ZeroSymbolic7188's Reviews
My favorite sub-genre of black metal is SDBM, but outside of that niche, Immortal is my favorite straightforward Black Metal band.
Pure Holocaust however is a far cry from my favorite album. I prefer the later stuff that actually has melodies and production values (Sons of Northern Darkness and later). I like how rather than leaning on a Satanist gimmick they instead created this whole world of Blashyrk and it's ruler Mighty Ravendark. I also like Abbath's solo efforts. This however, hits me like just another low-fi blast beat fest. There are a couple of things that save it from being total dumpster fodder. Love it or Hate it, nobody else sounds like Abbath... except Popeye the Sailor but Popeye never made any Black Metal. The other thing that I appreciate most is that this manages to be a well-respected album even by Black Metal purists, without mentioning Satan. There is hate, infernal imagery, and demons, but there is not a single lyrical reference to Satan or Hell. There are no cheap shots aimed at Jesus or Christianity, because even in their infancy Immortal are a more creative band than that. For me this earns them a second star out of pure respect. Unfortunately there is no Blashyrk or Mighty Ravendark on this album either. That comes later.
I'm gonna tell ya a story about a young ZeroSymbolic. I was born into a farming family, my father ran the cattle operation, and my Uncle ran the pig operation. Now for the hog operation there was a shed up on a hill where the hogs were kept, and they basically do two things-eat and shit. Now all that shit runs down a sewage tube that empties out into a field, and over time it creates a big shit pond. That tube is the source of this variety of black metal. Some people love rolling in the shit, and I would never spoil their good time, but it's not a good time for me. Killing people and nailing naked women to crosses for shock value doesn't make in any better. Maybe if the music was good we wouldn't need such theatrics to bring attention to it?
I see descriptions like "Atmospheric", and "Avante-garde", and I already don't want to do it. Then I read the other reviews to know what I'm getting into.:
"it always caused me to lose my patience about halfway through no matter how many times I revisited it."
"Min tid skal komme is divided into two distinct parts, the atmospheric and drawn out first half, and the more uneasy and just flat out weird second half."
Now I'm so excited I almost shit myself. Well, let's get it over with...
Approximately 45 minutes later:
I want my fucking time back fam. Now, I've been criticized for not giving albums enough time and consideration, and not giving enough repeated listens, but fuck me mateys. Do you listen to a Lady Gaga, The Backstreet Boys, or Nicki Minaj album several times over just to make sure you "get it", or do you know what you like and don't like pretty readily? If you're being honest with yourself you know its the later. Just because something is tagged as being "Atmospheric", "Progressive", "Avante-garde", or "challenging" does not mean it is worth your time, and this piece of shit certainly isn't. I could go on and on, I thought about making a list of things you can do in 45 minutes that are better than this album, but then I'd still be spending time on this album.
This is a great sounding album with really great riffs. The problem is that they just go on, and on, and on. My guess is that they need to do this to make space for the vocals, but the vocals are in Norwegian, so I can't ride them through the monotony. This is the first offering from what goes on to be a legendary band. To this date they have 16 studio releases under their belts, and 8 Grammy WINS, not nominations but W's in the win the column, but I'm just rating this one. I'm going to guess this isn't the crown jewel of the bunch. I don't know their discography but I know that they become significantly more progressive over time, and they moved farther and farther away from what this album sounds like. Cut this thing in half, and then give me more fresh riffs to make up the length and we'd really have something here. As it stands the riffs are strong, but not stong enough to get away with for 10 minutes a pop.
The whole Emperor Schtick is that they added progressive and symphonic elements to the 2nd wave of black metal recipe. Now, if you follow my reviews and are familiar with my forum content, you will know that I absolutely hate symphonic metal. I like a little bit of keys and a violin in just the right place within the context of funeral doom, or DSBM and that's it. If I was being honest I would rate this album even lower, but if I did that the members of the band might burn down my local church and try to murder me. Two-stars it is, pretty generous ranking for a homophobic drummer during pride month no less. Yes Faust drummed on this album and yes he did stab a man to death for no other reason than that man was gay. He has to this date never apologized or showed remorse for this.
