Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Reviews

Somewhere in Southern Europe lies a small land between borders, a great distance away from wherever you live but smaller than your country's average state... Andorra! And over there is one group who has taken both eastern philosophy and western-cultural music in a great attempt to let people about Andorra's existence, and that is... melo-deathly progressive metal band Persefone! Since their rise to prominence in the mid-2000s, they've phased through different trends while their sound stays put. Their influences pack quite a punch with the hard Gojira, the technical Dream Theater, and the eclectic Threshold, all in unique otherworldly lyrics. Aathma continues their journey!

The band's spiritual philosophy continues from their previous album as they maintain their atmosphere-flavored extreme impact that has kinda put them in rivalry against the Australian Ne Obliviscaris (friendly rivals, of course, Ne Obliviscaris' Tim Charles would perform guest vocals and violin in a special single later), yet there's the slight addition of traditional prog ala Dream Theater. Persefone's previous two albums established their motive of songs ranging one-minute interludes to 10-minute epic. For this album though, they've spiced it up by including a 4-part 20-minute epic that we'll talk about later. The esoteric amount of subjects is in strong symmetry with the clean and unclean vocals, plus a small bit of robotic vocals from a certain Cynic vocalist. Besides that, Dream Theater's John Petrucci would be proud of the technical guitar twists here.

In "An Infinitesimal Spark", the first part of the intro, digital narration by said Cynic vocalist, Paul Masvidal makes the intro one of the most amazing ever, for ideal mood. The second part of the intro, "One of Many" is where the progressive riffing kicks off, and we're not in the heavier songs yet! The first actual song starts when you've confined yourself in a state of unawareness within the dark "Prison Skin" that you refuse to be held captive in. You start to struggle to find your way through without any distracting assaults holding you back, before getting to positive power... The pummeling "Spirals Within Thy Being" encourages you to battle through harsh vocals and rhythms.

The climatic break "Cosmic Walkers" offers you to rest after that battle before you continue your journey. "No Faced Mindless" hits you with The Faceless-like progressive death metal mixed with the clean beauty of trad-prog metal bands like Dream Theater. Paul Masvidal returns once more with his cyber chanting and additional guitar in "Living Waves", another 5-minute technical part of the journey.

The spacey soundscape continues in one more instrumental, "Vacuum". The nearly 10-minute "Stillness is Timeless" continues the fight between the two split personalities that are the clean vocals and the harsh vocals. There's more impressive soloing there. To end this towering album is the 20-minute closing title epic, split into 4 parts. "Universal Oneness" jazzes up the heavy guitar groove. "Spiritual Bliss" starts as a slow ballad with narration by Merethe Soltvedt (best known from a few songs by Two Steps From Hell) before more dynamic riffs and shredding solos come in. "One with the Light" hits heavier with guitars by Øystein Landsverk who recently left Leprous. And finally, "Many of One" ends it all as a closing ballad with Soltvedt's serene singing.

Wow, what a vast daunting task Persefone has taken into making Aathma, packing loads of great content into an incredible mind-trip, all in conceptual flow. While they've done this approach since their 2009 album Shin-Ken, the greatness has never hugely worn off. Aathma marks probably the band's most ambitious album yet, though it probably wouldn't be a long-run classic as much as Spiritual Migration with some hooks being overly symmetrical. Nonetheless, any fan of Persefone should get Aathma, and probably start with an earlier album if they're newcomers. It has been Persefone's quest to expand their horizons, and they have a promising path to please the Earth!

Favorites: "Spirals Within Thy Being", "No Faced Mindless", "Living Waves", "Stillness is Timeless", "Aathma" (all 4 parts)

Progressive metal is for those who can expect the unexpected. You know a lot more to find than the back of your hand. With so many influences from other genres, it is one of the most widely varied genres in the world. Persefone are known as the Andorran kings of the progressive realm. From such a small country hidden subtly in the world map, this band deserves to spread all over the metal map. The godly music and lyrical info will surely blow your mind. Your brain will be twisted while having a smooth soul. Your senses will buried in storming energy. The band continues their unpredictability with their most memorable album for the ages, Spiritual Migration!

What to find in Persefone is technical complexity and powerful virtuosity beyond limits, and Spiritual Migration has it all, marking probably their most extreme album yet. Complex rhythms load up structured melodies, with unique instrumentation blending together in deathly progressive metal perfection. Everything is here from technical riffs and fast solos to clean guitars, and from harsh to clean vocals, along with booming bass, show-stealing keyboards, and drumming superior to almost every other band.

From the intro "Flying Sea Dragons" you hear the album begin with the incantation bowl like the one used in a yoga class I was in, for a sense of meditative tranquility. Then guitar tapping fades in and rises in a crescendo, introducing more instruments one by one for an epic orchestral metal overture. Then begins the first full song, "Mind as Universe", quick getting straight into the fast metal action. Trust me, after giving that song a few listens, you'll want more of it! The clean soloing of "The Great Reality" really makes that song a great highlight. Don't get caught off-guard by the mighty perspective changes! "Zazen Meditation" is the first of two relaxing "Meditation" interludes.

The majestic "The Majestic of Gaia" has a memorable fast solo and a slow bridge. "Consciousness" is an expressive instrumental piece of different moods and no lyrics, and both parts should be listened together for the full experience. "Sitting in Silence" is the softer part, but "A Path ton Enlightenment" is heavier. The most memorable solo here is in "Inner Fullness", along with the clean/harsh vocals balance to keep you aware. "Metta Meditation" is the second "Meditation" interlude with calm trance-like keyboard.

"Upward Explosion" explodes out of the quietness again with a loud deathly progressive metal attack. The title track continues the memorable soloing again after a synth-heavy midsection. The last full song "Returning to the Source" describes your soul dying and returning to whence it came. The "Outro" ends the journey in relaxing positivity.

Persefone is like your friendly neighborhood metal band. Their unique music is what makes them stand out, so listening to them would help set your judgement straight, and Spiritual Migration has helped with that. One of many great reasons why metal is my way of life!

Favorites: "Mind as Universe", "The Great Reality", "The Majestic of Gaia", "Consciousness" (both parts), "Inner Fullness", "Spiritual Migration", "Returning to the Source"

So after reviewing Persefone's demo-gone-debut-album Truth Inside the Shades and their legendary concept album Core (the latter being this month's Infinite feature release chosen by me), why stop there?! I'm ready to continue my Persefone album reviewing journey, and up next is another concept album, this based on an old-school Japanese samurai movie. This is Shin-Ken!

Just from seeing the awesome album cover below, you know you're in for a wild ride. The album is incredible as well, with lots of variation, enough to turn what would've been just death metal into full-on deathly progressive metal.

Throughout this album, you'll find a few "Book" element interludes that meant for listening, not reading, starting with "The Ground Book". Then the shredding heaviness and melody rises with "Fall to Rise", a fine song to start the conceptual pattern. "Death Before Dishonour" is, for me, the best song of the album, with superb drumming. A killer melo-deathly progressive metal highlight! Then there's "The Water Book" interlude, reminding me of some of The Ocean's ambient-sounding symphonic interludes. The super insanely awesome shredding solos of "The Endless Path" really make my day.

"The Wind Book" is an interlude that sounds like something Mastodon would use as part of one of their songs. The wonderful piano-led ballad-ish song "Purity" is great in the lyrics, soloing, and riffing that still stays metal in the calm nature. "Rage Stained Blade" brings back the usual deathly rage, and it's still good but not so memorable. Strangely that amount of fire was used up before "The Fire Book", another calm interlude.

"Kusanagi" is the second-best song and the most metal-sounding one in the album, with awesome shredding riffs and cool piano melodies. However, the lyrics are a slight flaw because while they're in English, if you haven't read the lyrics, they would be hard to understand. I guess that's growling and screaming for you! The 11-minute title track is split into two parts, and I can hear why. "Part I" is very fast and often pounding with lots of growling in an overall great composition. Whereas "Part II" is softer in contrast with some metal. "The Void Book" is so short, consisting of ominous ambience and the slash of a sword. The outro "Japanese Poem" is where you can find your inner peace on a rainy day at the gates. Just like the previous two albums, this one's Japanese edition has a bonus track, a wicked heavy cover of Cacophony's "Sword of the Warrior".

Shin-Ken is an awesome album to love, though some of the lyrics and unclean vocals are hard to like. But that's just SOME, the rest is great! The lyrics are more tolerable in the softer songs than the metal songs in which the instrumentation is the key. Another killer album to get!

Favorites: "Death Before Dishonour", "The Endless Path", "Purity", "Kusanagi", "Shin-Ken Part I", "Shin-Ken Part II", "Sword of the Warrior (Cacophony cover) (bonus track)"

With an album name like Core, you might expect the band to add some metalcore/hardcore/grindcore... I wish! Though what I ended up getting is perfect too. See, what this album centers around is the legend of Core (pronounced "KOR-ee"), the female maiden goddess of life and death, whose other name, Persephone is the inspiration for the band's name with a slight different spelling, Persefone. The part of the legend dealt with here is her abduction and exile to the underworld, very fitting for the music aspect...

A couple years after their debut that started as a demo but became a full-length album, Truth Inside the Shades, Core evolves the sound from an already unique album into something greater. Simply in greater depth, the addition of female vocals, and consisting of 3 long songs that could fill in a 3-part mini-TV-series!

The first of those 3 long tracks, "Sanctuary" already shows what the real deal is gonna be. Besides those 3 elements that shape up the album evolve their sound (greater depth, female vocals, long songs). The heaviness often calms for something softer and restrained, and that's good because if you're gonna make three 20+ minute epics, you gotta add some variety. Clean guitars are more prominent with Hispanic vibe from famous composers in countries surrounding their homeland of Andorra, such as Emilio Pujol from Spain. The guitar soloing can be a bit bluesy, but in a pleasant way. The lead and rhythm guitars are what power up the nice riffing. There's prominent bass, and nice piano and keyboards. Is it just me or are there 4 vocalists in this album? A growler, a screamer, a male singer, and a female singer... I bet this ambitious aspect inspired Amaranthe's multi-vocalist style. All these vocal styles share the spotlight, shining at different moments after moments, though while I enjoy the unclean vocals, the clean vocals fit better for the atmosphere. I'm used to the balance of clean and unclean vocals since Trivium. And did I mention the epic progressive length of beyond 20 minutes??

"Underworld" continues the lengthiness with everything I just mentioned. All 3 of these tracks are epic, but what really stands out is the last of them, "Seed". It starts with an amazing oriental-ish section with male cleans, and the rest is absolute beauty and fury, until a peaceful ending. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that the tracks are all split into multiple parts, split even further in the lyrics. Lo and behold (sorry if takes up long-a** space in the review):

"Sanctuary: Light and Grief":

"Act I: Goddess Wrath":

"Drowning the Light", "The Reaction", "Goddess Wrath"

"Act II: Light's Memories":

"Mother's Memories"

"Act III: Exiled to the Void":

"The Light Punishes the Earth", "Exile", "The Message from the Father of Gods", "Denial"

"Act IV: To Face the Truth":

"Hermes Arrival", "Core's Transgression", "Consequences"

"Underworld: The Fallen and the Butterfly":

"Act I: Clash of the Titans":

"The Battle Ends", "A Mighty Crash"

"Act II: Dark Thoughts from a Dark Heart":

"Dark Thoughts from a Dark Heart"

"Act III: When the Earth Breaks":

"And So It Happens", "Nine Days"

"Act IV: Released":

"Doubts Are Seed", "Hermes Journey", "Tasting the Forbidden Fruit", "The Underworld", "Meeting the Light"

"Seed: Core and Persephone":

"Act I: A Ray of Hope":

"Held Captive"

"Act II: Self Betraying":

"Memories", "Betraying Herself"

"Act III: Doubts Are Seed":

"A Pure Heart Succumbs"

"Act IV: Dark Inner Transition":

"Transition to Persephone"

"Act V: The End":

"The End", "Epilogue"

Hello again! Hope I didn't lose you during that huge list of all the parts and micro-parts of the tracks. Anyway, however you would like to consider these tracks, they're all for great enjoyment. However, there a couple more editions that each have a bonus track. For the Japanese edition, "Train of Consequences" is a cover of a Megadeth song, separate from the concept, being just pure epic blackened death metal with a nice solo. And if you get the international reissue, the "Star Wars Medley" would have you squealing in joy, especially if you're a Star Wars fan like I am. You'll definitely have fun headbanging there! The songs used in that medley are: "Star Wars Theme", "The Imperial March", a brief yet epic fragment of "Duel of the Fates", "Cantina Band", and "The Force Theme".

All in all, I would recommend Core to any metalhead, especially if the album's sound deathly progressive metal with symphonic gothic metal elements is your thing. How can you ever dislike something so good that it deserves more recognition? Get it now!!

Favorites: Seed (Core & Persefone) (though the other two long tracks are also epic)

Forget the critics who consider this band an "Opeth clone that deserves to stay forgotten". Persefone is a band that has their own sound going that deserves far more attention, and while they do have prominent Opeth influences, their sound I would say is melo-deathly progressive metal with neo-classical/gothic touches.

This unique sound isn't totally new. It utilizes the classic formula that combines fast heaviness and harsh vocals with soft sections of neo-classical piano, acoustic guitar, and clean vocals. And yet it stays fresh! The Andorran kings of metal know how to not heavily rely on technical structural sh*t but to give the formula a new taste of a contrast between beauty and chaos, all in songs that mostly go beyond 7 minutes.

The calm before the storm is the intro "My Unwithered Shrine" with a minute and a half of piano to make sure the album doesn't start off like any Dream Theater album you might know. Then with no hesitation, "The Whisper of Men" shocks you with the first ever heaviness to hear from this band, though it's short at just 5 minutes long.

The main dish of this meal is the 11-minute title track. Check it out for a great heap of brilliant deathly progressive metal! Following that is "Niflheim (The Eyes that Hold the Edge)", also a grand contender for the best structural song here.

Could you ever miss how "Atemporal Divinity" ends? No, you can't! However, the rest of that song seems to lack the method the previous songs have, sounding out of place. The majestic instrumental complexity of "The Demise of Oblivion" is never weak. It's Persefone's Crusade! Definitely get the Japanese edition with bonus track "The Haunting of Human's Denial". Here you find more progressive speed, darker mood, and a bit of acoustic flamenco. A must-have track, especially if you've listened to Spiritual Migration!

There are just so many different elements in this sound. I've focused a lot less on neo-classical metal now than 5 years ago, and I've moved out of melodeath. Yet they're mixed into a progressive metal sound that I enjoy, and fans of those other genres might. Who knew something big would rise from the unknown small country of Andorra....

Favorites: Truth inside the Shades, Niflheim (The Eyes that Hold the Edge), The Demise of Oblivion, The Haunting of Human's Denial (bonus track)

Since their formation in 1999 (same year I was born), Bleeding Through have been touring different countries, signing into different labels, facing stylistic genre definitions, releasing immense albums, and influencing young new generations. This Californian band's style is a metalcore combo of hardcore and symphonic death metal, weaving a magnificent maelstrom of melody and mayhem together in chaotic aggression. Bleeding Through is cited by many extreme metalheads as one of the first metalcore bands to be truly heavy. Years later, here they are, strong as strong can be. The band split up for 4 years from 2014 to 2018, except for a benefit show in 2016 for another metalcore band The Ghost Inside that was in a horrific traffic accident. During their split-up, the heavy metal landscape was facing really serious changes. Metalcore has fallen into the mainstream trap, with A Day to Remember adding more poppy elements and Bring Me the Horizon switching to completely electropop-rock.

