Daniel's Forum Threads
Oh these cover art coincidences just never end! The cover arts for that The Devil Wears Prada demo and that The Arbitrary Method EP both have a close-up of a woman's face behind an abstract pattern. Though the latter is definitely more futuristic, just like the EP itself.
Amenra - Mass V (2012)
For an album that is forty-minutes long, Mass V sub-consciously plays as an EP in my head as the run time appears to go much quicker than that over the four songs on the album. I am not entirely sure if this is because I lose presence with it on too frequent a basis, but even under a few critical listens the effect is the same. My overarching impression from my first few listens has been that the balance of styles is well executed. Amenra drop pure doom riffs seemingly from out of nowhere, whilst constructing with studious detail post-metal passages that ease between more sludge-driven moments, still retaining the overall sense of unease in the process of the ebb and flow.
Tracks such ‘Dearborn and Buried’ are real tense experiences, the atmospherics doing little to ease the sensory overload that comes from the consistent sense of threat in the sound. With desperation a key impression that comes out of the listening experience, especially in the vocal department, I feel that I get to this understanding by way of the sense of conflict between the instrumentation and the vocals. If I use a Stoic philosophical comparison to demonstrate. If we consider life as a crashing and bashing tide that batters against the rock (us) and that we must try to remain steadfast in the face of such hardship, then it is easy to bill the deranged nature of the vocals as being the tide on the instrumentation. Given the obvious talent on show in Amenra though, they cleverly switch this to have the vocals remaining strong against the assault of the instruments.
Yet at the same time, if you take the ending of ‘Boden’ as an example, then it is also clear that both elements can be wielded with great effect, creating the tumult of the storm onto the listener who is now being used as the rock in our example. This “good cop/bad cop” routine works well because it avoids being a disruptive force in the musc. With the epic length of ‘A Mon Áme’ deploying an agonising build-up of over ten minutes, I do sense a weakness in the Amenra line. Whilst it is exhilarating when the riffs and percussion do finally ignite, the length of time to get there feels unnecessary in the end given you can easily predict it is coming.
Thankfully, the balance is restored on final track, ‘Nowena | 9.10’ with what is the most Neurosis-influenced track on the record. Clear in its emotional depth, the riff and percussion structures are quite simple in comparison, and this juxta positioning works well. For me, this is the standout track on the album and is a perfect closer to proceedings. So, having come into Mass V in a dismissive mindset following my experience of the two Eps that the band released this year, this record has restored my interest in them. The album possesses an unusual level of accessibility given its chaotic approach at times. The succinct track listing helps this accessibility as well as belying the level of intelligent songwriting that is on display.
4/5
Au5 - Divinorum Remixed (2022)
Genres: Brostep, Melodic Dubstep
As much as I love exploring EDM, and am happy to have found a total love for TFoL, Shpongle, The Prodigy, Juno Reactor, Justice and many more, dubstep has always been a weak point. Ironically, its overly-edgy subgenre, brostep, was my major gateway into exploring EDM. I can't even remember my first brostep album, but at the top of this list was Au5 and Fractal's Secret Weapon EP. I've heard a decent deal of Au5's extended plays, but not many of his albums. Now most people would've headed towards the original before the remix, but there was this weird, unspeakable gut feeling just aching to check out the remix first. I don't know why. Maybe because I've never done it that way before? Maybe because in my experience, the shorter album, as the remix is, tends to be the one that feels less stretched out, and there's a heavier genre batch in the tags? Either way, I checked it out.
Now Au5 has a total taste for the atmospheric yet melodically active. You're not going to find any of that Marauda-style working its noisy, deeply vile metallic fingers into albums like this. And right from the getgo, the melodic dubstep colour bass combo is flaunted with a sense of organized chaos on the vein of a consistent experimental album. There's lots of room for playfulness in every song, yet there's always one or two major focal points which greatly differentiate it from the rest of the songs. Some of these tracks here are total dance jams that challenge the constructs of layout with a plethora of unpredictable sound effects, and yet feels more like personality rather than pretnetiousness and overdoing, which is typically the case for the bulk of brostep releases. One of the better examples of this is the perfect balance between mellow volume and energetic beats on Dragonfly, which take care to maintain the randomness of brostep without ever going too far into one idea or switching vibes too quickly for its own good. And sometimes it's deeply contemplative, like the title track or Mesmerize. Even the worst track, the electro house track Beautiful Sky, has plenty to say in only a surprising runtime of two minutes. Even the song Divine has its own presence by introducing a vibe like early 2000's late 90's pop rock, somehow maintaining an identity without being out of place. And I have to tell you... Drink Me is just one of my favorite things. That was just a gorgeous reconstruction of the wide-ranging universe-spanning behavior, fully polished into a gem-like take on the Alice in Wonderland surreality that the title suggests. And how fitting is it for this album to end with a deep, slow, IDM track that ends our journey on such a strange note?
