Daniel's Forum Replies

I'd like to do away with Sodom's "Napalm in the Morning" as I've always found it to be a little flat. In its place, I've gone for an early Aussie thrash metal classic in Tyrus' "Bubonic Plague" from their self-titled 1986 demo tape.

1. Exumer "Possessed by Fire"

2. Anthrax "Caught in a Mosh"

3. Metallica "Whiplash"

4. Tyrus - "Bubonic Plague"

5. Megadeth "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due"

6. Exodus "Deathamphetamine"

7. Slayer "Raining Blood"

8. Voivod "The X-Stream"

I'm not going to go into what makes something metal or not as I spent years covering that on the Metal Academy podcast (the first few episodes which were predominantly about where metal originated from & what made it different) & have discussed it at length here on the website too but needless to say that it's got nothing to do with what a band says they are or whether the metal public embraces them. It's 100% about the musical techniques being employed & there are clear defining characteristics that relate to both rock & metal. For the "Roots of Metal" exercise, I used a benchmark of 40% metal being the absolute cut-off point which allowed a release to have just under half of its run time being classed as genuine metal. With that in mind, Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album is the first metal release but only if you take certain versions of it i.e. the US version or the Spotify version. This is because, if you examine each track in detail, you'll find that the only genuine metal songs on it are "Black Sabbath" (traditional doom metal), "N.I.B." (stoner metal) & "Wicked World" (stoner rock/metal) but they play a significant enough role in the way the album plays out for it to just sneak over the line for metal status by my criteria. "Wicked World" wasn't on all versions of the album which is why there are versions that meet the 40% criteria & those that don't.

I've opted to replace Burzum's "War" because I've always thought it was decidedly shithouse & noticeably breaks up the flow of the debut album. In its place, I've gone for a really obscure one in Holy Moses' "Satan's Angel" which is taken from their 1982 demo tape of the same name. I wanted to highlight this one as I feel that it's the true root of the black metal genre.

1. Holy Moses - "Satan's Angel"

2. Sargeist "Black Fucking Murder"

3. Nargaroth "Possessed by Black Fucking Metal"

4. Satyricon "Mother North"

5. Immortal "Blashyrkh-Mighty Ravendark"

6. Darkthrone "In the Shadow of the Horns"

7. Mayhem "Freezing Moon"

8. Bathory "One Rode to Asa Bay"

I've opted to replace Angel Witch's title track as I've always found it to be very tough going if I'm being completely honest. It's far too poppy for my liking & sounds like it's been taken directly from the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" in my opinion. In its place, I've opted to go with a song that I'd suggest played a strong role in defining the sound we now know as heavy metal in "Bloodsucker" from Deep Purple's classic 1970 "Deep Purple in Rock" album.

1. Deep Purple - "Bloodsucker"

2. Uriah Heep "Look At Yourself"

3. Judas Priest "Rocka Rolla"

4. Motorhead "English Rose"

5. Rainbow "Run with the Wolf"

6. Iron Maiden "Wrathchild"

7. Black Sabbath "Children of the Grave"

8. Venom "Countess Bathory"

I'm gonna opt to replace the Weedeater track as I feel that it's probably the least impressive of the list so far & will fill the gap with what was arguably the first genuine metal song to come out of my home country of Australia in Ash's 1971 "Midnight Witch", a track that I feel is more than deserving of the stoner metal tag & is also worthy of a lot more attention than it's received over the years. These guys only released two obscure singles before dissolving, the first of which was a psychedelic pop effort, which makes "Midnight Witch" even more attractive to those who might be looking for underground gems.

1. Ash - "Midnight Witch"

2. Black Sabbath "Snowblind"

3. Burning Witch "Sacred Predictions"

4. Sleep "Dragonaut"

5. Eyehategod "New Orleans is the New Vietnam"

6. Electric Wizard "Funeralopolis"

7. Witch "Rip Van Winkle"

8. Buzzo*en "Hollow"

Pestilence (AUS) - "Pestilence" demo (1988)

This one-off demo tape saw Perth-based punks Pestilence producing arguably Australia's earliest grindcore release. It does a very good job at it too & compares favourably to the acts that had spawned the scene on a global level over the previous couple of years. The performances are fairly loose as you would expect from an early grindcore release but the production is surprisingly clear. I particularly enjoy the deathly vocals & the out-of-control blast-beats. I've always had a soft spot for good quality grindcore & this old demo still ticks all of my boxes even if it's not something I return to all that often. It certainly made for good drunken fun back in the day too.

