Sonny's Forum Replies

Nice review Daniel and a real insider's view of a little-known, albeit influential, act from days gone by. It's great to get a picture of such an underground band from someone who was a contemporary of theirs. I, in common with many others I suspect, had never heard of them before.

Is that release on u-toob?

I think the members of a clan are probably best to judge if a release belongs in that clan. If moving a release out of a clan results in it being moved to non-metal there is surely nothing stopping someone else from submitting a further Hall request for it to be included elsewhere if they feel it deserves inclusion in a different clan. I would have thought this would be a very rare occurence as usually Hall requests are quite well considered before being submitted.

If a release is tagged as some kind of extreme Horde genre such as gorenoise or grindcore for example, yet the Horde members don't believe it has enough metal to qualify - maybe it is just harsh noise or extreme hardcore punk - I don't think most non-Horde members would really have enough knowledge of those extreme non-metal genres to judge it's merits accurately. So, what I am saying is, I think things are best left as they are.

So, a quick question to the playlist compilers: Which of the sub-genres you encounter when compiling the playlists do you least enjoy checking out for new playlist entries. I think I have never made any secret of my aversion to a lot of gothic metal, so it is that which irritates me most when I need to find new tracks to include in The Fallen playlist. Which are your particular sub-genres where you have to bite the bullet for the greater good?

Sorry I haven't been adding any suggestions recently, Ben. I haven't been listening to much black metal lately, but I did check out the playlist and it was terrific. The only one that didn't do much for me was Falaise, but I have always struggled with them. Nice to hear a track from Moonsorrow's Tulimyrsky EP - the title track is my favourite Moonsorrow track and Back To North is very good too (despite being a cover). It's always brilliant to hear tracks from Mayhem and Panopticon as well. I really must get it together and check out the new albums from Azaghal and Sarcoptes as both sound great. Nice work once more and I will endeavour to get a suggestion or two in next month.

Cheers, Ben. I'll squeeze them in, don't worry.

The closing track from Lååz Rockit's underwhelming second album, No Stranger to Danger, is clearly the album's highlight:

Lååz Rockit - No Stranger to Danger (1985)

I could be quite stubborn when I was younger and if I took against something then that was that. One thing I despised with a passion (and still do, to be honest) was glam/hair metal and anything connected to it. The problem was, that if I got it into my head that something was glam metal then I completely blanked it from my life. Lååz Rockit were one of those who fell foul of my prejudice, by the most tenuous of excuses which was that they had a name that sounded glam. Yes, I really was that pigheaded that I didn't even look into it further, but condemned them even without a trial!
Anyway, I have since found out, of course, that Lååz Rockit aren't glam metal at all, nor were they ever and so I have recently been checking them out, first via third album, Know Your Enemy, which was a terrific thrash / USPM metal record that I enjoyed a lot. I then moved onto the debut, City's Gonna Burn which was a reasonable example of mid-eighties, twin guitar heavy and speed metal.

So today I have been checking out sophomore No Stranger to Danger and I gotta say upfront, this is my least favoured of the band's first three albums. The band seem to have been making a conscious effort to produce an album of sing-along metal anthems and the majority of the tracks feel a bit flaccid to me as a result. Guitarists Phil Kettner and Aaron Jellum do make a plucky effort to save these tracks with some high velocity solos, but the riffs are quite mundane and the choruses are designed to get a crowd singing along. Unsurprisingly my favourite tracks are the more thrashy Backbreaker and Wrecking Machine which are more indicative of where the band were heading for the follow-up and stand head and shoulders above the rest of the material, particularly Wrecking Machine, which at least ends the album on a high.

Ultimately, for me, an unsatisfying slab of heavy metal that only offers occasional glimpses of what the band are really capable of.

3/5

Exciter - Long Live the Loud (1985)

Exciter never played much of a part in my metal world. When I first encountered them on the Hell Comes To Your House compilation, they were massively overshadowed by Metallica and, in my mind at least, they never recovered from that shortfall. That is, until recently when I have been revisiting a lot of the stuff from the early eighties that I missed or gave short shrift to first time around. As a consequence, I have checked out Exciter's first three albums over the last few weeks and I have been pleasantly surprised by what I hear. They were named after Judas Priest's opener from Stained Class and that is a fitting place for them to acquire their monicker, being one of the speediest, most adrenaline-fuelled of JP's earlier tracks. Exciter do actually kick ass and, especially if taken within context, they were pretty damned fast for their time. They took the heavy metal of Priest and supercharged it with Venom-like aggression (minus the satanic schtick) and produced something which is vital-sounding and, yes indeed, exciting. Whilst not being 100% reliant on speed - they do occasinally throttle things back, such as on Long Live the Loud's closing track Wake Up Screaming - velocity is where they excel. Speed metal was very well served by these Canadian's during those mid-eighties years when Venom seemed to be in terminal decline and, along with Belgium's Acid, Exciter were probably the best of the speed metal brigade as they battled to be heard against the thrash metal tsunami that was breaking over the mid-eighties. I am glad to finally have given Exciter the time they deserve and indeed I now recognise them as a reasonably important act in the eighties metal expansion and although none of their releases will ever match up to those Metallica eighties' albums, they were vital to a much eclipsed metal sub-genre in speed metal.

