SilentScream213's Reviews

Divine Intervention has remained not only my favorite slayer album, but my favorite album of all time since I heard it in my freshman year of high school, 2010. Not that it immediately became my favorite album upon first listen – no, this is a slow grower, but a very easy album to come back to. And come back to it I did, many times; I’m sure this is in my top 10 most listened albums of all time, and a certain contender for the #1 spot.

But, why Divine Intervention?

Why the album AFTER Slayer stopped being the greatest Thrash band in the world? After the lineup change and the death of metal in the 90’s? The album with troubled production and almost no live representation?

Quite frankly, because I don’t give a damn about any of that stuff.

I speak with utmost sincerity when I say I think this album is absolutely as great in every department as the 5 preceding it. The only exception being that the production is lower quality, but you know what? That higher class sheen on Seasons in the Abyss never did it for me as much as the raw, honest sound that we get here. The complaints about the production quality are completely unfounded if one enjoys Show No Mercy, or Kill ‘Em All, or basically any Black Metal.

With sufficient clarity on why none of this album’s “weaknesses” bother me, let me now express why I love it so much.

The mood. The atmosphere. The writing. Slayer were always that too evil band that were somehow mainstream. From day one they were writing about Satan, demons and infernal hellfire, and they remained consistent in that approach throughout the 80’s, with growing themes of real horrors as well, including war and mental illness. However, on Divine Intervention, hell froze over. The hell fire faded and the demons gave way to a much more terrifying being – humanity. Strongly influenced by literature about serial killers as well as newspaper articles, Tom Araya took a stronger writing role here and focused almost exclusively on real world evil and suffering. Songs took a deeper look into the psych of serial killers, criminals, and even drug abuse on the closing “Mind Control.” The riffs followed suit, and as such, this album isn’t as flashy as their previous material, and I think that gets lost on a lot of people. The riffs here are cold and calculated, evoking sincere darkness and an unrelenting bleakness that remains consistent throughout the entire album.

Which leads to an immense strength of this album; the songwriting. Hints of Tech Thrash break through in many of the tracks here, with less conventional rhythms courtesy of Paul Bostaph taking the songs into twisting territory that deviates far from their simpler punk roots. The guitar solos on this album are actually good, and more often than not add to the song with more thoughtful melodies as opposed to pure chaos. The title track and closing track both have perhaps the best solos by the band, and truly these songs felt like they had gained a level of maturity and depth in their structure. Tom’s vocals are also the most aggressive, manic and eclectic he has ever laid to record; in title track “Divine Intervention” he pushes his yelling to its limit, and haunting “Serenity in Murder” allows his lower registry to croon wickedly between more thrash roars. Divine Intervention could easily be argued to be Slayer’s heaviest album, which cannot be said for most metal releases from bands that were “declining” in the 90’s.

At the risk of sounding crazy, I’ll also confess that the insanely dark lyricism and mood on this album, particularly on tracks like “Killing Fields,” were immensely helpful for me emotionally. Since I discovered it, Metal has always been an extremely cathartic way for me to deal with negative emotions. Divine Intervention did that better than any other album I’d heard, and still remains one of my weapons of choice when I need it. People don’t usually label Slayer as being emotional music, but they probably forget that anger is an emotion. Some people have their OK Computers, some people have their Dark Side of the Moons, and I’ve got my Divine Intervention.

A volte-face to anyone who thinks Doom Metal can’t be energetic and exciting, and a great lesson in what makes true Doom a completely different beast from Trad Doom. Wish I Could Dream It Again is one of the earliest true Doom albums, having zero Sabbathian influence, none of the 80’s Doom groove, and a total focus on somber, melancholic atmospheres. And unlike most prior Doom bands, it doesn’t rely on being consistently slow to achieve this. Lethargic, doomy sections still run through the compositions, but a lot of this material is lively, especially the rhythm section. Simple melodies and morose chords permeate the songwriting, but that drumming ensures a complex and ever-changing foundation to the music.

Novembre also have very melancholic lyrical themes, sticking to the introspective and poetic, drawing upon aquatic, summery and warm imagery across the album in another first for Doom Metal. The sentimental mood here was pretty unique at the time, but the general melancholy on display became a staple for the genre. Doom bands had already begun adopting this focus on gloomy atmospheres, which is how true Doom was born in the early 90’s, but Novembre here upped the ante. This was probably the most melancholic metal album at the time of its release.

As debuts can be, it’s a bit rough around the edges in some places; the clean vocals in particular are quite amateur, though they don’t bother me at all because they perfectly encapsulate that morose feeling of Doom. Either way, a landmark release for the genre, and a great learning experience for those who aren’t privy to the great variation that can be found in Doom Metal.

If I had to pick one song, not as my personal favorite, but as the best piece of music – one that pulled from all aspects of what makes music such an mazing and beautiful art – it would be Art of Life. As pretentious as that sounds, and as pretentious as writing a 30 minute epic about life may be, this song can actually back up such a monumental title. Am I biased as a metalhead, a fan of X Japan? You bet. But I only love these things because of what they offer me. Metal, to me, is ultimately an incredibly raw, even bestial display of human art. The harshness and aggression of it feels like a death throe. When one is in a life-or-death situation, or pushed to their limit, or faced with overwhelming emotion or psychological trauma, the ugliest, yet purest expressions surface. This is what Metal is to me.

X Japan do a fantastic job of mixing into that Metal foundation the sonic embodiments of young love, of beach sunrises, city-lit snowfall, a tear of joy. They have mastered both the ugly aggression and the passionate beauty, each in excruciatingly pure form. “Art of Life” is their magnum opus that displays every talent they’ve mastered. At times the music gets insanely fast as the guitars and drums exercise every last shred of pain, and at others slows to let the piano and strings cover you like a gentle rain. The song goes to all extremes and everywhere in between.

The lyrics are poetic, evocative, and hold an immense amount of depth especially for a band writing in a second language. Band leader and main writer Yoshiki was going through the grief of losing his father, among other things in his life, and in his words, tried to draw from every emotion he had when writing the song. And yeah, he succeeded, without a doubt. This is conveyed both in the music and the words, which tell of an existential crisis of love, longing, and loss. The lyrics are not specific enough to pigeonhole the song, and therefore almost anyone could listen to this and attach a very personal meaning to it.

Lastly, I’ll talk about that piano solo. That god damned piano solo. Originally, I hated it. I didn’t get it, I didn’t respect it, I didn’t think it contributed to the rest of the song, nothing. I went out of my way to make an edit of the song that cut it out so I could listen without having to fast forward through it. I didn’t get it.

I do not like when people chalk someone’s dislike of something up to them “just not getting it.” As if a song is so transcendental that a human cannot understand it. As if one has to be “in” on something to judge it correctly. As much as I do not like that and do not think it is a good response to any sort of opinion, I will allow myself to say it just once, for this piano solo. I get it now. After going through a psychological and emotional low, I got it. It became so clear what Yoshiki was feeling as he hit that cacophony of keys, how it played into the rest of the song, what it represented, everything. And magically, I immediately started enjoying it. I absolutely cannot listen to the song without it now. It took an experience and a perspective I did not have before to grasp it. And while this is no fault of any listener and I would not wish it on anyone, if you haven’t had that sort of experience, you just might not get it.

Bullhead is usually considered Melvin’s first truly great album. The Sludge Metal pioneers are relatively peerless in this era, as you could count the number of notable Sludge bands on one hand when this dropped. These circumstances made Melvins kings of the movement by default, and I think that’s why it doesn’t really appeal to me.

Bullhead is an album that is special by circumstance, because it had no competition and no comparison. It was influential and unique, but those things don’t matter to me when I’m listening to it. The music itself is very basic, monotonous, and droning. These qualities can be fine when done right (or if that is your taste) but I feel this album just doesn’t have enough going on to warrant much entertainment out of that. There aren’t any great riffs, no striking vocal performances, no rhythm grooves, its just a lot of repetitive heavy chords. It’s slow, but it’s certainly not doomy, because there’s no atmosphere and no strong mood aside from kind of anxious.

Unfortunately I have yet to find much enjoyment out of early Sludge, and this album was not the one to change my mind. Onward we go.

Sometimes when you listen to one of these acclaimed albums and don’t like them so much, you can still see what makes the album so great. You can recognize what other people see in it and write it off as just not being your thing. But sometimes, you might just be left mystified, wondering “What am I missing?”

