Sonny's Forum Replies

Xephyr, be aware that today is the last day for nominations for the North playlist for September as I want to start working on it tomorrow.

Hi Ben, could you add Belarusian melo-death band Asguard please.

Hi Ben, please add US black metal band Abbess from Freiburg, Maryland. They only have one album to date and not much is known about them, but I did buy the album from Bandcamp ages ago.

https://abbessband.bandcamp.com/album/abbess

Also Scottish atmospheric black metal project Adabroc please, Ben.
https://adabroc.bandcamp.com/

Hi Ben, could you add Denver doomsters Black Magic Darkness, please.

Could you add a couple of 'Stone' bands please Ben. They are the now defunct Stone Magnum from Indiana in the US and Melbourne's Stonethroat.

Also canadian stoner doom band Astral Witch and german stoners Aleph Null, please.

I like all stats to be honest. Let me know if you want any stats added to the new site. I can pretty easily add anything we want.

I will give it some thought. I am sure there are some I can think of.

Off the top of my head, the same stats that we can access for the top genres would be good to have for the sub-genres, so we could see how our ratings for, say, black metal were distributed among the various sub-genres. 

Personally, I would like to be able to quickly see how many releases for a given genre there are year by year. This is one thing I think RYM have done well:

If you hover over each year, as it shows above, then the graphic tells you how many releases there were for that genre that particular year.

As I occasionally dip my toes into the waters of The Revolution I am most often pleasantly surprised by what I hear from the very earliest releases in the Metalcore genre. There is so much more of a Eighties' hardcore vibe to those earlier releases that I don't really get from more recent (post-2000) stuff. Being a big fan of 80s hardcore myself then it is obvious that this is going to appeal to me on some level. Whilst "Remain Sedate" does contain more metal than, say, Minor Threat, it feels more like there has been an evolution from the one to the other rather than a revolutionary upheavel that rejects the former, taking the passion and aggression of hardcore and sharpening it with a metallic edge that cuts deeper whilst still possessing the sheer dynamic force of the originators. I like this very much and I am beginning to understand some of the attraction of metalcore that I just didn't get from listening to later bands first. As I found with death metal, a journey through the earlier releases of a genre gives a deeper and more detailed understanding of it and a better appreciation of later acts who may have moved the genre further on and who are best appreciated in context.

I think I would actually go as far as to say that I much prefer the metalcore approach to the metallisation of punk than I do that of crossover thrash. Whereas crossover often tried to be flippant or light-hearted metalcore approached hardcore in a much more respectful way and seems to have retained the principals and integrity of the hardcore scene, which I personally find more palatable.

So, yeah, a big thumbs up from me and a 4 star rating, which has the potential to go up a notch with repeat listens.

Hour of 13 - "Hour of 13" (2007)

Formed in 2003 by multi-instrumentalist Chad Davis, Hour of 13 also featured veteran doom metal vocalist Phil Swanson on the first three albums, although he seemed to be in and out of the lineup fairly regularly. This debut full-length sees Davis taking on nearly all the instrumental duties, although the album's recording engineer Corey Leonard contributes leads on a couple of tracks, whilst Swanson handles vocal duties. Musically, Hour of 13 is pretty conservative, its traditional doom metal very much stressing the traditional with fuzzed-up, Sabbathian riffs and Swanson having a fairly high pitch and rough edge to his vocals in the vein of Ozzy with a similar intonation and delivery that suggests Phil very much modelled his vocal style on Birmingham's Prince of Darkness.

The production very much emphasises the riffs with the bass and, in particular, the drums sitting low in the mix and taking a back seat to the guitars and vocals. Obviously guitar and vocals are most often the focus but, especially in doom metal, the rhythm section usually has a deeper and more foundational feel than is present here and it would have been nice to hear a bit more depth and richness of tone in the backing track. There isn't a lot of focus on solos here either with Davis only really letting rip on "Grim Reality" and Leonard handling the solos on "Submissive to Evil" and "Allowance of Sin". I don't know whether Davis' reluctance to take on the leads is down to a lack of confidence on his part or it just being something he was less interested in than riffing his balls off. All that aside, those riffs are generally pretty damn good and although there isn't anything new or challenging, they deliver exactly what you would expect from a fundamentalist trad doom act and should satisfy any adherent of the style looking for a new fix. Phil Swanson's vocals suit the instrumentation exceedingly well and his doom metal credentials would have given the band a leg up in the doom scene that Davis would not have reasonably expected with a less well-known vocalist. Lyrically, once more the duo stick to the well-trodden occult path that is a feature / plague of trad doom lyricists since Ozzy intoned his words of doom on their eponymous opener, oh so many years ago.

Overall, I would have to admit that "Hour of 13" is unlikely to garner much attention outside of hardcore trad doom fanatics, but, despite a couple of reservations, I actually think this is a quite endearing example of the genre that is worthy of your time if trad doom is your bag and you just can't get enough Pentagram, Saint Vitus or Trouble. If you constantly need to be challenged or seek musical innovation, however, you should probably move along as there is nothing for you here.

4/5 [82/100]

The simple fact is that there are just so many more black and death metal releases than any others. Rym has 59k death metal and 79k black metal releases. Compare that to 36k heavy metal, 32k metalcore, 23k thrash, 17k doom, 13k power and less than 6k symphonic metal. In fact, of the 329k total metal releases on RYM, 42% are black and/or death metal and that means it is almost physically impossible for anyone to have listened to more than a fraction of those. Does this mean that death and black metal fanatics have to be more discerning in what they listen to than devotees of other genres?

