Sonny's Forum Replies

I bought this album when it was released after being knocked out by their Preacher Man single and still have it to this day, along with the Preacher Man 12". It's been a while since I played it, but it's a pretty decent slab of 80's goth rock. Along with The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, New Model Army and The Cult they made some of my favourite 80's rock and were where I turned when I fancied a change from thrashin' (or needed to give my neck a rest)!

Not one of my favourite months to be honest. There's been some solid albums but also a larger than usual percentage of stinkers too.

1. Bestial Warlust - "Blood & Valour" (1995) 5/5

2. Ihsahn - "angL" (2008)  4/5

3. Vastum - "Hole Below" (2015)  4/5

4. Killing Joke - "Hosannas From The Basement of Hell" (2006)  4/5

5. MonumentuM - "In Absentia Christi" (1995) 4/5

6. Hellfekted - "Woe To The Kingdom Of Blood" (2020) 3/5

7. Haggard - "And Thou Shalt Trust... The Seer (1997) 1.5/5

8. The Bread Scientists - "Troposphere" (2021) 1/5

9. Demon Hunter - "The World Is A Thorn" (2010) 1/5

OK, I really wasn't looking forward to this one - stupid band name, shit album cover - so far, so DIY... oh and it's an instrumental only album to make matters worse. On the upside it's only 25 minutes long, but on the downside is.. everything else - especially that irritating cymbal sound that I can even hear over my tinnitus and is even more annoying than tinnitus!

In truth, this was always going to be ahard sell to me and has been proved to be such. If you are keen on electronic music as well as metal then there may be something here for you, but for me there is nothing.

1/5

Hi Ben, could you add Swedish atmospheric / pagan black metallers Bhleg please?

Mares of Thrace - The Exile (2022)

Released 25/03/22 on CD & vinyl by Sonic Unyon. Digital version available via Bandcamp.

Mares of Thrace are a Canadian sludge / post-hardcore duo and The Exile is their third album and the first for almost a decade. The mainstay of the band is vocalist / guitarist Thérèse Lanz who has latterly been joined by drummer and bassist, Casey Rogers (who also produced The Exile), since original drummer Stefani MacKichan departed some time ago. I quite enjoyed The Pilgrimage, although it's been a while since I listened to it, so I was reasonably interested when I saw MoT had a new album coming out. Well now it's here I've got to say I'm impressed and I think it is actually better than The Pilgrimage, mainly due to the fact that it is more doomy than the former release with less focus on the post-hardcore element and as such would always appeal more to an old doomhead like me. Rogers, as producer, obviously knows what he is about because the production is way more suited to a doom-driven album with a thicker, heavier sound than previously. Thérèse's vocals still sound as aggressive as they did previously, the intervening decade not curtailing her vocal savagery one iota. The songwriting seems to have matured somewhat this time around, the songs sounding more complex and the playing more technical, sometimes briefly flirting with atmospheric sludge, all without compromising the band's innate aggression. Overall, something a little different to the usual doom / sludge template and a nice progression from the band.

Hi Ben, could you add Polish prog metallers Art of Illusion please?

Firebreather - Dwell in the Fog (2022)

Firebreather are a Gothenburg stoner three-piece and Dwell in the Fog is their third full-length since forming in 2016. They play a heavy stoner metal with plenty of doom influence and an extra layer of heaviness added by incorporating a bit of Mastodon-like sludge, the most obvious comparison being High on Fire. It's not especially original but it is well done and undoubtedly it is heavy as fuck. It's six tracks all hover around the six minute mark with the album clocking in at just under forty minutes - a perfect length for an album of this type I would suggest. If you are a fan of well made, ultra-heavy stoner music looking for a new jam then Firebreather may well tick all your boxes.

4/5

OK, I'll give it a go:

1. Kvist - For kunsten maa vi evig vike (1996)

2. Ancient - Svartalvheim (1994)

3. Les Chants de Nihil - Le tyran et l'esthète (2021)

4. Melechesh - The Epigenesis (2010)

5. Windir - Likferd (2003)

6. Dawn - Nær sólen gar niþer for evogher (2004)

7. Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane (1995)

8. Vinterland - Welcome My Last Chapter (1996)

9. Véhémence - Par le sang versé (2019)

10. Rotting Christ - Non Serviam (1994)

MWWB - The Harvest (2022)

Released 25/03/22 on New Heavy Sounds (vinyl, CD, cassette and download).

MWWB (having abbreviated their name from the mouthful it was previously) return with an even more atmospheric album than 2019's Yn ol i annwn. Alternating between dreamily-voiced, atmospheric doom metal and futuristic synthwave tracks it feels like a sci-fi concept album. The doom tracks are understated, but no less effective for it, relying on building an atmosphere rather than crushing the air out of the listener with massive riffs, Jessica Ball's ethereal vocals soaring over the instrumentation like a siren call. Don't get the wrong impression, this is still most definitely doom metal, I merely want to state that laying everything to waste with mournful sonic heaviness isn't the music's sole intention. The Blade Runner-like synth-driven interludes are a nice touch and help give the album a definite identity and aid it in poking it's head above the crowded field of female-voiced doom metal. A nicely interesting release that gives doom metal fans something a little bit different to digest.

Hi Ben, could you please add Mancunian thrash/speed band Aggressive Perfector.

The opening track from DsO's latest, The Long Defeat, is my favourite on the album so far.

Deathspell Omega - The Long Defeat

Those cheeky French jokers are back with another lightweight collection of pop songs for our perusal...

But really... I've only given it three listens so far and I think I've still got a way to go until I've got a handle on it. Opening (and longest) track, Enantiodromia, is my pick of the bunch so far. The album contains the angular dissonance we are used to from DsO, and I have been getting quite a lot from it, but it just feels a bit short of their best material. It is still a far from comfortable listen, but it does feel a bit more conventional than maybe we are used to from the band. Maybe the recruitment of Mgła's M. has influenced the songwriting to some extent. As with most DsO material, this is obviously an album that provides greater rewards the more the listener is prepared to invest, so I had better get back to it!

A doom-drenched track from the heart of Enslaved's Axioma Ethica Odini album that shows them trying a different angle to their sound to terrific effect.

Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini (2010)

I have a very nice CD copy of this, complete with a bonus 7" vinyl single, but it's been quite a while since I listened to it, so I decided it needed a revisit.

It's even better than I remember it being and now is firmly ensconced as one of my favourite Enslaved albums, which is heady praise indeed as they are one of the most  consistent bands in metal even over such a long run of releases.

Full review:

I must admit it had been quite a while since I last listened to Axioma Ethica Odini, with Isa and RIITIIR being my go-to albums if I fancy a bit of late-era Enslaved so it was long overdue a revisit. After a strong run of albums from 2003's Below the Lights to 2006's Ruun, Enslaved released Vertebrae in 2008 and, for me, it was one of their weakest albums in quite a while, lacking any kind of punch at all. So this disappointment left me a little apprehensive for the release of Axioma Ethica Odini and the direction in which Enslaved appeared to be heading. Happily these fears are expelled within moments of opener Ethica Odini kicking in and it becomes apparent that this a completely different beast to Vertebrae. Ethica Odini contains more bite than the entirety of Vertebrae and is an excellent opening track. The black metal sections pummel the listener and sound more savage than Enslaved had for a while, as if the band had rediscovered their passion anew, and the clean-sung sections retain this viciousness whilst simultaneously coming off as quite melodic. Ultimately the song concludes in a gentle coda that then sets up the next track, Raidho very nicely.

The mood and methodology of the opener is continued throughout the album, with Grutle Kjellson's black metal vocals sounding more evil than they had for a while and being beautifully countered by the cleans, the black metal / prog metal dichotomy being at the very core of the album's success as the band switch seamlessly between the two contrasting styles. As had always been the case with Enslaved, the performances are quite exemplary - it was apparent very early on that Enslaved were technically a cut above most of their Norwegian contemporaries and they just continued to get better and better as time passed, becoming an ever tighter unit in the process. Special mention must go to Cato Bekkevold's performance on drums which is super-efficient but never less than spot-on.

There are some killer riffs here - Ethica Odini, The Beacon and Singular to name but three - are fantastic and the guitar sound is chunky and muscular - long gone is the weak sound from Vertebrae and the thin, tremolo-heavy sound of their early work. Keyboards are deployed exceedingly tastefully throughout the track listing. They are ever-present, but never swamp the sound or allow it to stray into symphonic metal territory. There is even a short, futuristic instrumental with a dystopian atmosphere (Axioma) in the middle of the album to provide a break from all the surrounding heaviness which is followed by one of the album's most interesting tracks, Giants. During this epic, Enslaved seem to draw on doom metal influences with a couple of the riffs and the track plumbs whole new depths of heaviness, sounding absolutely brutal when Grutle's black shrieks hit hard. The songwriting is never anything less than stellar and few progressive bands are as concise when it come to composition as Enslaved, they manage to explore and expand without wandering down musical dead ends or indulging in instrumental excess.

Axioma Ethica Odini is possibly Enslaved's heaviest later-era release and, along with subsequent release RIITIIR, mark a high watermark for their progressive metal styling, their more recent releases falling increasingly short of these two classics (despite still being pretty good records in their own rights, such is Enslaved's quality). In revisiting this I have got to admit to being even more impressed than I originally was and, even though I always liked it, I now consider this to be one of the bands premier releases and I will most definitely be returning to it more often.
4.5/5

Madder Mortem - Deadlands (2002)

Madder Mortem are a five-piece progressive metal band from Oslo formed by brother and sister, guitarist Birger Petter M. Kirkevaag and vocalist Agnete M. Kirkevaag, who are the only two original members still with the band. Deadlands was released in 2002 and I used to have a ripped CD-R copy I got off a friend at work when it came out, but that has long since disappeared in one of many clear-outs. I was a big fan of the album when it came out, but it has been a long time since I last heard it, so I thought it would be ripe for a revisit. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then and I have consumed a lot of music in the intervening years so how does it stack up now? Well, I must admit to not being as blown away by it now as I was back then, I guess my exposure to more and better progressive metal albums have taken some of the shine off this. Don't get me wrong, it is still an interesting album and certainly has it's moments, but it certainly isn't a prog-metal classic.

After a short intro track the album proper begins with the track I remember best, Necropol Lit, with it's groove-laden, doomy main riff it is still an attention-grabber of a track, although it doesn't satisfy in the same way as it once did. Next track, Omnivore, is much better and Agnete's vocals are really on full power on this track, which may be my favourite on the album. A lot of the albums riffs are of the chugging type that is often associated with nu-metal, and about which I am somewhat ambivalent - here they are passable in the main and work quite well in the context of the album and in combination with those terrific vocals. Generally the guitar work is pretty good, with both dissonant and melodic lead passages. The production isn't bad at all, the bass and drums get plenty of space in the mix and aren't swamped by everything else, Pål Mozart Bjørke's basswork in particular is exemplary.

Deadlands has quite a menacing, brooding, gothic vibe to it and gives off an almost cultish atmosphere. The songwriting isn't as complex as a lot of other progressive metal, but it does incorporate some nice temporal and tonal changes and the songs are very tight and efficient with very little technical showiness and window dressing, which is illustrated by over half the album comprising tracks around the five minute mark. The track I struggled with most seems to be one of the album's better-loved, Jigsaw (The Pattern and the Puzzle) which just lays the nu-metal vibe on a bit too thickly and nudges into my nu-metal red zone. Overall, it hasn't held up as well as I thought it might, although it is a fairly unique-sounding release and still has several tracks that are worth checking out.

At least it was a good album!

The best! Funnily I have been considering it for some time, but most regulars are familiar with it I think, so I've stuck with less well known ones.

Hi Ben just looked at the Fallen list you have put up and it is showing Watching From A Distance as the feature for Jan '22 but it was the Ufomammut/Lento collaboration album Supernaturals - Record One for that month.

OK nice one Ben. Hope it's not too much of a drag.

