Daniel's Forum Replies

Cryptic Slaughter - "Convicted" (1986)

The debut album from this influential Californian crossover thrashcore outfit. Just about the fastest thing that'd been recorded at the time & a clear influence on the grindcore movement that was about to take off. Should appeal to fans of early D.R.I., Attitude Adjustment & Wehrmacht.

3.5/5

Gris - "Il était une forêt…" (2007)

Canadian depressive/atmospheric black metal.

3.5/5

Sunn O))) - "Pyroclasts" (Release date: 25th October)

Yet another new album from the LA drone metal masters.

Mayhem - "Daemon" (Release date: 25th October)

The sixth full-length from the Norwegian black metal Gods.

1349 - "The Infernal Pathway" (Release date: 18th October)

The seventh album from these Norwegian black metallers.

Cirith Ungol - "I'm Alive" (Release date: 25th October)

The new live album from these Californian heavy metallers.

Oranssi Pazuzu - "Live At Roadburn 2017" (Release date: 4th October)

Alcest - "Spiritual Instinct" (Release date: 25th October)

The sixth album from this French blackgaze outfit.

Abigail Williams - "Walk Beyond The Dark" (Release date: 15th November)

The fifth album from this Washington-based atmospheric black metal outfit.

Winterfylleth - "The Siege of Mercia : Live at Bloodstock 2017" (Release date: 13th September)

Ben, please add Wicca (Germany).

Ben, please add these bands:

Whispered (Finland)

Woe Of Tyrants (USA)

Wormed (Spain)

It wasn't as of last night but I'll keep you informed if I notice it happen again.

Vulcano - "Bloody Vengeance" (1986)

The debut studio album from Brazil's Vulcano was a big record for me back in my tape trading days. I used to pick up a lot of the ultra-raw & heavily underground South American extreme metal from a guy in Chile & generally found it to be right up my alley. "Bloody Vengeance" was a huge step up from Vulcano's lackluster "Live!" album from the previous year & sees the band combining a primitive yet ridiculously intense form of blackened thrash with genuine death metal. If you like early Sepultura, Bathory & Sarcofago then you'll be all over this.

4/5

H-Bomb - "Coup de metal" E.P. (1983)

The debut release from this French heavy metal outfit & it's not a bad example of meat-&-potatoes heavy metal with hints of speed metal. I slightly prefer their full-length album "Attaque" over this one but both are worth a listen. Think Judas Priest & Accept & you won't be far off.

3.5/5

Deathspell Omega - "Kénôse" E.P. (2005)

An utterly astounding avant-garde black metal experience that I regard as one of the elite metal releases I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. Imagine Mayhem's "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", Ved Buens Ende...'s "Written In Waters" & Gorguts' "Obscura" all combined into one incredible unit & you'll go close to understanding the scope of this undertaking. The performances, composition & production are all superb & it's hard to think of a band that's achieved such a complete realization of extreme metal as a piece of art.

5/5

N.M.E. - "Unholy Death" (1986)

The only album from this Washington-based four-piece whose music careers came to grinding halt shortly afterwards when guitarist Kurt Struebing "killed his adoptive mother with a hatchet and scissors while on drugs. He claimed that he thought he was a robot. He wanted to open her up to see if she was a robot also." "Unholy Death" is amongst the rawest thing you'll ever hear. In fact, it sounds like a mixture of Venom, Hellhammer & Motorhead only with an enormous amount of feedback & a substantially poorer production. Mayhem guitarist Euronymous was a big fan & it's easy to see why given how inaccessible & underground this record is. I quite like it.

3.5/5

Ben, please add Vomitor (Australia).

Ben, please add Varg (Germany).

Ben, please add Vasaeleth (USA).

Tankard - "Zombie Attack" (1986)

The debut album from this Teutonic thrash metal institution sees Tankard combining the chaotic electricity of early Voivod with the thrashing violence of Exodus & an injection of Motorhead's punk rock attitude. It works pretty well overall & I particularly enjoy the up-front drums & the gnarly vocal delivery. Good production for a debut too.

