Rexorcist's Forum Replies

I found myself in a major urge to re-evaluate my black metal standards after having fallen slightly out of favor with Immortal.  I'm now rechecking out the Emperor discography, and here's my first review, for the only Emperor album I had not heard before today.

Emperor: Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise (2001)

Genres: Symphonic Black, Traditional Black

It's common knowledge that there are those in the music community who need new music albums by certain bands to sound almost exactly like their classics, so changes of pace are unwelcome.  So these new sounds are unfairly treated.  I, having learned to grow annoyed with monotony, embrace change.  That is what makes some albums much more engrossing, like Metallica's Black Album, Slayer's Seasons of the Abyss, or more appropriately, Emperor's Prometheus.  And it's an appropriately named album, because Prometheus, in the myth, committed a cardinal sin of stealing fire from Mount Olympus and bringing fire to humanity.  This album commits the sin of reinventing the band even though they were already doing well as black metal champions.  NEVERTHELESS!  I will not consider it five-stars based on change.  They have a new sound, and what matters is seeing if they can pull of the new sound or not.

The changes were made very clear very quickly.  No longer the traditional symphonic band that made them so beloved, they were taking an early shot at progressive black metal, right after Enslaved took the idea seriously.  As a result,t his album is excruciatingly riff-heavy, as evident by the death-infused intro, The Eruption.  One can tell from the next track, Depraved that Emperor hasn't lost their sense of melody, and probably even improved it.  It even features a little of that symphonic sound from the first two albums among the black metal villainy and the heavy metal riffs.  I mean, this song is as metal in spirit as Priest's Painkiller, and may even be my favorite Emperor song.  The album shoots right back into the symphonic sound of earlier albums in overdoses in Empty, which is less proggy, so we get a taste of the early days, complete with a new and innovative spacey dungeon synth backdrop. The prophet is more straightforward, slower and more menacing at first before its second half relies on superspeed to get the job done, and the combo works very well.

We continue with The Tongue of Fire, which is a lengthy, proggy and even spacey epic that tells its own sort of story through the music.  It utilizes length and creativity to keep the operatic spirit strong.  In the Wordless Chamber mixes it up by returning to the loud, menacing and symphonic brutality of the original two albums again, only this time it's louder than Empty, and far more frightening because of it.  The riffs are more oriented in traditional black metal rather than the prog and heavy riffage of many previous tracks on this album. Grey takes a more wacky and insane approach the the evil sound, kind of like something from Mayhem's debut, and there's even a couple instances of heavy metal wails which comes as a complete surprise, but is molded with the Emperor vocals so well that it's a complete boon rather than a bane.  He Who Sought Fire is a real jammer that takes more conventional metal riffs and molds them traditional black metal ones.  It's a perfect combination of melody and speed.  And finally, Thorns On My Grave is a powerful and operatic climax that satisfies perfectly as an ending.

I admit that I avoided this album for a while because, considering the ratings, I didn't feel a strong need to go check it out since I already had a black metal top 100 I was happy with.  I mean, Equilibrium IX was a great piece, but it wasn't the same as the first two.  But since I've been re-evaluating my metal standards again, especially black metal, I decided to give this a go.  I have to admit that I like this more than the original two albums because the band did a better job of reinventing themselves than Metallica and Slayer did. There's no telling where the album's going to go next.  It has everything a traditional black metal album needs and can do.  The symphonic sound is still there, there's some prog attached which makes the longer songs more inventive, the more traditional moments are as powerful and menacing as ever, an there are trace amounts of death metal scattered around.  Every melody is catchy, easy to headband to and does what it wants, being angry or epic or devastating, flawlessly.

I didn't expect this to become one of my favorite traditional black metal albums, but it did.  This is the kind of album I search for whenever I explore a genre, be it a new one or one I'm re-evaluating.  I'm going against the grain bigtime stating that this could be my favorite Emperor album.  Having fallen in love with the way this album was written, I now have to go back to the first teo Emperor albums and see if they still hold their current ratings on my chart.

I guess the "titles" would only measure how much "studying" we've done in our own clans.  Actually, a way to maintain clan integrity would be to make sure certain titles pertaining to completing outside list (meaning lists outside your clans) could NOT be achieved until you've completed a certain number of challenges from your own clans.  Obviously, completing ALL of them would have to be avoided considering that some clans have far more challenges than others.  The Sphere's industrial metal would need more challenge lists.  I can probably make a cyber metal one, but there aren't enough bands for New Dutch.  Of course, melodic metalcore and deathcore lists for the Revolution will be easy.  There's plenty of that going around.

