Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

Ben, Daniel, Vinny... The sole album from Delirium is definitely worth pumping up a bit of doomy death metal into you guys' Horde minds. You'll love the majority of this slightly more than I could. Sonny, this could also be another great addition to the 1990 part of your death metal voyage of rediscovery once you get to that year.

Another early death-doom epic, for those who wish to hear a mix of Death's death metal, Cathedral's doom metal, and Celtic Frost's in-between pace:

Another early death-doom album! Just like the Sempiternal Deathreign album, it has mostly the best examples of death-doom but not without a couple duds. My thoughts:

For the sole album from Delirium, Zzooouhh (wow, that wacky title sounds like some kind of snore), we have the smashing guitar, growls, and groove of death metal that then collapses into the slow monstrous doom metal, a captivating mix also done by Winter the same year. It's strange how this style barely caught on as much as other genres like thrash metal. With that said, Delirium's Zzooouhh sounds so fresh and inspiring, with the harsh guitar, riff variation, and tempo changes pleasing heavier metalheads who want more. It's obvious how much the fast-doom ratio has been influenced from other bands like Celtic Frost and Death. The later tracks (from track #5 onward) are prime examples of early death-doom, but a couple ones (track 4 and before), range from slow and doomy to fast and furious, but do not have the same potential as the other category. Still this is essential death-doom for fans of the subgenre and Celtic Frost. Pretty neat if you just start at track 5 and not think too much of the strange album title....

4/5

After one more important early death-doom album that only resides in The Fallen, tomorrow I'm going to continue my rediscovery journey in a much different genre that I know more of and wish to know the most (NOT doom). You can probably guess, but now...that's all in my rediscovery of death metal thread, folks!

One of the earliest death doom epics from Holland's Sempiternal Deathreign

Death metal speed sections and old-school-inspired doom metal rhythms UNITE!!!

One last subgenre stop in my death metal rediscovery is death-doom, and I'm exploring the first 3 releases of the subgenre. I didn't include Paradise Lost because I've already written reviews for their albums that were all deleted when I moved away from most of The Fallen, and I don't intend to check on the bands I already knew. Those other 3 death-doom releases from 1989 and 1990 seem closer to death metal in two of the bands, and that's good for when I'm up for exploring the deathly side of the subgenre. The first one of those 3 bands is...

Coincidentally, I was planning this album ahead before Sonny gave it a review, so I guess now it's my turn to share my thoughts of the first death-doom release ever:

The underground is barely known to the mainstream public, and one band from those illusive caverns would invent atmospheric death-doom. In Sempiternal Deathreign's only album The Spooky Gloom, you can hear slow doomy epics ranging up to 10 minutes and shorter death metal attacks. It's more varied than just a standard mix... There's raw production in the guitar crunch with the equalizing bass fitting right in and sounding audible. So, nothing too special about that bass then... The excellent drumming varies from grind beats to slow doomy power, the latter leveling up the monolithic riffing. There's wild growling vocals all around, and fortunately, the lyrics can be read online in case you don't understand them just from listening. All in all, a great dark instrumentation setup. The longer epics are prime examples of the earliest death-doom, but a couple of the shorter ones, specifically tracks 4 and 5, are fast and furious but do not have the same potential as the other category. Still a very unique album when it came out, practically giving birth to death-doom while different from what you'd expect in the subgenre. This is what your ears crave in the deathly side of death-doom....

4/5

Cool review, Sonny! Coincidentally, I was already thinking of giving the first 3 official death-doom releases a listen, including that Sempiternal Deathreign album, as part of my own ongoing death metal rediscovery.

Get well soon, Daniel.