For fans of Unseen Terror, Amebix & "Scum"-period Napalm Death.

3.5/5

Carcass were by far at their best when they hit the midpoint between grindcore and death metal that was Symphinies of Sickness. I have never been a fan of Heartwork and their later stuff. It may have been a fine album by somebody else, but this is Carcass here.

“Necroticism” is definitely my Carcass album of choice & by a fair margin too. I adored “Symphonies of Sickness” back in the day but a little of the gloss has faded from it over time & I now place it behind “Heartwork” in the Carcass pecking order.

As far as Obituary is concerned "Suffocation" was the first full Death metal song I ever heard, and it still goes hard. That album is very important to me-no bad choices on it.

I agree with you there. I don’t think there are any duds on “Slowly We Rot” either.

I think I would shift the track list around and stick it in between "Terminate Damnation" and "Phobofile" but that's semantics.

Oh, I didn't realise that programming was to be considered. I'll take that into account in future. And thank you for your compliment too. :)

1. Cannibal Corpse "A Skull Full of Maggots"

2. Neuropath "Incantations of Decrepit Nihilism"

3. Morbid Angel "Where the Slime Live"

4. Mortification "Terminate Damnation"

5. Cryptopsy "Phobophile"

6. Athiest "On they Slay"

7. Death "The Philosopher"

8. Carcass "Heartwork"

I decided to drop Obituary's "Slowly We Rot" from the list primarily because I played live it so often as a crowd pleaser at the end of Neuropath shows that I'd happily never hear it again. Interestingly, I'd actually suggest that it's one of the weaker songs from Obituary's debut too if I'm being honest, despite it being comfortably the most popular inclusion with fans. I've added Neuropath's "Incantations of Decrepit Nihilism" which we probably played even more often but which I never seem to tire of hearing, particularly since it's had the remaster treatment for the "At Damnation's Core" CD.

Spectral Birth - "The Turbulence" demo (1988)

The first of two demo tapes from this Melbourne death/thrash duo who were also responsible for Incubus' 1987 "Sinful Dreams" demo before changing their moniker for obvious reasons. There are no complaints about the production which is really very good for a late 80's extreme metal demo tape. "Sinful Dreams" had more of a blackened edge to the vocals while this one sees guitarist/bassist Laurie Ferdinands's delivery sitting closer to death metal. The instrumentation is pure thrash though & draws entirely from the Teutonic side of the genre for influence. There's a sophistication to Spectral Birth's sound that sometimes sees me reaching for comparisons to bands like Vektor & Sadus even though there's nothing particularly technical on offer from a structural point of view. The execution is nice & tight & shows a level of compositional maturity though. The tracklisting is extremely consistent with all five songs tending to sit at predominantly the same quality level but I wouldn't say that any of them stand out as genuine Aussie thrash classics. I'd probably give "The Turbulence" a slight edge over "Sinful Dreams" which I also have a fair bit of time for but I wouldn't say that either should be essential listening for our The Pit members.

For fans of Agressor, Kreator & Destruction.

3.5/5

Ben, please add the Incubus/Spectral Birth split 12" from 2004.

Yeah, it is which in some ways makes it even more attractive to the kvlt elitist in me.

Nomenclature Diablerie - "888" demo (1988)

Big time undiscovered gem alert right here guys! Unless you were a part of the Sydney extreme metal scene of the late 80s/early 90's then you're very unlikely to have come into contact with this little beauty which made a major impact on me when I first encountered it. It's a two-song/nine-minute affair that's crudely produced & sloppily executed but which offers genuine occult atmosphere, memorable riffs, an original & experimental sound, fantastically monstrous death growls & powerful blast beats from Sadistik Exekution/Aggressa/Reverend Kriss Hades drummer Sloth. I'll go so far as to claim this one as essential listening in the context of the early Australian scene. If the Addictive demo I spoke of yesterday was the best Sydney thrash release to the time then this one gets my vote for death metal. Aussie metal overall actually. They don't make 'em like this any more.

