Rexorcist's Forum Replies

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.

Apparently DJ Sabrina has a four-hour album from last year.  I'm thinkin' I'm gonna save that one for next Saturday.  I'll get through her debut once I'm done with AL-90.  Right now I'm starting the debut, SCR.  And you guys HAVE to hear this.  It's a very soothing, ambient type of lo-fi electronic that works wonders.  The track Martin Eden Broadcast blew me away.

https://reckno.bandcamp.com/album/al-90-scr

I don't know where you're looking for releases to explore Rex but I'd suggest that RYM's coverage of dance music leaves a lot to be desired with most releases receiving almost no coverage there. I guess this is impacted by the fact that most of the best dance music isn't artist album-based which is RYM's main focus & also the fact that RYM is fairly heavily driven by the USA which isn't the strongest market for more mature dance music. If you really want to dig into the best that dance music has to offer then I'd be more inclined to look at dance-oriented sites. The more popular DJ mixes are also a good place to find great material too.

Looking at the artists you've already listed like The Prodigy & Underworld, have you already explored Chemical Brothers, Leftfield & Orbital?

Shoot me a private message with your email address if you'd like me to Dropbox you some of my DJ sets from the 2000's.

I've got Chemical Bros. down.  My current favorite in EDM is breakbeat, so I've got a bit of that down.  But I look up a lot of obscurities around the EDM spectrum as well as other spectrums.  That's how I found Pizzamachine, Constantine Hastalis and The Deer, and some fantastic trance.  A trick I often use is to search the back of the RYM charts for the less popular releases with high ratings.  Lemme see if I can throw together a good EDM list.

1. The Prodigy - Jilted Generation (Breakbeat)

2. Shpongle - Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongle Land (Chillout, Trance)

3. Juno Reactor - Labyrinth (Trance)

4. Naked Flames - Miracle in Transit (House)

5. Nicolas Jarr (Against All Logic) - 2012-2017 (House)

6. Underworld - Everything, Everything (Techno, House)

7. Chicane - Behind the Sun (Trance)

8. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (Techno)

9. Aphex Twin (as The Tuss) - Rushup Edge (Techno, Breakbeat)

10. Amon Tobin - Permutation (Drum and Bass)

11. Charli XCX - Pop 2 (Bubblegum Bass)

12. Daft Punk - Alive 2007 (House)

13. Justice - Cross (House)

14. DJ Close Your Eyes to Find Me - Angel Trance Edits Volume 1 (Trance, Breakbeat)

15. Machine Girl - WLFGRL (Breakbeat, UK Bass, Footwork)

16. Au5 and Fractal - Secret Weapon EP (Dubstep, House)

17. Juno Reactor - Shango (Trance)

These are the ones I consider perfect albums.  Keep in mind, I'm an album review by nature, and I love keeping lists.  I don't have much need for singles or live sets.  Although, I'm doing a tad better on house than I thought.

Justice - Cross

Genres: French Electro House, Electro House (Standard)

Subgenres: Nu-Disco, Electro-Industrial, French House, Synth Funk

It's time I finally got back to this one.  This one's only 50 minutes and not very saturated, so it's easier-going and more lightweight in comparison to Charmed, which I really needed.  I heard this once over ten years ago when I was starting my "albuming," butI haven't revisited it for ten years.  I gave it an 8.5 when I first heard it, but that's because it's a much more accessible house album than before.  I didn't feel the need to go back and revisit it before since the ratings on RYM seemed to kind of match mine when I did the math.  But the ratings for that album are shared among the most lauded house albums, and they had two other albums out recently, so why not check it out again before checking out the rest?

At first I was a little turned off by the cheesy organ sound of "Let There Be Light," rapidly playing an organ-like sound to an odd rhythm.  But as the cheesier stuff came in smaller doses, I came to appreciate it as part of the album's unique persona and forbade myself from criticizing the album based on my original feelings.  There are quite a few elements here that all work in a beautiful harmony, and everything stays original with a perfect "Look at us, we're Justice" flow.  They really set their standard on the first try.  Even the kiddy approach to "D.A.N.C.E." didn't bug me anymore, thank God.

Among the cheesy Disneyland Electrical parade vibes are some really funky bangers like DVNO, which is surprisingly vocal as well, almost feeling like a crunk track.  Because the production isn't saturated, this extremely catchy album gives off a vibe of easygoing pop.  But the complexity is there in spades.  Not everything is super-poppy although it certainly puts on that facade.  Everything requires twists and turns and precision, even when things get cheesy, like with "Let There Be Light" or the dramatic beginning of "Stress."  It would immediately be followed by deep, brostepy mechanical riffs on "Waters of Nazareth" and it felt perfectly fine and even cool.

This debut pleased me even more the second time.  Minor flaws in certain tracks are easily made a part of the charm when gone back to and thought about thanks to an eclectic and imaginative EDM album that manages to stay accessible during all of its instrumental wankery.  Never too much, not too little thanks to a 50-minute runtime, this is now a personal choice for a top house album, and my new number one standard for electro house replacing the Secret Weapon EP by Au5 and Fractal.  This may change with a visit to Woman Worldwide or Planisphere, but I'm never gonna consider the idea that I shouldn't revisit this album again.

See, this is the kind of thing where all the fibers of my body keep poking at each other until I say, "Challenge accepted."

There's a common phrase that says "Jack of all trades, master of none" & I think it pretty accurately describes my position on the topic.

I have top 100s of hard rock and prog rock entirely made up of five-stars.  It took ten years to do that while I was working on other genres, too.  I think I got two of those in the bag.

DJ Sabrina - Charmed

Genres: House

As I mentioned before, I plan on getting into house.  A big reason why I didn't before was because one of the most lauded house artists of all time is constantly putting out two-three hour albums.  This someone is DJ Sabrina.  Well, I have a day off and plenty of time on my hands.  I was gonna start with the debut, Making Magick.  However, after the impressive first track, I got this strong itch in me saying, "Fuck it.  Get the three-hour one that everyone loves outta the way first.  You won't have to worry about it later."  So I switched, having made myself familiar with the way DJ Sabrina sounded like starting out.

This is a rarity among music, lemme tell you.  This is the kind of album that can blow through genre after genre while maintaining its vapor-inflused summer fun presence.  Predominantly, this is a house album, steering into the French sound of Daft Punk and the deep sound of Against All Logic with occasional ventures back into outsider house.  But we're all over the place here.  Even the synth funk, synthpop and vaporwave songs sound like this.  The standard is set by an amazing intro and we get many slight variations in tone and tempo with different genres along the way.  This might be my first DJ Sabrina album, but the results are obvious: anything she touches, she destroys.  And I mean that in the good way.  Some of these songs have a collection of various vocal tricks including spoken word, sampling, singing and rapping.  Sometimes all four will appear in one song, and it only makes these songs much more intriguing.  There are a few skits in the first half, and they're pretty much completely betrayed in the second half in place of nine-to-fifteen-minute epics.  This is certainly not a bad thing, really, because these are the songs that focus more on progression, even if they might reach overlength.

