Rexorcist's Forum Replies

It's not working.

OK, then I'll rephrase it: Anthrax, the band that wishes they were as drunk as Metallica.

But yeah, Anthrax might be good, but they're kinda posers just capitalizing on the cooler side of the California rock scene without fully grasping what made thrash cool.

I'm gonna see what the buzz about Pentatonix is about.  Anthony Vincent uses them in his Ten Second Songs a lot.  I started with the first hristmas album, and was completely taken by surprise by the appearance of that Fleet Foxes cover.

Anyway, so far it's just a cheesy a capella album.

Mustaine would traditionally already have been smashed before he even arrived.

And the rest of the band? :P

Really interesting list. My top 100 would be way less diverse than this one, that's for sure! I can see a number that would likely make mine though, including Metallica, Arcturus, Suffocation, Opeth, Death, Blut Aus Nord, Emperor, Iron Maiden and My Dying Bride.

You know, now that you mention it, I really do want to see what your top 100's look like.  A top 100 says a lot about a person, and they're a lot of fun to look through.  Now you've got that 80's death metal list and that early black metal list.

I'm in the process of trying to figure this out. I've listened to around 80 of the biggest death, thrash, black and doom releases in recent months, and have them all rated and ranked. I'll continue with those genres for a while before adding others that I enjoy, such as progressive, industrial, gothic and heavy. I'm afraid it's going to be a while before I have something to show for it, but I'm enjoying the process.

I actually keep a log of every album I've ever heard ranked from best to worst.  I don't expect you to do THAT, but a couple notes every now and then about things you're absolutely certain about will help a lot.  Because the more thought you put into a big project earlier on, the quicker you can think about it and make decisions later.  Or so I keep hearing.

Really interesting list. My top 100 would be way less diverse than this one, that's for sure! I can see a number that would likely make mine though, including Metallica, Arcturus, Suffocation, Opeth, Death, Blut Aus Nord, Emperor, Iron Maiden and My Dying Bride.

You know, now that you mention it, I really do want to see what your top 100's look like.  A top 100 says a lot about a person, and they're a lot of fun to look through.  Now you've got that 80's death metal list and that early black metal list.

Here's a new one: my top 100 power metal albums.  I wanted that to be the first genre chart I put up here for my first clan choice: the Guardians.

Can you please add the Czech power metal band Steelfaith, Japanese band Marchen Station, Spanish band Third Dimension and (you're gonna hate me for this one) Ron Wasserman, a member of Fisher who does his own original works as well as... a certain TV soundtrack.

Thanks, guys!  It's got a few updates from when I last posted it anywhere, notably the switch from Seasons in the Abyss to South of Heaven being my favorite Slayer album.  Still, the variety here is nothing compared to my top 100 albums ever.

I'm gonna be working on some genre charts.  I might even work on a bottom 100 metal albums list :P.

Can you please add the following:

Scorpions: Tokyo Tapes

Scorpions: World Wide Live

Sweet updates.  The clan cover ratings chart must look very different.

Rex, you can make that address into a link by using the LINK button when posting (hint: it looks like a chain link). Interesting list by the way. Nice variety.

Fixed.  Thanks for the comment and the info.

I took the liberty of composing a list of choices for each week for the whole year, categorized by clan, obviously.  Suffice it to say, I have next week's Gateway album already planned out.

My top 100 metal albums

I think Anthrax is more worried about being a "metal" band than a "thrash" band.  Thrash was the "cool" thing, but they took to it from a pretty radio-oriented perspective more often than the others in the Big 3 did.  As a result, they sometimes miss the point of what made thrash metal so special.  It wasn't just the extremities, it was the steps forward.  While Anthrax have done cool stuff, they haven't usually reached the introspective behavior of songs like "Holy Wars" or "For Whom the Bell Tolls."  Basically, Anthrax is the most likely of the four to get drunk first if they were all at a bar.  They may have before, but nowhere near as much as the other big names in the scene.  Of course, it was wiser for them to choose thrash metal instead of speed, which might've been more appropriate for their personality.

Thanks a million for adding those Killing Joke albums!  At somepoint I'll add the ones I tagged for Halls, but we have too many now so I'll use what I can for lists.  This helps more that you know.

This week's FALLEN album:

Hell - Hell (a.k.a. Hell IV) (2017)

Genres: Sludge, Doom

Votes: 1

https://metal.academy/releases/9984

Reason: This was a pretty difficult choice.  But I came to this conclusion when I saw some great ratings for MSW's Oblivion.  Before operating under that name, he was "Hell."  He made a series of concept albums pertaining to being trapped in hell.  This is the fourth of the series, as I had already rated the first three, but I also hear that this album is a good and less challenging album for those uninitiated in his combination of sludge, drone and doom (aka, perfect Fallen material).

Review: When I listen to a Hell album, I expect something soul-crushing.  I will not settle for anything less, not after thejobs Hell II and III did to me.  I gave both of those albums five stars for the way they improved on the imaginative but flawed debut.  I've been meaning to finish up the Hell / MSW catalogue for a while now, and reviewing is the best way I can think of to spread the word about this brilliant act.  I had full faith in Hell IV to deliver the atmospheric goods, and it didn't let me down.

