Daniel's Forum Replies

Today's track is Cool Feet's "Over The Highway" which I regard as being hard rock. There's no link on YouTube but you can find it on Spotify.

Massacra - "Enjoy The Violence" (1991)

My initial experience with French death metal outfit Massacra came through their 1990 debut album "Final Holocaust" back in the day, a release that I really enjoyed & that encouraged me to keep abreast of the band's subsequent releases. I'd eventually give up on Massacra after their suitably titled 1994 fourth album "Sick" but there's certainly some quality to be found in Massacra's first three full-lengths, particularly the debut & their 1991 sophomore album "Enjoy The Violence" which is regarded as their finest work.

Massacra seem to have built a reputation as being a death/thrash hybrid in some parts of the internet but "Enjoy The Violence" doesn't offer much in the way of thrash. Instead, you can expect on authentic 1990's brand of death metal that earns its keep more from its atmosphere than it does technical proficiency. The performances are a touch loose at times (particularly that of drummer Chris Palengat whose chops weren't exactly brilliant at the time) but they do enough to provide the listener with the image of a dark & grisly world that doesn't lose face when compared with the Florida troop of the time. 

The tracklisting is rock solid with no weak tracks included but the quality levels do start to fade a touch as you make your way towards the end of the album with the last three songs being the least impressive pieces overall. It almost sounds like Massacra were struggling to fill out the record & rushed a few tracks together in order to see things to a swift outcome but it's not a major problem as I really like the band's sound so those inclusions are still acceptable in the grand scheme of things. They do however see "Enjoy The Violence" only just managing to achieve my fourth full star which would have seemed like a foregone conclusion during the first half of the record.

Still... I can't see "Enjoy The Violence" not leaving the majority of the death metal community more than satisfied, particularly those that are always on the hunt for that highly celebrated early 90's sound. Dutch death metallers Thanatos, "Seven Churches"-era Possessed & fellow Frenchmen Agressor are some pretty decent points of comparison & if that sounds like your bag then "Enjoy The Violence" should be essential listening.

4/5

This morning's song is the title track from Luxembourg outfit Cool Feet's 1976 debut album "Burning Desire" which I regard as being heavy metal:

Also, I checked out the 1975 self-titled demo tape from obscure Brazilian outfit Rock da Mortalha after seeing some chat about it being an early example of heavy metal. It's not. It's more of a combination of hard rock & heavy psych although there is some traditional doom metal influence to be found at times.

The final track from Black Sabbath's "Sabotage" album is "The Writ" which I'd suggest sits best under a dual hard rock & progressive rock tag:

That leaves "Sabotage" sitting predominantly in the heavy metal space for mine which gives Black Sabbath the first six genuine metal releases ever, the first four being what we now know as stoner metal, the last two being your more classic heavy metal sound. Tomorrow we'll be kicking off a new release from a band we've yet to hear from in this exercise in 1976's "Burning Desire" debut album from Luxembourg outfit Cool feet which should be interesting.

Here's my review:

My introduction to German extreme metal outfit Protector came via their 1989 sophomore album "Urm the Mad" which I quite liked at the time & that experience led me to follow the band throughout their entire career. I've been pleased to see that they've been able to maintain a fairly consistent standard throughout with just the one blemish along the way too. Protector's 1987 debut "Misanthropy" E.P. has been a particular talking point for me over the years actually as, despite being claimed by many to be a thrash metal release, I regard it as not only being one of the earlier examples of genuine death metal you'll find but also one that eclipses some of the more prominent releases of the time as well. The Protector record that's most highly regarded though is unquestionably their 1991 third album "A Shedding of Skin" & with good reason too because it's an absolute beast of a death/thrash album.

Those of you that are new to Protector will not be left waiting long to find out what they're all about. The inclusion of a short one-minute intro track at the beginning of the record was a strange one as its pleasant new-age atmosphere has no place on an extreme metal release like this one but as soon as the proper songs kick in the listener is subjected to a savage beating like they've rarely experienced before. This album presents Protector's sound as the perfect amalgamation of death metal & Teutonic thrash metal with the death metal component taking the ascendency for the most part. The raw production is perfectly suited to this style of music with the guitars possessing a face-ripping quality that accentuates the aggression in the performances beautifully. The growled vocals of main man Olly Wiebel are deathly & evil which only provides further weight to the fully committed metal assault Protector unleash here with the Hannemann/King style guitar solos generally being saved for the most intense sections of the songs too. The influence of Teutonic thrash bands like Kreator & Sodom is important as the speeds that Protector reach during the thrashier sections is one of the record's main calling cards too.

There are clearly enough highlights included to justify my elite ratings but unfortunately I can't quite get there. The issue is more around quality control as, despite not including any real duds apart from the previously mentioned intro track, "A Shedding of Skin" is definitely a few tracks too long which sees it including a couple more filler tracks than I'd like. I feel that the duo could easily have dropped off two or three of the more thrashy numbers & still comfortably achieved an appropriate run time for a release like this one but, as it is, this is still a very fine death/thrash release that almost got there anyway. Fans of bands like Merciless, Possessed & Poison (the German one) will absolutely froth over this stuff so I hope a few of you will be converted to what is a largely overlooked but thoroughly deserving band.

