Saxy S's Forum Replies

Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It

British Post-Hardcore/Mathcore outlet Rolo Tomassi's fine 2018 album that I discovered late in the year and really impressed with its melodic flare, songwriting and clean production. I'm surprised it hasn't been heard by more Metal Academics. FFO: The Dusk In Us by Converge

9/10

https://rolotomassi.bandcamp.com/album/time-will-die-and-love-will-bury-it

Interesting. One thing that needs to be taken into consideration when looking at lists like this from big name publications like MetalSucks is that many of their choices are determined by a mainstream consensus. That is to say that the albums that are reviewed by a lot of people are given special prominence; there is no room for nuance. Case in point, there is no reason as to why Metallica's Hardwired should be anywhere near a list of the albums of the decade other than name recognition. These are the decades most popular metal albums and while I do enjoy a fair number of them, I also understand that The Ocean, Cult of Luna, Deafheaven are here because of their gross popularity throughout the decade. And many other mainstream lists are going to look very similar.

My personal top ten would probably look something like:

10. Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage TIE: Wilderun - Veil of Imagination/Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here

9. Cult of Luna - A Dawn to Fear

8. Ishahn - After

7. Insomnium - Winters Gate

6. Threshold - Legend of the Shires

5. Ayreon - The Theory of Everything

4. Trees of Eternity - Hour of the Nightingale

3. Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I

2. Saor - Guardians

1. Fen - Winter

EDIT: I've honestly thought about this list a lot lately nine months removed from the 2010s and while my list still holds up, I did make a slight change at the number 10 position. I think the tie at the bottom makes this list far more enjoyable. If I had to have a tiebreaker, I guess AiC would just miss the cut.

Okay, so I'm a noob who never experienced the thrash metal wave that took over the scene during the 1980s. What was the initial reaction to Overkill's debut record, Feel the Fire in comparison to...Metallica or Megadeth? Why do Overkill get so heavily overlooked? Would they have been in "The Big Five" if such a thing existed? Perhaps someone like Sonny would be able to provide me with some much needed context.

As for the record itself, I was not at all impressed by the debut LP. I'll keep my review brief, but this record feels really sloppy, both in the production, as well as in the overall performance. Overkill would redeem themselves substantially with Taking Over and The Years of Decay in the following years. If Overkill were in fact overlooked during the eighties, it was probably because of this album. You only have one chance to make a good first impression I guess.

6/10

Hi Ben. Can we add the new Ayreon record Transitus?

Can we add Ohms, the newest album by Deftones?

I agree with Daniel with his assessment of Converge's All We Love We Leave Behind. I found this record to be far more enjoyable than the bands more critically successful Jane Doe from 2001.

And given my opinion on that record to be quite controversial, Converge fixed the production significantly from that record, and created a throwback album that is more refined, melodic and well thought out than any in their entire discography. It's still ruthless and aggressive as hell, but in a more developed and intentional way. One that I greatly appreciate and marks the turning point (at least for me) where I start to "get" Converge. Mathcore is not a genre I take lightly, but Converge deliver here.

8/10 

Not very much to say about Ok nefna tysvar ty. I did enjoy most of what I heard, but to be honest, this feels like a step down from their next album, Heralding: The Fireblade. Perhaps that was a part of Falkenbach's appeal, specifically playing out their folk/Viking metal sound, without the more blatant black metal influence of this album's successor. Like Macabre before me, I cannot criticize a band for that, but parts of this album do feel dull, especially on its second half. The lack of experimentation that was deployed on Heralding was far more engaging.

7/10

I have to admit, I've never really cared for Helloween in the same way that I have for the bands that would have taken influence from Helloween, particularly during the early part of the 1990s. For me, Blind Guardian and Nightwish have always been my go to groups. Whether or not that is the byproduct of my age and not growing up with Helloween is a very likely possibility, but I have always viewed Helloween as the birthplace of the style, not as its de-facto form.

