Sonny's Forum Replies

Hi Daniel, sorry, I have forgotten, how much time are we allotted each month for The Horde suggestions?

I'm a big fan of 2021's "Feel" debut album from Los Angeles death metallers Apparition which we featured here at the Academy at some point so I'm planning to be all over the follow-up "Disgraced Emanations From a Tranquil State" which is due to be released on 22nd March.

I had "Feel" pegged at a creditable 4.5/5 and even bought a vinyl copy, so am looking forward to going another round with the Autopsy acolytes.

A new My Dying Bride album is in the offering, with it's release slated for April 19th on Nuclear Blast. There are several ratings on RYM, so I don't know if it has been leaked early, but only one track, Thornwyck Hymn, is available on Bandcamp so far. That track sounds pretty decent, with the ingredients you would expect from classic MDB all present and correct. Nice cover too.

Here's a new release that I do hold strong hopes for in Chilean thrash metallers Critical Defiance's third full-length "The Search Won't Fall..." which is due to hit the shelves next month. Both of their first two albums have been worth listening to (particularly the last one "No Life Forms" which I thought was really strong) so I'll be checking this one out at some point too.

Quoted Daniel

Definitely stoked for this one. Chile's Pentagram have also got a new one out in April. It's their sophomore, released eleven years after their debut, The Malefice, an album I enjoyed a fair bit. They actually date back to the late-80's, releasing two well-thought of demos back in 1987, so I would be interested to hear how their new material sounds.

I haven't heard of these guys, Daniel, so I will have to put it on my list.

It seems that, like Swallow the Sun's "Moonflowers", Ihsahn has used a full orchestra as backing on his latest album and, like StS did on the "special edition" of "Moonflowers", included an orchestra-only version along with the full version.

I haven't given much thought to Ihsahn for a while now, but Saxy's review has piqued my interest and I will have to check it out sometime.

I too have had mixed reactions to The Body, I really liked their 2016 album No One Deserves Happiness, but hated I've Seen All I Need to See because I just don't get the whole power electronics thing. I will probably check it out, but won't be going into it with very high expectations.

Is the metal status of an album with this, The Ripper, Tyrant and Genocide on it really in doubt?

I would suggest that most of the A side is clear cut with the three of the four songs being clear examples of heavy metal but, upon revisiting the album in great detail over the past week, I've found that the B side is nowhere near as cut & dry.

I would say Tyrant, Genocide and Island of Domination are metal so, for what it's worth, in my opinion, Sad Wings is defintely a metal album. We aren't seriously considering this to be non-metal are we, that would be revisionism gone too far for me to take I think.

Interestingly, for those who don't know, due to a pressing error, sides A and B were reversed from how the band intended and if you play side B then side A the album seems to flow better.

Fange - Perdition

Released 9th February

I was impressed by these french industrial sludge-meisters' 2021 album, Pantocrator, and although their Privation album from last year somehow passed me by, I have been looking foward to this one for a while now. Riff-wise and with the general instrumentation, this bears a significant Fear Factory influence, with some pretty immense and sludgy machine-like riffing and harsh distortion that often sounds like the sound of escaping steam buried down within the mix. The tinniness of the programmed snares adds another layer to the dystopian, Blade Runner-esque atmosphere the band is (successfully) striving for. Within this evocative, machine-dominated atmosphere intrudes the only-too-human, angered vocals of singer Matthias Jungbluth whose hardcore-style delivery gives the album a sludge metal twist with his railing against the world the band have so vividly created lays bare the alienation of his soul. I don't think any language is better than French at sounding pissed-off and Matthias here sounds really pissed-off.

The Fear Factory comparison is more pronounced here, I think, because the band have sought to add more melodic hooks into their overall sound, rather than doubling-down on the alienating atmosphere of Pantocrator. Now this is an approach I would probably normally be sceptical about, but I think it still works here and the band manage to retain the atmosphere of their alienating machine-like rhythms, even though they sometimes give the listener more of a handhold into the album. Is it as good as Pantocrator? Probably not, I guess time will tell, but it is still worth the mere thirty minutes of your time you would need to spare to lend it your ear.