This is a tough one, because I admire a lot of things about this album. It manages to be progressive but not pretentious. It has very creative and sophisticated guitar work. It doesn't compromise it's black metal ethos while achieving those things either. It's somehow dark and brooding, black metal, and also really beautiful. Yet, I don't like it. This album to me is like looking at something that is objectively excellent, but not really desiring it. I cannot for the life of me put my finger on the element of this album that makes me feel so indifferent to it. This is a Lamborghini Diablo of a black metal album, the problem is that I'm a pick-up truck man.
Another album where the challenge is to say something fresh. I am not sure if fresh words will come but "lets find out". First and foremost this is a mandatory black metal album. The only reason I do not rate it higher is because Transylvanian Hunger exists and I like that album even more-it's flawless. What makes this so special you might ask? Well, countless bands in this genre try to create a frozen isolated atmosphere, but their feeble attempts just fall empty. This is how you do that kind of atmosphere the right way; this is every bit as cold and dissonant as anything else black metal has to offer, but it's also... fun and enjoyable to listen to. WHAT A CONCEPT! I think the difference here is that Darkthrone didn't set out with a formula to create that atmosphere, it was organic and just simply what came out of these musicians in 1992. The other ace up their sleeve is that they didn't throw away their punk rock energy. It's easy to forget that Black Metal has a lot of roots in aggressive punk-rock, but not on this album-it's the underpinning of all that chilly atmosphere. It is what is missing with a lot of the "atmospheric" black metal albums, and it is probably why so much of that stuff just sounds hollow to me.
If all that isn't enough go listen to "In the Shadow of the Horns" right now. It kicks all kinds of ass.
Also Fenriz is a fantastic human being in all of the ways that Varge sucks. It is a same that latter is more well known than the former.
The hype surrounding this album has got to have everything to do with the person who created it, and not it's sonic merits. The man who made it is a murderer and Neo-Nazi. If it was not for his involvement in Mayhem, the church burnings, the murder, and so on I don't think anybody would give a genuine shit about this, and if you think I'm trolling, find a review anywhere that is actually a review of the music without a lengthily exposition detailing Vikernes, his ideals, and his history. If I must be forced to endure a Burzum album, at least let it be Filosofem. That album has Dunkelheit, and that's a good song. This album is 45 minutes long. 14 minutes (so nearly a third of it) is just atmospheric keyboards. Wow, so heavy, so metal! Sorry, I'm not buying the mythos. This is shitty music crafted by a shitty human being, and I'm rating it for what it is. Go get your Pitchforks.
Well, it's Atmospheric Black Metal, so it sounds cold like walking through a forest covered in deep snow and ice. The problem is that there is absolutely no cohesion here. You will not come away from this album with any memorable riffs or stand out parts except maybe the little prayer section. No care was given to smooth transitions, melody, or anything really musical to be honest. Just throw everything in the cauldron and hope that it bubbles up something descent. You go into an album like this because of the atmosphere it creates. Well, I live in Michigan off of Lake St. Claire. I know what it feels like to be in a place that is cold, wet, and dark. If I want that atmosphere I'll just go outside and have the real thing. This doesn't do anything for me. It just transports me to a place I already live in 10 months of the year, and it's summer damn it! Let me enjoy the 2 weeks of sunlight we get per year.
Clan Challenge 4/25.
Let's get one thing straight about this album. If you are sitting down with a glass of wine, whiskey, or beer, hunched over your computer desk getting ready to write your magnum opus of a review, as I imagine a lot of people probably are when they do this, this album is not going to work for you.
This album has one single minded pursuit: Brutality. It's here to kick your ass for 30minutes then peace the fuck out. If it could kill you, it would. This is an approach that translates best in a live setting. You aren't meant to analyse it, you are meant to feel it, you are meant to move. This is music for the moshpits, and once you put it in that context it's going to make a whole hell of a lot more sense.
