Rexorcist's Reviews

Obituary has special attention here on Metal Academy.  Quite a few people here  love it, especially the debut as opposed to their more renowned sophomore album, Cause of Death.  Not having been familiar with either, and having found myself in a death mood, I hightailed it to this band the instant I was done with Morbid Angel.  They're one of those bands I avoided for years due to violent lyrics.  I've been a bit of a goody-two-shoes about that considering that I was mostly avoiding it not to make peers around me mad.  No I just don't care about that anymore, so Obituary is a top-priority band now.  The people here love it, so it had better be good.

That doomy sound of there's hit me as soon as it made itself known.  We get plenty of death energy on this album, but the defining trait that set them apart was their love for the epic doomy stuff, and they didn't even need to go into the "traditional" territory to crush the soul.  That creepy and slow vibe in songs like "'Til Death" has so much ooze seeping out of it that it might as well be goring out like a Re-Animator movie.  And this isn't just a psychological vision induced by the album's green and slimy logo.  This is GROSS guitar, more sleazy than Bon Scott ever got.  And during some of the lighter moments there's some thrash energy.  Coincidentally, the title track features both traits.  So Obituary already set themselves apart as a death metal band with a broad range of attractors, attractors most death bands were missing at the time because they were too busy being "death."

Of course, while I love variety more than anyone on Metal Academy, and commend the band's efforts for variety and fluidity, this doesn't mean I've fallen head over heels for the compositions.  They're fun and energetic, but it's kind of in that Ramones "gotta-love-the-genre" kind of way rather than the intellectual way that make bands like Morbid Angel and Death so good.  Because of this, while the album remains good and commendably heavy, the thrashy and punkish charm loses its personality overtime, as well as the surprise of the slower doom.  In other words, this album with various attractors has songs that eventually mold into each other.

Obituary's debut certainly does have a strong appeal factor to it, and I appreciate everything it did right, becuase those aspects were performed at full throttle.  But they really weren't the best songwriters then.  At least the album remained pretty entertaining until the end, which means there's a keen consistency.  I can't see this making my top 50 death metal albums or anything, but for its mix of punk and doom influence, it was fun.

Length is a very touchy thing for me when it comes to music. The biggest part of that for me in the world of metal may either be drone or doom, because we have plenty of doom styles that are so drawn out and build themselves on creating an aura with the same riff going on for a couple to several minutes.  The way I see it: atmosphere is a journey into new worlds, so don't stop at one world for too long.  Entire albums made up of these songs tend to be problematic across review boards, and I myself admit to being more annoyed by it than I should.  But doom metal has its legends, and some of them really know how to keep things out there and inventive.  IMO, the greatest musicians of all time should be able to accomplish a number of musical achievements, and not do the same thing over and over again.  In this instance, that band is My Dying Bride, a gothic doom band for Type O negative fans, but better.

The Dreadful Hours sees the band maturing and improving on the tame atmospheres they created with their past albums and making it a whirlpool of deeper emotion rather than just a dark frolic through cool riffs.  They've done some fantastic albums before, but this took the cake.  There's this incredibly careful shift from sadness to anger, and hatred to romance that overtakes the whole album.  Through this, we're able to resonate with the sadness from a number of entry points.  It helps that while each song is around six to ten minutes, our riffs are catchy whether they're fast or slow, and that combination of doom, death, goth and post switches focal points every couple minutes while keeping the themes intact.  And this album makes the gloomy sound feel effortless.  Compare an average dark and classic metal album to this one.  Other brilliant albums may usually make it look like they put in effort, but My Dying Bride made it look easy.

This is one of those doom albums that recreates a number of forms of anger and sadness, like a good Nick Cave album.  As such, The Dreadful hours is currently my favorite doom and gothic album.  This is a mournful hour that never lets down on the imagination factor, which means nothing loses focus when creating a metal atmosphere.  There isn't even another MDB album that comes close to this for me, not even the other five stars.

Pure thrash is a thing that's been done to death, and yet we still get occasional classics because there are those that know how to bring personality and technicality to it long after we've heard all of the tricks.  One of these bands was Havok for a time, before the reviewers started taking them a lot less seriously once their third album came out.  They hadn't had a break for a while, but they made one of the modern thrash classics: Time Is Up, a rare thrash album that captures the oldschool spirit perfectly.

Immediately upon pressing the play button, there's a successful and vicious display of energy with perfectly clean production.  It recaptures the same spirit of thrash from the 80's that made the classics so damn good, and its clean production does a lot for its pure thrash sound.  There are simple but melodic jammers like "DOA" and "Prepare for Attack," complex bangers like "Scumbag in Disguise" and "Fatal Intervention," slow-burners like "Killing Tendencies" and harsh blastbeaters like "No Amnesty," so this album covers multiple sides of what thrash is capable of, and without ever breaking their single genre.  Impressive.  This album kept me on my toes throughout its run because it's so wild and independent, which is a compliment I give to so few thrash albums because so many of them are redundant.  My best examples of wild and independent thrash albums are No More Color, Rust in Peace and South of Heaven, so there's an easy way to compare this album to the classics.

Of course, there is a con that also acts like a pro, but a con more strongly: DAMN is this album stuck in the days of skater dorks and Ninja Turtles.  This is an extremely 80's-sounding album.  I mean, it's cool in the sense that it's nostalgic at least, and they pull it off like the album really did belong there, but this really just means that Havok sounds like they're very stuck in the past.  In other words: in a way we've heard this music for the last 40 years, even those of us who aren't that old.

I do recommend this for anyone who misses the glory days, because this album is all about the glory days.  Havok might not be the absolute best thrash band of the modern age, but they made one of the most fun, powerful and nostalgic albums in the metal world.  I would find myself returning to this next time I get in a thrash mood, because there are a couple songs I might even give five stars.

OK, so in my bestial black metal ventures, a single album was all it took to prove that Archgoat is a bit better than the iconic Blasphemy.  In my earlier review for Blasphemy's debut album, I said that they have invented a standard but it would be easy for many bands to beat them at it.  It's pretty obvious that Archgoat was not only one of the bands that were struck with Blasphemy, but would surpass them.  Having said that, surpassing the two Blasphemy albums is not a difficult task to me, and their debut was a decent experience.  How would their next one turn out?