Fortunately, not only has Bleeding Through returned, so has their symphonic death/hardcore-influenced metalcore sound, with no pop in sight. The force of aggression is strong in their epic comeback album, Love Will Kill All! Vocalist Brandan Schieppati wasn't really happy about how the metalcore scene was going and decided that the only way to restore balance to the metal universe is to "do it our f***ing selves again". Good to know that he still has metalcore fury within...

While this album is perfect as h*ll, the only weak part is the intro "Darkness A Feeling I Know", which just consists of church organs and poetry that sounds like a 7th grade heartbroken goth emo wrote it. It sounds a little more appropriate as the intro to a recent Avatar album. However, "Fade Into the Ash" completely makes up for it!! A blistering mix of epic and extreme and one of the most glorious metalcore songs ever! It displays the band's crushing music with huge hooks and one of the greatest choruses in the album and the band, topped off by symphonic keyboards. Pretty much every element the band has is served in just 3 and a half minutes. WELCOME F***ING BACK!!! "End Us" once again shows a new beginning for the band. "Cold World" has spectacular melodic singing beyond better than their previous work, especially near the two-minute mark.

"Dead Eyes" shows more of their epic death metal influences. "Buried" brings back the crushing heaviness from their first 3 albums. "No Friends" is a song that can cause a roomful of metalhead kids whipping their long hair that they keep uncut against parents' orders to create a violent mosh pit to practically tear that place down, while bringing back their early 2000s Gothenburg-inspired guitar melodies. "Set Me Free" is the first song to be released by the band after returning, one month before the rest of the album. It's all filled with symphonic death-influenced metalcore! How sinister can that song get??

"No One From Nowhere" just punches you in the face right out of nowhere with crushing guitars before easing things up with ethereal strings while still having suffocating lyrics. That's a great killer callback to This is Love This is Murderous! "Remains" once again proves that Bleeding Through is one of two bands who can return to their heavier metalcore sound, the other band being All That Remains with their album Victim of the New Disease released later that year. The album's best song in terms of heaviness is "Slave", but it's also where the keyboards have the least presence. That chorus is so brutal yet memorable. And finally, "Life" is a perfect ending song, once again mixing epic with extreme. Keyboardist Marta Peterson sings background vocals for the first time in the choruses. I want more of her vocals in the band's next album!

If Love Will Kill All has never made it to any "best metal of 2018" lists, well I personally think it easily should! This album puts Bleeding Through back in the higher metal tier. I love this album slightly more than This is Love, This is Murderous and definitely The Truth, and everything you love from those two older albums with all their influences, new and old, executed perfectly. The band still has their true side which proves that they haven't lost any steam in their 4-year split. Bleeding Through is definitely my favorite symphonic death/metalcore band along with Winds of Plague. Here's to more epic extreme metalcore awaiting!

Favorites: "Fade Into the Ash", "Cold World", "No Friends", "No One From Nowhere", "Slave", "Life"

Bleeding Through is known as one of the originators of the heavier side of metalcore, and even though their more popular times with about 5 or 6 years before this album, they never seem to creatively decline. But after 7 albums in a career spanning decade and a half, it was their time to split. They would spend 4 years of silence before an epic return. But before then, this album The Great Fire shows more of their O.G. metalcore re-energized from the previous self-titled album.

The album is more furious with merciless power, and Brandan Schieppati’s roars and screams can cause a tall mountain avalanche. With the song lengths much shorter, from one and a half to 4 minutes, average 3 minutes, and more punk-ish guitar work, this album has a greater hardcore pulse than melodeath.

The album starts with the marching opener "The March", a heavy crushing intro with thrash influences and keyboard tones. Then the fire blazes through "Faith in Fire", kicking off the brutal screams. The music becomes fast without any forgiveness, adding more death metal influence to the metalcore hooks. "Goodbye to Death"... Does that mean they're saying goodbye to the death metal influences they had in previous albums? Definitely not, because their next album comeback has those influences returning. It continues the speedy pace, but the guitars and rhythms are a little low beneath the screams. Still there's some subtle melody weaved into the berserk aggression. "Final Hours" is the first song here with clean singing, reminiscent of their earlier times a decade prior. "Starving Vultures" has more of the power the band is hungry for.

"Everything You Love is Gone" is another short merciless attack with powered up roars and screams. "Walking Dead" is the only song in the album that's over 4 minutes long. After an epic piano intro, brutality is unleashed, a flashback to This is Love, This is Murderous. "The Devil and Self Doubt" once again blasts through melody and aggression perfectly, but the rock-ish solo is a little too excessive. "Step Back in Line" is a step back into the line of fire from their previous two albums. "Trail Of Seduction" starts with a cool prog-ish organ intro followed by a classic guitar solo before more screams. The vocal harmonies make a great chorus.

"Deaf Ears" is a ruthless song, charging through with sharp bursting noises of metal that can indeed make you have deaf ears if you're hearing-sensitive. Same with "One by One" a shorter tune that can slay listeners one by one, alongside a gang refrain. "Entrenched" begins with an Alice in Chains-like vocal harmony intro before turning into a bludgeoning standout. "Back to Life" has more keys and melody to drag you in through death metal fury before ending with an uplifting chorus.

Though not reaching the heights and most of their other albums, and including a couple songs that could've been edited out, The Great Fire is still very impressive, and a great end of their first era in the bang. Even though it looked like the end of Bleeding Through when their 4-year split-up started, the band would later come back to life....

Favorites: "Faith in Fire", "Final Hours", "Walking Dead", "Trail of Seduction", "Entrenched", "Back to Life"

What is it about metalcore getting such a bad rap?! Is it too emo? It is too hardcore? Is there not enough metal? I love metalcore as much as other metal genres and a few of those bands really stand out. Bleeding Through is one of the most elite. And that's mostly because they almost perfectly blend metal and hardcore.

The majority of Bleeding Through's material before Declaration is basically At the Gates-style death metal/melodeath mixed with hardcore. Declaration shows the band's black metal influence, and now they have more of that in their self-titled sixth album! The symphonic black metal influence is caused by the higher role of keyboards. They have the atmosphere and melody of black metal. Most songs have hyper-speed black metal riffing while mixing it with breakdowns and thrashy riffs.

The keyboard-symphonic opener "A Resurrection" is a fresh start in both of the song and title after leaving that trust-killing label Trustkill. Then in "Anti-Hero", the band time-travels back to 1995 Sweden for death metal bands At the Gates and Therion in that year and borrow their sound and adds some punk-like lyrics ("I’ve heard enough of you, f***ing go away!”). The tremolo riffs are sprinkled in there. "Your Abandonment" never abandons the band's mix of hardcore punk and symphonic black metal. For a song titled "Fifteen Minutes", they kept only about a quarter of that length. Still a kick-A song!

"Salvation Never Found" is an epic extreme anthem that tears your lungs apart until you can no longer breathe, and it has some clean singing only found in a few songs in this album. "Breathing in the Wrath" explores some mid-tempo while breathing in the faster wrath. "This Time Nothing Is Sacred" shows in the music and lyrics that there's nothing sacred, all just chaos and disarray. "Divide the Armies" has an interesting solo and more clean singing.

"Drag Me to the Ocean" drags you through more suspenseful chaos. "Light My Eyes" is shorter and a little cleaner but stands out more. "Slow Your Roll" is never slow! It has more significant black metal development, especially in the lyrics of searing poetry ("This sinking feeling in your soul will forever haunt you, disgusting apathy, no freedom from suffering"). "Distortion Devotion" is the album's 6-minute epic that stands out the most. I mean it's not as glorious as the previous album's "Sister Charlatan", but still... well, glorious! Once again, there's more clean-vocal drama.

The last 3 tracks stand out more than everything else in this album, but those other songs are still good and never suffer. Despite this album being not as great as most of the others, Bleeding Through has sealed their position in the small amount of metalcore bands that can please listeners. I'm so proud of this band....

Favorites: "Anti-Hero", "Salvation Never Found", "Divide the Armies", "Light My Eyes", "Distortion, Devotion"

Trustkill Records is a rather aptly named record label, because they really killed many signed bands' trust, including Bleeding Through. Their bitter battle started when Trustkill rejected the band's suggestion of re-releasing their previous album The Truth one year after its original release. Then that label released their own special edition reissue The Complete Truth with bonus tracks include two B-sides, two covers, and a remix, plus a bonus DVD, without the band's knowledge or permission. As for this album Declaration, Trustkill only funded 25% of recording costs and spent the rest on unpaid royalties. Boy did this band take their anger out on making this album...

Bleeding Through continues their trend of uncompromising music since The Truth while distancing themselves from being associated with standard metalcore saturation. After the wide variety of metal influences from their previous album, this one Declaration sees a more extreme direction, proving their usage of the harder brutal faster darker cliche. The songs have much stronger black metal tones than ever in their instrumentation. The most apparent example is the atmospheric keyboards from Marta Peterson. Her keyboards have higher roles reminiscent of symphonic black metal bands like Dimmu Borgir and Abigail Williams (the latter also having metalcore influences at the time). The drums are also in extreme waves by Derek Youngsma. His drumming is now in a more complex death metal style, blasting more in some songs than in the complete Truth album. The bass is faster and more frequent. The guitars have darker aggression. A lot more tremolo-riffs are doubled by the ominous keyboards for more black metal-like moments. Vocalist Brandan Schieppati does more of his mid-to-high vocals while still doing his lower ones. There are less clean vocals, here at the same level as Dust to Ashes. Don't worry if you think this sounds too different. The breakdowns and Gothenburg-like riffs will still shake around in this album.

It all begins with the intro, "Finis Fatalis Spei", beginning with a dramatic orchestral intro that builds up until a final announcement of war from, I assume it's Brandan. Then it's time for the war! The title track, "Declaration (You Can't Destroy What You Can Not Replace)" barges in with blast beats, atmospheric keyboards, and dark-sounding guitars. As the darker tone increases throughout, the guitars and keyboards unite for something sinister, associated with black metal far more than metalcore. Then guess what? There's the first breakdown of this album! However, dark guitars and driving bass are layered over the breakdown for a dark aggressive feel with less force. Oh I almost didn't mention that the notorious Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying guest appears in that song (you'll know why I called him "notorious" if you know more about him). Next up is "Orange County Blonde and Blue", a short mean lean thrashing machine, adding new touches to their old sound. Slaying guitars, metalcore screams, raging drums, and breakdowns are all served in a small metalcore dish. There's an extreme side-order of blast-beats with tremolo-riffs and keyboards. Another part of the song to highlight is the drumming that's working well, along with the improving bass. "Germany" continues smashing the listener into oblivion with black metal riffs, metalcore breakdowns, and melodic death metal hyper-aggression.

Bleeding Through really shines with the much longer atmospheric flood of "There Was a Flood". Clean guitars open the song then evolve into power chords alongside keyboards that continue the black metal undertones when the intro gets cut by the expected high-octane attack. That's also one of a few tracks in the album with clean singing. "French Inquisition" is another chaotic extreme metalcore song. Think of any French black metal band that comes to your mind and mix it with metalcore. That's what that song is! "Reborn From Isolation" continues the pummeling melodic black/deathcore action with strong low growls mixed with his high screams that continue to shine. "Death Anxiety" blends the melodeath of The Black Dahlia Murder with the metalcore of All That Remains at that time, plus more orchestration.

"The Loving Memory of England" is a soft one-and-a-half-minute interlude that reminds me of English death-doom masters My Dying Bride. "Beneath the Grey" continues the extreme action again. The hardcore/thrash influenced "Seller's Market" just speeds through without care. That's probably the least interesting song of this album, right before the most interesting! The epic black metal-like closer "Sister Charlatan" is the most atmospheric song of this album and the longest by the band at 9 minutes, though only the first 5 minutes count. This is my personal favorite here! After the epic orchestral intro, the band comes back to their furious business once more. The guitars switch from tremolo lines to dark riffs. The blast-beat drums range from traditional to Suffocation-like technical. The keyboards have ominous atmosphere and intricate melody, even in the brief breakdown. There's even a greatly placed guitar solo. Like I said, the actual song ends after 5 minutes, then for the last 3 minutes, the soft somber piano melody from the intro plays again in a rainy thunderstorm. That's a little unsettling for me because (don't laugh) I'm scared of thunder and lightning.

The expanding evolution of Bleeding Through's sound continues, and they went down their path to the dark side of extreme aggression, thus making the great solid album that is Declaration. Half of the amount of songs are more memorable than in previous albums. I have all the Bleeding Through albums, but I keep remembering this one a lot more than others despite a few other albums being better than this one. Must be the better songwriting or sound, I don't know. This is still the true Bleeding Through, only with more extreme influences than before. Sometimes even the small things can be more interesting in every listen. The production is notably handled by Devin Townsend. The sound has much clear power and the instruments can be heard better with overpowering each other. It's not the ultimate best Bleeding Through album, but it has some of the strongest cohesive material they have to offer. Purchase or no purchase, this album will get you interested in Bleeding Through in no time. I declare a warlike listen!

Favorites: "Declaration (You Can't Destroy What You Can Not Replace)", "Orange County Blonde and Blue", "There Was a Flood", "Reborn From Isolation", "Sister Charlatan"

Once again, Bleeding Through is one of the few remaining metalcore bands to avoid the generic monotony of sadness, happiness, and sappiness. I'm a true die-hard fan of Bleeding Through who would never suck up to the band and instead say the truth, the complete truth, and nothing but the truth, which is this: They take metalcore to a whole different level. I already made that point clear in my This Is Love, This Is Murderous review, and in order to completely agree with my opinions, you have to listen to this album and think as honestly as possible before slapping in the one-word label metalcore. You know how good this album is when you realize the truth of...The Truth!

A big difference compared to previous Bleeding Through albums in the neater production, which is often for bands as their discography goes on. For The Truth, a lot of depth and power is polished by the mixing and mastering with multiple layers. Besides Bleeding Through's standard instrumentation, they use multiple effects, all you can ever ask for. The guitar texture is more varied due to its unique tone. Vocalist Brandan Schieppati is really pushing his vocal range harder than I can ever do. His clean vocals are more acceptably emotional and not as dramatically used as in previous releases. Those vocals are more frequently reserved for actual choruses, making some big unforgettable parts of The Truth. As for his screaming, he started using higher screams while keeping the growling you would always hear in their usual incredible aggressive metalcore, in which the sonic heaviness is turned down by the lyrics of heartbreak usually delivered in the more emo kind. Of course none of their other albums are softer, but this album really hits you hard in the face without intending any facial injuries. There's never any intentional empty space! So now you have a full metalcore package that's half heavily pounding, half melodically emotional. And if you really hate this album, well...

"I DON'T GIVE A F***!!" That's the first line you ever hear in this album's first track, "For Love and Failing". Now that's a rude awakening! That song mainly focuses on a thrashy riff, whereas the spooky keyboard melody in the middle reminds me of gothic rock/metal band HIM. "Confession" shows some of their melodeath influences. "Love is Slow Motion" is a song that would have the loud audience singing and shouting along. "The Painkiller" is another short yet killer highlight.

