Daniel's Forum Replies
This English melodic metalcore outfit deliver a super-heavy tribute to classic Pantera.
Ok, so I have to admit that I went into this record with a fairly skeptical mindset given the generally mediocre response that Bullet For My Valentine seem to draw from most dedicated metalheads. I'd only heard bits & pieces of the band previously through my time programming The Revolution playlists (mainly through Andi's track submissions) but had never made the commitment to explore a full album which is hardly surprising given my usual aversion to melodic metalcore (or melodic anything for that matter). This record has really surprised me though & I think it deserves to be given a chance as it's one heavy muthafucka! Don't get me wrong, you can still expect to hear a fair few Linkin Park style choruses but they're done very well for the most part with the hooks offering a bit more than your average pop metal schlock can muster. There are some guargantuan metal riffs included that bands like Judas Priest or Pantera would be proud of though & the production job is absolutely metal as fuck. Michael Paget's lead guitar tone may shred the paint off your walls actually.
To my great surprise I found that I quite like all of the ten tracks on offer here & can see myself returning to "Bullet For My Valentine" in the future too. I don't see where the links to alternative metal or the comparisons to Trivium are coming from because this is about twenty times as metal as those references would seem to indicate. In fact, there are significant thrash & groove metal influences here with album highlight "Shatter" being taken straight from Dimebag Darrel's old playbook. I certainly can do without the commercially angled gang vocal parts but this is a quality metal release that deserves more respect than it's received online to date. It may not be the most original metal record ever but when has that ever stopped metalheads from enjoying well executed & supremely heavy metal music.
4/5
Perth-based Aussie alternative metal for fans of Tool, Chevelle & Korn.
Yeah, I really enjoyed this release too. I knew pretty well what to expect going in as Karnivool are very popular over here (in fact, "Themata" reached number 41 on the pop charts & stayed in the top 20 of the independent charts for 165 straight weeks in Australia). It's very easy to see why critics label them as a poor man's Tool though as there's absolutely no doubt as to where they've borrowed most of their sound from. It's just lucky that they do a great job of it with the vocal hooks being plentiful enough & the execution & sophistication of the instrumentation being impressive enough to pull it off pretty comfortably. There's not a dud amongst the twelve tracks other than the pointless twenty seconds of silence that makes up "Omitted for Clarity". "Shutterspeed" & album highlight "Synops" are both perfect examples of the alternative metal sound & are genuine Aussie metal classics while "C.O.T.E." & "Mauseum" aren't too far behind either. There's a bit of a drop in quality through the middle of the tracklisting when Karnivool decide to expand their horizons a touch by creating a couple of much jumpier tracks that sound a lot like Korn & Rage Against The Machine but this is more of a taste thing for me rather than a creative failure. I do prefer Karnivool's 2013 third album "Asymmetry" over his one as they'd defined their own sound a little better by that stage but I doubt too many members of The Gateway will struggle to find enjoyment in a record like "Themata".
4/5
We're having our two bedroom apartment internally repainted on Thursday, Friday & Saturday. We'll be packing the kids into the car & heading south of Sydney for a few days while it's done. My wife is currently forcing me to make a decision between ten different shades of white. One of us is taking this decision far too seriously while the other couldn't give a flying fuck which shade we go for & is getting very annoyed with having to be involved. I'll let you guess which one I am.
The end of January Sonny.
Yeah I do.
I haven't experienced this before Vinny. I don't usually do longer lists though. Mine are usually limited to ten entries.
Slayer – “Repentless” (from “Repentless”, 2015)
4/5. SLAYER!!!!!! This song really sums up humanity in a nutshell, with good sound quality. Drummer Paul Bostaph replaces Dave Lombardo once again in the final album before Slayer's farewell tour and retirement. Bad-a** thrash right here! Except the more popular thrash bands are kinda out of bounds from my thrash league. Thrash tastes better as an underground dish, that's part of the appeal of Morbid Saint and Viking that I'm glad to discover.
That's kinda like saying you prefer masturbation over a blow job in my opinion.
I'm afraid my feelings on this one are very much the same as they were for Majestica's "A Christmas Carol" feature release from last month. I've made no secret about my not being capable of dealing with the cheesier & more consciously epic side of European power metal. I also hate the vast majority of symphonic metal, are repulsed by almost all folk metal & think neoclassical metal is really boring & repetitive most of the time so, let's be honest, no one was really expecting me to like this record. It's just lucky we have such a cool clan rating feature so that my piss poor score doesn't effect the likelihood of others who are destined to be more fortunate discovering this release which is admittedly very well produced & impressively executed with Yngwie J. Malmsteen being drawn upon for inspiration at times. If pushed I'd probably take this one over the Majestica one but there's very little in it.