As I said at the outset, these stats are largely meaningless, but do make for a bit of a talking point nonetheless. 

For completions sake, here is the table showing the results for releases with any ratings at all.

A big jump for Metalcore from the 5+ rankings when it was next to lowest to top 5 - largely thanks to Andi's efforts I should guess. A relative improvement for doom metal into second highest, so all those endless obscure doom bands I have had Ben adding over the years has finally had some impact after all!!

It's CRAZY to me how many Black and Death Metal releases there are though. I've never thought to crunch the numbers like this and it's starting to make sense as to why I get the feeling that I can't get away from Black and Death Metal releases when trying to vary it up when checking out new albums each year. Obviously Death and Black Metal cast a wide umbrella that encapsulates so many other genres with modern trends, but man, Death/Black Metal makes up more of the share than Power/Progressive/Heavy/Thrash/Metalcore combined.

Yeah, to have rated only 10% of the death and black metal releases on the site you would have had to have listened to almost 3000 releases from those two top level genres alone!

The River - "Drawing Down the Sun" (2006)

Croydon's The River formed in 1999 and released several demos before this, their debut album, came out in June of 2006. They have since undergone an evolution into an alternative slowcore / post-metal act, but this was unmistakeably, female-fronted doom metal and a pretty good example of it at that. Built upon highly distorted, rumbling riffs that present a huge wall of sound, even back then they had a degree of a shoegaze influence, an example of what would be called doomgaze, albeit with a bit more bite than I usually associate with the term. Deep basslines that follow the riffs and fairly sparse and wholly functional drumming (with guitarist Christian Leitch doubling up behind the kit) underpin the lethargic riffing and provide a deep and formidable foundation. Over this wave of distorted rumbling, singer Vicky Walters' clear, clean, but oh so melancholy, vocals describe heartbreakingly of a life trapped in a cold, abusive relationship and the hopelessness and despair such a life means for the victim. It is well worth the time to read and get to know the lyrics because it really does twist the experience of the album into a whole new dimension and is as affecting and, frankly, upsetting as any doom metal I have ever listened to. It is heavy stuff, but doom metal shouldn't be afraid to face real-world suffering if it is serious about exploring melancholy and loss, not just loss of others, but of self also. You cannot fail to have empathy for someone who has been stripped of any identity of their own and who are left feeling empty and invisible.

As I said at the start, the band eventually went in another direction, with Vicky Walters leaving around 2010, but with this debut they released one of the most profound doom metal albums it has been my privelege to hear and it still stands as one of my favourite female-fronted doom releases.

4.5/5 [90/100]

I don't find it terribly surprising to see the genres at the top of the list as they align closely with the listening preferences of one of our most committed members.

That is still only one person, though. What I take away from these results is that there are a number of 'silent' members who are fans and raters of those genres.

I also think it shows that there are probably a lot more obscure releases in death and black metal on the site as both of those have a significantly greater number of entries than any others, but that sheer breadth of releases make it more difficult for consensus listening and rating.

Most still hold up when you go to a 5+ rating with Metalcore experiencing the biggest drop off. Here the site average is 3.3%:

Using these stats it seems that the demographic of the wider Metal Academy members' tastes is quite different to what I would have guessed.

Completely meaningless I know, but I thought I would push a bit of a talking point and, as a bit of a stat nerd, I thought I would look at each of the Academy genres and compare the number of releases that have been rated by more than one person compared to the total number of releases within said genres and see which genres fared better. The results are seen below and are quite interesting (well I think so anyway).

Whilst most sit in a 10-15% spread, there are a few interesting outliers. The most obvious being the relatively lofty 20% coverage of power / symphonic metal. I was surprised to see grindcore at the bottom of the list with a measly 5% coverage as I always felt that grindcore fans were fairly rabid. Death and black metal, whilst having the actual highest number of releases with 2+ ratings score relatively low due to the huge total number of releases in each. If the overall totals are calculated then the average for Metal Academy as a whole is 11.2%, so it is easy to see how your favourite genres compare to the average. Unsurprisingly I suppose it looks like the more 'palatable' (to the wider public) genres have generally fared better.

I know that the premise that releases with more than a single rating indicate popularity is flawed and I will probably have a look at varying numbers when I am at a loose end again, but I still feel the results are probably valid.

Karl, Xephyr, don't forget to get those nominations in by the 15th - max 25 minutes each.

IAN were reommended to me by someone over on RYM, I do love this atmospheric sludge/post-metal type stuff and recently there has been a few bands that have stood out to me. I think there was a tendency at one time that there were too many copies of bands like Neurosis, Isis and Cult of Luna, but I really enjoy some of these newer releases. I think I have another one lined up in next months playlist.

Quoted dk

Cheers, David. I agree with you that atmospheric sludge / post-metal has now moved beyond the blatant copyism that plagued it for so long and a number of the recent bands are a lot more interesing as a result. I love CoL, Neurosis and Isis as much as anyone, but those guys have nailed that style down and new bands aping them have got to be something really special to even come close, so those doing something a bit different with it are developing the genre whilst forging themselves a more interesting path for the listener.

