Rexorcist's Forum Replies

Black Widow's Sacrifice from 1970? Latterly, Blood Ceremony have quite a few tracks that would suit the descriptor I would suggest. There are probably loads of examples, slower songs that conjure an atmosphere of dread aren't restricted to metal by any means. Early-70's underground  heavy psych is almost certainly full of such tracks.

Now I'm getting eager to see what a RYM top 100 doom metal chart would look like.

Doom is also about an atmosphere of dread, something rock can potentially create without metal guitars.  Stoner can have various atmospheres.  In fact, I would even say Songs for the Deaf has some noticeable punk rock and post-hardcore in it.

Thanks guys.  I'll check them out.

Here's my top ten.

1. Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood (Yes on metal)

2. Dokken - Under Lock and Key (Yes)

3. Twisted Sister - Live at Hammersmith (Yes)

4. Def Leppard - Pyromania (No)

5. Michael Monroe - Not Fakin' It (No)

6. Bon Jobi - Slippery When Wet (No)

7. Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil (Yes)

8. Crazy Lixx - New Religion (No)

9. WASP - WASP (Yes)

10. Dokken - Beast from the East (Yes)

I'm gonna be hosting a war movies ballot vote on Movieforums for a while, so I might not be as active here.  I'll check in often, but listening to metal albums may have to be put on hold.

I'm not necessarily discouraging people from trying things outside their comfort zone, but I'm just saying it can also be very discouraging to see only those kinds of people talking. At which point it can feel like there are no actual people from that clan talking about the release. I mean, would you want to be on a forum where it seemed like the doom metal discussion was dominated entirely by people who didn't care for the genre in the slightest? Its basically something that's only a problem because of the site's small number of active forum users, but at the same time encourages that in certain areas.

Well in regards to my current proposal, you and I would be two members for any Guardians or Pit "X-Band's Top 5" voter threads.  Of course, it can only work if enough people are active in the clans.  Going through the active users here, I do not think the Fallen or the North have anything to worry about.  It tempts me to join the Revolution until the FAQ's stated possibility of a fifth clan is called into action.

There is the possibility of a sub-rule in which, due to the low number of active posters, non-clan members COULD vote, but clan members give off more points, similarly to the user weightings on RYM.  Of course, this would only be until we have enough people in the Revolution and the Sphere.

So here is my proposal:

X-Band Top 5 Albums Poll

Each week a clan takes turns featuring a poll where a member of that clan gets to decide on a certain band and the rest of the clan posts their top 5, assigning points to the albums based on positioning,  and the album with the most points is the winner.

Only bands with at least 5 albums on Metal Academy can be nominated, and only clan members can vote on those threads.

The point system is as follows: #1 album gets 5 points, #2 = 4, #3 = 3, #4 = 2 and #5 = 1.

The clan's turns will be based on the ordering showing on the clans section of Metal.Academy: Fallen, Gateway, Guardians, Horde, Infinite, North, Pit, Revolution and Sphere.

Members part of multiple clans cannot nominate bands twice within any series of the nine clan's threads.

OPTIONAL RULES

Should the entire discography of the band be eligible for the votes, or only the albums that fit the clan?  And if they can, are we still excluding non-metal albums?

What will qualify a user to nominate a band?

And one more thing: if this interests the community, then I think a test run of three weeks would be more appropriate to help flesh it out.  During the test run, it might be appropriate to act as if enough users were involved in the game, which means ONLY for the test run, anybody can vote.  And we should stick with popular bands that we'll probably all have heard by now.  I mean, most of us have heard Slayer's classic era, so for the Pit, choosing Slayer for the test run would be the safest bet.

Feel free to try that Rex. I don't think there are too many examples of people posting proper reviews in the forums but not on the album pages though. It's mainly just when people don't want to go to the effort of writing something comprehensive & only want to add some quick thoughts like I did on the Between The Buried & Me feature release thread yesterday.

