Rexorcist's Forum Replies

The Ocean - Pelagial (2013)

Genres: Post-Metal, Prog Metal

Subgenres: Atmo-Sludge Metal, Post-Rock, Metalcore, Death Metal

I'm glad I'm taking this time to go over older albums I've heard for the sake of rearranging some things on my charts.  This was started by a willingness to explore the catalog of Metal Blade, which includes listening to the Metal Blade albums I've already heard for different reasons, such as The Ocean's popular Pelagial, which I've planned on going back to for a while.  Now despite being part of the Infinite clan on Metal Academy, that's mostly for the prog and the avantgarde.  Post-metal isn't generally my thing, but I can spot the good stuff.

The first thing that must be noted is that unlike most post-metal albums, there is certainly not a level of clearcut repetition going on for the sake of exploring overlong ambient textures.  Leave that to Isis and let The Ocean do whatever they want.  I mean let's be honest: Disequillibrated is a death metal song in the same vein as Gojira.  Like past Ocean albums you can sense instances of post-hardcore and metalcore inserted easily, like an off-white patch on a white quilt.  Despite the extremities, The Ocean never forgets that they're making atmo-metal, so there's plenty of time to chill.  As Boundless Vasts starts off heavy and ends its three minute half by quickly getting more and more serene, takes us through a chilling but ambient journey into instrumental deaths while our singer screams like he's trapped at the bottom of the abyss.  Clever work.  Most of these songs are around average length, but there are a couple beautiful segues and two nine-minute tracks near the end.  Let Them Believe may not change things up progressively, but as a post-metal track there's just enough ongoing mutation to keep exploring the oceanic themes.  As well, I completely adore the fact that the eneded the album with a seriously doomy sludge song.

Even though this is definitely a prog album, there is no limit to how accessible this is.  Ironically, this album doesn't border on the questionable nature of the prog tag like some Rush and Dream Theater albums that many metalheads can name.  You can easily take songs like the joining Impasses and The Wish in Dreams and probably play them at work on the same playlist as one with Zep's Ramble On.  This is not only because the band excels with melodicism, but the decisions they make bear a flawless alchemic formula of the post-rock and extreme metal elements even with highly-melodic piano is being played at the same time as death metal screams.

I won't call this a sludge album anymore, but as a post-metal album this is likely my new number one, depending on how I define it and whether or not I'd give the tag to Through Silver in Blood by neurosis.  Pelagial fits every standard of mine for a perfect album.  it sets out to create atmospheres perfectly while balancing out a number of genres in one of the single most consistent deliveries I've ever heard, as well as remaininh 100% accessible in its melodies while testing the borders of extreme metal and prog.  I'm especially happy that I'm currently moving this up to my number 2 prog metal album of all time, as I was afraid that having the top two be the same band (Symphony X) seemed like fanboyism.

100

After some further studies, I found that Nuclear Blast acxtually has a really bad habit of bringing great bands in AFTER their heyday.  Most of the bands I listed were brought in that way.  But it's been difficult looking through metal catalogs and finding one full of my favorite bands and that has a wide array of genres at their helm.  I found one that's most certainly the latter, and full of artists that I've either given five-stars to an album of theirs or more, or I plan on exploring: Metal Blade.  Let's go over some of their properties I've given five stars to.  The bolded ones are ones I would quickly go back to.

Bolt Thrower: Those Once Loyal (Death)

Falconer: Among Beggars and Thieves (Power)

Fates Warning: Awaken the Guardian (USPM, Heavy, Prog)

Helstar: A Distant Thunder (USPM, Heavy)

Immolation: Close to a World Below, Here in After (Death)

Labyrinth: Return to Heaven Denied (Power)

The Ocean: Pelagial, Precambiran (Atmo-Sludge), Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic (Prog, Atmo-Sludge)

Primordial: To the Nameless Dead, The Gathering Wilderness (Folk, Pagan Black)

Trouble: Psalm 9, The Skull (Traditional Doom, Christian)

Non-Metal

Neal Morse: ? (Symphonic Prog)

And there are other bands I want to thoroughly explore like Transatlantic, Dvne, Disillusion, Whitechaple, Gwar, Downfall of Gaia, so I'm likely going to explore more Metal Blade in the coming weeks, especially where clan challenges are concerned.  I might as well go back on Fates Warning tonight after I'm done with Caravanserai.

I certainly hope we do just that.  There are many brilliant albums that came out in the last decade or so that should be represented.

The Remnant is a single.

Considering objections

Emperor (North, not including Prometheus as a prog album)

Alice in Chains (Gateway)

Type O Negative (Fallen)

Morbid Angel (Horde)

Soundgareden (Gateway)

Korn (Gateway)

Killing Joke (Sphere)

Converge (Revolution)

Blut aus Nord (North)

Trouble (Fallen)

Impressive, Rex! I've also been listening to metal for 11.5 years now, and the amount of metal albums I've heard is in the thousands, though it's literally 99% of all music that I've chosen to listen to during that time period. Yeah, I'm more focused on metal than any other music genre.

