SilentScream213's Reviews
I can’t tell if this is a transitional album yet cause I haven’t heard anything they released after, but on Somewhere Far Beyond, Blind Guardian really start to lean into more modern sounding cheesy melodic Power Metal. They’ve still got their thrashy Speed Metal edge, but a much larger focus is put on keyboards/synths and the general epic atmosphere. There’s also quite a variety of styles present, even in individual songs.
Most of the tracks here are magnificent; catchy yet fierce, energetic yet anthemic. I really like the vocals too, having a rough edge of aggression most of the time, but easily hitting smooth melodic notes when he needs to. Guitars, bass, drums, keys; all splendid, adding great flavor to the mix.
My huge complaint with this album is the amount of useless filler. Out of the ten tracks, two are pointless interludes that add nothing to the album, and the first Bard Song is an acoustic song that just isn’t up to par. Acoustic ballads can be beautiful, but this one is missing that special something and just ends up breaking the flow of the album. The bonus tracks, which are actually usually included in main releases, are great tracks that definitely add to the album in my opinion.
Unfortunately not as consistent as previous releases, but many of the tracks here are absolute top-notch Power Metal.
With the turn of the 90’s, guitar-hero-lead Neoclassical Metal was one of the many Metal styles to see a sharp decline in both quantity and quality. Impellitteri’s sophomore album “Grin and Bear It” is unfortunately not an exception, but rather a testament to that fact.
Grin and Bear It manages to be the top Neoclassical Metal album of the year by this fact alone. While Impellitteri’s debut not only had very memorable guitar leads, it also was commanded by the legendary Graham Bonnet on vocals. New vocalist Rob Rock does a good job and even has a similar sound to Bonnet, but he can’t match the man when it comes to crafting earworm hooks and interesting lyricism. Impellitteri himself is still putting out impressive solos and riffs, but similarly, they just aren’t very memorable. There’s also a lot less “power” on this one compared to the debut, and it sounds more in line to hit some commercial success (though I’m sure it never did).
One plus is that the production is much better than the debut, which was a mess for no good reason. None of the songs are bad by any means either, it’s just nothing to write home about. The track “Power of Love” is an easy cut above the rest, with some classic Power Metal sensibilities to it.
Though a legendary album now, Darkthrone’s A Blaze in the Northern Sky would have been a total shock to anyone previously following the band. Their debut was straight Death Metal, and though it did have a focus on melodies and cold atmospheres, other than that it had very little in common with this creature. I can only guess they started listening to Bathory and decided to go that route, cause I hear Bathory influence all over this. The biggest difference is instead of epic Vikings, the theme is Pagan winters.
A Blaze in the Northern Sky is just 6 long tracks filled with very competent Black Metal, consistent in quality from start to finish, and without many surprises. This is probably considered a landmark release in 2nd wave Black Metal due to its melodic tendencies and lyrical themes that steer away from Satanism. Interestingly, the production sounds a bit worse than their first album, maybe done intentionally to capture that authentic Black Metal sound. My favorite aspect here is the drumming, which is incredibly varied and has much more precision than most Black Metal at the time. The drummer knows when to drop into Doom territory and when to go all out, and does it all very well.
For me, I’ll say that while it is a great album, it didn’t live up to its hype. There’s nothing incredibly unique about it, and to me it’s just a Black Metal version of their debut – strong and competently played, but ultimately unmemorable. Definitely a great listen for that nocturnal winter feel though.
Jealousy has always been a hard album for me to rate. The dilemma starts with the fact that a lot of X Japan’s most mediocre material is on this album. That’s not to say any of it is bad – most is actually still great, considering this is X we’re talking about – but this album is not consistent.
I will disclose that nostalgia has rendered many of these more mediocre songs incredibly enjoyable for me now, but there’s no denying the weaknesses here. Desperate Angel and Joker are kind of odd rockers, kind of commercial but lacking any real hooks or staying power. There are 3 instrumentals here, the first track being a beautiful example, but the others are rather take or leave. And then there’s Voiceless Screaming, a beautiful acoustic track which is a very fine song, but most will probably find it about 3 minutes too long.
There’s about half an album left now…
Miscast is an all-around solid track with some fantastic riffs and solos. It’s not their most unique song, but it’s just really good for what it is; a hard rocking melodic riff fest. Stab Me in the Back, on the other hand, is some much-needed energy and aggression for the album. Apparently written years earlier, this track is straight up Thrash Metal, up there with Orgasm as their heaviest and fastest material yet. For fans of their earliest work, this song is a highlight.
So what could possibly hold this all together and warrant such high marks?
Bookending Jealousy are not just the best songs on the album, but (for me at least) among the greatest songs ever written, bar none. Silent Jealousy is one of the earliest (and still most well-done) marriages of actual classical string composition and fast, aggressive metal. Silent Jealousy somehow manages to sound like both a ballad and a thrashing speed metal masterpiece. It is quite simply one of the most powerful displays of sorrow there ever has been, as the track laments about Jealousy, yes, but more specifically what seems like unrequited love. Every musician plays along at lightning speed, breaking their back for over 6 minutes straight, yet the entire song carries a tone of melancholic beauty. This is true catharsis, the exorcising of pain through sweat and art, finally turning it into beauty.