Bearing in mind the above conversation, relistening to this for the first time in a little while I think I am feeling it even more than I did originally. I believe my review from the time still holds and I feel no necessity to increase my 4 star rating, it is just hitting harder this time around, which may or may not be down to mood. Anyway here is my original review:

I stumbled across Crawl and their third full-length whilst compiling the Fallen playlist and was pretty damn impressed by what I heard. Crawl is apparently the work of a single individual, Michael A. Engle who doesn't just record all the instruments separately, but, remarkably, performs bass, drums, vocals and samples simultaneously, both live and in a studio setting for a genuine one-man band experience. Damned was recorded by Hell mainman MSW twiddling the knobs and it is easy to see why he was drawn to working with Crawl as the latter has the same bleak, nihilistic vibe going on as Hell.

Musically, Damned is a mix of drone metal, black ambient and a sludgy kind of doom metal that spans four tracks with a total 37 minutes runtime. Opener, Renaissance Of Worthlessness, acts as an intro with a droning bass sound and a black ambient soundscape that conjures images of some godsforsaken charnel house setting with water running down the walls and blood pooling on the floor and where unspeakable acts of cruelty occur. After this six minutes of unsettling ambience we get into the meat of matters, ...This Lesser Form comes oozing out of the speakers with droning, heavily distorted guitar and langorous piano chords combined with chant-like samples over which Engle shrieks his fury like a banshee howling into a gale, a desperate voice facing off against an implacable force. The atmosphere produced by Crawl is one of utter darkness, very similar to the effect that MSW himself often achieves under his Hell monicker and even though the music is quite sparsely produced, it still feels impenetrably dense and crushing.

10,000 Polehammers follows a similar template, but feels even more dense than the preceeding track, the drums here being pushed quite far forward and taking a prominent position in the mix, each snare hit seemingly increasing the protagonist's suffering as he wails and howls his protestations impotently into the darkness. The cover of Damned is a black and white drawing of a medieval knight, seemingly defeated and broken down by the horrors he has witnessed rather than the enemies he has defeated and, I must admit, that is a perfect metaphor for the sound of the closing track, Poisoned and Shadowmad which is as bleak a piece of metal as you are likely to hear this year.

Damned is filthy-sounding, impenetrable, unremittingly bleak and a pretty damn great illustration of what extreme doom drone should sound like.

4/5 [80/100]

Nope.  Not feeling this one I am afraid.  My usual understanding of progressive elements on a record usually sound to me like it is all over the place as an opus, and this is exactly my experience here.  Not for me.

Thanks for checking it out anyway, Vinny. 

Through no conscious effort on my part, I completely missed the Blaze-era albums that Maiden put out in the 90s. The fact that I have never heard or read a good word about that period anywhere has ensured that I have never bothered to find out if I was missing anything at all.

Trust me when I say that you are not missing out in any way. Those two records may well be worst pair I have ever heard by a major metal act. At least by one that I formerly respected. 

Close for me, but I have Judas Priest's "Turbo" and "Ram It Down" even lower - yes even lower than the 'Ripper' Owens' pair.

Yeah, definitely a top 10 war metal release for me too.

It'll be interesting to see if "Tightened Noose of Sanctimony" & "Slave Morality" do end up forcing their way into my top ten as well once I finally get around to giving them an attentive revisit.

I haven't actually listened to any other PO releases, but I enjoyed this one so much that I really should. There is just so fucking much to listen to that it ends up being a bit of a lottery as to what I eventually get round to. Oh, to be better organised!

The great thing about The Fallen playlists is that because of my personal preferences there are very few entries that I actively dislike. At worst I might consider the odd gothic metal, stoner or trad doom track to be a bit 'meh' and, even rarer, there might be something extreme that just asks too much of me and causes sensory overload. Generally speaking, though, I enjoy almost every entry to a greater or slightly less great degree. Here are my thoughts on this month's entries:

1. Age of Taurus - "The Bull and the Bear" (from "Desperate Souls of Tortured Times", 2013) [submitted by Sonny]

"Desperate Souls of Tortured Times" sits pretty comfortably on my favourite trad doom albums list and "The Bull and the Bear" is the second best track on it after "Sinking City" (which has featured on the playlist before, so is given a miss here).

2. Khemmis – “Carrion King” (from “Khemmis”, 2026) [submitted by dk]

The Khemmis track is really nice slab of bombastic epic doom and methinks I even detect a bit of a gothic tinge to it.

3. Kal-El - "Juno" (from "Astral Voyager Vol. 2", 2026) [submitted by Sonny]

Not a band I am familiar with, the Kal-El track actually popped up after something else I was listening to on Spotify had finished and its killer stoner grooves caught my ear sufficiently to get it a pick here - I still need to check out the whole album though.

4. Godthrymm - "Endure My Skin" (from "Projections", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

Godthrymm are a decent band, their relationship to My Dying Bride being evident throughout their short career and the mainman Aaron Stainthorpe himself even makes a guest appearance here. A nice piece of melodic gothic death doom, although Stainthorpe's rich vocals do put Hamish's reedier-sounding voice in the shade.

