Daniel's Forum Replies
This morning's track is "Our Home" which I consider to be hard rock:
Ben, please add Marduk's "Fuck Me Jesus" E.P. from 1995. It was obviously a re-release of their 1991 demo tape but should qualify for the Academy nonetheless as it was released on CD as an E.P.
Today's track is "Come With Me" which I tagged as being hard rock.
I'd say it's alternative metal personally but feel free not to include it if you don't agree. Perhaps replace it with Suicidal Tendencies' "Send Me Your Money" from "Lights Camera Revolution" which I've also tagged as alternative metal?
Early heavy metal taken from an obscure Aussie single that first saw the light of day as far back as 1971. Melbourne band Ash only got the chance to release two singles, the first having nothing to do with metal. Both sides of "MIdnight Witch/Warrant" comfortably qualify though in my opinion.
Melbourne band Ash seem to have had a very strong taste for Black Sabbath, so much so that they completely ripped off one of the riffs from "War Pigs" less than twelve months after it's release on this early stoner metal tune. Check out the verse riff from the Ash track that first comes in at 0:13 & compare it to the riff 2:38 at in "War Pigs".
diSEMBOWELMENT - "Deep Sensory Procession Into Aural Fate" demo (1991)
The Melbourne doom/death legends' second & final demo tape was an absolute masterstroke, seeing them now discovering the sound that would ultimately take them to the pinnacle of the genre a couple of years later. The grindcore influence that was so evident on 1990's "Mourning September" demo has now been toned back with the death metal one still being quite visible but there is a stronger focus on atmospherics & building obscure yet thoroughly captivating soundscapes that take the listener to the very edge of an early funeral death metal sound. Opener "My Divine Punishment" is utterly devastating & leaves me questioning why this track wasn't further developed for inclusion on either of diSEMBOWELMENT's proper releases. The two well-known tracks "The Tree of Life & Death" & "Burial At Ornans" are perhaps a step down from their ultimate formations (particularly the latter) but we shouldn't let that shouldn't tarnish what are some true historical landmarks in extreme music. "Deep Sensory Procession Into Aural Fate" is the very definition of the undiscovered gem for collectors & fans alike.
4.5/5
Today's track is "Last Will & Testament" which I've tagged as psychedelic rock.
Mortician - "Mortal Massacre" single (1991)
An old single I picked up through tape trading back in the day & a pretty decent one too. These were the days when the New York brutal death metal stalwarts still had a real drummer & were playing a more conventional (if still seriously dark) brand of death metal similar to Sanguisugabogg, Necrophagia & Incantation with the super-deep & ultra-gutteral vocals of former Incantation front man Will Rahmer being the clear highlight. I also like the well-executed blast beats of drummer Matt Sicher & the prominent incorporation of samples from horror films such as "NIght of the Living Dead" & "The Shining" (although they could have cut the length down a touch with the samples playing out for similar durations to the songs themselves). At just twelve minutes, this record flies past in quick time but I don't feel that I need a lot more of this sloppy, fuzzy, filth-caked death metal to scratch my itch to be honest as I didn't go into it expecting a life-changing, emotionally-engaging tear-jerker after all. Mortician simply serve their purpose pretty well without achieving a record that I'd say is essential listening.
3.5/5
Ugly Kid Joe - "As Ugly As They Wanna Be" E.P. (1991)
The debut E.P. from this Californian band would see them set the world alight for a short period, primarily off the back of the massive hit single "Everything About You" which was played to death in my high school days. For that reason, "As Ugly As They Wanna Be" was never far from my ears as a teenager so when I noticed that it was on the Metal Academy database under "Funk Metal" I thought it might be fun to see how it's aged. I certainly didn't remember Ugly Kid Joe being a metal band per se so I was curious to see whether they might be yet another supposed "funk metal" band that would provide further proof for my existing opinion that the subgenre isn't really justified.
I was never a fan of Ugly Kid Joe if I'm being honest so I wasn't ever really expecting that I'd rediscover a long lost love for "As Ugly As They Wanna Be" & I'm glad that was the case because I found the first four tracks to be pretty flat, particularly "Everything About You" which I quickly discovered I harbor a burning hatred for these days. It's only the last three tracks that see my interest being peaked with the cover version of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" being the heaviest number & the clear highlight. Funk metal number "Funky Fresh Country Club" is also pretty entertaining, as is the frantic 25 seconds of speed metal closer "Heavy Metal". It's just a shame that the first half of the release was so uninteresting really as the tracklisting never manages to recover.