4/5

Amduscias - S/T (1998)

Amduscias were a Japanese black metal three-piece whose sole output is this sub-thirty minute album released in 1998, after which they split-up. To be honest, if you went into this blind, you would assume this was some undiscovered Scandinavian band as the sound is very much Scandinavian second wave black metal. The band formed in 1990 and sound so genuine that I would assume that they had excellent knowledge of the early Nineties' Norwegian scene. Nowadays of course, this is hardly earth-shattering stuff, the drums in particular are unremarkable and when stood next to A Blaze..., De Mysteriis... and Burzum's debut it obviously falls short, but it is still a fairly enjoyable blast of old-school second wave BM from an area of the world that is under-represented in the genre. I don't know if these guys were ever responsible for setting fire to pagodas, but I wouldn't be at all surprised!

3.5/5

I always find sludge to be quite a warm genre. Sure, it can be plenty abrasive, but generally the distorted doom metal element adds a certain warmth to the sound. Here, however, Coffinworm have imbued their sludge with an iciness forged from black metal which removes any comforting fuzziness from the album and replaces it with a cold, implacable visage that suggests that the band couldn't care less whether you like it or not. But the joke's on them because it seems everyone, myself included, does love it - haha!

Sludge metal strikes me as a genre that it is quite easy to get wrong and there are plenty of releases that leave me cold, but with IV.I.VIII Coffinworm have turned in an album that manages to get the sludge part right, whilst producing something a bit different-sounding to the plethora of sludge acts who seem to have emerged from every piece of available wordwork over the last decade or so. There is a dichotomy at the heart of IV.I.VIII, which is that it feels like it is a really abrasive and pugnacious album, but before you know it, it has sucked you in with an unexpected melodic riff before hammering you with the battering ram it has had hidden from view. Kind of the epitome of the steel fist in the velvet glove.

This is some seriously heavy-sounding shit and the blackened edge to the vocals and some of the guitarwork sound like a ripsaw trying to saw the top of your head off while the riffs are oppressive and overbearing, looming over the listener like an impending tidal wave. In addition to the black metal influence there also seems to be a detectable death metal component to some of the riffs that makes them really tight-sounding (and all the more oppressive for it). Some bands seem, to me anyway, to strive for extremity by making themselves virtually unlistenable, so drenched in dissonance and angularity are they in a search for the holy grail of inaccesibility that they forget about writing any sort of "songs". Luckily Coffinworm have been able to attain extremity without completely eschewing what makes music so cool in the first place - the songs. The tracks here are well-written and have both a direction of travel and a resolution, whilst still sounding like world-killers.

Coffinworm truly aren't for the faint-hearted Fallen member, but if you enjoy life on the outer limits of the clan's remit, then that is definitely where you will find IV.I.VIII. like some Arthur C. Clarke monolith waiting to point unwary metalheads towards the next evolutionary level of metal extremity.

4.5/5

Fistula - The Process of Opting Out (2020)

Fistula are a sludge metal five-piece from Ohio, who have managed to retain the resentful, pissed-off attitude of harcore punk better than an awful lot of so-called sludge acts. The opening few tracks of The Process of Opting Out, Costa Doing Business and especially Ratpiss and Cerebral Conflikt, really let rip on the hardcore front and would appeal to any Black Flag fan I'm sure. As the album progresses though, the band seem to slow their attack and revert to a more usual sludge metal sound, but never at any point do they sound any less angry at the world. This really is quite vituperative and vocalist Brian Neaville spits and screams his way through the lyrics in an angst-fuelled harangue against seemingly everything and everyone as the riffs change velocity from headlong hardcore charges to heavily-laden, sludgy chugs. The production is very clear and that adds a sharper edge to the sound than the muddiness often employed in sludge metal production, allowing these short, uber-aggressive tracks to give your brain more of a beating than you may have expected. An album this intense could outstay it's welcome if extended too much, but Fistula, learning from the best hardcore practitioners, kept it to under half-an-hour and so the listener never has chance to become inured to, or wearied by, it aggressiveness.

All in all this may appeal as much to a hardcore fanatic as much as a sludge metal fan and if you are more inclined to the doom aspect of sludge and much less to the punk elements then The Process of Opting Out may leave you unimpressed. Me, I am fairly chuffed to have stumbled across it and enjoyed it enough to be willing to check out more of the band's discography.

4/5

Although i haven't delved back into their early discography, including Shadows Over the Cosmos, I am familiar with all their releases since 2013's Nightfall. Judging by these later albums, I have found THV to be a solid funeral doom outfit without them (or him as it's a solo project) ever threatening the position of the genre's premier bands like Esoteric or Skepticism. I will check this out though - maybe it was the band's peak and I do like their stuff anyway.

It's unanimous then - this one's a real winner for the features feature!

