Rexorcist's Forum Replies

Windir - Arntor (1999)

Genres: Melo-Black Metal

The 90's metal scene was all about two things: crossing the dark side to the radio world of alternative and exploring the true darkness by experimenting with the limitations of extreme metal.  In the blackened vein, after While the viking aspects of the intro sound dated and cheesy, the sound of the rest of the album is quite good.  It fleshes out the style they built for themselves on their debut with a stronger sense of melody.  The production of the edition I'm listening to isn't bad.  I'm given the black metal feel I demand, which is busy, somewhat noisy, and yet clear enough for everything to be properly displayed.  I understand that many RYMers wrote reviews long ago about how the production was below average.  Considering that I may be listening to a rerelease on YT, I have to wonder if they remastered this edition.

As opposed to the outright evil displayed in many different kinds of black metal bands, Windir took a very different approach.  This album shows how far they can go into the triumphant, positive and epic vibes that come with the pride of being a viking.  This is music right of the the ancient North.  And it rarely even takes this direction to weird, seemingly inappropriate directions, like playing up the vibes to an obnoxious extent.  The most obnoxious and not-so-serious thing about this album is the dated intro.  In fact, the album is even so much fun that when I checked the name of the track I was on, The Blacksmith and the Troll of Lundamyri, I didn't realize I had heard four-and-a-half minutes of it, and that I was halfway through.  I honestly thought I was three minutes in at most.  But because the band was focused on developing a sound, there's not a lot of room for branching out beyond that.  In other words, the album is mostly about the identity of the band, and justify it with the skills they have.

This is one of those albums I gave a 100 to when I was first exploring black metal, which was a whole new world for me on a multitude of levels.  But now that I'm much more familiar with it years later, I've been lowering the ratings of many black metal albums.  So I would even go as far as to say that this album is more on the level of Cruelty and the Beast, being a 9/10.  I'm pretty happy about this though, as this common element of my recent reviews showcases how much I've grown and become aware of standards to develop.  This is a fun and influential album, but having started this earlier a few days ago and having fallen out of favor is what lead me to start a plethora of melo-black albums in an effort to find that PERFECT one.  So, Windir's reevaluation helped me grow and discover something new.

89

This one might fit the criteria Rex:

Dornenreich - “Her von welken Nächten” (2001)

It's pretty cool that you mention that one, because I actually gave that one a shot yesterday.  Someone else recommended that to me on Reddit for the same purpose.  I was about to fall in love with it, but when I realized the first three tracks were following the same format with how it handled the genres, I was pretty disappointed.  Basically, it wasn't surprising anymore, and the fourth didn't really help fix that problem.  Really close.  I'll finish it one of these days, once I can get past that voice.  I mean, it was charmingly cheesy at first, like a gangling goblin sidekick from a good cheesy 80's fantasy movie, but then it just got overdone.

As for Ben's suggestion, I just checked out that Arcane Odyssey album, and I have one thing to say:

It had some doom metal, some folk metal at the end, good surprises among the length, mix between brutality and careful atmosphere, choice production.  This is going on my list of perfect albums, at 461, right between the Silent Hill II soundtrack and the Alien soundtrack.

I started my first ever audiobook this week  Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels narrated by John Lee.  I have Barker's Books of Blood on my shelves but never really bothered with anything Hellraiser related until starting listening this week.  Barker's got one fucked up imagination but it works wonders for horror fiction.

I both love and hate the way his mind works.  I've read The Hellbound Heart and seen all three of his directorial efforts.

I've found that black metal in general is really helping me with my passion project which will remain anonymous at the time.  All I will say is that it will be deeply philosophical, psychological and quite chilling.  One of the self help videos my mother watched and sent to me is helping with determining character flaws and reactions.  And this one's going to be an epic.  If I'm not careful, it'll be as long as The Stand.  I at least want to go for 600 and not turn myself into the next Diane Chambers.

Anybody know some real genre-benders in melo-black? 

I have a few I would recommend to you, Rex, though a couple of them are mixed with other genres:

Underoath - Cries of the Past (2000)

Stormlord - At the Gates of Utopia (2001)

Shade Empire - Omega Arcane (2013)

Shylmagoghnar - Emergence (2014)

Waidelotte - Celestial Shrine (2024)

I'll be checking out all of these.  I can't promise I'll finish them all at this moment as I'm looking for something I'll consider absolutely peak, but I will definitely check out all of these bands when I form a top 50 or so melo-black chart.  If any of these albums sound a little different with each track, I'll check out that one first.  I typically steer towards mixing genres on a track-by-track basis.

Actually, Storm of the LIght's Bane is currently the number 1 black metal album on RYM. It seems that Filosofem has been massively down voted recently due to Varg's beliefs, despite the fact that everyone knew about them prior to the internet ever reaching the masses. Apparently there is less tolerance for judging art on it's quality rather than it's creator these days.

Yes, I was quite happy when I was it to Filosofem.  My recent reevaluation dropped it a whole star.  However, I don't have any right to combine the art with the artist; my favorite black metal band is Emperor, and Im away that they have reclaimed Faust for their reunions.  I believe they said they have different viewpoints on forgiveness in Norway than they do in America.  And I can get behind that as a person CAN change in over 20 years.  Of course, Burzum hasn't done much of that, but either way, my newfound disappointment with the album is purely artistic, and with no offense meant to anyone, I personally don't think it's honest for people to say the musical quality matches the moral quality.

My major problem with the album is that, while it sounds great, it lacks composition in place of atmosphere and drags.

Anybody know some real genre-benders in melo-black?  In the meantime, I'll be re-evaluating a couple albums...

Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane

Genres: Melo-Black Metal

I'm a bit surprised I'm the first one to post a review of this album on this thread.  It's basically THE melo-black album, and a contender for THE black metal album in general.

If you're first getting into black metal, then one of the first names you're going to hear is Dissection, specifically in regards to the album Storm of the Light's Bane.  This album was once the number 1 black album on RYM many years ago, and had been dethrones by the overrated Filosofem by Burzum for many years.  In recent times, it's reclaimed that position, and stands as a major player in black metal even now.

Now I'm a guy who very, very rarely gives single-genre albums a perfect rating.  There are only three instances I can think of in which I've done that: Songs of Leonard Cohen, South of Heaven by Slayer and Almoraima by Paco de Lucia (that's flamenco, btw).  And I'm not quite sure I'd give SotLB that just yet, but I completely understand if a lot of other people in the world would.  For a single-genre album, this remains pretty original throughout and never once gets tiring.  This sophomore effort is certainly not just an exercise in skillful riffage and drumming: it's a poetic testament to the power of black metal, downplaying some of the death metal that was carefully combined with black metal in their first album, allowing for some of the most excellent melodies black metal has ever featured.  It's very difficult to pick favorites out of the group, because the consistency in songwriting and performances makes it that difficult.  Even when you've heard the genre and basic sound before on previous tracks, they keep finding ways to impress you.  Even when they're recalling old tricks, it's the way they're organized that impresses.

It's certainly a much catchier album than before, and gets the winter vibe across perfectly without relying on winter production.  This is an essential for a reason: it's mostly so well done that it's a threat to beat.  I'm not even sure this sound has been properly emulated yet.

98

I'm pretty happy Filosofem is no longer the top black metal album on RYM.  Dissection, while not my number 1 choice personally, has a better overall sound and isn't tainted by an overlong ambient track that has very little imagination.  Burzum's quite good as a metal artist, but his dungeon synth needs work.

Excellent decision, Rex! Now which North clan challenge would you like to do to earn that clan?

I'll go over many of the albums I've already heard but did not review yet in the 2nd Decade challenge.  It makes sense, because I still need to focus on genres outside metal for my lists, but I can always go back on something I've already heard before if I really need a metal kick, and metal does help with writing anything related to Wings of Nialoca.

Having said that, I decided to celebrate by ending this long streak of putting off Nachthymnen by Abigor.  Wonderfully black album, but needing more variety (again).  Perfect production and wonderful playing, though.  Easy 9/10.

I'm ready for my fourth clan.  I have officially posted full-on reviews for these three list challenges:

1. Guardians: Power Metal - The Early Days

2. Infinite: Prog Metal - The Second Decade

3. Pit: Thrash Metal - The 80's

I'm ready for my fourth clan.  I've thought very long and hard about this, and came to the best decision I can.  Not only has this been a genre my core has been more and more drawn to over the last couple years, but it's also the genre I feel I can do the most good on when voting on halls.

The North.

I'm two books away from completing my 75 book reading challenge on Goodreads.  Right now, I'm blowing through a preteen spy book a regular at Dunkin gave me to read and donate.  Recruited by the FBI by Rob Baddorf.  It advertises Christianity on the front, but I'm halfway through with the book and there's BARELY any mention of God, Christianity, etc. at all.  As well, it plays out like a PG spy film that tried to capitalize on the success of Spy Kids, like Agent Cody Banks or Catch That Kid, except with only a little more brainpower behind it.  As well, I'm already halfway through this 250 page book in one day for a reason: the font is large and the chapters can easily be 2 pages long.  And many times, the second page will be 1-3 lines.  I think the author was intentionally writing short chapters with those short second pages to make chapter books feel easy for kids.  Many of these chapters could've been combined into longer ones, and kids could still read 5-10 page chapters, as they do with Jerry Spinelli.

Not that great of a book, really.  But once I'm done with this, I'll be getting through Abominable by Dan Simmons for the final book.

So on my Canterbury ventures I'm currently exploring Picchio dal Pozzo.  The debut was a massive creative splurge with some impressive harmony, instrumentation and personality.  It was a little unhinged, though, not on the hyperactive side, but based on hoe often the band showed off the many sounds they can make as opposed to fleshing out songs.  So this one gets around an 89.

This econd one, Abbiamo tutti i suoi problemi... God, what happened?  Simple, repeated sax notes, going on end for minutes, like the early stages of demo tapes being rerecorded for an album.  What happened to the excessive spark that took us from the forests of fairies all the way to alien planets with robot citizens?  What happened to all the personality?  This is so boring in comparison.  No sense of melody, no depth, no variety.  Almost halfway through and strongly considering a 4/10 for it.

I like the logic here around the “articulator” billing and also your rationale for your liking of that album cover.

Thanks.

I guess I thought of it since I myself am a writer, which means I have no right not to recognize articulation as a skill.  And since I try to design my own novel covers and avatars, I can't help but understand why the non-AI artists are a bit peeved at these other people being called artists.  I mean, I admit that it's totally possible to make amazing art from it (I made one good picture and it was still unfinished), but I'd rather not deal with the legal stuff attached to it.

I'm the opposite.  Most AI album covers, even the good ones, look pretty obvious.  So if it's extremely good, then I assume someone painted it either traditionally or digitally.  The way I see it, calling something AI without proof is a false accusation, and I'm quite against those, even the small ones.  The one thing about AI I'm against is calling yourself and "artist" when the computer's doing to work for you.  Since the skill comes through articulation, I'd say that it's better to call these AI artists "articulators."

Hey, if "cray cray" is acceptable...