4/5

Wow, today is the 30th anniversary of Cradle of Filth's first and best album, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, a record I have a soft spot for, as it was one of the first albums I got into upon my return to metal in the late 90's.

Also a shout-out to the woefully ignored, The Wounded Kings, whose terrific doom album, Consolamentum, is ten years old today.

Morbid Saint - Swallowed by Hell

Released 9th February on HR Records

Come to this expecting another Spectrum of Death and you will certainly go away disappointed. I have long ago learnt to approach new releases by long-mothballed bands with a certain degree of cynicism, so I went into this with zero expectations.

Morbid Saint now contains three of the members from their Spectrum of Death days with vocalist Pat Lind and guitarist Jim Fergades rejoining the only ever-present member, guitarist Jay Visser, bassist Bob Zabel and drummer DJ Bagemehl. Swallowed by Hell is a very different proposition from Spectrum of Death, with the raw aggression of youth being replaced by production values several magnitudes higher and the songwriting and musicianship of long-serving professionals. This results in an album that is perfectly satisfactory and that has some decent riffs and a high level of professionalism, but that simply fails to engage on a second and more important level with the listener, that of the passionate performer appealing to the passionate listener. I believe that, as a metal fan, inside me I still have the passion and fire that once burned so brightly for all to see, but which age and the trials of live have dulled to the point where it can be very difficult to summon it to the surface once more and a certain detached cynicism often wins out over my more passionate tendencies. That is exactly how I think Swallowed by Hell has manifested, with the band believing they still have that fire and zest they exhibited so profoundly more than three decades ago, whilst secretly finding it increasingly challenging to bring it to the fore. So that leaves us with an album that is perfectly fine when considered in isolation, with some decent riffs, nice solos, a rhythm unit determined to batter us into submission and an angry and aggressive-sounding vocal performance. But we (and maybe even the band) know that it is, in reality, a facsimile of what the band were once capable of, a bit like a grizzled old bare-knuckled boxer who could still give the average Joe a heart-stopping wallop, but who would be turned into a bloody mess by younger and hungrier bucks looking to make a name for themselves.

All things considered, this could certainly be a lot worse and is by no means a disaster, but as I often wonder when faced with obviously inferior product from any certain band is why would I listen to this in preference to the classic? And the truth is, I don't know as I would, so whilst this would be fine for a few listens I don't feel it has any real staying power.

I would give it a 3.25/5 if it were allowed, but will be generous and go with a 3.5/5

I did check out the Persefone EP, Andi, and, despite it initially failing to impress, I found it grew on me with further listens. It is quite densely written and there is a lot going on during it's 26 minutes. I have yet to feel confident enough in my opinion to review it though.

Anyway, today's track is "The Ripper" which is clearly heavy metal.

Quoted Daniel

Defo. 

Here are my top 10 new releases that hit the shelves in January:

1. Mourning Dawn  - "The Foam of Despair" [Atmospheric Sludge Metal]
2. Hauntologist - "Hollow" [Atmospheric Black Metal / Post-metal]
3. Narbeleth - "A Pale Crown" [Black Metal]
4. Sovereign - "Altered Realities" [Technical Thrash / Death Metal]
5. Deconsekrated - "Ascension in the Altar of Condemned EP" [Death Metal]
6. Inquisition - "Veneration of Medieval Mysticism and Cosmological Violence" [Black Metal]
7. Malist - "Of Scorched Earth" [Black Metal]
8. Lair - "The Hidden Shiv" [Sludge / Doom Metal]
9. Saxon - "Hell, Fire and Damnation" [Heavy Metal]
10. Sepulcher - "Veins of the Void EP" [Thrash Metal]

#1-4 are solid 4/5s and the rest are respectable 3.5s.

A good month for black metal and some love from me for a couple of post-metal-ly efforts. January isn't usually the best month for new stuff, but this has been a reasonable start to the year and there are a few albums out in February that I have my eye on, with the new Darkspace having already jumped to my new #1 and well worth checking out for anyone who hasn't yet.

Sovereign - Altered Realities (2024)

I am a man of unsophisticated taste, particularly in music, as illustrated by my indifference to the dissonant and avant-garde, jazz in particular being anathema to me. In relation to this, for the longest time I considered technical death and thrash metal as also outside my comfort zone, but a dive into the earlier years of death metal resulted in the discovery that a certain level of technicality was indeed something I could enjoy, as epitomised by the Death and Atheist back catalogues. There is, however, a degree of technicality beyond which I switch off as it becomes more and more "jazzy" as per Gorguts and their ilk.

