Daniel's Forum Replies

Ben, please add Otargos (France).

No problem at all. I’d be interested to get your take on that a Exumer record too actually.

Ben, please add Omnihility (USA) & Orphalis (Germany).

christangrant, given your strong passion for classic Slayer, I think you might really dig this one. Give it a few spins & let us know what you think.

This album is terribly underrated. I think it's mainly due to fans of the traditional rough & ready Teutonic thrash sound taking offense to the obviously more US influenced u-turn Exumer have taken here. If you like mid-80's Slayer then you should be all over it although you'll undoubtedly be able to pick out the exact tracks they're trying to emulate.

Exumer - "Rising From The Sea" (1987)

A genuine melodeath classic from the originators of the subgenre.

Carcass - "Heartwork" (1993)

This album has traditionally always been my favourite melodic death metal record but my recent revisit to At the Gates' "Slaughter Of The Soul" has forced me to question that. So what was the result? Wwwwwweeeeeellllllll…. it was very fucking close but I think I'm gonna have to go with "Slaughter Of The Soul" in a photo finish.

4/5

Peak time Teutonic thrash metal that sounds a hell of a lot like mid-80's Slayer. I fucking love it!

Exumer - "Rising From The Sea" (1987)

Am I the only one who finds German thrashers Exumer's least celebrated sophomore effort to be better than their highly regarded debut "Possessed By Fire" from the previous year? From my brief googling it would seem to be that way. Everyone seems to say that it was a bit of a misfire with flat riffs & very little energy but I can't for the life of me see where that opinion's coming from. Sure it's not as raw, is slightly more accomplished musically & is a complete & utter rip-off of "Hell Awaits" & "Reign In Blood" era Slayer but metal doesn't get any better than classic Slayer & the band do a pretty good job at interpreting it so who fucking cares. The new vocalist is pretty bad ass too & he contributes a more than decent Tom Araya impression. Despite a stupid two minute S.O.D. style comedy number I find this to be a massively underrated record.

4/5

Ben, please add Oceano (USA).

Ben, please add Nox Aurea (Sweden) & Omega Massif (Germany).

Ben, please add Nothing Sacred (Australia).

Ben, please add Norse (Australia) & Nox (Netherlands).

Next level funeral doom metal from Birmingham.

The fact that blackgaze is regarded as a metal subgenre means that we'll be including all releases that fall under that label. I mean one of the biggest reasons for wanting to create this website in the first place was our frustration with other sites that black mark certain subgenres of metal just because they don't like them or don't think they fit into their personal idea of what metal should be (I'm looking at you Reddit & Metal Archives). So we won't be omitting them.

But as for whether I personally regard these releases as being metal or not, in my experience I do. I don't think there's really much doubt that records like Deafheaven's "Sunbather", Alcest's "Écailles de lune", Woods of Desolation's "Torn Beyond Reason" or Lantlôs' ".neon" are metal based. I think people's questioning about their metal credentials is based more around their BLACK metal credentials than metal overall as they certainly have a different atmosphere to what a lot of people are comfortable with in their black metal. It can be one that's very much in direct contract with the black metal philosophy but I don't mind being challenged artistically & find that I really like some of these releases. Alcest however are simply not for me.

The Swedish Gods of the djent subgenre flexing their muscles in emphatic fashion.

Ben, please add Nidingr (Norway).

Ben, please add Nephelium (UAE) & Neuraxis (Canada).

UK grindcore/thrashcore.

Early UK grindcore/thrashcore ala Napalm Death, Heresy, Carcass & Terrorizer.

My revised list after revisiting the diSEMBOWELMENT record today: 

25. Deicide - "Deicide" (1990)   

24. Obituary - "Cause Of Death" (1990)   

23. Suffocation - "Effigy Of The Forgotten" (1991)   

22. My Dying Bride - "Turn Loose The Swans" (1993)   

21. Entombed - "Clandestine" (1991)   

20. Morbid Angel - "Blessed Are The Sick" (1991)   

19. Metallica - "Master Of Puppets" (1986)   

18. Darkthrone - "Transilvanian Hunger" (1994)   

17. Carcass - "Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious" (1991)   

16. ISIS - "Panopticon" (2004)   

15. Neurosis - "Souls At Zero" (1992)  

14. Slayer - "South Of Heaven" (1988)   

13. Immolation - "Close To A World Below" (2000)   

12. Suffocation - "Pierced From Within" (1995)   

11. Boris - "Boris At Last -Feedbacker-" (2003)   

10. Alice In Chains - "Dirt" (1992)   

09. Death - "Human" (1991)   

08. Morbid Angel - "Altars Of Madness" (1989)   

07. Metallica - "...And Justice For All" (1988)   

06. diSEMBOWELMENT - "Transcendence Into The Peripheral" (1993)   

05. ISIS - "The Mosquito Control" E.P. (1998)   

04. Sunn O))) - "Black One" (2005)   

03. Deathspell Omega - "Kenose" E.P. (2005)   

02. Burzum - "Filosofem" (1996)   

01. Slayer - "Reign In Blood" (1986)

Possibly the best track to ever come out of the Australian metal scene in my opinion. Absolutely crushing yet stunningly beautiful death doom metal with unsurpassed atmosphere.

