Sonny's Forum Replies

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.

To be honest Ben, I think I prefer the look of the single decimal point ratings. Although I am a numbers nerd, I feel the two decimal places look a bit much in comparison to the standard layout. It may also be off-putting to some as it may feel excessively stat-driven. 

As a point of interest though, are the charts still ranked by the two decimal point ratings, even though they aren't visible? (Told you I was a numbers nerd!)

Hey, when did the ability to list your top twenty releases on your profile page appear? Just updated mine, but it'll probably change quite regularly!

Anyway it's pretty easy to use, but if you want to insert a different release do you have to delete all the ones below where you wish to place it then add them back in, or am I being thick?

Hi Ben, could you please add the new Mournful Congregation ep, The Exuviae of Gods - Part I. I think you may want to check it out too, as I think you would enjoy it.

Perceived wisdom here in the UK is that Karl Pilkington is actually as he appears on the show. Gervais & Merchant have always refuted claims they wrote Karl's words -  "we wouldn't waste such a great character on a poxy radio show".

he next question I'll ask is if you think that if we adjusted the functionality of the releases page to a) allow you to search on releases that have multiple specified subgenres (like Post-Metal & Sludge Metal) & b) allow to you to choose to search on releases that ONLY have your specified subgenres (so you could select releases that only have Post-Metal & not releases that have both Sludge Metal AND Post-Metal) it would serve the purpose just as well? Would we still need a Post-Sludge Metal subgenre if that was the case?

I do like the prospect of filtering releases that only have all your selected genres/sub-genres. Currently if I search for releases tagged black metal and doom metal I get all black metal and all doom metal releases when what I want is black/doom releases, so this is a great solution for multi-genre releases that don't have their own sub-genre like blackened doom or gothic death doom (both of which should have in my opinion, but that's a discussion for another day I guess).

I think what the site calls it is less important than what it does with it. Whether it's named atmospheric sludge or post-sludge I don't much care, but the clan system gives the site a unique issue with the genre as to whether it's a Fallen, Infinite or both subgenre. As the guy responsible for compiling the Fallen playlist each month I don't really feel that atmo/post or whatever-sludge fits the overall Fallen aesthetic that well and is much more post-metal than sludge (usually) and would fit better in the Infinite. Obviously if a release contains a significant amount of genuine sludge metal then a dual clan designation is fine. Since I have been compiling the playlist I have sometimes been frustrated by having to include a lot of atmo-sludge as I feel other, more Fallen-specific genres, have suffered at it's expense (I'm not complaining about the music itself, just it's suitability for the clan I am trying to represent with the playlist) and personally I would be happier to see it reside solely in the Infinite. I think someone who is massively into atmospheric sludge would be more likely to enjoy the progressive and avant-garde music of the Infinite than doom, death doom, funeral doom, trad doom, gothic metal and conventional sludge of the Fallen. After a recent conversation between Daniel and I, I currently don't program the genre into the Fallen playlist so if it isn't getting covered by the Infinite playlist then it is getting no playlist exposure. Obviously if everyone else feels differently I am happy to go along.

More than half of this month's features were really strong releases and overall it was a good month.

List in order of preference:

THE SPHERE: Thorns - "Thorns" (1999) 4.5/5

THE FALLEN: Internal Void - "Standing on the Sun" (1992) 4.5/5

THE NORTH: Onirik - "The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity" (2020) 4.5/5

THE PIT: Ritual Carnage - "Every Nerve Alive" (2000) 4/5

THE GATEWAY: System Of A Down - "Mezmerize" (2005) 4/5

THE HORDE: Hate - "Erebos" (2010) 3.5/5

THE GUARDIANS: Ambush - "Firestorm" (2014) 2.5/5

I couldn't raise enough enthusiasm to check out THE INFINITE or REVOLUTION albums to be honest. Sorry.