For fans of Sadistik Exekution, Slaughter Lord & Celtic Frost.

4/5

^^^^ Sonny, please report directly to this release as I feel that you'll love it.

No Remorse - "Stroke of Death" demo (1988)

A pretty decent one-off demo tape from a Victorian thrash metal band that were clearly trying their very best to emulate the first two Metallica records, particularly "Kill 'Em All" which shouldn't come as a surprise given the band's moniker. These guys went on to become the more deathly Persecution shortly afterwards but, at this stage, we receive a fairly simple brand of conventional thrash metal that won't offer anything terribly different but is pulled off well enough to keep members of The Pit entertained, mainly through nostalgia for the songs that No Remorse have clearly used for inspiration.

For fans of Mortal Sin, early Metallica & "Killing is My Business... & Business is Good!"-era Megadeth.

3.5/5

Fuck Brian Eno.

That's a pretty extreme statement. I'd take a number of Eno releases over "In den Gärten Pharaos" personally. He's thoroughly deserving of his status as a god in ambient music circles as far as I'm concerned.

Addictive - "Ward 74" demo (1988)

The only demo tape from a legendary Sydney thrash metal band that I looked up to as a young fella. In fact, these days I'd suggest that "Ward 74" may have been the best thrash metal release to have come out of my home city at the time it was released which is saying something considering that we'd already seen the likes of Slaughter Lord's "Taste of Blood" demo, Mortal Sin's "Mayhemic Destruction" & Massive Appendage's "The Severed Erection". The production job isn't amazing but is acceptable for a late 1980's demo recording. There are a couple of really solid, if not particularly original, thrash anthems here in "Sonder Commando" & "What Ward Are You In?". Testament's more aggressive "The Legacy" material springs to mind quite often, as does Allegiance's 1994 debut album "D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n". which makes "Ward 74" worth a listen or two for our more comprehensive thrash nuts.

For fans of Massive Appendage, Allegiance & early Testament.

3.5/5

Popol Vuh - "In den Gärten Pharaos" (1971)

The sophomore album from these German experimentalists is an early classic of the ambient genre. I've been a big fan of it for decades now & bought the CD re-release with bonus tracks around twenty years ago. Unlike most people, I find it hard to split the first two Popol Vuh records but the two bonus tracks included give this one a slight edge due their proto-techno leanings. Where "Affenstunde" (i.e. their debut album from earlier the same year) is more of a conventional ambient record, "In den Gärten Pharaos" sits somewhere between tribal ambient & drone with both of the lengthy tracks creating a wonderful transcendental tension.

For fans of Fripp & Eno, Klaus Schulze & Cluster.

4/5

I believe the book that’s had the most influence on metal lyrics & themes is by this dude called God. It’s an old one. I forget the name but I think it starts with a “b”. Some bad ass atrocities transpire in it too by all reports. Metal as fuck!

I agree about the unusual spacey psychedelics this album has and will vote YES for this Hall entry, Daniel. But I also hear a lot of progressiveness in the complexity and structure enough to make it qualify as progressive metal. So I'd like to submit an additional entry to have Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus added to The Infinite as progressive metal while staying in The Horde and dissonant death metal.

https://metal.academy/hall/569

I don't hear anything particularly progressive or technical personally. The dissonant death metal subgenre comes with an expectation of a certain level of complexity so I see no need for those sort of tags. The avant-garde component is enough of a differentiator to justify an additional tag though.

I'm guessing that the database is still reflecting the status from when Vinny was a member of The Guardians. I'll have Ben investigate it. Thanks for the heads up.

S.I.C. - "S.I.C." demo (1987)

I've been looking around the internet for this obscure demo tape that I used to enjoy back in the day & have finally located this recording on YouTube which sounds pretty good considering it's an Australian crossover thrash demo from the mid-1980's. In fact, I think I slightly prefer this cassette over S.I.C.'s 1988 "Screaming In Churches" E.P. as the extra hardcore punk edge really suits these Melbourne rapscallions & their outrageous party antics. This time I'd suggest that a good half of the eight tracks sit just as much in the hardcore space as they do the crossover one but it's definitely when they let loose with violent punk aggression & limb-tearing speed that I find myself most engaged.  The sounds of a teenage skater party on "Party Crashed" bring back oh so many memories from my youth too which is an added bonus. S.I.C. is yet another Aussie band that deserved more attention than they received.