You're likely higher than me at this point.  I'm only at 2560.  I oftentimes force myself to go through binges on specific genres and bands to make sure I properly educate myself on them.  Right now it's outsider and lo-fi house, and thankfully since lo-fi house is a very EP-oriented genre I can get through about three of those a day and still have time for a couple other albums from other genres I want to explore.  But I need to wait until I can go on another serious metal binge.

If someone listened to 2 albums a day, that would be 730 albums a year. At that rate it would take 19 years to listen to 13,825 albums, and that's without ever listening to an album twice.

I generally listen to at least four a day, and on free days where I have no plans I play albums when I'm doing housework and writing, so I can easily wolf down 2,000 albums a year and still make time for movies.  On top of that, I've listen to a lot of punk and EDM, so EP's also play into that.  I've been doing that for 11.5 years now.

Good news concerning my log of every album I've ever heard.  I'm trying to keep the number of metal albums there to under 20% so I can focus on other genres.  I just did all the math: I have currently heard 13,825 albums and have 2,560 metal albums in it.  I immediately know that 2,560 x 5 = 12,800, so I am 1,025 albums ahead of 20%.  But this also means that the amount of metal is 18.5%, so I'm not as ahead as I'd like to be...

I've had an excellent exercize in music today.  I worked on my lo-fi house studies, made some room to explore Mach-Hommy, and I added one of his albums as well as Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield to my top 1000, kicking out Bee Thousand and Dusty Definitely.  I'm not really sure what genre to call that Oldfield album.  I mean, "prog rock" feels totally wrong.  It's more like "art pop" or something.  It's just so diversified that it's almost impossible to peg, but I do NOT wanna call it a rock album.  I guess I'll call it new age based on RY's description: "Broad genre centered on peaceful, meditative melodies, using a wide variety of instrumentation."  New age isn't necessarily slow meditative music like ambient.

I like it.  Thing is, it is feasible with the current script?

Ben, could you please add the new Alcest?  Thanks, peaches.

Sorry to say that I won't be posting this in The North as was my original intent.

Alcest - Les chants de l’aurore (2024)

Genres: Post-Metal, Shoegaze

Subgenres: Post-Rock, Blackgaze, Dream Pop

Once again we have a fine example of Alcest challenging the very notion of evil in the black metal sound.  There will be, however, some debate as to how "black" this album really is, considering that the usage of the genre seems to be limited to certain artistic choices between songs.  In the opener, Komorebi, the blackness that helps to open the song is overshadowed by epic choir vocals like something out of a Hans Zimmer score or a Celtic new age album.  However, L'envol isn't afraid to follow up the new age vocals that take the final act with a direct assault of atmo-black metal and kickstart another uplifting and catchy piece of pure Alcest.  Neige's vocals are just as clear and crystalline as ever.  Thanks to its incredibly cheerful approach, you can look back on a song and think to yourself, "this was eight minutes long!?"  It still spends more time focusing on the post-metal, though.  If you want straight up blackgaze, then Améthyste is the way to go.  You can get just as lost in the atmosphere as you do in the rhythms.

Kickstarting the second half is the last of the two singles, the first being L'envol.  Flamme Jumelle is a post-rock track that carries all the themes through a lighter, more accessible rock sound but manages to maintain the Alcest appeal perfectly, even when incorporating the mesmerizing tremelo-picking.  I can see this being an Alcest stape for future concerts.  Next is a piano and violin semi-instrumental (don't worry, it's only three minutes long), Réminiscence, which features Neige vocalizing in ways that just make me wanna effing meditate.  The incorporation of new age elements was a spot-on choice.  Next is L'Enfant de la Lune, which isn't quite as cutesy as the name would suggest, but makes for a good post-metal track that focuses on anthemic energy.  It carries a heavily noisy approach but never really steers into blackgaze.  Thankfully, this decision made the song more unique to the album as its approach was used similarly in Améthyste.  We end things with L’adieu, which stays soft, ambient and serene throughout the whole five minutes, relying entirely on the sunset calm to recall the imagerey of that album cover in a more realistic fashion.  Perfect ending.

It must be mentioned that Alcest is NOT, I repeat, NOT, trying anything that new.  Just because there's less blackgaze on this album than before doesn't mean it's new for them.  They're essentially repeating the less blackened songs of their past albums.  The one time they changed their style, there was a little backlash, even though the album was alright.  And if you ever read one of my reviews, you'd likely know that I'm the guy who promotes trying new thing and typically hates copying the hits.  The thing is, Alcest's structuring of compositions and rhythms is certainly not conventional, and because of this, five albums of great blackgaze just isn't enough.  Pair this with the fact that there are very few in this wonderful gimmick genre that can butt heads with the likes of Alcest and Deafheaven, and you may find yourself running back to this essential French band for more and more.  Some say Sadness can, but is three bands really enough?  But this album still isn't blackgaze, really.  It's a further exercise in pretty atmospheres that's even less distracted by the depression and evil often associated with black metal.