I must admit that I have considered attempting other clan challenges just for the fun of it and I did make an aborted attempt on one of the Guardians challenges (which I may yet revive). Apart from anything else, they are a good way to get into less familiar genres as they tend to include releases that are important to the genre as well as being of a high quality. I found the Death Metal challenge to be extremely rewarding and I learnt quite a bit about the genre whilst doing it. I think there is sufficient satisfaction in completing one for it's own sake. 

I seem to remember an early conversation when a merit system was dismissed as being distracting and causing a tendency amongst some people to "mine" rewards.

Distracting how?

Because the point of the site is not to accumulate rewards that create a "hierarchy" as is rife on metal archives.

I mentioned that the hierarchy wouldn't actually mean anything but just be for fun.

I must admit that I have considered attempting other clan challenges just for the fun of it and I did make an aborted attempt on one of the Guardians challenges (which I may yet revive). Apart from anything else, they are a good way to get into less familiar genres as they tend to include releases that are important to the genre as well as being of a high quality. I found the Death Metal challenge to be extremely rewarding and I learnt quite a bit about the genre whilst doing it. I think there is sufficient satisfaction in completing one for it's own sake. 

I seem to remember an early conversation when a merit system was dismissed as being distracting and causing a tendency amongst some people to "mine" rewards.

Distracting how?

On the one hand, the point is extremely valid.  On the other hand, the Academy aspect IS about learning.  Both have their pros and cons, but sticking with five clans DOES feel a little excessive.

But I just thought of something.  What if there in fact is some kind of reward for completing one list from each challenge?  And then I thought: ranking system.  I mean, the ranks don't actually come into play as a militant thing in the long run, but the idea is a lot of fun if you do it right.  No need to replicate the following example, but on my first forum, there was a level system ran by accumulating points for more priveleges.  On that forum, it allowed for more priveleges per user, but I don't think we need to go that far.  If the academy thing is just for fun, then I say "honor rolls for fun."  Wikia / Fandom does that a lot, and I even designed badges for a couple of wikis.

Obviously, the ranking system would be acquired by how many clan challenges you complete.  I mean, it feels to early to put into practice now, but it would be fun to try and work for cooler titles... assuming the coding makes it plausible.

Krallice is a consistently fine metal band with a strong sense of atmosphere.  They have a tendency to be riff heavy, and it really shows here on Years Past Matter.  At first, the album is very intricate and cool.  It makes a quick point of being a little proggy and riff heavy, and the riffs are either good or great throughout, so it's a very consistent record, especially since the atmosphere never wanes.  Unfortunately, this also means the album never changes.  So while the album always sounds cool, for fans of quirky new ideas, the album will be underwhelming.  It doesn't have that fleshed out experimental side like Ygg Huur or Prelapsarian.  And it isn't QUITE an atmo-album, but it's atmo enough to give it that touch the heavier riffage needs to attract fans of either variant.  It's more like a continuation of Diotima in the sense that it's trying out new riffs and ideas.

This album boasts basically one format of creativity for a straight hour.  So while it's a cool metal album in its own right, I can't really call this a grand new direction or standout classic for black metal.  But it is quite a cool album and it improves on Diotima in all aspects.  So I would recommend this if you're curious.

80/100

I read something here about it.  That's not the kind of thing my mind would make up.  When I see it I'll let you know.  But it surprises me that you never had a "discussion."

Ben & I certainly discussed what the maximum amount of clans would be right at the beginning of the Academy website if you wanna get technical but we decided that it wasn't a good idea to go above four. In fact, I wasn't even too keen on allowing a fourth if I'm being completely honest but I ended up caving in the end. Since that time we've only responded to people's enquiries about whether we'd consider allowing a fifth but it's never been something we've seriously considered up until now.

Well if the final decision is that there will only be four, I'm cool with that too.

Also I think I found a potential criterion for that fifth clan Daniel and Ben have discussed the possibility of: completing one of each clan list.  If they already discussed that and decided against it, nevermind then.

For the record, Ben & I have had no discussion around allowing a fifth clan. I'm not a fan of it personally as I think it reduces the effectiveness of the clan concept.

I read something here about it.  That's not the kind of thing my mind would make up.  When I see it I'll let you know.  But it surprises me that you never had a "discussion."

So are you five gonna call yourselves the Pentagram?

Actually, Rex, there are 4 of them, so how about the Extreme Foursome?

Right I miscounted.  You say Extreme Foursome, I think Extreme Dinosaurs. :P.