3.5/5

Impaled Nazarene - "Motörpenis" E.P. (1996)

An eight & a half minute E.P. featuring two new original songs as well as three hardcore punk covers; two of which come from bands I've never heard of before. The two originals also see the band drawing on hardcore punk for influence so this was clearly the intended theme for the release. Unfortunately the intensity isn't quite potent enough to keep my interest despite the band having created a reasonably strong sound. I guess I don't really see the point in this release. 

3/5

The Accused - "The Return of... Martha Splatterhead" (1986)

The debut album from this Washington-based crossover thrash/hardcore outfit is well worth a listen. It features an extremely dirty production job that gives the music an additional layer of authenticity while vocalist Blaine Cook goes completely nuts behind the microphone. Stylistically, this is quite heavy on the hardcore side of the equation & the song-writing is generally pretty consistent so if you like one track you'll likely enjoy them all. Fans of Discharge, D.R.I. & early Corrosion Of Conformity should find something to interest them here.

3.5/5

Thin Lizzy - "Thunder & Lightning" (1983)

If you're a die-hard metalhead who's generally scared off by the mere mention of the term "rock" but are still interested to see why these Irish legends were so influential on so many of your favourite metal bands then look no further. This record is the one for you as it sees Lizzy heading in a noticeably heavier & more 80's-oriented direction following the recruitment of former Tygers Of Pan Tang shredder John Sykes & I'll give you the hint that he doesn't let anyone down in the shred department either. There are far fewer of Lizzy's trademark harmonies on display here as the whole band seems to have followed Sykes lead towards a more flashy & modern sound. Unfortunately the album is overproduced with many songs extended further than have any right to go & the compositions often being cluttered with needless keyboards & effects. The song-writing is a little inconsistent too with a few overly cheesy numbers on offer; particularly in the back end which peters out quite badly. But thankfully the highlight tracks are very strong which makes the record worth investigating even if it's not quite as appealing as Lizzy's more classic late 70's heyday.

3.5/5

Ben, please add Twilight (USA).

Ben, please add Trauma (Poland) & Trigger The Bloodshed (England).

Agnostic Front - "Cause For Alarm"(1986)

A fine example of New York crossover thrash & hardcore punk. Twenty-four minutes may not seem like a suitable duration for a full-length album but when it's got this much energy it's best not to overdo it. Fans of Cro-Mags, Ludichrist & Leeway should be all over this.

4/5

Godflesh - "Streetcleaner" (1989)

Possibly my all-time favourite industrial metal release. So fucking dark & incredibly original. It still sounds as fresh today as it did when I was 14 years old.

4.5/5

 Détente - "Recognize No Authority" (1986)

The debut album from this female-fronted LA thrash metal outfit. The vocal delivery can become a bit monotonous after a while. Dawn Crosby has a similarly overthetop style to former Exodus front man Paul Baloff so she probably won't appeal to everyone. The tracklisting isn't as consistent as I'd like but there's enough quality riffage on display here to keep me interested. Not to mention some excellent shredding guitar solos. Definitely worth a listen.

3.5/5

Ben, please add Throes Of Dawn (Finland).

Ben, please add Throats (UK).

Ben, please add The Howling Wind (USA).

Deafheaven - "Sunbather" (2013)

I've never been able to understand the hatred for this record. It's very close to being a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned & is clearly the best example of the blackgaze subgenre that I've experienced. Sure there are some sweeter melodies than you'd usually associate with black metal but they're nicely counter-balanced by some searing aggression. The musicianship is excellent & those screeching vocals really do it for me. It's just such a professional package all round.

4.5/5

I'm using Microsoft Edge.

It's taking you back to the page you were on when you wrote the reply. So since you're clicking Reply to Thread on the first page, that's where it takes you back to. This never happened to me, because I click through to the most recent page before entering my reply at the end of the thread. Once I post it, I'm taken straight to my reply.

I'll see if I can make it so that the user is always taken to the end of the thread when they post a reply.

Ben, I just went to the last page of the "What are you listening to now? - The Pit Edition thread via the link in the LAST REPLY column of The Pit forum & posted a new reply to the thread. I then got taken back to the first post on the first page of that thread. That's not in line with what you are saying above.

