SilentScream213's Reviews

The Anatomy of Addiction is a highly dense record with a lot going on, but not much to grab onto. It has a variety of styles and influences present across the nearly 80 minute runtime, and in no way is this a regular Industrial Metal album. In fact, I have reservations about calling this Metal at all; sure it’s got some harsh vocals, drums and a guitar, but this is heavy in much the same way as Swans’ early material was. It’s not metallic.

There are pretty much two things that go on here that I can’t stand;

- One or more instruments will repeat one simple beat, melody, or sound over and over, sometimes for minutes, and it’s never anything good enough worth repeating that long

- One or more instruments will break out into free improvisation, doing stuff with no sense of rhythm or key or anything pleasant at all. Just to sound as chaotic as possible.

I will say that for what it is, it’s not poorly done. I do think they achieved what they wanted here. I just happen to strongly dislike it.

After the fantastic debut, Brutal Truth return with a follow up that is much less one dimensional, but also less consistent. In opposition to the near constant pure Deathgrind pummeling on the debut, Need to Control features some slower songs, some straight Grindcore, and a decent amount of Noise influence on a few tracks, with some being pure Industrial/Noise.

The opening track is a pretty big surprise from the band, being akin to a Death Doom sound and really slowing down their formula, but it pulls this off rather well. The album continues to flow between their signature Deathgrind and the other influences I mentioned above. One huge issue with this album is that most of the experimentation is not as great as the Deathgrind, and the Deathgrind on this one just doesn’t match up to their debut.

Ultimately, there’s nothing on this I’d rather hear than the debut. The inclusion of other sounds and experimentation might pay off as growth later, but here it’s not fully realized, leaving the album inconsistent.

Armia is an odd band that have been all over the musical spectrum by the time they dropped their fourth album Triodante. Seeing the album tagged with Avant-Garde Metal, I really didn’t know what to expect this time.

Opening track Wyludniacz is a great metallic banger that brings back the French horn that helped them stand out. The track has double bass drumming, which I believe was a first for the band, and also slower groovier sections, leaning towards Progressive Metal in parts. Not very Avant-Garde, but I wasn’t complaining. The second track was even better; heavier, faster and straightforward.

After that, the album is hit or miss. I will admit this is more due to my taste rather than the actual quality of the album; about half the songs from here are slower, more Avant-Garde pieces that are experimental and progressive. I much prefer their speedy aggressive stuff, but most of these tracks are still skillfully composed. They just spend a bit too much time in slow, boring territory, and the tracks are quite overlong; shaving off some of those experimental bits would have helped this one for me.

The good thing about these long, everchanging tracks is that most of them still have really awesome parts, with great riffs and French horn. I really miss the darker atmosphere of the sophomore album, and this one is a bit more bouncy and tribal. The two tracks that are almost entirely tribal beats definitely bring this album down a lot for me. Regardless, it is full of tracks that can stand against their better material.

On Deliverance, Corrosion of Conformity finally settle into the style now known as Southern Metal and deliver one of the first and finest cuts of the genre. After dancing with Crossover Thrash and Groove Metal in the past, their fourth effort sees them abandon nearly all of their aggression for a more laid-back rocker filled with anthemic vocals and simple but effective riffs.

Stoner Metal is usually one of my least favorite subgenres of Metal, but Corrosion of Conformity play it very well here, and have an eclectic mix of styles going on over the album. Some songs are fast, some groove slowly, and some are entirely outside the Metal umbrella. It’s a fun album most of the time. For an album with 14 tracks and a good variety in sound, it stays shockingly consistent.

At the end of the day, it’s still a style I’m not a huge fan of. I like it, but I don’t love it, and most of the album falls around the decent-to-good category for me. Case in point, my favorite track is Without Wings, a beautiful acoustic piece with string accompaniment that sounds nothing like the rest of the album.

It’s truly astounding how consistent Death are at crafting top quality Death Metal, not only album to album, but song to song. Every Death release so far has been a fantastic showcase of new ideas and progression on top of all the classic traits that make it unmistakably Death. Individual Thought Patterns did not fail to exceed my expectations despite the legendary precursor Human.

This album has got to by Death’s most melodic, technical and progressive so far. The riffs are incredibly melodic and memorable, with multiple guitar melodies often playing wonderfully off each other. This of course does not take away from the brutality of the album; it borders on melodeath at times, but at the core is still classic OSDM. The album doesn’t sound incredibly evil compared to other Death Metal, but this is fitting with Chuck’s desire to focus on more philosophical subjects. As the album title suggests, this record is total brainfood, fortunately the kind where the riffs get stuck in your head.

What really blew me away on this one was the rhythm section. The drumming here in on another level, and so many patterns here were totally fresh. As I suspected, this is where Gene Hoglan made his debut in Death. His creativity with the kit is monstrous, and goes far beyond progressive or technical. He manages to craft entirely original beats in every song, and knows exactly when to go all out and when to serve the music with something slower or simpler. The basswork of Steve DiGiorgio is similarly praiseworthy, and thank god the production made it clear and audible. I was fairly certain it was fretless bass based upon the sound, and it seems he is possibly the first to bring fretless bass to extreme metal.

5 albums in, and Death is still at the forefront of the genre they helped create, leading it in new directions and maintaining their status as the best of the best.

A wild ride of an album rife with technical prowess and atmospheric beauty. Easily the first of it’s kind, in 1993 there were no (to my knowledge) Death Metal albums purposefully trying to sound “pretty” or peaceful” juxtaposed with all the other elements of extreme music. Death Metal bands were all trying to predict or be the next development in the genre; usually this was defined by Death (the band) and their constant evolution and progression of the genre, but a few bands like Cynic still managed to stand out and make it to still undiscovered frontiers.

