Sonny's Forum Replies

Thanks Ben and Daniel for your comments on my review of Dark Recollections explaining the Swedish Death Metal sound to me, I think I'm getting the picture. So what, in your opinions, is the pinnacle release of the Swedish Sound?

This may be the first playlist that features a track from each of the big four and their contributions show why they are so-called - Slayer and Metallica both turning in genre-defining contributions. There's a few other big names too - Sodom, Sepultura and Possessed are all represented by kick-ass tracks too. Revelation of the list though must go to the final track from Terminalist - absolutely loved this one. All around, another damn fine list Vinny - thanks a lot.

Sorry for being so late on this Sonny. Things are hectic at the moment. If you haven't already made the list, I'd like to include...

• Primitive Man - This Life off Insurmountable (2022)
• Epitaphe - Insignificant off II (2022)

That's fine Ben, I understand. I'm going to work on this during this week so you are still in time.

And so to the first big-hitter of 1990:

Atheist - Piece of Time (1990)

I'm not the biggest champion of technical death metal to say the least and Piece of Time is an album I have heard before, without it really making much impression on me. So I went into it this time with a determination to get to the bottom of why it is so well-received and simultaneously to try to get something out of tech-death that has eluded me in the main up to this point. The first thing that leaps out at me is that this is quite obviously a unique record for early 1990 and, to use a much-abused cliche which is actually true on this occasion, it genuinely sounds ahead of it's time - maybe it should have been entitled Piece Out of Time! OK, so I don't know what I was thinking when I originally rated this as a 3/5 because I got far more out of it this time around than that score suggests, so it is definitely long overdue for a reappraisal.

Firstly, this is not that overtly technical as I have come to understand the term. I associate the phrase "technical" metal, be it thrash or death metal, with unlistenable time changes and excessive guitar wankery, bass lines bursting in and out seemingly at random and a drummer who desperarely seems to be trying to make up for the fact that he is the drummer! In other words a general lack of the things that originally drew me to metal music - riffs that will blow your bollocks off at fifty yards. For me "technical" metal (as opposed to progressive metal) is more for students of music theory and those who understand what the musicians are about - which I can assure you does not include me - rather than a visceral, emotional experience which is much more what I look for in music. So either I have completely misrepresented tech-death in my own mind or this isn't as technical as I thought it was because this has got some awesome riffing and the technical work is nothing like as jarring as I have found it elsewhere, being more interesting than annoying to my more literal way of thinking.

Basically, on Piece of Time, Atheist have taken the nascent death metal genre as a foundation and recast it with a completely different approach from the full-on brutalisation of Morbid Angel, Autopsy or Obituary, producing the tightest-sounding death metal album released up to this point. The technical, jazzy showcasing does definitely rear it's head at many points, but it never seems to be merely for it's own sake and it never disrupts the flow of the tracks which is where I think many tech bands go wrong when they sacrifice the songs upon the altar of technicality. Anyway, I have harped on about the technical nature of Piece of Time for long enough now - what we really have here is a super-energetic death metal album that is full of life and is a powerful representation of what can be achieved when a band take a different approach to what is becoming established as the norm in any given genre without sacrificing what has made that genre so appealing in the first place. The guitar work is exemplary, the riffs and leads are plenty aggressive as are the vocals spat out by Kelly Shaefer whose delivery is especially venomous-sounding. The drums and bass are given more freedom than usual up to this point, but this certainly doesn't undermine their ability to propel the tracks forwards, rather they enhance the lead work with interesting contributions of their own.

In conclusion, I have got to say that I was originally very, very wrong about Piece of Time and, having stripped away the prejudices the "technical" tag produce in me, can now see it for the ground-breaking and original piece of work that it really was and found myself enjoying it immensely. Maybe I have mellowed over the intervening years and have become more accepting of diverse elements in metal music and if that is the reason why this sounds so awesome then I am extremely glad. I'm really looking forward to reviewing Unquestionable Presence now if that is supposed to be even better!

4.5/5

Massacra - Final Holocaust (1990)

Massacra's debut marks the point at which the French throw their hat into the death metal ring and try to stand toe-to-toe with the big boys. Final Holocaust epitomises that death/thrash crossover sound that was a hallmark of the late-eighties' transition from brutal thrash to death metal and is an aggressive and relentless blast through ten tracks of vicious and venomous death metal that still maintains a significant proportion of thrash sensibilities, the Teutonic influence of Kreator being particularly apparent I would suggest. There are some cool riffs and solos with energy aplenty to be found within the ten tracks, but unfortunately I don't find that much of the album "sticks" with me. Don't get me wrong, I find Final Holocaust to be a really good blast while it's on, but by the time you get halfway through most of the tracks start to blur one into another and the second it stops I have trouble recalling any of the songs. I really don't want to be too critical because I have heard far worse albums, but this lack of memorability is a significant stumbling block. Would I put it on in preference to Kreator, Slayer, Morbid Angel or Death? No of course I wouldn't, but I wouldn't turn it off and replace it with something else if it was already on either because there is plenty here that I enjoyed. Not every album can be earth-shattering or life-changing, but Massacra do what they do extremely well and deserve some praise for what is a consistent and energetic release. I have been getting more from it the more spins it receives, yet I still struggle to recall many of the tracks later, so maybe it's just me.

3.5/5

I may have to revisit Anathema at some point too - maybe a Peaceville Three rediscovery project is in the offing!

My Dying Bride, despite some good early material, became too theatrical-sounding for me - a bit like a doom metal Cradle of Filth.