It's not really worth trying unless multiple people are on board.  I mean I could just order releases on whatever lists I wanna make if at all.

Re-reading my recent comment, it might sound like I'm discouraging people from exploring outside their clans / comfort zones. That's not what I was intending. I was pointing out that the clan system allows people to do all the exploration they want, without necessarily having a direct impact on the Clan Ratings. That's one of the things that makes Metal Academy unique.

The separate average rating for clan members is actually a strong indicator of this.  I got that vibe as soon as I noticed it.  Unfortunately, it doesn't really click well with so few user's.

I have an idea.  How about we have some sort of clan events involving picking a band with a minimum number of releases, say 5, and order our top five releases on this threads, encouraging the clans to rate the album pages themselves.  I mean, even if one reviews albums on the forums, the least they could do is post the reviews on the album pages.

My view is that instead of discouraging people from veering outside of their chosen lanes we should be encouraging it. The whole point of the site is to enable people to discover new sounds at their own pace & to allow them to express themselves in a safe environment that's free of slander & elitism. The key differentiator is that we use the clan system to minimize the damage on the more polarizing subgenres & to point their fans to the elite releases regardless. Sure, you're gonna get the odd review like you mentioned above Morpheus but how does someone know if they might come around to a specific subgenre if they don't give it a chance? I would never have gotten into subgenres like post-metal, dissonant death metal or deathcore if I hadn't let my initial impressions go & given them some time to evolve within my taste profile. Besides, the scenario you're referring to really isn't all that common here in my opinion & our members generally try to articulate what it is that makes them feel that way when they do.

I think it seems to be simply another form of "group mentality."  Someone chooses something, doesn't want to hear why someone doesn't like it, and as a result they don't want to get into other things.  At least that's the case when it comes to being a little more serious about music than the average joe.  In the modern age, side-picking is going a little too far.

I realize the meat of this topic is all a year old, but I find it interesting. Back when I used RYM, metal charts tended to be considerably more biased towards those very same generic releases, to the point that people were complaining about it. At least what I remember is that whenever I played some new release I couldn't tell you what was so special about it more than half the time. Seems like people over corrected in the opposite direction. Not withstanding that people who use RYM are going to at least pretend to have a deeper understanding of music than your average joe.

That said, it does seem like whenever I pop in here, to check new feature releases, certain sub-genres will get reviews consisting of two paragraphs of writing that could be summarized as "don't care for this genre, 2/5". It doesn't really make me eager to join in on the discussion.

I agree with you that very little value can be taken from a review written by someone who was never going to like the album. Daniel and I have had this conversation many times, as he likes to delve into everything that metal has to offer, despite knowing that he'll hate a lot of it before he even listens. That is of course why I designed the clan system though and, in particular, the split between Release Rating and Clan Rating. In most cases, albums that are way out of your comfort zone will belong to a clan you're not part of, and so your scores will not have any impact on the Clan Rating for those albums. A quick look at the clans that a reviewer belongs to can also impact how much relevance the stance of the review should hold too.

I can imagine a future time when there are hundreds of active members using Metal Academy, and I think the value of the Clan Rating system will really shine through at that time.

Exactly.  The system only performs at a good pace the more people we have behind it, so things such as hall judgements get put on hold.  But the idea of separating the uninitiated from the converted is exactly what online metal communities need to finally belt out their "group mentality," so all that can really be done at this point is spreading the word.

I realize the meat of this topic is all a year old, but I find it interesting. Back when I used RYM, metal charts tended to be considerably more biased towards those very same generic releases, to the point that people were complaining about it. At least what I remember is that whenever I played some new release I couldn't tell you what was so special about it more than half the time. Seems like people over corrected in the opposite direction. Not withstanding that people who use RYM are going to at least pretend to have a deeper understanding of music than your average joe.

That said, it does seem like whenever I pop in here, to check new feature releases, certain sub-genres will get reviews consisting of two paragraphs of writing that could be summarized as "don't care for this genre, 2/5". It doesn't really make me eager to join in on the discussion.