Now the digital bandcamp release takes the outro, "Seelenlos," and makes it the intro by putting it at the start of the album.  So depending on which version you'd like, be careful. the spoken word post-rock is a pretty standard but nice intro / outro track that either puts the listener at a calm at the end of the album, or one that's that's obviously going to build up into that soul crushing power, playing to a weird avant-garde poem with some odd and intriguing imagery to it.   I listened to the album with the song at the start, and then decided to play it again at the end so that I could absorb both effects.

The album rarely takes part in the same drone metal that was the major focus of the first two hell albums.  The soul is crushed very quickly by the brutal heaviness of "Helmzmen," which seems to incorporate the slightest hint of Sabbath in the melodies while MSW uses weird effects to make either him or his guitar (I can't even tell sometimes) sound like a literal fucking demon.  I gotta get myself that voice box :P.  We get slight variations of this pattern throughout the whole album.  I found myself patiently waiting for the next demonic growl, squeal, screech or whisper to echo through the canyons, and thought it was just the COOLEST thing when they vocal effects morphed into powerful wind-style effects at the end of SubOdin.  Beautiful combination of tech and imagery there.  But the raw power of the album really emerges with the brutal and loud "Machitikos", which takes the percussions up a heavier notch while multiple guitars chug to an excessively eerie and heavy chugging riff before we get a freaky black metal guitar solo turning the album from a standard doom album into a METAL album for a short time.  Next we have a kind of stoner track building up atmosphere through weird voice samples being overpowered by Sabbath and Saint Vitus style riffs: WanderingSoul.  Basically, this is the track for the metal fan rather than the atmos fan, although it still has a decent atmos to it.  Then we have something more on the drone side with "Inscriptus," which is all about the dark atmosphere.  The rhythm is a little more complex that most of what we've had before, and the fear factor on this track is pretty high.  I'd say this is the track with the most creativity thus far.  The album ends with the twelve-minute epic, "Victus."  This is where everything comes together for a complete breakdown of all the types of styles that the album wrought upon the ears of the listener, especially when the black metal riffs merge with the windy storm effects and the death metal growls, the very combo that proves that this is a Hell album.  Afterwards it gives the listener a very slow and symphonic midtro that calms us down with depression after such a heavy wave of evil had been beaten upon the listener's head for the last 40 minutes, before bring us back to the despair of doom basses and black guitars.

Most of the crush factor is performed by the guitars and bass.  MSW made a point of bragging about the bass on his Bandcamp, talking about how "disgustingly awesome" they are.  I'd say MSW earned his bragging rights, because the filth level here would make some of the dirtiest sludge bands on earth jealous.  This is filthier than Melvins ever got, and I expect nothing less from Hell.  I wish the percussions were a bit harder-hitting, and they felt a bit like the weakest point of the album.  On top of that, I didn't get the full sense of variety that made numbers II and III so good.  But at the same time, while the album was soul-crushing, it was never too much or too challenging, because the two main focal points of the album were atmospheres and riffs.  This was less about drawing out the fear factor and the concept and more about using the music as a more accessible way to get into the concept of the series.  I can get behind that.  As such, I can also get behind the notion that this is the more accessible of the four albums, and is also a good intro for the four-album series.  I honestly recommend this as the starting point for Hell, as I and II might be a little more challenging due to their usage of length as an atmospheric tool.  I can also appreciate the lessened usage of post-rock, which made Hell III feel like a sadness album as often as a fear album, but also seemed like the very thing Hell III needed to separate itself from the first two albums and wasn't necessarily needed here.

The whole Hell catalogue can be found on MSW's bandcamp page, and I recommend you get through all of them.  I don't care if you decide to go through them chronologially or not, because you really don't need to, even though that's what I did.  But I still recommend you get through the least challenging album first, and to me that's Hell IV.  This lived up to the atmospheric factor as well as I could've hoped for, and because of that alone it will stand with the other Hell albums as modern classics, even if its stronger sludge and doom sounds might not attrack the gothic, black and death fans that II and III could.  The writing might not be as clever, but the power is still there in full force.  I'd even go as far as to say that, as an album, it's better than the debut.

83/100.

Alright, then I'll start the thread in the general chat.  One album a week.  And I'll switch between clans to keep it nice and even.  But the only problem I have is people misinterpreting things and twisting my words without even realizing it.  That was the only problem I've had.  It caused a lot of problems for me before.

I'm third.

And just as easy as that we get to you attacking the site.  Your lack of self-reflection is astonishing.  The site does need more people but I am convinced it doesn't need you Rex.

That was adorable.  Sorry if I'm willing to help the site.  I'm sure you have your own to worry about 

Not everyone has the same skills and abilities, Rex and I must admit, you seem extraordinarily fortunate in your ability to produce a review after one listen. But, speaking only for myself, I personally have an inordinate difficulty producing reviews and really have to concentrate in order to do so. In fact, weird though it sounds, I actually find producing reviews incredibly stressful. Like Daniel, it takes me several listens to firm up my impressions of a record and more often than not, by later listens I find my initial impressions are modified, if not completely changed. Of course if I really hate something on first listen then I am unlikely to follow with further listens. 