Just before Streetcleaner, I had been listening to Peter Gabriel’s Passion, one of his most revered releases and a widely acclaimed New Age/World Music album. The album didn’t do anything for me, mostly because I’m not a fan of the style of music. However, I could still acknowledge the great compositions and brilliant atmospheres crafted in the soundscapes, and it was no mystery to me why it is so well liked.

Streetcleaner is a different case. I love metal. I love dark, misanthropic, heavy music. But listening to Streetcleaner, I struggle to find any appeal at all. The songs are all incredibly simple, and it sounds much less like a performance and much more like each member came up with one loop and just had it repeat for 5 minutes. There’s nothing innately wrong with this, but if you’re gonna repeat something for so long, at least make it good. The riffs are barely there; boring, slow, uninspired guitar that does little other than add a sludgy atmosphere, and ditto for the bass. The drum beats are equally boring and uninspired, and aside from some occasional addition of double bass, never do anything interesting. The vocals are sometimes there, and that’s all I can say about them.

The album is certainly dark, but the problem is that it is not active in achieving this. All the music is incredibly passive, and by that I mean there’s a lot of nothing going on aside from sounding heavy and dissonant, and it becomes the listener’s job to project any actual mood to it. The music doesn’t invoke anything on its own, but rather acts as a pool to collect such projected feelings. Unique at the time, and influential for everything that came after… but I’d say this is another case of influenced far surpassing the influencer.

South of Heaven was my first favorite album. The first one I ever listened to while thinking “god damn, this is music for me.” I had never heard sincerely dark or heavy music before that, and I never looked back.

It all started with my first videogame, DOOM. I played that game when I was just 2 years old – I worked the gun while my father did everything else, but it was still an incredibly memorable experience that was burned into my memory. I didn’t play the game for a long span of time because we had to get rid of it after Columbine happened, and then it became kind of a pipe dream to be able to play it again.

It was actually right as I was entering public school in 8th grade (I was homeschooled prior) that we managed to get the game again. Man that was a triumphant moment, and the game was just as great as I remembered. However, one thing that struck me was the music – holy hell, that music kicked ass.

I wasn’t even into music yet at this age. I listened to The Beatles, I listened to whatever the parents had, and I didn’t really listen too intently. I didn’t even know what metal really was, other than hearsay. But I LOVED this game’s music. I went to shady websites to download mp3s of the game tracks, and naturally, I started reading up about it more. Well it turns out a ton of the tracks are based on real songs by real bands – all metal bands I had never heard of save Metallica. I had to get this stuff.

I actually downloaded all of the original songs without listening to any of them first, bought my first mp3 player, and then listened to them all at once. It was a rite of passage of sorts. I loved everything I heard, even the gruff stuff like Pantera, who’s vocals were too much for me but the riffs were good enough to get through it. This new form of dark, aggressive music was striking all my chords, even though I had no experience with it. But at the end of the list – as the bands were in alphabetical order and there were only 10 or so – was Slayer.

Slayer hit different.

The three songs from DOOM were “South of Heaven” “Silent Scream” and “Behind the Crooked Cross” and they instantly became my favorite songs (barring “The Long and Winding Road", which will never not be one of the most beautiful songs ever). Such condensed aggression and evil had never struck me in aural form like that before. I mean, even Pantera, who were just as heavy, didn’t sound nearly as dark and evil as this. And the lyrics! Holy hell, they were actually disturbing at that age. A song about abortion – what the hell was that. And I loved them.

Finding that the songs were all from the same album, I got it immediately – digitally, physically, everything. I didn’t even know what riffs were before this! This was insane to me. The whole album was just as good as the few songs I’d heard. I easily listened to it at least once everyday for probably the rest of that school semester. And it ended up being really important in me finding my identity in a crucial period of life – I now knew that metal was my passion. I knew what kind of music I liked, I could talk about it, I met people through it, and I searched for more.

The funny thing is, though Slayer remains my favorite band, their other material didn’t click with me at first. Turns out this album was Slayer at their slowest and most melodic; if I started with any other album, I may not have been infected so easily. But yes, it was South of Heaven that turned me into a full-time metalhead, and it was the first album I could confidently say was my favorite. Listening to it while writing this review, I’m not surprised in the slightest that it gives me the same feeling of intense bliss as it did nearly 10 years ago, still comfortably sitting among my favorite albums of all time.

At exactly 19 seconds into this album, you can feel what it's like to have your skin melted off your face from the inside out.

What the fuck are you waiting for?

I’ve always loved Slayer, this album being among my favorite releases by them, but it becomes so much more amazing when compared to the contemporaries at the time. Absolutely nothing was this insane – not even close.

Speed? We had Metallica, but they’d only go into overdrive on a couple songs – and even then, it never matched Slayer. Tremolo guitar picking has never been this fast. And Dave’s drumming was something else. The speed and technique of the drumming here had never been seen in metal before. I’d guess only some Jazz and the best Prog Rock drummers had the level of chops Dave put on this album back in 1983.

Riffs? Hell no. You think Paranoid had great riffs? Number of the Beast? They were all lacking something. Slayer doesn’t just deliver riffs – they deliver evil riffs. Wailing, screaming guitars walked the line between melodic and chaotic, bringing a perfect harmony of very catchy riffs and a dark, harrowing mood. No music sounded this dark and melodic at this time; any other bands attempting the evil schtick relied on purely being noisy and chaotic with little technique (Venom, Hellhammer).

And then there’s the vocals. Not just the style, but the delivery. Tom’s trademark yelling here has become something often imitated, and I daresay it was many people’s introduction to harsher vocal styles. Tom was not the first to employ a harsh vocal style (Venom, Black Flag), but he absolutely did it better than anyone else at the time. He brought just the right amount of melody to the table; he can hit notes, and his words are very intelligible. Despite that – or perhaps, because of it – his bark comes off as much more convincing. As opposed to the flat screaming or growling of bands like Hellhammer and Venom, you could discern emotion in Tom’s voice, and that emotion was anger, hatred, a general misanthropy and dedication to the dark arts. That delivery carries over to the lyrics – again, Slayer were not the first to write Satanic lyrics. Venom mostly started that, but they didn’t take it too seriously. Slayer, along with King Diamond, were really the first band to convince you that those lyrics about Satan, murder, and black magic were genuine. Of course they weren’t, but damn was Tom’s fierce, rabid bark convincing.

Back in 1983, there were absolutely no albums that matched this. Any other album that had traits of what makes this great was missing something else, whether it be the speed, aggression, technique, or mood. Slayer was the first band to unite these qualities in a way that would spawn a staple style of dark metal carried on by thousands of bands.

Even after listening to hundreds of albums that were released pre-1983, Show No Mercy remains chronologically my earliest 5-star release, and nothing up until that point in music has come even close to instilling in me the sense of awe as Slayer did with their debut.

Each album by Novembre has offered something different in a way I adore. The debut album was classic, no holds barred Progressive Death Doom, and one of the first albums ever in the true melancholic Death Doom style more divorced from the more Death Metal tinged style of the early 90’s. The sophomore release was a much calmer and more Gothic Doom album that focused more on clean vocal delivery and slightly catchier music. Classica is in some ways a combination of the two; a melodic, energetic assault of extreme Progressive Gothic Death Doom with influences of Meloblack and Melodeath for that extra bit of power. And it manags to surpass both albums magnificently.

While Classica has unmistakable touches of that fantastic 90’s Gothic Death Doom style (Katatonia, Anathema), it’s also got one boot firmly in the new millennia. Listening to this album, I’m given nostalgia for the 90’s mixed with what was, at the time, a pioneering transition into a style befitting the new era – which of course now, just means even more nostalgia for me of the 2000’s variant. The lyrics are the most striking aspect that puts me firmly in 2000; cold scenery of artificial light, shadowy hallways and snowy streetlights visible through windows paints a picture of how culture was changing at the time. Whereas the 90’s was focused on being xtreme and fantastic, the 2000’s kind of reigned things in and focused on modern reality, especially suburbia. These lyrics dance a fine line between Gothic Doom poeticism and much more plain realism, and they work wonderfully.

The music of course also works in these transitions. We’ve got the classic stuff; fantastic Gothic Doomy guitar leads, aggressive, progressive Death Doom drumming, great songwriting that works in changing tempos and styles. But it’s also got a touch of newer stuff; some Darkwave sections, real spacey, almost Post-Metal atmospheres, gentle, Dream Poppy vocals, all stuff that were still rare in Metal at the time, but would become more commonplace in the coming era.