"As Ugly As They Wanna Be" is often tagged as a hard rock & funk metal hybrid although I beg to differ (I know... big surprise there). There's really aren't any tracks that I'd suggest allign with the classic hard rock model here. Instead, we see numbers like "Madman", "Too Bad" & "Everything About You" possessing a much sleazier & more poppy sound that directly aligns itself with 80's glam metal as far as I can see. There's just enough metal on show to qualify for the Academy too though in my opinion. I'm just not sure that there's enough "funk" metal as such with only "Whiplash Liquor" & "Funky Fresh Country Club" taking that direction. That leaves me in a quandry about what would be a better tag though as there isn't another metal subgenre that's better represented here so perhaps I should just let it go.
"As Ugly As They Wanna Be" isn't terrible but it's certainly pretty disposable & lacking in substance. There's no doubt the band can play & front man Whitfield Crane has a decent set of pipes on him but I can't say that I ever feel like this E.P. has the potential to command additional airings in the future. If you live for bands like Extreme, Electric Boys & Living Colour then you may disagree but I'm sure that there must be better material out there for you than this uninteresting record that's resigned itself to the annuls of history through a dated sound & a lack of focus & ambition. I'm afraid teenage girls have other things to listen to these days.
3/5
Crowbar - "Obedience Thru Suffering" (1991)
I didn’t get into New Orleans sludge metal establishment Crowbar until much later than some as it wouldn’t be until my return to metal in 2009 that I’d first give one of their albums a crack. I’d very quickly find myself traversing their entire eight-album discography in quick succession from there though & tended to find that I liked Crowbar a lot from a purely stylistic & conceptual point of view but that their albums often suffered a little from poor production which saw them never quite managing to reach their full potential. 2001’s “Sonic Excess In Its Purest Form” would be the first record to break away from that curse in my opinion & it would become my go-to Crowbar release over the many years since. The band’s 1991 debut full-length “Obedience Thru Suffering” offered me the least appeal from memory, even though I still remember quite enjoying it. I haven’t returned to it in something like 14 years now though so it’s definitely about time I reassessed that position.
Despite what my vague recollections may have been telling me, the production job on “Obedience Thru Suffering” is actually quite acceptable & shouldn’t be a problem for too many listeners. The quality of the music is way better than I was expecting too, even if it is a touch samey. To offset that characteristic though, the consistency of the song-writing is very strong with no weak tracks included. The album probably just lacks a few more genuine highlight tracks with “My Agony” being the only one that I feel reaches tier one status.
It's pretty common to see “Obedience Thru Suffering” tagged as both sludge metal & doom metal but, despite the album undeniably being chock full of enormous doom riffs, I’m not sure the doom tag is really necessary because sludge metal is essentially a biproduct of doom to begin with. There’s a detectable hardcore flavour to most of this material (particularly in the depressive & gravel-throated vocals of front man Kirk Windstein) that keeps the album centred in sludge territory for mine but doom fans will still be able to relate to it pretty comfortably too. I might be being presumptuous here but I’d be very surprised if Celtic Frost weren’t an influence on Crowbar as the riffs take a similarly simple yet crushingly heavy format a lot of the time which can’t be a bad thing now, can it?
On the evidence here, it's hard to understand how “Obedience Thru Suffering” isn’t talked about in the same breath as Crowbar’s next six or seven albums to be honest. It’s been many years since I revisited those records so perhaps I’ve simply underrated some of them but I tend to think it’s more a case of this one being underappreciated. I’m guessing it’s a retrospective opinion based on fans of Crowbar’s later material finding the album to be a little different to what they were expecting as the band would only get heavier & more oppressive from here. That doesn’t mean that “Obedience Thru Suffering” should be overlooked though & I strongly urge you to add it to your essential Crowbar list, particularly if you’re into sludge metal artists like Acid Bath, Eyehategod or Melvins.
4/5
Today's track is "The Queen" which I regard as being hard rock.
I was very much in two minds between hard rock & heavy metal on “Lions, Christians” to be honest but in the end I decided that a both way bet was the best outcome.
My Dying Bride - "Towards The Sinister" demo (1991)
Another old demo tape that I picked up through the tape trading scene after falling in love with the Halifax band's early releases. "Towards The Sinister" is a four-song affair presented with a more than adequate sound quality. Three of the four songs are much more death metal than they are doom/death with only the epic "Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium" sitting in the doom/death space. The use of violin has not yet been adopted & these songs sound rawer for it, particularly given the regular use of blast beats. All four songs are excellent so I'd suggest that this is a massively underrated release in all honesty. In fact, I'd probably take it over Anathema's very solid 1991 "All Faith Is Lost" demo that I reviewed last week or some of the more widely celebrated My Dying Bride releases from the 2000’s like "Songs of Darkness, Words of Light" or "The Dreadful Hours" these days.
