Sonny's Forum Replies

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

November 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5/5

Glaare - To Deaf and Day (2017)

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

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

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

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

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

3.5/5

Corrosion of Conformity - Animosity (1985)

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

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

3.5/5

Randy Holden - "Population II" (1970)

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

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

3.5/5

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

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

Here are my November selections...

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

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

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

Sonny?  Are you adding anything for November please?

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

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

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

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

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

Floor - Oblation (2014)

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

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

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

2.5/5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🍄🍄🍄🍄 (Four 'shrooms out of five)

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

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

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

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

You're up next Vinny.

Behexen - Rituale Satanum (2000)

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

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

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

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

⸸⸸⸸⸸
(4 inverted crosses out of 5)

Hi Ben, my suggestions for November's playlist:

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

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

October 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm interested to know why you think metal has grown in popularity since the early 2000's Sonny as that's certainly not the case over here in Oz. It's never been more uncool to be an Aussie metalhead as far as I can tell. The only bands anyone outside of the scene is aware of are the classic bands from the 1980's & early 1990's which was when metal was at its peak here.

I must admit that there was a short time during the early eighties when the NWOBHM was at it's height that metal was relatively more popular here in the UK than it is at the moment. However that was fairly short-lived and the way it was abandoned wholesale, I feel, adds testament to my point that to many people music is just another fad to be dropped when trend dictates and something "better" comes along. But after it had faded into the underground again, the same guys were still going to metal shows who were there before things took off. To these guys metal always meant more than a mere passing fad.

I say that I feel metal is more popular now because it seems to be more in the public consciousness than it was before. Most people have heard of Metallica and Iron Maiden, sure, but also bands like Linkin Park and Slipknot who are forever on Kerrang!!'s TV channel or on Scuzz are also well known. The fact that there even is a TV channel  showing metal videos is still hard for me to get my head round when in the UK back in the day you couldn't even hear metal on the radio let alone on TV.

Then there's the music nerds of RYM and the like who wouldn't have touched Venom or Motorhead with a barge pole, but who are quite happy to have Cult of Luna albums sat next to their Radiohead or John Coltrane LPs (or more likely on their hard drives) so they can brag about their eclectic taste to anyone who'll listen to their shit.

I must admit that nowadays I am divorced from any involvement in any metal scene and raging tinnitus has pretty much ended my going to metal shows, so I only really base these hypotheses on gut feeling rather than hard and fast data. 

You are dead right Daniel that peoples's perceptions are based on their own experiences, but the early metal bands themselves always say that they played almost exclusively to working class crowds in their formative years. Metal was born in Birmingham in the late sixties / early seventies for fuck's sake and believe me there were few places less working class than Brum at that time - my dad's family are from Birmingham so I have some first-hand experience of the time and place!

OK I'll admit that this thread might be deliberately provocative, but to be honest I thought it might be a topic that would provoke some interesting debate about the metal scene, which has undoubtedly seen some changes since I went to my first Motorhead gig in 1978. I would particularly be interested to hear the experiences of people who are still closely involved in the metal scene in real life (as opposed to on the internet) to get a feel for what it is like nowadays in the underground and to put my mind at rest that there still is an underground and that the outsider reputation of real metal is still intact.

I'm sorry Sonny. It has been one of those months. I assume you've completed the playlist by now, but if not...

• Solstice - Death's Crown Is Victory off Death's Crown Is Victory (2013)
• Slow - Déluge off V - Oceans (2017)

If you've already completed this months, these can be for next month.

Thanks!

As it happens Ben, the stars have aligned in such a way that I haven't yet finished the playlist for October yet, so I will add these to it.

It's been quite a while since I last listened to Journey into Mystery, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and a lot of music has flowed through my ears. As a consequence, I no longer feel as bowled over by it as I once did, it's doomy take on thrash metal not sounding as awesome as previously. I still love the sound of the album - the obvious Celtic Frost worship of a song like the cthulhian The Elder Race still chimes with me, the doomier sections will always find my favour and I am always up for a bit of punky Slayer-worship such as they dish up on Hear My Screams. The issue I have with Journey into Mystery (which was also an issue with the Dream Death's later iteration, Penance) is that the songwriting is very uneven with some great tracks sitting alongside some that, frankly, fall flat on their face. The two tracks around the halfway point, Black Edifice and Divine in Agony, just don't sound very well put together to my ears and come across as a bit messy, especially the latter of the two. When they do get it right, such as on The Elder Race, Sealed in Blood or the title track, then I am right there, all-in and along for the ride, but when they drop the ball it is a bit painful.

