - "Ghost In The Ruins - A Tribute To Criss Oliva" (1995)

I thought that perhaps if you put all of Savatage's best work together & presented it in a format that highlighted the awesome skills of their late guitarist Criss Oliva it might offer me more appeal than their hugely popular studio albums & in fairness this may well be my preferred Savatage release but it still doesn't do much for me. I've just always struggled with this band but fans of Metal Church, Virgin Steele & Queensryche should check it out & make up their own mind.

3/5

In all honesty, RYM is the only place you'll see the term "atmospheric sludge metal". They're really just referring to the post-metal genre which they added only relatively recently & now have competing against atmospheric sludge in a pointless trade-off between two subgenres that are essentially the same thing. There are very few releases that are labelled as post-metal that aren't also tagged as atmospheric sludge. I think it should all fall under post-metal & reside in The Infinite.

Ben, can I suggest that you still make up those more niche challenges but just choose the most relevant releases that have a healthy amount of votes for the subgenre regardless of whether they're the most numerous or not (as long as the release's most popular subgenre is still within the same clan of course)? The intention is to give people into each specific subgenre some releases that fit the taste requirements of the clan & I think this approach will work out more often than not for subgenres like Viking metal & Neoclassical metal. Thoughts?

Welcome Chris! We're delighted to have you & would like to encourage you to be as active as possible. We love to hear our member's thoughts on all things music related & the more ratings & reviews we get into the database the more effective the site will be. Also, it sounds like you're gonna love the Hall Of Judgement so make sure you check that out under the HALL tab. Plus, you may also be interested in our clan challenges under the LISTS tab. We look forward to seeing you around here quite a bit.

P.S. Feel free to invite any other obsessive metalheads you might know to the site too. The more the merrier!

One of the thrashier numbers from Suicidal's 1987 album "Join The Army".

Suicidal Tendencies - "Join The Army" (1987)

Suicidal's sophomore effort is more of a transition album than a genuine crossover thrash release in my opinion. It sits more on the hardcore side of the equation than the metal one. The thin guitar sound, dodgy vocal performance from Mike Muir & consistent use of hardcore-style gang vocals make it a pretty hard slog for me personally but fans of DRI, Cro-Mags & “Animosity”-period Corrosion Of Conformity might disagree.

3/5

The new single from US deathcore outfit The Acacia Strain entitled "A".

My Dying Bride win this one by an absolute mile for me personally. I've always found "Dance Of December Souls" to be heavily overrated while "Turn Loose The Swans" sits amongst the top few releases in the entire doom/death subgenre.

To be honest, the vocal performance was simply far, far too theatrical for my taste. I found it thoroughly abhorrent & couldn't sit through it. That was quite a while ago now & I'd be interested to see if I still feel the same way.

Absolutely supreme US progressive metal from the masters of the subgenre. Spectacular stuff for fans of Rush, Fates Warning & Haken.

Dream Theater - "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory" (1999)

Giving one of my ol' faves a thrashing today & it still does it for me in all the right areas. It doesn't quite top "Images & Words" for my favourite Dream Theater record but it's pretty damn close these days. A wonderful example of the progressive metal concept album. For fans of Rush, Fates Warning & Haken.

4.5/5

The new E.P. from Polish blackened death metallers Behemoth entitled "A Forest" which is due for release on 29th May. The title track is a cover version of The Cure & it features a guest appearance from current Shining & former Bethlehem front man Niklas Kvarforth.

A new split cassette & 10" vinyl release from Norwegian black metall outfits Taake & Deathcult entitled "Jaertegn" which is due for release on 12th June.

The new album from Wisconsin-based brutal death metal outfit Putrid Pile entitled "Revel In Lunacy".

The new album from Graham Bonnet's long-standing Los Angeles heavy rock outfit Alcatrazz entitled "Born Innocent" which is due for release on 31st July..

Ben, please add Hades (USA).

One of the thrashier numbers from the Nashville speed metallers' debut album "Live To Die". For fans of Lååz Rockit, ZnöWhite & Anthrax. 

That's certainly a valid opinion saxy. Personally, I was already a First Wave black metal fan by the time this album was released & it just absolutely floored me. The sheer audacity to even attempt it in the midst of the very peak of the death metal movement showed these guys to have gigantic mega-balls & it was just what I was looking for at the time. You'll rarely find a more accurate depiction of pure darkness & the cold Norwegian winter than this.

4.5/5

The new live album from English sludge metallers Fudge Tunnel entitled "Best Of The Desk - Live In Europe 1993".

My favourite song from the album. It reminds me very much of the sound that Fear Factory would push later on that year & the solo has more than a little Tom Morello about it with Rage Against The Machine's debut also coming later on in 1992.