I don't give a rat's ass if that last line was too hammy.
This was a strange yet polished mix of contemplative structures, surreal beauty, catchy beats and bleeding personality. Maybe this is because dubstep is difficult for me to get into, but this was exactly the kind of album I look for in practically any genre. Not a single disappointment, lots of beauty and some amazement along the way.
Avenged Sevenfold - "City of Evil" (2005)
I have to admit that I took my first few listens to an Avenged Sevenfold record this week & quickly discovered that a) I don't think I've ever heard a single song by them in my life & b) I can easily understand why as they are clearly none of my business. "City of Evil" apparently saw them moving away from the melodic metalcore sound of their earlier records with this third full-length seeing the Californians playing with a proggy heavy metal sound that's often infiltrated by a European power metal influence. "City of Evil" is also a dreadfully commercialized slab of metal with the awful backing vocals & cheesy power metal guitar melodies doing nothing for me whatsoever. The vocals of front man M. Shadows are a tall ask for me too as he seems to want to channel Mike Patton's whiny higher register delivery but can't pull it off sufficiently which leaves it sitting pretty uncomfortably over this material. Thankfully, the instrumentalists are seriously good musicians & the record is very well produced which enables songs like "Blinded in Chains", "Betrayed" & the clear album highlight "Bat Country" to dig their teeth in but the rest of the tracklisting does very little for me, particularly the horrendous ballad "Seize the Day" & the woeful chorus of "Strength of the World". I guess Avenged Sevenfold simply aren't for me, at least not in this format.
For fans of Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine & Alter Bridge.
2.5/5
Rhythm & Sound - "w/ the Artists" (2003)
A stunning dub record that I picked up on CD at the time of release after stumbling upon it due to its associations with the dub techno scene. It's as deep & stripped back as a motherfucker & features some unbelievable vocal contributions from guest contributors which makes "w/ the Artists" one of my all-time favourite reggae AND chillout releases.
For fans of Basic Channel, Maurizio & Deepchord.
4.5/5
Pogrom - "A Dream of Nightful Silence" demo (1995)
This three-piece doom/death outfit hit the Sydney scene around a year after my own band Neuropath started playing gigs. They hailed from the Blue Mountains area which is west of Sydney & was somewhat of a hot-spot for interest in metal at the time. Pogrom were built around the Dyer brothers (vocalist/bassist Beau & drummer Neil) & when they released this demo tape & I think they were only 14-16 years old from memory. They'd change their moniker to Across the Scarlet Moat shortly afterwards & would release a couple of other underground recordings under that name. I'd go on to play in another doom/death band with Beau (Grenade/Innsmouth/Lord Kaos) around 1997 called Elysium (later changed to Stone Wings) & knew him quite well.
"A Dream of Nightful Silence" certainly isn't the most accomplished recording but it does show Pogrom to have their own style, even at such an early point in their careers. While they fit into the doom/death subgenre based purely on the triple vocal attack which blends cleans with a Jeff Walker-style higher register delivery & some very deep death growls, the instrumentation is more organic & much less dense than death metal, reminding me more of traditional doom metal acts like Pentagram only with a distinctly folky slant to it that hints at a black metal influence. Neil's (Elysium/Grenade/Innsmouth/Murkrat/Sacriphyx/Stone Wings) drumming is really quite bouncy & rocky which ensures that Pogrom never sound too crushingly doomy either which is to the releases detriment in my opinion. He's a pretty accomplished drummer for a young teenager though. I think the guitars of Own Richards (Decayed Divinity) could have been louder too which would have given Pogrom a heavier sound.
This material doesn't do a lot for me these days to be honest & it'll be interesting to see how the Across the Scarlet Moat demo compares when I finally get around to revisiting it.
