Daniel's Forum Replies
We're very close to a result on this one guys so if you know the record & are eligible to vote but haven't done so as yet then I'd encourage you to do so.
The wife was out of the house this afternoon so I took the opportunity to smash the latest The Pit playlist out really loud while cleaning the house & playing with the kids. I really enjoyed it too just quietly. The classics at the start set the scene very nicely & as I progressed through the set I found myself jumpin' around to bands like Thrasherwolf, Vio-lence, Demoniac, Kreator, Eradicator, Cryptosis, Expander, Ektomorf & particularly the new one from Sadistic Ritual which I didn't know was out & was probably the find of the set for me personally.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination is now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement. I agree with Andi's approach of adding Alternative Metal first before making a play to remove it from The Infinite/Progressive Metal so I've opted to go with that.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
Updated my list following Deathspell Omega's "Fas – Ite, maledicti, in ignem aeternum" successful Hall nomination finally giving it entry into the Avant-Garde Metal genre:
01. Oranssi Pazuzu – “Mestarin kynsi” (2020)
02. Deathspell Omega - "Paracletus" (2010)
03. Kayo Dot – “Choirs Of The Eye” (2003)
04. Ad Nauseam – “Imperative Imperceptible Impulse” (2021)
05. Blut aus Nord - "777 - Cosmosophy" (2012)
06. Kayo Dot – “Moss Grew On The Swords & Plowshares Alike” (2021)
07. maudlin of the Well – “Leaving Your Body Map” (2001)
08. Deathspell Omega - "Fas – Ite, maledicti, in ignem aeternum" (2007)
09. maudlin of the Well – “Bath” (2001)
10. Dog Fashion Disco - "Adultery" (2006)
https://metal.academy/lists/single/156
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
The nomination has now been posted on the Hall of Judgement.
The nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
It's with great pleasure that I announce that this Hall entry has been successfully passed by the community with a comprehensive vote result of 8 YES & 1 NO. As a result, it has been added the The Infinite under the Avant-Garde Metal genre & subgenre.
So we've finally followed through on our long-term intent to remove Nintendocore from the site with all releases that were previously tagged with the subgenre having been changed to Non-Metal or being left in their other subgenre(s).
I'd suggest that your summary of "Slowly We Rot" fits very well alongside my own feelings Sonny. I've always liked it but I've failed to reach the levels of adoration that so many death metal fans seem to have. "Cause Of Death" is light-years ahead of it as far as I'm concerned & hired gun James Murphy played a big role in my position on that. In much the same way as Death/Massacre axeman Rick Rozz, West's lead guitar work was always a little bit of a struggle for me. Those two are simply one-trick ponies who rely entirely on whammy-bar histrionics rather than melodic or technical highlights. Tardy's vocals are undeniably as unique as they are vicious & he's arguably the best exponent in all of death metal in my opinion so he really shone on the debut but I do think that "Slowly We Rot" sounded more like a collection of songs rather than a flowing album too. It's good but I don't think it's great. I actually prefer the more polished "The End Complete" to it pretty comfortably.
French blackgaze for fans of Jesu, Lantlôs & Sun Devoured Earth.
High quality progressive metal from Atlanta, USA.
Mastodon - "Blood Mountain" (2006)
Don't ask me why but despite being a hhhuuugggeee fan of the records either side of it for many years now I'd never gotten around to checking out the highly celebrated 2006 third album "Blood Mountain" from Atlanta-based progressive sludge masters Mastodon until yesterday. Mastodon have always been a class act so I didn't expect anything other than a polished & accomplished piece of art & there's no question that that's exactly what they've delivered here too. This album appears to be the point in which the band took a turn away from their sludge metal roots & pointed their ship directly towards the progressive metal stratosphere as it's a lot more technical & complex than I remember their earlier material being & I don't think it technically qualifies for sludge status any more either as that's only a small portion of the holistic direction that "Blood Mountain" sees the band taking with stoner elements popping up almost as often. The album offers the usual highlights from drummer Brann Dailor who was a complete phenomenon at this point while it also falls victim to Mastodon's obvious Achilles heal in the vocal department which places a cap on the album's potential to reach the upper eschalons of my affection. In order to make a genuinely classic record you need to be able to write classic hooks &, for all it's splendour in the instrumental department, I'm just not sure "Blood Mountain" offers enough catchiness & memorability to be able to stand toe-to-toe with amazing records like "Leviathan" & "Crack The Skye" in that department. Brent & Troy do their best with the tools at their disposal however neither have the vocal chops to make this consistently solid outing into a truly special one. Still... there are few that can match Mastodon for ambition & execution in the instrumental department & the effortlessness with which they perform complex melodic acrobatics is beyond criticism. You can't really go wrong here if you're a fan of professionally produced & performed progressive metal music.