Ben, please add Negligence (Slovenia).

Ben, please add Unseen Terror (UK), Napoleon Skullfukk (Finland) & Necros Christos (Germany).

Ben, please add Murmur (USA).

Ben, please add Mortem (Russia) & Mortician (USA).

Welcome Jamey! So glad you could join us. I'm curious to hear your story on how you were eventually drawn to the dark side if you'd care to share. What was that moment when you realized you were a metalhead?

Your melodic epic progressive metal taste never left you Andi. You just chose to expand your horizons a bit by exploring other areas of metal & that's completely natural. There's no reason we shouldn't we embrace all brands & subgenres of metal within our own unique personal taste palate. It makes us more rounded, more diverse & generally more interesting.

If you can get past the inconsistent production job & unbalanced mix you'll find a noticeably underrated US thrash debut here:

Sonny, Vinny, Ben & Tymell, I think you'll dig this for some nice raw & aggressive speed metal-infused US thrash in the vein of Metallica, Testament & Megadeth's debut albums (particularly the faster stuff from "Kill 'Em All").

A belter of a mid-80's US thrash number.

Kublai Khan - "Annihilation" (1987)

1987's "Annihilation" album was unfortunately the only release for this massively underrated & relatively unknown Minneapolis thrash band. Kublai Khan were built around axe-slinging band leader Greg Handevidt whose reputation as an early member of Megadeth (around 1983/84) is validated with an abundance of aggressive thrash riffs & some exciting light-speed solos. Greg's vocals are really pretty powerful too & despite changing his style at regular intervals across the album (check out the obvious Hetfield-isms in the phrasing at times) he proves himself to be a more than capable frontman. There's a truck-load of energy on display here & even when you can easily pick up the inspiration for a particular track it's hard not to get sucked in by the up-front execution & no-holds-barred approach to the delivery with elements of speed metal being employed quite regularly & to good effect. In fact, it's really pretty hard to understand how Kublai Khan haven't made a bigger impact (well..... any sort of impact at all) to be honest. There's not a weak track among this lot & I can only guess that it's the inconsistent & unbalanced production job that's prevented Kublai Khan from gaining tier two US thrash success. The guitar solos & snare drum really are ridiculously loud in the mix & the guitar tone & volume changes pretty drastically from track to track. It sounds like they've recorded these songs in completely different sessions & possibly in different studios & that may well be the case but thankfully the old-school tape-trader in me became comfortable with those sort of flaws decades ago so it's not hard to look past. If early Metallica, Testament & Megadeth style thrash & speed metal is your bag (particularly "Kill 'Em All") then I highly recommend that you give this one a spin.

4/5

One of the greatest Norwegian black metal tracks of all time in my opinion.

Darkthrone - "Under A Funeral Moon (1993)

I absolutely loved this album on release but I have to admit that (despite being a very enjoyable listen) it's lost a little of its shine over the last 27 years & I put that down to a few things. Firstly, it's stuck between two of the greatest black metal releases of all time which means that it'll always be compared with them & I'm sure that most people would agree that it's the weaker of the unholy trilogy. Secondly, the bass guitar sound is fairly tame & is very prominent in the mix which removes a little of the cold & sinister atmosphere. And thirdly, Fenriz includes a bouncy, up-beat & punky old-school death metal beat in almost every track which manages to bring me down a touch from the lofty heights that the riffs deserve. I still really dig "Under A Funeral Moon. 1993 was an incredible time to be an extreme metal fan & I was a massive fanboy of "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" so I was always going to be open to extending my worship to the follow-up. But these days I'm a little more realistic with my ratings & this is not a black metal classic for me personally.

4/5

Ben, please add Monarch! (France) & Monument of Urns (USA).

Ben, please add Kublai Khan (USA) & Morsüre (France).

Great review from saxy on this one earlier today. Very much in line with my own opinions. Rage Against The Machine's rap/metal sound doesn't sit all that comfortably amongst my usual musical fascinations however their passion & execution are enough to keep things interesting for me throughout. The rhythm section is solid as fuck & makes this a genuinely heavy record when it wants to be. It's the band's best work for mine although I can't say that I'll ever genuinely love a RATM release.