I think it's apparent however from my published views that for me personally complex & sophisticated aren't the first things I look for in metal. My favourite bands in each of my clans are Darkthrone, Reverend Bizarre and Slayer - all pretty much no-frills metal bands. That's what is so annoying when non-metal music fans criticise metalheads for all being the same (the rym-core adherents for example, a more sheep-like bunch of music fans you would be hard-pressed to find). Metal is in fact, for want of a better phrase, a very broad church and that diversity of thought is reflected nowhere better than here on Metal Academy. Despite being few in number, most of the regular contributors here all have very different takes on our uniting passion, metal music, and I respect each and every one of them for their differing views whether agreeing with them or not.

I've never quite seen the appeal in "Lost Paradise" to be honest. It always sounded a little bit flat to me. It's admittedly been many years since I heard it though & even "Gothic" didn't blow me away like it did most other doom/death fans. Paradise Lost were always trailing the other two members of the Peaceville Three by a fair margin for me personally. They didn't really capture me until they dropped their doom/death sound altogether on "Icon" & "Draconian Times".

Yeah, I'm kind of the inverse to that. I picked up Icon cheap, second-hand in a local music shop years ago. I had heard of Paradise Lost obviously but never listened to them before that. To be honest that album put me off them for ages as I really wasn't much for it and it wasn't until I forced myself to listen to Gothic that I discovered that perhaps they did have something I could be interested in. Maybe I'll dig that Icon CD out and give it a re-evaluation just in case my perception has altered sufficiently.

Of the Peaceville Three it's Anathema that I struggle with most. I may be being unkind, but I just can't get why they are so revered at all.

So, as promised (or threatened, depending on your point of view) I am now moving into the nineties with my voyage of death metal discovery and am beginning with an album I have never heard before, despite being quite familiar with the band in question.

Paradise Lost - Lost Paradise (1990)

February of 1990 saw the release of an album that I have found to be very interesting indeed - Paradise Lost's debut, Lost Paradise. I have hardly been reticent in my oft-spouted dismissal of a fair bit of the output of the so-named Peaceville Three, but this is a whole different kettle of fish entirely. Anyone, like me, approaching this after hearing their later gothic death doom output first may be a little wrong-footed by the rawness of this debut. It takes the downtuned and dirty approach of Autopsy's Severed Survival and slows it down further, incorporating even more Sabbath/Pentagram doom riffs and as a result turn in a slab of very early death doom which would go on to be extremely influential, certainly upon the UK death doom scene but further afield too. This is quite a different beast to the band's subsequent releases, with their gothic leanings, which are virtually non-existent here other than a few seconds of haunting female vocals during Breeding Fear.

I was particularly impressed by Nick Holmes' phlegmy, guttural growl which is a great iteration of death metal singing and one I would like to hear in a more conventional death metal setting. I see he also provides vocals for Bloodbath (after replacing Mikael Akerfeldt) a band I have inexcusably never listened to yet, so I think I will have to give them a shot to see if he is as effective with a more direct death metal style, as I suspect he may be. Despite Holmes' impressive vocals, I think it is quite apparent that Lost Paradise is the product of a band who are still finding their way, learning their craft and searching for an identity of their own. It is a raw-sounding album, there are plenty of decent riffs and guitar phrases and the slower tempo and doomy atmosphere add a different dimension to the death metal template, exploring this avenue even further than forerunners Autopsy and Sempiternal Deathreign and giving a good pointer to the direction Paradise Lost intended to take their sound.

At first I didn't really "feel" Lost Paradise, but as I have got to know it better over the last week or two, I have come to recognise that there are some really interesting tracks here and that this shouldn't merely be dismissed as a "warm-up" for the band's more celebrated material. It is almost impossible to discuss Lost Paradise with at least some mention of the follow-up Gothic, which is an album I was at first very reticent about but which has since wormed it's way up in my affections and now is one of my most-favoured gothic death doom releases. That album actually contains a lot more of the debut's DNA than I at first thought and it is the inspired addition of Sisters of Mercy-like gothic tendencies and Holmes' incorporation of Andrew Eldritch's vocal stylings into his own death metal growl that proved to be the move that allowed Paradise Lost to find their own (now much-aped) voice.

As I said at the beginning of these ramblings, I found this to be a particularly interesting release with some good, if not great material on it. Ultimately it indicated a band who were still a work in progress, but who were looking for a unique sound and, in hindsight, provided ample proof that they would be up to the task of taking that sound to the next level.

4/5

Ah, Basarabian Hills, the winners of the "Most Indecipherable Band Logo Competition"!

I receive emails every time someone private messages me. Do you not receive those emails?

I don't have a smartphone so I only see e-mails when I log into my e-mail account on my laptop. I only check them every three or four days usually as I fucking hate e-mails! Don't forget I'm old and extremely antisocial!

Ben, do you have any suggestions for July's playlist as I would like to start work on it soon.

So earlier today, I went to send a PM to Ben because I noticed an error in the year of an album release, since I guess that's how its done. Lo, and behold, I had received a PM pretty quickly after I joined, without even noticing I had ever gotten it. Could there be an indicator of some kind to show if such a thing has happened? For instance a (1) or so next to one's name, possibly in a fancy color. Even a (1) next to the messages on my profile would be something.

Unless there is one and I completely missed it...

Yes, I agree that this would be helpful. I have missed a few myself and unless you actively check, you can't tell if you have had a PM.