As a result, my experience with Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II was not at all surprising. Good stuff, solid hooks, Michael Kiske's strong vocal timbre to play out the heightened fantastical storytelling, but carried by less than stellar production that keeps much of the low end muted. I would have liked to hear more developed song structures, rather than rapid transitions between ideas, an idea that was carried in a greater capacity in the same year by Queensrÿche on Operation: Mindcrime. And yes, that album does share a lot of similarities with Helloween's album.

I generally enjoy 1990s (and beyond) power metal, so it was nice to go back and hear the genre in its earliest form. And I did enjoy parts of what I heard, even if I personally believe that Helloween were surpassed in nearly every way by artists/bands taking influence from them in the future.

7/10

Dopethrone is a tale of two albums for me. As a straight up piece of music, it really isn't that fantastic. The forms of the individual songs are very simplistic and repetitive. And with no sense of development in those themes, it leaves the songs memorable for sure, and they are groovy as hell, but they grow tiresome very quickly. For me, I prefer the albums shorter song forms like "Barbarian", "We Hate You" and "Funeralopolis" on occasion.

But as I outlined in my review, I think that the "Stoner" portion of the "Stoner Metal" tag is essential to really enjoying this album in the way that so many have highly regarded this album over the years, including myself for a time. Dimming the lights in my dorm room, getting high, and blasting Dopethrone was a hell of an experience, but it almost always turned into background noise, which in hindsight, is kind of disappointing.

I still occasionally return to individual songs from this record, but never in its entirety. I put Stoner Metal in the same designation as I do with Deep/Techno House while I'm playing video games; it's great music that fits the environment, but that does not always make for a great pure album listening experience.

6/10

Venom's debut record was a forward thinking project that combined elements of NWOBHM, Speed Metal, Hardcore Punk, and laid the groundwork for extreme metal with some very subtle Black Metal tinges scattered throughout this record. And listening to this record today, it has aged remarkably well! I see why this album has received legendary status by those who've heard it.

9/10

Big Tool fan here. While Undertow set a very high standard for this band, it was Ænima that sent them over the edge from a critical standpoint. And when the band were creating well thought out developments of their original sound, they created some of their best all around songs in their entire discography. However, in their bid to become more progressive/avant-garde, Tool created something that was trying to be humouous, but ended up falling flat. If they took out all of those damn interludes, the album would have been more streamlined and perhaps would not feel like a slog by the time you reach "Pushit" and "Third Eye".

6/10

I recently checked out this album and I understand where Andi is coming from with his take. With the very short song structures, atonality in the guitars, the intensity of the percussion and vocal howls, I can see why someone might call this "Grindcore leaning".

But what I hear is just a hardcore punk album with some very obvious metal tendencies. I know very little about Grindcore, but of the little of it that I have heard, I can comfortably say that this sounds nothing like that! I would say that from a compositional standpoint, this reminds me more of straight up Mathcore than anything else. It's macho, it's ruthless and it sounds like "LET'S OPEN UP THIS PIT!" music. That alone makes me think that this should stay pat where it is, as a Metalcore album.

For an album with as much going on as the self titled debut from BABYMETAL has, I find it very difficult to find much to say about the music itself. It borrows elements from across the entire musical spectrum into one very messy album. There is trap, reggae, oriental, dubstep, nu-metal, power metal, j-pop. I enjoy the power metal moments the most (such as the songs "Akatsuki" and the closer "Ijime, Dame, Zettai"), but everything feels forced in to cover as many bases as possible.

