Shezma's Forum Replies

You weren't wrong Daniel! 3 years to finish the North challenge, and about 2 months to do the Guardian one. With the North I think I had only heard maybe one or two albums before going into it and Guardians I had heard at least half of them before and was at least acquainted with the other bands that I hadn't heard the album before. Only a few I had no knowledge of. It was a great spread of styles. Now I'm onto my last challenge for The Infinite. There sure is a bunch for them, any suggestions of where to start to get a good variety there? I know Progressive is such a huge genre as is that the Infinite might be the widest variety of all the clans.

A bit late, but I did comment on this album earlier on and I'm doing my rounds of catch up today here on the forums as well but wow what a release and I do appreciate the nomination of this one Daniel it definitely hit a spot I didn't know I needed. As I mentioned in the review, this is such a great album to sleep to for some reason the atmosphere is just so cozy.

I'm late, December was a busy month for me, but I have to put my quick thoughts here on this blast of a Japanese Power Metal EP. It's only 21 minutes so give it a chance if you have not heard these all women band before. They are super talented and this EP really shows off what they can do with each track doing something different but doing it so well. First song is truly power metal, then they go thrash, then a symphonic almost folk vibe, and finish with a more heavy metal style song. Yet they're all truly power and heavy and awesome.

While Rekreatur is my personal favorite and got me into the genre, I cannot deny Sagas. This is such a good album and I don't see enough love for Folk metal on this site so I had to give this a nomination to try to get more people to listen. I don't expect this to change your mind at all Daniel from what you've said but we can't leave out the folk side for our North brethren since I didn't see a single one in all of 2023 when looking at the featured list. Do we have anyone else that enjoy Folk metal here?

I heard something about that Megadeth controversy, never delved into it too much though. Bonus tracks are always a plus, even if most of the time they're not good. More incentive to but the album again I guess instead of looking through the bargain bins. Also understandable when at least for a time it was a good idea to re-record onto the new media like cassette or CD's but the records are showing that Vinyl is the big thing again. I don't want to keep a working cd player, cassette, 8-track, or phonograph player around to listen to my music. I like having everything on my hard drive or even phone at this point to listen everywhere I go. Let us know if those re-recordings are actually good though, I've always been interested in Paradise Lost and other gothic metal but I haven't really given it a listen. Wonder if that darker style is actually better remastered with the better technology now. 

A little late to the Night Sun - Mournin discussion, but my thoughts are it's not metal. However I did get an avant-garde vibe that I didn't see get thrown around as much as prog which I agree is on most of the songs as well. Heavy psych elements but not as much metal. Definitely influential. 

Finally after over 3 years of being on here and coming back I have finally finished the THE NORTH: Black Metal The 2nd Decade. Black metal is still not my thing, but I found new artists and albums to add to my listening collection. Now on to THE GUARDIANS: Heavy Metal - The 1st Era, where I feel I'll get a better feel for the roots of metal and such. Wonder if anyone else is still working on these, or if I am a bit late to the party and everyone's already done what they wanted. Still a great idea in my opinion. 

Here's how I would genre-tag the 8 tracks in the album:

1. War Pigs - Hard rock/heavy metal/doom metal/progressive rock

2. Paranoid - Heavy metal

3. Planet Caravan - Psychedelia

4. Iron Man - Heavy metal

5. Electric Funeral - Stoner metal/hard rock/heavy metal/progressive rock

6. Hand of Doom - Hard rock/heavy metal/progressive rock/psychedelic rock

7. Rat Salad - Blues rock/hard rock/heavy metal

8. Fairies Wear Boots - Blues rock/hard rock

Primary genres: Heavy metal, hard rock

Secondary genres: Progressive rock, blues rock

You guys have fun with this project, but I'm gonna head out of this thread. As much fun as I had exploring the earlier metal releases, I want to get my mind back into the present. There are a few newer releases from other bands of different genres that I plan to review. Will I continue my time in this Roots project someday? I don't know. But I'm done here for now.