Ambush are not a band I have come across before and so I went in without too many expectations. It is true that the band do owe a massive debt to eighties' Judas Priest and while they do turn in a couple of decent Priest-ish tracks in opener Firestorm and Don't Shoot (Let 'em Burn) too many of the rest are quite ordinary and lack the hooks and memorable lines of classic Priest and even those two have horrible whoa-oh moments in them that were one of the worst things about 80's metal in my opinion. Then there's a track like Close My Eyes that sounds far too close to Don't Stop Believing or some such shit. Personally I enjoyed the soloing, but then again I like more restrained solos rather than extravagant and excessive shredding. I think it's fair to say that my favourite Guardians-related material resides quite far back in time and although this does hark back to the eighties even Judas Priest were left wanting in that decade (it was all downhill after Killing Machine) and this references The Scorpions as much as Priest. Overall, a couple of decent tracks and some unremarkable stuff that refers back to an era I was never that enamoured with in the first place. Sorry, but this is not really for me.

2.5/5

I'm no expert on the Polish death metal scene and I'm not sure if it has a sound all of it's own, but I am quite well-disposed to both Vader and Behemoth without being an out-and-out fanboy and I hear a lot of similarity to both bands here. There's the same dense guitar tone and faintly militaristic rhythms and the vocals are very similar to both Nergal and Piotr Wiwczarek. It looks like the careers of all three bands run adjacently so I don't suppose that there is any plagiarism involved they have just developed similar styles within a common scene. I think I probably sit on the fence a bit with this one, I do like it quite a bit, but after four or five listens it hasn't really got it's hooks into me like The Satanist or Back to the Blind did and whilst it's great while it's on, after it's over I have trouble recalling any of the songs in much detail and they certainly aren't running through my backbrain for half the day. As we have established previously, I still have much to learn about death metal and the band do sound incredibly accomplished to me, it's just that the tracks don't have that memorability to drag me back for repeated listens.

3.5/5

Just noticed my last list was also before I had listened to Earth 2 so an update is in order. I have also included Hell III for the first time as I have changed my mind as to whether it is sufficiently drone-led to be included.

1. Earth - "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version" (1993)

2. Hell - "Hell III" (2012)

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

4. Boris - "Boris at Last -Feedbacker-" (2003)

5. Khanate - "Khanate" (2001)

6. Wolvserpent - "Aporia:Kāla:Ananta" (2016)

7. Neptunian Maximalism - "Éons" (2020)

8. Monarch! - "Omens" (2012)as

9. Trees - Light's Bane (2008)

10. Nadja - Radiance of Shadows (2007)

My favourite track from Marduk's sophomore album, 1993's Those of the Unlight.

Marduk - Those of the Unlight (1993)

Marduk at their height were a full-on assault of unrelenting, martial brutality masquerading as a black metal band. Albums like Panzer Division Marduk and Plague Angel are exhilharating adrenaline-rushes that display little variation but are addictive as hell to those who love an all-out blastathon and just need a hit of aggression and nihilistic fervour. Yet this wasn't always the case with the Swedish black metal titans. Ten months after the blackened death metal of Dark Endless was released they unleashed their sophomore, Those of the Unlight, which is a huge improvement on the debut in my opinion, but is very different from their later, more well-known material. With Those of the Unlight Marduk tread a far more varied and melodic path than they would on later releases. There is an ambition to the songwriting that they lost once they had settled on their identity and the direction they wished to take. The melody on Wolves could well be whistling around in your head for days after hearing it and most of the songs feature some degree of development without constantly bursting out of the blocks. This doesn't mean this is a "tame" album, they still let rip fairly often - On Darkened Wings for example contains some intense blasting for sure, but it also has a nicely ominous atmosphere that is allowed to build and offers contrast to the aggressive passages when they hit, resulting in a more satisfying payoff. Those of the Unlight even features an ambient piece which, let's face it, would be completely out of character for later Marduk and despite my oft-touted aversion to a lot of ambient stuff on black metal albums, Echoes From the Past actually works really nicely here and is a great piece of music in it's own right.

