tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71411848740691588182024-03-13T14:24:23.664-05:00Lair of the BastardBastardHead's review blog. Old reviews from Metal Archives and Metal Crypt will appear here along with shorter, blurbier thoughts I may have on albums that I don't have enough to say about to write a full review. You'll also find a few editorials here.Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.comBlogger569125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-39945160566061951102023-05-01T07:15:00.002-05:002023-05-01T07:20:51.621-05:00Raider - Trial by Chaos<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqkboWLXtciJ30NvPjjX9ztuoaHiLEhVt0wGDuHoyZkDTImNpeY0hMCaJTWYIls59lcU0PyCCow3CMP4W039tmhggWZ9mzwGz7O6lOp1q6RgHs3b3zH-Fuc-J54WGDJbvIhtkOW2tYJVbecIP-92FnuaDUcEQaOZZQBgRi9XyeIN8ToqHUFl1AbsGH/s700/1098364.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqkboWLXtciJ30NvPjjX9ztuoaHiLEhVt0wGDuHoyZkDTImNpeY0hMCaJTWYIls59lcU0PyCCow3CMP4W039tmhggWZ9mzwGz7O6lOp1q6RgHs3b3zH-Fuc-J54WGDJbvIhtkOW2tYJVbecIP-92FnuaDUcEQaOZZQBgRi9XyeIN8ToqHUFl1AbsGH/w200-h200/1098364.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">Quantum Thrash</h1><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>I wish I liked Raider so much more than I actually do. I wanted to frontload this review with praise because basically every single component involved in <i>Trial by Chaos</i> is individually fantastic. The riffs are razor sharp and superlative in both quantity and quality, the pace is breakneck on a level of classic releases by the most insane bands in the genre like Sodom, Sepultura, and Sadus, the vocals are primarily an unbelievably venomous snarl, the album is cohesively destructive, every single thing I like about thrash is present in abundance and the quality thereof is immense.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So why have I knocked back like eight straight listens of this album and still can't remember literally anything except the choruses in "New Dominion" and "Labyrinth"? My instinct is to argue that they're the only two moments where the guitars let their foot off the gas and let the brutality wash over like a wave of sarin gas as opposed to forty bazooka shells per second, but I'm willing to bet I'd find more moments like that on subsequent listens. Those moments of genuine hooks are likely there elsewhere but I'm still functionally reviewing blind despite spending literal hours with <i>Trial by Chaos</i>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This may be an odd comparison since there's an extremely high chance that the entire metal listening populace has completely forgotten about this band over the last decade, but the band this actually reminds me of most is Battlecross. There was this period of time in the early tens when they were undergoing a pretty big push by Metal Blade and found themselves all over the bigger metal media outlets. I heard them constantly during the three month window where I had satellite radio, they played Mayhem Fest, their second and third albums were pushed and championed really hard, I had no shortage of opportunities to hear them and soak in their absolutely vicious brand of thrash, injected with enough brutality to earn them the death/thrash moniker and enough melody to see them erroneously pegged as metalcore because 2012 was a very stupid time. Their hallmark feature, however, was how wholly forgettable they were. Every single song was the best fucking thing I'd ever heard and then within the course of a moderate-length toilet break I would forget they even existed. They had this approach to thrash that consisted of throwing ten gazillion riffs at you in thirty minutes, all of which were good on their own, but when smashed together it just became a total blur of percussive noise that dissipated within seconds. I know I've made this exact comparison for this exact reason in it least two or three other reviews and, hilariously, <i>I can't remember which ones</i>. There are certainly more temporally relevant examples than Battlecross and yet I keep reaching back to them because they're the only example of this phenomenon whose name I've been able to remember. I want to be pretentious and give it its own genre, "quantum thrash" or something along those lines. Something that only exists during the exact moments I'm engaging with it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That's the liminal space where Raider resides. It's a huge shame because, and I can't state this enough, all of the components are there. A few members are also in Cathartic Demise, a band with a similar style that I really enjoy, but it seems like scaling back the more overtly melodic moments of that band and giving them an in-your-face wall of sound production turns all of those excellent riffs into a faceless morass of intensity. The moments that do stand out are all the brief moments where they break from this overwhelming and arduous aural assault. Those octave patterns that hold while the drums and vocals pound away in "Labyrinth" stand out partially because they're the only notes on the entire god damned album longer than a quarter note, and because it gives the music some melodic subtlety while allowing the vocals to rip out one of the only actual hooks on the album. It genuinely reminds me of Arsis at their best, that bit is straight out of "The Cold Resistance". "Juggernaut Cerebrivore" stands out entirely for the first minute featuring haunting clean guitars that build to a sincerely explosive release. It's one of the starkly few times the album the album isn't brickwalling you to death and the only moment that reminds me of a band whose entire appeal isn't all-intensity-all-the-time, that being Metallica in this case. Every other moment edges much closer to the more ferocious acts from thrash's heyday like Demolition Hammer or Morbid Saint. Those bands both rule, as does every other name I've dropped so far, but they all have actual <i>hooks</i> and memorable moments to complement their relentless savagery. Raider has savagery in abundance with so few memorable moments that, without scrolling up to check, I seriously can't remember which two songs I highlighted in the second paragraph because I'm pretty sure "Juggernaut Cerebrivore" wasn't one of them.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Maybe this is a me problem. I'm cognizant enough to recognize that I like all of the elements at play, and maybe this album simply isn't one that instantly hooks you and instead reveals its tricks over time. As I get older, I find myself with less and less time to spend with albums that I need to "learn" to enjoy. Maybe this makes me a dummy that requires instant gratification, maybe I just accidentally discovered why oldnoobs who only listen to bands they loved as teenagers and convince themselves that every new mediocre nothingburger is actually another masterpiece exist in the first place, maybe I'm just not in the right headspace for this kind of music right now and I would've reacted much differently if my first listen happened a month from now, who the fuck knows? At the same time, I <i>am</i> the target audience for this, I <i>do</i> enjoy plenty of bands with a similar ethos, including bands that share members (Cathartic Demise) and inhabit the same scene (Invicta, Detherous), so there's <i>something</i> here that just isn't working. Is it unfair to say an album is kinda mediocre and ultimately skippable despite enjoying all of the elements at play and not being able to explain why beyond vaguely gesturing at a memory hole?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Prolly.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 58%</b></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-4669204128835873462023-04-19T11:10:00.003-05:002023-04-19T11:32:37.387-05:00In Flames - Foregone<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9QA5Fu-ukTboEwm9TuEZ-beuVnl6xgdQL_9cHshvrg-0UpKMlP7szw4U8pIOL0-j89WLqCUJwsX6QzRL6kQZ6B-nip7LMhrq9GihmgJ_F5TTDxY4KdH6S-mdeNu781l5Xo31-lioJ3IyT0PPelll5uWLz0Zh9gF0nXQExzy4rRagwjjkLsR35yRJM/s1200/1078205.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9QA5Fu-ukTboEwm9TuEZ-beuVnl6xgdQL_9cHshvrg-0UpKMlP7szw4U8pIOL0-j89WLqCUJwsX6QzRL6kQZ6B-nip7LMhrq9GihmgJ_F5TTDxY4KdH6S-mdeNu781l5Xo31-lioJ3IyT0PPelll5uWLz0Zh9gF0nXQExzy4rRagwjjkLsR35yRJM/w200-h200/1078205.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">Somehow better and worse than mediocre</h1><br />I'm gonna be reviewing this album in a vacuum, due primarily to simple disinterest in the band after not caring for the few post-<i>Reroute</i> tracks I'd heard after only really latching onto a handful of classic tunes as a teenager anyway. I figured they weren't really for me and negative word of mouth combined with dreadfully confusing aesthetic choices seemed to confirm that. But hey, "Embody the Invisible" popped into my head the other day and I thought "Man, that song seriously fucks. I wonder what they actually sound like nowadays?" and thus gave their newest, <i>Foregone</i> a cursory listen. In Flames is easily the biggest and most divisive metal band that I've completely avoided Capital D Discourse on so I have a twenty-plus year gap in my knowledge and never cared about personnel changes or primary songwriters in the band, so this is probably going to be one of the shockingly few reviews that isn't predicated on comparing it to their recent albums. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What this sounds like to me is basically a pretty solid metalcore album from the mid aughts heyday of the genre (seriously add like three open string breakdowns to a few songs and this is an early Avenged Sevenfold album). Metalcore was always heavily based in melodeath anyway and In Flames was probably the biggest metal influence on the whole sound, and what this tells me is that the band simply assimilated into the genre that they inadvertently helped invent. There are tons of explosive sections that run sheer aggression, notably in tracks like "Foregone pt.1" and "State of Slow Decay", but I'd say the primary feature are the cleanly sung choruses. This is a shame because those are almost uniformly the worst part of any given song. I recall a few moments of clean singing on <i>Colony</i> that weren't good at all, but this new style he's adopted are just straight up cringe inducing. They are so overwhelmingly sweet that they've rotted out all of their teeth. Otherwise quite good tracks like "Meet Your Maker" are severely undercut by these absolutely awful clean vocals that sound straight out of the least catchy Periphery song you've ever heard. I have no idea why they're so prominent since they clash so strongly with everything surrounding them. They're all slathered in some sort of effect that makes them sound... well not quite autotuned but somehow fake anyway, like you fed an AI a bunch of Killswitch Engage songs and it spit out a rudimentary approximation of the A Day to Remember guy with none of his warmth or charisma (which is already disastrously lacking). They're the weakest element of the entire album by a mile and they make good songs flawed ("Meet Your Maker") and bad songs unbearable ("Pure Light of Mind"). "Bleeding Out" goes from a pretty okay chuggy/groovy song to a damn near unlistenable splattering of saccharine pap once the chorus hits, it is astounding how ruinous these vocals are. They're like a 50% accurate Ghost impression on "Foregone pt.2" and I'll never understand how not one person raised their hand in the studio and suggested a second take that didn't sound quite so comically embarrassing. I involuntarily started giggling when the music dropped out for a nearly a cappella moment during "In the Dark". Special mention has to go to "Pure Light of Mind" for being so, <i>so</i> much worse than anything else on the album. Anders is the worst part of that song of course but the structure and presentation is so sickeningly harmless that it's damn near nauseating. Anybody pegging that one as a highlight can be safely ignored because holy shit it's the absolute worst song on the album and it's not even close.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Excepting those truly atrocious moments, the rest of the album has some seriously good bones to build on. Amazingly, the vocals are pretty good when they stay harsh. It blows my mind that Anders can be such an atrocious, ill fitting clean singer while also supplying such intense harsh vocals. Sure there's nothing quite as feral as the "<i>Will forever wander alone</i>" bit in "Embody the Invisible" but he delivers some excellent intensity when he stops himself from sounding like Martin Steene with a swoopy haircut. There's more chugging than the best As I Lay Dying albums but they tend to come across as pounding instead of plodding. Tracks like "State of Slow Decay" kick things into an astoundingly high gear for a bunch of middle aged men who apparently abandoned speed and aggression well over a decade ago and I'd be willing to say that "The Great Deceiver" would slot in perfectly on any of those classic 90s albums. "Foregone pt.1" kicking off with delicious blast beats and infectious lead hooks is exactly the kind of thing that I had secretly hoped they would've done more of on those old albums instead of "just" being Iron Maiden with growls. The first half is clearly superior and the last four songs all kinda blend into one big megasong but it never truly hits a bad patch with a bunch of terrible songs in a row.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There's a real sense of identity here that's wholly separate from the era that gave them so much clout in the first place and manages to be good on its own. There's a sort of intangible confidence throughout <i>Foregone</i> and I think that's why it's endeared itself to me despite the achilles heel being so unavoidably pervasive. They toy with a couple different ideas, and not all of them work, but my Cynical Asshole alarm isn't going off while listening to this, it really does feel like the band truly believed in every one of these ideas, both the <i>Clayman</i> throwbacks and whatever dross "Bleeding Out" is supposed to be. As a guy who hasn't listened to a note of the band since 2007, jumping in all these years later has revealed them to be suddenly playing this very nebulous mashup of all sorts of heavy genres. Like there's is so much vibrant bounciness to a plurality of the riffs that I can only assume it comes from nu metal (I don't know how else to describe it: groove metal grooves, nu metal <i>bounces</i>, this album bounces), the choruses are pulled straight from emotional metalcore, the heaviest moments are unabashedly melodic death metal, et cetera. It all coalesces into something that resembles an alternative tinged Napalm Records style corsetcore pop metal that occasionally licks its teeth and suddenly ejaculates <i>Whoracle</i> at you. I guess if I had to explain what "alternative metal" should sound like if genre-obsessed giganerds ever bothered to codify it, I'd reckon it'd be something like this.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The main reason I was never able to truly get into In Flames as a teenager in the first place is because I felt like the quality of any given song was an absolute coinflip, constantly rocketing between rousing, evocative barnburners and the most unengaging shit imaginable. It's kinda nostalgic to check in on the band for the first time in nearly two decades and learn that they're still struggling with that exact same problem. I hate to sound like some kind of grouchy luddite but the fact is simply that In Flames, despite toying with increasingly modern, glossy, and unthreatening elements throughout recent decades, seemingly still aren't all that good at incorporating them while they still have genuine skill in replicating the early style that made them metal legends in the first place. <i>Foregone</i> is such a strange experience for somebody who lacks as much context as I do, because I have no idea if the bad parts are any better or worse than the last six albums. There are a lot of flaws and a lot of the ideas are largely unappealing in isolation, but there's a je ne sais quoi that keeps me from outright saying it sucks despite only truly enjoying like three songs without caveats. What the fuck am I supposed to do with that, ratingwise? Like it's not good enough to just be good, and it's definitely bad enough to just be bad but that's only <i>truly</i> regarding certain elements that coat the whole experience like a fine mist, and most of the songs are inoffensive but uninspiring but are simultaneously better and worse than mediocre. What kind of mobius strip of a grading scale would such an anomaly even map onto? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;"><b> Ƭ̵̬̊ %</b></span></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-2266048859147202952023-04-03T05:55:00.000-05:002023-04-03T05:55:06.652-05:00Devangelic - Xul<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGxunyNIbj4h2qTfvMEP_a32i8uHYMxhGNTVk0D47JI7mzamIQ9CQlndl-HJNuUXPjCs6zVBeQ91gSGocG9lm6nLKGFCHFWXg4LwUeHwfZV1-zJgLIKYbiHly8HQEt0ghIN0FghX4Xj6B72JY0vX2B7OJHrQBm8Z8KD6iUNoGr2-ZEfSkP5FOBeE9/s700/1106327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGxunyNIbj4h2qTfvMEP_a32i8uHYMxhGNTVk0D47JI7mzamIQ9CQlndl-HJNuUXPjCs6zVBeQ91gSGocG9lm6nLKGFCHFWXg4LwUeHwfZV1-zJgLIKYbiHly8HQEt0ghIN0FghX4Xj6B72JY0vX2B7OJHrQBm8Z8KD6iUNoGr2-ZEfSkP5FOBeE9/w200-h200/1106327.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">Come on you know what it is</h1>I like opening my reviews with something more than the utilitarian band history that so many tend to open with. Just a preference of mine, you and I probably don't actually care what country a band is from unless it isn't one of the obvious places like North America, Western/Eastern Europe, Japan, or Brazil, ya know? So I sat here looking at the Metal Archives page for Devangelic, a brutal death metal band out of Italy, trying to find some sort of hook that wasn't some idiotic pasta pun or whatever, struggling to find a good cold open. I found nothing. But I did find that the bassist is also in a grindcore band called Buffalo Grillz, whose MA page has the helpful note clarifying that they were only added based on the album <i>Martin Burger King</i>, so that's pretty funny.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway the real reason I'm stalling is because I'm trying to delay the inevitable comparison for as long as I can, because this review could feasibly be four words long and tell you everything you need to know. <i>Xul</i>, the band's fourth album, is an exhilarating massacre of a record. What immediately stood out to me was the guitar tone, which should mean something since I know fuck-all about recording and only care about tone if it's noticeably terrible, so for it to jump out as <i>so good</i> probably means something to people who understand better than I do. It's overwhelmingly beefy, which a prominent low end that lends a ton of extra heft to the already pummeling assault coming from the rhythm section. It's got this neat little quirk where a lot of the huge powerchords feel like the root and octave notes are just a teensy bit more emphasized than the fifth, and it gives these moments a sound I can only describe as "steely" and I promise it makes sense when you hear it. Those huge moments contrast amazingly with how utterly devastating the lion's share of the music actually is. If you look at the BDM scene as a gradient with slam on one end and tech death on the other, Devangelic is approximately one picometer away from being fully enveloped in the tech death color. Make no mistake, <i>Xul</i> is devastatingly heavy and crushes everything in front of it, each of the eight "real" songs are delivered with such pummeling ferocity at such a blistering tempo that I genuinely worry that my headphones are gonna catch fire. It reminds me a lot of their countrymates like Hour of Penance and Hideous Divinity, the type of raucous hyperdeath that doesn't really fuck around with complicated licks requiring Petruccian manual dexterity and instead opts to just blow forwards with enough kinetic energy to topple skyscrapers. It's the type of death metal that kinda becomes tech death on accident simply due to how unbelievably fast it is, which came as a surprise to me when I skimmed reviews of their earlier work and saw them pegged as a Disgorge clone.