The first time I listened to this album way back when, I remember hoping the closer would be some energetic thrasher or something because the album had been so slow. Beautiful, but slow, and lacking the edge of their previous albums. Well, I didn’t get what I wanted, because Say Anything is an 8 minute ballad finishing off with that theme of unrequited love. Even now, I struggle to find the words for this song. X Japan have written many ballads, almost all of them being top class, heart-rending beauty that plays off that Japanese cheese so well. This one is my favorite of them all, and I could never do justice to it trying to explain the eloquence of the actual compositions. What I can say, is that it captures this feeling of “unrequited love” better than any other song, better than any attempted explanation of the phenomenon in any medium I’ve yet found. Elegant, lovely, fragile, vulnerable, painful. The song is a masterpiece on its own, but for anyone who has experienced this feeling, it is a flawless embodiment of one of the most painful experiences a human can go through.
Closing statement:
“I believed if time passes,
everything turns into beauty
If the rains stops, tears clean
the scars of memory away
Everything starts wearing fresh colors
Every sound begins playing a heartfelt melody
Jealousy embellishes a page of the epic
Desire is embraced in a dream
But my mind is still in chaos
and...”
One of those albums where everything just feels off… except after repeated listens, I have determined this to be quite intentional, and done in the best way.
You see, Voivod get bored easily, and they had already been down many musical avenues, and pushed the limits of music (and their own abilities) multiple times. On Killing Technology, they showcased the extent of how fast, aggressive, and technical they could play. On the following Dimension Hatross and Nothingface, they were at the forefront of slightly avant-garde Progressive Metal, making albums quite bizarre in musical structure, showcasing complex songwriting ability. And now we have Angel Rat, which at first listen just sounds like them giving up on trying to prove anything anymore. Only faint glimpses of their progressive technicality remain on what is almost a poppy, Post-Punk inspired Alternative Metal album.
I was disappointed at first, as I think anyone would be. But something about the album kept me coming back, and I realized something. Voivod have transcended using technical speed or complex songwriting. They are taking the term “progressive” to a new frontier here, and focusing on creating very complex, ever changing MOODS. If you can imagine a mood having an odd time signature, this is absolutely it. Every song here, despite having relatively simple instrumentation and structure, jumps between some of the most schizophrenic, bipolar moods I’ve ever heard, all without janky start-stop instrumental tricks. The songs flow as smoothly as pop songs, and although the instrumentation can actually be quite intense and complex at times, you wouldn’t really know it without focused listening.
They place the most normal tracks at the beginning. As long as you weren’t listening to the lyrics (which are beyond strange) you could convince yourself that the first 5 tracks were all normal, though they just don’t sound right for some reason… And were those double bass Thrash beats playing under the chorus at the end of Clouds in My House? That’s right, this IS a metal album after all, and don’t forget it!
Track 6, Twin Dummy, is where you could no longer convince yourself this album is normal. The way Snake anxiously yells “The circus left without me!” and then sinisterly muses “And I’m alone with you now…” is unnerving to say the least, especially surrounded with off-kilter lyricism about carousels, dummies, and whatnot. From here on out it becomes more obvious that there is something wrong with this album.
The title track, Angel Rat, capitalizes this best. The opening line “The idiot walks along the canvas…” as Snake then paints a dark and unnerving picture much like the album cover. Gloomy, ominous chords and soft spoken vocals shake through this hideous landscape of darkness and hopelessness… and then a sugary sweet, smooth chorus kicks in about how nice flying away would be. At first this chorus kind of ruined the song for me, but after sitting with it, I totally get it. The figure in the song is an idiot precisely because they still have this innocent, childlike hope of flying away from this horrid picture. Yet they are painted into the canvas just as everything else is. They are stuck there for eternity. The question “rat or angel, does one really know?” is such an interesting comparison. They aren’t comparing good or evil. They’re comparing something significant, powerful, and bright, with a wholly insignificant pest (that cannot fly, mind you). The song is a masterpiece in cryptic writing and mood distortion, and the rest of the album walks the same line.
There are a couple other factors that make this album work so well. For one, I’ve always maintained that Snake’s yells are much better than his singing, and that was a big reason why Voivod’s duo of Prog albums weren’t as great for me. But here, Snake’s vocals are perfect. Not that he’s improved much, no… rather, his shaky, strained voice works wonders for the kind of atmosphere they’re going for here. He’s got an anxious tone to his voice that shines through even during the poppy choruses, and this makes them catchy but never anthemic. Even when he sings smoothly, like in Clouds in My House or Angel Rat, it just doesn’t sound right, and that is precisely why this album succeeds in such simple verse chorus format. The drumming is another fantastic element here. Usually it’s pretty simple, but never boring, and best of all, more than occasionally it just breaks out into full on double bass metal beats. However, the drumming is pushed low in the mix so that it never overpowers the music, and it really serves as another backbone of hidden elements you wouldn’t appreciate unless you listened intently for it. Layered guitar melodies, vocal harmonies and atmospheric soundscape textures work the same, hidden at first listen but uncovered after due attention.
This album is a massive grower and has so much to offer to those willing to delve into the depths of its dark, demented canvas. Voivod have successfully taken progressive music to a new level!
Blows my mind that Ray Alder isn’t considered one of the canon greats of metal vocalists. The music here is technical and complex Prog Metal, but the vocals are total AOR a la Queensryche. Ray’s range is very impressive, he can hit incredibly high registers without getting pitchy or strained, and carry a passionate weight all the while. The way he harmonizes with himself are flawless, and again making comparisons to Queensryche, the choruses on this thing are catchier than the vast majority of Pop music. The lyrics aren’t shallow by a longshot, but pretty clearly revolve around feelings of lost human connection, letting go, and moving on. Or in Pop terms, breakup songs.