After the dark ambient into and the first song, I thought to myself it would just be a rehash, but I would soon be proved wrong.  The next two songs showed a careful death doom slow pace which was simplistic but fairly hypnotic.  If not for their standard sound, I would've been awestruck with it, but remained only impressed with the decision.  But then track 5, Sodomator of the Doomed Venus (I typed that shit out and I need to wash my hands) steals the show with a short, black punkish display of spasmatic percussion and raw noise.  The noise is further touched up on in the once again simple but purely black title track.  So by this point, I'm quite a bit more impressed with their attempts at further exploring extreme metal itself on this record.  I mean, I still have an obligation to call this album out for low-grade songwriting, but they're doing much more with this album while maintaining the strengths of their first.  The group also makes room for more melody during the slower and doomier moments, but are improving their melodic prowess a little bit in the faster moments, too.  Not much, but still.

So while Archgoat clearly still have some training to do in the songwriting department, they've been able to touch up the concept of innovation a little more.  Having said that, they don't often overcome the monotony of the first album, but at least they're trying.  Easy improvement and a nice direction forward.

Alright, so after having been disappointed with Blasphemy's work, I was really hoping my ventures into Archgoat wouldn't become a disaster. Cabinet and Caucasian Concentration Camp are my go-to acts for comparing the good and the bad, as each bands meets their extreme very well.  And Archgoat, having their fine share of albums needed for any BBM collection (if there is such a thing), were practically a must do for me.  So, I started with one extended play which I won't be reviewing here, just to get a taste for their sound first, and then decided to move through their debut upwards.

After than dark ambient intro, it was pretty obvious that the studio-quality production already gave it a serious advantage over Blasphemy's albums.  Thanks to the perfect production, the heaviness is more enjoyable than Blasphemy.  All that was left was to see how the songwriting went.  And lemme tell you, among the mindless thrashing, there were some MAJOR breaths of fresh air in the "give you a break and put something new on the table" department.  Early on, Lord of the Void makes a point of slower doomy moments, and eventually just bursting into seriously unpredictable territory without breaking format, mood or genre.  But I decided that unless the band mixes it up a little more, I'm not going to give it the best rating.  And Dawn of the Light largely did that, although I appreciate the slow Sabbath midsection.  But no matter which song came next, it ended up sounding like a shameless rehash of the last song, so I don't really get the feeling that these guys are bringing war metal to its fullest potential and are just standard.

Archgoat is way better than Blasphemy, that much is obvious.  But this is the kind of album that satisfies raw headbangers and thrashers who need a metallic atmosphere, and are nothing short of the very norm that they set up for black metal musicians everywhere.  Archgoat's proven they can perform a black metal song with the fury necessary, so let's see them try to do something else.

After being sorely disappointed in Blasphemy's Fallen Angel of Doom, I was practically begging this album to show more imagination.  I've already found a few bestial black metal albums that I'm really impressed with, and I was hoping that Blasphemy could recreate that for all of their popularity.  This album would have to do.

It was pretty obvious from the first track that these guys were making improvements over their overrated debut.  The production was studio quality, so the dirtiness of the album was overall more effective.  And there were a few little changes in the songwriting as it was much less samey and annoying.  The distinction between black, death, thrash and grind was much clearer here, as we do have a few shorter songs working their way into deathgrind territory, and slight progginess helps create moments of the other three genres while the album remains consistent.  Bottom line, this album had imagination.

But does this mean that I think the different songwriting makes it brilliant?  No, just better than before.  The sad truth is, I don't really get a lot out of these songs as all the different types had already been done better by the likes of Venom, Bathory, Napalm Death, and Death themselves.  This is still pretty basic extreme metal.  I mean, some songs are much better than others, but nothing here really "sucks," it just gets a little boring occasionally.  It eventually gets to the point where the band is recycling all the same tricks in an effort to make things look more imaginative than these things are.

So I'll give this album major points for the obvious improvements over the debut.  Honestly, I wish these guys had continued into a third album because I would've liked to see where they were headed next.  Gods of War is at least a full star over Fallen Angel of Doom, and it's a shame this sophomore release gets second banana to the simple-minded debut.

I need to really thank Metal Academy for motivating me to explore more war metal.  A couple days after I get back in black metal, this thread shows up and suddenly a bunch of war metal albums are being reviewed.  And of course, there are bound to be a couple reviews for the most famous BBM album ever: Blasphemy's Fallen Angel of Doom.  In Daniel's review here, he wrote: "Blasphemy managed to combine all four of the major extreme metal sounds of the time (i.e. death metal, black metal, thrash metal & grindcore) into one swarming mass of largely indecipherable noise."  And he was right.  It was ONE noise.

I heard this album on DMS, a YouTube channel that provides full metal albums with high sound quality, and that includes really dirty sludgy albums with the proper production for the job.  This is just having come off the back of checking out various Teitanblood and Infernal Coil songs, as well as re-evaluating a few black, prog  and death albums.  Pretty much every song shares a 98% DNA similarity.  The production here is only there for the brutality, defeating its own purpose as you can barely here anything beyond the drums which are more or less doing the same thing for all 30 minutes. This production doesn't even sound as dirty or noisy as good black albums tend to be.  it's just bad.  Also having come of the back of the much lesser-known Cabinet's album Claustrophobic Dysentery, which mixes death and black with occasional doom, noise and ambient for very weird sounds, in comparison this album feels more like a bunch of jokers recording a bad demo for a major label rather than an actual studio album.  I'm not kidding.  That's EXACTLY what it sounds like.  it doesn't even get creative with the concept of non-studio works like Bee Thousand did with the concept of Beatles bootlegs. The heaviness was definitely cool at first, but they practically beat it to death, and they only show their most imagination through small bits in the LAST TWO SONGS for crying out loud.

This album will be mimicked many times throughout history, but most will likely succeed because... DAMN.  This album might be brutal, but that's the only strength to me.  Otherwise, it's more boring than Bob Dylan's Shadows in the Night and Trapt's self-titled.  Stick with Teitanblood, Cabinet and Goatpenis.  This is the single most overrated album I have ever heard.  I haven't hated a beloved album this much since that obsolete helf-star rating I gave the Ramones debut years ago (upgraded to a 9/10, bion).  Please tell me the other one will be better.

In my recent curiosity pertaining to the controversial war metal genre, I started, but didn't finish, dozens of war metal albums that I would shut off in the event that I noticed an obvious flaw, usually the monotony.  I finally ended at a Lynchian journey into the very essence not only of hatred, but of darkness and despair.  It's much like a Hell album, but more appropriately for the North and the Horde rather than the Fallen.