Ludichrist - "Immaculate Deception" (1986)

The debut album from a New York crossover thrash/hardcore band that would later go on to become Scatterbrain of "Don't Call Me Dude" fame. I've never been much of a fan of humour in my metal but the musicianship is good & there's plenty of variety. Sadly I don't find the song-writing to be engaging enough though. Fans of Cryptic Slaughter, Cro-Mags & Leeway may disagree with me.

3/5

Ostrogoth - "Full Moon's Eyes" E.P. (1983)

Ostrogoth's debut release sits amongst the most celebrated Belgian examples of the traditional heavy metal sound. It draws heavily from the NWOBHM with Iron Maiden & Grim Reaper being strong points of reference but there's also more than the odd nod towards speed metal. In fact, the title track even crosses over into fully-fledged European power metal territory which unsurprisingly didn't sit all that comfortably with me. The tracklisting is a little hit & miss but the couple of stronger tracks make it worthy of your time. I have to admit that I slightly prefer their more mature & refined debut full-length "Ecstasy & Danger" over this one though.

3.5/5

Attitude Adjustment - "American Paranoia" (1986)

An enjoyable full-length debut from this San Francisco-based crossover thrashcore outfit. It's flat-out speed & energy from start to finish but can sound a little samey at times. Fans of DRI & Agnostic Front should find a lot to enjoy here though.

3.5/5

Cattle Decapitation - "Death Atlas" (Release date: 29th November)

The eighth studio album from this Californian brutal death metal outfit.

Hour Of Penance - "Misotheism" (Release date: 25th October)

The eighth studio album from these Italian brutal deathsters.

Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra - "Legacy Of The Dark Lands" (Release date: 8th November)

Apparently the new album from these German power metal stalwarts is some kind of orchestral experiment.

Blut aus Nord - "Hallucinogen" (Release date: 11th October)

The new full-length from these French black metal heavy-weights. I can already hear Ben drooling.

Steve Grimmett's Grim Reaper - "At The Gates" (Release date: 11th October)

The fifth album from this important NWOBHM outfit from Worcestershire, England.

Ben, please add these bands:

Septycal Gorge (Italy)

Severe Torture (Netherlands)

Soreption (Sweden)

Can you please add their self-titled E.P. then? I wanted them added so I could add a review of that release.

See I never realized that I could click on the LAST REPLY column entries to get to the last post. I guess it's just not intuitive because I haven't seen another forum with that functionality before. Or perhaps I just haven't realized it was there on those sites either. I think a lot of other forums have page numbers next to or beneath the thread title so you can easily navigate to the first few or last few pages & given that I didn't see those I assumed that I could only click on the thread title.

Sepultura - "Morbid Visions" (1986)

Insert commentary from above only with a touch more intensity, better (if still decidedly inferior) drumming, less competent tuning & substantially more bass in the (admittedly still very raw) mix. Very similar quality overall though. This album absolutely belts the early Sodom releases in my opinion which shouldn't be a surprise when you consider just how many of these riffs the Seps boys reused on their classic albums a few years later. Prime time Brazilian death/thrash metal.

4/5

Sepultura/Overdose - "Bestial Devastation / Século X.X." split (1985)

The Brazilian thrash Gods' debut E.P. backed by a three-song effort from heavy/speed metal countrymen Overdose. The Sepultura material is a real guilty pleasure for me as its evil necro atmosphere make me quite nostalgic despite the primitive production & performances. In fact, there's enough brutality on offer for half of these tracks to qualify as genuine death metal which makes it one of the earliest releases from the subgenre. Kinda sounds like a combination of the more brutal US bands like Slayer & Possessed crossed with the early Teutonic thrash material from Sodom & Kreator. I find the more speed metal-oriented Overdose material to be fairly hard to stomach though which brings the whole release down. Their epic ten minute Mercyful Fate & Iron Maiden inspired heavy metal opener is much more to my taste.

I greatly prefer the 1990 re-release of "Bestial Devastation" (4/5) to this release as it not only omits the Overdose material but it also includes a re-recording of "Troops Of Doom" from Sepultura's debut full-length from the following year "Morbid Visions".

3/5

Ben, please add The Schoenberg Automaton (Australia).

Ben, please add Psycroptic (Australia).