2/5
Sonny, the main reason for doing these posts is to drum up some interest in clans like The Sphere, The Gateway & The Revolution where we have very few ratings so I was wanting to give people an easy guide to the most likely releases as we only have a month to go. The Sphere is the best example as none of the more popular releases have even a single MA rating & if we took the current leader as the winner then it'd go to a release that hasn't even made a dent elsewhere with only two MA ratings (e.g. it hasn't even come close to reaching 100 ratings on RYM). If you'd like to post some of your own suggestions for The Fallen then I'm sure everyone would appreciate it.
Sonny, the release of the year will simply be decided on the highest scoring release using our Site Ratings & whatever minimum rating cut-off seems to make sense. The shortlists I'm providing are not intended to tell everyone the only releases that are in contention. That's not the case at all. Metal Academy obviously only has a small number of regular contributors at this stage so the shortlists are intended to draw people's attention to the releases that are getting the most attention on social media & other metal-related websites. The Dvne release has been included in the shortlist because (despite the fact that it only has one rating on this site) it has been popular on other metal mediums e.g. it's been making a number of well-informed people's AOTY lists on Twitter where I spend a fair amount of time & has scored highly with a large number of ratings on competitor's sites. The long & short of it is that I'm looking to minimize the chances of important releases slipping under the radar of our small group if at all possible. I'm not saying that these five releases are the only potential winners.
The monthly playlists are all updated guys so please feel free to create your new playlist threads & add the January tracklistings to the Past Playlist threads. It's also time to start submitted your track suggestions for the February playlists in the relevant clan forums.
Here's the February feature release nominators:
THE FALLEN: Sonny, Ben, Daniel
THE GATEWAY: Andi, Saxy S
THE GUARDIANS: Vinny, Xephyr, Andi
THE HORDE: Daniel, Vinny, Ben
THE INFINITE: Andi, Xephyr, Saxy S
THE NORTH: Daniel, Sonny, Ben, Vinny, Xephyr
THE PIT: Daniel, Sonny, Vinny, Ben
THE REVOLUTION: Daniel, Andi
THE SPHERE: Daniel
Here's my submission for the February 2022 playlist:
Kill The Thrill - "Us & Them" (from "Tellurique", 2005)
Here's my submission for the February 2022 playlist Andi:
Cold As Life - "All Alone" (from "Born To Land Hard", 1998)
Here are my submissions for the February 2022 playlist:
Dark Angel - "The Death Of Innocence" (from "Leave Scars", 1989)
Condor - "Riders Of Violence" (from "Unstoppable Power", 2017)
Destructor - "Maximum Destruction" (from "Maximum Destruction", 1985)
English Dogs - "Ordeal By Fire" (from "Forward To Battle", 1985)
Exciter - "I Am The Beast" (from "Long Live The Loud", 1985)
Hallows Eve - "Plunging Into Megadeath" (from "Tales Of Terror", 1985)
Here's my submissions for the February 2022 playlist:
Wodensthrone - "Those That Crush The Roots Of Blood" (from "Loss", 2009)
Archgoat - "Luciferian Darkness" (from "Whore Of Bethlehem", 2006)
Ulver - "Hymne II - Wolf and the Devil" (from "Nattens madrigal: Aatte hymne til ulven i manden", 1997)
Here's my submissions for the February 2022 playlist:
Cretin - "Freakery" (from "Stranger", 2014)
Cryptopsy - "Defenstration" (from "Blasphemy Made Flesh", 1994)
Abominable Putridity - "A Burial For The Abandoned" (from "The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin", 2012)
Carcass - "Hepatic Tissue Fermentation II" (from "Tools Of The Trade" E.P., 1992)
Cannibal Corpse - "Devoured By Vermin" (from "Vile", 1996)
Dark Tranquillity - "Insanity's Crescendo" (from "The Mind's I", 1997)
Aborted - "Skullfuck Crescendo" (from "Engineering The Dead", 2001)
Here's my submission for the February 2022 playlist Saxy:
Bad Wolves - "Springfield Summer" (from "Dear Monsters", 2021)
Here are my submissions for the February 2022 playlist Sonny:
Anathema - "Sunset Of Age" (from "The Silent Enigma", 1995)
Kyuss - "Son Of A Bitch" (from "Wretch", 1991)
