Sonny's Forum Replies

Sorry guys, I have failed in my Pit assignment this month. I have listened to the Blessed Death album several times but, in all honesty, I have hit a bit of a brick wall as far as writing reviews is concerned. I guess it's a bit like when an author gets writers block. I can't think of anything worthwhile to write - it all just sounds like shit (my writing, not the album). It's probably just a crisis of confidence and hopefully it will pass.

Sorry Ben, I haven't found time to review the Draft release for November. If I get time I will try to get it done early in December.

December 2022

1. The Obsessed - "Brother Blue Steel" from "Lunar Womb" (1991)
2. Darkthrone - "The Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea" from "Astral Fortress" (2022) [submitted by Sonny]
3. MWWB - "Valmasque" from "Y proffwyd dwyll" (2016) [submitted by Ben]
4. Conan - "Levitation Hoax" from "Evidence of Immortality" (2022) [submitted by Sonny]
5. Spiritus Mortis - "Death's Charioteer" from "The Great Seal" (2022)
6. The Body - "Even the Saints Knew Their Hour of Failure and Loss" from "All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood"
7. Tiamat - "Carry Your Cross and I'll Carry Mine" from "Prey" (2003)
8. Daylight Dies - "Dismantling Devotion" from "Dismantling Devotion" (2006) [submitted by Ben]
9. Toadliquor - "(Opening Sections Of) Inter-Stellar Space" from "Feel My Hate - The Power Is the Weight - R.I.P. Cain" (1993) [submitted by Sonny]
10. My Dying Bride - "A Sea to Suffer In" from "The Angel and the Dark River" (1995)
11. Elder - "Gemini" from "Dead Roots Stirring" (2011) [submitted by Daniel]
12. Assumption - "Triptych" from "Hadean Tides" (2022) [submitted by Sonny]
13. Candlemass - "Solitude" from "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus" (1986) [submitted by Ben]
14. Khazad-dûm - "The Forsaken Palace" from "Hymns from the Deep" (2020)
מזמור. 15 [Mizmor] - "The Narrowing Way" from "Cairn" (2019)

It looks like it could be a good race for the Fallen album of the year this time around - Messa, Dvvell, Epitaphe, Shape of Despair and Mournful Congregation all have strong claims. I must listen to the Thou / Mizmor album too before long as that seems to be another well-regarded release.

I see you also have Bog Body as your least favoured Fallen release of the year Ben, as did I.

"Don't start any bands. And I'm not even kidding here. Don't do it. The world is overwhelmed with bands, with records, with albums. There's really no space there for anything. There's only seven days a week. There's too many tours around. There's too many shows. People don't have, and will have less and less money. So all the tours are suffering. Do you really wanna put another song on another album that no one will pay attention to? No, you don't wanna do that. Go find yourself a proper job. Finish university, travel and enjoy life. Don't do this."

The above quote is from Nergal of Behemoth fame and to a large extent I agree with this (not necessarily the touring part) but the constant new releases and side-projects and new bands to check out is just so exhausting.  Seeing the start of the end of year list threads made me think about this and I went off to find this quote that I had seen recently.

I won't pretend to not have any releases from 2022 in my collection (indeed a couple inhabit my physical collection) but the above quote really resonates with me that there's far too much out there to ever explore, examine and embrace (or not) so how much is enough?  How much "new" do we need?  Personally, if it all stopped now, if no more releases occurred and no more bands formed and all I had was the music I have now then great.  As long as I have the music I like to this point then what am I missing?

Anyway, feel free to discuss if interested.

Great thread Vinny and it is a question I often ask myself. How many times can I sit through another so-so album just because I haven't heard it before when I could be listening to an album I know I love? Well  the answer is "as many as it takes to get that same hit the first time you heard War Pigs, Overkill, Creeping Death, In the Shadow of the Horns, Raining Blood or whatever it was that floated your own particular boat, because you are a music junkie and that feeling is what you live for!!" This is not a sweeping generalisation, but it is how it is for me - and sometimes I hate myself fot it and just wish I could live with the 1500 or so albums I already own physical copies of and let that be an end of it, but as long as I have functioning ears that is unlikely to happen.

I can get that for Cult of Luna, I think since I much prefer their newer material over their older stuff (I gave Somewhere Along the Highway a 3/5, blasphemy I know), I'm still riding the high of not being quite tired of their style yet as I've found myself consistently going back to The Long Road North. 

Would you say that The Funeral Orchestra, BlackLab, and Mournful Congregation still deserve a listen for someone like me? I've heard good things about the Mournful Congregation release but I think it slipped by since it was an EP, so I'll 100% be finding time for that one. 

Mournful Congregation, definitely yes. It's 37 minutes long so EP is a bit of a relative term, but I think you would certainly find something to like here, Xephyr. BlackLab depend very much on how much you like stoner metal. If you are cool with Boris' stoner material then this may appeal. The Funeral Orchestra album only features one new track as the rest are re-recordings of older material, but it is all quality if you like ritualistic- sounding funeral doom.

It looks like we have a high degree of consensus on this year's Fallen releases, Xephyr, as your list does not look massively unlike my own. The Cult of Luna album seems like the main one that separates us and, to be honest, I think it is still a good album, but I am tiring of CoL's one-trick pony songwriting approach which is, basically,  build... build... build... build some more... RELEASE .

I may post a list in the lists section, but for now here is my Top 30:

1. Dvvell - Quiescent

2. Messa - Close

3. Epitaphe - II

4. Mournful Congregation - The Exuviae of Gods: Part I

5. Shape of Despair - Return to the Void

6. The Funeral Orchestra - Funeral Death - Apocalyptic Plague Ritual II

7. Conan - Evidence of Immortality

8. BlackLab - In a Bizarre Dream

9. Tzompantli - Tlazcaltiliztli

10. Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer

11. Worm - Bluenothing

12. Boris - Heavy Rocks

13. Night Hag - Phantasmal Scourge

14. Friends of Hell - Friends of Hell

15. Mares of Thrace - The Exile

16. Deathbell - A Nocturnal Crossing

17. Cult of Luna - The Long Road North

18. Obsidian Sea - Pathos

19. Firebreather - Dwell in the Fog

20. Come to Grief - When the World Dies

21. Darkher - The Buried Storm

22. Druid Lord - Relics of the Dead

23. Ard - Take Up My Bones

24.Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - The Harvest

25. Spiritus Mortis - The Great Seal

26. Ataraxy - The Last Mirror

27. Ufomammut - Felice

28. Dawn of Solace - Flames of Perdition

29. Hangman's Chair - A Loner

30. Fostermother - The Ocean

I've been loving this one as well, but I agree in that it's more of an appetizer for what they may have in store in the next year or so. "Bluenothing" is incredibly good but the rest of the tracks kind of just pass by, which makes it hard to judge considering it's still just an EP. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the new direction as much as I am Sonny since although I still really liked Foreverglade, the bits and bobs they've added here are right up my alley despite veering away from their Death Doom roots. Looking forward to the next one for sure!

