Rexorcist's Forum Replies

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (2009)

Genres: Americana, Alt-Country, Chamber Folk, Country Folk, Singer/Songwriter

Bill Callahan is a name that's well-regarded in the Americana scene, but I rarely ever go on full-on Americana binges.  They come out of the blue, mostly out of necessity to explore a scene, and usually I only get through a couple albums by an artist rather than a deep exploration, Callahan included.  But due to his new album being well-received, and my disappointment with MEC's Sojourner, I decided I'd finally just get the guy's opus out of the blue.

Now my original intent was to check out a few of his other works before heading to the opus, but the other two works, while good, didn't grab me by the heart, so I disregarded him in place of other Americana artists.  But I'm glad I up and chose to listen to this after the two-hour repetitive MEC album posing as a box set.  See, most Americana albums... I tend not to be impressed with because there's a very common habit of Americana fans slapping multiple genre tags on an album where each genre is largely built for slow guitar and drum songs, and the emotional range is limited to sad or calming songs.  This isn't creativity to me.

But with this album, it's different.  You may find that the genre tags for this album are largely the same, but replacing post-rock with chamber folk.  And this combination is balanced and unpredictable at the same time, adding various kinds of repeating instrumentations that one can't guess at all, much like a clever EDM album.  This greatly helps with the autumn vibe expressed on the album cover.  This can easily save many of the songs that drag on a minute or two longer than they otherwise need to.  In fact, a part of me even fell in love with the seventh track, All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast.  Easily an Americana favorite of mine.  On this subject of the creativity, most of the repetition and drawn out behavior take place in the first half, but is not enough to drag the whole album down.  It's largely absent in the second half, with the exception of the nine minute epic, Faith / Void, which, with its chorus, justifies the 50-something appearances of "what if" in the titular Creed song.  The instrumentation still finds room for raw autumn beauty.

Now the internet is under the impression that this is Callahan's opus.  I'm not QUITE sure I'd call it that, but it's close.  I slightly prefered Dream River for its combination of prog folk and psych folk elements.  Still, this is a very clever album that stays enjoyable while being slower than necessary.  It's a good atmospheric folk piece that I recommend hearing at least once.

84

Magnolia Electric Co. - Sojourner (2007)

Genres: Alt-Country, America, Singer/Songwriter, Country Folk

I actually consider Jason Molina, RIP, one of the greatest of our age.  Several five stars as Songs: Ohia and a few key greats with his band pretty much cemented that.  The dude is good with playing with genre, so a wind-range of genre tags on any website you go to should indicate that Sojourner might be a favorite of mine.  A two-hour country album is a risk, but if Billy Strings proved anything with Home, it was possible.

Having said that, why is it that this album ragged with alt-country, folk rock, country rock, post-rock and slowcore sounds albums completely the same throughout all two hours?  I'll tell you why: because every song is being the same slow calming song played with essentially the same instruments.  This two-hour package posing as "multiple albums" shows minimal creativity and melody from start to finish, relying on a dark and empty atmosphere, a voice like a more masculine Neil Young, and clever lyrics throughout to justify this.  Now these are all proper strengths, yes, but not enough to drive two hours.  What's the point of a box set of albums when they all sound the same anyway, and when we've got plenty of two-hour albums in this day and age?  This ended up kinda boring me after a while, even though it started out well.

68/100

I just got word that Phil Campbell, guitarist of Motorhead from '84 to '15, died yesterday.  RIP.

Heavensouls - Debut

Genres: Electronic, Experimental

What with heavensouls releasing a new jazz-funk album of all things, and considering its grand reception so far, I figured it was time to see just how eclectic this half of Sidepieces was.  This is one of those kinds of albums that makes a point of showcasing creativity in almost pronographic display, yet it also becomes a very clever mixed back.

