Sonny's Forum Replies

One of my all-time favourite proto-metal tracks:

THis band are so much more than Don't Fear the Fuckin' Reaper!!

I'm starting to feel a bit spoiled by black metal releases this year. This weekend has seen another terrific album released.

This time it's a band fairly local to me and a band I feel are heavily underrated - Manchester's Wode with their Burn in Many Mirrors album.

I've put together a Spotify playlist of tracks from my favourite black metal albums of the year to date (although I couldn't access the Pan-Amerikan Native Front album unfortunately, so i've had to give it a miss).

Black Metal of 2021 playlist

Another great album from Andy Marshall (Saor), his second under is Fuath alter-ego.

Also, I'm a bit late to this one, it being released in early February, but this is a fantastic black metal album that tells the story of the Battle of the Wabash, a massive victory for the Western Confederacy of Native Americans against the American Army in 1791.

Hey Vinny, Spectral Lore has actually done a couple of collab / splits with Mare Cognitum - 2013's Sol and last year's Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine, both of which are really great, especially Wanderers. Both bands are extremely accomplished at the whole cosmic black metal thing, don't you think?

I've just posted a review, but to summarise: this is an absolutely original and demented black metal release that genuinely feels like the band have poured something of their own souls into it. With a guitar tone borrowed from early 90's death metal and one of the most insane-sounding vocalists out there, this is a real diamond standout and a dagger to the heart of cut-and-paste black metal acts. The sheer variation of pacing and atmosphere on each of the five tracks is impressive and the ritualistic drum rhythms add another layer of unease to the whole occult-ridden shebang.

With this from Vinny and Ben's cracker from last month I'm now getting worried about letting the side down with my pick when it comes up for June - the pressure's building!

I must admit that I tend only to listen to the playlists I'm interested in (North, Pit, Fallen, Horde - usually in that order). I would never be able to take 2 hours of the Gateway or The Revolution in all honesty and I find the Guardians tough to get through with so much symphonic and power metal. Those I do listen to I tend to listen to in two one-hour sessions as my listening time (especially streaming) has become fairly limited recently. Nice long weekend this week though, so managed to have an uninterrupted listen-through to The Pit playlist on Friday which felt like a real luxury!

...oh, and could you also add Pan-Amerikan Native Front.

The picture on the Immortal page was fucking hilarious.

Pretty good playlist this month. Some obvious old favourites and a few surprises - Mr. Bungle and Cryptosis particularly are both new to me and impressed. I haven't listened to the latest Sodom album yet because I was worried that it would disappoint too much, but I enjoyed the track here, so I think I'll risk it now.

On the downside, I still can't get excited about Overkill and I didn't really like the Angelus Apatrida track. The production on DRI's I Don't Need Society made it stick out like a sore thumb too on such a meaty-sounding playlist.

But overall, a neck-wrenchingly awesome way to spend a couple of hours on a Good Friday afternoon, so thanks to all.

...could you also add Yith's latest, Passage, too please (also a Fallen release).

I was hoping to choose this truly awesome slab of planet-killing drone metal for my (sole) suggestion on May's playlist, but wouldn't you know it - it's not on Spotify.

So here it is - listen and weep, oh fragile humanity!!

Ben, please add the new Aara album Triade I: Eos.

PS: Sonny, I'm sorry to hear that your clans have a shorter time limit for your song submissions, but I wish the best for your songs to be worth those 24 minutes in each clan!

I'd better make them count then!

Damn right guys. This is a great record from a fantastic talent. I feel it's got a bit more bite than his more cosmic-sounding earlier releases. My amber vinyl copy was waiting for me when I got home from work today, so looking forward to spinning that up this Easter weekend. It's a really nice gatefold package that looks almost as good as the Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine vinyl release.

My new favourite album of 2021 from french black metallers Les chants de nihil.

Another example of french BM acts trying to push the genre forward:

Daniel, Ben and Vinny you should all probably give this a listen.

... Another classic with an anniversary today, though. Drudkh's best album Blood in Our Wells is 15. One of the greatest ever atmospheric black metal releases and an important influence on many later (and less talented) atmo-black outfits. 

As most of you who listen to my bullshit know, I much prefer 70's era Priest over their later releases. Sad Wings was the first album of theirs I bought, presumably about 43 years ago now, and is still my second favourite album, Stained Class just nudging it off the top spot. I'll always have a soft spot for SWoD though because me and an old mate of mine, who is no longer with us, used to get hammered and sing along to tracks like Tyrant and Genocide at the top of our voices, pissing the neighbours off no end! I've still got that original (and quite battered) vinyl copy even now. Great days...

My favourite track from Belgians Wolvennest's latest album, the imperious Temple:

Hi Ben, please add A Storm of Light (US) and their split with Nadja, Primitive North.

