Saxy S's Forum Replies
Okay, looking at the early returns provided me with a very different reaction that what I was expecting. A lot of the reviews from those who frequent heavier clans (such as The Horde and The North) respect this album for what it is, but do not like it nearly as much as our last fauré into Alice in Chains last year with The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.
Upon further analysis, I might see why this is the case. For starters, Layne Stayley era AiC were engulfed in the grunge boom from the pacific northwest. And perhaps there was a little bit of an incentive to make something different than Nirvana, but just as accessible. The end result is an album that sounds more emotionally driven than Nevermind, but heavier than Ten. And to anyone who knows ANYTHING about doom metal will typically gravitate towards the heavier, and less melodically driven side of the genre, instead of this squeaky clean version of it.
But as a wee lad back in the late 1990s, who never liked the adult contemporary gunk that was played in my family household at the time, I wanted something bigger. Nothing too extraordinary, but certainly outside of the realms of the family comfort zone. And grunge was that thing. Furthermore, Alice in Chains was my introduction to metal as a whole. Perhaps counterintuitively, it was the melodic songwriting from the adult contemporary slosh used over a heavy metal idiom that hooked me and never let go.
Without rambling, my experience with Dirt is in direct opposition to Sonny's. As I matured, it was albums like Nevermind and Ten that lost favour as I learned more about the artist, their songwriting process, as well as their future. Sure, Alice in Chains had their problems on later albums (S/T and Black Gives Way To Blue) and left me questioning the bands future, but I never found those albums outright repulsive in the same way I find so many newer Pearl Jam records in the 2000s and beyond. Dirt is an album with soul; something severely lacking in the genres that Alice in Chains are attempting to replicate here. And it's the soul of Layne Stayley, Jerry Cantrell, and the rest of Alice in Chains that lives on 30 years later.
9/10
The Blackening is one of those albums that I have fond memories of blasting "Beautiful Mourning", "Aesthetics Of Hate" and "Halo" back in the day, but I can never find it in myself to return to this album years later. Perhaps it is the downward spiral that has been Rob Flynn for the better part of the last five/six years and his absolute butchering of Machine Head over that timeframe, or maybe it's my continued distancing from thrash metal over the years.
That really should not be a problem since this record leans far more heavily towards groove metal than anything else. I mean, "Aesthetics Of Hate" is a song literally about some deadbeat writer who pissed on the grave of Dimebag Darrell. And there are (fleeting) moments where Machine Head pull out the stops and do a solid Pantera impression. The independence between the dueling guitars and the bass is splendid, the soloing occasionally pulls out some of the Dimebag tropes, and Flynn pulls off the sing/scream better than Anselmo could on later Pantera albums like The Great Southern Trendkill, Reinventing The Steel and even those later Down albums. But it is a flawed album where the band cannot keep the same intensity in the melodies from the first half to the second. The last three songs all being at least nine minutes is tiring and can get quite boring by the end. But those first four tracks are bops and make for a great addition to anyone's top list of 2000's thrashers.
7/10
This is a fascinating album. It's a record that I have seen appear in numerous curated Spotify playlists since I listened to and reviewed this project back in June. The controversy among Northlane and Metalcore fans in general surrounding this record has not been lost on me. I made it known in my review that the crime against humanity of metal bands going accessible is completely lost on me since it usually results in more consistently good albums.
And Obsidian is no exception. This record has some of Northlane's most well constructed tracks in their entire discography (i.e. "Abomination", "Clockwork" and "Cypher"), incorporating breakdowns in a well constructed fashion that are not shamelessly dropped in as a generic mosh pit slammer.
Where it loses me are some of the heavier tracks, which sound less like Northlane exploring this more accessible, "mainstream metalcore" and rather as a plea of "please do not abandon us! We can still make heavier songs see?" It just leaves the album feeling flustered as vibes do not connect well between certain tracks. Regardless, Obsidian is one of the better "mainstream metalcore" albums I've heard in recent years as well as one of the better albums of 2022 so far.
7/10
Blut aus Nord - Disharrmonium - Undreamable Abysses
Blut aus Nord by way of Oranssi Pazuzu. Sonny, you need to hear this.
I've steered clear of the Pit featured releases a lot lately due to my well documented lack of interest in recent years, especially as I have become more comfortable with extreme metals like Black metal. But I always try to make a divergence back into the depths whenever I see a newer release given the golden shovel. Well, I say newer, but I only really mean within the last five years.
This record by the Chilean group Parkcrest is one such album and shows a lot of promise. Unlike so many other records in this genre, this record is not going to beat you over the head with a nonstop assault of fast tremolo picking guitars, unaltering skank beat drums, no bass to be found, and inaudible vocals. There are some very good songwriting moments on this album; the album highlights are "Darkest Fear", "Possessed by God" and "Hatred 'Till Die". The mid album instrumental "Dwelling of the Moonlights" has some interesting ideas and could have worked if some of the motifs had been better connected together.
I like how the percussion alternates between double and half time grooves while the guitar remains at a similar pace through chorus sections. I like how much prominence is given to the bass during the heavier thrash sections. But the vocals are probably the albums weakest element, if only because they borrow heavily from the school of Tom Araya word vomit that I have never liked. Overall, the record has some really good moments on it and it does stand out among its contemporaries, but it seems too reliant on returning to a pre-existing formula if only to bring in a large contingency of thrash fans who already enjoy that stuff. And since I am on the outside of that group looking in, the straight up thrash metal is just plain boring. The experimentation is nice, but struggles a bit when it's trying to figure out what to do with it.
6/10
I am less than shocked to find out that Spheres is a contentious album among the Pestilence fanbase. "A death metal album that isn't thirty nonstop minutes of guitar chugging, impossible drum fills and beats, and a relentless display of unintelligible/inaudible vocals? 0/10!" sounds like something that a typical death metal fan would say when they hear this album for the first time.
But as I have said on numerous occasions, if these elements don't amount to anything, then their usage is lost on me; just an audible assault from a band looking to invade your space, but not do anything to make you remember them within moments of the album's conclusion. This is not the case for Spheres by Pestilence. The production is super clean given the compositional technicality on display, the counterpoint between the guitars and synthesizers is superb. And the structure of the album is immaculate; never letting you get too caught up in either the technical death or the spacey atmospherics. As for the songwriting itself, I find it highly engaging as well. Like with most death metal subgenres, it is not dependent on melody, but rather short motifs, and most of this album use motifs conceptually, so their return is memorable.