For fans of Across the Scarlet Moat, Katatonia & Anathema.
2.5/5
Suffocation - "Blood Oath" (2009)
The sixth full-length from my all-time favourite metal band left me feeling a little underwhelmed at the time but perhaps it was always destined for a middling response given that it was the first 2000's-era Suffocation record I checked out after my return to metal in 2009 so my expectations were extremely high given my long-time love for their early works. This revisit has seen me overcoming whatever obstacles detracted from my original opinion on "Blood Oath" though, even the slightly muddy, bass-heavy production job which could have done with a little more life. Songs like the title track & "Pray for Forgiveness" absolutely crush with Frank Mullen's monstrous vocals in fine form & those twisted chromatic guitar solos & crushing slam riffs doing their best to take your head clean off. "Blood Oath" may have been claimed to be Suffocation's least impressive release to the time but I comfortably prefer it over 1993's horribly produced "Breeding the Spawn" album & give it a slight edge over 2004's comeback record "Souls to Deny" too. There's certainly plenty here for all the brutal death metal nuts out there as Suffocation simply can't be touched in this field in my opinion.
For fans of Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy & Nile.
4/5
Deftones - Private Music (2025)
Genre: Alt-Metal
I actually tried to get through Koi no yokan today after starting Private Music and quitting, deciding that my goal was to further profile the band before heading to their new release. I chose Koi no yokan because it's basically ranked as the third best Deftones album out of their impressive catalog, but the first three songs sounded totally the same even with that obnoxious secondary tagging on RYM: Shoegaze, Alternative Rock, Dream Pop, Post-Metal, Post-Hardcore. That really pissed me off, So I just went back to their new album. Besides, after having been underwhelmed by my Sadus exploration, which was necessary for the Metal Academy list challenges, I needed some kind of good album to complete some kind of relevant list I'm working on. In this case, it's 2025.
Now the first two songs are very short, and despite the transitioning being flawless, the two still manage to change directions and sound a bit different from Koi no yokan. The third one is weirder, much less reliant on the general Deftones noise at first. It starts with an industrial beat and sonar-bleep guitar playing. The atmosphere feels more attributed to standard alternative metal rather than the overused Deftones noise backdrop. And while track 4, Infinite Source, goes back to the noise, it feels a bit more like the melodic punk-infused alt-rock of the 2000's, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Quite a few of the songs are very short, and sometimes they justify their length with a proper usage of simplicity. But at other times, the songs may feel undercooked. And as I expected, despite the occasional change of pace, many of the songs go for the same emotional core and basic sound. In other words, this is a Deftones album for fans that plague places like RYM.
But you wanna know the most impressive thing? I cannot believe this singer, Stephen Carpenter, STILL SOUNDS LIKE A FUCKING TEENAGER. His voice doesn't age. His voice aging would obviously be a sing of the apocalypse. This bad is thirty years old, and this founding member is 55. This is actually something that kept the album going for me, even when it started to get monotonous. I suppose this is actually my favorite thing about the band. But as far as the album goes, I REALLY REALLY wish they would focus on the diversity factor more like they did on White Pony. I mean, what's the goddamn problem? Most people say it's their best album. It's the only Deftones album I gave above a 91/100, and by that I mean I gave it a 99.
Overall, this was a fun and surprisingly brisk time for more of the same Deftones. There was just enough melodic and lyrical imagination to work. I was never that much of an alt-metal guy, let alone a Deftones guy, but this was fun. Deftones once again carries the aquatic noise factor of albums like Biomech very well and with a good sense of pacing and slow melodies.
85
A brand new Blut Aus Nord album is always a cause for rejoicing. Only a single listen as yet, but it contains all the the usual psych-tinged hynotism we have come to expect from the french black metallers in recent times. It may be fanciful on my part as I haven't studied the lyrics as yet, but atmospherically it seems to tap into the feeling of the environmental zeitgeist for me, in a similar way to Caio Lemos' Kaatayra project. I'm enjoying it.
I got alerted last minute to the Bandcamp listening party for this and managed to join to hear most of the album last week. Definitely a strong album but I need to get a few more listens in before deciding if I will add to my BAN vinyl collection.
Also, just seen the new Nordicwinter album has landed (one of my favourite Canadian artists), sat in bed with my headphones on letting it soothe my soul with it’s icy and desolate fingers.
