Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

Second single with the new lineup. Glad things didn't get f***ed up, and let's hope they don't, fingers crossed. For real though, this is another solid banger:

Just useless jazzy guitar noodling that breaks the flow of the album by appearing so early:

A short yet progressive instrumental with no time wasted at all and some of the best soloing and drumming here:

Truly devastating technical carnage of revived classic progressive tech-death:

Although my interest in alt-rock/metal bands like Linkin Park has dropped after moving out of The Gateway, at least I still like some bands. Here's my discography ranking for one of those bands, Coldrain (including EPs with fresh material):

1. The Enemy Inside

2. The Side Effects

3. Nonnegative

4. The Revelation

5. Through Clarity

6. Nothing Lasts Forever

7. Until the End

8. Optimize

9. Vena

10. Final Destination

11. Fateless

You know that Coldrain song I've just shared in the Gateway Track of the Day thread?

I shared it with one of my outside-world friends, the one who got me into Coldrain and other Japanese alt-metalcore bands via Gundam Extreme. He told me that it has a similar tune and melody as another J-rock song that he likes that was shared by another outside-world friend. And he is right! That song and this one are mashup-worthy:

The opening title highlight of Coldrain's new EP has made me optimistic for what may come next in Japanese modern metal:

I'm glad to appreciate some of the more melodic progressive metal bands like this one:

But I'm still up for the deathly heaviness and ethereal atmosphere coming from this band:

Still expanding my reborn heavy/power/symphonic metal interest, here are 5 bands of those genres that I've heard of when I was still completely in that zone 10 years ago, but didn't start listening to them full-time until I rediscovered them in the playlists that I've assembled in the last few months:

Starting off as a post-hardcore band leaning into metalcore, Dayseeker has since headed towards alt-rock/metal, the metal part shining the most in their new album:

One of the earliest American death-doom bands still active today:

Here my top 10 of 1994:

1. Circle of Dust - Brainchild

2. Unbroken - Life. Love. Regret.

3. The 3rd & the Mortal - Sorrow

4. PainKiller - Execution Ground

5. The 3rd & the Mortal - Tears Laid in Earth

6. Grave - Soulless

7. Godflesh - Selfless

8. Godflesh - Merciless

9. Demolition Hammer - Time Bomb

10. Living Sacrifice - Inhabit

Nik Nocturnal has returned from his break to do some FUN. METAL. THINGS!!!! Kick-A modern metalcore/deathcore/electronic things, to be exact:

Ben, please add the new VoidCeremony album Abditum.

Also if any of the tracks above encourage you to check out more of those bands and come up with some ideas for the monthly Spotify playlists, here's a thread to add in your playlist suggestions: https://metal.academy/forum/10/thread/480

Also if any of the tracks above encourage you to check out more of those bands and come up with some ideas for the monthly Spotify playlists, here's a thread to add in your playlist suggestions: https://metal.academy/forum/9/thread/479

Also if any of the tracks above encourage you to check out more of those bands and come up with some ideas for the monthly Spotify playlists, here's a thread to add in your playlist suggestions: https://metal.academy/forum/7/thread/477

Here are some tracks I can think of that can be good for your Sphere playlist:

Fear Factory - "Recharger" from The Industrialist

PAIN - "Same Old Song" from Dancing with the Dead

Sybreed - "Bioactive" from Slave Design

Strapping Young Lad - "All Hail the New Flesh" from City

The Amenta - "Plague of Locus" from Plague of Locus

Blue Stahli - "Lakes of Flame" from Lakes of Flame

Red Harvest - "Beyond the End" from Sick Transit Gloria Mundi

Northlane - "Freefall" from Alien

Circle of Dust - "Chasm" from Disengage

Cypecore - "Neoteric Gods" from Make Me Real

Godflesh - "Live to Lose" from Us and Them

Celldweller - "Electric Eye" from Satellites

Psyclon Nine - "I Choose Violence" from And Then Oblivion

Old - "Disconnect Self" from Lo Flux Tube

Mechina - "Machine God" from Tyrannical Resurrection

Turmion Katilot - "Helvetin Torvet" from Universal Satan

Samael - "In Gold We Trust" from Lux Mundi

AP2 - "The Only Man I Know" from Supsension of Disbelief

By the way, Zach, I noticed you haven't done the same thing with the Revolution clan. I might start that thread for you later if you'd like, I have a lot to narrow down.