EDIT: It was in the FAQ under Can I change my clans or join more than 3?  I think, however, it's something that only people with the special privilege of whoever finishes whatever criteria needed for it would actually go through, so it wouldn't steer too far from the main point, especially since most people aren't progressing through the lists at a fast pace, what with aforementioned "other albums" needed to listen to between all of the different events and threads people take active interest in already.  I mean, you'd basically have to prove that you're EXTREMELY DEDICATED in order to accomplish it, so the idea of actually warranting that fifth clan would be at least more than twice as challenging as getting the fourth clan.

So are you five gonna call yourselves the Pentagram?

Also I think I found a potential criterion for that fifth clan Daniel and Ben have discussed the possibility of: completing one of each clan list.  If they already discussed that and decided against it, nevermind then.

This weeks NORTH album:

Krallice - Years Past Matter (2012)

Genre: Atmo-Black

Votes: 1

Hint Breakdown: The tracks are listed as IIIIIII to IIIIIIIIIIII, growing in one more "I" until we get to 12 "I's."

Reason: Krallice was a favorite of mine back when I was first starting black metal, and I've been meaning to go back to this.  So it's really more of a personal choice than anything.

Good lists, Rex! I think those can be good replacements for the one official Sphere clan challenge. Please talk to Ben about that idea. Anyway, I approve of those lists, except Samael's earlier black metal was still dominant in Ceremony of Opposites, maybe replace that album with Passage or Eternal?

Whichever Samael feels most appropriate.  Obviously, I'd let others flesh these out as I haven;t heard most of these.

Also, wrong thread by accident.

Not currently, no. But it's an interesting idea that I'll put in my list of potential improvements.

How about a faint, smokey glow around the border of the 2x2 album picture with the clan color?

For fun I made three challenge lists for the Sphere.

1st Era

1. Godflesh – Streetcleaner
2. Ministry – Psalm 69
3. Killing Joke – Pandemonium
4. Strapping Young Lad - Xity
5. Fear Factory – Demanufacture
6. Rammstein – Sehnsucht
7. Marilyn manson – Antichrist Superstar
8. White Zombie - Astro-Creep: 2000 - Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head
9. Red Harvest – Hybreed
10. Samael – Ceremony of Opposites
11. Nailbomb – Point Blank
12. Dødheimsgard – 666 International
13. Static-X – Wisconsoon Death Trip
14. Slab! – Descension
15. Old – Low Flux Tube
16. KMFDM - Nihil
17. Lard – The Last Temptation of Reid
18. Circle of Dust – Brainchild
19. Kong – Phlegm
20. Oomph! - Oomph!
21. Pitchshifter – www.pitchshifter.com
22. 16volt – SuperCoolNothing
23. Misery Loves Co. – Misery Loves Co.
24. Die Krupps - II: The Final Option
25. Skrew - Dusted


2nd Era
1. Strapping Young Lad – Alien
2. Rammstein – Mutter
3. Godflesh - Hymns
4. Killing Joke  Killing Joke
5. Red Harvest - Sick Transit Gloria Mundi
6. KMFDM – Hau Ruck
7. Ministry – Rio Grande Blood
8. Fear Factory - Digimortal
9. Sybreed – Slave Design
10. Kill the Thrill – Tellurique
11. HALO – Body of Light
12. Pain – Nothing Remains the Same
13. Eisbrecher - Antikörper
14. The Axis of perdition - Deleted Scenes From the Transition Hospital
15. Flesh Field – Strain
16. Turmion Kätilöt – Hoitovirhe
17. P.H.O.B.O.S. - Tectonics
18. Aborym – Generator
19. Dødheimsgard – Supervillain Outcast
20. Spineshank – The Height of Callousness
21. Static-X – Machine
22. Deathstars – Terminal Bliss
23. The mad Capsule Markets – 010
24. Mnemic – The Audio Injected Soul
25. Emigrate – Emigrate

The Modern Era

1. Godflesh – Post Self
2. Fear Factory - Mechanize
3. Northlane – Alien
4. Rammstein - Rammstein
5. Code Orange – Underneath
6. Author and Punisher – Beastland
7. Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
8. Blue Stalhi – Blue Stalhi
9. Fange – Pantocrator
10. Uniform – Shame
11. Sybreed – God Is an Automaton
12. Static-X - Project: Regeneration Vol. 1
13. 3TEETH – shutdown.exe
14. Linemann – F & M
15. Motionless in White – Scoring the End of the World
16. Mechina – Conquerer
17. Neurotech - Infra Versus Ultra
18. Celldweller – Satellites
19. Circle of Dust – Machines of Our Disgrace
20. Oomph! - Ritual
21. Black Magnet – Hallucination Scene
22. Emigrate – Silent So Long
23. Lord of the Lost – Thornstar
24. Corrections House – Last City Zero
25. Shining – One One One

Out of curiosity, is there a way to mark any specific challenges that are completed?