"Kill to Believe" has brutal skull-f***ing verses along with sing-along choruses. Of course, the band would never stop their riff-wrath and breakdowns. "Dearly Demented" can kinda be the sequel to the previous album's "Number Seven With a Bullet"; it's over 5 minutes long and has more prominent keyboard parts. The chorus features haunting guest vocals by Nick 13 from psychobilly band Tiger Army. At one point, there is a moshing breakdown before focusing on a riff that would fit well in an Iced Earth album along with said haunting chorus. Then we have something completely different, "Line in the Sand", a Bleeding Through power ballad! It's so emotional yet has the softer feel of heartache with no harsh vocals at all. That still counts as a Bleeding Through song. "She's Gone" returns to melodeath-like chaos at just one-and-a-half minutes in length.

"Tragedy of Empty Streets" has ominous keyboards speeding through the frantic instrumentation. I enjoy that! "Return to Sender" is another enjoyable highlight with melodic singing, keyboard grandeur, and short guitar soloing. "Hollywood Prison" speeds through fast riffs, tough breakdowns, and bad-a** lyrics ("Now I'm struggling to find your f***ing spine, I'll rip out your spine!"). The title outro is a confusing ending, a dark instrumental post-metal song with a bass solo and symphonic keyboards reminiscent of the very early Within Temptation. This song would fit better in an Isis album. Then after the feedback fades out, you're left wondering, "What is the truth of all this??"

The truth of The Truth is, there's almost no need for inventive technicality because what works is how catchy the album is. Bleeding Through already has the usual signature formula, but this time they really pushed it to the limit. Is this my favorite from the band? Hmm, probably my third-favorite, still behind the genre-significant This is Love, This is Murderous, along with their new epic album Love Will Kill All in second place. Still, The Truth is a great recommendation for first-time listeners of Bleeding Through. If that "rude awakening" offends you, just ignore it! All that matters is the memorable accessibility of catchy riffs and choruses. It has so much accessibility, and yet it never loses its extreme edge of furious thrash-ish metalcore. The Truth is out there....

Favorites: For Love and Failing, The Painkiller, Line in the Sand, Tragedy of Empty Streets, Return to Sender

Many people, including the band themselves, have call Bleeding Through strictly metalcore. But it feels like a degrading limit. They have so many influences from other metal genres like melodeath, thrash, and a bit of symphonic black metal. Before the emo invasion, a few bands showed the true meaning of METALcore, from the prominent pioneers Converge and Hatebreed to newcomers at the time Bleeding Through and Avenged Sevenfold, the latter falling into the heavy metal/hard rock trap.

This is the epic climax to Bleeding Through's discography, This is Love, This is Murderous! Even Metallica elitists as old as my parents would realize the enjoyable heaviness metalcore used to have. By the way, that cover art is one of the sickest yet simplest album covers I enjoy. When I was dissecting a heart in a science class a couple years ago, I stabbed it with my penknife and took a picture of it to recreate the cover art. Unlike the original, it was a wimpy penknife instead of that big-a** kitchen knife, and not much blood came out, but still worth a try. And while young emos are cutting their wrists with that knife, this band packs bigger punches to your eardrums.

The beginning track "Love Lost in a Hail of Gun Fire" opens with a sound sample, a similar beginning format to their debut. This sample is from the movie The Boondock Saints (not to be confused with that comic strip The Boondocks). Then the band starts their attack of powerful riff energy and Brandan Schieppati's fueled-up harsh vocals. This song features one of only a few instances of clean vocals in this album, sounding not too tough and not at all nasal, but somewhere in between. "Sweet Vampirous" is very short at one and a half minutes, and it's a little awkward. "Number Seven with a Bullet" has the best riffing of this album, possibly the best by the band, with some breakdowns along the way. "On Wings of Lead" is a tricky song if you're trying to avoid emo, sounding excellent yet cheesy at the same time.

"What I Bleed Without You" starts strong, but the strength bleeds out a little in its second half caused by the chorus riff. The title track starts a little weak with a breakdown that might've inspired deathcore before pick up their hardcore pace with speedy riffs and an uplifting-sounding chorus before returning to that breakdown, this time with stronger leeway making it much better than the first time. Great song, but not the best in quality. The next one, "City of the Condemned" is a total n*t-hammerer. It sounds like a crossover between Integrity and Emperor, demonstrating the power of metalcore riffs in both the metal and hardcore sides, instead of faceless shades of grey. "Mutilation" picks up more of their hardcore pace with the most brutal moment of the album at the one-and-a-half-minute mark. Though the song itself is mutilated by a weak chorus that doesn't affect too much of its score.

"Murder by Numbers" continues the band's black metal influences that's amazing, despite the weak but not too harmful breakdown in the middle. "Dead Like Me" is a great death metal-influenced metalcore highlight that might have some potential as part of a soundtrack for an R-rated action film. "Shadow Walker" was re-recorded from their debut album Dust to Ashes, but to be honest, I don't love this new version as much as the original (NOT the alternate version, that's the worst!). The album ends with one of my favorite metalcore songs ever, "Revenge I Seek". It begins with another Boondock Saints audio clip before unleashing a catchy breakdown followed by a fast riff. After all that metalcore glory, towards the end there's another deathcore-inspiring breakdown and a final chorus. That was some dark violent metalcore you've just listened to!

This Is Love, This Is Murderous remains a turning point in metalcore history, showing you what metalcore should be. When the band had their 4-year split-up, it looked like this album and would stay their best...until their epic comeback album Love Will Kill All. But until then, this album would reign with its amazing rage. This. is. METALCORE!

Favorites: "Love Lost in a Hail of Gun Fire", "Number Seven with a Bullet", "City of the Condemned", "Dead Like Me", "Revenge I Seek"

"I think we're a hardcore band and I'll never say we are a metal band, we're all hardcore kids and we came from the hardcore scene. Ours is just a different version of hardcore, we're trying to do something which adds a different variety to the hardcore scene, which has been sounding the same way for so long."

Brandan Schieppati, listen to yourself! Your band, Bleeding Through combines the heavy riffs and vocals of death metal with straight-edge metallic hardcore, adding keyboards similar to some melodeath bands. There's some definite metal right there! If this band was all hardcore and no metal, they wouldn't be in this site or any other metal site. Their amazing metalcore sound would continue their second album and part of the best half of their discography, Portrait of the Goddess.

The first track "Rise" is really short at two minutes long, but it ain't an intro! It starts the head-banging melodeath-influenced metalcore action right away, with John Pettibone of Himsa on guest vocals. "Our Enemies" starts with epic keyboards that remind me of Comatose-era Skillet, before unleashing their death metal influences from Dismember and At the Gates. There's also a bit of Brandan's clean singing in the choruses. He's a good vocalist, NOT the best, but both his harsh and clean tones show that he means what he's singing. "Wake or Orion" displays some of their heavier Cannibal Corpse influences.

"Just Another Pretty Face" is a re-recorded song from their debut Dust to Ashes, having more prominent melodic elements in this album's version. "Savior Saint Salvation" is the 6 and a half minute middle epic. It starts with softly with nice keyboard touches, then the heavy chaos comes back. Brandan really his notes with no strain. M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold (a metalcore band at the time before morphing into a hard rock/metal band my brother likes) does guest clean singing in the slower epic sections. That was a great song, best in this album! "Turns Cold to the Touch" was also re-recorded from Dust to Ashes with their death metal elements more prominent. The soft clean bridge also has a nice colder touch. The slower heavy part after the first verse of the title track reminds me of Nile, but more in the keyboards than the guitars.

Shouldn't the re-recording of "Ill, Pt.2" be named "Ill, Pt.3"? Either way, the keyboards have nicer notability in their original version in Dust to Ashes. Same thing with the newer version of "I Dream of July". However, the issue with the harmonic guitar intro, hardcore/death metal riffs, and ending breakdown hasn't been entirely fixed. "Insomniac" is a killer melodeath-influenced metalcore ending track, though the final fade-out wasn't really necessary.

Overall, this is awesome, though not their best album. With crushing guitars, melodic keyboards, hardcore vocals, and decent drums, Portrait of the Goddess is a powerful serving of extreme-influenced metalcore. This is an excellent album whether you're into metalcore or new to metalcore. They've painted their portrait well!

Favorites: "Rise", "Our Enemies", "Savior, Saint, Salvation", "Turns Cold to the Touch", "Insomniac"

Let's think of a few metal and hardcore genres this way... Metalcore is the child of two genre parents, heavy metal and hardcore punk. 1996 was its possible birth year when Converge took intense hardcore fury to a different metal level. Mathcore was born in 1999 when Botch and The Dillinger Escape Plan took the hardcore realm by a storm of technical proficiency. Zao helped give metalcore a dark atmospheric side to balance it out with the Christian lightness. Then hardcore punk divorced from heavy metal for being too melodic and married heavy metal's more extreme sibling death metal and gave birth to deathcore in 2002, the year Suicide Silence was formed, destined for an a-bombed malice. And in 2008, metalcore started having an electronic phase with the attack of Attack Attack! There are a couple metalcore bands that might have influenced the divorce; Killswitch Engage whose melodic metalcore is watered down to radio-friendliness, and the brutal death metal influences of Bleeding Through! A little over-simplified as this point, the first couple albums from those two bands are what caused the metalcore scene to be split into two sides by the late 2000s, the melodic side impersonating Killswitch Engage and the brutal side copying Bleeding Through. Fortunately, Bleeding Through would be nicely balanced on both sides since the late 2000s.

Bleeding Through's debut Dust to Ashes shows their brutal side really greatly, being their most raw release by the band in both sound and production. It's a little startling to hear the jump in production in the second album, especially in that album's re-recordings of songs from this debut. Here, the vocals are obscured and a little distorted, the drums are flat, and the keyboards can barely be heard, just humming in the background. The guitars sound primarily clearer and nicely easier to hear, despite the low drop-B tuning. The sound is really interesting! The riffs show the band's stylistic blend of melodic death metal and straight-edge hardcore, influenced by At the Gates, In Flames at that time, and even Cannibal Corpse. The tremolos are also reminiscent of melodic death metal mixed with vile black metal. However, those riffs strike differently from the more traditional approach. While there are blast beats, the occasional pummeling breakdown really powers up a brutal riff, and all those breakdowns really connect well with the riffs, giving the songs more coherent fluid. And whenever the breakdown has appropriately killer rhythm, you know there's gonna be sh*t kicked in the pit.

The opening track "Turns Cold to the Touch" works well a great start to this band's discography, beginning with a sound sample of a choir singing and narration, before blasting into death metal-influenced metalcore chaos. While showing some heavy metalcore that would inspire As I Lay Dying, the soft bridge, in which vocalist Brandan Schieppati singing clean vocals for the first time while having his harsh vocals, has the despair of Katatonia at that time. "Hemlock Society" has some better extreme action. "Just Another Pretty Face" is just another heavy song that would be re-recorded in their next album along with the aforementioned "Turns Cold to the Touch". The next one, "Shadow Walker" is one of the greatest and most chaotic songs in the album. Short but killer! However, there is an alternate version at the end of this album that really ruins the song, but we'll get to that later.

"III Part 2" was also re-recorded in their next album Portrait of the Goddess. In case you're wondering, the "first part" is actually "Aurora III" in their demo. "Reflection" keeps up the wicked chaos. Sometimes the band would miss the memo of melodic direction and get lost in "I Dream of July". After a standard harmonic guitar intro, it gets discarded in space for hardcore/death metal riffs, then ending with a breakdown that is more forgettable than exciting.

The band also has trouble choosing an idea to develop in "Oedipus Complex". After a thrashy trio of riffs, they switch to a section with Nile-like keyboards. Both of those sections are each strong on their own and shouldn't be too close to each other. After yet another sound sample with narration, "Lay on the Train Tracks" brings back some riff-rage with more coherence. The last actual track "Thrones of Agony" is an epic extreme song, starting with a soft acoustic keyboard intro before returning to heaviness with occasional melodic harmonies. I said that's the last actual track, because of a horrendous hidden track; the "alternate version" of "Shadow Walker", where Brandan Schieppati adds his own improvised singing/shouting that sounds like one of Jim Carrey's meltdowns in Liar Liar. Way to ruin an awesome song! F*** THAT SH*T!!

Even with that hilariously awful hidden track and a few flaws in composition and production, it shows the band's passion for the sound they're willing to make, a lot more than you would expect. Not every band is passionate to make raw metalcore from the very start when they're all drowning in rip-off variations nowadays, but this album has what's real with no confusion. However, with the poor quality compared to later releases and half of its songs re-recorded in a couple albums, Dust to Ashes is a little more of a demo than an actual studio album and I would recommend it more to fans of the band's historical perspective. Still a good debut where listening is encouraged....

Favorites: "Turns Cold to the Touch", "Hemlock Society", "Shadow Walker", "Reflection", "Thrones of Agony"

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a band whom only the heavier brain-battle-ready hardcore listeners can enjoy. Despite only that small portion of the world population enjoy this band, it consists of a few of the most talented people in the modern musical spectrum. Each album has pushed music boundaries off the edge of sanity. Some moments are ravenous and maniacal, and others are just lucid-dreamy. Despite the band's intense brutal reputation, they knew they had to go some time, and that time was right then. 2 months before this album Dissociation was released, TDEP announced that it would be their last album and they planned on splitting up the following year. The apocalypse was coming... I think they're one of two bands I like that split up at the end of 2017, the other being gothic rock/metal heroes HIM.

Everyone who listens to TDEP knows that they're a good place to start when getting into mathcore, a genre that mixes bizarre time signature combos with heavy aggression. Sure you can still find some mathcore bands active today, but there aren't a lot that are notable.

The album opens in a standard mathcore bang with "Limerent Death", filled with complete manic insanity, plus some yelling and screaming from both guitar and vocals. The violent blast beats and complex time signatures are far beyond how much your brain can handle. After that perfect violent opening track, the band switches gears in the beautiful "Symptom of Terminal Illness", filled with beautiful dread. It's a grim mind-bender that makes you forget almost all your good feelings. "Wanting Not So Much to as To" is another mathcore masterpiece with so much more than you ever want, including irrationally controlled songwriting and structure. This is all just traditionally structural subversion that can tears your minds apart and rebuild them again. The electronic interlude "Fugue" is Dillinger's own "Fugue in D minor" (minus any creepy organ melodies). Grim electronic sounds revels through your ears and the skull and spine between them.

"Low Feels Blvd" is a killer return to the band's signature experimental mathcore, hiding jazz fusion in pulsating thrash metalcore. Then there's a clean solo section with a nice mix of jazzy Latin rock before a short progression into a rare melodic guitar solo. Then the chaos comes back again briefly. The next track "Surrogate" once again blends progressive metal with grind-punk. Then after a descending power chord chorus, a heavy brutal breakdown crashes through before another jazz fusion-fueling section with nice drums. After that, the extreme complexity comes back that shows the band's creative technical genius. "Honeysuckle" continues that technical creativity, switching back and forth from some of the heaviest thrashing in the album to Latin jazz fusion breaks, all with complex time signatures and pulsating grooves.

The next track "Manufacturing Discontent" once again brings out some mathcore surprises. Because TDEP fans understand why the band has to go, well.... "Apologies Not Included"! That song continues their fantastic journey of prodigious style of inventive song structures in a maniacal soundscape. "Nothing to Forget" is indeed nothing to forget! It shows Dillinger's one of last ever efforts in their usual mathcore mayhem before transitioning into an almost tender string arrangement with Greg Puciato singing in smooth falsetto. Then in the last minute, we get to hear the band's mathcore madness for the final time. You might think the album would end after using up all their usual chaos, but nope! They want to really say farewell, with the final title track. It starts with melancholic strings before electronic beats come in and Greg Puciato starts singing in a truly tender voice. It's NOT as soft as an acoustic ballad but at the same time obviously NOT heavy. And finally, strings and organic drums and cymbals keep playing as Puciato repeatedly sings "Finding a way to die alone" as the mix fades and he sings that line a couple more times and...it's over.

