Daniel's Forum Replies

Ever seen them before? They're always great live. I'd definitely go if I had the money/ear drums.

Ben, please add Doombringer (Poland).

Ben, please add Djerv (Norway).

A prime time Californian alternative metal anthem.

I gave this album a revisit today & was pleased to find that I still think it's a very solid record that's totally worthy of feature status. It was such a huge step up from "Adrenaline" & I definitely enjoy their alternative metal sound much more than their earlier nu metal one. They'd take a further step up for "White Pony" three years later but if you're in The Gateway & you haven't heard "Around The Fur" then I'd suggest that you get onto it pronto.

4/5

Interestingly I never connected with Manilla Road's previous couple of albums but "Open The Gates" is a different story. I think they were at their best when they fully embraced their psychedelic side. Have you heard their debut "Invasion"? It's not a metal release per se. It's more of a Rush-like prog rock excursion but I quite like it.

Yeah I don't mind "Static Tensions". In fact, I'd suggest that it's probably Kylesa's best work. I found some of their later albums like "Ultraviolet" to be a bit flat to be honest.

Overrated:

Macabre - "Grim Reality" E.P. (1987)

Mid-80's thrash metal from Chicago, USA.

Macabre - "Grim Reality" E.P. (1987)

The debut release from this Chicago deathgrind outfit although this was more of a thrash metal affair with bits of hardcore/crossover & early death metal thrown in here & there. It's got good energy but the squealy vocals & higher register riff style have never really been my cup of tea to be honest. The remixed version sounds much better however it also includes an extended version of the pointless instrumental track "Mass Murder" which was completely unnecessary.

3/5

Pixies should never be something that interests me in theory but I think I was programmed to enjoy "Doolittle" after being force fed it by a mate during high school. Now I find that whenever I revisit it I get into it more & more. I've even been known to do a laid back acoustic cover version of "Silver" at parties. I'll go with a 3.5/5.

Good choice of song, Daniel! Blind Guardian was one of a few bands I starting listening to again for a while during my small epic metal comeback last month, and that song brings back distant power metal memories.

Have you checked out this live release Andi? If not then you need to get onto it pronto as you'll fucking love it.

Blind Guardian - "Live" (2003)

A double live album from these German power metal heavy-weights.

3.5/5

A double album where Hansi maybe has to do a single album's worth of singing? 

Quoted Chinese Whispers

He puts in an absolutely monumental performance here to be honest. In fact, I don't think I've heard a more polished live release in my entire life & (despite the fact that it was put together from various different concerts) I find myself questioning its authenticity. The production & performances are absolute perfection which makes "Live" an absolute must for any European power metal fan. I mean even the crowd sing perfectly in tune. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining as I love a well produced & performed metal live album. The only reason I haven't scored it higher is because I still have problems with the cheesier medieval stuff. Blind Guardian are about the only European power metal band I can stomach but that doesn't mean I love everything they do. The first half of the second disk is truly fucking awe-inspiring though.

Blind Guardian - "Live" (2003)

A double live album from these German power metal heavy-weights.

3.5/5

It's a great review too. Well done Andi.

I have to admit that "October Rust" was a huge record for me & it's my clear favourite of their back catalogue. I always thought it sounded like a doom version of Duran Duran (who were my very first love as far as music went) & that's a huge positive as far as I'm concerned. The hooks stayed with me for weeks on end & I found myself listening to little else for a while there.

Ben, please add Die (Denmark), Diminished (USA) & Disfiguring The Goddess (USA).

Ben, please add Détente (USA).

Ben, please add Desecravity (Japan) & Devour The Unborn (USA).

I've been on a trip with the family for the last week & a half so my listening habits have been driven by what I can get away with. The girls seem to find techno or downtempo quite soothing so I often play that sort of stuff while they sleep in the car. Here's some of the stuff that's been on rotation:

Daniel Stubbs - "Cocktails & Sunsets (Downtempo set - January 2013)" (2013)

Tim Wolff - "Live At Awakenings Festival 2012" (2012)

Jeff Rushin - "Live At Awakenings 2012" (2012)

Speedy J - "Live At Awakenings 2012" (2012)

Yes I still listen to my old DJ sets. So sue me! And I went to the Awakenings Festival in Amsterdam in 2012 so those sets bring back some awesome memories.

I agree with you there Vinny. "Colored Sands" had a big impact on me too & I prefer it to their more highly celebrated "Obscura" album to be honest. I'm not sure it was my overall favourite of the decade but it was certainly up there.