1. Yes. Southern metal is a thing, with bands like Down, Corrosion of Conformity, Black Label Society, and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster.

2. It's Southern rock influences are much more prominent than other genres, so it's definitely identifiable and different.

3. Many of Maylene and the Sons of Disaster's releases for sure.

4. It's a descendant of Southern rock, but it stands out as its own genre.

5. I've mentioned this before, but Southern metal should have its own clan, The South. It has nothing to do with the traditional doom metal, gothic metal, and drone metal of the clan, and there are currently so many genres in that clan (5 genres). And because of Southern metal's relation with sludge metal and stoner metal, I think those two genres can be taken out of The Fallen and reside in The South as well.

6. Black Label Society and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster do NOT belong in The Fallen. Black Label Society is comfortable in its place in The Guardians for their heavy metal sound mixed with Southern metal that would get them in hypothetically The South.

7. That, of course, is where The South clan comes in.

So those are my answers based on my Southern metal knowledge (which isn't much, by the way), and I hope to have given you enough info, Daniel. Good luck and take it easy!

Stoner and Sludge absolutely belong.in the Fallen Andi as their relationship to doom metal is fairly intrinsic. To create a new clan for what amounts to a single spurious sub genre sounds a bit much in itself, but.to then shoehorn two further genres that are perfectly well positioned would be ridiculous. 

I think you've got all the necessary releases now. If you want to go deeper, you could check out Hellwitch, Merciless, Massacra, Master, Atrocity and Cancer.

I have some of those on my shortlist already, Ben, but I have added Atrocity and Hellwitch so thanks for the suggestions. The first album I have been checking out from 1990 is one I'm surprised you haven't listed - Paradise Lost's debut, Lost Paradise - which is not quite what I expected!

Despite being responsible for programming Southern Metal as part of the Fallen playlist, I too have reservations about whether it is a thing and if it is, whether it is utilised correctly. I assumed it was a sludgy take on stoner metal with a bit of southern (US) flavour thrown in for good measure. When I see bands like Black Label Society and Alabama Thunderpussy so tagged, I seriously doubt if anyone really knows what it is! Most of the bands on the rym southern metal chart have zero sludge in their respective genre Venn diagram and some don't even have a metal genre other than southern metal. I always thought the sludge aspect was important as the likes of Eyehategod and Acid Bath are seen as influential to the whole southern metal thing. I suspect that, rather like NWOBHM, it is a scene rather than a genre, but I look forward to your ongoing reporting Daniel.

As I now move into covering 1990 it is becoming obvious that death metal was beginning to mushroom. In 1988 RYM lists 13 death metal albums on it's death metal charts, in 1989 there was 29 and for 1990 there was 59 (incidentally, for 2021 there was 906!!). This means that I will need to be more circumspect in what I cover as I have no intention of covering all 59 albums. I have put together a shortlist of 17 albums, which I won't list here, but I would like Horde members to list a few essentials that you think I should definitely cover. I will be covering all the 1990 albums featured on the Horde 1st Decade Clan Challenge list - Deicide, Left Hand Path, Cause of Death and The Key so if you guys could do me a solid and suggest six or seven others that you think I should definitely listen to in addition to those four then that would be great.

I don't think this exercise would be complete without visiting Atheist's "Piece Of Time", Death's "Spiritual Healing", Napalm Death's "Harmony Corruption", Carnage's "Dark Recollections" & Cannibal Corpse's "Eaten Back To Life".

All added to the list.

The Delirium album I've recommended to you last month seems like a good addition, Sonny.

Thanks Andi, I will put it on the list.

As I now move into covering 1990 it is becoming obvious that death metal was beginning to mushroom. In 1988 RYM lists 13 death metal albums on it's death metal charts, in 1989 there was 29 and for 1990 there was 59 (incidentally, for 2021 there was 906!!). This means that I will need to be more circumspect in what I cover as I have no intention of covering all 59 albums. I have put together a shortlist of 17 albums, which I won't list here, but I would like Horde members to list a few essentials that you think I should definitely cover. I will be covering all the 1990 albums featured on the Horde 1st Decade Clan Challenge list - Deicide, Left Hand Path, Cause of Death and The Key so if you guys could do me a solid and suggest six or seven others that you think I should definitely listen to in addition to those four then that would be great.

Pestilence - Conuming Impulse (1989)

I am going to round off my coverage of 1989 with Pestilence's highly praised sophomore full-length, Consuming Impulse. The Dutch masters' debut, Malleus Maleficarum, was a pretty brutal sounding thrash metal album, one I have always had a huge amount of time for, but despite the deathly vocals of future Asphyx frontman Martin van Drunen, it was still a thrash album in the vein of Possessed or Sepultura with little actual death metal. Consuming Impulse on the other hand exhibits a further descent down the extremity rabbit-hole and marks the transformation from brutal thrash to actual death metal.

As Dehydrated leaps kicking and clawing out of the blocks, it is immediately obvious that this is a very different beast to the debut. The production is fuller, clearer and is much more bottom heavy which accentuates the brutality of the performances and is much more in keeping with the band's evolution into a death metal machine. The legion of riffs are powerful, aggressive and exceedingly memorable - I find them running through my head long after I have finished listening, particularly those featured in Suspended Animation, The Trauma and Echoes of Death. Patricks Mameli and Uterwijk trade solos in the vein of Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, their lead work being very strongly influenced by the Slayer guitarists it seems, although I would also say that influenced though they are, they don't just slavishly mimic the Slayer duo, but still stamp their soloing with their own personality.