This album gets the tag of technical death metal with regularity because of the band association, but I don't hear much of that at all. This certainly feels more like a progressive death metal album, as the "technicality" is brought in through complex song structures/forms instead of instrumental wankery. It takes the groundwork applied by Atheist a few years earlier on Unquestionable Prescence and amplifies the progressive tendencies with it's space ambience and jazz interludes, but also incorporates them into special metal tracks. Is it as good as Unquestionable Prescence? That's hard to say; Spheres is a more complete space opera than Atheist's, but Unquestionable Presence has more death metal implantation, making it stand out more. Perhaps this record surprised me more because of the band it's associated with and their previous output. And in writing all of that I feel like I've convinced myself that Spheres is better that Unquestionable Presence.
So fuck it hot take right now: not only is Spheres by Pestilence the bands best record, structurally it is a better space opera than Atheist's Unquestionable Presence.
9/10
Saor - Origins (2022)
There seems to be hardly any black metal here at all, the beautiful and stirring atmospheric black metal soundscapes Saor have become synonymous with being replaced by fairly pedestrian celtic and folk metal.
I found myself questioning this record initially as well. The shorter track lengths meant that motifs could not be developed and mature as previous albums. The almost abandonment of atmospheric black metal for grooves that sound borrowed from thrash of all places is alienating. The transitions are not as concise and the clean vocals are lackluster if we are being generous.
But this album was also released on the same day as another folk metal album: Alestorm's Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum, which as I expected, is another paint by numbers Alestorm album. And it got me questioning the drastic change in sound palette here on Origins and whether or not it was a bad thing. Saor still knows how to write a beautiful melody, the incorporation of flute, strings and bagpipes has always been fantastic as to never feel like a gimmick. Their incorporation over something closer to post-metal with more major harmonies feels unusual, but not outside the realm of what Andy Marshall is capable of. The use of folk elements is not uncommon for Saor and the greater importance of them on this record should fit right in. Structurally, is Origins Saor's least cohesive album? Yes; by a considerable margin. Does anything here match "Farwell" or "Forgotten Paths"? Not even close. Is it still a tight knit collection of songs that takes the greatness of the band and pushes the boundaries of what Saor can be? Well... 
8/10
Good production, decent melodic storytelling, and a frontman who has the bass in their voice to pull it all off...and yet I don't find myself enjoying this record as much as October Rust. I think my major complain is sequencing; say what you will about the producer's nightmare that is October Rust, it had a consistent flow and design from top to bottom. Whereas this has some very impressive melodic doom on the back half (most notably the title track and "Everything Dies") but the first few tracks are bafflingly bad. "White Slavery" and "Everyone I Loved Is Dead" are atrocious and I would not blame a soul for turning the album off prematurely. If you can make it through the first six tracks, you'll find some of Type O Negative's best songs.
7/10
I meant to do a quick little album write up when this album came out, but it wasn't on the website at the time, and I had already moved on to that new album from The Chasm. So after another few listens here's my cliffnotes version of what I would have said:
So far in 2022, I've moved away from the high brow critic spheres and narrowed my new listening to styles/genres that I already have a vested interest in. One of those genres, obviously, is heavy metal and last month I cleared out my back catalogue of popular alternative and metalcore records that I skipped over in the first half of the year (Northlane, Bad Omens, Static Dress, etc.). But along came Thornhill who were getting much attention in critic spaces, but not so much in the mainstream. The can usually only mean one thing: Deftones.
I've been revisiting a lot of Deftones in recent weeks as well (White Pony review is coming soon). And yes, Heroine by Thornhill does emit many of the songwriting tropes that are iconic from the early 2000s era Deftones circa White Pony, as well as some more modern, popular releases like Koi no yokan and Diamond Eyes. But something about this record feels different; like a record that knows its source material down to its seams, but can build it back up with different materials and still have it fit. Djent-y breakdowns are popular at the moment, and this record does a solid job of not allowing them to feel slapdash or thrown in just for the sake of trendchasing.
The album is really dreamy and lush and helped in large part by a production that does not favour one instrumental over the other. Lots of atmospheric music fails at being so when bands give prominence to one part over the rest giving it a jarring effect that snaps the listener right back to reality. But this album's real star? Vocalist Jacob Charlton. This vocal timbre is splendid. The way in which Charlton accents uncommon syllables and releases stanzas prematurely adds a layer of roughness to this record that Deftones albums just don't with Chino's clean delivery drowned out in reverb and other effects. It's almost reminiscent of Muse's Matt Bellamy, but with much better fundamentals beneath it.
This is a great album. The Deftones elements are great and hold the original source material to its purest form, but divergences are precise and not forced. This is a name that I look forward to keeping an ear open for years to come.
8/10
Static Dress - Rouge Carpet Disaster
I know Andi enjoys the romp of a mid 2000s post-hardcore/metalcore record, so I'm guessing you'll enjoy this trip down nostalgia lane from this new UK outlet.
https://staticdress.bandcamp.com/album/rouge-carpet-disaster
Where to start with this one? I think on the outset it should be noted that this record is far removed from anything metal in my opinion. In fact, this sounds strikingly similar to the new wave of emo/post-hardcore bands such as La Dispute and Foxtails, mixed in with just enough chamber elements to reminisce on Lingua Ignota. Then when I heard that Ode and Elegy is a solo project from a member of The Pax Cecilia, a mid 2000s post-hardcore/screamo band, I can't say that I was all that surprised.
I never heard The Pax Cecilia back in the day and honestly upon listening to their records, it isn't that surprising that they disappeared. They had some decent songs, but could never form an entire album out of them. Like with so many post-hardcore/metal bands, the texture takes over for good songwriting. Whereas with this, the way that Kent Fairman rises and falls with the song structures is impeccable. The opening string theme is eerily reminiscent to the Firelink Shrine theme from Dark Souls 3 and I was amazed by how many ways this record took that simple theme and style and incorporated it throughout the record; passing it on to the chorus, horns and electric guitar.