Probably an odd way to praise a Prog Metal album by immediately comparing it to Pop music and focusing on the vocals, but whatever. The songwriting is quite similar to the prior Perfect Symmetry, but it’s a bit simpler in structure and with better production. There was an obvious emphasis on melody and catchiness when writing this one. Fates Warning certainly tread the softer side of the genre, but unlike Queensryche, the musicianship is very technical indeed, and simple choruses where the vocals can shine often give way to incredibly intricate verses and instrumental segments. Though most of the album is the simple Rock ensemble of instruments, layering and production effects ensure a depth to the sound that reveals more with each listen.
While every song here is fantastic, I will admit the ending tracks are weaker, except for “We Only Say Goodbye” which is a Pop Prog masterpiece. Probably my favorite song by the band by this point, the lyricism and emotion in Alder’s voice play over simple yet evocative guitar lines that pull every heart string. Such a beautifully passionate song that is sad yet strong. Like much of this album, really. Despite how catchy and melodic it is, “Parallels” is a truly somber package, best enjoyed when you are reeling from loss but still want to sing along to some good music.
As far as I’m concerned, this is Sepultura’s magnum opus. They still had the energy, aggression, and razor-sharp riffs, and here it met with fully competent musicianship and perfect production.
The album opens with what is probably Sepultura’s best song to date, with that unmistakably intense lick that sounds like it’s about to shred the strings right off the guitar. In an interesting move, Sepultura start and finish the album with the two fastest and shortest songs on it. Some of the tracks in between are much longer and quite a few almost delve into Groove Metal territory, hinting at their future. However, there is never a lack of riffs, and the rhythm section especially keeps the energy high and the pace interesting even when things slow down.
Sepultura kind of lost me after this album. Most people love Chaos A.D., but for me they lost their magic when they slowed down. This record and all preceding it are just so angry, so effectively evoking that manic rage. After they slowed down, they stopped conveying their core emotion so well. You can hear the rage in these riffs… that’s what is important. The music has feeling. Here, that feeling finally culminates into the album they’ve been trying to write for years, and it’s a masterpiece.
Master’s Hammer’s debut is a surprisingly melodic package of classic Black Metal material. Somewhat similar to Bathory’s transitioning stages as they add elements of “epic” sound with synthed choirs, but always stay strictly in first wave Black Metal territory. The band really lean into simple melodic leads, and they work the hell out of it. Every track has got some really memorable riffs despite them being quite simple and containing just a few notes. The drumming is actually a few levels above the other instruments, containing a nice variety of groovy Heavy Metal beats and classic Black Metal blast beating.
The band had plenty of time to perfect their craft with multiple demos and EPs, but this is still technically a debut, and a great one at that. Ritual isn’t the most unique album in the scene, but everything about it is executed extremely well, and the album is a fun, epic, evil ride. Not mind-blowing, but there are really no weaknesses to this thing, a classic example of melodic first wave Black Metal.
Savatage’s first attempt at a full on Rock Opera is mostly successful. The sound mostly picks up right from the more operatic parts of Gutter Ballet. They turn up the cheese, usually working well with it as they always have. The highs here are magical; Tonight He Grins Again is one of their finest songs ever, and Believe is a great ballad and closer.
The issue here is the same as many other overlong concept albums. At 16 tracks and almost 70 minutes, there is a lot of filler. The first half particularly struggles to deliver as many of the songs are kind of just fun rockers, which is not Savatage’s niche (The only ballad on this half, A Little Too Far, is their worst ever). The second half leans more into the melodic balladry they’re so good at, picking up a nice melancholic tone that brings it home nicely. The lyrics are good, but the story itself really isn’t all that compelling, as it’s just a rock star who got fame, hit rock bottom, got back to rocking… We’ve heard it a million times.
Overrated, especially compared to their other albums, but still holds many gems.
Iced Earth’s sophomore album is where they aced their style of epic, thrashy Power Metal. The album is a concept about a man fed up with religion who receives power from the devil and leads a sort of crusade against humanity, plunging the world into darkness, before finally losing his mortal soul to the devil after all is done. It’s a well written story with a decent variety of songs that back up each chapter. None of the musicianship or songwriting is mind-blowing, but it’s certainly very strong, and the rhythm section puts down some quite unique (for the time) beats.
I feel I should enjoy this album more than I do, but despite the awesome concept and genre being right up my ally, it just doesn’t strike home. The riffs are very rhythmic and unmemorable, somehow they are missing both the edge of Thrash as well as the melody of Power Metal. That aside it is very great stuff, a strong concept album played in a style unique at the time.
One of those revered albums that I just don’t get. Soundgarden has been on the forefront of both the Grunge and Alt Metal movements, and consistently sprinkle in Stoner Metal influence to give themselves a groovy, but occasionally lethargic sound. Badmotorfinger is really where they get their act together, but despite playing in a still fresh genre, Soundgarden already have real trouble standing out.
The fact is, there isn’t anything in this album that grabs me. The riffs aren’t catchy nor are they sharp, just kind of groovy but without soul. The rhythm section is lethargic most of the time, and the vocals are classic yarl vocals that I personally don’t like at all. They don’t really go all out in any direction, sometimes it’s kind of anxious, sometimes it’s more chill, but it’s never doing anything stronger or better than contemporaries. The lyrics are just kind of there, and there aren’t any anthemic or memorable hooks. No memorable anything really.
