Sonny's Forum Replies

In truth, you won't really get an accurate polling of the most popular bands from internet music websites as most participants are likely to be music nerds to a greater or lesser degree and popularity is overwhelmingly determined by the undedicated. I just thought it might make for an interesting talking point is all.

Here are my March submissions:

Ufomammut/Lento - "Infect Two" (from "Supernaturals - Record One", 2007)

Converge - "Blood Moon" (from "Bloodmoon: I", 2021)

Neurosis - "Lost" (from "Enemy Of The Sun", 1994)

Hi Daniel, it appears "Lost" and the whole "Enemy of the Sun" album are not available on Spotify in the UK.

Do you have an alternative selection?

An ultra-slow, funeral doom sea shanty from one of the greatest metal albums ever made.

When people talk of atmospheric metal releases they usually point to atmospheric sludge or atmo-black albums and it is true, these can both conjure up marvellous atmospheres. I particularly enjoy the natural world atmospherics of atmospheric black metal, be it the icy coldness of bands like Paysage d'Hiver and ColdWorld, the sweeping highland majesty of Saor or the awe-inspiring cosmic metal of Darkspace or Mare Cognitum. However, nothing expresses the atmosphere of the most fundamental forces of the natural world, such as heaving tidal forces, than funeral doom. At it's best it is overwhelming and implacable, either smothering or sweeping away all that stands before it in the same way that lava flows or tidal waves are capable of doing. German four-piece Ahab and their debut album The Call of the Wretched Sea, based on the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville from whence they get their name, is one of the great albums for summoning up the sensation of being out on the deep ocean and it's immense tidal forces, along with the interaction of Ahab with it's most huge and implacable denizen, the white whale Moby Dick himself. As we all know, Mastodon released their classic Leviathan album two years prior, but the fact that they both draw on the same source material is the only real connection and I don't think Leviathan had any influence on Call of the Wretched Sea at all. The Mastodon album is a straight-up narrative of storytelling whereas Ahab's aims for a more immersive and overwhelmingly tactile experience.

Funeral doom metal is not really for the impatient and will most likely always be a niche genre, particularly with the modern world's obsession with instant gratification and ADHD-like impatience in it's junkie-like hunt for that next dopamine hit. However, for those willing to invest the time and to surrender themselves to it's all-pervasive heaviness, funeral doom is ultimately one of the most rewarding of metal genres. Call of the Wretched Sea is one of the greatest examples of why and is one of the absolute peaks of funeral doom metal in my opinion. There is a genuine sensation while listening to this that forces way beyond our ken or ability to control are at large and that ultimately men are at the whim of these vast, unknowable forces. Whilst listening to this and indeed any truly great funeral doom, I feel like it registers on a physical level and can almost feel it's ebbing and flowing within my own bloodflow, such is the power of this music for me.

Despite being over an hour in length Call of the Wretched Sea never gets dull or overly repetitive as there is more than enough going on to keep things interesting, but it is never hurried and the tracks are allowed the time to develop in a natural and organic way. Funeral doom gets a reputation for being monolithic and eschewing riffs for huge chords, which can certainly be true, but here there are definitely some great riffs, albeit they are exceedingly slow, smothering, and crushingly heavy - check out the riff to The Sermon, it is basically an ultra-slow, mega-heavy sea shanty. Keyboards are used fairly subtly, but they add an extra layer to the already thick atmosphere that increases the cloying nature of the music and adds to the sensation of being dragged down to a watery grave in the lonely isolation of the vast and unforgiving ocean. Daniel Droste's subsonic growl further adds weight and sounds like some Cthulhian elder crooning into a drowning man's ear to just let go and surrender to the ocean's lure.

This is not just one of my favourite funeral doom albums, but one of my favourites of any genre, metal or otherwise and stands as testament to sheer unadulterated heaviness and almost palpable atmospherics.

5/5 classic status.

So, as a follow-up, I looked at the releases on the Academy with the most ratings and found that the top 23 (all albums with 17+ ratings) were dominated by five bands - Sabbath (3), Metallica (5), Slayer (4), Maiden(3) and Bathory (4). Megadeth had a couple of entries and Tool and Celtic Frost filled out the rest with one each. Interesting indeed, showing the difference between a metal-oriented site and a more general interest site, with around half of the entries on the RYM chart making the Metal Academy chart. Bathory's first entry on the RYM chart is #107 so they seem to be much more popular amongst dedicated metalheads, less so the alternative metal bands popular on RYM.