For fans of Baroness, Dvne & Intronaut.
4/5
There's more than meets the ears, and you would find a lot more if you're a professional listener of experimental jazz/death metal/mathcore....
Quoted Shadowdoom9 (Andi)
There are professional listeners of experimental jazz/death metal/mathcore??? Where do I apply for one of these jobs?
Hahahaha.... Damaged & I have a very long history Andi. I adored them back in the early-to-mid 1990's & thrashed that E.P. to death. I would have seen them play live probably a dozen times too. One of the biggest fans of my band Neuropath went on to become their vocalist shortly afterwards actually. They're one of the most infamous extreme metal bands in Australia's history but are rarely spoken of outside of our country. Their insane drummer Matt "Skitz" Sanders is an absolute legend of the local scene & has played for everyone that's anyone e.g. Abramelin, Hobbs Angel Of Death, Blood Duster, Destroyer 666, King Parrot, etc. Damaged don't fit comfortably into any single box as they really did have their own sound that cherry picked from numerous extreme genres. They're certainly nothing to do with the modern-day deathcore model but I can understand someone stretching that far to find a suitable box to chuck them in. I think deathgrind is a much better fit personally though.
I remember that Delirium record from my tape trading days. It wasn't too bad from memory but I can't say I've been drawn to return to it since. Off the top of my head I think I had it on a cassette with Paradise Lost's "Lost Paradise" actually.
Ben read somewhere that Sandoval was so obsessive about his skills & technique that the band played a joke on him by playing him a recording of a drum machine performing impossibly fast & precise blast beats, telling him it was a human doing it & ribbing him because he couldn't match it. Apparently he went away & practiced so hard that he came back & matched it which left them all completely gobsmacked.
"Altars Of Madness" was a life-changing moment for me. It quite literally changed my life & by the time "Blessed Are The Sick" hit the shelves Morbid Angel was my favourite band. It's without question the greatest death metal release of all in my opinion. 5/5
BTW who's your favourite OBG? Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson for me.
I wouldn't say I have one to be honest Sonny. Having been raised in the height of 80's shred, I have to admit that I've always struggled a bit with the restrictive & repetitive nature of blues. It generally gives me a feeling of "heard-it-all-before" & I find myself wishing that they'd just cut loose by throwing their blues & pentatonic scales out the window for a while & exploring some more adventurous territory. For that reason I've always favoured the blues of your more modern & highly skilled guitarists like Stevie Ray Vaughn or rock gods like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page & Jeff Beck. There's just something a lot more exciting about their take on it, at least there is for me personally.
As I said earlier, I've always enjoyed "The Spooky Gloom" although I don't think my attention was fully drawn across to the doom/death subgenre until I heard Winter's shortly afterwards. In saying that, it's been many years since Sempiternal Deathreign & I crossed paths so perhaps it's time to remedy that.
A short & blasting Californian grindcore anthem.
Nails - "Unsilent Death" (2010)
A 13 minute blitzkrieg that combines blasting Napalm Death style grindcore with Entombed's "Wolverine Blues" then throws in a bit of d-beat, crust punk & sludge metal for good measure. "Unsilent Death" didn't do all that much for me at the time of release but my drastically improved score is a sure sign of the development in my taste for grindcore & hardcore punk in general over the last decade.
For fans of Full Of Hell, Dead In The Dirt & Trap Them.
4/5
Have just updated my top ten after submitting a genre tag vote on Terrorizer's "World Downfall" & realising that Nails' "Unsilent Death" needs to be in there somewhere:
01. Discordance Axis – “The Inalienable Dreamless” (2000)
02. Pig Destroyer – “Prowler In The Yard” (2001)
03. Pig Destroyer – “Terrifyer” (2004)
04. Terrorizer - "World Downfall" (1989)
05. Repulsion – “Horrified” (1989)
06. Unseen Terror – “The Peel Sessions” (1989)
07. Nails - "Unsilent Death" (2010)
08. Cretin – “Stranger” (2014)
09. Napalm Death – “The Peel Sessions” (1987)
10. Napalm Death – “From Enslavement To Obliteration” (1988)
https://metal.academy/lists/single/149
John Lee Hooker - "Never Get Out Of The Blues Alive" (1972)
Felt like something different while I bathed the kids & cooked dinner tonight so I opted for the bluesiest blues in Bluestown.