Ode and Elegy feels like a record in two parts as the second half is more experimental on those motifs in addition to how it transforms. At one moment, you're waiting what feels like an eternity for any sort of girth from the distortion from the guitar or vocals. The next, the texture is slow and brooding like a doom metal album, and by the end, everything is on fire with blast beats in the percussion, and heavy dissonance in the guitars. On any other day I might call this texture wanking, but this time it is completely justified as melodic themes ebb and flow in and out with elegance and beauty.
From a production standpoint however, this record is seriously lacking. Beyond the strings which sound gorgeous, many of the horn and choral passages sound cheap and tossed in almost as an afterthought. I must admit, I've never liked choral elements in symphonic/chamber music. Far too often they feel like afterthoughts on compositions that would be perfectly acceptable to just have soloists. I never liked it on Beethoven's 9th and I'm not going to give Kent Fairman a pass here.
I've mentioned in a couple of reviews the idea of metal bands using the symphony compositional form for an album or song and this is certainly one of the most unique albums I've heard that fit into that mold. It's use of melodic motifs that remain fresh throughout an almost hour long runtime is very impressive and harkens back to some of my favourite symphonies (Tchaikovsky/Beethoven's 5th and Brahms' 4th). The production is lacking, but somewhat expected because of the electric instruments, but that does not take away from the elite tier songwriting.
8/10
Astronoid - Radiant Bloom
I have always respected this band with their attempts to popularize the blackgaze sound, but have always had far too many structural problems to appreciate them more. Let's see if this new record can make a new impression.
It's fascinating that Sonny and myself can approach this album from vastly different positions and yet we can both agree about the quality of The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity. My introduction to black metal was through a lot of the melodic sound of Windir, Dissection and more recently, Obsequiae. But a lot of roots in post-metal led me toward Agalloch and Summoning. So when the dissonant guitar leads that open this album enter on "Cult Beyond Eternity", I was less than impressed. But as the album progressed, I noticed the dissonant harmonies not playing as intrusive of a role as I initially thought. In fact, they actually compliment the more tonal sections admirably.
I get a lot of (good) progressive metal vibes out of this record, based on how individual tracks are constructed. The guitar gets plenty of moments to shine with some soaring chord progressions with a very solid melodic lead. The bass lines are independent from the guitar chords allowing for extended harmonies to flourish. Percussion is relatively tame for a black metal album, but that allows for the sparse moments when it does pick up into a blast beat fury to hit with more authority. And the vocals are well performed, but are heavily compressed in the mix, meaning the diction of the words is easily lost through the murk of the atmospherics. As for the compositions, I really enjoy how this album is able to compliment its tonal and dissonant sections together through similar motifs; typically found in many of the bass lines, but occasionally found through similar wordplay or percussion grooves.
This album is not as dank as many of the black metal records that I heard in 2020 and it gives this album a confined tone, which does have its positive and negative traits. For starters, having these avant-garde passages that are not entirely percussion dependent means that the dissonance of the guitar leads is not shoved directly into your ears as a method to turn the listener away. On the other hand, with the vocals being held back so far it makes me wonder why some compensation was never considered. But beyond that, this was a pleasant surprise. The progressive songwriting on display is much more up my alley in comparison to the choppiness found in modern prog metal, and is overall just an enjoyable sound, despite its atonality.
8/10
Not a whole heck of a lot to say about this one from The Contortionist. I have been following this band for a while and hearing their unique brand of progressive deathcore with atmospherics and extended jazz harmonies always brings a smile to my face. And hearing how this group is able to use the djent formula and make it sound melodic with forward momentum just highlights the failures in Meshuggah's music that much more clearly.
However, the album still has quite a few problems. The major one is, of course, the lack of focus on individual tracks. A lot of 2010s progressive metal is very contempt with having three or four unique ideas that are kept isolated from each other instead of using two or three motifs that interweave within each other, and The Contortionist are no exception. I find that, as The Contortionist move away from progressive deathcore on the later portions of this album, and their next album Language, song structure continued to improve. It's a decent album with a lot of potential, but still held back by a slew of progressive metal problems that I consistently criticize, even today.
6/10
One critique of System of a Down that even longtime fans of this group can relate to, is the bands identity. I don't mean as artists, but rather the art that is being created. What on earth are they trying to say? It's music with a lot of serious thought and commentary, but delivered in such a non-chalant, borderline humorous way. Mezmerize is no exception. "B.Y.O.B." and "Violent Pornography" have their goofy moments, but underneath the veil is a dense socio-political commentary that, at the time, was foreign to this brand of quasi-nu metal of the early/mid 2000s. Or you have the straight up gag fests like "This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song" or "Cigaro", with the opening line "My cock is much bigger than yours" that gave me quite a few disapproving stares back in the day! But I think that was apart of the overall appeal; being sucked in or "Hypnotized" by the nonsense songs that you didn't realize what you were actually singing about, with "Violent Pornography" being the most direct on the entire album.
System of a Down have never been genius songwriters, but they do know how to write a good hook. And I don't think any other SoaD album had riffs as plentiful as Mezmerize. The drive of "Revenga", "Old School Hollywood", "B.Y.O.B." and "Violent Pornography" are splendid! I even really enjoy the subtle growth of "Lost In Hollywood" that tries so hard to explode like all of the tracks on this album have done, but never reaches a true climax. But that leaves "Question!", the closest thing to a progressive song the band has ever written, with odd time signatures and whiplash tonal transitions, but the group keeps everything intact through careful use of its motifs and modulating them (mostly the chorus) to fit a new style. The dual vocals of Serj and Daron are superb for this style and are only matched by the more passionate song stylings of the second half of the double album, Hypnotize.
8/10
Yeah, I'm glad I found this one.
At the end of the day, what I appreciate the most out of this album is how well it all flows together. Despite it's length being a big downside and consistently losing my interest during the final third, there is a special attention to detail with songs ebbing and flowing gracefully between atmospheric post-metal, technical death metal and djent-y breakdowns. The spoken word poetry is complimented by some strong instrumental motifs and phrases, but is more than capable of holding its own when the main melody is in the vocal line. This is a journey I'm willing to venture on again.