Now obviously, Blasphemy weren't able to make it over the bridge and play this thing for me in my basement. However, I have do have two 1300watt speakers, and please believe I had to bust those bad boys out for this one, and the effect was enormous. It's an experience I will happily repeat many times over.
I would work out to this album, I would mosh to this album, I would fight to this album. I would have a WWE Royal Rumble styled knife fight to this album.
This is WAR METAL, SO PUT IT ON AND GO TO FUCKING WARRRRRRRRR!
Clan Challenge 3/25.
The challenge here is to try to say something that hasn't already been said. Let me first get my old man rant out of the way:
A lot of youngsters these days mistakenly believe that Mayhem were the founders of Black Metal, and that Euronymous pioneered the genre. This is false. Mayhem found the second wave of black metal. This is the true origin of Black Metal. I love Venom to death but despite the name of the song and album they were playing evil-thrash. Fuckin' love Venom though.
/end rant.
This really is the blueprint. This is the standard by which all black metal is compared to for me. It's uncompromizingly raw, nasty, evil, and relentless, but it has something else going for it that a lot of immitators are missing. This thing has a heart and soul. Quarthon is actually an amazing poet, he uses satanic and norse pagan imagery but he does it so much more elegantly than everybody else. He's kind of analogous to Chuck Schuldiner for me, an extreme metal founder that would become rapidly more progressive with each release. Quarthon was ahead of the game in 1987, and he's still ahead of most of today's artists.
More than just nasty noise, these songs have memorable individual parts, riffs, and structures. That guitar tone is also really unique it sounds like a buzzsaw, and that description gets used a lot when describing metal, but I think in this album it really does sound like one, and I think the cliche' probably arose from people attempting to describe this album. The production here is raw, but it does have a little bit, as opposed to other raw/DIY black metal where they just threw a tape recorder in the middle of the room. There was effort here, because as raw as it is-you can hear everything pretty clear. That is not easy to achieve and it is not an accident.
There you have it, the blackest of the black, the coldest of the cold, the satanist of the satan, the paganist of the pagan. The Black Flame of Black Metal's Eternal Fire! BATHORY-UNDER THE SIGN OF THE BLACK MARK from 1987.
Clan Challenge 2/25. Arckanum. I remember Arckanum from a somewhat popular video on youtube that was titled "the worst black metal videos of all time" or something like that. One of them featured a man, presumably some sort of shaman running around the forest and making vocal sounds. I say sounds here because it wasn't singing by any means, but it also wasn't the usual black metal shriek either. It was something oddly captivating and unworldly. Perhaps, this strange figure had some mystic guidance to offer after all. Anyway I watched that video a bunch of times and showed it to a bunch of people who largely dismissed as an odditty, but I kept coming back. Eventually I learned that this creature went by Shamaatae, and the vocal noises where his reimagining of Old East Norse. He's a pretty fascinating guy, apparently a deeply spiritual man who writes books on "anti-cosmic" Satanism. I have no idea what that is, or how it differs from other kinds of Satanism, it sounds like bullshit to be honest, but I digress. Let's get on to the music.
Fuck, I can't get onto the music because spotify doesn't carry it... they carry many Arckanum albums but not this one... research time maybe it goes by an alternative name, or the tracks are available on a compilation some where. It was a limited release, only 1000 pressings. I can't find it, so I settle for youtube and accept that even if I like this album I will not be able to put it into any of my playlists. BUMMER.
Right away you know this going to be diferent, it spends some time building up the forest ambience, before kicking into the low fi blast beats, and tremelo picked guitar that are signatures of the genre.
So what puts this so high for me? Well, Shamaate is the star of the show. This album is expertly crafted; the ambience comes back here and there to keep you in the environment this album is about, but it isn't used as a crutch-it comes in and out sparingly where other bands would lean on this for entire albums. Shamataate is incredibly charismatic here too. His voice has something a little extra about it that distinguishes him from the heard. I can't quite put adjectives to it, you just have to hear it for yourself. He carries this album. You can't take your ears off him.