#1 Metallica - Ride the Lightning (28 / 4.4)
#2 Metallica - Master of Puppets (27 / 4.7)
#3 Metallica - Kill 'Em All (25 / 4.1)
#4 Slayer - Reign in Blood (24 / 4.6)
#5 Black Sabbath - Paranoid (22 / 4.4)
#6 Metallica - ...And Justice for All (22 / 4.4)
#7 Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (22 / 4.1)
#8 Bathory - Blood Fire Death (21 / 4.3)
#9 Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss (19 / 4.4)
#10 Megadeth - Rust in Peace (19 / 4.2)
#11 Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? (19/4.1)
#12 Slayer - Show No Mercy (19/4.1)
#13 Iron Maiden - Powerslave (18/4.4)
#14 Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (18/4.3)
#15 Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark (18/4.3)
#16 Slayer - South of Heaven (18/4.3)
#17 Tool - Lateralus (18 / 3.9)
#18 Metallica - Metallica [Black Album] (18 / 3.8)
#19 Bathory - Hammerheart (17/4.4)
#20 Black Sabbath - Master of Reality (17/4.4)
#21 Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast (17/4.1)
#22 Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion (17/3.9)
#23 Bathory - Bathory (17/3.7)

Raw, no-fucks-to-give black metal from one of the infamous Les Légions Noires. Band mastermind Meyhna'ch was quoted in '94 saying "Today, black metal seems to be dead, trendies has (sic) taken everything in hands... and Black Imperial Blood is one fist in their pigfaces". I don't know what his feelings are on modern black metal if this was how he felt in 1994!

Interesting that Jane Doe has more than twice the ratings of the next album on the list, which I would take to mean it gained traction outside of the usual Revolution sphere. Not surprising, I don't suppose, as it is probably first point of call for anyone looking to dip their feet into the metalcore waters.

Again, as these are the most recognisable names I guess they would always dominate any popularity list. I am still surprised at Sunbather's huge popularity, proving that it probably made a lot of traction outside of metal circles.

The overall Guardians top 20 looks pretty much how I would expect it to. I don't know enough about power metal to comment on the second list, but even I have heard of all those bands so it is probably fairly accurate.

With, as Daniel rightly pointed out, RYM being so US-centric I'm a bit surprised to see no Slipknot or Korn albums in the top 20 Gateway list. It also seems to indicate that there are a small number of acts that are exceedingly popular and dominate in the wider public mind.

'94 was indeed a special year for black metal - so many of my all-time favourites were released that year. 1994 is the new 1986!

This was an absolute belter of a list and I've played through it three times now. The only thorn in this bed of (black) roses is the Ereb Altor track - I really took against their new album as a whole and this track illustrates why. Whoredom Rife, Nameless Mist, Wiegedood and the Havukruunu track were all new to me and I loved them.

Excellent work everyone involved and thanks Ben for one of the best playlists yet.

Not feeling as much of the heavy/power metal vibe as much as I used to, so these submissions might be my last for now. Will explain more about it later.

It's interesting to hear you say that Andi because your ratings don't reflect that at all. In fact they indicate the exact opposite. If we look at all of your The Guardians related ratings since October 2021 they average a score of 4.54/5 across 14 releases which is a phenomenally high result. There wouldn't be another member that could compete with that across any clan actually. I don't mean to overstep my welcome but do you think that your tendency to commit to rating/reviewing every release in a band's back catalogue is contributing to your drop in enthusiasm given the large commitment that takes? I would think it would certainly make it a challenge to come up with fresh playlist ideas. I know when I've been too scripted about my listening habits I've started to feel boxed in & the best thing to do has been to just listen to whatever the hell I feel like for a while & all of a sudden music just seems a whole bunch more fun again. Variety is the spice of life after all. Feel free to tell me fuck right off though of course. Sometimes I well & truly disserve it. 

I echo the 'boxed in' sentiment and I have certainly felt like this in recent months to the point where I no longer plan any listening.  Yes, I will run through the features here but I am learning to live a little better with silence so far this year.  I can drive somewhere in silence if I want, I do not have to have music on in my office / lair every time I go in there.  I have been at this for over 30 years and so burnout is inevitable.