How do you rate it Vinny? Personally I love all of Death's albums but I'd place "The Sound Of Perseverance" right in the middle of their back catalogue. Despite the fact that Death was my introduction to death metal in the late 80's, I actually prefer their more progressive records over their more traditional ones so it'd be slightly ahead of the first three but a bit behind albums 4-6.

I think the US power metal term is pretty much redundant to be honest. Ben & I did a deep dive into that scene over several episodes of the podcast & both came to the conclusion that US power metal is essentially just traditional heavy metal with all of its hard rock influence removed. There’s no need for a unique label really.

Oh... & “Crimson Glory” is an excellent heavy metal record.

Welcome to the site Caroline. Ben & I are thrilled that you enjoy our little podcast & are also so glad that you've decided to register for this website as it really is a labour of love for us. In fact, we've designed the site to fit in with our concept of the perfect metal resource & it's getting closer & closer to that ideal every day with all members having a say in how it looks & feels. I'm probably the more social of the two of us & having an avenue for self expression & communication with like-minded music fans has always been important to me so I fully intend to ensure that our forum becomes the most active in the entire internet metal scene. Plus, we're both tired of the prejudice & bullying that goes on at other major competitor's websites so there will be none of that tolerated here. It's a place where metalheads can be completely open in sharing their opinions without having to worry about being trolled due to their experience, age, gender, sexual orientation, musical preference, etc. So please don't be shy! Get amongst it & I look forward to hearing your thoughts on everything metal. Enjoy yourself!

Daniel

P.S. Where are you from if you don't mind me asking?

Awesome. That’s great. Thanks a lot.

I’ve been flogging Facebook, Instagram & Twitter over the last few days too.

I also like to feel my rating system is absolute, in that it holds for all genres of music, so a rating of 0.5 is for absolute shit that I really can't stand, probably the likes of Justin Bieber, Crazy Frog or some other crime against music. A 0.5 or 1.0 is only meted out to metal albums on extremely rare occasions ( Adema and Atreyu are the only metal bands that I've ever given 0.5s to).

My feelings exactly. I remember having a debate with a couple of mates about the fact that my scoring tends to be in a bell curve with 3.5/5 at the centre. One believed that 2.5/5 should be the centre of the bell & the other thought that my rating distribution should be equal across the various possibilities. My argument was pretty simple really. I know what I'm likely to enjoy after all these years so I expect that I won't be selecting too many releases that I'm gonna hate. In reality I expect to enjoy the stuff I listen to more often than not & that naturally leads to an average of around 3.5/5.

Also, I reserve the bottom four ratings for stuff that I a) consider to be pretty awful or b) genuinely hate. So I don't dish them out to many metal releases in my chosen subgenres. I don't think I should have anywhere near as many 5/5 or 0.5/5 scores as I do 3/5 or 3.5/5 scores. There's got to be more average releases than classics in my opinion as I think it's got to be hard to score the extremes at either end of the spectrum. Otherwise you have no way of differentiating between the absolute elite like "Reign In Blood" or "Master Of Puppets" & other high quality releases. And 0.5-1/5 only goes to stuff where I consider the musicians can't play their instruments or where the sound coming out of the speakers doesn't even qualify as music at all & how many of those releases am I gonna actively seek out to listen to? Very few it would seem.

Of course, everyone is free to have their own thoughts on this & employ their own scoring system on Metal Academy as we promote equal opportunity so don't worry if yours doesn't line up with mine or anyone elses.

I think having a well defined scoring system is essential for standardizing your scoring across a large quantity & cross-section of releases. I've been using the same one for many years now & it's served me well. People will have different ideas on what constitutes a good or a bad score (for me a 3.5/5 is the first score to constitute a good result with a 3/5 having just missed the cut ) but the important thing is to keep it standard & to have a defined concept for what every score in the spectrum means so that you can be sure that you're allocating the appropriate one on every occasion.

It's also extremely important to give releases multiple listens before rating them. I find that the first listen rarely gives me a good understanding of an album as I often need to have my internal biases reset so I just let it sweep over me without thinking too much about it. It means that I'll go into subsequent listens with an understanding of what to expect. The second listen is where informed opinions start to form but the third listen will see those becoming clearer. If a release requires more than three listens I can usually tell pretty obviously by how far my initial scoring is changing between the second & third listens. If there's been a noticeable change in my feelings then I'll likely give a release some more time to see if those feelings will grow further.

