Sonny's Forum Replies

Seriously, someone would bother doing this? To what end? I must be so out of touch because I just don't get it.

Perhaps each user could have the option to choose an album of the month that they can display on their profile page? I think it might make for an interesting talking point that encourages connection & recommendation.

Yes, I could really go for this idea. A good way to start conversation and a touchstone for other members to get an idea of where you're coming from. Also a nice touch of personalisation that let's you put a "flag in the ground".

Daniel's choice for July's The Infinite featured release immediately made me think of this.

A fantastic live version to boot (damn these guys were good!!):

I've just gotta add my praise and love for this record, sitting as it does slap-bang in the middle of Opeth's Triple-Fives: Still Life, this and Deliverance (Still Life taking the title for me). Not many bands have ever managed a run of albums that awesome before and definitely  not since.

A rare track from Cathedral now only available on the Serpent's Gold comp, the briliant Schizoid Puppeteer, twelve minutes of WTF?? Stoner Doom:

I must admit, I shied away from tracks that are an entire album, otherwise I would also have seriously considered including Mirror Reaper, along with Monolithe III and Ogre's Plague of the Planet. But I agree with Xephyr, after 44 years of listening to metal this is a nigh-on impossible task!

I must disagree Xephyr,  I only very rarely find that gothic metal sounds sincere (and this ain't it). I do agree about the Idle Hands album, though - I just found it boring. However, I've just looked back at my RYM list for last year and I gave it 3/5. Wow, I must have really been in a good mood that day! It was still only #376 on my year list, though.

OK, I suppose I'd better show how out of touch I am with the general consensus, but I find this album excruciating. It's attempt at the whole laconic libertine act just makes me want to cringe and epitomizes everything I dislike about gothic metal, a genre I've always considered to be merely a gateway into the  metal world that people grow out of when they've heard some real metal (or maybe if they're trying to impress a girl/boy who doesn't even like metal). Sorry, I don't mean to offend anyone, but I just feel embarrassed listening to this and find it very difficult to hide my contempt for it!

Hi Ben, please add Saudi black/folk metal outfit Al-Namrood and German black metallers Dauþuz.

... shit, but then what about Motorhead - Overkill, Enslaved -  Lifandi liv undir hamri, Grand Magus - The Hunt, Sabbath - Into the Void, Darkthrone - In the Shadow of the Horns, Panopticon -  Bodies Under the Falls, Winterfylleth - Mam Tor (The Shivering Mountain), Electric Wizard - Funeralopolis, Reverend Bizarre - Goddess of Doom, Venenum -  Trance of Death - Part III: There Are Other Worlds... and a thousand others. This too difficult man!!

Just off the top of my head and subject to constant change:

1. I Am the Black Wizards - Emperor

2. Cromlech - Solstice

3. Killers - Iron Maiden

4. Creeping Death - Metallica

5. Watching From A Distance - Warning

6. Raining Blood - Slayer

7. Servants of the Warsmen - Winter

8. Jewel Throne - Celtic Frost

9. The Usher - Subrosa

10. Freezing Moon - Mayhem

This release has been added to the Hall of Judgement. Just for the record, I personally feel that Ben & Jerry's is more black metal than Sonny92 realises.

Awesome.. TRVE KVLT Black Metal ice cream!!!

Nice to see Paul Di'Anno's Maiden albums well-represented. They're both much overlooked in my opinion and show a punkier, more raw and aggressive side to Maiden that I think they lost later. 

OK, being a major listaholic, I can't believe I let this pass me by until now.

This is also extremely difficult, so here's mine as it stands (limited to one entry per band):

 
1. Warning - Watching from a Distance
2. Slayer - Reign in Blood
3. Winter - Into Darkness
4. Solstice - New Dark Age
5. Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion
6. Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky
7. Enslaved - Vikingligr veldi
8. Metallica - Master of Puppets
9. Opeth - Still Life
10. Evoken - Quietus
11. Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
12. SubRosa - More Constant Than the Gods
13. Autopsy - Mental Funeral 
14. Burzum - S/T
15. Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny
16. Iron Maiden - Killers
17. Sodom - Persecution Mania
18. Terrorizer - World Downfall
19. Grand Magus - The Hunt
20. Cianide - A Descent Into Hell 
21. S.O.A.D. - Toxicity
22. Panopticon - Kentucky
23. Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
24. Windhand - Soma
25. Reverend Bizarre - In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend

 ...ask me again tomorrow it may be different!