When talking about Cynic, one has to address the elephant in the room – those vocoded vocals. Because they’re definitely there, on just about every track. When I first heard those open track 1, I thought for sure they were just being used to intro the album. Then they consistently appeared throughout the song, and I’d hoped they were a one song gimmick… no luck. They are prevalent throughout the whole album. Eventually I was able to tolerate them, and I do appreciate the futuristic aesthetic they bring to the album. I understand the purpose, and it was certainly a bold move to put in a Death Metal album. That aside, I will probably never enjoy them, and they definitely keep this otherwise flawless record from a higher rating.

But what a masterpiece this is otherwise. The Tech Death aspects of this record are very melodic and riff-driven, with noodling never overtaking the primary goal of creating fantastic and memorable melodies. Like all the best albums, every instrument is playing lead; rhythm instruments are varied and powerful, bass is very audible and melodic itself. Then there are the keys and various other atmospherics and electronics, which add wonderfully to this album. They are worked tastefully between catchy leads and adding lush backing sound. Overall the album sounds incredibly futuristic and spacey, an incredible feat for 1993. It still sounds very fresh decades later.

One very great aspect of this album is there is never a dull moment. In fact, it’s so insanely layered you could listen to it over and over and always find something new. Even the slower, more peaceful parts have so much going on, it really is an “experience” without being overly pretentious. Just fantastic music here.

From the Russian tundra comes a Tech Thrash draconic beast that was unfortunately a few years late to the game, but no less legendary in its own right. Since it came from such a remote place and after Thrash was dead and buried, Кровоизлияние had no chance of success. The band never broke through nor released any other material. However, to think that says anything about the quality of this album would be a massive mistake.

Aspid’s debut and sole album is a Progressive/Technical Thrash package of pure quality and talent. The musical ability and songwriting is fantastic, even the simple production is very good at ensuring every aspect of it is clear and audible. I am of course referencing the bass, which is amazing and very noticeable here. There’s nothing to this other than the barebones guitar drums bass vocals setup, but every instrument is working insanely hard.

I think the best thing about this is that it’s not overbearing like some Tech Prog can be; the songwriting is extremely efficient at mixing technical prowess and wow factor with a consistent musical progression that feels natural and enjoyable. In short, they sound like damn good songs as opposed to feats of ability. The technical, big brain aspect of the music just ensures you can come back again and again and never get bored.

Angra were not quite the inventors of Symphonic Metal – that accolade would have to go to X Japan – but they were absolutely at the forefront of its development. What’s more, the style of Symphonic Power Metal first crafted on “Angels Cry” is a style that has carried on to the present day. The genres tend to go hand in hand now, rarely one existing without some element of the other, no doubt the legacy of this majestic work.

Something that is immediately apparent is that this album is incredibly rich and developed for a debut album. The symphonic elements are in full swing, there’s a strong variety of sounds all pulled off quite well, and the music is quite frankly impressive. This band knew exactly what they wanted to do from the get-go, and they hit the ground running. Another interesting factor is that this is a debut album from Brazil of all places, yet the production is very good, as if it were a popular band with a big budget. Of course, the guest appearance of Kai Hansen of Halloween and Gamma Ray fame is testament that this band was not totally unknown and must have had some notoriety.

One slight weakness for me is that the vocals can be quite pitchy at times, and always stay at the very high end of the registry. Despite that, the guy definitely has impressive range and technique, just doesn’t always suit my taste. The two part closer is also not anything amazing, meaning the album is bookended by its weakest tracks if you include the intro.

Overall, amazingly impressive and cohesive debut album, hasn’t aged a day.

I’ll have to admit right off the bat, as someone who loves Gothic Metal, Type O Negative are pretty much antithesis to what I like to see in the genre. Full of humor and groove, the album is about as far removed from Doom as Gothic can get, and spits in the face of any melancholy normally associated with Gothic Metal. Most of the time, the band is just having fun, and as a result there is a lack of any genuine emotion to it.

There are at least plenty of moments of decent musical composition. The Title track stands out as quite a good song, their closest to Doom here, and a few other tracks make great use of keys and other sound effects to layer the music. Unfortunately, Peter is always throwing ridiculously stupid lyrics over the music, which ruins a good amount of it for me. His delivery in general is hammy in a bad way, like he’s always trying to parody something.

Impressive musically, disappointing altogether.

Rage are one of the longest running and most consistent German Metal bands out there. 1993 was only 10 years into their career, but The Missing Link was already Rage’s 7th(!) album, and they continued this trend of releasing an album at least every other year for many decades. Amazingly almost all of them are great, but 1993’s “The Missing Link” may be where they settled on a trademark sound of simple but effective Power Metal with generous Heavy, Speed, and Thrash influences.

If you know Rage’s sound, there’s not much to say about this, but it’s quite simply aggressive Power Metal that sacrifices some of genre’s usual melodicism and catchiness for classic Metal riffage. Lost in the Ice flirts with Symphonic elements, which would become more prominent on later albums. This album is incredibly consistent across its 12 tracks, and the thing about Rage is while they write very few poor songs, they similarly write just as few masterpieces. Instead, they crank out a vast number of great tracks with solid songwriting and riffs. The Missing Link is right around their peak era, so you can expect every song here to be very good; just don’t expect any mind-blowing numbers.

The bonus track cover of “Beyond the Pale” is absolutely amazing, one of those few masterpieces and it didn’t even make the album!

Savatage is one of those bands that has quite a few albums in competition for their magnum opus, and depending on some, Edge of Thorns is that album. The most prominent difference here is that Zachary Stevens replaces Jon Oliva on vocals, though Oliva was still heavily involved in writing. Zachary has a more refined vocal style; it’s smoother and more operatic, and dare I say accessible. This reviewer prefers Jon’s poignant delivery and passion, but Zachary is certainly no detriment to the band.

