Daniel's Forum Replies

Classic Norwegian black metal for fans of Inquisition, Abbath & Mayhem.

Immortal - "Pure Holocaust" (1993)

Norwegian black metal legends Immortal's sophomore record certainly took the underground by storm back at the time of release. I'd already come across their early material through the tape trading scene by this stage but it was this release that made me sit up & pay attention as it's atmosphere is as cold, icy & frost-bitten as any of the Second Wave black metal of the time. The tracklisting is very consistent although the band do spend the remainder of the album struggling to match the unrelenting power & majesty of the opening couple of tracks which are genuine black metal classics (particularly opener "Unsilent Storms In The North Abyss"). I'm very much onboard with the blazing ferocity of the faster sections & the croaky goblin-like vocals but Immortal also had plenty of melody in their sound when they chose to tone the tempo back a bit. Unfortunately it was during those sections that it became fairly evident that the duo's technical chops weren't quite up to the task & there are a number of sections where they lose their grip on the song structure. These moments are a little cringe-worthy if I'm being completely honest. In fact, you can easily see why they'd record their next album at a slower tempo & then speed the recording up artificially to give them a more unified sound. Regardless though, this is a fine example of black metal in the fine Norwegian tradition & I enjoy it significantly more than their highly acclaimed 1999 album "At The Heart of Winter". As with that album though, I'm not sure it's the classic that people make it out to be & I prefer the ultra-brutal follow-up "Battles In the North".

For fans of Inquisition, Abbath & Mayhem.

4/5

My family are spending Xmas/Boxing Day at my mother-in-law's place so I'm really hoping that I get the opportunity to watch most of Day One of the Boxing Day Ashes Test on TV today. So pumped for it! Go Aussies!

Gothic doom metal from Liverpool, England. For fans of Katatonia, Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride.

Anathema - "The Silent Enigma" (1995)

The 1995 sophomore album from Liverpool-based doom/death exponents Anathema was a hugely influential release for me personally. Ben & I had gotten aboard the Anathema train very early on with their debut album "Serenades" having become nothing short of iconic in our household but "The Silent Enigma" brought with it some significant changes. Front man Darren White had departed with guitarist Vincent Cavanagh having taken over the vocal duties which had given the band a decidedly more gothic edge in comparison to their more deathly roots. In fact, I'd suggest that Anathema were no longer a death/doom band by this stage & were more of a gothic/doom one. The other change was the incorporation of more atmospherics. Theses sections definitely require a bit of patience as they're often drawn out but the pay-off is significant with the whole album possessing an immeasurable beauty. You'll rarely find a more emotionally charged metal release & it set the groundwork for Anathema's transition away from metal altogether over the next few albums.

For fans of Katatonia, Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride.

4.5/5

P.S. I've moved this release up a couple of notches in my Top Ten Death Doom Metal Releases Of All Time to number four ahead of Katatonia's "Brave Murder Day" & My Dying Bride's "Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium" E.P. after this revisit.

Hahaha… it’s all good. Kriss doesn’t play on “The Magus”. It was their previous guitarist Sandy.

I know it very well Sonny. In fact, I used to hang out in the same circles as Sadistik Exekution back in the day & knew them all personally. Bassist & band leader Dave Slave was actually my ex-girlfriend’s best friend & came round to my house for lunch every now & then. He gave me my copy of “The Magus” for free. Guitarist Kriss Hades was her ex-boyfriend & there was no love lost between us.

Russian technical thrash metal for fans of Vektor, Coroner & Obliveon.

 Кровоизлияние - "Кровоизлияние" (1993)

I picked up the sole album from this Russian tech thrash outfit through tape trading shortly after release & recall thinking that it would only be a matter of time before Аспид blew up across the underground metal scene. It ended up taking a lot longer than I expected but they eventually got the recognition they deserved, even it it did come well after they'd disbanded. "Кровоизлияние" is a very complex record for a debut & showcases a band that already well & truly understood their sound. The production job is outstanding & is a real highlight in that It beautifully balances raw savagery with controlled power. The performances are well & truly good enough to back it up too with the rhythmic experimentation being particularly impressive for a newcomer from such an obscure location. I'm not the biggest fan of some of the Russion vocals & they're the clear weakness in Аспид's armoury in my opinion however there's plenty of instrumental fireworks to make up for it. The lengthy intro track in pretty cheesy & weak but there's a solid consistency to the rest of the material without ever pushing out into classic territory. It's very hard to fault a release of this sort of quality & ambition really. It's a feather in the cap of the mid-90's underground extreme metal scene.