On top of this, rhythm and atmosphere are on a drunken parade here.  They work together most of the time and often show amazing levels of creativity and awareness of what's demanded of this type of album.  Take a look at "Nyakuza Metro Cats" and tell me this isn't one of the catchiest and most rhythmic house tracks you've ever heard.  And then you have atmospheric songs like "My Baby, I Become Unhinged" which last eleven minutes and focus on atmosphere and experience more than anything.  The two seriously feel like they belong on the same album despite all the technical differences.  The whole album is like this.

Now the big question remains: did this album really have to be three hours long?  Well, I'm going to have to say no.  There is some filler here.  The first fifth has a few samey moments.  I could've easily done without Love Foundation as it follows a bit too closely to the two actual tracks that preceded it, especially because the next song, Pool party, added a lot to the album without changing the summer presence.  In fact, it improved it with aquatic themes replacing the vapor qualities temporarily.  Despite the compliment I gave "My Baby, I Become Unhinged," it did NOT need to last eleven minutes.  And eventually, the abundant sampling in the three hours gets a little samey by the end.

I braved the three-hour house album that the world fell in love with and I survived.  Of course, I have a minor headache vaguely reminiscent of the bigger one I had when I speedread The Shining in one night a couple months ago.  This album shows a lot of ambition and creativity from DJ Sabrina, who was fully aware of the presence she wanted the entire time she recorded that album.  She's not like those electronic artists who put out a few EP's every year and sees if one sells.  She takes a lot of time to record some very creative things, as well as consistent.  Unfortunately, three hours was a little much.  With a couple tracks taken off, this might've been a 100.  Instead, I'm giving it a 96.

It's my firm opinion that no one has a comprehensive enough taste in metal to achieve that for all nine clans

See, this is the kind of thing where all the fibers of my body keep poking at each other until I say, "Challenge accepted."

Nevertheless, the moment I saw the clan selection screen, I thought to myself, "Sweet!  Classification and identity!"  For the most part, I think four clans is the max we should go with for now because we're still a bit of a small community.  We all have certain forms of one genre or another that we're the most passionate about, like how my favorite brand of EDM is breakbeat whereas I struggle with house.  Having said that, the struggle intrigues me to improve, so I fully accept and even love the whole clan challenge system, not only as a way to test our dedication to our identities and loyalty of it therein, but also acts as a way to in part actually live the attitude spoken about in many metal albums, considering we can't slay dragons and command evil spirits.  On top of this, the idea of focusing on specifics gives us the ability to fully comprehend something for the purpose of writing the best reviews possible.  Having said all this, I learned the difference between "favoritism" and "discrimination" years ago, and would like to finish at least one of every clan challenge once I gain my fourth clan as I am a bit greedy and want to understand as much about music as possible.

Before this gets locked for no further use (if that happens since some websites do it and some don't), Pelle, your top 20's missing entries 6 and 18.  Figured it'd be better to post here because we still need PM notifications.

Here's a concept I quickly threw together for a Fallen-specific shading to start with, using one of my previous posts.

This looks great

Thanks!

Thanks guys!

Here's a concept I quickly threw together for a Fallen-specific shading to start with, using one of my previous posts.

Forum Themes

Right now every Forum page looks the same, It would be cool if their were forum themes so that each clan board had a diferent look and feel. Alternatively you could offer users a drop down to select a theme for the whole site. 

Members of specific clans should discuss which aesthetics must be represented first before settling on a layout.  We'll need a thread for this, though.

Deadmau5 - Random Album Title (2008)

Genres: Prog House, Tech House

This is where I'm getting serious about exploring house.  Deadmau5 is a seriously popular name in the genre, and apparently he pioneered a sound or two everyone wanted to emulate.  I hoped this album lived up to the hype because I heard some very mixed things about Deadmau5.  His debut, Get Scraped, was a pretty cool one that proved that Deadmau5 knew how to work around various genres while maintaining a consistent flow, with genres including house, techno, IDM, breakbeat and a little trance.  Unfortunately, his second album, Vexillology, through ALL OF THAT out the window and was just a bunch of repetitive and empty house tracks with some interesting beats.  This third album is considered one of his big ones, so I was gripping the idea that it would be his best like a vengeful maniac squeezing another man's crotch.

Now we start off with a couple of decent tracks that go hand in hand, an opener and a follow up.  I have to say that I didn't really care for the way the follow-up copied the previous track's sound at first, but after thirty seconds, new effects and a heart monitor sample or two made it more like a sequel song than anything, justifying the decision.  But the album gets good on track 3, Slip, where its poppy but experimental riff screws with the 4x4 tempo of the beats to create a poppier brand of Trout mask Replica appeal.  Sure, it's repetitive.  But the sci-fi expands into more Vangelis-style and video game territory with Some Kind of Blue, which both slams and relaxes with its complex and eclectic approach to house simplicity.  So I'm sitting here on track four thinking, "This album's getting a little better with each track.  Please tell me it keeps doing that."

Next is Brazil (2nd Edit), which rings of the ibiza trance sounds of acts like Chicane while still remaining a Deadmau5 song.  its rhythm is both repetitive and complex, and the atmospheres are quite pretty.  So after five tracks, its progression as a continuous tempo seemed to be justified at the time.  But in the case of Alone with You, it started out cute and pretty with a nice charm to it, but it's not the kind of song that needs to last seven minutes doing it.  It should've just been four.  And after that came the popular one from the album and a staple of his career, "I Remember."  This one's more trance-oriented, and is the first to include singing.  It had an extremely simple beat and some pretty singing, and that was it for the first two minutes when I thought to myself, "this better pick up soon or I'm gonna be really disappointed."  And before I knew it, I was HALFWAY DONE WITH THE SONG.  The song pretty much lasted that way throughout the whole nine minutes, which spelled bad omens for when I realized it might be the same with Strobe.  EDM or not, creativity is practically a virtue to me.  The album has plenty of consistency, but without creativity as well, it's not gonna get super high points from me.

The next two tracks are a short orchestral variation and a normal variation of "Faxing Berlin," which somehow manages to be repetitive and unimaginitive at two minutes each.  This hinted to me that the meat of the album was spent.  "Not Exactly" spent a full minute out of eight just going about a simple beat before finally going to some new rhythmic sounds, still largely relying on playing the same sound over and over again four times a second.