Dissociation is a real swan song- I mean, swan album for Dillinger, but it has never been accessible to the mainstream, and neither was the band throughout their 20-year career. Still a lot of mathcore listeners followed and watched them to the end. Those listeners are the ones I would recommend this album to, not casual pop-obsessed people. Not the perfect TDEP album, but their perfect ending. It's a nice album to try out, and if any of the band's listeners move on, it's no big deal. RIP TDEP.....

Favorites: Limerent Death, Wanting Not So Much To as To, Low Feels Blvd, Honeysuckle, Dissociation

Ever since their 1997 formation, The Dillinger Escape Plan have combined death metal, hardcore, and art-prog to spawn the genre mathcore, or more specifically grind-tech-math-metalcore. They've released 5 awesome albums at that point, and one of them is another killer album, One of Us is the Killer!

On their fifth album, TDEP have a lot of extreme in their hands, but some of it is lost to construct songs with more melodic motifs. Their song-craft journey that they can still poly-rhythmic thrash metalcore choruses more barbaric than Conan the Barbarian while making more poppy numbers that would allow them to guest appear in Conan the talk show. It may sound selling out, but they can still be as extreme as they want to be.

The album's smashing opener "Prancer" once again continues the tradition of swinging straight into action. Off beat melodies shine in a considerate pace. The chaos doesn't come down when they kick off "When I Lost My Bet", probably the album's best song. It weaves riffs and setting off blast beats more powerful than a time bomb. This is a manic, intense song with no control. The title track is start of the straight-forward experimentation in the album, with dreamy jazz verses and more catchy than extreme choruses. Despite the song sounding a bit different, it still feels like something TDEP would do.

"Hero of the Soviet Union" is a nice comeback to the Miss Machine era. It has chaotic rhythms and a breakdown that drives you out of a city down a (survivable) cliff as Greg Puciato screams his lungs out, "YOU SMEAR YOUR FILTH ACROSS THE WORLD!!" The next track "Nothing's Funny" is a nice mathcore song with funny sound effects like licks that sound like a scurrying swarm of locusts. "Understanding Decay" sounds like a song that didn't make it into Option Paralysis which is understandable. Groovy hooks break down into creepy melodic bass sections. "Paranoia Shields" is definitely a typical TDEP song that can be in any of their albums. Vocals range from threatening singing to vicious shouting and screaming, and the instruments range between odd leads, driving rhythms, and intricate drums.

When you see a song title like "CH 375 268 277 ARS" that sounds a book ISBN or something, you know that there's going to be a digitally distorted hardcore interlude going on, and there is! "Magic That I Held You Prisoner" has some wild riff-wrath similar to many of their other songs along with uncontrolled drumming and a melodic chorus. Another outstanding track is the sludgy "Crossburner". "Phone Home" Part 2, baby!! Moody bass and mechanical distortion scatter over guitars while making the song more violent than a deadly earthquake. The madness would have a good grip on you and shake you hard. This is one of the best songs that don't make my top 5 favorites in this album. Then there's one more track, "The Threat Posed by Nuclear Weapons", a fitting raging finale. The band fires more shots of mathcore adrenaline with face-breaking screaming. Then after calming down for a bit, the chaos gets back up again to finish off the song and the album.

Unlike other hardcore metalheads who can cause abuse to the innocent with their music and lyrics, TDEP knows who or mostly what they can take their abuse out on. TDEP are not a college hardcore band anymore, and have evolved into functioning adults who have unleashed their precision with no denial of fun chaos. They released an album that has a little more slow melody balanced with the usual contorted rage. You'll definitely be headbanging at some extreme choruses like metalheads always do....

Favorites: Prancer, When I Lost My Bet, One of Us is the Killer, Nothing's Funny, Paranoia Shields

Technical metalcore has been scratched through many inches of speed and aggression. Part of it is maniacal proficiency, and the other part is primitive stripped-down rock-core. Dillinger's 1999 debut album Calculating Infinity is a game-changing easily-imitated album that is focused on said primitive proficiency. It looks easier than it really is! TDEP has controlled more arrangements than many of the bigger metal bands out there, but those arrangements are executed in raw energy and chaos.

Over a decade later, Option Paralysis continues the band's overthrowing power but while still critically successful, doesn't completely top the previous 3 albums. Once again, unlike the well-focused Calculating Infinity, the band continues to make their 21st century sound more stylistic while doing their best to keep their original sound. Calculating Infinity can never has its sound truly repeated by the band due to radical lineups changes affecting their direction. Miss Machine and Ire Works have a broadening crossover sound, where they do traditional melodic rock one minute, then hideously radical screaming mathcore the next. Option Paralysis continues that diverse style.

Say hello to their mathcore again with "Farewell, Mona Lisa"! It was a track that really teased what new direction the band might take in that album. The band gets really frantic in the first two minutes before the midsection artistry. The melodramatic chaotic ending breakdown is probably one of the band's heaviest moments since Miss Machine. "Good Neighbor" has some good elements of blistering heaviness. Now heading in less abrasive riffs, "Gold Teeth on a Bum" has some moments that can make a nice action-heist movie soundtrack, while bringing together a once-hated mix of metal and pop.

"Crystal Morning" continues the wild instrumentation and screams that punch deep into the bone. Same with "Endless Ending", where new drummer Billy Rymer shows some technical versatility riding through blast beat-cymbal adrenaline. "Widower" has a more open free structure and is one of the band's rare ballads with Greg Puciato's vast vocals alongside piano performed by Mike Garson, best known for performing in some of David Bowie's albums. Then the impulsive riff-barrage returns towards the end.

What's really spine-chilling is "Room Full of Eyes", not because of the creepy song title but also the song itself, especially when Greg Puciato screams "'CAUSE WE REAP WHAT WE SOW!!!" during the ending. "Chinese Whispers" has some more imperially thrilling lyrics like when he sings "Everything that you cling to will not last," during the black metal-like blast beat instrumentation. I wouldn't care if you didn't like "I Wouldn't If You Didn't", I would still listen to it. After a complex couple minutes of headbanging metal, there's seems to be a Latin swing section with more of Mike Garson's piano. Eat your heart out, Diablo Swing Orchestra!! The sinister closer "Parasitic Twins" mixes eerie experimental soundtrack with doo-wop harmonic vocals. It may sound unsettling to some listeners, but a satisfying ending nonetheless.

Forget Faith No More, TDEP is one of the more experimental bands out there. They can really do stuff like add blast beats into a Foreigner section. They have shown that they're not soft sell-outs, by making an album like Option Paralysis mostly astounding. This band should be in the compilation, Now That's What I Call Tech-Math-Metalcore!

Favorite Tracks: Farewell, Mona Lisa, Gold Teeth on a Bum, Widower, Room Full of Eyes, Parasitic Twins

The Dillinger Escape Plan have helped influence the metal/hardcore scene with their 1999 debut Calculating Infinity, though a couple bands like Daughters and The End kept their own mathcore sound for a couple albums before saying "Phuket!" and switching to something more...rock. While Dillinger's debut is known for all those crazy time signatures, riffs, and solos, those guys keep broadening their sound. Extreme metal fans love the technical dexterity but it won't be easy for them to get used to a more accessible turn. Accepting sudden changes can be a total challenge, but those changes get bolder each time. Their EP Irony is a Dead Scene has the famous Mike Patton on lead vocals, showing off his skills on 3 original songs and a cover of "Come to Daddy" by Aphex Twin. Their 2004 album Miss Machine balances the chaotic force of their debut with a couple streamlined melodic tracks, thanks to vocalist Greg Puciato. Then there's another EP, Plagiarism, that "plagiarizes" 4 popular songs.

With all those incredible moments and stylistic changes, Ire Works continues the awesome mathcore chaos. And we're all lucky that this album even made it. The band had a reputation of bizarre misfortunes over the years, a couple of which were lineup changes that happened sometime before the band was ready to record this album. Guitarist Brian Benoit left the band due to his left hand being injured in the nerve as a result from brachial plexus neuritis, then drummer Chris Pennie left to join Coheed and Cambria, just a few days before recording started. That meant that the band's founding guitarist Ben Weinman had to do all guitars on the album, but at least they got new drummer Gil Sharone (from avant-garde metal band Stolen Babies). Vocalist Greg Puciato and bassist Liam Wilson still got on board and are ready to really outdo their sound.

The brutal opening track "Fix Your Face" commences the second album in a row to start with a bang, an intense opener of destructive perfection with guest vocals by original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis. "Lurch" continues the chaotic rhythm-changes and jazz underlines. Those two songs both make a killer album opening! However, "Black Bubblegum" is a big surprise for long-time listeners. It's basically a more agitated Fall Out Boy gone Faith No More, a dark pop-core song with vocals switching between snarly singing and haunting falsetto. "Sick on Sunday" is also more experimental, basically heavy breakbeat electro-grind.

"When Acting As a Particle" is an interlude that starts with Gamelan-like percussion with suspenseful strings before the guitars start building up. "Nong Eye Gong" is a brutal vitriolic short grind song with more of Puciato's seething screams that makes up for those previous 3 mellow tracks. "When Acting As a Wave" is a great groovy instrumental that sounds like something 65daysofstatic wish they had done. The band's manic mathcore evolution continues in "82588" that could've worked better in Miss Machine.

Another experimental offering comes in with "Milk Lizard" that sounds almost like a tribute to the Jesus Lizard with Puciato easily pushing David Yow off the hardcore vocal throne. The song is just filled with guitar-wrath over trumpets and an out-of-nowhere piano motif. "Party Smasher" continues the typical time-changes worth moshing as another nice break from the experimentation. "Dead as History" starts with some static noises before beginning some cool riffing and chord progressions that almost come out as a Coheed and Cambria song. Perhaps it's a nice tribute to Chris Pennie leaving Dillinger for Coheed and Cambria, though some of the heavier listeners might hate it. The album's last two tracks are also amazing, starting with "Horse Hunter", first starting with the usual TDEP mathcore before going into their Zappa influences, more furious groove, spacey synths, and guest vocals by Mastodon's Brent Hinds. The moody "Mouth of Ghosts" is probably the longest TDEP song at almost 7 minutes. After 4 minutes of mellow jazz piano, things start building up before the guitars enter one last time in an almost theatrical conclusion.

At this point, The Dillinger Escape Plan is no longer just strictly obsessive mathcore and has accepted this eclectic new direction. Are you in or are you out? If you accuse them, go find some other band like Psyopus. Some of us prefer to appreciate the band's true talent in the most thrilling album of their career. Well played, Dillinger!

Favorites: Fix Your Face, Black Bubblegum, Sick on Sunday, Milk Lizard, Dead as History

There's no better word in any language than "intense" when describing The Dillinger Escape Plan, with everything including heavy jazz guitars, groovy bass, chaotic drums, and screaming vocals that are almost suicide for your vocal cords. The band has enough energy and power to really pack an uppercut punch. They've already proven that with their 1999 debut Calculating Infinity, filled with outbursts technical proficiency. Vocalist Dimitri Minakakis left the band after that album, leaving the band's future almost uncertain. At least he came to do the layout and design for the artwork for this album Miss Machine, which I have no idea what is going on in that cover art.

Then after their 2002 EP with the legendary Mike Patton, Irony is a Dead Scene, Greg Puciato steps in as the band's full-time vocalist. Though controversy struck in one of his first major concerts with the band; at the Reading Festival (the UK city Reading) that year, Puciato literally pooped in front of the audience, put it in a bag, chucked it into the crowd, and smeared the rest all over himself as a sign of "the s*** happening later that day" (referring to bands performing in the festival later such as Puddle of Mudd). WHAT THE FRAPPE?! That's gross and illegal!! Indeed, that band almost got banned from the UK for that. But did they fire Puciato? NOPE! That incident was set aside and TDEP fans finally get to hear him both scream and sing in this album, Miss Machine. Not as much energy as Calculating Infinity, but nonetheless a whole new direction.

The first track "Panasonic Youth" really blasts listeners in the face with punishing fury. There are many twists and turns with Puciato's thunderous screaming, relentless guitars, quick passages, and tapping rhythms. The band slows down a bit for some grating bass and more pummeling drumming. The song picks up the sonic aggression again toward the end. Impressive for 2 and a half minute song! The next track "Sunshine the Werewolf" shows the guitar skills keeping the pace and never slowing down. Chris Pennie's drumming is so amazing that it's baffling. Puciato's vocals are once again fantastic, especially when he unleashes a crying scream of "DESTROYER!!! There'll be another, just! Like!! YOU!!!" during a dramatic orchestral bridge. "Highway Robbery" has some prominent bass in the verses with the rest of the band having a riot in the chorus and a fun bridge section. Chris Pennie has an odd hip-hop beat going on before heading back into the bridge once more.

The album continues hitting the spot with "Van Damsel", featuring the same musicianship but less inspired. The guitar rhythm is a drag and the ambient ending doesn't help at all. "Phone Home" is a better but slower sludge track. After mellow ambiance, the drumming eventually gets crazier in weird static. Greg Puciato has some raspy clean vocals in the first verse that turns into savage shrieking in the chorus. That must really be what a serial killer sounds like. The guitars follow those vocals that get more angry, unsettling, and distorted every verse. It keeps violently seguing from one chorus to another in a wall of distortion. Excellent variation! "We Are the Storm" returns to the band's signature sonic storm attack of atoned chaos. This may be annoying for some of the lighter listeners, but being a heavy metalhead myself, I don't mind at all. There's a nice mellow guitar passage subdued into the next section, but it's a little draggy. Then the chaos returns in the last minute. "Crutch Field Tongs" is a really odd ambient interlude that sounds like a machine dying before fading into oblivion...

But it fades back into the next track, "Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants", the best song of the album, starting with a buildup with evil yet soft singing. Then the catchy guitar and drums come in with Puciato's soaring screaming. The verses have some intense energy with frantic drumming, pounding bass and primal screaming, before a chorus of cool clean singing. Then there's a jazzy chill passage with a beach sunset vibe and amazing guitar tone, followed by the unsettling intense pre-chorus and chorus once again. Honestly, the song sounds a bit like Fall Out Boy gone experimental metalcore. I love it, perfect song! Then there's "Baby's First Coffin", having the most intense song intro for this album, and probably should've been the album's opening track instead of "Panasonic Youth". The amazing guitars scream as intensely and Puciato's vocals. Then there's a weird ambient passage. Puciato's vocals are pretty much the best in that song. Next is "Unretrofied", the softest song on the album and good for popular radios. There's almost no screaming nor technicality. The strength in the vocals is more in the chorus than the verses. The song is a little interesting, but heavier listeners would not be satisfied. "The Perfect Design" has the typical mayhem; chaotic drums, earth-shaking guitars, a little ambient passage, and more painfully great guitars until the end.

So how is Miss Machine doing? Well, the album is somewhat spectacular with the continuation of the band's ridiculously extreme technicality while branching out in new mellower places. Greg Puciato has really given the band a more versatile ability to explore different styles. Sure, some moments don't work out well, but the band's mathcore style is still redeemed. Miss Machine is an excellent extreme hardcore album, and first-time listeners would be pumped up for their next move....