For fans of Vektor, Coroner & Obliveon.

4/5

For me there's a few reasons. Firstly, both Ben & I seem to be drawn to niche things in general & are collectors & completists by nature. If it wasn't music it'd be something else but the extreme metal scene is fantastic because it's so underground & therefore represents something intriguing because I hate commercialism & the mainstream in general. I like to challenge myself by trying to understand more & more extreme examples of art & that's not isolated to metal. I'm just as obsessive about other styles of music like techno, drone & ambient but they all have one thing in common.... they take me outside of my everyday life to foreign & unfamiliar places & can be inherently dark & cerebral which I think this is the key because I'm very much an introspective loner who enjoys his own company & is fascinated by the darker side of life. I'm generally a very laidback & stress-free kinda guy. I'm non-confrontational & are a glass-half-full kinda guy. Therefore, extreme metal takes me the furthest from my comfort zone & challenges me the most. It also represents the ultimate avenue for the release of aggression & the more extreme it is the more successful it is at that task. Extreme metal gives me an adrenaline rush like no other & makes me feel a sense of power & belonging to something. Plus, it has the added bonus of shocking people when they first hear about my passion as you'd never pick it from looking at me (at least not these days).

My phone never really gets turned off from a work perspective and so although I am on leave already I have spent most of the morning working on an emergency at one of my customer sites and I know this is going to rumble on through the coming weekend.

I can totally relate to that Vinny. I rarely go a day without some form of work.

Life is a bit tough in my home right now. My wife was three months pregnant with my third daughter when we found out that the baby had died due to a chromosome issue last Wednesday. She had to have surgery to remove the foetus the following day & has been an emotional wreck ever since.

Aggressive Californian thrash metal for fans of Sadus, Slayer & Demolition Hammer.

Dark Angel - "Leave Scars" (1989)

The Californian thrash legends returned from their classic 1986 sophomore album "Darkness Descends" with a more ambitious sound as well as a brand new lineup. Unlike many fans, I actually prefer new front man Ron Rinehart over the rawer & less refined Don Doty. The more complex & lengthy song structures see the band taking more expansive musical journeys too however the production job is absolutely disgusting & manages to nullify a good portion of the band's handy work. This is a real shame as you can still hear the potential in a lot of this material despite the album suffering from a significant quality gap in the middle of the tracklisting with inclusions like "Older Than Time Itself", lengthy instrumental "Cauterization" & pointless ambient piece "Worms" sounding pretty flat for the most part. The short cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", while not being bad as such, does tend to stick out like a sore thumb too. This really was a missed opportunity for Dark Angel & I end up having similar feelings to Suffocation's "Breeding The Spawn" in that I'm willing to wade through the poor sound quality to pull out the gold nuggets (like classic thrash opener "The Death of Innocence") but can't help but think that there was so much more that was possible with this material.

For fans of Sadus, Slayer & Demolition Hammer.

3.5/5

Sorry guys but this is basically the anti-Daniel. How can I unhear this? I'll pay top dollar!

This one is cheesy as all fuck. Simply awful stuff!

Savatage - "Streets: A Rock Opera" (1991)

Another Savatage classic, another failure to keep me engaged. I really dig some of Savatage's first attempt at a heavy metal rock opera, particularly the more metal oriented tracks like "Streets" & "Ghost In The Ruins". The stunning guitar solos from Criss Oliva may be the finest of his career & there's a hefty dose of Van Halen worship going on throughout a good chunk of the song-writing too. Unfortunately though, Jon Oliva's overly theatrical & often out of key banshee wails will never sit well with me & neither will the wall of pure cheese that's thrust upon me every few tracks as the band indulge themselves in some of their more cringe-worthy story-telling balladry to the time. I just don't get the universal appeal these guys seem to offer the metal community. The tracks that are the most highly celebrated from this band are generally the ones that I have the most difficulty accepting. There's some good shit on this record but it's simply too hard to sit through the filler. This isn't a patch on 1993's "Edge Of Thorns" which is still the only Savatage record I've enjoyed. No surprise that Jon Oliva wasn't behind the mike for that one.