My friends on RYM, thankfully, tended to know what they were talking about.  Not everyone did, but still.  But as a serious metal fan, I admit my favorite is power.  But the fun of music is trying to find something you think is absolutely incredible.  Ex. Going through all that horrible deathcore just to find Shadow of Intent's Halo-infused debut Primordial was totally worth it.

The trick is to compare it to other albums of it's type/genre first, then after deciding on a level of quality/rating, compare it to other albums of different genres and the same rating.

Parannoul - After the Magic

Genres: Indie Rock, Shoegaze

This album seems to be the next big thing on the internet as far as "album" listening instead of "song playing" goes, and so far it's living up to the hype.  The textures are much more beautiful than they were on To See the Next Part of the Dream, possibly due to having a stronger indie sound instead of the emo sound.  It's much more meaningful and pretty.  And if it weren't a bit repetitive, I'd say this was just as good of a shoegaze album as Loveless.

Slayer - Christ Illusion (2006)

Genres: Thrash Metal

OK, it's pretty obvious that, due to the return to roots, Slayer's Christ Illusion is often regarded as an improvement over the last couple albums, Undisputed Attitude, Diabolus in musica and God Hates Us All.  There is truth to this.  However, this doesn't mean Slayer's gone back to the same quality.  No longer held back by the groove and nu metal influences that the late-90's and early 2000's were flaunting in the wind like a horse's dick on a nudist beach, Slayer decided to be the old Slayer again.  However, this album only really impresses on the opener, "Flesh Storm," which boasts some pretty impressive riffage and feels extremely nostalgic for those familiar with the first five albums.  But then we get immediately get to the part where Slayer is COPYING the first track over and over again until they finally do something different on the five-minute "Catatonic" which is already seven tracks in.  In other words, not only does the entire first half copy the first track by making up for the variety with riffage, but the second half starts off that way before returning to that with the ninth track, "Cult."

So this return to form is palatable because it boasts some good thrashing.  But on a critical perspective, I have to say that this is the first time one of Slayer's real "thrash" albums got tiring.  In the end, each riff on the album, while pretty well done, is just another riff to get through before completing the album because Slayer already did better.  Christ Illusion is a pure-blooded return to form in the sense that it offers nothing new.  You might as well skip this one.  In fact, I would even go against the norm by saying that Undisputed Attitude is better based on the merit of trying new things.

64/100.

I'm gonna get through the rest of the Slayer albums for this one.  Halfway through Christ Illusion and I gotta say, I'm really bothered by the fact that the entire first half is just copying the impressive opener.

What the fuck.  This is insane.  It's like J-speed-power-hardcore punk with a bitchin' female singer.  I mean these chicks are good what what the unholy fuck.

EDIT: Never mind, this one's better.

It’s also worth noting that the last track is a bonus track so half of the tracklisting falls under metal-related subgenres.

That's a little subjective.  For me, an album needs to be at least half of a genre rather than 4/9.  But even so, I don't see why RYM uses "rock" on its own and never "metal."  So I would classify it under stoner rock and metal if 5/9 were metal.  Otherwise it would just look like this if I were genre-tagging it on RYM myself:

Primary: Stoner Rock

Secondary, Heavy Psych, Stoner Metal

And then I might call the album out for some inconsistency in the last two tracks.

Huh.  I wouldn't vote it stoner metal if only 3 of the 9 songs fit the bill.  In fact, it looks like stoner rock and heavy psych are the more appropriate genres.

This is actually one I have a little interest in.  I'm slowly working on a "stoner doom metal" list and so far the bands are limited.  If this is indeed stoner metal then it's going on.  Unfortunately, this would be a pure Fallen hall, so I can't partake.  But thanks for bringing this album to my attention.

As long as it's clearly stated, I'm not going to be pedantic about how or where. I understand that including the text in the image itself might be too intrusive. In the description if there is one, or as a directly associated comment etc. is fine.

