Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

Here's my review summary:

Now ain't this the most shocking revelation in any metal community website! A metalhead who had never dared to explore the standard death metal of Morbid Angel had finally done so...with their most hated album, the St. Anger of death metal, Illud Divinum Insanus! This was released in 2011 when Skrillex and dubstep were sweeping the globe, and bands of most genres were pressured to follow that trend. Bassist/vocalist David Vincent, who had rejoined the band for this album, had past experiences with other genres. Guitarist Pete Sandoval couldn't participate because of surgery for a herniated spinal disc, eventually fully leaving a few years later due to his Christianity. Of course, I have to also mention the two guitarists Trey Azagthoth (founding member) and Destructhor (temporary). Illud Divinum Insanus may be one of the worst albums in metal history, but for me it's not as bad as what others think, probably because of my industrial metal passion. Yep, the style is basically their death metal sound toned down with emphasis on industrial metal and synth-rock. You can also hear some interesting vocals from Vincent including some Spanish! I say this album is about half-fun half-awful, not very cohesive yet still interesting, probably would work better as a few EPs. Despite the downsides, Morbid Angel have gone their most diverse in this style of styles. The vocals and guitars have different tactics in each track, with some throwing back to their earlier death metal while many others have a more industrial metal sound, even leaning towards rock. I actually enjoy the more deathly songs and a bit of the industrial ones, though the more rock ones ("I Am Morbid" and "Radikult") are a couple of the absolute worst stinkers in metal. Sure, this band really roughed up their fanbase's expectations, but I appreciate what they could do. I just don't wanna have to hear those two rock-sounding sh*t-songs again, and there's much worse trash out there....

2.5/5

I've already written my review summary in Rex's thread, but I don't mind sharing it again here:

The perfection of Zao's second and last album with the original lineup carries on to a new one. 1998 marked a new era for the band who have been grateful to God for where their ongoing lives took them. The remaining founding member Jesse Smith continued with new members Daniel Weyandt, Russ Cogdell, and Brett Detar, the latter from rock band The Juliana Theory for a dark turning point in hardcore/metal. Where would bands like Underoath and Haste the Day be without this offering? Dan Weyandt's screaming is perfect! Besides that, the two guitarists have heavy guitar riffs that would surely blow your minds. While they maintain the Christian lyrical themes, they have less focus on the spiritual side and the topics are more about Weyandt's fallen loved ones, with one track written in memory of a friend of the band who committed suicide, and another for Weyandt's late relative. The message in those songs is basically his faith shining to keep him alive after all the losses he and the band suffered. Its heavy impact has caused many Christians and non-Christians to relate. Musically, the songs show how well they've planted the seed for the modern metallic side of metalcore that can be heard in bands like Trivium, Eighteen Visions, Bleeding Through, and Bring Me the Horizon. All in all, Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest marks a different transition from The Splinter Shards The Birth Of Separation, including shorter songs, though both albums are the best. Zao is still alive!

5/5

Recommended tracks: "Lies of Serpents, A River of Tears", "To Think of You is to Treasure An Absent Memory", "Ember", "Fifteen Rhema", "The Latter Rain"

For fans of: As I Lay Dying (especially their debut Beneath the Encasing of Ashes), Eighteen Visions, Converge

Here's my top 10 of 1990:

1. Rorschach - Remain Sedate

2. Demolition Hammer - Tortured Existence

3. Helmet - Strap It On

4. Winter - Into Darkness

5. Atheist - Piece of Time

6. Annihilator - Never, Neverland

7. Sadus - Swallowed in Black

8. Dark Angel - Live Scars

9. Nocturnus - The Key

10. Atrocity - Hallucinations

Vicious deathly thrash from Sadus' amazing comeback offering:

Definitely another coincidence.

Attempting to sound like a Metallica song halfway through is an unfitting move for Sabaton. This is just plain bad. Please, don't listen.

An epic historical metal anthem that would make you wanna become a horse-riding Spartan warrior and charge into a battle:

Attempting to parody an aspect often thought atrocious in music, Durst singing in autotune never really suits him well at all in my opinion:

The band's earlier humor and heaviness of Significant Other makes a comeback with new aspects such as the awesome rare guitar soloing:

A lame attempt at thanking cities, bands, and fans in a rap metal sh*tter:

An angry anthem that really shows how rap metal should be done:

Congrats, Shezma!

Those two songs can actually make a good mashup! It's most likely just a coincidence, since I don't think Tuomas has ever mentioned Ego Likeness or darkwave as an influence, though Nightwish has gotten their darker influences from bands of death/doom/gothic metal such as, quoted from Wikipedia, "Children of Bodom, Theatre of Tragedy, The Gathering, My Dying Bride, Tiamat and The 3rd and the Mortal."