Then we come full circle back to that video I described to open the review. It's the video for the song "Gava Fran Trulen", and this song fucks! It's catchy as all hell and when he sings the title you will too. You cannot deny it.
There is the problem of that female vocal thing later, but here is why it get a pass: the way it's used here has meaning and context. She doesn't sing it's more of a chant which is in line with the mysticism this album conveys.
Album hits like this: You are lost in the forest. A Shaman appears and takes you into his cave. He explains to you the mysteries of the world, and his personal trials and tribulations. You can't decipher any of it, but you feel what he he says and you feel that it is important. During Gava Fran Trulen you join him in his strange chants. Then he leads you back out of the cave and konks you over the head. You wake up later home. Was it all some crazy dream? No. It was Fran Marder.
Clan Challenge Review #1. There are 25 Albums on this list. I am familiar with 16 of them. Playing it safe this time after foraying into uncharted territory with the last clan challenge, and paying the price. However, of the 9 unfamilar albums this was one of them. I come home from work, very eager and excited to hear something new. There is an inverted cross on the album cover, but it's Black Metal so that's 9/10 albums. I crank it up and start blastin' ready for... Jesus Christ 20 Tracks of some basement dweller bashing my spirituality? First song is a pleasant surprise. Lyrically it appears to be of the Nordic Pagan variety rather than the satanic variety. It has better production that I was anticipating as well. This might not be so bad. There is no bass guitar to be found, the guitar tones are standard black metal affair. The riffs are generic but solid enough. There is some ambience to dress it up a little bit, and this is the first sign that it's about to go wrong. "If we layer enough shit on top, maybe nobody will notice that we actually don't have anything new or exciting to offer." It's fine, it's fine, let's endure this and slap a 2.5 on it. Then the 2nd track starts... Acoustic guitars and a soft womans voice... YEAH THAT'S FUCKIN METAL!
No it isn't, it's shit, and I don't need another hour of this to know that it's shit. Into the dumpster it goes, hopefully never to return. Thankfully I know that Arckanum is up next.
I'm concluding my adventure for the Horde writing a line that I fear I've written too many times, but it still stands.
Technical Death metal-The musicianship is inarguably fantastic. It's just a shame that there aren't any songs. It plays like a collection of very technical practice exercises thrown together, and there was a point in time when I was younger that I probably would have been into it, but I'm older now, and I've heard people play fast and technical. I've heard it so much that the novelty has worn off, and this album has nothing else to offer.
This is what I want from death metal. It's super fast, great riffs, nothing pretentious, and the lyrics are full of raw gruesome gory content! I also just love the tonal qualities of the instruments here. Pretty good album art too.
In an alternate timeline Per Yngve "Pelle" Ohlin doesn't blow his own head off. He kicks Euronymous out and steers Mayhem toward death metal. The end result sounds something like this. Deathcrush pt. 2.
With repeated listening I think this will claw it's way into my top 20.
I saw another Canadian Death Metal band last night, that being Montreal's CRYPTOPSY. This sounds like the diet version of that. If you are into that brand of Death Metal this still might hit for you, but while I appreciate the technicality of Cryptopsy they are not a "go to" band for me, so I'm just not feeling the lesser version here.
There are some flashes of really good guitar work in this, and I think if the songs were about half the length it would have a lot of potential, but these tracks are 8 to 11 minutes long and there just isn't enough craftsmanship to keep me interested that long. If one could cut and past the best parts of this album it would make for some dazzling straight forward metal, but as is those parts are either repeated to much or have vast areas of emptiness between them.