Here are some tracks I can think of that can be good for your Pit playlist:

Lost Society - "Fast Loud Death" from Fast Loud Death

Warbringer - "The Sword and the Cross" from Wrath and Ruin

Sabbat - "Do Dark Horses Dream of Nightmares?" from Dreamweaver

The Haunted - "Bury Your Dead" from Made Me Do It

Demolition Hammer - "Neanderthal" from Tortured Existence

Annihilator - "Human Insecticide" from Alice in Hell

Vektor - "Tetrastructural Minds" from Outer Isolation

Onslaught - "Welcome to Dying" from In Search of Sanity

Here are some tracks I can think of that can be good for your North playlist:

Samael - "After the Sepulture" from Blood Ritual

Shade Empire - "Disembodiment" from Omega Arcane

Stormlord - "Under the Samnites' Spears" from At the Gates of Utopia

Mental Cruelty - "Nordlys" from Zwielicht

Shylmagoghnar - "A New Dawn" from Emergence

Here are some tracks I can think of that can be good for your Infinite playlist:

Threshold - "The Man Who Saw Through Time" from Legends of the Shires

Fates Warning - "Epitaph" from The Spectre Within

Symphony X - "Revelation (Divus Pennae Ex Tragoedia)" from Paradise Lost

In Vain - "Where the Winds Meet" from Solemn

Xerath - "I Hold Dominion" from III

Alchemist - "Worlds Within Worlds" from Jar of Kingdom

Madder Mortem - "Resonantine" from Deadlands

Tesseract - "War of Being" from War of Being

Anacrusis - "Grateful" from Screams and Whispers

Extol - "The Things I Found" from The Blueprint Dives

Dir En Grey - "Vinushka" from Uroboros

Voivod - "Killing Technology" from Killing Technology

Seventh Wonder - "Unbreakable" from Mercy Falls

Meshuggah - "Future Breed Machine" from Destroy Erase Improve

Here are some tracks I can think of that can be good for your Horde playlist:

Orbit Culture - "Open Eye" from Nija

Hypocrisy - "Eraser" from The Arrival

Grave - "Into the Grave" from Into the Grave

Obscura - "The Anticosmic Overload" from Cosmogenesis

Fleshgod Apocalypse - "Abyssal" from Mafia

The Amenta - "Nihil" from Occasus

Job for a Cowboy - "The Synthetic Sea" from Sun Eater

Becoming the Archetype - "Autopsy" from The Physics of Fire

Soilwork - "Soilworker's Song of the Damned" from Natural Born Chaos

Dethklok - "Hatredcopter" from The Dethalbum

Insomnium - "Drawn to Black" from Above the Weeping World

Pestilence - "Testimony" from Testimony of the Ancients

Cynic - "Sentiment" from Focus

Here are some tracks I can think of that can be good for your Guardians playlist:

Accept - "Metal Heart" from Metal Heart

Avenged Sevenfold - "Nightmare" from Nightmare

Volbeat - "Still Counting" from Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood

Queensryche - "Neue Regel" from Rage of Order

Battle Beast - "Last Goodbye" from Last Goodbye

Enforcer - "Mask of Red Death" from From Beyond

Crimson Glory - "Masque of the Red Death" from Transcendence

Bruce Dickinson - "Afterglow of Ragnarok" from The Mandrake Project

3 Inches of Blood - "Silent Killer" from Here Waits Thy Doom

Here are some tracks I can think of that can be good for your Gateway playlist:

36 Crazyfists - "Slit Wrist Theory" from Bitterness the Star

Butcher Babies - "Magnolia Blvd." from Goliath

Cane Hill - "Screwtape" from Smile

Demon Hunter - "Infected" from Demon Hunter

Issues - "Coma" from Headspace

Karnivool - "Mauseum" from Themata

Luti-Kriss - "Black Smith" from Throwing Myself

Mushroomhead - "Kill Tomorrow" from XIII

Slipknot - "The Heretic Anthem" from Iowa

Here are some tracks I can think of that can be good for your Fallen playlist:

Swallow the Sun - "Swallow (Horror I)" from The Morning Never Came (death-doom)

October Tide - "Infinite Submission" from Rain Without End (death-doom)

Trail of Tears - "Bloodstained Endurance" from Bloodstained Endurance (gothic metal)

Neurosis - "The Eye of Every Storm" from The Eye of Every Storm (post-sludge (more sludge than post-))

Cult of Luna - "The Revelation Embodied" from Cult of Luna (post-sludge (more sludge than post-))

Ben, please add the Dragoncorpse EP The Fall of House Abbarath.