Neurosis - "To Crawl Under One's Skin" (from "Souls At Zero", 1992)
Crowbar - "The Only Factor" (from "Time Heals Nothing", 1995)
Dystopia - "Population Birth Control" (from "The Aftermath" E.P., 1999)
January 2022
01. Andrew Hulshult – “DUSK” (from “Dusk (Original Game Soundtrack), 2018) [Submitted by Daniel]
02. Mechina – “Blood Feud Erotica” (from “Siege”, 2021)
03. Eisbrecher – “Supermodel” (from “Eiszeit”, 2010)
04. Motionless In White – “Wasp” (from “Reincarnate”, 2014) [Submitted by Andi]
05. Pitchshifter – “Scene This” (from “Deviant”, 2000)
06. Rob Zombie – “18th Century Cannibals, Excitable Morlocks and a One-Way Ticket on the Ghost Train” (from “The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy”, 2021)
07. Oomph! – “Suck-Taste-Spit” (from “Sperm”, 1994)
08. Godflesh – “Veins” (from “Godflesh” E.P., 1988)
09. Keygen Church – “T I L A S K A R O T” (from “░█░█░░█░█░█░”, 2021)
10. 1000 Homo DJs – “Hey Asshole!” (from “Supernaut” E.P., 1990)
11. Lard – “The Power Of Lard” (from “The Power Of Lard” E.P., 1988)
12. Youth Code & King Yosef – “Looking Down” (from “A Skeleton Key In The Doors Of Depression”, 2021)
13. Nine Inch Nails – “Happiness In Slavery” (from “Broken” E.P., 1992)
14. Ministry – “Alert Level” (from “Moral Hygiene”, 2021)
15. Old – “Disconnect Self” (from “Lo Flux Tube”, 1991)
16. Fange – “Les vergers de la désolation” (from “Pantocrator”, 2021)
17. Fear Factory – “Disruptor” (from “Aggression Continuum”, 2021)
18. Code Orange – “Swallowing The Whole Rabbit” (from “Underneath”, 2020)
19. Author & Punisher – “Doppler” (from “Drone Machines”, 2010)
20. Red Harvest – “Junk-O-Rama” (from “Cold Dark Matter”, 2000)
21. Borgne – “To Cut The Flesh & Feel Nothing But Stillness” (from “Temps Mortes”, 2021) [Submitted by Sonny]
22. Kill The Thrill – “Soave” (from “Tellurique”, 2005) [Submitted by Vinny]
January 2022
01. Noxis – “Paths Of Visceral Fears” (from “Communion Of Corrupted Minds split album with Cavern Womb, 2021) [Submitted by Vinny]
02. Fallensun – “The Wake Of The Fall” (from “The Wake Of The Fall”, 2021) [Submitted by Ben]
03. Atrae Bilis – “Lore Beyond Bone” (from “Apexapien”, 2021) [Submitted by Vinny]
04. First Fragment – “In’el” (from “Gloire éternelle”, 2021)
05. 1914 – “Corps D'autos-Canons-Mitrailleuses (A.C.M)” (from “Where Fear and Weapons Meet”, 2021) [Submitted by Vinny]
06. Obscura – “Forsaken” (from “A Valediction”, 2021)
07. Sunless – “The Unraveling Of Arcane Past” (from “Ylem”, 2021) [Submitted by Ben]
08. Quo Vadis – “Silence Calls The Storm” (from “Defiant Imagination”, 2004) [Submitted by Ben]
09. Rompeprop – “Dislocated Purple Stoma” (from “Menstrual Stomphulk”, 2002)
10. Brujeria – “Raza odiada (Pito Wilson)” (from “Raza odiada”, 1995)
11. Pestilence – “Out Of The Body” (from “Consuming Impulse”, 1989) [Submitted by Daniel]
12. Gorement – “My Ending Quest” (from “The Ending Quest”, 1994) [Submitted by Ben]
13. The Amenta – “V01D” (from “V01D”, 2010) [Submitted by Daniel]
14. Bloodbath – “Eaten” (from “Nightmares Made Flesh”, 2004) [Submitted by Ben]
15. Gravesend – “Rats Among Us” (from “Preparations for Human Disposal” demo, 2020) [Submitted by Vinny]
16. Creeping Death – “Ripping Through Flesh” (from “Wretched Illusions”, 2019) [Submitted by Vinny]
17. Cannibal Corpse – “Hammer Smashed Face” (from “Tomb Of The Mutilated”, 1992) [Submitted by Daniel]
18. Nile – “Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten” (from “Annihilation Of The Wicked”, 2005) [Submitted by Daniel]
19. Discordance Axis – “Castration Rite” (from “The Inalienable Dreamless”, 2000) [Submitted by Ben]
20. Dead Congregation – “Subjugation” (from “Graves Of The Archangels”, 2008) [Submitted by Daniel]
21. Devourment – “Choking On Bile” (from “Molesting The Decapitated”, 1999) [Submitted by Daniel]
22. Wormrot – “Blockhead Fuck Off” (from “Voices”, 2016) [Submitted by Vinny]
23. Vitriol – “The Parting Of A Neck” (from “To Bathe From the Throat of Cowardice”, 2019) [Submitted by Vinny]
24. Cenotaph – “Anti-Pathogenic Morbid Incubation” (from “Precognition To Eradicate”, 2021) [Submitted by Ben]
Are all Phyllomedusa's 260+ albums as bad as this track. That's a fucking huge pile of shit if that is the case!