Otherwise, the album is a pretty balanced package, a culmination of the styles they’ve developed on the past 3 albums. It’s lush with piano, and features a strong variety of riff driven rockers, beautiful ballads and effective instrumentals. Unfortunately the first 2 tracks are the strongest, which is a pet peeve of mine. Monstrous openers showcase precisely Savatage utilizing their melodic ballad-meets-metal style (Edge of Thorns) and classic riff writing prowess (He Carves His Stone), but it never meets those heights again. Thankfully, there aren’t any bad tracks, and the album is class quality front to back.

On Jonah’s Ark, Skyclad finally relieve themselves of all Thrash roots and focus entirely on the Folk Metal sound. Here, the violin is featured prominently on just about every song, and the riffs have a rhythmic, medieval feel to them. The music is quite upbeat, melodic and “fun” in a way. Interestingly, instead of focusing on fantasy or medieval tales, the lyrics tend towards conscious social commentary, often disguised in fantastical allegory.

Most of the riffs here are pretty tasty, and the Folk elements really set the band apart from anyone else of their time. It hasn’t held up exceptionally well however, since folk bands afterwards usually do a lot more with the folk aspect of their music. The energy and speed of this one is quite subdued, which is something I sorely miss from the debut.

Overall a great album, but it tend to makes me want to listen to their thrashing debut instead.

Even before the exit of one, then both, of the Cavalera brothers, Sepultura’s fanbase was divided by the band’s new stylistic directions, most initially on Chaso A.D. The album saw the band influenced by the changing landscape in Metal (in part they were influencing it themselves) and they all but dropped their Thrash roots, slowing to a rhythmic groove. Even here, they incorporated some tribal beats no doubt stemming from their heritage. Lyrically as well, the album gets more abstract and even alternative in parts.

I’m in firm favor of no holds barred Thrash era Sepultura, and this album is where their string of mediocre material begins for me. The riffs are quite simple and repetitive, and ditto to most of the drumming; It’s very tom-heavy, with loads of good fills, but the actual beats are weak. Naturally I favor the speedier tracks: opener Refuse/Resist, Propaganda, and Manifest have remnants of their Thrash style. The rest is certainly not bad either, and most tracks have enough aggression to give them power despite the drop in speed and energy. It’s a fine Groove Metal album, but I’ll always be over the fence on the Thrash side of Sepultura.

Also, that cover of The Hunt is brilliant.

Protestant was an interesting direction for Rorschach to take, adding a ton of new influences to their established Metalcore sound. There are moments of mathy technicality, slower sludgy plodding, and plenty of varied Metalcore riffing in between. For its time, it was a totally unique beast, and no doubt incredibly influential in multiple different directions among the “core” genres.

I find it slightly weaker than the debut, as there is a lot more disjointed chaos and the lyrical content is far more abstract. The honest and emotional delivery of their first release appeals to me more; however, this album is no slouch by any means. Musically it is quite advanced and diverse, and the switching up of tempos and styles keeps it interesting and entertaining. Very ahead of its time and easily still holds up well.

After the success of wildly innovative “Souls at Zero,” Neurosis seemed eager to one-up themselves in regard to making something that sounded different. The result was an album that focused more on being avant-garde and unique than it did on sounding good. Enemy of the Sun did indeed capture an entirely new sound, but it sacrificed a lot of what made their previous album so good.

The album is very heavy with samples, and has an overall tribal feel to it. The percussion is often focusing on tom-heavy fill beats, and the guitars usually create atmospheric walls rather than riffs. If I’m being honest, there’s not much of the album that sticks with me due to the fact that there are no memorable melodies of any sort. The atmosphere isn’t anything impressive either, for how much they focus on it; “Souls at Zero” did a great job of conveying a desperate struggle and cold, hopeless pain. Enemy of the Sun seems more eager to convey, I don’t know, existential ramblings of struggles in third world countries or something. It’s more bizarre than it is evocative.

That’s not to say the album is bad, as moments of grandeur are hiding among the vast boring parts. The first two tracks have some great atmosphere to them, and the guitars and keys use single notes to create excellent pangs of moodiness. Penultimate track “The Time of the Beasts” simply sounds much more akin to material on “Souls at Zero” and is therefore easily the best track, lush with various instrumentation from strings to horns to samples.

The album merely pales in comparison to what came before. Unless, of course, you enjoy tribal Avant-Garde Metal, in which case, you may like this quite a bit. For me, the departure from doomy monoliths is a hard decline.

Not only one of the weirdest Metal albums, but plainly one of the weirdest albums period. Old are one of the fastest changing bands out there, exploring bizarre new frontiers on each release that are vastly different from the prior.

The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak is a nonsensical, Industrial affair between Metal and electronics. The songs are split between extreme metallic rocking and spacey electronic noise, all the while being very experimental in nature. A decent portion of this release is not Rock music at all, rife with science fiction-esque atmospheric noise that is difficult to define.

Wildly inconsistent in the end. Definitely a step down from Lo Flux Tube, although arguably more experimental and genre-busting. Fans of weirdo music will love this, and even those who aren’t may find this one intriguing listen.

Yes, this brand of sombre Melodic Black Metal is absolutely to my taste. It also helps that this has huge Melodeath influences, enough so that you could easily give this album the accolade of being at the forefront of both genres. Mixing two genres still in infancy and managing to ace that combination is quite an incredible feat!

That’s what makes The Somberlain unique, but certainly not what makes it good. Every song is packed with excellent riffs that dance the line between evil, sombre, and folky. The drums have an incredible amount of diversity for a Black Metal album (the Melodeath influence is very strong here rhythmically) and you can expect much more than constant blast beats. The rhythm section is always changing, usually quite energetic but slowing down surprisingly often to allow riffs and atmosphere to marinate in a calmer zone.