4/5

This morning's track is Black Sabbath's "Am I Going Insane (Radio)" which I'm going to go out on a limb by claiming to be a disco track:

The difference is that, despite it residing on a metal album, “Spiral Architect” wasn’t really a metal track as such.  It was an example of symphonic prog in my opinion. The riff that “Supertzar” is built around is clearly metal though for mine.

Ozzy Osbourne - "Just Say Ozzy" E.P. (1990)

While listening to this month's The Guardians feature release "No More Tears" I was reminded that I spontaneously picked up this largely overlooked live E.P. from the local record store some time shortly after it was released. I think it might have been the first of Ozzy's solo work that I laid down my hard-earned cash for actually & it was driven by my enthusiasm for Black Label Society & Pride & Glory guitar virtuoso Zakk Wylde's work on Ozzy's previous studio album "No Rest For The Wicked" which I believe might have been my introduction to Ozzy's solo material in general. And if I was looking for a showcase for Zakk's chops then I probably couldn't have asked for more than I got with this half hour of high-quality heavy metal to tell you the truth.

The E.P. features four of Ozzy's solo tracks (three taken from "No Rest For The Wicked" & one from his previous album "The Ultimate Sin") as well as two classic Black Sabbath tunes ("Sweet Leaf" & "War Pigs") & all of them are worth hearing. Ozzy's vocals aren't at their best & he sounds a little bit like he's running on auto-pilot at times (particularly during "Bloodbath In Paradise" where he's noticeably pitchy) but his voice certainly suits the Sabbath material far better than it does his solo material which is a long-term bug-bear of mine. Wylde's guitar playing is the real drawcard here though & it doesn't disappoint for a single second of this record. In fact, I'd suggest that he's a tighter musician than Randy Rhoads was in all honesty. He just sounds like he's in complete control of his instrument at all times as he nails every single nuance of the material which makes his performance worth whatever it was that I paid for this otherwise fairly inessential release. Opener "Miracle Man" is comfortably the best of the solo work but it's unsurprisingly the Sabbath material that stands out as the best inclusions here with "War Pigs" being the clear highlight. If you can't get enough Ozzy-era Black Sabbath or 80's Dio in your life then I'd recommend that you check this E.P. out & Black Label Society fans will probably wanna get in on the action too just for the Wylde-card.

4/5

I've been working up to it for a while now but I'm finally in a position to post my first Top Ten Epic Doom Metal Releases of All Time list. It's clearly dominated by one band in particular which is an indication of my level of experience with the subgenre more than anything else but it's a place to start & I'm sure we'll see it start to become more diverse over time. See what you think & feel free to post your own top tens too.

01. Solitude Aeturnus - "Alone" (2006)

02. Candlemass - "Nightfall" (1987)

03. Solitude Aeturnus - "Into The Depths Of Sorrow" (1991)

04. Candlemass - "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus" (1986)

05. Isole - "Bliss of Solitude" (2008)

06. Solstice - "New Dark Age" (1998)

07. Candlemass - "Candlemass Live" (1990)

08. Candlemass - "Ancient Dreams" (1988)

09. Candlemass - "Tales Of Creation" (1989)

10. Lord Vigo - "Danse de noir" (2020)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/186

Here's my review:

Dallas-based epic doom metal masters Solitude Aeturnus really surprised me with their 2006 "Alone" sixth full-length when Ben selected it for The Fallen feature release status some time ago. I'd previously allowed the band to pass me by but that record ticked all of my boxes & saw me claiming it as a genuine doom metal classic for the ages. Since that time I've always intended on exploring the rest of Solitude Aeturnus' more highly celebrated releases & thought I'd take this opportunity to kick that exercise off with their debut full-length "Into The Depths Of Sorrow" which is generally regarded as one of the elite examples of the niche subgenre overall.

In many ways "Into The Depths Of Sorrow" is the quintessential epic doom metal release in that it perfectly embodies the sound that the tag was originally created to label. All of the subgenres calling cards are here. Crushing doom riffs? CHECK! A strong classic heavy metal influence? CHECK! Theatrical power metal style vocals? CHECK! Soaring, shredtastic guitar solos? CHECK! A generally epic atmosphere? CHECK! I can't deny that the album is everything it said it would be on the tin & if that description sounds like something that'd appeal to you then you won't be disappointed but it did take me a couple of listens to get fully into for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'm a much bigger doom fan than I am a heavy metal one & the heavy metal component is particularly prevalent here with those riffs being pretty standard heavy metal fodder & nothing particularly exciting so I find myself waiting around for the doom to return which it inevitably does & with devastating effect too. There's obviously a lot of Candlemass influence on show as this was Solitude Aeturnus' first full-length & Candlemass were, of course, the creators & clear leaders of the epic doom movement so there are clear similarities in the way the two bands go about their craft but the area that Solitude Aeturnus fall down in as far as that comparison goes is in the guitar solos as Edgar Rivera & John Perez aren't quite as virtuosic in their capabilities. Thankfully, the general quality of the song-writing is very strong & the vocals of future Candlemass, Concept of God & Tyrant front man Robert Lowe are exceptional which has gone a long way to seeing me crowning Solitude Aeturnus as my favourite band from the epic doom movement overall regardless.