By this standard, I will rate a cover, even if I think it's AI, and I'll do it fairly.  For example, take this cover.

Now since my mom pushed me to try it, I did try out AI fore a while but was largely unsatisfied with the results.  Now since the center tentacles look a bit like tentacles I tried to create when experimenting with AI during that phase, I could assume that it's AI.  But whether it is or not, I can honestly say that I find this cover thematically assaulting, properly colorized, beautifully detailed and completely eye-grabbing.  So I'll be rating this five-stars, but I acknowledge the computer as the artist in the event that this is AI.  However, looking it up, I found that this is simply digital art by Giannis Nakos, so in this case, this is an artist and not an articulator.

Stephen King's The Long Walk. Figured I'd finally read it before watching the recently released movie.

I plan on reading that before seeing the movie as well.

Just finished Mort.  While its humor is still only chuckles, its world building and reliance on alternate realities is very cool.  Death's a surprisingly believable character due to the satire of getting tired with your work, and it was cool to see the Rincewind cameo lived up to.  Just as awkward as ever.

80/100, best of the four books so far IMO.

Wait, it's not under power metal???

Nerd Alert: 

Currently reading Tolkien's The Silmarillion as I haven't done so since the 1980's. It isn't anything like as difficult a read as I remember it being and I am really enjoying it.

I still need to read that for this years book challenge.

As for myself, I'm on the fourth Discworld, Mort.  Decent series so far, but apparently I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet.

I love Discworld. True, the very best ones are still to come. I would be very interested to know how Pratchett's humour lands with readers from outside Britain.

The wit is easily recognizable.  I'd say the strongest balance between wit and storytelling so far has in fact been Mort.  Of course, having just got off the back of the Hitchhiker's series, these jokes are more "decent" than anything.  I chuckle occasionally, but I'm expecting better things later on, so I might as well start from No. 1.

Nerd Alert: 

Currently reading Tolkien's The Silmarillion as I haven't done so since the 1980's. It isn't anything like as difficult a read as I remember it being and I am really enjoying it.

I still need to read that for this years book challenge.

As for myself, I'm on the fourth Discworld, Mort.  Decent series so far, but apparently I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet.

Robert Wyatt - Old Rottenhat (1985)

Genres: Canterbury Prog Rock, Art Pop, Singer/Songwriter

Although Soft Machine is my favorite band in the Canterbury scene, I have struggled to get into Robert Wyatt's works.  He's too subtle and sometimes confuses emotionless vibes with a deep-rooted series of repeating complex beats, which can still boast some impressive composition but also feel incomplete.  In comparison to Soft Machine, this is a completely different world, one that is intentionally built to be introspective and beat-driven.  It shows mostly on this album, Old Rottenhat.

Lyrics, there's some pretty good poetry here, especially on The Ahe of Self.  This album's also notable among prog fans for being Wyatt's most blatantly political album.  There are some things I agree with here, but Wyatt had a communist period at one point, so depending on your political beliefs, you may want to check the lyrics carefully.  The album's even dedicated to an MI5 agent who was convicted for being a Russian double agent.  For the most part, lyrics are doing the majority of the work, but sometimes, the poetry just isn't as strong as it is on other tracks, leading the repeating complexities to keep a mellow mood with a couple cool twists here and there that still go on forever, sounding fairly pretty due to skillful production but never reaching creative heights.  Honestly, the album behaves a lot like a techno album, being lowbrow and built in repetition, but this is a ROCK album, and it doesn't manage to reach any serious emotional heights, so any of the six-to-eight-minute songs will only manage to be cute and enjoyable but underwhelming as well.

One can say that the unique reliance on complex repetition and mellow moods are bold and unique, and boldness helps, but the overall effect sounds like Robert Wyatt's, as the last track P.L.A. puts it many times, "trying to sleep."  This is strictly for Wyatt fans and boasts some strengths that are heavily noticeable if you're looking, but don't make up for the lacking melodies and lacking progressive unpredictability that build the genre, especially for bands like Wyatt's band.

67

Blowing through my favorite show while working on another novel.  It's been a major influence on my writing style, no military pun intended.

Shit, those kids can't lose their mom so early.

OKAAAY, so here are mt current Caravan rankings.

1. If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You: 92

2. In the Land of Grey and Pink: 91

3. For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night: 90

4. Caravan: 90

I don't think I've ever heard a more 9/10 band.

Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971)

Genres: Canterbury Prog Rock, Psych Rock

As I mentioned in my previous review for Caravan's debut, this album's reverence eludes me, especially due to immediate comparison to Soft Machine's works.  Hell, I even listened to Fourth yesterday and gave it a 95.  But if I'm going to re-evaluate this album, immediately comparing it to another on of their classic albums is as good of a time as any.  If I'm going to get myself invested in and educated concerning the Canterbury scene, then I need to re-evaluate this ASAP.

Three tracks in, I was already strongly considering a higher position.  This isn't as blatantly psychedelic as the debut album, and it doesn't drown it out like the second album.  This album is five tracks and fixes a couple of noticeable flaws in the debut that were created by its own strengths: the variety factor is further balanced and not as busy, allowing for the necessary breathing room.  As far as instrumentation goes, it's fine enough, but not brilliant.  The real reason to listen to this album is for its careful, breezy, chamomile tea-time vibe.  Know many rock albums that are perfect for chamomile tea?  Well, here you go, right on a pale salmon platter. All the little tricks used for the prog and psychedelia are expertly placed, from minor bursts of piano to flute midtros to keyboards.  And I'm quite admiring the decision to go into cutesy and folksy prog pop.  Love to Love You may not be prime songwriting, but it's infectiously charming, acting like a midway point between Beatles and Jethro Tull.  The chill factor almost reaches Steely Dan heights.  As far as the 20-minute epic for the second half goes, a genre fan would naturally like it well enough.  The thing is, it stays more fun and finely-tuned throughout and never really amazes me.  I'd even take off a couple points for how inferior it sounds to the first half because of that.  So it's a fine album with some obvious improvements, but for its lack on imagination in the second half, I'm only giving it one more point.