5. Black Sheep Wall – “Nihility” (from “I am God Songs”, 2008) [submitted by dk]

Anyway, enough of all this melody nonesense, its time for some sludgey noise. I haven't listened to Black Sheep Wall before, mainly being put off by their shitty album covers, but this is pretty intense stuff. In all honesty, I am not sure I could sit through a full album of it as it leans a bit too heavily on the noise side of the noise / sludge equation, but in the context of the playlist it fits in nicely and contrats heavily with the melodicism of the early tracks.

6. Solystalgia - "Conflagration" (from "Solystalgia", 2026)

Brandon from Nameless Graves Records asked me if I would check out the Solystalgia debut released on his label, although I have still to review the album, I found it to be solid, if not especially earth-shattering, slab of death doom with "Conflagration" arguably the best track on it.

7. Monolord - "Iodine" (from "Neverending", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

Monolord are back with a new album and this is pretty much what we have come to expect from them by now. Doom metal with washed-out, distant-sounding vocals and melodic guitar leads. I think they got a little too lightweight earlier in the decade, but they have now rediscovered their old heaviness and are much the better for it.

8. Crypt Sermon - "Christ is Dead" (from "The Ruins of Fading Light", 2019)

Crypt Sermon aren't a band I have listened to extensively but the kids seem to like them, so here they are. Pretty melodic doom / epic doom metal that may actually be a little too catchy for my particular taste.

9. Crowbar - "Planets Collide" (from "Oddfellows Rest", 1998) [submitted by Vinny]

Crowbar meanwhile show how to really do catchy and heavy, a trick at which they are masters and for which I have found increasing respect over recent years. That guitar tone is just so fucking cool man.

10. The Old Dead Tree - "It Can't Be!" (from "The Nameless Disease", 2003)

I stumbled on the "Old Dead Tree" whilst trying to find gothic metal acts that hadn't featured on the playlist before and although they have had a track featured previously this stood out as gothic metal that I could actually get behind and, I felt, deserved a spot on the playlist. I like it - it is pretty heavy and is completely cheese-free.

11. Dauðaró & Pantheïst - "Iron Dominion" (from "Af holdi og málmi", (2026) [submitted by Sonny]

Basically this is a Dauðaró album that features Pantheist's Kostas Panagiotou on vocals and keys. I am familar with Pantheist, but haven't listened to Dauðaró previously. To be honest this is a little too post-metally for my taste, I prefer my funeral doom much heavier and all-enveloping than this more lightweight style, but it's OK.

12. WitchSorrow – “Hades Chains” (from “Hades Chains” single, 2026) [submitted by dk]

I have followed Witchsorrow from their earliest releases and own all their previous releases on CD, really enjoying their uncompromising and unapologetically conventional doom metal, but I was beginning to suspect that they had called it a day as it has been eight years since their previous album. This is actually quicker-paced than their usual fare and is even a little bit thrashy. I like it and will have to check out the whole album soon.

13. Flame, Dear Flame - "The Millennial Heartbeat Part I" (from "Aegis", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]

I am unfamiliar with this german five-piece, but really enjoyed this, Their brand of female-fronted doom is right up my street. I have checked the album out since and thought it was very good. I will hopefully be able to summon up a review soon because it is certainly worthy of the effort.

14. IAN – “Manuel” (from “Come on Everybody, Let's Do Nothing!”, 2025) [submitted by dk]

Another act I am unfamilar with, but which I enjoyed. Post-metal and atmospheric sludge are sub-genres I have come to appreciate more over recent years and this is a nice example of the heavy / light atmospheric trade-off that is often used as a compositional device in this very modern style of metal and the climactic build-up is very effective. I will certainly check this the whole album out at some time in the near future.

15. Melvins - "Queen" (from "Stoner Witch", 1994) [submitted by Vinny]

I do like a fair bit of Melvins, although I am never too sure what to expect from them. I do like it when they are in this sludgy, stoner mood though and this is a pretty groovy m-fer, so definitely gets a thumbs-up from me.

16. Ablaze in Hatred - "A Walk Through the Silence" (from "The Quietude Plains", 2009)

I was looking for some gothicy death doom, similar to My Dying Bride, that hadn't featured on the playlist before and stumbled upon these Finns. Instrumentally I think this is fairly impressive and a decent example of the style, although I have reservations with the deathly male vocals which sound terribly forced to my ears, The female backing vocals are pretty good however and I generally enjoyed it.

17. Messa - "Thicker Blood" (from "The Spin", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

It is Messa, so of course it is great - end of story.

18. Khanate - "No Joy" (from "Khanate", 2001) [submitted by Sonny]

OK, so I was worried that listeners would think I had gone soft and that the playlist as a whole had a more upbeat vibe than maybe some I have put together and I couldn't have people going away from it with a warm and fuzzy feeling of positivity now could I? So with that in mind I turned to one of the most negative and disturbing drone acts I know - Khanate. Absolutely no light, no positivity... no joy. Just pure, undiluted hopelessness and misery. Enjoy....

Yeah, definitely a top 10 war metal release for me too.

Hope never to hear again in my life:

ZOMBIESHARK!

Exactly the reaction I was hoping for!!

It is terrible isn't it, but I have to cover the whole range of Horde sub-genres and cyber metal hasn't had much representation during my tenure as playlist compiler, so I felt obliged to include a track. It'll probably be a little while before any features again, I am sure you will be glad to hear Vinny.