I shot Bjorn our reviews too & I’m sure he’ll be stoked. He told me that he was personally responsible for the recording, mixing & mastering of the album & he definitely has a knack for creating atmosphere. I was a bit worried when going into the album as it could have gotten awkward if I didn’t like it. I was prepared to simply not review it if that was the case but I’m really glad it wasn’t.

Sonny, Ben & I were waiting for your review as we both knew you’d love this one.

Any self-respecting death doom outfit should get on the phone to the guy and book his services, forthwith!

It's not too often that I have reviewed the Horde features, but the mention of diSEMEBOWLMENT caught my eye and I thought "hmm.. maybe there's something here for me this month". An excellent pick from Ben and I am genuinely stoked to have heard it.

All three of us have stated in our reviews that there's little to no black metal on this release, so it is somewhat shocking that so many RYM members are voting that up. I have to wonder whether they've actually heard the album.

Anyway, I'm stoked that you guys enjoyed this feature as much as I do. I plan to check out more of their discography.

I can only assume that people have voted black metal up solely on the fact that most of the band members have also been in black metal bands, which certainly does beg the question "have these people even listened to this album?" as you so rightly ask, Ben. 

I too will be looking to delve further into Temple Nightside's discography quite soon as this really was exactly my sort of thing.

Temple Nightside are a new one on me, but I could tell from the off that this was going to be right up my street. I have made no secret of my love for old-school cavernous death and death doom metal and that is what these guys provide in spades. They seem to have gone all-in on the cavernous atmosphere, looking to funeral doom for inspiration in layering the primordial ooze over their sound. This is so funereal in atmosphere that it sounds like it is being performed by a band who have been buried alive and is seeping up through the earth into the ears of the listener. Drummer Basilysk is a member of reasonably well-known funeral doom band The Slow Death and guitarist/vocalist IV was the sole member of blackened funeral doom project Funeral Mourning, so these guys have an understanding of funeral doom that serves exceedingly well their intention to make The Hecatomb as cavernous-sounding as possible.

Taking their cues from OSDM giants like Autopsy, The Hecatomb combines classy death metal riffs (the opener Graven has an absolute killer of a main riff) with slow, ponderous doom to produce a multi-faceted attack on the listener's eardrums. Although this approach is almost as old as death metal itself, Temple Nightside manage to make The Hecatomb a must-listen by their sheer ability to craft exceptional death metal tunes which, when married with one of the most mouldering and pestilential production jobs ever, results in an album any self-respecting extreme metal fan should be clamouring to get their clammy, hook-clawed mitts onto.

While I do consider this to be one of the best cavernous death metal albums I have heard since Mental Funeral, great as the atmosphere works on the slower sections, I do have some reservations about it's effectiveness on the faster parts, with the muddiness of the production oh-so slightly blunting the onslaught of the death metal blasts to my ears. This, however, is nitpicking of the highest order and I am a bit embarrassed even to have brought it up so, fuck it, forget I mentioned it! 

The Hecatomb is yet another album that so suits my taste that I am getting impatient to join the ranks of The Horde clan proper and truly wonder why it has taken me so many years to really get into death metal.

4.5/5

As an aside, where the fuck do listeners on RYM hear any black metal here? There are comments on the genre voting page for this, bitching that it shouldn't have a funeral doom secondary (which it should) whilst completely ignoring the fact it has a black metal primary despite it containing absolutely fucking zero black metal.

9th April 2023, eight albums on the anniversaries page with a grand total of one rating. Is this the most dismal day of the year for metal releases?

Here are my suggestions for May's playlist Vinny:

Acid - "Black Car" from "Maniac" (1983)
Exciter - "Mistress of Evil" from "Heavy Metal Maniac" (1983)
Warhead - "Kill the Witch" from "Speedway" (1984)
Metallica - "Creeping Death" from "Ride the Lightning" (1984)
Ripper - "Await Your Death" from "Raising the Corpse" (2014)
Rumpelstiltskin Grinder - "Grab a Shovel (We've Got Bodies to Bury)" from "Buried in the Front Yard..." (2005)

Note that we can't currently have a subgenre of a subgenre here at Metal Academy (I feel like that's a good thing), so if we want Dissonant Death Metal on the site, it can't be a subgenre of Technical Death Metal, which is already a subgenre of Death Metal. There are other instances of this on RYM (Gorenoise is a subgenre of Goregrind), but I've just been adding the releases here with the parent subgenre. It just hasn't felt right to me adding every album listed as Dissonant Death Metal on RYM as Technical Death Metal. As Daniel suggests, there are albums that are clearly dissonant, but not overly technical.

As always though, if anyone disagrees with our suggested approach, or can think of another way of doing things, let's discuss.

But an album could still be tagged as both technical and dissonant death metal could it not, Ben? If this is the case then any overtly technical dissonant releases could be dual-tagged. I still think this is a good move.

Although I am far from an expert, I think that there is sufficient distance between the two that a separation is justified. I am one of those who isn't so fond of dissonant death metal, but enjoys bands like Nile, so I can see a benefit for myself at least.

At the risk of once more illustrating my ignorance, I didn't even know that was a thing. Sounds horrible!