I suspect so but I've just queued up his entire discography & will do an in-depth analysis of each release until I come up with a definite conclusion on this critical issue.
I've gotta say that once I started investigating how many new Hall of Glory entries I've discovered through the feature releases this year alone it pretty much justified what we're trying to do here. Check this list out in order of preference:
01. Akhlys - "The Dreaming I" (2015)
02. Dead Congrugation - "Promulgation Of The Fall" (2014)
03. Oranssi Pazuzu - "Värähtelijä" (2016)
04. Lucid Planet - "Lucid Planet II" (2020)
05. Inside The Beehive - "Drink Bleach; Live Forever" E.P. (2011)
06. Kill The Thrill - "Tellurique" (2005)
07. Altarage - "Succumb" (2021)
08. Nehëmah - "Requiem Tenebrae" (2004)
09. M.S.W. - "Obliviosus" (2020)
10. Red Harvest - "Internal Punishment Programs" (2004)
11. Deftones - "Koi no Yokan" (2012)
12. Killing Joke - "Killing Joke" (2003)
13. Kayo Dot - "Moss Grew On The Swords & Plowshares Alike" (2021)
14. Dolorian - "Dolorian" (2001)
15. Leprous - "Tall Poppy Syndrome" (2009)
16. Grip Inc. - "Nemesis" (1997)
We don't have it as a genre Sonny. Ben & I completely agree with you & decided that from the start.
Interesting. I think Venom have probably gone on to be second only to Maiden as far as notoriety & possibly even sales too thanks to the black metal movement. I'd be interested to see if that's really the case actually. Diamond Head was always gonna be in my four as they were just too important not to be in my opinion. I went with Saxon for my fourth spot, mainly because Saxon were the most prolific producer of high quality NWOBHM as opposed to Angel Witch who only released the one classic album during the movement.
I've just checked Wikipaedia and their estimated record sales are 100 million - more than Genesis and David Bowie!
It's worth noting that if we were to include Def Leppard then we'd only be looking at the impact of their self-titled E.P., their debut album "On Through The Night" & their sophomore record "High 'n' Dry". "Pyromania" doesn't seem to be referred to as NWOBHM. The same goes for other enduring artists like Saxon. Let's assume that the NWOBHM was 1979-1983.
I chose to disqualify Def Leppard along with all of the other members of the NWOBHM community that have nothing to do with metal (Praying Mantis, Shiva, Girlschool, Saracen, Demon, White Spirit, Dark Star, Rock Goddess, Heavy Pettin, More, Ethel The Frog, etc.) simply because this is a metal website. Happy to include them if everyone thinks it's better.
Anyway, what would be your final three Sonny?
In 1997, 5 bands began to bring symphonic metal into prominent ground, and many of those bands have done so by adding symphonic elements to an existing metal subgenre including the debut albums of Nightwish, Rhapsody of Fire (symphonic power metal), and Within Temptation (symphonic gothic metal), the second album of Emperor (symphonic black metal), and the third album of Septicflesh (symphonic death metal).
I've been testing my memory over the Septicflesh album you mentioned overnight Andi. It's certainly been a long time since I've heard these releases but I don't remember "The Obsidian Wheel" being the record where they completely converted to a totally symphonic approach. Wasn't it 1998's "A Fallen Temple" album where they did that?
Ok I'm gonna call it as I think the data I'm seeing is pretty unanimous that Ozzy Osbourne is worthy of a spot given his enormous popularity & marketability so let's move on.