The thing is that Marduk at their best are kind of unbeatable when it comes to relentless blasting, but Those of the Unlight also illustrates a band that have more than that to offer. I would never want to be without Panzer Division Marduk, it is one of my all-time favourite black metal albums, but Marduk also produced some rather unimpressive releases in similar vein and it would have been nice to hear them stretch their wings at some point too and realise the potential they showed with Those of the Unlight rather than just regurgitating the same tropes time and again. I guess there's still time, but with every lacklustre attempt to reproduce PDM it seems less and less likely.
4.25/5

It was certainly an improvement on the debut but they still had a way to go before they'd develop into the well-oiled machine that they'd eventually become in my opinion. It may not be something that people outside of the extreme metal community are too aware of but it requires a fair bit of time & practice to come to grips with playing heavily down-tuned guitars in that you need to a) figure out how to control the floppier strings which require more finesse not to go out of tune, have a greater tendency to shake around & produce excess noise & also feel very different to a regularly tuned instrument & b) find a style that works well with that tuning i.e. doesn't sound too messy & noisy regardless of how precisely you might be playing. "Realm Of Chaos" is tuned down to A which is much lower than 99% of death metal bands would dare to go. These days you would certainly play a seven string guitar if you were going to attempt that & even then you'd be detuning a full two semitones. I don't think they'd quite found their perfect sweet spot in that regard just yet & I can hear them noticeably struggling at times. It was no surprise that they opted to only detune half as far for "War Master" which was tuned to C#.

I must admit that was certainly not something I had ever considered, but when put like that it makes perfect sense. I feel kind of stupid now, but hey, there's a lot more to this extreme metal thing than you think isn't there?!

Here are my thought in "Realm Of Chaos" after revisiting it a while back:

Revisited this old friend for the first time in many years this morning. It was my introduction to Bolt Thrower around 1989/90 & I would go on to purchase the album on cassette a short time afterwards. "Realm Of Chaos" showcases a band that was starting to find their sound but was still waiting for their technical skills to catch up with their ambition because the production & performances are pretty sloppy but this doesn't take away from a gloriously pure death metal atmosphere. There's a much stronger grindcore influence to this album than you'll hear on Bolt Thrower's later material with early Napalm Death & Carcass clearly having been an inspiration along with "Reign In Blood" era Slayer. You'll get the odd hint at those signature Bolt Thrower melodies here & there but the catchy song-writing is already in full effect, despite the rawer, faster & more blast-beat driven approach. This is still a very solid death metal record that possibly hasn't aged as well as some which has subsequently seen me rating it behind later releases like "The IVth Crusade", "...For Victory" & "Those Once Loyal".

For fans of Benediction, Hail of Bullets & 90's Napalm Death.

4/5

Do you not think that technically this was a big improvement over In Battle... Daniel? As I've said, I'm no musician but this sounds pretty tight to me although the soloing could do with some work yet.

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos (1989)

In November of '89, a year on from their debut, In Battle There Is No Law, Bolt Thrower issued sophomore album, Realm of Chaos. This album shows a band who have improved hugely in professionalism and who have honed their vision into sharper detail. Gone was the sloppiness of the debut, as had most of the crust influence and we had a much tougher-sounding, more brutal and heavier release as a result. This is no all-out assault of mindless brutality however and most of the tracks display some degree of progression. First track proper, Eternal War, may be the exception with it's nod to Napalm Death-style grindcore. Typically the tracks feature a slower, medium-paced, groove-laden riff with bursts of fast-paced, grind-like aggression and howling solos and they even turn in a creeping death doom riff to open the magnificant All That Remains. In Karl Willetts they have one of my absolute favourite death metal vocalists, his rasping growl epitomising what death metal vocals are all about for me.

Often with extreme metal, I will concede, an album can become a blur of similar-sounding tracks that struggle to stick in the memory after they have ceased playing and are more about the experience of listening, but in similar fashion to Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, Realm of Chaos consists of tracks with enough memorable riffs and even melodies to stick with you after the disc has stopped spinning - a mark of exceptional songwriting I would suggest. Tracks like All That Remains and particularly World Eater are genuine death metal classics in my opinion, but there really isn't any filler on this album and I believe that Realm of Chaos can stand toe-to-toe with most of the classics of early death metal.

Although they are well-regarded, I still don't think Bolt Thrower get the credit they deserve. This was still 1989 and yet they had written the manual on brutal, grind-influenced death metal already (and went on to become one of the select few bands with decades-long careers who never put out a bad album) yet it seems to me that they remain the preserve of death metal enthusiasts and early grind adherents while lesser lights bask in the floodlights.
4.5/5

I recall having issue with this album on a production level but have to confess to it being a while since I listened to it and I may well have ended up with a horrible remastered version on CD somewhere.  Certainly need to revisit anyways.