One thing I particularly like about The Academy is the decision to ignore micro-genres and focus on the more general metal sub-genres. I was wondering, though, if it would be possible to filter the charts not just by clan, but also by genre. For example, I am a proud member of The Fallen but, as some of you may have gathered by now, I am no big fan of Gothic Metal, so I would like to be able to view a chart for, say, just Doom Metal, or Drone Metal, or maybe multiple filters could be applied. Maybe this could be a feature that is Clan-gated.

I agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly Daniel. The clan-filtered charts should end up being  particularly relevant to what true genre enthusiasts view as the most essential releases and that definitely sets The Academy apart from other websites.

Is Danigate an attempt by rogue government agency bots to try to influence our free and fair Hall of Judgement voting?!

Only had a quick listen yet, but... HELL, YES!!

I agree that a clan and site rating option is the best way to go for rating album covers. This would also make for an interesting comparison between, for example, what devotees of grindcore consider a classic cover and what the wider metal community think of the same cover. In other words, would you rate a cover purely on it's own merits as a piece of art or by how appropriate it is to the album it adorns?

Almost as a side thought, I would be interested to know how important fans think album covers still are. Obviously growing up with vinyl records and physical record shops, the covers of albums were particularly important in capturing your attention as you flicked through racks of records, but is this still the case in the modern world of streaming and downloads? I'm still an old vinyl junkie and must admit there are still some crackers out there, but what does everyone else think?

I'm with Vinny regarding limiting clan activity to members only, in that I think it would be counter-productive. The reviews, forums etc. are great places to expand into musical genres you may not usually listen to. I myself aren't a member of either The Horde or The Guardians, but have more than a passing interest in bands that would feature in both of these and wouldn't like to feel I was being excluded from any interest in those bands. I do really like the clan concept though, so maybe smaller items like the anniversary releases could be available only to clan members. 

Ben, could you add Panphage (Sweden), Phobonoid (Italy) and Psicosfera (Argentina), please.

Hi Ben, please add Morag Tong (UK), Dirty Grave (Brazil), Benthic Realm (US), Second Grave (US) and Witchthroat Serpent (France).

2/5

I'm no massive fan of speed metal anyway, but I just found this boring. Poor production, as Saxy says the bottom end is non-existent, the vocals leave an awful lot to be desired and the songs feel flat, often merely a device to hang yet another masturbatory solo on. With so much music in the world, I can't imagine ever bothering with this again.

A crushing and visceral slab of "true" doom from Oakland's criminally overlooked Cardinal Wyrm. From their debut album, Another Holy Trinity.

I've not even heard the Agent Steel album... and I don't need to.

To Mega Therion tops nearly everything so that's where my vote goes!

(In the interests of fairness I will check out Skeptics Apocalypse, but I hope it's better than the title!)

Well, Daniel, you've really thrown the cat amongst the pigeons for me with this month's featured releases. I never thought I would prefer The Gateway's release to one from The Fallen in a month of Sundays, but after only a few attempts you've managed it! I won't go into my dislike of October Rust here, but Battle of Los Angeles is certainly one of only about four releases from The Gateway that I have amongst the 1300+ albums in my physical collection of LPs, CDs and tapes and, along with Toxicity, one of the few I would even bother listening to nowadays.
I first crossed paths with RATM after catching the Freedom video (from the S/T) on MTV and it's message against extra-judicial police killings as represented by the shooting of Leonard Peltier (shit, some things never change...) This hard-hitting video had such an effect on my subconscious that when I saw BoLA in my local CD store I grabbed it without thinking. I don't much like rap, apart from Straight Outta Compton and It Takes a Nation of Millions so I've never given it much ear time and rap rock like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers leaves me cold, so this was a bit outside my comfort zone.
But, hell, this is one great record - angry and intense, but not in a misdirected "hit out at everyone" kind of way, but in an invigorating, energetic and focussed tirade against those who deserve it. My only real reservation about my undying love of metal is that too often as a genre it is lyrically vacuous and I can't in all honesty say if I would dig this to the same degree without Zack de la Rocha's political messaging, but I think the music is strong enough in it's own right to command respect (Tom Morello was never better). Testify, Calm Like A Bomb, Sleep Now in the Fire and War Within A Breath are all stone-cold classics as far as I'm concerned and the lyrical content elevates them even higher. I don't know if this was a deliberate choice, Daniel, but this album is possibly even more relevant today than when it was released over twenty years ago and that is a hell of a testament to it's power.