This is a surreal exercise in atmosphere, not in conventional music.  What rhythm you may expect from this album is largely absent, which in most cases, even for the unwritten rule of it set by BBM as a whole, ends up being a flaw.  As Daniel pointed out here, war metal is often about the worship of hatred, although I find that this can be achieved through multiple forms, and thus, through a diverse album.  And so, we have a Gira-style reliance on atmosphere and sound rather than melody, one that drags you through its terrifying world with little ambient / noise surprises here and there, oftentimes flawlessly produced.  Sound effects turn into instruments and instruments turn into atmosphere, rather than just playing monotonous music.  The best example of this may be Hallway of Dacryocystotomic Depriciation.  Even immediately afterwards on the next track do we get an extraordinarily fuzzy guitar carefully raising in volume behind the foreground of a clearly produced static buzz accompanied by blowing winds, and pairing with these fuzzy death guitars are clearer and more polished post-black tremelos that somehow pair with the death fuzz flawlessly.  This all happens in the first MINUTE of Eternally Pendulemic Flourescent Bulb / Deteriorating Interminably.

Never before have I heard a metal album that is so rhythmless and so full of imagination at the same time.  This is music at some of its most reliant on presence before rhythm, and successful as well.  It took a real creative genius to achieve something like this and manage to mix clear production with fuzzy production, sadness with anger and ambiance with terror so beautifully and so disgustingly.  Easily making it somewhere in my top 10 black metal and death metal albums at the same time.

Emperor had made it into the big leagues and stayed there forever thanks to only two albums: In the Nightsdie Eclipse and Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk.  One was a new take on traditional black metal with a whole new sound, and the second was a more cleanly-polished take on the original which a very notcurnal vibe.  Emperor always loved trying new things, so where were their ventures going to take them next?  Into... straightforward original black metal, apparently.  This really isn't a bad decision just because of that, but could Emperor pull it off?  Let's see if they "sold themselves out" instead of wanting to try a new vibe.

In some cases, Emperor were attempting straightforward black metal.  And if track one, Curse You All Men, proves anything, it's that they can pull it off effortlessly.  This is more brutal and maniacal than anything Darkthrone or Immortal ever put out.  This is a first time for them when you think about the genre!  ANd once again they shift their symphonic sound for a new vibe.  It seems that the point of IX Equilibrium is to once again try new things with a very different mood from what we got before.  Unfortunately, while this mood has been rarely perfected, this is the first Emperor album featuring an atmosphere that's already been attempted.  This is one of the reasons it's considered inferior.  But damn if that black metal energy isn't extremely thick and dense.  I can't even see out the window of this aural hurricane.  Rain covers everything, although I can occasionally hear the symphonic parade of musicians and soldiers marching, as if the stabbing rain didn't hurt them.

Unfortunately, because they're acting more straightforward on this album, a couple of the songs are a little too long, so they tire out pretty quickly.  As for any flaws pertaining to other songs, this one's a really easy one.  While the absolute maelstrom of sound on this album is nothing short of formidable, there's typical blastbeating mixed in with Emperor's strongest point: melody, so it's easy for one to outshine the other.  Now the album has its share of diversity.  It covers Emperor's symphonic sound with the newfound original black sound while adding bits of new stuff, including the heavier prog which would be more fleshed out on Prometheus, as well as bits of speed and thrash in sparse places.  But that's also a little bit of a con as these little bits are sparse and scattered.  This includes the gothic sound of Welkin, which thankfully makes it onto this release, especially during the final track, "Of Blindness & Subsequent Seers" which carries a surreal tone to it.

This third Emperor album is the point where they stopped being "just" a new sound.  In an attempt to gain the favor of the followers of ancient tradition, they took part in it.  There was some excellent skill in sound, technicality and melody, but there was little drawbacks to this new sound.  In other words, Emperor could do just about anything, but couldn't perfect this is it was their first attempt.  This is excellent black metal, but not the best compliment to Emperor's prowess.

I went through the whole discography again so that I could flesh out my black metal opinions even more.  I've been very serious about this for a couple weeks, and I pretty much have them sorted out.  There are just a couple things I need to get clear, especially concerning the band I went through the whole studio catalog of today (for the second time this month): Emperor, one of the most influential black metal bands in the world for creating, pioneering and perfecting the symphonic black metal sound.

A little Emperor history.  They invented a new black metal genre, and it's considered one of the greatest albums of all time.  They change up their sound, and it's considered one of the greatest albums of all time.  This says something about Emperor: they are NOT conformists, and they weren't gonna stay that way.  I may seriously piss somebody off when I speak honestly: if you won't let the non-conformists change their style, then you're not a real fan of them.  In short, if you don't like Prometheus just because it doesn't sound like either of the first two albums, then you're not a real Emperor fan.  It's one thing to say you prefer the original sound(s), but to act like they're not supposed to sound any other way in general is just unfair to the constant renovators.

Because of its shifting riffs and melodies within the same songs, a trait often found on Emperor songs, it is given a progressive tag.  I think a couple songs are prog, mostly "Grey," but this just feels like a different sounding Emperor album with more influences than anything, rather than progressive black.  I mean, come on.  I've even read criticisms for how often In the Nightside Eclipse shifted its riffs.  If people are worried that the progressive metal status and the heavy metal behavior of some of these songs takes away from the true blackness, I find that appalling to even consider.  Songs like "The Prophet" and especially the thunderstorm that is "In the Wordless Chamber" have plenty of black attitude and blastbeats to maintain the status, and it's not alone.  On a secondary note, what is "tr00 black metal?"  I've heard various definitions of that as well.  The most common answer when naming the perfect black metal sound, as I have researched, seems to be one of several classic Darkthrone's, usually A Blaze in the Northern Sky.  That clean, sympho-gothic work is so far from Blaze that I feel like vomiting when I hear Welkin called "tr00."  You might get away with that argument concerning Nightside, but I still find that album very cleanly produced.  On the subject of Welkin's sound, I think one of the biggest underlying differences is the large lack of the gothic behavior of the synths, as well as the slight downgrade of necessity in place of more riffs.  I have no problem with the decision itself; all I want is to see if it works.

Now that I'm done combining deconstruction of the album with my own personal ranting, I'm ready to go into the more detailed side of the review.  Prometheus is, like Welkin was, a collection of various metal genres working together to create something unheard and new.  That's Emperor's specialty.  Why can't most war metal bands try this out for once?  We have storms of fire, ice, wind, water and lightning all taking turns amazing with some of Emperor's healthiest melodic structures.  Oh, forgot the earthquakes.  Working with the elements of nature re a variety of different vocals all being perfectly delivered by Ihsahn, be it the high-pitched demonic squeals of Nightside, the more nocturnal growls of Welkin or some straight up operatic heavy metal singing and harmonies.  He even get a couple 80's metal wails.  And the best part?  Each song has its own identity, standing out from the rest without any trouble.  This is a feat that Emperor struggled with in past albums, even if they were able to bring together a collection of various influences together in shifting ways on Welkin.