91

Caravan - Caravan (1969)

Genres: Canterbury Prog Rock, Psych Rock

After having put together a good chart of my top 100 post-bop albums (which I chose to do because I struggle to get into post-bop), I decided my next venture would be one I've quite likes so far, but have largely neglected in favor of other education ventures: Canterbury prog rock.  Now I've heard a grand total of TWO Caravan albums.  If I Could Do It All Over Again was a great album with a beautifully chill vibe, but felt slightly empty when compared to Soft Machine albums.  In the Land of Grey and Pink felt a bit emptier, but still managed to play up the band's strengths more.  Retrospectively, the albums are ranked 92/100 and 86/100.

Because the stereo is apparently satanic to upload to YouTube, I'm listening to the mono on Archive.org.  This debut is doing a good job entertaining the psychedelic genre fan in me.  There's a very careful balance between psychedelic, jazzy, hard, trippy and calm.  As a result, this feels a bit busier than the other two albums I've heard.  Of the majority of psychedelic prog I've heard so far, this is the most aware and tame.  This does not necessarily mean it breaks new ground, and the compositions, while fun and quite spirited, are essentially made of pieces that were already done similarly and beaten by the others, so while the album has a wonderfully 60's vibe to it, there isn't much about the album that I can say I "love."  Maybe this is because the album is so active in its mild switches from genre to genre (mild and tame, I repeat), that it doesn't have any breathing room to let the structures feel longer and more balanced?  In other words, it needs a little breathing room.  But the album maintains its strengths all the way through.

So this is a great genre album for fans of 60's rock, showcasing a lot of cool tricks that were popular at the time with spirit being the best trait.  Lots going on, but in need of some breathing room for most tracks except for the 9-minute closer, Where But for Caravan Would.  Skillful debut.

90/100

If you like atmospheric stuff, definitely check out Blut aus Nord.  They helped pioneer early atmospheric black metal.  If you like Sabbath, maybe start with their most psychedelic piece, Hallucinogen.  They also do industrial stuff and creepy stuff very well.

Au5 - Divinorum Remixed (2022)

Genres: Brostep, Melodic Dubstep

As much as I love exploring EDM, and am happy to have found a total love for TFoL, Shpongle, The Prodigy, Juno Reactor, Justice and many more, dubstep has always been a weak point.  Ironically, its overly-edgy subgenre, brostep, was my major gateway into exploring EDM.  I can't even remember my first brostep album, but at the top of this list was Au5 and Fractal's Secret Weapon EP.  I've heard a decent deal of Au5's extended plays, but not many of his albums.  Now most people would've headed towards the original before the remix, but there was this weird, unspeakable gut feeling just aching to check out the remix first.  I don't know why.  Maybe because I've never done it that way before?  Maybe because in my experience, the shorter album, as the remix is, tends to be the one that feels less stretched out, and there's a heavier genre batch in the tags?  Either way, I checked it out.

Now Au5 has a total taste for the atmospheric yet melodically active.  You're not going to find any of that Marauda-style working its noisy, deeply vile metallic fingers into albums like this.  And right from the getgo, the melodic dubstep colour bass combo is flaunted with a sense of organized chaos on the vein of a consistent experimental album.  There's lots of room for playfulness in every song, yet there's always one or two major focal points which greatly differentiate it from the rest of the songs.  Some of these tracks here are total dance jams that challenge the constructs of layout with a plethora of unpredictable sound effects, and yet feels more like personality rather than pretnetiousness and overdoing, which is typically the case for the bulk of brostep releases.  One of the better examples of this is the perfect balance between mellow volume and energetic beats on Dragonfly, which take care to maintain the randomness of brostep without ever going too far into one idea or switching vibes too quickly for its own good.  And sometimes it's deeply contemplative, like the title track or Mesmerize.  Even the worst track, the electro house track Beautiful Sky, has plenty to say in only a surprising runtime of two minutes.  Even the song Divine has its own presence by introducing a vibe like early 2000's late 90's pop rock, somehow maintaining an identity without being out of place.  And I have to tell you... Drink Me is just one of my favorite things.  That was just a gorgeous reconstruction of the wide-ranging universe-spanning behavior, fully polished into a gem-like take on the Alice in Wonderland surreality that the title suggests.  And how fitting is it for this album to end with a deep, slow, IDM track that ends our journey on such a strange note?

I don't give a rat's ass if that last line was too hammy.

This was a strange yet polished mix of contemplative structures, surreal beauty, catchy beats and bleeding personality.  Maybe this is because dubstep is difficult for me to get into, but this was exactly the kind of album I look for in practically any genre.  Not a single disappointment, lots of beauty and some amazement along the way.

For some mysterious reason I just decided to binge their catalogue out of the blue.  This came in as my #2 by the band, followed by "We're an American Band."