The album is incredibly consistent. There’s never a dull moment, no track less than fantastic, and even the instrumental track and outro are very convincing and strong. It’s packed chock-full of melancholy, doom and gloom. It’s also rife with energy and aggression, changes and variation. It’s as crushing and emotional as it is driving and entertaining. Novembre married the best of many worlds together on this album, which I consider nothing short of a masterpiece.

Used is an enigmatic album opener that commences with what can only be described as almost spoken-word rapped Nu Metal. Right from there, I was a bit turned off. Not that I dislike Nu Metal, but it was the last thing I was expecting on a Pain of Salvation album, and it wasn’t particularly good Nu Metal either. The song changes style multiple times, and each time it shifts back to Nu Metal, I’m like “what the heck.” It just sounds… ugly.

I listened to the album passively a few times, and while the rest was quite good and lush Progressive Metal (with not even an iota of Nu Metal beyond the first track), it still wasn’t really grabbing me. It was settling as another one of those “good, but not great” sort of albums that so often pass us by.

Then I listened to it during my bike ride to work (frigid cold November), which is a great opportunity to really focus on the music. The first track comes on again, and I’m really hearing the lyrics this time… holy moly, is this about child sexual abuse? That’s… really dark. The second track comes on… again, I’m hearing it. This is when I register this album is not only far darker and more serious than I had thought, but it was also most likely a concept album. I continued following the lyrics, and it is hard to follow without knowing the layout beforehand, but yes, this was certainly a tale of abused children growing into damaged humans…

Everything came together for me on that bike ride. It’s hard to explain, but every single song became this incredibly moving piece, full of deftly written lyricism, passionate delivery, and of course, beautifully layered instrumentation. I think the reason it works just so is because the music is very intertwined with the story, the music changing at the drop of a hat to fit the exact mood driven by the narrative. On unfocused listens, perhaps the songs sound a bit fragmented, perhaps the vocals are a bit difficult to follow because of the occasional odd-timed delivery… or maybe it was just a total miss on my part. Anyway, a focused listen fixed that.

I still think the Nu Metal in the first song sounds ugly. It still sounds out of place. And now, I love it for that. To display the vile horror of child abuse through the angry and damaged child, the music should be ugly, it should be disturbing, it should be fragmented. And the fact this album has so much beauty in it – the persevering innocence and longing of the inner child – it makes the ugly parts stand out even more, balancing the whole package. It’s a masterpiece, an engaging and evocative story from start to finish, and a treasure trove of magnificent musicianship.

BONUS

I really haven’t been able to find a good narrative online for the concept story, so I’ve taken it upon myself to lay it out as best as I can for anyone wanting a clearer perception of the events. Based on a combination of what I have read in various places and my own interpretation of the lyrics (at the end of the day, this is not Word of God, but my opinion).

The story follows He and She, two children (and later adults) who were horrifically abused. The concept deals with their trauma bonding and disturbed development due to their past.

Used: Details how His experience of child sexual and physical abuse has lead to a life of youth violence and drug use to escape His pain.

In the Flesh: Details how Her experience of incestuous child sexual abuse lead to Her running from home, engaging in prostitution, and dissociating to escape Her pain.

Ashes: He and She trauma bond over their experiences and develop a bittersweet relationship in which they finally feel a kinship, but are held back by unresolved trauma and toxicity as they feed off one another’s pain.

Morning on Earth: His need for violence and misanthropy is not ignited around Her, and he feels himself seeing the world for the first time by experiencing her love. The song explores how deep down, they are still just wounded children, longing to love and be loved, but the horrors of the world keep them shut out.

Idioglossia: Him engaging in violence to escape his pain – though it’s unclear if this is current or a flashback. The song explores Him finally realizing that he was damaged and hurt as a child, and trying to figure out what is wrong with him.

Her Voices: He begins to see Her face in all of those He commits violence against, essentially gaining empathy through His love for Her. She develops mental illness due to Her unresolved trauma. This could be literal voices a la schizophrenia, or something closer to paranoid personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, or any mental illness warping her view of reality, and She begins to distrust Him. The cycle of abuse continues through Him as He ends up being abusive (whether physically or verbally/mentally, is unclear) and becoming a contributing factor to “Her Voices.”

Dedication: He experiences the death of his grandfather, the first real loss in His life. The grandfather is never mentioned before or after this song, but it’s apparent here that he was an admirable and safe figure in His life growing up – perhaps the only positive one in His whole life.

King of Loss: Probably the most difficult to decipher song. Could very easily be interpreted as the alienation and victimization of He and She at the hands of those in charge of the world. However, I prefer to take this as Him actually finding a successful career as some soulless politician or other figure of power – making money, acquiring possessions, yet nothing being enough, nothing filling the hole of loss and pain within him.

Reconciliation: He finally “wakes up” and realizes what He’s become. An abuser and user of others, just like those who hurt Him. In this moment of clarity, He tells Her to run from Him and find help.

Song for the Innocent: The inner longing of an innocent child for peace and happiness traded for an adult life of violence, abuse, drugs, corruption…

Falling: The moment of “peace” before He commits suicide. It’s an often-documented phenomenon that when a person is near suicide, they will appear carefree and lighter than normal, likely because they know all burdens will no longer matter soon; this is likely why the song is a short and soft, calming instrumental.

The Perfect Element: Him commits suicide in order to free Her from Him. As he bleeds out on the floor, His life essentially flashes before His eyes. We are given references to previously seen moments, as well as memories never explored here (“Once he would run through the summer days, catching memories for ages to come” – perhaps there were yet times when he was truly just a happy, innocent child?).

Probably the most desolate and bleak Black Metal album recorded by the turn of the century. DSBM hadn’t fully come into its own as a genre yet, and so what we had here was a proto example of the genre. Atmospheric Black as well as straight Black Metal rule the barren fields that this album makes home while heavy doses of DSBM and Doom Metal bring the pain and suffering. A generous amount of Prog Metal and some sparce glimpses of Post-Metal and Drone bring together the full scene of dark devastation.

Just 5 tracks, each well over 10 minutes, is an almost unheard-of decision in Black Metal. But by God, what a treat they are. Repetition is heavy in this album, but so is the progression of sections, tempos, and atmospheres into different chapters of each song. I’m not usually a fan of repetition, but here it is done well, giving each song memorable motifs that keep the listener grounded amidst the chaotic assault of crushing density.

The persevering despair of the record keeps it in the darkest depths of the aural spectrum despite the almost grandiose, epic sound that the band achieves. While usually focusing on the standard fare of Metal instrumentation, there are near-symphonic parts and ambient soundscapes that elevate the music into much greater heights. The power and density of these extra elements both add weight to the compositions while also highlighting the lead melodies. They are also infrequent enough that when they do occur, they immediately grab your attention.

Across all 76 minutes of this album, there wasn’t a moment I didn’t revel in. Even the Drone outro to the final track was just so perfectly placed, I never had any desire to shut it off before it ended. Fully a masterpiece.

Dissonant Death Metal is usually not one of my favorite styles… in fact, it’s one of my least favorite styles of Metal. The focus tends to sacrifice riffs, songwriting and memorability in favor of sounding as insane and extreme as they can, pushing boundaries and dancing the line between music and chaotic nonsense. The famous line from Jurassic Park “(they) were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should" is applicable to many bands in the genre. Which, if you like that, fine… but not me. So why is Immolation an exception? Well, the answer is pretty simple; whereas other bands try focus on being weird, novel and avant-garde, Immolation simply try to sound as evil as fucking possible.

The RIFFS on this thing are just mind-blowingly good. Yes, they’re quite dissonant and technical, but more than anything, they are memorable and twisted. They carry MOOD, they craft ATMOSPHERE. Immolation keep one boot planted firmly in OSDM, and even lyrically, it’s all anti-religious infernal hellfire and suffering (as opposed to some of the abstract and cryptic topics other bands in the style are known for). This ensures that, despite the insane technical prowess and borderline chaotic songwriting at times, these are super evil, memorable, riff-driven SONGS, not bizarre experiments into what a musician can achieve if they forgo all musical conventions. Not just the guitars, but the rhythm sections and the vocals are all preforming magnificently, providing interesting and impressive soundscapes that push the bounds of Death Metal while still retaining a sense of pattern and conventional appeal.

And yes in fact, the weakest moments of this album are when they lean a bit more into that Dissodeath style. “Lost Passion” is an example of a song that has a bit too much skronking and weird rhythmic djenty-ness at times, though it’s still a great song simply because the band is that powerful. “Father, You’re Not a Father” on the other hand, stands much more firmly in OSDM, with more controlled songwriting and performance (for this band) and the most memorable riff on the album. It’s also surprisingly sombre, with lyrics that allude to a bit more than simple God-hating. Very dark and powerful song in addition to its insane musical majesty.