8/10
I can't believe I didn't cross over my review of this album from RYM when I reviewed it last year. Although it wouldn't surprise me that I completely forgot about it since this is even less metal than the earliest Evanescence albums of the 2000s. Either that or I just forgot about its existence until now.
What I remember from it is that it sounded like a Breaking Benjamin album, from the production to the riffage. Amy Lee can still sing, but the hooks are empty and there isn't much in the way of a driving force keeping this moving forward. Evanescence's claim to fame was as a mainstream alternative to symphonic metal giants Nightwish and Within Temptation, but they cannot even get that right here. This wasn't even worth it for the nostalgia.
4/10
April 2022
1. Linkin Park – Session (2003) Requested by Andi
2. Hum – In the Den (2020)
3. 36 Crazyfists – Better To Burn (2017)
4. Demon Hunter – Infected (2002) Requested by Andi
5. Fire From The Gods – Excuse Me (2016)
6. FEVER 333 – SUPREMACY (2020)
7. Chevelle – Family System (2002) Requested by Daniel
8. Breaking Benjamin – The Diary of Jane (2006) Requested by Andi
9. Tool – Opiate2 (2022)
10. Dog Fashion Disco – Wait (2017)
11. In This Moment – Forever (2008)
12. MAXIMUM THE HORMONE – REREREREREREREREMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA (2005)
13. Dir En Grey – Unraveling (2013) Requested by Andi
14. Prophets Of Rage – The Party’s Over (2016)
15. Disturbed – Perfect Insanity (2008)
16. Evanescence – Use My Voice (2021) Requested by Andi
17. Atreyu – Save Us (2021)
18. Stone Sour – Rose Red Violent Blue (This Song Is Dumb & so Am I) (2017)
19. In Flames – I, The Mask (2019) Requested by Andi
20. Dope – Survive (2005)
21. Lacuna Coil – Blood, Tears, Dust (2016) Requested by Andi
22. Architects – Black Lungs (2021)
23. Machinae Supremacy – Gimmie More (SID) (2008) Requested by Andi
April 2022
1. Hath - The Million Violations (2022)
2. Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Coil (2021) Requested by Andi
3. Slice The Cake – Unending Waltz (2016)
4. Earthside – Crater (2015) Requested by Xephyr
5. Meshuggah – Light the Shortening Fuse (2022)
6. Opeth – Burden (2008) Requested by Andi
7. Periphery – Catch Fire (2016)
8. Enslaved – The Dead Stare (2003) Requested by Xephyr
9. Playgrounded – Rituals (2022)
10. Plini – Handmade Cities (2016) Requested by Andi
11. Alcest – Les jardins de minuit (2019)
12. Skyharbor – Synthetic Hands (2018) Requested by Andi
13. Monuments – False Providence (2022)
14. Toundra – Ruinas (2022) Requested by Xephyr
15. Liquid Tension Experiment – Rhapsody in Blue (2021)
16. Voivod – Brain Scan (1988) Requested by Andi
17. Animals As Leaders – Red Miso (2022)
18. Eight Bells – Premonition (2022) Requested by Xephyr
19. Haken – As Death Embraces (2013)
...Anyways, my list for this clan is incredibly easy to run out:
1. Alice in Chains - Rooster
2. Faith No More - Be Aggressive
3. Deftones - Diamond Eyes
4. System of a Down - B.Y.O.B.
5. Slipknot - Psychosocial
6. Linkin Park - Faint
7. Rage Against the Machine - Guerilla Radio
8. Helmet - Unsung
9. Karnivool - Mauseum
10. Living Colour - Cult of Personality
To be far Andi, I decided to make this challenge for the Infinite clan exclusively because it is such a vast environment that covers so much ground that it would seem almost impossible for someone new to approach it without some sort of curtailing to preferred preference. I have no problem with including personal bias/preferences into these types of lists; they could not exist without them. But trying to pull a full one-eighty from a subjective list (The Guardians) to a completely objective list (The Gateway) was not the original intention. That's the main reason why I included the addendum "They can be metal fans from other subgenres" to the rules. Not everyone gets "into" music the same way. Think of it more as a "how to get into ___", but from your point of experience. I think Sonny gets this and their list is proof of this. Some easily recognizable names with a couple of big hits from FNM, SOAD and Helmet, whilst also including deeper cuts from AiC, Slipknot and Soundgarden.
Good lists. I appreciate Sonny's list since it really plays into the last of my stipulations about getting into Prog while already being a metal fan. The inclusion of heavier, extreme metal divisions like Oranssi Pazuzu and Blood Incantation are a nice touch. But the inclusion of the Ihsahn track at the end makes a lot of sense!
I think in general, putting this kind of a list together for the Infinite clan is much harder than any other genre due to extended runtime, which is where Sonny's list could push a few people away. I think Andi's list is probably the closest to how I would put a list together, but with some slight alterations. It would probably look like this:
1. Dream Theater - Pull Me Under
2. Queensryche - Eyes of a Stranger
3. Tool - Schism
4. Mastodon - Blood and Thunder
5. Opeth - Face of Melinda
6. Devin Townsend - Deadhead
7. ISIS - So Did We
8. Agalloch - Not Unlike the Waves
9. Leprous - The Price
10. Animals As Leaders - Physical Education
I have a general idea for what I would include, but cannot round out the bottom of the list. I'll think it through and post my thoughts later.
I cannot get into this either. I must admit that my knowledge of metal acts incorporating classical instrumentation like this is quite limited. I know Folk and Neoclassical Metal, but this specifically is reserved basically for Haggard and Obesquiae. But even I can tell from a general knowledge of metal that this record does not sound very good. There is a severe lacking of bass presence on this record, making the heavier portions quite lackluster. It has so many of the same production issues that early 90s death metal, but with this being more doom metal, it comes across really flat since the kick drum is not double bass blistering.
The vocals are....there. The harsh vocals sound phoned in and lazy. The clean vocals sound cool and provide much needed substance that is missing in the low end. As for the symphonic elements, they are the best part of the album. Haggard may have been better off just making an album of Renaissance music; without the guitar and drums, the instrumentals can be fully appreciated with an independent bass line. They still aren't very good though, as the keyboards constantly eclipse the winds and strings.