What we're facing is the final metamorphosis of a modern Proteus.  Emperor were a like a tiny larvae that made a big impact on the world, and once it became a butterfly, half of the metal community wanted them to be a larvae again. Prometheus is a concept album about the titular myth, but is that really what makes the album so strong when a large part of the idea is not to understand the lyrics?  It's the monolithic power.  This is a collection of a symphonic metal opera, the raging storms of ancient traditions, the further steps of prog, as well as so much more.  I'd say that Emperor "accomplished" more on this album than they ever did. If I had to be fully honest, I consider this one of the very few albums that I feel represents a whole side of metal itself, rather than one or two genres.  This is about all the extremities that black metal can achieve rather than just being another black metal album.  Because of this, I know find myself in a very rare state of mind: I rank this above PARANOID.

Now my third best metal album of all time.

Dark Angel's Darkness Descends is considered to be a cornerstone of thrash by the metal community.  Unfortunately, many would say that about Among the Living, too.  Like I do with every album, I'm going to judge this album on my own merits.

Right from the getgo, this album is brutal and villainous to the point of a mental breakdown.  The opening title track has Pleasure to Kill level heaviness and some Metallica melody attached to the intro.  There is a constant power throughout the whole album that keeps you awake and ready to cause mayhem, and so Dark Angel have mastered exactly what the trash sound needs to sound like.  The unfortunate thing is... I was waiting a while for it to get either more melodic or more technical.  In other words, most of what the album is doing is thrashing.  Thankfully, I got some riffage on the fourth track, which is made even better on the virtue of the first three tracks being shorter rather than longer.  So there are moments of creativity that keep the album from just being an impressively heavy album where the production and mixing help the brutality more than the layouts.

This is a cool album for the thrash fan, but considering it one of the greatest of its genre feels a bit too religious to me, like the heaviness can somehow make up for any obvious flaws.  Albums like that are rare for me.  But this is still well worth listening to, and it has about the same creative and heaviness prowess as Pleasure to Kill.

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

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

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

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

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

Normally it takes me one listen to an album to grasp it all.  But sometimes I need to flesh things out a little more.  In this instance, it was relistening to Nile's tertiary album, In Their Darkened Shrines, after going through a bunch of brutal death metal.  I'm in the middle of my death metal standards and opinions changing drastically, which may also reinvent how I rank my overall top 100 metal albums.  Now there was a lot I appreciated about this album, and there was a little I criticized.  Let's see how it pans out this time.

The intro started out similarly to how I would start out a tech metal album, weird and melodic at the same time.  Overtime, the album would cover a variety of moods and atmospheres with this single genre, taking time to be proggy, epic and doomy like with Unas, Slayer of the Gods, or speedy and catchy, like with Kheftiu Asar Butchiu, or just plain evil like Churning the Maelstrom, which reaches Devourment levels of brutality.  Notice, that this is only in the track 4-6 string. The general consensus after comparing this to albums by Suffocation and Defeated Snity, as well as ones I heard less recently but am still familiar with like Devourment and Disfiguring the Goddess, tells me that this album's primary focus is depth, not necessarily brutality or technicality.  However, the brutality never suffers.  Honestly, this is as brutal in its instrumental delivery as the Human Waste EP, but this album boasts a presence drawn in by its Egyptian subject matter, which means Nile are operating on a spiritual level, truly making ART in order to rise about the ranks of their genre.

While the style itself and the formatting of each song isn't always new or revolutionary, their moods and tricks are all healthy enough to keep the album entertaining.  This is largely because of a very strong depth to the band's personalities, effortlessly perfecting the "mood" aspects and overshadowing their own technical and songwriting skills, as good as the writing is on its own.  Our epic Unas, Slayer of the Gods is probably one of the finest death metal songs I've ever heard.  It's an 11-minute track I'd easily return to if I was in the mood, and honor I've only ever given two 11-minute epics in my life: Through Silver in Blood by Neurosis, and the album version of Anything for Love by Meat Loaf. And after having heard the doomy masterwork Cause of Death by Obituary and the slower and psychedelic Gateways to Annihilation by Morbid Angel, I have a much deeper appreciation for the ghostly depths of the droning sound effects of slower songs like I Whisper in the Ear of the Dead.  If I were to make a Halloween playlist, it wouldn't have any corny metal covers of Spooky Scary Skeletons.  It would be all about truly creepy atmospheres like the one I Whisper in the Ear of the Dead provides.  And the best part is that songs like that feels so consistent with faster-paced blasters like Wind of Horus, and even then, that track has an atmosphere in the middle that's not only furious, but slow building with an atmospheric guitar drone similar to atmo-black metal.

All of my needs for brutal death metal, specifically the begging for more depth and variety, are met in this hour long entry to a genre where even a half hour can feel overlong thanks to monotony and velocity.  The greatest albums in the world need DEPTH, and this is an album that's loaded with it.  It provides a unique experience that only Nile could provide thanks to their passion for myths, legends and themes.  I'm honestly having trouble deciding whether or not this is the greatest death album I've ever heard because it covers so much within the genre, and it doesn't even need brutal's famous subgenre, slam.  This might be a death metal album, but it goes beyond that.  In Their Darkened Shrines is a spiritual journey of the souls of the undead and their suffering over several millenniums.

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

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

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

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

Fall of Efrafa - Owsla

After checking my log of every album I've ever heard, I found that this was to be my first venture into "neocrust."  I appreciate any attempt at bringing punk together with a metal genre that hasn't gotten its own punk varient.  As such, the idea of an album like this, which I'll be deeming "sludgecore," is something I would really love to see.

So this is a crust punk and stmo-sludge album with some post-rock in it.  Early on the band makes a point of expressing their ability to deliver good and convincing atmospheres.  Thanks to the punk focus, this atmo-sludge sound not might be the MOST atmospheric (or at least it may pale in comparison to Neurosis and Isis), but it still sounds very grimy and disgusting.  It's like the album is made of mud and piss.  It also has a tendency to switch its focus from atmo-sludge to fast punk to post-rock to violin-fronted intros and midtros just to keep things varied.  They all flow together well enough.  However, the riffs are typically either unimaginitive or feel a little inappropriate for the type of album this is.  A Soul to Bear has a lead riff with a guitar sound that, when put together, feel more appropriate for some second-rate dungeon synth EP.  Since the sound of the album was already pretty strong, this was definitely not needed.  Thankfully, this sound only makes a couple of appearances.  And the six minutes of rain at the end were unnecessary.