For September please Andi:

Megadeth - "Countdown to Extinction" (from "Countdown to Extinction", 1992)

My submissions for September Vinny - a touch over 41 minutes I think.

Amboog-A-Lard - "The Wounded" (from "Power from the Vault" [V/A compilation], 1997)

Demolition Hammer - "Hydrophobia" (from "Tortured Existence", 1990)

Demoniac - "La caída" (from "Nube Negra", 2023)

English Dogs - "The Final Conquest" (from "Forward Into Battle", 1985)

Epidemic - "Hate" (from "Decameron", 1992)

Kreator - "Impossible Brutality" (from "Enemy of God", 2005)

Mayhemic - "Kollarbone Crushed Neandertha" (from "Toba", 2024)

Pessimist - "Trommelfeuer" (from "Call To War", 2010)

Razor - "Speed Merchants" (from "Evil Invaders", 1985)

Thanks, guys. 

I had forgotten that I have already reviewed this. "Brave New World" definitely saw Maiden take a turn for the better after their awful 90s run, although this wasn't immediately apparent to me, as I will explain below. Blaze Bayley wasn't the only one to blame either, don't forget that "No Prayer for the Dying" and "Fear of the Dark" were sub-standard offerings and the mighty Maiden were on a downward trajectory long before Blaze took up the mic. For me  "Brave New World" and "A Matter of Life & Death" are really the only post-Eighties Maiden studio albums worth my time now (along with "Paschendale" from "Dance of Death"). Both have filler tracks, but also some genuinely classy stuff too, the first three tracks of both AMoL&D and "Brave New World" alongside BNW's "Nomad" which is one of my favourite latter-day Maiden tracks, are all brilliant. In fact, I really must put myself together an album-length playlist of the best tracks from those three albums. Anyway, here is my review:

Upon my return to metaldom in the late 90s / early 2000s, I thought a safe bet would be one of my old favourites, Iron Maiden, so I purchased their (then) new album Brave New World from my local recorded music emporium. The last "Irons" album I had listened to at this time was Seventh Son, a decent album but one I have always believed is a little overrated, that however is a story for another day. Like someone who's been in a coma for a decade and wakes up expecting everything and everybody to be the same as before, I was extremely disappointed with Brave New World. This was no Powerslave, this was no Piece of Mind or Number of the Beast so what the fuck went wrong with Iron Maiden I asked myself as I threw the CD to the back of the cupboard and acted like it never existed.

Anyway, after 20+ years and the release of possibly Maiden's final album Senjutsu, I decided to revisit this much-maligned (by me) album. I have more perspective on Brave New World now that I am aware of how disastrous the Blaze years were for Maiden and, indeed, how below-par Bruce's previously final album Fear of the Dark was. So with fresh ears and a greater appreciation of where Maiden were as a band at the time (or more accurately where they had been) I have given Brave New World a reappraisal.

Firstly the facts: Bruce's replacement, Blaze Bayley, was out and Bruce was back in. Adrian Smith also returned to the line-up for the first time since 1988's Seventh Son, but Janick Gers (who's addition is the one decent thing to come out of the Blaze era) stayed on making Maiden a triple guitar, six-headed beast of a band.

Well, in truth I really must have been in a foul mood when I first listened to this because I can't now for the life of me see why I was so pissed off with it at the time. It's not perfect for sure and there are a couple of tracks that I find a bit irritating, Blood Brothers especially has a terrible chorus and if it and The Fallen Angel had been exorcised to produce a more concise runtime I think the album would have been all the better for it. But there is some great stuff here too. Wicker Man is a decent opener and I love the longer tracks, Dream of Mirrors, The Nomad and Ghost of the Navigator, all of which are suitably epic in execution. There's some good 'bangers too - Brave New World, Out of the Silent Planet and the title track to name but three. All in all I would now have to renounce my former idiocy and revise my opinion to a considered and conditional thumbs up for Brave New World. It is a worthy successor to Maiden's eighties' output, whilst not quite achieving the same level of metal heaven due to the lack of any earth-shatteringly killer tracks like Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Trooper or Rime of the Ancient Mariner. But it most certainly is not the abject failure I originally had it pegged for.

4/5 [83/100]

It's okay to give things a pass though, especially if it preserves individual contentment at the time and a review being irrelevant also.  I have come to see the feature releases as an opportunity to share an album with others which is entirely at their own discretion to check out or not.  The ethos of the MA is that not of it is mandatory which is why the place works so well.

True.

It is definitely an issue with the feature releases. I very often think, "no I really can't face that at this time" and usually give it a pass. Sometimes I plough on regardless and neither do it nor myself any service by doing so. 

I don’t know that any of these tracks work particularly well in isolation, with my thinking being that they are best consumed as part of a whole album sitting. There are no finger buffet style pickings here, Damned is an experience to be immersed in. Herein could lie potential weaknesses for some listeners seeking a more immediate listening experience. It took me a few goes to understand exactly how to listen to Damned before its true majesty became obvious. Glad I got there though.

4/5

To some extent that is an observation that could be levelled at drone metal as a whole. It is a genre that relies heavily on atmosphere creation and doesn't really lend itself to today's pick 'n' mix listening habits.

Yeah, I think that has probably been my Achilles heel with drone in general, trying to pick at it.  Suggestions to “try this band” or me simply just dipping into single tracks have left me a bit confused as to what the hell is going on.  Based on this feature release, I will learn to listen to any such albums in full moving forwards.