I feel like I should credit Haggard for bringing attention to a different style of symphonic metal that I never cared to search out before. The use of classical songwriting techniques over a style that is not power metal is a nice change of pace, but the way in which it is executed leaves a lot to be desired.
5/10
Emperor are usually among the short list of bands in the black metal genre that are among essential listening for getting into. And, like with so many others, In The Nightside Eclipse and Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk are excellent records. Although I will admit, digging further into the Emperor rabbit hole and hearing the quasi prog/avant-garde leanings of Prometheus left me fascinated what this band could do beyond symphonic black metal.
The shame is of course the band disbanding very shortly after that album released. After a recovery window, frontman and brains of that band, Ihsahn, went on to form his own solo project that could double down on the progressive tendencies and not be bogged down by the former bands legacy. And angL is a fascinating album; not quite as good as the best solo projects like the far more successful follow up After, but you can hear strides leading them down the path.
I think my biggest complaint with this album is how much is sounds like an Opeth record circa 2001. I'm sure this is not meant to be a surprise considering Mikael Åkerfeldt actually shows up "Unhealer" and the two of them have some really strong chemistry. And that's before mentioning how well the track blends its styles and themes together. It's very well done and mimics the best parts of Opeth songwriting, without resorting to the ten-plus-minute epic trope.
That said, I cannot wrap my head around tracks like "Elevator" and "Scarab". Both songs are really good with "Scarab" being an album highlight, but they both use the similar songwriting tropes of a Blackwater Park with soaring open chord harmonies in the guitars, alternating harsh and sung vocals, and slow, comfortable grooves not allowing the percussion to truly break free. Honestly I question myself if this is a good thing or not: "if it worked so well for Opeth, why not just replicate it" I think. And sure that is a valid point, but Ihsahn could really do a lot more with the sound than just play it straight.
As Sonny alluded to, this album's three outliers are "Misanthrope", "Malediction" and "Monolith". These tracks are much heavier on the black metal tones; tremolo guitar melodies, sweeping rhythm chords, blast beats and primarily harsh screaming. They sound much cleaner than some of the later Emperor cuts on Prometheus, and ditch the symphonic tones for technical prowess; a sound that Ihsahn pulls off remarkably well. The alternating time and style changes, especially on "Monolith" do not sound phoned in.
angL has the feeling of a test run for me. It's Ihsahn trying to see how much he can get away with without disappointing or outright insulting the black metal fanbase, before going full balls to the wall progressive black metal on After a couple of years later. I think the shorter song structures and runtime only play into this albums benefit, since Ihsahn is such a proficient writer, he can make tracks feel like they could go longer. The production is solid and the tracks flows smoothly into one another. But sounding like an Opeth album instead of a...y'know...an Ihashn album, does leave it a tick lower in my books.
7/10
Can we add the newest album from Vein.fm (formerly known as Vein) This World Is Going to Ruin You
Izthmi - Leaving This World, Leaving it All Behind
Very happy to see this Seattle based black metal band back with their follow-up to the excellent debut The Arrows of Our Ways.
https://izthmiseattle.bandcamp.com/album/leaving-this-world-leaving-it-all-behind
I was a little bit worried when I read Vinny's review of this album and felt like I might need to write an apology letter after this one. I mentioned a few months ago that if you see a newer album requested by me in the featured album section, it's most likely an album that I have a faint interest in listening to, rather than an album that I want to show off.
So with trepidation I listened to Troposphere and...well it isn't as bad as I anticipated. It isn't very good, but I can tell that there was at least some kind of effort put in to make a record that sounded unique on its own terms. And I'll be damned if it does not sound unique in the way that it blends industrial, drum and bass ("Helios"), math rock and post-metal/shoegaze ("Starburst") together. After coming off of my Zeal & Ardor review, it's fascinating to see how different the avant-garde tag can really be.
It's a damn shame the album sounds awful. As Vinny eluded to, without a vocalist, these songs quickly lose momentum when they rely heavily on texture rather than melody. The guitar has a low pass filter on it that sounds like its fading in and out of each track by accident. And the overall compression of that guitar line is enough to make my skin crawl. These post-metal passages on "Vaporous" are supposed to sound massive and epic, but end up feeling half baked as if not to wake up the neighbours.
Perhaps what keeps this album from unbearable is the bass lines. I wish more metal bands had the cahones to have bass lines in their music that were as prominent, tight and independent as these. The rest of it? There was an attempt at something promising, but more than likely its monetary restrictions keeping this below average, and that's a real shame.
4/10
March 2022
1. Attila – Day Drinking (2021)
2. [AMATORY] - Дыши со мной (2008)
3. Coal Chamber – Shock the Monkey (1999)
4. Chevelle – The Red (2002)
5. Sevendust – Thank You (2015)
6. Drowning Pool – Step Up (2004)
7. Dir En Grey – The IID Empire (2003)
8. bloodsimple – Straight Hate (2005)
9. Godsmack – Cryin’ Like A Bitch!! (2010)
10. Escape the Fate – Issues (2010)
11. Nothingface – Ether (2003)
12. Prophets Of Rage – Unfuck The World (2017)
13. Karnivool – Synops (2005)
14. Hacktivist – (Rock) Superstar (2016)
15. Life Of Agony – Love to Let You Down (2005)
16. Lacuna Coil – Our Truth (2006)
17. The Bread Scientists – Starburst (2021)
18. coldrain – We’re not alone (2010)
19. Mark Morton – Cross Off (2019)
20. Tremonti – Radical Change (2015)
21. Thousand Foot Krutch – Untraveled Road (2014)
22. Memphis May Fire – The Old Me (2018)
23. Times Of Grace – The Burden of Belief (2021)
24. Deftones – Digital Bath (2000)
25. Wage War – Grave (2019)
26. Green Carnation – Pile of Doubt (2005)
27. Ra – Don’t Turn Away (2008)
March 2022
1. Moon Tooth – Carry Me Home (2022)
2. Angra – Black Widow’s Web (2018)
3. Aviations – Dizziness Explained (2018)
4. Amenra – Children of the Eye (2017)
5. Zeal & Ardor – Death to the Holy (2022)
6. Diablo Swing Orchestra – Justice For Saint Mary (2012)
7. Between the Buried and Me – The Ectopic Stroll (2015)
8. Amorphis – When The God’s Came (2022)
9. Enslaved – Isa (2004)
10. Slugdge – Salt Thrower (2018)
11. Cult of Luna – An Offering To The Wild (2022)
12. Rolo Tomassi – Mutual Ruin (2022)
13. Queensryche – Eyes Of A Stranger (1988)
14. Leprous – Coal (2013)
15. Allegaeon – Called Home (2022)
16. Voivod – Iconspiracy (2018)
17. Jinjer – Home Back (2019)
18. Persefone – Architecture of the I (2022)
Allegaeon - DAMNUM
One of my favourite bands blending melodic and technical death metal together are back with album number six. I've been impressed so far by what I've heard. If you are a fan of Opeth and you have not heard "Called Home" yet, either get on that right now, or wait until next months Infinite playlist. You'll thank me later.