Although there is an undoubted doom metal influence upon Journey into Mystery, in common with the earlier Celtic Frost albums, I don't think there is enough out and out doom metal to cite it as a primary genre on the album, the thrash component outweighing it songwriting-wise, as oppossed to aesthetically. I'm guessing this sounds like a bit of a caning of a former favourite, but I still enjoy this album very much it's just that I am now more aware of it's limitations and so a rating correction is called for I think.

4/5

Hi Ben. Have you any suggestions for October's Fallen playlist?

Nice one Vinny. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the best my beloved Fallen has to offer.

It is tough to follow up on Candlemass' debut because, as you rightly say, they pretty much perfected epic doom metal on the first attempt. I guess it is very similar to Morbid Angel releasing Altars of Madness and setting such a ridiculously high early standard for death metal. Still, that didn't prevent others from knocking out fantastic albums, so I hope you find plenty of other releases you dig too.

Hi Vinny. My suggestions for October:

Slayer - "Live Undead" from "South of Heaven" (1988) 

Legion of the Damned - "The Widows Breed" from "Slaves of the Shadow Realm" (2019) 

Toxik - "World Circus" from "World Circus" (1987) 

Bulldozer - "Never Relax" from "The Final Separation" (1986) 

Lååz Rockit - "Last Breath" from "Know Your Enemy" (1987) 

Flames of Hell - Fire and Steel (1987)

Is there a special genre for "metal with vocals that sound like a turkey being strangled"? I really wanted to be in a band when I was a teenager but put that dream to rest when I realised I had neither skill nor natural talent. Evidently these guys weren't as self-aware as I was! I only listened to this in order to vote on a Hall submission and I will never forgive you guys for it. This was one of the absolute worst metal albums I have ever heard. Of course because it's from an Icelandic band all the tr00 cvltists hail it as a first wave black metal classic, but guess what? The emperor has no fucking clothes!!

 1/5 (I originally had it as a 1.5 but every time I think about it it sounds worse in my head).

I think there is too much going on in this submission with the removal of two genres and the installation of two different ones, a total of four changes in one submission. I have voted yes despite being unsure as to whether this deserves a place in The Fallen. I certainly don't think it is black or thrash metal (or any good) and a speed metal tag is definitely justified. I can hear where the trad doom submission comes from but find it hard to agree with.

Once more I come up against an act I have never listened to before, the covers have always put me off in the past. Well, once more I also discover another album I really enjoyed. Voted yes - I could hear more than enough speed metal here to allow me to support the original proposal. I can also hear where you were coming from with the black metal assertion Daniel, which really was a surprise to me considering my preconceived prejudices about the band!

This definitely doesn't sound like death metal to me. In fact it sounds more like a hardcore punk release. I guess it's a bit like SOD with the same immature humour. Personally I hated it!

I've never listened to Lååz Rockit before and, although I did enjoy this quite a bit, this seems like an easy one to me. Outside the first two tracks there seems to be very little thrash-wise, most of it sounding like the early USPM albums I listened to when I started one of the Guardians clan challenges. Still a good record though.

Whilst Alone is also an awesome record for sure, I don't think it has anything as iconic as Well of Souls or At the Gallows End on it , so is downslope from Nightfall for me. But this is nitpicking as they are both records I would unhesitatingly recommend to any trad/epic doom fan.

Contrary to popular opinion, I've never found "At the Gallows End" to be anything terribly special to tell you the truth. I do quite like it but definitely think of it as one of the least appealing couple of tracks on "Nightfall". "Well of Souls" is certainly an amazing track but my personal favourites are "Bewtiched" & "Black Candles" which I regard as being the equal of anything I've heard from the epic doom metal subgenre. In fairness though, I'd place Solitude Aeturnus' "Scent of Death" right alongside them in that respect.

It's weird (or maybe it's me who is) but despite it possibly being Candlemass' most well-known track, Bewitched is my least favoured "proper" track on Nightfall. Go figure!

It's been a while since I did a Top Ten, so here's my current top ten epic doom albums (using RYM genre tagging for want of a better solution).

1. Candlemass - "Nightfall" (1987)

2. Solstice - "New Dark Age" (1988)

3. Candlemass - "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus" (1986)

4. Scald - "Will of the Gods Is Great Power" (1996)

5. Solitude Aeturnus - "Alone" (2006)

6. Candlemass - "Candlemass" (2005)

7. Candlemass - "Tales of Creation" (1989)

8. Isole - "Silent Ruins" (2009)

9. Age of Taurus - "Desperate Souls of Tortured Times" (2013)

10. Procession - "Destroyers of the Faith" (2010)

Whilst Alone is also an awesome record for sure, I don't think it has anything as iconic as Well of Souls or At the Gallows End on it , so is downslope from Nightfall for me. But this is nitpicking as they are both records I would unhesitatingly recommend to any trad/epic doom fan.