The vocals sit right between Death growls and Black Metal shrieks, having a nice weight to them but maintaining a raspy enunciation that works very well. Most of the lyrics/themes are standard BM fare, focusing on occult darkness, but they’re well written. I will say, the acoustic interludes really don’t add anything to the album, and would have been more effective if interwoven into the songs. Unfortunately, they hurt the momentum because they aren’t strong enough to stand on their own. Otherwise, a great dark triumph that still stands above a vast majority of the hundreds of attempts at this sound since.

A very difficult album for me to rate, as Death Doom is perhaps my absolute favorite genre, and Disembowelment’s first and only album is considered by the some the greatest Death Doom album of all time. It was certainly the first album to have hints of Funeral Doom and would end up becoming influential in that scene, and has a ton of straight Death Metal compared to most Death Doom.

The cooler parts of this album are definitely the way it uses clean, reverbed guitar notes to create melodic atmosphere, but this is only done occasionally. The variety in drumming is also very nice, with everything from Funeral Doom plodding to full Death Metal blastbeats. So, wherein lies the problem for me?

Death Doom was still very primitive in the early 90’s, and Transcendence into the Peripheral is no different. It is extremely basic both in style and execution. The riffs, if you can call them that, are very monotone and minimalistic. That’s not uncommon for Doom, but the way minimalistic riffing works is by creating and relying on strong atmosphere to carry the song. Disembowelment completely falls flat in this regard.

Outside of a few moments with cool backing vocals and reverby clean instruments, there is really no mood created at all, and therein the atmosphere is empty and boring. The songs have no emotion, even the lyrics are spiritual and abstract ramblings that carry no weight. They talk about death and darkness sometimes, but it’s in a Death Metal ad lib sense, none of the beautiful, moving poetry that is so prevalent in the Doom genre. The vocals are another totally monotone aspect of the release, really providing nothing but some extra bass as they’re totally indecipherable without a lyric sheet, with very little variety or expression.

Disembowelment is oppressive, if anything. The music is heavy as hell, challenging, and I will say, unique for its time. In addition, it was influential. But to call this the greatest Death Doom album to me is incredibly sad, because the genre grew and expanded so much throughout the years. Where this album is lethargic and devoid of emotion, Death Doom later churned out much of the most passionate and moving music I have ever heard. Where this has little melody or atmosphere, later bands made those qualities a staple in extreme Doom music and use them to great success. Disembowelment represents the genre before it found it’ identity, and evidently, before it became something I love.

Maybe the first /true/ Drone Metal album, although there’s really nothing metal about it unless metal just means “distorted guitars.” The last track has some bass and drums backing it to sound more metallic and lifelike, the rest is just very simple and slow guitar “riffs” with a ton of distortion.

Earth’s first demos actually had a slightly doomy feel to them, with a full instrument ensemble and even vocals at times. This is, for all intents and purposes, just Ambient Drone. It’s fuzz and noise that is inoffensive and stagnant for over an hour. I can see how it could be relaxing, at the best of times. Problem is, even if I want to relax with some Ambient music, I still want the music to do something. This is essentially background noise, if you lived in an amp warehouse, or a Guitar Center underwater.

Maybe there is some genius in the exact frequencies or textures here, maybe there was some grand blueprint for these no less than 15-minute tracks, or maybe there’s absolutely nothing special to it at all. Either way, it’s not for me.

Cathedral’s sophomore album is a slight transition from their purely Doomy debut. Never thought I would say this, but the Stoner tinge added here definitely improves the album. The riffs and energy here is awesome, and some tracks, namely the first half, are just great fun. Even so, they retain that Doomy delivery and aesthetic, with interesting lyricism that dances between abstract psychedelic madness and gloomy pessimism. The songs are much more energetic and eclectic, with the rhythm section especially picking up in interest factor.

On the other end of the spectrum, some of the tracks here are much more gloomy, passionate and serious than anything on the debut. A great example of this is “Jaded Eternity” which is pure Paradise Lost in style, monumental riffs and passionate chorus taking it as far as the band can go. The second half of the album in general sticks pretty close to true Doom, though retaining some of the newfound energy the band picked up.

This juxtaposition of energetic grooving and dark gloom work wonderfully on the album, at times kept separate and others intertwined. The vocals can be an acquired taste, but they definitely appeal to me, especially in the places where his roar is tinged with sorrow, a gruff bellow still wonderfully able to hold notes and melodies. Awesome album that offers a great mix of moods and styles.

Elements is, without a doubt, an incredibly fascinating album. Atheist retain their insanely technical and progressive style of playing, but traverse even further into progressive music, reaching the avant-garde. The music itself isn’t too bizarre, but the amount of styles crammed into any given song quite frankly is. There’s a lot of jerking around here, start-stop techniques and rapid changes not only in tempo, but also style and mood. The instrumental prowess of every member is nothing short of mind-blowing; the songwriting is hard to judge because it seems to purposely subvert expectations and go to odd places, but this doesn’t always work to its benefit.

Another interesting factor is the concept undertaken, focusing on the 4 traditional elements throughout the album. The album seems to loosely document the introduction and evolution of life on Earth via introducing the elements. This adds another layer of entertainment and intrigue for anyone willing to read along, and makes the songs more than just platforms for showcasing instrumental ability.

Unfortunately, the end result is far weaker than the previous two albums for me. First off, there is an abundance of interludes that offer nothing to the album, neither musically nor thematically. Along those lines, there are many passages in certain songs that are similarly shoved in there seemingly just to surprise the listener or do something “different,” but this usually takes away from the songs rather than add anything. Lastly, the music seems, on the whole, unrelated to the themes. When writing a song for each of the 4 elements, you’d think you would at least try to evoke the elements musically, but overtly this is not the case.