But the real reason why I am even reviewing this is because of the cultural impact it had when it was released. I was there to see the ridiculous backlash that this group faced when they dared to mix j-pop with heavy metal. Some people even went so far as to say that this album is the reason why metal died in the 2010s. When it comes to branching out and creating something that is accessible; to be consumed by a wide audience, BABYMETAL are the group that we needed. Heavy metal has always been isolated from the mainstream. I don't know how many people reading this feel the same way, but for a time, I fully embraced this outcast status, and in some regards, I still do to this day. But I am always welcoming of new faces into our clique in hopes of expanding our outreach. That's why I find it infuriating when metal acts do find some mainstream popularity, much of the metal community shuns them and treats them as "non-metal". We all have to start somewhere, and if BABYMETAL is the band that leads you down the rabbit hole to more interesting, and for lack of a better term, interesting music, then so be it.

That was long winded. I do not mean to insult anyone with my words, but the gatekeeping surrounding metal (and all genres of music for that matter) genuinely upsets me. As for BABYMETAL themselves, I think their reputation is tainted by poor single selection. If they chose one of the Power Metal leaning songs as promotional singles, they may have fared better.

5/10

P.S. I'm kind of disappointed that more people haven't gotten involved in talking about this album. I am genuinely intrigued to hear what my fellow metal fans think of this.

I have to take Sonny's stance on this one.

There are plenty of artists over the years whose stars have faded with time because their brand of "avant-garde" or "progressive" music becomes less forward thinking as more and more new bands/artists try to mimic that sound. It's part of the reason why my opinion of Dream Theater has fluctuated drastically over the years. But that does not make them less progressive/avant-garde by definition. I have been a staunch advocate for years now that genre tags are subjective and arbitrary ways of linking similar sounding music together in an attempt to lure in a new audience. I say this under the impression that I get from a band like Slayer. They are clearly a thrash metal band first and foremost, but their tone is so drastically heavier than their contemporaries. And I personally believe that without an album such as Hell Awaits, the genre that we know as Death Metal would not exist. So why does Possessed's Seven Churches have that sole honour? Same year, same style, but only one is viewed as the birthplace of a new genre.

Genre's are always changing and redefining their boundaries. But I also believe that it is important that we maintain historical importance as well. While I was learning about music history in school, I found it ever so important to know the historical background to a piece's conception and how it fared with it's contemporaries. Beethoven; the composer that is widely regarded as the face of classical music, was a rebel when he composed his most daring, romantic works. Jazz and early Rock & Roll were the poor man's music. And heavy metal was heretic. And the tags associated with each were added much later.

I guess what I am saying is that we can call an album "Thrash", but still recognize that, for a time, it was "Avant-Garde", even if those same designations do not hold up the same today. As for Into The Pandemonium, I do not believe that the "Avant-Garde" tag should be removed, because of the albums constant style changing for dramatic effect. 

Just shared my review. I had a lot to say so let me be brief:

Sunbather is a record that shocked a lot of people when it came out. Hell, it's still controversial even to this day. Some "metal purists" do not like the idea that their favourite genre is commercializing. They can't stand change. But change can be for the better. I believe that Deafheaven created the most culturally significant metal record of the 2010's and a great one to boot. The major chordal harmonies found within are truly spectacular and unlike anything I've heard in any strain of extreme metal. The atmosphere is warm and uplifting rather than cold and brooding. It is flawed for sure, but its unique charm almost makes me lenient by default.

8/10

P.S. If you like this new wave of blackgaze, may I suggest giving artists such as White Ward, Sylvaine and Unreqvited a chance as well. 

I am a melo-death fan first and foremost in this clan, so take my opinion with a grain of salt everyone.

Here's an honest question for my like minded metal-head friends: after the initial shock of this albums creating a new genre called "death 'n' roll", what else is there to this album? This album is a mashup of straightforward rock grooves, and crunchy distorted death metal, usually included with deep howls. And while I might appreciate the effort, it does not resonate at all. To me, this album sounds like what Pantera might have resembled if they had driven more into darker subsections of the heavy metal landscape. There are a lot of influences from hardcore/crust punk as well, but at least many of those albums bothered to have a tune. Outside of "Full of Hell", I can't recall anything here. As an introduction to the style, I can only hope that this isn't the best this subgenre has to offer.