I also believe that choosing the right time to listen to drone, or any more challenging style of music for that matter, is really important. I have found too often that since I have been checking out music from an internet nerd perspective I am sometimes listening to stuff that I am just not in the right frame of mind for, but continue on anyway and don't enjoy or appreciate it, only to return to it at a later date and wonder what I was thinking as it is actually pretty good (and sometimes vice-versa).

This was more obviously self-evident when we were reliant on physical music collections for the totality of our listening experience. Often when searching for something to listen to you would think to yourself "Nope, not in the mood for that today". Human perception can't have changed that much in thirty years, I just don't think we are as consciously aware of it as we were,  or we plough on anyway because we just have to check this particular album out right now. Sometimes we just aren't in the right frame of mind for it and that is fine. 

Of course, this may just be me!

I don’t know that any of these tracks work particularly well in isolation, with my thinking being that they are best consumed as part of a whole album sitting. There are no finger buffet style pickings here, Damned is an experience to be immersed in. Herein could lie potential weaknesses for some listeners seeking a more immediate listening experience. It took me a few goes to understand exactly how to listen to Damned before its true majesty became obvious. Glad I got there though.

4/5

To some extent that is an observation that could be levelled at drone metal as a whole. It is a genre that relies heavily on atmosphere creation and doesn't really lend itself to today's pick 'n' mix listening habits.

Is there a version of this on YouTube that doesn't have ads does anyone know?  I just can't listen to albums on YouTube with ads in, it ruins them.  Doesn't appear to be on any streaming services either.

It is definitely on Spotify here in the UK Vinny, Link below:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0vVJHcXVSGVJHCwW78HLIJ

Black Cilice is one of those names I have seen bandied about a bit by black metal enthusiasts, yet have never listened to them myself. I think I always thought they were a bit avant-garde or some such and so I always put them on the back burner. A feature nom is a great excuse to rectify that situation and I am now looking forward to what may be to come from this.

Today is a notable date for anniversaries as the ten releases listed on the Anniversary page have a grand total of a single one star rating between them. I guess the 3rd of August isn't the most auspicious date in the history of metal!

Are we due a Pit playlist for September, Vinny? If so, I am still compiling a few selections, but will get them to you as soon as I can and certainly well before the 15th.

My review:

Dorso formed in 1984 and remain a going concern, releasing eight full-length albums with quite a wide range of genres from thrash/speed metal, grindcore, progressive rock, heavy metal through to black metal. "Bajo una luna cámbrica" was the band's debut full-length, being released in June of 1984 and featuring the only ever-present band member, bassist / vocalist Rodrigo "Pera" Cuadra, alongside guitarist / vocalist Gamal Eltit. Drum duties were shared by four guest/session drummers with Eltit also manning the kit for the track "Críptica visión".

What we have here with "Bajo una luna cámbrica" is principally a thrash metal album, but it is also a fair bit more than that with some quite impressive progressive touches. The album's longest track, "Cíclope" is a really nice piece of progressive metal with some legitimate Seventies' touches and a distinct latin flavour. The song writing is ambitious, certainly compared to their peers, with the band being more interested in keeping things interesting than trying to be as extreme and fast as possible. This certainly doesn't translate to the album being at all lightweight, they can be plenty aggressive and thrash with the best of them when the mood takes them with some pretty killer riffs, check out "Vuela en tu dragón" or "Hidra" and hear for yourself. It is just that, for this band that isn't the be all and end all. I guess this could be termed as technical thrash metal and the guys do seem to be technically very adept, but I think of it as being more progressive than technical with even a jazz influence at times. The short "Suite", for example, is basically a guitar workout in the vein of a heavy Robert Fripp or even Frank Zappa and Gamal Eltit's guitar solo work is generally excellent, utilising a number of variations of style and really shredding when required to do so.

Sadly, the production doesn't really do the guys a lot of favours and its muddiness does blunt the edge a little, but not enough to cause too much drama, being more of a niggle than a major issue. The songwriting really is fantastic and has impressed me mightily. I can't help wondering whether this was an influence on modern chilean thrash legends Demoniac and the curveballs they like to include in with their thrashing mayhem. I am really glad to have stumbled upon this and I would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in hearing a quite unique album from the Eighties' South American metal scene that offers a bit more than straight ahead metal charges.

4/5 [81/100]

Wow, Ben. I had a lot of respect for all that you do and the effort you put into the site before, but now that is off the charts. I am in awe at your level of organisation and dedication. To someone as disorganised and random as me that is like voodoo!

Thanks once more.

Temple of Void - "The Crawl" (2026)

I have been all over Temple of Void for about a decade now. Their doomy and cavernous version of death metal has produced some of my favourite death metal albums of recent years, peaking with 2020's "The World That Was". What sets Temple of Void apart is their willingness to tweak and tinker with a well-established style of death metal and in so doing produce records that aren't entirely predictable, but which still contain plenty of what is recognisable of the old-school death and death doom metal philosophy. Needless to say I had high hopes for "The Crawl" and although I had sat on it for a few months following its release in March, it has certainly grabbed my attention now that I have finally got round to checking it out.