Blut aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons (2025)

Genres: Atmo-Black Metal, Psych Metal

I've been eagerly awaiting the ability to review this, because I've got some things I wanna get off my chest.  Now, I often play Hallucinogen to drown out noise when I need it.  It's one of my go-to albums for that purpose, especially for its dense, mind-warping and just nearly Lynchian psychedelia.  So I was pretty happy that Ethereal Horizons was a return to the Hallucinogen sound.  But as fun as it was, as epic in its approach and as beautifully produced as one would expect from an atmo-black metal band with this much experience, the psychedelia felt a bit nerfed in comparison.  There were some proggier elements scattered around as well, as I often note in reviews for good albums, and many of these were the better parts.  But as epic as they kept things, melodies and vibes were also a little typical.  It was dreadfully easy to compare this negatively to Hallucinogen, although I acknowledged the strengths of the album as well and believe this will satisfy those who like the more sci-fi-oriented sound of this beautifully multi-faceted band.  Hell, it's decisions like that which makes Blut Aus Nord my second favorite black metal band.

77

Deftones - Private Music (2025)

Genre: Alt-Metal

I actually tried to get through Koi no yokan today after starting Private Music and quitting, deciding that my goal was to further profile the band before heading to their new release.  I chose Koi no yokan because it's basically ranked as the third best Deftones album out of their impressive catalog, but the first three songs sounded totally the same even with that obnoxious secondary tagging on RYM: Shoegaze, Alternative Rock, Dream Pop, Post-Metal, Post-Hardcore.  That really pissed me off, So I just went back to their new album.  Besides, after having been underwhelmed by my Sadus exploration, which was necessary for the Metal Academy list challenges, I needed some kind of good album to complete some kind of relevant list I'm working on.  In this case, it's 2025.

Now the first two songs are very short, and despite the transitioning being flawless, the two still manage to change directions and sound a bit different from Koi no yokan.  The third one is weirder, much less reliant on the general Deftones noise at first.  It starts with an industrial beat and sonar-bleep guitar playing.  The atmosphere feels more attributed to standard alternative metal rather than the overused Deftones noise backdrop.  And while track 4, Infinite Source, goes back to the noise, it feels a bit more like the melodic punk-infused alt-rock of the 2000's, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Quite a few of the songs are very short, and sometimes they justify their length with a proper usage of simplicity.  But at other times, the songs may feel undercooked.  And as I expected, despite the occasional change of pace, many of the songs go for the same emotional core and basic sound.  In other words, this is a Deftones album for fans that plague places like RYM.

But you wanna know the most impressive thing?  I cannot believe this singer, Stephen Carpenter, STILL SOUNDS LIKE A FUCKING TEENAGER.  His voice doesn't age.  His voice aging would obviously be a sing of the apocalypse.  This bad is thirty years old, and this founding member is 55.  This is actually something that kept the album going for me, even when it started to get monotonous.  I suppose this is actually my favorite thing about the band.  But as far as the album goes, I REALLY REALLY wish they would focus on the diversity factor more like they did on White Pony.  I mean, what's the goddamn problem?  Most people say it's their best album.  It's the only Deftones album I gave above a 91/100, and by that I mean I gave it a 99.

Overall, this was a fun and surprisingly brisk time for more of the same Deftones.  There was just enough melodic and lyrical imagination to work.  I was never that much of an alt-metal guy, let alone a Deftones guy, but this was fun.  Deftones once again carries the aquatic noise factor of albums like Biomech very well and with a good sense of pacing and slow melodies.

85

Buck Owens & His Buckaroos - Ruby (1971)

Genres: Bluegrass

I found myself in a bluegrass mood of all things, stemming from a craving to find that perfect bluegrass album.  But the RYM charts weren't helping much as many of the albums sounded samey, so I went to Reddit.  I found many recs and have a lot to go through, but then I found out this Buck Owens album was only 24 minutes.  I didn't even know he had a bluegrass album; he's mostly known as a Bakersfield sound pioneer.  What the hell, I'll just get through it, I thought to myself.  And I am so glad I had enough time for another short album.  There's a lot of spirit to be had in this album.  The band's having a lot of fun, so it's easy to have fun with them.  Now the songs follow a select few basic bluegrass formats, but the energy and production makes this album sound, even for lack of a better word to describe this album, GORGEOUS.  The mixing is gorgeous, and the country spirit is diamond purified, like they freakin' went to Jared.  Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms put me in a perfect equilibrium between my body jamming and my mind and soul absorbing the essence of the music.  Honestly, there's very little country that does that, as much as I love exploring it.  Now I will criticize this album for technically being quite samey, but damn if this isn't some of the most head-bobbin country I've ever heard.

91

Btw, I found that PERFECT bluegrass album pretty early on, but I'm not in the mood for reviewing a 75 minute album right now.  That album is Highway Prayers by Billy Strings, but don't get into him until you've heard some of his earlier albums.

I agree with all that. What a combination of internet, Covid and corporate marketing has done is consign the concept of definable sub-cultures to the dustbin of history, the Baggies of the 90s being the last really definitive movement (in the UK that is). That said, anyone who thinks these subcultures were primarily about what you wore, understandably, has no idea what they were about. To those inhabiting those spaces it was more than a fashion choice, it was a way of life that informed everything you did, who you hung around with and provided a sense of community, belonging and especially freedom, particularly within poorer communities. 

It still makes me laugh to see middle-class twats paying £100 for a pair of ripped jeans. I regularly wore ripped jeans back in the day, but only because I couldn't afford new ones. This was back when you used band patches to actually cover holes in denim jackets and  jeans eaten away by battery acid, not merely to profess your fandom. What we would have given for a new pair of Levis back then!I

Today the cult of the individual is king, which is weird because it seems to me like everybody looks the same!

This was also back in the day when the bands themselves were simply trying to look edgy and the fans wanted to emulate the spirit by looking and acting like the "rebels" they worshiped.  Of course, when one of our leading ladies in said industry is wearing a dress made of meat, that kind of kills the internal necessity.  It then transitions to: if I become famous, I'll dress in whatever I want.  But... they can't.