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I think there's a secret weapon here that helps <i>Xul</i>'s head rise above the BDM pack so far this year, and that's actually the frequent breaks in the action. For as propulsively destructive as it is, <i>Xul</i> avoids becoming exhausting in its assault with frequent breaks for ambient mood-setting and drawn out bridges that let the scenery wash over the listener. The opener, "Scribes of Xul", takes the time to set the table with 30 seconds of vaguely Egyptian spooky noises, and sports several sections where a big chord rings out while one guitar descends an echoey tremolo pattern, evoking the kind of dread when opening a long dormant and almost-certainly-cursed crypt. Closer, "Sa Belet Ersetim Ki'Am Parsusa" utilizes similar tricks, while "Sirius, Draconis, Capricornus" kicks the tempo down with a more pronounced mid-paced pounding, with "Udug-Hul Incantation" being even more explicit. And that's to say nothing of a track like "Which Shall Be the Darkness of the Heretic", which is an express train to Blast City that allows itself to stay interesting by simply shifting the precise angle at which the riffs are punching you. It's the musical equivalent to that million hit combo from Fist of the North Star. Two extended interlude tracks also give some much needed space to breathe as opposed to wasting my time like interlude tracks so often do. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Have you figured out the four words I could've just used as a review? Were the track titles alone enough of a giveaway? That's right! "This sounds like Nile!"</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That isn't to say this is a knockoff or a worse version of the American legends, not at all! In fact I'd take <i>Xul</i> over a solid third of Nile's discography, but the similarities are just <i>too</i> obvious to ignore. I tried not mentioning Nile in the previous few paragraphs as a challenge to myself and lemme tell ya, those two short paragraphs took nearly an hour to write. It would've been so much easier to compare the guitar tone to <i>Annihilation of the Wicked</i>, compare Paolo Chiti's incredibly deep roars to Karl Sanders's incredibly deep mummy moan, the insane speed and variety of the percussion to George Kollias, the epic moments to the exact type of epic moments that Nile uses all the time, the ambient interludes sounding like one of Karl's solo albums, it's all <i>right there</i>. Nile casts a tremendous shadow over this album and it's pervasive. Every single element has a direct 1:1 comparison to some aspect of Nile's classic sound, and that makes my job as a reviewer super fuckin' difficult because all I needed to do was say it sounds exactly like Nile with no deviations and that would've been that. However you feel about <i>Ithyphallic</i> or <i>Those Whom the Gods Detest</i> should be exactly how you feel about <i>Xul</i>, and if you've stumbled across this album in the first place, chances are you're familiar enough with the genre to be acquainted with Nile's work already.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So as a guy who really likes Nile, their middle era from <i>Shrines</i> thru <i>Detest</i> in particular, I also really like <i>Xul</i>. It's hard to articulate because there's always an implied negative to being so similar to one band in particular (hard to avoid implying a band lacks creativity in that context ya know?), but in this case the worship actually saw some tangible rewards handed from the gods since this is on the exact level of quality that Nile churns out on the regular, and it turns out that having more bands making killer music just means more bands are making killer music. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 81%</b></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-11262845757739798612023-02-28T11:19:00.000-06:002023-02-28T11:19:10.914-06:00Lovebites - Judgment Day<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMQzrYPRf9ogBHFCDOZ1Nutyzupa6b54T_nS6xUT-zQgct9qqHj95R6NUJkgLJ8apvmhspJYqIl0cX907HAse_id3sNFcULW70-2BYDEuxEaWcVOPyeIMrsRG8Cm8EgIk7uZ54SeJdsU1PpZlyKuTexPde6dQaN7qmASrNcCZY07ZknKlFMSROnFL6/s700/1100599.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMQzrYPRf9ogBHFCDOZ1Nutyzupa6b54T_nS6xUT-zQgct9qqHj95R6NUJkgLJ8apvmhspJYqIl0cX907HAse_id3sNFcULW70-2BYDEuxEaWcVOPyeIMrsRG8Cm8EgIk7uZ54SeJdsU1PpZlyKuTexPde6dQaN7qmASrNcCZY07ZknKlFMSROnFL6/w200-h200/1100599.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">Gotta go fast</h1>It's oddly difficult to be a Lovebites fan when you're approaching them from the perspective of a lifelong metalhead. A shocking amount of their fans I've come across throughout my expeditions into The Internet have next to zero interest in metal as a style or culture <i>at all.</i> A sizable contingent of their fans seem to be primarily anime fans who apparently latched onto them because they're five pretty women that write music that sounds like the opening theme to the most batshit battle anime of the decade. That's not a judgment, by the way! That particular flavor of fan can give me secondhand embarrassment from time to time since they occasionally treat the band like an idol group and carry themselves with (in)approprate fervor (Did you know that Haruna is nicknamed the "Pocket Nuke" because she's under five feet tall but is one of the hardest hitting drummers in the scene? Or that Asami was originally an RnB singer whose biggest influence is Alicia Keys? If not then congratulations on never reading a Youtube comment in your life because you'll see the same factoids spit out with identical wording by dozens of people on every single fucking video they feature in) but honestly I'm happy to share space with these fans because the more people that listen to killer music, the better. The point is that they're tough to talk about because a plurality of their fans don't seem to have heard a Gamma Ray song in their lives but are just so stoked that KOS-MOS* is real that they helped catapult them to that level anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So as a hygiene-averse hesher who's here for the riffs, they're equally difficult to talk about because they're simultaneously the best currently active power metal band <i>and</i> the most frustrating songwriters on the planet. The band's fourth full length, <i>Judgment Day</i> is actually my favorite LP of theirs, but it's plagued by all of the same problems they've always had and seem to have zero interest in ameliorating. The specific angle that Lovebites takes with their music is one of self-indulgent maximalism. I <i>fuckin' love</i> this kind of ludicrous bombast and am incredibly glad that Lovebites exists, but it's been said that your greatest weakness is your greatest strength taken too far, and boy howdy does that describe this band. Their Achilles Heel has always been and continues to be their inability to do anything <i>but</i> shred their hearts out at seven million BPM for an hour straight. I continue to believe that they'd be best served by just releasing one or two EPs per year because jesus shit every single one of their non-EP releases is completely fucking exhausting to finish and <i>Judgment Day</i> is no exception. They finally wizened up and limited this one to fiftyish minutes but we used to at least get a piano ballad or catchy arena-friendly trad metal song every now and again. This is just Dragonforce-joins-Helloween from minute one to minute done and it's overwhelming in a bad way. "Victim of Time" would be the most insanely shredtastic barnburner on 90% of all power metal albums released in the last decade but here's it's just the sixth insane shredtastic barnburner in a row and you've got four more to prepare for. Boxers get breaks in between rounds dammit why can't listeners?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But with that said, this <i>is</i> still their crowning achievement up to this point. <i>Judgment Day</i> tore my face clean off in spite of these issues in a way that only their EPs had previously done. Absolutely nobody channels early Sonata Arctica's ear for hooks performed with such blurring speed as well as Lovebites does, and tracks like "The Spirit Lives On", "Soldier Stands Solitarily", and the title track expertly showcase an undeniable mastery of what makes power metal so magical at its best. This only dropped last week and I'm already certain that "Soldier Stands Solitarily" is going to be one of my favorite songs of the year. I actually worry that I'm underselling how gonzo this is despite namedropping Dragonforce, because damn near every single second contains either a screaming guitar solo, wild drum fill, glass-shattering wail, or lead melody so quick and demanding that even Buckethead would give a silent nod of acknowledgment. If anything sets this apart from the rest of their discography it's how much more focused it is. One of their oft-mentioned secret weapons is the occasional circle-pit worthy thrash riff that they pull out of their collective asses before clobbering everybody around them, and "Dissonance" is the only track that really flirts with that kind of Megadeth flavored unhinged violence this time around. On one hand that's a bummer, I love those moments, but on the other hand it means their music has become even more cohesive and all the stronger as a result. The hooks are stronger, the drumming is more impressive, the solos are more awe-inspiring, everything feels more "whole" than they've ever managed before and I suspect it's largely because they laser focused <i>so hard</i> on all of their best elements (in addition to simply getting better with time like most writers/musicians do). This is unfortunate imagery but they've always felt like they had a sort of "glass ceiling" above them where it felt like all of their potential was smooshed up against plexiglass, and apparently fourth time is the charm because they fucking shattered that glass and used it to cut the throats of all doubters. This is musically more or less what they've always done (a bit narrower in scope but not enough to be surprising) but just... I dunno man <i>better</i> than before.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Even with that effusive praise, I am still ultimately of two minds on <i>Judgment Day</i>. It's just as dense and overwhelming as its predecessors but manages to be the best possible version of itself. It's their shortest album yet but still feels like four tracks should've been cut and released as an EP instead. "Judgment Day" is an incredible song and one of the highlights of the album but honestly feels like "Shadowmaker: The Sequel". "Soldier Stands Solitarily" is the best song they ever wrote but it shares space with "My Orion" which is one of their worst (and the only song that's truly just annoying and kinda sucky instead of a victim of "too much"). I truly do adore Lovebites and <i>Judgment Day</i> is truly great, but I fear that there's a second pane of glass they need to break through next because no matter how enjoyable most of this album is, it's still held back by the same problems they've been struggling with since their inception and pattern recognition tells me that I'm just screaming at the ocean about it at this point. If their previous work didn't impress you, this won't change your mind, but if you're on the right wavelength it'll absolutely rock your world.