4/5
I completely agree Morpheus. I had just the one track tagged as metal.
Today we'll move onto a record that is tagged as metal on both Metal Archive & RYM in the 1972 self-titled debut album from Philadelphia's Bang, starting with opening track "Lions, Christians" which I regard as sitting somewhere between hard rock & heavy metal.
I've certainly been aware of West Virginia metalcore legends Zao for some time now due to my past involvement with The Revolution Spotify playlists however I'd never taken the plunge with a full album before jumping into their highly regarded 1998 third album "Where Blood & Fire Bring Rest". It certainly sounded like it might be right up my alley on paper but I have to admit that I've been left with a fairly middling (if not necessarily disappointing) outcome. Here we see Zao presenting us with a punk-heavy brand of metalcore with a reasonable amount of experimentation going on that never really convinces me that the band are deserving of the praise this record inevitably seems to draw. The vocals of front man Daniel Weyandt aren't amazing to tell you the truth. He's got one of those really wet & gurgly blackened screams that sounds like he's trying too hard but hasn't really got what it takes. I felt very similarly about Converge singer Jacob Bannon during the first half of his career actually but Converge had the power to pull it off regardless. I'm not so sure about Zao as I find them to be less intense & a little easier on the ear.
To be clear, I'm not saying that I don't enjoy "Where Blood & Fire Bring Rest". It's a pretty decent metalcore record overall but the highlights ("To Think of You Is to Treasure an Absent Memory" & "Ember") don't reach the elite level & there is a flat section during the second half of the album that sees me losing interest temporarily (see "Fifteen Rhema" & "For a Fair Desire"). The musicianship is pretty decent but the song structures sometimes push the friendship, there are more generic metalcore breakdowns than I'm comfortable with & I find the Korn-ish nu metal parts to be a little tedious. So, it's fair to say that I find the album to be a decent way to pass the time but I'm unlikely to return to it in the future. I definitely prefer the more visceral material that bands like Converge, Snapcase & Disembodied were delivering at the time.
3.5/5
Morpheus, Ben & I decided that we'd leave it up to the playlist owner to decide on which way they'd go with that argument. Sonny elected not to consider material from releases that don't reside in The Fallen. Other playlist owners have gone another way with their respective clans which is ok too.
The last track from "Mournin'" is "Don't Start Flying" which I've tagged as progressive rock.
This leaves me with a clear result given that I've only tagged a single track from the album as metal, Anyone come up with a different result?
Today's track is "Nightmare" which I've tagged as hard rock.
Here's how I tagged the album as a point of difference:
01. Misery - Alternative metal
02. Believer - Sludge metal
03. Survive - Alternative metal
04. All of Nothing - Alternative metal
05. Denial - Alternative metal
06. Assassinate The Scars - Death metal
07. Recession - Sludge metal
08. Living Wreck - Sludge metal
09. Humiliation - Sludge metal
10. Outro - Dark ambient
The tracks that I've tagged as Alternative Metal sound pretty much exactly like Deftones only with sludge metal vocals. There's only one death metal riff on the whole album in my opinion so I don't think there's any place for it in The Horde. Even the vocals aren’t death growls. They’re in the hardcore style we regularly hear in sludge metal & metalcore. I don't hear any groove metal riffs to speak of.
Just a heads up for those that are new to the feature release concept, if you're nominating a feature release then the expectation is that you post the associated forum thread in the relevant clan on the first day of the new month so that people can add their reviews & general thoughts there. I've created a couple of them for you in order to get them up there over the last few days but please post them yourselves moving forwards.
Also, a message to everyone, please ensure that you get your feature release nominations in to me on time. I didn't have time to chase people for them this month & it resulted in some delays on 1st December. There's nothing stopping you from submitting early in the month in order to get it out of the way. You shouldn't wait for me to chase you which I only do out of necessity.
Here's my review:
I’d not heard an Isole record before diving head-first into this month’s “The Fallen” clan feature release but had always heard & read good things about them so I was hopeful of a positive outcome. Ben’s tick of approval provided additional cause for enthusiasm & the fruits of my labour have ended up well & truly justifying the effort too, despite easily being able to see why members like Ben & Sonny might get a touch more out of a release like “Bliss of Solitude” than I do.