Acrimony - "Tumuli Shroomaroom" (1997)
I've really enjoyed my first experience with Welsh stoner metallers Acrimony this week. Their 1997 sophomore record is a very solid example of the genre which offers a level of appeal that's largely driven by its lengthier highlight tracks. I particularly like the more psychedelic, cerebral moments with the gruff vocals also being a perfect fit for this style of metal. It's a fairly long listen at 65 minutes but is well worth the investment of time as the last couple of tracks are quite the epic climax after a more middling period through the mid-section of the tracklisting. This is good stuff that I'd recommend to all of our stoner-inclined The Fallen members.
For fans of Stoned Jesus, Unida & Church of Misery.
4/5
Mastodon - "Once More 'Round the Sun" (2014)
The sixth full-length from these Atlanta progressive metal legends is another strong release that may not challenge Mastodon's earlier classics but there can be no denying the quality of the arrangements & performances on display here. The references to stoner metal are misguided as this is once again a purely progressive metal affair, much like the three albums that preceded it. As with 2011's "The Hunter", there are not enough genuinely classic songs included here to be challenging Mastodon's glory days but there is still a class about everything these guys do that has seen me continue to lap up material like this. I'll be interested to see if their more recent work has the same effect when I finally get around to exploring it. I think I'll give "Once More 'Round the Sun" a slight edge over "The Hunter" in terms of overall consistency which seems to be in line with the general consensus these days.
For fans of Baroness, High on Fire & Gojira.
4/5
Oracle of the Void - "In Darkness Is Found the Greater Enlightenment" demo (1995)
The Australian underground extreme metal scene was a really exciting place to be back in the mid-1990's & I could spend all day running you through high-quality releases & demos from bands that never amounted to anything of significance, mainly off the back of living in such an isolated part of the world during the pre-internet days. Coffs Harbour-based black metallers Oracle of the Void are one such artist & I doubt that any of you have heard of them but that doesn't stop their 1995 demo tape from being a better listen than those of the big Norwegian names like Emperor, Enslaved, Satyricon or Burzum from earlier in the decade. There can be no doubt that Oracle of the Void were heavily influenced by early Emperor as you could be forgiven for mistaking "In Darkness Is Found the Greater Enlightenment" for some of their early works if you didn't know any better with the high-pitched screams & tasteful use of keyboards clearly having been inspired by Ihsahn & co. These guys utilize a dual vocal attack though, combining those blackened screams with ultra-deep death growls to good effect. My brutal death metal band Neuropath played a show with Oracle of the Void at the Agincourt Hotel in Sydney in around 1996 & it was there that I picked up this demo tape which was re-released as a 10" E.P. in 2006. They put on a great show & were nice enough chaps too. I recall them playing a cover version of Immortal's "Unsilent Storms in the North Abyss" early on in their setlist, only to repeat it again at the end of the set at the request of various members of the audience.
For fans of Emperor, Abigor & Nazxul.
4/5
Buck Owens & His Buckaroos - Ruby (1971)
Genres: Bluegrass
I found myself in a bluegrass mood of all things, stemming from a craving to find that perfect bluegrass album. But the RYM charts weren't helping much as many of the albums sounded samey, so I went to Reddit. I found many recs and have a lot to go through, but then I found out this Buck Owens album was only 24 minutes. I didn't even know he had a bluegrass album; he's mostly known as a Bakersfield sound pioneer. What the hell, I'll just get through it, I thought to myself. And I am so glad I had enough time for another short album. There's a lot of spirit to be had in this album. The band's having a lot of fun, so it's easy to have fun with them. Now the songs follow a select few basic bluegrass formats, but the energy and production makes this album sound, even for lack of a better word to describe this album, GORGEOUS. The mixing is gorgeous, and the country spirit is diamond purified, like they freakin' went to Jared. Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms put me in a perfect equilibrium between my body jamming and my mind and soul absorbing the essence of the music. Honestly, there's very little country that does that, as much as I love exploring it. Now I will criticize this album for technically being quite samey, but damn if this isn't some of the most head-bobbin country I've ever heard.
91
Btw, I found that PERFECT bluegrass album pretty early on, but I'm not in the mood for reviewing a 75 minute album right now. That album is Highway Prayers by Billy Strings, but don't get into him until you've heard some of his earlier albums.