Mention must also be made of Martin van Drunen's vocal performance. He sounds tortured, deranged and defiant as he rasps and shrieks his words of pain, suffering and death, turning in an archetypal death metal vocal performance. This would be his last recording with Pestilence before jumping ship to join Asphyx - so one death metal legend's loss is another's gain! Drummer Marco Foddis also turns in a fine performance, solid and machine gun-like, adding an understated solidity to the proceedings. There is also a sparse smattering of keyboards employed which, on the two or three occasions they are used, prove to be exceedingly effective.

There seems to be some contradiction as to the bass player on Consuming Impulse - Metal Archives attributes bass duties to guitarist Patrick Mameli, yet I have seen others comment that Martin van Drunen was the bassist on the album. Either way, the bass seems to be the most neglected aspect of the recording, buried as it is underneath the riffing and drum battery, so I don't know whether this confusion is the result of the band not being 100% happy with the bass track. This minor niggle aside, I think the Dutchmen can put their sophomore up against any of the early death metal albums coming out of the USA and hold their collective head high that they can be spoke of in the same sentence as Death, Morbid Angel and Obituary and not come up short.

4.5/5

I don't know much about dissonant death metal, but there has been much discussion on the RYM official metal board over the past few days about it as it has just been passed as a sub-genre over there. Apparently it is also called "Skronk Death" - what the fuck does that mean? Does anyone know? Must be the dumbest metal genre name yet.

Sorry Vinny, I forgot all about you requesting them be in by the 10th. If it's too late then no worries, but if you want to use my suggestions here they are:

Possessed - "Fallen Angel" from "Seven Churches" (1985)
Incubus (on Spotify as Opprobrium) - "The Battle of Armageddon" from "Serpent Temptation" (1988)
Ripper - "The Last Day" from "Raising the Corpse" (2014)

Infected - Dark Century (1989)

A completely new one on me - I have never even heard of these Swiss death thrashers before, in fact they seem quite obscure even amongst those in the know. They were very short-lived, forming in '87 and splitting in '90 and Dark Century seems to be their only release. Now this seems to be a great shame as this is a great slab of metal, haunting those hinterlands between death and thrash where so many excellent late-80's releases dwelt. The riffs are energetic and enervating, the drumming is relentless and the bass is fairly pronounced in the manner of the modern Chilean thrash scene. The solos may not be the most invigorating I have ever heard, but they are fine as far as they go and vocalist Amos Gersmann has a pretty decent deathly growl. The production isn't the best, it must be said, but it gives it a cavernous murkiness that gives the album even more underground cred I guess.

I found this to be pretty enjoyable and am stumped as to why it isn't better known - although 1989 had some fucking phenomenal stuff coming out, this is still better than a lot of shit I've heard from the late eighties. Sometimes you've just got to be in the right place at the right time I suppose. Anyway if you have a particular love of early death thrash then I strongly recommend you wrap your ears around this bad-ass slab of red-hot metal goodness. Unfortunately it's not available on Spotify (or anywhere except some ancient rip on YouTube it seems).

4/5

Terrorizer - World Downfall (1989)

I quite like Grindcore but I wouldn't say I love it. I do however love World Downfall - it is one of my all-time favourite metal albums. Much as I enjoy some of Carcass and Napalm Death's earlier albums, when it comes to grindcore I would always reach for World Downfall first. I am not the most clued-in person when it comes to grind and death metal, but I feel that World Downfall is as much death metal as grindcore and comes across as the bastard child of Altars of Madness and Scum - and that is one hell of a lineage. It takes the punky energy of Discharge or Black Flag that has been transformed by being fed raw death metal riffs and shits out a heap of hyper-aggressive, brutal, but still somehow eminently catchy tracks that hit home like a jackhammer to the sternum. The Altars of Madness comparison is probably inevitable and understandable, as half the lineup of Terrorizer were also in Morbid Angel - bassist Dave Vincent and drummer Pete Sandoval (whose skinwork here sounds amazing). Vocalist Oscar Garcia sounds very much like Barney Greenaway with his deep, hoarse, bark/shout vocal delivery and guitarist Jesse Pintado unleashes brutalising riff after brutalising riff like a young Mike Tyson unleashed punches - and to a similar devastating effect.

To describe this as brutal and aggressive, although obviously factual, is to do it a great disservice. It's sixteen tracks are skillfully executed by guys who seriously know what they are about - which is it's great strength as it prevents it from just deteriorating into a moshpit of identikit riffs, blastbeats and growls, but rather it is a precisely executed manifesto of intense extreme metal that would reverberate down through the decades and can still be held up as a masterclass in extremity. For the longest time this was Terrorizer's only full-length and stood as a monolithic testament to a short-lived, but extremely influential band of guys who reshaped extreme metal in their own image. Despite reforming in the mid-2000's the shadow of World Downfall was long and they never approached this level of awesome again, but to have reached these heights even once is not to be easily dismissed. Unfortunately I never discovered World Downfall until much later, but I can only imagine the tear in the fabric of reality it's discovery would have shown me had I come across it in 1989.