The variations are often really slow-moving and add very little that hasn't already been heard on the album.  Was I really supposed to sit through all eight minutes of that?  Thankfully, "Arguru" was able to come in and save the day.  The main riffs were experimental, and various sounds and techniques were utilized to keep it a pretty strong track throughout.  It's trance-like, techno-like and purely Deadmau5 all at the same time.  Might be my favorite track on the album.  And finally, the deciding factor: "So There I Was."  Started typically with a noirish feel and more lacking melodies, so I was forced right back into Vexillology.  Two minutes in it starts to play with a hypnotic rhythm a little, and it certainly makes things better by adding a little glitter to this noirish track, but that's only for a little bit.  Otherwise, it's another repetitive song.

Final consensus: it's got more creativity than Vexillology in the first half, but it steers back into typical house territory in the second.  This big giant is alright, but nothing compared to the debut.

67 / 100

I was a techno DJ during the 2000’s & still hold a deep passion for electronic music Rex.

Anything recorded?

Here's an idea.  When someone wants to "officially" submit a review specifically for the challenges, they can press a "submit for acceptance" button and a mod can review it later.  This can separate the actual reviews from the commentary.  And of course, it would only be for clan challenge albums.  The only drawback I can think of right now is that there are currently two mods for that kind of thing.

To partially answer your rhetorical question and risking repetition, only read reviews for albums I've already heard.  And since I spend so much time looking up other genres (I am currently exploring more house music) I've been progressing on the clan challenges very slowly.

I'd have to refuse, too.  I don't support toxic communities, or at least I try to avoid it as much as possible.  Plus, Discord's layout annoys me.

So the world's going crazy over this new K-pop album called Dall by ARTMS.  I don't discriminate, and they've only got the one album, so what the hell, right?  As far as K-Pop goes, its exact genre is more than standard.  It's made up of all the same elements of thopse before them: dance-pop and con-R&B switching, synthpop, electropop, alt-pop and future bass.  Nothing special, right?

Wrong.  These ladies' voices go fantastically together.  Their harmonics are out of this world.  On top of that, the songs are uber catchy, have memorable melodies and each song feels a little different.  I'd even go as fare as to say that Candy Crush feel's like a very artistic take on your average vaporwave EP, and it fits.  Some of these songs just make you wanna jump up while others are smoother than raspberry chocolate mousse.  If it weren't for the fact that the genre choices are uber-standard, I'd give it a ten.  But right now, I'm having difficulty deciding if it's a 9.0 like Last in Line or a 9.5 like Holy Diver.

Beyonce - Renaissance (2022)

Genres: Dance-Pop, House, Contemporary R&B

it's so weird how much she's grown as an artist since her Destiny's Child days.  it's like The Flaming Lips in the sense that their heyday came way later.  Beyonce knows how to stay relevant and how to grow as an artist.  Renaissance is basically a testament to everything she's tackled before but with a freakishly consistent vibe.  The album takes little bits of various genres and maintains a very cool presence by allowing the instruments in each song to be both complex and yet not so melodic.  The melody is handled by Beyonce and the backing vocalists 80% of the time, and it always works well-enough.  Although, if you're addicted to melody, you might find an occasionally empty feeling if the technicality doesn't impress you.  But boy does the presence of this album assault you.   In fact, I'd even say that All Up in Your Mind, in its two-minute fifty-second runtime, is one of the best things Beyonce has ever done, and it wasn't even a single.

So far, this is Beyonce's strongest studio album, still falling second to her live album, Homecoming.  The unexpected switch to house allowed her to maximize her experience, even if this is a little overlong, I found myself placing it in the high 97's on my chart.

My Top 100 Heavy Metal Albums

Thanks a bunch to Ben for putting up Scorpions' World Wide Live so I could complete this accurately.  And yes, I included the four Metallica albums I tagged as "heavy metal," including RtL and MoP.  But that barely represents the whole of my feelings here.  I'm also very happy to say that my newfound love for Priest has allowed SEVEN of their albums here.

Try reading some other people's reviews to get an idea of the terminology and overall structure used.

I hear you on that, but my approach is this; why spend a 1,000 words to say what can be said in 10? As far as pacing, I've been listening to metal for a LONG time, and like the description says; the clan lists deliberately use a lot of the bigger albums. The result being that I've already heard most of them, some of them many many times. The most common rating I give is a 2.5 which signifies average, most things are average, that's why it's the average. Along with that comes the idea that about half of the stuff is below average. 

If a piece of music is just average to me, I don't have feelings for it that warrant a lengthy response. There are only so many ways to say "This was OK."

If the music is below average to my ears, I don't think it's a cool thing to write a lengthily tirade and tear it apart. To someone else it might be very cherished. Additionally I am a bassist, and I know how difficult, time consuming, and expensive it is just to get something recorded. I don't feel right bashing another artists art simply because I don't resonate with it. 

If I had my druthers I wouldn't write a review at all for anything scoring below a 4 (If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything). However, as it stands that is the only path I'm aware of to lock in your starting clans, and make additional ones available at this time, so I try to keep my reviews of 0-3 stars fairly brief. Once I get the homework done and can freely choose what I review you will see more fleshed out takes.

The other issue is when an album has a legacy status. We are all on a metal forum, do I really need to tell you that Black Sabbath's Master of Reality is a good album? What could I possibly say about such an icon that hasn't been said since it's release 53 Years ago?

These are the questions? scenarios? I wrestle with when I write reviews. Believe me, I don't like coming away from an hour long listen (which can be a REALLY long hour if we are talking about early funeral doom) with little to say, but I can't manufacture words for words sake. 

What's more ill-conceived, a short concise statement that does the job, or a rambling for rambling sake? Especially when we all have access to the medium itself a few short mouse clicks away?

I've been thinking about all of this a lot the last couple of days. What do you think? How do you approach writing your reviews?

Thanks for the reply, but this is predominantly a "review" site. It's not a "short concise statement on some music I heard once" site.  Also, you are missing the point of a review.  A review is to tell us why you enjoy an album, not necessarily why we would because you couldn't possibly know.  Your post here shows you are an articulate guy, whereas your reviews come across as a click bait, smash and grab, social media style expression which I don't think necessarily does you justice.

Accepting the point about limited time but we have all managed to lock in our clans by going into at least some detail, which does take more than one listen over a few days (hell even weeks) around jobs, family and other commitments.  

I am not being a dick here and apologies if it comes across that way.  I am not representing the views of the site either.  As a musician I just sense there's more depth and experience you could get into your reviews to share with us.  Entirely your choice though.