Despite enjoying every single one of the band’s previous albums, I am still amazed and blown away at how much I enjoyed this one. Immolation have earned more than just my respect; they’ve earned my awe.

Considering I wasn’t overly impressed with Desaster’s preceding Hellfire Dominion (don’t get me wrong, it’s very good, but no masterpiece) I was blown away by Tyrants of the Netherworld. They turn the Black Metal influence down just a tad, and the Thrash way up.

As someone very partial to Thrash-hybrids that lean more towards Thrash, this was perfect for. We get some Blackened chords, evil atmosphere and of course the vocals, but the meat of this record is honest to Satan classic Thrash Metal. Both the riffs and drumming see a marked improvement from the previous releases. The guitar work is not only more precise and impressive, but way catchier, with some of the best riffs in the genre since Thrash died in the 90’s. Never ceasing to be evil, however, as the band walks a fine line between melodic and twisted chaotic leads. The drumming has more variety and a lot more energy without relying on generic blast beats for heavier sections. Even some of the solos here really impressed me, those actually leaning a bit more towards Black Metal as they worked in tandem with the song to create some dark and piercing evocations of the infernal chaos. The vocals don’t need much mention, but they are very good and satisfying blackened yells.

I will name one song that surprised me most – “Battle Oath.” It’s not my favorite song on the album, but definitely the most unique; it starts out as a more mid-tempo Blackened Heavy Metal song, but develops into a more Thrash-influenced Viking Metal territory, rife with atmosphere and fantastic, moody riffs. Didn’t expect that from the band!

Definitely a great start to the 2000’s for Thrash, and a foreshadowing of the rebirth of the genre after the shadow of the 90’s slowly dissipated.

Blast from the Past is a compilation of re-recordings and remasterings the band put together, taking from all of their previous releases. I’m only going to review the re-recordings, as a remaster really doesn’t warrant its own release.

First off, almost every song here is Power Metal majesty, and none are less than great. Gamma Ray have some really great choruses that have been amplified by the slight changes in the re-imagined tracks. The improvements in production do nothing but favors, and there are slightly denser elements to many of the tracks, like sprinklings of extra keys. There was only one track I didn’t feel benefited here, that being “Last Before the Storm” – probably my favorite Gamma Ray song, and the original was simply so good that the slight changes they made felt… I guess, just different rather than better. The original is just too good (it’s still my favorite song here though).

On its own, it’s a collection of fantastic Power Metal. On principal though, I will say most of these songs didn’t really need re-recordings, especially since the band had only been releasing music for 10 years and had not changed AT ALL in their general sound and delivery. To its credit, yeah, I’ll reach for these songs instead of the originals; the better production if nothing else dictates that. But… far from necessary.

I’m not the biggest fan of Groove Metal, so Nevermore trading most of their Thrash energy for more rhythmic and mid-temo riffing was a move that shouldn’t sit right with me. Well, I still don’t think it’s as good as the previous albums, but this is monumental for a Groove album. The band’s ability to combine hybrid riffs that combine Groove, Thrash, and classic Heavy/US Power Metal with a more modern atmosphere and dark mood make them super unique, and this album definitely has that identity in spades far stronger than anything preceding it.

Most people probably point to Narcosynthesis, the enigmatic opening track, as the highlight of the album (or the band’s whole career, even), but it was the second track, We Disintegrate, that really gripped me. Of course we get the fantastic core musicianship Nevermore always delivers, but there’s also an AMAZING chorus?? I had never heard Warrel use his voice like that, and it got totally stuck in my head. That was kind of a recurring theme here; I think Warrel learned how to better craft hooks, and use his voice melodically on this album. I’ve always liked him as a vocalist, but catchy choruses were absolutely not his main draw. Here, he hones that tool and utilizes it well, another favorite of mine being the monolithic pre-chorus “And I still Believe in Nothing…”

The guitar solos are another highlight, and along with the melodic guitar leads, add a fantastic touch of spice to the more basic musical foundation. Rhythmic chugs aren’t nearly as bad if you’ve got a stunning guitar lead shimmering over them. My only criticism there is sometimes they’re pushed way too low in the mix – I want to hear the melodies, not the 0-0-0-1-2-0! Gimme the good stuff!

As I’ve hinted at, the slower, more rhythmic musicianship and songwriting style here isn’t as much to my taste as their Thrashier material, but the band is so skilled that they pull it off better than most bands who revolve their entire career around Groove. Nevermore is simply too talented to play off of the weaker tropes of Groove Metal, and therefore deliver one of the best albums in the genre.

Like so many Metal bands that faced immense success in the 80’s, Iron Maiden fell victim to turmoil, stumbling and inconsistency in the 90’s. Lineup changes mixed with stylistic experimentation and lack of direction lead to one of the most legendary and beloved Metal bands falling to their knees, failing to keep up with trends while also failing to appease their own fanbase. It’s a story shared by many of the best bands from their era.

At the turn of the century, something changed in Metal. It seemed like older bands realized they don’t need to pretend anymore; they don’t need to chase trends or change styles to appease new crowds. They just need to be themselves and do what they do best. And Maiden were one of the very first bands to realize this, wasting no time in getting Bruce back, returning to their classic 80’s style, and dropping one of the very finest Heavy Metal albums in the first year of the new century.

Brave New World is an exceedingly epic affair with 3 tracks well over the 8-minute mark. And yet, it never overstays its welcome, never feels overlong. How do they manage this? Quite plainly, every minute of every song here is full of carefully crated instrumentation, with wonderful guitar lines weaving between rich and interesting rhythm lines, the only breaks in dense instrumentation being when Bruce’s voice is given center stage to belt out fantastic choruses. Most of the songs here have multiple passages, taking elements from their more Progressive era, but the instrumentation itself is not overly complex or technical; rather, the songs are progressive in that they take you on journeys through different scenes and landscapes, again maintaining a constant interest factor despite the long track lengths.

I have to give some credit to the previous effort, Virtual XI. Of course I have already claimed I find it to be quite an underrated piece on its own, but I think this album puts it into even greater context. Virtual XI was the band’s return to their pure Prog-tinged Heavy Metal after the inconsistency of the other 90’s records. For some reason, Iron Maiden seemed like they forgot how to properly write long songs or something on Virtual XI, but it was very clearly the first step in getting back to who they really were. Brave New World here was them re-finding themselves fully, in all their glory. And of course, a part of that success is the return of Bruce, who is just an absolute powerhouse of a vocalist, both in ability and in his skill of crafting fantastic vocal melodies. A magnificent return to form for the band.

Much like Rhapsody’s preceding album, Dawn of Victory is an over-the-top epic filled with dense compositions and fantastical tales. Again we are transported to the adventures of Algalord and The Emerald Sword Saga. The concept story itself isn’t anything too special and can be a bit hard to follow at times, but it’s still a fun little treat for those interested and helps the immersion of being transported to these magical lands.

One thing that has to be addressed immediately – this album is cheesier than a stuffed crust everything pizza, and it’s just about as jam-packed with ingredients. Now, I’m a fine enjoyer of cheese when it comes to certain genres (Power Metal can get away with more than most) but this album is definitely pushing my limits. I pretty much had to learn to love it, but certain tracks like The Village of Dwarves fall into silly and even cringe territory. Your mileage may very depending on how much you love or hate cheese.

That ASIDE though… it’s a near-perfect Symphonic Power Metal album. It’s got everything you could want in the genre; soaring vocals, complexly melodic Neoclassical guitar leads, pummeling drums full of energy… it hits all the right notes, and it hits them well. The symphonic elements are perfectly integrated, with many different instruments playing their own parts, sprinkling melodies and themes, or providing a foundation with sustained strings. The medieval nature of this album just gives it more character, and the Symphonic elements walk a fine line between Classical and Folk, acing that medieval-fantasy aesthetic with traditional instrumentation as well as more Cinematic Classical styles.

All in all, due to the nature of this album, it’s kind of a love or hate it type release, but the immense talent in the performers and dense complexity of the compositions ensures pure quality so long as you aren’t lactose intolerant. Despite being so anthemic, it is more of a grower due to the sheer amount of layers in instrumentation to each song, and is definitely more easily appreciated through focused listens with headphones. A magnificent release, though it definitely could have improved with a bit more seriousness and maybe some emotional value. I sometimes find myself feeling like it’s just “too damn happy” while listening, but more often than not, I’m successfully transferred to a magical land of war and fantasy.