OK I know - I'm seven month's overdue with this one, but better late than never eh? Anyway here's my thoughts:

Leprous are a Norwegian progressive metal band led by Einar Solberg who is Ihsahn's brother-in-law and Tall Poppy Syndrome is their second album, originally released in 2009. Their music is very much like a heavier version of Porcupine Tree and, despite being fairly complex, is actually quite efficiently composed, with very little that is extraneous and redundant. The band are obviously extremely competent musicians but, luckily, don't feel compelled to prove it every two minutes and thus have eliminated any excessive wankery from their songs.

The album starts off quite strongly with the track Passing which undergoes several twists and turns, but does showcase one of the weaker aspects for me, which is the harsh vocals. They certainly aren't terrible, but they aren't the greatest either and I much prefer the cleans. As this is the only Leprous album I have heard to date, I don't know how this aspect develops on their later releases, but I would have liked to hear the harsh vocals done by someone more proficient, maybe a guest vocalist as, otherwise, Passing is a very good opener. Harsh vocals aren't a prominent feature of the album as a whole, so there isn't much damage done anyway.

The whole album is of a very high standard, but the final half an hour's three tracks elevate this to even loftier heights in my book. After opening with one of the album's heavier moments, Not Even A Name becomes a bit jazzy with tinkling piano and crooning vocals before the highly melodic (and somewhat catchy) chorus kicks in. It has quite a late-metal-era Opeth vibe, with Einar Solberg's clean vocals sounding very like Mikael Akerfeldt's although the harsh vocals are sludgy rather than death growls. The title track seems to be one of the lesser liked tracks, but I think it is my favourite. The heavy instrumentation and the spoken-word vocals combine to great effect as the band rail against the titular syndrome that society employs to keep talent suppressed and people in their place (a syndrome particularly prominent here in the UK sadly). No doubt the band drew complaints of being closet fascists or something for this, but any sane person knows that's utter bollocks. Me, I like a good bit of biting social commentary. Closing track White has a fair bit of the harsh vocals I dismissed earlier in my review, but the awesome guitar work and fantastic keyboards more than make up for that - I've always been a sucker for that Hammond organ kind of sound.

So in conclusion, I would say that initially this may not blow your socks off, but it has many hidden depths and requires several listens to get the full effect. The songwriting is stellar, with ebbs and flows, heavier and gentler sections gorgeously interposed with one another. Technically marvellous, both performance and production-wise this could proudly sit on my shelves between my Opeth and Porcupine Tree albums with no fear of being outclassed. Luckily the Tall Poppy Syndrome mustn't be in full force in Norway or this may never have seen light of day!

I think there is a lot of sense in what you say there, Daniel. I am not as well-versed in atmospheric sludge as others (although I am trying to learn!) so I don't have a definitive answer, but a lot of the stuff I hear doesn't especially feel like it has a whole lot in common with most of the rest of the Fallen genres, apart from the vocals. I don't see as we need to get rid of the tag, as well as the hassle and expense for Ben, it is a recognisable sub-genre for people who may be new to Metal Academy, whereas introducing a completely new genre tag, no matter how apt, may become confusing. I think it is just a matter of it residing in the correct clan. If it was moved to the Infinite then releases that still contained a fair percentage of actual sludge could be dual-tagged as atmo-sludge and regular sludge, thus allowing them to reside in both clans.

My original question was in relation mainly to the playlist for the Fallen. As I said earlier, about 10% of the playlist is dedicated to atmospheric sludge and more obviously recognisable Fallen genres like funeral doom, drone and epic doom have less than 5% each (2.5% for epic doom) so dedicating such a chunk of time to a contentious genre sits a little uneasily with me.

So, is Atmospheric Sludge to still be considered as part of The Fallen or solely an Infinite subgenre as the decision will make a huge difference to The Fallen playlist which I currently try to make 10% atmo-sludge. Daniel and Ben do you want to make an executive call on this or do we need a vote?

I'm not really sure I can contribute to this in any meaningful way Andi. I have made no secret of the fact that The Revolution is the clan I have most difficulty with as I have hardly any history with metalcore and find it extraordinarily difficult to enjoy. I'm not even sure I could name ten Revolution songs to be honest with you!

Good lists. I appreciate Sonny's list since it really plays into the last of my stipulations about getting into Prog while already being a metal fan. The inclusion of heavier, extreme metal divisions like Oranssi Pazuzu and Blood Incantation are a nice touch. But the inclusion of the Ihsahn track at the end makes a lot of sense!

I think in general, putting this kind of a list together for the Infinite clan is much harder than any other genre due to extended runtime, which is where Sonny's list could push a few people away. I think Andi's list is probably the closest to how I would put a list together, but with some slight alterations. It would probably look like this:

1. Dream Theater - Pull Me Under

2. Queensryche - Eyes of a Stranger

3. Tool - Schism

4. Mastodon - Blood and Thunder

5. Opeth - Face of Melinda

6. Devin Townsend - Deadhead

7. ISIS - So Did We

8. Agalloch - Not Unlike the Waves

9. Leprous - The Price

10. Animals As Leaders - Physical Education

Actually Saxy, I discovered prog at the same time as I discovered metal, around the mid-seventies when my two favourite bands were Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd (well three really, as I was a Zeppelin nut too, but they are irrelevant to this conversation). These were quickly followed by Yes, Jethro Tull, Judas Priest, Motorhead and Tangerine Dream as I expanded my listening. I have been a huge prog rock fan ever since, including a number of lesser-known seventies outfits and a number of neo-prog bands like Marillion, Magenta, Galahad and of course Porcupine Tree and Riverside. I even like Opeth's last few albums! I did have an issue with what I perceived to be prog metal though as I thought it all had to sound like Dream Theater a band of whom I am not the biggest fan and although I had been a fan of Opeth for a number of years I believed them to be an exception. Obviously, especially since joining Metal Academy, my ignorance has been dispelled and I have found many interesting prog metal albums through monthly features, playlists and forum posts. I would almost now venture that if I were to claim a fourth clan at some point it may well be The Infinite as the other possibilities i.e. The Guardians or Horde have too many sub-genres I don't enjoy much. In truth I would have to say that I probably prefer extreme prog metal to it's more traditional counterpart, but I have still found several straight-up prog metal albums to enjoy in recent times.