Agreed on most of this, although the only disagreement is really more of a preference than an actual contradiction: I rarely feel the need to listen to an album more than once to form my opinions, but since some people here do, it's not something I'd ever choose to gripe about.  It's probably because I write a review and edit it as I'm listening to the album in most cases, but lots of people tend to collect their emotions before writing.  For the sake of example, I decided to check out one of yours on your profile, and read the first paragraph of your previous review for Thergothon:

"Exploring early funeral doom is fast becoming my favourite way to relax.  It really is testimony to the knowledge of the creator of this clan challenge (The Fallen: Doom Metal - The Early Days) as to how good an introduction to the clan this list of releases is."

I didn't finish the review since I haven't heard the album, but that's not the point.  To Zero: This is the kind of intro that establishes a personal connection between the viewer and the reader, calling to mind the conception and familiarity of relaxation to keep in mind for the rest of the review, kind of like good character development in a novel.  So whatever's needed to make things more personal is an absolute necessity, even if it takes more than one play of the album.  Hell, that's why Kid A exists.

On top of that, aren't reviews verified and unaccepted if they don't meet certain standards?  I mean, I can't be alone in this: I took one look at the standards and decided I'd try to meet them the best I could when I first got here.

When I say "like albums" I meant the genre or the behavior of the album rather than the quality.

Personally, I love going into detail.  But when I need to write a review for a clan challenge's average album, I often use the more average albums and compare them to like albums in order to fully explain it.  This helps out with an extra five sentences or so and makes the review acceptable enough to complete a clan challenge.

I agree that funeral doom is quite literally doomed to constant repetition.  It's been a bit difficult to find an album in the genre I that really amazed me, considering I need constant invention and consistency balanced to give something a great rating.  There are only two funeral doom albums that ever made it to my top 100 metal albums: Antithesis of Light by Evoken and Metamorphosis by Esoteric.

But I really do admire doom's diversity overall.  Some metal genres only have so much they can work with, but doom's all over the spectrum with its own variants like trad and funeral as well as how it easily incorporates itself into death, stoner, gothic and even black sometimes.

Nice to meetcha.  Eager to see some of your reviews.

Pizzamachine - Sorry Haterz

Genre: Crunkcore

I decided to go all the way back to this guy's debut (like four albums but one year ago) right after being astounded by his album Pizza ex Machina.

This is obviously a parody of this specific type of music, not the kind of thing you listen to on a regular basis.  The comedic lyrics are simply just talking about wanting ice cream.  It might be an innuendo, but nothing "sexy" seems to happen other than just the title, Ice Cream Slut, which means the guy's just making fun of crunkcore.  The next track: crunkcore revival, showcases a use of synthwave beats and blasts of noise to create an actual atmosphere, and it's actually a decent jam.  Not a lot of swear words, either, which means Pizzamachine is aware that the overuse of vulgarities killed the genre.  That's why he makes fun of the overuse of the f-word by making that the focus of the next song, while still having a slick and groovy electronic beat behind him.

Unfortunately, the fact that these songs attack crunkcore simplicity by commenting on it is also part of its downfall.  The album might be "using" the flaws artistically, but that still means the flaws are there to a noticeable extent.  The beats might be well done, but the rhythms and lyrics never once amaze me.  On top of that, unlike the album I just reviewed, most of these songs are the same tempo and sometimes the same vibe.  Eventually the album bored me.

Well, better than standard stuff, but still kinda lame.

51/100

I'm gonna review a really weird album today.  And I'll explain why in the first paragraph.

Pizzamachine - Pizza Ex Machina

Genres: Trap Rap, Crunkcore, Electronic

Secondaries: Industrial Hip Hop, Trap Metal, Abstract Hip Hop, Electroclash, Techno

I do not like crunkcore, I do not like trap rap, I do not like cloud rap, and I do not like electroclash.  I like industrial, I like hardcore hip hop and to an extent I like abstract hip hop and techno.  Bits and pieces of all of these make up this surprisingly beat-driven experiment in arguably the worst music genre in existence (based on common ratings): crunkcore.  I mean, it's hard to take a guy called "Pizzamachine" seriously, right?  But I was curious about the modern state of crunkcore and decided to check if anyone was doing it in 2024.  RYM chart, 2024, crunkcore, found his albums had a few five-star ratings.  So my first thought is, "That's probably because the artist or artists rated it themselves.  But, there's a chance it'll be good."  With the exception of drugs, I don't knock things until I try them.

But yeah, I checked the raters, and pizzamachine's been giving his own stuff five-stars.  I didn't even publicly rate my own novel when I published it.  I consider that cheating.

These beats actually make me FEEL.  There's a deeper core here than what's expected from 99% of crunk, and with this robotic and industrial sound getting into some properly clunky and unexpected places, it gives me the feeling of a robot desperate to know if it has a soul.  Even when it goes into weird, somewhat humorous lyrics such as on its title track, the rhythms work and the instrumentation is legit amazing.  I found myself deeply intrigued by what this guy was doing.  Maybe he's just making fun of pizza, and maybe it's a deep metaphor for something.  Wouldn't doubt if it was both at once, considering how amazing the beats were.  Even more simple songs which are largely made up of a noisy beat and lyrics have a tendency to progress the emotional core of the song.  And even the screams feel professional.  Screams in hip hop generally don't work in the long run, but the screams here came the same devastation you'd find in an extreme metal album, and they're mostly used as an atmospheric background instrument rather than a prime focus, allowing the soul to bear the same level of focus as the instrumentation.

Now allow me to overreact a little.  The songs don't all share the same damn tempo and vibe.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find trap albums that don't do that?  Even good ones?  Trap rap is a genre I use to fill my "worst album" lists.  This album is all about creativity, and this album replicates that, especially when songs next to each other having the same tempo feel like two very different siblings in the same family.  I mean, we get vibes of Denzel Curry and Kraftwerk here.  There's even a straight-up techno song 20 minutes in.

This is the first time I've ever been flat-out intrigued by crunk of any kind.  I normally listen to crunkcore to fill up worst lists just like trap, but this album is justification for both of those genres.  This experiment could've been an absolute mess of the worst influences ever, and it ended up being soulful, consistent and addicting.  Kinda like when I tried Alani's Cosmic Stardust, I thought it would either be a sugarfest like the crappy Space Coca-Cola or surprisingly good.  Like Alani, Pizza ex Machina is no sugarfest.  It's all taste.  I don't think I want to just slap a perfect rating on it yet, though.  I need to hear some other albums by this guy first.  But it's safe to say that this album meets a great deal of my standards for perfection.

I always knew somebody might end up making a great crunkcore album someday, I just didn't know it had been done yet.

I never really thought much of them before checking out those remaining ones.  As far as modern radio's concerned, those albums are deeper cuts. :P  But at least I have a newfound appreciation for them.

Can we add Scorpions' World Wide Live, please?  I honestly have no idea why RYM doesn't tag it as metal since the album covers so many of their metal-era songs, being right at the end of it.