Anyway, this lengthy preamble to a review of Norway's Sovereign is relevant as they play a technical style of deaththrash that sits right slap-bang in the middle of my sweet spot for technical metal whereby the technical flourishes are sufficient to bring variety and interest without pushing into a more jazz-adjacent territory that I am more uncomfortable with. To be more precise, they play thrash metal with tech-death aspirations, influenced by mid-period Death albums and possibly by the current South American thrash metal, particularly that of Chilean bands like Ripper, Demoniac and Slaughtbbath.

Although this is the band's debut full-length, they are not newbies, with members, or ex-members, of Stormbeist and Execration and with Nekromantheon's live guitarist, Tommy Jacobsen taking on lead duties, a duty he discharges with impressive aplomb. His leads are incendiary and thrilling, with a high level of dextrous competency, sitting squarely on the right side of shredding, becoming neither flaccid nor self-indulgent and reminding me a little of how James Murphy's work lifted Death's Spiritual Healing, which is meant as high praise indeed - check out the final minute of Nebular Waves for a stellar example. They may not be the tightest band to play technical deaththrash, but they are sufficiently skilled that a slight looseness makes them sound more passionate than the stifling necessity of technical perfection often allows for. They have some solid riffs with energetic songwriting that incorporates the technical flourishes to add colour to the tracks rather than becoming the whole raison d'être. This is definitely an approach I wholeheartedly endorse and it has resulted the band coming up with an album that just sounds better with each repeated listen and which is one of a select few brand new thrash albums not from South America that I will happily keep returning to.

4/5

Undoubtedly metal. Is the metal status of an album with this, The Ripper, Tyrant and Genocide on it really in doubt?

Hi Ben, I'm sure you are on top of it, but could you add the new Darkspace, Dark Space -II, please?

Darkspace - Dark Space -II (2024)

Released 16th February

Darkspace is a vehicle for the impressive mind of Tobias Möckl, aka Wroth, aka Wintherr, the man behind Paysage d'Hiver and one of, if not the, premier exponent of frigid, frost-bitten atmospheric black metal, whether it be via the narrative journey of Paysage d'Hiver's Traveller through blizzard-riven forests or Darkspace's exploration of the icy voids of interstellar space.

It has been a decade since Darkspace last released any new material, while Wroth concentrated on Paysage d'Hiver, writing and recording the project's masterpiece Im Wald and then it's follow-up, Geister. Now that he has reached some sort of resolution with Paysage d'Hiver, he has been able to focus on Darkspace and this latest work, Dark Space -II. I think the minus 2 nomenclature is significant and places this latest piece before the very earliest Darkspace releases in the project's overall aesthetic timeline. This makes absolute sense, as it builds on elements from the early days, with Dark -1.0 from the first EP seemingly the base upon which the new album's sole track, Dark -2.-2 is built, the earlier work's ideas being expounded upon here, resulting in an expansive forty-seven minutes reworking of it's icy ambience.

The track begins with an emotionless female voice intoning scientific or philosophical theses over ambient keys, which continues throughout the entirety of the piece, but comes to the fore as an introduction and during an interval between the piece's two major "acts". After a few minutes, this ambient introduction is joined by programmed drums and a chugging, chunky, industrialised guitar riff that is reminiscent of the one used on the track Dark 1.2 from the 2003 debut full-length and which here sounds similar to the riff of Rammstein's Links 1-2-3-4. This industrial-sounding riff and the monotone way the spoken words are delivered sees Wroth exploring a different kind of coldness here, with reference to emotional frigidity in addition to his usual dissection of merely physical iciness, illustrating perfectly how the two can be equally debilitating. Eventually his own desperate shrieks and subdued black metal riffing join the fray, although they are deliberately buried down in the mix so as to merely add a further layer to the already-established ambient texture rather than taking centre stage and leading the way.