I heard my first two Atreyu albums today: Lead Sails paper Anchor, and Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses.  Meh.

I'm gonna post this week's North album hint a day early just 'cause I feel like it.

Hint: 7-12.

That's you're hint.

Ben / Daniel, I believe I have now completed the Death Metal - The 1st Decade clan challenge and as such I would like to seek admission into the hallowed halls of the Horde clan. It has taken a mere four years, but I believe I now have earned that fourth badge!!

Bada-fuckin-boom, bro!  Good job!

Yeah, I think it's a little more accurate personally but would throw Nintendocore in under the Electronicore banner too if I was them as it's simply too specific.

I think nintendocore used to be under trancecore but they removed it a couple years ago.

Oh, it's a chance.  I know very little about Trancecore, too, but that feels like a more accurate title from what little I've heard (Attack Attack and the first end theme of Hunter X Hunter).

I would simply direct those people to the Trance Metal deep dive thread where they can get a clear understanding of our reasoning. I was completely transparent & provided detailed explanations of my position on each of the releases I investigated as a part of each of the deep dives I've conducted. I also encouraged others to provide their opinions in the interest of an unbiased process. That being said though, if a large portion of our audience decided that they disagreed with our approach then we're certainly open to reviewing it but please bare in mind that whatever position results will need to be in line with our clan configuration (which Trance Metal wasn't just quietly).

I think you might need to rearrange the grammar of that last sentence, but directing them to that thread feels like the best way to go.  Whatever albums you reviewed there will likely be open for those discussions.

I'm not sure how you're suggesting that we're biased here Rex. Trance Metal was removed from the database because it was deemed to not be a legitimate metal genre. This was because, after doing some fairly in-depth research, I discovered that most of the releases sound nothing alike & draw upon a wide array of alternative genres for their base sounds with the only common element being that they utilize trancey synthesizers to some extent. All of the releases were added to move suitable genres though so they're all still here & fall under the same clan rules as any every other release which protects them from trolling.

I never said you ARE biased.  I'm just asking what would be said towards people who may think so, illustrating the possibility that it weould happen considering that as we grow, we may end up getting a few trance metal fans ourselves.  This feels like the kind of thing that might end up being brought back up every few months if we get big enough, like certain threads on RYM inevitably due, or like a "Is Converge punk or metal" topic.  Must be a lot of those on Metallum.  You know how metal fans can be.

On top of that, as it probably should be the case, there may be discussions as to what actually qualifies as a "trance metal" album.  Having said that, the specific discussion feels more appropriate for RYM, as they need it because the "trance metal charts" look like a mess, especially now that "electronicore" and "kawaii metal" were taken seriously enough for RYM to include a couple weeks ago. :P

What I'm saying is that sites like RYM & Metal Archives are inherently biased towards & against certain subgenres & they therefore aren't inclusive of all music fan's opinions. Say for example you are a huge fan of nu metal, slam death metal, gorenoise, melodic metalcore, etc. If you use RYM as a guide then you have absolutely no decent releases to choose from because they're all unanimously down-rated for being... well... exactly what they're trying to be! How can a nu metal fan distinguish the good nu metal releases from the bad nu metal releases when all & sundry seem to go to town on their releases when they weren't ever a fan of nu metal in general.

Now I have one question about genre-distinction and bias.  I have very little interest and even less knowledge in this specific genre, but in the event that we get enough people what would you say in regards to the idea that Metal Academy is "biased" towards "trance metal?"  I know we recently kicked it out, but I think I've only heard one trance metal album, so I don't really have strong arguments for it.  But still.  Of course, maybe this question is better to be discussed by someone who actually listens to that genre.

Ahh, atmo black.  I admit, I found Burzum's Filosofem to be great black metal on its own, but having such a long dungeon synth track at the end felt inconsistent.  Now I'm just begging RYM to find some replacement for the number 1 spot because of it.  My number 1 for any black metal genre is the traditional black album At the Heart of Winter.  But for atmo, I'm gonna use my own tags instead of MA tags:

1. Alcest - Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde (Blackgaze)

2. Gris - Il était une forêt...

3. Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

4. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

5. Blut aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars

6. Summoning - Stronghold

7. Altar of Plagues - Teethed Glory and Injury

8. Summoning - Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame

9. Negura Bunget - OM

10. Thurisaz - Scent of a Dream

Personally, I'll downrate anything that feels too monotone.  Length itself is only a common factor in this, but even a 20 minute album can feel samey and unimaginative.  This is part of why I consider Reign in Blood inferior to South of Heaven, and more appropriately, Pleasure to Kill under several Kreator albums.  Of course, length itself is an element that can be used properly, if the musician is good enough, like on many slower metal genres such as doom.  My favorite example of this would be The Dreadful Hours.  Or course, the absolute best I can think of is William Basinski's Disintegration Loops.