So time for the four questions:

1. What is the goal of this album?  Seems to be an exercize in uplifting summery atmosphere rather than a blackgaze album, so the goal must be a slightly new direction that fans will still get behind.

2. Does it meet its goal?  Well as an Alcest fan who just read some ratings after the album finished, I can guarantee that this is a major yes.

3. What did the album sacrifice or neglect to meet its goal?  Really, the fact that this new direction is slight means there's some unoriginality involved.

4. Are the sacrifices made up for by other aspects of the album?  Considering that the album still meets my standards for variety, atmosphere, rhythmic prowess, etc., I'm gonna say yes.

So this Alcest album is a grand reminder of what Alcest is capable of, but if you look at it closely, you'll see the band wants to go for something a little new.  Nevertheless, they still put passion in it and are aware of their skills.  I can see this being argued as a contender for best metal album of the year by the masses.  I don't think I'd go that far (my current choice is Coagulated Bliss), but I've been waiting for the new Alcest since Spiritual Instinct, and now I'll be even more eagerly awaiting the eight studio album.  Les chants de l’aurore cancelled out all my worries that Alcest lost its potency, even if their "new ideas" are technically reorganized rehashes of past ones.

96/100

Sorry to be behind the curve here but my quick 2 cents about Blackgaze:

It's definitely one of the smaller Black Metal subgenres that could be encapsulated by just Sunbather, but I think it deserves a bit more than that. I think the current resurgence of Shoegaze/Noise Rock in the indie spheres has been allowing Blackgaze to make some waves again, so limiting the subgenre to one example seems a bit harsh. I did some digging on early Blackgaze releases and of course Alcest and Deafheaven were the only ones to gain any notoriety, so I think we're covered on that. I'd agree that either Souvenirs d'un autre monde or Écailles de lune deserves a spot as Deafheaven doesn't end up where they are if Alcest wasn't a part of the equation. I couldn't find any specific interviews but as much as it's worth Wikipedia cites that Alcest was a pretty big collaborator and influence on Deafheaven before Sunbather released, so I think tracing back that path is worth it for the list. Then I think it's a question whether the list values the "prototype" (Souvenirs) or the stronger early example (Écailles) of Blackgaze. I'd personally go with Écailles if I was forced to choose, but I'm sure most people would see it both ways. 

I know pretty much nothing about Depressive Black Metal so I'll see myself out o7

Thanks Xephyr. I agree that Alcest has to be included. It's just a matter of which album.

It's a difficult one.  Now their sophomore is much more metal, but Souvenirs is much more popular and a bit more lauded.  You could say that the genre was more well focused and cemented on Ecailles, but I think Souvenirs is more relevant to the history of blackgaze's development, so I'll vote Souvenirs.

Ayreon - The Human Equation (2004)

Genres: Prog Metal, Metal Opera

Subgenres: Prog Rock, Space Rock, Folk Rock

I've been a bitdistracted from the prog metal for a couple days since I've been going through so many projects lately, but now I've got the time to take on this 100-minute Ayreon album in one sitting.  I don't like splitting albums in parts unless it's just THAT long, like the 10-hour Grateful Dead Fillmore West comp I once listened to years ago.  I didn't have super-high hopes for this one as Into the Electric Castle didn't amaze me as much as the fans would want, although I still liked it.

Akin to Into the Electric Castle, this 100-minute album shows Ayreon going for another new sound for the band, but a pretty familiar one for me.  This album's a bit reminiscent of the themes and guitar tones of Metropolis Pt. 2 by Dream Theater.  Don't believe me?  Guess who sings as the main character of this concept: James LaBrie of Dream Theater.  To be fair, I skipped over the Universal Migrator albums for the list challenge, so I'm not fully aware of the transition.  But I know the first part of that two-album series has symphonic prog elements from a little research.  The folksy aspects make occasional returns, and sometimes it's just glorious like in the Disc 1 outro: Love.  It's a pretty incredible track melodically and aurally.  And thankfully, the space rock elements of the debut are here without the cheesy symphonia that didn't really add to the emotional core of the debut.  Thankfully there are a large number of influences here.  Some of the electronic elements faintly ring of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, while some of the more dramatic vocals on Day 8 and the rhythm have a Meat Loaf ring to them.  The song Loser somehow manages to combine Celtic metal with metalcore screams and still maintain the themes and presence of the song.  Pride's repeating metallic riff can also be attributed to some Devin Townsend influence.  This is no surprise as various characters are played by people such as Townsend, LaBrie, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, Mike Baker of Shadow Gallery and even Eric Clayton of Saviour Machine, along with so many more.

The story is certainly an intriguing one.  This one's like a combination of the mystique of Metropolis Pt. 2 and the scene-by-scene history of The Wall or maybe the 1975 Russian film The Mirror, telling the story of a man who gets into a car accident, is comatose, and goes over his history with his childhood, his wife and even his own emotions.  Listen closely to the lyrics as they get incredibly personal.  However, these themes, while well-delivered, aren't entirely new, as they still ring heavily of the psychological lyrical imagery that's been seen in rock operas ever since the emergence of The Who's Tommy.  On top of that, I'm not really sure the album needs to last 100 minutes.  I mean, some themes feel recycled overtime, not having the originality of similar stories like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  Despite these things, the melodies are always beautiful and the number of influences are both consistent and always intriguing and / or catchy.