Around twenty minutes in, the riff subsides and we are treated to an interval of sorts with the spoken word outpourings of our female companion on this interstellar trip once more moving to centre stage. A portentious piano theme then takes up the reins, joined by droning guitar chords and a deeper, gruffer vocal that is once more buried such that it acts more as a textural addition than any kind of narrative device. This second act does see some slow progression and does feature some slight building of atmosphere, right up to the piece's ultimate release which sees the return of the opening act's chugging industrialised riff for the finale and sees it ending in probably it's most "metal-sounding" section.

The overall effect of Dark Space -II's subjugation of the black metal elements in favour of the more ambient and textural, sees the band using the toolbox of black and industrial metal to produce what is essentially a drone metal album which has more in common with early Earth or Nadja than any resemblance to more traditional atmospheric black metal. Now I'm not sure how this will be received by the usual fans of Darkspace, although Wroth has dabbled in this more textural style before, but for myself as a lover of quality atmospheric drone metal, I can see many analogies between that style and what Darkspace have delivered here with Dark Space -II and I found it to be a rivetting experience with a refreshing approach to drone metal.

4.5/5

Do you have anything for March, Ben?

Hi Vinny. I only have three this month:

Megadeth - "This Day We Fight!" (from "Endgame", 2009)
Sepulcher - "Towards an Earthly Rapture" (from "Panoptic Horror", 2018)
Sovereign - "Counter Tech" (from "Altered Realities", 2024)

Narbeleth - A Pale Crown (2024)

Ah, Cuba, the home of the world's finest cigars, Twentieth century revolutionaries and the first, although in all probability not the last, potential flashpoint to nuclear armageddon. It is also the original home of Dakkar, the man behind black metal project Narbeleth, although he now calls Galicia in Spain home. It may just be my ignorance showing here, but I never heard of much of a metal scene in Cuba, yet it makes perfect sense for a band like Narbeleth, black metal being pretty much an outsider's style of metal, I would imagine Dakkar being very much an outsider in the Caribbean place of his birth.

Musically, Narbeleth are very much an old-school black metal act, with recognisable and memorable tremolo riffing in the style of luminaries such as Immortal and Satyricon, with a cover of the latter's "The King of the Shadowthrone" even closing out the album. The production isn't as raw as we would have expected from the band's influencers thirty years ago, but the modern production values don't rob the music of any of it's icy aggression and is such that it enables all the constituent parts to be heard clearly. Dakkar has a real ear for a frosty-sounding riff, with his true talent coming in knowing exactly when to throttle back the tempo and when to put his foot down, as it were. This transition between full-on blasting and a more mid-paced tempo provides a lot of the impetus and dynamism in his songwriting and is wielded exceedingly deftly. He also possesses one of those frost-rimed voices that has you imagining visible clouds of icy breath issuing from his lips as he shrieks his occult-heavy lyrics into the night sky.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention the second band member, Vindok, and his supporting role on drums, which he fulfills perfectly, providing a precise battery which injects added impetus to the faster sections and adds depth to the slower tempo parts. Nothing showy, but well-judged and effective black metal skinsmanship. All things considered, I found this to be an immensely enjoyable trip back to the 1990's black metal heyday, with a bit of a modern twist in the higher production values, but that manages to remain authentic-sounding and illustrating perfectly that you don't need to have grown up in the frozen forests of Scandinavia to be able to produce trve black metal frostiness.

4/5

Excellent work, Ben. Your dedication is something that I sincerely applaud. Here's to the next 50k!!

Hi Daniel, my nomnations for March are:

Atheist - "Fraudulent Cloth" (from "Jupiter", 2010)
Cave Sermon - "Beyond Recognition" (from "Divine Laughter", 2024)
Immolation - " Of Martyrs and Men" (from "Unholy Cult", 2002)
Ribspreader - "The Skeletal Towers" (from "Reap Humanity", 2024)

If you don't think the Cave Sermon track is death metal enough then feel free to reject it, I am still acclimatising myself as to what qualifies for inclusion and what doesn't.

My suggestions for March, Ben:

Abysmal Lord - "Golgotha Crucifixion" (from "Disciples of the Inferno", 2015)
Paysage d'Hiver - "Eintritt in die Sphaeren..." (from "Winterkaelte", 2001)
Revenge - "Heathen Hammer" (from "Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist", 2003)
Sardonic Witchery - "Barbaric Bastards of Mass Destruction" (from "Barbaric Evil Power", 2024)

It's a little bit over my allotted 20 minutes so if you wish to you can ignore the Sardonic Witchery track.