Also, in defence of my selected tracks extended runtimes, I've always been a sucker for really long prog tracks. Thick as a Brick, Close to the Edge, Karn Evil 9, Supper's Ready and Echoes are just a few of my favourite prog rock tracks so tracks like those from Venenum, Blood Incantation and Opeth's Deliverance will always find me an easy target. That said, they still have to be damn good though and length ain't necessarily a guarantee of quality.

It's absolutely worth it. The loading speed of the homepage is incredibly quick now.

Just to clarify, I would never attempt to apply pressure on someone to change their view or opinion on something as subjective as music. My intent was to clarify what we were aiming to achieve in my own mind, as I thought the point was to pick ten tracks that we personally liked, but that gave an overall sense of the clan in question to someone who was unfamiliar with it. Hence my own list included tracks by Manowar, Helloween and Nightwish that, though I do actually enjoy those tracks, would never get near a "My Top Ten Guardians Tracks" list, but do cover the whole Guardians spectrum at least to some extent.

In addition, if anyone does feel pressured by anything I post please feel free to tell me to fuck off.

Is it possible to talk about essential Guardians tracks and have nothing from Black Sabbath, Judas Priest OR Iron Maiden?

If most of the list is full of power/symphonic/neoclassical metal as opposed to classic heavy metal, yes.

So it's not an essential Guardians list then, just a specific sub-group within it?

Your list very much surprises me Andi. I had no idea that you had any affiliation with most of these bands/releases, let alone regard their songs as the absolute pinnacle of the clan. Or have I misunderstood what we're trying to achieve here? Aren't these threads supposed to showcase our personal tastes & what we each find to be the most appealing tracks from a clan rather than simply collating the popular opinion which would inevitably see us all posting the same list?

I thought we were trying to pick ten songs that whilst being appealing to us as individuals also gave a good flavour of the clan in question and not necessarily just a "my top ten (clan name) releases" list.

Anyway, The Gateway is another clan I only have a limited exposure to and an even smaller number of albums I actually enjoyed, but here goes:

1. Slipknot - "Vermillion" from "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)" ( 2004)

2. Faith No More - "Epic" from "The Real Thing" (1989)

3. Soundgarden – “Jesus Christ Pose” from “Badmotorfinger” (1991)

4. System of a Down - "Toxicity" from "Toxicity" (2001)

5. Rage Against the Machine - "Freedom" from "Rage Against the Machine" (1992)

6. Tool - "Schism" from "Lateralus" (2001)

7. Helmet - "In the Meantime" from "Meantime" (1992)

8. Drain S.T.H. - "Crack the Liar's Smile" from "Horror Wrestling" (1996)

9. Korn - "Freak On A Leash" from "Follow the Leader" (1998)

10. Alice in Chains - "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" from "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" (2013)

It's different strokes for different folks I guess. Maybe a history with the original makes a difference with cover versions. Possibly a whole forum thread to itself right there! Anyway, the original was a classic of the early eighties' synthpop scene (which I wasn't involved with - they were far too concerned with fashion and other meaningless crap, but I did like some of the songs and this was one of the better ones).

I didn't actually say I disliked the vocals other than initially. As I invested more into the album I came to feel that they suited the material fairly well. Maybe I didn't make my point very well - so what's new!!

One other thing - am I the only one who thinks that cover is creepy as fuck?

I've posted these in chronological order:

1. Black Sabbath - "War Pigs" from "Paranoid" (1970)
2. Judas Priest - "Victim of Changes" from "Sad Wings of Destiny" (1976)
3. Motörhead - "Overkill" from "Overkill" (1979)
4. Diamond Head - "Am I Evil?" from "Lightning to the Nations" (1980)
5. Iron Maiden - "Powerslave" from "Powerslave" (1984)
6. Manowar - "Blood of My Enemies" from "Hail to England" (1984)
7. Mercyful Fate - "Evil" from "Melissa" (1983)
8. Helloween - "Halloween" from "Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I" (1987)
9. Iced Earth - "Pure Evil" from "Night of the Stormrider" (1991)
10. Nightwish - "Elvenpath" from "Angels Fall First " (1997)

I quite enjoyed In Absentia Christi, but it did present significant obstacles for me, not all of which I was able to overcome. Firstly, there was the male vocals. I initially took against them as they appeared to be no more than those Anne Rice, melancholic, gothic-romantic -(anti)hero male vocals, that are more pantomime than emotional expression to my ears. However, repeated listens softened my stance towards them as they actually felt like they has a bit more to them than the Pete Steele / Aaron Stainthorpe faux-emotional stylings. The nearest comparison I could think of was the vocals on Celtic Frost's Into the Pandemonium on tracks like Mesmerized and although they are somewhat theatrical, it is in a more Shakesperean way. My second major problem and the one I couldn't surmount, is with the truly awful cover of Steve Strange's excellent synthpop classic Fade to Grey being is placed so early, and hence predominantly, in the album that tries to destroy any positive feelings I felt after the earlier tracks. My issue with the cover itself is that the original is a truly great example of effective minimalism in synthpop that few managed to match (Gary Numan maybe), but what we have here is more icing than cake that just ended up making me feel sick.

The album starts off with a couple of innocuous instrumentals before we get to one of the best tracks on the album, Consuming Jerusalem, with it's Middle Eastern vibe and I really loved the backing vocals, they are similar to those employed by Lindy-Fay Hella on Wardruna's Grá and the track as a whole has a nicely effective atmosphere. Unfortunately this is followed by the previously discussed Visage cover and the band were in danger of throwing away all kudos gained to this point.

The more exotic-sounding tracks are the ones that score the highest with me here - Consuming Jerusalem, ΣελυνηΣ ΑγγελοΣ and Nephtali in particular I enjoyed massively. As to what genre to file this under, well I'll be fucked if I know to be honest. There are a few doom riffs, but are there enough to even qualify as a metal release? I'm not convinced. The vocals definitely come from gothic rock or metal, but is there enough gothic metal? Maybe - there's certainly more than there is doom, From These Wounds in particular sounds like gothic metal to me, albeit with some darkwave bells and whistles - nice track though. I think I'll leave the genre identification to those better qualified than me to decide.