4/5 as well

My issue with a lot of neoclassical and guitar hero-like stuff has been that that is all it is, just guitar wankery for the sake of it. Worm however seem to be trying to incorporate it into an extreme metal genre in a way that I personally have never heard before and thus adding a whole new dimension to a genre that I enjoy massively but which is becoming increasingly set in it's ways. Looking forward to hearing how that direction turns out and fingers crossed Worm can make a success of it.

Worm - Bluenothing EP (2022)

Released 28th October 2022 on 20 Buck Spin.

I've been a fan of Worm for a while now and own physical copies of their last two full-length albums, so I went into this 26 minute EP with a degree of anticipation. Well, it seems like this is intended as a bridging piece as the band expand their ever-developing sound even further and marks a significant evolution in their musical development. This latest development seems courtesy of the addition of new guitarist Philippe Tougas (aka Wroth Septentrion) who has replaced Nihilistic Manifesto who was brought in for previous album, Foreverglade, and who has a mean line in guitar hero soloing techniques.

Bluenothing comprises four tracks, by far the longer of which is the opening title track, weighing in at eleven minutes, and which constitutes the highlight of things. It is again based on slow, death doom riffing with deep sonorous growls alternating with black metal-like shrieks for vocals, but it takes on a more expansive dimension with the addition of atmospheric keyboards and, most strikingly, some soaring lead work that seems derived from classic heavy metal or even neoclassical metal axemen, courtesy of Wroth Septentrion. There is a dichotomy at work on the track that comes from the heavy bottom end and growling vocals being heavily contrasted by the washed-out, airiness of the keyboards and the soaring nature of the lead work for a striking layered effect. I get a bit of a My Dying Bride vibe from Bluenothing without the cloying theatricality the Yorkshire gothic death doomers too often revel in.

The other three tracks risk becoming an aside when cast in the shadow of the opener, but Centuries of Ooze II, although shorter, is every bit as dramatic and impressive as the opener. In similar style it utilises the thick, crawling riffs and growling vocals of death doom to provide a base on which to build the track, overlaying this formidable bottom end with atmospheric synths, a clean, chant-like vocal refrain and more of those searing, soaring guitar licks. This does actually sound like an evolution in death doom and Worm seem to have succeeded in carving out a niche for themselves that few others are currently occupying.

The third track, Invoking the Dragonmoon, actually sounds like a demo of the band trying out the new guitar lead style and isn't much more than a bit of a neoclassical exercise in guitar hero hystrionics, but does kind of inform the listener of where the band are coming from and what they are intending to do with it. The closer, Shadowside Kingdom, has an extended atmospheric intro utilising synths, distant-sounding clean vocals, acoustic guitar and more of the new-style lead work before exploding at the halfway mark into a symphonic black metal blast, with more than a nod to the bands origins as a black metal solo project, perhaps as band founder Phantomslaughter says goodbye to that side of the project for good - who knows?

Overall this was an interesting listen as it seems to be teasing a possible new direction for Worm and whilst it has plenty of merit in it's own right, it has opened up more questions than answers and has made me even more impatient for a new Worm full-length to see where all this promise may yet lead us.

4/5

Assumption - Hadean Tides (2022)

Despite forming in 2011 as a duo consisting of drummer David Lucido and multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Giorgio Trombino, this is only Italian death doom outfit Assumption's second full-length, following 2018's Absconditus. Since the release of the debut the pair have rounded out their lineup by adding permanent bassist Claudio Troise and second guitarist Matija Dolinar to share the six-string workload with Giorgio. I think this is a good move, for while I respect multi-instrumentalists, I feel the full band dynamic nearly always works better.

A large proportion of Hadean Tides takes the form of funereally-paced death doom in the vein of bands such as the mighty Evoken with huge, crushing, glacially-paced riffs and Giorgio's impressive deep growls providing the vocal counterpoint. The pacing isn't monolithic though and the band will often break into an Incantation-like killer death metal riff to get the old noggin nodding or a quicker-paced doom section in the vein of a band like Coffins.

Of course, staying true to the idiosynchratic nature of Italian doom metal, the band throw in a couple of curveballs. First off, set in the very heart of the album is a six-minute ambient piece, Breath of the Dedalus, that sounds like it would be better-suited to a cosmic black metal album from the likes of Mesarthim or Mare Cognitum than a death doom release, yet here it sits like a black hole acting as an axis around which the rest of the album rotates... and somehow it works. The other, and possibly even more jarring curveball comes in the form of my favourite, the penultimate track, Triptych. It starts off weirdly with a lone bass line and Giorgio speaking the lyrics making it feel like a Doors track, in fact the whole song feels a bit like a death metal version of The End, with a similarly uncomfortable atmosphere to it and an even more dense and impenetrable lyrical content. Eventually it resolves itself into a classy, heaving death doom riff that is sustained for a short while after which it returns to the disturbing spoken-word approach of the earlier part before exploding into an all-out death metal blast which you can certainly imagine being accompanied by images of a water buffalo beheading! The tracks are generally shorter than on the debut (although the album overall is much longer) all except the closer, the fifteen-minute Black Trees Waving, which begins in funereal style, but which resolves into a great riff with some decent soloing whilst taking a couple of twists and turns along the way including a croaking clean vocal section.

Overall, Assumption take a tried-and-tested formula and reproduce it very convincingly whilst adding in just enough originality to assert their own identity and hopefully prevent themselves from getting lost in the avalanche of metal albums hitting the metaphorical shelves. It is one of those albums that should certainly make ears prick up, for good or ill, when heard. On the downside, I'm not sure why, but I don't  hear a huge amount of emotion or menace invested in it (something the aforementioned Evoken could certainly teach them about) and as such it does have a bit of a cold and sterile feel to it. However, I did find myself being drawn back to it's siren call several times and it did hold my interest with it's sometimes unpredictable structure, so I think I must label it a success.

4/5

If I'm not too late...

• Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - Valmasque off Y proffwyd dwyll (2016)
• Candlemass - Solitude off Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986)
• Daylight Dies - Dismantling Devotion off Dismantling Devotion (2006)

No, I'll add them into the playlist when I complete it this week.

Ben, do you have any suggestions for December's playlist?

Last call for December's playlist suggestions Ben.

