Daniel's Forum Replies

I've only heard two In Extremo releases (2001's "Sünder ohne Zügel" & 2011's "Sterneneisen") as far as I'm aware. I can't remember much about the latter but this is an extract from my review of "Sünder ohne Zügel":

"Surprisingly, there's very little of anything 'medieval' about this record. In fact, it sounds very clean & modern compared to most folk metal I've heard which left me pondering over whether it even qualified for the genre at all. But after several listens I came to the realization that there was just enough folk instrumentation to warrant the Folk Metal tag (particularly the regular bagpipe contributions) with the rest of In Extremo's sound being comprised mainly of Nu Metal & Alternative Metal with little bits of Progressive, Industrial & Traditional Heavy Metal tossed into mix on occasion too. The vocals of front man Das letzte Einhorn are delivered in the deep, croaky, monotonous & heavily German style of Rammstein's Till Lindemann & are written in the band's native tongue as far as I can tell."

Now, bare in mind that my words are referring to the second most popular medieval folk metal release on RYM & that it doesn't have any other primaries. The below description of Mittelalter-Metal is much closer to what I heard on that record than the previous iteration of the tag so perhaps a change of subgenre title was warranted but the lack of any significant medieval component is a bit strange when you consider that Mittelalter-Metal essentially means "Medieval Metal".

Excerpt from the RYM definition: "While much of the instrumentation includes medieval and folk themed instruments, song structures tend to focus on modern melodies with catchy choruses, prescribed from popular Alternative Metal in the 1990s. It is not uncommon for songs to feature industrial and electronic themes, similar to Neue Deutsche Härte, another popular German style which developed around the same era."

Well yeah, it obviously is as it basically says so in the genre desciption but there are more elements listed that weren't a part of the Medieval Folk Metal description if memory serves me correctly. Do you think either subgenre are necessary?

I've never thought of The Angelic Process as being particularly doomy. I am pleased that they're now being placed within the post-metal spectrum though as they were never a drone metal band.

So, we still have a largely unused Metal Academy subgenre of Folk Metal called "Medieval Folk Metal" in our database which we originally borrowed from RYM. I've never thought it was particularly necessary but RYM have recently removed it, adding a new subgenre called "Mittelalter-Metal" in its place which seems to be a little different to Medieval Folk Metal from the description but includes basically the same releases. What are everyone's thoughts on what approach we should take with the Medieval Folk Metal subgenre moving forwards?

Sonny, Dagon was allegedly found to possess a large child pornography collection.

Love me some Darkspace so I’ll get onto that one at some point.

The long-awaited sophomore album from US doom/death legends Spectral Voice (entitled "Sparagmos") will finally be hitting the shelves on 9th February. I'm a big fan of 2017's "Eroded Corridors of Unbeing" record so I'm really looking forward to this one.

A couple of brand new The Pit releases hitting the shelves this month in Danish thrashers Artillery's "Raw Live (At Copenhell)" live album & the long-awaited third album from US brutal thrash masters Morbid Saint entitled "Swallowed by Hell". Artillery haven't released anything worth listening to in the last 15 years in my opinion so I'm hoping they load up on their earlier material but I'm well up for the Morbid Saint record given that I enjoy both of their previous albums.

The brand new eleventh full-length "Nonagon" from Norwegian death metallers Blood Red Throne hits the shelves on 26th January. There last four albums haven't exactly set the world on fire so I'm hoping for a return to form shown on records like 2005's "Altered Genesis" & (to a lesser extent) 2011's "Brutalitarian Regime".

A couple of brand new The North releases hitting the shelves this month in Chinese black metallers Hoplites' fourth album "Παραμαινομένη" & the ninth full-length from Columbian black metallers Inquisition entitled "Veneration of Medieval Mysticism & Cosmological Violence". Hoplites have been building nicely with each successive album & this one is supposedly their best yet so I have high hopes for it while Inquisition records are always solid & never let me down (despite the questionable life choices of a certain band member).

Look out for the brand new eighth album from French industrial sludge metallers Fange entitled "Perdition" which is due to hit the shelves next month. 2021's "Pantocrator" record was our The Sphere Clan Release of the Year so I have high hopes for this one.

Not to mention the brand new fifth album from fellow French industrial metallers Kill The Thrill (entitled "Autophagie") which should be out on 26th January. I loved their last album "Tellurique" from 2005 so this one could be something special given the extreme gap between releases.

This live Converge video recorded at Outbreak Fest 2023 hit the streets a couple of weeks ago.