Also why do you assume that we only listen to music in order to review it? Isn't it more important to listen for personal enjoyment? Why would I only want to listen to an album I enjoy one time? I understand your enthusiasm, but the nine chosen features (along with three or four 2-hour playlists) are more than enough for me as far as other people determining my listening habits for the month goes and I will pass on this initiative thanks.

A: Where do I ever say "people only listen to music to write reviews?" or "I don't enjoy an album where writing a review?" OR "You're ONLY SUPPOSED to listen to any album once in your life?" The whole purpose of that shpeel was to help give Daniel a little extra time.

In my experience, needlessly burning through album after album without taking the time to enjoy them and grow to understand them for me defeats the point of listening to music in the first place.  Don't assume everyone is as "skilled" as yourself either because although you stipulate you are not bragging, it most certainly comes across that way in this post.  How's about "sharing" your personal beliefs instead of "telling everyone"?  Otherwise the above just looks incredibly preachy.

As the other established members of the site have stipulated above, we don't have need for any other challenges as there is more than enough already in place and these have been developed by Ben and Daniel who have put significant amounts of time into the site to get it to where it is today, supported by the members of course - which as Daniel says, you are free to contribute to also.  Your "fifth wheel" seems to be one of your own making.

Again, I never said I didn't enjoy the music.  And if you read any of my reviews you'd know that I AM sharing my thoughts.  No one else's fault but yours if your feelings take over and misinterpret things.  And no offense to Ben and Daniel, but the charts section hasn't been changing for months, and I'm the only one actually voting and rating those albums on a consistent basis.  You say "supported by the members," well are you actually helping with the site or are you just hanging around the forums?  In case you didn't notice, I'm trying to put some active help into making the website look good too.  Not my fault if you don't appreciate it, but if the feature releases aren't doing much for other areas of the site, then the truth is obvious: Metal Academy needs more than two people.  Sorry if you're convincing yourself to be offended by me balancing my music enjoyment with trying to improve this place thanks to your seemingly second nature of believing any skill you believe you can't do is apparently pretentiousness because you gave up on it.

The charts section is an important part of the site, too.  But I'm not gonna just "wait for others" to show up.

I have to concur with the others that my planned listening time is already maxed out by the monthly feature releases, particularly given my refusal to rate or review a release without giving it at least 3-4 active listens over a couple of days. I work 50+ hours a week & have three young kids who command all of my free time so I'd be reluctant to reduce my free listening time any further at this point when it only really amounts to the time before anyone else wakes up.

Rex, regardless of whether other members would like to participate in your suggested initiative, can I suggest that you join the feature release rosters for your chosen clans? That way you can choose releases that you'd like to have your fellow clan members attention drawn to &, in doing so, can potentially contribute to the cause listed above. It's not a bad way to see Hall of Judgement nominations coming to fruition too & I know you've been keen to contribute there too.

Whether or not you still agree with the actual purpose of this thread, I'm pretty much telling everyone this due to personal beliefs: if time is ever a problem for you, then this skill is for you, and I choose willingly not to "brag" about it because I firmly believe, again, that anyone can catch a whole album even while doing other stuff.  Even now I feel educated enough to write about the effect on my body and soul that those noisy shouts on Elite do and how well they blend with the sound effects, leaving the lyrical content to gleefully remain a mystery and let the emotion of the instruments and presence do all the talking.  I might even like Elite more than Digital Bath for its incredible and unique artistry, while still remaining somewhat consistent with the calmer and more introspective Digital Bath.  And I could go on about how much I adore the shift in style and weird behavior of Rx Queen's percussions, but I have a point to prove: I admit, I struggled a bit with the multitasking at first, but after years of practice, I came to one conclusion: I doubt I'm the only one who can do this.  And while I have this ability, I won't brag about it, but I WILL own it.

And before anyone can say it, yes I heard White Pony once years ago, and completely forgot everything about it later because alt-metal isn't my style.  So memory has nothing to do with it.

Deftones - Around the Fur

I just got a new coworker today, and I overheard that she likes k-pop and Deftones.  Obviously I decided to recount the latter.  I'm mostly gonna focus on Around the Fur and White Pony, though.  As far as nu metal goes, my favorite is Korn's Issues.  I gave this a 93 the first time I heard it.  Let's see if it holds up.

Wouldn't this kind of just be a weirder feature of the month thing?  I don't know if I'd be much into this since I don't seem to be able to do much beyond about an album review a week anyway and certain clans are only very rarely interesting to me.

I chose one album a week because anybody can spare time for that, even among the stuff to do on Metal Academy.  Besides, if we need to draw attention, we can start with albums that belong to two different clans, even for pretty weird ones like how Thorns is part of the Horde and the Sphere.