Love that you do this, makes it simple. But here are my changes.
1. War Pigs - Hard rock/heavy metal

2. Paranoid - Heavy metal

3. Planet Caravan - Psychedelia

4. Iron Man - Heavy metal

5. Electric Funeral - Stoner metal/hard rock

6. Hand of Doom - Hard rock/progressive metal/psychedelic rock

7. Rat Salad - Blues rock/hard rock/

8. Fairies Wear Boots - Blues rock/hard rock/

So really only the big hits in War Pigs, Paranoid, and Iron Man I actually consider heavy metal here. Though I would put Hand of Doom leaning into prog metal. 

I only found Flower Travellin' Band's album "Anywhere" but it's just covers, suprisingly Black Sabbath's Black Sabbath is one of them and it does goes fairly hard considering it released soon after the song/album did. Otherwise, if you consider them doing 'harder' renditions of House of a Rising Sun and Twenty-First Century Schizoid man then sure but even then I don't believe it to be metal. I also concur that Sir Lord Baltimore is just hard blues rock because I got a good Jimmy Hendrix vibe and such whereas if that's the case we would need to look into the 50's and 60's for some metal (which there probably is some underlying forgotten gem of a metal record then to be fair).

Little late to the party here. My opinion is that "In Rock" is metal. If this album came out today it would be in the metal circles more so then just in Rock. I also think rock as a term in 2023 is dead and has been eaten up by the 100s of new genres that pop up every day but that's a different story. I'm glad that this album is such an easy listen to as well, been basically on repeat since this conversation came up and even my initial thought was, yeah of course this is metal. 

Now I will also say that if we're being very strict on this album and the definition of what is metal, then I don't believe Deep Purple, or Black Sabbath debut, or any of these 60's and 70's bands are metal. "Sad Wings of Destiny" by Judas Priest maybe the first "metal" album in a certain sense of the term but I would need to do more research. That doesn't take away what Deep Purple or Sabbath or these hard blues rock acts did to bridge the gap and make the sound heavier and intense. 

For intents and purposes here on the metal academy, In Rock should be included in heavy metal. If this is an academy then it is absolutely a record deserving a place amongst it's peers. 

If you're still adding votes to the songs, every song on the album gets a metal vote for me.

Speed King, Blood sucker,  flight of the rat, into the fire are heavy metal. Child in Time is a psychedelic/progressive metal track. Living wreck could also be psychedelic metal and maybe the least metal track lacking in the aggression but it works here. 

Yeah, I'm interested. Windir for The North and a live Opeth album for The Infinite? Definitely! Can't say I know Dark Night for The Guardians but why not. Thanks. 

I would've never thought to look in lists to be fair, but thanks. Maybe a link to those on the clan page as well? Appreciate the help, will get back in on this now. 

Hey all, i've been out a while due to the pandemic and man life has changed quite since i've been here last. Maybe I'm missing something, (and sorry I didn't feel like reading all the posts here in this thread) but what happened to the clan challenges lists, or where can I see them again? I was in the middle of doing the The North's challenges and reviewing all of the first album list but kinda lost track of that. I will say this site runs smoother than before as well and want to get back into things. Appreciate the hard work y'all do to see this still going through these last frustrating years though. :)

Lordi. Or am I missing something?

I'm currently in the middle of the 2nd decade of Black Metal as I had to rely on youtube for too many of the 1st decade albums. Really enjoying it so far though, but wow it's a beast of a challenge to get through. Glad everyone else is enjoying it and actually working on them as well. This really puts into perspective for me how varied black metal is. I've never been the biggest fan (I chose the North mainly for folk metal) and some of it is the best music i've heard so far. Other albums are those that I will never go back to again, and wonder why they're called black and/or metal. 

This is a great way for me to kick off my year as I really want to get into more regularly listening and reviewing all sorts of music. Helps with the typing and writing skills when you don't do this too often. 