For fans of Jon Oliva's Pain, Virgin Steele & WASP's "The Crimson Idol" album.

3/5

The fantastic opener from Savatage's first attempt at a heavy metal rock opera. For fans of Jon Oliva's Pain, Virgin Steele & WASP's "The Crimson Idol" album.

Finnish war metal for fans of Blasphemy, Black Witchery & Proclamation.

Archgoat - "Whore Of Bethlehem" (2006)

I first encountered the debut album from this Finnish trio back in 2009 & was instantly drawn to its simple yet effective medium for pure blasphemic torment. The band members may not have the most amazing technical skills but they work very well within the confines of their limitations to create a well defined sound that reminds me a lot like Blasphemy meets Celtic Frost. The beast of a guitar sound is particularly effective while the fairly basic riff structures possess more of a groove than you'll find with most war metal acts. Lord Angelslayer's vocals sound truly monstrous & inhuman too which can never be a bad thing but I could have done with some psychotic guitar solos to break things up a bit. The intro track "Invocation" is worth mentioning as it sets the scene for the onslaught that's to come quite beautifully with an atmosphere of pure menace.

For fans of Blasphemy, Black Witchery & Proclamation.

4/5

Highly inventive progressive/technical death metal from the Czech Republic. For fans of Appalling Spawn, Nile & !T.O.O.H.!.

For this weekend's top ten list I've decided to go with grindcore. Please be aware that I've omitted releases that are generally regarded as deathgrind as I'll do a separate list for that particular subgenre. Here's my Top Ten Grindcore Releases Of All Time:

01. Discordance Axis – “The Inalienable Dreamless” (2000)

02. Pig Destroyer – “Prowler In The Yard” (2001)

03. Pig Destroyer – “Terrifyer” (2004)

04. Repulsion – “Horrified” (1989)

05. Unseen Terror – “The Peel Sessions” (1989)

06. Cretin – “Stranger” (2014)

07. Napalm Death – “The Peel Sessions” (1987)

08. Napalm Death – “From Enslavement To Obliteration” (1988)

09. Napalm Death – “Scum” (1987)

10. Fuck The Facts – “Die Miserable” (2011)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/149

What do you top tens look like?

Adjusted my list after Ben has added the Isis live releases yesterday:

01. Rosetta – “The Galilean Satellites” (2005)

02. Neurosis – “Souls At Zero” (1992)

03. Isis – “Panopticon” (2004)

04. Neurosis – “Times Of Grace” (1999)

05. Neurosis – “A Sun That Never Sets” (2001)

06. Cult Of Luna – “Somewhere Along The Highway” (2006)

07. Neurosis – “The Eye Of Every Storm” (2004)

08. Isis – “Oceanic” (2002)

09. Isis - "Live II 03.19.03" (2004)

10. Neurosis – “Through Silver In Blood” (1996)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/140

Welcome Scarecrow! It's always great to see well-informed new academics joining our ranks. We're a very accommodating bunch so don't be shy. Feel free to have as much or as little involvement with the site as you wish. Ben & I administer the site & would be more than happy to help you with any queries you may have.

Here are some of the cool site activities you have available to you if you choose to participate:

1. Clan Challenges - where you can work to secure a fourth clan.

2. Public Lists - where you can create your own release lists i.e. best-of, year-end, etc.

3. Monthly clan playlists - you'll find track submission threads in each clan forum where you can contribute tracks you've been digging throughout the previous month. Let me know if you'd like to contribute & I can adjust the time allocations for each member to accommodate you.

4. Feature releases - Clan members take turns in nominating the monthly feature release for each clan which we all listen to & discuss. This is probably my favourite part of the site to be honest. Let me know if you'd like to be added to the rosters to nominate the releases for your three clans.