Opening track "Poison Icon" kicks off, straight out of the gate, in formidable style with a driving riff overlaid with a searing solo, ensuring that the listener's attention is grabbed from the very start. This isn't the whole story with "Poison Icon" though as it soon takes on a gothic flavour with a marked Paradise Lost influence, although it still remains firmly ensconced on the OSDM side of the fence. Further intense soloing leads the track out and it is apparent, even by the end of track one, that Temple of Void have stepped things up both in songwriting terms and in intensity of delivery. "Godless Cynic" features a more dissonant style of guitar lead laid over a mid-paced, chugging rhythm track that feels ominously hulking and portentious and in direct contrast to the opener, leaving us in no doubt that the band really mean business this time round and intend to stretch themselves more than ever. The title track is up next and is a slower, doomier affair with a riff that is almost as much rooted in traditional doom metal as it is death metal, weirdly like I would imagine Black Sabbath sounding if they played death metal! "A Dead Issue" is another slower-paced affair that begins with a spacey synth intro before launching into its melodic main riff and which features jangling, weirdly discordant leads that morph into soaring solos.

"Thy Mountain Eternal" is a somewhat bombastic, progressive-sounding affair with several musical twists and turns, occasionally feeling reminiscent of late metal-era Opeth only with more Dave Gilmour-ish soloing, although for me this is the album's weakest offering. Penultimate track "Soulburn" is one of the band's most melodic and features riffs and verses that are almost catchy, especially with the synth overlay, once more reminding me of Paradise Lost and providing one of the band's more memorable offerings. Closing with longest track, "The Twin Strangers", the band go out in style with a track that kicks off with a brooding, rampaging death metal riff before hitting the brakes on a hulking end-section which builds with interweaving twin leads before fading into the cosmos in a haze of ambient synths.

Now, all this may make "The Crawl" sound like an eclectic and varied affair and, to a certain extent, it is but, to be clear, this is still an album that has its roots firmly dug into the OSDM ethos, no better illustrated than by Mike Erdody's vocals which never shift from their growling, gutteral death metal roar. I think the album actually strikes a nice balance between innovation and tradition, each track very much fitting together and complementing each other, making for a very rewarding listening experience that presents variation whilst still giving the OSDM fan plenty of their favourite poison to savour. The songwriting and technical prowess of the band is continuing to blossom, the production is crystal clear throughout, bass and drums getting every bit as much attention as the guitar and vocals and I think with repeated listens this may well establish itself as my favourite Temple of Void album, ultimately dethroning "The World That Was".

4.5/5 [90/100] I can't believe this only had a paltry 2.5/5 prior to me rating it.

Oh yeah, this I like. I already have a review up for it, but I am gonna give it another blast before commenting.

The new site is a long way off Andi. I haven't been experiencing any of these errors for 24 hours now. Are they still happening for you? Do they come & go? I'm sure it'll end up being something memory-related & entirely fixable. I haven't spoken to Ben yet as I thought it had been resolved but I'll do so in 4 or 5 hours when it's a reasonable hour in Sydney. 

For me, yes, they come and go. When it is bad it is very bad. This afternoon I had to give up because it was taking like a dozen tries to get a page to refresh, although it wasn't too bad earlier in the day, happening only like one in five or six posts. Seens a bit better now too (late evening here). 

Almost unusable now. Any update?

August 2026

1. Old Forest - "Grond - Hammer of the Underworld" (from "Into the Old Forest", 1999) [submitted by Sonny]

2. Mork - "Utryddelse" (from "Monolitt", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

3. Dimmu Borgir - "Master of Disharmony" (from "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant", 1997) [submitted by Karl]

4. Svrm - "Попіл" (from "Мертвий край", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

5. Valhalore - "Augury of Death" (from "Valhalore EP", 2015)

6. Hades Almighty - "Funeral Storm" (from "Pyre Era, Black!" EP, 2015)

7. Abysmal Lord - "Sabbat" (from "Disciples of the Inferno", 2015)

8. Vafurlogi - "Úr himinsölum" (from "Gneisti af eldi Guðs", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

9. Drudkh - "Memory" (from "Thaw", 2026) [submitted by Sonny]

10. ehemence - "En Quête du Graal" (From Assiégé Pour l'Éternité, 2026) [submitted by Xephyr]

11. Gehenna - "A Myth" (from "Seen Through the Veils of Darkness", 1995) [submitted by Karl]

12. Sakna - "Alltid" (from "De Syv Dødssynder", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

13. VI - "La terre ne cessera de se consumer" (from "De praestigiis angelorum", 2015) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Siebenbürgen - "Om hösten död" (from "Loreia", 1997) [submitted by Karl]

15. Saidan - "Ethereal Blood" (From Fangdriller, 2026) [submitted by Xephyr]

16. Nyogthaeblisz - "Ordnance for Adamic Holocaust and Cosmocidal Entropy"(from "Abrahamic Godhead Besieged by Adversarial Usurpation", 2019)

17. Bizarrekult - " Blikket Hennes" (from "Alt som finnes", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

18. Imperium Dekadenz - "Truth Under Stars" (from "Into Sorrow Evermore", 2023) [submitted by Sonny]

19. Christ Agony - "Urtica Diaoica Cultha" (from "Daemoonseth Act II", 1994) [submitted by Karl]

20. Silencer - "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow" (from "Death - Pierce Me", 2001) [submitted by Sonny]