Thanks for explaining.  Btw, I've got the outline for the first pic half done.  I'm gonna do one for each clan first in order of their appearance on the clans section of MA, so the first to get a poster is The Fallen.

Rex, let me be frank with you. Whatever your grievances with the Metalforum moderators are (& for the record I don't blame them for feeling that it's inappropriate to be promoting a competitor on a subject-matter specific website), Ben & I are on a mission to make Metal Academy the most safe & inclusive metal website on the web. We hate the elitist/judgmental bullshit that goes on at other sites & want everyone to be able to express themselves openly here, safe in the knowledge that they can be themselves without fear of reprisal. With that in mind, I have to ask that you (& all of our other members) steer well clear of aggressive &/or attacking posts on the Metal Academy forums. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate your passion for the site & are really hoping you'll contribute more regularly than you have as we value your input but it can't be at the expense of anyone else's comfort. Please feel free to continue this conversation with me over private message if you feel the need to.

Thanks.  I just needed to vent a little.  I'm done now.

So yesterday, the admin of Metalforum got it in his head that just because I was answering questions about this site on a forum where MULTIPLE metal websites came up, he thought I was "promoting this website" and locked the thread, which happened to be my reviews thread.  I asked him in a PM, "Did you have to lock the thread?  Why not just delete the sub-conversation comments?"  And he banned me.  Yeah, not happening.  The only reason his site has more people on it than Metal Academy is becasue the site's name is more likely to be googled.  So I'm gonna work on posting about this website on other non-metal websites.  Macabre didn't wanted promotion, now he's getting it.  I mean he literally raised no complaints when I told Metalforum, "Hey I wrote a book!" and posted my LITERAL BOOK COVER, with the name, my real name and everything, onto that same thread.  He didn't give me warning points.  And get this, he told me "my lack of self-reflection was astonishing."

Now I'ma rant.

Let's reflect then, Macabre, wherever you are, you are the first moderator in the eleven years Ive been on forums to flat out perma-ban me for anything, let alone punish me for questioning a mod's methods, even for saying worse things than that.  You raised no objection when I posted my book cover, so don't get all "promotion" on me.  You're smart enough to realize that disagreeing with you on your own website isn't gonna get people possessed, and you know that people have the right to be angry with your crazy decisions, so grow up before this anger issue eats you alive.  I used to be a guy like you and thank God I'm not anymore.  Now I don't even care that you invited me to Metal Academy.  I never see you here and you clearly aren't using it, so yeah, I'm gonna ACTUALLY promote this place.  Because unlike some simple forums that don't even have an album database, let alone unique features, this place deserves to be the most popular metal website.  And I've been on quite a few metal forums.

And if you are in fact here under a different username, tough.  It's your own fault that you were too overprotective to have a discussion.

Given how difficult it has been to attract a larger audience to the site (which I genuinely believe it deserves), I can't say I'd oppose anyone wanting to advertise its existence. That said, I'm very particular when it comes to the branding of Metal Academy. I worked with a fantastic artist in the Ukraine to get the exact feel and visual style that I wanted. So yes, feel free to use the logo and clan images, but I do need to ask that you include the following in fine print.

"This content is inspired by, yet not officially connected to, the Metal Academy website. Logo and clan images used with permission."

Please don't take this as me not being appreciative of any efforts you make to spread the word. It just feels like a good precedent to set.

Do I use that in the actual pictures themselves or in the comments when I upload them to social media?

I'm sure the genre is not for all metalheads, but I'm certainly attracted to it, if only as background music. Thanks for the recommendations, as I haven't delved into it as much as I probably should have. Just listening to Old Sorcery now.

Lemme know what you think when/if you feel like you've got a good amount of them down.

Adding the Genghis to this thread, huh?  I don't blame you, as they're one of the most justifiably certifiable bands on Earth.