The version on Spotify is the "Full Dynamic Range Version". So there are at least two versions available Vinny.

I was also reading on Discogs that the licence for the artwork from Games Workshop ran out in 2002 and they refused to renew it so subsequent re-releases have different cover art. The original vinyl LP is now going for £150 - £200!!

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos (1989)

In November of '89, a year on from their debut, In Battle There Is No Law, Bolt Thrower issued sophomore album, Realm of Chaos. This album shows a band who have improved hugely in professionalism and who have honed their vision into sharper detail. Gone was the sloppiness of the debut, as had most of the crust influence and we had a much tougher-sounding, more brutal and heavier release as a result. This is no all-out assault of mindless brutality however and most of the tracks display some degree of progression. First track proper, Eternal War, may be the exception with it's nod to Napalm Death-style grindcore. Typically the tracks feature a slower, medium-paced, groove-laden riff with bursts of fast-paced, grind-like aggression and howling solos and they even turn in a creeping death doom riff to open the magnificant All That Remains. In Karl Willetts they have one of my absolute favourite death metal vocalists, his rasping growl epitomising what death metal vocals are all about for me.

Often with extreme metal, I will concede, an album can become a blur of similar-sounding tracks that struggle to stick in the memory after they have ceased playing and are more about the experience of listening, but in similar fashion to Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, Realm of Chaos consists of tracks with enough memorable riffs and even melodies to stick with you after the disc has stopped spinning - a mark of exceptional songwriting I would suggest. Tracks like All That Remains and particularly World Eater are genuine death metal classics in my opinion, but there really isn't any filler on this album and I believe that Realm of Chaos can stand toe-to-toe with most of the classics of early death metal.

Although they are well-regarded, I still don't think Bolt Thrower get the credit they deserve. This was still 1989 and yet they had written the manual on brutal, grind-influenced death metal already (and went on to become one of the select few bands with decades-long careers who never put out a bad album) yet it seems to me that they remain the preserve of death metal enthusiasts and early grind adherents while lesser lights bask in the floodlights.
4.5/5

Ufomammut - Fenice

Released 06/05/22

It seems that Ufomammut have succumbed to the pandemic that has been plagueing us all over the past few years. No, not Covid-19 - the Atmospheric Sludge Metal pandemic that seems to be the only game in town as far as a lot of metal fans seem to be concerned. With every man and his dog putting out albums of slow-build, crushing climax metal just lately, Ufomammut have also got in on the act. Personally I feel the build-up to payoff ratio is too high and much prefer the Italians' wall-of-sound, velocity-ridden space metal to the excessive navel-gazing they present on their latest album. It's not a bad album by any means, but it is kind of disappointing.

3.5/5
 

I've taken my new, growing confidence with death metal and dared the rigours of an entire Horde playlist for the first time and I've got to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I must admit that there are probably some tracks that work better for me within the context of a varied playlist, whereas I am not sure if I would enjoy a whole album of said style, but as a short burst they work very well. Those fitting into this category include Orbit Culture, Haemorrhage, Disgorge, Enemy Soil, Golgothan Remains and Dying Fetus.

Oldies but goodies: Napalm Death, Akercocke, Sarcofago and I'm obviously familiar with the Vastum track which I enjoyed from their Horde March feature and the Desolate Shrine album which I gave a few spins to recently.

There were quite a few new discoveries for me, particularly Rotten Tomb and Aeviterne which were real standouts, also Sentenced, Astral Tomb, Cryptworm and Infernal Coil were great.
However, if the Thotcrime track is cybergrind then it is obvious that that sub-genre isn't for me as that was horrible and was the only track I really didn't like at all, although the grunting pig vocals of Waking the Cadaver and Katalepsy are a tough ask for me too. I guess these are slam death are they?

As for Macabre - what the fuck is going on there? A song about a child murderer with a chorus that sounds like it's the theme song to a Saturday morning kid's adventure show!