I definitely get where you guys are coming from. I have dropped my metal releases of the year list on RYM and the inherent demands of listening to and reviewing 150-200 releases from the current calendar year. I have so far only heard two albums from 2022, neither of which were very inspired listening I must admit. In fact, I have spent most of the last week listening to Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull, just because I wanted to! I have found that just going "fuck it, I'll listen to what I want" is very liberating, as is resisting the need to review every release even if I've got very little to say, so I'm sure you'll all be pleased to see my number of reviews dropping off quite steeply! And similarly to Vinny, I've even been out walking the dog without headphones on some days, which has been unheard of over the last few years.

I find this list less surprising than you do Sonny. It all comes down to RYM's market which is heavily weighted towards the United States. Iron Maiden have always struggled to gain the same sort of traction in the USA as they have in Europe for example while the likes of Rage Against The Machine & System Of A Down are easily more popular in the USA than they are anywhere else in the world.

RYM also has an inherent bias towards certain genres & subgenres of music for the same reason actually. I've often noticed that genres like hip hop, folk, progressive rock & indie rock seem to pick up enormous numbers on RYM compared to where I would think those genres sit with the rest of the world. In metal circles it's very hard for a traditionally focused metal album to score well these days with the more progressive, avant-garde & atmospheric releases inevitably scoring more interest. This was one of the reasons we started up the Metal Academy website in the first place actually. Plus, there are pockets of the globe that receive very little attention compared to others. Take my home country of Australia for example. There are loads of great Aussie releases that have been around for years/decades but are still yet to receive 100 ratings on RYM & these are often worthy of much more adoration than some of the top rating releases (see last month's The Sphere feature release for example which was my album of 2013 yet is only sitting at 81 ratings at present). Hopefully we eventually see MA taking off a bit & giving us a more rounded view of the wider metal opinion.

With that being said, do you think the days of the "mega" acts are pretty much over for metal. Are there any modern metal bands (let's say post-2000 for arguments sake) who could play massive worldwide stadium tours like Metallica, Sabbath, Maiden and Priest were able to do? Has the metal scene now become so fractured, encompassing such a wide variety of genres that it is very difficult for single acts to "break out" into the wider mainstream subconscious. Most metal acts, certainly in the UK, would struggle to fill a hall holding 1000 people and then only play one or two dates - in London and er, another part of London probably.

RYM being more US-centric makes it even more surprising that Burzum managed to get an album in the top 20. Maybe the truism that "all publicity is good publicity" played into his success.

And finally, I agree that most metal media does ignore huge amounts of the world's metal scenes and personally the "smaller" scenes are areas I would be very interested in hearing more about. Maybe here at the Academy we could do some kind of scene spotlight feature or discussions to engender awareness. For example, who are the best Australian bands and albums? I am familiar with quite a few, but I would love to learn more. 

My submissions for March:

Archgoat - "In Extremis Nazarene" (3:35) from "Worship the Eternal Darkness" (2021)
Leviathan - "Made as the Stale Wine of Wrath" (8:44) from "Massive Conspiracy Against All Life" (2008)
Burzum - "My Journey to the Stars" (8:10) from "Burzum" (1992)

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Nah... Epica won out by sending me a 1349 COVID mask & a set of limited edition Devourment condoms. I dunno why my wife freaks out so much when I wear them simultaneously though. It's a mystery.

Now you've ruined it for next year telling everybody what the going price is!

(Just so any bands know, if you need a hand in earning a prestigious award like Metal Academy Clan Release of the Year, my star ratings are available at very reasonable rates)

Just our of interest, did you apply a number of ratings filter when determining the clan release winners and if you did, did it vary from clan to clan?

I'd just like to stick up for the Accept cover. I like it's simplicity and it certainly screams "METAL". The trouble with a lot of the power metal covers is that, like the genre itself, they throw the kitchen sink at them and they often end up too busy for my taste. That said, I voted for the Everdawn cover as I really dug the whole Cleopatra and cats thing - very Liz Taylor!!

Not a bad choice at all, especially for fans of Tool. Personally I would have liked to see Whitechapel win, but hey, you can't have everything.

Great record and possibly my favourite ever Sphere release. Another one I ended up buying a physical copy of (CD).

Another worthy winner, although I was a bit late to this one too, but I did buy the vinyl LP last week so a big hurrah for this one. I do like that Apsu cover as well.

Couldn't see any other winner in The North to be honest. I also bought the Gloosh CD and I really dig that cover too.