It’s fine for what it is. I’m not a big fan of Grunge or Stoner so I’ve got my biases. I don’t dislike it at all, just don’t find anything in it worthy of the acclaim it gets.
Gothic is pretty much where Gothic Metal got it’s name and signature sound, especially the title track. Of course, the majority of this album isn’t actually Gothic Metal – rather straightforward Death Doom is the name of the game here. They add some female vocals and melodic lines every so often, but otherwise this is pretty stripped down and basic.
My favorite part of this album are actually Nick’s vocals. Those are some monstrous howls right there, and the heavy reverb ensure they create a great atmosphere on their own. I appreciate this one a lot more than when I first heard it, but I still see it as an overrated stepping stone simply leading the way to truly great Death Doom and Gothic Metal that other bands would perfect.
One of the first Metalcore bands, and perhaps the first to receive some real success, Integrity take a pretty standard Hardcore Punk approach and add some mean Crossover Thrash riffs and all around Metalcore heaviness. The vocals are transitioning from punk yells to the growls that inhabit metal. Lyrical themes are dark and the mood is a straightforward, angry bundle of energy.
The album is pretty damn simple and consistent, and with 15 tracks they all blend together by the end. Integrity do slow it down a fair bit which adds some variety, but for the most part every song sounds the same. No problem if you want some great Metalcore from the genre’s inception, but it's still a very primitive form of what the genre would become.
Following their mostly pure Groove release of Beg Differ, Prong evolve yet again into a rather different creature. On Prove You Wrong, the Alternative Metal elements are brought to the forefront, and some of it runs parallel to the budding Grunge/Alt Rock movement of the time. However, there’s also a large dose of Industrial Metal and Hardcore Punk, sometimes all in the same song. Prove You Wrong is a mishmash of a lot of genres, most of which were still quite young at the time, and they are pulled off well enough.
As far as the quality of the music, it’s mostly good stuff, though nothing really jumps out as being amazing or anything. There’s a nice variety in sound and style to keep things interesting, but a lack of any great riffs or catchy hooks. Probably more just for hard fans of the genre.
Old took a huge leap on this one. Their debut album was a generic Grindcore album that attempted and mostly failed at being edgy and humorous. This is… an Avant-Garde Industrial Metal album with hints of Grindcore, Progressive Metal, and general insanity…
This album is not only much weirder and more unique, but just generally much better. The playing is solid, songwriting is interesting and varied, and the production is much stronger. A great example of a joke band getting serious and making something both interesting and awesome. This thing is filled with manic energy and mutated dystopian future vibes, all done very well. Not always my cup of tea, but always at least preformed with strong execution.
Kyuss’ debut album is an incredibly generic affair even though it helps set the stage for a new genre of metal. They aren’t really doing anything super unique though, just making the already existent Stoner Rock a bit heavier. Some of the songs have some really fun, groovy riffs and rhythms, namely the first two tracks and the beginning of “The Law.” Unfortunately, “the Law” is a nearly 8-minute track that cannot hold that momentum for even a fraction of it’s runtime.
Therein lies a huge problem here; though it has its moments, every song is overlong and repetitive, and for some reason, usually repeating boring chords as opposed to the riffs that are actually good. The songwriting is very standard, the lyrics suck, and the vocals are annoying. Even if you like “fun” metal, I don’t see this doing too much. Not bad by any means, but not to my taste.
Basically a worse and more disgusting version of Primus. They get props in that they sounded totally unique, perhaps even to this day. Even for Avant-Garde metal, this is really weird stuff. Not that this came out of nowhere – the band had been putting together demos and EPs of Avant-Garde Funk Metal for a few years, making them unequivocally pioneers of this style of music.
The thing about this album is that every aspect of it – from the vocals, to the lyrics and humor, to the disjointed, eclectic songwriting and sound – are all acquired tastes. Very strong flavors that you either love or hate. For fans of the bizarre and “out there,” this is quite frankly a treasure trove of unique ideas and execution. For me, it’s just a lot of things that I don’t enjoy meshed together into a long, messy record.
Death continue pushing towards increasingly technical music here, and interestingly retain the more melodic style of riffs and leads found on Spiritual Healing. From the first song “Flattening of emotions,” we get some riffs that sound less like “hell infernal evil” and more like “humanity is suffering.” There’s real depth here, and daresay mood and emotion as well. I do believe Death was responsible for influencing melodeath on this and their previous album, which is why I prefer them to the straight OSDM “Leprosy.”
Schuldiner’s lyrics and vocals reach a more mature point, and his guitar playing is top class. The rest of the band, especially drummer Sean Reinert, really impress in managing to stand out next to Schuldiner here. The instrumental track is pretty weak in comparison to the rest, but the album still manages to be a masterpiece easily run through front to back. So many amazing riffs that are carried by a great depth in both the songwriting and themes.
That opening title track instantly takes you to the very dark yet epic world of Viking Metal, as crafted by underground metal gods Bathory. Strained, raspy vocals are in full choir support, and a slow and steady pace takes you into the martial atmosphere of the now abandoned gods. Riffs take a backseat to sustained power chords and rather melodic solos, as the atmosphere is integral here. Acoustic passages abound, capturing a folky feel throughout. It’s a truly epic monster of a track.