Hello again, Zach! I have some good ideas for your playlists, but I'll need some time to narrow them down. Can't wait to show them to you.

The once-shelved 6th album by Textures, Genotype will finally be released on January 23, 2026 (wow, a two-day early birthday present for me!). Check out this killer new single, featuring Charlotte Wessels (ex-Delain):

A massive live rendition of a catchy speedy highlight has planted the seed for international power metal bands like Stratovarius:

The new Trivium EP's 7-minute epic that is the perfect emotional storm:

The ambient industrial instrumental finale oddly enough exemplifies the dark temptation of the more experimental side of The Sphere:

Atmospheric black metal is combined with funeral-ish doom, similarly to Katatonia's debut and Dolorian, suitable for exploring the dark lands of Morytania in RuneScape:

Despite the repetitive riffing, this is the pure high-quality darkness of blackened doom, even leaning slightly into post-sludge:

Hope you get better soon, Vinny.

An upbeat closing track that's not quite doomy, yet really having that gothic vibe:

Probably the heaviest track Green Carnation has ever made by far, featuring Enslaved vocalist Grutle Kjellson:

It seems like bands who have reformed end up taking another long-but-not-as-long gap before their next album since their comeback. We should be grateful though, they're already starting a new album trilogy with A Dark Poem, Pt. I: The Shores Of Melancholia. 42 more minutes of gothic progressive metal greatness! The band continues to put their influences together, adding new aspects while never letting go of what they usually have. The instruments shine in the rifftastic guitars, audible bass, and expansive keys. As for the vocals, I'm still enjoying the baritone singing that should be easy for me to cover sometime, fitting well for both the softer sections and the heavier parts. More often than not, catchiness is in great balance with drama. Sometimes it's doomy, sometimes it's upbeat. And one track would be the heaviest, most blackened track Green Carnation has ever made by far (hint: it's the one featuring Enslaved vocalist Grutle Kjellson). All in all, Green Carnation have made a promising start of a new saga. It's great hearing the motivation they have for ambition despite already reaching their peak in the early 2000s. The music and lyrics are all in excellent shape. A potentially strong era of gothic progressive metal power and grace is up ahead!

4.5/5

The centerpiece of Green Carnation's progressive gothic doom debut is made more progressive in its re-recording that shines as greatly as the original:

The worst part of a poor two-part ambient orchestral suite that would sadly hint at the sound of their next album Acoustic Verses:

If you're patient enough, you'll be rewarded with another progressive experience in this song to make up for most of the album's downfalls:

The best alt-metal highlight here, somehow ending up in a few sports video games and I didn't know:

An 8-minute final epic of strength and melancholy:

An ambient interlude that would've been OK if part of the album's title epic, but on its own it's just sh*tty filler:

Another fun progressive gothic highlight:

The 18-minute centerpiece of Green Carnation's progressive gothic doom debut:

Here are my sneak peek submissions for the December Sphere playlist:

Blue Stahli - "Endure" (2:36) from Obsidian (2021)

Circle of Dust - "Yurasuka (Blue Stahli Remix)" (4:18) from Disengage (1998, 2016 remaster)

D'espairsray - "Marry of the Blood" (8:45) from Born (2004)

Godflesh - "Obeyed" (5:35) from A World Lit Only by Fire (2014)

The Interbeing - "Synthetic Bloodline" (4:31) from Icon of the Hopeless (2022)

Neurotech - "Repent in Need" (4:13) from Ave Neptune (2023)

Total length: 29:58

Here are my sneak peek submissions for the December Revolution playlist:

Atreyu - "Lip Gloss and Black" (5:05) from Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses (2002)

The Breathing Process - "The Conscious Observer" (5:19) from Samsara (2018)

The Devil Wears Prada - "Supernova" (2:50) from Space (2015)

It Dies Today - "Life of Uncertainty" (4:48) from Lividity (2009)