Candlemass - Nightfall (1987)

Candlemass shook the metal world's foundations with their debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, an album so fundamental to epic doom metal that the genre was named after it. It's massive riffs and larger-than-life theatricalities laid down the fundamentals of the genre for the succeeding generations to follow. So, having perfectly defined an entire genre at the first attempt, where do you go from there? Well for Lief Edling he decided to do it again, only more so! To this end Candlemass recruited the immense talent and larger-than-life personality of Messiah Marcolin from little-known act Mercy (where he was drummer in addition to singing) to take over vocal duties from Johan Längquist who was only credited on the debut as a guest performer due to his unwillingness to commit to Candlemass. There is no doubt that Messiah grabs hold of Nightfall and takes full advantage of the opportunity presented to him by turning in an amazing and, yes, epic vocal performance where he draws a line in the sand for the gold standard of epic doom singers. Yet despite Messiah's excellent vocals, this is no one-man show as the rest of the band are in career-defining mode. The guitarists sound great with the riffs having as much depth as any you will hear on a doom metal album and Lars Johansson's solos are exhilharatingly performed.

The real stars of the Nightfall show though are surely the songs which are incredible and, as a collection for me, top the debut and are surely the crown jewels of Leif Edling's songwriting career. If you kick off an album with as devastating a one-two combination as Well of Souls and At the Gallows End (my absolute favourite Candlemass track) then you know you are in for one hell of a ride. Candlemass take massive Sabbathian riffs and draw them to their logical conclusion, the quickening riff of At the Gallows End and the main riff of Dark Are the Veils of Death would leave even Tony Iommi gasping for breath and the way the egyptian-sounding melody is interwoven into the main riff and given extra prominence following the chorus of Well of Souls is masterful. Drums are seldom discussed much in relation to doom metal, but the echoing thuds and percussive interjections, such as the tubular bell during Mourner's Lament, all add to the pomp and circumstance of the album's imperious atmosphere and Jan Lindh should be commended for his controlled and vital contribution.

I have really been caning Nightfall over the last few weeks and during that time it has worked it's way up and up in my affections, now lodged firmly as one of my all-time favourites, deposing the debut as my favourite Candlemass album and even knocking A New Dark Age off it's perch as my favourite epic doom album. This is the very definition of epic doom to my mind and should be required listening for any doom metal fanatic.

5/5

Without rambling, my experience with Dirt is in direct opposition to Sonny's. As I matured, it was albums like Nevermind and Ten that lost favour as I learned more about the artist, their songwriting process, as well as their future. Sure, Alice in Chains had their problems on later albums (S/T and Black Gives Way To Blue) and left me questioning the bands future, but I never found those albums outright repulsive in the same way I find so many newer Pearl Jam records in the 2000s and beyond. Dirt is an album with soul; something severely lacking in the genres that Alice in Chains are attempting to replicate here. And it's the soul of Layne Stayley, Jerry Cantrell, and the rest of Alice in Chains that lives on 30 years later.

Just for the record, Saxy, I don't have any experience or history with Dirt as I only listened to it just now for the first time for the feature, so I don't really know what you mean. Maybe that is the difference you are referring to as I have zero emotional attachment to it as it played no part in forming or shaping my taste in music, whereas Nevermind, Ten and Superunknown did? I had been a metal fan for many years before Dirt was released and had even left metal behind by then, at least for a while, before returning to it later in the nineties. I do agree about Pearl Jam though, as pretty much everything after Vitalogy is painful.

I've seen quite a few positive comments about "The God Machine" recently, not just here at the Academy but on several other sites too, so I figured that, despite me and European Power Metal not really being comfortable bedfellows, it's about time I checked out my very first Blind Guardian album.

OK, so this was never going to be one of my favourite ever albums, but it was actually quite a pleasant surprise. Inevitably from a band who have been releasing high-profile albums for a third of a century, their talent was never really in doubt, but their level of ability is quite unimpeachable. As has been pointed out by others, singer Hansi Kürsch, despite being nearly as old as I am, has still got an impressive set of pipes and shows no signs of vocal decline, even with the most demanding of lines. However, the backing vocals is where I struggle the most with the album, the constant harmonisation just becoming too much for me personally and making everything sound like it was produced by Brian May. The guitar work is pretty great, especially on the quicker material and the solos are shred-happy, but despite this they manage to stay on the right side of enjoyable for me, not ever descending into neoclassical metal levels of wankery and futility. I note that Xephyr initially was unimpressed with "Secrets of the American Gods" and for me this is an obvious low-point of the album, particularly after the two strong opening tracks.