Can't argue with either of those, especially the Supulcros cover seeing as Mariusz Lewandowski is my favourite active artist (and not just cover artist). I came a bit late to the Converge/Chelsea Wolfe party, but was damn glad I did.

February 2022

1. YOB - "Quantum Mystic" from "The Unreal Never Lived" (2005) [submitted by Sonny]
2. Anathema - "Sunset of Age" from "The Silent Enigma" (1995) [submitted by Daniel]
3. Dystopia - "Population Birth Control" from "The Aftermath" (1999) [submitted by Daniel]
4. Kyuss - "Son of a Bitch" from "Wretch" (1991) [submitted by Daniel]
5. Age of Taurus - "Walk With Me, My Queen" from "Desperate Souls of Tortured Times" (2013)
6. Sirenia - "On the Wane" from "At Sixes and Sevens" (2002) [submitted by Ben]
7. Church of Misery - "Blood Sucking Freak (Richard Trenton Chase)" from "Houses of the Unholy" (2009) [submitted by Sonny]
8. Uncertainty Principle - "Pain Hate Fear" from "Sonic Terror" (2021)
9. Pentagram - "Be Forewarned" from "Be Forwarned" (1994)
10. Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - "Flower Moon" from "Bloodmoon:I" (2021)
11. Crowbar - "The Only Factor" from "Time Heals Nothing" (2005) [submitted by Daniel]
12. SubRosa - "Borrowed Time, Borrowed Eyes" from "No Help for the Mighty Ones" (2011) [submitted by Ben]
13. Dvne - "Towers" from "Etemen Ænka" (2021)
14. Neurosis - "To Crawl Under One's Skin" from "Souls At Zero" (1992) [submitted by Daniel]
15. Crust - "Darkness Becomes Us" from"Stoic" (2021) [submitted by Sonny]
16. Paramaecium - "The Unnatural Conception in Two Parts: The Birth and the Massacre of the Innocents" from "Exhumed of the Earth" (1994) [submitted by Ben]

Cryptosis - Bionic Swarm

I'm returning to this now after a gap of nine months from it's release as I failed to connect with it at all first time around due to it's technical edge, me not being the biggest fan of so-called "technical metal". Now that I have given it chance to settle in I am much better disposed towards it than I was last spring. Yes, there is a degree of technicality to the Dutchmen's thrashery, but it isn't as wanky as some technical thrash bands and the tracks still do what I like thrash tracks to do which is provide sufficient neck-wrenching aggression to facilitate headbanging overload. The musicianship is excellent and the songwriting is great, as I said, it does provide a degree of technicality but never loses sight of the fact that it is first and foremost a thrash metal record and ensures that it delivers on that front before incorporating the technicality into the songs.

I love Laurens Houvast's vocals, they are plenty aggressive and just the right side of ragged to give the impression of a singer pouring his all into his art. The riffs are sufficiently memorable and are tight as fuck with not a single note out of place, no matter how fast they are played and the soloing (always a bellweather in thrash metal) is impressively white hot. So with these thrash fundamentals firmly in place I am more than willing to overlook the odd bit of technical bollocks as it in no way detracts from what I turn to a thrash album for. Better late to the party than never to party at all I guess.

What is of particular interest is the incorporation of that old favourite of 70's prog outfits, the mellotron. It is actually utilised extremely well and doesn't impinge on or blunt the album's aggressiveness in any way. It is most obviously felt, I think, on Prospect of Immortality, which seems to be the track everyone is talking about due to it's slower pace and it's more diverse and even proggy feel. Ostensibly the album is a science fiction concept album, which is no problem for me at all as I love both sci-fi and concept albums, but in all truth I don't think this should be a deal breaker for those who don't as it still works merely as a damn fine thrash album. Nearly everyone is comparing this to Vektor and I will concede to those who know the work of the Arizonans better than I, but I prefer this to Vektor as this just thrashes harder.

So, to summarise my thoughts, this is a great thrash album that happens to have a bit of a technical bent and some interesting use of keyboards that enhance the band's thrash credentials rather than detracting from them. More of this, please.

4.5/5

All that said, I think I still have Steel Bearing Hand in the lead (it's damn close though!)