Look, I think there's something in the idea that metal continues to gain & lose popularity in a cyclic fashion but I don't think there's any reason to believe that it's a regular cycle of seven years. Personally, I don't think it's a repeatable pattern. It's simply about when the next big commercial metal subgenre or band pops up in my opinion & you can't really put a timeline on that.

As for where all the metalheads have gone, I think it's easy to take a shallow view & say that we don't see as many of the traditional long-haired, black-band-shirt-wearing metalheads in society today but I think there's a reason for that. I've recently discovered that there are quite a few metalheads at my workplace for example but only two of them outwardly show off their musical passion & they are both of a similar ilk to myself. The others all got into metal through nu metal or later & we've seen that fans of post-2000 metal fads no longer feel the need to display their passion through long-hair & black band t-shirts so it's harder to identify them. They do however have a tendency towards tattoos but that's not strictly a metal trait any more with a larger & larger percentage of the population showing off significant amounts of permanent body art. So, what I'm saying is that there may be more metalheads around than people realise because it's not always obvious any more which is a little sad in my opinion.

All this.  Hell, the only person I know outside the web who listens to Mayhem was a small teen girl who only boasted earrings.

Combined with the economy and the rise of streaming, there's been less of the need to appear to be a metalhead beyond maybe buying a t-shirt.  Streaming and Covid, paired with collab-rating sites, have done more for King Crimson in the US than the actual albums themselves.  These people have already been made fun of well enough in pop media that to dress like them is basically like wearing a halloween costume.  Can you even afford the fashion these days, anyway, when entertainment companies are charging 80+ for viudeo games and separate prices for the Amiibo's that unlock what you already paid for?  Our right to be entertained and still pay the bills is basically being abused, so YouTube is socially the best thing that can happen to the music community.  Even Letterboxd wants to get into streaming rentable films, which I like.  I'd give my money to Letterboxd.  Never disappointed me (save the time it's taking to filter out concert films from narrative films).

Fashion is basically unnecessary now.  The time of dressing the part is over unless you live in Beverly Hills or some economical equivalent.  All anyone has to do to get into the extreme genres, for example, is get introduced to Born of Osiris and check out someplace like Metal Academy, RYM, last.fm, and these websites will ensure that it's not long before they've at least checked out the song Crystal Mountain from sheer curiosity.  And hopefully so, since that clearer production and voice makes for an excellent gateway into a genre known for being more brutal than that, even by that same band.  But the idea of the visual subculture isn't as normalized unless you're living in one of those high end places with the clubs.  Rock or metal, it don't matter.  The online community is practically ensuring this love of nostalgic exploration.  Hell, the Walmart near work is now boasting a healthy vinyl section with the artsier stuff mingled in with new releases, and even had an entire shelf dedicated to the A24 release of Stop Making Sense.  The fashion of the modern scene is basically just headphones, and not necessarily in public.

Back when I went to see Swans, we had people wearing shirts ranging from Death to Slint.  And even the middle-agers and elders who go to the metal concerts these days are almost exclusively "rock t-shirt," little to no jewelry, and a non-existent third component :P.  The most obscure band tee I've seen in a metal concert is Joy Division.  And at work, I occasionally get a customer coming in with an extreme metal shirt.  Amon Amarth, Blood Incantation, Cannibal Corpse, and whatever the fuck D is because I haven't seen a Death shirt at work yet. There were even some obscure ones I've never heard of, and at one point I got to recommend Claustrophobic Dysentery by Cabinet to a guy who came in with one of the obscure band tees.

I just checked out the new album by a band that's typically very underwhelimng: Everyone's a Star by 5 Seconds of Summer.  I don't like these guys very much, but this... this was kinda bangin'.  Among typical songwriting structures and lyrics came some very clever production, mixing and percussion techniques that brought an art to the electronic saturation.  Every song was very different, yet the instruments used kept a consistent flow.  Through this, these guys were able to channel a wide array of pop influences and remain quite catchy, which seem to include Radiohead, Gorillaz, better Coldplay and a little Weeknd on the side.  This is the first of their albums I legitimately liked.

76/100

Finally getting to watch the new Frankenstein.  The book is one of my all time favorites, and I believe Del Toro's been getting better as a director in recent years.  His Pinocchio is my pick for the best Pinocchio movie.

This one hits hard for me.  RIP John Lodge, pivotal member of Moody Blues.

I had surgery today to repair a hernia and I will never underestimate how lucky I am to have private medical insurance.  The care I received today was outstanding.  Predicting a rough day tomorrow but at least I am back in my own bed tonight.

Ouch.  Well, at least you got some amazing care.  Kick that hernia's ass.

RIP to Lo Borges, legend of Brazilian pop.

My phone died from "complications during a fall."  So did freaking Ace Frehley.  Except we can't pay nearly 200 to bring him back.  Gonna miss him.

Anybody check out the new Coroner yet?  if that's what they sound like when they're out of practice, what kind of insane monster of total thrash energy will we get when they get back on track?

Going on a Thy Art Is Murder marathon right now.  "The Adversary?"  Uber generic in practically every way.  Almost everything is totally middling.  52/100.  Going on Hate right now, and I'm quite impressed with the upgrades in the riffs and the usage of the second vocal style.  It's a bit more thrashy but loses none of its death metal edge.

My mother just gave me a stack of Aldous Hunxley books to read through, even though I just bought Mystic River, Timeline and The Stand at Goodreads with a birthday giftcard.  So I'm gonna speedread one Huxley a day if I can and then send each one back to her.  She wants to get through them once I'm done.