Thyrfing are one of the bands who started consistently leading the Viking Metal movement after Bathory briefly abandoned the sound. Urkraft is a style of the genre that remains quite Blackened and heavy, yet still Folky and mostly uplifting.

The band’s previous album was characterized by having a strong Power Metal influence, making it speedy and melodic. Cheesy, sure, but fantastic stuff. This album loses most of that Power Metal influence for focus on a more midtempo, folky and epic sound. It’s still heavy and cheesy, but in a slightly different way. The compositions are strong and even border on progressive at times, and have some nice layering of instrumental pieces. However, I find myself missing their more energetic stuff.

I think especially with the genre picking up more traction around this time, “Urkraft,” as solid as it is, fails to really stand out from other albums in the genre. Where their previous album had a unique blend of Power Metal melody and energy in the mix, this one is far closer to straight Viking Metal. Still very well played and composed, but less memorable and less unique.

Primordial’s debut Imrama was actually a favorite of mine in the genre of Black Metal. It’s got fantastic Doomy atmosphere and lyricism, some gentler Folky parts, and lots of energy and great riffs. I was confused seeing that the ratings for it seem to be quite underrated, but having heard their following two albums, now I get it. And no, it’s not because they’re better.

Primordial started playing a slightly different style after their debut, with more intricate and eclectic songwriting, but far less aggression and doominess, which were the things I loved about the debut. Each release, in total opposition to the general public opinion, has been less and less appealing to me.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Spirit the Earth Aflame is a very good album. It’s got a nice variety of vocal styles and poetic lyricism. The songwriting is strong, with a lush variety of instrumentation, and sections ranging from slow, to mid-tempo, to even some classic Black Metal blast beating. I totally get why most people prefer this, as it seems this style very much became the band’s identity.

For me though, I hear some great music, but I’m really missing that anger, that melancholy they had before. Sure the identity is stronger, it certainly sounds more unique among the ever-growing mass of Black Metal releases, but hey, what can I say. I’m a sucker for the raw emotion on their older stuff. Spirit the Earth Aflame is a slightly more “artsy” record and I appreciate it for what it is, but more than anything it made me realize why their debut is so special and why no one else seems to like it as much.

White Pony is revered as one of the greatest Alternative Metal albums of all time, and as a big fan of certain strains of the genre, I gave this album a very fair chance. The potential for masterpiece is there, but overall I was left wondering what makes this so great in the eyes of the world.

By rights, the highs are magnificent. It’s got a couple great songs that kept me coming back again and again. But I soon found that most of the album just consisted of anticipation for those few tracks, while the majority didn’t do anything special for me. Why was this?

For me personally, it’s because White Pony just doesn’t go far enough in any of the things it sets out to do. It’s an eclectic album with a good balance of influences, primarily Alt Rock and Alt Metal, but also spreading across Nu Metal, Shoegaze, Post-Hardcore, Dream Pop, and even some artier moments of Downtempo and Glitch. Problem is, it doesn’t exactly excel at any of those things. The heavier, Nu Metal tracks are not heavy enough nor aggressive enough, the darker songs aren’t dark enough, the clean songs aren’t catchy enough, the emotional songs aren’t passionate or evocative enough… you get the idea. If I wanted heavy Nu Metal, I’d rather throw on Slipknot. If I wanted cleaner, more passionate Alt metal, give me modern Katatonia or In flames. If I wanted atmospheric stuff… give me actual Shoegaze or Post-Metal.

The highlights of this album are found in those couple great tracks where everything comes together perfectly. As shameful as it is, I’m unfortunately talking about the same tracks that everybody else likes, the lead singles “Digital Bath” and “Change (In the House of Flies).”

Wow, is “Digital Bath” something special. That was the only song that immediately gripped me the first time I heard it. When Chino goes higher and passionate with his vocals and the gazey chords come in, man, it’s perfect. That moment in the middle of the song where you can actually hear something that sounds like electrical water… godly atmosphere. It’s catchy, it’s passionate, it’s moody, it’s atmospheric, and it’s got a hell of an interesting lyrical concept. AND it manages to capture all of that perfectly with the quirky song title.

“Change” was much more of a grower. Didn’t stand out immediately, but got a lot stronger each time I came back to the album, full of great symbolic lyricism and a dark, ominous mood that works really well with the simpler guitarwork. I will also give a shout out to “Knife Prty” which is just shy of a fantastic song thanks to a bit too much meandering and a slightly lamer concept idea, but the energy and mood of the song is great.

All of these aforementioned songs share something in common; they are cleaner, technically simpler, denser and more atmospheric. They focus on mood, and more evocative vocals. Deftones can do this sort of style pretty damn well. But when they try to do something else, they don’t succeed, and here’s why; the riffs suck. They are incredibly boring, mostly dissonant, not catchy, not creative, not evocative. Ditto for the rhythm section; it’s simple, boring, not energetic enough. Chino’s harsh vocals aren’t very convincing either. For this reason, the band falls flat when they try to go heavier or more energetic. None of the heavier Nu Metal songs left any impression on me. The only other song I can really remember is “Teenager” and that’s because it’s so damn different, being a full on Glitch/Downtempo track. And they do that one decently well too! They just were really not meant for Nu Metal.

For guitar hero shred-style Neoclassical Metal, impressive musicianship is a given. For that reason, it doesn’t really matter how good the guitarist is if they are able to play this genre on a technical level, cause they’re all in the top 1%. What matters is songwriting ability, the rest of the band, vocals if any, etc. What sets it apart from other shredders? Why does it deserve my 5 cents?

In Warmen’s case… well, there isn’t anything, at least for this debut album. The album is stuffed with “good enough” Neoclassical Metal with nothing separating it from contemporaries in the genre. Yeah, the musicianship is good, but again, I need a bit more than that. It’s a mostly instrumental affair, with vocals appearing on only two tracks. The vocals are good, but nothing mind blowing in terms of ability, choruses, etc. And the instrumental tracks are, again, fine stuff, quite good, but not offering anything memorable. The only unique track would be Devil’s Mistress, which chooses the very odd avenue of having the guitars take a backseat. I mean, half the time they’re barely even noticeable, being lead by drums and synths really. It also has a great chorus, but the verses are breaks are boring.

Overall, the band doesn’t have much identity at this point. But that could change!

Dopethrone is an odd one for me. I’ve never been a fan of Stoner “Doom” (most of which is not really doomy at all, but just slow and heavy Stoner Metal) and I hate the fact that a bunch of the most revered “Doom” albums and bands fall into this category of not really being Doom, but either Stoner + Trad Doom or Stoner + Drone stuck with the misnomer.

The thing that makes Doom what it is isn’t simply being slow or heavy. It’s a focus on mood and atmosphere, ranging between dark and misanthropic to depressive, melancholic, and lonely. Always the goal is to evoke some sort of emotional response on the listener, to manipulate their mood using the darker, more painful human emotions.

Stoner “Doom” rarely does this. It’s not focused on mood and certainly not emotionally evocative. In contrast, it’s some of the least emotional music out there, being groovy, chill and drugged out. To some extent it relies on the already altered state of the listener (via drugs etc), whereas true Doom seeks to actively alter the listener’s emotions with music, lyrics and so on. Most of the lyrics in Stoner “Doom” are silly, surreal, and of course, psychedelic and hedonistic. Despite the sluggishness and lethargy, actual Doom is an ACTIVE genre whereas Stoner is a PASSIVE genre.

Electric Wizard are one of the top bands in that game. Their first two albums are exactly what I detest in the genre, with sophomore effort “Come My Fanatics…” being one of the worst Metal albums I’ve ever heard. But as far as this one goes, let’s just say I was pleasantly surprised. While this certainly won’t be making any top “Doom” list of mine, the band took a sound I tend to dislike and made something quite enjoyable by my standards. While the riffs and drumming are nothing to write home about, they’re certainly a step up from the braindead droning of the previous record. The use of feedback and sustained, repetitive notes reaches an apex here, where the texture of the music is palpable and pleasant. The noise and fuzz adds a warm flavor, a spice used sparingly rather than overwhelming the whole dish as on other records in the style such as “Jerusalem.” Perhaps that’s why this album is considered the best; it takes an extremely inaccessible sound and makes it a bit smoother and conventional to appeal to the general palate.

I will certainly give this album credit in doing that much. Despite being many years into the style, “Dopethrone” remains the crown jewel of the Stoner “Doom” style and managed to make something new and unique without really changing any of the core components or techniques. All that being said, it’s still completely emotionally vacant, devoid of mood or passion, and I don’t want it anywhere near my Doom Metal.