So I've reviewed albums from technical death metal bands like Atheist, Death, and Pestilence, but what about the one band that's obviously not tech-death but would inspire those bands and many more to mix tech-death with pieces of progressive jazz? Watchtower is that perfect spark of influence, including this 8-minute epic:

Glad you enjoy these feature releases, Daniel, including my submissions! I agree that it is shocking when the bands from my greater clans (Gateway, Infinite, Revolution) aren’t deemed suitable for Metal Archives. A good reason why I quit that site before I first entered the Metal Academy. Anyway, keep up the good work on the feature releases, all! I look forward to more…

The remaining essential album to review from tech-death's first two years heavily relies on alternating between songs and interludes while having great flow. My thoughts:

Two thrashy death metal albums into their career, Dutch band Pestilence decided to test out conjuring a more melodic-ish technical spell in their sound with their 3rd album Testimony of the Ancients. The aggravated atonality of hatred in the genre is expanded by some experimentation. Besides the more technical guitars and bass, the drums are close to Slayer's style, fast while far from blast beats, and there are extreme vocals, slightly surpassing Obituary and Death. The album has an interesting structure of full songs that are each followed by a short instrumental, something Cynic would similarly do 3 decades later in Ascension Codes. Both track categories have a horror element, probably more of that than most of the other early 90s tech-death albums I've reviewed. Obscure riffs play amongst atmospheric power chords and dramatic synths, with some experimental groove to remind some of Morbid Angel. The eerie interludes have the most of the horror feeling, whether it's Psycho-ish strings, screams over dissonant keyboards, or church bell ambiance. So it's easy to find the balance between ritual-sounding and ravaging, alternating between full songs and interludes. Any fan of the genre can identify any of these tracks in a blink of an eye....

4/5

Death at their best tech-death without a doubt:

Besides Atheist making progressive tech-death history in 1991, Death would also go that complex experimental route starting the same year with Human. My thoughts:

Death is a band that is well-respected in the death metal community. I don't intend to explore their earlier standard death metal albums, but I know that Human is essential for me to check out as part of my tech-death expedition. The talented Chuck Schuldiner knew his songwriting ability very well. Pretty much nothing is unnecessary in this bold early example of progressive technical death metal! In the travelling circus of Death, Schuldiner was the ringmaster. For this lineup, backing him up is lead guitarist Paul Masvidal, drummer Sean Reinert (those two later focusing on Cynic), and Sadus bassist Steve Di Giorgio. All in all, a heavenly lineup to unleash hellbent fury of killer tech-death, performing extreme sections of mind-blowing rhythms and unbeatable riffing/soloing, with the occasional catchy while still brutal chorus hook. It's amazing how Death is not only one of the pioneering forces of death metal but also its subgenre tech-death. And it's not just regular tech-death either, it has a great amount of progressive tendencies. They can change their style while sounding original. Any death metal fan should pick up Human. You know the band to thank later!

4.5/5

Coming soon: Two more albums to complete the tech-death chapter, one being another example of the genre and the other not really part of that genre but would inspire it.

I gave the first two Atheist albums a listen, and they're both two of the best I've heard so far in this journey, with Unquestionable Presence reaching a perfect 5 stars! They're both terrific early examples of tech-death alongside the blazing thrash of Piece of Time and the jazzy progressiveness of Unquestionable Presence. Maybe someday I'll keep listening to that band full-time and check out the one Atheist album I haven't reviewed yet, Jupiter, but the early 90s tech-death chapter of this rediscovery saga is still on. I shall continue it with Death's Human and find out how progressive that album is for me...

A highlight from the establishing pinnacle of progressive technical death metal:

Currently I'm taking on the first two Atheist albums, and their debut Piece of Time is probably THE first tech-death album, recorded two years before the other two 1990 tech-death albums. Still there are thrashy Slayer-like tendencies in highlights like this one:

Here's my top 10:

1. August Burns Red - Constellations (2009)

2. Converge - You Fail Me (2004)

3. Every Time I Die - Radical (2021)

4. Underoath - Lost in the Sound of Separation (2008)

5. The Ghost Inside - Dear Youth (2014)

6. Memphis May Fire - The Hollow (2011)

7. Upon a Burning Body - Fury (2022)

8. Motionless in White - Creatures (2010)

9. Polaris - The Death of Me (2020)

10. Make Them Suffer - How to Survive a Funeral (2020)

Strong growl-along early tech-death for extreme metalheads wondering what Atheist, Death, and early Cynic would sound like if more focused on riffing than experimentation:

Ben, Daniel, Vinny... If you guys haven't listened to the debut album from German then-tech-death metallers Atrocity, I highly recommend doing so. You'll love this for sure! Sonny, perhaps this could be a great addition to your death metal voyage of rediscovery.