The tracklisting kicks off in very solid fashion indeed with the short intro track "Dawn of Antiquity (A Return to Despair)" building the atmosphere nicely before the first proper song "Opaque Divinity" kicks in & wastes no time in flexing its muscles. It's followed by "Transcending Sentinels" which is clearly the least impressive track on the album in my opinion but is still pretty decent. The remaining five songs are all very strong indeed though & round out a particularly consistent album with no real blemishes. The reason I don't see "Into The Depths Of Sorrow" competing with "Alone" for bragging rights as my favourite epic doom metal release any time soon is that it doesn't contain as many genuine classics. The utterly mind-blowing "Mirror of Sorrow" is the clear highlight of the album & is frankly one of the best examples of the subgenre I've experienced to date but none of the other material comes close to matching it with the brilliant doom passages regularly having their impact offset a bit by some flatter heavy metal chug riffs. It's a shame really as I think there was a lot of potential for another classic release here if a bit of quality control had been employed.

At the end of the day though, I can't be too critical as "Into The Depths Of Sorrow" is still an impressively consistent first-up effort from one of the leaders of the movement. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that it's eclipsed all but "Alone" & Candlemass' classic "Nightfall" album in reaching my personal top three for the subgenre overall which is quite an accolade when you consider the areas of improvement I highlighted above. The experience has certainly left me wondering whether Solitude Aeturnus have managed to top their debut over the course of their next four records so I've penciled a couple of them in for exploration in the not too distant future. In the meantime though, "Into The Depths Of Sorrow" should be essential listening for all of you Candlemass, Solstice & Isole fans out there.

4/5

Today's track is Black Sabbath's "Supertzar" which is a really interesting one because I think it might represent both the first genuine progressive metal track & the first truly symphonic metal track at the same time.

Here's my review:

Missouri-based thrash metallers Anacrusis & I have had a fairly long affiliation that kicked off in the early 1990's through their 1990 sophomore album "Reason" & would expand to cover their entire discography over the next couple of years. I have to admit that I always quite liked them too but my brother Ben would go on to be a much bigger fan of them than I was. During more recent times I've revisited their supposedly classic 1993 "Screams & Whispers" fourth album which is generally considered to be Anacrusis' finest work & found that it has lost a fair chunk of its luster over the years. I certainly got some enjoyment out of it but can't see the justification for it being claimed as any sort of classic. It did however lead to me wondering whether 1991's "Manic Impressions" might suffer a similar fate which saw me nominating it for The Infinite feature release status this month.

My first revisit to "Manic Impressions" was a pretty challenging one to tell you the truth. The album's flaws immediately presented themselves as an obstacle to block my path to any sort of enjoyment & it took a full four listens before I felt that I'd managed to develop a firm & justifiable position. The first & admittedly pretty major flaw is the production job which presents this material in a format that I wouldn't have accepted for a live release or even a demo if it was me. Music of this complexity requires a crisp, clear production that allows the listener to take in all of the finer nuances but here we find a rough & ready sounding record with the ultra-dry & noticeably raw guitars being too far back in the mix & the tinny drums booming out over the top. The vocals also seem to hide behind the instrumentation most of the time & I can understand why they might have voluntarily gone with that approach given that guitarist Kenn Nardi's vocal skills are very patchy indeed. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that he can't sing to save his life so I was understandably doing it really tough early on.

Thankfully there are some great musical ideas hidden beneath the mess described above though. Unlike "Screams & Whispers" which is entirely focused on the progressive side of the equation, "Manic Impressions" is a much more pure representation of its progressive thrash metal tag which is an immediate plus in my book. In fact, I can see strong similarities to artists like Atheist, Voivod & Watchtower which can't be a bad thing now, can it? There are a number of tracks that eschew the thrash elements altogether though for an undiluted progressive metal sound or one that's heaped with US power metal ambiguity but at least half of the tracklisting sits very comfortably in thrash or tech thrash territory. It's kinda sad that many of the more technical & complex sections are left sounding really messy due to production issues that see the instrumentation lacking any sort of cohesion. Tracks like "I Love The World" & "What You Became" are the most obvious examples & are subsequently the biggest failures but "Something Real" & "Dream Again" aren't much better to be honest. Luckily, the back end of the album sees things taking somewhat of an upward turn but it's too little too late as far as I'm concerned with the impact of the stronger material still being curtailed by the production issues.

This latest experience with Anacrusis has not only left me disappointed with the widely praised "Manic Impressions" but has also led to me questioning my long-time position on Anacrusis as a whole given that neither of their two most popular records have managed to secure a respectable four star rating out of me. I'm not sure if my taste has just changed & become more refined over time or if I was simply naive to begin with but there's no way that I can justify these records being held up on the pedestal they so often seem to be. "Screams & Whispers" is clearly the better of the two though & I wouldn't hesitate in recommending that you give "Manic Impressions" a miss in favour of that release if you're new to the band.

3/5

I'd suggest that Bal-Sagoth would probably fall into this camp, wouldn't they?

I had thought (may be incorrectly) that the point of MA was to breed a little common sense on these frankly irritating, constant waves of new tags and subgenres that are clearly out of control over there.  Bizarre then that RYM seems to get so much press here really.