My top 10 is also dominated by the mighty Candlemass, but that's not really surprising. I have left out Candlemass Live, because great album though it is, it contains tracks that are already on the list on one album or another.

1. Candlemass - "Nightfall"

2. Solstice - "New Dark Age"

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

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

5. Isole - "Silent Ruins" (2009)

6. Candlemass - "Tales Of Creation" (1989)

7. Solitude Aeturnus - "Alone" (2006)

8. Isole - "Bliss of Solitude" (2008)

9. Death the Leveller - "I" (2017)

10. Candlemass - "Candlemass" (2005)

Summoning?

I think that ultimately it must come down to the site owners to decide the policy for genre differentiation as ultimately it comes down to their vision for how they want the site to operate with respect to genres and how broad or narrow they wish the site's genre focus to be. Sure we could pick every release apart and debate the minutiae to arrive at a definitive sub-sub-genre, but what's the point, when you could just be digging on some cool sounds instead of stressing over whether something needs yet another new pigeonhole to be put into.

I get the whole "the listener may not like sub-genre A, but love sub-genre B" argument, but give people credit for being able to pick out what they do and don't like from within a reasonably broad genre definition. It sometimes sounds like we are saying that new music discovery is a trial rather than something exciting and we fear that  some listeners may be too fragile to accidentally hear something they don't enjoy and need to be shielded from the possibility.

All this deep-genre talk feels to me like reading an operating manual for a Ferrari rather than actually driving a Ferrari. Personally, I'd rather we kept the genres reasonably broad and let people make their own minds up. 

Ribspreader - Reap Humanity (2024)

I am unfamiliar with Ribspreader, but am acquainted with main man Rogga Johansson, particularly through one of his other bands, his death doom outfit, The 11th Hour. It seems that Rogga has acquired a reputation for producing predictable and uninspiring death metal, but as I am unfamiliar with the vast majority of his output, I will consider Reap Humanity on it's own merits. With the band hailing from Sweden, I was fully expecting an Entombed / Dismember sounding album and whilst it isn't as heavily distorted as many of the band's compatriots, it does retain that Swedish wall-of-sound production that results in the riffs sounding exceedingly dense and doesn't depart hugely from the long-established template of Swedeath. As far as the riffs go, it is fair to say that there is nothing here that truly stands out as exceptional, yet by the same token there is nothing particularly terrible either. I do like Rogga's vocals, they have that gruff, caustic edge to them that sounds quite vitriolic and threatening, although at times they seem to get muscled out of the way by the riffing which sees them taking a bit of a back seat, where personally I would have liked to hear them pushed more to the fore.

The leads are handled by guitarist Taylor Nordberg and are well executed, although once more there isn't anything particularly outstanding to behold and you can pretty much predict the way the solos will play out. Drummer Jeramie Kling, who is also a member of Inhuman Condition with Obituary and former Death bassist Terry Butler, also puts in a creditable performance behind the kit with a lively exhibition of powerful death metal skinsmanship that helps to turbo charge the velocity of the riffing.

Overall, I would have to agree that the criticism of the band is valid and Ribspreader bring little to nothing new to the table, having turned in a solid, meat-and-potatoes-flavoured album of pretty standard Swedish death metal that is perfectly fine. The drumming and vocals were the big takeaways for me, but I suspect more seasoned fans of death metal than I will be largely unimpressed. The cover art is pretty cool though and may still see the album getting a look-in at next year's Academy awards, if only for it's artwork!

3/5

I still can't get on board with all the Hellripper hype. It's enjoyable enough and nothing more than that.

I agree with you that the Hellripper release isn't anything particularly special but, even though I'd place it slightly ahead of Hellripper, I'd say the same for the Demoniac record so it really wouldn’t appear to have been the strongest of years for The Pit from what I’ve seen.

I don't completely agree about the Demoniac album, it's not as good as So It Goes, but it is still a strong album for me. Unfortunately I think it is just a simple fact that the Pit's best years are behind it and it consistently struggles to produce outstanding material so many years on from it's heyday.