Favorites: Sunshine the Werewolf, Highway Robbery, Phone Home, Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants, Unretrofied

I thought I've reviewed all The Dillinger Escape Plan albums, but I missed a special release where they collaborate with one of the most legendary vocalists in the music world. The band consisting of Ben Weinman (Guitar), Brian Benoit (Guitar), Liam Wilson (Bass) and Chris Pennie (Drums), plus former bassist Adam Doll on keyboards collaborated with the one and only Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) for a killer mathcore EP!

While on the search for a suitable replacement for previous vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, The Dillinger Escape Plan came across Mike Patton who was touring with Mr. Bungle. He must've been such a big fan of TDEP's Calculating Infinity that he was interested in joining in some sort of record of theirs. Having been some time since their last album and this is THE Mike Patton, the band agreed and put their vocalist search on hold. It's pretty interesting that one of the craziest bands team up one of the craziest vocalists to create a super crazily awesome EP. If you thought the results would be much different than their usual material, Irony is a Dead Scene is an exception.

"Hollywood Squares" starts the chaos right at the press of the play button, with Patton screaming "GAME OVER! I WIN!! GAME OVER! YOU WIN!!!" The Intensity never stops and instead keeps twisting and turning through all this variety. As the fast pace speeds on, Patton shows off his astonishing vocals ranging from blood-curdling yelling and creepy whispering. What a great maniac! Things get quieter in the second half where Patton sounds closer to his more accessible time in Faith No More. There's still some more amazing creative talent! The furious extreme noisecore rages on once more as Patton snarls "We're Hollywood squares, going nowhere". After that amazing shocker, "Pig Latin" starts calm. First a slow haunting guitar riff plays, then keyboard joins in, followed by Patton's soft singing. It sounds accessible at first but you know it's gonna build up to more chaos. The heavier chorus as guitars explode into heaviness. Patton starts singing deep vocals that sound almost gibberish surrounded by squeals of "Chinga". The guitars get really chaotic as the chords get forcefully wrung out. That and Patton's chaotic squealing causes the guitar to sound like you're bending a pipe around its neck to strangle it. The intensity returns as Patton yells "Speaking Pig Latin, kiss me goodnight" as the band blows the roof off this dump. After a few strange beeps, the song then sounds like a lounge band with the lead vocalist being a psychotic murderer. Those deep lounge vocals work well there! Then it's back to the beginning with the first verse and chorus, except in the chorus, only "Chinga" remains, then ends with one more incomprehensible gibberish line. One of the best TDEP songs!

"When Good Dogs Do Bad Things" is much greater, one of my all-time favorites from this band! Everything's in the right place, and it would be a great song to perform live, though if they ever did, it would be with vocalist Greg Puciato. It begins with Patton yelling "I'm the best you've ever had!!" This song has the most intensity and variety in this EP. The riffs go all over the place in perfect sense. Pure genius!! After some strange gibbering, he starts chanting "mommy" similar to a Gregorian choir. It pauses a few times then his voice rises to screaming as if he was a little kid crying for his mommy. The riffs and vocal abilities get better as the song progresses. More screaming insanity! This song once again proves that Mike Patton is one of the best vocalists in the whole wide world amen. Then suddenly the wild intensity is interrupted by a sudden ambient section with good drumming and haunting vocals. Then it gets much cooler. The guitar sounds darker and more restrained as Patton sings some very low vocals. Then suddenly the crazy screams and mad guitars return again. Then it switches back to the low singing then back to the high screaming. The drums throughout those sections are amazing. Then the song fades out with a film reel, and you think it's all over. Then PSYCH!!! The song returns unexpectedly for one more heavy reprise, like an abrupt jump-scare! One of the most incredible songs by the band.

The final song is a cover of "Come to Daddy" by Aphex Twin. The original song by Aphex Twin might be weird, but a whole new weird dimension is opened by Dillinger. Patton's vocals sounds pretty odd there, sounding like an alien who's gagging and about to throw up the souls he ate, to fit the disturbing nature. It's not as impressive as other songs in this EP, but the drumming is pretty good. However, the guitar is just simple with a repetitive riff. There's a good midsection where they change the guitar line, and every time a new instrument or effect is played, another new one steps in as well. Patton does some pretty weird vocals here. After a strange trance section, it fades to a chilling piano outro. Probably the lowest point of the EP, but still awesome!

Irony is a Dead Scene is not an EP for the faint of heart. Even though it might seem surprisingly normal for a Dillinger EP, it's still a million light-years away from all that conventional radio sh*t. Dillinger truly has a chaotic insane sound of noise-mathcore. With this album, they seem to shine the spotlight further away from themselves onto Patton, the main star, though their musical creativity is still in this EP, hinting at what was to come next in Miss Machine. While not having the same level of insanity as Calculating Infinity, this EP takes and refines every aspect of that album. Dillinger had learnt some great tricks from this EP, and that's why Miss Machine is worth the wait!

Favorites: "Pig Latin", "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things"

Some of you know who Dillinger was, right? John Dillinger was a 1930s criminal known for his bank robberies and prison escapes. A friend of the band's, Matt Makowski was watching a documentary about John Dillinger which gave Matt the idea for the band name, The Dillinger Escape Plan! After that, TDEP went on to record two EPs; the self-titled EP and Under the Running Board. Both of those albums helped establish the genre mathcore, stemmed from a mix of grind-punk with thrash, experimental, and progressive metal. Then there was the first few of many line-up changes the band had throughout their career. Bassist Adam Doll suffered a major spinal injury in a minor car accident, which left him paralyzed from the chest below. He's OK, but he lost the dexterity to play bass and has since played keyboards with the band on brief occasions. Guitarist John Fulton left as well with Brian Benoit taking that spot. Vocalist Dimitri Minakakis would have his last studio effort with the band making this album.

The album title Calculating Infinity makes some sense because the music is so strange and complex that there are infinite possibilities of how their sound would go. That's one of the things about math metal that keeps it together. It's mathematical! After Dillinger's two grind-punk EPs, Calculating Infinity explodes in brilliant venomous combustion, expanding on the aggressive technical grindcore that would establish the band's signature mathcore.

Dillinger opens the gateway to mathcore with "Sugar Coated Sour" in a percussive barrage. Minakakis’ feral yells show some of the band's brutality, then around the 40-second mark, the band's inner jazz fusion comes in before continuing the artful yet punchy staccato descent into madness. Nothing else on this album can work on that compound inversion. Nothing except "43% Burnt", the most popular track in this album. The fans love it enough for the song to remain a staple in the band's stage setlist. The song opens with screeching chords, before continuing into what may be the anthem of mathcore. The last minute and a half is just a trance-inducing mantra that slowly fades out. I think that's the 43% of the song that's burnt. The song still has a lot of the potential the band has offered; a playful section, atmospheric guitar, enraged lyrics, and more tempo changes than most other bands' albums. Beautiful yet defiant! However, "Jim Fear" is pretty much more straight-forward than complicated. The mix is more overwhelming than impressive with visceral impact. "*#.." is an interlude that starts ambient before an aggressive yet soft-sounding metallic hardcore twist fades in.

"Destro's Secret" has more of Minakakis’ yelling along with grumbling and chanting, along with a jazzy interior before one of the more violent sections of the album. "The Running Board" is a song that probably works better in the Under the Running Board EP. After a chaotic minute, the song switches to a western noir theme that escalates into some more jazz fusion. Still there's no denying that the song is a hardcore anthem for metalheads. "Clip the Apex…Accept Instruction" continues the impeccable tightness with guitars of tangling destruction, then just when you think the band has settled their sound into sanity, the sound rises into an amp-ruining wall of noise.

Then just when your eardrums are about to burst, it switches to the title interlude. It's softer with some guitar crunch before building up building into the maximum tension needed for the next track. "4th Grade Dropout" continues the guitar string-striking terror, followed by a drum break that rises into melodic experimental post-hardcore. More hyper-speed repetition while keeping the band's creative steam! There's one more interlude here, "Weekend Sex Change" which is kind of a nice summarizing sound collage. "Variations on a Cocktail Dress" is a memorable closer for this album, once again putting together the band's destructive force with their small jazz movements. After Minakakis' roared out final lines, there's 3 minutes of silence, leading up to an eerie grating noise with samples from the 1959 Diary of Anne Frank film.

The album has the band's Cynic-like guitars, bass, and jazz breaks; extreme metal drumming that combines offbeat jazz with the aggressive technicality of Cryptopsy; and raw spine-chilling hardcore vocals. This would surely be appreciated by people who understand the band's chaotic complex genius. So mathematical!

Favorites: Sugar Coated Sour, 43% Burnt, The Running Board, Weekend Sex Change, Variations on a Cocktail Dress

Ladies and DJENTlemen, are you ready for THE djent album of 2016? It's the Violent Sleep of Reason! If you've been listening to Meshuggah since Destroy Erase Improve or Nothing, you know the journey. Djent riffs, random time signatures, robotic drums, and Jens Kidman's trademark loud vocals, all in here in a day's work...literally; they recorded it live simultaneously instead of separately! Can you believe it?? Despite most of the members being currently about the same age as my parents (average 50) and their signature sound continuing to be rebuilt, The Violent Sleep of Reason has some of the new elements and possibly the band's violently strongest content in a long time.

I still think Catch 33 is the best Meshuggah album (tied with Destroy Erase Improve). Catch 33 has a special concept of a 47-minute suite, and nothing can push that album off its throne. That's the kind of album that would help stay above the surface of water while swimming you back to the shore right when it ends. Next is obZen, a decent album with obvious highlights but doesn't have the same energy. Koloss, on the other hand, is nothing to worry about. It has good songs, some of them slower in a good groove way. It sounds a little stale, but that's okay because it's enough to really surpass obZen. If you thought a new Meshuggah album was nothing to be hyped about, well you had the wrong fears! This album really overthrows obZen and Koloss as another kick-A album, though Catch 33 is still in the higher competition.

You know how good and brutal the album starts with "Clockworks" as the kick-off. This is my favorite song of the bunch and one of the band's best recent songs. Drumming here is incredible, livening things up with the mechanical snare. The more enjoyable part of the song is the second half, where the djent riffs are more repetitive yet they make the complexity look so easy. It's easy to let the rhythm and energy take over your body. An opening track so good you listen to it on its own! "Born in Dissonance" is more dissonant yet simple, working well enough to get caught up in the game. "MonstroCity" is not totally the best song, but still monstrous with a sludgy thematic sound.

"By the Ton" retains a lot of energy BY THE TON. It's slower but has great riffs and a nice but still tough ending. The title track is filled with violent chaos, shining intensity, and uncertainty fitting altogether. "Ivory Tower" is simpler but still OK. "Stifled" is not at all bad, but not good enough to be a great highlight. However, it's still a nice tune worth headbanging and it has a fantastic clean synth outro. What's not to love about that?

Seguing out of that outro is "Nostrum", one of the album's best songs energetically. The traditional Meshuggah beats are on the loose there! "Our Rage Won't Die" really levels up the rage with a catchy djent riff that keeps playing from the beginning to other parts of the song. "Into Decay" is a fantastic closer; the slowest song yet more powerful. After vocalist Jens Kidman yells the last lyrics of the song at the top of his lungs, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! WHAT HAVE YOU BECOME?!?", many of the elements of the album's sound all keep crashing through one another until they finally collapse.

This album shows Meshuggah bringing back what they have to keep their throne as the djent masters. There's more character and life than the previous two albums. The production is similar to those albums, but it's actually more organic and lively due to the live recording technique. Every song keeps building incredible momentum and power without losing them. It's a grand djent experience, though it can't beat the superiority of albums 2-5. DJENT WON'T DIE!!

Favorites: Clockworks, By the Ton, Violent Sleep of Reason, Nostrum, Into Decay

Meshuggah has done a good job mesmerizing metalheads with their musicianship. With their poly-rhythmic structures, brilliant drumming, and diabolical guitars and vocals, they spawned a bigger fan-base and inspired many metal musicians to help develop the djent movement. But what has some of their best originality?

Koloss! A more colossal, cerebral side of Meshuggah has been unleashed. The duplicating musicians think they got everything with the sound and structure, but what they missed is the attitude and intelligently thought-up ideas Meshuggah has. They know when to go slow and when to speed things up with poly-rhythms warping through space and time. All that begins to shine in Koloss.

Starting in a colossal bang is the strong slow groove opener "I Am Colossus". Then it gets much faster charged in "The Demon's Name is Surveillance", bringing the two songs in an equal balance of slow and fast. Do not look away from the slow chugging that continues in "Do Not Look Down". On top of that song's slow groove, there's a really jazzy guitar solo that makes the groove groovier.

The slow chugging riffs keep going again in "Behind the Sun", another good djent song. "The Hurt That Finds You First" is just real charged-up supreme chaos. The trademark guitar moments really turn something aggressive into a work of art. "Marrow" is a song with just predatory eccentricity. "Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion" sums up a lot of the band's signature insanity. It's a nice glimpse of their sound from Nothing, something to be both loved and hated. It's slower, spacey and long, but still gets technical. What's new here is the random time signatures used in a way that's never before heard before, pushing through progressive math metal boundaries.

"Swarm" has a swarm of fast thrash similar to previous albums. Vocalist Jens Kidman's performance is spectacular in "Demiurge", along with that song's ambient intro and outro. The last track, "The Last Vigil" is basically a doom filled ambient clean guitar outro.

So if you thought Meshuggah would become outdated and obsolete around then, take it easy and think again. This album has the most accessibility for Meshuggah, while evolving from the speedy riff-wrath of their previous album obZen. With all that excellent essence that keeps the band's sound alive, Meshuggah would surely be one of my favorite metal bands ever! This is really something to buy, for sure....

Favorites: I Am Colossus, The Demon's Name Is Surveillance, Do Not Look Down, The Hurt That Finds You First, Demiurge

Meshuggah had emerged once again with another album, obZen. Metalheads who either love or hate Meshuggah would expect them to have horrendously crushing downtuned riffs, awesome drumming, and other stuff to form a rising wall of sound. All of that can be found in obZen with a little interesting difference.

The album opener, "Combustion" causes the album to combust into an explosive start. Straight forward complexity, yet there aren't any poly-rhythms and the song is just all-out thrash. A killer callback to Contradictions Collapse and a very upbeat album opening! "Electric Red" contains excellent riffing, especially in that sweet passage at 1:10. "Bleed" is probably the best song by Meshuggah since Chaosphere. Thrashy and memorable! At 1:24 is a total headbanging passage.

"Lethargica" is more technical and slower, but it comes out as one of the album's heaviest tracks. The riffs during the fade-out are excellent. The bone-crushing breakdowns continue in the album's title track. The sheer intensity of the astonishing "This Spiteful Snake" is just possessed with power, compelling the listener to hear this relentless attack whether or not the listener's brain would get confounded.

"Pineal Gland Optics" continues to deliver speed and has some excellent riffs with higher intelligence, especially in the fade-out. The opening riff of "Pravus" is simple enough for the drummer to follow, but leads into the song so perfectly. What may be vocalist Jens Kidman's best vocal performance yet is on the album's closing track, "Dancers to a Discordant System", along with some of the last prominent vocals from drummer Tomas Haake. Both of those vocals gave me chills! That song has far more intelligent riffs than most of the other songs and really brings the album to a great discordant end.