How about a Big Four of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal then? Iron Maiden is obviously a given but what of the other three places? Here are the four main contenders as I see it:
Venom
Diamond Head
Angel Witch
Saxon
Feel free to add additional contenders if you think they should be in contention.
I actually don't ever plan to write a review any more as I simply don't have the time. What eventuates is that I start to write a short synopsis in the forums & sometimes find that I end up writing so much that it organically becomes a review, at which point I'll cut & paste it into the release page. I like it that way because it essentially means that I'm never under pressure to write a review. I just end up writing them when a) I have the time & b) I have a lot to say. I don't even need to make a decision on whether or not I'll do it. It just happens naturally.
Sure you can. You actually get to join three clans initially. Which ones most accurately reflect your musical comfort zone? I'll arrange for Ben to change them in the back end.
Atmospheric black metal from Sheffield, England.
I checked "Trisagion" out over the last couple of days too actually & ended up really enjoying it. It's much more melodic & uplifting than I'm usually able to tolerate so it definitely had me putting my guard up on first listen, particularly the 27 minute opener "Chasmal Fires" which offers some epic melodic passages that even Moonsorrow would be proud of. However subsequent listens while doing early morning walks along the beautiful Narrabeen lakes saw me giving in to what can only be described as a stunning realization of a fairly ambitious creative vision. All three tracks may be lengthy however they never feel like they've been needlessly extended despite a fair amount of repetition because there's always thematic development going on & it's done with the utmost class. Plus, the synthesizer work & orchestration is beautifully done. I love the way these tracks slowly build up to huge crescendos at times which reminds me heavily of post-metal. I do think that the doom element is being overstated. There's really only a few minutes of it across the 64 minute run time & that comes entirely on the closing track. Ben will absolutely love this shit though.
4/5
I'm so sorry to hear that mate. One last knife in the back from 2021, eh? I know there's not much that anyone can say that will make things feel any better at a time like this but I'm thinking about you & your family & are really hoping that the coming weeks bring as few challenges as possible.
That was an interesting read Andi. I'd suggest that it was actually 1994 when the whole symphonic black metal thing began off the back of arguably the most important symphonic metal release of all time in Emperor's classic "In The Nightside Eclipse" album. It would take a couple more years before we'd see that sound solidifying into a genuine subgenre of any significance though with 1996 seeing a whole bunch of black metal artists going fully symphonic, most notably Cradle Of Filth & Dimmu Borgir.
It's staggering to think that Ozzy has sold as many solo albums as Judas Priest have across their career. I mean he's sold more than four times the amount of records that Iron Maiden have in America.
WTF?! Metallica's "The Black Album" has sold over 35 million copies & is still sitting at number 96 in the Billboard charts today. It's still selling over 30,000 copies a week in the US alone! It seems weird to not include them in a Big Four of heavy metal on that basis but I'd still prefer not to.
It’s not important who Loudwire are Sonny as they’re clearly none of our business if their big fours are anything to go by. I just thought it’d be fun to hypothesise on who the biggest & most significant artists are for each subgenre anyway cause I’m a total nerd. The sales figures approach is likely only valid for the more commercial stuff as the data won’t be available for the smaller subgenres.
To be fair Andi, the majority of Motorhead's material was actually closer to hard rock or blues rock than it was to metal. The links to metal are based mainly on some influential tracks & Lemmy's gruff vocal tone.
Back on the topic, Ozzy's solo material has sold well over 50 million copies versus Dio's 20 million & Motorhead's 15 million. If those three were on a festival lineup there's little doubt that Ozzy would be headlining as he's significantly more famous than the other two. Do Dio even qualify given that they're no longer active?
I honestly think that while I agree about the position the commercial successful bands are in, the bands that deserve as much recognition are those that the majority of fans know and enjoy, and represent the important aspects of those genres, such as elements and development.
But how is there any difference between "the commercial successful bands" & "those that the majority of fans know & enjoy", Andi? Surely those two things mean the same thing. Anyway... I like the topic as a point of discussion but would suggest that we only analyse one subgenre at a time so that we don't overcomplicate things.