4/10

I may have been too generous when I reviewed Frizzle Fry back in April. I found the record to be tolerable, but pretty boring. And so when I reviewed this record, I was happy to hear some evolution from a production standpoint, but had to drop off considerable points from it with the songwriting. I know it's meant to be corny and wacky and doesn't take itself too seriously, but where are the hooks/grooves? Nowhere to be heard as far as I can tell.

I toss this record up in the same vein as any modern math rock record; one that tries to be fancy with all of its crazy time signature changes and oddball guitar solos, but lacking in any substance. In other words, Sailing the Seas of Cheese is the definition of a wank-fest.

5/10

I'm not gonna lie, this album left me conflicted. I can see it's appeal. I can tell that the album is really good, and just like with Darkthrone's A Blaze In The Northern Sky, I am truly grateful that it exists. But as I said in my review, this record feels like an attempt to "commercialize" metal; to make it popular in hopes that it may become a trend. The self titled record from Sabbath managed to be a far more unique experience.

I have lived my entire life as a fan of metal and have always been treated as an outsider because of it. When I turn on classic rock radio and I hear "Paranoid" or "Iron Man" come on, I enjoy it, but something about it feels wrong. As if heavy metal could not have become a phenomenon without it. Granted, this was the 1970s and promoting your music was far more challenging; you could not just post on Facebook with "hey guys check out my demo!" and if it was not accessible within reason, radio would never play it. 

That said, this is still a very good record, one that would set the framework for an entire genre and this entire website. We are all incredibly grateful for its existence.

7/10

I won't say that Leviathan is the bands "best" record, but it is the one that ascended them into household names... and rightfully so. The commercial success of "Blood and Thunder" may have resulted in the change of direction beyond Crack the Skye in 2009, but their songwriting was impeccable to go along with some catchy as hell riffs. I noticed that BABYMETAL is also featured this month in the clan challenges, so I'll go into more detail about this later, but when a certain crowd of metal fans get antsy that their favourite band is becoming mainstream, sometimes it's warranted.

8/10

This is excellent! I'm looking forward to using this feature to search for new artists/albums that have gone unnoticed.

The new progressive death metal record from U.K. based Rannoch. Took me a while to find a new tech death/progressive metal act that balances melody and technical proficiency to an exceptional degree. FFO: Opeth (early), Rivers of Nihil, An Abstract Illusion

8/10

https://rannoch-uk.bandcamp.com/album/reflections-upon-darkness

Can we add Rannoch (U.K.) to the website please?

Not a lot to say about this EP from Enter Shikari. And that isn't necessarily a good thing. This record depicts a change of direction for the group, and they were smart to make it into a brief three track EP (if you don't include the remix of "Radiate") rather than a full length LP. It sees the band bringing most of their electronic elements to the forefront and would be further explored on later releases. Unfortunately, I never really liked Enter Shikari as a metal band; their guitars tones on this EP are so compressed and don't hit with punch. As the band moved away from heavier tones on further projects, I feel like they have seen sustained success, but Rat Race was a good framework for what's to come.

6/10

Black Future is one of those albums that is really good, but I wish I enjoyed more than I actually do. In my review of the album, I described how forward thinking this album feels in comparison to other timed thrash metal records. But it does fall into the trap of being overindulgent in the progressive and technical elements from time to time. I can certainly see why some people might find an album such as this to be an acquired taste in the thrash community, but I believe this album only laid the framework for better records later on, and helped influence other tech-thrash bands of the 2010s, including Revocation, Black Fast and Cryptic Shift.

7/10

This is one of the most bizarre and oddly satisfying records I've heard that can fall into the "drone" category. Neptunian Maximalism and their debut album Éons. The "metal" elements might be sparse, and certainly so on the third act, but this felt really well done and I had to share it. Review is also up.