Daft Punk - Alive 2007

I was in the middle of composing my Top 100 Albums Topster chart, and noticed near the end that Discovery was still there.  I had heard all the others recently enough to remember well, but how well did I remember that one?  After playing some of it, I immediately came to a not-so-exact but similar conclusion I eventually came to with Def Leppard's Hysteria in my earlier album-ventures: Why should I consider the album perfect if it has such a weak finale like Love and Affection?  Why shouldn't the same be said for an intro song as repetitive, simple and over-emulated like One More Time?  The quality shift between that and Aerodynamics was so high that it hurt.  So I got through some more of it and remembered enough to lower my rating down to a 9.5.  But then I went back to the live album, and I have very different feelings.  It's much better than last time.  This album doesn't feel like a pop-version of a house album; it feels like a real party with lots of mashup creativity.  Alive 2007 basically cranked up all of Discovery's 10/10 elements to 11, even when being lengthy.  Thankfully, it didn't overuse the rhythm of One More Time because it was mashed with Aerodynamics in what was still a weaker track but still very funky.  And the fun of it is that Daft Punk build themselves on experimenting with catchy melodies through funk, pop, techno, disco, industrial and trance.  These guys KNOW how to make people dance.  Too bad I'm a little too tired for that right now.

Also, if you're a real EDM fan and you're on Youtube, you'll listen to that bonus disc and end the experience with that ten minute mashup.  So if you're a serious house fan, I know for a fact that this album is for you.  There's a lot to love about it, even for people who don't want their songs repetitive, which Daft Punk seems to rock better than most due to sheer club charisma.

Not the most educated in house just yet, but based on what I've experienced, I'm gonna give this a 100.

More on the subject of slam, people on RYM don't seem to like Disfiguring the Goddess that much.  But I am head over heels with Deprive.  I adore that Lovecraftian vibe.

Devourment - Obscene Majesty

Here we are, the album that many consider the heaviest album of all time, and it just might be.  A lot of Devourment fans, including myself, got what we wanted: a new direction.  Devourment were focusing on atmosphere more than anything on this album, and created a massive blast of heaviness that remains somewhat pleasing to the ears of the extreme fan throughout the entire run.  On the first track, even though it was a bit long, I knew the album was gonna end up better.  Unfortunately, in its greatest strength is also its greatest flaw.  The heaviness is so much that for the 47-minute runtime that's been absurd for a lot of death albums, this armosphere album drowns out many of its melodies in place of vibes, so Devourment haven't really learned much.  I'm still missing a good deal of that unpredictable craziness from the Butcher the Weak rerecording.  I'll say that this album is definitely an improvement over the last two, but I was practically BEGGING the positive reviews to be lived up to.

71 / 100

There are a couple Attila albums I enjoy: Closure, Villain and Rage.

I actually really liked this one.  It was pretty consistent, and kept its multiple sides balanced.  The classical side of the album never becomes too much, as the symphonic ends are very carefully utilized.  Because of this diversity, the bridge between thrash and death flows naturally with that of symphonic and neoclassical, risky genres to pair with thrash at all.  But since there is such a thing as symphonic death metal, Firebound proves it can be done.  The imagery induced by Hell's Sofa without any lyrics is the most impressive part.  The only problem I have is that the last third doesn't even have one thrash song, but at the same time they were also focusing pretty heavily on theme.  This also toned down some of the Coroner worship, so it's not totally unjustifiable.

96/100.

Fanguine - The Crimson Veracity

Genres: Slam Death Metal, Tech Death Metal

Secondaries: Avant-Garde Metal, Deathcore, Black Metal

Taking slam into a more unique direction, Fanguine refuses to be the stereotypical slam band that makes itself look cool with gory paintings and lots of big words.  Instead they tell horror stories, focusing on a theme of maturing and getting used to the perils around you.  The album even has a simple cover with a werewolf wearing a baseball cap and grinning with a little blood dripping out of the one toothless spot.  Considering that track one starts this theme with accepting that life is more real than cartoons allow, this cover image is considered an allusion to the cartoon series Fangface.  The final track, Genocidal Genesis, compares siding with a popular agenda and the mental slavery of sidepicking to the first steps of desire to see the other side of the argument and its followers be persecuted in oftentimes horrible ways.  Including many references to times of persecution and slaughter throughout human history, there is even a controversial final lyrical verse on this track (and the album) making an illusion to Nazism by mentioning the same kind of ovens used to kill Jews.  This attracted nationwide attention, and led to their online popularity.  The album sold well in its first couple weeks, but largely due to some buying copies only to bury or break them.  Since then, the song has been a staple in their concerts.

The album's themes include commentary on censored violence (1, 2, 6), lacking morality (1, 7, 9, 10), hopelessness (2, 4, 8), death (2, 6), politics (3, 6), conspiracy theories (3, 8), hidden opinions (4, 7, 9), sexual lust (4, 5, 9), war (6, 10), persecution (1, 4, 7), agnosticism (8) and the desire for violence (4, 6, 7, 10).