For example, track 1, 4.99 a Pound, was way too short, needing expansion for such a good direction.  The second track was too long, but had a brilliant mix of radio bumpers, hip hop, Merzbow noise and raw chaos.  I love it when electronic albums go all over the place.  Track 3, named 0, gives us some ambience with a slight hint of noise and a careful dose of reverb, the kind of tape music sound that I was introduced to via acts like William Basinski and The Caretaker.  When I heard this track, I realized, I kinda missed that sound, eventually becoming a house track.  As well, it's so fitting to have this kind of track follow up such a whirlwind of sensory overload a la I Talk to the Wind from In the Court of the Crimson King.  Now the middle house section is boring and dull at first, but the last third adds some backdrops which aren't so wild but deliver a proper dosage of character.  At the end of the day, this was a proper EDM song IMO, boasting the careful shifts that were pioneered by early EDMers, notably The Future Sound of London in my head.  Next comes a 2.5 minute track called Fallin Off, which I could only hope isn't too short like the opener.  This one uses extra-dense sampling, atmosphere and two shifts in the middle to deliver a thick and active track which had more than enough to say in two minutes without overwhelming, and yet, left room for a quiet noise outro for the next 30 seconds.  Another proper piece.  The first half ends with Love You Down, which is a nice and soft piece with clear but low female pop vocals, which are nice to hear.  They're justified not only by the unpredictability of the album, but by the ambient instrumentation which goes in hand with the first act of 0.  But, it's a repetitive five minutes, so the general idea was a good one, but the delivery needed work.

The second half begins with the five minute Cold, which makes a point of repeating, glittery instrumentation and piano, like a remix of a Final Fantasy track.  No complaints here.  It's a very nice tune which puts images of ponds and fountains in my head, just the kind of thing that was missing from an album that seems to have everything already.  And yes, the five minutes were repetitive, but more atmospheric and a little more creative than before.  The prettiness and ambience return with stronger force on Manderan.  I was beginning to miss the density, so I'd say that the return of it was pretty well times, especially when you have a good female singer and a deep voiced male duking it out at the same time to the ever-growing ambiance.  It eventually returns practically everything we've heard so far in just a seven-minute runtime, and it even managed to do so on the four minute mark.  It was all a jouryney, a proper journey through music's full capabilities.  After four and a half minutes, we get the nature recordings of bird chirps and some actual jazz in the mix.  In other words, Heavensouls is telling us...

I love jazz so much.

Next comes a cool jazz cover of What a Wonderful World, but recorded to sound like the music and a bunch of people in a building are both talking over the singer, as if this was a simple bootleg recording.  Clever.  Once again, Heavensouls proves that there's even more for this album to do.  The final track, Often, makes a point of sparcity, creating a whole other mood for the album, one full of despondence, concern and empty apocalyptica.  Honestly, from a compositional opinion, this was too sparse to really consider a proper big bang for the album.

This is an album of strong hits and near-misses that makes a point of having everything, and mostly rocks it while occasionally struggling with a consistent tone a la Thembi by Pharaoh Sanders.  Still, the track Mandelan is one of the best experimental tracks I've ever heard.  This was a very bold step for a debut and am now all the more interested in Heavensouls and his past and future ventures.

85/100

This was one of the first albums I checked out many years ago when exploring 1967.  Even now I still consider it one of the most gorgeous pieces of 60's history I've ever heard.  Currently stands as my #296.

This one's about right IMO. Not much I would "disagree" with here.

This is one big week for music: new Gorillaz,  Iron and Wine, Mitski, BIll Callahan, Pat Metheny, and the first Bruno solo project in ten years.  The latter is my second album for the day.  Now on the one hand, rhymes and lyrics can be pretty typical.  On the other hand, as I expected, the love of 70's soul, funk and a little disco is on full display.  I didn't expect the songs with the Santana vibes, though, one of which felt a little like Low Rider.  When you think about it, that combo is totally appropriate for this album considering WAR's genres.  So in short, a few pop shortcomings aside, when it comes to the love of pop R&B's roots, this is the Baggins that showed the most spirit.

78, a slight step above Unorthodox Jukebox.