This is the kind of album where fluctuations in quality are a little more noticeable thanks to the consistency of the sound, despite the variety we get.  We have a much more melodic take on the signature sound of Biomech, making it feel less aquatic and more like an album by Genesis.  Even short bursts of melody like Hypergeek have this cute factor about it that makes the album stand out from normal metal.  I mean, if anyone tells you that Townsend is significantly less "gritty" than metal tends to be, albums like this prove you right, even though we have some very rough moments here, depending on what's appropriate.  That shoegazey noise-metal of Biomech finds its way onto Synchestra in bits, only applying on the most necessary bits for atmospheric and unpredictable touches.  Although sometimes we get some inappropriate diverse bits, like the short bluegrass solo in the middle of Triumph, or freakin' Vampolka.  These 180's from the tone of the album don't combine variety with consistency in an effective way, and feel unnecessary.

I noticed that Townsend's vocals are much more metal, like he's taking influence from Ronnie James Dio.  And it's working.  He's up to both his usual screaming and his softer Dream-Theatrical vocals, but the extra metal in his voice adds to the album's ability to stand out.  But in the second half of the album, while things remain atmospheric and cool, it also loses some of its unique orchestra touch, relying on more of the shoegazy stuff from Biomech and going for something a little less melodic and more sci-fi and industrial at times.

So this is another pretty cool album for Devin Townsend fans, but there are some mistakes that glare a little more as the album goes along.  There are also a couple of his best songs in this album, notably in the first half, but I don't really feel the need to listen to this again.

83/100.

Sorry about forgetting the hint.

This week's INFINITE album:

Devin Townsend - Synchestra (2006)

Genres: Prog Metal

Votes: 4

Reason: Devin Townsend is one of prog's most important figures.  ALso, this only needs one more vote to enter the charts.

I got a few I'm waiting on already.  I'll do that when we've got a few less.

I actually prefer this to their more popular album, Nosferatu.  It's well-produced and unpredictable, but also manages to give a power metal fan everything they could possibly want from a stylistic perspective as they go through various forms of metal that are not only related to power metal, but a couple like thrash that are only occasionally combined with it.

Review:

Now I've heard a few Nile albums, but not this one yet.  These guys are one of the leading figured in brutal tech, along with Suffocation and Cryptopsy.  Many death bands take their cues from these three bands, but Nile was different in the sense that a little of that brutality was replaced with mythological themes.  But even though Annihilation of the Wicked is their most beloved, this was the album that really cemented their place among the greats.

The intro started out similarly to how I would start out a tech metal album, weird and melodic at the same time.  Overtime, the album would cover a variety of moods and atmospheres with this single genre, taking time to be proggy, epic and doomy like with Unas, Slayer of the Gods, or speedy and catchy, like with Kheftiu Asar Butchiu, or just plain evil like Churning the Maelstrom, which reaches Devourment levels of brutality.  Notice, that this is only in the track 4-6 string.  This kind of thing just keeps happening throughout the whole album, which means these guys are writing a collective of very different metal songs with the one or two styles they play (as a further example, track eight uses fast guitars at a slow pace almost like an atmo-black metal song).  I've mentioned before that this kind of feat isn't as common as it should be, and I typically tend to hold albums like this in high regard.

While the style itself and the formatting of each song isn't always new or revolutionary, their moods and tricks are all healthy enough to keep the album entertaining.  This is largely because of a very strong depth to the band's personalities, effortlessly perfecting the "mood" aspects and overshadowing their own technical and songwriting skills, as good as the writing is on its own.  Our epic Unas, Slayer of Gods is probably one of the finest death metal songs I've ever heard.  It's an 11-minute track I'd easily return to if I was in the mood, and honor I've only ever given two 11-minute epics in my life: Through Silver in Blood by Neurosis, and the album version of Anything for Love by Meat Loaf.  But early on, there seems to be a point of technicality going against the organization of each layout.  This point is made especially obvious during the short second track: Exacration Test.  This is only occasional, but noticeable.  But the album REALLY digs into the moods and themes by the time our four-part titular epic begins, and it stays that way.