Now for the four questions:

1. What is the goal of this album?  It seems to be Ayreon's attempt at another "essential" prog metal opera as it fits the tropes.

2. Does it meet this goal?  Considering the melodic quality and variety of each song, I'd say so.

3. What did this album sacrifice to meet its goal?  I'd say uniqueness.  It's tropey and also a little long.

4. Are these sacrifices made up for by other aspects of the album?  Oh, yeah.  The album might be overlong, but its musical prowess is phenomenal.

So overall, I'd say this is EASILY a good 100 minutes of my time that I find myself tempted to go back and revisit.  I didn't think this was gonna be as high on my rating chart as it's gonna be considering that I wasn't wowed by their album The Human Equation which is just as lauded, but this album wowed me a few times.

96/100

My three favourite Maiden albums are Seventh Son, Somewhere in Time and Powerslave, so my list of tracks would definitely have a lot of crossover with yours Karl.

My three favourite Maiden albums are Seventh Son, Somewhere in Time and Powerslave, so my list of tracks would definitely have a lot of crossover with yours Karl.

^^^ Exactly this.

Are you guys my clones?

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook

Had no idea Skee Mask had a new one out.  His stuff's usually pretty good.

Skee Mask - Resort (2024)

Genres: IDM, Ambient Techno

Subgenres: Ambient, Breakbeat, Dub Techno, Ambient Dub, Atmospheric Drum and Bass

With that genre-tagging, I hope the flow goes well.  I love variety, but too much ambition can hurt.

FOr the next hour, and this one hour only, you may all me a giddy little girl.

That seems about right.  I gave it the same rating.

Also... Panteravirus.  Not the best but it has punch.

The 2003 self-titled Killing Joke is more popular.

OH wait a minute. I crossed up two diferent concepts. The idea isn't that Sabbath isn't metal-as in hard rock that shouldn't be here that's what I had in my tortured mind. This is just about moving it from Guardians to Fallen. I dunno man. I guess I don't feel strongly about either one.

At the risk of stirring the pot, because for the life of me I can't seam not to...

Genre classifications were developed for marketing, broadcasting, radio stations, and record store reasons. They served as a rough guide to what you might be getting from an unknown artist. In an era where streaming is the most common form of music consumption what purpose do such debates really serve, or even reviews for that matter? You can read my rating and review of an album sure, but in the same amount of time you could have queued it on you platform of choice and been 5 minutes deep into actually hearing it yourself. I'm obviously not against such things as I vigorously participate in this website, but the creative and restless mind keeps me wondering if we could look at music criticism in a new light and find something more constructive and fresh to do with this passion? 

I suppose they may have started that way, but these days genres are a bit more wide-ranging than marketing.  Take film for example.  Would you ever buy a movie labeled "kitchen sink cinema?"  I mean, if I walk into a store and actually see a "blackgaze" or "doomgaze" section, I'd find it very cool that the local community has an interest enough to justify a shelf in a store, but most genre-tags now seem more like last.fm-style reference points for bands that encompass certain underground varieties, albeit without the surprisingly still-going meme of tagging Bieber as black metal.  They're useful if you want a distinct sound, even thought sometimes it gets out of hand.

You have mentioned only half the amount of songs being metal, but again, even the more rock-ish parts sound metal to me, and this at least brings the amount of metal up to at least 40%, the bare minimum for an album to be considered metal.

Actually I said only 7 of the 10 felt that way to me, and that some of the metal songs tend to switch between the two, so it's more like 30%.  Besides, I only consider something metal if half of it fits the bill, so the voting is more personal, just like Daniel's personalized 40% rule.

I dealt with ignoring the entire first wave of Black Metal, but if were going to start saying that Black Sabbath isn't Metal that blows all credibility. 

Now that I really think about it, I doubt the Guardians want to lose Black Sabbath's most important album.  Slowly they could end up becoming a major band for the Fallen rather than the Guardians just based on the first three albums.

Ayreon - Into the Electric Castle (1998)

Genres: Prog Rock, Rock Opera

Subgenres: Metal Opera, Prog Metal, Symphonic Prog, Psych Rock

So apparently the original version of Actual Fantasy is practically impossible to find, so I skipped it.  Real shame since I wanted to critique as many Ayreon albums as I could.  I was only able to find the first two tracks, and was really NOT impressed with what I heard.  It was too long and drawn out, going for bad imitations of classic space rock.  So the next album on my Ayreon marathon is Into the Electric Castle, which some say is their best thus far.