It snowed last night at my house.  So I went out there this morning, played some of "Withstand the Fall of Time..." and now I'm sitting inside with the live album "A Very Lonely Solstice" by Fleet Foxes.

Hey there, Rexorcist. I saw your complete list in Metalforum, and it looks awesome! A solid list of metal classics and favorites. Do you plan on sharing it here, whether it's the full list or just the links?

Thanks a bunch for checking out the list.  I want to make it, but there's still one album missing from the database.  It's really difficult to get this one added, and I don't wanna replace it with number #101.  But I honestly believe that it's one of the very first "metal" albums.

Looms like I got everything I need except the one Deep Purple album, and its beyond me why RYM hasn't voted it metal yet.

As for more blatantly metal albums, Ascension released their second album... after a goddamn eleven year period.  I stumbled on a video like on Reddit on pure luck.  Could you please add Ascension's Under the Veil of Madness under symphonic and power metal?

EDIT: Their debut and two EP's aren't here either.  Sorry.

You know, it's more than experimental enough for a punk metal album to say it, so I vote yes.

Awesome poster, Rex!

Thanks.

Knock 'em dead, Xeph.

As for what I came in here to post, I just finished another poster during my two-day break from my major reading binge (getting through the Inheritance series).  I've been speed-reading 200 pages a day at the very minimum, so I took a break.  But since I haven't been selling very well, I used the opportunity to practice mountains and clouds on Gimp, while also discovering the lighting techniques that can be used.

https://www.deviantart.com/mythbutton/art/Wings-of-Nialoca-Poster-950462579

I found this album to be monotonous as well.  I have difficulty giving high ratings to monotonous albums, even short 20-minute ones.  This and the "Brutal Autonomy" EP are both good examples of how monotony can hurt a rating for me, as I didn't care for either.

YES!  Genghis fucking TRON! Excellent choice for a new genre.

50% or no go for me.

I just put together a custom neoclassical challenge chart

1. Symphony X – Twilight in Olympus
2. Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force – Rising Force
3. Marty Friedman – Dragon's Kiss
4. Galneryus – Under the Force of Courage
5. Vinnie Moore – Mind's Eye
6. Iron Mask – Hordes of the Brave
7. Magic Kingdom – Symphony of War
8. Space Odyssey – Embrace the Galaxy
9. Tony MacAlpine – Maximum Security
10. Concerto Moon – Rain Forest
11. Jason Becker – Perpetual Burn
12. Narnia - Awakening
13. Cacaphony – Speed Metal Symphony
14. Ring of Fire – The Oracle
15. Evil Masquerade – Welcome to the Show
16. Exmortus – Ride Forth
17. Impellitteeri – Stand in Line
18. Time Requiem – Time Requiem
19. Apocrypha – The Forgotten Scroll
20. Warmen – Beyond Abilities
21. Joey Trafolla – Out of the Sun
22. Majestric – Trinity Overture
23. Wolf Hoffman – Classical
24. Kenziker – The Prophecies
25. Patrick Rondat - Amphibia

Mostly punk-infused like mine.

We got a date.


https://7htarget.bandcamp.com/album/yantra-creating

February 24.  I've been waiting over a year for news about their fourth album, and now I only have to wait three weeks for the release.

Out of interest, why is black noise excluded from qualification?

Feels way too much like general noise music with a black atmosphere than other kinds of metal, like the metal was sucked out to make room for more Merzbow.  Obviously this isn't true for all black noise albums, but most of the ones I've heard don't make the cut.

Not counting black noise.

1. Kitties of Death - Valley of the Dead

2. Sete Star Sept - Live Atrocity

3. Hello Kitty Suicide Club - ^_^

4. Tamagotchi Seppuku - Discography

5. Thrash Queen - Ashes to Ashes

6. Hello Kitty Suicide Club - o_O (EP)

7. Egon's - Auf einem Bein kann man nicht stehen!

8. Assück - Necro Salvation (EP)

9. Sete Star Sept - Gero Me (EP)

10. Attila - Fallacy

These are all in my bottom 50 albums.