Just keep the tab open! I have, and I always keep coming back. Good Metal community here and always great to have a fellow North/Infinite member to join us in the ranks.

For me it was Nightwish. My mom is definitely stuck in the 80's but I put on some old Nightwish and that was our driving music. This was in high school and Dark Passion Play just released, but we went through Once as well. Mom didn't notice the singer change as much as I did, but Annette still did a good job and was glad to have something newer that we could listen to over holiday trips. 

Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, my first black metal album I remember really listening to. After listening to the Cradle of Filth's Dusk.. And Her Embrace, really reminded me of this album and that I haven't heard it in years and wondered if it held up as well. It still holds up in 2020. This is Symphonic Black Metal, but it is still very different from Cof. I get a feeling of being in a temple/castle or some old building with a ritual compared to CoF's blizzard in a forest. Both amazingly well done in my opinion but this is what I'm listening to now. Oh nostalgia.

4/5

I always actually forget about listening to music on youtube, I could definitely try that for the albums I can't find on streaming services.  I don't like buying albums anymore, maybe one day when I actually have money and space to store them all where I could get to them easier but technology has made life so much better.

Congrats mate! Keep it up! Looking forward to what you got to say, even though i'm not a huge fan of basic death metal we probably agree on some things. 

I think it's fine personally. I like the lists are just kinda thrown in there the way they are as an overall picture of the challenges and Metal Academy lists. I feel like the clan challenges aesthetically fits the broad spectrum of just what is a challenge from a top down view for anyone just jumping in to see the massive undertaking that a challenge is and how many different ways to go about it there are. Also since there are only 10 lists in the Metal Academy lists page so far it also seems fine. Maybe once there are more it can be seperated a bit the way you are describing it, but I feel as of right now it's unnecessary. 

I do have a suggestion for linking to the Clan Challenges from their appropriate clan homepage.

-Add Challenges: link1 link2 link3   in the About Clan section at the bottom

--- Or possibly have a separate box between the About Clan and Random Clan's Releases 

- Also can add the Spotify playlists you're creating as well included next to the challenge (Thanks again :) )

You have a Spotify follower in me, I see that you have playlists for The North but haven't posted here yet. I couldn't even find some albums in the 1st decade list so I stopped and went to the second decade, saw that you also were missing some in the playlists as well.  Would love to get a chance to listen to them albums, but some of them are difficult to find. Metal has always been difficult to find and streaming services help but Spotify is definitely lacking in the metal department. Already been a fun challenge for me either way. 

If there is any (legal) way to find those albums for relatively decent price, I would love to listen to everything.

As a member of The North, I am definitely up for the challenge though I have a few questions/concerns. 25 reviews per clan seems a bit excessive, I get the idea of giving people a goal and I'm going to do it but I feel maybe 15-20 albums would suffice. Also I noticed that all the challenges thus far for The North is pretty exclusive to Black Metal but we also include Folk/Viking metal and there's also other clans that seem to be missing some other genre's as well but I haven't delved that deep in other clans as I'm setting myself up for my personal clan challenge. Will there be more lists for them? I would gladly help make a list for a challenge.  

I definitely have this problem. I typically review or at least listen to an album and form my own opinion on the album before I go out and see what other people think of, however what your asking is whether personal enjoyment or objective quality/creativity make a difference in a review. For me it totally effects a review score, though not in my personal rankings in a year end list. A record that is typically in the mediocre range (1.5 - 3.5 out of 5 or 4 - 8 out of 10) are the worst offenders for me to get a rating that is more biased towards outside sources and/or the overall production and creativity of the album because these are the records that tend to be so in the middle of the road for me that are just 'meh' albums I'm not sure if I like them or not. If I go into an album that I straight up fall in love with and put on repeat I don't care how bad the production is or anything, same with I can't finish an album. 