There seems to be an ongoing battle as to whether or not Nile can be counted among "brutal" bands, considering that they're a little less brutal than the rawest of these bands.  It doesn't help that the general consensus is that their latter albums were less brutal.  I'd say this album makes the cut, though less obviously.  It's that more tame brutality that brings out the atmospheres, so I'd say the small sacrifice was needed.

I'd say that my needs as an aspiring critic and a death metal fan are more than met.  Only very slightly in need of rewriting, this a very diversified and surprising album with an excellent mythical and horrific vibe about it.  I can picture a number of aspiring death metal bands taking a few cues from this one.  Now I need to replay Annihilation of the Wicked to compare the two properly.  This is some prime death metal here.

97/100

The change itself can be awkward, but look at it as a whole new form of enjoyment.

This week's HORDE album:

Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines (2002)

Genres: Tech Death, Brutal Death

Votes: 2

Reason: A couple other Nile albums are in the main chart with more than five votes, but this album is one of their highly regarded classics, and it only has two votes, this this was a perfectly easy choice.

I did try to make a review of the Crimson Glory album in time, but alas, it turns out I'm not terribly good as describing an album I love as much as their debut in that little time.

I typically write my reviews and feeling as I'm listening to the album, taking notes and fleshing them out after finishing the album.  That might help.

My world has been thrown into complete disarray this week after I was made redundant after 28 years of service at my company. It came completely out of the blue & seems to be complete madness from an operational point of view given that the work that I do is still very much required. The whole business is in uproar over it & I'll receive a very large pay-out which certainly softens the blow a touch but my ego has copped a significant amount of bruising & it hasn't come at a good time for my personal life so I'm doing it a bit tough at the moment.

Yeesh.  That really doesn't feel right at all.  I mean, what excuse did they have?

Here's the hint for tomorrow's HORDE album.

I feel like Human Waste's potential thrash influence made it sound more evil than brutal, and thus the brutality of Human Waste felt more effective.  I mean, I love both, but as far as blasting pure evil out at you, Human Waste was louder and still left plenty of room for brutality and some technicality.

The way I see it, a shorter album runs less risk of drying up.  This is often the case for bands that beat their own style to death.  This isn't always the case, though, because many eps will be a "taste" of wuat the band's about.  But it can happen.  The best example is how I consider the best Suffocation release to be Human Waste, because it's likely their heaviest and doesn't begin to run dry by the end.  This also marks the difference between No More Color abd Mental Vortex.

Having said that, it's not like I specifically need these albums to be short.  Take a look at my number 4 album of all time: Abbatoir Blues and the Lyre of Orpheus.  It's Nick Cave's longest album, but it covers the whole of Cave's genre-hopping while both remaining consistent and differentiating the two albums in waysthat compliment each other.  It all depends on how you use thr length.  Another example of perfection with great length is Soundtracks for the Blind.

Of course, thisis all subjective perfection.

I think it depends on how much art they're willing to put in the release as opposed to how much effort.  I noticed on a usual basis that an EP will be shorter than an album even if the band is one of those speedy ten-second-song extreme hardcore acts that likes 15 minute albums, in which case their ep's will usually be five minutes.  Length is one optional representative part of it.  But in the long run, it really amounts to how much time an artist is willing to put into a single project as opposed to how much effort.  Thus, something shorter can possibly be better than something longer.  If you're willing to give someone a larger taste than a single, but don't have the time for a full album, I guess you should call it an EP.  Ore maybe the designation of the term "EP" really refers to the fact that this is a shorter album than whatever "epic new release" they're willing to put out?  But when it comes to a band overcoming their usual studio album length, then there's much less sense in it.  In other words, it's either an artistic choice or marketing gimmick at this point.

You describe it like I describe Never Mind the Bollacks Here's the Sex Pistols, except that album isn't as surreal.

Review:

Crimson Glory is a name I've been aware of ever since I got into power metal, having heard of them back when Rateyourmusic still lumped US power metal in with regular power metal from Germany.  Some even call them a prog band (which feels wrong, now that I know what they sound like), but the reality of it all is that whatever tag they have, they've still got a huge following because their heavy metal approach is clean, memorable, authentic and as a result: generic.

It was pretty obvious from Valhalla what I was getting into.  Crimson Glory is basically joining the average 80's heavy metal collective with a beautiful and perfect presence that largely overcomes a generic sound.  But even though the talent and the power were there, I really can't say I was given any "surprises," just a really good time.  I mean, speed metal songs like Mayday are really easy to rock out to, and any heavy metal guardian should get at least SOME enjoyment from the fact that the band is really putting in some effort here, even if they can't reach above the level of the genre tropes they follow.  Let's take a look at the epic and well-structured Queen of the Masquerade.  It's slower and its easier to get soaked in its almost Gothic vibes, even though the song's guitars are often louder than they need to be.