Spiritus Mortis - The Great Seal (2022)

Released 16th September 2022 on Svart Records

Spiritus Mortis are a Finnish doom outfit, formed in 1987 by brothers, guitarist Jussi and bassist Teemu Maijala. They have featured a number of drummers and vocalists, including Sami Hynninen, aka Albert Witchfinder of Reverend Bizarre notoriety, who handled vocal duties from 2009-17 and featured on the band's two previous albums. Despite such a lengthy lifespan, The Great Seal is only the band's fifth full-length. Now, I do enjoy a lot of what Spiritus Mortis do, but I have to concede that they are inconsistent. For me they have been unable to better 2009 's The God Behind the God, the presence of Sami Hynninen elevated the band to another level on that album, especially as it followed the exceedingly disappointing Fallen. 2016's The Year Is One was solid doom metal fayre which failed to ignite the same level of passion as TGBtG despite some decent work from all concerned.

So to current release, The Great Seal, which shows a marked change in style. Here the band have gone for a more epic approach, in the style of Candlemass, which has been facilitated by the addition of vocalist Kimmo Perämäki, formerly of power metal crews Masquerage and Celesty, to replace Sami. He certainly shows off his power metal credentials, particularly on uptempo opener Puputan, so if you are in the market for OTT epic vocals with your doom metal, then this may well be a dose of what you need. I suspect this is the direction the band have wanted to go in for some time, but have had to wait to recruit a vocalist with the skillset and vocal range to pull it off. Much as I love Albert Witchfinder's vocals and prefer them to Kimmo Perämäki's more overblown efforts, this style is technically beyond him and so Spiritus Mortis could never go in this direction while he was behind the mike. The songwriting also seems to have a more pronounced emphasis on melody with a number of the tracks on display here, Martyrdom Operation for instance, exhibiting an almost sing-a-long accessibility and as such it feels like they are aiming for a wider market than that allowed by their previous Reverend Bizarre-influenced trad doom approach. Although this is the case, they don't turn their backs on the traditionalists completely and as the album progresses, it seems to tend more towards the trad style, Khristovovery with it's Sabbathian second half and closing track Are You a Witch, for example, are very much in the vein of their previous material and as such have greater appeal to me personally than the more overblown tracks like Puputan and Martyrdom Operation. The driving short track Vision of Immortality especially, I can imagine being sung by Sami Hynninen, so his influence hasn't been completely erased from Spiritus Mortis' pallette.

It must be said that the band are very tight and the playing sounds technically solid with some mighty riffing and some cool soloing - check out the Sabbath-like riff at the mid-point of Khristovovery and the Tony Iommi-influenced solo that joins it. The rhythm section is functional without being much disposed to showiness and as such provides a solid base for the guitars and vocals to weave their more expansive and theatrical magic. Primarily, if you are more well-disposed to the bombastic stylings of epic doom over the straightforward approach of traditional doom then chances are you may get more out of this than I did. Don't get me wrong, I like a fair bit of what is going on during The Great Seal's forty minutes, but I must admit that I had to work at it over a number of listen-throughs and the album as a whole didn't click with me immediately and I had to find my way in via the trad doom-oriented tracks. I still prefer the two previous releases, but with my well-publicised Reverend Bizarre worship that will come as no surprise to anyone I suspect. With it's almost equal parts traditional and epic doom there is a risk that The Great Seal may fall between two stools, but I suspect the quality is such that doomsters of both persuasions will find enough to enjoy here.

3.5/5

My suggestions for December:

Critical Defiance - "The Last Crusaders... Bringers of Death!" from "No Life Forms" (2022)
Flotsam & Jetsam - "Hammerhead" from "Doomsday for the Deceiver" (1986)
Testament - "Legions of the Dead" from "The Gathering" (1999)

Ben, do you have any suggestions for December's playlist?

Buffalo - "Volcanic Rock" (1973)

The sophomore album from this seminal band from the beloved town of my birth in Sydney, Australia was pretty much regarded as heavy music royalty by the older metalheads when I was first getting into underground metal in the very late 80's. It's not a metal release as such although I'd suggest that the opening & closing tracks should qualify as they're not all that far off Black Sabbath. The rest of the tracklisting is closer to heavy psych & hard rock in my opinion but "Volcanic Rock" is a high quality release in its own right with no weak tunes included. Front man Dave Tice sounds almost exactly like my all-time favourite singer in Soundgarden's Chris Cornell & is the clear focal point of the album although the more stripped back, repetitive & psychedelic guitar work is a real treat too, especially the nine minute album highlight "Freedom" which is nothing short of mind-blowing. If you dig 70's psychedelic/hard rock & proto-metal then you can't go wrong with this record.

For fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Flower Travellin' Band & Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

4/5

Another one of my favourite early 70's records. Heavy psych is a sorely overlooked genre.

Conan - Evidence of Immortality (2022)

Released 19 August 2022 on Napalm Records

I've not got much of a history with Conan to be honest. I checked out their debut Monnos a good few years back and didn't care much for it back then, so I went into their latest, Evidence of Immortality, with quite low expectations. Well, I don't know if it's the band who have changed much or me, but I really enjoyed this one and I suspect I will have to go back and re-evaluate my opinion of the Scouse doomsters.

Evidence of Immortality is ultra-heavy, slow-moving stoner doom with anguished vocals that sounds like the result of putting Ufomammut, Electric Wizard and Eyehategod in a blender. Any of the synonyms for crushing could be deployed to describe the album because, make no mistake, this is one heavy motherfuckin' slab of doom metal. There is precious little variety exhibited during the fifty minutes on offer here (at least until the closing track), but I'm pretty sure that if this is your bag then that is no problem for you whatsoever. The performance is pretty tight and Conan seem as capable musically as anyone in the stoner doom scene. The riffs are gargantuan and cavernous, the rhythm section move with the heartbeat of a dreaming Titan and the sludgy vocal bellowings are left to snarl their defiance into the face of an unstoppable force of nature.

Closing track, the fourteen-minute Grief Sequence does throw out a bit of a curveball with a monotonous riff overlaid with swirling, ambient-style keyboards which produce a funeral doom-like effect, at least intially. As the track progresses it gets weirder and more psychotic as effects are introduced that give it a hypnotic, illusory and tripped-out kind of atmosphere, like an acid trip that is just about to turn bad, but it may actually be my favourite track here because it is ridiculously effective at sucking you into it's insanity.

Overall, if you are a fan of Ufomammut or Electric Wizard (especially the earlier material) and dig music that makes you feel like you're being sucked into a black hole, then this should likely be right up your street.