P.S. Has anyone heard the subsequent Ritual Carnage albums? I've never ventured further forward than this up until now. Are they worth checking out?

Well Daniel, I listened to the follow-up, The Birth of Tragedy, this morning and I can't recommend it in all honesty. It sounds like a completely different band. The lyrics are all political post-9/11, anti-western and US imperialism shit that sounds really dated. The vocal style is more crossover-sounding, the riffs are derivative and forgettable and the solos are all over the place. Ritual Carnage seem to have left the integrity of Every Nerve Alive at the door with this one and have just turned out the same shit as any number of second-rate, post-millenial thrash revivalists. (2.5/5)

Morgoth - Resurrection Absurd EP

Given the aggressive nature of German thrash metal it was only a matter of time before the Germans turned their hand to death metal and I believe that Morgoth's Resurrection Absurd was the first Teutonic death metal release, put out by Century Media in November of '89 as a 12" EP. The sound is occasionally a bit muffled and so the faster parts do become a bit messy at points (the closing part of the instrumental The Afterthought, for example). Morgoth seem to be quite strongly influenced by Death and Resurrection Absurd bears a strong resemblance to Scream Bloody Gore, to the extent that vocalist Marc Grewe is virtually indistinguishable from Chuck Schuldiner. I don't think that Morgoth do too much special here and their slavish reproduction of Death's early sound is a bit predictable. That said, there are glimpses of promise, the track that opens side two, Selected Killing, is a bit more ambitious and has a nice, ominous break in the middle with a bit of a doom-ridden build to the climactic run-in and is the stand-out track for me.

This is by no means a bad release, but it is patchy in both production, performance and songwriting. I am not at all familiar with Morgoth so I don't know if they took the potential they did show and improved on it on later releases, but maybe I'll find out later. I was vacillating between whether to give this three or 3.5 stars and went with the latter mainly thanks to Selected Killing. Interesting for the fact of being the first German death metal release, but inessential for it's contents I would suggest.

3.5/5

Napalm Death - Mentally Murdered EP (1989)

I haven't spoken about Napalm death's first two albums during this project because I don't want to get sidetracked into grindcore territory and although I am sure that early grind had some influence on the development of death metal I would rather save that discussion for another time. The Mentally Murdered EP came out slap-bang in the middle of the two year gap between the albums From Enslavement to Obliteration and Harmony Corruption. It shows a slight departure from Napalm Death's grindcore origins and their incorporation of elements from the emerging death metal scene. They were touring partners with Morbid Angel and Bolt Thrower at the time and so I guess some death metal influence rubbed off on the Coventry crew. Mentally Murdered is the last recording to feature Bill Steer and Lee Dorrian, the former dedicating himself solely to Carcass and the latter forming doom/stoner outfit Cathedral (and starting Rise Above Records).

The six tracks here weigh in at just over quarter of an hour and are a blistering death/grind assault on the ears. Despite the slight change in style there is no compromise in Napalm Death's sound here, it is still as brutal-sounding as ever and Lee Dorrian may possibly never have sounded so fucking terrifying, bellowing away like an enraged bull charging at a guy in a Man United top! Despite playing so fast, Steer's riffing never disintegrates into mere noise, he always seems in absolute control with his riffs standing iconic and clear. Shane Embury and drummer Mick Harris (who apparently coined the phrase "blastbeat") make a great supporting duo, their fantastic rhythm work allowing Steer and Dorrian to indulge in such absolute brutality without worrying that things will descend into formless noise. This may still be too heavily grindcore-adjacent for some death metal fans, but for those who dig both grindcore and death metal then this is a thrilling quarter of an hour that feels like riding the aforementioned enraged bull - just hold on and hope you don't break your neck! One of my favourite Napalm Death releases right here.
4.5/5

Mick Harris explains the blastbeat - "I never got to practice, that's why I was shit":

Guys, for next month's playlist submissions (for July) could I ask that they are in by the 10th June if possible please?  I am away for the week after that and coming back to a hectic diary both with work and socially so I want to get the list built before I head over to the states then can just tweak ahead of publishing.  No need to see them before start of next month mind - I am not an animal.