Also, US deathcore legends Whitechapel have a brand new live album landing on 26th January.

Trhä - "Av◊ëlajnt◊ë£ hinnem nihre" E.P. (2023)

Then we see the other side of Damián Antón Ojeda's artistic kit bag with this very unusual three-song E.P. that sees him taking the more traditional black metal model & totally breaking it through the use of avant-garde folk influences. I can honestly say that this release sounds like nothing I've heard before but not necessarily in a good way. The two black metal tracks are both long blasting affairs that are layered with sickly sounding melodics that often seem to battle with the accompanying metal rather than feeling cohesive while the third track is a fairly insignificant four-minute, Japanese-inspired avant-folk instrumental that does nothing much to right the ship. None of the three inclusions hit the spot for me so (much like Trhä's supposedly classic 2020 sophomore album "Novej kalhnjënno") I find myself very much at odds with the consensus on this record. "Av◊ëlajnt◊ë£ hinnem nihre" possesses a lot more artistic value than it does musical value in my opinion & it's simply not an enjoyable listening experience for me personally. Trhä seems to be trying much too hard here & could do with a bit of quality control given the huge quantity of releases he's flooded the market with in 2023.

Ostraca - "Disaster" (2023)

I've got a new favourite for The Infinite title in the fourth full-length from this Virginia-based trio. Now, I'm not too sure what screamo is but this record sounds exactly like post-sludge metal to me. I mean, it's certainly a metal record so I'm surprised to see people tagging it with a label that sits outside of the metal space. It's also a very solid release indeed with every one of the six tracks possessing a vibrancy & vitality that sees me captivated for the entirety of its short 33 minute duration. The Neurosis & Isis comparisons are quite easy to draw upon but there's also a blackened edge to some of this material that sees it bordering upon neocrust at times. There are even some grindcore style blast beat sections which I feel add something to the mix. This album comes highly recommended.

4/5

Today's track is Buffalo's "Pound of Flesh" which I regard as sitting between blues rock & heavy psych:

Today's track is Buffalo's "The Prophet" which I've tagged as being heavy psych.

Trhä - "Alëce iΩic" (2023)

The gazillionth release from this Mexican one-man black metal producer over the last 3 or 4 years is also close to his best in my opinion. This two-track, 69-minute album sits miles outside of my musical comfort zone with Trhä continuing to expand on his signature sound that combines the lo-fi atmospheric black metal of Paysage d'Hiver & Bekëth Nexëhmü with strong ambient & uplifting trance influences. The first of the two songs is the 23 minute "Tëmana olh qëtën colvënna bé'jar lhëlh tun lhaja enΩëjëda£ehan inqom" which contains a strong blackgaze component similar to Sadness. I struggle with the overblown melodicism of it all to be honest. Things continue in that fashion for a while afterwards too & don't really take off until halfway through the epic 47 minute centrepiece "Limatu◊ën" with the second half of that track being some of the finest black metal I've heard in quite a while. That section alone makes "Alëce iΩic" worth checking out. It's just a pity that I can't appreciate the more melodic & trancey stuff that preceded it anywhere near as much.

3.5/5

Yuyoyuppe - "SICK" E.P. (2023)

I've been really surprised to find this E.P. being so highly rated on competitor's websites to be honest as it sits so clearly in a stylistic space that's generally frowned on by the metal community. To describe it in short, "SICK" is a 16-minute, five song effort that married BABYMETAL's J-pop driven Kawaii metal sound with crushingly heavy djenty deathcore instrumentation. The only other Kawaii metal releases I've heard previously were BABYMETAL's self-titled debut & Candye♡Syrup's "iDOL Can Dye Sick Rock!!", neither of which I found any joy in &, even though I'd suggest that "SICK" is a marginally better release than those two with some particularly decent metal backing & face-melting screamy vocals, I still can't seem to shape my aversion to the child-like pop hooks. "Kyakka" is the only track that manages to overcome those limitations but only because of its spectacularly brutal deathcore component. I guess this sort of stuff was always gonna fight an uphill battle with me but I'm still very surprised to discover that Yuyoyuppe has been around since 1989 because they sound so current in their approach. I'm staggered that this E.P. has done such big ratings on RYM too because I would generally expect Kawaii metal to be down-rated by the kvlt elitists out there. Based on this experience, I'm wondering whether perhaps I'm closer to that mold than I'd like to think too.