Canadian brutal death metal for fans of Wormed, Dying Fetus & "Human Waste"-era Suffocation.

Cryptopsy - "Blasphemy Made Flesh" (1994)

Canadian brutal death metal outfit Cryptopsy popped up at the perfect time to grab my interest as I'd become totally infatuated with the more extreme end of death metal through Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse & the like a couple of years earlier & was totally obsessed with tape trading so when their 1993 "Ungentle Exhumation" demo tape made its way into my eager hands shortly after release I really wanted to like it. I think I managed to convince myself that I did too as I'd never heard blast beats that possessed the speed & fury of Flo Mounier's & the sheer insanity of Lord Worm's vocals were nothing short of hilarious. I guess you could say that it held far more novelty value than it did substance & the same can be said for their 1994 debut album "Blasphemy Made Flesh" which contains mostly the same material.

"Blasphemy Made Flesh" has gone on to become somewhat of an underground classic over the years but I feel that this is largely off the back of the band's sophomore album "None So Vile" as it really isn't terribly special when you examine it closely with a number of obvious flaws being hard to overlook. Despite what people might tell you, I'd suggest that it's sound possesses just as much old-school death metal as it does blasting brutal death metal. It's just the ultra-fast blast beats & stupidly gutteral vocal delivery that see it so unanimously slated as the most brutal of the brutal. There's definitely a strong deathgrind influence to some of it too actually. The production is often criticized & rightly so but it's not the fuzzy rhythm guitar sound that annoys me as that was pretty common at the time. The things that I struggle with are the poppy bass guitar sound which is too high is the mix & stands out too obviously over the top of the guitars & the heavily reverbed & quite pingy snare sound that's really hard not to obsess over given the amount of times that Mounier is capable of hitting it per second. Plus, Lord Worm makes no attempt whatsoever to enunciate words, instead choosing to act like a drunken fan who has grabbed the mike but has no understanding of the lyrics. Are there some good riffs here? Sure there are (particularly during the half-time sections where Mounier goes double-time on his ride cymbal) but the reality is that this style of death metal can be done so much better than this. The melodic guitar solos seem almost a touch TOO melodic in the context of Cryptopsy's sound & Flo needed to lay off those bouncy 1-2 beats he had a habit of turning to once or twice every track too. Admittedly Flo doesn't over-extend the human ability for speed as often as he does on "None So Vile" where you can obviously hear his endurance failing at the end of the faster blast beats sections which was something that really annoyed me about that record at times.

Ultimately I just think that once the novelty factor wears off there's not a lot of meat on these bones & I don't actually find myself getting all that much enjoyment out of the experience these days even though I can definitely see why an 18 year-old me would have got into it. "None So Vile" was a much stronger & more mature record but I can't say that I can understand the unbridled obsession that fans seem to have with it either. Never mind... I'll always have my beloved Suffocation.

For fans of Wormed, Dying Fetus & "Human Waste"-era Suffocation.

3/5

P.S. Please be advised that (despite the common tendency to incorrectly label Cryptopsy's first two albums as technical death metal) there's nothing technical about this record whatsoever.

Powerviolence would definitely go into The Horde Andi. It's got very close ties to grindcore.

Trance would definitely go in The Guardians too. It's essentially the symphonic power metal of electronic dance music.

Electronic would go under The Gateway as it's usually a hybrid when used as a term in its own right.

Here's some of my own thoughts:

Trip Hop would go under The Gateway.

Techno would go into The Sphere.

Hard Techno (i.e. Schranz) & Hard Trance would go under the Horde.

Ambient would go under The Infinite.

Dark Ambient would go under The North.

Progressive House, Progressive Trance & Psytrance would go under The Infinite.

Psychedelic Rock would be a dual clan entry under The Fallen & The Infinite.

Heavy Psych would go under The Fallen.

Electro would go under The Gateway.

It was a very successful month of feature releases for me personally with a couple of newly discovered underground classics & only the one blemish due to my irreconcilable differences with a Christmas-themed symphonic power metal record. Here are my scores in order of preference. Interestingly, neither of the two major wins for me come from my chosen clans which is a clear indication of just how exciting & powerful our clan feature releases can be if you're willing to tread outside of your comfort zone.