The rest of the album does pretty much that, except not as well. It’s a pretty consistent affair of long tracks, most being pretty slow and simple, all good for an awesome trip into the Viking’s realm. Personally, I still miss the speed and aggression of the pre-Hammerheart days, and the monotonous tempo gets tiring to me. Regardless, a very fine piece of work.
As far as pushing progressive themes like technicality, odd-time signatures, and intensely difficult musicianship, Atheist pretty much took the crown when they dropped Unquestionable Presence. They took elements from Watchtower in general and Death’s most technical moments and shot it all up to 11. Every song is one of those multi-movement marvels where so much is going on and it changes so often that your mind is constantly struggling to grasp it. People say there’s a Jazz influence here – maybe, but I don’t think that was intentional. Atheist never stray into chaotic or improvisation territory, as everything is so exact it’s almost the antithesis to Jazz.
The mind-boggling music of the album does have a weakness though. Personally, I prefer Atheist’s debut, Piece of Time, for one simple reason; it was riff-focused. It still had a ton of extremely technical work, but first and foremost they had awesome and memorable riffs. Unquestionable Presence, for all it’s power and might, fails to grab me with any significant moments. Over 20 listens on and I still couldn’t tell you one song from another. At least this complexity assures the album will always be enjoyable front to back, never in danger of burning itself out.
Good god. Death Metal was born in the late 80’s, but most of that stuff isn’t a huge leap away from extreme Thrash and Black metal of the same decade. Even the albums that had broken from carrying clear Thrash influence still sound like a genre in development. This beast sounds like it could have been released yesterday.
Entombed took one step back and two forward. They slowed down a bit, and instead of trying to outdo their peers with technical prowess or blistering intensity, dug themselves a grave and adopted a truly sepulchral sound. Insanely downtuned guitars with a sludgy buzz sound like they’re cutting through a murky swamp, while the rhythm section lays tight and varying beats that pound at a steady mid-tempo (by extreme metal standards). The vocals are the deepest growls laid to record by 1990, and there is a very cold, grave atmosphere that runs somewhat contrary to the genre’s roots in hellfire. The blue cover could play into this as much as the band’s icy homeland – but this is unmistakably the closest to true, cold death that Death Metal had ever gotten at the time
Back in 1990, making a sullen, introspective USPM album was certainly new ground in itself. Sanctuary’s small dosages of technicality and prog along with a pinch of Thrash in both the vocal delivery and riffs further make this a standout release for the time. Indeed, you could certainly call this thinking man’s metal, with its more philosophical approach to the genre.
Underneath all that though, it’s not pretentious in the slightest. It’s just very competent USPM with some fantastic riffs and melodies, good vocal performance and lyrics, and always interesting rhythm section. It’s not exactly mind-blowing music, but everything comes together here quite perfectly, and it has a very fresh sound to it even now. Every track is top quality, not a minute of wasted space, what more could you want.
Another one of the biggest shocks of the 90’s. Sleaze metal losers Pantera decide to reinvent themselves as some sort of cowboy metal saviors, become about 3 times as heavy and start cranking out sludgy mid-tempo riffs as if they’d been doing it all along. The drumming, despite being the same guy as always, takes on a much different flavor here, making way more use of double pedals, Thrash beats and occasionally some technical prowess as well. Phil’s vocals evolve from the generic Glam croon of the last album into some rancid, dehydrated desert monster hell bent on ripping your face off.
All in all it’s just one of those huge wtf transitions that somehow went from the worst aspects of machismo in music to the best. There is little substance here, but there’s some great fun and ass kicking music that was without peer in 1990.
Nothing Megadeth did in the 80’s really struck me as all that amazing (no, not even Peace Sells…) but Rust in Peace is almost as incredible as the legends tell.
Megadeth has long avoided my praise due half to Dave’s poor vocals and lyricism and half to the total absence of real feeling in the otherwise impressive playing. Here, the band improve their already strong technique to enter Tech Thrash territory at times, but much more importantly they add a heavy dose of intelligent and evocative melodies that serve the song instead of simply showcase talent. The first few tracks have earworm riffs for days, just galloping one after another, only stopping for equally fantastic solos.
Dave’s vocals aren’t good here, however, he has found the sweet spot in making them work with the music, and most of the time they work really well. Holy Wars is the best example, as he switches between angry snarling about government, to a rough, desperate croon that actually sounds pained when playing the role of The Punisher lamenting what he’s been through. His voice doesn’t always hit right, but here it works much better and more often than anything they’d done prior. The lyrics range from very good to not so great, but they almost always manage to be better than the shallow words of their 80’s output.
There’s so much energy and good technique that even the weaker songs on the album are quite good. However, it is certainly a glaring weakness that side A is so, so much better than side B. Once you get halfway through, you’ve very little to look forward to in comparison of the awe-inspiring material that starts you off. In terms of high points though, this album reaches heights that are absolutely deserving of its praise.
Painkiller. I don’t think anyone saw this coming from Judas Priest, one of the tamer metal bands, some 20 years into their career. I can’t imagine the insanity this caused when it dropped in 1990.