While I certainly quite like "Sin After Sin" & "Screaming For Vengeance" & have had a very long relationship with both, I've always felt that they were heavily overrated with neither being essential Judas Priest releases for me personally.

I can say the same for "Stained Class" actually. I guess my sweet spots for Priest are a little different to the norm.

No, I'm in the minority, too.  I checked some ranked lists around the internet, and it's rare to find Sin After Sin in the top 4.  Typically the battle for numbers 1-4 between Painkiller, Sad Wings, Vengeance and Defenders, with British Steel, Stained Class and even the two recent ones.  The latter two are a bit straightforward for me, especially Defenders.  That was the first of the various Priest albums I got through in the last 24 hours, and I really can't even say it holds a candle to the others, let alone to Invincible Shield or even British Steel which is more hard rock than anything.  Sad Wings is pretty diverse but not amazing.  About the same as Invincible Shield in quality.

Judas Priest - Stained Class (1978)

Genres: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock

Sin After Sin was an album that only made me so much more confident in the love the world shows Judas Priest.  Unfortunately, this is typically more for the radio singles and whatnot.  Albums like Sin After Sin proved to me that these guys were capable of so much more.  It's obvious that they steered away from blues rock, prog and fantasy because their image was working out for them.  Nevertheless, Screaming for Vengeance was surprisingly diverse for a strictly hard rock and heavy metal album.  So I got pretty excited to finish off the remained of the most classic of the Priest albums with Stained Class, which I started but quit so that I could compare it more easily to Sin After Sin.

This is the album where Priest truly became Priest.  I predicted a lack of the variety displayed and owned on Sin After Sin, which to me is Sad Wings 2.0.  Exciter and White Heat Red Hot begin this album with a good amount of energy for heavy metal, bringing influence to the later speed metal genre the way Dissident Aggressor did.  Great heavy metal tracks right here.  Of course, even though I predicted the third song would steer closer to hard rock, I never would've predicted it's main riff was an earlier, better version of the riff to My Own Worst Enemy by Lit.  Now this album's all funky fresh attitude here, which adds to the album's variety.  But the best thing about this song is the dense and atmospheric guitar bridge.  Strangely enough, this is the first song on the album that came so close to amazing me, as the first two were simply great and new for the time rather than phenomenal to me.  "Better by You Better Than Me" is now another favorite Priest song for me.  Next is the title track, which is speedy but bluesy at the same time.  I found my body going up and down in my chair rather than just performing standard headbanging.  I didn't find Halford's lyrical rhythms to be a proper one to mold with the fantastic instrumentation, though.  Maybe that'll change on another playthrough.

Now Invader and Saints in Hell both had some excellent instrumentation for the hard rock heavy metal bridge.  The lyrical rhythms by Halford were better than the title track's as well.  Unfortunately, I felt that both songs were too similar to each other, giving off a temporary feeling of lack of originality that was a bit to strong.  It might've had less effect if the two weren't next to each other, although I really did enjoy both songs.  Saints in Hell was an instrumental high point.  Thankfully, Savage goes right into the bluesier sounds and feels so much more original and badass as a result.  This is the kind of 70's song a man wants as his theme song when walking into the wrestling ring.  After that is the seven-minute Beyond the Realms of Death, which takes the slower side of metal that Sabbath's known for and applies it the the  newfound Priest personality, delivering something original, exciting and even atmospheric without relying on dense production.  This is probably the best song on the album.  The album ends with Heroes End.  I don't have a lot to say about this one.  It's catchy and fit for the album, but I think it's noticeably inferior to the previous track.  This should've come earlier on the album so that Stained Class could end with a proper bang.

Well, listening to both Sin After Sin and Stained Class has taught me something important: Priest's true greatness lies deeper than the radio's willing to go, because we have so many "bigger" hits by so many "bigger" bands that many of Priest's greatest songs are left to rot in a sack by radio while songs from British Steel are allowed to overtake Stained Class, Sad Wings of Destiny and Sin After Sin in popularity.  This album has a little more originality than Screaming for Vengeance and just as much metal fury.  So I think it's right to say that this album is slightly better than Screaming for Vengeance.  Stained Class rightfully showcases Priest's true evolution into Priesthood with a lot of classic metal attitude songs.  No wonder these guys are credited with helping to invent metal.  Sabbath had the slower side for most of their songs, but Priest made speedier songs cool, taking Deep Purple's skills to the next extreme, finally becoming a real metal band.

97/100

Judas Priest - Sin After Sin (1977)

Genres: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

I'm going through all the most classic Priest albums I can right now to really educate myself in them.  I might be a Guardian but I've covered why I'm not a big Priest fan before.  But the 70's era does intrigue me as the 70's are my favorite decade in music.  Since I'm a guardian here and I've heard over 2500 metal albums, it's time I stopped putting them off.  Sin After Sin is next, followed by Stained Class.

Now this is considered early metal, but maybe not proto-metal.  Stylistically and chronologically, it exists right between the fantasy worlds of Sad Wings of Tragedy and the heavy metal energy of Stained Class, the latter of which I've only heard part of and decided to head to this first.  I found that there's a really good balance of melodies between each song.  The Judas Priest attitude is cemented on this album, so they're able to sing about fantasy topics again but with a whole new personality which would soon evolve into the biker-band we all know.  Songs like Starbreaker are all about that balance between hard rock and heavy metal.  This might even be a favorite Priest song of mine.  I find this balance tested pretty often, being neutral to Sinner and having rejected the tag for Diamonds and Rust.  Because these guys are still early at the time of this album, they're still prone to the softer and even folksier side of 70's rock, which is perfectly fine and even very cool for me.  Did you know my favorite Scorpions song is We'll Burn the Sky?  it's not even a song I grew up with considering the radio never played it and it wasn't on my "best of" copy.  Of course, this rock ballad obviously gets in the way of whether or not I'd call this a metal album, but it's really entertaining and even relaxing me despite the fact that I'm in a metal mood.  And as I hoped and even predicted, the album kicks right back into metal with an artistic 180, and goes into some progressive territory.  And all the while it remains cool, well-written and consistent with both its diversity and persona.

Sin After Sin is that glorious type of album that proudly circles all over the hard rock spectrum of the period.  The various moods of hard rock, heavy metal, blues rock, prog and a little room for ballads shows the band at some of their most diverse and surprising.  I have to really appreciate that the album showcases the band's growing understanding of structures, moods and melodies.  They pull of a lot of great things here whether they're being soft or hard.  There's a little more metal here than on most hard rock albums of the period, but the album clearly has a hard rock focus overtaking the metal vibes.  So the metal tag I'm offering should be more controversial than the internet forgives.  This is the first time that Judas met all of my standards for a five-star rating, even though the songs themselves aren't QUITE as amazing as Painkiller.  But still, there's no way I can't give this a 100.  This is currently my second favorite Judas album, and I'm going to put this in my current top 100.