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 80%</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*- I asked some friends for suggestions for an anime character that rides the same line between demure femininity and raw earthfucking power as how the members present themselves and used KOS-MOS as the closest thing I could think of on my own. One guy laughed at me and said I was showing my age by referencing Xenosaga, which ironically made me decide to just use her as the comparison anyway because what would a BH review be without a reference to a late-golden age JRPG anyway?</div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-44444568041236987832023-01-16T05:24:00.003-06:002023-01-16T05:26:56.012-06:00Malice Divine - Everlasting Ascendancy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtuxN7nUsVI-ML4T3FjXT7ft_3-jDCRqlAjkWvjkZqWzCeq2e8R6TvDIj2_UXpBbWSLFR9gmUMXytmEXLA-WGTjNxfuQH3GsIP2anEKOmBXm04ImMoZFqCzswdy3764ou7HtPwvmBP-XVAU3tWOthqHrOKSSjwD7jZ25uGWKBnmieRFHbEI72IsqT9/s768/1093906.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="762" data-original-width="768" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtuxN7nUsVI-ML4T3FjXT7ft_3-jDCRqlAjkWvjkZqWzCeq2e8R6TvDIj2_UXpBbWSLFR9gmUMXytmEXLA-WGTjNxfuQH3GsIP2anEKOmBXm04ImMoZFqCzswdy3764ou7HtPwvmBP-XVAU3tWOthqHrOKSSjwD7jZ25uGWKBnmieRFHbEI72IsqT9/w200-h199/1093906.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">Die sexin'</h1>In my eternal quest to understand why the generation that came after mine seems to be largely so uninterested in the same kinds of metal that I've spent my entire life in love with, I came across a strange criticism I'd never heard before. I don't remember where I read it or what the subject of the criticism was, but I'd heard something slammed as a "one-genre album". My gut instinct was to blame short attention spans curated by Vine and Tiktok, but upon further reflection I actually understand where whoever said that was coming from. Metal bands and albums tend to, almost as a rule, be influenced almost exclusively by other metal bands. I don't think the genre has hit any sort of Hapsburg level critical mass as of yet, and I don't personally think we're anywhere close to the genre going supernova any time soon, but I get the criticism and I get why it can be exhausting to sit through 45 minutes of blastbeats and/or tremolo riffs with no other inspirations to reach towards.<div><br /></div><div>A good example of why this seemingly compulsory insularity hasn't started to wear on me personally is Malice Divine, a one-man project that rockets past the "one-genre album" and lands squarely on "one-influence album". <i>Everlasting Ascendancy</i> is, from nose to tail, influenced by Dissection and absolutely nobody else. The vocals sound like Dissection, the riffs sound like Dissection, the melodies sound like Dissection, this project sounds like one incredibly talented fanboy living out his fantasies of joining the band in an alternate timeline where Jon Nodtveidt didn't wind up in prison. Where <i>Storm of the Light's Bane</i> leaves off, <i>Everlasting Ascendancy</i> picks up without even a smudged footprint in between with the biggest immediate difference simply being the production being much cleaner. There are an abundance of acoustic passages to help break up the lengthy runtimes of each songs and the guitar solos are brain-punching exercises in melodic excess, but it all kinda blurs into a slurry of Dissectionisms that keep the songs themselves kinda hard to differentiate from one another. The reason this doesn't really bother me here is because, if you're gonna pull from one band almost exclusively, you could do a whole hell of a lot worse than Dissection. Very few bands had as finely tuned an ear for the interplay between (and seamless blending of) razor sharp riffs and instantly memorable hooks, and Malice Divine has done a truly remarkable job of recapturing that magic.</div><div><br /></div><div>The majority of the album is populated with acerbic scorchers, blistering past the listener at crazy speeds complemented by soaring guitar solos that sound like musical victory cries. Even if there are <i>technically</i> a handful of songs that groove along at a more reasonable tempo and numerous contemplative sections of classical acoustic guitar, the overall impression that the album leaves you with is less of the complex interplay and dynamic push-and-pull of the songs and more akin to an impact crater. Part of this is, as stated, simply because another band already did all of these things so it's easy to cluster all of these properties into one singular reference, but also simply because the fast, ruthless, pummeling parts with immediately singable hooks are far and away the strongest moments of the album. The subtleties ultimately don't matter when they pale in comparison to the bombast. Nobody appreciates the complex engineering of a bomb when it's currently detonating into a miles-high mushroom cloud. I don't remember which songs have the prettiest acoustic passages or which solos are the most evocative, but I can rasp the chorus of "Apparitions of Conquest" back at you without even thinking about it. All of these tracks are excellent the whole way through, only really beginning to lose their luster near the end. "Reclaimed Strength" lacks the extremity of the rest of the songs and paradoxically fades into the background as a result (you'd think a change of pace would be welcome but Galvez is simply much better at in-your-face bombast), and "Illusions of Fragmentation" is the one track where I really think the runtime could and should have been trimmed, but the overall experience is enjoyable enough to not really be too much of an issue.</div><div><br /></div><div>I suppose that's my main takeaway with <i>Everlasting Ascendancy</i>. There are individual moments of cool things all over the place (I probably downplayed the non-Dissection influences too much, because there are shades of mid-era Immortal in the classically melodic moments and the opening of the title track is so overtly thrash influenced that it calls to mind Skeletonwitch in their prime) but when taken holistically, it feels much more simple. And maybe it's because I'm just a big fat dummy, but the blurrier interpretation of the album, the one where everything just sloughs into a big Dissection-colored goulash, is just so, <i>so</i> much more satisfying than trying to manufacture more prominent diversity in the various moving parts. One-genre albums still absolutely fucking rule. Own it.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>RATING: 84%</b></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-47836654289113553162023-01-10T10:03:00.000-06:002023-01-10T10:03:04.485-06:00Meshuggah - Nothing<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Bjp954DYFGyMmQXwXIq57Hzjr5B3Fdu_5kMC5KXMsNeNBNVEY1UDODKx6UUXG_Z_omngNS5tXyNXLsvYIu1WxFbj4AugQDrdMTsB1xm7UNSdkuc2uNFR99lwnoBueZLL8MleGb3EKhephk7YlDDZaupJ6hK47TsOrEUZzOuJN6o_8T-G37uEZpls/s414/6383.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="414" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Bjp954DYFGyMmQXwXIq57Hzjr5B3Fdu_5kMC5KXMsNeNBNVEY1UDODKx6UUXG_Z_omngNS5tXyNXLsvYIu1WxFbj4AugQDrdMTsB1xm7UNSdkuc2uNFR99lwnoBueZLL8MleGb3EKhephk7YlDDZaupJ6hK47TsOrEUZzOuJN6o_8T-G37uEZpls/w200-h200/6383.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Djental Plan</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>A while back, I had gotten the idea to start another review series (woo so original bh what a braingenius), this next one being an exploration into djent. It's a genre that I barely know and never cared for but always insisted was a legitimate subgenre of metal and wanted to explore why more people didn't. I had a whole series of albums picked out from the first seeds to the modern era where I outlined how it developed and why it became so insular... before I got to the modern era and hit a wall for two solid years. Turns out I wasn't as interested as I thought and boy it's hard to write about things you neither enjoy nor give a shit about. So fuggit, I'm gonna rewrite the first in that series since it kinda encapsulates every problem I've ever had with this band. Enjoy my crumbs you peasants!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've seen some weird takes in recent years that Meshuggah aren't <i>really</i> djent since they still fit more with the metal scene than the newer djent scene, but man I'm old enough to have been on the internet in the early/mid 2000s when Meshuggah was the only game in town, I saw the term "djent" itself spawn from an onomatopoeia of the guitar tone on <i>obZen</i>, they are consistently considered the godfathers of the genre, if you go to RYM and search for "best djent albums all time", the top seven results are all Meshuggah albums and the Doom Eternal soundtrack, they're fucking djent and claiming otherwise is as absurd as saying Slayer isn't thrash metal.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I do see why this take happens. They were indisputably thrash metal with a really techy twist on <i>Contradictions Collapse</i>, they tend to be much heavier than most of the djent scene, it took like 10+ years for true imitators to spring up, most of their fans from around the time they blew up tended to be fans of prog metal, they never incorporated clean vocals, their metal roots are just way more legit than the bands that came later. From the dozens of seconds I spent googling shit, it seems like their true watershed moment and the instance that saw them become the inimitably unique creature they are (that paradoxically spawned a billion imitators) wasn't actually their first forays into the style on <i>Destroy Erase Improve</i> or <i>Chaosphere</i>, but actually 2002's <i>Nothing</i>, as it was the one to first incorporate "8 string guitars". I'm putting that in quotes because though the guitars were developed at the time and the album was written with them, they weren't actually used on the album since they had shit intonation and constantly fell out of tune as a result of being <i>so</i> new that nobody had really figured out how to make them work perfectly. So while they weren't <i>truly</i> introduced until the 2006 rerecording when technology finally caught up to what the band was doing, this original 2002 version still stands as (to my knowledge) the first time the sound was introduced to the world, albeit on downtuned 7 strings to emulate the sound they couldn't yet perfect.