3.5/5

German thrash metal from 1987 ala Destruction.

Necronomicon - "Apocalyptic Nightmare" (1987)

I quite enjoyed the self-titled debut album from this German thrash metal outfit but the 1987 follow-up release "Apocalyptic Nightmare" doesn't seem to have the same edge. It sees Necronomicon taking a similar approach with very loose performances & a nice raw production however this time the overall energy the band creates fails to balance out the complete lack of structure or technique with the guitars proving to be particularly incompetent. I do love the Schmier style vocals which have that nasty snarl that seems to be so common in the Teutonic thrash scene but some added technicality in the arrangements fails dismally in the execution. The Destruction influence is even more obvious than it was previously with a fair whack of speed metal being evident in the composition of the riffs but while most tracks have enjoyable parts when the band stops mucking around & simply thrashes out, only a couple of the seven lengthy tracks manage to overcome Necronomicon's technical & theoretical failings. It's not awful but there were much better examples of Teutonic thrash around at the time.

3/5

Ben, please add Necronomicon (Germany).

1970: Black Sabbath – “Paranoid” 

1971: Black Sabbath – “Master Of Reality” 

1972: Black Sabbath – “Vol 4” 

1973: Black Sabbath – “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” 

1974: Budgie – “In For The Kill” 

1975: Black Sabbath – “Sabotage” 

1976: Rainbow – “Rising” 

1977: Quartz – “Quartz” 

1978: Judas Priest – “Killing Machine” 

1979: Judas Priest – “Unleashed In The East” 

1980: Diamond Head – “Lightning To The Nations” 

1981: Motorhead – “No Sleep Till Hammersmith” 

1982: Ozzy Osbourne – “Speak Of The Devil” 

1983: Slayer – “Show No Mercy” 

1984: Metallica – “Ride The Lightning” 

1985: Exodus – “Bonded By Blood” 

1986: Slayer – “Reign In Blood” 

1987: Bathory – “Under The Sign Of The Black Mark” 

1988: Metallica – “…And Justice For All” 

1989: Morbid Angel – “Altars Of Madness” 

1990: Morbid Saint – “Spectrum Of Death” 

1991: Death – “Human” 

1992: Alice In Chains – “Dirt” 

1993: diSEMBOWELMENT – “Transcendence Into The Peripheral” 

1994: Darkthrone – “Transilvanian Hunger” 

1995: Suffocation – “Pierced From Within” 

1996: Burzum – “Filosofem” 

1997: Exodus – “Another Lesson In Violence” 

1998: ISIS – “The Mosquito Control” E.P. 

1999: Neurosis – “Times Of Grace” 

2000: Immolation – “Close To A World Below” 

2001: Green Carnation – “Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness” 

2002: ISIS – “Oceanic” 

2003: Boris – “Boris At Last -Feedbacker-“ 

2004: ISIS – “Panopticon” 

2005: Deathspell Omega – “Kenose” E.P. 

2006: Celtic Frost – “Monotheist” 

2007: Wolves In The Throne Room – “Two Hunters” 

2008: Opeth – “Watershed” 

2009: Alice In Chains – “Black Gives Way To Blue” 

2010: Hate – “Erebos” 

2011: Esoteric – “Paragon Of Dissonance” 

2012: Gaza – “No Absolutes In Human Suffering” 

2013: Suffocation – “Pinnacle Of Bedlam” 

I'm not going to attempt to go further than 2013 as I haven't listened to enough modern metal to do it justice.

Ben, please add Merrimack (France).

Ben, please add Memphis May Fire (USA).

Are we including live albums here Sonny?

Yyyyeeeaaaahhhhh….. I love this shit so I'll be getting mine together. By the way.... "Kill 'Em All" was 1983. Not 1981.

While I quite like "Ashes Against The Grain", I've never quite understood the high praise that Agalloch seems to inevitably draw. This was their best album in my opinion however it's never quite connected with me strongly enough to become a regular listen. To be honest I've always found some of their non-metal & non-album material to contain the band's best work (see 2004's "The Grey" E.P. & 2008's "The White" E.P.).

P.S. Nice review Saxy.

I just read your review & found it to be a really interesting take on the album Xephyr. For me "Filosofem" is one of only a few perfect records ever to be recorded (in fact I regard it as my second favourite metal album ever behind Slayer's "Reign In Blood") but I can still appreciate an open-minded & thought-provoking criticism that provides a contrasting point of view. Well done!

Ben, please add Malignancy (USA) & Malignant Monster (Australia).