2.5/5

Moonlight Sorcery - "Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle" (2023)

I struggled quite a bit with this popular Finnish outfit's debut album to be honest. I'd describe it as being a combination of Stormkeep style melodic black metal & the power metal infused sound of Children of Bodom with the regular use of neoclassical guitar solos & smatterings of Emperor's symphonics. With the exception of Dissection, I've never been much of a fan of the more melodic end of black metal & I'm sure you're all aware of my issues with the European brand of power metal by now so that mix was perhaps never going to be something that'd appeal to my personal taste profile, particularly when a fair chunk of the album is pretty much European power metal with black metal vocals. I've never felt that flashy guitar solos were well suited to the dark & evil atmosphere of genuine black metal either. I guess I'm just not really the target audience for a record like this one.

3/5

Today's track is Buffalo's "Till My Death" which I would suggest is simply hard rock:

Today's track is Buffalo's "Freedom" which I wouldn't say is metal but I would claim as one of the very finest heavy psych tracks ever recorded & a true pinnacle of Australian rock music:

I checked out last year's "Automatic Death Protocol" E.P. from Florida deathcore outfit PSYCHO-FRAME yesterday, a release that's been receiving a fair bit of attention from fans of the genre in recent times. It's certainly very brutal with a strong brutal death metal influence & is no doubt executed in clinical fashion but it's also pretty generic. I like it but can't say that I can see why it's treated any differently to any other deathcore release to be honest.

3.5/5

This morning's track is the opening track from the 1973 "Volcanic Rock" sophomore album from Sydney's Buffalo which I consider to be heavy metal:

The final track from the "Bias Studio Recordings" demo is "Review Your Choices" which I'd suggest sits somewhere between stoner rock & stoner metal as it sports a groovy doom metal riff & a psychedelic solo accompanied by a mixture of crunchy hard rock open chords & darker metallic power chords.

So... that leaves me with a result of 28% metal for the release overall which isn't enough to qualify as metal by the criteria agreed at the beginning of this exercise. It was nice to see a non-Black Sabbath release giving it a shake nonetheless though. Tomorrow we'll be starting on Buffalo's 1973 "Volcanic Rock" sophomore album.

Has anyone else checked out US power metallers Savage Oath's self-titled E.P. as yet? It's really more of a single as it only contains two songs with a total run time of just twelve minutes. It's pretty decent though with both songs showcasing a consistent level of quality. The lineup includes vocalist Brendan Ratigan who has spent time with bands like Sumerlands, Torture Chain, Magic Circle, Stone Dagger, Pagan Altar, Mind Eraser & The Rival Mob as well as Visigoth guitarist Leeland Campana, former Eternal Champion guitarist Carlos Llanas & current Ironsword/former Manilla Road bassist Phil Ross so they're a veritable smorgasbord of heavy metal pedigree. With a sound that sits somewhere between the US & European power metal models, they sound very much like I remember Eternal Champion sounding too actually so if you like them then you'll more than likely dig Savage Oath too.

3.5/5

I checked out Panopticon's "The Rime of Memory" this weekend & were left feeling very similarly to Austen's last full-length to be honest. If pushed, I'd probably take "...And Again Into The Light" over it by the barest of margins. There's definitely less of that Americana feel about this record than there was on some of his previous work. There's also more post-rock influence & even a bit of a dreamy, shoegazy atmosphere about some of the melodics, particularly through the back end of the album. I agree with Saxy that the intro to the album is far too long & self-indulgent. I know I've said it before but Lunn's blast beats aren't the tightest either as there's a few clear timing errors that have been kept in which annoys me a little. As is my trademark, my album highlight is also the least popular of the proper songs in the ethereal "An Autumn Storm" while I do think the last two tracks see the quality levels dropping a touch with their more melodic & accessible sound. Still... it's hard to be too critical as Panopticon inevitably release solid atmospheric black metal (bordering on post metal on this occasion) & I can't see too many Wolves of the Throne Room, Aggaloch & Saor fans finding "The Rime of Memory" anything less than captivating. The limiting factor with me is the lack of genuine menace that I look for in my black metal which sees Panopticon always struggling to convince me that they're worthy of all the hype. Regardless of that, I do think "The Rime of Memory" sits on a higher rung in the pecking order than some of the other 2023 The North releases we've discussed on the Academy forums like Hopelites' "Τρωθησομένη", Liturgy's "93696", Tilintetgjort's "In Death I Shall Arise" & Malokarpatan's "Vertumnus Caesar" so it should rightfully enter the discussions around next month's awards.