Thomas Rhett - Life Changes (2014)

Genres: Country Pop

Now I am really NOT into country pop of the modern age.  While I love classic country and SOME modern country, the pop section has largely disappointed me over the years.  However, as generic as Thomas Rhett can sound, on his album Life Changes, there's one thing about this album that I love: this album's all over the genre spectrum and it never loses its personality.  Rhett's sense of pop fun seems to show quite well through country pop, alt-rock, soul, and many things in between.  I guess he followed MJ's Thriller Factor: reach out to as many people as you can.  As such, this even gets some decent marks on RYM for its efforts.  But still, the majority of songs here are still pretty generic, never really shining beyond decency and most times being just OK, sometimes sounding incomplete.  Still, this has more effort than most country pop which I've used for bottom charts, and I'll reward it for that on my end at least.

67/100

I'm done with it.  Due to the praise, I expected it to make 8-9/10, but not quite.  The instrumentation of Leprous Daylight was very cool at first, but the same tricks were rehashed, so I gave that one about a 78.  This one seems less technical and is largely relying on heaviness to do the work, although I admit it's extremely difficult to find more heavy music than this.  Even Blood Incantation can learn something from this heaviness.  And that can be said about the last album, and this album's a little heavier anyway.  I'm gonna give this a 75.

Well, next week, we're getting another album by someone who's been improving greatly with each album: Bruno Mars.  And I'm quite looking forward to what he does next after his Silk Sonic project, which captured 70's soul perfectly IMO.  Ten years without a solo work is way too long for this guy.  This single, I Just Might, is quite a funky song.

Lemme see my 1980 chart.

All genres:

1. Talking Heads - Remain in Light

2. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

3. John Williams - The Empire Strikes Back

4. Augustus Pablo - Rockers Meets King Tubbys in a Fire House

5. Jackson 5  - Triumph

6. Motorhead - Ace of Spades

7. Tatsuro Yamashita - Ride on Time

8. Harold Budd / Brian Eno - Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror

9. Joy Division - Closer

10. Siouxsie and The Banshees - Kaleidoscope

Not much point in my top 10 of metal if I've spent 1980 with a plethora of genres.

My brother just showed me THIS guy.

It's like Michael Gira did a folk song for a gritty modern western.  It's freaking brilliant.

https://metal.academy/releases/55304

This is listed under :NODFYR: instead of !T.O.O.H.!

Converge - Love Is Not Enough (2026)

Genre: Metalcore

Considering that I'm trying hard to diversify my 2026 chart more and I've already heard a good deal of metal for the year, there aren't many metal bands I'd break the rule for.  But this year's got a couple banger bands I'm already huge on.  This: it's a CONVERGE album.  Even this late in their career, are we to expect disappointment?  It's doing surprisingly well with the metalcore community, even nine years after their last studio album (not counting that collab in 2021).  Having said that, this album is made up of many of the same elements that many previous Converge albums are driven on.  We get the sludge, the crossover, the mathcore, and it manages to be some of the heaviest shit you'll ever hear without going into black or death, yet again.  With every song feeling different from the last, this short and sweet album delivers the full Converge experience, which means the band is still in good form.  However, what is the SONGWRITING quality in comparison to like albums from the past?  Still good.  Inspiring even, but like The Dusk in Us, it's more simplistic and less surprising overall.  Of course, one interesting surprise was that 2.5 minute dark ambient track in the middle, which stands out from the choice of genre alone but is relatively just a somewhat interesting midtro to the album and intro to the track Amon Amok if anything.  But despite this, all other aspects of Converge, including the ability to write completely different songs with the same identity, as well as their indomitable heaviness, remains the same.  In their efforts to remain Converge, they've lost none of their identity.  I may even put this in EXACTLY the same league as The Dusk in Us.

92

I think it's a good step forward for the dungeon sound, but I've fallen a little out of favor with them after having so much black metal under my belt now.  One of the first symphonic black metal albums I ever heard.