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder - Buried in the Front Yard... (2005)

Buried in the Front Yard... is the debut album from Philadelphia's Rumpelstiltskin Grinder and it is an album of quite typical 2000's thrash with a death metal flavour. The production has a density and clarity that was never afforded to classic-era thrash metal and is a significant pointer to how metal recording techniques had advanced over the previous couple of decades. Unfortunately, I got very little out of this to be honest. Yes, the riffs have a deathly weight to them, but are decidedly unremarkable for the most part and fail to linger in the memory beyond the final bar of each track. The band's aesthetic seems to be quite humourous with the comic monicker, the cartoonish cover art (which is reminiscent of Acid Witch's cartoon horror covers) and the droll track titles, such as Grab a Shovel (We've Got Bodies to Bury), Stealing E.T. and Ode to Tanks. This would lead you to expect some goofiness in the vein of Municipal Waste or Gama Bomb, but they don't commit to it and the humour doesn't come through much at all. In fact, I would say they sound too intense for humour, coming on more like Pantera than Municipal Waste, especially on the vocals, which sound like an attempt to channel Anselmo or Rob Flynn.
To be honest, I'm not interested enough to say much more about it. It truly isn't an awful album, but it does absolutely zip for me.

2.5/5

Ah, I thought it was listed under the Guardians. I'm getting a bit confused over the whole site non-metal inclusion policy to be honest.

I guess that makes it my turn then. I will take the Amduscias album as I haven't heard too much Japanese black metal.

OK, I'm a day late, but better that than never, right?

Paradise Belongs to You was the debut album from Copenhagen's death doomers Saturnus, released a full six years after their formation in 1991 they had had plenty of time to work up the material for their introduction to the metallic masses. It shows too, because the band presented a set of well-developed tracks here that it is very obvious they felt exceedingly comfortable with. Production-wise (courtesy of Flemming Rasmussen) they have hit a nice spot between clarity and a sheen of just enough muddiness to render the material suitably doomy and gloomy sounding. They have, however, taken the rather puzzling decision to include a plethora of birdsong samples into the album, which can be a bit distracting, although they are brief enough not to provide any lasting irritation.

Saturnus' whole vibe is very much derived from The Peaceville Three, particularly My Dying Bride's gothic death doom leanings and that sound is exceedingly well reproduced here. Slow, towering chords and distant and ephemeral layers of keyboards combine to produce a mournful and introspective atmosphere while Thomas Jensen's understated vocals, both death growls and cleans, effectively convey a deep and abiding melancholy. The songs are well-written and develop nicely during their respective run times with some particularly melodic and memorable riffs, such as the instantly recognisable one unveiled during Christ Goodbye or the opening riff to Astral Dawn. Their song development ensures that none of them drag on just for the sake of filling runtime, but seem to actually be going somewhere and provide a certain satisfaction at track's end that the listener has completed a journey with the band through a particularly mournful episode in their life. There are also a couple of folky interludes, in The Fall of Nakkiel (Nakkiel Has Fallen) and the short instrumental As We Dance the Paths of Fire and Solace, which break up the doomier material and provide a nice contrast in atmosphere. The album also closes with a gentle, medieval-sounding piece that leads into a final chorus of birdsong.

Instrumentally, the Saturnus guys seem very proficient and everything seems to be very professionally realised but that means naught if you don't have the songs and these Danes certainly do. Sure, it probably sits at the lighter end of the death doom scale, but I actually think Saturnus' songs are better than the comparable material from My Dying Bride, mainly because they don't lean as heavily on the whole gothic schtick. I'm sure that will surprise many readers of this, but hey, what can I say?!

(Very Strong) 4/5

Going for a shit cover kind of paid off last montth, so this month I'll go for a band with a ridiculous name and take the Rumpelstiltskin Grinder album.

Your pick, Vinny...

I am familiar with most of these and even own a couple, so I'll go with the one from the band I have never listened to and take Fistula's The Process of Opting Out.

Over to you Vinny...

April 2023

1. FVNERALS - "Ashen Era" from "Let the Earth Be Silent" (2023) [submitted by Sonny]

2. Tribunal - "Apathy's Keep" from "The Weight of Remembrance" (2023)

3. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - "Ritual Knife" from "Blood Lust" (2011) [submitted by Daniel]

4. Runemagick - "Endless Night and Eternal End" from "Beyond the Cenotaph of Mankind" (2023)

5. Mournful Congregation - "A Slow March to the Burial" from "Split single with Stabat Mater" (2004) [submitted by Vinny]

6. Isole - "In Abundance" from "Anesidora" (2023)

7. Paul Chain - "Living Today" from "Alkahest" (1995)

8. Subrosa - "Fat of the Ram" from "More Constant Than the Gods" (2013) [submitted by Vinny]

9. Head of the Demon - "En To Pan" from "Deadly Black Doom" (2020)

10. Shape of Despair - "Angels of Distress" from "Angels of Distress" (2001)

11. Melvins - "Boris" from "Bullhead" (1991)

12. Pentagram - "Death Row" from "Pentagram/Relentless" (1985)

13. Dark Buddha Rising - "K" from "Dakhmandal" (2013) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Om - "Flight of the Eagle" from "Conference of the Birds" (2006) [submitted by Daniel]

"Mental Funeral" is Autopsy's finest work in my opinion. I'm possibly not as big an Autopsy fan as most extreme metal nuts are as I tend to favour a more sophisticated brand of death metal but they really hit a sweet spot with this record as well as the "Retribution For The Dead" E.P. from the same year, both of which I found to be a clear step up from "Severed Survival" (3.5/5) which I've always found to be overrated. The enhanced doom component was certainly most welcome.