Whether you love it or hate it, you just have to face it, Meshuggah is a total winner in the European metal scene. The chemistry built up by the band members is astonishing, as well as the constant quality that still turns out well through the moderate experimentation one album after another. ObZen has the usual business, and that's NOT at all a problem with Meshuggah because it's the sort of level of music no other band can achieve after one album. Sadly it doesn't match the standards of their previous albums. Perhaps a good album to start with when you first get interested in Meshuggah, encompassing all the band's essentials. Newcomers' minds shall be blown away....

Favorites: Combustion, Bleed, Lethargica, Pravus, Dancers to a Discordant System

(Same review as 2002 version)

This is it. This is definitely the album that has spawned one of the deepest, heaviest genres known to mankind...DJENT! Slower tempos and heavier groove than the band's previous thrash metal albums, with occasional jazz-infused moments, and more importantly, downtuned 7-string guitars (though 8-string guitars would not be used until the album's 2006 re-recording). Nothing is an album that really turned Meshuggah from NOTHING into SOMETHING!

Before I started listening to this band, I never realized how heavy, brutal, and overall good they are. This album, Nothing, will surely show you what I mean. Well the repetition is a little unnecessary, but the album is still cool nonetheless.

Jumping into the action straight away is the opening track "Stengah", a sick brutal song that can sting your eardrums harder and more pleasantly than a hundred wasps with the downtuned jarring staccato guitars locked in by the tight drums. Then the vocals come in a big round of hardcore shouting. That's rather excellent! "Rational Gaze" is another killer song with a paradoxical lyrical theme. "Perpetual Black Second" is just amazing and a potential staple to the band's live set, with some of the heaviest riffs any band could create, bringing the odd time signatures to a new peak for the band.

Rising from staccato power chords, a new uncommon style of riffing really reminisces many bass techniques, evident on "Closed Eyed Visuals". Same with "Glints Collide", with that type of riffing at its clearest, sounding almost as if the album was entirely recorded with bass guitars, while the guitars stay notable with its super heavy crushing tone. The solo really sounds alien-like, bringing a twisted form of jazz fusion. "Organic Shadows" is once again chaotic, but it doesn't have a lot of sense in instrumentation. As technical as the band usually gets, the habit of repeating chords at that point is...well, repetitive. The vocals are still fine there but sound a little constipated. The opening riff of "Straws Pulled at Random" is really thrashy hardcore-sounding similar to The Dillinger Escape Plan, and I love that!

Other than all the guitars and drums being re-recorded and the vocals being remastered in the 2006 version, the only other notable differences are the last 3 songs. For some reason, my copy of the original 2002 version did not have "Spasm". Either it was accidentally removed from my copy, or my copy came from the UK where they removed the song because of "spastic" or "spaz" being an offensive swear there. That's a shame because drummer Tomas Haake's clean robotic vocals in that song sound bizarre yet still cool, and now I'm wondering what the original song sounds like. Haake's robotic vocals return in a small narration in "Nebulous". The only big difference for this song in the 2006 version is, it's slightly slower. "Obsidian" has a cool clean opening, before crashing into a small simple riff repeated so many times. The 2006 version is twice as long as the original version, extending both the front and back. Instead of fading out at 4:20, it goes on until 8:35 and ends abruptly!! Ain't that repetition annoying?!

In conclusion, it's not easy comparing this album to later Meshuggah albums, nor would it be easy to listen to entirely with a couple songs being a little repetitive. But after a few listens, then you would know that the band discovered a new gem that is djent. Even when not needed, you should buy this album. This is the beginning of djent!

Favorites: Rational Gaze, Perpetual Black Second, Closed Eye Visuals

This album stands in a fine line between love and hate, even for Meshuggah fans. Some Meshuggah fans praised the heavy groove textures, while longtime listeners did not approve of the album having less thrash and more jazzy elements. I'm one of the people who love this album, enough to be my favorite Meshuggah album, tied with Destroy Erase Improve. I think it might be in my top 10 best metal albums!

This is a concept album where all songs flow seamlessly together like an epic suite, similar to some Between the Buried and Me albums. A complete trek of a journey from start to finish, that you would want to do all over again. It's a djent journey not to be missed!

The beginning of the trek, "Autonomy Lost", along with later sections, are powered by almost the same riff as the album's prequel EP, I. Yes, I have listened to the I EP, and while I love that humongous suite as much as this album, I never really plan on reviewing it because I'm not gonna waste my reviewing energy on that one-song EP, even though a lot of people on the internet reviewed it, sorry. I don't have much to say about "Imprint of the Un-Saved" and "Disenchantment" except those two songs and the first one really should have been a full 5-minute song together instead of just 3 very short parts. "The Paradoxical Spiral" has a great part right after the vocals. "Re-inanimate" is a little different but definitely should've stayed together with the two tracks to form from a trio into a 7-minute song. The terrorizing guitar solo in that next track "Entrapment" is absolutely memorable, along with Jens Kidman's bellowing vocals and a masterful tremolo at the end.

"Mind Mirrors" is a whole different story for Meshuggah; a guitar string tuned to the lowest audible octave possible, drummer (or in this album, just vocalist due to the pointless drum programming) Tomas Haake's echoing robotic clean vocals, and soft ambient guitar, before the heavier guitars echo...then explode into the heavy groove onslaught of "In Death - Is Life", an ultimate concept of flowing dynamics in metal or any other music genre. "In Death - Is Death" should've fit together with "Is Life" as an over 15-minute epic, but never mind. At the 45-second mark is an eerie solo that's just out of this world. Then after two minutes after that starts is an echoing riff progression, then almost two minutes after THAT starts is a stunning technical break. Nearly the latter half is just filled with otherworldly background ambience.

"Shed" booms right back in the action but gets more eerie and melodic over the brutal groove. "Personae Non Gratae" is short but I'm sure you won't survive headbanging to such a chaotic track. Same thing with "Dehumanization" which is probably the most brutal part of this suite. Once again, those two songs should've really fit into an entire 12-minute epic along with "Sum" which really SUMS up a lot from this album in the former half of the song. Shortly after the one-minute mark, we hear probably the best riff ever created by Meshuggah and any other band, along with a long scream by Kidman. And finally, nothing but soft ambient guitar work throughout the latter half.

So let me tell you, this is definitely NOT a bad album. And if you think it is bad, which is justifiable I guess, that's probably because you haven't appreciate what the album is all about and you haven't fully grasp what is really the best music to ever flow into your ears. Lyrics, riffs, ambience, and seamless suite sections, all in this monstrous djent album. One word: brilliant!

Favorites: The whole album, or if you just want separate tracks - The Paradoxical Spiral, Entrapment, Mind’s Mirrors, In Death (both parts), Sum

I wasn't originally thinking of reviewing this album because it's just a one-song 21-minute EP, but well, here I am. Time to take a break from my official/unofficial challenge journey for this featured release!

There are a few bands that have the idea of a making a single long song throughout an entire album thinking it would be a great as a Great American/European Novel. On the one hand, there's the fear of getting a crawling try of patience that would be much better lasting just 5 minutes instead of 50. On the other hand, a group can have so many ideas that can turn a single-song album in an ultimate masterpiece. The latter example is used in this release. This is I!

I begins with downtuned guitar that has almost the same tuning as the standard bass guitar, playing one note in constant drum marching. Not repetitive at all! The strange time-changing rhythm would get you pumped up and hanging onto your seat for the oncoming storm. Then after one and a half minutes, Jens Kidman unleashes a 20-second tortured scream. Then the song continues with heavy riffs and percussion, and vicious growls. Fredrik Thordendal does his first solo in the EP that's nicely dramatic. After those first hypnotizing 3 and a half minutes, there's a crushing breakdown with guitars and drums over shattered time signatures, followed by more of those vicious growls. At the 5:40 mark, Thordendal unleashes a chaotic solo assault with incessant notes flying everywhere alongside the inhuman rampage of accuracy from drummer Tomas Haake. There's some disturbing reverb of odd notes that abruptly transition from the chaos to a massive soft soundscape the back to the chaos again. The riffing that comes shortly after the 10 and a half minute mark is so f***ing heavy which is probably the only moment where you can properly headbang without getting lost in confusion. Then there's a strange section at the 12-minute point where Kidman starts whispering diabolically, followed by a guitar solo that sounds like a beehive orchestra. Eventually after another soft break of dark arpeggios, at the 17-minute point, we head into the twisted guitars and drums of Nothing, all in standard djent rhythm before closing with lengthy stretched feedback. Holy mammoth, this track is an unstoppable monolith!

"I" is a tremendous metal achievement for Meshuggah. It's a really long song that helped popularize djent. Almost none of the heavier extreme metal albums out there can beat the cerebral nature of this music. The perfect apocalyptic destruction would continue the EP's logical sequel Catch Thirtythree. Anyway, enjoy the masterpiece that is I!

Favorites: "I" (of course!)

This is it. This is definitely the album that has spawned one of the deepest, heaviest genres known to mankind...DJENT! Slower tempos and heavier groove than the band's previous thrash metal albums, with occasional jazz-infused moments, and more importantly, downtuned 7-string guitars (though 8-string guitars would not be used until the album's 2006 re-recording). Nothing is an album that really turned Meshuggah from NOTHING into SOMETHING!

Before I started listening to this band, I never realized how heavy, brutal, and overall good they are. This album, Nothing, will surely show you what I mean. Well the repetition is a little unnecessary, but the album is still cool nonetheless.

Jumping into the action straight away is the opening track "Stengah", a sick brutal song that can sting your eardrums harder and more pleasantly than a hundred wasps with the downtuned jarring staccato guitars locked in by the tight drums. Then the vocals come in a big round of hardcore shouting. That's rather excellent! "Rational Gaze" is another killer song with a paradoxical lyrical theme. "Perpetual Black Second" is just amazing and a potential staple to the band's live set, with some of the heaviest riffs any band could create, bringing the odd time signatures to a new peak for the band.

Rising from staccato power chords, a new uncommon style of riffing really reminisces many bass techniques, evident on "Closed Eyed Visuals". Same with "Glints Collide", with that type of riffing at its clearest, sounding almost as if the album was entirely recorded with bass guitars, while the guitars stay notable with its super heavy crushing tone. The solo really sounds alien-like, bringing a twisted form of jazz fusion. "Organic Shadows" is once again chaotic, but it doesn't have a lot of sense in instrumentation. As technical as the band usually gets, the habit of repeating chords at that point is...well, repetitive. The vocals are still fine there but sound a little constipated. The opening riff of "Straws Pulled at Random" is really thrashy hardcore-sounding similar to The Dillinger Escape Plan, and I love that!

Drummer Tomas Haake's clean robotic vocals in "Spasm" sound bizarre yet still cool. Haake's robotic vocals return in a small narration in "Nebulous". The only big difference for this song in the 2006 version is, it's slightly slower. "Obsidian" has a cool clean opening, before crashing into a small simple riff repeated so many times. The 2006 version is twice as long as the original version, extending both the front and back. Instead of fading out at 4:20, it goes on until 8:35 and ends abruptly.

In conclusion, it's not easy comparing this album to later Meshuggah albums, nor would it be easy to listen to entirely with a couple songs being a little repetitive. But after a few listens, then you would know that the band discovered a new gem that is djent. Even when not needed, you should buy this album. This is the beginning of djent!

Favorites: Rational Gaze, Perpetual Black Second, Closed Eye Visuals, Straws Pulled at Random, Spasm

Meshuggah started off with technical thrash in Contradictions Collapse, then they eliminated most of the thrash with a more progressive sound in Destroy Erase Improve. This album, Chaosphere can be considered a transition point between the band's first two albums and their next one, Nothing. Almost completely departing from their thrash style and focusing more on their later poly-rhythmic technical groove sound, yet still haven't invented the genre that would soon be djent.

This is another solid Meshuggah album. Pretty much everything they've done, existent and upcoming, have been thrown together into aggressive technical brutality. Some of their most chaotic material can be found here!

The first track "Concatenation" begins the album in a chaotic bang with barraging staccato riffs and glorious drumming. Then Jens Kidman's vicious vocals come in. Guitar god Fredrik Thordendal pulls off a killer R2D2-like solo. Then it's time for the album's best song, "New Millennium Cyanide Christ", with drummer Tomas Haake's shining lyric writing. Those lyrics aren't as complicated as they are clever. That's my second favorite Meshuggah song behind "Future Breed Machine"!

"Corridor of Chameleons" continues the excellent riffing worth headbanging. Just don't listen to this song at work when listening to music with headphones while working, or else it would be awkward headbanging in business meetings. "Neurotica" has quite a tribal groove, especially in the beat, and it would really get stuck banging in your head. But if that doesn't happen, at least we have "The Mouth Licking What We've Bled", one of the most incredible, heaviest works to listen to. I dare you to listen to this song with speakers at full volume without blowing off the doors and windows of your house or car. The mesmerizing guitar solo clearly establishes Thordendal as a musical genius!

"Sane" is just INSANE, continuing the complex riff-wrath. "The Exquisite Machinery Of Torture" is a different yet gloriously wild experience. And the final track of the original album, "Elastic" is a kick-A closer with one of the best jazz-infused solos the band has ever done, but the strangest thing in the album is that song's outro. The real track ends at 4:13, then it suddenly changes into single hit drums and atmospheric guitars almost following those drum hits. Then it ends right on the 6-minute mark and a weird reverb sound comes in and gets louder and louder, and just when you thought your eardrums were gonna burst...it quiets down, and right when you thought, "Whew, glad that's over," suddenly at 11:18, the FIRST 4 SONGS PLAY ALTOGETHER AT ONCE!!!! And they all keep playing before abruptly stopping at exactly 15:30!!! Now THAT'S chaotic!! Don't ever listen to that if you're hearing-sensitive! At least the Japanese pressing bonus track, "Unanything" is a calm vibe-filled outro after all that ravaging madness.

If you're a metalhead who prefers more technical brutality and wants something extraordinary, Chaosphere is the album for you. But if you're like my mom who refuses to listen to such a chaotic sound, then stay away....

Favorites: New Millennium Cyanide Christ, The Mouth Licking What You've Bled, The Exquisite Machinery Of Torture

After the technical thrash sound of Contradictions Collapse, Meshuggah had their breakthrough success with their second album Destroy Erase Improve. They DESTROYED and ERASED their original sound from their first album and IMPROVED it into a more industrial-influenced progressive thrash style with more guitar strings attached. Destroy Erase Improve is what many metalheads believe to be one of the best metal albums in 1995 along with Fear Factory's Demanufacture, and with this album, Meshuggah has packed much more of their brutal technical force. Pretty much every song here has the off-meter alien-like guitar playing of Fredrik Thordendal, precise drumming of Tomas Haake, and Jens Kidman shouting like an arrogant drill sergeant.

Unlike later albums which have each song seamlessly blend to another constantly and have a thick groove, Destroy Erase Improve is, a little like Contradictions Collapse, still focused on thrash metal. That does NOT mean this band is thrash! Well they used to be thrash before this album, but this is the start of the sound that would later be djent. The guitar tone and soloing here is never really parallel to thrash but still masterful progressively.

The chaos begins with "Future Breed Machine" which starts with a bit of an apocalyptic atmosphere that sounds like robotic machines taking over the world; industrial noises for almost 30 seconds, then a piercing siren over a total headbanging onslaught. "Beneath" starts with a brief ambient intro, and the rest of the song is nothing too special but still enjoyable. "Soul Burn" begins with some pounding groove before leading you into a wild direction of furious guitar riff-wrath. Jens Kidman sounds great here especially in the chorus where his syncopated vocals give the song more rhythm. Nice solo after the midway point!