</div><div><br /></div><div>So with that in mind, from the perspective of a dude who really didn't "get it" at the time, what did <i>Nothing</i> contain that was so special? Well as mentioned, it was truly the guitar sound that separated this from the previous two albums. <i>Destroy Erase Improve</i> and <i>Chaosphere</i> had already introduced their utterly strange songwriting and performance techniques, but this is the one that pushed them over the edge by giving them the X factor that is this incredibly beefy and destructive tone. It's not like scooped mids and double bass didn't exist before 2002, obviously, but something like <i>Chaosphere</i> was <i>fast</i>, and the simple act of slowing down to highlight their brain-bending polyrhythms and lurching sense of atemporal insanity was the final piece of the puzzle along with a guitar tone that was deeper and more menacing that R'lyeh. I think their previous work indicated a slow evolution into a different style of metal, whereas <i>Nothing</i> saw them abruptly launch into an entirely new style of <i>art</i> in general. They were off-kilter and weird before, but tracks like "Straws Pulled at Random" and "Organic Shadows" are so catawampus and disorienting that they make me legitimately uncomfortable. This menacing heaviness and spaced out sense of rhythm was unlike anything else at the time, inevitably leading to tons of comparisons to jazz despite sounding absolutely nothing like it. Jazz is notable for its incredibly complex sense of harmony but Meshuggah leapt in the opposite direction, focusing all of their wacky experimentation on rhythm and rhythm alone. I'm sure there's some complex scientific reason that the leads all sound like either floaty soundscapes or flittering spasms with a million notes on the highest frets, but the real intrigue comes from the inhuman sense of rhythm. They don't dazzle you with their speed, as noted, it's more the fact that it makes very little sense unless you break down some complex math problem. Haake's drums are so complex that they loop around to sounding simple, keeping a steady 4/4 beat with his hands but using his feet to pound away in perfect synchronization with the guitars as they chug through impossible to count 13/27 or whatever rhythms. The skill it takes to take something so complex and make it seem like child's play is absolutely staggering. And the fact that they utilize this unfathomable precision to pummel you with such crushing <i>weight</i> defies any human explanation.</div><div><br /></div><div>The overwhelming heaviness of the album simply can't be overstated. There are mercilessly few breaks for clean guitars, and when they do happen (like the intro to "Obsidian") they act as punishingly brief oases for you to catch your breath before you're thrown back into the grinder. It's kind of similar to what I remember Swans sounding like (don't hold me to this, everything I know about swans comes from The Ugly Duckling), being very repetitive and very awkward, with extremely few note changes as the songs grind you to dust with sheer weight and attrition. It's very intentional in its repetition as well, I don't doubt for one second that the album turned out the way it did purely because its intention was to overwhelm you with the musical equivalent of an anxiety attack as opposed to the band simply not being very creative. It's a technical marvel to have achieved a guitar tone as punishingly heavy as this while retaining absolute clarity, it's all beef and no crunch, and really nobody was doing that in 2002.</div><div><br /></div><div>And here's where we hit the big caveat, and the reason I was never really much of a Meshuggah fan despite all the praise in the previous few paragraphs. <i>Nothing's</i> greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Every single good thing about it can be explained with complex musical theory and technical jargon, but when pressed to explain any sort of overarching <i>emotion</i>, people tend to come up flat. It's music for STEMlords; hypernerds who see art as a puzzle to be solved as opposed to an overarching feeling or message to experience. <i>Nothing</i> is exactly what it says on the tin, it has absolutely nothing to say beyond "look how logically complicated I am!" It's the musical manifestation of those weird dorks defending Elon Musk in your twitter mentions. It's music for people who take the Rick and Morty bit about how "love is just a chemical in your brain that compels you to breed" as a real cool and good perspective to view the world through. Breaking the world down into chemical compounds is helpful for study but absolutely dogshit for experience. I like music because I like art and I like feeling. Even just within the confines of metal; it can run the gamut of both sound and emotion, from bands as disparate as Blind Guardian and The Crown making you feel a million feet tall, both atmospheric black metal and unremittingly brutal funeral doom can make you feel miserable, death metal can act as a cathartic release for all of your anger and violent impulses, metal can do almost anything and Meshuggah does precisely none of it. Sci-fi nerds should watch Contact and really internalize why that "they should have sent a poet" line is so iconic. I can't tell you the riffs are bad if I can't justify carving out a new wrinkle in my brain to even remember the riffs from this vacuous antimemetic anomaly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, this comes down purely to taste, and this just means that Meshuggah isn't really for me, and that's okay. But the whole reason I even listened to them in 2023 despite not liking them for fifteen years is because I <i>don't</i> think djent is a broken genre on a conceptual level. I think they unlocked an entirely new realm of expression and then completely squandered it with a monochromatic approach. <i>Nothing</i> leaves me cold because it comes off as a completely colorless thought experiment as opposed to a way to express existential confusion and crisis, which I suspect might have been the aim here. There are moments of adrenaline-raising brilliance like the main riff of "Perpetual Black Second" or wonderfully crushing tracks like "Stengah" and "Straws Pulled at Random", but on the whole this feels less like music and more like science, and it turns out that doesn't result in something I really want to experience all that often. The massive tone and few moments of groovy deliciousness don't do enough to counteract the achilles heel of the album simply not being all that interesting beyond a purely scientific lens.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>RATING: 33%</b></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-70031714934210565632023-01-01T09:27:00.088-06:002023-01-01T16:43:37.372-06:00BH AWARDS 2022 SANS APOLOGIES FOR NOT WRITING ANYTHING ALL YEAR<div style="text-align: left;">Fun fact: I actually did die this year and that's why I only reviewed one album in a not-fully-sober state all year. This is The Ghost of BH Past, here to tell you all what albums were Pretty Good in 2022. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Nah the truth is that the drive/desire/will/whatever to write just hasn't been there for a while now. Blame the economy, blame FFXIV, blame the cooler mental illnesses you can think of, every culprit is likely responsible to some degree. I'm not all that worried because I've gone on extended breaks before (though granted never this long) and I've always said I would never "retire" because reviewing is something I've always done in my free time anyway. So who knows, maybe I'll have an explosion of productivity next year. Maybe Lamb of God is the last band I ever review in full. Who knows? I'm not fussed about it and neither should you. So even though whatever following I had has likely evaporated entirely, we're still gonna be COUNTING DOWN!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE TOP 13 ALBUMS OF 2022</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Rules are as usual: Full lengths only and that's it. The metal only qualifier has been gone for years but I remind y'all anyway just in case. LESSGO</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQEFYPzEg5EDdORH1M6c6MiX2yNZcPCaccWisfXVPl7ktApTAFByziG4ZregychYIWNAYHuZjOzDQv0egcpyDZ8AB6PHfTIkC7CwGF4Z6CxEKqEHJr0TDEt090ZXN1ud0-OduPl4NZoatA_eYUuapSznv__vK8ufaZJ3b_MqzfBmYG-Yaz2h0XT0-C/s700/1015997.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQEFYPzEg5EDdORH1M6c6MiX2yNZcPCaccWisfXVPl7ktApTAFByziG4ZregychYIWNAYHuZjOzDQv0egcpyDZ8AB6PHfTIkC7CwGF4Z6CxEKqEHJr0TDEt090ZXN1ud0-OduPl4NZoatA_eYUuapSznv__vK8ufaZJ3b_MqzfBmYG-Yaz2h0XT0-C/w200-h200/1015997.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>13: Tómarúm - Ash in Realms of Stone Icons</b> <div>I so, so badly wanted to hate this. I couldn't possibly think of anything more immediately cliche and/or creatively bankrupt and/or tailor made for the least interesting metal equivalent to film nerds who use words like "kino" unironically than some kids from Atlanta grabbing an Icelandic word for a band name and shelling out the money to have Mariusz Lewandowski do the artwork for their debut album where every song is a million years long, inexplicably released on a "major" (for metal) label. But fuck dude I must love assembly line kino because this <i>absolutely</i> does it for me. Similar to False a few years ago, this is drawn out black metal where <i>everything</i> happens all the time, including bloodlydoo fretless bass and that shit is catnip for me apparently. Few albums this year feel even half as <i>huge</i> as this one and I adore it.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV1LELzYwEUhkqvUvnvnEY3NdQW8oV4HrAC1BdLeaMxJ_-9S7QiO5LtwJAovRTkeEKMczhIGO99fOILWYiWl4P3Fh61e1Zjkl3EeImhZ1Q_1Efp5P03O89sQpsCkLhGwPA-ap8ODwL__JmPyejy-1xhptN0-Wk_-69KBqdEHJHYn4z6AAwe4akYODt/s700/1068357.