Some songs have some very noticeable flaws among all the energy, metal attitude and strong personality.  For one thing, Lost Reflection might be pretty, but as a melodic piece, Crimson Glory made a bad decision putting in so many electric metal songs before that one ballad, so it felt out of place until it got to its heavier parts.  On top of that, the melody needed work.  And Dragon Lady kind of just did its own thing.  Midnight's vocal displays of obvious pretentiousness didn't have a rhythm that felt appropriate with the rest of the instruments.

So each song is either decent or good, but there are a couple great tracks.  This album offered me nothing I haven't already heard from a plethora of albums throughout every year of the 80's, but it's enjoyable for what it's worth.  It's a good introductory album for anyone looking into heavy metal, but there are plenty of albums that blow this out of the water.  After so much hype, I expected more.

81/100.

This week's GUARDIANS album:

Crimson Glory - Crimson Glory (1986)

Genres: US Power Metal

Votes: 4

Reason: Crimson Glory's most famous album, Transparency, has 6 votes already, so I figured I might as well bring this to the charts with its brother.

OK, the hint for the Guardians album coming tomorrow:

I got my pick.  Owwsla.  I'll review it later today on site and post it here when it's my turn.

OK, so I've given my Top 100 Metal Releases of All Time list a crack:

https://metal.academy/lists/single/227

THERE we go!  There's a definite love of the dark and grody here, and that love is shown through a lot of angels.  But the best part was finding some albums I've never heard of, like the Lucid Planet one.  It seems to have a little of almost everything, including a folk metal and a djent album.  And +1 for having a Merzbow collab up there.

I really love the variety and production here, as well as Lil Ugly Mane's various rapping tricks.  But I do have ONE problem with it so far: many of these songs aren't really changing or progressing despite the variety of the album as a whole.

Mechina - Cenotaph (2023)

Genres: Symphonic Metal, Cyber Metal

You know what I hate?  When people say they absolutely love a band that is writing the same song over and over and over again.  I mean, let's be honest.  Mechina are more samey than AC/DC.  So when I played this last Mechina album I needed before I completed another metal catalog, I knew what I was getting into.  This is another dull example of overly speedy drums working with synthy riffs and vocals going for a stronger "epic" vibe than the third Legend of Spyro game.  I saw those cutscenes, and this band might've been perfect for that.  And on top of that, almost every song is 7 minutes or more, and I'm including the six-minute-fifty song because I might as well.  Sure, it's well polished and very speedy.  But it gets to the point where you kind of realize that the only one displaying talent is the drummer.  The good stuff fluctuates and is often drowned in excess repetition, so this album may as well be strictly for Mechina fans.

57/100

Hah!  The last post was three years ago?  OK, I'm raising the activity here before things get any deader than they are.

Sybreed - Antreas (2014)

Genre: Cyber Metal

Cyber metal is probably the single metal genre most metalheads don't take seriously.  I've been through and started a fair share of cyber metal albums, and usually I don't find something that appealing.  It's a shame because I like the idea of spacey-industrial metal, but not enough people know how to take charge of it without falling into Periphery half-djent half-metalcore territory.  Maybe this is because one of the big bands that started the genre seems to take a few cues from them.

As for Antares, there is one compliment I'd like to start with: these guys are pretty good with atmospheres.  Even though their style is typical and their components are expected, their atmospheres and the vocals bring the album together pretty well.  This is especially true for the slower songs like Isolate.  But the best thing about this album is that, even though the components are expected for this kind of Periphery knockoff, there's some clear variety.  For example, there's the musical midtro of Revive My Wounds, which goes really deep into atmosphere, neoclassical synths and even a couple seconds of robotic vocals.  The extra variety is a good move to me; I had started Slave Design but I didn't finish it because it was quite samey.  There's also some clear melo or tech death mingled in with the melodic metalcore.  Of course, despite the variety, the emotional touch seems to have each song fluctuating between sadness and anger too often, another Periphery trait.  Eventually, it just becomes too much.  I mean, ending this overlong album with a nine-minute epic was a band move, considering it offers nothing really new to the album.

If I had to fault the album for anything besides the typical radio-metal components, I'd say that it's a little too noisy.  It's heavy most times, but at other times it feels needlessly noisy.  They should've gotten a producer like Andy Gill, who brought cleanliness to the sound (and as a result, griminess to the style) of Killing Joke 2003.  So while these guys have talent, they were clearly more worries about the reputation of the tropes rather than making a name for themselves alone.  So it's a cool album with many strengths that justify its flaws and tropes, but I would only really recommend this to people who like industrial music already.