"Transfixion" has more thrash and less groove than most other songs in the album, continuing the brutal riffs and heavy lead work. That song, along with "Vanished" have amazing drum work rolling like a bullet-train. However, the speeding bullet-train hits an unexpected halt with the instrumental "Acrid Placidity". Wow, an incredible ambient interlude! You might expect Kidman to sing nicely like Burton C. Bell in some Fear Factory ballads, but nope. I guess Kidman just wanted to stay shouting in the other tracks.

"Inside What's Within Behind" continues the chaos, beginning with a pulsating rhythm then kicks in some crazy drum rhythms that would be an essential part of the band's career. Then after the midway point, a soft yet spooky break comes in before the heavy ending. "Terminal Illusions" is just filled with thrash within the riffs and drums that would cause you to head-bang until your head gets flung off. "Suffer in Truth" is the most cohesive track of the bunch. There isn't as much staccato as the previous songs, and it is more of a groove track with steady rhythm. "Sublevels" is softer and has less of Kidman's vocals but also has the spoken monotone of Tomas Haake. There's a good soft guitar solo towards the end of the first half, and the song ends with the last bit of heavy strength from the screams and the riffs.

This is an excellent album, and many of its moments are more vile and twisted than most death metal albums, though still lyrically clean. It's a nice balance of thrash/death metal aggression with the thick, heavy atmosphere of progressive metal, leaving you struggling through a huge riff and rhythm exchange. The djent sound is rising!

Favorites: Future Breed Machine, Transfixion, Inside What's Within Behind

All this time I keep thinking I've completed my Meshuggah reviewing journey when I haven't. I've reviewed all 8 of their studio albums so far, but realized what was missing is the one-track epic EP I. Then after that, I recently realized the importance of one more EP... None! It's clear how important this EP is, as much as some of their later albums, so now it's time to review this little proto-djent offering.

Released in 1994, None marks the beginning of Meshuggah's transitional point. After the dissonant technical thrash of Contradictions Collapse, the band started adding dark progressive groove metal to their sound with a blend of fast thrashy riffing and monstrous mid-paced groove, with one of those elements as each song's basis.

The opening track "Humiliative" is the best example of those elements and a great early hint of the djent sound Meshuggah would build. The relentless tune "Sickening" grinds through Meshuggah's industrial/groove/thrash metal fusion that is hinted in their breakthrough album Destroy Erase Improve (so why is the EP included in the reissue for Contradictions Collapse instead!?). There's weird synth ambience showing up at some point in that song, but I like it.

"Ritual" is a much different song, with vocalist Jens Kidman experimenting with more melodic clean singing, which initially reminds some of Alice in Chains. Then the heavy grooves return with jazzy leads and drumming machinery. The more varied "Gods of Rapture" has startling soloing by guitarist Fredrik Thordendal.

 "Aztec Two-Step" is the most experimental song in the EP, and if you thought there would be a 10-minute epic, you'd be dead wrong. The actual song ends at around 5 and a half minute mark, then after 5 minutes of silence, you would be startled with a short shotgun rhythm at the last second, like at the end of Gaza's debut album.

None marks the first release to have Meshuggah's focus on distinctive drums and interplaying guitars that would define the sound of Destroy Erase Improve and subsequent albums. Riffs and rhythms play a repetitive course while staying varied. There's a bit of a nu metal feel, but thankfully they never stuck to that path. The true Meshuggah style is far more interesting and this EP None starts it all. A strong early highlight before beginning the big buildup in Destroy Erase Improve!

Favorites: "Humiliative", "Sickening", "Gods of Rapture"

Ah Meshuggah, the inventors of djent, a genre that is extremely laughable by the metal community. Some of those people don't think it's a valid genre, let alone a metal genre. Even the Metal Archives don't consider djent metal enough to be on that website, and the only reason this band is in that site is because of this album. EXCUSE ME!? Djent is a direct descendant of progressive metal! Are down-tuned guitar chords, syncopated riffs, and poly-metric soloing "not metal" to you? Or is it because of the majority of metalcore bands (instead of progressive metal) using the djent sound? I don't know... But for this album, Contradictions Collapse, the band did not invent djent yet and had more of a technical thrash style. I never really consider Contradictions Collapse the worst, it's actually a pretty fun listen. Creative solos, cool lyrics, and heavy moments that can be achieved without having to use breakdowns. Some of the most fun 90s thrash I've heard in a while!

Within the upward spiral-bound sound is the vocal style of Jens Kidman (NOT to be confused with that hot YouTube guitarist Lens Kidman, A.K.A. Elena Verrier). Shouting is kind of a necessary benefit in the rougher side of metal, and Jens does a really good job keeping his shouts in the same level as a drill sergeant and the Pantera singer Phil Anselmo. With Jens getting a lot better at shouting and hardcore-screaming, if the band moved on without any of the djent they invented, they would pretty much just be a technical death/hardcore band. Jens' vocals at that time really accompany the album really well. They're not totally bad, but the album's old-school feel can really cover up anything that would go wrong in a newer album. He can still hold up his screams well. Not bad, not bad...

"Paralyzing Ignorance" kicks off the album and the band in a catchy start, with charging riffs and an explosive chorus. "Erroneous Manipulation" is another infectious piece with literally the last minute of it being a triumphant harmonized guitar melody, one more shouting verse, and a glorious scream to end the song. But the lyrics there are absolutely ridiculous, and they're not even what is actually being sung. Lots of absurd animal metaphors!! What do they even mean!? But the lyrics in "Abnegating Cecity" are way better, having some possible references to heroin. The solos in that song along with "Internal Evidence" really establish a unique guitar blueprint, even back then.

"Qualms of Reality" has a perfect acoustic break, a smooth move before leading into the explosive mosh-inducing finale with more gang shouts. "We'll Never See the Day" has a killer headbanging riff in the first 30 seconds that can hit harder than a battering ram in the b*lls. But that sitar near the end though, like WHAT!?! "Greed" is an OK song, but it almost served as the album's title track, because the album was originally going to be titled "(All This Because of) Greed" before settling on its current name.

The acoustic intro in "Choirs of Devastation" sounds a little out of place, along with the spoken monotone of drummer Tomas Haake. But at least that's a more experimental song than the others here, with what may be some of the earliest examples of the djent sound that was yet to come. "Cadaverous Mastication" is a great final track, re-recorded from the band's 1989 demo EP. A thrashy example of proto-extreme metal, viciously hacking in with gang shouts and hammering riffs before a melodic ethereal solo. Then more speed and aggression picks up and finally the main melodic riff keeps playing until the song fades out. Probably the best Meshuggah song from that era!

Good vocals, bass, and guitars, with the drumming almost reaching its pinnacle! Mixing is a little grimy, giving the album more somewhat industrial production. Lyrics are good, but more lyrical assembly required. Overall, not a totally bad record at all! It's the thrashy calm before the djent storm....

Favorites: Paralyzing Ignorance, Qualms of Reality, Cadaverous Mastication

New Wave of American Heavy Metal is a metal movement that has been both shrinking and growing in the mid-2010s. A few new bands come in, some pioneering bands are still around like Lamb of God and Machine Head, and other old bands end up splitting up. Some of the split-up bands disband permanently like God Forbid (Why?! They were so awesome!) and Chimaira (except for a one-time reunion), while others like Bleeding Through have a few-year hiatus and come back with more material. Sadly, Shadows Fall had to go as well. Well, not go away forever, but just end up taking an extensive hiatus, with their last shows as late as 2015/2016. I really hope they reunite soon and, even better, reunite with former vocalist Phil Labonte, while still keeping Brian Fair, to play some songs from the Somber Eyes to the Sky era. Wishful thinking, but possible....

After the more intense and thrashy sound of Threads of Life and Retribution, Fire From the Sky is what I believe to be a full return to their successful equal balance to thrash and metalcore. Many of the band members have upped the game to insanely greater levels, including drummer Jason Bittner with his impressive double-bass rolls and brilliant blast beats. The songs themselves are up to their essential standards, putting together a well-arranged album.

The album starts off perfectly with "The Unknown" one of the best Shadows Fall songs ever. Shredding licks, a singable chorus, dual vocals, and superb song structuring, this song has them all and is how a lot of the album goes. "Divide and Conquer" continues this momentum with an infectious refreshing groove. Brian Fair has some dreadfully (in a clever way) pronounced vocals in "Weight of the World".

"Nothing Remains" shows a great obvious example of dual vocal attack. The title track is a more outstanding song with a dark atmosphere and touches of death metal, bringing back some melodeath memories. It equally balances out shred and groove, along with singing and screaming. "Save Your Soul" and "Blind Faith" has a good amount of speed, with the latter song being the album's over 6-minute epic. After the intro building up from acoustic to electric, the song unleashes a sonic wave after wave of melodious guitars and heated vocals.

"Lost Within" has some massive fast drumming matching the guitar shredding, really surpassing their earlier material. "Walk the Edge" is a great song, but unfortunately, their least original song too. Vocals range from raspy growls to heartened verses, but too many guitar riffs and solos stolen from Retribution. The drum work is a bit more mellow but still solid and thrashy. "The Wasteland" turns things around and is a great ending to the album and the band...for now.

This is a great record that works well with both long-time fans and new listeners. If the band decides to completely end and this becomes their final album, this would be the best to be saved for last. I just hope the band will still be around, they're truly a great band. Shadows Fall, please come back soon.....

Favorites: "The Unknown", "Nothing Remains", "Fire From the Sky", "Blind Faith", "Lost Within", "The Wasteland"

The previous Shadows Fall album, Threads of Life has a lot of thrash in their sound while keeping some metalcore. But for this one, their sixth studio effort (not including compilation Fallout From the War), Retribution, the sound is faster, heavier, and bringing back a bit more metalcore overpowering some of the thrash. Drummer Jason Bittner said that some songs are darker and angrier with lots of heaviness, crazy guitar, and "room for me to have some fun".

Shadows Fall is a band reigning in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, together with other bands such as Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage. Shadows Fall might not sound like a mainstream metalcore band but those guys never want to sound like a clone band. They still maintain their thrash-metalcore originality! Retribution is an album to love 90%. Only one or two songs in the album have breakdowns but many songs here have decent clean singing, killer drumming, and riffs from their old-school melodic death metal past. Pretty much ever song has at least one fast, brutal, or melodic guitar solo, which solo lovers would surely enjoy.

Sometimes, interludes work better as the intro to an album instead of smack in the middle, like this album's intro, "The Path to Imminent Ruin". Then it segues into "My Demise", a memorable 7-minute track with good variations, including well-written lyrics, plus a deep acoustic part in the middle and a rare breakdown.

"Still I Rise" is less impressive and weaker than some songs but still has some good points thanks to its heaviness and more driven chorus. "War" is a sonic thrash rudiment that is clearly inspired by 80s Slayer. "King of Nothing" manages to be a heavier and more enjoyable song with an irresistible chorus featuring guest vocals by Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe. He's an awesome vocalist, so anyone here who doesn't like his vocals, as I quote from the lyrics, "Quit your f***ing crying!!" "The Taste of Fear" and "Picture Perfect" slump the most due to the attempted use of backing vocals that's a little too much, not that it would necessarily ruin the tracks, but still not fitting. At least the track between those two, "Embrace Annihilation", makes up for that with full-band gang vocals that fit much better.

The last two tracks are a couple more songs that surpass 6 minutes in length. The former song, "A Public Execution" once again unleashes the band's well-known heavy thrash metal/metalcore wrath, and is one of the best songs of the album, maybe one of the best by the band. The last track, "Dead and Gone" retains the heavy nature, but adds some more melodic backing vocals that aren't as prominent as the lead vocals here.

Retribution is a more polished album with good strong vocals. This is another thrash album with some more metalcore elements, despite the lack of good breakdowns, and has some brilliant solos like the ones from their good old days of melodeath. Shadows Fall fans would not be disappointed by this album. Automatically worth it!

Favorites: "My Demise", "War", "King of Nothing", "Embrace Annihilation", "A Public Execution", "Dead and Gone"

Shadows Fall had really brought themselves to fame with the thrash metalcore sound of their previous two albums, The Art of Balance and The War Within. But for this album, Threads of Life, the band decided to make their sound more thrashy while still keeping some metalcore. That's what Trivium kind of did with their third album The Crusade. So yeah, this is Shadows Fall's Crusade!

This release basically has a little more thrash than every bit of metalcore. The aggression overshadows the lightness. Some of the more thrashy parts include great riffs, blazing solos, pounding drums, and aggressive vocals. The headbanging riffs are faster and heavier than metalcore, although the song still have metalcore parts.

"Redemption" is a nice way to start the album with decent riffs. Songs "Burning the Lives" and "Storm Winds" are fine but don't exactly stand out with enough excitement. "Failure of the Devout" has a nice thrashy riff. That song, along with "Venomous", both have memorable and awesome solos that I love to hear and any guitarist can play.

"Another Hero Lost" is a good way to break up the intensity of the album. A hard rock ballad single with good lyrics, great vocals, and a crushing solo, it was written in memory of Brain Fair's late cousin, a soldier in Iraq. "Final Call" is a typical metalcore song with the type of intro, vocals, and breakdowns usually found in metalcore. I like this song and metalcore in general, but it doesn't fit well with this thrash album. Now about "Dread Uprising", have you heard its solo?!? Listen to it, it's so melodically brutal!!

"The Great Collapse" is a short classical-sounding interlude with a nice atmosphere. "Just Another Nightmare" has some bass that is sometimes heard, sometimes lost. "Forevermore" has an acoustic interlude as awesome as the rest of the song right before ending the album with one more chorus and riff-powered outro.

Overall, despite the sound being more thrashy than metalcore, this album is still worth it and further proves Shadows Fall's dominance in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. They still manage to keep metalcore drilling into listeners' ears deeper than the earth's core. Even with that album's thrashy sound, luckily it seems like Shadows Fall would eventually be going in a better direction with their next release Retribution loading up some faster heavier thrash-metalcore than before. See ya in the next review....

Favorites: "Redemption", "Failure of the Devout", "Venomous", "Another Hero Lost", "Dread Uprising", "Forevermore"

Although I think all their best material has been crammed into the previous Shadows Fall album The Art of Balance, the real success came in with their fourth album The War Within, selling over 300,000 copies worldwide and becoming the best selling album by both the band and their label Century Media Records. This has very well been a turning point in the band's history!

Originally, Shadows Fall had a melodic death metal sound in their songs, but I guess becoming more of a thrash metalcore band has totally paid off. This album really does sound as metal as what many bands in the metal side of metalcore would do, but I still think it doesn't top off the thrash metalcore glory of The Art of Balance.

"The Light That Blinds" opens the album perfectly with a short acoustic intro, then the song itself follows with heavy, pounding rhythms, awesome guitar work, and a memorable catchy chorus. The following track, "Enlightened by the Cold" is one of my personal favorites, showing a lot of heavy riffing, incredible soloing, and another catchy chorus, all in just barely over 3 minutes. "Act of Contrition" has an excellent riff in the middle.

"What Drives the Weak" is another catchy track with some clean guitar breaks with, quoted from the lyrics, "a controlled dose of tranquillity". "Stillness" has a modern taste that should appeal to the youngsters (Did I just say the word "youngsters"? I ain't old!). "Inspiration on Demand" is a heavy but more mid-tempo song with some moving, beautiful ballad-like verses that flashback to the title track of their previous album. "The Power of I and I" is indeed a powerful track with pulverizing rhythms. "Ghosts of Past Failures" is a pretty good song but does not sound very memorable and convincing, nor have as much power as the previous songs.