4.5/5

Decayed -Resurrectiónem Mortuórum (1996)

RYM has got nearly sixty thousand black metal releases catalogued, so a perfectly valid question would be "Why the hell should I listen to Resurrectiónem Mortuórum when there is so much other stuff to check out?" Well, I would honestly have to reply "If you just want to hear some kick-ass black metal then there is no reason at all for you to listen to it particularly." That said, though, if you are interested in the development of black metal and especially in countries not considered hotbeds of the form, then there may be something of interest for you here.

Decayed are from Lisbon in Portugal, forming in 1990 and still going to this day, which is no mean feat I suppose, yet have never really made much of a splash in the wider world of black metal, at least as far as I am aware (none of the band's 32 releases on the Academy have any ratings). Resurrectiónem Mortuórum was their second album, released in 1996, and from the sound of it the band members were well aware of leading lights of the Norwegian scene such as Emperor, Dimmu Borgir and Immortal. They play medium-paced black metal in the main, with embellishments such as keyboards and the odd female vocal accompaniment. There is a reasonable amount of variety on offer so things don't get too stale too quickly and in addition to the more recognisable mid-nineties black metal of tracks like Darkness Falls or the pummelling Archdemon there is the gothic metal-sounding City of the Horned One, the haunting synth and spoken word of By the Candlelight or the black'n'roll of the band's reasonable cover of Venom's Countess Bathory.

The playing feels quite sloppy at times, the solo during the Emperor-like Thy Summoning sounds poorly executed and the drums in particular sound like crap and when they aren't performing blastbeats they are as dull as dishwater. Yet, even after saying that, there was something that kept pulling me back in. The vocals are pretty decent and are of the gruff shrieking style I quite enjoy and bassist/vocalist João Fonseca (who was guitarist for Moonspell for a couple of years in the mid-nineties) puts in a good performance throughout. The riffs aren't bad and do stick in the memory after a couple of listens and the synths add some nice touches to the overall atmosphere, being used subtly enough not to sound cheesy.

So to answer your hypothetical question from the start of my review, there is no particular reason to listen to Resurrectiónem Mortuórum and it will never top anyone's list of favourite black metal albums, but then again, neither is there a reason not to - It certainly isn't anything like as poor as I feared when I initially selected it for the review draft.

3.5/5

A few of you have probably seen me banging on about Chilean thrash metal for some time now and if you haven't yet been swayed by brilliant albums from the likes of Demoniac and Parkcrest then maybe Critical Defiance's sophomore may be the one to push you over the edge. Forming in 2013, Critical Defiance released their debut, Misconception, in 2019 to pretty good reviews and it was certainly one of my favourites of that year and has only risen higher in my estimation after repeated listens. Since the debut's release rhythm guitarist Felipe Espinoza has been replaced by Mauricio Toledo of Unholyness and more excitingly (to me at least) they have added a second lead guitarist, Javier Salgado, who is main man in Parkcrest as well as a member of Hellish and Mayhemic. Misconception was packed to the brim with great riffs, but the addition of Salgado on No Life Forms has pushed Critical Defiance even higher with some absolutely brilliant lead work to match. Don't get me wrong, vocalist / guitarist Felipe Alvarado did a good job on the debut, but Salgado brings a greater level of proficiency to the soloing on this latest album and without having to handle all the lead work himself it also frees up Alvarado - much to his benefit.

The tracks are generally shorter here than on Misconception and the band have raised the ante as far as tempo, intensity and technicality are concerned. So this all sounds like a No Life Forms is a superior album to the debut, doesn't it? Well yes... and no. All the above is true and it does make a really great modern thrasher for sure, but it just feels like the band have lost a bit of something from the debut that made it so awesome. The longer songs of Misconception made them feel more complete and gave them time to breathe, whereas some of the tracks on No Life Forms are just so short and intense that it feels like the band have omitted a vital ingredient from the songs' makeup, with them sometimes feeling a bit too dense. Don't misunderstand, I still love this new album and the addition of Javier Salgado is a real coup, but it feels like a little bit of the band's soul has been sacrificed in an attempt to produce the most brutal and intense thrash album of recent years.

All negativity aside though, Alvarado's vocals are savage, channeling a fist-fight between Mille Petrozza and Tom Araya and Salgado's soloing is superb. Riff follows riff with machinegun-like precision and the rhythm section are complete monsters. Drummer Rodrigo Poblete is never left wanting by the pace or intensity of the guitarists and bassist Ignacio Arévalo is imperious as his basslines reinforce and sometimes dominate the lead work and riffing. OK, so very few straight-up thrash albums are going to present much new to genre devotees, but I believe that had either of Critical Defiance's two albums been released in the mid to late eighties they would easily have stood out above 90% of the thrash of the time and even given some of the classics a run for their money. So obviously in modern days where even decent thrash albums may be in short supply, this towers over most thrash that has come out in the last few years. If you only listen to one 21st century thrash band then make it Critical Defiance.

4.5/5

I'll go with the Blessed Death album. I quite liked their 1987  Destined for Extinction album, so that will do for me.

After Ben and Xephyr's choices, the fact I am familiar with the Khors and Departure Chandelier releases and I don't fancy an hour of Xasthur I will take the Decayed album and hope I don't regret it too much seeing as it has only a 2.7 average on RYM.

I was quite a fan of Critical Defiance's debut Misconception, but I haven't been paying much attention to new releases this year so I didn't realise they had a new album out. Definitely looking forward to this one.

November 2022

1. Goatsnake - "IV" from "I" (1999)

2. Triptykon - "Boleskine House" from "Melana Chasmata" (2014)

3. Bethlehem - " Funereal Owlblood" from "Dark Metal" (1994)

4. Eyehategod - "Anxiety Hangover" from "Dopesick" (1996) [Submitted by Daniel]

5. Magmakammer - "Mindtripper" from "Mindtripper" (2018)

6. Isole - " Shadowstone" from "Bliss of Solitude" (2008) 

7. Wine From Tears - "Cotard's Delusion" from "I'm Fine... " (2022)

8. Belzebong - "Bong Thrower" from "Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves" (2011)

9. Spiritus Mortis - "Are You A Witch" from "The Great Seal" (2022)

10. Trouble - "Psalm 9" from "Psalm 9" (1984) [submitted by Ben]

11. Tons - "Ummagummo" from "Hashension" (2022) 

12. Old Man Gloom - "Common Species" from "No" (2012)

13. Sinister Downfall - "Eyes Forever Closed" from "The Last Witness" (2022)

14. The Gathering - "Strange Machines" from "Mandylion" (1995) 

15. Solitude Aeternus - "Upon Within" from "Alone" (2006) [Submitted by Daniel]

16. Convocation - "Martyrise" from "Ashes Coalesce" (2020) 

Well Ben, I am already very familiar with High on Fire and Forming the Void and the Memory Garden release is only 18 minutes, so I'll go with the Soulburn release, which I believe is Asphyx by another name.