Just a few separate riffs alternating between each other under guitar leads and this is still one of the best songs I've heard in melodic/symphonic black metal:

One last album that is so amazing and unique, yet a reminder about how I should stop my melodic black metal exploration so I don't get highly committed to a genre still out of bounds from my moral comfort (among other reasons). Here are my thoughts:

Windir isn't a band that can be considered just black metal. This is epic melodic/symphonic black metal with colorful leads and mythological lyrics. All that and the genre's usual vocal screams and blast-beats make this sound a unique combo. Valfar was one of the more talented members of the Norwegian black metal scene. He could do everything except drums and clean vocals, which two other band members have done for him. He had an idea to make a black metal band that didn't follow the usual the genre's stereotypes, and he succeeded! Sadly, his life was taken in a blizzard during a trek to his family cabin in his homeland of Norway after his band's 4th album. He had an incredible technique of alternating between only a few powerful melodic riffs throughout the longer tracks. The instruments make the most change, taking turns playing each riff, whether adding more or less heaviness or harmony. All that makes this album an excellent unique journey. RIP Valfar

4.5/5

Yeah, I'm ending this melodic/symphonic black metal exploration early because these kinds of threads are frowned upon, and I've realized that I'm still not ready to travel further into The North. This means any suggestions for my exploration are cancelled (Sorry, Morpheus). Will I try to explore more black metal in the future? No idea, but the time is not now. That's all for this thread, folks!

OK then, Daniel. I have one more album to review, then that's it for this thread. Probably for this exploration as well, because as much as I enjoy what I've reviewed so far, I feel the need to stop for my own moral values.

Some melody added into raw punishing black metal, for me how this kind of sound should be:

Ulver is the main band of former Arcturus vocalist Garm, an experimental electronic band that started off as black metal and dark folk in their first 3 albums, with this album Nattens Madrigal displaying the most of the former. The lyrics centered around wolves in the dark night and the sinister tremolos having some melody are what turn me on in these raw punishing black metal "Wolf Hymns" that I would've backed away from otherwise. Here are my thoughts:

Ulver started off as folk-black metal in their debut Bergtatt. Then they took out all of their metal in their dark folk album Kveldssanger. And where did they put all their leftover black metal? In this album, Nattens madrigal! They also spent all their recording money on drugs and a Corvette just so they could record the album in a forest using a tape recorder. Of course, that's just a rumor, but with this harsh raw production, you might think that was real... Try to find any acoustic folk in this album. Spoiler: There's almost none. The second minute of the album's opening track is a nice beautiful acoustic section. You might think they would have more to bring back the Bergtatt sound, but that's not the case here. The chaos returns at the start of the 3rd minute and is like that for the rest of the album, minus some brief ambient intermissions between tracks. What I like the most about the instrumentation is when melody is added to the vicious guitar work in brilliant contrast with the lo-fi production, aggressive drumming, and snarling vocal range. All that makes this album probably one of the best examples of the heavier side of black metal for me!

4.5/5

This thread is mostly just to journal my progress in my exploration, Daniel, though if I find a release that doesn't get talked about often in the site, I'll take it to one of those other threads for more open discussion.

Thanks, Morpheus! I'll check out some of those bands soon.

Another true symphonic black metal highlight, this one in the faster and more mystical side:

Emperor is known as the band that pioneered symphonic black metal and a once forbidden aspect adding keyboards to black metal, with their 1994 debut In the Nightside Eclipse. I've actually checked out that album a few years ago, but backed out from there, because I wasn't ready to go down that route, and all members of the band who recorded that album except Ihsahn were arrested and jailed for many crimes. So let's go to their second album Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk. Here are my thoughts:

Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk continues to shape up the band's symphonic black metal. Here the songs are more anthemic and the keyboards have much more prominence instead of being left in the background. With synthesized string crescendos and mystical lyrical themes, the vibe is more medieval than satanic. Also to add into the sound of extreme chaos, the imprisoned murderer drummer Faust was replaced with the guy from Enslaved's Frost, Trym. His crazy blast-beat drumming was what made the first two Enslaved albums stand out in pummeling fury with his super strength, and he has encouraged other extreme metal drummers to break the ground to the Earth's core. But this constant raging stream can be a bit repetitive and get old fast. As much as I enjoy this speedy chaos, it's not as essential as everything else in the instrumentation. Trym and Hellhammer are two amazing drummers, but... Yeah, we get it! You can drum like a madman. Still they're true forces of chaos in the genre. You can also hear chaotic speed and technical riffing from the guitar duo of Ihsahn and Samoth, and their tremendous writing shows their true genius. Dissonant harmonies and tremolos add more to the sound that's already cinematic as it is. The epic fury shows the direction the band wanted to take, heading for glory while having some of their earlier brutality. There is also Ihsahn's snarled vocals and occasional clean singing, and Alver's bass fills. Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk may be different from their debut, but it's an essential part of the band's evolution that would continue into their next two albums. Apart from a bit of repetition and cheesiness, this is epic furious symphonic black metal that any of the more extreme metalheads should listen to!

4.5/5

Some more metalcore bands I now enjoy thanks to some amazing discoveries, including the math-ish metalcore of these two bands:

And the melodic metalcore of these two bands:

Philosophical Christian technical thrash metal from Pennsylvania:

Crushing melodic death-doom from Austin, Texas, in a similar vein to Insomnium and October Tide:

Updated my Shadowdoom9 logo with the cool new Sherwood font that I found and installed, instead of the previously used Algerian font. (see above)

Ben, please add the new Sadus album The Shadow Inside.