You're correct Vinny. That is one of the aims of this site & it does frustrate me that people still talk about RYM so much & like it's a source of factual information when it comes to metal which couldn't be further from the truth. If the "Roots of Metal" project has taught me anything it's to confirm that the majority of the RYM audience doesn't know what metal is to begin with. Don't get me wrong. I still use RYM regularly myself (mainly just to record my individual track ratings & genre tags) but their metal charts & genre-tagging seem to have less & less relevance with each passing year.

I admit I posted this genre here under the impression that there may be merit here.

Of course, considering his response, I should've chosen noisegrind instead.  As a fan of grind and noise rock, I wanna check this out pretty badly.

I'd suggest that we'll only be looking to incorporate new genres or subgenres when we find significant pockets of releases that don't fit in with the existing ones. Dissonant death metal is a prime example of where we've done that because it simply made sense to differentiate those releases from technical death metal given that they're not necessarily technical & are a polarizing sound. If noisegrind releases are essentially noisier variations on grindcore then I'm not sure there's any point in adding a new subgenre for it. I'm actually still looking at removing a few of the fairly pointless subgenres we adopted at the beginning of the Academy journey actually.

This weekend we're kicking off with Black Sabbath's "The Thrill of It All" which I'd suggest is hard rock:

Rex, it's clear that you think that symphonic power metal is easily differentiated from traditional power metal & I have no reason to doubt that from my experience but I still haven't read anything that tells me why we NEED to differentiate them in the database. What will it accomplish at the end of the day? Your classic Swedish death metal sound is very easy to differentiate from Florida death metal most of the time but they're both ultimately still death metal & draw the same audience. Does symphonic power metal really draw a different audience to traditional power metal? I wouldn't have thought so personally but I'm open to everyone's thoughts on this.

And of course, I don't need this immediately as I'm still waiting for those custom challenge lists I made for the Revolution and Sphere to be looked into, which I feel is more important if considered.

We're not considering changing our Clan Challenges any time soon as they serve their purpose well & aren't used very regularly anyway. If we ever decide to revisit that position then we'll keep your ideas in mind.

Random but serious question: Are all of these new subgenres coming from the basis of Electronic genres? 

No, they're not. They're coming from a desperate need to want to further & further dissect what are already perfectly suitable & tried-&-true subgenres until every ounce of originality results in a new subgenre of copycats. It's a completely pointless exercise in my opinion. If you take The Acacia Strain's "Wormwood" as an example, I checked that album out at the time of release & really enjoyed it but not once did I ever think that it required a new subgenre to be created because it fit perfectly well under the original. RYM has completely gone to shit when it comes to genre-tagging these days with a large majority of releases being mistagged by people that aren't educated enough to know any better which is frustrating given our reliance on using them as an initial guide when adding releases to the site. It certainly doesn't help matters when the administrators are creating new subgenres that no one understands every other week. When it comes to adding new subgenres to Metal Academy though, we've chosen to run our own race because we have no time for this unnecessary breaking down of established sounds. An artist should be allowed to expand on the metalcore sound a little without being isolated from their original subgenre.

Today's track is Black Sabbath's "Megalomania" which is a difficult one to pigeon-hole given that it's a lengthy piece that traverses a wide array of subgenres. Overall though, I'd suggest that the dominant subgenre is heavy metal with psychedelic rock, progressive rock, hard rock, traditional doom metal & heavy psych all playing bit roles.

As with all of the Ozzy Osbourne studio material I've heard over the years, "No More Tears" is a pretty enjoyable listen. Also in line with those releases though, I can't see myself ever finding it to be an essential heavy metal release. You see, despite Ozzy's records sporting some of the most beloved guitar work in my life, I simply can't look past the fact that there's also a fair dose of cheese & commercialism about them & Ozzy's vocals have never quite seemed to fit perfectly with that musical direction to be honest, even on his super-popular early releases. "Diary of a Madman" has always been my favourite Ozzy album, perhaps because it's a touch darker & less poppy than the others but I still wouldn't call it a genuinely great record. "No More Tears" sits very much in the same camp as the tracklisting is a real mixed bag. On the one hand we receive a couple of the best tracks of Ozzy's solo career in the dark & brooding title track & the energetic, metal-as-fuck "I Don't Want to Change the World" with chunky heavy metal number "Desire" being another particularly solid inclusion. On the other hand, the cheesy ballads "Mama, I'm Coming Home" & "Road to Nowhere" & glam metal inspired "Mr. Tinkertrain" & "S.I.N." leave a lot to be desired. Black Label Society/Pride & Glory axemaster Zakk Wylde is quite clearly the primary reason to listen to "No More Tears" with his ultra-shredding guitar tone & signature artificial harmonic squeals showing him to be at the very peak of his powers. The riffs & slide guitar work on the title track command the price of this album alone actually. Ozzy's vocals are pretty pedestrian throughout though it has to be said which takes a bit of the gloss of Zakk's handy work.

Despite these mixed comments, I'd suggest that the highlights (& perhaps a little bit of nostalgia) have seen me moving "No More Tears" ahead of "Blizzard of Ozz" & into second place behind "Diary of a Madman" these days. There's probably a touch more hard rock included here than there is heavy metal if you look at it closely but Wylde's exciting guitar work never allows the record to drift too far out of your average metalhead's reach. Sadly, I don't think "No More Tears" will ever be the release to see me moving Ozzy out of Best-Of playlist territory & into the realms reserved for consistently high-quality heavy metal recordings alongside his much stronger live releases such as "Speak of the Devil" & "Tribute" though & it's perhaps telling that I've never ventured any further into Osbourne's solo career than this either.

