Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

The brand-new compilation album from the lost heroes of modern rock Linkin Park has only the rap rock and alternative rock primary genre tags, but I still thinking putting this small review of it in this Gateway thread is appropriate since almost half of the tracklisting covers the band's nu metal era. Anyway, so we have all heard the tragic suicide of lead vocalist Chester Bennington in July 2017, just two months after the release of his final album with the band, One More Light, a departure from the band's earlier nu metal/alt-rock for an electropop sound. Since then, there has never been any freshly recorded music from Linkin Park, though they have re-released Hybrid Theory and Meteora with never before heard demos and outtakes. We don't know if this compilation Papercuts will be the last we hear from Linkin Park, but it's certainly a decent tour through the band's different eras, an interesting tribute to the past...

Papercuts has some solid highlights from their career, along with a few duds. You can check out my reviews for the albums that are in the site for what I think of the songs from there, but let's talk about the new ones. "One More Light" is the title track of the aforementioned poppy final LP album with Chester. Being the final release single from that album and having all its soft emotional melancholy, it's enough to make even the toughest music listener shed tears. I miss him so much... An early demo from the band's Underground series, "Qwerty" is a strong standout that I would recommend for fans of the band's heavier work. It sounds like this should've been in The Hunting Party, the only album to not have a song in this compilation.

"New Divide" is known as the theme song for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. With its anthemic vibe and that killer mechanical breakdown in the bridge, the streak of Linkin Park Transformers highlights stands unbroken! From the Meteora re-release Meteora20, "Lost" is an unreleased track from that album's recording sessions. To be honest though, if I heard that song before knowing where it came from, I would've thought it was part of the electronic-infused Living Things. "Friendly Fire" is the final track here and an unused track from One More Light. It's actually a true highlight for this compilation and Chester's vocals give me a pleasant feeling of both sorrow and bliss.

And now for me to point out the major problems this album has... As I've said before, none of the songs in their metal throwback album The Hunting Party are in this album. I would like more if they added a couple highlights from there like "Guilty All the Same" and "Rebellion" to use up most of the remaining CD space. I also think some underrated highlights like "Pushing Me Away" and "From the Inside" should've replaced a couple tracks like the weak "Bleed It Out" and the enjoyable yet redundant "Numb/Encore".

Despite those issues and the tracklisting order being a bit random, the amount of solid tracks here is what prevent Papercuts from being a total failure of a compilation. All in all, a decent best-of album more suitable for true Linkin Park fans rather than heavier metalheads like myself. Not the best, but I still approve. RIP Chester Bennington.....

Favorites (one per album): "Numb/Encore", "Waiting for the End", "One More Light", "Burn It Down", "What I've Done", "Qwerty", "One Step Closer", "New Divide", "Numb", "Friendly Fire"

3/5

Ben, please add the new Pestilence re-recording album Levels of Perception.

Some more metalcore bands I now enjoy thanks to some amazing discoveries, including the deathly melodic metalcore of The Autumn Offering:

The modern alt-metalcore of Imminence:

And the melodic metalcore turned heavy/Southern/groove metal of The Showdown:

A couple awesome melodic death metal bands whose music I've encountered in the past, but was never fully interested in them until recently:

Modern nu metal with metalcore/industrial/grunge influences from New Orleans:

Welcome to Metal Academy, Pelle! Don't feel bad for making any requests, Ben can add them to the site at any time.

Here's how I would genre-tag the 9 tracks in this Riot album:

1. Desperation - Hard rock/heavy metal

2. Warrior - Heavy metal

3. Rock City - Hard rock/blues rock

4. Overdrive - Hard rock/heavy metal

5. Angel - Hard rock

6. Tokyo Rose - Hard rock/heavy metal

7. Heart of Fire - Hard rock

8. Gypsy Queen - Hard rock/proto-glam metal

9. This Is What I Get - Heavy metal/hard rock

Primary genres: Hard rock, heavy metal

Secondary genres: N/A

With all that, I agree that Rock City is more of a hard rock album, but I can still hear some of their later metal sound, enough to make heavy metal a primary genre here. I look forward to our track-to-track discussion about Scorpions' Taken by Force and my track-by-track genre analysis that will follow...