1. The Pencil Lead Bites (4:05, Tech Death Metal, Slam Death Metal / Broken Transmission)

2. Sulfuric Penetration (2:57, Deathcore, Slam Death Metal / Sludge Metal)

3. Postulated Subterfuge (4:36, Tech Death Metal, Brutal Death Metal / Black Metal, Prog Metal)

4. Hidden Neutrality (5:44, Avant-Garde Metal, Tech Death Metal / Deathcore, Slam Death Metal)

5. Irresistable (instrumental) (2:40, Slam Death Metal / Groove Metal)

6. Pyro (6:23, Avant-Garde Metal, Slam Death Metal / Atmospheric Black Metal, Thrash Metal)

7. Those Who Dream of Gallows (3:32, Deathcore, Slam Death Metal / Tech Death Metal

8. The Other End (5:17, Tech Death Metal, Brutal Death Metal / Atmo-Black Metal, Post-Metal)

9. Let Me Explain (2:00, Broken Transmission, Deathcore)

10. Genocidal Genesis (6:10, Tech Death Metal, Prog Metal, Slam Death Metal / Avant-Garde Metal)

Devourment - Conceived in Sewage

Not posting the cover because it reminds me of a bad dream I had.

Devourment started relying on reputation once they were signed to a major label, and as a result they didn't try anymore, like Sonic Team.  So their immediate album after Butcher the Weak, Unleash the Carnivore, had none of the same wacky-ass behavior.  It was the standard slam they invented, but with better production values, and if you ask me that's not enough.  So Devourment became strictly "for the fans," as if that kind of death metal was gonna be a number one on the Billboard to begin with.  The same is unfortunately said for their next album, Conceived in Sewage.  The selling point is slam, and that's all they were gonna be.  Unfortunately, it also ended up as their least popular album, because it was just more of the same.  We have some incredible heaviness here, but something about it seems lighter than the last two albums.  Maybe it's because the production is noticeably less polished?  This makes many of the guitar rhythms drown themselves out in heaviness, despite the fact that it's still less heavy than before.  This problem is most apparent in "Today We Die, Tomorrow We Kill," which is so simple-minded that it might as well have been left off this repetitive filler album.  There are some decent rhythms here, though.  I honestly liked some of the rhythms more than the ones on Unleash the Carnivore.  The big problem here is that Devourment thought they could get away with delivering nothing new.  They can't.  So if you're already a fan who appreciates slam, you'll get a little enjoyment out of this.  But it's not an album I would recommend, even for Devourment fans.  At least Eric Park put up a pretty good fight for his last Devourment album.

63 / 100

I'll typically listen to an artist in chronological order if I'm serious about studying them, like what I'm doing right now with Devourment.  I've never undertaken the "chonological genre history" route, but with all the subgenres coming out between the 80's and 90's alone, it's gonna be difficult.  The RYM charts will easily help with the history, but when it comes to the exploration of each individual form of metal explored at once, you might want to focus mostly on key bands in each scene.

So when the best album by the best band in this genre doesn't even qualify, it just feels so awkward, 

I get what you're saying but "the best album by the best band" is purely subjective & often doesn't match up with "most popular" which I assume is what you really meant?

A: Fixed your quote.

B: Whenever the Rexorcist says "best," just assume he's talking about his personal opinion and not everyone else's.  There's such a thing as a "subjective best" as opposed to a "favorite."  I have my own albums that I love to listen to in my spare time, but when I "rate" something I focus on whether or not I feel the performance was high quality.  Having said that, the idea of quality itself is also subjective, but the artform itself does matter.  So I judge every album based on whether or not I feel the band perfected their own artform and, for lack of a better word, "justified" their album.  This shows a clear difference between which albums I would rather listen to in my spare time, as I feel that relying on favoritism as a rating system runs the risk of treating some genres unfairly.

Example?  Not a fan of drone, but the critic in me ADORED Ravedeath 1972 because Tim did what he wanted better than any other drone artist ever did.  In drone metal terms, I can also apply this to Hell II.  And yes, there is SOME overlap between favorites and subjective bests depending on the type of album.  The best example would be that my favorite metal album and the best I've ever heard IMO is Ride the Lightning.  But on the grander scale, it varies widely.  This system also helps me to rank albums without having to undergo constant reorganization.  I treat movies, books, video games and even freaking soft drinks the same way.

It's harder for me.  I have a very strict ruleset for albums I will regard with the highest respect on an artistic view.  I've had a difficult time finding a crossover thrash album I hold with this regard, because many of the best albums still show the bands making at least one of the biggest mistakes in making an album that's brilliant front to back, and this mistake is usually sameyness and the lack of variety to keep things original.  So when the best album by the best band in this genre doesn't even qualify, it just feels so awkward, unlike the difference between Pogues' Rum Sodomy and the Lash and If I Should Fall From Grace with God, which are both IMO flawless and tackle their respective different genres (celtic rock and celtic punk), without blemish.  For Suicidal Tendencies, the genre switch here happened right after the band had used up their best ideas.

I'm curious Rex, if you regard sameyness & a lack of variety as deal-breakers in achieving a classic record, how did Devourment's "Butcher The Weak" make it through to achieve a full five star rating this morning?