I must admit to having a shit start to this weekend as I'm suffering from the side effects of my Corona jab last week, but all that has now become inconsequential as this muthaf***er blasts it's way through my brutalised earbuds, re-energising me as it does so!

As you all probably know by now, I have a somewhat on/off relationship with death metal, loving the old-school cavernous sound but shying away from the technical and overtly brutal sides of the genre. Some of it's proponents' obsession with sexualised violence I find particularly problematic. When I was originally discovering the genre I only really had the likes of Metal Hammer and Terrorizer as guides, so was subject to whoever their current darlings were, which meant whoever the labels were pushing at the time, resulting in some very unsatisfactory listening. When joining Metal Academy I would never have chosen The Horde as one of my original three clans, in fact even when considering a fourth clan I tended towards The Guardians. In recent times that has changed though, as through the featured releases and recommendations from others, I have discovered some truly awesome death metal releases such as Incantation's Diabolical Conquest and Blood Incantation's Hidden History of the Human Race.

To that list I can now add Dead Congregation's Promulgation of the Fall. The Greeks have perfectly captured Incantation's all-pervasive, cavernous sound that so appeals to me. The album varies from menacing, brooding death doom to an all-out, wall-of-sound aural assault that weirdly reminds me of Marduk's Panzer Division Marduk in it's blitzkrieg of an attack on the listener's ears - and all usually within a single track, the imperious Immaculate Poison for example. The riffs on this album are truly awesome and are of such intensity that if you listen to them too loudly I'm convinced they'll shake your teeth loose! Vocalist A.V. has the low-pitched growling down perfectly, but has less of a gurgling to his sound than some of the classic DM vocalists, with a drier, more dessicated timbre to his vocals - more Egyptian mummy than zombie!

So yet another awesome death metal discovery for me, thanks to MA (and Vinny in particular), that has only increased my affection for death metal as a genre and is helping me make up for lost time.

4.5/5

I must admit, I'm looking forward to this one. I've got it lined up for this weekend.

Hey, you can't keep a good song down!

For an album released in 2004 this has some serious early second wave credibility, which is not so surprising when you discover that despite only releasing their debut album Light of a Dead Star in 2002, they had originally formed in '92 (although they had split in '95 after releasing a demo which would later become that debut, ultimately reforming in 2000). There's a Lovecraftian aesthetic theme running through the album with it's songs of unknown threats and elder gods and in keeping with the creeping terrors of HPL's work, this isn't a monotonous blastathon, but rather, the band isn't afraid to slow it down and allow the music to reflect that crawling feeling of dread. For proof check out the superb The Elder Gods Awakening, the claustrophobic feeling of being stalked by an unnamed terror is excellently realised as you feel the darkness closing in. Don't misunderstand however, when it blasts it really kicks ass too, believe me. The first half of In the Mists of Orion's Sword is as taut as a piano wire and may well tear your fuckin' head off (fans of Darkthrone's classic trilogy prepare to salivate!)
I can't express exactly how impressed I am by this, so thanks Ben for bringing it to everyone's attention. Although black metal is viewed as a Scandinavian phenomenon, the French have certainly carved out an impressive niche for themselves within it's boundaries and Requiem Tenebrae is a great example of Gallic BM. This is the very definition of an underground classic and I'm gonna give it an unapologetic 5/5.

My submission for April's playlist is the title track from Trivium's In Waves album.

My submissions for April's playlist:

Anthrax - Got the Time from Persistence of Time (1990)
Crucified Mortals - Behind the Lurid Mask from Psalms of the Dead Choir (2016)
Merciless - Denied Birth from The Awakening  (1990)
Onslaught - Demoniac from The Force (1986)
Wraith - War of Aggression from Absolute Power (2019)

I have very little patience for wholly instrumental metal and I don't hear anything here that will change my mind on that score. Saying that, I imagine that if it did have vocals then they would almost certainly be of a kind that I would hate, so it's probably better off without. Although there is plenty going on, I can't help but wonder what the point is other than for the musicians involved to feel they have showcased their technical proficiency for all us inferior humans to listen to in awe and bow deferentially to their superiority. This left me feeling nothing at all, I don't hate it as such, but I certainly don't love it and would never seek it out again. For me an empty and soulless experience and a mere placebo of a record.