Well, I've been hammering this album since first hearing it a couple of weeks ago as it has really got under my skin. Here's my review:

Well, apart from three or four fairly decent albums, 2022 has been a lukewarm year for Fallen-related releases as far as I am concerned. That however, may be about to change as Californian four-piece Dvvell come along with their debut album, Quiescent, and tear 2022 a new one! Quiescent is one bleak and desperate-sounding motherfucker of an album that anyone familiar with MSW's Hell project would immediately recognise due to it coming from a similar angst-filled and pissed-off place.

The album consists of four tracks all hovering around the quarter-of-an-hour mark and each named for a family member: Mother, Father, Son and Daughter. Now I don't know anything about the families these guys grew up in, but if the content of Quiescent is anything to go by, then it is unlikely that all was well behind the closed doors of these family homes. Musically, Dvvell combine funeral doom and sludge in an almighty howling roar of anger and defiance at an unfeeling universe that has delivered innumerable injustices upon our protagonists. The tracks are massive-sounding with huge walls of volume seared through by ascerbic vocal howls that shred the listener like corrugated roofing blown loose in a hurricane. There is very little sunlight to be found within Quiescent's hour, the sonic landscape presented being unremittingly bleak and unflinchingly ugly. This is an album designed to crush any hope out of the listener in order to allow them some insight into the tortured and desperate soul of the album's narrative.

Now I'm sure a psychologist somewhere would have a field day with the reasons why, but this is exactly the sort of shit that I live for in my Fallen liistening. This speaks to me in a way that I just don't "get" with so much other music, metal or otherwise. When I first put this album on last week, I felt a shiver down my spine as soon as it became apparent where this was going. As I said earlier, the obvious touchstone for me is Hell and I would suggest the guys from Dvvell are more than a little familiar with MSW's work with that project. Quiescent isn't merely a Hell copycat though, it contains an authenticity that suggests to me that this comes from the heart. It may not sound it, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to fake this sort of sound convincingly and believe me, Quiescent is very convincing indeed. This is an album for those who don't shy away from life's negativity, but rather embrace it and in so doing reach some form of catharsis from going along with it and buying into it's expression. Undoubtedly my favourite album since MSW's Obliviosus in 2020.

5/5

Glaare - To Deaf and Day (2017)

Pottering about this morning doing some errands after the wedding on Friday and ahead of us going to Wales on honeymoon this afternoon and after a chaotic few days in the final run up to the wedding I am in need of something soothing and yet with life in it.  This post-punk outfit usually hit the mark whenever I need such relief and this has once again hit the spot today.  Drank far too much on the night of my wedding so I am now suffering with anxiety being off the chart whilst I come back down so I sense this record may get quite a bashing over the next couple of days whilst I am relaxing in my hot tub on honeymoon.

Congrats by the way. Didn't realise the wedding had come around so soon. Have a great hooneymoon!!

I too was never a big fan of Rainbow's debut, but loved On Stage. I think that Blackmore was much more suited to live performances. Both Rainbow and Deep Purple tended to extend tracks in a live setting - look at Made In Japan and the 20+ minutes of Space Trucking for proof. It also seemed more acceptable for rock bands to improvise live in the 1970s, Led Zeppelin were another act whose live versions of songs often included extended improvised sections. I think a lot of people who go to see bands now just want to hear the songs they hear on Spotify as they are used to them and don't really tolerate improvisation as much. Of course it could go too far - Geezer Butler's bass solos for example could get a bit too much and I've never really got much from drum solos of which there were way too many!

King Diamond is certainly a one-of-a-kind and equally certainly isn't to everyone's taste. Me, I've never had much trouble with him beyond an initial exposure to Mercyful Fate that caught me off-guard. Once I'd come to terms with his unique vocal style I became quite the fan. Now, by far the biggest reason for this is that King writes awesome heavy metal songs and so consequently I have been able to accomodate his vocal idiosyncrasies, to the point where I now find them quite endearing. He is also one never to shy away from a horror story concept album, a bit like a combination of Alice Cooper and Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Now I like a good concept album as much as the next person, but only as long as the songs are first and foremost and aren't sacrificed to the concept. This is something King Diamond generally tends to avoid, but on The Eye I felt a couple of the tracks (such as The Trial (Chambre Ardente) and Two Little Girls) were compromised in order to put across the narrative of the story. This is only a minor gripe however as generally the riffs rule the roost and, compromised though it is, The Trial (Chambre Ardente) has some of the album highlights, particularly the thrashy riff that breaks out a couple of times - I would just like to have heard more of it rather than the forced perspective of the storytelling element being crowbarred in. The real major draw of The Eye for me is the absolutely sterling lead work of guitarists Andy La Rocque and Pete Blakk who are on devastating form with some brilliant soaring and searing solos that are up there with Priest and Maiden as dual lead masters.

Let's face it, King Diamond often walks the line between metal glory and cheesiness and bless him for it. His horror tales are more in keeping with Roger Corman than Rob Zombie and Hammer Studios rather than Itallian Giallo with tongue often in cheek and more than a nod to the inherent theatricality of his music. What The Eye serves up is some damn fine heavy metal songs with riffs, solos and theatrical imagery aplenty and you know what, that's kind of what a lot of metalheads grew up on, we weren't always super-intense and serious like we seem to be nowadays. Sometimes we even had fun listening to heavy metal and that is what King Diamond provides - and that's fine by me. It's not as good as Abigail or "Them", but it has plenty to recommend it all the same.

3.5/5

Corrosion of Conformity - Animosity (1985)

Considering how much I enjoy both thrash metal and punk rock I suppose I should listen to more crossover thrash than I do. The problem of course is that I have not really ever been blown away by a crossover album from the few that I have heard and so it is still somewhat of a peripheral genre for me. Corrosion of Conformity are also one of those bands whose name I am very familiar with, but who I haven't ever really listened to. This is probably due to the fact I keep seeing them spoken of in the same breath as Anselmo's Down, so I'm not that interested to be honest. Not looking good for Animosity really is it?

But, I did actually quite enjoy a lot of what I heard here. OK, it does occasionally slip into the kind of sloppy mess that crossover often descends into, but generally speaking it remains fairly coherent throughout. It draws heavily from the hardcore side of things, I would say more so than it does from a thrash direction. It actually sounds more metallic when the band throttle the pace back a bit and let the riffs become more measured. The hardcore really jumps to the fore on the more manic and faster tracks which make up more than half the album and then Animosity sounds much more like a Bad Brains album than a Slayer LP. To be honest, it is the punk attitude that I think carries this album with the metalness merely adding a layer of toughness but not really feeling integral and it is that inherent hardcore punk mania that I found most enjoyable about it. So, all in all a record I got a decent amount from, but not really for it's metal content, so I'm not sure how other Pittites who have less of a fondness for punk may view it.