So, as I say, this is never going to reside in my comfort zone and towards the end I was flagging a bit, but it provided enough enjoyment that I could see myself returning to it at some point. It has also made me want to check out some of their classic albums the guys mentioned above. If only you could get a version without all the harmonised backing vocals, I think I could really get into this.

3.5/5

Well now you've piqued my interest Xephyr, so I will definitely have to give this one a blast tomorrow.

Well Brutal Truth have turned in the second feature release this month that has left me gobsmacked with my jaw on the ground in amazement, following in the footsteps of Solitude Aeternus' Alone. I am no grindcore expert but I must confess I do love a good slab of musical annihilation that some of the better exponents of the genre can produce and I do rate a few grindcore releases from the like of Napalm Death, Carcass and Terrorizer very highly indeed. So I was pleasantly surprised to hear another slab of grindcore that could comfortably sit next to those titans without shame. In fact, it is even possible that ECDER may have surpassed some, if not all, of those previous genre favourites by sheer virtue of the fact that it offers something a bit different. It is almost like Brutal Truth were visionaries who entered a two-dimensional world of flatness that was early grindcore and then looked beyond into a third dimension and were able to give the genre more depth and perspective as a result.

There is a variety within the confines of the albums boundaries that is seldom heard within the grindcore world and BT don't just rely on beating you into submission with your own severed arms. There is quite a bit of OSDM incorporated into the tracks, unsurprisingly as this was 1992 after all, and even some doomy Autopsy-style DM. But when it really comes down to it these guys could blast the balls off a buffalo - listen to Stench of Prophet for fucks sake and tell me that track doesn't leave casualties in it's wake! But the nature of the album is such that this high velocity assault isn't the only card in it's deck and so, when the band do drop the hammer, it is even more effective for it. Now I'm not 100% if this is truly grindcore, deathgrind or whatever and, frankly, I couldn't give a rat's ass because it a phenomenal slab of early Eighties extreme metal heaven and is an album I have now got to track down a copy of!

Edit: Wow, I can't believe that Brutal Truth were formed by Anthrax's Dan Lilker. Makes SOD look like the limp turd that they were.

4.5/5 (I actually wanted to give it a 5, but I have a new rule where nothing gets a 5 until it proves it has got staying power).

Although I am fairly familiar with Solitude Aeternus' earlier albums, specifically the first three, for some reason I have never listened to Alone before it's appearance as this month's featured release for The Fallen. Well, kudos to Ben for sharing this one because it has inserted itself, in short order, as my favourite Solitude Aeternus album and indeed one of the best doom releases of the 2000s.
There will be an instant familiarity for anyone raised on Candlemass, Solstice and Isole with the songs sounding huge and immensely powerful, but here they take the epic doom of their contemporaries and imbue it with a degree of melancholy that feels like it seeped over from Warning's Watching From A Distance (although Alone was released a month before Patrick Walker's magnum opus, so this is mere fancy on my part, but the analogy still holds).

The band are on absolute top form and turn in a performance of unrivalled confidence, with special mention to vocalist Rob Lowe whose vocals are stunning and a measure of Lowe's impressiveness is that he was selected to become the new vocalist for Candlemass at around the time of Alone's release. Check out opener and album highlight Scent of Death and the ending of the track, where his vocals perfectly evoke a middle-eastern atmosphere, for an illustration of his ability to transport the listener to other realms solely with the power of his voice. I must admit, I do love to hear arabic or middle eastern vibes on metal albums and wish it was a direction more bands would explore. Here it also continues into the second track, Waiting for the Light, where the guitars trace a middle eastern motif during the earlier section of the track. The two guitarists, John Perez and Steve Moseley, both also turn in terrific performances, their thundering, ultra-heavy riffs being counterpointed by virtuoso soling that would make many a heavy metal guitar hero raise their eyebrows in surprise.

Overall, Alone is the whole doom metal package, with great, epic-sounding and atmospheric tracks imbued with a haunting melancholy that inspires both awe and sorrow simultaneously and is a superb illustration of why I personally love doom metal.

4.5/5

Both Messiah and Rob Lowe are exceptional vocalists with little to choose between them, but I think it is actually Messiah who defined the Candlemass sound vocally, with the help of their best material admittedly, so would place him above Rob within the context of this thread.

Incidentally, have you heard any of Messiah's albums outside of Candlemass? Both Mercy and Memento Mori have some great albums that should appeal to any Candlemass fan.

I haven't. Sadly, the list of things I really should check out has grown to preposterous levels lately. I think I need to retire and take up listening to metal full time.

Well Ben, it's what I did!!