Ben, please add Desecrator (Australia).

Ben, please add Deranged (Sweden).

With the “Coma Of Souls” head on the front? That’s a fucking beauty! Well done to your missus.

Good work with the site everyone.  Good to see a non-social media based platform getting some attention and getting a dying medium such as forums growing again.  I have watched the Tez forums die off over about a decade or so and although I moderate on another forum the numbers there aren’t that high so seeing some life here is great to witness.  Not much to offer in the way of marketing opportunities (even though selling is my job) I am afraid.

Any chance you might have a quiet word to some of the ol’ Tez faithful & see if you can get them over here? I think the likes of Sol & Stat would really enjoy the site. ChineseWhispers signed up early before disappearing & I’ve been trying to get markhebb over for months now but he’s been too busy finishing his latest book. Perhaps the message might sound better coming from a user rather than someone like myself?

This is not a problem for me as I allow myself to simply score releases on my own personal enjoyment alone. I mean what good is an artistically relevant & clever album that you don’t enjoy?

A belter of a heavy metal power ballad from these New York thrashers.

Nuclear Assault - "The Plague" E.P. (1987)

4/5

Ben, please add Demonic Resurrection (India).

I was talking about both the clan challenges & the Metal Academy Lists sections actually. In the latter I’d just have a page with links for each clan as well as one for All Clans that would cover everything that includes multiple clans. It could also be done with filters like we use on the release page I guess.

A classic death 'n' roll track from the originators of the subgenre.

Entombed - "Wolverine Blues" (1993)

The Swedish death metal gods move away from their traditional sound towards what we now know as death 'n' roll. I kinda dig it too.

3.5/5

Definitely. They’ve got a lot more energy & urgency than the sludgier Godflesh. It sounds like that might appeal to you more.

Ben, please add Decimation (Turkey).

I've started contacting some prominent metal influencers this morning (mainly Australian to start with) to see if I can draw a little attention to the site . We'll see how we go with that. 

The speed with which we can grow the site membership comes down to a few things really. Firstly, the time that Ben & I have available to us to do marketing is limited given that we both have young families & high-profile jobs on top of our responsibilities here with transforming the site into an attractive prospect for potential members. The RYM marketing option was very easy for me to attack as I simply had to identify appropriate candidates by searching through reviews for knowledgeable & active people & then sent them an email to encourage them to check the site out. That effort was quickly rewarded with our membership levels doubling in around 2.5 weeks but unfortunately the administrators at RYM picked up on it & swiftly suspended my account so I no longer have that avenue available to me. I can't really complain as I definitely deserved my punishment given that I was using their site functionality to advertise their direct competition.

Since that time I've checked out both Reddit & Metal Archives to see whether marketing there would be possible. I was easily able to determine that it isn't & I'd only end up getting myself banned there too as both sites have strict rules on advertising. A much better option would be to encourage some of you that might already be established on those sites to start to encourage other members to check us out in a subtle way. Are any of you long-time members of those platforms? If so, perhaps we can work together on a strategy that won't get you into trouble but might create some interest. We're certainly more of a competitor for Metal Archives than we are of Reddit.

Ultimately the site will be successful because everyone agrees that the concept is great & we are continuing to expand on it regularly to see it organically evolving & improving. But the speed with which its popularity with existing users is transferred into increased membership numbers is heavily reliant on how many of our members are actively helping to promote the site. If everyone converts every metalhead they know into Metal Academics then we should see things snowballing from there. And Andi, if you know of any ways to draw people to your YouTube video then please feel free to go down that path. It all helps.

I'm now starting to look at other options like social media  applications (Facebook Twitter, Instagram, etc.) & reaching out to already established metal-related podcasts, blogs, websites, etc. for exposure. This last option is probably the key. If we can get some exposure on a well-known podcast or a site like Metal Sucks or Metal Injection then we'd likely see some noticeable interest level increases as a result. If anyone knows anyone involved in those sort of areas then please send me a message with the details but in the meantime, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram & help to contribute to healthy discussion that can draw people to the website.

Good question. I'll put some together in the next couple of days.

Radiohead - "OK Computer" (1996)

An amazing album from one of my all-time favourite bands.

4.5/5

Californian thrash metal.

Testament - "Live At Eindhoven" E.P. (1987)

3.5/5

Ben, please add Deadly Remains (USA).