Buy/stream the album here:
https://allegaeon.bandcamp.com/album/damnum
Is that really two Christian death metal bands featured in the same month?
7 Horns 7 Eyes brand of progressive death metal is heavily doom influenced, groovy and melodic. Perhaps it is to the album disadvantage then that I expected this to hit with a little bit more force. As I discussed in my brief review of the Revolution featured album for the month, deathcore was not my scene during my formative years, but all my friends were getting into it. I was exploring the world of Djent at the time and The Contortionist was one of the few acts that I could honestly enjoy bridging the gap for. Breakdown sections during songs like "Phumis: The Falsehood of Affliction", "A Finite Grasp of Infinite Disillusion" and "Delusions" sound as if they were borrowed right out of The Contortionist playbook. The later of those two songs contains a very elaborate guitar solo during its second half over a death doom instrumental in an attempt to appeal to the guitar elitists.
I think it becomes the most apparent to me as the album is coming to its conclusion, from around "The Winnowing" through "Regeneration". Nothing in the death metal playbook says that it has to be blistering fast tempos 100% of the time. But here's the thing: I started losing interest as the album was just going to play it safe the rest of the way. There are no deviances from the formula displayed on the first seven tracks: no extended breakdowns, no atomic drops, no blast beats. And it infuriated me further as I went back and listened to the album again and noticed that the rest of the album felt exactly the same! "The Winnowing" plays such a tease during its bridge, then returns right back to the same paint by numbers formula as before.
But the album's closer "Regeneration" set it in stone: this is a guitar wank album. Not that there is anything wrong with guitar wank albums; they can be done incredibly well if given the proper focus. And I still do like this; I fall into a similar position as Xephyr when it comes to the kind of technical/progressive death metal we prefer. And hearing what is essentially Swallow The Sun/My Dying Bride with uncommon time signatures and quasi Djent breakdown passages is pretty damn cool. But it fails to keep me engrossed for its entire runtime. Another fine example of "great in moments, but not as a full album" I'm afraid.
7/10
Deathcore played a minor role in my formative years. Even though I never turned out to be a huge fan of it, I know plenty of people who were in the same metalcore circles as me who were able to use this new found trend as an excuse to get on board with the unfiltered, heavy as fuck world of technical death metal. As they moved in one direction, I found myself getting more into Djent with bands like After the Burial and later Periphery.
What I never understood from this new crop of bands was how disjointed it all felt. Even more so than it's two original influences. Something about the blistering fast tempos, preceded by a whiplash tempo change to a disgusting breakdown never flowed with me. Which leads up to Impending Doom, a band who were left behind by the metalcore community, even if I will admit, their earlier discography is probably the most consistent in the subgenre. Their fourth album, Baptized In Filth continues in the same trend as those first two albums with a heavier focus on melody. Well maybe that's an overstatement; it's still deathcore with a heavy emphasis on breakdown and atomic drops, but "Murderer" and "Deceiver" have strong shout choruses to go along with the groovy as hell breakdowns that anchor it all together. The final track "Death. Ascension. Resurrection" may as well be a melodic metalcore song!
Impending Doom also have the ability to bring songs down in tempo for those breakdowns with conviction rather than resorting to whiplash. "Chaos: Reborn" is a good example of how breakdowns can be implemented as part of a whole, making it much more effective. It also allows for the track to retain its identity, an issue seldom addressed in tech death or metalcore!
With all of that said, the record is quite basic in construction. I mean, I was never going to fall head over heels for this purest form of deathcore; atomic drops that disjoint the mix in preposterous ways, same-y vocal delivery for every track that never deviates, formulaic instrumentals, and breakdowns that rely more on odd guitar techniques (pinch harmonics, scrapes, etc.) than any motif or idea. But once again, I am approaching this from a very different place than those who actively listened to deathcore during the late 2000s.
As it is, if I was ever looking for a brand of melodic deathcore that didn't require me to throw on my pretentious pants and just wanted to enjoy some simple, arguably stupid, moshing fun, Impending Doom is a good place to go. When metalcore got more dank, they added the one thing from tech-death that I never wanted in my metalcore music: musical nothingness. Baptized In Filth is not going to impress anyone who knows this sound, but at least it's memorable.
7/10
Hey Andi. Guess who just released a new album today??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4hDSNieOnA&ab_channel=CenturyMediaRecords
Got a bunch of new releases for 11 February so let's get to them quickly
Cult of Luna - The Long Road North
We start off with the hotly anticipated new album from Swedish Post-metal giants Cult of Luna's newest album of atmospheric bliss:
https://cultofluna.bandcamp.com/album/the-long-road-north
Amorphis - Halo
Consistent Progressive Folk Metal band from Finland.
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3EATOOixZ8TxrSqvbtF46A?si=pS-sU1HQQ5m4T5d_0WlO8A
Zeal & Ardor - S/T
Avant-Garde with elements of industrial, black metal, spirituals and blues. No description can do this band the right amount of service.
https://zealandardor.bandcamp.com/album/zeal-ardor-3
Tersivel - To The Orphic Void
Finally it's sludge metal in the vein of The Ocean/Mastodon. I've never heard of this group before. Let's see if anyone else finds use for it.
Yep, this is a power metal album alright.