SHINee - Odd.  Actually pretty kickass.  Most of the songs go between 8 and 9, but Woof Woof slays it.  God this is fast-paced funk power rivalling anything Bootsy's attached to.

Ahright my turn.

Top 10 from the RYM charts

1. Death - Symbolic (300)

2. Gorguts - Colored Sands (393)

3. Athiest - Unquestionable Presence (547)

4. Death - The Sound of Perseverance (674)

5. Death - Individual Thought Patterns (823)

6. Morbid Angel - ALtars of Madness (851)

7. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere (862)

8. Immolation - Close to a World Below (891)

9. Suffocation - Human Waste (957)

10. Gorguts - Obscura (1008)

Top 10 of All Time

1. Septicflesh - The Great Mass (Symphonic)

2. Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines (Brutal, Tech)

3. Blood Incantation - Starspawn (Death)

4. Napalm Death - Throes in the Jaws of Defeatism (Grind)

5. Death - Symbolic (Tech)

6. Edge of Sanity - Crimson II (Melo, Prog)

7. Gorguts - Colored Sands (Tech, Dissonant)

8. Shadow of Intent - Primordial (Melo, Deathcore)

9. Cabinet - Claustrophobic Dysentery (Blackened)

10. Disfiguring the Goddess - Deprive (Slam)

I didn't expect my top 10 of death to practically be a new subgenre for each entry.

Checking out the new piece by one of the most disappointing hip hop artists I've heard just to add it to a worst list later: Be More Grateful by DaBaby.  However, I'm not really hating this one like I usually do.  Kinda smooth, decent backing instrumentation and vocals, relaxing.  I mean, these songs aren't really amazing me, as this kind of hip hop almost never does.  But for something mid, not too complex yet not severely undercooked, it's one of his better albums.  It's way too long, though.

Kirinji marathon.  Not planning on getting through all the albums, just the most important and some of the modern ones to prepare for this new album. I've heard a good deal of 2025 albums from the RYM charts, mostly the metal.

1. Exxul - Sealed Into None (81.5)

2. Enshine - Elevation (81)

3. Au - Ferrum Sidereum (73)

4. Woe - Legends of Human Frailty (70)

5. The Ruins of Beverast - Tempelschlaf (68)

6. Anna Pest - Dark Arms II (66)

7. Stabbing - Eon of Obscenity (64)

8. Fuath - III (64)

9. Megadeth - Megadeth (63)

These are the 9 / 41 metal albums I've heard this year, so I'm over-metalled here.  As for Kirinji, they apparently went from city pop to sophisti-pop to j-pop to "neo city pop," so I'm a bit interested in how this goes since I'm a sophisti-pop fan.  I wasn't terribly impressed by the debut, it was nice and smooth, but needed better melody, which was present for most of the last two acts of 47' 45''.  As for 3, I could do with some more complex songwriting, but it's a very relaxing pop album.

METALHEAD LOVES STING.

I've gotten through four Black Kray albums today on my day off, having been quite disappointed with my earlier xaviersobased marathon.  

Thug Angel (84.5)

700 Dagreez (82.5)

Crack Cloud$ Over Arts Kitchen (95.5)

Goth Luv (91.5)

Lotta .5's...

Anyway, Black Kray has brought some justice to a genre I've been really struggling to get into.  Right now I'm on City of Doves, and it's quite gorgeous.  Finally, a cloud rap album where songs actually PROGRESS rather than basically being metronomes.  I'm pretty uneducated in it, but this is the first time I checked out a cloud rap artist and didn't find him totally overrated.  SpaceGhostPurrp, Bladee, xaviersobased, Lil Peep and a few others.

xaviersobased - install

Going on a marathon of his stuff due to his new album's high position in the current 2026 RYM chart.  This guy's SUPPOSED to be much better than most, but his production is oftentimes messy.  AND I SWEAR TO GOD IF I HEAR A TRAP ARTIST SAY "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK" AND RHYME "BITCH" WITH "BITCH" AND SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T RHYME WITH "BITCH" ONE MORE TIME.