This wacky-ass album cover alone gives you everything you need to know.  Why wouldn't a somewhat psychedelic journey through an undiscovered world to an ancient castle be described with an Infected-Mushroom take on Howls' Moving Castle?  This album features multiple characters all voicing different characters within this strange little story, so it's already proving that it's a unique album, which I didn't really grasp from The Final Experiment.  The vocalists include Lucassen himself, Anneke van Giersbergen of The Gathering, Fish of Marillion, Sharon den Adel and Robert Westerholt from Within Temptation and even Peter Daltrey from the classic pop band Kaleidoscope.   You can tell from the first song, Isis and Osiris, that some 60's influences such as psych rock and Jethro Tull are making their way in.  There's some fine instrumentation from Isis and Osiris alone, but the real strength is how well all the vocalists operate with each other as well as with this unique new sound for Ayreon.

I found that there were some moments where I wished the metal of the first album would make more appearances early on, and I didn't get very much between Amazing Flight and Valley of the Queens (tracks 3-9).  Eventually, once I got past the halfway mark, I kind of gave up on the idea that this is a metal album as was advertised.  However, I really enjoyed the story and the unique sound was there to help.  We had little bits of metal every now and then, like the power ballad The Castle Hall, which mingled the power metal sound with Jethro Tull acoustics.  Weirdly enough, it becomes a metal album again at around track ten.

I didn't think about this at first when I turned on the album, but I wasn't surprised at all when I heard the ten-minute epics and they kept the songs original and consistent throughout each runtime.  This means their skill at delivering epics from their debut hadn't waned at all at that point.  Unfortunately, there aren't very many epics after the first two actual songs, but it was still a lot of fun.

So the four questions:

1. What is the goal of the album?  To be a new kind of rock opera for Ayreon and an innovation in the prog scene.

2. Did the album meet its goal?  Totally.  This is a much cooler and more thought-provoking story than The Final Experiment.

3. What did the band sacrifice or neglect to meet this goal?  Well, they sacrificed their original sound for a new one, and the instrumentations don't wow me as much as they impress me.

4. Were these negligences made up for by other aspects of the album?  The instrumentation was more great than amazing, so there's a no for that at least.  But there's a HUGE yes for the shift in sound because A: it's not as typical as the stereotypical medieval vibes of The Final Experiment, and B: because this retro Jethro Tull influence paired beautifully with the lyrical content.

So I'd say that this tertiary album of Ayreon's is a big success for them.  It features many cool prog songs with a strong presence, rarely gets samey, carries a bunch of vocalists that work together perfectly and always keeps the story strong.  Really glad I decided to check these guys out.

91 / 100

I consider the early versions of stoner and doom to be more like "proto" appearances, so I'm going to consider the tags "early heavy metal" as opposed to what Judas Priest sounded like.  Or these early counterparts are subgenres of heavy metal in the same way that disco is a subgenre of dance although it came before straight dance music.

Ayreon - The Final Experiment (1995)

Genres: Prog Metal, Metal Opera

Time for the next project for my Metal Academy prog metal challenge: Ayreon.  I've been putting these guys off for quite a while due to the nature of my charts and the necessity for more jazz, EDM, folk, etc.  So I'm gonna listen to this band a little slowly overtime, as I shouldn't only listen to ONE Ayreon album for the challenge and am aware that these guys have several essentials in the prog metal community.  I'm honestly a bit impatient to get through them, but won't forsake my jazz and EDM studies for it.

Ayreon is the first band formed by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, who later formed the sci-fi movie concept act Star One.  This is the album that launched his career in prog metal, and focused on a conceptual story from the getgo.  And since the lead character shares the band's name, the story won't end with one album, much like Rhapsody.  I totally admire that a band's willing to stick with a recurring original concept rather than writing about the same metal and pop tops we're all familiar with.

As far as what the album did right: the structures of these songs felt totally fine to me.  Ayreon wasn't afraid to stick an eleven-minute song in this album four tracks in, and that track held itself throughout the entire runtime.  So when it comes to structuring a song, Ayreon already had some skill in it.  Having said that, I felt like sometimes the trumpets and violins came on a little too strongly, and were more there for show rather than for a core, despite the fact that the compositions were still fun and spirited.  I mean, even when the tempos are slower, this album is pretty high energy.  Of course, not everything is all 2112 and Dream Theater.  Nice, softer, shorter and folksy songs like Nature's Dance recall shorter tracks like Mother on Pink Floyd's The Wall.  So one definite pro is that the album isn't beating us over our fragile little noggins over guitar wankery.  They're certainly not one of those sellouts catering to a specific generic group: they're thoughtful.

But what did it sacrifice to get this end result?  Well, first of all, despite all the time travel themes, it starts off with futuristic cyberpunk vibes and then makes a complete 180 to Arthurian mythology.  So thematically, it's a bit challenged.  On top of that, the story certainly didn't amaze me.  It's basically no different than any Bible tale.  Thankfully it's never fully gone.  The prog electronic backdrops of Computer-Reign are a nice recall, but that one song certainly wasn't enough for me.  In fact, the song itself wasn't even long enough for me to really fall in love with.  After the skillfully crafted 11-minute epic, I figured that concept certainly needed more album time.  if I were to be specific, I know these guys could've doubled the time.