7/10
...well I guess I should elaborate. Hammer King are German with power metal leanings, so expect a lot of songwriting techniques taken right out of the Blind Guardian/Helloween playbook. Thankfully Hammer King are not about to just make an album that sounds like it could have been written in the 1990s. They use a lot of techniques and motifs that are indebted to heavy metal OG's Judas Priest as well. Riffage is varied, but falls into a very comfortable lane that sounds like it has a lot of Evergrey influence, and maybe even some Avantasia.
None of these are negative traits on their own; I like how a newer artist can take influence from heavy metal behemoth's and transform each of those sounds into something that sounds fresh, while still maintaining the fundamentals of what made them iconic in the first place. But I found it actively distracting as I could pick apart each track on this album and guess what source material each riff, melody and solo came from. Not so much that Hammer King were permutating the sound, but rather combining pieces from different puzzles together that somehow fit.
The least distracting tunes were "Baptized by the Hammer", "Atlantis (Epilogue)" "Ashes to Ashes". Nothing here is outright offensive and it does make for a consistent listening experience. But if you want a new power metal sound, this isn't it. It's more enjoyable than Alestorm/Gloryhammer, but these guys have some work to do if they want to challenge Spirit Adrift or even Cirith Ungol.
Rolo Tomassi - Where Myth Becomes Memory
The British metalcore band Rolo Tomassi seem to have gone the way of Converge and made a full blown Post-Metal album in 2022.
Stream/download/buy the album here:
https://rolotomassi.bandcamp.com/album/where-myth-becomes-memory
"The numbers Mason. What do they mean?"
I forgot to axe them when I copy/pasted them into the forum. They're just categorization numbers; basically making sure that I cover relevant content in addition to not just filling a list with obscure acts that no ones heard of before.
Persefone - Metanoia
The newest album from Andorran prog metal outfit Persefone dropped today. I'll be checking it out this weekend and see if they can maintain the momentum they gained from Aathma a few years ago.
Stream/download the album here:
https://persefone.bandcamp.com/album/metanoia
WOW This is opening up a can of nostalgia!
I remember Chevelle being one of the first bands discovering and getting into back in the mid 2000s as I was just starting to get into metal. I approached them even without all of the grungy, pre-teen angst that was so prominent in nu-metal at the time. And you know what? I enjoyed it quite a bit. They knew how to write a decent pop song with heavy guitars, and a taste of ambiguity that is not all that uncommon in metal music.
After a while though, Chevelle just sort of...fell off my radar. Nothing that they did changed my opinion of them, but rather I just got caught up in more interesting music. Apparently they continue to make music to this day and I'm sure it's good, but I haven't found the time or effort to listen to it. So going back to 2002's Wonder What's Next reminds as to why I enjoyed this band at first.
It's quite repetitive, simplistic and the heavier moments do not hit with the same intensity as nu-metal does from Slipknot, Linkin Park and Mudvayne. But they do know a way around a hook, with "The Red" being one of those throwback tunes that hits me with true nostalgia endorphins, not the faux nostalgia of liking a trend but never truly being apart of the core fanbase. The sound of the record is very good as well. The vocals are mostly performed authentically, but vocal layering is added for additional effect. Instrumentally the guitars take center stage and with only a few exceptions (i.e. the bridge on "Send the Pain Below"), they are uncompressed allowing for the full effect of the down tuning, as well as bass to be felt.
7/10
The album art for The Call Of The Wretched Sea is very similar to that of Mastodon's Leviathan from only two years prior. That must have put quite a bit of pressure on Ahab to put together a special album. And the result is a tale that is incredibly dense, brooding and hopeless. What Ahab are able to accomplish here is textured, but not isolated enough to ignore the basic fundamentals of what makes a song memorable. There are some very simple melodies that exist on this record throughout it's six "songs", and while they may not develop themselves, the ensemble around them is robust and can turn tracks into something completely different; whether that be through key changes, tempo shifts, unique synth countermelodies, or lyrics. Where Ahab gets it right is the fundamentals; the bass and drums are pummeling even though they technically are quite simplistic.
Unfortunately, the vocals are quite weak overall. I understand conceptually that the vocals are stylistically pushed back in the mix behind much of the instrumentals because it is supposed to evoke a feeling of hopelessness, like being drowned. But track like "The Pacific" are told from the third person and has no real connection to the tale, other than a tribute to the mighty waters. There is no reason that I can tell, why the spoken word samples that sporadically appear throughout the record are more audible than Daniel Droste's vocals. Ahab would eventually solve this problem on later records, but here it just sounds like a miscalculation.
A few months ago when another Funeral Doom album was featured (Monolithe II to be precise), I lambasted the album for taking the piss out of the doom genre and leaving it an empty shell of texture rather than anything remotely interesting or memorable. I questioned whether or not I was being too hard on that record and Funeral Doom as a subgenre. But then I remembered what Ahab has been able to accomplish without ever having to resort to twenty-plus minute epic's that have no idea what they want to do. Mastodon is a good comparison point, because both tell the same story very well, but from two very different perspectives. These waves are worth the long and treacherous sail.
8/10
P.S. I prefer The Boats of the Glen Carrig slightly more than this, mostly due to the vocals not being the best. I understand why they are this way and I appreciate the effort, but they don't help the atmosphere in the same way.
I must admit, I would not have included "Serenity Painted Death" on my monthly playlist if I had known that Still Life was going to be your featured album of choice Andi. And I must come clean: Still Life is my favourite Opeth album. An all time classic that has no faults, no matter how many times I go back to it. The atmosphere is unbelievable, the production is is prime form and the lyricism is absolutely haunting. It's the kind of loneliness that other artists can only dream of replicating. What pushes it over the edge for me is that it helped pave the way for the far more commercially successful Blackwater Park while seemingly doing nothing drastically different from that record structurally. This record gets slept on far too often when speaking about the almost decade long run of My Arms, Your Hearse through Ghost Reveries. I will have to give this one a proper review before months end.