This is mediocrity in audio form. I have nothing good to say about it, I have nothing bad to say about it. It simply exists. No seriously, I am going backward now through my reviews and trying to do better justice to the albums in the modern death metal era, and I have absolutely nothing for this. It makes heavy metal noises, so that's good, but I listened to it two days ago from beginning to end, and I can't remember a damn thing about it.
This is an odd one for me, because it has a lot of elements that I like; foreboding atmosphere, orchestral elements, and death metal, and yet there is something amiss. I was looking forward to this one because on prior playlist I enjoyed the hell out of EEONTPON. I'm going to chalk it up to me being a doom-head at heart. There is a lot to like here, and I may revisit it one day, but on the day of this review I'm just not quite connecting to it.
Earlier today I reviewed an album by Mercenary where I stated that it was pretty much perfect, I just longed for a little more brutality.
Scar Symmetry comes out with this and delivers a similar experience except this time it's a little heavier, and we get harsher vocals, so this is perfect! I would explain the sound of this album and it's subject matter to be a heavier, and darker version of Fear Factory's output. I introduced this album to a friend of mine who is getting his metal 101, and loves Fear Factory. He loves this too. I love this, and would hope you give it a shot to fall in love with as well. It's Pitch Black Perfection!
Portal is an experimental noise band steeped in atmosphere.
What is that atmosphere? Imagine Night of the Living Dead, but replace all the Zombies with mind flayers from the Dungeons and Dragons Universe, with Cthulhu himself lurking in the skies above.
It is not an atmosphere I particularly care to visit but if it does tickle your fancy I can't say that anything else really sounds like this. Hear it at least once, and then make your own decision. I'm good.
It's Nile, so it's tech-death in Egypt. Anyway Nile is an institution and you either like them or you don't, but they sound the same every time. They don't really do it for me personally, so I'll put my review dead center at 2.5 out of respect. I'm probably not the guy you want to get your Nile critique from.
What you get here is an excellent offering that has no skips. Everything about this is near perfect. The production is crystal clear and the mix has space for everybody to shine, and shine they do. These songs are heavy and catchy.
So why not 5 stars? It's the vocals for me. They are well done so don't get the wrong idea, but they are very much inspired by power metal, and that's not my cup of tea. I would have liked something just a little bit more brutal, but this is absolutely knit-picking on my part.
Definitely give this a listen, it's not the heaviest thing on earth, but it's still an absolute banger.
Yes they can play very fast and technical. No they cannot write music I actually want to listen to. I did that thing where I give it a second listen to make sure I understand what tech-death sounds like... Yup still don't like it 10years and going strong. I lowered it a half a point for having wasted my time for twice as long now.
I'm going to echo the other review here; this is an album that should have been very special. It is sincerely trying damn hard, I don't know exactly what it is trying do since it doesn't succeed but there is something here that just never quite comes to fruition, and I think the problem is the production... Yup that's it. This is good music but it's ruined by production boardering on sabotage. Consider my 2.5 Star rating to be an A for effort, but it's a frustating listen and that's why I can't recommend it in good faith.
I don't even like real Opeth, and this is a big step down from real Opeth. As I work through this list I really am feeling like my reviews are low effort, but so is this music so I think it's par for the course. I like Death Metal, I really do, just nothing on this list so far (except that Be'lakor album).
The NOPE for me with this one is the overcompressed production, the crash cymbals bleed over everything. It sounds like something from 99-2000 not 2008.
This is either a poor man's Deicide or a poor man's Morbid Angel. Take your pick, but it's poor either way.
Round two and trying to beef up the review, but as usual I had it right the first time. There is absolutely no reason to listen to this when you could be listening to anything from the Deicide or Morbid Angel discography. Further more, it's worth noting that I love OSDM so much that I drove from Detroit to Tampa Florida just to tour Morrissound Studios. Morbid Angel and Deicide are my least favorite bands from that time and place. I'm told that Glen Benton still has a house down there but the man at the record store couldn't tell me which one. Anyways you got that story instead of a review, because I truly have nothing of value to add.