Nordicwinter - Le dernier adieu

Sedately paced atmospheric black metal from Canadian solo project Nordicwinter with nary a blastbeat in sight. This doesn't make it a bad record by any means, in fact it's a decent listen for any atmo-black afficianado, but neither is it going to set the gates of heaven ablaze. I was particularly enamoured of the distant-sounding vocals, which I really like in atmospheric black metal as they give the impression of ghostly voices heard on the wind. I would have liked a few pacier and more aggressive sections as overall the album feels almost too laid back and muted, but as I said it is decent enough, albeit fairly innocuous black metal.

3/5

Whitechapel - Kin (2021)

I remember hearing Whitechapel on one or two Terrorizer Fear Candy cover discs (which I still have somewhere) and fucking hating them! Since then I have given them a very wide berth indeed, so it is with some trepidation that, fifteen years later, I approach their latest album, Kin. Well I must say, the intervening years have been pretty kind to these once-irritating deathcore merchants because this is really good and I found myself enjoying it quite a lot. Like an annoying angsty teenager who has grown up to be quite the poet or artist as he hits middle-age, the band have matured and directed their energies into a more coherent and artistically satisfying direction. Sure, there's still anger and aggression here, but much better controlled and expressed than when they were younger. The calmer, clean sung sections provide a relief from the accumulated aggression, making it more effective as a result and giving it a progressive death metal atmosphere. I would have liked to hear them explore these clean sections a little further and think that would be a rewarding avenue for them to pursue going forward. All in all though I was pleasantly surprised by this and will look out for any further releases from Whitechapel with much more anticipation than before.

3.5/5

Chevelle - "Niratias"

Despite having been going for over twenty years I've never come across these guys before. I don't know what the rest of their discography sounds like but wow, these guys must really like Tool a lot if this is anything to go by. I mean the vocalist is endeavouring to sound EXACTLY like Maynard James Keenan (fairly successfully I must admit). Sounding like Tool seems to have got a bad name over recent years, but there are a lot worse bands to seek to emulate. Anyway, this is excellently performed and the songs are decent, even if it isn't my go-to kind of album I can appreciate it up to a certain point. I wouldn't buy it but I wouldn't turn it off if it came on randomly on Spotify or something. More my kind of Gateway release than most in that clan.

3.5/5

Happy two days after your birthday, Sonny, and once again, so sorry to hear your dad's gone. RIP... I just had my birthday yesterday, and on that day, I was in an interview/photoshoot for the book series that I write, in support of a diversity campaign from a company who insist they be kept private for the time being. So that's a unique start of the next age chapter of my life.

Thanks for the best wishes. That sounds really interesting Andi, all the best of luck.

Well, it's been quite a week. On Monday I turned sixty and today we had my dad's funeral. I guess that's the end of another of life's chapters. Anyway, onto the next then.

I think for the purposes of the site it must be tagged as progressive metal. True, there are singular forays into more extreme genres, but not sufficient of any single one to merit a genre tag. Zeuhl is a genre I have never really understood the meaning of as I am not well-versed enough in it to comment. Possible additional, non-MA, tags are heavy psych or just psychedelic rock. Especially early on, the vibe is very late 60's psych. To be sure it is an eclectic release and is not easily pigeon-holed, but I definitely don't hear anything even remotely avant-garde - it can't be, it didn't give me a headache! But seriously, none of the tracks listened to in isolation are especially challenging and are of fairly typically structure, so I don't see where avant-garde comes into it at all. It seems that some people think if you put a saxophone onto a matal record then it instantly becomes avant-garde. So, for me it is a Progressive Metal album for the purposes of MA.

Updated my list a bit. Decided to grant the Anathema & Pig Destroyer releases qualification after all.

Just noticed you've got Electric Wizard's We Live in your top ten. Definitely EW's most underrated album and every bit as good as Dopethrone in my opinion. I think fans got too precious about Bagshaw and Greening leaving and Jus Osborne bringing his girlfriend, Liz Buckingham,  into the band so they turned their collective noses up at it.

Fange - "Pantocrator" (2021)

Where the fuck did this short thirty minute gem of an album come from?! I think I might just have found my new AOTY right here. Imagine the super dark & crushingly heavy sludge metal of Primitive Man combined with the mechanical industrial beats of Godflesh & the cold production of Uniform & you won't be far off the mark. Throw in some death metal riffs too just to stroke my comfort zone a but more too. I just fucking love this shit!

4.5/5

Yeah, I enjoyed it's bleak, confrontational sound so much I bought the CD. My favourite industrial-adjacent album in years, if not ever!