Loving the variety here.  You got stuff that fits almost every clan here, even the Revolution with that Lamb of God album.  Type O Negative is also my favorite gothic band.  If you haven't heard "The Least Worst of Type O Negative," you should.  Pretty amazing demos album.

Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance (1982)

Genres: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

I am so disappointed in Metal Academy right now.  New reviews are posted everyday, this website is old enough for many Priest fans to flock here, and yet their isn't a single review for Screaming for Vengeance.  We have three reviews for Sin After Sin but none for this!  Well, if it's up to me to write the first official review for this quintessential metal album, I will.

Of course, it should be noted that I'm not the biggest Priest fan.  My introduction to real metal is all thanks to Ozzy/Sabbath, Metallica and especially Scorpions.  Because of this, I am a Guardian first and foremost here.  But compared to Metallica, Ozzy and Scorpions who all felt a bit different in their own way, Judas felt a little standard for the time.  Maybe this is because they had been emulated so often that they came off as less original to me?  But overtime I've come to accept them much more.  Painkiller was my first Priest outing.  Absolutely incredible metal energy that I was CERTAINLY not prepared for thanks to the radio centering around the 70's and 80's stuff.  Screaming for Vengeance was my second, and as you can see, at first I could NOT favorably compare the two.  And today I still don't.  But I totally get why this is a metal classic.  Like I really do GET it.

Now the first thing I should mention is the varying levels of heaviness between songs.  Sometimes we have songs steering a bit towards the hard rock side like Devil's child, and a few of these songs are just teetering on the thin tightrope separating the air above the rope from the net below, with the air being metal and the net being rock.  Some studio production is noticeable here, so that does as much of a job amplifying the metal as much as it potentially hinders the album with its vague similarities to AOR and other arena rock genres.  of course, this was right before hair metal was cemented, so this album easily avoided the comparison for the time.  You've Got Another Thing Coming and other like songs have a certain metal personality about them, cementing them in the big leagues, but despite this quintessential biker-boy persona, it's still hard rock.  But then you have some serious metal bangers like the title track, which is easily the heaviest song on the album, and Riding on the Wind, which works in tandem with Electric Eye to give you everything you can expect from this album.

What I REALLY like about Screaming for Vengeance is that Judas Priest create a variety of attitudes, personalities and tones within their one specific persona: biker rock and metal.  They had greatly evolved from the days of dorky medieval robes and fantasy lyrics that defined their Sad Wings of Destiny days and had gained the nickname "metal gods" with this.  Some songs focus more on the drama, especially where the short intro track is concerned.  Some songs are just about having fun, and others are all about the energy.  Thanks to tonal and tempo changes, no two songs sound exactly the same, which I can't even say for Painkiller as All Guns Blazing feels similar to the title opener there.  But with things changing every song, there are a lot of ways to have fun here.

The consistency of the quality is high.  There are absolutely no skips.  I would even go as far as to say every song is great if not close to brilliance.  None of these songs really reach "brilliance" to me, but they're way catchier and more melodically healthy than so many other heavy metal albums I've heard over the years.  I guess this is really what makes Screaming for Vengeance a classic.  You could play this whole album when riding in your convertible and just let the atmosphere take you away as easily as electronic fans like Tangerine Dream's Rubycon.  In fact, those two are only four spaces away on my list of every album I've ever heard ranked from best to worst.  I can't consider this a favorite as none of the songs took me to heaven and back, but it's a lot of fun and perfectly healthy and diverse where the album's main focus is hard rock and heavy metal.

96/100

Yellerp.  Can't wait to see your top 20 page.

The Ruins of Beverast - Exuvia

Genres: Black Doom, Atmo-Black

Note: There's barely any "death" influence in this so-called "death doom" album, as it's all built on black textures, so I'm calling it black doom.

This is the one moment I've been waiting for, the beloved 2017 Exuvia.  I'll have heard the last of RoB's rawest classics after this.  It really bit me in the ass yesterday when my internet was conking out and I couldn't listen to either Exuvia or the previous EP.  I really wanna know where this man decided to go after everything that's been going down and all the surreal craziness and evil that built his last three studio albums.

The title track out with a new direction for the tribal behavior of the previous EP, Takitum Tootem, applying the chanting spiritual vocals to a funeral doom sound that evolves into black.  The next couple minutesa are taking small but effective shifts into different black metal sounds to keep things original, drawing the listener into a dark netherworld after the chanting ends.  It seems to me that the black metal here is being used for more like a repeating ambient track rather than a melodic track.  Despite the fact that melody has worked out perfectly for RoB in the past, this decision is a perfectly fine one since it WORKS.  The repetitive hypnotism keeps dragging the listener from one surreal plain of reality to another.  By the end of this track, there's a very faint guitar melody drowned out by the repeating riff.  I'd have liked for it to be a little louder as the ending draws itself out a bit.

Surtur Barbaar Martime begins with one of RoB's signature funeral riffs, taking a direct turn into the black metal pretty quickly, relying on more energy than the opener.  The song typically switches between the two for aural effect, oftentimes being instantaneous but eventually being combined with meximum effect during the middle section.  This song is esentially a reorganization of the behavior of the first track with less of the tribal ambient and more of the funeral backdrops.  But since it shares so many similarities with the first track, I was really hoping for something different with Maere.  Starts out more or less the same way with a blacker energy to it.  Any ambient aspects are attributed to ghostly wails, usued for a mysterious Lovecraftian effect.  They're quite cool, but a little drowned out by the black guitars.  At least, this is true for the first half, which cranks up the volume on the vocals.  It seems that despite the shifts in these songs, the exact tone is much moe consistent.  The line between black and doom is much thinner here.

The Pythia's Pale Wolves starts up the second half with bagpipes faintly added to another typical black doom intro, but the percussion is tamer, less active and more focused on a specific slow rhythm.  The vocals are also more fit for doom as they're clear and harmonic.  This helps bring out another spiritual vibe that's much more relaxing.  I didn't expect this to last forever, though, as it eventually combines the funereal guitar tone with this, somehow making both the ambiance of the blackened guitars and the funereal sound much more energetic together rather than separate.  Even when the crystal clear female vocalizing comes into play, it revs the listener up.  The tempo and percussion eventually replicate the energy, pushing it even further as the power becomes too much to handle, leaving the harmonizing to balance it out.  This is a shift I can really appreciate as it keeps making something better out of a sound that, while still great, we've heard before.  This is the densest segment of the album so far.  This track really likes to challenge the perceptions of relaxation and extremities, as it's really the heaviest track on the album at that point but also has some very serene atmospheric moments created through these extremities.  But at this point, I also really need something different no matter how extreme it gets.