No problem at all Vinny.

I have been listening to thrash metal for closing in on forty years now, but for the longest time I stuck with the more well-known acts like The Big Four, The German Three and a select few others like Celtic Frost, Dark Angel and Onslaught. Since joining Metal Academy though, I have been introduced to a lot of excellent lesser known, underground acts and releases that have considerably expanded my enjoyment of the genre, the monthly features being responsible for quite a few of them and this month's feature from Japan's Ritual Carnage is just the latest in a long list of these.

With their hi-octane approach Ritual Carnage rev it up and leap out of the blocks, accelerating quickly to high speed riffing and barely ever let their foot off the gas with only the penultimate track, Escape From the Light, offering any real slowing of the pace. Personally I feel that track would have been better left until the end as it would have rounded the speedfest off better as a closer rather than expecting the actual closer, Far East Aggressors, to pick up the pace again (and suffering for it, I feel). There is loads to like about Every Nerve Alive, which in itself seems a more than apt title for the music contained within. The riffs are king here and although there is very little by way of originality, they are executed with passion and integrity and are intended to tempt you to rupture your neck muscles! Vocalist Damian Montgomery (aka Nasty Danny) has a great harsh growl that fits the aggressive nature of the riffing perfectly and only really dips on the aforementioned slower track, Escape From the Light, where his clean singing is exposed a little.

The band as a whole is exceedingly tight and the bass and drums solidly support the breakneck pacing without doing anything extraordinary. The solos are fine I suppose, but are the least remarkable part of the album for me, quite often just passing me by and unless I was really concentrating I didn't notice them so much until they had actually finished! However, overall this is a very good slab of energetic and brutal-sounding thrash that I would date around '91/'92 if I didn't know it was from 2000 when thrash was supposedly dead. I guess Ritual Carnage never got the memo!

Obituary - Slowly We Rot (1989)

Slowly We Rot is actually the only Obituary album I've heard prior to this and that only a couple of times, it not really making much of an impression on me, which I guess makes it ripe for a revisit. I have had to give it a fair few spins this time round as it was initially suffering from following hot on the heels of the quite superb Altars of Madness in my listening rotation (as it did in real life, I guess, being released a mere month after Morbid Angel's debut).

The first thing that strikes me is that whereas most other early death metal bands take their lead from Slayer, Obituary seek to emulate Swiss thrashers Celtic Frost and you don't need the cover of Into the Crypts of Rays from their follow-up to illustrate that, the guitar tone that Obituary strive for is ample proof in itself. Compositionally Obituary favour a mix of dank and doomy medium-paced and slower riffs, interspersed with short high-tempo bursts of aggression, in a similar style to that employed by Autopsy on their debut Severed Survival and that allow for some variety in the tone and atmosphere rather than the out and out blitz of Morbid Angel's debut. Despite this variation I still don't think the songs stand out as much individually as the tracks on Altars of Madness, but in fairness that album is a particular exception to the extreme metal rule rather than being an indictment of Obituary's songwriting prowess. I do love that guitar tone, it brings a nice dank, crypt-like atmosphere to the band's sound as it did for Celtic Frost and it combines perfectly with John Tardy's particularly evil-sounding vocal delivery - check out 'Til Death for proof if any is needed and the foreboding, brooding atmosphere that is created.

The riffs are solid and the lead work is fine if not especially spectacular with the soloing following the Slayer-esque stylings of most of the early death metal protagonists. The rhythm section again is solid rather than remarkable, but does form a solid foundation. I feel like I am sounding awfully harsh on the band here, but don't misunderstand, I love the atmosphere that Obituary create on the slower material but also when they do let rip and get in full flow they feel like a really tight unit and these faster sections are impressively executed, so although I feel like they may not be the most technically flashy performers they function exceedingly well as a unit and as such produced an evilly atmospheric and heavy-as-fuck debut album that deserves all the credit it receives. Personally I prefer both the Morbid Angel and Autopsy debuts over Slowly We Rot, but those are two of my all-time favourite death metal albums so that is no reflection on Obituary's worthwhile debut.
4/5

Hi Ben, have you got anything for June's playlist as I intend to complete it this weekend?