Papangu - "Holoceno" (2021)

I'm not sure that I'm completely convinced by this one. The individual tracks are all fine in their own right, but it just doesn't seem to hold together coherently and the myriad differing styles on offer sometimes make it feel like a label sampler of different artists. We have sixties / seventies style psychedelic rock, stoner rock, progressive metal and even attempts at sludge and black metal and while I can imagine any number of listeners getting off on this variety - and indeed no end of people on RYM seem to have wet their pants over it - I don't feel it is completely successful. One thing I really did enjoy that WAS consistent throughout was the percussion, which was fantastic with plenty of interesting drum patterns going on. An ecological message is always laudable (although admittedly lost on me  as I have zero grasp of Portuguese) yet I can't shake the feeling that this is aimed at a very specific audience. It seems like a worm on the hook for the well-meaning, liberal intelligentsia and aimed more at fans of Radiohead than Darkthrone, Judas Priest or Incantation. Maybe I'm not in the right place at the moment for this one and may return to it at some point when I feel more inclined to it's eclecticism, but for now I feel it is heavily flawed, although extremely competently produced.

3/5

There has been some very nice covers this year, but I must say it seems like an awful lot of bands just aren't trying and there is a lot of shit out there too. I guess because they don't need to catch the eye on the shelf anymore as everybody streams everything nowadays and as such the covers just aren't that important to some bands anymore. Is the art of the cover a dying art?

Mystras - Empires Vanquished And Dismantled (2021)

Ayloss' second full-length under the Mystras banner follows very much the formula of the first, 2020's Castles Conquered and Reclaimed, with the meat of the album revolving around fairly aggressive and raw black metal (certainly compared to his work under his Spectral Lore monicker anyway), interspersed with folk-laden interludes. The black metal is very busy with some frenetic guitar work and mostly hurtles along in neck-breaking fashion and this, along with the distant, multi-tracked vocals, oftimes provides a somewhat disorientating experience. This time around there is a bit more variety to the folk interludes, which are quite interesting for the most part and serve to segregate the black metal tracks from each other so that the album doesn't just pass by in one big blur and gives the listener's befuddled brain time to regroup before the next aural assault. Of these interludes I particularly enjoyed the flute and female vocals (provided by Nina Saeidi) of Cheragheh Zolmezalem (Opposition's Fire) which reminded me a lot of Lisa Gerrard on the Gladiator soundtrack. Unfortunately, the female-voiced Wie Schändlich es ist is not so good, sounding like something from The Lord of the Rings sung by an elf.
Castles Conquered and Reclaimed was one of my favourite albums of 2020 yet for some reason, despite not veering away from the debut's premise too much, this just didn't grab me in the same way and left me feeling more than a little disappointed.

3.5/5

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I

While the album is definitely a genuine collaboration, it does seem to be more of a metal album than Chelsea Wolfe would normally produce, so feels like Converge were the dominant side of the partnership with their music being tempered by Chelsea's presence rather than being an equally divided recording. This is no bad thing and I'm guessing this was the natural way for the album to come about, without worrying about ego and  preciousness, the music coming first.

From the opening track, the almost eight minutes of Blood Moon, it is apparent that Chelsea Wolfe's gothic darkwave influence acts as the perfect temper for Converge's withering intensity, providing the moments within the music that allow it to breathe and offer some introspection rather than merely deploying relentless aggression which, for me personally, is a big plus as I find the sustained intensive aggression of metalcore and mathcore to be insufferable most of the time, but these gentler, more reflective parts provide contrast and context to the whirling maelstrom and make it much more effective as a result. Don't be misled though, there are still plenty of great riffs and metal moments - I'm particularly fond of the riff towards the end of Coil as the track peaks from the extended build-up. Chelsea's influence can also be felt on the crawling, Soundgarden-ish Flower Moon which also has a great riff and crunchy guitar sound as it ramps up the intensity for a real stand-out track. Flower Moon is followed by Tongues Playing Dead which sounds more like I imagine Converge to usually sound and, I must confess, if the whole album sounded like this track then I would struggle with it. Lord of Liars is similarly intense, but the presence of Chelsea Wolfe's clean vocal and the whirlwind guitar work make this a far superior number.