Rare exception.  I stated in my review that each song had a bunch of surprises due to a somewhat more avant-garde / prog behavior in comparison to the first two albums.  On top of that, the production was flawless, and it's likely the heaviest album I've ever heard, especially the heaviest I ever heard that got the production just right.  However, I guess it also helps that the album was only 30 minutes, ande a lot happened in those 30 minutes.

Devourment - Unleash the Carnivore

I just gave a glowing review to the rerecording of Butcher the Weak.  One would think that after a significant improvement over the original version, Devourment would've learned their lesson.  Nope, the resort to almost exclusive heaviness again.  Now Devourment are just as extreme as ever.  There's no denying that they're a major contender for the heaviest band on Earth.  But does that mean they're the best writers?  They only pretty much understand one thing about metal music, and they only incorporate enough of the bare essentials not to sell anything "bad."  This album really proves that.  Each song is basically a rehash of elements from the first two Devourment albums with the heaviness of the third, but with less polished production.  As a result, we get another case of the bad wall of cymbals drowning out the rhythms, leaving a fairly rhythmic headbangers' album that doesn't do the band any real justice.  Honestly, the very idea of them immediately going back to their bad habits after one surprisingly well-written and tightly-knit album is pretty annoying.  It's obvious that Devourment cares more about the rep than anything.  In the end, this album is STRICTLY for Devourment fans, because the fans will likely be satisfied that their heaviness factor hasn't waned.

6.5 / 10

Minnie Riperton - Perfect Angel

Considering that this is a follow up to one of the greatest soul albums ever, and is largely helmed by Stevie Wonder, I had super high hopes for it.  But while it's catchy and you can catch everything, the whole album feels overwritten, as if they tried too hard to make a good follow-up, and Riperton's rhythms don't really "mold" with the instruments, especially since she's relying to hard on her signature squeal in fairly inappropriate places.  Still, it has a better atmosphere and overall presence that most soul albums.  The whole album is taking the very idea of creativity very seriously, and the album';s largely consistent.  Still, it has its noticeable spots.

7.5/10.

I still maintain that Suicidal Tendencies have never topped their debut and as such were a better hardcore band than a thrash band. I still spin that album quite often (even though the Reagan stuff is outdated now) but almost never play any of their later material.

It's harder for me.  I have a very strict ruleset for albums I will regard with the highest respect on an artistic view.  I've had a difficult time finding a crossover thrash album I hold with this regard, because many of the best albums still show the bands making at least one of the biggest mistakes in making an album that's brilliant front to back, and this mistake is usually sameyness and the lack of variety to keep things original.  So when the best album by the best band in this genre doesn't even qualify, it just feels so awkward, unlike the difference between Pogues' Rum Sodomy and the Lash and If I Should Fall From Grace with God, which are both IMO flawless and tackle their respective different genres (celtic rock and celtic punk), without blemish.  For Suicidal Tendencies, the genre switch here happened right after the band had used up their best ideas.

Suffocation basically took Cannibal Corpse's gimmick to a new level, except from what I hear, Cannibal Corpse was better.

5.5 / 10

To be fair, Suffocation's signature sound predates Cannibal Corpse's one pretty comfortably as Suffocation had already pretty much defined their sound on their 1990 "Reincremation" demo & further refined it for "Human Waste", both of which were released prior to Cannibal Corpse upping the ante on their brutality for 1991's  "Butchered At Birth" sophomore album.

That was supposed to say "Devourment," not "Suffocation."  Fixing it.

Devourment - Butcher the Weak (2005)

Today I'm gonna get through both versions of Butcher the Weak.  If you want total, raw heaviness, then this album is a major improvement over the already further step of heaviness from brutal death that their debut was.  I ever noticed early on that there were some improvements to the rhythmic aspects of their music.  The heaviness, however impressive, still has a habit of acting as a wall to drown out some of the more creative aspects.  And as a result, it can be seen that Devourment are still guilty of the very same mistake of sameyness that many death metal albums, including their debut, follow.  Instead of showcasing everything slam death can do, they decide to throw around a few creative ideas per song, not realizing that many songs share the same ideas, and let heaviness do the rest of the talking.  Sure, there are occasionally clearer songs that only have a few moments of raw heaviness, like Serial Cocksucker.  But songs like Tomb of Scabs have almost no actual writing aspects, and just maniacally beat music on the head with Goblimon's studded cudgel rather than focusing on songwriting.  But overall the album feels more like another exercise with heaviness with just enough of a creative improvement to keep the band's career strong.  It's kind of like the difference between Symphony X's first two albums: Symphony X and The Damnation Game.  I'd give both sets of albums about the same ratings.  So if you're hypnotized by raw heaviness, you're far more justified in loving this than loving the debut, but I'm still concerned about Devourment's lack of fixation on the artform that many death bands have proven death metal can be.  In short, the SOUND of the album is perfect.  Everything else is hit or miss.  If the re-recording is superior like RYM says, let's find out.  But I was NOT impressed with their debut, which some say is their best, so maybe not.

7/10.