THE SPHERE: Kill The Thrill - "Tellurique" (2005)  4.5/5

THE INFINITE: Kayo Dot - "Moss Grew On The Swords & Plowshares Alike" (2021)  4.5/5

THE FALLEN: Rapture - "Futile" (1999)  4/5

THE NORTH: Wodensthrone - "Loss" (2009)  4/5

THE HORDE: Cretin - "Stranger" (2014)  4/5

THE PIT: Condor - "Unstoppable Power" (2017)  3.5/5

THE GATEWAY: Bad Wolves - "Dear Monsters" (2021)  3.5/5

THE REVOLUTION: Cold As Life - "Born To Land Hard" (1998)  3.5/5

THE GUARDIANS: Majestica - "A Christmas Carol" (2020)  2/5

Californian grindcore for fans of Repulsion, Brutal Truth & Machetazo.

Grindcore is the type of genre where you don't need to be original or have a lot of variety to impress the diehard fans. It's all about energy & extremity & Cretin possess both in spades. You've almost certainly heard all of this before as it really does pay tribute to the gods of grind from start to finish while keeping its tongue stuck firmly in its cheek but you know what? I don't give a fuck because that's not why I listen to grindcore. It's just downright fun to listen to! Grindcore releases rarely see me being tempted by my higher scores but when it's done right it can brighten my day by giving me the strength & motivation to charge through my challenges & that's just what Cretin have managed to do with "Stranger" which doesn't offer a dud amongst the fourteen tracks included.

For fans of Repulsion, Brutal Truth & Machetazo.

4/5

Raw Norwegian thrash metal for fans of Deathhammer, Nekromantheon & Inculter.

Thanks for suggesting this one Vinny. I quite enjoyed Condor's no-holds-barred take on the classic Teutonic thrash model. As soon as I saw the artwork I suspected that my old mate Rok from Sadistik Exekution had been involved & a quick Google search confirmed my suspicion. It's a perfect depiction of what you can expect to hear too. "Unstoppable Power" gets off to a rollicking start with two of the highlight tracks opening proceedings but the excitement does drop off a touch from there on with only the excellent "Malevolent Curse" seeing Condor returning to the same exhilarating level as ""Embraced By The Evil" & "Riders Of Violence". I'm not sure where people are pulling the "blackened" thing from because there's absolutely no black metal on display here but there's a crap-tonne of speed metal influence going on & the melodic work that's present in so many of Condor's riffs is drawn straight from early Destruction who also possessed a strong speed metal component. I'm more of a fan of the more pure thrash metal outings than the ones with a stronger speed metal component which is in line with what I'd expect given my taste profile. The vocals are nice & raw while the guitar solos sound a bit flat for the most part due to some clear technical & theoretical limitations. Overall I'd suggest that Condor offer a low commitment 36 minutes of nasty thrash with a raw aesthetic that resides predominantly in the underground which should be no surprise to those who are aware of the links to Darkthrone mastermind Fenriz.

For fans of Deathhammer, Nekromantheon & Inculter.

3.5/5

I'm feeling a little bit out of the loop here however I'm sure that it'll surprise approximately no one at all when I inform you that I really fucking struggled with this one guys. It's so at odds with what metal music is to me that I found the three full listens I gave this one to be a major chore. The most alienating moments in European power metal for me are when I find myself describing what I'm hearing as sounding like Christmas carols so an open attempt at that concept was never gonna go down well with this extreme metal fanatic. The sheer ambition & high quality execution on display is undeniable but there really wasn't ever gonna be any other outcome than a fail from me personally.

For fans of ReinXeed, Twilight Force & Rhapsody Of Fire.

2/5

Omar S - "Fabric 45: Detroit" (2009)

A lovely Detroit techno mix from a talented producer who has continued to maintain the essence of what made Detroit so special in the 80's & 90's into the post-2000 era. As with many of the Detroit bunch, the mixing & programming isn't amazing & plays second fiddle to depth, substance & soul. I dig it!