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/

Opeth are the pinnacle of progressive metal and their discography does not have a clear bad album. Even when they decided to move away from prog-death to accessible prog-rock in the 2010s, Opeth were still able to deliver with relative consistency and quality. But this stretch, from My Arms, Your Hearse to Ghost Reveries has to be one of the greatest runs of albums by any act. Blackwater Park is considered the opus of the bunch and while I do disagree with that claim (Still Life is a perfect 10 for me), I can see why this band was so influential/popular during this time and how they were able to break boundaries in the heavy metal genre. The rulebook does not apply to Opeth and I think we can all agree that we are better for it.

9/10

My opinion of Adrenaline was not very well flushed out as evidence in my review. It was more of a spattering of quips that, while still entertaining, does not hold the same value to me as further Deftones albums. It was clear from the outset that Deftones were not intending to be full fledged trend hoppers in nu-metal, and it does make for a fairly enjoyable listen. The first few tracks have similar musical themes, making them connect well together, but that is forced out about halfway through; a big disappointment. Throw on top of that the inconsistent mixing, and Chino's faux rapping, and the debut record does feel a stepping stone before the group would go off the rails later.

6/10

If I could describe this record in one word, it would be disappointing. Their are some excellent ideas on display with this record and the drone tag might seem disingenuous; their is some much needed groove on this record where the droning atmosphere could work. Unfortunately, it's bogged down by some terrible metal production, in which the guitars are so poorly mastered that it's nearly impossible to hear anything else. The softer sections do sound beautiful, but the transitions between loud and soft are really disjointed that it almost gives me a headache when sitting down and listening to this whole record. 

6/10

Not sure if this classifies as metal, but can we add Hum (USA)?

I like the idea of being able to filter based on subgenre. If somebody wanted to search through the gateway clan, but also wanted to weed out nu-metal (since it is a very controversial subgenre and assuming it was declared a major subgenre in that clan) that could be beneficial. Not just for people in the clan to find new music, but also for new visitors who like alternative metal, but not nu-metal.

I just recently posted my review for a new metalcore band called END and their album Splinters From an Ever-Changing Face and a lot of what I said in that review can be easily transposed and shared with my opinion of Jane Doe. It's frantic, it's aggressive, it doesn't give more than twenty seconds before changing the groove/rhythm up entirely, and it's alarmingly nihilistic. This album (as well as END) is the end result of pent up frustration of being able to do...nothing. Kind of fitting given the times. And I can see why an album like this exists and I can certainly respect those who find it an absolute masterpiece within the subgenre.

I am not apart of that target audience. From a compositional level, the frantic nature of the music is disjointed. While their may be some great ideas, they are as quickly tossed away as they were conceived, never to return again. It makes the music frantic, but it doesn't make it memorable. From a sonic point of view, the bass is heavily muted, Bannon's vocals are blown out in the mix to all hell, the percussion is super compressed on the first half of the disc, and while the guitars are this albums best feature, their contribution feels slightly muted due to a lack of vocal counterpoint during the breakdowns, and the aforementioned bass presence.

In the end, I gave this as well as Splinters From an Ever-Changing Face the same score because they both made me feel the same way. I feel like my review for this album was overly harsh however, simply because of it's stature as one of the all time greatest metalcore albums, but I believe it's justified in this case, since I can see where abstraction can sound good, when complimented with solid melodic framing and groove. I much prefer the same era albums from Dillinger Escape Plan, but I do also enjoy the post-hardcore elements from Converge with Axe to Fall and beyond. Perhaps all hope isn't lost after all.

5/10

I like most of the ideas that are being presented here Ben. I think that the discussion on whether or not album cover ratings should be limited to people within the clan does make some sense as Ben describes; an album cover such as Tomb of the Mutilated will certainly be controversial for those who might not be as well versed within the extreme metal subgenres.