All in all I think this was an interesting release and a somewhat flawed gem that may reveal more of itself the more listens you are prepared to give it. It is yet another in a long line of Italian metal(?) releases that colours outside the lines of conventionalism. I just wish they had left that cover off and saved it for an EP or something and did we really need the last three-and-a-half minutes of the last track, La noia?

4/5

Is it possible to talk about essential Guardians tracks and have nothing from Black Sabbath, Judas Priest OR Iron Maiden?

I do enjoy these kind of exercises, but this is probably not what you are looking for Saxy, as I am not as steeped in The Infinite as some other members so I can only provide a list of tracks that I personally think merit inclusion. As to whether any are truly essential, I'm afraid I can't say, but these are the tracks that I enjoy most.

1. Opeth - "Deliverance" (from "Deliverance" 2006)

2. Venenum - "Trance of Death - Part III: There Are Other Worlds..." (from "Trance of Death" 2017)

3. Oranssi Pazuzu - "Vasemman käden hierarkia" (from "Värähtelijä" 2016)

4. Enslaved - "Roots of the Mountain" from "RIITIIR" 2012)

5. Ne Obliviscaris - "Forget Not" (from "Portal of I" 2012)

6. Persefone - "Seed: Core and Persefone" (from "Core"2006)

7. Altesia - "Reminiscence" (from "Paragon Circus" 2019)

8. Blood Incantation - "Awakening From the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)" (from "Hidden History of the Human Race" 2019)

9. Queensrÿche - "Operation: Mindcrime" (from "Operation: Mindcrime" 1988)

10. Ihsahn "Scarab" (from "angL" 2008)

Damn, another conundrum I just seem to be unable to solve. I know the problem lies with me, but I really can't hear what would attract anyone to this album. It has a very respectable 3.48 rating on RYM, indicating that it is reasonably well thought of, but for the life of me I can't tell why. I am in no way adverse to a bit of medieval folk music but I hate it mixed with metal as it just sounds super-cheesy. There was even a point during In a Pale Moon's Shadow where I couldn't help being reminded of the bit in Spinal Tap where the elves are dancing round the ludicrously tiny Stonehenge - not a great comparison for a real metal release I think you'll agree! The vocals here are also pretty dire - the death metal growls are, quite frankly, shit and the female vocals aren't anything to write home about either. The actual metal sounds like fairly average MDB worship and no amount of medieval folk or symphonic window dressing can raise it any higher than that. I agree with Daniel that, musically, it sounds more at home in The Fallen than The Guardians because if you strip it all back it is just gothic death doom with a few bells and whistles.

At the end of the day, I've just got to admit that I don't get it and that's on me, but to be honest, I'm not going to be losing any sleep over it. We can't all agree all the time and it would be a very boring world if we did, so I'll just leave it there.

1.5/5

Messa - Close (2022)

Released 11-03-22 on Svart Records

I've been a fan of Italian doomsters Messa for some time now and it gave me great satisfaction to see how well-received their Feast for Water album was when I nominated it as a feature release toward the end of last year. It was around that time that news of a new album leaked out and I have been greatly anticipating it's release since then and now it's finally here did it merit all that anticipation? The answer has got to be a resounding yes from me. On Close Messa have taken what made Feast for Water the release it was and have expounded on it, yet they haven't lost touch with their roots in doom metal and, if truth be told, their doom sounds even heavier here than it did previously. I will be very surprised if Close is not involved in the conversation when we talk about the 2022 Fallen clan award.

What sets Messa apart, however, is their willingness to incorporate other, often non-metal, styles into their doom material. Yes, other bands hybridise their doom with other genres like blues or gothic and black metal, but Messa incorporate even more diverse musical genres like dark jazz, middle-eastern music and even, dare I say, on the album's penultimate track Leffotrak, grindcore! One of the reasons I like Italian metal so much is that Italian bands are never scared to try something different with what can be quite basic genres and progressive music seems to be very much part of the Italian rock and metal scenes and Messa fully embrace this quintessentially Italian ethos. Sometimes, however, it falls that some bands' ambitions outstrip their abilities to fully realise them, this is most definitely not an issue for Messa as they are consummately skilled in delivering their auditory vision. In Sara Bianchin they have arguably the finest female vocalist in doom metal (if not all metal), the power and quality of her singing leaves most other doom vocalists in the shade, if you need convincing listen no further than opening track Suspended and tell me I'm wrong!

The opener is one of the more straightforward doom metal tracks on offer, but it so expertly paced and performed that it actually feels more complex than it is. It is here where it also becomes obvious that Messa haven't compromised their heaviness either for an increased diversity and complexity, as is further illustrated on Dark Horse which is a little bit bluesy initially, at least until it's Miserlou-like speedy breakdown around halfway through. This brings us to Orphalese that begins with a Middle-Eastern sound, reminiscent of some of the tracks from Hans Zimmer's Gladiator soundtrack, conjuring images of a Lebanese or Egyptian market scene, with Sara Bianchin's bluesy vocals soaring over it for a truly evocative and atmospheric track.

I don't intend to give a track-by-track rundown of the album, but if any album deserves one it's probably this. Whilst listening for the first time, I was genuinely excited to hear where each track would go as I had absolutely no idea, such is the variety of ideas on offer here. The performances throughout are excellent, whether it be Alberto Piccolo's guitar solos, Sara's vocals, the tightness of the rhythm section or the wind instrumentation of guest Giorgio Trombino and the production is crystal clear so that nothing gets in the way of the band's expression of their multifarous ideas. If there is any sense to the world then Close should propel Messa into the upper reaches of the metal universe and could well garner them exposure beyond metal circles. In truth I could spend all day heaping superlatives upon the band and this latest Meisterwerk, but why would you waste time listening to me when you could be listening to this instead?!

A resounding 10/10 (the album against which all others will be measured this year).