The title track is iconically a perfect combination of everything done right on this record, and one of the best songs of the band’s career. A fitting final track for their (at one time) final album.

Dead Infection play a rather “slow” strain of Goregrind, having plenty of Death Metal groove and a rhythm section doing much more than constant blast beats. The slower parts of the songs create a great dynamic between the more typical Goregrind blasting, and makes this album much less one dimensional than most Grind of the time. The riffs aren’t crazy, but again are stronger than typical Grind genres, where noise tends to overtake real riffing.

Make no doubt about it, the material on Surgical Disembowelment is great, but it’s not without flaws. The production, in my opinion, manages to be worse than their EP from the previous year, quite muddy and muffled. It’s far from unlistenable, but it definitely detracts from the music for this reviewer. The vocals are quite poor as well, unintelligible and guttural, they act as another bass element to the music. The lyrics are also generic Goregrind fare, random imagery of gross anatomical destruction.

Strong considering where Grindcore was as a genre in 1993, but Dead Infection themselves did better on their prior EP in my opinion.

This was one of the biggest surprises in my course of listening to Metal evolve chronologically, for a few reasons. First of all, I hadn’t been a fan of Sludge Metal or Neurosis so far, so my expectations were something very different. Second of all wow, it’s breathtaking, especially considering absolutely nothing sounded like this in 1992, not even close. The layering, atmosphere, and building crescendos here are what would become the genre of Post-Metal, as well as Atmospheric Sludge.

Despite that terminology, this album has much more in common with Doom than any prior Sludge, and that’s why I love it! It’s all pessimistic melancholy and gloomy angst here, built on anxious, depressive but often melodic and sometimes beautiful melodies. The slow, plodding tempo is accented nicely by interesting rhythm work. The vocals are the only trait really reminiscent of Sludge, being a hardcore punk-esque strained yell that works wonders against the grim soundscapes. The desperation and angst in the vocals is ferociously convincing.

The core band creates some amazing instrumental soundscapes, the guitars especially doing some very interesting things I couldn’t begin to describe to add to the wall of punishment. It sounds dissonant, but never chaotic; very well constructed and orchestrated to add unique layers to the sound. However, possibly the most interesting factor to this album are the samples and other instruments/keys used quite liberally. The samples effectively convey some hopeless situation or another, and add to that overall anxiety purveying every moment. The other editions are endless… piano, violin, big band hits, horns, and more. Some are obviously synthed, so it might all be the work of keys, but it adds so much to the already very strong arrangements.

Something I noticed were a lot of moments that reminded me of one of my favorite bands, Mar de Grises (before now I hadn’t heard anything that really did). I think that shows the clear Doom sound here as well as the Post-Metal influence on the later band. Anyway, this thing is very nearly a masterpiece, huge variety and immense quality. A few fillers hold it down, but the heights are vast.

One of the best Thrash bands who continuously saw production issues finally gets a release that does them justice. Epidemic of Violence has all the unbridled aggression, insane riffage and manic rhythm that has been prominent since their Necrology demo, but at last we get crisp audio that allows their full potential to blast through.

Demolition Hammer are all the way on the “almost Death Metal” spectrum of Thrash, not only in terms of heaviness, but stylistically as well. Near Tech-Thrash levels of precision and abrupt changes are abound, and the rhythm is a constant pummel of hyper-energized force. Lyrically, the songs focus on violence and death, but are well-written with a very impressive vocabulary, and impeccable delivery.

The artist and album names tell you exactly what to expect here, and god damn do they deliver. Classic Death tinged Thrash, played with vigorous precision and executed flawlessly. You as the listener are their victim as they beat you senseless track after track, the only reprieve being a short instrumental “Orgy of Destruction” before they’re back to smashing your bones and skinning you alive. Also gonna shout out that album closer, “Aborticide”… phenomenal showcase of dark aggression.

Bolt Thrower has been putting out Death Metal since the very early days of the genre, and though the debut was a bit rough, all of their releases have had a very consistent level of quality without doing anything too dangerous. Insanely heavy, crunchy guitars and classic OSDM riffage is the name of their game and they win every time.

The IVth Crusade is to Bolt Thrower as South of Heaven was to Slayer. The band slows down a bit, even including a few tracks that could qualify as Death Doom (except it just sounds like slow Death Metal), and focus a bit more on melody. That’s not to say this album isn’t packed with energy though, as many of the tracks are still loaded with double bass drumming and tremolo riffs.

There’s very martial feel to this album. Bolt Thrower has always written about war and battle, but the mid-tempo pace and march-like rhythm section really seals the atmosphere here. Again, this album isn’t doing anything new, it’s just executing OSDM incredibly well, and makes for an awesome listen front to back. Couldn’t ask for more from this legendary band.

Images and Words is kind of the first Progressive Metal album of the white collar, semi-symphonic ballad heavy variant. While Dream Theater’s debut was a pretty generic slice of first wave Prog Metal, here Dream Theater take a cue from the likes of Queensryche and Fates Warning, adding strong, anthemic choruses and near-Pop commercial sensibilities, though retaining the later band’s complex songwriting and musicianship. More interestingly, they borrow Savatage’s melodramatic balladry, and bring a strong ensemble of keys, strings, sax, and probably a bunch of other instruments to the mix.

New (and now long-time) Vocalist James LaBrie adds a signature charisma to the vocal delivery, with an impressive range and strong lyrical chops. Instrumentally, it’s not in the overtly technical territory of prog wankery, and rather the band does a great job of servicing the song as needed, and showing off when appropriate. There’s also a huge variety to the songs here, and they pull off just about everything they try their hand at. There’s epic songs, somber songs, sappy songs, serious songs… and tons of different styles, all wrapped in that signature Prog Metal package. The band is so instrumentally entertaining that they actually make a cheerfully cheesy wankfest in “Take the Time” that manages to be a total delight from start to finish.