Anyway I have no intention of producing a track by track breakdown, suffice it to say that Bloodmoon:I provides far more variety and interest than I originally expected and although I certainly wouldn't say it's a perfect album, the protagonists, despite coming from very different directions, work well off one another and have combined to produce an album that should appeal to a large cross-section of fans of metal and more mainstream taste alike.

Solid 4/5, has potential to push itself up to a 4.5 with subsequent listens.

Could you add UK blackened thrashers Hellfekted please Ben.

I had Borknagar's debut pegged as a solid 4.5. However, it must be a dozen years since I last listened to it and those years haven't been kind. OK, I accept it's more likely that it is my taste that has changed rather than any fundamental alteration in the metal climate - it's my fault, not yours, Borknagar. The reason for this change of heart is those folky interludes which just get in the way of some pretty intense black metal. I mean, I'm just really getting into some decent old-school, second wave blasting then this drippy folk shit pops it's fucking head up and completely spoils my private party - again and again. Well I'm not gonna stand for it I tell you - I'm dropping this fucker down to a 3.5!

Actually, I'm so peeved about it because when they hit that bm sweet spot, which they do on several occasions here, they really are fantastic, but the impetus is completely drained by those multifarious folk breaks, like a turd in a pool party. I guess I'm just no longer the same tolerant guy I used to be several years back. Life's too short for endless interludes on black metal albums and if I want folk music I'll buy a Bob Dylan album instead - or Wardruna - those guys are much better at it anyway.

3.5/5

I guess I'll end with this: don't ostracize new metal fans because they like the popular metal trend. In my experience, hipster culture is the one factor above all else that has distanced me from popular trends. Acceptance is what leads newbies to expand their listening experience beyond their comfort zone. You never know; the next giant in heavy metal might not even listen to metal at this moment. Just give them time to get there.

Great point there, Saxy. It would be unrealistic to expect new fans to dive immediately into Deathspell Omega, Hell or Esoteric. I doubt any of us jumped straight into the deep end with extreme metal and for us older fans (from the 80s or earlier) it was something that developed along with us as we aged with it. Now there is a bewildering amount of stuff that is termed as metal just sitting right there and I'm sure it can be daunting to get into. Hopefully this is where a website like Metal Academy can help out the newer, less informed fans, but let them walk before they can run and then we won't scare them away.

If the music is good enough and we help to get it heard - the clan playlists are a great vehicle for this if we can get people outside our admittedly small circle to listen - then I'm sure the next generation of metal fan will jump onboard and secure it's future.

Could you add Mizmor's latest EP, Wit's End please Ben.

RYM page

Bandcamp page

Could you also add German epic doom band Servants to the Tide please Ben.

RYM page

Finally I got round to reviewing Swallow the Sun's gut-wrenching latest album, Moonflowers. I think it is a classic of gothic death doom and just drips with sorrow, mourning and futility, but also contains an enormous amount of beauty too.

Some excellent points there. One thing that seems plain is, as far as Academy members are concerned, there is still plenty of quality output, but none of it is readily accessible to the mainstream and, in the great scheme of things, metal is still very much a niche scene. It still seems to have a problem appealing to the 50% of the human race that we used to call female (I don't know what the current accepted designation is, sorry) and neither is it the best at self-promotion. However, for the enthusiasts and those willing to dig, there are loads of exciting new releases to add to the already fantastic back catalogues of bygone days and there should be more than enough quality stuff to satisfy even the most rabid metalhead.

This is a decent enough album, albeit a bit too polished for my taste, but I don't feel it is a true representation of The Fallen. It is about 25% sludge and 75% progressive metal as it attempts to reproduce latterday Mastodon's sludge-prog. Personally I would feel a bit short-changed if it was considered Fallen AOTY as I think it is more suited to The Infinite. That's just me though, so have a listen and see what you think.

While compiling February's Fallen playlist I stumbled across this absolutely brilliant album of blackened sludge metal from Russia. It was criminally overlooked last year, by me as much as anyone, but it deserves way more attention than it got hence I'm posting it here. It's not on MA yet, but I have asked Ben to add it.

Like Andi, I don't listen to a lot of avant-garde metal (a lot of it just gives me a headache) so I'll go with a top 5 also:

1. Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi (2020)

2. Deathspell Omega - Paracletus (2010)

3. Jute Gyte - Perdurance (2016)

4. Thy Catafalque - Naiv (2020)

5. Jute Gyte - The Sparrow (2017)

Hi Ben, could you please add Russian sludge outfit Crust.