I wasn't suggesting replacing the monthly featured release feature at all as I think it's a damn good idea and does get members involved. I was thinking more of somehow having a new release feature up front somewhere, not  necessarily a featured release for each clan. A lot of people are interested in current releases as the endless myriad of current year lists on RYM testifies, in fact my own yearly lists are some of my most popular! I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, but I'm puzzled as to why a significant number of visitors don't return and am mulling over possible ways the site could ensnare their attention longer term. Maybe this isn't the direction to go as there are plenty of metal sites and mags that deal in new releases, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway as, personally, I get a real kick out of discovering brand new releases.

I agree that the monthly release feature should be more up-front as it is a good starting point for discussion and reviewing and placing it more prominently may encourage more to become involved with it.

Kind of connected, I would like to see a monthly release feature related to new releases, enabling the site to stay current and maybe attract members who are newer to metal. Sometimes us older members forever reminiscing about the "old days" might be a bit off-putting to younger potential recruits. I don't know, maybe I'm full of shit (it has been said before!)

In a similar vein to the clan challenges, how about a band name patch for any user who had reviewed all the (studio) albums from a particular band? Obviously only bands with a certain minimum number of releases would qualify, but there are plenty of metal bands who have released 10+ albums, so maybe that would be a good starting point and as these are generally the better known acts, Maiden, Sabbath, Priest, MDB, Darkthrone etc then most visitors to a site like MA should be more than familiar with them. The same could apply to metal labels like Nuclear Blast, Profound Lore or Avantgarde, say 25 or 30 reviews from a label would qualify the reviewer to a label patch.

In fact, thinking about it, maybe "patches" would be a better concept for a metal site than medals.

Hi Ben, do you think it is possible that when you search by release it would be possible to list all releases in a clan with no ratings or reviews. I ask because one thing I do like on metal-archives is their "review albums with no reviews" challenge. Due to the newness of Metal Academy it has a large proportion of unrated and unreviewed albums, so maybe something along those lines could be introduced, otherwise there is a danger that the only albums with enough ratings to register on the charts will be those on the clan challenges. Personally I have decided to try to rate as many of the Fallen doom, sludge, stoner and drone releases as I can (I'll leave the gothic stuff to someone else!) It's just a thought...

It's been out for a couple of months now, but this album is terrific. For fans of Solstice, Warning, Apostle of Solitude, Hour of 13 etc.

Death the Leveller are 3/4 of Mael Mordha (and are better):

Opening track, The Hunt Eternal:

Ben, please add Ireland's Death the Leveller.

Sorry Ben.. I know I probably shouldn't encourage him!!

..oh and Hexenbrett (Germany) and the superbly named Cthuluminati (Netherlands).

Also, could you add Old Man Gloom's Seminar VIII: Light of Meaning if you haven't already. I say this because when I search OMG it reports 13 Releases, but I can only see ten.

Hi Ben, could you please add a couple of atmo-black projects, Ruadh (UK) and Peordh (US).

Daniel, I find your frog-centric viewpoint offensive as it completely ignores the hardships and discrimination other amphibians in extreme metal face on a daily basis!! Frogs may be the most populous creature in the aquatic gorenoise community, but they aren't the be all and end all you know!

It appears to me, with the exception of vandalize, that the visitors to the site who have only selected one clan then register no further activity. This suggests one of two things, either they are just surfing and had a quick look at the site then decided it wasn't for them, or inadvertently selected only one clan, became frustrated and then left it. 