On the above subject, Hallas got good pretty damn quickly.  Obivously, some albums are better than others.  But I'm on Isle of Wisdom right now which is just poetic in its attempt to recreate 70's prog with a bunch of great melodies, even if the vibe and core follow a typical format for the band.

So the hip new thing on the RYM charts beyond the By Storm album, a tribute to Injury Reserve's late member, is this hard rock band called Hallas.  Checking out the debut EP right now.  It's strongly going for 70's hard rock, especially as indicated by a number of the bandcamp tags.  Having said this, they need some serious work on the melodies, and the vocalist doesn't fully have a grip on the sound yet.  The authenticity is impressive, though.  Don't need AI for that.

Chuck Negron, lead singer of Three Dog Night had passed away two days ago.  Weirdly enough, I turned on Joy to the World out of nowhere yesterday without knowing.  RIP.

I like to think so... or alternatively, we could both be decidedly uncool? Perhaps it's a bit of both. :)

My stepdad says I'm no longer a metalhead if I like Paul Simon.  I say, "screw all that."  A real metalhead isn't afraid of what he likes.  And I'll be honest, if we've got opera-style vocals like Tarja Turenen being so popular in the metal community, I don't think any real metalhead should complain about another metalhead liking Sade.  Hell, I've been playing Sade to help set up moods for a new novel of mine.  I've even got Lovers Live in my top 100 just like you've got Love Deluxe.

Bro, my stepdad doesn't even know Candlemass or Morbid Angel.  He's a thrash and hair guy.

So Petra's got a new one out this year.  First in almost 2 decades.  It's a pretty good one, nice and catchy, simple but diversified, doesn't seem like they lost their luster, even though they were largely a decent band with a couple key releases.

I've been really happy with the direction I've taken over the last 6-12 months whereby I've committed to ensuring that half of my listening habits sit outside the metal space. Not only has it left me feeling better about my hearing but it's also left me feeling musically reinvigorated. So, I think I'll be continuing with this approach long-term & don't think I'll be coming back to the monthly feature release roster any time soon as I'm feeling really good about maintaining complete control over my listening schedule.

I do this very often, but I try to maintain a 1/5 metal album ratio with the rest of my lists.  That's why I've been working on top 100's for niche variants of large genres.  For example, I'm largely focusing on prog soul right now.  However, I'm now in a position to where I can get some more metal under my belt for a little bit, so I decided to focus on some melo-death.

As far as musical resolutions go, I want to make 5 proper top 100 lists for different genres minimum and finally put together a top 100 or a metal genre I haven't gotten a good chunk through yet.  Mostly leaning towards either melo-death or doom.  

It looks like Parannoul, under the name Mydreamfever, has graced us early this year with a new album: 4. Mountain Still Breathing.  But I have to say, while I always LIKED Parannoul and have given them a couple 9/10's, I feel they're a bit overhyped.  As well, I'm NOT getting into this one.  It's way too repetitve and relies too heavily on lo-fi aesthetics rather than the music itself, which is no different to me than oversaturating a pop album with production so polished it might as well be lemon-scented.

Carcass - Reek of Putrification (1988)

Genres: Goregrind

In an earlier review for Carcass's second album, Symphony of Sickness, I mentioned that there was less of the melodic strength that made the third and fourth albums so beloved.  In this early goregrind release, as well as their debut, there's even less of that.  This is one of those somewhat common examples of early 80's metal albums compensating for lack of creativity with absolute brutality, the way earlier movies by Wes Craven were.  "Mature" content over substance.  Now the funny thing is, like Wes Craven, the band grew as their career progressed, so by the mid-90's this was basically nothing more than a historical example of how much they grew.  Despite a few cute tricks here and there, I predicted how the whole album would go after listening to Symphony of Sickness.  Now there may be some charm to have in the lo-fi production.  It's certainly a heavy piece.  But the production also muddles things that shouldn't be muddled, which cements yet another weak point in comparison to future works.  Basically, this overly "adult" album amounts to little more than an imitation album made by a bunch of children who think all it takes to be the best is to be different and "true to yourself" by "not giving into radio capitalism" or some shit like that.  Fortunately, this was the last time they ever sounded like this.  With 22 short tracks, they found a way to make a 37-minute album way too damn long.