Konvent - Call Down the Sun (2022)

Released 11-03-22 on Napalm Records

Konvent are an all-female four-piece formed in 2015 in Copenhagen, releasing their debut, Puritan Masochism in 2020. The debut comprised almost fifty minutes of sludgy death doom and was pretty solid, albeit lacking in variety. To be honest, this follow-up, Call Down the Sun, is very much in the same vein. The riffs have a Celtic Frost kind of vibe, being quite bombastic they invoke the atmosphere of a fading empire facing it's last days and are my favourite aspect of the album, the riff to Grains in particular is imperiously menacing-sounding. The vocals are alternately harsh sludgy barks and deep growls, the former being the most successfully employed, the latter I am not too sure about in all honesty, they lack the gruffness and abyssal depth of truly convincing death doom vocals. The tracks are quite samey and I sometimes found my attention wandering, which is never a good sign is it?
All in all Call Down the Sun is OK, but I couldn't really go any further than that. I would like to hear the band incorporate something a bit more diverse into their sound because, to be brutally honest, there are several others who do this sort of thing better.

6.5/10

Messa - Close (2022)

This is why I like the monthly features so much, since this may have flown under my radar had I not listened to Feast For Water. Instead, I was pretty excited to check this one out and it definitely delivers. Messa are a bit more experimental on this one and it pays off for them, fusing doomy riffs with more jazzy melodies and powerful as ever vocal performance. 2022 has been pretty slow for me so far so this one is a major standout, can't wait to see how it evolves after more listens.

4/5

Just given this an initial spin and am extremely impressed. Sounds even more diverse than Feast for Water, yet heavier too. I agree that it's not been exactly a vintage year for metal so far but maybe things are starting to look up.

Hey Ben, do you have your selections for April's playlist as I would like to get started on it soon?

Ihsahn (b. Vegard Sverre Tveitan), as I'm sure everyone already knows, was the mainman behind black metal legends Emperor. Even before Emperor had been put to sleep he had formed a progressive / avant-garde outfit called Peccatum, playing alongside his wife, vocalist / keyboard player Ihriel (who, incidentally, is also the sister of Einar Solberg of Leprous). At this point Ihsahn was way more interested in the progressive and avant-garde than in continuing to recycle the same old material in Emperor and so the band split in 2001. Five years later and Ihsahn was ready to release his first solo album, The Adversary which he put out on his own Mnemosyne Productions label in April of 2006. Now, personally, I was a massive Emperor fan at this time (and still am) and, to be honest, I really wasn't ready for Ihsahn's new direction and never really engaged with The Adversary at all, so despite giving it cursory attention I rapidly dismissed it.

So a couple of years passed and Ihsahn released a follow-up entitled angL, again released on Mnemosyne in May of 2008. I decided to give Ihsahn another go at this point and actually bought a very nice slipcard-enclosed CD copy which I still have. Sadly, I still couldn't really get to grips with this Ihsahn music that wasn't Emperor and the CD was put on a high shelf to be forgotten... until now that is. Thankfully, and in no small part due to the influence of my membership of Metal Academy, I have become more open to music that pushes boundaries and leads me out of my own personal comfort zone, which Ihsahn's music most definitely does, and listening to this afresh, I now have a much more positive connection to it than I had previously and, indeed, derived a great deal from it and some idea of why Ihsahn felt he could no longer be confined by the limits of Emperor.

Despite saying this, angL actually opens with a track (Misanthrope) that could easily have been released on an Emperor album without raising any eyebrows. However, second track Scarab reveals more of what solo Ihsahn is all about, a song that is far more progressive metal than black metal, despite his typical black metal vocals, with several twists and turns that also illustrate how his songwriting had developed and illustrate why he was unable to stay within the confines of a purely black metal outfit. The next track Unhealer has a guest vocal performance from a certain Mikael Akerfeldt, a musician whose quest for ever more complex musical expression is something I'm sure Ihsahn could identify with at this point. This is quite a melodic little number and suits Akerfeldt's vocals beautifully, with a nice light/dark contrast between gentler, clean sung parts and the heavier sections complete with Mikael's distinctive death growls that makes for a track that will sound familiar to Opeth fans.

Emancipation is a weird track, it is another melodic number, but it's verses sound, in a weird way, a bit like David Bowie and Robert Fripp and another nice melo-prog number. Malediction is another more black metal infused track, in similar style to the opener, Misanthrope that is reminiscent of some of the material on IX Equilibrium such as Curse You All Men! or An Elegy of Icaros. The Alchemist is another track that contains Ihsahn's clean vocals and I'm sorry, but he really does remind me of David Bowie with his intonation (and I don't think this is a bad thing - I love Bowie!) Some great guitar work on this track too that makes it a bit of a standout for me, although everyone else seems to hate it.

Elevator is a dark, disorienting track that feels like a journey into another dimension where up and down, left and right are indistinct as Ihsahn's crooning, cajoling voice anchors the song and provides a stable focus. Next up is Threnody and this starts off sounding very much like Benighted from Opeth's Still Life before opening up with some more nice guitar work. Closer Monolith is once again a more straight-up melodic black metal offering, although it does have a softer proggy centre, and it's weird that all three of the more black metal tracks on angL are the ones that begin with the letter "M" - not a coincidence I'm sure.

Mikael Akerfeldt's presence on angL is no coincidence either I don't think, as it feels like Ihsahn was trying to take a similar kind of direction with his own music as Akerfeldt was doing with Opeth at this point (Watershed was released the same year) and may have been keen on swapping ideas with Opeth's creative mastermind. This is certainly nothing like as difficult a listen as I remember it being, it is probably still 30-40% black metal and quite a bit of it is exceedingly melodic and, dare I say, even catchy, with the avant-garde being (thankfully) non-existent.

I've really got to thank Xephyr a lot for nominating this as it has given me a chance to re-evaluate a release I had initially dismissed and found it to be a hugely enjoyable experience. I'd better move the CD from it's position on the highest shelf to a place where I can reach it much more easily as I think I'll be coming back to this one pretty damn soon!

4/5

Wow Ben, that is an impressive and much appreciated improvement. Loads almost instantly on my tablet now. 