Let's start with traditional heavy metal, shall we? I can see that Loudwire have gone with Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest & Ozzy Osbourne. I'd suggest that the first three are complete no-brainers as they're by far the most accomplished & dominant heavy metal bands in the history of metal music. The fourth position is open for discussion though. It's actually interesting when you think that Metallica have by far & away the highest selling heavy metal record of all time & Megadeth have also played a significant role in heavy metal since 1990 so there's a case for both. Should either of those be considered? I tend to think that they've both played a more significant role in thrash metal & should be happy with their current positions in the Big Four of thrash. Other contenders in the popularity stakes might be Motorhead, Avenged Sevenfold, Dio, Queensryche, Mercyful Fate, Venom, Accept, King Diamond, etc. Personally, I'm happy with Ozzy. His US sales are a clear second to Metallica for metal overall with his debut solo record being primarily responsible for metal finally breaking through in the US in the early 80's (along with Judas Priest's "British Steel"). I would think that he'd have at least four records in the top 100 most well-known heavy metal records of all time too, not to mention his record for discovering killer guitarists. Thoughts?
Ultra raw lo-fi Norwegian black metal for fans of Darkthrone, Immortal & Gorgoroth.
"Leviathan" would have been high up in my list if I allowed it to qualify.
Well, the whole Big Four of thrash metal concept is based around sales & commercial success. Is that the metric you're using here Andi?
French post-black metal for fans of Menace Ruine, Mamaleek & Xothist.
I think I am in a very small minority of people whose favourite Burzum album is the debut (especially the version that includes the Aske EP). I know that the three subsequent albums are actually more accomplished affairs and I certainly can't argue with people who like them better (except maybe Filosofem - that endless ambient track does my head in, to be honest) but I just really love the raw and rabid delivery of the debut.
Interesting. I regard "Filosofem" as the pinnacle of black metal & place it only behind "Reign In Blood" for metal overall.
Is it true that they sped the recording up artificially though? I've never heard that before.
It was common knowledge in the scene at the time & I've since seen reference to both albums being artificially sped up by 13%. I believe Abbath has confirmed it in interviews however I don't have any actual evidence of it handy. It certainly sounds likely given that Abbath's drumming skills weren't exactly amazing on the evidence of "Pure Holocaust". They played the songs at album tempo in a live environment though so one would assume that it was simply to tighten things up on the recordings.
Russion slam death metal for fans of Devourment, Pathology & Katalepsy.
Abominable Putridity - "The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin" (2012)
I thought I'd give the sophomore album from this Russian slam death metal outfit a revisit this week after really fucking digging it at the time of release. It hasn't quite made the same impact on this occasion & I've dropped it back a half star as a result but I still can't deny that it's somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me given my background in the brutal death metal scene. You know exactly what to expect as there's nothing new whatsoever on offer here. It's pretty much an entire album of slam breakdowns modelled on "Effigy Of The Forgotten" period Suffocation with a super gutteral & completely unintelligible vocalist, only the production is super crisp & the performances are as perfect as you'll ever find. In fact, I'd be very surprised if the drums haven't been programmed as they're simply too precise to be human but if that's the case they've done a wonderful job of it as there's a lot of complexity & nuance about it. The vocals are definitely the weak point here & I think this could have been an amazing record if there had been some attempt at actual words. It's also true that all of the tracks meld into one as there's very little variation of display but this is offset by the fact that the run time is limited to a ridiculously short 25 minutes which makes it the perfect length for a short & undeniably fun blastfest. I'm absolutely certain that I'll be the only contributing member that enjoys this album as I simply can't go past well produced brutal death metal but you know what... sue me!
For fans of Devourment, Pathology & Katalepsy.
4/5
My listening habits have had to be adjusted to suit a post-COVID environment. I used to do the majority of my listening while driving to & from work each day but now that I'm working from home as often as not & my kids are at a more demanding age I find that my time for dedicated & active listening has become increasingly valuable. For that reason the last couple of years have seen me steering away from having much structure around what I'll listen to other than committing to exploring the nine monthly feature releases. There's an absolute crap load of releases that I'm very familiar with but have never rated so I do spend a portion of my music time trying to get through those (like I did today with Immortal's "Pure Holocaust" for example) but the rest of my listening time goes to whatever the hell I feel like at the time. Sometimes that will be indulging in my favourite subgenres & others it'll be experimenting outside of my comfort zone to expand my horizons. I don't have any quota for new releases & don't give them any more attention than I do to releases from any other year. In the days when I used to focus much more heavily on new releases I found that it tended to add additional time pressures to listening to metal because I'm a completist by nature. These days I just want to take the time to appreciate what's in front of me rather than always worrying about what's around the corner. My only rule is that I give everything I listen to at least three full & active listens to allow them to sink in properly.