52

Carcass - Symphonies of Sickness (1989)

Genres: Death Metal, Goregrind

I'm not one for goregrind really.  In the long run, then I'd rather not educate myself in an entire genre dedicated to piercing the veil of acceptable gore by turning the most disgusting lyrics of all time into that much of a joke.  I mean, it's one thing to have obviously fake pain splashing when you're cutting down b-movie zombies in an intentional cheese-fest like Braindead, but to keep bragging about it as if getting your fingers in between the very atoms that make up gore is how you get your kicks just isn't the kind of thing I think people should be spending months writing for albums.  I rarely explore these kinds of bands, with a notable exception being the slam band Devourment.

Nevertheless, I occasionally go to classic acts like Carcass because of their melodic prowess and heavy say in the modern development of death metal structures, which isn't so much about the gore factor as it is about the melodies, production, brutality, etc.  But before they were a melodic death metal band, they played around with goregrind, which I find interesting considering that the album before the melodic days would be their second and last album to showcase them partaking in their original genre.

Somehow bordering both death metal and goregrind without steering too far into Napalm Death signature deathgrind genre, this sophomore album is largely about having fun with the metallic sound and setting up a basic structure, so there's not a lot of variety going on.  There's a very dirty, gross sound about the production that makes the album sound like it came directly from the underground, ready for vengeance or some shit.  And in comparison to many a grindcore album, this one makes a point of consistent and enjoyable riffs rather than being random-ass and overly technical like a lot of modern grind does, allowing their sound to be both fun and grounded for the metal fans AND the punk fans.  As well, the production never gets in the way of the band's playing.  No, it expands upon the heaviness, which is exactly what an album like this needs.  Speeds even fluctuate at an even pace, giving us enough time to enjoy what we have rather than just going off into 50 different universes in a single minute the way Doctor Strange does.  Still, this DOES mean that this is a developmental album rather than an attempt at real art, which is still a good thing considering that the practice easily paid off.

Now the internet says that this is slightly worse than the two Carcass albums everyone knows and loves: Heartwork and Necroticism.  However, I'd say this is about on par with Torn Arteries.  It's a good album that proved that the band knew what they wanted at the time, but it's also a reminder that Carcass made the smart move on the next album and expanded their sound away from goregrind.  The thing is, while this is a fun album with a successful vibe, all the riffage is flatout OWNED by Carcass's later work, so I wouldn't put this on the same pedestal others put it on.

75

Symphonic metal doesn't have to be heavy or power based.  Vovin proves that.  Nevertheless I'll give it a spin today.

Not metal, but we as music fans MUST address this one.

Remember when we all said on the day it was released that it was his best album in a long while, and then two days later... he died, and the album took on a whole new meaning?

I do need to get around to reviewing and rating the rest of the Death discography, although I say that to myself everytime I look at one of these lists.

Out of curiosity, how many of them have you heard?  And if all of them, how long has it been since you last went back on them?

Funkadelic - Cosmic Slop (1973)

Genres: Prog Soul, Soul-Funk, Funk Rock, Psych Soul

So if that genre-tagging wasn't boner-inducing enough, we're dealing with Funkadelic in general.  This is during that understated period where the psych aspects of their rock side have transitioned to the soul side, allowing for a much more spiritual side to the band, one that remains as catchy and spirited as ever.  This is obviously the step forward into evolving into a p-funk band, one that bases itself on the raw trippiness of the psychedelic age.  Honestly, the third track, March to the Witch's Castle, relaxed every fiber of my body, putting my subconscious into a total state of euphoria.  It's a real shame that this side of the band wasn't explored very much during the late 70's, focusing mostly on the p-funk side we're familiar with on albums like Mothership Connection.  This is probably their most soulful album.