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV1LELzYwEUhkqvUvnvnEY3NdQW8oV4HrAC1BdLeaMxJ_-9S7QiO5LtwJAovRTkeEKMczhIGO99fOILWYiWl4P3Fh61e1Zjkl3EeImhZ1Q_1Efp5P03O89sQpsCkLhGwPA-ap8ODwL__JmPyejy-1xhptN0-Wk_-69KBqdEHJHYn4z6AAwe4akYODt/w200-h200/1068357.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>12: Voidthrone - Metaphysical Degradation</b> <div>I'll admit, there's a solid chance this album could've landed well off the list entirely if I didn't first come across it while stoned and paranoid, because holy fuck that album cover will <i>not help</i> in that situation. I've been kinda over dissonant black/death for years now because I've just come to terms with the fact that I prefer my death metal to be more pugilistic than textural, and I think that's why Voidthrone has ultimately stuck with me. This is just as non-euclidian as any band to take influence from Ulcerate or Krallice or whoever in recent years but there is so much dam-bursting fucking <i>power</i> behind it that it becomes unavoidably confrontational. I haven't heard a vocalist completely deplete his lungs with every syllable like this in forever, nor have I heard such deliberately violent and chaotic music land so memorably in equally as long.<br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilvJhYdJFIHEpkeLN3c3sLAE5KjEPjboEumhP7-wwpsYz6pEE0X3mDuweIXGvSauVGfgw4rFcGSlBJ--83G8x_xmLUc3fcLp-28MK96lUEgmNxv-khlhf4E5982_NWlAsIDEAvc3TAtRkGHjc8K0Qc7smDvSe8adIpvToY7ceUyvl2AgckMFq0x8n/s500/1019568.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilvJhYdJFIHEpkeLN3c3sLAE5KjEPjboEumhP7-wwpsYz6pEE0X3mDuweIXGvSauVGfgw4rFcGSlBJ--83G8x_xmLUc3fcLp-28MK96lUEgmNxv-khlhf4E5982_NWlAsIDEAvc3TAtRkGHjc8K0Qc7smDvSe8adIpvToY7ceUyvl2AgckMFq0x8n/w200-h200/1019568.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>11: Mirror - The Day Bastard Leaders Die</b> </div><div>Throwbacks to traditional metal styles are, ironically, becoming so trendy that the metal populace as a whole has no idea what to do with 'em anymore. I find that Mirror is the perfect flocculating agent that helps the cream rise to the top in this weird slurry of uninspired knockoffs, because what these Cypriots have that the Riot Citys of the world can only fecklessly gesture towards is <i>pure fuckin' gonzo energy</i>. Mirror just kicks <i>ass</i> with no remorse or apologies and does it in a way that is somehow just as fresh in 2022 as it would have been in 1984. The world needs more vocalists as batshit <i>weird</i> as Marvommatis. Metal is ironically full of bands that follow all the rules that were laid out 40 years ago, and Mirror fucks those rules under the bleachers.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg65Uh3Z2ZIYrv7rblaKNHgfop58o1BxBhu69H0-xmgdXq-vItZ1L-yPhXbdXuKDdFyMG-f4sw0M49JTarKq-vHHZ-u_0VtZmOnq077ydAFaJOLZceo4tl4HC_-4WxqNMysswGA6sr7WvKiOF30tQKmBRjMW_pwTzwtKd1gNXVZQNBudbfmUa2kr0g/s700/1041540.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg65Uh3Z2ZIYrv7rblaKNHgfop58o1BxBhu69H0-xmgdXq-vItZ1L-yPhXbdXuKDdFyMG-f4sw0M49JTarKq-vHHZ-u_0VtZmOnq077ydAFaJOLZceo4tl4HC_-4WxqNMysswGA6sr7WvKiOF30tQKmBRjMW_pwTzwtKd1gNXVZQNBudbfmUa2kr0g/w200-h200/1041540.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>10: Spiter - Bathe the Babe in Bats' Blood</b> <div>If you gave me unlimited time and a promised reward of Henry Kissinger's head on a pike, I don't think I could possibly think of a stupider album I've heard all year. I know "caveman riffs" are a popular thing in death metal right now but I promise you there is nothing on this earth more primitive than Spiter's debut here. This sounds like the end result of lobotomizing every member of Venom. It is pure, and I can not stress enough precisely <i>how pure</i> I'm talking about here, absolutely <i>fucking pure</i>, unfiltered, raw-dogged violent id shot out of a cock-shaped mausoleum. Absolute speed, absolute disgust, absolute lack of music theory combined with absolute mastery of what makes metal so fucking endearing despite its advanced age at this point. You don't need a new idea if you can do the old ideas this much gusto.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVrCqzg4f52AI3SU0sPWjCLpaYbKLWPvNIDukNlcEhypMISmo09clznJeB-U4ZFzkHdGP4URBJonTeeFqgzKJZcUYE2Np1BfWO7iGcVbj4LwBQQzxEcJ0kEokYb9q97cKkTkf7KlzleOa1RfOG0YwYEo4xiXfLl-iqs-Sxhsy1CH9nqGjTpmyLzPue/s1200/1026178.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVrCqzg4f52AI3SU0sPWjCLpaYbKLWPvNIDukNlcEhypMISmo09clznJeB-U4ZFzkHdGP4URBJonTeeFqgzKJZcUYE2Np1BfWO7iGcVbj4LwBQQzxEcJ0kEokYb9q97cKkTkf7KlzleOa1RfOG0YwYEo4xiXfLl-iqs-Sxhsy1CH9nqGjTpmyLzPue/w200-h200/1026178.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>9: Wormrot - Hiss</b> <div>Say what you will about legends like Napalm Death and Nasum, I don't think there is any grindcore band with quite as much universal appeal as Wormrot. Can I explain why? Absolutely not. I just know that whenever they deign to crawl out of whatever Singaporean insect colony they sleep in and release something new, I hear it and go fucking nuts. They just... I dunno man. I'm stretching the words out for this entry because I've always sucked at describing grind and that hasn't changed here. It's good. It's great! It does the grind thing where it's hardcore punk played extraordinarily fast with knuckle-shattering death metal blended in. I dunno dudes this is why I always secretly hope I don't love any grind albums so much that I corner myself into talking about 'em. Because I suck at it.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpRyporxoIHUYVrLOgUCMGKwbi4yhR4kTIEa00eWKizJ9aj2sDe1jPkwSjmzt4yl6uZkHhB1v13i3w2K-uZKyEELaBAiYl2wulMp-KJoZ4TYu1M21scNJrjMrKprECcm_nUrcydHU2nIm_rXGm7WIMGdVCv3T9PFIGHRr_kUzNZpOf92MMkEl_J5j/s700/1008293.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpRyporxoIHUYVrLOgUCMGKwbi4yhR4kTIEa00eWKizJ9aj2sDe1jPkwSjmzt4yl6uZkHhB1v13i3w2K-uZKyEELaBAiYl2wulMp-KJoZ4TYu1M21scNJrjMrKprECcm_nUrcydHU2nIm_rXGm7WIMGdVCv3T9PFIGHRr_kUzNZpOf92MMkEl_J5j/w200-h200/1008293.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>8: A Pale December - Death Panacea</b> <div>I've deleted this entry like five times because I'm struggling to find the words to describe why I fell so in love with <i>Death Panacea</i>. I've said a hundred times that atmoblack is an incredibly hit or miss genre because it's so easy in theory, and yet this is the second one to pop up on this list so far so it must be doing <i>something</i> interesting, right? I think what does it for me is the absolutely smothering sense of despondent melancholy intertwined with fierce determination to never lose the album's momentum. The "atmo" half of their genre comes more from the build-and-release structures of post metal than the hypnotic repetition of shoegaze, and I think that may be the X factor that made this such a hit for me. When you feel like life isn't worth living but you push forwards anyway, the contrasting feelings become something triumphant.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDeqyBgHL9cmp5wieQ5r4FdzOF_xJdabiZuIBAg6UOv_lpYOTsqrgqbgQWiZD0FvwjRdFa7MsePwVTZFzcGzuWXj-nDHebCtTAOr07sex9cI-_EFLDm4jnGLzAxC24kX0C8Duqu3eJwjMzGXN-_feU3P808sRBITd37NN8HgFWIoeNDe9Emz9ifIur/s1200/a1679938454_10.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDeqyBgHL9cmp5wieQ5r4FdzOF_xJdabiZuIBAg6UOv_lpYOTsqrgqbgQWiZD0FvwjRdFa7MsePwVTZFzcGzuWXj-nDHebCtTAOr07sex9cI-_EFLDm4jnGLzAxC24kX0C8Duqu3eJwjMzGXN-_feU3P808sRBITd37NN8HgFWIoeNDe9Emz9ifIur/w200-h200/a1679938454_10.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>7: Hallas - Isle of Wisdom</b> <div>It's funny how many albums on this list were initially approached with the idea that I wanted to hate it. Oh wow spacey prog rock that for some reason is super popular with metalheads? Yeah okay snore, I don't give a shit. But I mean, fuckin', here I am eating crow again. Due to this just being a genre I know jack nothing about, I'm mostly just filling space here because I don't know <i>why</i> I like it, I just do. I love the grooves, I love the hooks, I love the dorky synths, I love the harmless vocals, I love how "Earl's Theme" sounds like what the Keep On Truckin' guys are probably actually listening to, I love how silky smooth it is. I dunno I just love it bunches.<br /><div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8V_d3BZwdxPaZ8tZqFzdmzQRqZ1VxfIdv-pcuPwJJbNpLyt_HGjR6lZgEzmjSDlxg_g3kBQaQ2lYQXrYgB0_nk5PJPGg1anY9MAUn8YwxIu8v6vD4LfJTQKqnUzHVH3qh2c4ipK1scoujuTCqrgLgZVEMKXN8z9Jq44k6S7ALk2Z7LSxfgwQGWyT/s1200/1011866.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8V_d3BZwdxPaZ8tZqFzdmzQRqZ1VxfIdv-pcuPwJJbNpLyt_HGjR6lZgEzmjSDlxg_g3kBQaQ2lYQXrYgB0_nk5PJPGg1anY9MAUn8YwxIu8v6vD4LfJTQKqnUzHVH3qh2c4ipK1scoujuTCqrgLgZVEMKXN8z9Jq44k6S7ALk2Z7LSxfgwQGWyT/w200-h200/1011866.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>6: Ghost - Impera</b> </div><div>I'm just as surprised as you are. I came around on Ghost a few years ago but even then that was with the caveat that their best album (<i>Meliora</i>) was merely pretty solid to me. I didn't expect them to suddenly rock my shit five albums deep but here we are. Obviously you're not coming to Ghost to hear anything particularly heavy or intense, and I think this is simply their strongest collection of hooks to date and that's the long and short of it. They are pop metal titans for a reason and tracks like "Spillways", "Griftwood", and "Watcher in the Sky" spell that out better than any collection of words on the internet from some hairy dweeb could ever hope to do. I like five albums more than this, of course, but this is without a doubt the catchiest release I've heard all year from <i>any</i> genre.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm8GfzYmjcTWBk34Q36TbXJ22y-Ax6XXVRSXyNMuNdQPgDycK4F0ReypkX_uyHg8oShZhZTlz9DGiGvgRLuVMFbFZ6lVGl5WtUOyi676jneYIWhu6_kXpgRK6i71g7SG4BvrZr2rrYJ4LNqHMq_8rH4iM0QNLEoIfkwKym1RAnLp6vsUT_GYfk8mk7/s784/1024062.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="784" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm8GfzYmjcTWBk34Q36TbXJ22y-Ax6XXVRSXyNMuNdQPgDycK4F0ReypkX_uyHg8oShZhZTlz9DGiGvgRLuVMFbFZ6lVGl5WtUOyi676jneYIWhu6_kXpgRK6i71g7SG4BvrZr2rrYJ4LNqHMq_8rH4iM0QNLEoIfkwKym1RAnLp6vsUT_GYfk8mk7/w200-h200/1024062.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><b>5: Devil Master - Ecstasies of Never Ending Night</b> </div><div>I see this as sort of a sister record to Spiter from a few entries ago. This is partially because they're both products of the notoriously incestuous Philadelphia metal scene so of course they share some members, but it's mostly because they take the same basic idea (black metal + punk) and come out with very different answers. <i>Ecstasies...