So while the album needs more imagination and creativity, the choices of styles, moods and instruments all flowed together very well.  So there are some inclredibly strengths among the familiarity of the songwriting.  This proves that Fall of Efrafa devised for themselves a proper signature sound.  And even if this sound may end up replicated later on, they adopted their own personality, making this songs easier to "feel" on a deeper level, as well as easier to enjoy.

Fun fact: This is the album that convinced Megadeth to hire him.  And it worked out.

Other fun fact: At the day of writing this review, the album turns 35.

So it should be noted that, first and foremost, this is a “riffs” album, one where that's the primary focus, much like Yngwie Malmsteen's debut, Rising Force.  Malmsteen made a smart decision to make his songs more radio friendly so that the heavy metal can compliment the classical riffs and vise-versa.  And as a result, we have a lot of “riff” albums with no other purpose in life, which is reflected in that music.  But with Friedman's debut, the rest of the band is there to compliment his riffs.  The drums are heavy and they carry the various vibes of Friedman's riffs perfectly.  I mean, just listen to the work done on Anvils.  Half of that track is the drum job and not Friedman's finger duties.

I mean, sure, there are some weaker songs that are mostly there for some cool solos, like Dragon's Kiss, or Namida's Kiss which didn't live up to its full potential as a magical folksy midtro, but there are also some interesting unpredictable compositions here.  There's a weird mysticism that goes into the intro of Evil Thrill before we're kicked off into a ferocious speed metal tune.  Even though the production needs some improvement, you hear what's going on just fine, and lemme tell you: the flawed production gives us enough of that atmos and reverb to make out everything just fine.  The drums are loud and hard, the guitar and bass work together well, and the riffs are monstrous.

Unfortunately, he needs some work on softer tracks.  The first half of Jewel, for example, is kinda boring.  But the proggy magic happens once the tone picks up.  And I love soft music as much as metal, being a huge Paul Simon fan.  So it's very clear that not every song will be a five-star.  Thankfully, the softer intro of the eight-minute prog epic Forbidden City has a good intro that builds up to the neoclassical parts.  And I was flat-out blown away by this epic.  Thunder March is a weird case.  It has both guitars making fine rhythms, but they're not molded well due to the production.  Also, the drums aren't quite as heavy as they should be for this marching example of "epica."

I have a little of a personal touch with this album, but I;m not gonna let that alter my rating.  Basically, what I want to say is simple: it's obvious that this album's guitar tone and melodies had a major say in the soundtrack to F-Zero GX, and its Guitar Arrange version.  Of course, that also makes it easy to compare this album, despite being a different type of metal.  This is a fine example of the genre-bending balance that a great metal album needs, and handles that aspect perfectly.  Unfortunately, a few songs need some re-evaluations in the compositions department, but there are a few 9's and 10's on this album and I'd easily recommend it for the effort and the historical relevancy.

Funk metal isn't a genre I take that seriously.  Most of it is just a bunch of dorks mindlessly ambling on either "cool" or "experimental" music without really taking the time to appreciate the music.  Thankfully, Primus keeps their weirdness more palatable without diving too far into either side of the funk metal spectrum.  They're just cool and experimental enough for their personalities to do the rest of the work, and that was clear from their live debut album.

Now I've heard this album once before, and at the time I gave it a 94/100.  So it was damn close to a five-stars.  Will it hold up?

The first thing I noticed was that the production is WAY better than a live debut album by a bunch of experimental dorks had any right to be.  It wasn't "perfect," as the sound quality is just slightly fuzzy.  But you can hear everything clearly.  So when we get into the really wild stuff, like the funk and riff-heavy Groundhog's Day, we're pretty much getting more than what we paid for.  They made it perfectly clear that, even though they're a bunch of comedians, they know how to jam and groove.  That bass of Claypool's is perfect for the weird rock and metal being played.  You can feel the Bootsy love.  But the best thing about it is how well the crazy but controlled drums carry the funky  and noisyriffs.  Never let it be said that Herb can't drum.

Even though they're a wacko band, they also have some deep, surreal and psychedelic vibes, like the middle section of Pressman.  Who would've thought comedic experimental funk metal could get so hypnotic and aural?  And this is right before that Sabbathy doom solo on the same song.  Pressman might be my favorite song on the album just for that.  After that, the album gets easier to let yourself just go with the flow.  I came to realize that the band is kind of mocking the weirdness of funk, likely with the band's whiteness.  But it works.

Anyway, I gotta say, even though I don't know if I can take the music seriously enough to give it five stars, I think that 94/100 rating I gave it before was pretty accurate.  Maybe my biggest concern is that they didn't really change their pace or sound as often as I would've liked, but they kept it fun.  I mean, seriously.  This is a VERY fun album.  You just kick back and let the weirdness do all the talking, jamming out like you're listening to a Ramones album.  Although it's not QUITE as original as I remember, I still recommend it.

Celtic Frost has one of the weirdest histories I've ever seen for a metal band.  They have a couple of highly regarded thrash albums, go experimental for an album, turn into a GLAM METAL band and epically fail, go back to thrash and fail again, have a long hiatus, turn into a doom metal band with a big comeback for one album, and then break up.  As you can see, it was quite hard for me to take a band like that seriously for quite a while.  When I finally gave them a spin, I stopped after the second album and to this day I haven't heard anything past that.  The second album, btw, is To Mega Therion.

This album is so heavy and evil that it's frightening that mankind can do this.  You can practically feel the Venom influence grabbing you from behind.  Between the soeedy and surreal stuff, the vile blackened thrash and the occasional epic and cheesy horn-infused doom, there's a constant presence of mankind's absurd villainry that proves something about the band: that creepy-ass album cover means something.  You know, the one that looks like Tim Burton had babies with the gargoyles in Count Olaf's mansion?  But the coolest thing about this piece of work is the ability to take the evil and apply it to the JAM factor without even trying.  Obviously, these guys had a rare form of talent back in the early days.  This is a classic and a rare breed of thrash.

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.

Mastodon is the kind of band I used to have super-strict opinions on concerning their first four albums.  Even though I wasn't the most vocal about those opinions, they hadn't changed for years until recently, when I began re-evaluating my sludge metal standards.  After finishing Leviathan again, not seeing the need to play Remission again yet, I went straight for Blood Mountain, an album I always thought was one of the best sludge albums ever, like Leviathan.