Let’s start by saying that the production job on this record is nothing short of exceptional & that element is a very big part of its appeal. This album sounds as heavy as an overweight black hole with every component achieving complete clarity. The bass guitar tone is particularly powerful & makes me wish that more bands were lucky enough to benefit from such a weighty bottom-end. The vocals are quite tame & melodic in comparison & I’d suggest that the depth in the instrumentation allows Isole to get away with it more easily than they may otherwise have. In truth, it took me a couple of listens to come around to the vocals but there are definitely some impressive hooks there once you give them the time to dig themselves into your ears.
It's interesting that Isole seems to be unanimously claimed as an epic doom metal band as I don’t think it’s as cut & dry as that. In fact, I found more of “Bliss of Solitude” to sit in conventional doom metal space with only the two most significant tracks (i.e. the title track & closer “Shadowstone”) possessing enough epicness to warrant the tag. Perhaps this is just an example of why I don’t see the justification for adding the epic doom metal subgenre to the Metal Academy database just yet as I don’t think a record like this one is screaming out to be differentiated from the more pure variety of doom, despite being fairly easily compared to bands like Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus & early Ereb Altor. There’s a definite case for comparisons with My Dying Bride here at times too though, particularly through the start of the record with the guitar tone being fairly similar while the more epic moments inevitably see Isole borrowing from Viking-era Bathory as their source for sheer epicness, particularly in the strong use of reverb on the lumbering drumbeats.
“Bliss of Solitude” is a very consistent & professionally executed release from a band that’s already refined their sound & knows exactly what they’re trying to achieve. It doesn’t tick all of my boxes from a stylistic point of view but has still managed to draw me in through its relentless pursuit of quality doom riffage presented in the purest packaging available. I’ll definitely be returning to this album at some point & will be placing the rest of the Isole discography in my “To Be Investigated” list for the future too.
4/5
Today's track is "Blind" which I've got down as being hard/blues rock.
Here's my review:
Ben’s “The Horde” clan feature release nomination is an interesting one this month. I’d heard just one of the German death metallers eleven studio albums prior to going into it & I’m guessing it would have been around 13 or 14 years ago so I haven’t got the strongest recollection of what it was like. I do recall finding 2003’s “Spreading The Rage” to be generally pretty enjoyable but the fact that I haven’t returned to it in the many years since perhaps gives us an indication that it didn’t blow me away. Ben has a pretty amazing track record at identifying underground releases that’ll appeal to me though so I was hopeful of Disbelief’s 2001 third album “Worst Enemy” leaving me similarly impressed & I’m pleased to say that he’s once again been successful in that cause.
It's kinda strange that Disbelief seem to be universally tagged as a death metal band because I can honestly say that I found very little death metal in “Worst Enemy”. In fact, “Assassinate The Scars” is the only track that I feel satisfies the criteria adequately enough. The rest of the proper songs fit into two categories. On the one hand we have a fairly extreme version of alternative metal that sounds a fair bit like Deftones on steroids. Then on the other we have a darker sludge metal sound that suits front man Karsten "Jagger" Jäger’s vocals nicely given that his angry hardcore tone fits the mould for the sludge model very comfortably. It’s a potent combination actually & it gives Disbelief a sound of their own. Despite the hybrid sound though, there’s a consistency to Disbelief’s approach & it can also be their Achilles Heal at times given that “Worst Enemy” can sound a little samey until you’ve made the investment of time required for the song-writing to open up a bit.
“Worst Enemy” possesses a completely blemish-free tracklisting that’s scattered with genuine highlights, the best of which are the sublime pairing of alternative metal opener “Misery” & heavy-weight sludge affair “Recession” but “Believer” & “All Or Nothing” are no slouches either. I’d probably suggest that the dark ambient outro piece is the weaker inclusion but it’s still fairly enjoyable nonetheless. The passionate vocals of Jäger are Disbelief’s strength as he absolutely screams his fucking head off here & I’d suggest would have needed quite a bit of recovery time afterwards. He commands the listener’s attention at all times & gives the band the edge they needed to see them maximizing their appeal so it’s really hard to see why “Worst Enemy” is still so underappreciated given that it’s so clearly a high quality metal release that still sounds really fresh & relevant even 22 years later.
Ben’s taste in metal is impeccable & he’s once again identified a record that has burst through my defenses to breach the walls of my Hall of Metal Glory. I’d encourage you all to check it out, whether you’re a member of The Gateway, The Fallen, The Horde or even The Revolution.
4.5/5
None from me thanks.
None from me thanks.