4/5

Today's track is Pentagram's "20 Buck Spin". It's built on a blues rock riff that's then expanded into extended bluesy pentatonic guitar solos so, despite it being quite heavy, it still doesn't make it out of the hard rock space in my opinion.

Welcome to the thread Sonny. It's great to have your input. Today's track is Pentagram's "Walk In The Blue Light" which I would suggest is hard rock:

I'd never heard of Massachusetts melodic metalcore outfit xNOMADx prior to my nominating their 2023 debut release "On Skylines of Embers" for The Revolution feature release status this month. I'd noticed how popular the E.P. seemed to be on a competitor's website which had peaked my interest, particularly given that melodic metalcore is generally a little unfairly treated on most serious music sites. At just seventeen minutes in duration, "On Skylines of Embers" is only a very short experience with its five tracks never overstaying their welcome or seeing you reaching for the skip button. Admittedly the material is very generic in many ways with the screamy vocals & simplistic breakdowns sounding oh sorry familiar but what differentiates xNOMADx from the pack though is their use of melody. You see, they make no attempt to take the Gothenburg melodic death metal route by layering harmonized Iron Maiden melodies, instead opting to go for a more unique & satisfying type of lead guitar melody that comes across as being more sophisticated & professional. The production is well suited to the material too as it has an air of accessibility about it which leaves xNOMADx feeling a touch more light-weight & easily digestible than many of their angry tattooed peers. Short opener "12.29 (Ahiarmiut)" is the clear highlight for me personally as it's probably the least derivative of the five songs but the other four are all worth hearing in their own right, even if a couple of them do hint at up-tempo pop punk at times.

So, is "On Skylines of Embers" worthy of all of the high scoring? No, I don't think it is but it is one of the relatively few melodic metalcore releases that don't see me recoiling fairly quickly & I can see why it's managed to appeal to a wide cross-section of the market, particularly a young female one. I don't say that in a negative way though because this is simply a well-written, executed & produced record made by a talented & passionate group of metalcore kids. I'm not surprised to see Saxy getting onboard with it & would imagine that Andi will be all over it too but it wouldn't surprise me if it caused Xephyr to raise the odd eyebrow for it either. I can't see myself coming back for future revisits but I do have a smile on my face after my long drive home from work which can't be a bad thing now, can it?

3.5/5

This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

https://metal.academy/hall/456

Today's track is Pentagram's "When The Screams Come" which I'd suggest fits best under a hard rock tag even though there are once again traces of traditional doom metal:

I first got into Swedish extreme metallers The Crown back in the mid-1990's. They were still called Crown of Thorns at the time I picked up their first two albums through the tape trading scene & I had time for both of them too, particularly a track called "The Lord of the Rings" from their debut album "The Burning" which became somewhat of an anthem for me back in 1995. I wouldn't become aware of the band under their more well-known moniker of The Crown until my return to metal in 2009 & it would be through 2000's "Deathrace King" which is arguably the most well-known release from the band's lengthy 34-year career. I remember finding it to be a pretty entertaining listen too if I'm not mistaken & I've always thought of it as one of The Crown's better releases. I can't say that I remember all that much of it now though as I haven't felt like revisiting it since that first foray which may be a telling fact in itself but we're about to find out.

I always thought of Crown of Thorns as a death metal band back in the day but "Deathrace King" sees The Crown expanding their horizons significantly by exploring a number of other subgenres in a tracklisting that jumps around a fair bit from a stylistic point of view. The record kicks off in really strong fashion with three of the first four songs sitting amongst the stronger inclusions of the eleven on offer & daring the listener to resist the urge to thrash around like a madman. The rest of the album is a little more hit & miss though with a couple of songs even missing the mark altogether (see the fairly flat death/speed metal of "Rebel Angel" & disappointing thrasher "Blitzkrieg Witchcraft"). Mid-paced groove metal stormer "Dead Man's Song" is probably the only track that sees The Crown upping the ante to somewhere like the levels they began the record with which is unfortunate given the promising start. I wouldn't say that there are any genuine classics here though so "Deathrace King" was never really pushing for my higher scores anyway.

The mishmash of sounds present at various times during the 49-minute run time includes thrash metal, death/thrash, melodic death metal, groove metal & speed metal but I'd suggest that the death/thrash tag is the best representation of what you can expect to hear overall. The couple of melodic death metal inclusions ("Back From The Grave" & "I Won't Follow") see me reminiscing about the band's earlier 1990's material & will no doubt remind some of you of fellow Swedes like At The Gates & Dimension Zero while the thrashier & groovier songs play in similar spaces to another group of countrymen in The Haunted. The couple of speed metal numbers take more than a few queues from German Motorhead disciples Sodom so I often find myself wondering if The Crown were experiencing a bit of an identity crisis at times as they seem to struggle for a bit of focus. The level of musicianship certainly doesn't suffer for it though & I particularly enjoy the blast-beats of drummer Janne Saarenpää.