3.5/5

Now I don't know if we can add downtempo deathcore into Metal Academy just yet

No fear of that Andi. There's next to no chance of this ever occurring as this is possibly RYM's most ridiculous metal subgenre yet & that's really saying something.

It's been a while since I revisited the debut album from notorious one-man Californian black metal artist Odz Manouk but this feature release has been beautifully timed to come off the back of the very positive experience I had with Yagian's long-awaited 2023 sophomore album "Bosoragazan (Բոսորագազան)" which was one that went pretty close to dragging classic status outta me. "Odz Manouk" is generally considered to be a classic release for the genre in itself & it's certainly very solid but I'm not sure I'd go that far, despite it possessing some admirable qualities. An exceptionally cold & lo-fi production job is the cassette's main calling card & boy is it effective, giving the atmosphere an extra couple of layers of menace & spite. Yagian's vocals are the other highlight as he really nails that evil, tortured & abrasive style perfectly, particulary on the classic opener "A Mymex Omen" which is frankly one of the greatest examples of the genre you'll find. Unfortunately, Odz Manouk can't manage to repeat the dose across the other five songs included with the quality levels showing a bit of unwanted variety as the tracklisting progresses. The very popular "The Indisciplinarian" doesn't do a lot for me in all honesty & is the only genuine weak point in my opinion while closer "The Roaming" is merely acceptable. The other three tracks are all high-quality examples of their type though which makes "Odz Manouk" an essential listen for fans of the US black metal scene. The one element that I think could have been improved is the use of a fairly cheap sounding drum machine which is pretty obvious at times. I don't recall noticing it on "Bosoragazan (Բոսորագազան)" which I consider to be the better record overall. Still... there's a lot to like about Yagian's debut full-length & I've really enjoyed this return visit.

4/5

This morning's track is Black Sabbath's classic "Symptom of the Universe" which I'd suggest is one of the great heavy metal numbers of all time:

I remember a discussion about the inclusion of deathgrind and filing it under grindcore, and was hoping we could add it since it's a tag I've seen passed around multiple music / metal websites like Metallum, Last.fm, Metalstorm and even in common forum usage on RYM.

The discussion around deathgrind was about whether we could remove it as it serves no real purpose given that you can already add a release to both death metal & grindcore but can only have deathgrind as a subgenre of one genre which annoys me. We're still looking at that & may well go that way in the future. I'm certainly pushing for it.

Since we already have a couple of our own genres that aren't included in RYM's database:  medieval folk metal and symphonic death metal, and this genre fits only Guardians genres, we could potentially file it as a subgenre of power metal until further notice?

For the record, RYM does have medieval folk metal. It's just had its name changed to "Mittelalter-Metal" i.e. medieval metal. The symphonic death metal subgenre was specifically added here to remove bands like Septicflesh & Fleshgod Apocalypse from The Guardians clan where they clearly had no right to be. The Symphonic Metal genre was always intended to cover a sound that featured predominantly clean vocals & melodic instrumentation but we had people adding death metal tracks to The Guardians playlists or selecting death metal releases as feature releases so we chose to clear things up for everyone. The symphonic black metal subgenre was already in place from the beginning of the site.

One thing I forgot to mention is that we have symphonic black metal and symphonic death metal. I think it would feel right if that subgenre were also included in the more appropriate clan.

See, those subgenres are actually required for the reasons listed above & are serving their purpose well. When we look for justification for adding new subgenres we always ask ourselves three questions:

1. Is the sound easily identifiable & distinct from the main genre? Epic doom metal & traditional doom metal are examples of potential subgenres that we've elected not to go with thus far because they're really not all that different from conventional doom metal & it's often quite difficult to identify which of the three a release should rightfully sit under with many releases having two or even three of those tags associated with them. We felt it was simpler to just lump them under the one tag.

2. Are there people that will hate/love the new subgenre but who feel the opposite about the main genre which gives us a reason to differentiate the two from each other in release searches & charts? We can see that requirement very clearly with the symphonic black metal subgenre for example as I generally struggle with any symphonic black metal release which wasn't created by an artist that rhymes with Schemperor but I absolutely adore conventional black metal.

3. Can we easily identify which release to add to the subgenre as opposed to the main genre?

In relation to question one, I was always under the impression that a symphonic component was quite common with (if not a defining characteristic of) European power metal & if you don't have a tolerance for that sort of thing then you're better off sticking to the US variety. In fact, the RYM definition of Power Metal says "Plenty of acts also employ synths and strings, often overlapping with Symphonic Metal" which is probably the reason that they haven't gone down the path of adding a Symphonic Power Metal subgenre i.e. because there's already an expectation of symphonics in your average power metal release.

In relation to question two, are there polarized power metal fans who only like the more overtly symphonic brand of power metal & have no time for the exponents that are more subtle with their use of symphonics? How about the reverse?

And finally, are you suggesting that we would simply add any release that has both a power metal & a symphonic metal primary on RYM to the symphonic power metal subgenre? Is that the way you'd suggest we identify appropriate releases? If so, will that cover all of the release you have in mind or are not all of them tagged that way given that there's an element of expectation around power metal releases containing symphonics?