Beyond that, I find it counter-intuitive to hide new releases within the clans behind walls based on the clans that we decided on when we joined the website in the first place. I really enjoy the sonic palette of atmospheric black metal, and I really like writing reviews for them, but because I could not select four clans from the beginning, The North was the odd one out for me. Denying users access to other clans sounds like tribalism to me.

Case in point, the clan challenges. I really enjoy the current format of the forum clan challenges: one album a month from each clan that I may have never heard before, or revisit albums that I had not heard in a while. Most recently, I discovered Falkenbach through the clan challenge and really enjoyed it. If featured releases were placed behind exclusive content walls, I may have gone the rest of my life without knowing Falkenbach existed! Adding them to the front page or the front page of each clan group however, could make them more accessible and perhaps get more people involved in the conversation and I don't see anything wrong with that.

In addition, I'd like to suggest that band v. band/album v. album should be added to the front pages as featured content as well. I really like the idea of holding music side by side and seeing which of it stands out as either more culturally significant, or just better music in general. 

As you may know, I am a huge sucker for this brand of pagan influenced black metal and Falkenbach are a welcome sight, from a band that I had no idea existed prior to checking out this album through the clan challenges! The atmospheric touches tipped off by the huge guitar tones give this album an epic sound not that far removed from a band like Saor, but without the humongous compositions and forms.

The album sounds excellent with the very solid low end, flutes, fiddles and horns as alternate counterpoint to the melody, and a great dichotomy of clean singing and harsh black metal screeching. A couple of small quibbles hold this album back for me, but a great little project that I will certainly be returning to. Thanks for the recommendation Daniel!

8/10

The sole album from Ven Buens Ende..... is a very obscure listen. This is an album that requires multiple attempts to truly "get" and also requires the listeners full, unwavering attention. It blurs the line between progressive metal and black metal surprisingly well, even if the black metal elements are...questionable. 

All of the odd song structures and time signatures will make for a very alienating experience, especially for those who are expecting a black metal album in the same vein as the plentiful Scandinavian black metal bands that were inescapable during this time. But because this is an Infinite clan challenge, Written in Waters has a vision that is uncharacteristic of anyone else in the genre. Certainly a one of a kind listen that should be heard, even if you may not like the sounds that you hear. For me, it's an album I like, but not one that I can see myself returning to all that often.

7/10

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Macabre on this one. While this album isn't all that bad, it certainly lacks any unique qualities that make it stand out from the countless other speed metal bands during the eighties trying to replicate Venom's sound.

The production on this album is lacking any prominent low end to give these songs any definitive punch, the bass lines are practically non-existent, the vocals are serviceable, but lack dynamic flare, and the songwriting is pretty weak. The band tried to incorporate odd time signatures and changing rhythms, but it's so clunky and the transitions feel forced.

4/10

I didn't know anything about Therion before checking out this record from them and my initial reaction was...these guys were influential?

I've listened to many power metal/symphonic metal bands during my lifetime, specifically those European groups that came out during the 90s (Nightwish, Epica, Rhapsody). But upon hearing this record, I found it super boring. The songs themselves are very redundant, the melodies are quite simple and forgettable, and their is very little (in any) variety between tracks. I now know why this group avoided my radar during my symphonic metal binge back in the day

5/10

I think that now, more than ever, we need bands like RATM and The Battle of Los Angeles. Given the turmoil and the civil unrest taking place just south of me, it amazes me to see how influential this band has become. These guys were supposed to be the outcasts, the radicals. Now it seems like their message has become more popular than ever.

Rage Against The Machine are one of the most unique groups that have ever existed and The Battle of Los Angeles is their magnum opus. It is the refinement of both the sound and the content. I relate this album back to Minutemen's Double Nickles on the Dime in taking a pre-existing genre known for being rough, cleaning it up, but still retaining its core identity. I can look over my personal quibbles with the record when the music is this anthemic and awesome! The war still rages on!