This one is clearly plagiarism. Check out how badly Metallica ripped off Iron Maiden here with the introductions to both songs being pretty much identical:
Anathema - "All Faith Is Lost" demo (1991)
Most of you will likely be aware of my intense emotional attachment to Anathema, particularly the English doom/death legends' 1990's material. I picked up their second demo tape through the tape trading scene during the middle of that decade along with their first demo "An Iliad Of Woes" & gained enjoyment from both of them but "All Faith Is Lost" is the one I still return to as it's a high quality, professionally composed & executed early example of the subgenre. It's made up of four tracks, two of which were re-recorded later on in "Crestfallen" & "They Die". These versions differ in structure enough to make them worthy of investigation even for those that have played the proper release versions to death though. In fact, "They Die" was a genuine doom/death classic even in its demo form & I find myself pretty much going to pieces every time I hear it. Both of the other tracks are engaging too though with "At One With The Earth" taking more of a classic death metal direction than a doom one. Front man Darren White's vocals are slightly less tortured than we'd hear on releases like "Serenades" but are also more gutteral & deathly. The complexity of the guitar interplay is exceptional for such a young band.
I have to admit that I reach for this demo tape more often than some of Anathema's later releases like 2014's "Distant Satellites" these days to be honest. "All Faith Is Lost" should be essential listening for Anathema fans & should also interest anyone with a passion for the classic early doom/death sound that bands like Katatonia, Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride made their own.
4/5
How about "Come Down"? I've tagged it as progressive rock.
This was my review from last month:
I purchased the 1990 sophomore album from Bay Area thrashers Vio-lence on cassette pretty close to its release date after really digging the dubbed copy of their thrashtastic 1988 debut album "Eternal Nightmare" I'd picked up from a school mate the previous year. "Oppressing The Masses" isn't as consistently relentless in its high tempo assault on the senses but it's no less effective in my opinion. The song-writing & riff structures are highly professional with the musical talent of the instrumentalists being very impressive indeed. I particularly enjoy the shredding guitar solos but the riffs are all of a high quality too. Front man Sean Killian will once again be a sticking point for some listeners but I think he sounds a little more natural when compared to the debut & I actually quite enjoy the psychotic edge he brings to things which reminds me a lot of former Exodus madman Paul Baloff. The tracklisting is extremely consistent with a solid quality level being maintained throughout. "World In A World" is the only genuine Bay Area classic in my opinion though which is a shame because there was so much potential to make this an even more significant release in the annals of thrash metal history. As it is though, I'd still recommend "Oppressing The Masses" to all of our The Pit clan members & rate it just behind “Eternal Nightmare” in terms of Vio-lence’s back catalogue overall.
4/5
These were my comments when I revisited this release recently:
What a fucking ripper of a third album from one of the best couple of bands in the war metal space in Spain's Teitanblood. In fact, I rate "The Baneful Choir" more highly than the band's highly regarded sophomore effort "Death" to be honest. They tend to lean further towards the death metal side of the black/death equation a lot of the time with a super-dark production job & some outstanding dark ambient pieces combining for a devastating atmosphere. Imagine the savage war metal of Blasphemy & Archgoat crossed with the blackened death metal of Antediluvian & you'll come close to describing this cacophony, only these guys do it better than all of them in my opinion. There's even a brilliant doom/death track included early in the blemish-free tracklisting. Loving it!
4.5/5
So, I have to admit that I had ulterior motives when selecting this release as I'm fully aware of how notorious it is. We haven't seen too many takers for some really good The Sphere feature releases in recent months though so I thought I'd give us a record that a) lots of people have heard & b) that people tend to have very strong feelings about so as to encourage some healthy conversation. Personally, I do think that "Illud Divinum Insanus" is underrated even if I still think it falls well short of a par score. It's just that many people seem to tag it as one of the worst releases ever & I think that's a bit of a harsh call when you consider some of the absolute dross that's out there. In fact, I quite enjoy nearly half of the album & awarded it 3 stars shortly after release. I think the shockingly low quality of opener "Omni Potens" & closers "Radikult" & "Profundis - Mea Culpa" tends to warp people's views a bit. I mean, "10 More Dead" is a classic Morbid Angel track & I also find a song like "Blades for Baal" to be really solid too. Perhaps they could have made a pretty decent E.P. out of this record but it certainly doesn't work as a full album. Then again, neither did their previous full-length "Heretic" & I don't think "Illud Divinum Insanus" is all that much worse than that release to be honest. The "Illud Divinum Insanus: The Remixes" compilation is a step down from the both of them though. What the fuck were they thinking with that one??
3/5
Rex, I've bumped you to next month for The Pit as I needed to get a feature release up. It was my mistake for not informing you after I overlooked the fact that you were up for The Pit this month. Sorry about that.