Today's track is Black Sabbath's "Don't Start (Too Late)" which I'd suggest is progressive folk:

This morning's track is Black Sabbath's "Hole In The Sky" which is stoner metal in my opinion:

Today's track is the closer from Budgie's "In For The Kill" album "Living On Your Own" which I'd suggest is a progressive/hard rock number:

That leaves me with yet another Budgie record that's completely void of metal. It's really a hard rock record with progressive rock & blues rock influences in my opinion. Tomorrow we'll be moving on to Black Sabbath's classic "Sabotage" album to see if they can continue their complete monopoly of the early metal scene.

Wow! I've gotta say that the third full-length from these Finnish death metallers has well & truly blown me away which was perhaps somewhat inevitable given that it falls so clearly within my musical comfort zone. Gorephilia offer a dark & dank take on the classic 1990's death metal model with very little in the way of invention however they simply go about their craft so efficiently & effectively that I'm left feeling similar feelings to those that I first felt as an early teenager while discovering this great genre to begin with. The main influence is clearly classic Morbid Angel although (unlike Ben) I'd suggest that the era in question sits closer to "Blessed Are The Sick" & "Covenant" than it does to "Domination". Its actually pretty obvious a lot of the time too but the execution is nothing short of splendid which gives Gorephilia a strong sense of class & pedigree. Plus, there are a few more strings to Gorephilia's bow than that as they also possess a darker, murkier & slightly doomy Immolation/Incantation vibe that drags the atmosphere deeper into graveyard territory.

The guitar solos are perhaps the weak point as they lack a little finesse & often cross over into out-of-key territory but not in a way that feels intentional. It's more from a lack of understanding. The battering blast-beats, swampy yet powerful guitar tone & monstrous death growls more than make up for them though with the quality of the song-writing improving noticeably as the tracklisting progresses. "Devotion Upon the Worm", "Not for the Weak" & closer "Ark of the Undecipherable" are all devastating examples of modern death metal but the atmospheric interlude "Death Dream" is perhaps my favourite inclusion with its clean guitar arpeggios & eerie yet quite beautiful lead work providing a lovely change of scene before the final deathly assault. "In The Eye Of Nothing" is everything that a death metal band should aspire to be in my opinion & has been so successful in its undertaking that I'd even go so far as to sit it right alongside its more celebrated influences at the table of death metal's more elite performers.

4.5/5

This morning's track is Budgie's "Running From My Soul" which I'd suggest is blues rock.

It's been decades since I've heard "Point Blank" but I've got to admit that it's delivered exactly what I remembered it being capable of in that it's a decent listen but isn't one that commands much in the way of return listens, despite presenting some clear potential. The tracklisting kicks off in very strong fashion with the opening two songs being amongst the highlights of the album but the remainder of the run time is a little hit & miss to be honest, even though there's only the one track in the proper tracklisting that I consider to be a genuine failure in the flat industrial piece "Shit Pinata". There's a fair bit of variation on offer, despite Nailbomb being predominantly an industrial metal band. The thrash metal component isn't really enough for a primary tag & I'd suggest that there's much more crossover thrash than there is your more conventional thrash metal anyway. You'll also pick up some clear groove metal & sludge metal influences along with some smatterings of martial industrial & conventional industrial music along the way for a result that sounds very much like a combination of Sepultura's "Chaos AD" & Ministry's "Psalm 69" with smatterings of Fudge Tunnel's "Hate Songs in E Minor" tossed in for good measure. It's just that "Point Blank" never quite reaches the heights of those records which is the real shame. Don't get me wrong. It's by no means a bad record but it does struggle to command the attention it once seemed to receive with very little effort these days.

3.5/5

I still can't get on board with all the Hellripper hype. It's enjoyable enough and nothing more than that.

I agree with you that the Hellripper release isn't anything particularly special but, even though I'd place it slightly ahead of Hellripper, I'd say the same for the Demoniac record so it really wouldn’t appear to have been the strongest of years for The Pit from what I’ve seen.

The Fallen was a really tough decision because the Great Falls album was the clear winner if you took four or more ratings as the threshold but there were only three releases in that category which I didn't consider to be a large enough pool. FVNERALS only came into contention at a three-rating threshold & just edged Great Falls out which had twice as many ratings as FVNERALS & was very highly rated by a couple of our senior members (including myself) so it was a bit of a toss-up as to which way we'd go. In the end I could see that the three ratings for FVNERALS all came from our regulars so I decided that its result was reliable & went with that. The Great Falls release was my Release of 2023 so it was with mixed feelings in the end to tell you the truth.

Katatonia & Klone had the exact same scores for The Gateway but I awarded it to Katatonia given that it had several more ratings than Klone.

Cirith Ungol was a clear winner for The Guardians.

The Horde presented me with a major conundrum but I ended up electing not to award Neuropath the win for ethical reasons, despite it having the highest overall site rating average. The fact that "At Damnation's Core" is a compilation of old demo material also came into it. That left just three contenders when I used the five-rating threshold with Horrendous being the frontrunner but when using a four-rating threshold it would see Insomnium coming out on top which is a release that not a single member of The Horde has rated & that just didn't sit well with me. Horrendous was second there as well so elected to go with it as the overall winner.