10/10
February 2022
1. Animals As Leaders – Thoroughly at Home (2009) Requested by Andi
2. Mastodon – Crack the Skye (2009) (album feature)
3. The Human Abstract – Faust (2011) (27)
4. Meshuggah – The Abysmal Eye (2022) (53)
5. Devin Townsend – Borderlands (2019) Requested by Andi
6. Tetrafusion – Sisyphus (2017) (15)
7. Voyager – Dreamer (2022) (15)
8. Tool – Fear Inoculum (2019) (47)
9. ISIS – Hand of the Host (2009) (17)
10. Gojira – Oroborus (2008) Requested by Andi
11. Caligula’s Horse – Slow Violence (2020) (24)
12. Allegaeon – Of Beasts and Worms (2022) (12)
13. Leprous – The Valley (2013) Requested by Andi
14. Wilderun – Distraction II (2022) (14)
15. Haunted Shores – Hellfire (2022) (24)
16. Opeth – Serenity Painted Death (1999) (23)
February 2022 obviously
February 2022
1. Breaking Benjamin – Torn in Two (2018) Requested by Andi
2. Karnivool – Mauseum (2005) (album feature)
3. Loathe – Dimorphous Display (2022)
4. Kittie – Brackish (2000)
5. Mushroomhead – Come One (2010)
6. Bullet For My Valentine – Piece of Me (2018) Requested by Andi
7. Powerman 5000 – Neckbone (1997)
8. Tool – Die Eier Von Satan (1996)
9. Linkin Park – Krwlng (2002) Requested by Andi
10. Skinlab – Venomous (2019)
11. King 810 – Killem All (2014)
12. Bad Wolves – Springfield Summer (2021) Requested by Daniel
13. Tourniquet – If I Was There (1997)
14. Muse – Won’t Stand Down (2022)
15. Dark new Day – Fist from the Sky (2012)
16. Machinae Supremacy – A View from the End of the World (2010) Requested by Andi
17. Motograter – Dorian (2017)
18. Girugamesh – Drain (2013)
19. Spiritbox – Eternal Blue (2021)
20. Slipknot – Unsainted (2019)
21. Head Control System – Masterpiece (of Art) (2006)
22. Dir En Grey - 輪郭 (Rinkaku) (2014) Requested by Andi
23. Korn – Cold (2019)
24. Deftones – Ohms (2020)
25. Motionless in White – Another Life (2019) Requested by Andi
26. Ra – Do You Call My Name (2002)
27. Soilwork – Stabbing the Drama (2005)
28. Sevendust – All I Really Know (2021) Requested by Vinny
29. While She Sleeps – Division Street (2021) Requested by Andi
30. 3rd Strike – No Light (2002)
The last of the clan's AOTY charts I have a vested interest in and it might be the strongest of the bunch.
Ethereal Shroud almost stole this one at the end of the year, but I have to give it to old reliable Austin Lunn and Panopticon's ...And Again Into the Light. If I had more time with Ethereal Shroud I might have given it top honors, but do not let that deter you; it is a great album. Panopticon's album is of the quality one has come to expect from Lunn with progressive songwriting and I greatly appreciate it.
wow I missed a lot of Guardians music in 2021 didn't I? Powerwolf? Really?
Anyways, "Robot King" from Helloween is still a banger and Epica's Omega was a triumphant return following a long layover while other symphonic metal giants (Nightwish and Within Temptation) laid an egg.
Thy Catafalque exemplify what it means to be progressive in 2021 and the easy winners in this category for me. Papangu was pretty solid as well for much of the same reasons. I had the same problem with Ad Nauseam that Xephyr did. Meanwhile, BTBAM was more of a nostalgia trip to the glory days rather than a transcendent experience; still a good album, but far from their best.
Glow On is the full length album of Turnstile's in which all of the tracks on Turnstile Love Connection can be found. I also agree with Xephyr that the full album should be here if the EP is. If we are making our choices based on these choices, Turnstile wins in spades, even though I would call it hardcore punk over metal.
As for the Poppy discussion, I actually enjoy the records like Poppy Computer when she was in her full electropop phase and lost favour with her as heavy metal elements were added on subsequent albums in 2018 and 2020. This year's Flux was significantly more developed and unique than the NXT soundtrack...and that record was more rock than metal. I suggest that you take the new Poppy records and treat them as rock albums instead of metal albums Xephyr. I reckon you might find something different. Then again, Poppy could divert your expectations and make a full blown country album next, so what do I know?
I didn't listen to this album last year, but did come across "Parasite" on a whim, and being very surprised by the drastic change in direction after being swallowed whole by the "Imagine Dragon" on their last album. This was heavier, less electronics, fast and lots of harsh vocals. When I listened to the album and saw "Parasite" as the opener, followed by snippets of BFMV's greatest hits, I saw the band hinting at changing their sound; either to the applause or disdain of their fans. I appreciated it because they could always hold a melody together and "Parasite" is a good opener.
The rest of the album? Well it has moments; the more thrash adjacent stuff like "Paralysed" near the top of that department. "Can't Escape The Waves" is a mid album "ballad" that harkens back to "All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)" with a surprising style change during the intro. It does feel like a little bit too much going on, but the faint sustain triads in the lead guitar bring it all together. And "Shatter" for having a solid melodic chorus to go along with a Bring Me The Horizon meets Pantera instrumental that was very well done.
This albums has a lot of harsh vocals on it...perhaps a little too much. There were quite a few points on this record, most notably in "Knives" and "Bastards" where the constant swapping between Matt's cleans singing and harsh screaming is kind of bad; like the band wanted to sound heavy so they threw in as many screamed vocals as possible, when in reality, BFMV were never this egregious with it. The heaviest moments on The Poison like "Hand of Blood" had harsh vocals, but they felt deserved and not shoehorned in. Beyond that "Bastards" sounds like a rejected Three Days Grace song, "My Reverie" is incredibly basic fundamentally, the thematic arc of this record is anti-authority, but could have used a couple more rough drafts as they feel interchangeable with anti-authority records by Muse. And production wise, it sounds a lot more open with its space than either Spiritbox or Trivium's last albums, but if you can hear the bass during some of the isolated moments, you're ears are far more equipped than mine. Why it does not feel as dense during the softer portions is beyond me.
In the end, this is a great improvement from 2018's Gravity. But Bullet For My Valentine's recent venture's after changing label's from Sony to UMG has had them kill their personality with Gravity, and now this feels like the apology tour. Unfortunately this apology feels half assed as it tries to lure you in with its chugging guitars and harsh vocals, while anyone who knows what BFMV once sounded knows that this is only for the clout.
6/10