4/5

 "Unsophisticated" is my middle name!!

Autopsy - Mental Funeral (1991)

So, while my journey of discovery through the early years of death metal has brought me into contact with many releases for the first time, here is one with which I am exceedingly familiar and which sits near the very top of my list of all-time favourite death metal releases. Mental Funeral doesn't sound like a band playing their instruments, but rather like they are beating the songs out of them. There is a certain looseness to Autopsy's sound that belies the actual abilities of the musicians involved, but which imparts a cavernous brutality to the album that very few have been succesfully able to tap into. The production of Mental Funeral cannot be underestimated and I think Peaceville have managed to reproduce exactly the vibe the band were going for, which speaks of echoing underground caverns reeking of the foetid stench of decay where unspeakable acts of brutality take place. Track names like Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay and Torn From the Womb tell you all you need to know about the bands ethos, but where they score over the rest of the death metal sickos is by their inclusion of doom metal riffing that slows down the onslaught and allows a lurking fear of darkness to envelop the listener rather than an unrelenting bludgeoning that doesn't give any time for reflection. There are few better examples of what real death doom metal should sound like than some of the slower sections here, Robbing the Grave, after it's initial assault, slows to a menacing and spine-tingling crawl that should set the hairs on the back of your neck on end and send any would-be death doom pretenders heading for the exits. The doomy sections breaking-up the out-and-out brutality of the (admittedly still extremely brutal) death metal riffing imbue the album with a more memorable quality than some of the band's more high velocity contemporaries. Check out the riff to In the Grip of Winter for point in question - this has got to be one of the most iconic death doom riffs ever.

I must also state at this point that Chris Reifert is an absolute fucking beast. He made a significant contribution to Death's seminal Scream Bloody Gore, but here with his own band and agenda he has removed any shackles holding him back and his drumming is at times awesome to behold - I'm no technician so don't know how technically sound it is, but it is just so brutally pummelling that it almost becomes a force of nature - Bonesaw is a forty second death metal drumming masterclass in my book. Add to this arguably the filthiest-sounding vocals in all of metal and you can hear that Reifert has stamped his authority all over the album.

The riffs are fantastic and are some of my favourites in all of metal. The solos are wounded, howling beasts that sound like guitarists Danny Coralles and Eric Cutler have tortured their instruments to get them to give them up, suiting the album's atmosphere better than I would imagine a smoother, more technically gifted guitarist like James Murphy, for example, would. The songwriting is brilliant with several twists and turns throughout some of the longer tracks with multiple time changes and transitions and I don't think there is a weak track on the whole album. I think I would go as far as to say if you want an album to sum up what metal is truly all about then you should slam on Mental Funeral and be electrified! This is nothing less than doom-laden metal of death, necrotic and pungent with the malodorous stench of mouldering corpses and is a true classic.

5/5

1986 was definitely one of the best ever years for metal and marked the high water mark for thrash in my book.

My Top Ten:

1. Slayer - "Reign in Blood"

2. Metallica - "Master of Puppets"

3. Candlemass - "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus"

4. Dark Angel - "Darkness Descends"

5. Kreator - "Pleasure To Kill"

6. Megadeth - "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?"

7. Sacrilege B.C. - "Party With God"

8. Whiplash - "Power and Pain"

9. Paul Chain Violet Theatre - "In the Darkness"

10. Onslaught - "The Force"

No places left on the list for Maiden, Motorhead, Exumer, Sacrifice, Vulcano, Possessed, Saint Vitus, Sepultura, Sodom, Nuclear Assault, Cirith Ungol, Assassin and many others...

While I'm at it, my '85 Top Ten:

1. Celtic Frost - "To Mega Therion"

2. Possessed - "Seven Churches"

3. Sacrilege - "Behind the Realms of Madness"

4. Bathory - "The Return..."

5. Slayer - "Hell Awaits"

6. Exodus - "Bonded in Blood"

7. Anthrax - "Spreading the Disease"

8. Iron Maiden - "Live After Death"

9. Razor - "Evil Invaders"

10. Razor - "Executioner's Song"

Close, but no cigar: Onslaught, Saint Vitus, Mercy, Pentagram, Trouble, Black Hole, Artillery, Destruction... and many more.

The second half of the Eighties was a brilliant time to be a metal fan and I consider myself exceedingly lucky to have lived through it. I often wish I could transfer some of my experiences at gigs or metal clubs to some of the young metalheads of today so they could see what it was all about back then, when it was all so new and exciting.