Ben, please add Hinayana.

A true highlight of symphonic/avant-garde metal with awesome eerie vocals:

A more brutal brief standout of riffing/vocal madness to summarize this band's sound:

A two and a half minute highlight of metalcore/deathgrind, name-dropping the MCU Iron Man actor in its song title:

As the song title would imply, just some lifeless plodding sh*t that doesn't enhance the aggression I would've enjoyed:

A 7-minute metal/hardcore epic that has brushed aside the EP's lack of the more lively elements from their full-length album:

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 10)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 11)

3. Revolution playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 31)

4. Sphere playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 29)

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 two 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: Code Orange - "The Above" (2023) 4.5/5

THE INFINITE: Epiphanic Truth - "Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species" (2021) 4/5

THE REVOLUTION: Gulch - "Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress" (2020) 3/5

THE SPHERE: Omega Lithium - "Dreams in Formaline" (2014) 5/5

Having listened to and reviewed this month's feature releases for all my clans, they all came out really great. My Gateway and Sphere nominations are glorious gems that I would recommend to fans of their respective genres. The Epiphanic Truth album is also well-done, but the Gulch one, not so much. Keep up the good work on the feature releases, all! I look forward to more...

A true symphonic black metal highlight where the orchestral synth melodies take the front stage:

A yummy gigantic track from the most famous (and infamous) man of NDH:

I just hate the deflation in quality occurring in this filler track:

One of the greatest early metalcore/deathcore songs that I would recommend for fans of Abnegation and the late 90s eras of Embodyment and Underoath:

No disrespect to the late Joey Jordison, but he really could've written his songs better for Roadrunner United, especially this alt-pop rock stinker with the vocals by Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw coming out lame:

A modern thrash/groove/metalcore anthem featuring members of Machine Head, Killswitch Engage, and Annihilator:

A wonderful hard rock/alt-metal power ballad by two core members of Trivium and Fear Factory:

Arjen Lucassen's spin-off project to Ayreon, Star One has created majestic compositions of progressive space metal:

A few of the bonus tracks in the limited edition of Space Metal also rule, like this kick-A tribute medley to an earlier space rock band:

I've done my review. Here's its summary:

You gotta admit, Arjen Lucassen is a true talented space metal genius. He can make a song with just a couple riffs and transform it into something beyond belief. I was once a fan of Ayreon and remembered the mind-blowing status of his albums. I suppose one day I can check out some of his former projects that I missed out on like Stream of Passion, but for now, let's escape into a wonderous dimension of progressive space metal! Musically, Star One's debut picks up where Ayreon left off in Flight of the Migrator, including that album's heavier D-tuned sound. This time, only one of the two discs is the main album, and there are 4 vocalists in every song; Russell Allen (Symphony X), Floor Jansen (ex-After Forever, Nightwish), Damien Wilson (ex-Threshold), and Dan Swano (ex-Edge of Sanity, Nightingale). The music speaks in loud fury while in spacey beauty. The deep synth/guitar momentum adds to the heaviness factor, though a few tracks lean closer to the earlier hard rock of Deep Purple, and there are some moments that sound a little too pompous. But the main verdict is an Ayreon spin-off project of progressive metal with the speed of power metal and the cosmic vibe of Hawkwind that you shouldn't miss out on. This man's a true genius!

4.5/5

While I still have a couple songs from Iced Earth's Night of the Stormrider in my mind, I know the intro to the album's opening track is based on O Fortuna:

But its epic orchestral synth vibe makes me think of the intro to the opening track of Kamelot's debut. Similar aspect and influence, different notes:

While I don't really listen to Dimmu Borgir, I have heard of that Stormblast controversy. "Sorgens Kammer" is not even a cover of the Agony theme, it's a straight-up copy! And that wasn't the only case of plagiarism on that album... Listen to the one and a half minute intro of the album's opening track:

Some people might think "Hey, that sounds identical to the intro of that Magnum song", and that's because it is:

Stian Aarstad performed the intro for that song note-by-note and never told Magnum about this, let alone asked them for permission. For the Dimmu Borgir album's 2005 re-recorded version, Stormblast MMV, that intro was left out, along with "Sorgens Kammer". Two new songs were add to the re-recording, one of them with the title "Sorgens Kammer - Del II". Also, at 0:40 in Magnum's intro, there's a beautiful piano melody that reminds of that in the outro of this Iced Earth epic (8:15), though much more of an influence than just plagiarism:

I actually want to revisit that Star One album too. Thanks for this, Rex, I'll check it out soon.

I was wondering why the outro of "Fairies Wear Boots" sounded familiar. Metallica certainly made it sound more metal when pushing the plagiarism bounds.

Sorry to hear, Xephyr. It is sad and painful to lose an essential part of your music life. It's times like this when it's good to enjoy and appreciate what we have while we still have it.

Glad things are going well at your new job, Daniel.