So now for the four questions:

1. What is the goal of this album?  To be a diverse, well-written and new concept in fantasy metal, recalling the prog rock albums of the 70's.

2. Does this album meet it's goal?  Yes, it totally does.  There's a lot of spirit here, and you can tell that the band not only wrote the songs fairly well at least, but had fun with it.

3. What did the band neglect or sacrifice to meet this goal?  I'd say a thicker story and more instances of the sci-fi vibe are necessary.

4. Are the sacrifices made up for by other aspects of the album?  Not really.  I still miss the sci-fi and wanted more of a mingling of the two genres.

Well, Ayreon made it perfectly clear that they were willing to maximize on the popular tropes of yesteryears prog concepts and structures.  There are faint hints of Rush, Floyd, Dream Theater, etc. here that you may enjoy.  But even if this fun and spirited album never reaches truly glorious prog heights, it's still a fun and varied debut with the same sense of fun as a good 80's fantasy movie.  If I had to compare the quality and the vibes of this album to a movie, I'd easily choose Clash of the Titans.

77 / 100

Gonna get through an Ayreon marathon.  I need to get through many of their albums, anyway.  All the reviews will be posted here, so stay tuned.

I'm getting tired of this idea where I have to watch what I say around people but they don't have to watch what they say around me.  They've been saying it for 30 years, my whole life, usually because Im autistic, and I'm done.

I distinctly say "it seems to me," meaning I could be wrong, and I distinctly expected Sonny to explain his opinion rather than run away.  I gave everyone here, including Sonny, the benefit of a doubt by believing we all thought about the albums we review, and I'm still willing to talk about it with him.  My posts will be READ PROPERLY.

OK, but just clarifying...

You, of course, can say whatever you want, Rex, I just want no part of it anymore, as is my right. I'm not "scolding" anyone - get on with it, good luck, I'm gone!

Just making sure the former isn't scolding, in case things get misconstrued again.

To the rest of the website, this is Metal Academy.  The whole point of this website is to discuss the albums and potentially the way we rate them as a result, and that is exactly the purpose of my more serious reply.  I'm more than willing to discuss the way people rate and review albums, including the Blasphemy one, and I never once said my way is the only way.  However, I do not and never have believed in simply listening to one aspect and sticking with it since I started listening to albums on a regular basis, and that was nearly 12 years ago.  Those days are gone.  So while I can't and will never try to force my "four question method" on other people, I will suggest looking at multiple angles.

Everyone of us has a personal craft to it, and I firmly believe that if we let the talent go to waste it's a problem.  So if Sonny sees something that I don't, I should think that the rules as well as myself should encourage it.  If he has a problem, he should be willing to discuss it instead of claiming that he won't voice his opinions again.  If he sees multiple angles of its "greatness," let him explain it, please and thank you.  He's on a music website, and if someone made a statement about opinion that I didn't agree with, I would explain my case and see if I can convince the other party otherwise.  Sure, a long paragraph or two can be seen as "wanting to hear myself talk," but once again, I'm exploring multiple angles.  So if I come across like Mojo Jojo, it's because I'm proving points.

I am more than willing to discuss it with him, but I won't accept responsibility for someone getting hurt about a simple disagreement or a sarcastic remark in a metal community of all things.  I tried that route years ago when I was first starting on forums and album reviewing, and it contributed to many fights.  I was told not to let my emotions get the best of me in these instances, and I was also told that a little bit of sarcasm is alright, and I've held true to these for years.

So to end this, I will accept none of the responsibility for another user leaving this thread.  I ask Sonny to write a review of the album for me to read.

Metal Academy is not a site where we want the "people who like Metallica are total posers" style comments. You're correct that everyone should feel free to not like things as passionately as they want, but there's simply no need to be offensive to others.

I never said this site was the place where that happens.  I said that was a different place called "Metal for the Masses."  I detailed the difference between enjoyment and analysis, and I fail to see how this is offensive.  I repeat: the original comment was simply a piece of sarcasm, nothing more.  And I really don't see how I should be scolded for detailing my opinions on why (not how) things should be analyzed further.

Also, I just realized an important typo that I missed when I was editing a sentence, so please reread the first paragraph again.  Apologies for that part, at least.

::  People are going to disagree about albums, and I don't scold anyone when they say "people who like Metallica are total posers." ::

War metal fans need taste...

Meaning what?

That was half sarcasm, but there's also a reason I feel the album's overrated.  It seems to me that the only thing these people who love that album are focusing on is the level of brutality.  It's like songwriting, recording quality and musicianship don't exist.  I mean, I love brutality as well, but no matter exactly how different one music forumer or critic might judge things from another person, good judgement should look at things from even more angles.

The simple fact is, I enjoy that album and the effect it has upon me. I don't have to justify that to anyone and throwing insults around because you disagree is disrespectful to the opinions of others. All this does is reminds me why I tend to avoid internet forums, so fuck it, I don't need your bad vibes, so I'll keep my opinions to myself.