Reflections - "From Nothing" (3:51) from Willow (2020)

Structures - "Gone / Dead" (1:42) from None of the Above (2021)

We Came as Romans - "If There's Nothing to See" (4:35) from Cold Like War (2017)

Total length: 28:10

Here are my submissions for the December Infinite playlist:

Conception - "Roll the Fire" (4:32) from Parallel Minds (1993)

Jinjer - "Pausing Death" (4:45) from Macro (2019)

Tesseract - "War of Being" (11:02) from War of Being (2023)

Vildhjarta - "+ Den spanska känslan +" (7:26) from Där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar (2025)

Total length: 27:45

Here are my sneak peek submissions for the December Guardians playlist:

Galneryus - "Let Us Shine" (6:20) from Between Dread and Valor (2023)

Iron Fire - "Riding Free" (4:54) from Thunderstorm (2000)

Masterplan - "Kind Hearted Light" (4:25) from Masterplan (2003)

Serenity - "Forever" (6:42) from Words Untold & Dreams Unlived (2007)

Visions of Atlantis - "Lost" (3:58) from Cast Away (2004)

Total length: 26:19

Here are my thoughts on all the selected tracks:

Eisheilig - "Sturm" from Elysium (2006)

3/5. Not really the best start of the playlist, now that I look back at it. Probably because this is the German alt pop-ish genre that is Neue Deutsche Harte. But I enjoy the beautiful bridge at the two and a half minute mark.

Lard - "Volcanus 2000 (We Wipe the World)" from 70's Rock Must Die (2000)

3.5/5. This one has the band's usual industrial rock/metal first introduced in the 1988 Ministry album, tackling those who want to imitate Nine Inch Nails. There are some people who think this kind of sound is stinky garbage, but if you get more to the sound like I am, you might some decent enjoyment.

Red Harvest - "Hole in Me" from A Greater Darkness (2007)

4/5. A great song for me to feel the darkness. Red Harvest haven't made anything since this album, but hopefully they'll return. Unlike their earlier faster works, this song has the slow crawl of Neurosis or death-doom.

Black Magnet - "Better Than Love" from Megamantra (2025)

4.5/5. Quite an underrated banger! It's like a trip back to the 90s industrial rock/metal of bands like Skinny Puppy.

Shadow Domain - "Turbogenerator" from Digital Divide (2018)

4/5. Sybreed vocalist Benjamin Nominet kept himself busy during his main band's hiatus, with temporary side-project Shadow Domain. Man, his vocals shine in the chorus!

Klank - "Penetrate" from Numb (2000)

4.5/5. Klank can really crank things up, with the ability to sound heavy and dance-y at the same time.

Void - "Sulphur City Sickness" from Posthuman (2003)

4/5. Same with this band, minus the brief sludgy intro.

Pitchshifter - "Skin Grip" from Industrial (1991)

4.5/5. This one has some of Pantera's forceful groove, but it's still a pummeling crusher like in Fear Factory's debut album next year.

Awake at Last - "Bloodline" from The Balance (2023)

4/5. A cool track to love for modern alt-/industrial metal.

Motionless in White - "Burned at Both Ends II" from Scoring the End of the World (2022)

4.5/5. The title of this track already lets you know the song sequels are still going on in this Motionless in White album, being a sequel to a song from Infamous. It has really grown into one of my favorites. The lyrics have a more positive theme, "At both ends burned once more, but now I live for something more".

Acumen Nation - "Octavia" from Artifacts: 1990 - 1993 - Volume 1 (2002)

4/5. Acumen Nation has made a compilation of early demo tracks from the early 90s. This one's pretty great though more industrial than metal.

Ghostemane - "Crime Time" from Fear Network II (2021)

3.5/5. "Free ride right into the next life with next knife I see anywhere near me or in my vicinity. Count down the days!"

Killing Joke - "Majestic" from Hosannas from the Basements of Hell (2006)

4/5. This one is out of this world with majestic guitar force. Enough said!

Lord of the Lost - "It's a Sin" from Weapons of Mass Seduction (2023)

4.5/5. The original Pet Shop Boys single may be an overused pop song, but Lord of the Lost made it more epic, even more than Gamma Ray's cover!