It was pretty clear from the start that Mastodon hadn't forgotten their punk side just yet from their punkish opener, The Wolf Is Loose.  You wouldn't know after the dramatic shift to riff-heavy sludginess being the focal point of their sophomore.  Each song felt different from the last, while it was obvious that consistency was the main focal point, which means there are plenty of songs that won't be as "catchy" as the ones on Leviathan, which is fine by me because that means more general prog.  I had no way of knowing those raspy mechanical vocals would make an appearance on the third act of Circle of Cysquatch, and then just flow right into a somewhat folksy riff opening up the next track, bringing to mind some Zeppelin songs before going right into a chaotic mess of Quicksilver the Mutant speed that's practically just mocking punk and then going back into the catchy instrumental riffs.  This is the kind of wacko behavior you can expect from this album, as well as the kind I demand from an album, especially an experimental or progressive one.

People seem to like like Leviathan more because of its more consistent and riff-reliant behavior.  And I admit all the songs are fun and catchy.  But that's the kind of album that, despite having a lot of progressive structures, feels a little poppy in the way the songs are delivered.  Whereas you have a mix of the avant-garde and the pop-structure here on this ever shifting and always consistent album.  I wouldn't say that Mastodon proved that they can do anything they want with this album the way that Acid Bath did with their debut, but I was always on my toes with this album.  This album recalled the personalities of both Remission and Leviathan while adding new tricks.  I'd say that makes this album quite the success.

At first I found Feiticeira to be standard Deftones, pretty much recalling half the songs of Around the Fur.  But Digital Bath surprised me with a soft and soothing Digital Bath that remained consistent through Chino's earnest vocal delivery.  And then we have the crazy and noisy Elite, where Chino's gone and decided not only to shout like a black metal artist, but add SOUND EFFECTS to his vocals.  And you know what?  It freaking works, because the guitars are working hard to recreate these same emotions displayed.  And then there's my favorite song on the album, Rx Queen, which is partly about artistic instrumentation and partly crypticism.

The whole album acts like this and stays catchy and emotional throughout pretty much the whole album.  I never knew what was going to happen next, and I had heard this album once before and completely forgotten what it sounded like.  Fuck, Teenager sounds like a goddamn Radiohead song!  Like something off Amnesiac!  And you know what?  It's a GOOD Radiohead song.  Even if we had only one genre to work with, Deftones could deliver a plethora of different kinds of songs.  But instead, they grace us with other influences ranging from shoegaze, grunge, post-metal, hardcore punk, post-hardcore, rap metal, etc.  They are all over the 90's rock spectrum with this metal album.  Their cryptic lyrics have a powerful, gothic and sometimes gruesome imagery about it, as if we took the layout of a Cobain song and applied Nick Cave topics.  Although, if I had to fault it for anything, by the end it becomes a bit much.  It's just a LITTLE overlong due to its two lengthy last songs.

This is a constantly engaging alt-metal release, and the kind that doesn't need to rely on solos or any metal tropes to complete its emotional goals.  This is all about being carried away by alternative metal and into a journey of self-awareness and reflection.  This is something only a handful of alternative bands of done, notably bands such as Tool or Alice in Chains.  In a way, during a time where "alternative rock" had become the radio staple it was never meant to become, White Pony acts as a fairly pop-structured alternative to what we're used to hearing with all of its weirdness and honesty.  So I feel like there's only one thing left to do: put this in my top five alternative metal albums.

The whole nu metal thing is a tough scene for serious metalheads to get into beyond just a couple key bands: basically Korn and Deftones.  Usually Deftones because they're less "nu metal" than the creators of the genre.  But there is definite truth to the notion that Deftones brought something a bit more polished to the table within their short lifespan as a nu metal band.  Before the straightforward alternative metal release, White Pony, Deftones produced something freakishly heavy for the alternative scene, not from an extreme perspective, but from production and emotional perspectives.  These guys didn't just scream, they SCREAMED.  With every deep riff, shoegaze and hardcore inspired wall of sound, whisper and shout, you could feel the feelings that these guys were going through at the time just as strongly as when Jonathan Davis of Korn sings his lyrics.  I mean, the lyrics here tend to build themselves on the more realistic side of the dialogue expected from the visions one gets just from listening to them, although at the same time they're jumbled details that rely solely on the imagery.  We don't need the excess weight like "she has this," or even saying the word "the."  Simple words are displaying an effective visual trait.  This especially comes from the songs Macara and Lotion.

I wouldn't consider this a "masterpiece," though.  The truth is that this alternative band ended up making a lot of the songs feel a little too similar, a common trait among musicians.  Don't get me wrong, each song here is delievered well enough, and it has a cool blend of the punk attitude and that aquatic noise production of another alt-metal album that came out the same year: Biomech (yes, I feel that Biomech is alt-metal, and am thankful that RYM finally came to their senses about it).  Overall, this is in fact a very cool album that builds itself on effective simplicity in ways that a lot of tame and careful albums can't manage.  So I would easily recommend this for anyone looking to get into alternative stuff.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Traditional black metal, founded by Mayhem, has been a staple of Norwegian music since its inception, and along with it will always be the bands associated with the early scene.  Even though Mayhem fell out of favor once their frontman Euronymous was murdered by Burzum, and Emperor called it quits, Immortal has still been going strong, and their most classic album remains a contender by many to be the greatest black metal album in the world: At the Heart of Winter.  This album did so much for the traditional black metal sound that it has many emulators, and is more accessible like Death's Symbolic, so it makes it good entry for new black metal explorers.  It was mine.

At the Heart of Winter immediately lets you know that it's an "epic" album, telling a fantasy tale through rhyme and riff.  So even though it behaves like a metal opera occasionally, it has none of the symphony of genres more associated with it, handling itself like a concept album about a place build for metal operas.  The album has no trouble drawing the listener away into the world of Blashyrkh, using clear vocals to immediately suck you into the gothic poetry.  The album's riffs keep coming and coming, and usually the album finds something new to give you but handles all the riffs in somewhat progressive manners.

Unfortunately, its run of tracks 2-4 are pretty much going for the same sound, and the longest of these three, track 3, is the least imaginitive.  So its awesome sound draws out a little bit before it gives you a few new ideas in between its two final tracks, which help justify the album again.

This is Immortal at their best.  They're a black metal band for hard rock fans, and their straightforward sound is almost mastered here.  A the Heart of Winter is the first album I'd recommend any newcomer to black metal (unless they're experimental fans, in which case it would be something else).