Old-school death metal from Los Angeles, USA.
Sadistic Intent - "Ancient Black Earth" E.P. (1997)
As most diehard extreme metal fans will know, there’s a rare & highly desirable brand of metal that is destined to forever bubble away beneath the service of the underground scene, leaving its blackened mark on only a chosen few who share knowing nods in dark, smoky dungeons of metal worship without ever daring to give up their unholy secret to those deemed to be unworthy. This particular brand of metal isn’t about glossy production jobs, technical prowess or pushing genres into previously untraversed territories. It’s about presenting extreme metal in it’s most evil & primal form & generally resides within the confines of the unholy trio of extreme metal subgenres i.e. thrash metal, death & black metal. The exact ratio of an artist’s composition isn’t important but it dare not step outside of those three. Additionally, there needs to be an element of mystery about the artist in question with much left to the listener’s imagination. It also helps a lot if these artists have never released an album but existed for just a relatively short time, releasing only a few crude demos, 7 inches or limited edition EPs so that the audience can always be left wondering what could have been & if the most pure realization of metal should stay in the underground forever. Sadistic Intent is one of these acts & I love them all the more for it.
I first discovered this underground Los Angeles death metal outfit back in the early 1990’s through the tape trading scene. From memory I found their 1990 “Impending Doom…” E.P. to be pretty interesting but it wouldn’t be until their 1994 “Resurrection” E.P. that they’d really get me raising an eyebrow or two with their talent for creating raw, dark & authentic old school death metal falling right in line with my musical preference at the time. I followed them onwards in the hope that I’d eventually see a full-length album being released at some stage. I’m glad I didn’t hold my breath because that’s still yet to eventuate but they did manage to release another excellent E.P. before drifting out of my sight in 1997’s highly regarded three-track effort “Ancient Black Earth”.
To cut to the chase, Sadistic Intent are a pure death metal band in the traditional sense of the term. They don’t provide a good imitation of late 80’s death metal here. "Ancient Black Earth" IS late 80’s death metal. It’s just that it was written, recorded & released in 1997. See what I’m getting at? These dudes simply get it. They understand what’s required to create a genuine old-school death metal atmosphere as they’ve clearly lived it. This sort of approach has become somewhat of a trend over the last decade or so & has seen lesser bands elevated to much higher levels of acclaim & fandom than Sadistic Intent can ever hope to achieve. They really are their own worst enemies as not releasing a full-length is never a great marketing ploy but one gets the feeling that they don't really care. The quality of their material however is very hard to deny.
It won’t take you long to figure out who Sadistic Intent were listening to around 1989. I’ll give you a hint. They start with “M” & end with “orbid Angel”. Ya with me? The short 16 minute duration of the “Ancient Black Earth” E.P. sounds almost exactly like “Altars Of Madness” & “Blessed Are The Sick” at times which certainly can’t be a bad thing now, can it? Are they as good as Trey & co? Well… in a word no but then who is? I mean “Altars Of Madness” is the still the greatest death metal release of all time in my opinion so I’ll take whatever I can get. Very few artists have been able to accurately replicate the riff structures that Trey Azagthoth created back in Morbid Angel's hey day but Rick Cortez & Vince Cervera make a really good fist of it here & even do a pretty decent job at the insanely chaotic guitar solos too even though they’re not in the same league as far as technical ability goes. The blast beats at the start & end of the title track (my personal fave) sound like they’ve been torn straight from Morbid Angel’s “Blasphemy” & I frankly lose my shit when that happens. Then you toss in some super-evil yet easily intelligible Dave Vincent-style death growls of pure darkness & I’m 100% in… hook, line & sinker. There are also a few riffs tossed in that remind me more of the early 90’s Swedish death metal sound but they’re very well done & still manage to maintain a blasphemous & undeniably evil atmosphere.
If you’re a fan of 80’s & early 90’s death metal then you probably owe it to yourself to give this E.P. a spin or four. “Ancient Black Earth” provides categorical proof that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to make high quality extreme metal. Sadistic Intent deliver on their promise with passion, substance & an unquestionable pedigree & in doing so prove themselves worthy of standing alongside their idols. This is underground death metal of a very high quality.
For fans of Morbid Angel, Repugnant & Mortem.
4/5