I've always rated "Doomsday For The Deceiver" very highly. It was such an ambitious undertaking for a debut album. Of course it doesn't compete on the same level as the albums Sonny mentioned but then that's hardly a major criticism given their enduring status as the elite releases of the whole metal genre. "Hammerhead" was a very solid opener but my favourite track is "Desecrator", closely followed by the two epics in the title track & "Metalshock".

Beatdown metalcore from Detroit, USA. For fans of Knocked Loose, Hatebreed & Sunami.

Yeah, I don't mind this album. I've developed a taste for beatdown metalcore over the last couple of years & this example is suitably violent & in-your-face. The vocals are absolutely vicious & help to cater for some of the more generic instrumentation. The tracklisting is a bit top-heavy with highlight tracks like the short & brutal "Little From the World" & my personal favourite "All Alone" being wheeled out very early in the game with the quality petering out a touch at the end with two of the last three tracks being pretty flat. The kick drum is way up there in the mix. In fact, there are times when the double kick sounds almost like blast beats which just about sums up what you can expect from "Born To Land Hard". You won't find much in the way of subtlety here but that's not what a band like Cold As Life are trying to achieve now, is it? They're more about creating an aggressive whirlwind of energy that ticks all of the boxes you need when you're just fucking fed up with the world & want an outlet to help you vent.

For fans of Knocked Loose, Hatebreed & Sunami.

3.5/5

For this weekend's top ten list I've decided to go with my Top Ten Technical Death Metal Releases of All Time. It's worth noting that I've elected to omit the more obviously brutal death metal bands who implement technicality (e.g. Suffocation, Hour Of Penance) & have chosen a few that are pretty borderline or are closer to progressive death metal (see "Human", "Testimony Of The Ancients") based solely on the general consensus. See what you think & feel free to post your own list.

01. Death - "Human" (1991)

02. Death – “Individual Thought Patterns” (1993)

03. Gorguts – “Colored Sands” (2013)

04. Ulcerate – “Everything Is Fire” (2009)

05. Death – “Symbolic” (1995)

06. Nile – “Annihilation Of The Wicked” (2005)

07. Atheist – “Unquestionable Presence” (1991)

08. Gorguts – “The Erosion Of Sanity” (1993)

09. Pestilence – “Testimony Of The Ancients” (1991)

10. Ulcerate – “The Destroyers Of All” (2011)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/148

Gothic doom/death from Finland. For fans of Katatonia, Paradise Lost & Slumber.

It's been a while since I've revisited this album. From memory Ben first brought it to my attention shortly after my return to metal & I recall thoroughly enjoying the experience. It's no surprise that Ben's all over Rapture given that three of their five members also reside in his favourite band Shape Of Despair. There are also links to Impaled Nazarene & Finntroll too so Rapture are a bit of a supergroup of Finnish extreme metal really. To my ears "Futile" is very much a combination of the melodic doom/death of Katatonia's "Brave Murder Day" & the gothic metal of Paradise Lost's "Draconian Times" with all of the up-tempo tracks being pretty blatant in their worship of the latter. It's interesting that the most enjoyable parts of the album for me are in direct contrast to Sonny's with the pure gothic metal tracks like "This Is Where I Am", "The Fall" & "(About) Leaving" offering me significantly less appeal than the more atmospheric & doomy material. The intro piece is stunning & left me salivating for more but I don't think "Futile" meets it's true potential until the wonderfully repetitive & hypnotic "Someone I (Don't) Know" (my album highlight), the back half of which I find to be truly exhilarating. There are no weak tracks included here as it's a very professionally put together piece of work but I actually feel that the more up-tempo material is a little more accessible than the rest of the material & wish they'd opted for less rocky Sisters Of Mercy style beats. I can see why Ben finds it to be so attractive given his taste profile though. Overall I find "Futile" to be a very enjoyable & high quality piece of gothic doom/death & a worthy feature release.

For fans of Katatonia, Paradise Lost & Slumber.

4/5

Alternative metal from Los Angeles, USA. A guilty pleasure for me at the moment thanks to the wonderful chorus hook. For fans of Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch & Ill Niño's "Till Death, La Familia" album.