Isole - Anesidora

Released 10th March 2023 on Hammerheart Records

Swedish doomsters Isole embrace the more epic side of doom metal and consistently produced some killer material throughout the first decade of the new millenium, with albums such as Bliss of Solitude and Silent Ruins sitting near the top of my all-time epic doom metal list. Unfortunately as the '10s came around, the band began to plateau and appeared to be resting on their laurels somewhat, sounding more and more formulaic. Their output throughout that decade was reasonable enough, but lacked the punch and grandeur of their earlier material and marked a noticeable downturn in quality. Now Anesidora marks their first full-length of the "twenties" and a hope (from me anyway) that things have taken an upturn once more.

Well, sadly, it appears that things have not changed markedly at all. The band have made a couple of attempts to change things up a bit - a viking metal-like influence on opening track The Songs of the Whales is something a bit different and on a couple of occasions they go for some harsh, growled vocals, but they aren't very convincing to be honest and just make matters worse. The riffs are fairly anodyne and the vocals sound flat. There are a couple of decent solos, but generally speaking this is a particularly unmemorable collection of tracks. They do incorporate a nice keyboard sound on several tracks and I wonder if the album may have benefitted if they had beefed up that aspect for a more atmospheric affair. I enjoy doom metal best when I can connect with it on an emotional level, which is usually achieved either through a sense of deep melancholy, an overwhelming feeling of massive weight through crushing chords and tectonic riffs or, especially with epic doom, a triumphalist sense of power and glory. Sadly, Anesidora ticks none of these boxes and even though it is plain that as musicians Isole are exemplary, they seem to have lost the ability to craft songs that speak to these elements within us, which once they were well capable of.

This is not a terrible album by any means and is technically fine, it just seems to be lacking any real heart and I have listened to so much doom metal by now that this just doesn't cut it for me anymore. I need a bit more than by-the-numbers doom metal nowadays, but that is all that this is really. I won't be adding this one to my Isole collection I'm afraid and that saddens me because I don't like to bad-mouth bands I have enjoyed in the past.

3/5

Yes I was aware of that. Was just looking for an opportunity to share that example of blatant plagiarism.

Ah, right you are. I'm just not sure if my use of irony and sarcasm always comes across as I intend!!

Hi Ben, do you mind adding Isole's latest album, Anesidora, please.

I can't imagine Lars would ever have sanctioned ripping off another band's work!!

Quoted Sonny

Underground NWOBHM outfit Bleak House disagree. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" anyone?

Just for the record, I was being sarcastic. I actually wouldn't put anything past Lars, he seems like one of the world's great entitled bastards.

I quite like the Satan, Ritual & Black Sabbath records you listed Sonny but it's probably a reflection of how strong a year it was that none of them were ever really in the running for inclusion in my top ten. I'm afraid to say that Raven & I don't get on at all though. We have a long history of not seeing eye to eye.

Out of interest, if you take another listen to Ritual's "Rebecca", do you think it's possible that Metallica copped the main riff to "For Whom The Bell Tolls" from that song? It's obviously a much rawer, messier version of it but I'd suggest that they did personally.  What do you think?

I have a similar reaction to Manowar as you do with Raven. I could just never take them seriously with their real men play on ten bullshit then prancing around in those weird fur getups that seem like costumes from a porno version of Conan the Barbarian!

I also believe Court in the Act is a classic NWOBHM album and should be much better known than it is.

I'll check "Rebecca" out tomorrow and get back to you, but I can't imagine Lars would ever have sanctioned ripping off another band's work!!

Anvil - Forged In Fire (1983)

I remember back in the early 1980s Anvil were quite often featured in mags like Kerrang!, but back then, being a lot younger, I was apt to make harsh and completely unbased snap judgements about things and had decided early on that Lips looked like "a bit of a twat" so promptly ignored anything that Anvil put out. I did see the documentary about them, The Story of Anvil, and it did end up with me rooting for the dogged Canadians, but it is only recently however, over the last couple of months in fact, that I have finally checked out any Anvil releases and I guess it's me who is the twat because I have thoroughly enjoyed their first couple of albums (although the debut is lyrically quite embarrassing) and so I have missed out on many years of Anvil enjoyment.

So to album number three, 1983's Forged In Fire and, for me, this is the best one yet. Anvil strike me a little as how Venom may sound if they were better musicians and ditched the horror/satanic imagery - and I mean that as a compliment as I love Venom. Most of the tracks are highly-charged, speed-driven rippers with some really cool riffs and impressive lead work from the unjustifiably maligned (by me) Steve "Lips" Kudlow that owe a fair bit to post-Killing Machine Judas Priest. Opener Forged in Fire includes a Stargazer-like section where Lips let's loose with a soaring solo and the following track, Shadow Zone, has another brilliant extended solo during it's latter section that show exactly how egregiously I had misjudged poor old Lips who, it turns out, is one hell of a metal guitarist.

It's not all a complete love-in from me though and Forged In Fire does contain a couple of clunkers, the worst of which is Never Deceive Me and, to a lesser extent, Make It Up to You, both of which sound like possible attempts at producing tracks for radio play. Butter Bust Jerky has a really odd-sounding chorus too, otherwise it is great with more red-hot soloing from old Lips. The middle section of the album does hit a bit of a plateau, but the closing duo of the searing Motormount and Winged Assassins ensure that the album ends on a high.