There really isn’t a wasted minute here, and the penultimate track “Wait for Sleep” is proof of that. Normally, 2 minute non-metal interludes on Metal albums are terrible wastes of space that just slow things down, but this one is a beautiful piano-vocal duet that not only sets the mood perfectly for the last track, but is a memorable piece of beauty in it’s own right. And that last track, “Learning how to Live,” is definitely the band’s greatest achievement as of release. Perfect closer that goes through a total range of moods and styles in it’s 11 minute runtime, never overstaying it’s welcome.

This underground French Speed Metal band really shocked me here. Cites Interdites is a fantastic combo of aggressive Speed Metal, melodic Heavy Metal and a huge emphasis on soaring, dual guitar leads and solos.

I have to say outright, the solos on this album are some of the best I’ve ever heard, and the amazing thing is every song features at least one insanely good and memorable solo without any of them feeling like they’re treading the same ground. I’m actually reminded of Japanese band Anthem, who have a knack for writing (in my opinion) the best guitar solos in metal. This French band has a very melodic style quite reminiscent of Japanese Metal, but a unique aggressive edge to it, most prominent in the vocals and drumming.

The drumming is really insane here, and I actually thought it might be a drum machine because it’s so precise. Not that it’s blowing Tech Death away or anything, but there’s a nice depth and fluidity that accompany the usual machinegunning speed. The bass is a bit buried, but if you’ve got good equipment you can get a great taste of basswork going on underneath all those guitar leads.

One weakness here – a few songs have verses and choruses that aren’t so strong. No Man’s Land is an obvious offender here, having a very basic and dare I say boring structure with weak riffs and a poor chorus. However, it is definitely saved by an amazing guitar solo halfway through that goes on quite a while… all of the weaker songs share this trait. If you like guitar solos, there’s really not a track you can hate because they all have such amazing soloing thrown in somewhere. Unfortunately the B-side is slightly weaker which is a pet peeve for me, but the opening track (after the Intro) is about as flawless as Speed Metal gets.

What is often hailed as one of if not the best W.A.S.P. albums is ironically more so a solo effort by bandleader Blackie that eventually got the W.A.S.P. label slapped on it so it could sell. Sometimes, an album can be a better package if it really is done entirely by one person. Especially in the case of a concept album.

Blackie had a story, he had a few main motifs and he rolled with it all the way through. The result is a strong album that feels heavily cohesive and has no moments of weakness. The music is very catchy, and adds just enough keys and other musical influences to up the “epic rocking” factor without truly dipping into cheese territory, and is actually quite serious musically. The album is surprisingly vulnerable for someone of Blackie’s reputation, as “desiring the love and acceptance of your parents” was not exactly a common theme in heavy music (though it was likely an undertone in a lot of the rebellious themes, no one would flat out admit it).

Aside from that, the story is another tale of a fictional rocker’s rise and fall, which had already been done to death by ’92. The album is consistently very strong, but if the main motifs aren’t working for you, it will get very samey and repetitive. Great listen to follow along the story, flows incredibly well, but the replay factor is quite low.

Skyclad’s sophomore album is Folk Metal’s first, utilizing violins, acoustic guitars and medieval-esque riffs to create the unique feel of the genre. Skyclad’s debut was very Thrashy, but this one eschews most of that in favor of highly melodic, slower paced (comparatively) tracks. The vocals remain pretty gruff, however; nothing like the smooth flavor usually associated with these fantasy albums. My favorite tracks are where the faster ones where Thrash roots take stage, like “Salt on the Earth.”

This thing really relies mostly on the gimmick of the violin mirroring the lead guitar in every track. Not that it’s a bad thing; at the time it was pretty much the only band to do this. It definitely creates a more epic, fantasy filled atmosphere than their prior album. Uniqueness aside, I myself prefer the more straightforward Thrash of the debut. Even though most tracks are fantastic quality, there is a liberal use of interludes and weaker tracks in between. Still, this is definitely a must hear for anyone interested in Folk Metal. Respect is always given to the creators.

An interesting release if nothing else. Starkweather’s debut seems to be labeled Metalcore mostly because it just doesn’t fit anywhere else, and in fact the album sounds like the band really had no idea what they were going for. It’s not bad, and definitely has an interest factor to it, but sounds unabashedly like an amateur band finding themselves.

The musicianship is very simple, and most of the time simple chords backed by basic beats carry the screaming vocalist in an anxious, occasionally depressive or angry atmosphere. The songs are way too long for what they have to offer. There are a few changes here and there, and the album is definitely hard to pin down. There’s Alt Metal, Heavy Metal, Trad Doom, Sludge, maybe even some Post-Punk in places, straight up Hardcore… and for lack of a better term we go with Metalcore.

I feel like these guys have a lot of potential, they just don’t find it here. However, it’s still a decent album with an interesting and unique palette to offer. Bonus track "Above the Rafters" is awesome.

One of the reasons I don’t like Trad Doom is because it is not inherently dark and melancholic like the rest of Doom. It’s not carried by gloomy atmospheres but rather slow riffage that sounds more akin to lethargic Heavy Metal. For me personally, if I’m gonna be listening to repetitive and lethargic music, it absolutely has to be emotionally or atmospherically evocative. In those instances, the plodding tempo works wonders to elevate the foreboding sense of despair or tragic melancholy. Otherwise, slow, lethargic music to me is just boring.