5/5

Forteresse - Métal noir québécois (2006)

I've spent the last couple of days on a Forteresse binge after discovering Thèmes pour la rébellion via this month's North playlist and being completely bowled over by it. Métal noir québécois is Forteresse's debut and was released a decade before Thèmes. The difference between the two releases isn't as big as it first appears, but there had been some significant evolution in the intervening decade. Although Thèmes had implied rawness in spades, this is a lot more directly raw from a production point of view at least. The tracks of the debut are also longer and more repetitive and are increasingly hypnotic as a result, drawing the listener into a more passive state of listening when compared to it's aggressive and energetic younger sibling. This isn't a criticism per se, as this hypnotic, passive listening experience is a feature of a lot of atmospheric black metal. Part of the genre's appeal is often that you can allow it to wash over you and sweep you along with it and had I not heard Thèmes I would probably not even have commented on it. The characteristic tremolo-led melodies are also present but I found them to be significantly less memorable than those employed on Thèmes.

Production-wise this feels light-years away from the clarity of the later release and is quite muddy-sounding - those booming drums are often virtually inaudible here, much to it's detriment. Athros' vocals are still terrific and his shrieks cut through the muddiness quite easily. I think it is worth pointing out at this point that for the debut Forteresse were only a duo and mainman Moribond handled all the instruments whilst Athros contributed lyrics and vocals, whereas by the time of Thèmes pour la rébellion they had expanded to a four-piece with the addition of drummer Fiel and second guitarist Matrak, with all four members contributing to the songwriting. I think this expansion into a full band worked very much in their favour compared with Métal noir québécois which comes off very much as a typical solo black metal effort in comparison to the later work.

Now, after spending the last two paragraphs on all this negative comparison with their later release, I am still going to claim the debut as a solid effort of raw, hypnotic atmo-black metal that should appeal to anyone who is a fan of Burzum, Paysage d'Hiver, early Ulver or Drudkh and I'm familiar enough with black metal fans' opinions to know that there will be plenty of them who will prefer the rawness of Métal noir québécois over their clearer-sounding later work. Either way, Forteresse are a quality black metal band who deserve a decent audience.

4/5

Absolutely sublime atmospheric black metal from Quebecois band Forteresse as featured on June's North playlist.

Forteresse - Thèmes pour la rébellion (2016)

I felt duty-bound to check out the Quebecois four-piece's fifth album after being impressed by the track Spectre de la rébellion on June's playlist for the North and I am pleased to report that the album more than lived up to the promise of that sneak peak. This at once manages to sound beautifully lush and majesterial whilst also projecting a thrilling rawness - which is exactly how I love my atmospheric black metal to sound. Tremolo riffing and booming drum work combine to propel the tracks along with a triumphant sound that speaks of righteous rebellion. The vocals are of the distant-sounding shrieking variety and perfectly suit the mood, invoking tradition and calling the faithful to the ramparts. Despite this blistering aggressiveness however, the tracks never just blur together, each is memorable in it's own right and is distinct enough to remain in your mind long after the album has finished.

From what I've read these guys are Quebecois separatists, so there's plenty of political commentary surrounding their material, but to me it's all just blah, blah, blah... because what I'm here for is the music and that is exceptional. In truth, Thèmes pour la rébellion stands up as a premier atmospheric black metal release that is only bettered by the absolute best of the atmo-black world like Drudkh and WitTR. What I love about this kind of atmospheric black metal is that no matter where the band are from or what they believe, there is a certain unity of expression that speaks to common purpose and yet each manages to imbue it with an essence that is distinct and unique. This is a release I will definitely return to and will endeavour to procure a physical copy immediately.

4.5/5

OK, now I've got the correct month let's start again...

With not a lot to do on a pissing down Sunday morning in Platinum Jubilee-ravaged England I gave this a blast and found another solid playlist complete with some personal favourites - aside from my own choices I would include Immortal, Blasphemy and Caladan Brood in this category. Inquisition, Forteresse and Sacramentum were new to me and were tracks I enjoyed immensely. I also got a lot out of the Yellow Eyes track, Tómarúm, the new Aara, the Sear Bliss track from April's featured album and I enjoyed the Bethlehem track more than I expected as I am not a big fan usually. Watain, Månegarm, Mistur and Abigor were misses for me personally, feeling either overblown or just too dissonant (Abigor) for my taste. Massively more enjoyable than standing in the rain waving a soggy Union Jack (and you can print that on the cover!!)

Think this is in the wrong thread Sonny.

Well spotted Vinny. Prize is a Jubilee mug*

*note: there may not be an actual prize.

With not a lot to do on a pissing down Sunday morning in Platinum Jubilee-ravaged England I gave this a blast and found another solid playlist complete with some personal favourites - aside from my own choices I would include Immortal, Blasphemy and Caladan Brood in this category. Inquisition, Forteresse and Sacramentum were new to me and were tracks I enjoyed immensely. I also got a lot out of the Yellow Eyes track, Tómarúm, the new Aara, the Sear Bliss track from April's featured album and I enjoyed the Bethlehem track more than I expected as I am not a big fan usually. Watain, Månegarm, Mistur and Abigor were misses for me personally, feeling either overblown or just too dissonant (Abigor) for my taste. Massively more enjoyable than standing in the rain waving a soggy Union Jack (and you can print that on the cover!!)