9/10

Here's my abridged review of October Rust:

A fantastic doom/gothic metal record that is a benchmark of atmosphere, dynamics and emotive force. This would be an easy 9/10 for me if it wasn't for the terrible production, cutting each song short. As I mention in my review proper, I doubt that they were pressured by time restraints, so this is either terrible recording, or a joke, something the band is familiar with, and not a funny joke at that.

Still, I can look over all of that because the music, environment/atmosphere and the themes are so well put together on the music that we do get. Twenty-five years have passed and there is very little rust on these parts!

8/10 

New blackgaze from my part of the world everybody! Unreqvited is Ottawa, Ontario's newest entrant into the fray and I heavily enjoyed the symphonic elements and how they add to the overall atmosphere. I would say that the individual moments sound better on the own, but the dynamic control is excellent. Apparently, they've been around for a few albums over the last five years. Worth checking out, but over-saturation could be detrimental down the road.

7/10

https://unreqvited.bandcamp.com/album/empathica

https://unreqvited.bandcamp.com/album/empathica 

Can we get the new album from Unreqvited Empathica added to the site?

And since I just mentioned them in the last post, this is the debut album from Seattle based Izthmi. Much more traditional black metal tones, while still digging into that epic atmospheric songwriting and timbre. Ben, I think you'll really enjoy this.

8/10

https://izthmiseattle.bandcamp.com/album/the-arrows-of-our-ways

More folk-y black metal from me guys! This one is from New Zealand and, while I did like this album far more than Skyforest's A New Dawn, this is still far more in the blackgaze subsection of the genre as opposed to Dzö-nga or Izthmi. Certainly an acquired taste, but good stuff from a very niche subgenre.

7/10

https://sojournermetal.bandcamp.com/album/premonitions

As I mention in my review, I am a complete pleb when it comes to trance metal. My original conclusion was that it would sound like a heavier version of the similarly named electronic dance music genre and the rest would fall into place, but I don't really get that from Massive Addictive.

Now to be fair, my opinion on what classifies as "trance music" is vastly different from most so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I still do like some of what's going on here. The melodies are pretty nice in small doses, the production is mostly solid beyond some blaring synths and the male and female vocals create some pretty decent chemistry.

When I think of getting lost in a trance, I think of a genre such as shoegaze; one that locks the listener into a sleeplike, hypnotic state with its wall of sound production style and this album doesn't give me that, but then again, trance music doesn't give me that feeling at all anyway! When I need trance music, I listen to an artist like deadmau5 in the techno/house side of electronic music. I would love to get some more guidance as to where I could look to find a better understanding of trance metal as a whole!

6/10

Guys, the new Green Carnation album, Leaves of Yesteryear, is pretty damn great. The band have returned to their long form compositions for this one, but on a smaller scale. It sounds fresh, while still paying homage to Light of Day, Day of Darkness. Not bad for a fifteen year layoff!

8/10

https://greencarnationsom.bandcamp.com/album/leaves-of-yesteryear

Please don't crucify me!

When I look back on the origins of the second wave of black metal and the sounds that were presented by Burzum, Mayhem and, of course, Darkthrone, I vaguely remember my distaste for the subgenre, and extreme metal in general. Part of this is inevitably my age; I was never around to experience this wave first hand and my introduction to power metal in my youth deeply skewed my preferences in the genre are towards the more bombastic and power/symphonic side as I got older.

So going back to listen to the album that is considered by many as one of the genre's landmark albums, I felt...underwhelmed. The mixing of the guitars is bad. I've listened to original 1980s records of hardcore punk albums that had better guitar tones than this! The songwriting wasn't much to write home about either. There were some ideas and some of them did sound pretty good on their own, but not as a collective and certainly not in their frequency.

Again, maybe it's my age and growing up with a fully grown tree rather than a root in the ground, but I'm still not a fan of this album. I will always respect it for what it did and pushing the genre forward, but this doesn't hold any weight for me in comparison to albums by Emperor or Dissection.