Disclaimer; I originally reviewed several of these modern death metal albums in a row, and was fatigued when I got here. My original review was brief and agitated;
"As I work through this list I am really running out of fun ways to say "great musicianship, horrible music", but here we are again."
However, a couple esteemed users here, including Ben (site founder along side Dan if you didn't know) felt that such a brief and dismissive comment was disrespectful given the reputation of this album and band. Therefore I dedicate this review to Ben, and I do so with 100% pure love for my brother in heavy metal, but also with 100% pure hate for this album. I love you so much that this will be my most in depth review of an album so far, and probably for a while. If this reads as odd or as passive aggressive, it is not meant to-the long story short is that I have no family, they were all extremely disfunctional or have died. Heavy Metal is my family, not in a ManOwaR cheese sense, but in a very real sense to me, even if we disagree about things like this album and I am attempting sincerity.
Without further or do. My extended review of Gorguts-Colored Sands.
BOX ART: We have a vaguely cloaked figure, or maybe two of them the top pair is holding beads and the hands are in a prayer position. The bottom set of hands appears to be bound by some dainty rope. This figure is posed atop a pyramid, or maybe a village in the shape of a pyramid-there is not enough detail to be for certain, and yet to me it looks like things I've seen associated with the Aztecs. Then of course there is a bunch of sand, but it's definitely not colored. The color pallette here is black, white, grey, and piss. Maybe it's a piss filter over a black white and gray drawing. The band name sits proudly in the upper left hand corner in band logo font, yet the album title is spread across the bottom in some of the most generic font man kind has ever seen.
Now my user name is ZeroSymbolic, and in addition to that being a reference to Chuck Schuldiner's Death, it is also a bit of an in joke I have with myself. The gag is that at a glance it appears to be some real deep shit "Zero Symbolic what does that mean?" Well, it doesn't mean jack shit-there is Zero, meaning none, Symbolism, meaning greater meaning-literally says "there is no greater meaning".
That's what this album cover is to me- a whole lot of shit that is supposed to make you think because it has vague religious connotations, but it doesn't actually say anything about religion. Is this figure a victim? A devotee of some ancient cult? Who knows? Who gives a fuck? I don't. If it does have some deep radical meaning that I am missing, that might be an indicator of why I don't gravitate to this sort of thing. I'm in death metal to bang my head to brutal drumming, blazing fast riffs, and listen to some dude gargle on about zombies and eating flesh, and zombies that eat flesh, and zombies that eat zombies. I'm not going to church here-so don't preach to me. I'm not going to school either-so don't try to educate me.
BACKGROUND: I hop over to the wikipedia page now and get some background. Main takeaways are as follows.
*Canadian Technical Death Metal: It's gonna be a bunch of obnoxious wanking with no connectivity.
*5th full length album, but only the 2nd studio album there is about a decade between this and the first: That's kinda fucky aint it?
*New Guitarist, New Bassist, New Drummer. Drummer leaves after this album: Oh yay an inconsistent rhythym section. This is what every bassist looks forward to hearing. BTW notice there are 4 people in this band. 3 are new.
*Band members left previous bands because they were "uncomfortable with the improvisational elements in that band's music."-They can't Improvise.
*Everybody is technically impressive and classically trained. They enjoy "working out very specific ideas in micro-detail."- They like to jack each other off, in a musical sense I mean.
*Concepts: No Slayer beats, no fast picking riffs. We are "creating a new musical language."-I am a fan of Motorhead, Venom, and Kiss. Fuck off with this.
*Something something Tibetian sand symbol that is ritualistically destoyed... somehting something Tibetian shooting tragedy... something something.... I can't be assed.
*Let's throw an Orchestral piece in the middle for the fuck of it.-Could we possibly be more pretentious with this? That's what Death metal needs, an orchestral interlude. I was just listening to "Eaten back to Life" and thinking to myself "This is pretty good, but can I get a fucking string ensemble in here?"
...