There is definitely something to the production, creativity, technique that affect my scores but it typically really shows through in the overall enjoyment. 

Good to see ya! Glad to have more Guardians in the midst

#10. Judas Priest - Firepower (2018)

#9. Scar Symmetry - The Singularity (Phase I: Neohumanity) (2014)

#8. Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone (2012)

#7 Ihsahn - After (2010)

#6 Tribulation - Children of the Night (2015)

#5 Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know my Name (2018)

#4 Hellripper - Coagulating Darkness (2017)

#3 Helloween - Straight out of Hell (2013)

#2 Vektor - Outer Isolation (2011)

#1 Equilibrium - Rekreator (2010)

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Really quick list that I know I'm forgetting a bunch from the decade. Personally only agree with Rivers of Nihil and Judas Priest on the list. Firepower was great, but if I think more about it I may end up kicking it off the top 10, but probably still stay in top 25 for me. 

#1: Equilibrium - Path of Destiny (feat.  The Butcher Sisters) (2019) - Folk Melodic Death Metal band, their new album Renegades  is the most disappointing of the year for me. This song being the worst offender. They don't know what they're trying here, and in 3 minutes they go from death growls, to The Butcher Sisters who rap, to singing and back and forth giving the worst case of whiplash i've heard in a long time. NO!

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That's the only song I have at the moment, but man this is a good topic that I'm going to have to come back to. These are the songs that are ultimately forgettable and auto skip so I have to actually think on this but I know there are many. 

Oh man well Black Metal is a genre that I always keep coming back to but doesn't usually stick with me. I remember listening to Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir but not really getting into either too much. I enjoyed Nymphetaimine but you can't hardly count that as a black metal release. I went to the archives and found something though, Chthonic's Takasago Army. I need to listen to this again now, since it's been like 8 years since it released and my tastes have changed. The Black metal styling with the use of Chinese instrumentation and influence is awesome.

Folk Metal/Viking Metal my first real love. I've always loved music, and especially metal, but there was something about folk sounds that kept me going. Ensiferum, Eluveitie, Korpiklaani, Tyr, and essentially Equilibrium. It sounds epic like your in a Lord of the Rings novel or something.  Love going on an adventure.

I love other non-viking folk metal as well, but I don't know of any Viking metal that's not folk metal.

I remember being shown Queensryche and kinda explained Operation: Mindcrime but not really understanding but still loving how it sounded and that a concept album was super cool idea. The first album that really got me though was as I was getting into harder music in high school eventually got around to Between The Buried and Me Alaska. I was so blown away by this interesting sound. It was all over the place and loved it. 

I used to read a bunch of music/metal magazines (RIP) and they would used to rave about Dir En Grey especially after Uroboros. I could not do it. That album is terrible to me and took me until recently to like anything that could be considered avant-garde until I found Diablo Swing Orchestra Pandora's Pinata. It's freaking Polka Metal. It's so wierd, but I loved it for some reason and had to show all my metal friends and nobody could understand why it was so good.

Alcest Souvenirs d'un autre monde.  I don't know how I found this album but it captured me and I still have to go back to it once in a while if I'm just in that kind of mood. 

Heavy metal was just 'old metal' my parents, uncles, and whoever older folk had playing. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Scorpions and the like. It was always kinda around, I couldn't even try to tell you the first album I really listened to. Maybe Iron Maiden's The Number Of The Beast? 

Neoclassical Metal: Um... can't say I've really listened too much of this. I've listened to some of Yngwie Malmsteen but um, nothing here keeps my interest. Maybe i'll find something more here. 

Power metal: Oh man, I'm going with Kamelot Black Halo. I heard this in high school and was hooked. Brought me down the path of Iced Earth, Helloween, Hammerfall, and so many others. 