The second album I've reviewed from the tech-death starter trio is the debut from Atrocity, with a different lyrical concept from that of the Nocturnal album. My thoughts:

Atrocity is known as one of the most chameleon-esque German metal bands, going through different genres such as folky gothic metal, industrial, and even a bit of hardcore groove. They originally started with a tech-death sound, with their debut Hallucinations being one of the most unique albums of the genre, mature with astonishing talent! Like I said before, 1990 was an early year of experimentation in death metal. Atheist hinted at the progressive direction they would take while standing by their pure thrashy death metal sound in Piece of Time, released earlier that year. Then a year later, Death added slightly more melodic and progressive elements to their sound in Human. And of course, we have the jazzy prog-death of Cynic's 1993 album Focus. Atrocity's Hallucinations deserves attention for their underrated part in the early tech-death league. However, they're not combining genres the way those other bands would, but rather they make interesting ideas out of standard tech-death. It's just metal riffing all around in different songs, while sounding interesting and fun for those who can handle the fire. Hallucinations is essential for all death metal listeners. I barely have any complaints, and the album is great enough for 4.5 stars. The heavier metalheads should love this!

4.5/5

Piece of Time and Human are up next in my list, for more of that tech-death experimentation!

From this synth-infused early tech-death album, a song of pure proto-melodeath B.C. (Before Carcass):

1990 was another special early year for death metal when 3 bands expanded the boundaries of death metal to include more technical experimentation, sometimes reaching a progressive level, thus creating the subgenre technical death metal! Here's one of those bands:

Here are my thoughts:

I'm never really a super-fan of old-school death metal, given the Satanism and violent gore that occurs in the lyrics. Nocturnus added a bit of those lyrical themes mixed with a sci-fi concept, and even more surprising to the death metal community is the addition of keyboard atmosphere unusual at that time. They've also added more technicality to the sound as a bridge between Morbid Angel and what Death would have next. Nocturnus made a progressive twist in the genre as those keyboards add a nice touch to the violent assault from the guitar, bass, and drums. The Key is an amazing KEY to the tech-death sound these legends would help create. If it's out of print, it's probably because of that sci-fi-meets-anti-Christian concept that would not go over well with the public nowadays, and that's why it's a few points short of perfection for me. Still it's an easy album to look up for listening, and the music is worth it!

4.5/5

Time to death 'n' roll with that subgenre's creators:

I agree that the vocal style in The Sound of Perseverance was a major stumble, sounding more whiny than growling in a few of the more melodic songs especially that Judas Priest cover. Heartwork was very divisive among the Carcass fanbase. While the earlier fans were stunned by the sudden switch to a more melodic sound and try to deny its existence, the album made history with the spawning of melodic death metal. At the same time, another subgenre arrived with a different band...

Definitely not melodeath, but would plant a seed for other bands in Sweden to popularize it, while pioneering a different subgenre, death 'n' roll. Here are my thoughts:

After making two timeless additions to traditional Swedish death metal, Entombed was ready to try a new approach while keeping their roots. Their 3rd album marked the beginning of a new inspiring era, an era that would later be unappealing when two more albums take the band farther away from their death metal roots. Wolverine Blues, together with Carcass' Heartwork, marked a big historical turn for their label Earache in 1993, attracting new fans with a somewhat more melodic sound. While Carcass invented the melodic death metal genre with barely any prior experimentation, Entombed added pieces of hard rock, hardcore, and Pantera-like groove metal for something more groovy with slight hints of melody, death 'n' roll. Desultory also experimented with that subgenre, but Entombed succeeded in making that potential new hybrid. With a title like Wolverine Blues, was there any relation with the wise invincible Wolverine from Marvel Comics? Yes there was! Even though the band were against anything to do with Wolverine, Earache went behind their backs to make a deal with Marvel for mainstream promotion. That's part of how this album became a successful leap for this band, label, and much of extreme metal. I can understand other aspects of their success. Lars Göran Petrov (RIP), who was absent for their second album Clandestine, returned and stayed with the band until their first breakup. The tone maintains their earlier dark atmosphere while slamming through rock-infused compositions. The 7 tracks from the beginning are prime early examples of the subgenre with searing groove, amazing riffing, and punk-thrashy rhythms, whereas the final 3 and bonus track were a low drop in quality. A slightly flawed ending to the album, but the rest is a better offering of death metal. It was time for the small influences the band hinted earlier to fully see the light of day and the core of their writing, one part of death metal refreshing into different subgenres in 1993. Entombed continue their innovation that would build up a higher following. Unfortunately, they would later fall into the deathless rock 'n' roll manhole....