Immortal was my favorite black metal band for some time, seeing how riff heavy and atmospheric they can be.  And their classic Pure Holocaust is a fine example of their more wintery sounds.  They had some of that on their magnum opus, At the Heart of Winter, but this classic was a staple of the genre even before then.  It remained their best album for a few years, but how does it hold up now?  Well, this review's going to be short and simple like the album: there is constant speed, a pure vision of snowstorms plaguing every beautiful riff, and a presence that's difficult more many black metal bands to achieve.  Unfortunately, I find that this album is more simplistic in comparison not only to At the Heart of Winter (and dare I say it Damned in Black), but has a one track mind that, while hypnotic and metallic, gets old.  So while there are a lot of fun and great songs here, that's a major problem.  Immortal built themselves on the black metal atmosphere during the early days of its album popularity, and they were probably experts at that alone, so this stands out as a traditional black metal essential.  But compared to later efforts, it's become overshadows in creativity and will most easily satisfy those who are looking for more heaviness than boldness.

Let's be honest: King Gizzard are a bunch of dorks, despite the quality of their music.  For years their clever usage of garage-rock and punkish monotony took the musical underground by storm.  two-hour long psychedelic albums would make this "projects" band comparable to The Grateful Dead, and they were one of those bands you only listened to if you were a "real" music buff.  And then they became a thrash metal band.  I was surprised with the good reception of Infest the Rats' nest, but I haven't gotten around to it just yet.  I figured the thrash thing would just be a gimmick rather than a serious new side of them.  And then PetroDragonic Apocalypse gets ALL the ladies  I may be a Christian, but I love album covers with giant dragon motherfuckers telling the world it's his bitch.  With reception on par with a classic-era thrash album or a Vektor album displayed on the internet, how could I refuse and stay true to myself?  I'm a thrash and prog fanatic, and I can't get enough of it because there ISN'T enough of it, at least not enough that's good.  So I put this on.

Son of a bitch.  That Motorhead influence TACKLED me.  The album is filled with repetitive but engaging progressive structures that leave the rest of the work to the charisma of the band harmonizing their vocals and jamming like hell.  Even when playing a melody properly, these guys KNOW HOW TO JAM.  And it isn't just because they've always been jammers due to their psych rock history, but they revive a side of metal that has been consistently overshadowed by the extremities of black and death as well as the surreal behavior of many modern acts like Oranssi Pazuzu, Krallice and Blut Aus Nord: the side of metal that jammed back in the days of 80's speed metal.  This made the album stand out among the rest of the metal crowd.  And because Gizzard also made sure to keep their fuzz factor in mind, this prog-thrash album also has stoner and sludgy undertones working with the Motorhead influence to further empower the jam factor.  Thus, the personality is usually more engaging than the actual progressive structures, which themselves offer only a few surprises and may not be so enjoyable without the KG vibe. There are even some trippier moments scattered around that heavily recall the psychedelic side without falling into the genre.  So the band is balancing out Motorhead, apocalyptic surreality, metallic jam factor and punk monotony all with their signature vibe fully intact.  That's pretty ingenious, and almost fully justifies the occasionally lacking proggy structures.  But get this: they saved the best for last.  The nine-minute Flamethrower shows all the best of the previously mentioned aspects in the roughest display of heaviness on the album with abnormal consistency.  It even includes the only actual psychedelic rock riff on the album, and it fits in no problem.

So maybe the individual tracks of PetroDragonic Apocalypse aren't the "best" thrash songs ever written, but they certainly are fun.  Any aspects that shouldn't be very surprising are made much more surprising because King Gizzard implemented their psychedelic garage essence and personality into the thrash genre so well that this album, while being a completely different genre, still remains a King Gizzard album.  The album didn't reach my lowest reasonable expectations.  It was a little higher, but not the masterpiece the internet made it out to be IMO.  But it seriously proves that Gizzard can pretty much do anything, assuming they aren't putting out six albums a year for the online rep.  I feel that thrash fans should listen to this potential modern classic, but you'll get more out of it if you're already familiar with a few classic garage or psychedelic King Gizzard albums.  This album represents one of the most effortless genre transitions I've ever seen out of hearing nearly 12,000 albums.  But if you really wanna know what a prog Motorhead sounds like, then listen to this as soon as you can.  King Gizzard have always been masters of monotony and personality through repetition, and their second thrash outing does their wacky catalog full justice.

92/100.

OK, I'll give the album this: this is the best cover art for any of the four Gloryhammer albums.  You got your mushroom cloud while a couple biker-knights (two words I never thought would logically be put together) are driving away on a possible homage to Judas Priest's Painkiller cover.  And you still have room for the castle in a fantasy background with a Dark Crystal orchid sky.

But the album itself is a different story entirely.  So we've got dorky-ass song titles like "Holy Flaming Hammer of Unholy Cosmic Frost," so they're not even hiding it.  After the Engrish lyrics of the debut, they became kind of a comedy band, and it shows in the lyrics.  But the album has stronger neoclassical influences which helps it stand out from the other three.  But these influences arrive in place of the heavy punches and judo throws of the first album.  Less punch, more glitter.  Sure, the songs are still fun, but I would say that this album is a little lacking in comparison to the first three albums.  The progressive/symphonic melodies don't feel so original anymore.  So Gloryhammer's eagerly awaited fourth album is nothing short of a rehash of past ideas with a slightly different neoclassical style.

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

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

64/100.

I demand quite a few things from any album I listen to: a strong and healthy sound, balance between variety and consistency, no monotony and perfect production for the type of sound.  It also helps if the album itself is a unique take on its artform.  One of the albums that best describes this balance is Blut Aus Nord's ever-creepy and super-twisty The Work Which Transforms God, which is coming to be one of my all-time favorite albums.

Blut Aus Nord were always trying to do something new and melodic ever since their debut, but they were stylistically just another atmo-group for the most part.  The heavier industrial and experimental touches on this very diversified album set them apart s one of the best things black metal had to offer, maybe even the best.  Even though black metal was originally the staple of Norway, black metal is such an easy sound to replicate that it's worldwide.  But making an incredible black metal album loaded with influences and different types of songs going through a consistent and always disturbing 50 minutes is a difficult process.  This album made it look easy by properly inserting disturbing sounds and perfectly fitting black metal vocals with excellent production.

In helping with rating this, I had finished At the Heart of Winter again and decided to play the latest Blut Aus Nord album at the time of this review: Disharmonium - Nahab.  Well, I started it, but I wanted to compare it to this album, so I stopped it and finished this, and then finished Nahab.  This album is a major step forward for black metal, and does its own thing without losing the band's spirit or the heart that made black metal what it is.