3.5/5

Randy Holden - "Population II" (1970)

This album seems to be getting a few mentions as an early heavy metal release these days so I thought I'd better check it out. It's definitely got a couple of tracks that sound surprisingly like traditional doom metal (see "Fruit & Icebergs" & "Fruit & Icebergs (Conclusion)" but overall it's much more of a heavy psychedelic rock release that provides clear indications that Randy's been majorly influenced by the blues rock of Cream, the first Black Sabbath record & particularly the Jimi Hendrix Experience who he semi-plagiarizes at times. It's not a bad listen though if you like that authentic 70's heavy psych sound (which I do).

For fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Buffalo & Iron Claw.

3.5/5

Another really good early seventies heavy psych release. There were some brilliant albums released around this time that contributed hugely to making rock music heavier and heavier and were certainly an influence on early metal bands. Unfortunately a lot of these records are really underappreciated by the wider community but are actually some of my all-time favourites.

Most people seem to believe the dividing wall between rock and metal is at it's thinnest betwen the hard rock of Purple and Zeppelin and late-70's heavy metal, but pesonally I think it is between early 70's heavy psych and traditional doom metal where there is most affinity (Sabbath were basically overdriven heavy psych at first).

Here are my November selections...

• Trouble - Psalm 9 off Psalm 9 (1984)
• The Gathering - Strange Machines off Mandylion (1995)
• Isole - Shadowstone off Bliss of Solitude (2008)

And know that I have been listening to and enjoying The Fallen playlists each month. Sorry for not commenting much. I generally listen while doing other things and note the tracks that are grabbing my interest.

Thanks Ben. I find myself that the playlists are great for when you are doing something else. I tend to listen when I am out with the dog or working in the garden. I actually find them really enjoyable to listen to because I don't feel the need to listen to them as intensely as the monthly features or review drafts where I need to make comment upon those releases. I do usually listen to the playlists from all my three clans at least once during the month though and quite often additional ones from the Horde, Guardians and Infinite.

Sonny?  Are you adding anything for November please?

I've not been listening to much from the Pit lately, so I only have a couple Vinny:

Nuclear - "Eleventh Block" from "Ten Broken Codes" (2008) 

Demoniac - "Equilibrio fatal" from "So It Goes" (2020)

Hi Ben, could you add US funeral doom/sludge outfit Dvvell please?

In addition, can you add the new Spiritus Mortis album, The Great Seal".

Floor - Oblation (2014)

Apparently Oblation is a comeback album for Floor after they had reformed in 2010 following a split in 2004. Guitarist Juan Montoya played in Torche in the intervening years, a band I am a little more familiar with than Floor (this being the first I have heard of them).

So the genre tags claim this to be a stoner/sludge release but I don't hear much sludge metal here at all. I think Daniel mentioned during his Dopesick review how the sludge tag is misused and this is a prime example. Sure it has a quite thick and sometimes (small 's') sludgy guitar tone, but the vitriolic vocal delivery that I associate with true Sludge Metal is completely absent. For me, this is an out-and-out stoner metal release, so as such how does it stack up?

Well, Oblation is one of those albums that is perfectly fine while it's playing but leaves no lasting impression and doesn't exactly have me searching for the replay button. Each track is not that dissimilar from the last, they have a decent stoner riff, there's some laid-back sounding vocals, maybe a bit of lead work, sometimes a catchy melody... and then it ends - rinse and repeat. Very rarely the band may throw in a stray doom riff, but that's about it, except for Homegoings and Transitions which is even more laid-back and sounds like some form of stonergaze. There really is very little other than that. I quite like the guitar sound, but otherwise this is unremarkable and I really can't whip up any more enthusiasm for it than that I'm afraid.

2.5/5

I'll just start by stating that I've become somewhat disillusioned with black metal over the past few months. I'm not sure if it's because the inate frostiness of black metal doesn't sound the same in the sweltering heat of the summer months just passed here in the UK, or (and more likely) I've just become more disillusioned with the dilution of the core of black metal by any number of recent releases that subsume the inate ferocity and savagery of their black metal content, resulting in what, to my mind at least, feels like a gentrification of the genre. Thankfully October has seen a couple of albums cross my path that have re-stoked my inner fire for black metal. One was Behexen's debut Rituale Satanum (via the review draft game) and this, admittedly to a lesser extent, was the other.

Onwards to the Spectral Defile, at it's best, concentrates on enervating and energetic black metal that is loaded with aggression and a formidable fury. I wouldn't exactly call this raw as the production is a bit too meaty for that, but it is visceral and savage nonetheless and harks back to the best of early Gorgoroth or Marduk. I would have liked to have heard the drums a little bit higher in the mix because drummer Levithmong (not his real name I suspect) batters away with a controlled furiousness that impressively drives the material along despite his efforts not sounding as prominent as I feel they deserve to be.

This isn't exactly an essential black metal release by any means and the band's efforts to throw in some variety by way of more melodic or less frantic sections aren't consistently successful, but when they hit their stride there is enough fire and fury present to satisfy my old-school black metal cravings. I think I would have preferred them to have stripped-out the attempts at variation and to have doubled-down on sheer black metal beligerence and in so doing serving up half-an-hour of red-in-tooth-and-claw black metal, in the vein of Gorgoroth's first two or Panzer Division Marduk. Taking it as it is, though, leaves an impression of a band more than capable of delivering the type of black metal I delight in, but who are hampered by a need to inject some variation which results in a few less than satisfactory moments. The piano outro is one of the parts in question and is totally redundant to my way of thinking, having no relationship at all with what has gone before.

As I was previously unfamiliar with Cirith Gorgor, they have piqued my interest with their debut sufficiently that I feel I need to find out how they developed on subsequent albums and so will almost certainly return to explore their discography further at some point.

🐷🐷🐷1/2 (3.5 rotting pig heads out of 5)

Once more, and I think I speak for all MA regulars here, let it never be in doubt Ben that we all appreciate the herculean effort you put into maintaining the content of the site. Thanks again for your undying commitment and I hope we can all contribute to make Metal Academy everything that you hoped.

Dead Roots Stirring is one of those albums that has been on my radar for seemingly ages yet, for some reason, I haven't managed to get round to it until now. Firstly and to get it out of the way, I agree with Daniel that this is in no way a metal album, but don't necessarily let that put you off because despite that it is still damn heavy all the same. I would say it is firmly rooted in the classic heavy psych albums of the late sixties and early seventies from the likes of Captain Beyond, Sir Lord Baltimore and High Tide, yet with modern production values that tone down that warm, fuzzy seventies sound and replace it with a precision and clarity (albeit still heavy on the fuzz-pedal) that maybe requires a greater technical ability from the modern psych practitioner.