I feel a bit bad now for not staying as plugged in to new releases in 2023 as I usually am, but there was just so much else to get through, with my Horde clan challenge in particular taking up a fair bit of time in the first half of the year.

I still can't get on board with all the Hellripper hype. It's enjoyable enough and nothing more than that.

Fvnerals, Cirith Ungol, Katatonia and definitely Panopticon are decent picks, but I didn't much care for the Horrendous album (although it isn't exactly horrendous!) I must get round to the Ne Obliviscaris at some point as I have enjoyed their other stuff.I

A decent set of results, though, considering we have such a small pool of raters.

Had the time to get through this playlist today on my morning walk.  I still have no idea of the attraction of Sunn O))) (sorry Sonny) and I listened to all 14:59 of that track.  It is just not my cup of tea.  Also had to skip Iron Man (those vocals) and The Gathering (a bit too rocky and again the vocals grated).  I have come to the conclusion that Wino's voice actually grates on me nowadays and so I had to skip The Obsessed track also.

Thankfully there was still lots to keep me happy on the list.  Standouts were Dolorian, Crowbar, Goatsnake, Godthrymm, High on Fire and Saturnalia Temple.  Good work Sonny. 

Thanks Vinny. Drone metal is a hard sell, with even it's most ardent followers recognising that it isn't for everyone and Sunn O))) are no exception, so no apologies required. I'm not a fan of Iron Man myself, but I feel it is incumbent upon me to showcase all aspects of the Fallen, despite my own preferences. I wasn't sold on Goatsnake either, to be honest. I have always been a fan of Wino's "cigarettes and whiskey" voice, so I have enjoyed the preview tracks from the new Saint Vitus album.

I gave Khanate an honest try but as Sonny alluded to in his review, I wasn't able to make it fully through. I would have gotten through the whole thing if I didn't run out of time at work yesterday, but I have zero interest in picking it back up or restarting it from the beginning to try and get the full experience. I can see why it would resonate with people as I saw what they were going for with the vocals, but man, really not something for me at the end of the day. So I'll refrain from rating that one, it's very far from my wheelhouse. 

As we have got to know each other's tastes, I would have been very surprised if you had come out in favour of Khanate, Xephyr. They are definitely not for everyone and I would never hold it against anyone who didn't much care for them, even though I absolutely love them. Drone metal is an acquired taste at the best of times and Khanate are by no means an easy listen, even in drone circles.

February 2024

1. Mourning Dawn - "Tomber du temps" (from "The Foam of Despair", 2024) [submitted by Sonny]

2. Fires in the Distance - "Psalm of the Merciless" (from "Air Not Meant for Us", 2023) [submitted by Vinny]

3. Dolorian - "Epoch of Cyclosure" (from "Voidwards", 2006) 

4. Crowbar – “My Agony” (from “Obedience Thru Suffering”, 1991) [submitted by Daniel]

5. Goatsnake - "Flower of Disease" (from "Flower of Disease", 2000) 

6. Iron Man - "The Whore in Confession" (from "South of the Earth", 2013)

7. The Gathering - "On Most Surfaces" (from "Nighttime Birds", 1997)

8. Isole – “Bliss of Solitude” (from “Bliss of Solitude”, 2008) [submitted by Daniel] 

9. Sunn O))) - "Defeating: Earth's Gravity" (from "The Grimmrobe Demos", 2000) [submitted by Sonny]

10. The Obsessed - "Realize a Dream" (from "Realize a Dream" single, 2024)

11. Godthrymm - "Unseen Unheard" (from "Distortions", 2023)

12. Ufomammut - "Supernova" (from "Crookhead" EP, 2023)

13. High on Fire - "10,000 Years" (from "The Art of Self Defense", 2000) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Saturnalia Temple - "Revel in Dissidence" (from "Revel in Dissidence" single, 2024)

15. My Dying Bride – “Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium (Demo)” (from “Towards The Sinister” demo, 1991) [submitted by Daniel]

16. Faetooth - "Strange Ways" (from "Remnants of the Vessel", 2022) [submitted by Vinny]

The Frozen Dawn is awesome too - it's yet another from the masterful Mariusz Lewandowski, so it kind of goes without saying!