Oh... my... god.  This was freaking insane.  Thanks to some clearer production and a more progressive outlook on many of the song structures, this album boasts some insane creativity in comparison to Devourment's first two albums.  This official re-recording of the previously self-released sophomore is all about improvement.  On this re-recording, Devourment is no longer being simple slammers.  They actually manage to be much more surprising.  This takes the headbanging quality of the flawed original and mingles it with constant surprises that never let up on the super-extremities, not even during the lighter moments.  Even Mike Majewski is trying out a variety of vocal tricks on songs like Serial Cocksucker, which was already one of the more creative songs on the previous album.   Hell, even of Tomb of Scabs, which was pretty freaking weak on the original work, this completely crazy slam track has both extra-gutteral and somewhat intelligible vocals among the pig squeals.  And thanks to this consistently unpredictable behavior of each song, the sameyness factor is a minimal problem, acting more like Pg. 99's Document 8 in the sense that it handles a genre and its child, (screamo and emoviolence, in comparison to brutal and slam), and showcases a wide variety of tricks without getting too samey, something that original felt monotone about the original album.  However, since the creative diversity was more on a song by song basis, I'd say that the edge still goes to Document 8.  But even though our guitar structures and singing here are at a creative peak, the star of the show is still our drummer Eric Park, who's combination of speed and heaviness rival that of many of the greatest drummers on Earth, especially when he's got that combination of snares and cymbals going at the same time.  In fact, the craziness here is on par with a good avant-garde jazz album.  In fact, I don't know if there's a song on this album I couldn't rate five stars.  In fact, it even made a point of bringing unpredictability and surprises to what was the weakest song on the original: Babykiller, largely by starting it off as lighter and more intelligible, as a brutal death song before a slam death song.

Well, congratulations, Devourment!  After 2421 metal albums, you have created the heaviest metal album I have ever heard.  There are even some ways in which Devourment match Suffocation, and I do NOT say that easily about death metal bands at all.  Maybe it doesn't have the genre-diversifying creativity of albums like Unquestionable Presence by Athiest, but I don't think this album really needs it.  This is more than just a showcase of heaviness; it's proof that even these young and dumb hopefuls who obsess over the grossest humor possible can show creative intelligence, and even though it's samey it NEVER get old. They flawlessly overcame their lack of diversity to reach a new metallic height that might not be replicated ever again, beating Kreator, Cryptopsy and Cannibal Corpse at the heaviness game. This is both clear and polished while being disgusting and dirty, and it molds creativity with sameyness perfectly.  This is some peak death metal here.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to listen to some female-fronted new age to heal my brain front this sonic assault.

10/10.

Echo & the Bunnymen - "Heaven Up Here" (1981)

Post-punk/gothic rock from Liverpool, England.

That's a good one from what I remember.  EatB had a good hotstreak in their early days.

I'm going through another day where I blow through a bunch of short vaporwave albums.  Today I'm gonna focus on Vito Genovese and his many aliases.

Devourment = "Molesting The Decapitated" (1999)

After putting together yesterday's list I felt like indulging in some slamming death metal while driving around the city to pick up one of my wife's event styling jobs so I pulled out this oldy that I haven't heard for a while. It was extremely influential in the underground death metal scene at the time but I didn't get to experience it until around 2009, by which time every man & his dog was doing this stuff so it had lost some of its impact. Honestly, nothing has changed much with how this Dallas-based outfit conduct themselves in the more than two decades since this debut album. "Molesting The Decapitated" concentrates entirely on two concepts: ultra-fast blast beats with a super-tight pinging snare drum sound & slow-to-mid-paced Suffocation-worshipping slam riffs. That really does sound very good to me on paper & in honesty I was always going to find this record enjoyable for that reason but it's definitely not without its flaws. Firstly, the blast beats aren't very tightly performed, particularly the gravity-blasts which is no doubt accentuated by the snare sound which sounds like a toy monkey playing a tiny drum. Secondly, the vocals are ridiculously gutteral & unintelligible to the point of ridiculousness & there's been no attempt whatsoever to resemble the actual lyrics which are admittedly some of the most vile & putrid you'll ever read. As with 2019's "Obscene Majesty", the lack of guitar solos is a clear missed opportunity too as there's very little to break up the monotony. All things considered though, I just love super-brutal death metal with chunky riffs & it's hard to argue against this album possessing those attributes in spades, even if it does sound very generic by today's standards. "Molesting The Decapitated" does easily enough to keep me interested & in doing so has managed to usurp Kraanium's "Post Mortal Coital Fixation" by breaking into the top ten slam death metal releases list I only put together yesterday.

For fans of Cephalotripsy, Abominable Putridity & Kraanium.

3.5/5

Now for my review, excluding the ugliest album ever ever.