I have to say that I've been a touch underwhelmed by my revisit to "Deathrace King" as I remembered it a little more fondly than my current day experience has portrayed. The Crown certainly hint at greater things here but never really reach the levels of the premier acts floating around the scene. I often find the better songs to have magnificent parts but rarely see them maintaining those sort of levels for a full track. Perhaps I'm not as into some of the subgenres that are toyed with as other fans might be & that's likely having an impact on my score but I can't help but feel that "Deathrace King" sits more comfortably in the third tier than it does the second which means that I'm probably not very likely to return to it in the future even though I've found it to be a generally enjoyable experience.

3.5/5

My updated top ten list after indulging in this month's The Fallen feature release this week:

01. Pig Destroyer – “Natasha” E.P. (2008)

02. Isis – “The Mosquito Control” E.P. (1998)

03. Gaza – “No Absolutes In Human Suffering” (2012)

04. Monarch! – “Omens” (2012)

05. Fange – “Pantocrator” (2021)

06. Mastodon – “Leviathan” (2004)

07. Great Falls - "Objects Without Pain" (2023)

08. Black Cobra – “Invernal” (2011)

09. Ufomammut – “Eve” (2010)

10. High On Fire – “De vermis mysteriis” (2012)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/133

Wow! Just wow! "Objects Without Pain" is fucking amazing & has left me wondering how I can never have heard of this Seattle outfit before, despite them having released several full-lengths prior to this one. I'd describe Great Falls' sound here as being super-intense & abrasive sludge metal with post-metal & mathcore influences & they've also got one of the most in-your-face hardcore vocalists you'll ever find in front man Demian Johnston to top it off.

This record is honestly one of the best sludge releases I've ever heard, taking the best parts of Chat Pile, Neurosis & Converge & ramming them down the listeners throat with the force of a thousand sledgehammers. The musicianship is absolutely superb, particularly the rhythm section which showcases an incredible understanding of how to lay an interesting platform & in doing so prove themselves to be just as important as the more widely celebrated craftsmen of the band. There are even some lovely progressive sections with the more atmospheric moments sitting amongst the highlights of the release & managing to eclipse the more chaotic mathcore-infused numbers like "Trap Feeding" & "Born as an Argument". I honestly don't why people want to link "Objects Without Pain" to noise rock & post-hardcore as this is clearly a hardcore-driven metal record that's miles too heavy to require need any references to rock or punk subgenres. If it doesn't take out my album of the 2023 award at the end of the month then we'll have a seriously classic release on our hands though. Just listen to the crushingly heavy sludge metal of "Old Words Worn Thin" or the lengthy post-sludge closer "Thrown Against the Waves" & tell me this style of music gets any better than this (Hint: it doesn't).

4.5/5

Today we're gonna start looking at a new release in the 1973 "Bias Studio Recordings" demo from Virginia doom metal pioneers Pentagram. Despite there being a strong hard rock feel to it, the opening track "Forever My Queen" is close enough to traditional doom metal in my opinion.

Also, I checked out Deep Purple's 1973 seventh album "Who Do We Think We Are" this week & there's no metal on there whatsoever. It's purely a hard rock record for mine so we won't be covering it here.

This morning's track is the closer from Budgie's 1973 "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend" third album "Parents" which I'd suggest sits best in the progressive rock genre. This leaves the album with just the one metal song overall & not meeting my qualification for metal status.

I perhaps don't enjoy "666 International" quite as much as I did when Ben first brought my attention to it back fifteen years ago. I'd describe it as being an avant-garde industrial black metal release that combines the industrial black metal sound of Thorns with the avant-garde metal of Ved Buens Ende.... & throws in a little Aborym for good measure. It's certainly a very interesting record that perennially keeps you on your toes but it's also a flawed one in many ways. You see, there are just so many ideas floating around but not all of them work from a compositional sense with the outcome sounding noticeably pieced together from widely disparate parts. It also sounds to me like an intentional attempt to sound weird rather than a natural creative evolution. The black metal components are unsurprisingly my favourite sections while a couple of the piano interludes representing the weaker moments. The vocals of Thorns/Zyklon-B front man Aldrahn are certainly pretty psychotic but he also overdoes it a little bit at times & comes off like a raving madman. The production is a little inconsistent with the guitar sound being pretty thin & the electronic drums sitting further back in the mix than I would normally like with an industrial metal release. I do really enjoy the gothic rock influences though & would have liked Dødheimsgard to have explored those a little further. My favourite tracks are opener "Shiva-Interfere", the blackened "Sonar Bliss", the lovely piano interlude "Magic" & the gothic rock hidden track but none reach classic status which leaves me with a middling score overall &, even while I generally find myself enjoying the album, I can also see why I haven't felt the need to return to "666 International" or explore Dødheimsgard's subsequent material over the last decade or so.