1.5/5

I am a huge fan of d-beat, particularly local heroes Discharge (I live in the north of the decaying corpse of the North Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent, the town that spewed forth the punk legend genre progenitors). Sacrilege took the aggression and diy ethic of Discharge's best work and married it to the aggression and heaviness of thrash to produce a vital and immediate album of the kind that really makes me feel alive. You can keep all your technical proficiency and sterile songwriting, underground albums like this that feel like they come from the gut and with which I can make some kind of connection are, for me, what I seek most in metal music. Tam's vocals are great - I love aggressive female vocals and she is, unfortunately, one of the very few female thrash vocalists, which is another big plus for this album. This is a savage, primal, middle-finger-to-the-man type of album that we hear so few of nowadays.
I agree with Daniel's assertion that, for the purposes of Metal Academy, the album should be classed as crossover thrash despite not being what is traditionally considered such, because the punk elements are so integral to it that it needs to be differentiated from straight-up thrash metal.
And, as I've stated before elsewhere, I can't believe for one minute that Kurt Cobain had never heard Shadow of Mordor before writing Nevermind's Negative Creep.

5/5

Sometime in the late 2000s, back in my pre-internet days when I still paid attention to the music press, one of the metal mags, Terrorizer or Metal Hammer probably, ran a doom metal special. In this issue, they got several reasonably well-known musicians to name their favourite three doom metal albums. Somebody (I forget who but it must have been someone I had time for) listed Winter's Into Darkness, Warning's Watching From A Distance and this, Solstice's second album. Deciding to investigate further, I tracked down CD copies of all three (no streaming or downloading for me back then) and fuck me if they didn't become three of my all-time, rock-solid five-star faves. So thank you eternally o forgotten metal muso.

I have already reviewed the album, so I'll not go on, but Solstice are a band who revel in their Englishness and particularly the medieval, battle-worn myths of heroes stood atop wind-blown keeps and riding among the rolling hills of forgotten history with their huge white chalk figures - an aesthetic which, being a bit of an English history nut, appeals to me immensely.

The songs themselves are, for me, the apogee of "traditional doom metal" and in particular the more epic side of the genre as exemplified by The Sleeping Giant, Hammer of Damnation and Cromlech, where Rich Walker and Hamish Glencross' dual guitar attack brings a Maidenesque bite to their massive heavy metal-derived doom riffs. For those looking for slower "true" doom there are the imperious Cimmerian Codex and the crushing New Dark Age II. Amongst all this metal madness, particularly in the heart of the album, are a number of folky acoustic arrangements, which are exemplified by the wistful and reflective Blackthorne.

The rhythm section of Rich Budby and Chaz Netherwood are the deep-dug foundation in which these monstrous metal edifices are built and their contribution is not to be underestimated. I also really like Morris Ingram's vocals, even though he is a little reedy. He wavers in a couple of spots but the backing vocals that track the lead provide a splint that prevents them becoming off-putting (I also kind of expect doom metal vocalists to be imperfect - Albert Witchfinder or Lee Dorrian for example). Finally there are the lyrics - Rich Walker must have swallowed a thesaurus before he wrote them as they are as dense and arcane as any you may find. "Ice locked the nexus, an empire awaits, Axiom abhorrent, protean triumvirate". Indeed!

For me the exemplar of traditional doom and a great example of a truly English metal album. I must have listened to it seven or eight times this week and I never tire of it. 5/5 definitely.

So, what you're saying is, that if we do manage to pronounce it correctly, we will then have summoned some formless Sumerian darklord? Bummer!

.. or maybe 2.5/5

oh, 3/5.. (I think).

OK, I guess I must be going soft, because there was a time when I would have eviscerated this album and spewed venom and bile over it's steaming remains. But, fuck, I actually quite enjoyed a fair bit of it's runtime - Farewell being the only track that I truly hated (and that is really awful). But the Bruce Dickinson-mimicking vocals aren't too bad, some of the riffing is decent and there are some pretty good solos. It is pompous and overblown, yet it's still quite endearing in a way. Look, I won't be listening to it on hard rotation, but I may feel like returning to it in the future (maybe when I'm feeling in a partucularly good mood!) and I wouldn't turn it off if it was on.

Shit what am I saying?! Where are my Khanate and Burning Witch albums ffs. I'll be watching fucking Pixar movies next!

The following bands have been added to Metal Academy from the 4th to the 9th of March, 2021

1. Everdawn (GUARDIANS) - requested by illusionist

2. Alkerdeel (NORTH, FALLEN)

3. Show Me a Dinosaur (NORTH)

4. Malikliya (NORTH, INFINITE)

5. Trespasser (NORTH)

6. Misotheist (NORTH)

7. Les Chants de Nihil (NORTH)

8. Magoth (NORTH)

9. Hyperion (NORTH)

10. Yashira (FALLEN, INFINITE, REVOLUTION)

11. Hexgrafv (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

12. Wo Fat (FALLEN)

13. Spelljammer (FALLEN) - requested by Sonny92

14. öOoOoOoOoOo (INFINITE)

15. Sunburst (INFINITE)

16. Shrezzers (REVOLUTION)

17. Hazing Over (REVOLUTION)

18. Gravesend (HORDE)

19. Deathgoat (HORDE)

20. Fractal Generator (HORDE)

21. Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum (HORDE)

Hi Ben, could you provide a few pronunciation pointers for that last one!!