Dude.  The first post was a sarcastic remark, and the second was simply my beliefs on critiquing and judgement.  People are going to disagree about albums, and I don't scold anyone when they say "people who like Metallica are total posers."  And that happens on Metal for the Masses all the time and I'm still there.

Besides, I am also aware of the difference between "enjoying" something and admitting something is technically good or bad.  Good Burger and Kung Pow are two of my favorite movies for how hilarious they are, but I'm not going to act like I don't think the writing and direction are as good as other comedies I don't often watch like The Truman Show or Nice Guys.  I'm not going to act like people shouldn't discuss awareness of quality.  This is something people should be aware of, and because it's still opinionated in the end, it is NOT objectivity vs. subjectivity as it still requires belief.

Nothing I said had anything to do with offending you.  I might be autistic, but I have the mental capacity to realize when I reasonably offend someone and when someone misconstrues something I said.  If Bieber is influential and no one online likes him, then anyone is justified for not liking Blasphemy, or even my favorite metal band Metallica for that matter.

War metal fans need taste...

Meaning what?

That was half sarcasm, but there's also a reason I feel the album's overrated.  It seems to me that the only thing these people who love that album are focusing on is the level of brutality.  It's like songwriting, recording quality and musicianship don't exist.  I mean, I love brutality as well, but no matter exactly how different one music forumer or critic might judge things from another person, good judgement should look at things from even more angles.

War metal fans need taste...

All genres:

1. Vengelis - 1492 (Neoclassical New Age, Electronic)

2. Eric Claption - Unplugged (Acoustic Blues, Acoustic Rock)

3. Current 93 - Thunder Perfecr Mind (Neofolk)

4. The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde (West Coast Hip Hop, Jazzy Hip Hop)

5. Änglagård - Hybris (Symphonic Prog Rock)

6. Alice in Chains - Dirt (Grunge, Alt-Metal)

7. Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain (Stoner Doom Metal)

8. Dream Theater - Images and Words (Prog Metal)

9. David Zinman / Dawn Upshaw - Symphony No. 3 (Modern Classical, Symphony)

10. Fluffy - Go, Fluffy, Go! (Grunge, Noise Rock)

Metal:

1. Alice in Chains - Dirt (Grunge, Alt-Metal)

2. Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain (Stoner Doom Metal)

3. Dream Theater - Images and Words (Prog Metal)

4. Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond (Power Metal)

5. Neurosis - Souls at Zero (Sludge Metal)

6. Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses (Deathgrind)

7. Type O Negative - The Origin of the Feces: Not Live at Brighton Beach (Goth Doom Metal)

8. Nine Inch Nails - Broken (Industrial Rock, Industrial Metal)

9. Ministry - Psalm 69 (Industrial Metal)

10. Melvins - Lysol (Sludge Metal, Drone Metal)

Total argument from me.  I really disliked that album.  I love lo-fi when it's done right, but this wasn't "lo-fi," this was just "bad garage recording" that tried to confuse simple songwriting with tropes.  That Conqueror album is twice as good (meaning 3.0 vs. 6.0).  The way I see it, the albums should be both influential AND GOOD.  I'm completely on board if the Conquerer album makes it, but I'm gonna be saying that Blasphemy album is way overhyped until I die.

Ark - Ark (200)

Genres: Prog Metal

Subgenres: Prog Rock

 I never really hear anyone talk about Ark, probably because the band broke up too quickly to get noticed.  However, both of their albums are considered quite good, so as a prog fan I was looking forward to this for a while.  I finally have some time for metal among all my EDM studies, so why not tackle one of the Metal Academy list challenges?  This time, it's 2nd wave of prog metal.  Unfortunately, when I check out a band, I don't like to look up only one album.  So this list challenge is going to take some extra effort on my part.  Thankfully, the next album on this prog challenge belongs to a band with only two albums, so it's onto this one and off to Burn the Sun.

I noticed that Jorn Lande, also known simply as Jorn, has a similar growl in his vocals to one of my favorite metal vocalists: Russell Allen of Symphony X, who recorded a few albums with him.  Jorn, however, has a bit of traditional hard rock in his voice as well, like just a hint of Robert Plant of another Russell: Jack of Great White.  Along with some traditional vibes, this prog metal album had a nice retro flair to it. The organs in the background are a bit reminiscent of this time as well, recalling moments of Deep Purple and krautrock.  The organ is all-too familiar in prog.  And thankfully, the album mixed it up a little.  pop and prog structures both make their way into this album while we get cute surprises like acoustic Spanish guitar.

Unfortunately, there are two huge problems that got in the way of my enjoyment.  First: the percussion.  The drummer they got was good at what he did, but the distinct sound of the drums was too high and light for a prog metal album.  This hindered the album's ability to maximize the metal energy and constantly got in the way of me fully enjoying any of the songs.  Second: the progressive layouts.  They're are standard as a poppier Rush album.  It's like these prog elements are just prog enough to get the tag.  Eventually, all of its tricks start to feel standard.  On top of that, lyrics like "Roll the dice, pay the price" can be written by Crush 40.