Towards Malaika only has about thirty seconds of weird tribal chanting, and I was pretty disappointment that it didn't continue for even longer.  So the most I could do was wait for something totally new to happen.  Although the beginning had a typical sound, the vibes are much more dramatic than the tracks before, thanks to a higher pitched sound-effect driving the background and amplifying the weird rhythm in the front.  After the dramatic intro, there's a switch into pure, uncensored doom, and this doom keeps us going for a while.  This to me qualifies as a difference because it's slow, stomping guitars are more true to doom's roots than anything that's been present so far, relying more on atmospheres such as tribalism or mysticism before.  The third act, starts with the chanting, and I was once again hoping that it would last a while, but instead it goes right back to the black metal, which kind of pissed me off.  This guy makes a tribal ambient EP, releases another album the next year and barely does anything with it.  It begged the question, why bother featuring it on this track at all???  The song ends with it again, but it doesn't have as strong of an effect as it should for me.  I was thinking to myself, this last track had better be phenomenal.

This final track, Takitum Tootem (Trance), goes right into the noisiest black metal guitars present so far.  This doesn't stop a melody from being made out, largely because the percussion is more rooted in dramatic effect and not speed. In this way, I'm given an effective black ambient track performed with metal instruments, like some black noise albums I can name.  This slower, doomier and noiser take on the Exuvia sound has increased the heaviness while still finding that perfect serenity through it.

This is a different type of album for Ruins of Beverast.  The songs each have their differences and their similarities, and because the songs are so long, the similarities kind of tested my faith in his ability to put out other songs.  Maybe this is the best course of action, as black metal and doom metal fans want many more atmospheres.  This is the perfect RoB album for those who favor atmospheres akin to his debut over the wild ever-shifting behavior of his second through fourth albums.  This album is ALL ABOUT the atmospheres.  Unfortunately, this fixation on metal atmos also wanes down the potential of the tribal aspects shown on the Takitum Tootem EP from the year before, even though it still makes short and effective.  So this is another fantastic release by one of Germany's best black metal artists, but also features a slightly missed opportunity that's not quite enough to knock a half-star down, but is enough for me to confirm that IMO this doesn't hold a candle to Sheltered Elite.

95/100

The Ruins of Bevarast - Takitum Tootem! (EP)

Genres: Tribal Ambient, Atmo-Black

The Ruins of Beverast marathon #7 - Takitum Tootem!

OK, so I'm reading about this album on RYM, and it tags the EP as "tribal ambient" and "black metal."  So here I am thinking, "OK, this is gonna be one of the coolest fucking things ever, or a mess."  The ratings don't look so good on RYM, but that didn't stop me from checking out their demo.  I had a few theories as to what this album would sound like, but I didn't care which one was right.  I just wanted to jump right into it after I had gotten that chronologically far in RoB's discography.

Track one of two: Takitum Tootem! (Wardance).  It starts out with a dark ambient intro with mild tribalism that evolves into a long black metal riff.  The riff itself has a very metal energy about it that isn't so much "evil" as it is "cool" and "dark."  Tribal drumming rides the whole rest of the track.  Unfortunately, it stays that way for 75% of the song with very few meaningful shifts.  I'm surprised at RoB for doing that.

Track two: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun: This one gets right into the weird tribal atmospheres and instrumentation.  It's practically invoking images of fighting zombies in an ancient temple.  The atmosphere and instrumentation are PERFECT.  Around three minutes in, we start to see occasional ghostly vocals like something out of a Metroid game.  Black metal guitars are also used sparingly at first for build-up.  It speeds up at the four minute mark, turning into pure tribal black metal as guitars overlap each other level upon level like the ending act of Nine Inch Nails' Closer.  It stays that way for a moment before drowning down to a dungeon ambient tune that carries over the Metroid mysticism, going through various Lovecraftian sound effects before returning to the main riff of the beginning, but with more "technological" aspects.  Genius moves on their part.  Now it sounds EXACTLY like something out of a Metroid game.  It ends with two more segments: one final blast of black tribalism, and a weirdass outro with what sounds like some awkward animal noises for a surreal effect.

I certainly wasn't disappointed with this one.  This otherworldly EP carries the surreal vibes of Metroid, Cthulhu and even some Juno Reactor songs.  The first track was decent on its own, but the second track is one of the coolest ambient tracks I've heard.  This is easily a keeper.

83/100.

The Ruins of Beverast - The Furious Waves of Damnation (2003)

Genres: Black

OK, so way late into my exploration of The Ruins of Beverast, I found out about this demo release that I totally glossed over on the RYM page.  It was only a half-hour, so why not blow through it?  Who knows what's gonna happen?  it could be a wild ride like many other RoB albums, right?

TOTALLY wrong.  When they said "demo," they meant "demo."  This really isn't anything more than a standard practice album that says absolutely nothing about this guy's future potential.  I've heard early Solstafir demos that did the exact same thing, but were still better.  This is largely because the fuzzy production only allows for so much to really be heard.  Throughout the half hour there were really no surprises of any kind.  Sure, we got some decent and some OK riffs, but I really don't see any reason for this album to exist otherwise.

The Ruins of Beverast - Blood Vaults: The Blazing Gospels of Heinrich Kramer

Genres: Death Doom, Black Doom

I knew this was going to be a turning point for The Ruins of Beverast.  From what I understand, much of the black metal sound has been degraded to an amplifier for other doomier projects, but I really wanted to see where this was going to go.  Considering RoB's love of the random, I would either love this or hate this.  I currently consider The Ruins of Beverast one of the greatest black metal acts of all time, but I'm not as familiar with his doom music.  Let's see where this goes...

So the spoken word intro wasn't anything special to me.  I mean, I fell like anyone can put together basic synths and a creepy poem together and open an album that way.  The fact that his segues on his debut album were so brilliant only make this worse.  Thankfully, the first song, Daemon, is there to fill in the emptiness.  It starts out as a black doom song but evolves into some oddly appropriate but totally new traditional doom metal for a minute before returning to blackened doom.  Daemon is yet another creepy, paced and cinematic whirlwind of organized chaos, and is a perfect opener to this album.

Maleficia starts out dominated by weird repeating vocal effects set to a slow and sparse gothic doom instrumentation, and even lets some effects take over the lead, almost like he's underwater.  The song gets a little heavier and black to blackness before taking a direct shift into high-pitched synths and post-metal slowness.  This flow is both calming and empowering at the same time, creating something completely new for RoB: a post-metal song, one that I honestly like more than most post-metal albums I've heard.  However, the genre-shifting is much more blatant, which can actually fuck with the flow for some.  I mean, this song REALLY challenges your dedication to Ruins of Beverast.  So the fatal flaw is that the serenity of it all is given very little room to breathe.  We have black doom, death doom and even organs near the end overtaking this, so it's a good song but a wasted opportunity for an incredible post-metal song.