I would've chosen one or both of the Crimson epics for this thread, but that felt like too much of a cheat. So I'll just go with this highlight of catchy progressive action:

A 30th anniversary remastering of that track, having just come out today:

Too atrociously poppy in the chorus for a symphonic death metal song:

An enjoyable piece of symphonic death metal:

This 9-minute progressive epic is the best way to summarize all this Mayan album has to offer:

Soaring blast-beats and riff-wrath are in perfect balance with Marcela Bovio's serene vocal glory in one of the best and heaviest tracks of this Mayan album:

This otherwise good song is totally ruined by Lars Eikind's cleans sound awkward and more overly dramatic than melancholic:

My favorite track of this Before the Dawn album with the right sense of closure and none of Lars Eikind's poor vocals:

The only Lars Eikind-led highlight of this Before the Dawn album, where he sings in more natural delivery in the soft verses, and it doesn't get in the way of the heavy guitar:

This wicked heavy highlight brings melody and speed up front, almost like Sonic Syndicate on steroids:

A dynamic progressive adventure within an adventure:

After revisiting a couple Wintersun releases yesterday, today I decided to listen to last year's instrumental single "Warning". I know not a lot of people like this sudden cyber djent twist in symphonic metal, but I do. This totally reminds me of Mechina and Neurotech, and I've listened to enough of those two bands to be used to this. Just be aware that the upcoming Time II is never going to take on that kind of style, since the majority of that album was recorded many years prior.

I would've chosen one or both of the Crimson epics for this thread, but that felt like too much of a cheat. So I'll just go with this highlight of catchy progressive action:

Here are a few more hidden gems for me besides the ones in my earlier list:

Dethklok - The Doomstar Requiem: A Klok Opera (2013) - Melodeath/symphonic metal opera soundtrack to that Metalocalypse special

October Tide - The Cancer Pledge (2023) - Melodic death-doom

Hinayana - Shatter and Fall (2023) - Melodic death-doom

Mercenary - Everblack (2002) - Melodeath with power metal influences

Becoming the Archetype - The Physics of Fire (2007) - Progressive melodeath with metalcore influences

An unfitting bizarre stinker of a Doors cover:

The perfect progressive closing epic to this re-recording album, combining the heavy and acoustic versions of this iconic song for a memorable climax of harmonic leads:

Daniel, Ben, Rex, Sonny, Illusionist... Seeing how much you guys like the earlier melodeath material of Amorphis, here's the perfect test of how much enjoyment you can get out of a re-recording album of songs from that era that shall be right up your alley:

This progressive multi-part track I once enjoyed when I was younger, I now find annoying and pompous. Probably the weakest Wintersun track for me, and this drop C-tuned live rendition doesn't quite help despite closing the show suitably:

The concluding epic for Time I has more stable structure complete with soloing and epic melodies more tolerable for the present-day me:

My favorite track from Time I with melodic beauty in the riffing and orchestration that can please metalheads with its swaying melancholy:

The perfect climax of Wintersun's debut with epic majesty in the music and lyrics:

A short yet heavily diverse power metal/melodeath track with so much going on in just two and a half minutes:

The perfect progressive closing epic to this fascinating heavy experience:

Progressive death metal with lyrics following the simple yet intriguing Christian theme of faith vs. fire:

The most melodic song of Children of Bodom's second album and a memorable highlight that I still remember for so long:

The perfect conclusion to Avatar's earlier melodeath era:

You can already hear Avatar starting to explore their alt-metal side in tracks like this one:

To be honest, when I hear the vocals and breakdowns in this album, I find them more moshing than slamming and think more of Deformity and Despised Icon (Consumed by Your Poison era) rather than Suffocation, maybe even the stylistic missing link between Living Sacrifice albums Inhabit and Reborn. Plus I don't have the heart to dethrone the honor of its status as the earliest notable deathcore album. For these reasons, I'm voting NO for this entry, Daniel.

Nice one, Daniel! Earth Crisis still have the hardcore/metalcore energy of their over 30-year tenure, and it doesn't seem like they'll lose too much steam anytime soon. There should definitely be a live album (EP?) of this, or maybe even a re-recording album that includes those tracks. The best part for me is their backwards run of the Firestorm EP throughout the second half, though the C-tuned guitarwork makes it sound like if Hatebreed made a full cover of that EP.

OK, thanks Daniel.

Sorry Daniel, I meant have sludge metal added. It's OK though, we can start with The Pit entry first.

OK, thanks Daniel.

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 15)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 8)

3. Revolution playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 26)

4. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 26)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for, I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Gateway and Infinite playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad the playlists I've made have paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

THE GATEWAY: Mushroomhead - The Righteous & the Butterfly (2014) 5/5

THE NORTH: Samael - Blood Ritual (1992) 4.5/5

THE REVOLUTION: Embodyment - Embrace the Eternal (1998) 5/5

THE SPHERE: Killing Joke - Pandemonium (1994) 3.5/5

My Gateway and Revolution nominations are glorious gems that I would recommend to fans of their respective genres. I also enjoy the North feature release more than I thought I would. The one for the Sphere, not so much, but still good. Keep up the good work on the feature releases, all! I look forward to more...