This get's a massive thumbs-up from me too, Vinny. I've let it be known on several occasions that I struggle with a lot of death metal - brutal dm, slam death and tech-death all leave me a little bewildered to be honest. But honest-to-goodness, old-school, filthy-sounding death doom is a style I love at least as much as any other and a damn sight more than most. I love metal that creates tangible atmosphere but whereas atmo-black and atmospheric sludge tend to summon visions of vast, open spaces, the atmosphere of old school death doom is more cloying, sulphurous and subterranean. I think it would be cool to rename the genre Cthulhian Death Metal, as well as it being an extremely apt descriptor. The early nineties were undoubtedly the heyday of this type of death metal, but it never went away and there are still some great practitioners of the art such as Coffins, Atavisma and Totengott. To that list I must now add San Francisco's Vastum. Fifty-five years ago SF was at the epicentre of the hippy culture and the Summer of Love, but what the fuck those hippies would have made of an album like this emerging from their own back streets I can only imagine.

I enjoyed Vastum's 2019 Orificial Purge album very much, but it is the only one I had heard prior to this month's feature. Evidently that was no great departure from 2015's Hole Below, the subject of said feature. There is nothing new on offer here of course, downtuned death metal riffs that are periodically slowed to a seeping crawl that speaks of dank caves, miasmic fumes and unsettling growls that set the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. The chugging riffs of tracks like Amniosis or In Sickness and in Death are perfect headbanging material when the band up the tempo a little and I find myself unable to keep still when listening to these tracks! Daniel Butler's acrid growls are perfectly pitched to sound menacingly demonic, but not so deep or buried in the mix as to be indecipherable, which can sometime happen when bands are going for that really filthy sound. I would like them to have gone a bit more heavily into the doomy side of things if I was being especially picky as that is the aspect of the sound I personally enjoy most, but even as is, there can be no meaningful complaints from me and I thoroughly enjoyed this immensely.

4/5

I see that "The World's Shittest Ever Thrash Metal Album" is 35 years-old today. It's probably now older than it has sold copies!!

Demoniac - So It Goes (2021)

Continuing my travelogue through Chilean thrash I have arrived at Demoniac. Well, this album has completely blown my mind. I thought that Parkcrest's ...And That Blue Will Turn to Red album was good, but this is insane! It takes the amazing aggressive thrash metal of Parkcrest and adds a further layer of technicality and diversity - we are even treated to some dark thrash-jazz which is simply incredible-sounding. The nearly twenty-minute title track is a thrash metal classic make no bones about it. I see you have heard this Xephyr, but Daniel and Vinny you really should give this a spin - I seriously doubt you will be disappointed. I've ordered the CD off Bandcamp and I will have to work up a review to try and do it justice, but for now I'll just give it a 5/5.

Hi Ben, could you please add the new Deathbell album, A Nocturnal Crossing.

RYM page

I enjoy war metal so much because it encapsulates all that I originally loved about metal. It is the antithesis of commercial accessibility and is the flag bearer for a no-fucks-to-give attitude that I'm sure many other metal fans can identify with. I don't want metal to be in the mainstream, I want it to be the black sheep, the outsider, the thorn in the side of the music industry. Those bands that pander to the mainstream and compromise their integrity as a result will never sit entirely comfortably with me, no matter how good they sound.

Bestial Warlust were a short-lived, but influential Aussie war metal outfit, birthed from the ashes of death metal band Corpse Molestation, who delivered two classic war metal albums, debut Vengeance War 'Till Death and follow-up Blood & Valour, during their five year reign. The debut is a great album, but Blood & Valour is my all-time favourite war metal release (although Teitanblood's Death has been giving it a run for it's money over recent months). I posted a review a while ago, so here it is:

Fuck grindcore, deathgrind and brutal death metal. Playing with dismembered body parts and brutalising women, what the fuck's that all about?! No, when real men want to get extreme, then they go to WAR!!

But seriously folks, I don't generally care for super-extreme death metal. Apart from the music not greatly appealing to me, I sometimes find the whole aesthetic around extreme death metal and grind problematic. Of course, I completely understand that it's depictions of gore and sexualised violence are not to be taken seriously but they just don't appeal to me at all. War Metal, however, is just so fucking insane it's impossible (for me) not to get sucked into it's madness. Being derived from Black Metal rather than Death metal (although it certainly has Death Metal influences) makes it more palatable to me as well, as I am much more inclined to BM than it's deathly cousin. I also find the predominantly black, white and red aesthetic of the hand-drawn artwork much more appealing than the graphic nature of a lot of the more gory death metal covers. Naturally, as with any extreme genre, it isn't for everyone (or even most people) but there is something about the cacophonous nature of war metal that I really love.

Now I'm not trying to come across like some trve kvltist - I am mostly only familiar with the more established War Metal acts like Blasphemy, Beherit, Archgoat and more recently Crurifragium and Antichrist Siege Machine, but I had really enjoyed Bestial Warlust's debut, Vengeance War 'Till Death when I heard it a few years back. However, it is only now, more than twenty-five years after it's release, that I have got round to the Aussie warmongers' follow-up, Blood & Valour which has acquired the distinction of being my first five-star-rated War Metal album.

The Spanish film Intacto (great movie) has an opening scene where several people are running full pelt through a forest blindfolded. When I first heard Blood & Valour I had a sensation akin to how I think those people must have been feeling, of hurtling headlong at breakneck speed just waiting to be smacked in the face by a fucking huge piece of wood! Indeed on the first couple of listens it does sound a bit like uncontrolled chaos, but when you start to really listen to it properly then BW are revealed to be a really tight outfit and this is one hell of an accomplished album of sonic brutality. There are some fantastic, exhilarating riffs that remain defined and varied and are not just bludgeoning rehashes of the same idea over and over. The vocals are suitable demonic with shrieks and growls that come from the charnel pits of hell, but the drumming of Marcus Hellcunt (not his real surname I think) are what keep drawing me back, his assault and battery as blastbeat follows blastbeat is a thing of wonder to behold.

This is one of the most savage and visceral of black metal releases, at times it sounds like someone took a vinyl copy of Reign in Blood and played it at 45 rpm, complete with Jeff Hannemann-like squealing guitar solos, with songs slashing by like flailing sabre cuts. Possibly one of the most enervating albums it has ever been my good fortune to hear. If you love extreme black metal then you really need to listen to Blood & Valour.

5/5

Hi Ben, could you please add UK death thrashers The Bleeding.

RYM page

A killer of an instrumental from Parkcrest's 2019 album ...And That Blue Will Turn to Red.