We go back to roots here with Ornaments on Malice, which frankly has been done before: a black-death-doom hybrid song again, and it takes three minutes for it to really change pace.  But this time, it's a simple, monotone ring with more angelic synths and deep chanting.  Eventually the two distinct sounds mold together for something truly epic, if not under-explored.  This combination, however, is also bringing to mind the metal artist Hell, also known as MSW.  After that is Spires, which spends a good deal of time in the same old death doom territory that we already expect of him with very little to say for the melody, which means this fairly rhythmic track is mostly relying on a familiar atmosphere.  There are some weird and quirky moments, but nowhere near enough to drive the song for its 13-minute runtime.

So now I'm hoping A Failed Exorcism gives me something new, even if it ends up being a mess  I mean, 15 minutes wouldn't have been a daunting task back in Sheltered Elite.  The combination of gothic doom and death doom maximizes the effect of both aspects put together, even to the point where it sounds like THE SONG ITSELF IS ACTUALLY GONNA KILL ME.  There's even a touch of prog in the percussions during the breaks.  Three and a half minutes in, it takes a totally different persona as the funereal sounds drive a ritualistic drum pattern through another chanted poetic lyrics with some beautiful singing before returning to the original format again, only with the black doom aspects enhanced.  The next few minutes go back to balancing the two brands of doom with just as strong of an effect as before, allowing it to feel fresh after its many shifts, and ends with a purely death doom outro that ties all the shifts together in a simple, easy to follow way.  Excellent effort.

Next is the three-minute trial, which is all about monotone instrumentation backing up a whole choir.  It gets creepier as it goes along, adding new sounds in the background and slowly changing the drum riff to something more active and heavier overtime.  Following is another three-minute track, Ordeal, which is a pretty cool black metal track on its own but doesn't hold a candle to the best stuff on the album.  Finally we end things with Monumentum, which kicks us off as a with a symphonic funeral piece It switches to a purely doom sound pretty often, which means there are very few surprises left in store by this point.

Well this was a much more mixed bag of ups and downs than I expected.  The quality of songs took big rises and drops constantly, and some are just totally forgettable while others are flat-out amazing.  It says to me that the current incarnation of The Ruins of Beverast is done and shouldn't be pressed any further, so while there are some songs I'd definitely put on a greatest hits comp, I don't really feel like I have any reason to listen to this again.  So I think I'll give it the bare maximum for 3.5 stars: 74/100, as 75 would round to 4 stars.

The Ruins of Beverast - Emchanted by Gravemold

Genres: Atmo-Black Metal, Black Doom Metal

Wasn't really expecting a demos album, but I had to know what the rejects from the first three albums sounded like.  Ruins of Beverast is a project that's shown me a whole new world of black metal, one that I hope is much more thoroughly explored by the masses.  I REALLY do think it's possible.  Did you know that you can get 1000 new black metal studio albums every year?  I checked the RYM charts and multiple year charts for this.  It's fucking true.  On top of that, Darkthrone's updating the doom influence in their modern albums, so I really hope this becomes a thing: blackened doom metal, and not just a small time blanket term for a select few bands like "Philly Club Rap."  So I'm going to keep exploring Beverast and the world he created, and that includes demos and rejects like this.

Desert Lair does show some kind of a difference.  Maybe the occasional slightly higher timbres don't allow it to feel as dark as what was called for on the albums at first?  Maybe the production was wrong because it's a bit more clear?  I have no idea, but otherwise, I don't find anything wrong with in.  The variations in rhythm, tempo and instrumentation are abundant, but they all flow together perfectly.  If anything, this is one of his finest performances.  In fact, I checked some reviews to see what people thought, and apparently I'm not off the mark here: this is basically a highlight of RoB's career.  It kinda pains me that he left this off his official albums.

The Moselle Enigma goes right into the noisier black metal production, and is a bit off.  The noise-factor of the instrumentation is properly messy, but it gets in the way of hearing the vocals properly.  Real shame because the rhythms are fantastic.  Despite how maniacal this song is, it's surprisingly catchy and intriguing.  The second half starts off with rain recordings and more choral vocals, giving us a very bleak imagery that's just PERFECT for the vibe of the song.  Part of me wanted this segment to last the remainder of the song, but when it ended I still had a minute left, and it was used on the format of the first half, which I think is perfectly fine this time considering its short length in comparison to the average length of an RoB song.

Hours of the Aequinox is next, and we go into it with a black noise focus and a slower, doomier violin intro just totally chilling me out.  A serene song was the perfect way to follow up the last one, and the black noise is the perfect way to follow up the rainy effects.  We don't have very many slow-going atmo-black songs that mirror the winter aesthetic, as up to this point, the tones and timbres were a bit deeper.

Those were the originals.  Apparently, the last three songs are all covers, starting with Enigma of the Absolute, originally present on Dead Can Dance's Spleen and Ideal.  Now Spleen and Ideal is one of the best darkwave albums in the world, so covering it is a daunting task.  You'd think a master of black metal would pull it off, and it might've been done had the production been better.  The rhythms of the guitars can barely be made out, the percussion's week, and the effects are almost entirely drowned out.  It's a real shame.  This could've stood with the original.

Next, believe it or not, is a cover of To Have and to Hold off of Music for the Masses, as in DEPECHE MODE.  I guess it can be done, as Depeche Mode have dabbled with darkwave instrumentation before.  It's a pretty creepy track with its own personality, and I guess it's a slight improvement because the atmosphere and production are improved.  But this song doesn't even reach the creative heights of Unlock the Shrine's segues.

The final cover is Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium by My Dying Bride.  Now I've never heard the original EP with this song, but I'm more than aware of what MDB sounds like.  I've got several of their albums under my belt.  This version uses neoclassical synths to help with the atmospheres, steering into symphonic black metal akin to Summoning.  And it really does capture the epic vibes very well, but the problem is that a 16-minute Ruins of Beverast song needs to keep evolving.  Thankfully this gets around to that at around the five-minute mark, but I think the pitch of the synths is a bit too high for the deeper timbres of the black metal instrumentation, so I can't really say that RoB rocks symphonic black as well as he does atmo-black, despite this being a pretty cover.

OK, the first three tracks work perfectly well on their own, and even in order, whether or not they were intended that way.  The three covers in the second half, however, felt lacking and in need of polishing in order to be great.  So if you're a Beverast fan already, I really do recommend this album if not only for the first half.  But if you're not, you'll probably hate the covers.

80/100.  About a 9.5 for the first half, about a 6.5 for the second.