Saxy, I've thrown one up for The Gateway & bumped you to next month too.
Here's next month's feature release nomination list:
THE FALLEN: Daniel, Morpheus, Ben
THE GATEWAY: Saxy, Andi
THE GUARDIANS: Morpheus, Rexorcist, Xephyr, Shezma
THE HORDE: Daniel, Ben
THE INFINITE: Saxy, Shezma, Andi, Xephyr, Rexorcist
THE NORTH: Shezma, Xephyr, Ben, Daniel
THE PIT: Rexorcist, Ben, Morpheus, Daniel
THE REVOLUTION: Daniel, Andi
THE SPHERE: Andi, Daniel
Here are my January submissions Vinny:
Sarcofago - "Third Slaughter (2nd Version)" (from "Die... Hard!!", 2015)
Darkthrone - "Snowfall" (from "Frostland Tapes", 2008)
Deceased... - "Graphic Repulsion" (from "Fearless Undead Machines", 1997)
Malokarpatan - "Kočár postupuje temnomodrými dálavami na juhozápad" (from "Vertumnus Caesar", 2023)
Suicidal Tendencies - "Disco's Out, Murder's In" (from "Lights Camera Revolution", 1990)
Here are my submissions for January Ben:
Sarcofago - "Nightmare" (from "Satanic Lust" demo, 1986) [i.e. Track 11 from 2015's "Die.... Hard!!" compilation]
Progenie Terrestre Pura - "Sovrarobotizzazione" (from "U.M.A.", 2013)
Here are my January submissions:
Obituary - "Godly Beings" (from "Slowly We Rot", 1989)
Darkthrone - "Thulcandra" (from "Thulcandra" demo, 1989)
Nihilist - "Abnormally Deceased" (from "Only Shreds Remain" demo, 1988)
Epiphanic Truth - "The Truth Of The Beast" (from "Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species", 2021)
Neuropath - "My Bleeding Mortality" (from "Desert of Excruciation" demo, 1995)
Cannibal Corpse - "Buried In The Backyard" (from "Eaten Back To Life", 1990)
Here's my January submission Xephyr:
Tyrant - "Beginning Of The End" (from "Too Late To Pray", 1987)
Here's my January submission Saxy:
Death Angel - "Stagnant" (from "Act III", 1990)
Here's my January submissions Sonny:
Cathedral - "Ebony Tears" (from "In Memoriam" demo, 1990)
diSEMBOWELMENT - "Extracted Nails" (from "Mourning September" demo, 1990) [Can be found on the 2005 "diSEMBOWELMENT" compilation]
Today's track is "Living With The Dying" which I regard as being genuine heavy metal.
Rex, I just noticed that it's also your turn to nominate The Pit feature release. Can you please get one in today?
Saxy, I haven't received your The Gateway nomination either.
December 2023
01. Death – “Flesh & The Power It Holds” (from “The Sound Of Perseverance”, 1998) [Submitted by Daniel]
02. Morbid Angel – “Invocation of the Continual One” (from “Formulas Fatal To The Flesh”, 1998) [Submitted by Sonny]
03. A Carnorous Quintet – “Naked With Open Eyes” (from Silence of the World Beyond”, 1996)
04. Gates of Ishtar – “A Bloodred Path” (from “A Bloodred Path”, 1996)
05. Darkthrone – “Land Of Frost” (from “Land Of Frost” demo, 1988) [Submitted by Daniel]
06. Universally Estranged – “Corrupted Mind Palace” (from “Dimension of Deviant Clusters”, 2022) [Submitted by UnhinderbyTalent]
07. Theory in Practice – “Inexplicable Nature” (from “Third Eye Function”, 1997)
08. Nihilist – “Supposed To Rot” (from “Premature Autopsy” demo, 1988) [Submitted by Daniel]
09. Dismember – “Override of the Overture” (from “Like An Everflowing Stream”, 1991) [Submitted by UnhinderbyTalent]
10. Devenial Verdict – “Ash Blind” (from “Ash Blind”, 2022) [Submitted by UnhinderbyTalent]
11. Arch Enemy – “Bury Me An Angel” (from “Black Earth”, 1996)
12. Xecutioner – “Find The Arise” (from “1986 Demo” demo, 1986) [Submitted by Daniel]
13. Nasum – “No Sign of Improvement” (from “Inhale/Exhale”, 1998) [Submitted by Sonny]
14. Yatra – “Terminate By The Sword” (from “Born Into Chaos”, 2022) [Submitted by UnhinderbyTalent]
15. Dehumanized – “Drawn By Blood” (from “Prophecies Foretold”, 1998) [Submitted by Sonny]
16. Tenebro – “Carne umana” (from “Carne umana”, 2022) [Submitted by UnhinderbyTalent]
17. Wharflurch – “Phantasmagorical Fumes” (from “Psychedelic Realms ov Hell”, 2021) [Submitted by UnhinderbyTalent]
18. Neuraxis – “Lid To Your Soul” (from “Imagery”, 1997)
19. Immolation – “No Jesus, No Beast” (from “Failure For Gods”, 1998) [Submitted by Sonny]
20. Sarcofago – “Satanic Lust (Instrumental)” (from “Die… Hard!!!”, 2015) [Submitted by Daniel]
21. Imperial Triumphant – “Black Psychedelia” (from “Abyssal Gods”, 2015)