After a handful of Eps that ranged from decent to horrible, my expectations for Isis’ debut weren’t too high. And in this case, I was right to temper my expectations; Celestial sounds like a band who still don’t know exactly what they’re doing yet.

Most of the “atmosphere” to this album is based on repetition and some industrial or otherwise sound effects thrown in the back. The songs aren’t bad or anything - they’re plenty decent - but it does become rather sad when a Post-Metal band can’t pack anything really moving or interesting in a 9-minute track. The fact of the matter is, the guitars, drums, and general instrumentation aren’t very interesting because they rely on atmosphere. And well, that works perfectly fine when you’re building great atmosphere. But the atmosphere here is lacking, as I said, mostly based around some industrial sound effects and repetition. It doesn’t evoke anything or foster any mood.

“Swarm Reigns (Down)” is my favorite track because it’s actually quite doomy, and has this neat oppressive atmosphere built by some odd effects slowly lowering in pitch to make it sound like thousands of insects are raining down on you. It’s really neat, but even this track probably has 3-4 minutes of meandering that aren’t as successful.

I do see potential here, and the highs are a marked improvement from their early Eps. But, this is not yet any masterpiece. Hopefully the atmospheres improve henceforth.

An exemplary specimen of fully realized Southern Metal, embodying all the influences of the genre strongly. The eclectic nature of this album is its strongest suit, touching upon many different styles yet always within the singular umbrella of Southern Metal and keeping that sludgy, worn-out cowboy aesthetic integral to the genre.

The guitar playing stands out most, and the majority of the songs are entirely led by layered guitarwork, with rhythm and vocals playing second fiddle. There’s a good variety in guitar playing styles as well, with Southern Rock leads, Groove chugs, Heavy Metal riffs and nice acoustic finger plucking for the more somber cowboy numbers.

The huge problem with this album is the mood and actual melodies. The mood of this album can generally be described as “I’m a tough guy, watch out for me” and the melodies to these songs don’t evoke anything at all, they’re just stock riffs. The whole album gives me the sense that I would not enjoy spending time with people who write or enjoy this kind of music. The vocals have a really annoying southern drawl yarl to them as well, only adding insult to injury with the embarrassingly juvenile lyricism. The rhythm section never does anything interesting either, which is a big negative for me.

The tracks that evade those issues are best. “Rust” actually has some atmosphere to it, being a more somber, mostly acoustic track with some electric guitars adding very good underlying harmonies.

I can see it as a fun album with some tasty guitarwork, but it’s painfully shallow.

Music is crazy, vocals are horrendous. As far as Grindcore goes, this is just as manic and erratic as everything else, but somehow, manages to capture a little bit of melody in the riffs and chords at times. Now, it’s just as often (actually much more so often) chaotic and dissonant, but the occasional dip into what sounds like conventional music boosts this tremendously. The songs are more memorable than your average Grindcore experience because of the tasteful riffs thrown in. The drumming is endlessly impressive, but it is more boring because it is much more liable to just blast beat all the time, leaving little room for anything else. The only time the drums do anything normal is on “Loveless.”

The thing that could have been really interesting about this album is that it supposedly has a ton of references about Neon Genesis Evangelion, and deals with much more depressive and personal lyrics with a sci-fi twist. Now, here’s a big part of where the vocals come in. There are two vocals styles used here; the more often high pitched screams, and the occasional Deathgrind growls. The highs are very annoying and abrasive, and aren’t even intelligible, which is usually one of the benefits of using a higher pitch scream. The lows sound alright, but are beyond unintelligible, garbled nonsense. So, what then, is the purpose? Even when reading along with the lyrics, not a single word is decipherable. The vocals add nothing to the music (for this listener) and instead shriek as much as possible to take away from any nice music going on underneath. It’s such a waste. This would honestly be one of my favorite Grindcore albums if it weren’t completely scalped by the awful vocals.

Here’s one compliment I will give… the droning low frequencies and fuzzy feedback here could actually be pretty good white noise. That is, if you want something to fall asleep to, or even just to fill empty space if you’re the type who hates silence, or maybe to distract an overthinking mind. Yeah, I can see a practical appeal to it.

But for someone like me who requires a focused listen to provide some form of value, this has got nothing for me. The drones do absolutely nothing interesting, they don’t evoke any sort of emotion or mood, and they don’t work on building any specific atmosphere, relying entirely on feedback texture. Songwriting is nonexistent, as there’s practically no progression or structure at all to these songs. And I’m still hesitant to call this “Metal”… it’s just Drone music made using electric guitars. I don’t think an electric guitar makes something Metal.

Has some practical use as noise, but as “music,” it fails to do anything for me.

Any band would be honored to release an album that could be considered the best ever in its genre. Opeth have not one, not two, but three albums that always sit neck and neck near the top of any Progressive Metal ranking, and the band fails at having an obvious magnum opus because any fan might name a different release. Such is the band’s prowess.

Still Life is the earliest of the aforementioned triad, being their last 90’s album and still rife with Death Metal. Personally, it ranks as my favorite of the three (and yet not my favorite Opeth album!). This is due to the fact that it is probably Opeth’s most passionate release, being a twisted tale of love, longing, hatred and revenge. The concept album follows the story of a monstrous man who was cast out of society (likely due to religious reasons) and despises the civilization, save for an old flame whom he returns for… the rest I’ll leave for you to discover.

It’s a perfectly delivered tale and Opeth succeed at swapping between styles and moods to fit the theme of the story. It has dark and brooding Death Metal representing the main character’s intense misanthropy due to his mistreatment. It has more melodic, longing guitar leads representing his loneliness and love that still burns. And it has slower, softer folk-inspired sections for the sparse moments of calm the characters are able to find. Of course, these are all trademark styles of the band, and by this album they had mastered each.

It's one of those albums that simply doesn’t have any flaws. It’s got a little bit of everything that makes Opeth a great band, and it’s got just about everything one could want in Progressive Death Metal.

Agalloch are a name carved into Metal legends at this point in time, iconic for their delves into Folky Post-Metal and ability to craft immense atmosphere. Their debut album “Pale Folklore” shows the band had not quite settled at their modern sound yet, but does that make the album any less strong?

The answer, at least for me, is a resounding no. There’s nothing in the way of Post-Metal here; in fact it’s Folk Metal in name only, stylistically being a hybrid of Blackened Gothic Doom more than anything else. Despite progressive and layered songwriting, most of the actual musicianship is quite simple.

Thankfully, the guitar leads crafted here are some of the most memorable in all of Black Metal, and that’s thanks to the strong Gothic Doom influence. Melancholic, melodic and simple, each song has at least one lead progression that is unforgettable. The rhythm section supports them with pillars of gloomy, repetitive chords and martial percussion, as well as some hidden but impressive basswork as well.

“Hallways of Enchanted Ebony” is the best display of their talent here, first posing the main motif as an acoustic melody over driven rhythm guitars, only for it to come back later in full glory as an electric lead. It even shows up again in the bass! One of the best guitar leads in Metal, I think. The lyrics throughout the album are beautifully somber as well, perfectly matching the atmosphere, and the vocals are a uniquely enunciated blackened call.

Beautiful, harrowing, poetic, and full of exquisite melodies. Should not be missed.

Estatic Fear released just two masterpiece albums in their short career, both of them lush with folky acoustic passages, flutes and strings mixed in with crushing Doom/Death Doom. A Sombre Dance features one long suite split up into much shorter tracks (as opposed to the first album, which featured two primary tracks totaling over 50 minutes). The shorter tracks make for a much more digestible album, and the Dark Folk passages are intelligently mixed into the songs rather than being cut into quick interlude tracks.

This album features more clean female vocals, and more Neoclassical Darkwave keywork which gives it a slightly Gothic flavor. The Death Doom is still as strong as ever, driven by liberal double bass drumming and tremolo lead guitars. A great variety in power, heaviness, and speed across even individual tracks makes it an incredible joy to listen to (despite how sombre and melancholic it is). Insecure listeners beware, for what one might call “cheese” permeates every corner, as a fantastical, dramatic showing is the name of the game for this Doom album.

And yet, to me, “cheesy” would be the wrong word. How about “classy”? The strings and melodrama here sound nothing of Power Metal or regular Symphonic Metal taste; rather, it evokes true Classical moods and compositions somewhere between the Medieval era and the Baroque era. Basically, unless you want to call Classical Music cheesy, there’s really nothing cheesy about this! Put on your best palace suit or dress and get ready to attend this funeral in a fairytale garden.