I can only look at it now. And now even now, it remains an absolute beast of melodic Speed Metal with more than a few of the genre’s most memorable riffs ever put to record. Halford’s iconic voice becomes a shredding cry here on a much different level than he had ever done before. The drumming flows into Power Metal territory with its constant double bass pummeling, and the guitars weave intense melodies that flirt with Thrash but lean more towards epic stylings rather than dark. And yet, the music and vocals are very aggressive, but almost upliftingly so. Perhaps triumphantly is a better word, as this album is a remarkable triumph of metal and indisputably Judas Priest’s finest hour.
Yngwie begins the new decade with his most mainstream release yet. It’s a pretty smooth transition from Odyssey – the AOR and simplicity turned up a bit. It starts off pretty dull, and a good portion of the tracks are unmemorable anthems. The lyrics are quite poor, though they’ve never been great.
It’s not all bad, though – Eclipse is the first album where Yngwie uses his guitar to start layering simple yet effective melodies in almost New Age style. They play off keys and vocal harmonies, and there are some moments where all the sound comes together in really nice ways. Vocalist Göran Edman actually steals most of the songs, as for once Yngwie doesn’t do a whole lot of shredding and soloing. I won’t lie, these songs are about as uninspired and passionless as radio pop, but Göran certainly doesn’t lack ability, and he’s got a few fantastic hooks here. The album also ends with a string of really strong material, meaning it leaves a poor first impression, but a much stronger lasting one. I liked it more with each listen.
Overall – some of his worst, but also some of my favorite material from Yngwie.
Trouble’s self-titled is considered the band’s best work, but I consider it a large step back. To be clear, it’s still one of the best Trad Doom albums of its era, but that’s partly the problem. The Skull and Run to the Light were making bounds and leaps towards true Doom – the depressing, emotional atmosphere, the crushing riffs… They were certainly the closest the 80’s came to true Doom, and they were masterpieces.
Trouble is simply the band falling back into groovy Trad Doom territory. The progress of their last few albums is thrown aside in favor of a more “fun” traditional album. The songwriting is simplified, and there’s more focus on vocal melodies. Lyrics tend to be somber, but the delivery isn’t. In fact, it sounds like the band’s having a great time. Good for them, but I don’t want my Doom to sound like that!
All those gripes aside, I have to reiterate it’s probably the best pure Trad Doom put to record by the turn of the decade. Songs are interesting, varied, and fun. Eric Wagner sounds better than ever, though I prefer his more desperate delivery on earlier releases.
The first real Metalcore album is, quite surprisingly to me, a fully mature and realized work of fantastic material. Usually when genres are just starting out, they go through a rough patch before hitting a sweet spot… not Rorschach. Rorschach aced the game day 1, and though the production is rough, the songwriting and musicianship are strong. Lyrically, Rorschach set the bar very high, and they take the conscious social lyrics of Hardcore Punk and give them a very dark, metallic edge that results in some seriously grim yet sharp writing.
The album is extremely short, and all the better for it. 12 tracks of dissonant aggression with simple but effective melodies is over in a flash with many songs under 2 minutes. Rorschach say an awful lot in that span, and leave an impact strong enough to birth a new genre, though they don’t seem to get this credit and remain strictly underground.
Psychotic Waltz’ debut album A Social Grace is a high-quality Prog Metal affair with nice splashes of Power Metal and Heavy Metal, and an overlying fantasy/philosophical nature to it. The technique and songwriting are above average, with each musician having a good amount of precision and skill to show off. There are also a decent amount of simpler, beautiful segments and speedy aggressive parts that break things up nicely.
As far as Prog Metal goes, it’s pretty generic, which is a fair bet for anything this old, but everything is done well and there are no weak tracks barring the interlude. Nothing groundbreaking, no masterpiece, but a very fine cut of metal indeed.
Primus help launch a new decade of metal with a release going against a lot of what 80’s metal was. Frizzle Fry was not exactly a parody album, but it combined silly and nonsensical themes, goofy vocals, and technical prowess.
Straight from your first glimpse of the cover, Frizzle Fry looks like an absolute joke. What you find inside is only halfway so, because in the songwriting and ability department, Primus take themselves very seriously. It’s no secret that it’d take a real expert to not only play, but come up with this stuff. There’s Math Rock and Experimental influence all over this thing. However, one thing Primus is not quite good at is writing a good riff, or a good guitar solo, or really anything musically memorable. The songs do their thing, dance around chaotically with some impressive technique and then leave nothing to remember them by.
The vocals, lyrics, and themes are a big weakness here for me. It’s all just too silly, never clever enough to make me laugh but annoying enough to take away from the music. The vocal style doesn’t make use of any nice hooks or melodies either, further instigating the issue of songs having no memorably strong moments.
Oof, this one is really something. Lard, as you might suspect from the name, are a crazy, sarcastic, quirky, and humorously aggressive mess of a beast. Vocalist Jello offers manic, almost parody-like commentary on real life going-ons in a bizarre but endearing vocal delivery. The band is pretty great, and despite being repetitive and simple, they create some awesome beats and razor cutting riffs that you don’t mind hearing looped. The album is delicious in the same way an excessively greasy, heart attack inducing burger might be. And thus the name fits…
Unfortunately, there’s way too much time here devoted to gimmick songs (Literally half the record time) that it can’t be great. When they do straightforward rocking, it’s awesome. When they do avant-garde novelty stuff, it’s just… bad.
Blasphemy released the first War Metal album in 1990 by mixing Black Metal’s thin production and dissonant riffing with mid tempo sections of meaty Death Metal and deeper growls akin to the later genre. Aside from the invention of a new subgenre, it’s really nothing special. The music is fine quality with some great riffs and impressive solos, the production is quite awful with drums obscuring most of it at times, and the whole package is relatively average.