22. Runemagick – “The Supreme Force” (from “The Supreme Force of Eternity”, 1998) [Submitted by Sonny]
23. Napalm Death – “Rise Above” (from “Mentally Murdered” E.P., 1989) [Submitted by Daniel]
24. Exhumed – “Trapped Under Ice” (from “Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated”, 2005)
25. Neuropath – “Incantations of Decrepit Nihilism” (from “Desert of Excruciation” demo, 1995) [Submitted by Daniel]
26. Agoraphobic Nosebleed – “Cloved in Twain” (from “Honky Reduction”, 1998) [Submitted by Sonny]
27. Parasitic Ejaculation – “Slow Torture Puke Chamber” (from “Rationing The Sacred Human Remains”, 2013)
28. Traumatomy – “Disintegration in Suffering” (from “Transcendental Evisceration of Necrogenetic Beasts”, 2013)
Burzum - "Reh/Demo 91" demo (1991)
Another early Burzum demo tape I picked up through the tape trading scene after falling in love with Varg's first couple of proper releases during the first part of the 1990's. "Reh/Demo 91" is once again a purely instrumental release, this time featuring an extremely inconsistent tracklisting as far as sound quality goes. There's more up-tempo traditional black metal here than on the self-titled 1991 demo tape too with the more atmospheric stuff being relegated to a supporting role but the end result is pretty similar in terms of overall quality. The first five tracks are virtually destroyed by a terrible (read: non-existent) production job but there are a number of more than decent inclusions amongst the remaining seven pieces, mainly due to the improved recording techniques. Interestingly, there are a couple of genuine doom metal tracks here that fans might not be familiar with & they show you a different side to Varg as an artist. Still... this is hardly an essential release with the first half being pretty tough going to say the least. If pushed I’d probably take the first Burzum demo over this one by the barest of margins. The strange, out-of-time metronome sound in the background of some of the tracks certainly doesn’t help it’s cause though. For Burzum completists only.
2.5/5
Here's my newly developed Top Ten Metal Releases of 1990 list. I've included Ministry's "In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (Live)" at number ten in the actual list as the Cathedral demo isn't available on Metal Academy.
01. Deicide - "Deicide"
02. Slayer - "Seasons In The Abyss"
03. Judas Priest - "Painkiller"
04. Winter - "Into Darkness"
05. Obituary - "Cause of Death"
06. Cathedral - "In Memoriam" demo
07. Bathory - "Hammerheart"
08. Kreator - "Coma of Souls"
09. Anthrax - "Persistence of Time"
10. Megadeth - "Rust in Peace"
Pretty sure most, if not all Deep Purple albums after this point are just hard rock. I know Rex said differently about Perfect Strangers, but that's no longer The Roots of Metal.
To be fair, I'd suggest that there's actually just as much metal on "Machine Head" than there is on "In Rock".
Today's track is " Slush Pan Man" which I regard as being stoner rock.
Also, I gave Thin Lizzy's 1972 sophomore album "Shades of a Blue Orphanage" a couple of listens yesterday. There's no metal there. It's a hard rock record in my opinion.
Burzum - "Burzum" demo (1991)
Varg's first demo tape is another one that I picked up at the same time his other demos during my tape trading days after becoming obsessed with Burzum's early albums. It's a crude three-song instrumental affair that sees him playing all of the instruments on material that would all be re-recorded for the first couple of proper full-lengths. The sound quality is terrible with the music being very soft & the tape hiss being significantly louder. "Lost Wisdom" sounds almost sickly in this format while "Spell of Destruction" is similarly pedestrian. It's only really the dungeon synth piece "Channeling...." that's of interest here as the lack of production seems to almost suit it. In saying that, I'm gonna go out on a limb by claiming that this demo may be the earliest atmospheric black metal release that I've encountered. The subgenre is generally thought to have kicked off a couple of years later in 1993 but these three tracks seem to fit the bill for me. It's a shame that "Burzum" is such an uninspiring listen though, despite the material covered becoming so significant over time.