They are all good covers, but those top two are absolute beauties.

I certainly don't think it should be excluded, it should be treated the same as any other release. I would suggest, Daniel, that if you feel so uncomfortable with your own rating, you could remove it until after the counting is done then reinstate it after. Personally I don't feel you need to - I gave it 4.5 myself after all and it is deservedly my highest rated Horde release of the year. As far as the cover goes, that is brand new artwork, is it not, and should definitely be allowed to stand as is.

As far as how it looks to outsiders. Who cares... Fuck 'em. If any of the other bands want to join up and give their own albums five stars there's nothing to stop them is there?

I would probably agree on all but Technical Ecstacy, but I don't think we need to go over that conversation again! 😉

Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi - Seventh Star

I bought this when it came out, listened to it once or twice then turned my back on it in disgust and didn't return to it... not until now anyway. I dug it out of the back of the cupboard and put it on this morning and, you know what, it ain't anything like as bad as I originally thought. Iommi's guitar playing is still top-knotch and I don't know if I've softened over the years, but I even quite enjoyed Glenn Hughes' vocals. I vaguely remember being disgusted with this, considering it no better than an effin' Foreigner album, but in fact, it is much better than that, as I guess is inevitable because no matter what, a Sabbath album will always have Tone's incomparable guitar skills on show and he is one guy who could genuinely write riffs in his sleep.

I will definitely check out Oromet before the deadline because as I always say, you can never have too much funeral doom...

And yet you apparently started the thread in order to do just that. ;)

Yet obviously nobody took any notice!!

I find it inconceivable to be talking about the best Fallen albums of 2023 when Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean's "Obsession Destruction", Convocation's "No Dawn for the Caliginous Night" and Khanate's "To Be Cruel" don't even qualify because no one has listened to them.

For sure there are a couple of things I liked about Objects Without Pain, the guitar tone is nicely pitched and best of all the drums sound amazing. I could listen to an isolated drum track of this quite happily and would prefer to over the finished thing. Unfortunately I couldn't take to it other than that. The songwriting is too spasmodic for me, it veers far too much into mathcore, djenty type territory for my preference and although I really like the tone of the album, the actual songwriting leaves me cold. But the absolute killer for me is the vocals. I would be the first to admit that I probably put too much weight onto vocals but I think I am quite tolerant of some very divisive vocalists, Silencer, Cirith Ungol, King Diamond or Demilich for example, but if I take against a singer then it is like a movie with Adam Sandler in it and no matter how good the rest of the production, it still has Adam Sandler in it! Such is the case with Demian Johnston, his vocals amount to little more than shouting at the top of his voice and just come over like some angry child berating his parents for some perceived injustice and which I find wearisome in the extreme. I don't have an issue with shouted vocals per se, but these are just irritating and off-putting to me to the degree where, by the second half of the album, my mind is wandering and I have pretty much tuned out. I seem to be a minority of one and good luck to those who derived far more enjoyment from it than I was able to muster, but this just isn't one for me I'm afraid.

2.5/5

Hi Ben, could you add norwegian tech-death crew, Sovereign and their recently released debut, "Altered Realities", please.

I agree that Hellripper is enjoyable, but lacking in what I really look for in my metal nowadays and only managed a 3.5 from me. Enforced was much more up in your face and better for it, garnering a 4.0. Demoniac was still my favourite thrasher of the year however and #4 on my yearly list behind Panopticon, Convocation & Khanate.

Hauntologist - Hollow (2024)

Released 8th January

Hauntologist are a post-black metal duo from Kraków comprising Mgła drummer, Darkside, and multi-instrumentalist, The Fall (Michał Stępień), Mgła bassist and backing vocalist for live performances. Hollow is the duo's debut full-length and seems to have been met with mixed reactions, a lot which seems to be based upon people's attitude towards Mgła and how much this does or doesn't sound like them. I don't mind Mgła at all, but I have only heard Exercises in Futility which I enjoyed, but not as much as many others did I suspect and so I'm going to buck the trend and take Hollow on it's own merit, not by it's comparison to another project.