I've done my review, here's its summary:

It's strange how Mushroomhead is part of the nu/alt-metal pack but has never gained the huge success many of their other peers have gained. Nonetheless, this band has a large fanbase that barely of those other bands have. The dedication fans have for Mushroomhead is a good reason for their 3-decade existence at this point, and why open-minded metalheads, such as myself, have no trouble at all with albums like this one, The Righteous and the Butterfly! Following up from the heavy Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, the industrial-ish nu/alt-metal blend of brutality and beauty still stands in this album. The Righteous and the Butterfly introduces two new members, guitarist Tommy Church and bassist Ryan "Dr. F" Farrell. Jason "J Mann" Popson returns on vocal duties to make a 3-vocalist lineup (or 4 if including their later vocalist Jackie Laponza who guest appears in one song here). The title pays tribute to two longtime contributors who passed away in the years leading up to this album, former guitarist JJ Righteous and band photographer Vanessa Solowiow (drummer Skinny's wife). RIP... Some tracks look back at the different past eras of Mushroomhead and summarize all that they're known for, while other songs add in different stylistic elements for something new, either way spawning some of my favorite songs from the band such as "Qwerty" (which my brother likes as well) and their cover of Adele's "Rumor Has It". It's no rumor that awesome cover is what got me into this band. Incredible! All in all, Mushroomhead have their strongest album since XIII in The Righteous and the Butterfly, nicely improved from the albums in between. Both longtime fans and newcomers will love this righteous album, essential for any nu/alt-metal fans' collection!

5/5

Recommended tracks: "Our Apologies", "Qwerty", "Portraits of the Poor", "This Cold Reign", "For Your Pleasure", "Out of My Mind", "Rumor Has It"

For fans of: Linkin Park's nu metal albums, Rob Zombie, Slipknot

One of my favorite Mushroomhead songs from the breakthrough era. The quality could've been slightly better but it's still a killer highlight in their finest hour:

One of the most popular songs from the band's 90s era, and I can totally understand from the vocal duo fitting well with the dramatic instrumentation:

Some of the greatest, most amusing lyrics from the band appear in this fantastic highlight:

There are a few pointless instrumentals in Mushroomhead's debut, but this is the worst offender there:

An industrial-infused alt metal assault:

Part of Front Line Assembly's one-time shot at adding a lot of metal to their electro-industrial:

With evil slow riffing and vicious vocals by Vorph, this is a destructive highlight and perhaps the best song of Samael's black metal era:

I've done my review, here's its summary:

Although I've just recently sworn off black metal (again), I don't mind revisiting an album by a band that started off as black metal but then became the Swiss leaders of industrial/symphonic metal. I actually like Blood Ritual slightly more than a couple of Samael's industrial metal albums that I reviewed. There's simpler yet more effective production than their debut Worship Him. While their debut has constantly switched back and forth from fast to slow, Blood Ritual focuses on the slower pace more. The sound is actually pretty clean! Their savage filth from the debut has mostly been cleared out. The music isn't played for shock value, instead opting for simple catchiness in the riffing. They still have their dark side though, appropriately timed in places. The clean production brings more life to the vocals and allows the guitars and keyboards to flow easily in the atmosphere. Soft ambient keyboards and heavy fist-pumping riffs can make an excellent match. This is for black metal fans who can listen to albums like this in its entirety!

4.5/5

Update to my list:

1. Ryujin - Ryujin [melodic death/power metal]

2. Madder Mortem - Old Eyes, New Heart [progressive metal]

3. DragonForce - Warp Speed Warriors [power metal]

4. While She Sleeps - Self Hell [alternative metal]

5. Amaranthe - The Catalyst [trance/symphonic/melodic metalcore]

And my wishlist:

Erra - Cure

Imminence - The Black (I enjoy the pre-release singles from this band so much and I want more of them)

Linkin Park - Papercuts (compilation of their greatest hits plus a couple demo tracks)

Northlane - Mirror's Edge

The Ghost Inside - Searching for Solace

High on Fire - Cometh the Storm (their Bat Salad EP is so fantastic for me that I want more of this band)

Pestilence - Levels of Perception

Gothminister - Pandemonium II: The Battle of the Underworlds

Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To

Like Moths to Flames - The Cycles of Trying to Cope

Pain - I Am

Trail of Tears - Winds of Disdain

Wintersun - Time II (how can I not look forward to one of the most anticipated albums in all of metal?)