96

While I don't AGREE with the #1, I acknowledge that it certainly deserves to be there.  It might as well be "the" metal album.

Here's the 2026 edition.  Five albums got kicked off, a couple got rearranged, and I'm surprised I have such an obscurity like that Solaris album down there.

Robin Thicke - Sex Therapy: The Session (2009)

Genres: Con-R&B

I must emphasize... I am not really a Robin Thicke guy.  I only turned him on to complete another catalog.  The third album is where I left off when I first checked him out some time ago, so this was next in line.  What hit me a couple tracks in is how effortlessly smooth this album is.  There's not a moment spared on it, and there's no struggle to maintain it.  But the first four or so tracks are pretty typically written and sparse in instrumentation.  As well, the lyrics are standard cheese romance with no real adventure or revolution attached.  But this changes in the middle section with some surprisingly clever instrumentation that turns the album into a real jammer, starting once an excellent rapper / crappy solo artist Nicki Minaj comes into play.  Even after a cheesy spoken intro, Elevatas is a surprisingly rough and industrial track that has a number of clever choices in its ever-progressing intrumentation.  I'd even go as far as to give that track an 8/10 minimum.  The album goes back to some of the more typically written con-R&B after the middle section, but god was that middle section worth it, despite the lyrical content only showing a slight upgrade from the first act.  So in short, this is a surprisingly creative, consistent and smooth album, but it has some very noticeable weak tracks and standard lyricism.  Still, this is easily his best of the four.

68

Steeleye Span - Parcel of Rogues (1973)

Genres: British Folk... Rrrroooock-k-k?

I spent a good portion of the album waiting for it to actually be a rock album as RYM said, as I was in the mood for the British Folk Rock genre.  There's barely on it, so I'll judge it as a folk album.  Now you can tell pretty easily that the group was trying to expand and experiment, trying out a bunch of tricks and sounds.  And mostly, they work beautifully.  This is an exceptionally eclectic and unpredictable folk album that maintains its old-timey folk spirit with very few wavers.  As expected from a Steeleye Span album, it feels like they've summoned the spirits of ancient minstrels to perform, and some of these compositions are gorgeous while others are simply fun.  One issue with the experimentation is that the melodies in the early songs are a bit quirky, and the quirkiness gets in the way of the catchiness the band is attempting, as if they were struggling to rewrite folk so as to ensure they don't recycle melodies from previous albums.  Nevertheless, its ability to shift from sparsechantings to violin-central pseudo-hymns to near-psychedelic electric guitar is wonderful.  It's a journey right through the medieval ages.  But I'm calling this prog folk, not folk rock.

94

Welcome to The North Rexorcist! I believe the transition has been successful (I can see that your ratings are now counting as Clan Ratings for The North), but let me know if anything looks weird.

Thanks a bunch!

Weird like what?

Like a North album or cover you've rated that isn't being included in the Clan Rating section. It should be all good, but I have had to run a recalculation a couple of times in the past when site users change or add a new clan.

Well I still haven't noticed anything weird like that.  But maybe I'm just not paying enough attention.

My books sold five copies today.  I find it hard to believe that actually happened.

I quite like everything I've heard from Amorphis but haven't really kept track of them since they dropped the death metal component of their sound in the late 1990's.  I did check out "Under the Red Cloud" when it was a Metal Academy feature release though & it wasn't a bad listen. I'd still take the more deathly "The Karelian Isthmus" over it but I have to admit that I slightly prefer "Under the Red Cloud" to "Tales From the Thousand Lakes" & the "Black Winter Day" E.P. these days.

I've always liked Tales from the Thousand Lakes, having a strong sense of melody and genre-playfulness, but it seemed less fleshed out than some later releases, and not as well produced, so I never gave it above an 85.

Amorphis - Under the Red Cloud

Genres: Prog Metal, Melo-Death Metal, Prog Death Metal

98

I suppose the album gets more alternative as it goes along, so I'll give this one an upvote.  It also got less djenty as well, but I think we should keep the metalcore tag.