Well this sucks.  I've been so busy the last four days that I didn't even notice two major editing errors on the book cover.  The background under the dragon's leg and arm are not there, and Nula's wing is improperly shaded due to a Gimp problem.  Fixed now.

That's quite awesome, Rex! I look forward to checking out that book.

And on that note, the next book I'll make is a spin-off to my main series, centered around the golden age of classic metal genres (the 80s).

Cool.  What's the series called?

That's quite an achievement Rex. Congratulations on completing such an ambitious undertaking. Is the book being published? You may be interested to know that we have another published author in our community in Andi who I believe has several children's books to his name thus far.

Thanks!  It's on Kindle right now.  There's the free promotional read-on-Kindle for the next three months, and then there's the paid download. It's only available for digital for the time being.

Sorry I haven't been on here very often recently.  I've been a little busy writing movie reviews... and a book inspired by power metal.

Consider the theme song "Imaginations from the Other Side."

January 20, 2023...

So now we got a winter theme, crystalline mountains in the middle of a forest, a dragon all "yo man these chains mean shit, King Kong aint got these biceps" and a knight going, "Whoa wait a minute!  Where's my phone?  I need this pic."  Coolest cover they've got so far.

Didn't think I'd win this.  Still, I got the message and discussion out, and that's good enough for me.

Found the worst folk artist in history: m_AJ_ik.  I heard his album "Wai Guo La" back in 2014.  He tagged the damn thing as gunge, metal and punk, but it's really avant-folk.  Just rediscovered his bandcamp page, and he's been busy.

The Story of a Colorblind Painter (2006)

The playing has a nice and dark mood to it that occasionally sounds like darkwave, but the playing can be very monotonous and occasionally really dull.  Still, while it was very flawed, it wasn't unlistenable.

Wai Guo La (2014)

This was the album I discovered him on.  There are a few more efforts to experiment and try out some new sounds, but the production and the voice still sucks.

precarious/vicarious: winter nocturnes (2018)

This is the worst folk album I've ever heard.  This was four years after Wai Guo La and he hadn't recorded anything in between.  How did he end up with such a downgrade?  Every song is drawn out way longer than it needs to be, even the four minute songs, and one of the four songs is EIGHT.  Ugh.  The guitar playing is all over the place, repetitive, ugly and annoying, as if this joker just decided that experimenting was all it took to impress the experimental audience.  If this guy wants to be as good as Natural Snow Buildings or Comus, he's gotta actually write songs.

Cephas & Wiggins - Bluesmen (1993)

Genres: Piedmont Blues

Since I've got quite a bit of freetime today, I have time for a longer album.  This is a 70-minute blues album.  So far, it's not very spectacular.  Let's see if they have anything new to add.  Otherwise, it looks like 1993 just wasn't the best year for blues...

Dude!

The Flaming Lips - "The Soft Bulletin" (1999)

Some poppy neo-psychedelia to keep me interested while I play with the kids & do some housework on my Sunday morning. It's not really my thing as it's a little too quirky & happy for my taste & is more of a pleasant background distraction than being genuinely engaging but fans of this sort of thing will no doubt love the shit out of it.

For fans of MGMT, Dorgas & Animal Collective.

My top neo-psych album is Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.  It takes the poppiness of Soft Bulletin and combines it with the experimentation that would later dominate another brilliant album by Flaming Lips: Embryonic.

Currently listening to a 90's blues album by Junior Wells: Better Off With the Blues.  The previous album was called "Undisputed Godfather of the Blues," but you wouldn't know it from this album.  I like blues enough, I've got a few blues albums in my top 500 excluding rock, including Muddy Watters, Wells himself, Etta James, Howlin' Wolf, B.B King and Albert King.  But this album is so standard, overlong and boring.  I'll finish it because I always do, but this has the makings of being the second worst non-rock blues album I've ever heard.

I didn't realize Michael Chapman died last year.