Abigor have mostly passed me by to be honest and what I have heard hasn't really resonated with me in the same way as it seems to have with a great many black metal fans. Then again, I haven't exactly gone out of my way to get into the Austrians' discography, so I was determined to do so with this 2020 full-length. After an initial couple listens it was apparent that this was going to take a lot of concentration as there is a huge amount to unpack during Totschläger's fifty minute runtime. This is a dense sounding album with layered guitar work and epic songwriting that has a very dramatic feel to it. The sound is exceptionally clear and the multifarous facets are allowed equal chance to shine, so technically all seems well. Whilst the songs don't all sound the same, they do have a similar style, dense, complex and with a degree of dissonance which seems to sit somewhere between latter-era Emperor and Deathspell Omega. I must confess, it sometimes feels a bit overwhelming, as if the sheer density and technical ambition of the tracks swamps my ability to take it all in and ultimately ends up washing over me, as sometimes happens with tracks that employ a lot of dissonance and heavy layering, overwhelming my ability to enjoy them fully. This is not a criticism per se, as I applaud their ability to produce such technically gifted work, rather it is an acknowledgement that it may possibly be beyond my own ability to properly appreciate it. Even I can tell that this is a band who have been around the block a good few times and who are consummately at ease with what they are trying to achieve.

I realise I may have made this sound like some technical snoozefest, but that is definitely not the case and sometimes an absolutely killer riff will rise to the surface, such as the one that closes out the album towards the end of Terrorkommando Eligos. There are also some demented-sounding solos which is always something I can get behind. Overall, though, I think I have to chalk this up as an album I appreciate and respect a lot more than I actually enjoyed, but I can definitely tell why others who may be more inclined to this style of black metal would derive a huge amount from it.

3.5/5

Mercyful Fate, despite being held in high regard by many heavy metal fans are an inordinately divisive band. Or, to be more accurate, singer King Diamond with his falsetto histrionics is able to elicit singularly strong negative reactions in some. Personally I don't have a problem with him, sure sometimes I wish he would reign it in, but generally I don't have a problem with his vocal style, but I can definitely hear why others might. One thing we will never know is whether the band would have had as much success as they have without Diamond's unique vocal approach to set them apart. Personally I believe the songs and riffs are strong enough to have ensured a considerable following, but you just never know do you - the music business is a notoriously capricious beast.

Anyway, the good news for both the King Diamond pro and con camps is that on this first reunion release KD seems to have toned down his more outlandish vocal tendencies and utilises them more effectively by confining them to passages to which they seem to be more suited (of course, alternatively, this may just annoy both camps equally). Personally I think In the Shadows (ironically) allows the rest of the band to emerge from King's shadow and to shine on their own terms with the lead guitar work especially benefitting from this curtailing of vocal excess. As on their early releases there are plenty of memorable riffs present, the opening brace of Egypt and Bell Witch in particular having brilliant main riffs, as does the following track, The Old Oak, but this track does give in to some songwriting excess and becomes a bit cheesy in the middle section despite some excellent soloing. Room of Golden Air even features a riff that sounds a lot like Dave Mustaine on Hangar 18. For me the riffs and the solos are the real strength of this album and I found that it succeeded in spades where both these aspects are concerned, axemen Shermann and Denner deserving great praise for their work here. Lyrically it's a bit silly at times and KD will always present a problem for some listeners, but as I mentioned earlier he has reined it in a bit, although he does try to break free occasionally - Thirteen Invitations for example - and I found these to be the less enjoyable parts.

I had not listened to In the Shadows before this month's feature, although I was familiar with a couple of tracks and whilst it isn't quite up there with the band's earlier material it is still a strong heavy metal release and certainly shouldn't disappointed anyone who is already a Mercyful Fate fan.

4/5

Personally Daniel I think it justifies both funeral and death doom primaries. For me there is enough genuine funeral doom present, albeit  not a majority, there is sufficient to still warrant a primary. Whilst I hear rhe MDB comparison this is what the Peaceville giants would sound like if they stopped fucking around with the faux-romanticism and langorous libertine pantomime they insist on pushing!

To be honest, though, I am kind of coming round to Vinny's view of genre obsessiveness as I am finding it is starting to interfere with my enjoyment and I've hit a bit of a crisis of confidence whereby I have realised I have neither the knowledge nor technical expertise to form factual judgements on particular pieces of music. I think I will just stick to emotional reactions going forward because I am on more solid ground there.

It definitely requires some experimentation because it obviously doesn't work the same for each of the Clan's playlists. 

I absolutely wouldn't use the same methodology if I was doing the playlists for The North or The Infinite; there's something about cheesy and bombastic Power/Symphonic Metal that feels more corny than usual if it's slotted in-between some Judas Priest or Iron Maiden.

I agree that it is very much dependent on the clan. I regularly listen to the North playlist which is compiled by Ben and the Pit compiled by Vinny and they both work very well indeed with a mix of tracks. I don't think I would enjoy the North playlist as much if it kicked off with a bunch of blackgaze and folk metal tracks, becoming more raw as it proceeds or the Pit if I suddenly hit a groove metal iceberg in the middle of the playlist, whereas one track is ok because you know something good is just around the corner.

Just out of interest, members of the Fallen (or anyone else who may listen to the Fallen playlists), do you think my current approach works for the Fallen or would it be better with the extreme stuff more evenly spaced out?

Great new feature Ben and the ability to move releases up and down now makes much more sense. Like you, my problem is with actually compiling the top 20 as I also have had to leave loads of favourites out. I am also notoriously capricious when it comes to my faves - my top three or four are pretty much set in stone, but it can be very fluid after that depending on my mood or general feeling at any one time so I expect to have to make fairly regular changes!

I think this approach works very well Xephyr. Like I said, the first hour or more worked extraordinarily well for me, more than I expected, but if the symphonic/power tracks were more randomly spread it may not have done so. I went into this playlist knowing full well that there would be stuff well outside my comfort zone, but I remained engaged throughout most of the runtime, so I would say a job well done 👍.