Most of the tracks have a real groovy stoner vibe going on with some nice bluesy melodies and usually end up with an extended psych-inflected instrumental jam that never sounds meandering or aimless, but always maintains focus. It is these jams where the band seem most at home, yet despite this I think they also recognise that people often have trouble relating to purely instrumental music and so every track contains, at least at some point, a vocal section or two. The vocals aren't exactly stellar, but they aren't by any means awful and the verses often have some decent seventies-sounding hooks - the lead-in to the title track, for example, even though I know it hasn't, feels like it's been around for years.

Drummer Matthew Couto is all over proceedings like an acid-fuelled octopus and he kind of reminds me a bit of Ufomammut's drummer, Vita. The real focus of the band however is vocalist and guitarist Nicholas DiSalvo who just seems to "get" how to play heavy psychedelic music. He allows the jams to grow organically and never feels like he is losing his way (the cardinal sin of far too many psych exponents), weaving the songs' melodies into the extended solos in such a way that any given track's main theme is kept towards the fore and maintains a constant and connecting thread throughout each track. His soloing is inspired and remains interesting throughout the album's entire fifty minutes runtime so solo-fatigue never even gets close to settling onto the listener.
I feel the high quality of the first two tracks, the superb Gemini and Dead Roots Stirring, does drop off just a little over the next two, III and The End, but closer Knot is right back up there again in trip-happy-heaven. So, OK, while Dead Roots Stirring is possibly not even really qualified to be on Metal Academy, if you love heavy stoner vibes and feel like losing yourself in the musical adventures of a highly-skilled band of modern groovsters then, as they say, turn on, tune in and drop out to the Dead Roots Stirring.

🍄🍄🍄🍄 (Four 'shrooms out of five)

No, I absolutely agree with you Daniel. I have been listening to it over the last few days whilst working up a review and hear very little metal. It seems more related to early seventies' heavy psych than it does metal, even though it is still quite heavy at times. That said, if you like stoner metal then I don't hear any reason why you wouldn't get at least something from this. I didn't realise that RYM had got it so egregiously wrong but, hey, it's not the first time is it? Shit, there are even a couple of people who voted progressive metal up as a secondary. I've gone with a stoner rock primary and a heavy psych secondary.

I think it is the kind of release that does raise interesting questions about what constitutes a clan's releases though, because I also agree that this will appeal to a significant number of Fallen devotees, particularly those who dig stoner metal. I mean, I would be much more open to something like this than almost any kind of gothic metal release, even though gothic metal is a bona fide Fallen genre and this is not.

So... The Fallen feature release isn't a Fallen release?!

As I have surprisingly never listened to a full CoC album before I will take Animosity.

You're up next Vinny.

Behexen - Rituale Satanum (2000)

I first heard of Behexen via their 2012 Nightside Emanations album, but I didn't hear anything there that compelled me to check them out much beyond that. So I approached their debut hoping it would appeal to me a little more, but fearing that it probably wouldn't. Well those fears were quite unfounded because, fortunately, Rituale Satanum is right up my street. Despite not hitting the shelves until 2000, it channels the early releases of black metal's second wave to such an extent that I swear you can smell the odour of burning church pews whilst listening to it!

A quick glance at the cover and listening to the intro's exhortations to all manner of unholy demons, including old Lucifer himself, it is obvious that Behexen are a black metal outfit very much into the fundamental satanism of the genres roots. This fundamentalism manifests as a raw blastfest of withering black metal savagery and it positively seethes with hatred for all that is holy. It certainly isn't as lo-fi as you may expect, but it still encapsulates the feel of early nineties Scandinavian black metal authentically. Whilst the majority of tracks are high-tempo blasters, Behexen are not averse to occasionally slowing the pace on tracks like Baphomet's Call, to provide some contrast and break up the incessant battering with a riff or two that leans towards more traditional heavy metal riffing.

One of the album's big draws for me is the vocals of Hoath Torog whose unholy, throat-shredding screech is exceedingly effective and reminiscent of Ihsahn on the early Emperor material. In fact, the album as a whole suggests that Behexen had a lot of respect for the Norwegian Imperials, The Flames of the Blasphemer, which is the only track with a noticeable keyboard presence, is out and out Wrath of the Tyrant-era Emperor worship and I swear that Blessed Be the Darkness borrows a lot from I Am the Black Wizards. Despite the ferocity of the majority of the material on display here (and it it's best it is exceedingly raw and viscious-sounding), Behexen do have an ear for a good melody too. Tracks such as Christ Forever Die or Sota Valon Jumalaa vastaan in particular contain some really quite melodic riffs at one point or another. I am no authority on technical competency, but Behexen do seem to me to have a command of their instruments that not all raw-sounding black metal bands can boast. Drummer Horns sounds like an absolute beast as he commits all-out assault and battery on his kit with blastbeats from hell and guitarist Toni Kettunen (aka Gargantum) generates huge momentum with his vast arsenal of riffs.

I have had this on hard rotation for about three days now and every listen through excites me more than the last. Rituale Satanum is an album I am genuinely glad to have stumbled across and is exactly the sort of album that got me into black metal in the first place. Sure, if you want a challenging, genre-busting album of super-modern black metal experimentation then you are most definitely going to have to look elsewhere, but if you want a genuinely kick-ass reminder of black metal's roots then Behe"X"en marks the spot!

⸸⸸⸸⸸
(4 inverted crosses out of 5)

Hi Ben, my suggestions for November's playlist:

Khors - "Throne of Antiquity" from "The Flame of Eternity's Decline" (2005)
Raventale - "Without Movement" from "Transcendence" (2012)
Behexen - "Night of the Blasphemy" from "Rituale Satanum" (2000)

I think I will take the Behexen debut album. I am familiar with a couple of their later releases but haven't listened to their earlier stuff. Thought about the Hulder comp, but I am already pretty familiar with the material so ultimately passed on it.