2.5/5
Grotesque - "Incantation" E.P. (1990)
I think fair to say that the sole release from Gothenburg death metallers Grotesque set the underground tape trading scene alight back in the early-to-mid 1990's & it was that buzz that saw me picking up on the "Incantation" E.P. at the time. I was involved with an Aussie trader that was utterly obsessed with the Swedish death metal scene & he virtually insisted that I get onboard records like this one, although I think it's fair to say that I was usually not as convinced as he was given my stronger penchant for Florida. Grotesque certainly had their moments though & there's no doubt that they were onto something when you take the first three tracks of this E.P. in isolation. There's a grimy, down-tuned layer of filth caked on this stuff that will no doubt appeal to the Autopsy/Incantation crowd only the vocals of future At The Gates/Lock Up/The Lurking Fear front man Tomas Lindberg have a psychotic blackened edge to them that gives Grotesque a unique personality. He really does sound very different to the raspy melodeath tone he'd make a name for himself with several years later & I wouldn't have recognised him had I not already known of his involvement. Strangely though, the last two tracks see the band going in a completely different & nowhere near as compelling direction, this time opting for a blackened thrash sound in a more traditional tuning that sounds much more dime-a-dozen than the earlier material. It's a really unusual change-up & I wasn't surprised to learn that the two sounds were recorded in different sessions with almost a year between them. I can't help but think that the band would have been better off releasing these two sessions separately as they sound so out of sync when packaged together. Still... there's easily enough quality in the later death metal material to justify giving "Incantation" a few spins.
3.5/5
Nocturnus - "The Key" (1990)
The debut album from this Florida tech death outfit was a really big record for Ben & I back in the day after I picked it up on cassette shortly after release. I was absolutely blown away by the lead guitar wizardry while the unique use of keyboards & sci-fi- themes was also a major drawcard. I've been wondering whether I'd appreciate it as much in modern days though so I was a little hesitant going into my first revisit in many years. That hesitation proved to have some merit too because there's no doubt that some parts of the album sound less complete than others.
"The Key" opens in stunning fashion with the first three cuts all being genuine death metal classics in their own right, particularly "Standing In Blood" which is an all-timer for me. There's definitely a bit of a dip in quality after that though, even though there's nothing I'd say is weak as such. "Neolithic" & "Undead Journey" see me labelling the middle of the album as merely decent before things pick up in the back end with closer "Empire Of The Sands" being another wonderful representation of the Nocturnus sound.
I absolutely adore the super-shreddy lead guitar tone of Mike Davis & Sean McNenney. It's about as metal as it gets really. The keyboards can get a touch overblown during that middle section but most of the time they tend to stay away from anything too cheesy. Band leader Mike Browning is the clear weak point though, particularly his vocals but also his drumming to a lesser extent. Nocturnus' music is meant to be ridiculously over the top & some of Browning's beats feel a little underwhelming if I'm being completely honest. Still... there's no doubt that "The Key" is a very strong record that borders on my higher scores. You can hear Browning's former band Morbid Angel in not only the vocals & drums but also some of the riff structures. There's a similarly thrashy influence to the "Abominations of Desolation" album too only in the context of a much more overtly technical outlook with some of the riffs essentially being light-speed dual-guitar lead solos. It's amazing how Florida was coming up with so many forward-thinking & talented death metal bands at the time with Nocturnus standing toe to toe with artists like Death & Atheist. "The Key" doesn't seem out of place next to that company either although I'd suggest that, unlike those two acts that went on to greater things, Nocturnus peaked early &, as a result, are probably better suited to being a leader amongst the second tier of the Florida death metal hierarchy.
4/5
How about " Got a Bone of My Own"? I've got it down as progressive rock/heavy psych.
Also, I revisited Deep Purple's 1972 "Machine Head" album yesterday & generally found it to be a hard/blues rock record although there are two clear heavy metal tracks included in "Highway Star" & "Pictures of Home". Anyone feel otherwise & want it included here?
I'd say hard/prog rock. Kind of hard to just be prog rock when the track is under 3 minutes IMHO.
That's a myth in my opinion. Progressive music doesn't have to be lengthy as far as I can see. It's a sound. Not a duration.
Today's track is "Crazy Woman" which I've tagged as being hard rock.