OK, so this debut had some ups that lasted a little while before the downs made it feel less original.  it's a decently cool prog debut, but a standard one with both strong highs and a couple effective lows.  They say the second one is much better, so here's hoping it lives up to the legend when I get to it.  I feel no reason to return to this one, though.

68/100

I'm not referring to the quality of the riffs. I'm referring to the fact that Abbath can't play them cleanly. Admittedly Demonaz wasn't exactly a virtuoso on "Pure Holocaust" either but Abbath really struggles on "At the Heart of Winter". Perhaps you need to be a trained guitarist to notice it but it really taints the whole experience for me.

That dirty sound makes for a proper blackened experience to me.  Sometimes a little dirt goes a long way.  In fact, that WAS the album that introduced me to black metal, and I had a good experience with it because of that dirty sound.

I would argue that "Sons of Northern Darkness" saw Immortal watering down the sound that made them so special to begin with to be honest. It's a pretty decent record in its own right but I don't buy into the concept of it (or "At The Heart of Winter" for that matter) being any sort of classic/essential release. I would have thought that a list like this one would call for a "Pure Holocaust" or "Battles In The North" well before either of those releases.

My position on Marduk is similar to that of Sonny's. I love my black metal to be dark, aggressive & brutal but I'm not sure that I'd call any of Marduk's releases essential even though there are a few that give some serious jollies.

And for the record Ben, after giving it some thought over the last day or so I'm tending to favour "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" over "Dusk and Her Embrace".

Pure Holocuast was great, but it was more or less doing what Darkthrone already did.  By adding more melody and thrash to it, Immortal set themselves apart with At the Heart of Winter.

I mean, Sons of Northern Darkness is one of their best, but taking into account 1st and 2nd wave acts being on the list in general, any album released in 2002 is kinda late to the party.

I read that Dimmu Borgir are the biggest selling black metal band of all time recently. It wouldn't seem right not to consider one of their releases when you take that into account.

Really!?  I mean, they're certainly not bad at all, but I think about that sometimes and I never would've guessed it was them.

Going through a bit of a marathon, re-evaluating albums I heard years ago for the sake of perfecting my charts.

If you're going for most influencial then you have to include Black Metal. Which IS a first-wave black metal album, and it gave the sub-genre it's name. Quite a lot of the first and second wave artists site it as a primary influence. 

Remember the first wave was little bit more relaxed in it's parameters than the second wave. Mercyful Fate is also considered a first-wave black metal band, and they are farther away than Venom from what became the "pure" template.

Every time I listen to Venom I think "a couple feet away from true black metal."  Maybe I'm being a little purist about it, but when I think "black metal," I think Mayhem, Immortal and Darkthrone.

That's 2nd wave Black Metal.

First wave doesn't even qualify, for the same reasons that Daniel just described.  1st wave is nothing more than a capitalization on the proto-roots to attempt to differentiate the sound from other bands who were doing the same thing with different subject matter.  This is effectively no different than calling many proto-metal albums of the 70's metal as is being studied here on MA.

David Sylvain - Gone to Earth

Genres: Ambient Pop, Art Pop

If you're going for most influencial then you have to include Black Metal. Which IS a first-wave black metal album, and it gave the sub-genre it's name. Quite a lot of the first and second wave artists site it as a primary influence. 

Remember the first wave was little bit more relaxed in it's parameters than the second wave. Mercyful Fate is also considered a first-wave black metal band, and they are farther away than Venom from what became the "pure" template.

Every time I listen to Venom I think "a couple feet away from true black metal."  Maybe I'm being a little purist about it, but when I think "black metal," I think Mayhem, Immortal and Darkthrone.

Deafheaven - Sunbather NO

Behemoth - The Satanist FUCK NO

Why would anyone be against Sunbather?  It has like a million emulators in the blackgaze scene and is considered the definitive album for the variant.  The Satanist is also very big for helping with the black death combo in a time where the two are in constant war with each other.

The Satanist helped popularize the black death combo a little, so I'll give it that.  But yeah, I agree that this list tries to appear standard and comes off as below that.

Just finished up a Cult Member marathon in my outsider house ventures.  This guy understands the balance between atmosphere and complex beats.  Not quite on par with Cross by Justice, but it maintains a consistent sound through various influences and surprises with plenty of complexity. There are acid techno songs which fit perfectly in this ambient / outsider house sound.

It might sound strange for someone that has such a lengthy metal story but I've never owned a battle jacket/vest. I always wore leather motorcycle jacket or a full-length trench coat back in my days playing in metal bands. I wear metal shirts exclusively, even today at 48 years of age.

I've got a few rock shirts myself, but only for those I really love.  I got Zeppelin, Meat Loaf (concert), Alice Cooper (concert), Metallica, AC/DC (this was one of my first from when I barely had any so I bought it without loving them), two Bowie's, Rolling Stones, Queen and Pink Floyd.  it's more fun to find random rock shirts in stores than to order online, although I don't get a lot of options for real metal.