Parkcrest - ...And That Blue Will Turn to Red (2019)

I know shamefully little about Chile other than it is very long, has a lot of mountains and is home to the world's driest desert, The Atacama, where there are many space observatories. The other thing I know is that the Chilean thrash scene is one of the more vital and vibrant iterations of the genre in these early decades of the 21st century. Bands like Demoniac, Critical Defiance and Ripper are but the tip of the Chilean iceberg and Parkcrest are another extremely talented bunch of thrashers. It does seem like quite a tight scene however, with Parkcrest guitarist Diego Armijo and drummer Nicolás Villanueva also playing in Ripper and vocalist/guitarist Javier Salgado playing in Critical Defiance and Hellish amongst several others. Formed in 2011, Parkcrest didn't release their first album until 2016's Hallucinative Minds hit the metaphorical Bandcamp shelves. Whilst being an energetic and raw album, Hallucinative Minds is far from the finished product, but did show some promise. So did the follow up, ...And That Blue Will Turn to Red deliver on that promise? Well, I would have to say that, by and large, yes it has and it is a massive leap forward when compared to the debut.

The first difference is that the production this time round is much improved from the debut and sounds powerful, yet has an impressive clarity that allows all the band member's contributions to distinctly be heard. The rhythm section of bassist Cristoffer Pinto and Villanueva are the particular benefactors of this improvement in production values. Pinto's bass throbs along, providing a super-solid foundation from which the others can weave their magic. Villanueva's drumming is possibly the biggest revelation for me on this record, it is furious yet controlled and is much more than just straightforward pummelling. His work here is reminiscent of Dave Lombardo and praise for a thrash metal drummer doesn't get much higher than that does it?

Of course, what we all turn to thrash metal for is the riffs isn't it and here Parkcrest certainly deliver, firing them off like they're going out of style from a seemingly inexhaustible supply. There may not be quite as many as on, say, Time Does Not Heal, but they certainly come thick and fast. Guitarist Javier Salgado doubles up as vocalist and his harsh, barking vocal style is particularly reminiscent of Kreator's Mille Petrozza and, in fact, I have seen several plausible comparisons to Kreator, Slayer and early Sepultura and while they do take inspiration from these more aggressive purveyors of thrash, their sound is distinctly their own with a degree of technicality coupled with the aforementioned aggressiveness, this being a hallmark of the "Chilean sound" it would seem.

The songwriting is fantastic with several really great tracks on here, the opening duo of Impossible to Hide and Darkest Fear are a killer opening salvo and the instrumental Dwelling of the Moonlights may be my favourite thrash track since the early nineties. This is an album with a surfeit of riffs coupled with searing, meteoric soloing and a tempo that is unrelenting. I don't say this often but this is a modern thrash offering that is more than capable of holding it's own against all but the very best the genre has ever produced and Parkcrest comfortably sit in the vanguard of the latest thrash metal revitalisation.

In truth I had only heard the album once before this, so for transparencies sake I must confess that the main reason I chose it for this month's feature is that Hellfekted are from my home town of Stoke-on-Trent and as there is such a dearth of metal bands in the city I wanted, in my own small way, to help give them some exposure. The band are a three-piece and p!y their trade in the area of aggressive blackened thrash. This is a style that has reinvigorated the thrash scene in recent years with, in particular, a number of very good bands and releases coming from Latin America and especially from Chile. So anyway, Woe to the Kingdom of Blood is Hellfekted's debut album and is one of the few blackened thrash albums to hail from the UK, Craven Idol being the only other real exponent of the style I am familiar with that hail from these shores.

 Firstly, I've got to say, that cover is horrible but to be fair keeps well within the thrash aesthetic. The second problem I have is that there is something not quite right with the production. I have no technical knowledge of music production but the top end just doesn't sound right to me as if it's clipped or too compressed and the guitar tone and the cymbals seem to suffer markedly as a result. That said, the bottom end is great and Chris Brownrigg's bass in particular benefits from this, it's growling, crunchy rhythms often dominating proceedings. It is an exceedingly aggressive-sounding album, with a breakneck tempo for most of it's runtime and Liam Stubbs' savage and ragged black metal-styled vocals which sound like they are shredding his vocal chords to ribbons with sheer spite and hatred. I would like to have heard a few more solos as they are in fairly short supply here, although soloing don't seem to be Liam Stubbs' strong point - the one during Fractured for example is quite poor, the extended one during Omen of the Antichrist is a little better but is still subpar when compared to the thrash masters.  There are, however, riffs aplenty and pretty good ones they are too in the main. Hellfekted sound better the faster they play and aren't quite as convincing when they throttle the tempo back, such as on the title track where they just sound a bit off.

Overall I would say it's a decent, albeit flawed, slab of blackened thrash with two or three really good tracks such as Tower of Life, Stigma (DSBMthrash?) and Fire at Will that doesn't rival the leaders in the genre, but is still solid enough to warrant the occasional spin. I will look out for the follow-up with great anticipation and hope that they can iron out their technical issues and produce a blackthrash album good enough to put the UK back on the thrash metal map!

3.5/5

Here's my suggestions for April Vinny:

Dekapited - "Contra iglesia y estado" (4:03) from "Contra iglesia y estado" EP (2011)

Grave Desecrator - "Insult" (3:53) from "Insult" (2010)

Parkcrest - "Impossible to Hide" (8:04) from "...And That Blue Will Turn to Red" (2019)

Insane - "Four Magicians" (4:37) from "Wait and Pray" (2005)

Sodom - "Blasphemer" (2:59) from "In the Sign of Evil" EP (1985)

Celtic Frost - "Circle of the Tyrants" (4:36) from "To Mega Therion" (1985)

Municipal Waste - "Nailed Casket" (1:36) from "Hazardous Mutation" (2005)

Total runtime: 29:48

Insane - Wait and Pray (2005)

Wait and Pray is the sole album from Italian thrashers Insane and is blatant Show No Mercy worship as well as being pretty damn awesome. I love this album, there's not a weak track on it and it's a travesty that the band never released anything else.

Daniel, Vinny I suggest you give this a listen when you can.