Gary Numan - "The Pleasure Principle" (1979)
I quite enjoyed the 1979 "Replicas" debut album from London new wave outfit Tubeway Army recently so I thought I'd give front man Gary Numan's first solo effort from later the same year a crack this week & I've found it to offer a similar (perhaps slightly greater) level of enjoyment. The early synth sounds somehow seem to be both dated & timeless at the same time while I really dig Numan's vocals which provide the perfect accompaniment for the spacy instrumentation. I've found myself becoming increasingly interested in these old synthpop sounds of late. There's something refreshingly authentic in their simplicity & creativity.
For fans of Kraftwerk, Ultravox & The Human League.
3.5/5
Veilburner - "Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy" 2025
Veilburner seem to occupy the same rarified atmosphere within which I would normally encounter Blut Aus Nord, Dødheimsgard, Deathspell Omega or even Oranssi Pazuzu. They are distantly rooted in black metal yet at the same time are multiple football fields away from the genre. On the death metal side of things there are comparisons I could draw with Akercocke and Portal, which are fine benchmarks to be scored against. With this being my first ever listen to the band, my early impression was that this was not a duo that was with or indeed without their own sound or style. The mish mash of influences that had leapt out at me from what at the time of typing this had been just four tracks was intriguing to say the least. Yet, whereas on other, more avant garde releases I would have either hit the skip button multiple times or simply switched off altogether, there was something that kept me in the room with Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy.
Now, it could have been that after consecutive days of listening to conventional black metal, I was just more open to something different. Those dissonant tremolos certainly made short work of the seconds as they danced chillingly along my nerve-endings, whilst those squally riffs seemed to rapidly grow a horrifying backdrop of noise for the more extrovert elements to sit atop of. Yet for all the individual elements that are in play at any given time, I have found it very easy to plot my way through the tracks as they pounce on me. There is also enough memorability to them to permit me to understand them as isolated pieces as opposed to the album becoming just one chaotic glut of noise. A more critical listen leads to me to think the reason for this is that the tracks themselves have very clear points of progression. This is perhaps too hard for me to explain in words for some readers, but riffs have a clear start and end to them. Sounds odd I know, yet this element of closure gives me traceability across what could otherwise soon become a disorientating affair.
This succinctness that sits behind the dissonant and transcendental apparitions that are conjured by the rest of the music acts as an anchor almost. I feel that because of it, I can truly pay attention to all the album much better. As a fan of BAN, Deathspell Omega and Oranssi Pazuzu already, there are elements here, such as the vocals, that are not offering anything new most certainly. The admiration comes for the crafting involved in putting all eight of these tracks together. Thematically exploring trauma, death, infinite reincarnation and the desperate futility of lives that make the same mistakes and meet the same end, this is not the most cheerful of subject matters to be committing to tape. Such ideas remind me very much of Akhlys, who are one of my favourite artists over several releases now.
Yet, the more I listen to the album the more I find it veering away from pretty much all the territory I have called it out for inhabiting already. The rich lead work of ‘Ouroboreal Whorl’ and ‘Matter o’ the Most Awful of Martyrs’ have an almost post-metal level of clarity to them, for example. There is a seemingly purpose-built level of tameness to the record that only reaches the surface with repeated listens, and I find that remarkable for such a challenging piece of music, yet I have already called out the concise nature of part of the album already. Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy is the perfect album title for the work on display here. The record is a triumph yet achieves this with no loss of that sense of stinking human tragedy.
5/5
Children of Bodom - "Hatebreeder" (1999)
This was the first time I've revisited these Finnish melodic death metallers' sophomore album in over fifteen years & I could very quickly see why as, much like it's follow-up "Follow the Reaper" which I struggled with a couple of months ago, "Hatebreeder" champions a sound that I simply can't stomach. It's comprised of tightly executed power metal instrumentation with front man Alexi Wildchild Laiho's raspy melodeath vocals & shredding neoclassical lead solos being layered over the top & none of that was ever going to sit very close to my wheelhouse. I will say that "Hatebreeder" is slightly better than "Follow the Reaper" (which is arguably their most well-known record) but I really should have known better than to venture into these territories again.
For fans of Kalmah, Norther & Wintersun.
2.5/5