You know what, I actually quite enjoyed this record. Yeah, the first listen was certainly very confronting indeed as there should be no question whatsoever that you're listening to a pop metal release here but once you come to accept that & allow yourself to knuckle down & enjoy the hooks then you'll find that it's really not half bad. (In fact, if I'm being completely honest I was nothing short of repulsed on first listen but found my affections growing in leaps & bounds with each subsequent listen. I find that this is not an uncommon occurrence when stepping well outside of my musical comfort zone & it's one of the reasons that I'll never be convinced that you can properly sum up your feelings on a release in less than three listens.) I think "Dear Monsters" is weighed down a touch by the fact that it doesn't start off really strongly though. The first couple of tracks are acceptable with opener "Sacred Kiss" being a bit borderline but being saved by some back end intensity & a solid chorus but "Lifeline" is pretty flat & "Wildfire" falls well short of the mark. From that point on though things begin to look up significantly & we even have a couple of tracks that I genuinely love in "Gone" & "Springfield Summer" (my personal fave) which both have amazing chorus hooks that leave me forgetting about the cheesier lead-ups. The melodic metalcore influence in the breakdowns is incorporated much more fluently than your average generic screamy hardcore kids are capable of & the production & musicianship are excellent. I definitely agree with Saxy's statement about the tracklisting being pretty samey though with similar structures & feels to most tracks. As with last month's Trivium feature release, the vocals definitely have more Nickelback about them than I'm comfortable with but Daniel Laskiewicz is a very capable singer in his own right & the hooks are always strong which enables him to overcome that comparison. I guess you could say that this is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me but (as you all know by now) I've never been shy about calling it as I see it.

For fans of Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch & Ill Niño's "Till Death, La Familia" album.

3.5/5

P.S. I'm looking forward to seeing what Sonny thinks of this one as I'm sure it'll draw a passionate response. :)

To be clear Andi, I just said that I don't hear anything gothic about this release. I don't see any links to gothic metal whatsoever.

This is such a fucking great inclusion for a feature release Xephyr. I can't tell you how impressed I am with this record. I was only previously familiar with Toby Driver's three most highly praised classics in Maudlin Of The Well's "Bath" & "Leaving Your Body Map" & Kayo Dot's debut album "Choirs Of The Eye" so I had no idea of what creative path he'd be taking eighteen years later. I actually never agreed with those records being labelled as "avant-garde" but 2021's "Moss Grew on the Swords & Plowshares Alike" is another story altogether. It's a weird & wonderful journey through sounds that appear to be completely foreign, sometimes welcoming the listener in & at others leaving them recoiling. It's incredibly ambitious but the vast majority of its run time seems to be so focused & fully realized making it a landmark record of truly avant-garde metal music.

There's a significant 70's progressive rock component on display here that I really dig. The complexity of the instrumentation is quite brilliant with the sheer psychedelia of some of the climaxes really hitting a sweet spot for me. I don't love the harsh vocals. They're definitely the weakest element in Kayo Dot's sonic arsenal however the clean vocals are the spitting image of Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour & hit a lot closer to home for this old Floyd tragic. That's not the only reference to the masters of timeless prog rock either with some of the atmospheres presented here having a similar feel & the unusual open-string guitar parts making reference to similarly Floyd-inspired Canadian progressive metal outfit Voivod. The way the rhythm section is incorporated within the more complex sections is nothing short of invigorating while the melodic lead guitar work provides a wonderful juxtaposition to the chaos ensuing beneath with the more intense Morbid Angel influenced metal sections providing a similar counterpoint for the smoother progressive meanderings of tracks like "Void in Virgo (The Nature of Sacrifice)".

This all amounts to a genuinely captivating & unique musical experience that's reinvigorated my appetite for the more avant-garde strains of metal music. How an album can sound so bizarre yet so intensely ethereal at the same time is a huge feather in Toby's cap. The closing drone passage of epic closer "Epipsychidion" & the slowly building psychedelia & crescendo of album highlight "Get Out of the Tower" are a marvel to behold. Don't get me wrong, "Moss Grew on the Swords & Plowshares Alike" is not a perfect record but it's certainly an intriguing & rewarding one that should be on the radar of all members of The Infinite. I think I still favour the Kayo Dot's classic 2003 debut album "Choirs of the Eye" over this one but there's not a lot in it & I think that in time this release will be spoken in the same terms.