3.5/5 

This morning's track is Budgie's "Riding My Nightmare" which I'd suggest fits best under folk pop:

Suicidal Tendencies was really the only one I couldn't muster any enthusiasm for - I have always preferred the hardcore punk of their debut to any of their metal offerings.

I have to admit that I've struggled with my revisits to Suicidal Tendencies' 1987-1990 metal albums this year with "Lights Camera Revolution" being the only one I can tolerate these days & even then I don't genuinely "love" it. "Disco's Out, Murder's In" is one of the rare tracks that I really dig though as it's thrashy & energetic as fuck.

This morning's track is Budgie's "In the Grip of a Tyre Fitter's Hand" which I regard as being hard rock:

Nospun's "Opus" doesn't come into play here? I thought it was really solid & would take it over the super-popular King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard & Liturgy records.

This is an extremely solid progressive metal record that's deserving of the praise it seems to be receiving right now. There's no question that it's a clear example of Haken & particularly "Metropolis II: Scenes From A Memory"-era Dream Theater worship but it's all done extremely well & it's hard to be too critical given the expansive instrumentation & accomplished compositional work on display. The vocals sound similar to Devin Townsend at times but may not be compelling enough for Nospun to reach the top echelon of the progressive metal hierarchy. Still... "Opus" will no doubt make for an extremely consistent & highly rewarding listen for any proghead worth their salt. I'll be surprised if it doesn't feature in the end of year award discussions for The Infinite.

4/5

Check out Iron Maiden ripping off the bass line that appears at 5:18 in Budgie's " You're the Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk" at 3:22 in their 1980 classic "Phantom of the Opera". We know that Steve Harris was a Budgie fan so it would seem to be a pretty clear example of plagiarism.

This morning's track is Budgie's " You're the Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk" which I'd suggest sits somewhere between heavy metal & stoner rock. It's close enough to qualify as metal in my opinion which makes it the first Budgie track to do so thus far.

I checked out the 1973 “I’m Just A Rock ‘n’ Roll Singer” third album from Lucifer’s Friend this afternoon. It’s a hard/progressive rock record with no metal to speak of.

Do we have anyone else that enjoy Folk metal here?

I believe Xephyr is the biggest fan of our regular contributors.

This morning's track is Budgie's "You Know I'll Always Love You" which I'd suggest sits best under a contemporary folk tag:

Look, I've given "Sagas" a full three listens over the last few days but I have to admit that it was a pretty torturous exercise for me as I think this style of folk metal is just about as far from my taste profile as it's possible to get. This is hardly surprising given that another style of metal I generally struggle with is European power metal & a lot of "Sagas" is essentially European power metal with folk melodies & black metal vocals layered over the top. The material is all well produced & showcases excellent technical proficiency of course but I simply can't contain my gag reflex & feel that I'd be doing the band a disservice by reviewing the record as I have no time whatsoever for anything that sounds remotely like this e.g. Ensiferum, Finntroll, Eluveitie, etc.

2/5

Here's another one I picked up while listening to Malevolent Creation's "The Ten Commandments" earlier in the week. Check out the riff that starts at 0:20 in their 1991 track "Premature Burial" & compare it to the riff that starts at 0:58 in Suffocation's "Human Waste" which was released just four months earlier. Coincidence? I think not.

Let's get back into the swing of things after I've been away in Sydney for a few days visiting the family. Today's track is Budgie's version of Big Joe Williams' 1935 blues anthem "Baby Please Don't Go", a song that AC/DC also famously covered on their debut album "High Voltage" a couple of years later. Unsurprisingly, I find this one to be a blues rock tune.

As usual, I plan to completely commit my entire January (well, at least after I've gotten through the feature releases that interest me) to exploring the more popular 2023 releases in the lead-up to the Metal Academy Awards in early February so I'll definitely be checking this one out.