For fans of S.O.D., Suicidal Tendencies & M.O.D.

3.5/5

This nomination has been passed uncontested.

https://metal.academy/hall/568

I decided to pass "Aquarela" uncontested.

https://metal.academy/hall/567

The reduced regularity should allow me to contribute to the list, despite my plan to pull my metal listening habits back a fair amount.

Martire - "Demo 1" (1988)

I still quite like this early Australian extreme metal demo tape from a notorious Adelaide band that typifies the sound that my homeland has become known for over the years. The production job on this five-song effort is muffled & distant but the riffs still manage to cut through in hectic, rip-roaring fashion nonetheless which sees me able to overlook the primitive aesthetic. The black metal component of Martire's sound wasn't quite as developed as it would be on their 1991 self-titled E.P. although opener "Evilution" is certainly a devilish example of blackened death metal & is the clear highlight in my opinion. The rest of the cassette is a bit thrashier which sees this release sitting more comfortably under a death/thrash tag than a purely death metal one. I don't think many people would consider this to be an essential release (even for the early Australian scene) but it certainly offers something of interest if you're into stuff like Sextrash,  early Sepultura or 1987-91 era Sadistik Exekution. It's worth noting that there's a track missing from the YouTube version though.

3.5/5

For the time being, I'm gonna propose the following:

1. I'll instigate collaborator privileges for Sonny on the playlists for The Horde & The North & for Andi on The Revolution & The Sphere so that they can update those lists without my involvement.

2. The clan members can decide between themselves on how regularly they'd like to update the playlists. I don't think there's any necessity for it to be the same for each clan but I'll leave it up to you guys.

3. I'll remove myself & Ben from the feature release nomination list.

4. Andi can manage the feature release nomination list on the FEATURE RELEASE thread moving forwards as he seems to be the most passionate about continuing with it.

5. Feature nominators can private message Ben with their releases of choice before the last day of the month but be aware that he won't chase you so if you don't get it on time then you'll lose your slot.

Well, Judas Priest's "Painkiller" is certainly the one that best represents it & immediately springs to mind but I'm also gonna add Bestial Warlust's "At the Graveyard of God" & Bathory's "Blood Fire Death".

As I said Andi, you need to get yourself a Spotify account because I'm not intending on continuing to manually upload your playlists for you.

Not much would need to change Andi. I'd simply remove myself & Ben from the feature release roster & each clan's nominating party would simply private message Ben with their feature releases prior to the last day of the month so that he has time to update the FEATURE RELEASE page. With playlists, other members would need to take over the programming of The Horde & The North lists & you'd need to get a Spotify account so that I can share the two lists with you as an additional collaborator. Everyone else currently updates their own lists as a collaborator so we could just keep that arrangement going.

I've really enjoyed the new Gigan album over the last few months & think it's probably their best work thus far. It's certainly a very solid example of avant-garde dissonant death metal but I wouldn't place it in the same class as the Ulcerate, Civerous or Carnophage records so it's not coming into consideration for this award. If you love shit like Artificial Brain, Pyrrhon & Mithras though, I'd definitely recommend that you check it out.

Dream Theater - "Parasomnia"

The progressive metal gods sixteenth full-length album is due for release on 7th Feburary & will no doubt dominate all proghead's thoughts & discussions for several months afterwards.

Impending Doom - "Towards the Light" E.P.

The latest release from one of my favourite deathcore bands. Even though I didn't like their debut E.P. "The Sin & Doom of Godless Men", I've enjoyed all of California's Impending Doom's first four albums (particularly 2012's incredible "Baptized in Filth" fourth full-length) so I might keep an eye on the reception of this one. If you dig artists like Whitechapel & Carnifex then you might wanna consider checking this E.P. out too.