I actually use a similar method with The Fallen playlist, usually kicking off with more conventional doom or stoner metal and becoming increasingly extreme as the playlist proceeds, trying to end with the heaviest of the sludge/drone/funeral doom tracks. Hopefully this approach wouldn't scare off any casual listeners (not as I'm sure if we get any) before they get too far into it!

Thought I'd kick off with something different this month, so I've been blasting this all day while I give my garage a long-overdue clear out and I've got to say, there's a lot more to enjoy here than I expected. I'm already familiar with Ozzy, Mercyful Fate, Lucifer and my own pick Angel Witch, so no surprise that I enjoyed their contributions immensely. So far, so expected, but there were also plenty more that I am less or completely unfamiliar with that were equally great, Pharaoh, Megaton Sword, Rage ,Striker, Ostrogoth and Cloven Hoof were all brilliant, especially the latter - a bit of Lovecraftian lore will always do it for me!

However, on a playlist that covers power, symphonic and neoclassical metal there will inevitably be tracks I personally struggle with. During the first hour the only two which fit into that category were Power Quest and the real challenge for me, Unlucky Morpheus, which was almost unbearable. The last hour were evidently where these sub-genres were concentrated though and the final forty minutes were a challenge for me with only Beast in Black and Blind Guardian being even remotely bearable and the last two tracks going well beyond my tolerance threshold. So ultimately a playlist of two halves to be honest, the first was great, the second particularly less so for my personal tastes, but I'm still glad I gave it a go and I did find some new stuff worth checking out to be sure.

Loudblast - Sensorial Treatment (1989)

Despite being big noises in the black metal scene, I think it's fair to say that other than a few minor exceptions, the French haven't played as big a part as some in the thrash and death metal scenes. Loudblast are from the very north of France and were formed in 1985 and are still extant today. Sensorial Treatment was their debut, released in 1989 after a succession of late-80s demos and has been gifted death metal credentials by some, but truly it inhabits that netherworld betwen thrash and death metal. Personally I think it has both feet in the thrash metal camp, with perhaps a toe or two creeping over the line into death metal territory, but essentially an extreme thrash release with belligerent, brutal, thrash metal riffs and bullish, bellowing vocals in the vein of the Brazilian heavyweights of the time like Sepultura, Mutilator and Holocausto. Unfortunately they lack the songs of a Sepultura and the album as a whole just seemed to fly in one ear and out the other without any hooks for it to gain purchase on the grey matter in between. No doubt Sensorial Treatment has it's advocates and it is decent enough, but I'm afraid it must be filed in the bulging "not bad but far from essential" drawer of late-1980's metal releases.

3/5

Hi Xephyr. My submission for July:

Black Sabbath - "Falling Off the Edge of the World" from "Mob Rules" (1981)

Sabbat are one of those bands I've always meant to get round to but never have, so really looking forward to this one.

I've been neglecting The North a bit over recent weeks, but I have listened to three albums this last month so my submissions for July are:

Archgoat - "Heavens Ablaze" (3:47) from "Worship the Eternal Darkness" (2021)

Sunken - "Void" (9:39) from "Departure" (2017)

Marduk - "On Darkened Wings" (4:15) from "Those of the Unlight" (1993)

My sole submission for the July playlist is:

Earth - "Like Gold & Faceted" (from "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version", 1993)

Nice move Daniel. Much as I've wanted to, I've not dared put in such a lengthy single track, but I'm not complaining - I love that track.

Nice choice Ben, one of my favourite albums right there. I've only submitted the most brief of reviews for it previously so I'm looking forward to working up something a bit more substantial.

That's pretty neat. I like it!

June 2022:

1. MWWB - "Logic Bomb" from "The Harvest" (2022) [suggested by Ben]

2. Crowbar - "Confess to Nothing" from "Zero and Below"

3. Night Hag - Phantasmal Scourge" from "Phantasmal Scourge" (2022) [suggested by Ben]

4. Godflesh - "Merciless" from "Merciless" (1994) [suggested by Daniel]

5. Rifflord - "Thunder Rider Cremation Ground Meditation" from "7 Cremation Ground / Meditation" (2018)

6. Yith - "Beholder" from "Immemorial" (2018) [suggested by Sonny]

7. Scald - "Sepulchral Bonfire" from "Will of Gods Is a Great Power" (1996) [suggested by Sonny]

8. Esoteric - "Beneath This Face" from "The Maniacal Vale" (2008)

9. Place of Skulls - "Song of Solomon" from "Nailed" (2002) 

10. Lacuna Coil - "Circle" from "In A Reverie" (1999)

11. Spectral Voice - Terminal Exhalation" from "Eroded Corridors of Unbeing" (2017) [suggested by Daniel]

12. The Hidden Hand - "Sunblood" from "Divine Propaganda" (2003)

13. Mizmor & Thou - "Indignance" from "Myopia" (2022) [suggested by Ben]

14. Monarch! - "Blood Seeress" from "Omens" (2012) [suggested by Daniel]

15. Hell - "Helmzmen" from "Hell" (2017) [suggested by Sonny]

16. Woods of Ypres - "Alternate Ending" from "Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light" (2012)

Just completed my Top 20. Very cool feature in my opinion. For the record, I can see both sides of the argument around the decimal places but feel that it's probably overkill to display it as long as the additional decimal places are taken into account in the background.

Agreed.

A stunning 32 minute drone metal epic with an environmental message from Nottingham duo, Bismuth.