Blue Stahli - "Red Carpet Rush" from Antisleep Vol. 04 (2017)

5/5. This highlight is from Blue Stahli's Antisleep instrumental album series mostly centered around electro-industrial tracks. However, as much as this track tries to go the EDM/house route similar to Avicii and David Guetta, it actually has a similar vein to Neurotech's Evasive, touching in on Deathstars and Turmion Katilot, giving it a somewhat industrial/cyber metal vibe, enough for it to fit well in The Sphere.

Celldweller - "Fadeaway" from Celldweller (2003)

4.5/5. Celldweller's self-titled debut is from a time when the earlier millennials were going to college and jamming out to these kinds of songs. I also didn't start listening to Klayton's projects until when I was, and still am, in my 20s, so a few years before this comment. The best part is throughout the 3rd quarter of the song.

Circle of Dust - "Nothing Sacred (Blue Stahli Remix)" from Circle of Dust (1995, 2016 remaster)

5/5. I absolutely love this Blue Stahli remix. Bret Autrey's futuristic stylings give an already great song more life.

AP2 - "The Only Man I Know" from Supsension of Disbelief (2000)

4.5/5. This one actually takes a break from the industrial metal sound for more of an alt-rock/metal sound that would actually foreshadow 36 Crazyfists' style at that time, and maybe even Bring Me the Horizon's sound in the late 2010s.

The Berzerker - "Lonely World" from Animosity (2007)

5/5. Industrial deathgrind, huh? This I'm actually up for! "A call to god goes unheard, unanswered. Lonely world robs us of your morals and tortures me."

Static-X - "Run for Your Life" from Project Regeneration, Vol. 2 (2024)

4.5/5. RIP Wayne Static. This band has made f***ing killer bangers resurrected from demo sessions as a tribute to him. The best part is the bridge that starts the second half, "IT'S YOUR LAST DAY IN THIS HOLLOW WORLD!!!" I also think really looks back at all the band's earlier albums. Their new lead vocalist Xer0 sounds amazing. Of course, we know he's Edsel Dope from the band Dope, and it seems like he has brought some influences from that band to this one. Also great for an action movie fight!

Rob Zombie - "Punks and Demons" from Punks and Demons (2025)

4/5. Rob Zombie is back again with a heavy punky new single. I must have some serious willpower to prevent myself from joining the "SATAN SATAN" chant-along.

Flesh Field - "Reckoning" from Voice of the Echo Chamber (2023)

3.5/5. Good, but it probably would've been better if the synth-orchestral buildup wasn't so long.

CueStack - "Icon" from Diagnosis:Human (2021)

3/5. This one's more upbeat but still not too great.

Ministry - "TV Song #6" from Moral Hygiene (2021)

3.5/5. "IT. IS. OVER!!!!" Not by a long shot, as we really speed up with a programmed blackened blast-beat all the way through.

Psyclon Nine - "You Know What You Are" from INRI (2005)

4/5. Even though Psyclon Nine was more of an electronic/aggrotech band in their first two albums, their cover of a Ministry track is perhaps the first hint of their later industrial metal sound that would build up in their next two albums and taking full form from Order of the Shadow Act 1 onwards.

Gothminister - "Raise the Dead" from Utopia (2013)

4.5/5. Towards the end of this playlist and its original album is yet another excellent track.

Pain - "Feed Us" from Cynic Paradise (2008)

5/5. When I was a teen, I was listening to symphonic/power metal bands like Nightwish. Hearing this song featuring one of that band's vocalists, Anette Olzon, all these years later, has really made me kick myself for not discovering this song or band earlier. It's just so d*mn cool!

Neurotech - "Alleviate" from In Remission (2016)

4.5/5. A nearly 9-minute epic of electronic enchantment. Though as much as I enjoy that one, it should be said that I'm not feeling the cyber metal touch that I had earlier this year. My interest in bands like Mechina and Neurotech is already fading, now that I'm restoring my interest in the more medieval fantasy side of epicness from symphonic and power metal instead of the sci-fi of epic cyber metal. All I can say is, hello again fantasy, goodbye futuristic.... But I'm still in The Sphere, don't worry.

Pretty good playlist I've made, huh? I recommend this to any industrial metal fan and anyone who isn't into industrial metal but is up to getting into a great start for the genre. Thanks to anyone who have contributed with their own submissions, and I hope the rest of you enjoy it like I've had!