After having gone through a ton of black metal albums to re-evaluate the way I see it, I've been doing a lot of rearranging, specifically for traditional black metal and a little of the atmospheric stuff, namely Blut Aus Nord.  I found myself less satisfied with the Memoria Vetusta albums as they draw out despite their keen soundscapes.  I need something that keeps me on my toes.  When it comes to the more atmospheric stuff, that album is Ultima Thulee.

Ultima Thulee is aggressive and menacing, like the winter landscapes and blizzards themselves are out to kill you.  But even as you can envision youself hiding in a cave or a cottage, you feel comfortable, as the album is very contemplative in its strong atmos.  Whether it's shifting between soft and comfy or astral and cosmic dungeon synth, or shoving the blizzard down your throat and up your rear at the same time, the weather might always be snowing outside, but the weather's always changing.  Honestly, this album does a much better job of drawing me into the winterworld than even Paysage d'Hiver ever did.  Even though it's not the most diversified, it keeps throwing even old tricks at you in random but welcome places, and that's what makes it a good debut.

Devin Townsend is one of the most active solo acts in the progressive metal scene, but he didn't start out a genius.  No, his first album is a mistagged and overhyped (but unique and good-spirited) album called Biomech, released under the name Ocean Machine.  It's considered by many to be a big step forward for modern metal, but IMO it was only an alt-metal stepping stone towards his future progressive sound.  That sound would be improved and further explored over a few albums until we finally got to his fourth: Terria.

Terria is constantly surprising, applies the shoegaze production of Biomech to a number of soft and extreme rock and metal influences, and keeps the album consistent through the production values.  Even on the third track, Earth Day, we get a full example of the best genre-traits of Townsend's diverse range at the time, so it's like Earth Day is a perfect representation of what the whole album has to offer.  Unfortunately, the album has a bad habit of using too much noise, almost drowning everything out.  So while this is a more advanced counterpart to Biomech for a greater sense of diversity and good balance, it's still shoving its biggest mistake down the lister's throat, so it's not quite perfect.  But the album does a good job at drawing the listener into this shoegaze metal world and taking you on a world tour with some surprising compositions.  Terria is IMO easily Townsend's greatest effort.

I decided to rush ahead to Behemoth's chosen masterpiece (as decided on by the whole damn internet apparently)  after having heard their first three albums. A little feeling in my gut told me that it would be a good idea to compare the albums after the first three to their best (if I agreed that it was good), so I jumped right into it. The moment I've been waiting for was rushed right into, and was it a good idea to get right to it? I think it was. Now I've got a real benchmark for the rest of the Behemoth catalogue.

Early on, the guitar work blew me away. It was a good idea to rush into this just to see how much they improved. The musicianship is very clever, and occasionally even phenomenal. Songs like “Amen” and “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel” make the incredible level of epica feel like eight-minute epics rather than the standard length songs that they are. And each song has its own strengths. While “Furor Divinus” works beautifully on the melodic black death aspect with a brutal pace, the slower and more Gothic title track switches between the tribal influence and the genre art. Having said that, I would consider the title track the worst for being the most monotonous and least melodic. It even saves its darkest track for last, a seven-minute epic that gets really creepy and stays that way, throughout the slow-moving orchestral rhythms and the quick and quirky solo.

Now I did find one very important fault with the album, and it's the fairest one I can think of: In comparison to other eclectic and guitar-driven black metal albums, there are quite a few that I can think of that did it better. The first that comes to mind would be Blut Aus Nord's 777 – The Desanctification, which does everything this album does save the death metal, but with a more outgoing and experimental approach. And that's the worst of the 777 trilogy. Beyond that, The Satanist stays a pretty interesting album all the way through.

Well, I'm glad I've got a real benchmark for comparing future ventures into Behemoth.  I would easily recommend this for the black metal fan, as it makes for a straightforward and talented entryway into both death and black metal.  Having said that, I've already heard hundreds of other black and death metal albums, but I would still recommend this for those who want to try it... unless you're a strict Christian.

90/100

I heard from Rateyourmusic that Behemoth's sophomore album, Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic), is supposed to be the best of their worst era of musicianship: their first four albums.  However, I felt that the sophomore was only a slight improvement over their debut, by a literal quarter star.  Since their third album, Grom, was supposed to be worse, I expeted another disappointment.  That isn't QUITE what I got, though.

After a monotonous dungeon synth intro comes the real speed and power of the album's genre. There's an improvement in the villainy of Nergal's vocals, as well as the quality of the guitar solos. “Spellcraft And Heathendom” even shows an improvement in percussion. The album is able to stand with the previous two entries and above due to the band's newfound brutality. And because the production values are a little better, the noisy quality works with the brutality instead of against it.  Unfortunately, with this new brutality also comes new monotony. There's less of a will to experiment with new sounds related to the black metal scene than there was on the previous album, and so all of these songs are pretty much doing the same thing. It doesn't help that “Thou Shalt Forever Win” sounds almost exactly like “Rising Proudly Towards the Sky.” Thankfully, the closing title track is arguably the most epic song the band had done up to that point.

I guess I'm a little satisfied with where Grom went.  Behemoth made some very drastic changes to their production approach, which helped a lot.  Still, the flaws are still there and they haven't really learned how to perfect any of the elements that made this album their best so far.  But I'd recommend this for anyone who wants something that sounds quite epic.

67/100

Behemoth apparently grew a lot from their early days with their shit demo and their so-so debut album. I never expected anything less when I decided to check them out in chronological order (although I admit I heard the studio album before the earlier demo). So how does their sophomore attempt stand up?

Early on there are slight improvements in the band's songs. Among these faint improvements are a slightly more diverse attempt at songwriting structures and progressiveness. We even get some early hints of dungeon synth, such as the keyboards in the last part of the seven-minute epic, “Hidden in a Fog,” in the background of “Forgotten Cult of Aldaron” and the entirety of the following two-minute segue, “Ancient."  Still, the album had some bad production values, and the whole album feels more like a garage demo than a sophomore studio release. Plus, whatever surprises there are in the album pretty much run dry before side B. And by the time of “Wolves Guard My Coffin” it basically acts like a punk album before other tropes take the end.

The improvement of the band's performances from their debut to this second album show promise. But you wouldn't know it just from these two albums alone, as there's still a lot of growing left to do. I wouldn't really “recommend” this album to anyone as there are so many better albums that do better things.

59/100