And after all that, it sounds exactly the way I thought it would. It's over an hour of pretentious musicians masturbating their instruments in the name of high art, because they just can't write a fucking song with a hook. 30minutes of boring shit, an orchestrial piece that doesn't belong, and another 30 minutes of boring shit.
I don't know how many times I've been forced to listen to this trash, and other garbage that sounds just like it, but I do know that I hate it more each and every time. This fake-deep, high art, technical arms-race, unlistenable crap, because "we are the educated metalheads, we are classically trained serious musicians, not those dumb fucking beer guzzling caveman metalheads."
Let's get this straight, Black Sabbath was four working class men who set out to write music for the working class, and to scare people, somewhere along the line some of us lost the plot and thought heavy metal was about how complicated the music could be, how fast you could play it, and how much you could impress the masses. For me it isn't about any of those things. It's about being geniune to yourself. If you are hanging your musical hat on concepts like "improvisation makes me uncomfortable, and I must micro-compose the fine details of my music." I think it speaks to not being comfortable in your own skin.
I do not know the men in Gorguts, they may be fantastic lads, but this breed of high art heavy metal always carries a smug air about it that rubs me the wrong way. Luc Lemay refers to the music as "Intellectual-Death Metal". It's very difficult for me to shake the idea that he's implying other kind of Death-Metal, or metal in general is not intellectual.
They probably don't like my shit either, and you know what? That's OK, because there is room for all of us under the metal umbrella. I hope they sell a billion albums, and I hope I don't have to listen to any of them.
Fun fact: I didn't think I gave a fuck about this album. My wife informs that I gave about 20 here. THE MORE YOU KNOW.
A wise man named Mick Mars, may or may not have once said, "Shitty name, shitty band." Funebrarum is a shitty name. I'll leave you to connect the dots.
Continuing Round 2 of "just give it a chance to cook", still hating it. What to do? I can't lower it any further. I'll spin my wheel of review filler topics, because more is always better right?
Funebrarum Fun Facts:
*They are from New Jersey, that's one thing they have in common with Bon Jovi. They other is that I hate his music too!
*The members of this band are former members of over 40 other Death Metal bands.
*Kyle from Incantation has a Mustache-not a Funabrarum fact, but a related artist fact. That's how much I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel to say something here. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
This is a Mediocre Dying Fetus offering. A Mediocre Dying Fetus offering is however, still better than many other things. Thus I award 3.5 rather than 2.5. Disappointing is the word. Dying Fetus are awesome, and this album has all the usual traits of their music, and yet it just isn't as fun or catchy as others.
The music is somehow worse than the album cover. Yes really!
Round 2:
Wikipedia says
"The band consists of four balaclava-wearing individuals who perform with their backs to the audience, often accompanied by candles, a single stroboscopic light, and large amounts of smoke."
So their live presentation sucks too I guess? I wonder what they charge for tickets. I tried sincerely to find but was not able to. The question is how much would you pay to see a band literally turn their backs to you and play behind smoke to a single strobe? I wouldn't pay anything for it, and I wouldn't pay this band for music or merch either, but I have already paid. TWICE now with the most precious resource of all-Time. I would like to declare bankruptcy and move on now.
Opening track is full of harsh noise and feedback. Your reward for enduring this? Below average Death Metal.
Round 2: Please just let me die. I've developed a process now. If I have to spend twice as much time on the band, and nothing is better I lower the rating by half. Dead Congregation sucks. Mournful Congregation is far and away the superior Congregation.
but, Zero, what does the album sound like?
Have you heard death metal before? Great. Take that sound, now imagine it in the most generic possible presentation. Now make it worse with super muddy production. That is the sound of this album. This is the Nickleback of Death Metal.
Bad Death Metal featuring the snare sound from St. Anger! Seriously the snare sounds like it is trying to bore a hole in my skull. It's painful, and he's gonna smack it as hard and often as possible. If the point is to inflict pain upon the listener it was certainly achieved, so there's that.
"but Zero, it's supposed to be challenging".