</i> is a very direct album, don't get me wrong, but the directness is much more unpredictable than it is straight-ahead. One of the most dominant features are the flittery gothic melodies that ebb and flow back into the thrash-flavored riffs in cycles so natural that they feel almost alive. Combine those with whatever the fuck is in the water in Philly to make everybody so violent regardless of emotion and you end up with something absolutely singular.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl18RTmSyB5Px1nO6G-FV6zrKr5djfHJ9jxCdQtpPXvRjC0C6-NgGo_piekEs-uB1JRZ2wqbut4PRiKuAV3m-nlR_GL2fXuYWcC6YPw9uDsJ0UMLrmiLitwwTMvT9nYnLKVsjsS4OCW7VirlUDrHdQ6AjyfG2n8CI6yZAlitLNeVLigJs0UxiG5n1n/s1080/1040857.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl18RTmSyB5Px1nO6G-FV6zrKr5djfHJ9jxCdQtpPXvRjC0C6-NgGo_piekEs-uB1JRZ2wqbut4PRiKuAV3m-nlR_GL2fXuYWcC6YPw9uDsJ0UMLrmiLitwwTMvT9nYnLKVsjsS4OCW7VirlUDrHdQ6AjyfG2n8CI6yZAlitLNeVLigJs0UxiG5n1n/w200-h200/1040857.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>4: Blind Guardian - The God Machine</b> </div><div>I'm fully aware that I've placed the last two BG albums on their respective year-end lists and used roundabout reasoning to explain why they sound like the old days despite being obviously "of the time" so to speak. So feel free to not believe me if you'd like, but <i>The God Machine</i> is 10000% the throwback that I so desperately tried to make the last few albums. It's indisputable this time, you don't need me waxing poetic about how they're using modern elements to reignite some abstract 90s creativity. Nah, all you've gotta do is listen to any given track and you'll immediately understand that this album could've been released between <i>Imaginations</i> and <i>Nightfall</i> with no editing at all. This is a warm blanket in a tempestuous time and maybe it means more to old school fans than new ones, but this one just FEELS like it was made specifically for me.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm6KUiRTc9iZo6psxjhIhzlTpQEYRUoYJdu9SZ8x3iFr5ZgKsn-yxV95uqAQyNI-ZT8W0OcH28sCVJz0daeW48FEk2B4h_fMnUiyUWOU3I5r_U-k105843DCbXVmvm5JJlr_31PkuJghphChhYGWPBhs4fROlG-bb-Z5T8xDnRSOJafnSOwZAv74pQ/s700/1068287.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm6KUiRTc9iZo6psxjhIhzlTpQEYRUoYJdu9SZ8x3iFr5ZgKsn-yxV95uqAQyNI-ZT8W0OcH28sCVJz0daeW48FEk2B4h_fMnUiyUWOU3I5r_U-k105843DCbXVmvm5JJlr_31PkuJghphChhYGWPBhs4fROlG-bb-Z5T8xDnRSOJafnSOwZAv74pQ/w200-h200/1068287.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>3: Autonoesis - Moon of Foul Magics</b> </div><div>I almost never put albums I only heard for the first time in December on these lists because it just feels unfair and shortsighted (ya never know if a flash'll fade). But sometimes you get a late-year rec that was simply tailored to be <i>exactly</i> what you'd been hoping to find all year. This kind of nebulous "every subgenre at once" approach always struggles to find an identity as a result, and the fact that Autonoesis takes this approach and hones in so sharply on Big Riff Moments is precisely what helps it stand so monumentally above the rest of extreme metal this year. Those Big Riff Moments are the anchor point that the Kitestring of Imagination is tethered to, allowing the music to float around anywhere it pleases, teasing the clouds and tickling the blackened sun, while never once losing the importance of Big Riff Moments. And I <i>fucking love</i> Big Riff Moments.<br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq7MmIhcdhaL97lrzkHZM1O5Ybe2ttHZoV51tGLemRRidTJQKoW5v7cttOcKg9ai81mBb_phgKpZka9cBiILS4o0s1tIG6IKHuKZJmrnasbbeHUqsSE3BPj4hBDG_PjMKIfz734SV1qJ4mRdzT2ts3SQ6CMijLMqbpg05N1_JdK7gnHRT-v6GuXm1v/s1200/a2068121131_10.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq7MmIhcdhaL97lrzkHZM1O5Ybe2ttHZoV51tGLemRRidTJQKoW5v7cttOcKg9ai81mBb_phgKpZka9cBiILS4o0s1tIG6IKHuKZJmrnasbbeHUqsSE3BPj4hBDG_PjMKIfz734SV1qJ4mRdzT2ts3SQ6CMijLMqbpg05N1_JdK7gnHRT-v6GuXm1v/w200-h200/a2068121131_10.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>2: Chat Pile - God's Country</b> </div><div>If you're on the internet and interested in heavy/weird music, you've heard this already. Every hipster on the planet loves this. Everybody loves how bleak, raw, confrontational, uncomfortable, frantic, scary, and straight fucking <i>furious</i> this album is. There's nothing I can say that you haven't heard already. I have no hot takes. I am, apparently, the metal equivalent to the kino dweeb I described at the start, because I love this album for all of the exact same reasons that Pitchfork and Anthony Fantano and all the rest of the bespectacled "falses" in the world love this album. "Why" is one of the most devastatingly important songs written in years. The band apparently tweeted (I dunno I never had a twitter) that their greatest accomplishment this year was forcing critics to namedrop Swans and Korn in the same sentence and yeah sure that works.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">AND THE WINNER IS...</span></b></div> <br /><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJST-a4iSwQT4zjUuiM_pr0wVH6DU2PS2yMP998rYWf4Cco6mKmYGJ3oT0_vGsPpUsGK1WXMDCJoj4z-cMHHG75IjPZXtEDFzyM4TTFJTTymXeBSx1YN7723FoUONA-PJyMwiYSBKdzE5xAIEIvMx8yFcYy6jRomCWVCfLPnXrBpGVAbG5wCTNMWkL/s700/1035070.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJST-a4iSwQT4zjUuiM_pr0wVH6DU2PS2yMP998rYWf4Cco6mKmYGJ3oT0_vGsPpUsGK1WXMDCJoj4z-cMHHG75IjPZXtEDFzyM4TTFJTTymXeBSx1YN7723FoUONA-PJyMwiYSBKdzE5xAIEIvMx8yFcYy6jRomCWVCfLPnXrBpGVAbG5wCTNMWkL/w200-h200/1035070.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>1: White Ward - False Light</b> </div><div>With Autonoesis, I mentioned not wanting to put albums up too high on the list if I only just recently heard them for the first time. A similar thing happened in 2019 with White Ward's sophomore album, <i>Love Exchange Failure</i>. It happened both in 2019 for the AOTY list and it happened six months later when I did the Top 50 of the decade and got dangerously close to putting it in the top ten despite hearing it for the first time a few months prior at that point. In the years since, it hasn't faded. I'm still in awe of that album and I think I must've known at the time that I'd discovered something truly magical that was going to stick with me for years. I bring that up because <i>False Light</i> was the exact opposite of a surprise for me. I was waiting with bated breath for this, it was penciled in as a potential contender before I even heard a note of it, all I knew was that White Ward did something that punched me directly in the dopamine twice before and I couldn't wait for it to happen a third time. I can not even begin to explain how delighted I am to be giving White Ward the extended writeup here because that means that it did, indeed, ultimately land as my favorite album on the year. Whenever I try recommending this band to people I inevitably have to make them sound like a stupid gimmick by mentioning the prominent full-time saxophone, but I can't stress enough how much it doesn't clutter the space as much as it fills in a space that I never knew was empty before. You can't really separate the sax from the rest, but if you did anyway, you'd be met with a barrage of shockingly fucking <i>heavy</i> atmoblack (people with better ears than I tell me this is largely tuned to C standard, which is more of a death metal tuning and it shows), with passages of neofolk and goth rock and basically every metal-approved-non-metal influence you can think of and somehow every single second of this maintains either mood or momentum or both. The esoteric touches are, despite being the most immediately notable things about <i>False Light</i>, mere accoutrements to the main attraction, and the lengthy dirges of "Phoenix", "Leviathan", and the title track are so simultaneously despondent and furious that it nails an emotion that's hard to pin down with words. I'm so happy that an album I was anticipating didn't let me down for once, and White Ward managed to snag the title and the BH Award for Album of the Year 2022.<br /><div><br /><div>And now for something completely the same!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Antichrist Imperium - Volume III: Satan in His Original Glory:</b> This would be like #7 if I wasn't hearing it for the first time around noon on the 31st. Learning that this band featured members of Akercocke made immediate sense to me because the push and pull between raucously filthy death metal and disquietingly eerie clean prog sections hasn't sounded this fucking good since the first time I heard Akercocke.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Fer de Lance - The Hyperborean:</b> And this is another that would have landed on the list without a second thought if I had heard it prior to the day before this post gets published. I guess this is good motivation to be more involved again next year because this sort of EPIC pounding traditional doom metal that sounds mountainously tall is exactly what I had been wanting without even realizing it. This is how I assumed Grand Magus sounded when they were first described to me, and boy do they live up to my incorrect imagination.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Venator - Echoes from the Gutter:</b> Mirror obviously took the crown for me in the realm of throwback classic metal, but Venator was less than a noselength behind. Mirror won out for their singular uniqueness, but despite Venator being a much more "normal" 80s metal wannabe, they were far and away the most fun and sincere of the bunch. "The Seventh Seal" has been stuck in my head all year.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Kostnatění - Oheň hoří tam, kde padl:</b> If I wasn't lazy and trying to finish this post in the 11th hour like the numbskull I am, this would have been the easy #1 entry in the "EPs/Demos of the Year" side feature I considered doing. Kost's debut was a dissonant and evocative nightmare, and the followup EP, essentially a collection of Turkish folk songs thrown through a giblet-jammed woodchipper, is exactly that but with much more color in the periphery. The melodies are all so immediate and so <i>wrong</i> somehow that even the more triumphant and proud moments feel like they're being delivered by a chattering skeleton. I'm not sure if that makes sense but the point is that this record carries a layer of dust on it and I mean that in the best and least clear way possible.