Mystic River has fantastic prose and excellent characterization.  But the first act is a very slow drag that the movie thankfully fixed.  Might've been perfect if it had a better soundtrack.

I loved The Stand, but I haven't read it in donkey's years. Maybe it's getting time for a revisit. I do like the Mystic River movie but I haven't read the book. Is Timeline a Michael Crichton book?

Yeah, but not one of his best.  Every villain in the medieval ages is pretty much the same character: "I freak out and accuse you of lying because I can't handle that I'm someone in power who's being told he's wrong."  Honestly, I'd rather have lunch with Trump.  Yeah, these guys are more annoying that Mr. You're Fired.

Dario Argento marathon for the time being, while working on the second part of my Wings of Nialoca series and speedreading The Stand at roughly 200 pages a day, on top of one shorter novella to help with the speedreading challenge I've been slacking off on.  Once I'm done with Argento, I think I'll move onto Lars Von Trier.

WHOA.

https://m.soundcloud.com/david-chavers/evil-dead-666

JUST WHOA.

I met these guys at a Swans concert.  I'be heard a lot of demos and ep's by small time metal and punk bands, and I got into a conversation with them before the show started.  I mean, the place was loaded with post+rock t-shirts and potential RYMers, so when these guys told me about their band and said they wanna diversify, I figured I'd check these guys out.  Now that I have, I repeat... WHOA.

Now lyrically, the overly violent stuffs been done a million times.  Evil Dead worship is cool, though.  But that ability to shift and mutate like it's nothing is impressive.  Good riffage, good voices, these guys deserve some credit.  Hope they get an album out.

Bro, treading some reviews in an effort to grasp an inkling of why this album gets any kind of slack, I found that Sodom fans consider this a disjointed work in comparison to the classics.  And to that, I say, "Check out Thembi and call me in the morning."  If you ask me, this whole albums feels the way I've been asking it to feel, a largely consistent vibe that shows the band trying to expand.  I came into this expecting anything from 60-80 / 100, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm in the rare came again, the Prometheus / Tauhid / Fulfillingness' First Finale / no better EDM than FSoL camp: this is better than Agent Orange.  They're doing what they can to put out another real Sodom album while trying to expand their horizons, and they largely succeed.  This album has tricks up its sleeve that I wished Agent Orange would even simply try to attempt.

At the time of writing this, I've given this album its highest rating on Metal Academy: 92/100 = 4.5 stars.

You're the first person I've ever seen agreeing with my position that "Better Off Dead" was the best Sodom release to the time.

Damn, we're all alone.  Freakin' Tom Hanks and Wilson.

Sodom - Tapping the Vein (1992)

Genres: Teutonic Thrash

Okay, I really wasn't expecting such an awesome blast of deathened thrash.  Instantly, I'm punched in the face harder than anything Pantera's capable of.  The production, energy and sound are freaking incredible!  But upon this first track also came concerns that this album would be a one-trick pony.  Of course, track 2, Skinned Alive, is by all respects a death metal song, which is fine, but not exactly diversification.  While the album was exceptional in the heaviness department, I was really hoping the third track, being five minutes, wouldn't rely on it, and I got what I wanted for the most part.  Its slower rhythm still has that simple monotone sound you'd expect from a typical Sodom song with the extra heaviness to back it up, but things pick up once the solo kicks in. For the most part, the album switches between different levels of heaviness, and usually, the heavier they are, the less rhythm and melody will be involved.  Some songs switch between tempos and levels of heaviness, like the title track, but that's the artisiest the album gets.  SO while the heaviness certainly does give it some big points, the lacking songwriting ability still needs to be addressed.

77

Sodom - Better Off Dead (1990)

Genres: Teutonic Thrash

Prepared for a fun album rather than a great one, I think I ended up getting both.  This has plenty of thrashing, but above anything else, it's multiple kinds of fun, the spirited kind that defines the album like a Zappa one, rather than the general kind that tries to justify the existence of an otherwise undercooked movie, like Kung Pow.  Now one thing that disappointed me about Agent Orange was the glaring inferiority of the band's attempts at straightforward heavy metal in comparison to their thrash works.  But here on Better Off Dead, songs like their cover of Thin Lizzy's Cold Sweat prove that they finally got a grip on this.  They're making fun, catchy songs of various kinds, leaving room for some raw thrash material such as Shellfire Defense and Bloodtrails.  Thing is, in place of the occasional blackened influence of previous efforts, they included some more obvious attempts at melody, and this helps differentiate the album from previous efforts while still managing the Sodom spirit.  I mean, hell, Shellfire Defense is Agent Orange material, and if you're a classic fan then you'll definitely get a big kick out of the title track.  I even went back and listened to Shellfish again.  Might be my favorite Sodom track up to this point; it left me wide-eyed, something that even the best Sodom albums haven't achieved yet.  It also takes time to be a little weird more often than not.  Gotta say I'm kinda lovin' that two-part intro to Bloodtrails.  Though I WOULD say Healing Wounds is basically speed metal filler.

Bro, treading some reviews in an effort to grasp an inkling of why this album gets any kind of slack, I found that Sodom fans consider this a disjointed work in comparison to the classics.  And to that, I say, "Check out Thembi and call me in the morning."  If you ask me, this whole albums feels the way I've been asking it to feel, a largely consistent vibe that shows the band trying to expand.  I came into this expecting anything from 60-80 / 100, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm in the rare came again, the Prometheus / Tauhid / Fulfillingness' First Finale / no better EDM than FSoL camp: this is better than Agent Orange.  They're doing what they can to put out another real Sodom album while trying to expand their horizons, and they largely succeed.  This album has tricks up its sleeve that I wished Agent Orange would even simply try to attempt.