Bismuth - The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef (2018)

Bismuth are a Nottingham duo, comprising Tanya Byrne on bass, keyboards and vocals and drummer Joe Rawlings, who play sludgy drone metal and eschew guitars on their material. Their 2018 sophomore album, The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef, consists of only two tracks, the most significant of which is the 32 minute title track which is one of the finest drone metal tracks it has been my good fortune to hear. There is more than a little post-metal involved in the title track, the music being utilised to recreate the effect of the creeping destruction of one of the world's most under-threat natural habitats. Starting slowly and gently with droning synths and bass-strums intended to illustrate the beating heart of the tides and currents of the reef (I would suggest), Tanya's choral vocal effects giving voice to the sealife within and with cymbals providing the suggestion of crashing waves the idyllic scene is set.

Soon it becomes obvious that all is not well in paradise as discordant notes start to appear, suggesting problems are afoot in this most fragile of environments. The track then takes a heavier turn as chaos is wrought, the vocals become harsh, ragged screams of pain and the bass chords become huge, heaving upheavals of sonic malevolence. After a short breather whilst a degree of calm returns, the track plunges into even greater depths of despair and desperation as the inevitability of the end approaches before the return to gentle calm as death holds sway, the ending of the track somewhat mirroring the beginning, possibly illustrating that all eventually comes full-circle. This truly is a superb piece of drone metal, at once both atmospheric and delivering a particular narrative, an effect that is decidedly tricky to pull off, but which the duo deliver with aplomb and you will be hard-pushed to find a more effective narrative-driven drone metal piece.

The second track, Weltschmerz at just six mnutes long, is in danger of being overshadowed by such an epic track and the  feeling it has been tagged on just to pad the album out to the required length. This would be doing it a great disservice however as it is a pulsating, throbbing slab of drone/sludge inhabited by howling screams of anguished suffering (weltschmerz translates as "world-pain") that continues with the band's message of environmental armageddon. Obviously, especially with the considerably shorter runtime this is a much more immediate and accessible piece than the title track, but I think it deserves it's place on the LP and is a great track in it's own right, even though I think it may have benefitted from being a bit longer.

This is a brilliant album and is one of the very best drone metal releases that comfortably stands alongside genre titans like SunnO))) and Earth and if you love those bands and haven't listened to this, then really you should.
5/5

Carcass - Symphonies of Sickness (1989)

Liverpool's Carcass started out in similar vein to Napalm Death musically but with an emphasis on gross-out, gore-drenched lyrical content and pretty much invented goregrind with debut Reek of Putrefaction. Much like fellow Englishmen Bolt Thrower, Carcass refused to stand still and refined their sound with each release throughout the late '80s and early 90s. With sophomore Symphonies of Sickness the Scousers reduced the debut's reliance on grindcore and introduced more death metal and variety into the songwriting mix with consequently longer tracks and a much more satisfactory result in my opinion. There is also a huge leap in quality of the sound from the debut - it is much cleaner and isn't the turgid sonic mess that the debut struggled with. The tone of Symphonies of Sickness is on a rancid offal-pit level of purulent filthiness, Ruptured in Purulence for fuck's sake, have you ever heard a dirtier sounding track? It's almost impossible not to imagine that something has gone off in your fridge while listening to this, yet they achieve this filthy sound without sacrificing clarity in the most part. As anyone who is familiar with my preferences in extreme metal will know that this sort of thing is exactly the kind of sound that I love.

I guess people going into a death / grind album from 1989 would probably expect an album that blurs into one with little progression or variety and that accusation has been thrown by some at Carcass, but if you actually listen to Symphonies of Sickness then you will hear that that is far from the case. There is far more going on here than initially meets the ear and it is evident that Carcass have had few equals in extreme death metal songwriting over the years. They never compromise the songwriting for brutality's sake and equally they don't compromise the brutality of the tracks either. That said, they are certainly not averse to throwing in the odd melodic riff and phrase that sticks a particular track to your memory cells most effectively, but rest assured, there will just as certainly be a blasting dose of grind to blowtorch your grey matter along any second.

Their use of three different vocalists also adds a variety to the different tracks. I don't know who provides which vocal, but they are all quite different with one being deep and rumbling like some nether pit-demon, one is ragged and harsh with an almost black metal level gurgling shriek and the third sits somewhere between the two. I must admit I do prefer the deep rumbling growl that features on tracks like Exhume to Consume - that almost sub-sonic vocal rumble is a vibe I love. I tend not to get too involved with the lyrics as the obsession with pathology isn't really my thing at all and, in all honesty, I also find the cover to be a bit much*, whilst understanding that it is all part of the band's aesthetic and does suit the virulently putrid atmosphere uniquely well.

Overall, for me I think Carcass hit a sweet spot between grind and death metal here that I haven't heard replicated too often. The variety and accessibility of the songwriting coupled with the dark, rotten-stench atmosphere is a masterclass in extreme metal song production and has resulted in an album that is right up there with the very best death / grind releases.
4.5/5

(*the cover above is not the cover on the version I own, which is more autopsy-photo-collage-style like the debut)

Ah, that would make sense. Thanks for clearing that up Andi.

While we are on the subject of ratings I was just wondering - when someone leaves or joins a clan does the site recalculate the clan ratings for any albums that person has rated. To clarify, Vinny recently left the Guardians so do none of his Guardians-related ratings now contribute to the clan ratings or is it dependent on clan membership at the time of rating? 

Apologies for being so geeky, but I'm interested is all.