Symphonic Metal: Same with Xephyr honestly, The Poet and the Pendelum, was the first symphonic album I personally owned. However, I knew of the band and Tarja before due to their Phantom Of The Opera (cover?) they did as it went around the internet, limewire, back in the day and I fell in love. I've always been a kinda sucker for good musicals and when you add loud guitars and banging drum work over that I needed more. Still remember The Poet and the Album was the first metal album I had that my mom was like ooh that's pretty you should bring that in the car on trips. Good times. 

Fellow Infinite clan member! Nice to meet you, definitely be seeing you around there. 

Equilibrium - Rekreator (Also recommended this in The North for Folk metal) for symphonic metal. If you like your Symphonic Metal with a flair for folk this is best, or their album Sagas but i think it's less symphonic.

Other lesser loved Symphonic Metal bands to check out include:

Syrenia

Rhapsody (aka Rhapsody of Fire)

Amberian Dawn

Delain (Within Temptations' Martijn Westerholt band after he left)

Lovebites (Best Japanese band power metal band but try all different subgenres and do it all well)

    I do have a soft heart for women vocalists.

Agalloch's The Mantle - Folk Black Metal, needs to be heard for The North members.

Ensiferum - Ensiferum - When I think of folk/viking metal I think of this

Eluveitie - Celtic Metal. Ategnatos may very well be my favorite folk metal if not metal album of 2019.

Equillibrium (pre-2014) - Rekreator is quite possibly my favorite metal album of all time. (Sagas is a close second, Rekreator just grabs me more personally) Symphonic Folk Metal at the absolute best.  New album is horrific, don't waste your time with it. 

The Infinite - the fun out there clan. Progressive is great, but there is also Avant-Garde and Post-Metal here so...

Diablo Swing Quartet - it's legit Polka Metal, but man is it fun avant-garde metal

Sigh - Originally were more straight Black metal (fun fact originally signed to Euronymous of Mayhem's label and released first album on that label shortly after his death) but have since toned that down and have even added a bit of Japanese Folk metal. Still odd fun avant-garde metal too.

Alcest - The legends of Post-Metal.  Recently released Spiritual Instinct, only listened to it once but it still has their sound and will be going back to it. 

Les Discrets - same as Alcest in the post-metal scene, also french so there are some definitely similar influences if you like one you should like the other as well.

For progressive metal you can't go wrong with Opeth. Watershed (2008) and before are definitely the more metal of their discographies, but afterwards it still can be good just tame it down quite a bit and more just prog rock.

Also if you're not as much of a death metal and more heavy metal Queensryche and Operation Mindcrime is essential Progressive Metal from the 80's.

Kalmah

Equilibrium

Otherwise Shadow's list is perfect. I would be a Horde member for Melodic Death alone alas not a fan of much else in there so got nothing else to recommend. 

Not a Revolutionist but I like my fair share so I second The Dillinger Escape Plan and August Burns Red.

May I add Parkway Drive, Every Time I Die, and Norma Jean? 

I completely understand, and agree that though some of my favorite music is Melodic Death I don't even scratch the surface of most that would be included in The Horde. I personally am not a fan of Grindcore, but I see the appeal just not for me. I do think I'm personally more involved in my other 3 clans anyway. I'm enjoying the site so far and like doing what I can. 

Fellow Infinite and Fallen represent! Looking forward to seeing you around!

Fellow Guardian here! Love me some good old school power/heffy metal from time to time and even symphonic has a place in my heart. 

Daniel, I'm the opposite of you with The North. I love Folk/Viking metal but not a fan of black metal too much but slowly growing into it. 

The clan system is personally refreshing, it's a cheap way to get rid of bots at the same time makes sense when looking at the broad picture of what a clan can do for a respectful release. I almost feel like this could be a really good scientific study  to see how music genres are better represented by those that spend more time with it then others who don't. It's a cool research project to me haha. I too want to join a 4th clan at some point (The Horde i'm looking at you) but for now I really like this concept and see where it goes. Hopefully we'll all see each other around on here. :)

Looking forward to this!