I found this to be pretty interesting and hugely entertaining to boot, which may not be enough for some who need their world to be turned upside down by every release, but is more than enough for me. I often find post-metally BM to be a bit of a bore, to be honest, and went into this with a little bit of trepidation, but it kept me rapt pretty much throughout with some nice twists and turns, the three-quarters of an hour runtime seeming much shorter, which is always a good sign. Fast, intense passages of blasting atmospheric black metal are complemented by contemplative and melancholy airs that temper the furiousness of the black metal sections with more reflective atmospheres. There is a certain harshness to the production, coupled with The Fall's ascerbic vocals and icy-sounding tremolo guitar lines that gives the overall aesthetic an inherent frostiness. Darkside's drumming is top knotch throughout whether it's his withering blastbeats or skillful fills that are to the forefront at any one time. The faster sections aren't just composed of layers of indistinguishable tremolo riffing either, but rather The Fall focusses on producing cool and memorable riffs rather than just continuously swamping us with "atmosphere". Elsewhere there are the folky acoustic guitar and clean vocals of the title track and the gothic, post-punk vibe of Gardermoen but these sit well within the overall structure of the album and aren't at all distracting or obtrusive, giving the album a freshness of perspective. The album closes out with a gently self-reflective spoken word piece that leaves the listener slightly wrong-footed and provoking them to reconsider what they have heard during the previous three-quarters of an hour.

Overall this is a fine album of modern atmospheric black metal that draws on the tropes of post-metal and introduces influence from other, non-metal genres whilst still acknowledging the power of the riff in metal. It isn't very challenging to listen to and is, in fact, very easy on the ears, but I don't view that as an issue personally. The length is just about right and keeps things focussed with no tendency towards self-indulgence that may have blighted a lengthier runtime.

4/5

Congrats Shezma. I would look at all the Infinite challenge lists, see which is likely to appeal to you most and then go through it in chronological order. I have always found that it helps in understanding the development of a genre and possible influences if you do it that way.

Just seen that there is a live version of the album on Spotify, released in 2022:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5r7aBYAGFpHNKJSfNOVJfS

Catching up, so I will cover the rest of the album:

"Freedom" - a hypnotic, psychedelic feeling to this one that definitely sees it sitting comfortably under the heavy psych umbrella. Zero metal.

"'Til My Death" - heavy blues rock definitely. Metal content - 0.

"The Prophet" - heavy for sure, but metal, no. Heavy psych / hard rock for me.

"Pound of Flesh" - Heavy psych, almost super-heavy acid rock. Nil metal.

"Shylock" - You know what, I'm gonna go 50/50, heavy metal / heavy psych on this one.That main riff is real Sabbathy, not unlike Symptom of the Universe.

Overall I make that 20% metal, so not really metal for our purposes - still a great record though.

Malist - Of Scorched Earth (2024)

Released 19th January

Malist is a solo project of Moscow's Ovfrost (Nick Kholodov) and isn't a project that I have followed too closely, but I did enjoy his 2020 album, To Mantle the Rising Sun, which was a well-done and enjoyable slice of melodic black metal. I have missed the two intervening albums, but here we are now with his latest, Of Scorched Earth. Whilst he is still ploughing the fertile melodic black metal furrow, there seems to be a greater influence from atmo-black that gives the tracks a more sweeping, grandiose quality. One trope in particular Ovfrost employs on multiple occasions here, is a calm, quieter core to tracks, with acoustic guitar strumming and a keyboard overlay, be it organ or piano, that acts as the still eye of the storm that contrasts with the heavy riffing and generally more frantic pace of the tracks either side of the still spot.

The songwriting indulges a fair bit of melodicism for a black metal album, yet I think it still retains enough of black metal's intensity and inherent savagery to satisfy all but the most demanding of BM kvltists. I suppose there are those who will bemoan it's clean production, pauses in intensity and melodic phrases, but there are more than enough passages where he lets himself off the leash, letting rip some frantic, black metal battery. For what it's worth, I would score this down a bit from the earlier To Mantle the Rising Sun, but it is nevertheless an interesting enough expression of riff-driven melodic and atmospheric black metal, that has it's roots planted firmly here in the modern day and not back in the savagery of the 1990s.

3.5/5

Hi Ben, I am sure you have it covered, but could you add the new Saxon album Hell, Fire and Damnation, please.