Tokyo Blade - "Time is the Fire"

The twelfth full-length from this NWOBHM act. I'm well across their first two album but haven't heard anything they've released since 1981. I wasn't too fond of their 1980 self-titled debut but didn't mind the follow-up "Night of the Blade". All the Iron Maiden tragics out there might wanna investigate this one but I'm not sure it interests me enough to explore if I'm being honest.

Yeah, the first half of both of those songs main riffs is certainly identical. It's hard to say whether that's coincidence or not though as it's such a common technique for heavy guitarists.

I don't think I've heard anything worth listening to from Venom since 2000's "Resurrection" album so I don't think I'd be all that enthused about the prospect of seeing that lineup live. I'd be more inclined to check out Venom Inc. as their last full-length (i.e. 2022's "There's Only Black") was actually pretty decent.

🤘Thanks very much for all of these excellent recommendations!🤘

You're most welcome Mike. Feel free to post your own recommendations, ratings & reviews because we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Just updated my Top Ten Dissonant Death Metal Releases of All Time list after reviewing Ulcerate's "Cutting the Throat of God" album last week & found that it's still heavily weighted towards the two clear subgenre leaders:

01. Ulcerate - "Stare Into Death & Be Still" (2020)

02. Ulcerate - "Cutting the Throat of God" (2024)

03. Gorguts - "Colored Sands" (2013)

04. Ulcerate - "Everything Is Fire" (2009)

05. Ad Nauseam - "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" (2021)

06. Gorguts - "From Wisdom to Hate" (2001)

07. Ulcerate - "The Destroyers of All" (2011)

08. Ulcerate - "Vermis" (2013)

09. Gorguts - "Obscura" (1998)

10. Ulcerate - "Shrines of Paralysis" (2016)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/181

What?! No dinosaur-themed European power metal bands out there?? The shame!!! Manowar already had a head-start on the costumes with "Into Glory Ride" too.

Those perceptions haven't really changed in the underground metal scene to be honest. Cradle of Filth certainly had their moments during the mid-to-late 1990's but there was a good decade or so when they seemed terribly water-down & disposable, almost a parody of the image they'd worked so hard to create. Some of their recent releases have been surprisingly decent but one gets the feeling that the damage had already been done as far as the band's credibility & lasting legacy is concerned.

I checked out Knocked Loose's "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To" this week & found it to be a damn fine metalcore record that will be hard to beat for our The Revolution award. I'd suggest that it's a step up from 2021's "A Tear in the Fabric of Life" which was my only other experience with the band.

Exodus have once again parted ways with front man Steve Souza & have once again replaced him with Rob Dukes with the recording of the new album imminent

Nice! I didn't mind Barshasketh's last couple of albums but haven't gotten around to listening to their new one yet. I'll place it on my to-do list.

I took a detailed look at the new Defeated Sanity record I've been enjoying over the last couple of months yesterday & it's yet another extraordinarily overthetop release from the very consistent German brutal/technical death metal band. I don't think I could say that it's a classic though so it won't compete for my The Horde award. It's definitely worth exploring if you can handle extraordinarily technical, ADD-fueled brutality though.

Do you also hear a bit of an industrial sound here too, Daniel, particularly in the machine-like dehumanisation of tracks like the title track and "Ikikäärme"?

I do but I wouldn't say that it's worthy of aq secondary tag as it's not all that prominent in the overall direction of the album. The psychedelic side of the Oranssi Pazuzu sound has certainly been pushed to the back this time though, hasn't it? I'm gonna put up a Hall of Judgement poll to have the album put into The North at some stage today so make sure that you vote in that mate.

I just finished reviewing the latest Paysage d'Hiver album & it's another classic in my opinion. It honestly had the potential to be one of the all-time great black metal records if not for one flaw which I go into detail about but, as it stands, I'm gonna place it in second place for my The North award, slightly behind Oranssi Pazuzu (if we end up counting it here of course).