6/10

I'm really glad the Sólstafir album chosen for this month's challenge was Köld and not Ótta because for as good as that album is, I did want to talk about the album that really pushed Sólstafir over the edge from black metal into progressive/post-metal. And to be fair, this group did start moving this way before this record on Masterpiece of Bitterness. But this was the final step and it is good, but not among one of the all time classics.

For one, the production is wonky. The guitars almost never have a consistent mix from one track to the next, to the point where I have to question if these tunes were even created for the same album! From a compositional standpoint, while the songs are pretty and lush, tunes like "Pale Rider" just fall flat because thy have no melodic drive to them. The album could have fared a lot better if they could have developed some consistent hooks or grooves on some of these tunes rather than having them just feel like extended jam sessions.

That said, the album does have some good points; the melody on "Köld" is very nice as well as on "She Destroys Again". And the slow crescendo on "World Void Of Souls" is one of the better displays of dynamic control I have heard from a metal band.

I believe that this band refined this sound and made more complete records in the 2010s, but looking back on the O.G. reminds me about what can go right (and wrong) in post-metal in the following decade.

7/10

I sure do miss the golden age of power metal. Now granted, I wasn't around for most of it, but I mean that simply from the standpoint of someone who has only experienced bland, paint by numbers power metal for the better part of two decades. Whereas Blind Guardian are a group that have been evolving and changing the game for the better part of three decades.They have been one of this genre's most consistent acts throughout the years, and Imaginations From the Other Side is the band at their peak.

And looking back on it today, I can hear how the thrash metal genre was formed out of the power metal scene. Lots of fast grooves, palm muted guitar passages and big drum work. Unlike a lot of thrash metal though, Blind Guardian have an uncanny knack for infectious melodies and phrases, making them instantly recognizable among their peers. And Hansi Kürsch sounds incredible on this record as well. His booming voice is strong and powerful, which adds to the layers of machismo that this album is covered in. Sometimes Hansi's vocals do get in the way of the pieces themselves, but those only occur on the slower tunes, and even then, it's only a minute detail.

I am glad to see that Power Metal gets its respect when it's most famous names are brought up, and in the case of this record, are generally reviewed favorably. Unfortunately, besides Helloween, this genre is usually blasted for being redundant and boring. But if you're in the right mood for it, Imaginations From the Other Side is a monumental achievement in the subgenre.

9/10

I have made a lot of statements since becoming a music critic that have earned me a lot of flack. But not statement I have ever made has been more controversial than me believing Ænima is the bands worst album. I'll spare the details, but in short, the interludes that break up the track listing have a high brow sense of humor that made the album, as well as the band, sound like pretentious assholes.

That feeling is gone on Lateralus. Every track is fluent and flows into the next with effortlessness. The groups songwriting and performances are the best of their entire career. And while this album still does wreak of pretentiousness, I can't fault it because the storytelling is among the best I've ever heard across a single album.  Daniel says that this is "cream of the crop" and he isn't wrong. There is no reason for songs like "Schism" to have crossed over onto rock radio stations in 2001/2. But it did, probably out of sheer will of the people. And I couldn't be any happier that it did.

10/10

When you look back on the legacy of Celtic Frost, I don't think you will see such a drastic pivot in musical style and timbre than that of Monotheist. This is a group that had not released an album in over a decade, so expectations were incredibly high for some, and for others, theywere absolutely certain that this album could NEVER live up to the sky high expectations.

This album helped pave the way into the 2010s for some of those in the darkest side of metal. The lyricism on display is top notch and makes you feel uncomfortable and cold. It isn't a moshing album that's for damn sure, but it hits like a ton of bricks either way.

When I listen to the modern era of doom metal, this is the gold standard that all other albums are compared to. The breakdowns are rewarding, the lyricism is dark and sombre, and the tinges of drone and black metal make it stand out among its influences and influencers.

9/10