Things get more brilliant and much less anti-climatic toward the end of the album, with the next-to-last track "Eternity is Within", another very powerful song with outstanding drum work and awesome guitar solos. As if the acoustic melody that started "The Light That Blinds" wasn't enough, the last song "Those Who Cannot Speak" starts with another acoustic intro then immediately crashes into a song that hearkens back to the band's melodic death metal past. This song is slightly similar to "A Fire in Babylon" (including that song's prelude), but with faster and heavier structure and solos. A great way to bring this album to a close!

The War Within may have been a slight letdown compared to the awesomeness of The Art of Balance, but it still has some much better stuff than the band's younger melodeath selves. I can see why this album is so darn popular. I would recommend this to any true metalhead. Go get this album! You'll never regret it....

Favorites: "Enlightened by the Cold", "What Drives the Weak", "Inspiration on Demand", "The Power of I and I", "Eternity is Within", "Those Who Cannot Speak"

After the melodeath/metalcore sound of their first 2 albums, Shadows Fall decided to switch to the thrash metalcore they would later be known for, with their third album The Art of Balance. This is honestly a little similar to Trivium's move to a more thrashy sound on their third album the Crusade. One of the bigger differences is, the new thrashy sound is highly enjoyable and fits very well with the band, and that caused the band to reach a higher peak of fame and completely abandon their old melodeath sound. This new original style is pretty much what Shadows Fall fans are into now!

While Somber Eyes to the Sky and Of One Blood display a great flair of harmonizing guitar work and crushing riff wrath of Swedish-sounding melodic death metal, the guitar work in The Art of Balance really helped build the band's sound with the speed and rhythm of American thrash metal. Jon Donais throws in some sweet elements of technical soloing together with commanding riffs. A couple acoustic interludes were put into the album with very serene soundscapes as a good way to take a break from the extreme intensity. The band's sound has reached new heights with its thrash metalcore being found as "the perfect balance between melody and aggression". New drummer Jason Bittner lays down some awesome drumming you would typically hear in thrash metal and Brian's Fair voice has really taken consistent distinctive shape.

The album kicks off in a vicious bang with "Idle Hands", one of the most heaviness-focused songs on the album, containing death metal like riffs on guitars and bass, along with a Megadeth-inspired solo. "Thoughts Without Words" is another heavy song with thrash riffs and a very memorable chorus. There's also some good harmonized solo shredding and a killer breakdown at the end. "Destroyer of Senses" is faster and more thrashy than those first two songs, but a little simplistic and repetitive. Brain Fair does some guttural screaming in the slow sludgy part. "Casting Shade" is a beautiful, melodic, acoustic interlude that works as nice break from all that sheer aggression.

"Stepping Outside the Circle" is one of the best songs of the album with lots of amazing thrash. Riffs, time changes, gang vocals, all nothing but pure 100% thrash, with a capital TH. But at least there's a nice clean part and nice soloing. The title track is an epic ballad-like but still thrashy song. The song gets soft at first with emotional clean vocals, then the heavier riffs come out with Fair's brutal vocals. Then a clean part comes in along with a great solo. "Mystery of One Spirit" is another thrashy song with a lot of emphasis on guitar. The lyrics are really cool here and the screams sometimes get a little black metal snarly. Then things get kicked up with an epic power metal solo. "The Idiot Box" is another heavy thrash song with heavy riffs and angry political lyrics. The drumming works really well, especially in the cool breakdown at the end.

"Prelude to Disaster" is another acoustic interlude, and as the title would imply, would set you up for a disastrously awesome thrash epic. That epic is "A Fire in Babylon", an astonishing attempt in making a 7-minute epic (probably the longest song ever made by the band). It begins with some crazy pinch harmonics. The vocals vary a lot (clean, growling, screaming, shouting), all fitting perfectly in pure greatness. The bass sometimes does a counter melody and there's some heavy and melodic soloing. This is basically an amazing complex power/thrash metal song, and it is the best on the album and probably the best non-single song by the band. Then the album ends with a cover of the Pink Floyd hit "Welcome to the Machine". The original guitar part of the song even has a heavy part put together. There's even a synth that is rarely used by the band, along with mostly clean harmonizing vocals. After the song fades out, a door slam is the final thing heard in the album. Someone leaving the studio already?

Shadows Fall has made a great respected move to a new original modern sound after getting caught in a heated debate of melodeath. This release has clearly established them as part of the new wave of American heavy metal with their thrash metalcore sound. I'm a fan of Shadows Fall among other metal bands, and I believe this album really shows what the band is capable of. Hail to one of the NWOAHM kings!

Favorites: "Thoughts Without Words", "Stepping Outside the Circle", "The Art of Balance", "Mystery of One Spirit", "The Idiot Box", "A Fire in Babylon"

As a fan of modern metalcore/extreme metal bands such as Trivium, Lamb of God, and (of course) Shadows Fall, the albums I think are the most fun to review are the transitional ones, the midway point between 2 different styles, like for example, between melodic death metal and metalcore. Some of those albums beginning that specific transition while still being mostly melodeath include This Darkened Heart by All That Remains and this album, Of One Blood. Speaking of All That Remains, as mentioned in the last review, the previous lead vocalist Phil Labonte left the band in 1998 to form All That Remains. His replacement is Brain Fair, sometimes known as the "male metalcore Rapunzel" because of his extra long dreadlocks.

The production in Of One Blood has improved but it's still sort of in its poor muddy state. Despite that, this is still a great album filled with mostly brutal melodic death metal-ish nostalgia while slowly beginning its transition to strictly metalcore. One of those hints of the band starting to make their move to metalcore is Fair's vocals, which are as intense as death metal growling but harsh enough to appeal to fans of the heavier side of metalcore. The riffing really brings on the genuine melodic hardcore/metal grit while the drumming is still what you would usually in thrash/death metal.

The album begins with the intro "Pain Glass Vision" which is basically a 45-second swaying sound similar to the intro of the At the Gates album Slaughter of the Soul (another inspiration for the band's original melodeath sound). Then it segues to "Crushing Belial", breaking into drilling electric guitars, including a nice lead solo over soft acoustic guitars. The title track is one of my favorite songs of the album. It has a long, complicated solo that would've fit well in a Dragonforce song.

"The First Noble Truth" has a lot you would expect in a melodic metalcore song. 3 songs from Somber Eyes to the Sky were re-recorded for this album. While these songs now have Fair's vocals, it still keeps Labonte vocals in some parts. Those songs (along with their closest genres) are Fleshold (extreme metalcore), Revel in My Loss (melodic death metal) and To Ashes (true thrash metal). "Root Bound Apollo" is another of my favorite songs in the album with a fast searing Metallica-like solo. This was actually originally a song by Fair's former band Overcast, but it ended up in this album. It would later be re-recorded on the Overcast album Reborn to Kill Again.

"Revel in My Loss", a melodeath song with barely any clean singing, now has a 20-second solo at the end that was missing in the original version. The last 3 songs of the album; "Montauk", "To Ashes", and "Serenity" have dual-lead thrash/death metal solos, with "To Ashes" having an acoustic solo before its electric solo. "Serenity" is another one of my favorites and a good way to end the album.

This is some good melodic death metal infused into the metalcore of the band's later endeavors. A must have for metalcore listeners who want a more brutal underground sound. Of One Blood brings back memories of when the metalcore scene was first rising. Once again, a solid melodeath-ish metalcore release in the roots of heavy metal and one of Shadows Fall's finest hours (or at least 46 minutes)!

Favorites: "Of One Blood", "The First Noble Truth", "Root Bound Apollo", "Revel in My Loss", "To Ashes", "Serenity"

Want me to tell you another one of my favorite metal bands? You guessed it... All That Remains! LOL, you thought I was going to say "Shadows Fall". Well I like Shadows Fall, yes, they're another favorite band of mine. But why did I mention All That Remains? Because that band's lead singer Phil Labonte was the lead vocalist of Shadows Fall for their first album Somber Eyes to the Sky. He left in 1998 to form All That Remains. Torn between deciding which band's albums to review first, Shadows Fall and All That Remains, I soon decided to start with Shadows Fall. So yeah, let's begin!

Somber Eyes to the Sky sounds quite different from their future material. This album has more aggressive melodic death metal elements alongside the metalcore sound they would later use. There are some similarities between this and Gothenburg legends Dark Tranquillity and In Flames at the time. Phil Labonte, the vocalist mentioned above, unleashes more aggressive death growls in this album than both the later Shadows Fall albums with Brian Fair and Labonte's work in All That Remains. The bass is sometimes higher than the guitars, and the album has poor production, but the songs really make up for all that.

"Revel in My Loss" opens with a beautiful nature-sound like intro in which the interlude "Lead Me Home" probably should've been put before it as the album intro. After this song's intro, it leads to the song itself, a great melodic death metal song with killer riffs and vocals. Too bad the original version did not have the solo the Of One Blood remake has, but the song is still great. "Pure" is another great melodeath song, probably one of the best in the album. It has a lot of good riffs and leads but sometimes they can barely be heard over the bass, which is a little annoying.

The aforementioned interlude "Lead Me Home" is a nice short acoustic song. This almost reminds me of that Trivium interlude "A View of Burning Empires". I bet Trivium must have been inspired by this interlude to make their own. One of the bigger differences between the two is, "Lead Me Home" has more prominent violin along with lead guitar and they sound pretty cool when played together. Then there's "To Ashes", an incredible song and probably the best on the album. The guitars and vocals both alternate between clean and distorted. For any All That Remains fans wondering, that's rhythm guitarist Matt Bachand doing the clean vocals, not Labonte who doesn't start doing clean vocals until the switch to metalcore for All That Remains. The guitar work on this song is great too.

"Nurture" is...well, 3 words: average filler track. "Fleshold" is an OK song with their later metalcore sound, but the guitar riffs are too simplistic and repetitive. Not really one of the best. "Eternal" and "Suffer the Season" are two more good melodeath songs, though not too special. "Somber Angel" is another incredible song. The first minute is a beautiful acoustic intro, then the rest is pure melodic death metal mayhem. The good closing song "Lifeless" has what might be the best solo on the album.

Shadows Fall fans should check this out if they want to hear what their older stuff sounds like, especially those who like Swedish death metal-like music more than the band's newer thrash-metalcore sound. An amazing album, not the band's greatest, but a good, humble beginning....

Favorites: "Revel in My Loss", "To Ashes", "Eternal", "Suffer the Season", "Somber Angel", "Lifeless"

Demon Hunter have got one of the most legendary metalcore bands out there. Why wouldn't they be? 20 years ago, the band started after the demise of Training for Utopia, and now they're one of the most successful bands signed by Solid State Records. They even have not just a 9th album but also a 10th album, and each of those two new albums have 10 tracks plus a bonus track, totaling 22 released in a single day!! These albums are War and Peace (reviewed in that order for chronology)!

Their previous album Outlive was the softest Demon Hunter album to date. There were still some heavy punches but more hard rock clean singing than in previous albums. War makes up for most of that! It has more heavy and heavier tracks than Outlive while still having hard rock songs with clean vocals. You might it's odd that one album has mostly heavy songs with a few soft ones and the other album has mostly soft songs with a few heavy ones but then you realize that's what Demon Hunter keeps doing in their albums. So while War is the heavier side of the book, it's the more well-rounded side too.

One of the album's greatest highlights is the opener "Cut to Fit" returning to the groove-metalcore from 10 years ago. "On My Side" also keeps up the metalcore aspect with drilling guitars and drum kicks alongside Ryan Clark's rock vocals. A great example of the band's long-lasting musicianship "Close Enough", especially in the verses rather than the chorus. If it wasn't for the growling and clean singing, those verses would sound like old-school metal bands like Metallica and Pantera. That is because of the main riff and guitar tone. The chorus is actually one of my favorites here, bringing it back to the usual Demon Hunter sound with driving guitars, bass, and drums meeting together with Ryan's clean vocals. So excellent!

"Unbound" has a nice dose of metalcore. "Grey Matter" is a cleaner highlight. "The Negative" is excellent, showing more of the vicious growls/screams in ways never usually heard from the band. Same with "Ash", which flashbacks to the thrash metal of early Metallica.

"No Place for You Here" continues the groove-metalcore which reminds me of Lamb of God in the heavy growling verses. "Leave Me Alone" is the longest song of this album and the entire War and Peace duo. Once again the band blends the melodic and heavy elements you've already known from Demon Hunter. "Lesser Gods" completes the War package with everything Demon Hunter fans know and love.

It's great when Demon Hunter comes out of the soft shadows for new heaviness, and that's what they did in War. As a heavier metalhead, I love War much more than Peace. So if you can only choose one of those two albums, I personally recommend buying this one. But either way, there's no wrong direction in this war!

Favorites: "Cut to Fit", "Close Enough", "Grey Matter", "The Negative", "Lesser Gods"

Once again, Demon Hunter has made an impressive 20-year 10-album history. What appeals to listeners is, while some songs have screaming/growling vocals, at least one song in each album focuses completely on clean singing, so that listeners who don't like rough vocals can find a song in each album that doesn't have any roughness. Those listeners would be lucky in albums Extremist, Outlive, and Peace (this one!).

Peace is the other side of Demon Hunter's recent 2-album concept War and Peace, totaling 20 tracks in the entire set (22 in the special versions). Peace is the softer, more melodic side of the duo, and let me just say that I actually like rough vocals in metal. So don't expect me to give a super thumbs-up to this album.

The opener, "More Than Bones" is a nice kick-off, being a well-paced tune that gives you a good rock anthem punch. The lyrics are about God's promise of salvation and the idea of continuing life after death. Then the album ventures into the less memorable "I Don't Believe You". Decent song, but not as varied as the band's past. In "Loneliness", there are times when just when it sounds like there's gonna be screaming vocals or even a breakdown, it doesn't happen! However, it's nice when the song focuses on Ryan Clark's clean vocals. I'm surprised that Peace has its own title track but War doesn't. Either way, the title track shows the band's great typical composition. It flows nicely through a catchy chorus and nice bridge. Easily a highlight!

Demon Hunter has really experimented in new things, like "When the Devil Come" being a well-designed Western-like theme similar to Johnny Cash. It can be hard getting that chorus out of your mind. "Time Only Takes" is personally a timeless melodic Demon Hunter classic. "Two Ways" is closer to hard rock while leaning towards metal.

"Recuse Myself" is a song that would fit well in Ryan's electronic side-project NYVES, as a distinct synth-focused track. "Bet My Life" is probably one of the heaviest songs in the instrumentation of this softer melodic album. The album closes with maybe the best ballad Demon Hunter has done in a long time, "Fear is Not My Guide", sounding a bit familiar in vibe to one of those overrated hit ballads by Queensryche.

If you only have the money to buy one of the two new Demon Hunter albums, which one would you choose? I would personally recommend War, not only because it's heavier but also because it's more musically balanced and memorable. Peace would fit better as part of the War and Peace set rather than on its own. Despite its flaws and lighter sound, Peace still has a few stellar tunes that any Demon Hunter fan can enjoy. Not their best album but certainly a good one to please fans of Demon Hunter and hard rock. As for the heavier fans, I suggest listening to this album after War. Well, that's all the Demon Hunter albums for me to review for now! Peace out....

Favorites: "More Than Bones", "Loneliness", "Peace", "When the Devil Come", "Time Only Takes", "Fear is Not My Guide"