Before we do that, we should have Adding to the Gateway and removing from The Infinite be separate ones.  I'll be sure to vote on both if I can, as this is the last Volumes album I haven't heard.  I'll finish it when I'm done with the current album.

I've just changed the entry & we now have twelve ratings without a clear outcome.

Didn't know you could do that.

If it helps, I guess I'll vote yes to this one, but I'll leave it to be questioned as to whether or not this is goth metal by someone else.  Can't say I fell in love with this album.

I haven't heard any Sarcofago yet, but I'll hold off on that for a later marathon.  I've already voted on the top two, so now all that's left is Into the Pandemonium.  I don't know about the goth metal tag being primary.  I wouldn't vote for that since I only hear it in a couple tracks, but I do agree that the avant-garde tag should be taken off.  They probably should've been two separate Halls.

Most of the avant-garde behavior on the album is resorted to either including a different genre in a song or the kind of abrupt tempo changes that are quite common in thrash metal, and I can safely make that assumption after having blown through many thrash / blackened thrash albums for the last two Clan Challenges I finished.  "Avant-garde metal" seems more like a way to quickly describe this playful thrash album rather than a way to acknowledge a previously established genre, because comparing this sound to the works of Arcturus, Maudlin of the Well, some Blut Aus Nord and Thy Catafalque seems pretty impossible.

The one thing holding me back from voting yes is the goth metal inclusion.  I can't look at this album and say, "Tristania, Type O Negative, Draconian," etc.  Otherwise, I'll just end up in the same boat I'm in now.

I went to the releases tag and put together a chart for the highest-rated Swedish albums with a 5 vote minimum.

https://metal.academy/releases?releasesFilters=1&releaseCountry%5B%5D=211&releaseSort=releases.overall_rating&releaseSortType=DESC&releasesCountRating=5&fromYear=&toYear=

Candlemass is the clear winner.  Everything else is a bit scattered.  I'm surprised Blackwater Park is so low, though.

No one gonna mention the likes of Dissection, Dismember, Edge of Sanity, Entombed, Cult of Luna, At the Gates or Tiamat then?

I keep a ranked chart of all my top artists based on top 3-5 averages.  Here's the top five metal bands from Sweden, though I need to study Sweden some more.  I'm a bit behind on that.

1. Therion: Celebrators of Becoming (Live) (100) : Theli (98) : Live Gothic (97) : Secret of the Runes (96) : Vovin (96).  Average: 97.4

2. Opeth: Blackwater Park (98) : Ghost Reveries (97) : Watershed (95) : The Last Will and Testament (93) : My Arms, Your Hearse (93).  Average: 95.2

3. Falconer: Black Moon Rising (95) : Among Beggars and Thieves (94) : Chapters From a Vale Forlorn (92) : Falconer (90) : From a Dying Ember (74).  Average: 89

4. Cult of Luna: Somewhere Along the Highway (94) : Mariner (93) : Salvation (91) : Vertikal (85) : Cult of Luna (81). Average: 88.8

5. In Flames: The Jester Race (96) : Whoracle (95) : Colony (91) : Clayman (88) : Lunar Strain (73).  Average: 88.6

I still need to hear more Candlemass and Edge of Sanity.  Nut I'm largely good on Therion, Falconer and Opeth.

Plastic Neesound - nontitled (2024)

Genres: Vaporwave, Plunderphonics

I can't say I'm into Plastic Neesound's music.  In fact, I went through the whole catalog (not counting the few AI albums) just to add some fodder to my albums log.  I would even say that a large number of 0/100's that were obviously just there to be there and had no qualities worth mentioning makes Neesound one of the worst artists I've heard overall.  That's what happens with quantity over quality.  But this album's really not that bad.  Most of the experimental and vaporwave ideas are just okay, but it's the fact that the album is much more palatable and loaded with ideas that makes it a worthwhile distraction at the very least.

63