All in all this was a very satisfying listen and a really great slab of classic metal that I was a fool to overlook first time around.

4/5

This is quite timely. I am hosting a series of builders on RYM for yearly lists of metal and hard rock albums. We began with 1976 (as someone else had previously covered 1970-75) and have just started on 1983. During these builders, which take around three weeks each to complete, I have been listening to another ten to fifteen albums I haven't previously rated from each year. So, I will post my current top ten from 1983 and then at the end of the current builder I'll see if there has been any movement on my top ten after listening to more albums from that year. 

It also seems, from the number of suggestions coming in, that 1983 was the big break-out year for metal.

My initial top ten:

1.  Slayer - "Show No Mercy"

2. Iron Maiden - "Piece Of Mind"

3. Mercyful Fate - "Melissa"

4. Metallica - "Kill 'Em All"

5. Satan - "Court in the Act"

6. Dio - "Holy Diver"

7. Raven - "All For One"

8. Acid - "Maniac"

9. Ritual - "Widow"

10. Black Sabbath - "Born Again"

Try Solstice's New Dark Age if you've never heard it Morpheus as that is guitarist Rich Walker's main band and, although more epic doom than Isen Torr, they have a lot in common.

Tribunal - The Weight of Remembrance (2023)

The Weight of Remembrance is the debut from Canadian gothic doom duo, Tribunal, who consist of vocalist/guitarist Etienne Flinn and vocalist/bassist/cellist Soren Mourne. I would classify this as a gothic metal album with a marked doom metal presence rather than an out and out doom metal album. The duo employ a dual female/male vocal dynamic, but rather than the female vocals providing an ethereal, angelic counterpoint to the harsh male vocals, Soren Mourne's singing is more powerful than that, not adhering to the overdone beauty and the beast vocal cliche and are one of the album's plus points. Unfortunately her blackened harsh vocals are nowhere near as successful as her cleans and the deathly growls of the male vocals isn't very impressive either.

Musically, there are plenty of doomy riffs, however none of them are especially great - they aren't bad, but they do feel a bit tired at times. The duo use drummer Julia Geaman in a live setting and indeed she is behind the kit here, but sadly the drum sound feels quite pedestrian and doesn't do her any favours at all. The cello adds a nice atmospheric touch occasionally, especially on my favourite track, Apathy's Keep, but generally it isn't really that much to write home about. The production seems a bit sparse for an album aiming for a gothic atmosphere, which really requires a more lush sound and, as such, contributes to the album's failings.

I feel like I have been overly harsh about The Weight of Remembrance, but I have listened to a lot of this sort of stuff over the years and even though this is perfectly servicable doom-laden gothic metal, containing all the requisite ingredients, it doesn't do anything particularly impressive or adventurous with them and fails to poke it's head far above the parapet of mediocrity for the most part - those clean female vocals apart.

3/5

I find this breakout of my ratings to be quite interesting too:

5 star             1.9%

4.5 star         11.3%

4 star             26.8%

3.5 star          30.6%

3 star             18.2%

2.5 star           7.7%

2 star              3.3%

1.5 star           1.5%

1 star               0.5%

0.5 star            0.2%

I'm comfortable with that spread to be honest. It shows that I save the 5/5 ratings for the elite of the elite & it also shows that I don't consciously go looking for music that's clearly not gonna fall anywhere near my wheelhouse all that often either.

Although I have only 93 releases that I have at 5 stars that still seems too high for me and so I am slowly revisiting these - I suppose 93 albums over 35 years of listening to metal isn't that high but I think there are one or two that probably got overrated.

I'm with you there Vinny, I have 120+ five star albums and that seems a lot, although when I have revisited them I find it very hard to downgrade them because, yes they do sound that good.

I find this breakout of my ratings to be quite interesting too:

5 star             1.9%

4.5 star         11.3%

4 star             26.8%

3.5 star          30.6%

3 star             18.2%

2.5 star           7.7%

2 star              3.3%

1.5 star           1.5%

1 star               0.5%

0.5 star            0.2%

I'm comfortable with that spread to be honest. It shows that I save the 5/5 ratings for the elite of the elite & it also shows that I don't consciously go looking for music that's clearly not gonna fall anywhere near my wheelhouse all that often either.

This is also something I have been pondering lately. Your rating spread looks very similar to my own Daniel, with 4 and 3.5 star ratings dominating. What I have been wondering is if maybe I should have a different rating scheme for a specialist website like Metal Academy where I am more predisposed to enjoying the material as opposed to a general site like RYM.

What I mean is that on an absolute scale where 0.5 is the shittest stuff going, on RYM that would mean the worst of novelty records or Justin Bieber, but here even the worst albums can't be that bad. I find with my ratings here a 3.5 is not bad, but isn't really one I would return to that much (same as I do on RYM) but I kind of feel that descriprion should merit a lower score here. My four star ratings mean a good album I would gladly return to again but this encompasses a huge swathe of albums and I tend to find that becomes my default, so a bit more precision around these ratings would be nice.