85/100

Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You (2023)

Genres: Art Pop, Alt-Pop, Electronic

First, let me say that for a female-fronted alt-pop album, this is one of the COOLEST things I've ever listened to.  The whole album, even in its incredible variety, maintains a deep, soulful and hypnotic mood of chill like I've never heard before.  And this variety is carefully strutting like a smooth criminal all over the pop world with both acoustic and electronic genres carefully working together and taking turns in the focal points.  It's like Lorde overdosed on Portishead and got a member of Celtic Woman to sing it.  Just listen to Crude Drawing of an Angel.  There's a Lynchian vibe about it that just captivates the listener.  This lady obviously listened to Julee Cruise and Enya, and the influence did its job.  The album even has a couple worldbeat touches scattered throughout, as we have faint African undertones and even a flamenco song. 

As an example of the cool vibe, let me point out which, might surprisingly, even be one of the worse songs on the album (and that's a hard thing to judge).  Bunny Is a Rider is all about that unique and quirky percussion, justifying the lack of real instrumental melody in a rare and clever way that never gets in the way of its effortlessly and overpoweringly "cool girl" mood.  That percussion and the backing effects work together perfectly to bring me the surprises and consistency I demand.  Of course, before anything, this "pop" album is largely an atmosphere album.  This is proven by what may be the single worst track on the album, although its merits are five-star strong: Fly to You.  The instruments have no melody, and rely on reverb and Polachek's vocals to drive it.  However, I won't judge Fly to You as a blotch on the album, as its strong points are very strong, and we've had our share of melody-based songs and a percussion-focused track already.  Besides, immediately after this song is one of the best tracks: Blood and Butter, a folktronica song with both melody and great percussion tricks.

One more thing I have to mention is that Polachek is a vocal genius.  Her deep, new age voice can go into impressively high territory, and she really knows how to carry her voice in an atmospheric and lightly operatic way.  There are backing vocals that work very well with her, but she still manages to outshine them all.  Although it must be noted that her vocals tend to take over a lot, but I think that's actually fine considering that, while I would normally be bothered by that, the mood, instrumentation and atmosphere are made incredible because of her perfect voice.  In fact, one would say that because of the handling of these elements, the album is extremely unique despite its pop and electronic genres that it tweaks and rearranges so often.

So this is an album that may be really hard to get into, like Kid A for the best example I can think of, but I think it's totally worth it.  This album gives me everything I ask for in an album, variety, consistency and new tricks, while justifying elements that would likely be flaws if someone else had attempted it.  This is like Portishead meets Radiohead meets Enya, except this one album beats them all, and I hold all three in high regard.  One must remember that the vocals are considered an instrument this time, as well as the auto-tune, and are leading the melody with the instruments, even when percussion is the main focus of the instruments.  This is an album I will return to with no questions asked.  It's some of the most fun I've ever had with the surreal side of music, especially with pop.  It took more than half of the year, and I avoided alt-pop for reasons pertaining to awareness of alt-pop's radio-friendly reliance, but I dived into it again and I finally found my "perfect" album for the year.  It's my firm belief that with so many albums out every year, at least one of them has to be perfect, or at least there has to be at least one that I can consider perfect.  This is it.

10/10.

To clarify our position on that, technical death metal isn’t a Metal Academy genre. It’s a subgenre of death metal in the same way that dissonant death metal is. It’s our belief that dissonant death metal doesn’t necessarily have to be technical & vice versa so have made them seperate tags in their own right. It’s also worth noting that we’re not led by RYM when making decisions on our genre-tagging structure. We prefer to run our own race.

I figured all of that out.  Why else would you have the halls?  That's why I also made the Ulcerate comparison, as it's the only album in my ten that doesn't have both the dissonant and tech tags.  I won't immediately know all the tiny differences and similarities to RYM, so it would help if we had a genre tree.

I've heard everything on the above list except for that number one. I'll make room for that today and/or tomorrow.  Lovin the RYM genre tags.

I just went through my top ten tech death albums.

1. Death - The Sound of Perserverance (my number one death metal album in general)

2. Death - Human

3. Gorguts - Colored Sands

4. Suffocation - Human Waste

5. Athiest - Unquestionable Presence

6. Death - Symbolic

7. Suffocation - Pierced from Within

8. Ulcerate - Stare Into Death and be Still

9. Gorguts - Obscura

10. Cryptopsy - None So Vile