When I had a look at The Infinite with a 5 rating threshold I found that there was only three releases with the King Gizzard album being the frontrunner. When dropping the threshold to four ratings it became very clear that Ne Obliviscaris was the site preference with very strong scoring indeed so I decided that it was the best option.

The North was a little difficult as when I chose a five-rating threshold there were four contenders which is kinda borderline with Hellripper being in the ascendency. Given that I'd already decided that Hellripper would win The Pit I thought it was worth looking at a four-rating threshold. Panopticon came into the running at that point &, given that I know it's the been pretty much the favourite release for several of our regulars for most of the year, I thought it best to stick with four ratings.

The Pit saw the Demoniac, Hellripper & Enforced records all coming out exactly equal on average ratings but I selected Hellripper based purely on the greater numbers of ratings it had received i.e. six over the four the other two had received.

The Revolution saw August Burns Red coming out in front on average clan ratings with the site ratings being a dead heat with the Will Haven album.

The Sphere was only very sparsely contested with the Godflesh & HEALTH releases finishing on equal site ratings but Godflesh winning due to its superior average clan rating.

Today's track is Budgie's "Hammer & Tongs" which I'm gonna suggest is a blues rock song:

Also, I investigated Buffalo's 1974 "Only Want You for Your Body" third album & found that it's predominantly a hard rock record with just the one metal track so we won't be including it here.

Here's my updated Top Ten Melodic Death Metal Releases of All Time list after being thoroughly impressed with Stortregn's excellent "Finitude" album which has seen Edge of Sanity's "Crimson being knocked out of my list altogether:

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

02. Stortregn - "Finitude" (2023)

03. Carcass – “Heartwork” (1993)

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

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. Amorphis - "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" (1994)

10. The Chasm - "The Spell Of Retribution" (2004)

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

Stortregn - "Finitude" (2023)

The sixth full-length from this Swiss outfit is arguably their best & has had me thoroughly engaged over the last couple of days. Forget the tech death talk that's floating around the internet as that tag is not expansive enough to cover Stortregn's sound which sits right in the middle of the space between melodic death metal & progressive death metal with smatterings of Dissection style melodic black metal also entering the equation to go with the really effective raspy blackened vocals. The level of musicianship is wonderfully proficient, particularly the drumming with the ultra-fast blast-beats being astoundingly tight & powerful. I'm not usually a big melodeath fan but I have to make an exception with "Finitude" as it gets the balance of extremity & ambition just right. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I would place it behind only At The Gates' magnificent "Slaughter of the Soul" record for the melodeath subgenre as a whole which I'm aware is a very big call.

4/5

This morning's track is Budgie's "Zoom Club" which I've got down as hard rock:

Today's track is Budgie's "Wondering What Everyone Knows" which I'd suggest is progressive folk:

Here are the feature releases nomination recipients for March:

THE FALLEN: Ben, Morpheus, Daniel

THE GATEWAY: Saxy, Andi

THE GUARDIANS: Xephyr, Shezma, Morpheus

THE HORDE: Daniel, Ben

THE INFINITE: Andi, Xephyr, Saxy, Shezma

THE NORTH: Ben, Daniel, Shezma, Xephyr

THE PIT: Morpheus, Ben, Daniel

THE REVOLUTION: Daniel, Andi

THE SPHERE: Andi, Daniel

I've removed Rexorcist from the roster given that he's failed to submit his nominations for the last couple of months so I'm assuming that he's lost interest in taking part. We'll see if Morpheus Kitami submits this month given that he didn't submit on time this month & hasn't been spotted around the site much either.

February 2024

01. Dark Tranquillity – “Zodijackyl Light” (from “Enter Suicidal Angels” E.P., 1996)

02. Ablaze My Sorrow – “If Emotions Still Burn” (from “If Emotions Still Burn”, 1996)

03. Demilich – “The Echo (Replacement)” (from “Nespithe”, 1993) [Submitted by Sonny]

04. Nihilist – “When Life Has Ceased” (from “Drowned” demo, 1989) [Submitted by Daniel]

05. diSEMBOWELMENT – “Thou Messiah” (from “Mourning September” demo, 1990) [Submitted by Daniel]