For fans of Maudlin Of The Well, Voivod & Ehnahre.

4.5/5

P.S. Am I the only one that hears absolutely bugger-all gothic metal here? The open-string riffs sound like something that might have come from an early 80's goth rock artist like Bauhaus but doesn't the music have to actually sound gothic for a gothic metal tag to be relevant? Why is the RYM community so adamant about having this record tagged as such? I'd suggest that there's actually more of a post-punk influence personally. I can definitely hear where the post-metal references are coming from but it's only a small piece of the overall puzzle so I feel that an Avant-Garde Metal primary & a Progressive Rock secondary is the most appropriate tagging. 

Avant-garde metal from Boston, USA. For fans of Maudlin of the Well, Voivod & Ehnahre.

Richie Hawtin - "DE9 | Closer to the Edit" (2001)

This classic DJ mix single-handedly took the minimal techno sound from underground German clubs & presented it to a wider global audience.

English atmospheric black metal for fans of Winterfylleth, Saor & mid-90's Drudkh.

I first encountered six-piece English black metal outfit Wodensthrone's debut album "Loss" shortly after returning to metal back in 2009 & remember finding it to be generally pretty enjoyable on first listen but struggling a little with a few elements. The strong use of keyboards & the implementation of some pretty positive sounding melodies were a little bit at odds with my usual taste in black metal while the drumming isn't very good & those that know me would be well aware of how important good drumming is to my listening experience. Repeat listens would see me warming  to the album's qualities significantly though & by the end of my third or fourth listen the grandiose atmospheres were drawing me in nicely. This revisit has thankfully seen me picking up where I left off twelve years ago with nothing much having changed in regard to my overall feelings on the album's merits.

The Pagan black metal tag is perhaps a bit ambitious for this release. Yes, the atmosphere certainly hints at an organic, natural feel but there's not really enough of a folk component to warrant a primary tag in my opinion. The atmospheric black metal tag is sufficient for the purpose as far as I can see with the symphonic element pushing for a minor mention a lot of the time too. "Loss" isn't the most imposing or dark of black metal releases which is part of the reason for my initial hesitations. Light & melody play a major part in Wodensthrone's appeal however that shouldn't necessarily be viewed as such a bad thing. There are a few moments that hint at the sort of positivity usually reserved for blackgaze though & several of the tracks also seem to make a conscious attempt to emulate the epic atmosphere of Viking metal, particularly the strong closer "That Which Is Now Forgotten - 597".

"Loss" is a very consistent release & I wouldn't say that there are any weak tracks included however there also aren't any obvious classics amongst the eight tracks either with most suffering from a minor flaw or two along the way. Overall, I'd suggest that it's a pretty good place to start with Wodensthrone though as I'd be surprised if it disappointed too many fans of the more atmospheric & organic side of black metal. It's been a while since I listened to it but I think I still slightly favour Wodensthrone's 2012 sophomore album "Curse" over this one. There's not a lot in it though as both are high quality black metal records.

For fans of Winterfylleth, Saor & mid-90's Drudkh.

4/5

For this weekend's top ten list I thought I'd have a crack at my Top Ten Melodic Death Metal Releases of All Time. See what you think:

01. At The Gates – “Slaughter Of The Soul” (1995)

02. Carcass – “Heartwork” (1993)

03. Dark Tranquillity – “The Gallery” (1995)

04. Amorphis – “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” (1994)

05. Merciless – “Unbound” (1994)

06. Sentenced – “North From Here” (1993)

07. In Mourning – “The Weight Of Oceans” (2012)

08. The Breathing Process - “Odyssey (un)Dead” (2010)

09. Edge Of Sanity – “Crimson” (1996)

10. Be’lakor – “Of Breath & Bone” (2012)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/147

Wonderful French industrial rock/metal with a strong post-metal influence. For fans of Godflesh, Killing Joke & Jesu.