4/5

Coming soon in my quest: a deeper look into the origins of technical death metal...

Hey there, Sonny! Glad to see a fellow Death reviewer on the move as well. I'm more focused on their progressive era but that's OK. We each have our own death metal voyages.

Another incredible 8-minute deathly progressive metal epic (would be more suited for The Infinite if the album was in that clan):

Well, Daniel, I gave The Sound of Perseverance a listen and review, and what you said is about Death's switching to a more traditional progressive sound is quite accurate. I sense a judgement submission coming on! Anyway, both Death albums I've reviewed show the band's progressive death metal/deathly progressive metal side they had in their last years of activity while influential in expanding the prominence of melodeath and tech-death for newer rising legions to appear. I think after I listen to one more album from a different band that isn't melodeath but planted a seed for other bands in the same country to popularize the genre, it would be time to start the tech-death history leg of my journey....

You are right about Death inspiring Carcass, Daniel, but upon listening to both Heartwork and Symbolic, I hear a bit of a connective exchange in the melodic aspect between those two albums while the latter shows Death expanding the progressiveness of their previous two albums and the melody of those heavy/power metal bands. Melodeath did not start with Symbolic of course, but there are bands influenced from there. Meanwhile in the Track of the Day thread, this track is another example of a stylistic exchange between bands' influences: https://metal.academy/forum/10/thread/188?page=6#topic_10653

You know which band to thank if you're up for the melodeath sound of At the Gates and the late 90s eras of Arch Enemy and Death:

Indeed probably the one album melodic death metal wouldn't have existed without, though not reaching the style of melodeath I'm used to while still enjoyable. My thoughts:

Heartwork is probably the album where Carcass was the most dedicated. They began demoing this album as early as during their tour for the less melodic Necroticism, even playing their new songs on tour. Much of the recording time was wasted finding the right guitar tone and the right ideas from their producer Colin Richardson. Things were going down to Hell for the people working on the album. With all that trouble going on, Carcass was still determined to get things right in order to reach higher lengths. In the end, they've made an offering that the world would recognize as a game-changing classic to this day! I would never disagree with this album's melodic death metal legend status, but to be honest, it's not the most melodic melodeath album I've heard. The Maiden-like melodic harmonies that really make the genre, but that's a small step Carcass was missing here. The melodic harmonies in this album are mostly in just passages and solos, the latter not sounding as perfect as in Gothenburg bands. Mike Amott performed them slightly better in Arch Enemy that would've crystallized Bill Steer's standard riffing and groove here. Still there's often a great amount of harmonies that would give later death metal bands the idea to add more melody than brutality, and it's quite an impressive achievement of a lifetime for this band. Where there any other bands before Carcass and the Gothenburg crew that started adding melody to an extreme genre with extreme lyrics? I think not! However, At the Gates who would make an album two years later that would inspire melodic metalcore bands to rise. In the meantime, enjoy the original melodeath work!

4.5/5

Hi Xephyr, since the single-track suggestions are on for the Guardians playlist, and that's what I'm more comfortable doing, here's my submission for June:

Power Quest - "Master of Illusion" (from Master of Illusion, 2008)

RIP Trevor Strnad of American melodeath band The Black Dahlia Murder. I still enjoy his wild guest appearance in this song from mathcore group Gaza:

All good. Thanks again, Ben!

Also, with respect to Andi's comments regarding himself and Vinny no longer contributing suggestions to the Guardians, can non-Guardians make a single track suggestion? That's up to The Guardians members to decide. I personally don't see that it adds any additional engagement for the clan playlists in question but if Xephyr, Saxy & Andi want to do it then that's their call.

Yep, I'm up for that. Anyone who isn't in The Guardians or participating in The Guardians can submit one track per monthly playlist. Let's see what Xephyr and Saxy think about this first...

High quality New York mathcore/djent. This track was the clear highlight from the album for me Andi.

This one's also good, an unforgiving sonic crusher!

Ben, please add these new albums:

Eighteen Visions - 1996

Upon a Burning Body - Fury

Also there a couple errors involving Upon a Burning Body in the site; Southern Hostility is duplicated in the band's releases page, and all of that band's releases are missing the sub-genres tags in their respective pages. So could you please fix these errors when you can? Thanks!

Also on this day, the 5th anniversary of an amazing mix of alt-metal, metalcore, and industrial metal, the way I like it! Still glad that the 3-clan releases didn't break the Anniversaries page, though they do cover some part of the details:

I won't. See here: https://metal.academy/forum/9/thread/1246?page=1#topic_10512

While there are a couple metal projects with a lot more releases, that's probably the biggest amount of anime cover arts I've ever seen from a metal band.

OK, I’m gonna have to be honest while not sounding too critical on this one, so here it goes…

1. I enjoy listening to them, checking out new bands, and having fun assembling the Revolution playlists.

2. I’m quite used to the 2-hour length in playlists and changing the maximum length would cause me to have to make drastic changes to my technique. Plus these Spotify playlists give us more freedom to add songs that total up to a long suitable limit, rather than the earlier days of CDs that each have an 80-minute limit. However, the 90-minute limit might actually be more suitable since there are some playlists lately that are down to that length and the playlist creators have a lot more to think than just trying to cram in lots of track ideas. I’m gonna let the rest of you decide what the limit should be.

3. Monthly is definitely suitable, but I guess doing it once every two or three months might depend on the clan playlist.

4. It would be quite confusing to eliminate the less popular playlists. Like what if a new member enters the site and is active in The Sphere but finds the Sphere playlists missing? Probably best to keep them going.

5. I think we handle the track submission limits much better based on time instead of the number of tracks. That way, our submissions are more even and have more variety in the subgenres.

6. In response to Vinny’s question, I think the playlists are meant for both site members and listeners outside the site who would like to explore the best of their favourite genres along with new discoveries to expand their taste, maybe even get into the genres if they’re new there. I have one request, but it’s more about a specific clan playlist than playlists in general. Now that I’m currently taking a hiatus from The Guardians and its related activities following the other day’s incident (which might’ve given you the idea to start this thread, Daniel) and Vinny has completely left that clan, there’s literally not a single active member around now to give Xephyr track submissions for his Guardians playlists. I feel bad about it, but I don’t wanna make things go further downhill. It is hard to imagine a once decently popular clan dedicated to the few most historically important genres in metal end up getting deserted just like that. So could you please allow members who aren’t in The Guardians or not participating in the clan to each submit one track for the monthly Guardians playlist, similar to the Gateway/Revolution/Sphere playlists? Thanks! And I appreciate everyone’s efforts in making these playlists happen. Good work all!

I find that, as The Contortionist move away from progressive deathcore on the later portions of this album, and their next album Language, song structure continued to improve.

Interestingly, I find the structure in a few songs in the otherwise superb Language to be the weakest by the band, especially that album's final track "The Parable". We all have different opinions on a certain aspect of an album's songs, but nothing wrong with that, right?

Language would've been as awesome as Exoplanet, or at least Intrinsic, if not for 3 songs that made the album come a star short from a perfect 5 stars, include this poor waste of 7 minutes:

Some of the best and most thriving from this band, but keep that in mind before the quality drops a bit later in that album:

Orlando, Florida? Say hi to Matt Heafy (Trivium) for me if you ever meet him, Vinny!

Here's my Sphere suggestion for June:

Code Orange - "Out for Blood" (from Out for Blood, 2021)

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

All That Remains - "Madness" (3:24) from Madness (2017)

Born of Osiris - "Throw Me in the Jungle" (3:36) from Soul Sphere (2015)

Chelsea Grin - "Hostage" (3:15) from Eternal Nightmare (2018)

Demon Hunter - The Negative" (4:10) from War (2019)

Enter Shikari - "Adieu" (5:40) from Take to the Skies (2007)

Motionless in White - "Eternally Yours" (5:12) from Graveyard Shift (2017)

We Came as Romans/Brand of Sacrifice - "Darkbloom" (Reimagined) (3:42) from Darkbloom (2022) (I gave this a listen and thought it was a killer deathcore-infused remake of We Came as Romans' new epic metalcore single, so I thought I would add it as a tribute to one of my favorite songs from my first assembled Revolution playlist from November)

Total length: 28:59

I have only one submission in my mind for June's Infinite playlist, and it's a really long and unusual one, but please hear me out, Saxy:

Liquid Tension Experiment - "Three Minute Warning" (from Liquid Tension Experiment, 1998)

I have a few reasons for submitting this: 1. I listened to this entirely a few times before and after severing my ties from listening to that band, and that's because it really sounds so good. It is a complex 5-part epic where compositions are written over Tony Levin's bass jams. You also don't have to worry about adding in different parts because it plays on Spotify as one entire 28 and a half minute track. 2. Look I do not wish to sound critical or unappreciative or anything, but this is a good track to add in the event that you have a short amount of idea that do not reach the usual two-hour length. It would be nice for me to help out alongside your usual focus on 4 to 8 minute tracks and at least one 10+ minute epic. 3. After yesterday morning's incident, I've lost a bit of motivation for coming up with my usual number of track submissions, so I wanted to make just one request for this playlist and really make it count. With all that said, please take your time to consider this, and I appreciate all the effort you, Xephyr, and the rest of the active Metal Academy crew have made with creating these playlists, whether something's a hit or miss. Keep up the good work, man!

Here are my submissions for the June Gateway playlist:

Breaking Benjamin - "Breakdown" (3:36) from We Are Not Alone (2004)

Coldrain - "Runaway" (3:46) from Vena (2015)

Dir En Grey - "Agitated Screams of Maggots" (2:57) from The Marrow of a Bone (2007)

Five Finger Death Punch - "Under and Over It" (3:38) from American Capitalist (2011)

In Flames - "Where the Dead Ships Dwell" (4:27) from Sounds of a Playground Fading (2011)

Lacuna Coil - "Within Me" (3:39) from Karmacode (2006)

Linkin Park - "Somewhere I Belong" (3:33) from Meteora (2003)

Machinae Supremacy - "Anthem Apocalyptica" (3:25) from Origin (2002)

Total length: 29:01

Complex experimentation for beauty and brutality to unite:

I did my review, here's its summary:

Nearly 5 years before this review, I was getting tired of the more melodic bands and the gates were finally opened for me to discover heavier genres such as djent, deathcore, and post-metal. The Contortionist certainly makes a structural mix of those former two genres and a dash of the latter together, proven with their interstellar debut Exoplanet. After a couple years of anticipation since that debut's release, their second album Intrinsic is where they keep up that game but with a more expansive and refined sound. The experiment might not be as successful as their debut, but it's still quite some excellent ambition. Making sure that the band is standing out as usual, Intrinsic definitely gives them an unmistakable identity. While there is some change, you can still hear elements of their earlier brutal deathcore groove, alongside technical riffing, soothing ambience, and intense crescendos, for slightly less emphasis on extreme and more towards dynamics. It's also a continuation of the band's evolution to sound more progressive, with the structures being far more frantic than cohesive. Different sections switch unexpectedly with an occasional return which, even then, can come out as unorthodox. Indeed the loud-soft contrast is so real yet unreal. They can perform rare beautiful ambience with keyboards and clean singing one moment and make brutal twist into the insane fury of searing riffing assault and beastly growls the next. That contrast has massive potential, mostly occurring in the first half, whereas the second half is more eerie and doomy, with the exception of a one more short heavy encore with a devastating breakdown, probably one of the most brutal to be heard in djenty deathcore! Intrinsic is for sure something to check out if you're up for a progressive adventure. This full-on experiment would pay off too well, and they would end up taking a less heavy and more overly progressive direction in subsequent albums. Enjoy the heaviness while this experiment is placed in your hands!

4.5/5

Recommended tracks: "Holomovement", "Feedback Loop", "Causality", "Geocentric Confusion", "Solipsis"

For fans of: Meshuggah, Cynic, the more progressive The Ocean