It’s unfortunate how low the guitars are in the mix. I feel that with a better production job this album could be great, but the riffing here is about as audible as bass on a Grindcore album. An enjoyable album for a pure bestial mess of aggression, but no masterpiece.
Bathory (Quorthon) is the type of band that is always innovating. They managed to invent 2 completely original styles of metal, Black Metal with 1984’s Bathory, and Viking Metal 6 years later on Hammerheart. They toyed with this style on 88’s Blood Fire Death, and finally the genre came into fruition here.
While this album is amazingly unique for its time, I do find a slight step down from Blood Fire Death, which is odd because the bookend Viking Metal tracks of that album were my favorite. It turns out, slower paced epic Viking Metal doesn’t feel as powerful without a ton of Blackened Thrash pummeling you in between. Hammerheart has some truly epic songs that amaze (One Rode to Asa Bay is a masterpiece) but the majority of the material doesn’t leave me in the same awe as say, Blood Fire Death or A Fine Day to Die. Since this album is much more uplifting and much less dark, the riffs aren’t really evil or sinister; rather, they are just there. In all honesty, I can’t remember any notable riffs off the album, as it puts much more emphasis on atmosphere and Quorthon’s vocals. The rhythm section is slow and monotonous, but it does create a martial mood befitting the themes.
Off of those notes though, this is still a fantastic album, and Quorthon’s vocals are actually quite awesome. He’s evolved from a pure Black Metal shriek to what sounds like a haggard yell very capable of hitting and holding notes, which was necessary to make the jump from Black to Viking Metal. The atmosphere is effective and the backing vocals provide a great sense of grandeur to the whole package. The songs individually are not always Bathory’s greatest, but the album as a whole works very well due to these connecting themes.
Most people consider “Awaken the Guardian” to be Fates Warning’s shining moment, but the album that outshone everything else by miles to me is “Perfect Symmetry.”
Perfect Symmetry is the band’s transition from a fantastical, proggy almost-Power Metal band into a full fledged modern Progressive Metal band, and one of the first albums ever to conceptualize this sound. Gone are the tales of high fantasy and abandoned are the speedy and uplifting metal epics that iconized their earlier sound. Here, they have traded their swords and steeds in acceptance of the reality that the world is a cold, unfriendly place that eats dreamers alive. They have become part of a machine of finely tuned skill and technicality – here the whole band play incredibly complex parts, alone but in unison, creating a cacophony of different melodies and rhythms that never play against each other.
One mistake you could make in reading that is to think they have become technical cogs incapable of producing melodies of beautiful passion. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Vocalist Ray Alder commands his voice like an instrument, but never shies away from simply crying out the sorrows of being smothered in the constraints of modern society. The lyrics across the board sound like those of a man who dreamed of grandeur as a child, but had those dreams quashed by reality. The only options are to hold out a last shred of hope that tomorrow holds something new, or allow oneself to die internally in order to carry on.
The music knows exactly when to dance the lines between progressive technical showcasing, soft passages of pure beauty, or simply catchy melodies. The band does include some strings on a few tracks that harken back to their fantasy sound (interestingly, it’s the least bleak songs with this touch). The titles might also fool you into thinking they’re still a fantasy band – tracks like “At Fate’s Hands” sound entirely medieval in nature. In reality, the song is about being helpless to make your own way in a world where people are smothered to fit roles and voices of the common are not heard. The burden of a modern society is disguised by poetic and timeless words that could apply just about anywhere if not for the context of the album.
It is a jarring shift from their old sound. It’s probably not what fans wanted. It’s also entirely pessimistic, introspective and subtly conscious. To me, it’s the perfect album from Fates Warning.
White Zombie’s “Make Them Die Slowly” holds the title of best Groove Metal album of the 80’s… because it was the only Groove Metal album of the 80’s. Thrash and Alternative Metal undertones run through it, as does some Noise and Industrial influence. The music and production are both sub par, and the vocals range from tolerable to not so much. Every song is way too long for the amount of substance they offer. However, they do get some credit in that when the songs kick into faster and heavier territory, they are actually pretty damn good. Rob’s vocals play into this as well, as he’s much better when yelling angrily than trying to sing or do whatever else.
Well, that’s just the Thrash influence talking. The majority of this album is sub-par Groove. Probably influential, and still manages to be somewhat unique, but that doesn’t make it great.
As someone who much prefers Voivod’s true Thrash days, this is a hard album for me to rate. What Voivod were doing in their career with this and their previous album was pretty much unprecedented. No one had really combined Tech Thrash Prog Metal with weirdo avant-garde intricacies yet. Hell, there were barely any normal Prog Metal bands at the time. Voivod were already living in the 2000’s by the time they recorded Nothingface.
And yes, it is as interesting as it’s made out to be. Everything about it is odd in a very well done and endearing way. Never too odd to make it unapproachable (it was actually by far their catchiest album upon release) but always packing enough surprises to keep in interesting. The songs stand out with memorable riffs and some surprisingly catchy hooks, but they are all so odd that you never really get them memorized. There’s always something new to catch.