Here's my review:

Melbourne progressive metal outfit Taramis hold somewhat of a prestigious position in the story of Australian metal. They were arguably the first metal act of any note to start messing with progressive influences which gave them a distinct point of difference while still maintaining enough of a traditional heavy metal component to ensure that they didn't lose any of the old-schoolers along the way. I didn't become aware of them until their 1991 sophomore album "Stretch of the Imagination" which I regard as being their finest work however my recent investigations into the early roots of the Aussie metal scene have seen me finally exploring their 1985 "Blood and Honour" demo tape & 1987 debut album "Queen of Thieves", neither of which are as thrashy as the band would eventually become. The Prowler demo was a decent enough heavy metal release although it was a lot less expansive & more conventional than the Taramis releases. It was clear that there was some talent there though so I was interested to see how that would develop on "Queen of Thieves". It certainly has too as this is a far more sophisticated release than the demo ever aspired to be.

The impact of Taramis' debut album is a little restricted due to an overly raw production job that was fairly typical of underground releases of the time. It was recorded at Saturn Studios in Melbourne with unknown producer George Simak who isn't exactly a household name in the local metal scene. The results are pretty much as you would expect too with the guitars sounding tinny & far too far back in the mix while the vocals of operatic front man Shane Southby boom out over the top with no restraint whatsoever. It's a fairly unforgiving position for the theatrical Southby whose soaring, air-raid siren style, high-pitched voice often struggles for control, even spilling over into the pitchy & cringe-worthy on tracks like "The Chosen" where he completely ruins what was otherwise a very solid progressive metal number from an instrumental point of view. He's a lot more successful on other tracks though & I've found myself enjoying a good three quarters of the tracklisting with heavy metal closer "My Life" being the only other failure. Taramis are at their best when they're at their most adventurous & prove themselves to be highly capable musicians along the way. Iron Maiden have clearly been a major inspiration for them & you can easily pick up the influence of their more progressive mid-to-late 80's records on "Queen of Thieves", particularly on the basslines of Danny Komorr who forms a formidable partnership with former Nothing Sacred drummer Dave Browne. The guitar solos of Craig Robertson aren't the most polished or theoretically correct you'll find but they are always interesting & fit the purpose quite well. It's kinda hard to pigeon-hole Taramis' sound at this point though as they tend to jump around a bit but I think a progressive power metal tag is probably the best fit, despite the consistent presence of traditional heavy metal. I think Southby's vocal style simply points me in the direction of power metal every time I question myself & there's a similar feel to Manilla Road in the atmospheres at times too.

The raw production job does limit how far Taramis can take you to an extent but I've found more than enough appeal in "Queen of Thieves" to keep me interested. It's probably just lacking those couple of classic tracks to draw your attention away from its flaws with only the excellent progressive metal anthem "Doesn't Seem" pushing up into second tier territory. The rest of the album largely sits back in the third tier for this type of music but it was an admirable first-up effort for Taramis nonetheless. History has shown that it did just enough to afford them a rare status amongst a local scene that was still quite immature in terms of the more progressive end of metal so it deserves its place in Australian metal folklore.

For fans of Adramelch, Iron Maiden & Manilla Road.

3.5/5

Hmmm... the age old question. I thought the general consensus was that vocals alone don't contribute to genre selection. If an album has black metal "music" with clean vocals, it's still black metal. If an album has pop "music" with black metal vocals, it's still just pop. To move away from this logic creates all sorts of bad genre choices, particularly as death and black metal vocals appear across all sorts of subgenres these days.

Yes, that's generally been my stance over the years but this record isn't as straight-forward as that. You see, if you examine it in detail, you'll find that the vocals are the main thing tying this record to metal. The instrumentation is quite diverse & spends a fair bit more time outside of the metal scope so I don't think you could say that this is a straight-up "avant-garde metal" release as such. In fact, if you were to base your genre-tag solely on the instrumentation then this release may not even qualify for the Academy. The vocals are about as black metal as they come though & I don't think you'd find another metal release that's not tagged with at least a "blackened" prefix if they offered something similar. Given that the black metal component is the primary link to metal & it's prominent enough in the sound of the album to command a metal tag, I feel that an avant-garde black metal tag is the best fit for it. Have a listen for yourself though as I'm certainly open to other ideas if they're a better fit.

Many of you might disagree but I think the wonderfully grim black metal vocals that appear across the majority of the latest Oranssi Pazuzu album are enough to drag it into avant-garde black metal territory, despite the music clearly having been divorced from black metal a long time ago now. That puts "Muuntautuja" in front in the race for my The North Release of the Year too.