Could you add the new Wolvennest album, Temple, please Ben.

Wolvennest have released the best album of the year so far. Not easily pigeonholed, it's 70+ minutes does for doom metal what Oranssi Pazuzu did for Black Metal with last year's Mestarin kynsi, blending psych-doom with black metal, gothic rock and space rock for a fairly unique release.

This is the second track, Swear To Fire:

I'm quite fond of a bit of drone myself, so I'll endeavour to help out with the heavy lifting on that topic. It's with gothic metal that I need others to carry the load!!

I'm probably the one Metal Academy member who enjoys Amaranthe so much. Of course, they still had several sh*tty stinkers throughout their career, including "that song you gotta avoid at all costs".

What song is that then Andi?

Fair point Daniel, in that case I'm probably sorted for a Revolution selection then.

Yes, Daniel, I personally think you would be better keeping your own allocation for your personal selections and then provide an additional slot to maybe cover those under-represented areas of the respective clans. It seems unfair that you should sacrifice your own personal choices in order to present a wider selection of tracks.

 I'm also wondering if we're gonna see the playlists being dominated by the same bands/subgenres/eras or with too high a ratio of classics but that could occur with the increased track limit in some of the other clans anyway. I don't see that we can get around that as I have no intention of telling people what to submit. It needs to be more organic than that. One thing I will say though is that I hope people try to make their submissions a genuine reflection of their listening habits from the previous month (wherever possible) rather than simply picking old favourites. I really like the idea of each month's playlist being a snap shot of the clan's movements at that particular point in time.

While the number of participants is low, then there probably is a chance that some subgenres may be left out. If the desire is genuinely for the clan members to base their submissions on their previous month's listening habits, this is very likely. In The Fallen, for example, I don't believe there are any active contributors who listen to massive amounts of drone metal on a regular basis, so there may only be infrequent submissions from the genre. The only real alternative I can see is to leave a block of time for tracks to be shoehorned in from any subgenres that may have been under-represented, but then this would no longer make the playlist a snapshot of the clan's current listening habits. It's a tricky balancing act for sure.

My suggestions for April's The North playlist are:

Forhist - II from Forhist (2021)

Darkthrone - Skald av Satans sol from Transilvanian Hunger (1994)

Sainte Marie des Loups - Interdit et oublié from Funerailles de feu (2020)

My suggestions for the April Fallen playlist:

Subrosa - Ghosts of a Dead Empire (11:04) from More Constant Than the Gods (2013)

Spelljammer - Abyssal Trip (10:38) from Abyssal Trip (2021)

Acid Mammoth - Berserker (5:01) from Caravan (2021)

Tar Hag - Elder Cloak (2:59) from Elder Cloak EP (2017)

Total Runtime - 29:42

Yes, well I was wrong. I listened to a few Amaranthe tracks on YouTube and found them to be jaw-droppingly awful. But, that's fine - I somehow don't think a grizzled old cynic like me is their target demographic. As for picking a track from In Waves for next month's playlist, I didn't really think anyone would be interested in listening to a track from the previous month's featured release again so soon. But I pledge that I WILL find a track to suggest sometime during the next week or so.

Yeah I agree. There is always a danger that the playlists may become a "greatest hits" sort of thing, but with the current participating membership I think that to be unlikely.

Great choice Ben. I can see why you rate it with it's old-school vibe and it's occasional slower descent into doom territory (Taken Away by the Torn Black Shroud is brilliant). Gonna have a few more listens before commenting more fully - it definitely deserves it.

Are we only using the time limit for The Fallen's playlist next month?

And yet you've only just listened to the monthly feature release for The Revolution & reported back positively Sonny. That qualifies as having an opinion as far as I can see.

I don't think I've explained myself very well. What I mean is, I have very little experience of metalcore and don't see how I could suggest a track for next month's Revolution playlist with any authority. I have heard bands like Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall and Dillinger Escape Plan, but I really don't care for them at all. I have the same problem with metalcore as I do with a lot of sludge - the hardcore-influenced vocals. Now I'm well into hardcore punk like Black Flag, Minor Threat and Sick of it All, but I dislike that style of vocal delivery in metal. The reason I enjoyed In Waves so much was because a significant percentage of the vocals were clean sung, enabling me to tolerate the harsh-sung sections more easily. 

Now, the Trance Metal tag interests me much more because I have literally no idea what that is all about, but it sounds intriguing. Could anyone suggest a decent album within that genre that may give me a good idea where to start, then I may possibly find something to suggest there.

Nice one Daniel! I'm looking forward to it already.