I don't know which it is, but the actual registration process seems straightforward to me so I'm guessing it is more likely to be the former, in which case there's very little you could do about that.

If someone has registered less than three clans can they register further clans later? For example if they are new to metal and only have a limited experience of the music, joining a cool-looking site of well-informed enthusiasts to enlist help in order to expand their metal horizons. (I'm aware not everyone on the internet is an old bastard like me!) 

Hi Ben, please add Cosmic Putrefaction (Italy).

Hi Ben, could you please add the new Ashtar album, Kaikuja.

I posted a review of Monotheist a while back, so I won't regurgitate it here, other than to say that I have to admit to having come to the album a little late. The reason is that by the time of it's release I had given up on the band. I loved their first three releases and they are still some of my favourite albums of all time, but since Into the Pandemonium the band seemed hell-bent on self destructing. Cold Lake, Vanity / Nemesis and then the reformed band's Prototype demo were pretty much crap, not merely sub-standard with the band unable to put together a stable line-up.

So when Monotheist was originally released in 2006 my reaction was "so what?" Well more fool me, as Tom and the guys totally killed it with the slowing of their original thrash riffing to a more doom metal pace is absolutely right up my street. One of the great albums of the 2000s, and the springboard to Tom G. Warrior's next project Triptykon.

To Mega Therion will always remain my favourite CF album, as it means so much to me on a personal level, but this is a damn close second.

Thanks for the insight guys. Personally speaking, I enjoy the site immensely and one of the main reasons is that it fosters a respect for each other that is sorely lacking on most other sites (music related or otherwise) and is something of which you are right to be enormously proud. 

I agree with you Ben that points-based systems only seem to breed an atmosphere of contempt and over-inflated egos, as they seem to inevitably lead to a hierarchical membership. MA's greatest strength is that, no matter your musical preferences, it's members consider everyone else's points of view as valid and feel no need to belittle or sneer at their opinions.

The other obvious unique aspect of the site is the clan-based membership, a brilliant concept that I suspect has a huge amount of potential going forward. 

Again I would just like to express my appreciation to both of you and all the other members who make the site what it is and as for the membership increasing, as someone once said "if you build it, they will come!"

Sometimes events in life mean that an album takes on a much greater significance for us than others and has meaning beyond the mere music on the disc. For me Sepultura's Chaos AD is one such album. Due to a life-changing family tragedy in the spring of 1990 I pretty much abandoned metal music and it's occult and violent imagery as we dealt with a very difficult time in our lives. If I did listen to any music at all during this time it was more likely to be Pearl Jam, Nirvana or some fairly anodyne Britpop.

Then one day I was browsing in a new record store that opened nearby and came across Chaos AD. I had been briefly aware of Sepultura before '90, but it was the cover that drew my attention. Anyway, I bought the CD and took it home, then.. wow, this was THE shit. Aggressive, powerful and yet with a meaningful message beyond the usual bland rantings and macho posturings of a lot of metal. I was hooked from the opening of the riff on Refuse / Resist (a song with a sentiment I strongly identify with). Territory, Propaganda, Manifest and the awesome Nomad are all fantastic metal songs, but beyond that actually fucking MEAN something. Kaiowas is a nice interlude that reflects something of the band's roots and is a nice looking-glass into the band. There is even a cover of one of my all-time favourite songs, The Hunt (although I prefer the New Model Army version, Max's vocals not quite suiting the ominous nature of the track).

So, this isn't just a great album in it's own right, it is solely responsible for allowing me to find a way back into metal music when it seemed I had left it behind for ever. I will never forget that and still play this regularly to this day.

Thanks for the reply Daniel.

I'm sure I speak for all the "regulars" when I say we really appreciate the time, effort and obvious passion both yourself and Ben put into the site in order to give all visitors a positive and rewarding experience.

Thanks, Andi, I'll be sure to check them all out.

Hi Ben, please add Japanese doom duo BlackLab.

Hi Ben, please add Winterfylleth's (UK) latest, The Reckoning Dawn and Sojourner's (NZ) Premonitions.

The new album from England's premier black metal band, Winterfylleth, called The Reckoning Dawn, their first black metal release for four years, is a cracker: