Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

Thanks, Xephyr! You really allowed me to realize how low Machine Head can get, especially in their own awful Dropkick Murphys knockoff:

Catharsis, their 2018 album, was on another level of awful. If you wanna see how terrible Machine Head's style can really get if you think these lyrics are slanderous, test out that one to even out your rating curve. 

Challenge accepted, Xephyr! Bring it on, Catharsis!!

Part of the problem I had with Machine Head's The Blackening is the lyrics in a few songs here, like in this f***ing slanderous stinker:

Speaking of Metal Sucks, don't say that about my favorite music genre!

Hey hey! Look's who back for more DISing and DATing! Let's start off with two great sludge classics released in 2004. Which one has the greater edge? Choose one and explain the reason!

Here's my review summary:

The 2004 Rammstein album Reise Reise (Reise meaning "Journey" or "Rise") is harder to tackle than a swift ninja when you're reviewing it. First, the lyrics! Most of the lyrics are performed in the band's native language German, many of which use wordplay that might be difficult to interpret what they mean, but listeners can make up what they want. It seems like a lot of Rammstein's work is overshadowed by controversial views of politics, racism, and sexism. I normally try not to venture into that territory, which is a good reason why industrial metal isn't really my thing, but there is some good powerful riffing in the epic title track and the fancy dance-y "Moskau". However, the lyrics can range from horrific ("Mein Teil") to humorous ("Keine Lust"). Yet there are strengths in the album including Till's vocals, the impressive content of the songs, and the album staying consistent, helped by only a couple songs to skip. But those skippers aren't the only weak parts of the album, it's also the lack of variety and arrangement, stick too close to their original methods instead of doing much of the experimentation. Still, this album is solid, and you can probably listen to it while taking a two-to-three day road trip by yourself. Just don't crash and you'll be fine....

4/5

Here's my review summary:

I still really like modern progressive metal (but more into the extreme side now), and it has a good feeling that makes everyday stuff more fun like washing dishes (not that I ever like doing chores like that). Mastodon can be considered modern but there are some differences that set them apart from other bands. They put more heart into music than mind. It's interesting what insane drumming skills Brann Dailor has, unleashes a lot of his wild power-hunger, a little more than drummers like Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy. I still like odd time signatures, but sometimes you would have no idea when a time riff starts or ends, and if an entire album is plagued with stuff like that, it can be pretty confusing to listen. Many of the songs here are progressive sludge classics, telling the story of a certain killer whale (sperm whale, not orca), and most of the tracks are in radio-friendly lengths shorter than other albums in the genre, except for a 13-minute epic. No other progressive sludge release can match a glorious album like this....

5/5

Update on my list (it's been a couple months):

Classic oldies:

1990: Paradise Lost - Lost Paradise

1991: Meshuggah - Contradictions Collapse

1992: Edge of Sanity - Unorthodox

1993: Sentenced - North From Here

1994: Tiamat - Wildhoney

1995: My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark River

1996: Katatonia - Brave Murder Day

1997: In Flames - Whoracle

Old-school but newer:

1998: Meshuggah - Chaosphere

1999: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

2000: In Flames - Clayman

2001: Opeth - Blackwater Park

2002: Shadows Fall - The Art of Balance

2003: Darkest Hour - Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation

2004: Officium Triste - Reason

2005: Trivium - Ascendancy

Higher original quality:

2006: Persefone - Core

2007: Between the Buried and Me - Colors

2008: Protest the Hero - Fortress

2009: August Burns Red - Constellations

2010: Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy

2011: Trivium - In Waves

2012: Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence

2013: The Ocean - Pelagial

New and improved:

2014: Ne Obliviscaris - Citadel

2015: Bullet for My Valentine - Venom

2016: Vektor - Terminal Redux

2017: Septicflesh - Codex Omega

2018: Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

2019: DragonForce - Extreme Power Metal (NOT in my current playlist, but I loved it so much that it just had to be in the list)

2020 (first half): Trivium - What the Dead Men Say

2020 albums I'm looking forward to getting:

Avatar - Hunter Gatherer

The Ocean - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic I Cenozoic

Amaranthe - Manifest

Draconian - Under a Godless Veil

I was thinking about what Tymell said about shuffling songs in albums, and I decided to shuffle songs in one of my recent favorite albums, Trivium's What the Dead Men Say! But it wasn't randomly shuffled, I just manually arranged the songs into a different order that would be more suitable for any first-time Trivium listeners who want to build up slowly from mild fun to wild chaos. My new order for this album is: 1, 2, 5, 3, 8, 6, 4, 9, 7, 10. Or to be more specific:

1. IX

2. What the Dead Men Say

3. Bleed Into Me

4. Catastrophist

5. Scattering the Ashes

6. The Defiant

7. Amongst the Shadows & the Stones

8. Bending the Arc to Fear

9. Sickness Unto You

10. The Ones We Leave Behind

See, while I made sure the order still follows The Perfect Metal Album Storm (intro/beginning track, middle track, ending track), all the other songs are rearranged in a way to more appropriately test the intensity of the album. The "IX" intro and the title track both tell you what to expect in this album. "Bleed Into Me", "Catastrophist", and "Scattering the Ashes" are the cleaner melodic trio; two slower clean songs (NOT ballads, I wouldn't put ballads in the beginning of a metal album) with a nicely heavier song in between, to test the mild side. Then "The Defiant" is a bridge between the two sides to both recap the journey so far and hint at the next part. Up next, "Amongst the Shadows & the Stones", "Bending the Arc to Fear", and "Sickness Unto You" are the heavier aggressive trio; two heavy chaotic songs with the darkest of them all in between to test the wild side. That kitchen is open for those who can stand the heat! On top of that, those three songs sound quite similar to one another; same tempo, same tuning (6-string drop D-flat), and tons of progressive aggression. They can be connected together to make a 3-part 16-and-a-half-minute suite! Anyway, "The Ones We Leave Behind" is the epic final song that recaps the whole journey and congratulates you for passing that test.

I would try the same thing with other albums in a different thread called "The Perfect Metal Album Storm II: The Shuffling", but it would take too long and it might bore some members, so this is what I got. If you have any specific order for an album that is differently arranged from its original order, please discuss!

A monstrous modern groove metal epic for metalheads like me who wanted something better than The Blackening:

My Ultimate Metal Family Tree band challenge is completely finished! For my stat check this time, I've included ratings of discographies of all the bands I've enjoyed before, past and present, and the one album I've reviewed from each band that I've only listened to just for this challenge and other clan challenges. BUT they all have to be within the genres they're assigned to. For example, for the Goth Metal bands, I made sure to only include albums that are actually in The Fallen, and for the Power Metal bands, I made sure to only include albums that are actually in the Guardians. No non-metal releases, no releases from an entirely different clan, just albums in the actual clans that have those respective genres. Then I've divided all the ratings into the average ratings for each genre. So here's my Ultimate Metal Family Tree challenge average stat rating:

First wave:

Power metal:

Helloween (one album) - 4.5, Blind Guardian (all albums except Legacy of the Dark Lands) - 4.6, Stratovarius - 4.5, Iced Earth (two albums) - 4, Gamma Ray - 4.5, Kamelot (all albums except Poetry for the Poisoned) - 4.5, HammerFall - 4.7, Rhapsody of Fire - 4.7, Edguy - 4.4, Nightwish (all albums except Imaginaerum the Score) - 4.5, Sonata Arctica - 4.5, Avantasia - 4.6, DragonForce - 4.7, Sabaton - 4.6, Powerwolf (one album) - 4

Total rating: 4.5

Progressive thrash metal:

Voivod (one album) - 4.5, Mekong Delta (one album) - 4.5, Coroner (two albums) - 4, Nevermore - 4.6, Vektor - 4.8

Total rating: 4.5

Doom metal:

My Dying Bride (all albums except Evinta) - 4.5, Katatonia (up to 1998) - 4.7, Electric Wizard (one album) - 4, Swallow the Sun (one album) - 4.5, Draconian (all albums) - 4.7

Total rating: 4.5 

First wave total rating: 4.5

Second wave:

Metalcore:

Converge (all albums except Halo in a Haystack) - 4.5, The Dillinger Escape Plan (all albums except Plagiarism) - 4.6, Killswitch Engage (one album) - 4, Unearth - 4.1, As I Lay Dying (two albums) - 4, All That Remains - 4.5, Trivium (all albums except Silence in the Snow) - 4.4, August Burns Red - 4.4, Protest the Hero (up to 2009) - 4.5, Bullet for My Valentine (all albums except Temper Temper and Gravity) - 4.4, Parkway Drive (all albums except Reverence) - 4.5, Bring Me the Horizon (one album) - 4.5, The Devil Wears Prada (one album) - 4.5, Architects (one album) - 4, Asking Alexandria (two albums) - 4

Total rating: 4.3

Progressive metal:

Fates Warning (one album) - 4, Queensrÿche (one album) - 4.5, Dream Theater - 4.6, Meshuggah (all albums except self-titled EP and Contradictions Collapse) - 4.6, Tool (one album) - 4, Symphony X - 4.7, Opeth (two albums) - 4.5, Gojira (all albums except Terra Incognita, The Link, and The Link Alive) - 4.6, Between the Buried and Me (all albums except self-titled debut, The Silent Circus, and The Anatomy Of) - 4.5, Mastodon (all albums except Lifesblood) - 4.5

Total rating: 4.5

Folk metal:

Windir (one album) - 4.5, Finntroll (one album) - 4.5, Ensiferum (one album) - 4.5, Tyr (one album) - 4.5, Korpiklaani (one album) - 4, Wintersun - 4.8, Turisas (one album) - 4, Equilibrium (one album) - 4.5, Eluveitie - 4.6, Alestorm - 4.4

Total rating: 4.4

Melodic death metal:

Edge of Sanity - 4.5, At the Gates - 4.5, Dark Tranquillity - 4.6, In Flames (up to 2006) - 4.2, Arch Enemy - 4.6, Children of Bodom - 4.4, Amon Amarth - 4.5, Kalmah (one album) - 4.5, Insomnium (one album) - 4.5, Be'lakor (one album) - 4

Total rating: 4.4

Melodic death-doom:

Paradise Lost (all albums except Host) - 4.2, Amorphis (two albums) - 4.3, Anathema (up to 1996 plus Resonance 2) - 4.5, Saturnus (one album) - 4.5, Officium Triste (one album) - 5

Total rating: 4.5

Second wave total rating: 4.4

Third wave:

Symphonic metal:

Therion (one album) - 4, Emperor (one album) - 4.5, Septicflesh (The Eldest Cosmonaut, A Fallen Temple and since 2008) - 4.4, Within Temptation (from 2000 to 2014, except An Acoustic Night at the Theatre and The Q-music Sessions) - 4.4, After Forever (all albums) - 4.5, Sirenia (two albums) - 4.5, Epica (all albums except The Score: An Epic Journey) - 4.6, Leaves' Eyes (one album) - 4.5, Delain (one album) - 4.5, Fleshgod Apocalypse (one album) - 4

Total rating: 4.4

Gothic metal:

Tiamat (all albums except Sumerian Cry, The Astral Sleep, and A Deeper Kind of Slumber) - 4, Type O Negative - 4.5, Sentenced (three albums) - 4, The Gathering (up to 1997 plus Downfall: The Early Years) - 4.4, Cradle of Filth (one album) - 4, Lake of Tears (two albums) - 4.5, Theatre of Tragedy (all albums except Musique and Assembly) - 4.3, Moonspell (all albums except Under the Moonspell EP) - 4.3, Lacuna Coil (up to 2002) - 4.4, Charon - 4.3

Total rating: 4.3

Modern groove metal:

Machine Head (two albums) - 4, Lamb of God (all albums) - 4.5, Chimaira (one album) - 4, DevilDriver (one album) - 4, Alien Weaponry (one album) - 4

Total rating: 4.1

Melodic/technical deathcore:

The Black Dahlia Murder (one album) - 4.5, The Crimson Armada - 4, Born of Osiris - 4.5, Wretched (one album) - 4.5, Make Them Suffer - 4.5

Total rating: 4.4

Third wave total rating: 4.3

Grand total rating (because why not): 4.4

So apparently in the genre wave "Olympic podium", the first wave is in the highest, the second wave in the middle, and the third wave in the lowest, with modern groove metal genres being lower rated than all the other genres. So I guess modern groove metal is not really the ideal genre for me. Anyway, if there isn't anything for you to object in this final stat check, then the Ultimate Metal Family Tree band challenge is completely over, and...yeah, I think I've had it with massive reviewing challenges for the rest of the year. 2020 so far was an epic 6 months (not including June) of reviewing challenges, official and unofficial, and it was a lot of hard work. I can still do single-album/band reviews, so standalone recommendations are welcome any time. But other than that, I'm done with review challenges. A reviewer needs rest after a long quest! What a grand journey that was....

A killer single from Asking Alexandria's last metalcore album The Black, which I think is a great album to end the metal part of their career, better than From Death to Destiny.

Masterful metalcore from the finest hardcore band you're ever likely to find.

Great song from another awesome album from metallic hardcore masters Converge! I like its modern Katatonia-esque doom-gaze intro before their usual abstract sound.

A totally ripped headbanger from modern groove metallers Lamb of God's new self-titled album, with a guest appearance from the guy from the metallic hardcore Hatebreed:

A 3-track 12-minute technical death metal instrumental suite with influences from different parts of the world. It's the worldwide tech-death Crusade!

Too much of a rock-ish tune that doesn't help the weakest link in Charon's discography, Sorrowburn:

"Dirge For November" and "Bleak" are some of my personal album favorites too, and I especially love the 12-minute title epic!

Here's the album version of "The Drapery Falls" that's as fantastic as that live version. These guys are indeed good! I gotta listen to more of that band soon...

Continuing the theme of covers of melodeath hits, this is when At the Gates gets brutalized. I say "F*** YEAH" to this chaotic cover!

Once again following the theme of covers of songs from albums in my Ultimate Metal Family Tree band challenge, here's Children of Bodom covering a classic hit from fellow Finnish melodeath band Amorphis:

An epic single from Bring Me the Horizon's last metalcore album Sempiternal that I've reviewed in my Ultimate Metal Family Tree band challenge:

Get those black metal influences out of the Pagan/folk metal zone, this is melodeath's time to shine!

I'm probably not gonna be super into Equilibrium because of their German lyrics and black metal-ish part of their epic viking metal sound, but I'm sure some of you would agree that this is one of the finest, most epic moments in viking metal:

OK, how about this; in order for anyone to lock in a clan via the subgenre challenges, they have to go through at least half of the amount of subgenres in a main genre, plus the main genre itself. How does that sound?

Alternative Metal + 2 of its subgenres

Black Metal + 4 of its subgenres

Death Metal + 3 of its subgenres

Doom Metal + 2 of its subgenres

Folk Metal + 1 of its subgenres

Grindcore + 2 of its subgenres

Heavy Metal + NWOBHM

Industrial Metal + 1 of its subgenres

Melodic Metalcore + 1 of its subgenres

Metalcore + 1 of its subgenres

Progressive Metal + Djent

Thrash Metal + 1 of its subgenres

Ben & I discussed the new features that are slated for this round of developments today & I've gotta say that I think we might be putting some space between Metal Academy & the competition shortly. We'll be heading into entirely new territory in some areas & will be filling the last remaining gaps we have with competitors in others. The clan concept is going to give us a clear edge in some ways & you'll see some things you've been asking for finally coming to fruition too. I'm very excited to say the least!

(First time using emojis here!)

Ben, I hope you're available for one more of my suggestions! I see you added an Atmospheric Sludge Metal clan challenge. I think that serves as a nice bridge to the possible post-metal challenge and clan challenges for the other remaining metal genres. Even though atmospheric sludge is not one of the main genres, that gave me a good idea for a suggestion: Please do clan challenges for the main genres' subgenres! Here's a list of subgenres from the main genres:

Alternative Metal - Funk Metal, Nu Metal, Rap Metal

Black Metal - Atmospheric Black Metal, Black 'n' Roll, Depressive Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Pagan Black Metal, Symphonic Black Metal, War Metal

Death Metal - Brutal Death Metal, Death 'n' Roll, Deathgrind, Melodic Death Metal, Technical Death Metal

Doom Metal - Death Doom Metal, Funeral Doom Metal, Traditional Doom Metal

Folk Metal - Celtic Metal, Medieval Folk Metal

Grindcore - Cybergrind, Deathgrind, Goregrind

Heavy Metal - NWOBHM

Industrial Metal - Cyber Metal, Neue Deutsche Härte

Melodic Metalcore - Nintendocore, Trancecore

Metalcore - Deathcore, Mathcore

Progressive Metal - Djent

Thrash Metal - Crossover Thrash, Technical Thrash Metal

Wow, that's a lot more subgenres than I thought, even more than the main genres! Not only that, some of the bands in those subgenres are already in the main genres' clan challenges. So please ease yourself some time to go through those subgenres when you're ready, and move the bands in those subgenres out of the main genres' challenges to the subgenres' challenges if possible. Maybe that can be your next big challenge project after doing the challenges for those 4 remaining main genres. Seriously I wanna make sure the clan challenges are more suitable for anyone who only likes one or a few subgenres within the main genres, so they don't have to go through the nightmare of reviewing subgenres they don't like in the main genres' challenges, like when I was doing a clan challenge for my former clan The Horde. Please take the time to consider this idea, and thanks in advance!

I did my review, here's its summary:

It's official, I love Blackwater Park! Opeth was the one missing piece of my progressive puzzle ever since I started listening to progressive metal, and now that I've actually listened to Blackwater Park, my interest for Opeth has finally reached the point of listening to them full-time. Now I plan on someday listening to their other albums like Still Life, which seems to had expectations that ended up beyond shattered. Blackwater Park is an album that no other album can match musically. The album has many long progressive death metal songs, and I especially love the 10+ minute epics. There are a couple shorter acoustic tracks, one of which is an interlude. Many of the songs can range beautiful bliss to brutal bleakness. Blackwater Park has some of the best qualities in a progressive metal album and by a progressive metal band. It is an album that fully reveals Opeth's ambitions that make it an electrifying experience. I finally enjoy the one band missing from my progressive metal life. Thank you, Opeth!!

5/5

My personal highlights are "Schism", "The Grudge", "The Patient", "Reflection" & "Triad" .

Those are some of my personal highlights too! "Schism" and "Triad" are good, but in my opinion, not as awesome as the other three.

An excellent epic from one of the more mainstream alt-prog metal bands, Tool. By the power of Fibonacci!

After reviewing Sabaton's Carolus Rex as part of my Ultimate Metal Family Tree band challenge, including their bonus cover of Amon Amarth's "Twilight From the Thunder God", I decided to share the original Amon Amarth song here. While both versions are epic, I think the Amon Amarth version would suit my minor like for melodeath:

Last week I reviewed Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II in the power metal of my Ultimate Metal Family Tree band challenge. This song is outright cheddar cheese that hasn't aged well, and the sound effects aren't worth it. F*** this one and "Rise and Fall"!

Last week I reviewed Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II in the power metal of my Ultimate Metal Family Tree band challenge. This is one of my favorite songs from that album and a legit power metal classic:

Andi, are you already onboard with this one? If not then I'd suggest you get on it.

One of the most incredible mathcore EPs! 5/5. Cheers for the rec, Daniel!

Before I listen to the Irony is a Dead Scene EP again and review it a few days from now, let's run through one of their wild mathcore anthems from a more successful album:

MartinDavey87, I would also recommend Protest the Hero's newest album Palimpsest. I haven't completely listened to that album yet, but upon reading saxystephens' review, I have a good progressive feeling about it. I might dig it once I listen, and maybe you might too!

A belter of an opening track from this Canadian progressive/melodic metalcore outfit. For fans of Jinjer, ERRA & Mutiny Within.

Some of the best melodic progressive metalcore in a storytelling masterpiece album! I still haven't completely listened to their new album Palimpsest yet even after getting it, so that new album shall be put on my "albums to listen to" checklist along TDEP's Irony is a Dead Scene.

Wow, I totally forgot about this album being the January 2020 Feature Release. Well it's been a long time like 6 months, and I've only starting listen to this band in April. Anyway, here's my review summary:

When making a debut studio album, there are some things you need to think about deciding; the feel for the album, the central themes, and each song's style. Give them all some time so you can let the album grow and glow without forcing the beauty. That's exactly what Protest the Hero did! After playing some Happy Go Lucky punk rock, they decided to brainstorm an album and story to compose that's far different, and that took them 2 years. 2 YEARS!! A long time for a 10-song album! However, that's what makes some albums the best, by taking the longest time. Alongside that and their more progressive sound, Kezia is not just an album but also a story, which is what concept albums are, right? It has everything you need for a story; interesting characters, plot twists, and poetic language. There are 3 parts of the story, and each part is in the perspective of a different character with their view in the story. We barely know anything about those characters when we start the story, but as the twisted tale goes on, we learn much more about them song after song. As the story goes on, you get some of the greatest progressive metalcore ranging from chaotic to melodic, and each act is more epic than the last. With all that said, I can absolutely declare that Kezia is one of the greatest progressive metalcore albums I've ever heard. Protest The Hero are some of both the most talented musicians and the most amazing storytellers, greater than most other albums I've heard and stories I've read. I would recommend this album to any music listener and story reader out there. Thank you, Protest the Hero, for this grand-masterpiece. Not to sound like I'm in love with someone, but... I love you, Kezia!

5/5

A long doomy track from Draconian's debut Where Lovers Mourn. This one's for fans of true "beauty and the beast" gothic death-doom, specifically Swallow the Sun and the early gothic death-doom eras of The Gathering and Theatre of Tragedy.

Y’know, now that I think about it, this is starting to get ridiculous. At this point, I don’t know what’s going on in that guy’s head. I mean, really? Using two accounts to cheat the rating system and coming up with an insane lying excuse? Yeah, I’m starting to think that guy has to go. Ben, in case MadManx2084 ends up pulling another strange stunt like that, please ban him. I didn’t wanna have to make that request, but it’s for the best...

Hey! Good timing for you to message me. I'm quite a busy fellow who has been working on my own metal music projects to share around my own state, though I never think of releasing them or uploading them online. I even work on them from home, which is convenient for the time of the virus. I've been using my own Metal Academy account with the motive to rate many of the metal albums I've listened to throughout my years, starting with the ones that deserve 5 stars, meaning that I would even get down to rating albums 4.5 stars, 4 stars, or lower. But because of my tight schedule, I barely have time to use this account to do my rating idea, nor respond to any of these messages. Sorry about that, and I'm sorry if you don't like my rating idea. You think I should delete my ratings? ...Oh why am I asking? I should! Oh that alternate account, AlteredManx02? Yeah, about that... Someone's stalking me! Someone created an account with a slightly different name and slightly different clans, and has the intention of copying my every move, starting with some of my ratings! I even got an email from the person saying that this was just the tip of the iceberg, that the person is planning on stealing my identity and murder me, and that "there could be only one of us." Yikes! Just what is that guy's deal? I deleted that email and emptied the trash. As soon as I find a clear gap in my schedule, I'm gonna track down that stalker and I'll turn whoever that is over to the police. And please DON'T help me, I'm tough and I can protect myself and go solo in this mission. But that doesn't mean you can follow my example. If someone's stalking you and you've had very little experience on how you can protect yourself, don't tough it out, reach out for help. Anyway, I gotta go. I need some rest before I do another project and track down that stalker. I might not be able to respond to your messages, but congratulations! You got a glimpse of Bigfoot. OK bye!

Message from MadManx2084 for you all to understand more of his dilemma.