Wow! I know I’m in a crazy minority here, but I actually thought “Blizzard Beasts” was going to end up my favorite Immortal album. The way Immortal integrated twisted Death Metal riffs and more varied drumming into their wintry 2nd wave Black Metal formula worked very well for me. I was expecting a return to regular Black Metal with this album.

But no! They learned something very important from the last album! Which is how to write incredible riffs! As far as Black Metal goes, these are some of the best riffs in the genre. Melodic yet raw, aggressive and thrashy but still unmistakably cold. This is still 2nd wave Black Metal at its core, but this time, instead of Death Metal influence, they’ve injected their wintry hellscape with Melodic Black Metal and Thrash influence. Somewhat opposing forces, but it all comes together so well here!

The leads sit in this perfect purgatory between melodic and twisted, they are very memorable and full of impressive lead work a la Meloblack, but they are evil, destructive, and almost out of control a la Thrash! The drumming is in a similar place, where it is much more controlled and willing to run in non-blast beat territory, bordering on progressive at times. However, it never loses sight of being a mad, combative beast of rhythm.

Production is also quite good for this genre. Clear enough, mixed well, sounds good, but not overproduced. Plainly, the album doesn’t have any flaws, and is a masterpiece among the genre.

For me, Grave Digger were one of those bands that were always good, but not quite good enough. They were competent, but they were missing that X factor. The first run of the band in the 80’s had very little going for it, “generic” being the best descriptor I can think of. After their reformation in the 90’s, they came back with a lot more power, and hit their stride starting with Tunes of War. From there on out, they delivered some great songs, but the albums as a whole were still short of remarkable.

Enter Excalibur. Grave Digger’s 3rd medieval concept album, this one storying the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Look, I dunno what happened here. Suddenly, the band is churning out banger after banger, with some of the most powerful, anthemic choruses I’ve heard. Drumming and riffing here is faster and heavier than ever, and even their usually unbearable slow tracks are magnificent here.

One thing that helps for sure is the undeniably dark sound of the album (by Power Metal standards, that is). Lyrically, of course it is full of epic heroism and gallantry just as much as it is death, betrayal, and longing. But the sound of the music accentuates that dark tone – the riffs are decidedly aggressive, and backed by pummeling double bass, you really feel the suspense of knights putting their life on the line. There is a ton of raw Speed Metal influence here.

Another point towards heaviness is the vocal style of Chris (or as he is named on this album, Sir Chris "Parcival" Boltendahl). He opts for a very grumbly warble, gruff and probably more befitting of a Thrash Metal band than Power Metal. I will say it’s an acquired taste, but the reason it works exceptionally well here is all the choruses are multi-layered, incredibly well harmonized near-choral levels of gang vocals. These choruses are ridiculously anthemic and epic, by far some of the catchiest I’ve heard in the genre. As far as I understand, multiple backing vocalists, including the great Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) were brought in to help create these epic choruses. Chris’ usual grunting yell handling verse duties while brilliantly melodic gang vocals emphasize the choruses create a perfect contrast that helps you appreciate each vocal style even more.

The focus on Arthurian Legend makes the album that much more enjoyable. I will confess, I was only passively privy to the tales before listening, but the album got me so interested that I did a deep dive to learn all about the characters. Isn’t it wonderful how much we can learn from music? In any case, Grave Digger pulled all the stops here, and finally released an album that deserves to go down in the Power Metal canon as one of the greats.

By this point, Virgin Steele had acquired a fantastic sound all their own, mixing operatic traditional Heavy Metal with more aggressive USPM and true Power Metal. This was another in a string of concept albums, this time focusing on the Oresteia. I will say, of all the epic Greek myth to focus on, they really chose… one of the least epic. The preceding Illiad would have been much more interesting and action packed, fitting the music style better. The Oresteia is essentially a soap opera.

The good songs here sit among the band’s best. Opener “Kingdom of the Fearless” is a great way to kick off the story, a lengthy epic filled with power and glory. “Child of Desolation” is my personal favorite, showcasing the band’s knack for cheesy, beautiful ballads driven by melody and emotion. The Fire God borders on Thrash Metal, as one of the most aggressive songs they’ve done. But, not all the songs are this good.

The big issue here is how obscenely bloated it is. I mean… the amount of filler/interlude tracks outnumber the regular ones! And many of them approach or even exceed the 2 minute mark as well. It cannot be ignored. Granted, some of these are rather decent, but it’s waaay too much. Virgin Steele kept their previous concept albums a bit more under control, with Invictus definitely dancing on the line with its interludes, but this one is ridiculous.

It's got amazing tracks like their other concept albums, but this one suffers a lot in terms of front to back listenability. Also, the concept is not very fitting for a Power Metal album. They picked one of the few stories in Greek myth with zero action, zero fantasy, zero adventure… I feel this is overrated, great moments though it has.

As far as guitar hero shredders go, Vinnie Moore is probably my favorite. Is he the fastest, most technical, or most flashy? No, none of those things. And even then, this is one of his most subdued albums. For The Maze is not showcasing just Vinnie, the Shredder – it is showcasing Vinnie, the Songwriter.

What sets him apart from most other shredders is his penchant for mood and well-crafted SONGS, not just shred wankery. And this album is perhaps where he delves into evoking scenery and mood with his songs most. There’s something that sounds very… Japanese, about this record in places. The country’s penchant for simple but memorable (and cheesy) melodies focusing on mood always finds its way into anime and game soundtracks, and I feel this could easily be such a soundtrack, especially with its instrumental nature.

Cryptic Dreams is the first slow number, and it masterfully displays long, gentle guitar notes creating very pretty melodies without delving into shred territory really at all. Shimmering picked notes underlay a simple but effective lead that succeeds in evoking a prettier, calmer scenery. Never Been to Barcelona is the token acoustic track and transports you immediately to the scene of some Spanish place, full of culture. It’s my least favorite track, but it’s got great bass work and serves to highlight the eclecticism here.

Rain is the closest moment to what sounds like an old Japanese VN OST – just perfectly encapsulates a rainy night in the city. A quiet city, though – everyone’s gone home, despite the neon lights still reflecting on the wet pavement. But you’re still out, because right now, there isn’t anywhere that feels more “home” than alone in the rain. The last track I’ll highlight is In the Healing Garden. Despite being the big closer, this sounds more akin to after the finale. This isn’t between the hero and the villain – this is a tense will-they-won’t-they between almost lovers, or a suspenseful fissure between friends, comrades. In the end, they each turn away and walk off in opposite directions, but the chance of reconciliation remains hanging in the future.

I’ll never complain about the slower songs here. The issue instead lies with the faster songs; that is, because they aren’t fast or energetic enough. The rhythm section is especially lacking on this album. The drumming is, to say the least, disappointing. It sounds much closer to Rock drumming than Metal. There’s almost no double bass, snare hits are spaced apart with virtually no faster, aggressive beats, and it’s just… kind of boring. This style works fine for the slower songs, but really takes away from faster tracks.

I won’t say it’s my absolute favorite Neoclassical Metal album, hell it’s not even my favorite Vinnie Moore album. But it’s one of the most unique, memorable, and evocative. If you need to feel like you’re in a movie, throw this on and let your imagination run wild.

A stark improvement over their debut, Vintersorg became stronger in every arena here. The songwriting is slightly progressive, full of variety within the song. Softer passages are interwoven well into the blackened Viking sound. There is a lot more energy here than before, especially in the rhythm section which now sounds fantastic. Non-Rock instrumentation like synths and keys are sparse, but expertly applied when they do appear.

The vocals remain a bit of a sore spot for me. Not bad, but at times they do sound a bit goofy, really leaning into that… folky viking epic sound. The best of vocalists can pull off melodramatic theatrics, but this guy just falls short of that. Still, not nearly enough to detract from the performances.

That aside it doesn’t really have any weaknesses. It’s not the best or most memorable Viking Metal release, but it is absolutely up to the standard and beyond. A rather quick album that stays on topic the whole way through and never fails to deliver.

Really running out of words for this band, and I do not get the acclaim. The guitar tone here is awful, and carries this static, poorly produced sound that makes it grate on my ears. The guitars sound thin, weak and annoying. The riffs are simple without evoking anything; they don’t sound sad or gloomy, they don’t sound evil or dark, they’re just there. Drumming is, similarly, repetitive and boring. For Doom/Gothic Metal, repetitive slow drumming is totally fine if it’s supporting well-crafted atmospheres or emotional performances, but this album is sporting neither of those qualities in spades. The vocals of Peter Steel continue to leave me unimpressed, and his lyrics do far worse. The stupid little skits found between certain songs are atrocious and not funny in the least.