The weaknesses here are that there are a lot of start-stop tactics that just fracture the listening experience. They seem to change tempos and rhythms with the purpose of jolting you. Since they go for a much more melodic sound here, it’s really not enjoyable to be jolted and thrown when getting into some of the fantastic melodies and rhythms they lay down. Missing Sequences is a prime example of this; most of the song features speedy drumming and some of their best lead guitarwork to date, with some fantastic harmonized riffs. And then there are segments where everything just stops, ripping you from the trance they had crafted. Maybe to some this is an extra interest factor, but it takes away a lot for me.
Snake is also much better at doing harsh yells than singing. Another point their true Thrash days have over this.
Tormentor’s first release, despite being just as evil and disturbing as anything Bathory ever did, had a much larger focus on melody and conscious atmospherics (opposed to “atmosphere” via poor production). However, it was still rather weak despite these innovations, and also suffered from horrendous production.
Their next release, Anno Domini, still has an awful production job, but everything else about it is top notch. The riffs vary between shredding, buzzsaw Thrash and Black Metal leads almost melodic enough to be considered Melodic Black Metal. A couple songs make use of minimal keys and other atmospherics, and the vocalist does an amazing job snarling and screaming, but also enunciating very well despite his heavy accent. The musicianship is messy at times, but despite their limitations they are clearly pushing themselves to their total limit, churning out some really speedy and impressive stuff even if it kills them. With good production, this would be a flawless first wave Black Metal release, but the garbage sound drags it down.
World Downfall is by far my favorite Grindcore album of the 80’s. It’s become really clear to me why most Grindcore doesn’t do it for me while Terrorizer kicks ass.
1. I don’t like silly/humorous music, which a fair portion of Grindcore is. This means lyrically and sonically – Terrorizer is full of hardcore riffs and angry, pessimistic messages that mesh well with the chaotic, manic wall of aggression.
2. Unlike most Punk genres, if you want to play Grindcore, you have to know how to play your instruments… Doing everything as fast as physically possible without having some amazing technique and precision just sounds awful. Terrorizer is full of extreme talent and capability. They nail everything they aim for and always sound precise (save the vocalist… more on that later).
3. If you want to play Grindcore, you need decent production. If you’re just going hard on every instrument as aggressively as possible, and you don’t have some sort of production job that can individualize those instruments, it just sounds like noise. World Downfall has some very good production without compromising the grit or making it sound clean. There is no sheen to it; simply a very good job of making sure every awesome riff is still audible over those pounding drums, and the bass gets some great treatment too.
There is one huge weakness here, else it would be a near perfect grind record. The vocalist.
I know what people say, “you don’t listen to extreme music for the vocals! It’s for the riffs!” Never for a second have I felt that way, and never have I understood it. If vocals are present, they matter, and if lyrics are present, they matter. They are pieces of the art that forms the whole.
The vocalist here doesn’t have a bad sound, and the lyrics are fine. The written lyrics are fine. The words that come out of the vocalist’s mouth hit about 50% of what’s written, 40% of the time shout random words or syllables that are not understandable, and 10% of the time completely skips a verse or chorus and says absolutely nothing. There are no full sentences or lines, at best a few of the words are launched out, sometimes not even in order. It’s like the vocalist had never seen the lyrics before, they just gave him a paper while they jammed and he decided to wing it.
Imagine if any other band member did that with their instrument. The album would sound like absolute crap. Why do vocalists get a pass? Not from me. Really drags down an otherwise top-notch grind album.
Sepultura was already delivering top tier riffs on their sophomore Schizophrenia, but unfortunately that album was plagued by awful production. Max’s English wasn’t great either, resulting in some awkward delivery in some places. Here, Sepultura finally get to solid ground and bring all of the strengths they already had to a more professional release. The production here isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s leagues better than what they were working with before. The monstrous riffs are back, but the rhythm section opts to change things up here and there. Instead of nonstop Thrash beats, there are slower and more technical moments, hints of their future Groove sound, yet they never steep into boring or repetitive territory.
Beneath the Remains doesn’t sound too different from other Death tinged Thrash of the late 80’s, but Sepultura start to add a political, conscious message here that sets them apart from the Satanic imagery of other bands. Max finally gets his voice down and writes some good lyrics here. A prime example of the heavier end of Thrash, and one of the finest albums released at the end of the decade.
Running Wild are one of the earliest Power Metal bands around, starting as Speed/Heavy Metal but moving closer to true Power Metal by the end of the 80’s. With each release, they sailed further from mediocracy to uniquely speedy melodic pirate metal with delicious riffs and gruff but talented vocals. Death or Glory is the peak of their 80’s material and often cited as their magnum opus.
The opening track “Riding the Storm” is indeed possibly the finest Power Metal song that had been laid to record by 1989. The guitar leads weave melodic, infectious riffs around a constantly pummeling rhythm section that keeps the song at full energy the whole ride through. The vocal performance is just awesome. Never a dull moment in the epic rocking of over 6 minutes. The title track “Death or Glory” captures this in a similar vein. Though much shorter, the atmosphere is just as epic and powerful, and that chorus stands against the best. Two prime examples of what a perfect Power Metal song should be.
Unfortunately, while the rest of album is great, there’s nothing else that can really hold its own against the aforementioned tracks. It mostly just blends together as strong but unmemorable material. It’s also a bit of a problem when the album starts on its highest note and ends on its lowest (the slower “March On” leaves a bit to be desired and sounds like an arena rocker). Truly, Running Wild wrote some of the best Power Metal songs of all time, but Death or Glory as an album doesn’t quite match such standards.