At the time of writing this, I've given this album its highest rating on Metal Academy: 92/100 = 4.5 stars.

My mother just gave me a stack of Aldous Hunxley books to read through, even though I just bought Mystic River, Timeline and The Stand at Goodreads with a birthday giftcard.  So I'm gonna speedread one Huxley a day if I can and then send each one back to her.  She wants to get through them once I'm done.

Mystic River has fantastic prose and excellent characterization.  But the first act is a very slow drag that the movie thankfully fixed.  Might've been perfect if it had a better soundtrack.

I'd place the rawer "Persecution Mania" slightly ahead of "Agent Orange" personally but they're both very solid releases. The six-year period from 1987-1992 was Sodom's peak in my opinion but I do have to admit that I've never thought of them as a tier one thrash metal act. I don't think they're in the same class as Kreator & have never awarded them one of my more elite scores.

Oh, definitely not.  Kreator's got a couple 9.5's on my scale, and one of them came close.  Ironically, none of these are Pleasure to Kill.  The three I chose are Coma of Souls, Extreme Aggression and Terrible Certainty.  Of course, it's been some time since I checked out any Kreator, and with all the thrash I've been listening to lately, I may have to give these guys another go later.

As I said in my recent review of Sodom's new album, I don't think that they get as much credit as they deserve. I will admit that Kreator are the benchmark for german thrash, but I would definitely place Sodom over Destruction whose claim to legendary status is much more dubious than Sodom's own. Both "Persecution Mania" and "Agent Orange" have five-star status in my own metal world and easily stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anything european thrash produced, except maybe "To Mega Therion".

I found Destruction quite overrated myself.

Sodom - Agent Orange (1989)

Genres: Teutonic Thrash Metal

Having got through the EP's and albums before this one, including their first live album, I'm happy I'm finally checking this out.  Their second album and second extended play showed a major upgrade in musical quality, both on a songwriting and heaviness factor, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect except for a good time.  The titular opener showcases a new ability to go from careful melodies to proper thrashing instantly while keeping the essence strong.  Some may miss the fuzz factor that defined their blacker albums, but the clearer production gives them a chance to really show off their thrashing abilities, especially in regards to their guitarists.  We also get some more excellent drumming from the always wonderful drummer, Chris Witchhunter, who's consistently been my favorite member.  Hell, even Tired and Red is able to showcase just how far they're willing to take thrash by going from the blackened riffs to a softer ballad solo to some easier, chiller thrashing akin to Jump in the Fire.  This is the most any Sodom song had done so far.  If you're a fan of the really early Sodom stuff, then you might get a huge kick out of Incest (I want you to pay very close attention to the capital I).  Its first half is entirely made up of the extra-strength muscle rub that slathered the earlier blackened stuff, heavier than anything on Agent Orange thus far.  The second half is slower and a little more "epic" in that vein, before ending with a return to the first verse's form, as expected.  This first side ends with Remember the Fallen, which starts as more of a heavy metal song than thrash.  I'll be honest, they obviously didn't learn how to make a great heavy metal track yet.  It was alright, palatable, but had nothing really amazing about it.  At least they gave heavy metal a shot.

Side B kicks off with Magic Dragon (no relation to Gloryhammer or Puff).  The heavy metal intro and first verse carry on the heavy metal sound of the last track with a slight improvement in quality, but it only made me want the thrash to come back because there's a difference between "pretty good" and "great."  Thankfully, the second act kicked off just like that.  Nothing new but it had much more personality and ability.  But I certainly don't want the album RELYING on the thrash.  I'm an "expand your horizons" guy, so I was a bit disappointed that Exhibition Bout started out the same thrashy way we've been getting for the previous few releases.  Thankully the song took a softer thrash route after the first minute, and it really wasn't that bad.  It was catchy and operable, but it only lasted for the middle section.  The saving grace upon returning to typical form was one of their best solos overtaking the third act, a grand one that makes this one of the best songs on the album.  Track 7, Ausgebombt, is practically a crossover thrash song that retools the Sodom sound, and adds a little something to the album that honestly should've been done ages ago (Slayer were doing it pretty often), so it's nice to hear that.  And finally, yet another grand thrash, Baptism of Fire, shoves the black metal influence and the Teutonic majesty in your face as it should.

So this wasn't the most diversified album, as expected being a Sodom album, but it was another upgrade in quality, albiet a small one from their sophomore release.  This is one of the harder thrashers in the Teutonic scene based on what I've heard so far, and I can get behind it being a thrash classic.  Still, give me Metallica any day.

90

Sodom - In the Sign of Evil (1985)

Genres: Teutonic Thrash, Blackened Thrash

Today is a Sodom day for me.  Having gotten done with some Bathory binging during my chores, today was a good day for some more blackened thrash.  Sodom came around in 1985, following in Venom's footsteps while taking some of the thrash sound of Ride the Lightrning, and before being known more as a thrash band they put out this brutal little piece of blackened muscle.  I gotta say that the general sound is pretty cool.  The density of the guitar riffs and the production style work quite well for a debut extended play.  Hell, this album is much harder than the majority of metal albums of the 80's if you ask me.  The one doing most of the creative work, however, is the drummer.  Every one of the bandmates knows how to be heavier than Hell itself, but most of the melodic structure is simple riffing at incredible speed with production to back it up.  Aside from the highly impressive heaviness which never overstays its welcome due to the short length of the EP.  But there really isn't anything truly unique about this album other than beating Bathory at the game he started with his debut album.

69