Trouble is I can't face re-rating almost 3000 albums, so it's kind of a moot point, although I may move this way going forward and lower scores from 4 stars down.

My rating breakdown:

5.0 - 4.1%

4.5 - 11.7%

4.0 - 38.0%

3.5 - 27.1%

3.0 - 11.9%

2.5 - 4.0%

2.0 - 1.6%

1.5 - 0.8%

1.0 - 0.5%

0.5 - 0.3%

Sorry for such excessive nerdishness, but I do have a lot of time on my hands now and the arbitrary assigning of a numerical value to multifarious pieces of art has become an abiding passion of mine!

Unfortunately not Sonny. It's a real shame because I'd suggest that that stuff was amongst the material I'm most proud of as a composer.

Damn, that is a shame. As a devout death doom fanatic I would really like to have heard it.

I completely agree with your assessment here Sonny. "The Cage" is simply a hard rock record as far as I can see & not a very good one either it has to be said. It should never have been drawn in under the NWOBHM banner in the first place in my opinion.

This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

No it isn't a very good record at all. I really dislike AOR and this has all the hallmarks of that excremental genre. In fact, thinking about it again has pissed me off so much I have had to go back and dock it another half a point!

Thanks Daniel for sharing that. Did any of the material you wrote for Elysium see light of day because I would be really interested in hearing that?

I am not going to be writing a review of this album as there is one simple yet (for me) glaring issue which I am sure is only something I will have a challenge with and it would just look dumb in an actual review.  I get the musicianship and the quality of the performance on show here.  These guys are a talented bunch, that much is obvious.  What I cannot get past on this record is that bird song sample that is on every track.  I get that it is part of the aesthetic but it is so irritating.  It is the exact same sample that my wife has on her alarm so hearing the sound that wakes me up each morning and heralds the start of the working day is not something I want to hear on an album.  Bizarre I know, but that's my take on this one. 

I have found that if  I listen to it whilst out walking then I don't notice the birdsong samples as there are always birds singing in the background anyway and I've got used to them by now.

Some of you may recall me mentioning that a record label called Sphere of Apparition was interested in mastering & re-releasing the two mid-1990's demo tapes from my old brutal death metal band Neuropath. Well, things have been progressing nicely since I last provided an update. The mastering has been completed & both tapes sound as good as it's possible to get them. The CD cover layout is almost finalized. Options for the front cover artwork are being explored at the moment too. I'd guess that the final release date will be some time in the middle of the year depending on how quickly we can get the cover art signed off. It'll be starting in a CD only format but there's potential to expand on that depending on demand. There may be t-shirts too. It's very exciting stuff for an ol' metalhead like myself.

Sounds super-exciting Daniel. If you don't mind me asking, did you continue with playing in bands after Neuropath split or did the experience deter you from further involvement in a band environment? I am just curious but, of course, if you would rather not go into it then that's fine.

Hi Ben, could you add Black Oath's 2022 album, Emeth Truth and Death please.

Ben, I am intending starting working on the playlist for April tomorrow, so if you have any suggestions could you get them to me sometime today please.

If you haven't anything then that's fine too.

I'll take the Fog of War album. An album with a cover that bad has got to be great, right guys? ....guys?

Over to you Vinny.

I still can't believe you first picked this. 

I must admit that I'm hoping you manage to get to it (totally fine if you don't though!). Call me intrigued.

And so shall it be:

Fog of War - Fog of War (2009)

Let's get one thing out of the way, this is nowhere near as terrible as that terrible cover art would have you think and let's face it, that is one of the most amateurish album covers you are ever likely to encounter, luckily the music is not. Released in 2009, Fog of War is a product of the thrash revival movement of the 2000's and, to be honest, is a pretty decent effort when compared to some. It is unpretentious and energetic with solid thrashin' riffs and a respectable level of competency.

The production has a good clarity and all the instruments shine through, although there are a couple of tracks where the snare starts to grate a little, Death Penalty being the most obvious - no it's not St. Anger levels of intrusiveness, but just enough to set off an alarm. The vocals are functional, singer and rhythm guitarist Josh "Mosh" Branum's singing sits in the punk-derived crossover spectrum of thrash metal vocalists. But where Fog of War scores well is in the guitar work, both rhythm and lead. The riffs are great for any would-be moshpit warrior to abuse their body to and the lead work is actually really good. There are some brilliantly incendiary solos which come fairly thick and fast - check out Enforcer for a terrific fretboard workout - and these elevate the album from a fairly mundane, by-the-numbers product of the thrash revival conveyor belt to something that actually stands out from the crowd and makes me want to return to it again. Sure, as things proceed you start to notice a bit of filler, but tracks like the opening title track, the aforementioned Enforcer and Blood of A Thousand Suns should awaken the beast in any red-blooded thrasher and see them launching themselves around the room in a metal-induced frenzy (in spirit at least, if not in actual body - come on, I'm over sixty now!)

They really should do something about that fucking cover though!

I did toy with giving this a 4/5 rating, but played it safe in the end and went with 3.5./5