06. Darkthrone – “Accumulation of Generalization” (from “Cromlech” demo, 1989) [Submitted by Daniel]

07. Hellwitch – “Nosferatu” (from “Syzgial Miscreancy”, 1990) [Submitted by Daniel]

08. Gorguts – “Pleiades’ Dust” (from “Pleiades’ Dust” E.P., 2016)

09. Bolt Thrower – “Cenotaph” (from “War Master”, 1991) [Submitted by Sonny]

10. Carnage – “Dark Recollections” (from “Dark Recollections”, 1990) [Submitted by Daniel]

11. Napalm Death – “If The Truth Be Known” (from “Harmony Corruption”, 1990) [Submitted by Daniel]

12. Neuropath – “Copulation of Insanity” (from “Desert of Excruciation” demo, 1995) [Submitted by Daniel]

13. Repulsion – “Slaughter Of The Innocent” (from “Horrified”, 1989) [Submitted by Sonny]

14. Morbid Angel – “Pain Divine” (from “Covenant”, 1993) [Submitted by Sonny]

15. Vile – “Alive to Suffer” (from “Stench of the Deceased”, 1999)

16. Coffin Nail – “Trash Future” (from “Charnel Visions”, 2020) [Submitted by Sonny]

17. Medic Vomiting Pus – “Thoracoabdominal Viscerectomy” (from “Thoracoabdominal Viscerectomy”, 2014)

18. Tomb Mold – “Flesh As Armour” (from “Enduring Spirit”, 2023) [Submitted by Sonny]

19. Malignancy – “Bag” (from “Intrauterine Cannibalism”, 1999)

20. Fossilization – “The Night Spoke The Tongue Of Flames” (from “Leprous Daylight”, 2023) [Submitted by Sonny]

21. Leng Tch’e – “Too Stupid To Live” (from “Man Made Predator”, 2003)

22. Year Of The Knife – “Last Laugh” (from “No Love Lost”, 2023) [Submitted by UnhinderedbyTalent]

23. Nile – “Lashed To The Slave Stick” (from “Annihilation Of The Wicked”, 2005) [Submitted by Sonny]

24. Acranius – “Unit 731” (from “Dishonor”, 2014)

25. Skeletal Remains – “Relentless Appetite” (from “Relentless Appetite”, 2024) [Submitted by UnhinderedbyTalent]

Here's my March nomination Andi:

Dodheimsgard – “Ion Storm” (from “666 International”, 1999)

Herte's my March nomination Andi:

Great Falls – “Born As An Argument” (from “Objects Without Pain”, 2023) [I'm suggesting this is close enough to mathcore]

Here are my March nominations Vinny:

Testament – “Face In The Sky” (from “Souls of Black”, 1990)

Sacrifice – “A Storm In The Silence” (from “Soldiers of Misfortune”, 1990)

Sodom – “Bloodtrails” (from “Better Off Dead”, 1990)

Sacred Reich – “Love…Hate” (from “The American Way”, 1990)

Tyrant – “Into The Flames” (from “Too Late To Pray”, 1987)

Hellwitch – “Sentient Transmography” (from “Syzygial Miscreancy”, 1990)

Here are my March nominations Ben:

Sadistik Exekution – “Spirits Are Coming” (from “The Magus”, 1991) [It sounds much closer to black metal than death metal or thrash metal in my opinion]

Equilibrium – “Mana” (from “Sagas”, 2008)

Here are my March nominations:

Neuropath – “Nefarious Vivisection” (from “Nefarious Vivisection” demo, 1995)

Nihilist – “Morbid Devourment “ (from “The Head Not Found Session ‘89”, 1989)

Deicide – “Carnage In The Temple Of The Damned” (from “Deicide”, 1990)

Nocturnus – “Standing in Blood” (from “The Key”, 1990)

Grotesque – “Incantation” (from “Incantation” E.P., 1990)

Disbelief – “Assassinate The Scars” (from “Worst Enemy”, 2001)

Here's my March nomination Xephyr:

Suicidal Tendencies – “Go’n Breakdown” (from “Lights Camera Revolution”, 1990) [Yes, it's a heavy metal song]

Here's my March nomination Saxy:

Ugly Kid Joe – “Funky Fresh Country Club” (from “As Ugly As They Wanna Be” E.P., 1991)

Here are my March submissions Sonny:

diSEMBOWELMENT – “River of Salvation (My Divine Punishment)” (from “Deep Sensory Procession Into Aural Fate” demo, 1991) [Can be found on the “Dusk & Deep Sensory Procession Into Aural Fate” compilation]

Earth – “A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge Part 2” (from “Extra-Capsular Extraction” E.P., 1991) [Can be found on the “A Bureaucratic Desire For Extra Capsular Extraction” compilation]

Fudge Tunnel – “Hate Song” (from “Hate Songs In E Minor”, 1991)

The Thron, Sulphur Aeon & Tilintetgjort ones are my favourites.

At the moment it would seem like the Neuropath CD is likely to come out on top in the race for The Horde Clan Release of 2023 & while I'm certainly flattered that it appears alongside the most popular releases from the clan over the past year I'm also not sure I feel comfortable with it. For starters, it's numbers have been boosted by me awarding it the full five stars which I'm not sure anyone would blame me for but it's a luxury not afforded to other releases & I wouldn't suggest is not an accurate reflection of the music itself. Secondly, "At Damnation's Core" is a remastered compilation of two demo tapes recorded in 1995 rather than a new release. Regardless of those two points, I'd suggest that it also might not be a very good look to have the moderator's CD winning the award when it's very unlikely to get a mention anywhere else. How does everyone feel about this & how would you propose we move forward? These are the options as I see them but feel free to propose your own:

1. We disqualify "At Damnation's Core" from being eligible for the award.

2. We qualify it but ignore my ratings.

3. We leave it as is & what will be will be.

Open thoughts guys? It's very much the same case in The Gallery too by the way as it's ahead there too.

I've always had time for "Seventh Star" & feel that it's been unfairly treated by people that were unable to think of it as the Tony Iommi solo album that it was always intended to be. In fact, I'd take it our records like "Never Say Die!", "Technical Ecstasy", "Forbidden" or "Tyr" these days.

3.5/5

Today's track is Budgie's "Crash Course In Brain Surgery" which is just a hard rock song in my opinion but seems to have been misguidedly elevated to metal status by the public due to the links to Metallica's hugely popular cover version.