Sleep’s style of “Stoner Doom” is everything I dislike about Trad Doom multiplied and expanded upon. Slow, groovy, repetitive riffs that do nothing and go nowhere. No atmosphere, no emotion, the riffs even sound “happy” a good portion of the time. I don’t hate happy music (my J-Pop ratings can attest to that) but as far as slow, heavy music goes, happy is the last thing I want to hear. There is absolutely nothing “Doom” about this record, it’s just slow. Sections of improvisation are common, though they never stray from the formulaic riffs. The guitar solos in these sections are usually very poor as well.

The lyrics are almost interesting. A line or two will paint an intriguing picture of some fantasy desert land… but then it trails off into something completely unrelated, probably trying to evoke hallucinatory drug experiences. It ruins any sort of worldbuilding or narrative I think they could have otherwise succeeded in.

I’m going to throw out a wild claim, but I think if some people stopped listening to these sorts of albums while on drugs, they might realize how mundane they are without… outside influence. Not to say people can’t enjoy the grooviness of this sort of thing in total earnest, but I do believe it’s probably overrated due to that sort of influence.

Yes! Finally! A band takes the potential of Grindcore and uses it right!

Brutal Truth’s debut is full of extreme high-energy tracks stock full of insane riffage! There is a huge Death/Thrash influence to this thing, and the riffs are super evil sounding despite the wholly political nature of the album. And thank goodness, for once a Grindcore vocalist enunciates, those politically charged lyrics are easy to follow. The vocals aren’t really special in themselves but they get credit for doing what 95% of Grindcore can’t by being god damn intelligible.

The real sauce here is the musicianship, and holy hell these guys can play. I mentioned the riffage earlier, and it is air-tight. Guitar and bass shred along at insane speeds, ripping off the best riffs I’ve heard in the genre yet. The drumming is inhuman, the blast-beats are probably the fastest I’ve heard yet, and actually manage to be on-time (if not incredibly precise). However, the drums are usually not so much sonic aggression as to drown out the tasty riffs, and the guy knows when to play extreme and when to serve the music. Huge plus!

Incredibly awesome Deathgrind and my personal favorite Grindcore album as of its release.

The legendary Vulgar Display of Power. The TRUE original tough guy metal album, and the bottom line set for all of Groove Metal. Does it live up to the hype? Well, yes and no.

Vulgar Display of Power is actually one of the first metal albums I’d heard, thanks directly to three of its songs inspiring music in Doom. Back then, Phil’s harsh vocals bulging with testosterone were too tough for middle school me. I couldn’t handle the masculine aggression in that creature, but the riffs were awesome enough to get me to stay until my ears were able to withstand the full-on assault of his drug infused gorilla arms. The music was practically seeping with bull semen and stale alcohol, the guitar tone a disgusting buzzsaw drawl, and the drums hitting like concrete. The cover represents the music well.

The album jumps between aggressive Thrash beats and sharp riffs to plodding, sludgy groove sections; this pretty much set the standard for Groove Metal to follow as Thrash’s slower brother. For me, the Thrash bits are the best part. Songs like “Rise” are perfect example of unrelenting aggression. The pure Groove tracks like “Walk” do very little for me, and it’s that aspect of the album that makes it weaker than Cowboys from Hell to me. However, slower numbers “This Love” and the devastating “Hollow” are super unique and very well-done examples of Pantera’s slower side.

So why do I say “yes and no” as to whether this album lives up to the hype? Well, because across the span of many websites and circles, Vulgar Display of Power is actually not rated insanely high, usually sitting around the “great album, but no masterpiece” numbers. And that’s exactly what it is, simply an unprecedented, flawed, off-center punch in the face like no other. It is unabashedly itself; no masterpiece, but a very vulgar display of power that you can’t look away from, and will certainly never forget.

Another one of those “did it first” albums that in my opinion doesn’t live up to the hype its legacy implies. Aside from Anthrax’s “I’m the Man” and a couple Faith No More songs (if we’re being generous), there really wasn’t much Rap Metal prior to RATM, and certainly not a full album of it. The band certainly took a unique approach and recreated Hip-Hop using entirely real Rock instrumentation and original music, even using some guitar effects to mimic sound effects you might hear in traditional Hip Hop. It’s innovative, but a lot of those “guitar sound effects” end up sounding really annoying, like the siren whine on “Fistful of Steel” or the bass drops on “Township Rebellion.”

Zack sounds angry, and his delivery is good, but man some of the lyrics are weak. Oftentimes he’ll repeat a phrase over and over, and the chorus to the first song gives you a sense of that, where he just says “burn, burn, yes you’re gonna burn” a whopping 8 times. The guitars and the drums suffer the same problem. Sometimes Tom comes up with a decent riff, but after hearing it repeated 16 times over a very boring, monotonous drumbeat, I’m sick of it. The riffs don’t match Zack’s mood, either; they’re far more groovy than angry, and the slow, simple drumming gives no sense of urgency or energy to what /should/ be an angry, energetic album. The music sounds like something to chill out to, not exactly what you want for a revolution. The songs are also way longer than necessary, none under 4 minutes and repeating the same simple ideas over and over again. They’d be much better in short chunks, but they wear themselves out before they’re over.

One huge plus to this album is the bass. Timmy does a phenomenal job with his rhythmic groove, doing way more than backing the band and adding super spicy melodies to the mix. This is the one instrument I didn’t find repetitive at all; he’s definitely got a “lead bassist” thing going on.

Overall, not a bad album at all, but one of the most overrated in my opinion. Rap Metal is a genre that might not have too much room to succeed, but I’d love to see later bands take it in a different direction.

One of the more interesting Death Metal albums I’ve heard. Messiah actually have a knack for sounding quite different on each album, while still sounding very “them”, and that’s no different here. After coming off of the amazing “Choir of Horrors,” this album is a bit of a disappointment for anyone thirsting for more of those amazing aggressive riffs. I think that expectation hurts the perception of this one, and I’ll admit on first listen I was quite let down. However, this one’s a grower with some great depth.