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Also UK drone metal project Uncertainty Principle

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I'd not even heard of this album before this month's feature and have only the very briefest of dalliances with it's protagonists. The cover is especially uninspiring and gives no clue as to what may be concealed within, so I wasn't completely sure what to expect. Anyway, it all turned out well, because it's heavy, metallized space rock is very much my sort of thing. This is real wall-of-sound stuff, a wall built of the ultra-heavy stoner doom of Sleep and Electric Wizard, cementing it to cosmic-flavoured post-rock, such as that found on Barrows' superb Red Giant album (which this predates by seven years, so may have been an influence on) then reinforcing it with some Hawkwind-style space rock. Some may sniff at the 'Wind comparisons, but the jam during Painful Burns Smoke as the Presence Sets Us Down in Supersonic Waves sounds so much akin to the sort of jams heard on the numerous live versions of classic Hawkwind tracks like You Shouldn't Do That and Brainstorm and The Overload has such a lot in common with The Age of the Micro Man on The Hawklords' 25 Years album that it is impossible to conceive that the UK's veteran cosmic travellers weren't a strong influence. Of course this is way heavier than Hawkwind ever were and certainly has also taken plenty of influence from the best of sludge and atmospheric sludge outfits like Neurosis, ISIS and even Eyehategod. In fact it is so heavy it feels like it creates it's own gravity well and may well be the densest stoner metal ever produced.

I like to think I have a decent imagination and I absolutely love albums that may not possess too much of a narrative of their own, but allow the listener's mind's eye to roam and create it's own narrative structure around the music. Supernaturals - Record One is absolutely one such album and, having listened to it a number of times, I can say it feels like a different journey each time I take it, filled with cosmic power and awe, from the thrusting propulsion of tracks like Infect One and Painful Burns... to the drifting in space, open-mouthed, witnessing of galaxy-wide supernovae sensation of Maestoso. This is absolutely an album in the stoner tradition and I can imagine it would probably take on a whole other level of meaning if listening was pharmaceutically assisted, but those days are long gone for me and I will settle for the raw, unaltered sonic trip as offered up in it's unfiltered form as it is a terrific slab of cosmic metal.

I must admit, all the same, I had to raise an eyebrow, Daniel, when I saw that you had it pegged as your fifth favourite metal album ever, even higher than ANY death metal. Just goes to show how people can surprise you some times, eh? Anyway, for me, I can't in all truth rate it that highly, but it is certainly a fantastic album (in all senses of the word) and is one I will definitely be returning to many times I predict.

4.5/5

That's a very big claim on behalf of Zero Tolerance (a mag I have read a couple of times, but in common with all printed media, they exist to sell advertising). I'm not sure I'd want to listen to the opinion of anyone who claimed to be THE authority on anything.

My intention was for a nice interactive discussion around what us metal fans consider to be extreme, but I don't think I've put that across very well so maybe it sounds like I'm personally seeking to define extremity in respect of music, which I most definitely am not. I merely intended to seek others opinions as I thought they might be interesting.

I understand what you mean Vinny about being outside your comfort zone with popular music, most non-metal modern music is outside my own personal comfort zone. I was thinking more of music that's outside your comfort zone, but that you still enjoy as it energises you in a different way to what you may be used to.

Interesting comment from Ritual Butcherer about satanism becoming "overly complicated with different factions jealously sand-boxing their own little variants". Isn't that what has happened with all religions and belief systems since the dawn of Man?

OK, so I get the accepted definition of Extreme Metal. So let's change the discussion then and I'll pose a different question,  just for discussion's sake. What do you personally consider to be extreme (with a small "e"). For me it's the more brutal regions of death metal with it's excessive glorification of violence and the more intense sludge/drone/doom acts like Khanate and Hell. Both of these force me out of my comfort zone with varying effect, the former pushes me into a place I don't enjoy and the latter takes me into a place where the discomfort becomes thrilling and triggers sensations unavailable elsewhere.

I don't consider many other accepted Extreme genres as extreme personally as they don't take me out of my comfort zone. My love of most black metal, old-school death metal, thrash and funeral and death doom mean that they are now so familiar to me that I feel completely at home with them so can't in truth stamp them as extreme.

I'm not trying to come across as some elitist asshole, but out of a genuine interest for the opinions of other Academy members, what do you all personally consider to be metal extremity? (There is no right or wrong answer!)