OK, it was very heavy for its time, and kind of unique.  But I never judge an album for its influence.  I'll respect the influence, but I won't use it to judge the music.  It's like what has been aforemention not just by Daniel's review here, but by others: this sounds generic by today's standards.  Why?  Is it because everyone's just copying it?  Partly, but people do the same with the great Ramones debut, which was repetitive but also kind of diversified and ccatchy.  Punk rock was completely new.  This is just a heavier expansion of an already extremely extreme genre pioneered by Suffocation, who remain my favorite brutal death metal band for their three five star works, Effigy of the Forgotten, Pierced from Within and Human Waste.  I avoided Devourment and Echymosis for their obscenely violent lyrics for ages, but I'm caring less and less overtime if it's guttural and unintelligible, but I still went looking for slam acts that didn't have as much violence, and composed a top 50 or so.  So I've got enough albums to compare this one to not just from a brutality perspective, but a writing perspective.  And I have to say that this greatly pails in comparison to Suffocation, who joined Cryptopsy in bringing technicality and brutality together to create something high on imagination and extremity.  The Devourment debut, however, is basically the audio chronicle of a bunch of stupid 20-somethings trying to be as dark, heavy and edgy as possible and relying on that to help.  If it worked for Wes Craven (it actually didn't), it'll work for them, right?  From an influential perspective, yes.  But all of the songs here are samey and copied to the point of no redemption, and the faint moments of creativity are greatly overshadowed by the generic death metal behavior.  Basically, even if the album was heavier to the point of inventing a new subgenre of brutal death metal, it still feels like generic brutal death metal, slam differences aside like the fixation of snare drums.  Basically, stick with Suffocation, because if you play this and Human Waste back to back, hopefully you'll find a greater sense of technical achievement, unless you're just flat-out hypnotized by the idea of heaviness and edginess like a poser.  Devourment basically took Cannibal Corpse's gimmick to a new level, except from what I hear, Cannibal Corpse was better.

5.5 / 10

Ecchymosis - Aberrant

Amusement in Cadaveric Vomitplay (2016)

Yeah, this pretty much played out like I expected.  In comparison to their sophomore album, this debut uses the snare drums to bring in a sense of complexity with their absurd heaviness, and the production's a little more polished than their next album.  But overall, it makes the same mistakes.  The songs are repetitive and rely too much on heaviness and an abundance of occasionally unpredictable snare drum techniques.  The drumming is the main focus while everyhting else can't even compare.

6.5/10

So I've got 6 more albums to go before my list of every album I've heard is lowered to exactly 20% metal, but even then I still have to be careful.  So I'm gonna spend the day listening to asstons of short vaporwaves albums while working on Nialoca illustrations and managing the Movieforums Top 100 War Movies Countdown thread.  Even then I still have to get some stuff ready for work tomorrow and get ready to go to bed at 9 because I work an early shift.  I get my eight house no matter what.

The point?  After all that, I'll be heading over to the next Ecchymosis album.  They've got one more studio album released and a third one in the works.  Let's hope this other one lives up to the hype.  Btw, head a few Devourment songs from different albums.  Not bad.

So I've actually listened to my first uber-violent death metal album:

Ecchymosis - Ritualistic Intercourse Within Abject Surrealism (2020)

Considering how long this has been in the top five slam albums on RYM's charts, it seemed pretty obvious to me that this album was highly regarded as a slam classic.  Unfortunately, I don't judge slam the way most people do, but rather the same way I judge every album in any known genre on this planet, so I knew there was a strong chance I would see things differently.  And lo and behold, it didn't really appeal to me.  The album makes an immediate point of gruesome heaviness, which is quite impressive.  But I find nothing more innovative or interesting about this album than I do with the average slam album.  Ecchymosis came very late to the slam scene as far as partaking in the originality department goes, so every song just sounds like a cheaply-written blast of well-produced heaviness and that's that.

6/10

I've been listening to Twilight in Olympus to help me get into the Nialoca mood and work on it more.  Symphony X is pretty much my go-to band for that.

The rest of the Killing Joke catalogue please?  Or do you want that I just ask to add the one album I need for my top 100?

And thanks for adding Deep Purple and GNR.  Having said that, there's only a couple out of them that I'd like to suggest for metal tags.

It would be great if you could tell me the album(s) you feel should have metal tags. Thanks!

I thought the whole discography was supposed to go up as non-metal if a band has a metal album?  Or was that changed?

Oh wait, I think I get why you ask.  OK.

Extremities, Pylon, and the live albums Total Invasion, Laugh at Your Peril (both the Berlin and Roundhouse ones), and Malicious Damage

The rest of the Killing Joke catalogue please?  Or do you want that I just ask to add the one album I need for my top 100?

And thanks for adding Deep Purple and GNR.  Having said that, there's only a couple out of them that I'd like to suggest for metal tags.

It would be great if you could tell me the album(s) you feel should have metal tags. Thanks!

I thought the whole discography was supposed to go up as non-metal if a band has a metal album?  Or was that changed?

Today's list challenge album is Catch 33, which I remember liking more.  It's weird, but it feels like the album's trying to hard to be "fancy" and not enough to be "complex," since it has a tendency to drag on.  It's got some cool tricks, but that's about it.

Today's list challenge album is Isa by Enslaved.  Not as good as I remembered it, but still good.

It's certainly not clear-cut & I remember pondering over the correct tag at the time but ended up conceding in the end. Feel free to nominate it for the Hall of Judgement as that's what it's there for.

It sound like you should play the album again, back to back with Terria just to be certain.

Yes, I’d suggest that it qualifies as progressive metal.

I really don't see it at all.  How?