October 2022

1. Sky Pig - "The Scag" from "Hell Is Inside You EP" (2020)

2. Lord Vigo - "Memento Mori" from "Danse de Noir" (2020) 

3. Theatre of Tragedy - "Fair and 'Guiling Copesmate Death" from "Velvet Darkness They Fear " (1996)

4. Sore Throat - "Phase I" from "Inde$troy" (1989)

5. Paul Chain Violet Theatre - "In the Darkness" from "In the Darkness" (1986)

6. 16 - "Monday Bloody Monday" from "Bridges to Burn" (2009)

7. Slow - "Déluge" from "V - Oceans" (2017) 

8. Solitude Aeternus - "Scent of Death" from "Alone" (2006)

9. Draconian - "The Sacrificial Flame" from "Under A Godless Veil" (2020)

10. Acid Mammoth - "Caravan" from "Caravan" (2021)

11. Dystopia - "Control All Delete" from "Dystopia" (2008) 

12. Possessor - "Twisted Nerve Endings" from "The Speed of Death EP" (2022)

13. Solstice - "Death's Crown Is Victory" from "Death's Crown Is Victory" (2013)

14. Hell - "Mourn" from "Hell III" (2012) 

15. Acid Witch - "October 31st" from "Witchtanic Hellucinations" (2008)

Much like yourself Daniel, I had never sat down and listened to an Eyehategod album all the way through until earlier this year when I was looking for some well-regarded sludge to feature on the monthly playlist. I took the plunge with their previous album Take As Needed for Pain but also took in Dopesick pretty soon after and loved them both. It's easy to hear why the band are considered such giants of sludge metal. I must admit that the genre doesn't always do it for me, but those two albums are an object lesson in the unremitting bleakness, bitterness and self-loathing that best defines sludge and are fully deserving of their legendary status.

I will take the Floor album Ben as they are the only one of the four bands I have never heard before.

I have a lot of love for Chaos AD as it was the album that got me back into metal after my early nineties hiatus. I'd take it over anything from Pantera any day.

The revenue is now coming from streaming - a digital world that was nonexistent back in the day.

From everything I've read & heard, bands actually make bugger-all off streaming their music unless they're at the extreme top level. I have several friends that produce music that's sold on streaming platforms & they're always complaining that they make next to nothing from it. All but the absolute elite metal bands make most of their money from touring & merchandise sales these days. The importance of producing their own music is so that they can get people to book them for live shows.

Yes, that is my understanding of the situation too. Artists want their music streamed by as many people as possible in the hope that those people will then buy tickets to shows, t-shirts and hoodies etc. This is the only real explanantion for streaming services being so cheap (or even free if you're not bothered by advertising) and the price of merchandise and physical copies of music are so high. I pay a tenner a month for Spotify and can (and often do) listen to dozens of albums in a month, yet to buy a single CD from a local record shop or off Bandcamp costs more than a month of Spotify and for my preferred format of vinyl records, two or three months. You can buy a t-shirt from Primark for three ot four quid, but stick a Maiden or Judas Priest transfer on it and it'll set you back £20+.

Thanks for the comments Xephyr. Your observations about current metal show-going was exactly what I was looking for. The very aggressive moshing was only really just beginning as a thing when I finished concert-going. I took my mate's girlfriend to see Anthrax (she loved thrash, he didn't) on the Among the Living Tour and it was both of our first experience of a moshpit which resulted in us spending all night in A&E while she got her broken arm fixed. To be fair she was no wimp, we stayed for the whole show before seeking treatment and she still came with me to watch Slayer a couple of months later. Needless to say, my mate wasn't too chuffed when we turned up shame-faced next morning, she with her arm in plaster, though! That said, I was never a huge fan of moshpits, I am 6'2" and back then I would have been about 235, so I wasn't a small person, but the downside is that that makes you a target for some dickheads and in the end that wasn't what I went to metal shows for as I'm not at all a violent person by nature. But, for some, it is part of the cameraderie and is a major part of the experience of live shows I guess. Each to their own. However, from what you describe Xephyr it does sound like the underground is alive and well and metal fans are still getting the same kick out of the live experience as I did back in the day and that is really kind of reassuring.

As to your point 3, I guess the more I think about it, I realise that everything was about class in 1970s Britain so metal fandom was only an extension of the ongoing society-wide class divide and so when the so-called "classless society" of the late 80s and onwards was being touted, it was only natural that metal would succumb to it as much as anything else. You only have to look at football (or soccer to our american friends). In the 70s and early to mid-eighties football was strictly a working class sport, with huge amounts of gang violence associated with it, but by the time of the formation of the English Premier League in 1993 a significant number of match attendees were from relatively wealthier backgrounds and nowadays I'm surprised anybody not on good money can afford to attend a game at all.

I think I may need to clarify something also. I never at the time consciously viewed metal as a class-restricted thing or as anything other than something I loved more than almost anything else and the points I originally made were only derived from looking back at those days with hindsight. In the same way that we didn't realise at the time that we were poor because everyone we knew lived the same way, I never back then thought of metal as a societal identifier, it was just a me identifier and I never even thought of it in terms of a "scene", I was just fortunate enough to have friends I hung out with who were into it too and we went to shows and metal clubs where we joined up with even more mates where we could all enjoy a good laugh, a drink, a smoke and some killer music. I may have given the impression that these observations had always been on my mind, but I can assure you that I was nothing like perceptive enough back then to make such observations and I make them now only as I look back on those days with many years of water having passed under the bridge and a whole lot more experience under my belt.

I say that I feel metal is more popular now because it seems to be more in the public consciousness than it was before. Most people have heard of Metallica and Iron Maiden, sure, but also bands like Linkin Park and Slipknot who are forever on Kerrang!!'s TV channel or on Scuzz are also well known.

See I guess that's kinda my point really. Linkin Park & Slipknot's popularity peaked at around the turn of the century which is 20+ years ago now but where are the new mega-bands to replace them? I could be completely off the mark here but if people are still predominately associating metal with bands from multiple decades ago rather than the current crop of metal acts then I would have thought that would have been an indicator that the scene had retreated into the underground again. Who are we looking at from the 2010's & 2020's that can compete at that level?

What I am getting at Daniel, although admittedly not very well, is that I feel metal has a wider base and has become more pervasive in the culture than it was in it's earlier days. You will hear metal songs in huge movies, on TV adverts and even during football games - watch the NFL and you wil hear Crazy Train or Enter Sandman at nearly every break in play! Maybe my assertion of metal's current popularity was overstated, but it has become more accepted within the culture I don't think there can be any doubt. Either way, to focus on that one statement kind of misses the point I'm trying to make that there are aspects of some of the metal that is made today that have become very pretentious and is lauded above bands that are truer to metal's roots. It was probably wrong of me to associate this with class and I have confessed to trying to provoke a little with the statement, but to be honest rhe current political climate here in the UK has made me very class-conscious again and is somewhat dominating my thinking at this time.

I would still like to hear any commentary on how the metal underground today looks and feels as it is something I am interested in hearing about as it was such a massive part of my life for a considerable period of time and I would.like to hear how it differs (or not) from the days of my involvement many decades ago.