Speaking to the musical “issues” first, this one is very rhythm focused. Gone are the multitude of sharp lead riffs from the prior album. The guitarwork here is almost all rhythm, with simple but speedy chords acting as a crushing weight to the atmosphere. There’s a subtle complexity to the rhythm, structures and songwriting that help fill the space left by less lead work. It’s a different approach than most Death Metal bands at the time, for sure.

Where does this thing really grab me? Well, it’s actually a concept album about mental illness, told through the stories of a few scenarios, and it’s very gripping and well done. The language itself is pretty dated at this point (and it was written by non-native English speakers) but it was a time where mental illness was still quite stigmatized and unknown, so there’s no blaming that. The topics and actual messages of these songs are phenomenal. Raped Bodies is my favorite, as it details the psychological impact of a parent’s addiction, spousal abuse and divorce on a child, followed by social alienation and eventually culminating in acting out in sexual violence. It’s incredibly accurate to how adverse child experiences effect someone, and with no real internet at this time, it’s clear they went out of their way to do actual literature research. It absolutely talks about mental illness in a dark and graphic way, but it also explores the flaws in society's thinking and perceptions of the mentally ill. The writing truly captivated me on this one.

Apparently, most people don’t listen to metal for the lyrics. I will just say, you may be missing out on more than you know…

An interesting transition from their previous attempts at mainstream universal appeal, but an appropriate reinvention for a self-titled album. “Loudness” is, in my opinion, their best release since the legendary underground masterpiece “Disillusion.” This album returns to their riff and solo driven Heavy Metal of old, mostly forgoing catchy anthems in favor of more aggressive edge and musical substance.

There’s a great variety of midtempo groove and speedy aggression. The plodding “Love Kills” has a riff heavier than concrete, and album closer “Firestorm” is easily the fastest thing they’ve ever done. The flow of the album usually has faster numbers complimenting the slower ones and works very well.

The lineup changes here have to be addressed because they bring some great changes. Filling in for bass is Taiji – THE Taiji – of X Japan fame, and yeah, it’s noticeable. As long as you’ve got decent listening equipment, you can hear that bass throwing out groovy melodies the whole time, and it’s wonderful. New vocalist Masaki Yamada has what may be considered an “acquired taste” vocal style, which is an aggressive, strained, and accented style. However, it fits the more aggressive musical style here, and he is very good at English, not only speaking, but writing. The lyrics to this one are far darker than anything Loudness have done before, and very well written, with some interesting topics such as the cruelty of animal testing on “Slaughter House.”

Possibly their best album yet, a real recapturing of their Japanese identity after their mixed attempts to sounds western.

A lot of really good ideas and unique aspects to this album that were groundbreaking at the time. Probably most later Industrial Metal bands used this thing as a blueprint. The speedy, riff-focused parts of this are great, like Tv 2 and Hero, which rip along at chainsaw shredding speed. Al usually sounds good, which a very gruff yet nasally yell that is no doubt processed with some distortion.

What really ruins this album for me is the insane repetitiveness, especially in the annoying samples. Most of the songs here have parts where some vocal sample is repeated about 16 times, and it’s abundant with random shout or spoken samples that are thrown in at the rate of a snare drum. On the same note, even when the guitar riffs and rhythm section are good, it quickly goes stale after the same measure has been repeated about 32 times. There’s very little variety to each track, making each one more or less based around one repetitive section.

The title track is an example that almost uses samples well, specifically the choir vocals that add an epic touch to it, but then the rest of the track falls into the same habit of throwing in voices and what not so much that it just becomes annoying. Despite the abundance of interesting and unique ideas here, it’s something I have no desire to revisit because of how annoying it can be.

It grooves, it jams, and it sounds like the dudes are having a lot of fun. Tracks bounce back and forth between halfway energetic rockers to total lethargic chill tunes, probably dependent on whether the band members were drunk or high at the time. The songs kinda do their thing for anywhere between 1 and 7 minutes, and eventually the whole thing is over.

For me, quite boring. Riffs and vocals are generic, and rhythm section may as well not be there, just doing the basic minimum to back the tracks most of the time. There’s no mood or passion to it, they just jam in a rather repetitive way until they get bored and start a new track. The more conventional songs are just a step away from Grunge, which isn’t a good thing to my ears.

I can see people enjoying this the same way one would rock out to some butt rock, but unfortunately I’m not one of those people.

It’s not really Drone Metal, it’s more like Sludge Metal and Drone for the most part kept separate. Anyway, aside from adding 10 minute feedback sections to their album, it sounds like what Melvins have been doing for a while now; monotonous, generic Sludge Metal. I will say there are times where the guitars die down and the bass provides some nice undertones, but most of it is quite boring. The 10 minute drone section is also entirely a chore, with nothing interesting going on at any time.

Melvins continue to make abrasive, experimental albums that are simply not for me.

An interesting development in the discography of the mad maniac John Zorn. While the previous Naked City albums were pure Avant-Garde Jazz and Grindcore, this one has a healthy dose of Classical and Ambient sensibilities. Of course, these are all created with the same ensemble of instruments as far as I can tell, so it’s usually a dissonant hum, but certainly interesting to hear this group cover composers such as Debussy.

The rest is classic Naked City, and I’m not sure giving this the Avant-Garde Metal title is truly deserved. It’s a bizarre affair, that’s for sure, but as most tracks are short, different elements are usually kept separate as opposed to woven together, making this a very eclectic collection of songs rather than a unique genre that ties them all together.

If you like John Zorn’s mad rambling music, you’ll surely like this. If not, you might appreciate some of the Classical stuff, so it’s worth a shot.