Does the album have strengths? Yeah, I can recognize some. There is more presence of backing atmospherics such as keys, organs, choirs, which help add some density. They aren’t particularly… moody, but they sound nice enough. The variety in said backing elements is pleasant as well, with pretty much each song introducing some new sounds, keeping things fresh. The layering of instruments is done very well, though the terrible sounding guitars render this point null at times. The title track in particular has some great moments, but as it’s over 11 minutes, it’s still not consistently good. The ending of Everything Dies is similarly fantastic, but it’s hardly worth getting through 6 minutes of mediocre Gothic Metal.

I’ll just have to say it again… I don’t want my Gothic Metal filled with jokes, college frat humor and lacking emotion.

Considering all the classic 80’s Thrash bands that collapsed into chaos and failure during the 90’s, Testament stood their ground much better than most. Many consider the preceding “Demonic” one of the only missteps in their discography (and not a severe one at that), but I still see it as quite a strong album. Not only that, it was a necessary step towards this album – “The Gathering.”

The Gathering takes the experimentation with Death Metal from Demonic and and avoids the monotonous limit in style. Instead, we have a great variety of Thrash, Groove, and Death Metal, each taking center stage on certain songs while falling back on others. Thanks to the consistency in quality from song to song, the willingness to change up in style makes the album sound fresh and filled with vitality. The drumming in particular here is very strong (wasn’t until after writing this I found out it was Dave Lombardo!), and Chuck’s vocal variety is on point.

Unfortunately, it drags a bit in the second half. I much prefer Testament when they’re playing faster and heavier (such as on the opener or the insane “Legions of the Dead”), but they falter to slower grooves too often for my taste. “Careful What You Wish For” and “Allegiance” are examples of the band on low gear and not sounding particularly dark, either (their version of stadium anthems? No thanks). This is alleviated with the closing track, a fantastic burst of energy, darkness, and aggression that closes the album out perfectly.

I’d say this is probably the band’s best since Souls of Black, though I wouldn’t peg it as a mid-career masterpiece like many seem to.

If you’re gonna build 50 minutes of music around one riff, that riff has gotta be good. It’s gotta be one of the best riffs ever written. There have been many riffs over the years that can qualify as some of the best of all time, and most of them only play for about a minute or so (you know, because the songs they are in have other riffs). So ensure it is something the listener will never grow tired of hearing.

If you’re gonna build 50 minutes of music around one riff, you should probably try to create some sense of change through the rhythm section. Maybe we taste the riff backed by a slower beat first, and then a gallop, and then harmonized with juicy bass grooves. Add some odd time drumming in that doesn’t quite line up with the riff to throw the listener’s brain for a loop and add freshness.

If you’re gonna build 50 minutes of music around one riff, then let the vocals carry harmonized anthems overtop it, delve into harsh vocals to craft a darker section, write some transcendent lyrics that will keep the listener holding on to every line across the lengthy repetition.

For the love of god, don’t do this.

Just like their previous material, this album loses me in how repetitive and simple it is. Testify opens the album with a perfect example of what you can expect here. A groovy, funky riff kicks off the song well, the ever-impressive bass offering a great backbone. After repeating for a bit, the music all dies down to allow Zack to spit some venom. Then the riff comes back, then it disappears again… The whole time, the drums are essentially playing the same simple beat. By the end of the song, what seemed like a strong riff turns into “wow, that was the only riff on the song and I’m just about tired of it now.”

And then the next track does just about the same thing. Of course, the second track also offers a terrible… kazoo section? There are some surprises on the album, but usually they aren’t… great. The album does have a decent amount of variety between tracks, it’s more so that every track relies on one or two ideas and just repeats them over and over. Sleep Now in the Fire is definitely one of their best songs though.

What IS consistently great, is the basswork. Eternally funky, doing juicier leads than the guitars, the bass has so much power here. Any fans of great lead basswork can appreciate this. Unfortunately it doesn’t save the album from being rather boring, thanks to the other members playing quite simple, repetitive, and unevocative music. Vocal deliverance is strong, but lyrics range from great to poor, and just like the folly of the instrumentation, suffer from being far too repetitive.

Gamma Ray were in the midst of a string of strong albums in the 90’s giving Helloween some strong competition as the best, most consistent band for the genre. Power Plant adds absolutely nothing new to the formula, but it does deliver tried and true hits we’d come to expect from the band.

As usual, the material ranges from heavy, thundering double-bass-attack Power Metal to more rhythmic arena Heavy Metal. The songs are united by a constant focus on melody, as well as anthemic vocals carrying this sense of uplifting triumph. Truly, Gamma Ray exemplify this “all positivity, all the time” mood that is almost exclusive to Power Metal within the Metal world.

 For me of course, I prefer the heavier, more energetic material, and the band is at their best when going all-out. The album opens and closes with its best material, and the cover of “It’s a Sin” is mind-blowingly great, probably one of the best covers I’ve heard. The more mid-paced Heavy Metal tracks can unfortunately get boring; “Heavy Metal Universe” in particular adds cringe to an already repetitive and simple beat.

That being said, the general quality of this record is very high. Another Power Metal banger from the guys in Gamma Ray.

This is going to come off as harsh and opinionated, but the fact of the matter is, bagpipes are one of the ugliest instruments out there. They are piercing and shrill, they have almost no vibrato resulting in a stagnant, unrelenting cry, and they’re prone to staggering off key in between notes. It’s very difficult to properly fit them into a song, and are usually only used in contemporary music as a quick way to make something sound “Scottish” or folky.

I think it’s only fitting, then, that Neurosis of all bands would be the ones to utilize this instrument to its full potential. Neurosis are no strangers to making ugly music, as it’s pretty much their MO. Still, I was blown away by the utilization of bagpipes in “The Last You’ll Know.” The instrument provides the lead melody in what could only be called the apex of the song, or album even. The bagpipes play shrill, sustained notes over doomy guitar, and with pristine efficiency, convey this sombre, painful emotion that evokes a person at their limit, threatening to break. The ugly, static, unrelenting, barely-staying-on-note shrieks of the bagpipes are absolutely perfect for evoking this. It works wonders with the sludgy yet fragile atmosphere the band builds here, it doesn’t sound gimmicky or Scottish, it just perfectly encapsulates a harrowing yet still passionate cry of human emotion. It is, quite plainly, one of the greatest moments in music I have heard.

…What about the rest of the album? Right… it’s good. Not all that memorable. The majority of this album is Neurosis plodding along with chords that don’t evoke much and adding some effects and atmospherics that only provide surface level complexity to the album. Most of it is not very successful in building any mood outside of the generic trademark Sludge “miserable.” There are a few moments such as above where the band really captures something special, but most of them are hidden between long stretches of nothing.

Oh yeah, and then there’s the album Grace. Most should know the lore; Grace is a Dark Ambient album made by Neurosis side project Tribes of Neurot as a companion album meant to be listened to simultaneously with this album. On its own, well, it’s just a pretty minimalistic Dark Ambient album with samples, droning, and Noise. Doesn’t make for great individual listening.

But, how do they stack up as a duo? Grace adds some pleasant layering, density, and connectivity to the album. It truly makes it feel like one continuous experience, and it does feel like it’s how the album was meant to be listened to. And good god, remember that aforementioned moment with the bagpipe leads on “The Last You’ll Know”? Ambient pads backing that moment in perfect harmony just elevate it into an even more unbearably bittersweet moment of pure miserable catharsis. Unbelievable…

But does it do enough to elevate the whole album to its commonly held masterpiece status? To me, no. It definitely improves the album, but using numeric terms, probably by about a quarter star, 10 percent, etc. Grace is too minimalistic and lacks any standout moments of its own to do much more than just slightly improve the album. Given the choice, I would always listen to them as a set, it's definitely the superior experience, but it’s not as “transcendental” as some would have you believe. Mostly just a small bonus. I applaud the creativity, but at the same time, could have just released it as one album…

Either way, I’m not rating the duo here, because that’s not what this is. And after having listened to the two together, it does highlight a bit the “empty” parts of this album, where there’s really not much going on. Without a denser, more evocative atmosphere, the weak riffs and simple rhythm section isn’t doing enough to really carry this.

And so, I’ll stand by what I said before. It’s an album with some incredible moments, but they do get a bit lost in a fire of “just good” Atmosludge. Not the magnum opus of the genre it is often hailed as.