I have a challenge for you, describe this album cover without sounding like the business card scene from American Psycho.
"Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark..."
Incredible musicianship. Bad vocals. Awful Production. Love that album art though!
I very nearly bought this when it came out. I remember it in the metal section of FYE, and I was picking up random albums based on the album covers. My usual strategy was to buy something I was familiar with, and something I'd never heard that looked cool. On that particular day it came down to either this or Cattle Decapitation's Monolith of Inhumanity. I was going to see Cattle open for Cannibal Corpse in a week or two, so Monolith won out. This album art always stuck with me, though and I actually tried to find it again a few times to no avail. I imagined what it would sound like-maybe like a modernized version of Voivod, or some kind of grind core with alien style vocals and themes. Alas it's just aimless technical wanking, and that's disappointing.
This is pretty awesome, a great blending of my favorite elements of death metal and my favorite elements of Doom metal. The Fallen need to be considered here.
Great Death Metal, Great Doom Metal, Great production. What more do you want. This thing kicks ass! I wish that I was a better writer so that I could better articulate how good this is, but it deserves attention. I've listened to it about 4 times over now-no skips. I've debated with my wife and my friend over whether this is a Death Metal or a Doom Metal offering. Wifey says it's death metal, friend says it's doom, and both of them say it's pretty good. I think these reactions speak to how well the influences are mixed into this thing, and to the quality of the content within. It isn't quite a masterpiece to me but the album will see frequent rotation in my household going forward.
I saw Behemoth open for Anthrax, Lamb of God, and Slayer.
It was somewhere around mid July if I remember right. They looked incredibly goofy trying to be edgy satanists in the middle of the day, and all I remember about the music was being bored as hell. I truly do not understand what people see in this to consider it to be one of the best albums in recent memory. My personal theory is that the title of the Album has some kind of shock appeal, but I feel the same way about Deicide and the endless list of black metal bands that make "we don't like Jesus very much" the focal point of their work. It's not exactly a new or exciting take on anything. Waitan does it in ways that are more sonically pleasing, Gorgoroth did it in ways that were more shocking, etc. Maybe I am simply missing the big idea that makes this special to people, but I don't see it. Boredom is the descriptor I would use, and the worst thing a piece of art can be is boring.
Mediocre Tech-Death, but that is a cool ass album cover.
That's pretty much all I have to say. The production is great, the musicians are clearly technically proficient. There just isn't anything memorable or interesting going on here that is going to set this apart from any other Tech-Death offering.
Amon Amarth. Start with Iron Maiden, down tune, speed it up, add blast beats, and all the songs are about vikings. I find their inclusion/labeling as a death metal band a bit misleading. Not everything with a guttoral vocal is death metal guys. This is just a natural progression of heavy metal (Guardians Clan), and I think this is reflecting in the clan rating being a fullpoint lower than the overall. If you come to Amon Amarth looking for something like Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, or Morbid Angel you won't find it.
What you will find is THE VIKING metal band, and they are incredibly tight in the studio and on the stage. I saw them a couple years back with Obituary and Carcass (Carcass kicked everybody's ass but that's a diferent story). This is fast and furious Viking themed metal, nothing more, nothing less, and if you are looking for that you will not be disapointed. For the most part Amon Amarth will always be a gimmick to me, but there is something to be said for being the absolute best at the gimmick and they 100% are. They are also an incredibly tight live band with a great stage show and just a damn good time for all to enjoy.
What pushes this review beyond 3 stars for me is the inclusion of "Runes to my Memory". It's an incredible song on it's own merit and one that belongs on any heavy metal playlist. Everything around it is very solid, but that track stands out for me. See you in Valhalla!
I think somewhere in this album lies a good idea. However the production is just off. It's muddied and the percussion is choked out.
Then comes the worst offender: Operatic Soprano. I hate it everytime. It just doesn't go with this kind of music. I hate the whole beauty and the beast vocal dynamic, and cannot score it highly.