August 2026

1. Avulsed - "Abduction of Limbs" (from "Abduction of Limbs" [single], 2026)

2. Unleashed - "To Asgaard We Fly" (from "Across the Open Sea", 1993) [submitted by Karl]

3. Slaughterday - "Astral Carnage" (from "Dread Emperor", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

4. Imperator - "Necronomicon" (from "The Time Before Time", 1991) [submitted by Sonny]

5. Fall of the Leafe - "Starfire" (from "Evanescent Everfading", 1998) [submitted by Karl]

6. Nile - "Annihilation of the Wicked" (from "Annihilation of the Wicked", 2005) [submitted by Vinny]

7. Rotten Sound - "Sell Your Soul" (from "Exit", 2005) [submitted by Sonny]

8. Ablation - "Lethal Abuse" (from "Lethal Abuse", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

9. Aurora Borealis - "Millisecond Pulsar" (from "Disillusioned by the Illusion", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

10. Sadism - "Perdition of Souls" (from "Perdition of Souls Demo", 1989) [submitted by Sonny]

11. Devourment - "Mortiferous Dependency" (from "Pious Impiety", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

12. Loudblast - "Turn the Scales" (from "Sublime Dementia", 1993) [submitted by Karl]

13. Ceremony of Silence - "Serpent Slayer" (from "Hálios", 2024) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Rotten Tomb - "Condemned Reality" (from "Vestiges of Tortured Souls", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

15. Desecresy - "Summoned with Necrolunar Telepathy" (from "The Secret of Death", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

16. Sanguisugabogg - "Rotted Entanglement" (from "Hideous Aftermath", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

17. Nuclear Death - "Cremation" (from "Bride of Insect", 1990) [submitted by Sonny]

18. Atrocity - "Life Is a Long and Silent River" (from "Hallucinations", 1990) [submitted by Sonny]

19. Massacre - "Chamber of Ages" (from "From Beyond", 1991) [submitted by Karl]

20. ZOMBIESHARK! - "H3LLW0RLD_" (from "I Will Destroy You, Myself, and Everything I've Ever Loved.", 2020)

21. Six Feet Under - "Destroyed Remains" (from "Next to Die", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

22. Putred - "Întâlnirea mortală" (from "Blestemul din adânc", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

23. Suffering Hour - "Inexorable Downfall" (from "Impelling Rebirth EP", 2025) [submitted by Sonny]

24. Allegaeon - "Of Beasts and Worms" (from "Damnum", 2022) [submitted by Vinny]

25. Effluence - "Putrefactive Symbiosis" (from "Psychocephalic Spawning", 2021)

26. Fleshcrawl - "Blood Dominion" (from "Epitome of Carnage", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

27. Desecrator - "Subconscious Release" (from "Subconscious Release", 1991) [submitted by Sonny]

August 2026

1. Age of Taurus - "The Bull and the Bear" (from "Desperate Souls of Tortured Times", 2013) [submitted by Sonny]

2. Khemmis – “Carrion King” (from “Khemmis”, 2026) [submitted by dk]

3. Kal-El - "Juno" (from "Astral Voyager Vol. 2", 2026) [submitted by Sonny]

4. Godthrymm - "Endure My Skin" (from "Projections", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

5. Black Sheep Wall – “Nihility” (from “I am God Songs”, 2008) [submitted by dk]

6. Solystalgia - "Conflagration" (from "Solystalgia", 2026)

7. Monolord - "Iodine" (from "Neverending", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

8. Crypt Sermon - "Christ is Dead" (from "The Ruins of Fading Light", 2019)

9. Crowbar - "Planets Collide" (from "Oddfellows Rest", 1998) [submitted by Vinny]

10. The Old Dead Tree - "It Can't Be!" (from "The Nameless Disease", 2003)

11. Dauðaró & Pantheïst - "Iron Dominion" (from "Af holdi og málmi", (2026) [submitted by Sonny]

12. WitchSorrow – “Hades Chains” (from “Hades Chains” single, 2026) [submitted by dk]

13. Flame, Dear Flame - "The Millennial Heartbeat Part I" (from "Aegis", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]

14. IAN – “Manuel” (from “Come on Everybody, Let's Do Nothing!”, 2025) [submitted by dk]

15. Melvins - "Queen" (from "Stoner Witch", 1994) [submitted by Vinny]

16. Ablaze in Hatred - "A Walk Through the Silence" (from "The Quietude Plains", 2009)

17. Messa - "Thicker Blood" (from "The Spin", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

18. Khanate - "No Joy" (from "Khanate", 2001) [submitted by Sonny]

I have had a few of these over the previous two days, but today it has increased to the point where it is problematic and is happening with roughly 4 out of every 5 'sends'. Anyone else experiencing issues, or is it just me?

This post went through on the ninth attempt... Aaarghhh!!!

I have had a few of these over the previous two days, but today it has increased to the point where it is problematic and is happening with roughly 4 out of every 5 'sends'. Anyone else experiencing issues, or is it just me?

I was just wondering, Ben, how do you select bands for adding to the site? Also, how do you keep up with the latest releases from bands already on the site as there are now so many? 

Could you add russian doom / funeral doom band Talsur please Ben.

Also belgian doom band Temple of Nothing. Thanks....

Could you add portuguese black metallers (now living in the Netherlands) Israthoum please Ben.