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Grenadier - Trumpets Blare in Blazing Glory:</b> I will never, ever, ever stop being pissed off at Arghoslent for creating an incredibly specific style of Mercyful Fate riffs run through death metal intensities that I adore and absolutely believe is worth exploring and expanding on. Because the band are such obvious, proud, abhorrent pieces of racist shit, nobody wants to touch their sound and anybody who does is immediately met with suspicion. I just want somebody to do their style without wanting my wife dead, ya know? So for now, Grenadier is the closest thing I've got until Mi'gauss decides to reunite.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There's usually more here but I ran out of time, whoops! Enjoy!<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-3409317159784942042022-10-10T19:45:00.000-05:002022-10-10T19:45:08.977-05:00NEW AMERICAN GOSPEL: Lamb of God - Omens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdkik43OxhuLxbgcfJIfiHiO0R6rbmK5YwM1pa5Q5IJOVMkyrRvDk4FmQFmchEAmhsdOgfJx1bnywJFO7edRXM30YyK7zdv4IXtia03PRJ5Y8UkM2gps8DxYX0PY_gYhg8DQ1QEciVo7akAdtUbEKXxU2d1nLLhN48LYe4Ukm5oRu3zEc_G8XBr7y/s1200/1045988.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdkik43OxhuLxbgcfJIfiHiO0R6rbmK5YwM1pa5Q5IJOVMkyrRvDk4FmQFmchEAmhsdOgfJx1bnywJFO7edRXM30YyK7zdv4IXtia03PRJ5Y8UkM2gps8DxYX0PY_gYhg8DQ1QEciVo7akAdtUbEKXxU2d1nLLhN48LYe4Ukm5oRu3zEc_G8XBr7y/w200-h200/1045988.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">IX: Me son?</span></div><div><br /></div>I've spilled a lot of digital ink over the years defending how much I love Cannibal Corpse. I say "defending" instead of any other verb partially because my ego is unreal and I apparently can't just enjoy one of the most popular metal bands in history without acting like I'm special because of it, but partially because one of the chief complaints against them is something I don't really care about when it comes to them but I <i>do</i> tend to levy at other bands pretty frequently and I don't really have a cogent defense for why Cannibal is an exception for me. That complaint is, of course, the fact that they just kinda do the same thing with each new album and you always know what you're going to get. I like evolution, I like new ideas, I like it when bands who have been kicking around for a long while mix things up and keep them fresh, I typically <i>don't</i> like it when bands find a sound that works and then get comfortable and stop evolving. But that's only sometimes? I dunno man, I don't care if late era Cannibal or Motorhead or Bad Religion albums sound exactly like their classics, but I <i>do</i> care if other bands do it. I've been shitting on Krisiun for years because of this, why don't they get a pass while The Black Dahlia Murder does?<div><br /></div><div>Well, the reason I'm pondering this is because Lamb of God just released their ninth album (or tenth or eleventh depending on how you count the Burn the Priest releases), <i>Omens</i>, and they're a band I've both covered extensively and, most importantly, have been hounding pretty relentlessly for refusing to evolve or improve for over a decade now, with <i>Wrath</i> being the last new angle they explored before just knuckling down and releasing slightly different versions of <i>Ashes of the Wake</i> with mostly diminishing returns ever since <i>Resolution</i>. The difference seems obvious to me at first blush. Every Cannibal album sounds like "A Cannibal Corpse Album", every Motorhead album sounds like "A Motorhead Album", and every Lamb of God album sounds like <i>Ashes of the Wake</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>But that's not true is it? Or is it?? I don't know anymore. The whole reason I'm back typing shit on the internet again is because <i>Omens</i> is both Lamb of God's best album in years and also another completely predictable waste of time simultaneously. I can't seem to decide for the life of me if this is just the best version of their lazy era or if this is maddeningly safe and not worth your time. On one hand, tracks like "Gomorrah" and the title track hearken back to the more explosive and high octane form of groove metal they were championing on <i>Sacrament</i>. On the other hand, tracks like "Ill Designs" and "Ditch" sound like they were written by an AI, without a single trick the band hasn't already pulled out dozens of times already. On the other other hand, "Denial Mechanism" is quite possibly the best song the band has written in over a decade and that alone puts this above like four other albums in their history. On the other other other hand, part of the reason "Denial Mechanism" stands out so much is precisely because it <i>doesn't</i> sound like paint-by-numbers Lamb of God and instead takes a gargantuan heap of influence from old school hardcore and thrash metal, put through their distinctly modern mix, making it almost dangerously heavy and unhinged sounding. </div><div><br /></div><div>I think what separates the Cruz era from the end of the Adler era (partly because so little else actually changed) is that the band sounds so much more <i>alive</i> on these last two albums than they did on the two previous. Yeah, you could probably throw all 44 tracks from the last four albums, randomly select ten of them, and wind up with a pretty cohesive hypothetical album without even trying to sort the tracks into an order that makes sense. They've been pretty plug-and-play from a music perspective for ages now, this isn't a secret. Basically every track is going to be a relentlessly aggressive mixture of groove metal with twinges of metalcore and occasionally thrash metal here and there, the drums will be far more complex than the guitars, and Randy will punch through with his hardcore tinged roaring. You've heard "Hourglass" before and now you're gonna hear it some more. But with that said, I think I could pretty reliably tell you if any given song was from the Cruz era or not simply because the two albums since he joined have so much more energy and life to them. <i>Omens</i> is, just like the self titled from two years ago, difficult to talk about because the most apt summary is still "Just imagine if <i>Resolution</i> was actually pretty good". There are some more granular differences of course, they definitely seemed to have rediscover how powerful a well placed breakdown can be in recent years and the Pantera influence only gets stronger with each passing year, but Lamb of God's ninth album really isn't all that different from Lamb of God's third album. </div><div><br /></div><div>To loop back to the intro, why is Lamb of God one of the bands that I seem to arbitrarily demand evolution for? This and the previous album have presented a sort of crisis of faith for me because the entire damn thesis for the retrospective and previous eight reviews was to track their evolution early on and lament how disappointing it was when they abruptly stopped. Yet despite having all of the exact same issues in the abstract, I've thought the last two albums were, if nothing else, solid, often erring towards just unconditionally "good". I think what I've come to realize is that music nerds broadly, metal nerds narrowly, and I specifically, tend to get stuck in this mindset that bands need to continually and exponentially evolve and/or improve in perpetuity, otherwise they're resting on their laurels or being lazy or whatever. Listening through <i>Omens</i>, I find myself asking why I'm suddenly not willing to accept consistent enjoyability? Sure, this doesn't have an identity as strong or singular as the debut or anything, and even the best songs don't stand out as capital lettered Obviously Iconic tracks like "Laid to Rest" or "Vigil" did back in the glory years (though you can argue that this album does have the strongest hardcore influence since the debut, though it's of a much less chaotic stripe this time around), but man, it's a pretty decently fun listen. The only true standout track to my ears remains "Denial Mechanism", and I really can't get excited for "Ill Designs" but that still leaves at minimum eight songs that rank as "alright". Maybe a solidly "alright" album isn't exactly a high recommendation, especially coming from a band as well tenured and divisive in the underground as Lamb of God, but it turns out I'd take an uninteresting but still good album over a fascinating trainwreck most days (I love talking about <i>St. Anger</i> but I never ever ever want to actually listen to it, ya know?). Lamb of God's problem, as it turns out, wasn't necessarily that they stopped evolving and just stuck to what worked in the past. No, apparently the issue was that their worst albums are just phoned in and boring as fuck, because <i>Omens</i> is exactly as uninteresting as <i>Resolution</i> but is magnitudes better simply because the energy is through the roof, even if the creativity isn't.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>RATING: 78%</b></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-3962785480153107782022-01-01T00:00:00.001-06:002022-01-01T00:00:00.197-06:00BH AWARDS 2021 YADDA YADDA<google-sheets-html-origin>Reports of my death have been somewhat exaggerated. I only wrote five reviews all year, the lowest I've ever somehow managed since basically half my life ago. The reasons why I've been offline are numerous and ultimately irrelevant (basically a nice combo of real life + FFXIV + realizing I've been terminally online since 2004 and desperately needed to remind myself what sunshine looked like), but I'm back in time for the year end list because hell yeah of course I am. I love lists, I love making them, I love reading them, I love everything about what is essentially journalistic clerical work but this dumb clickbait shit is where I thrive. 2021 was a weird year for the music I listen to because up until the start of the month I had been calling it "The year of the 7/10", because a vast majority of new releases I checked out were good, competent, totally fine, but almost never really magical in any way. Then when it came time to actually organize this list, I surprised myself by really struggling to narrow it down to only 13 to highlight. I dunno man, this year just snuck up on me and wound up kicking way more ass than I had realized at the time.</google-sheets-html-origin><div><br /></div><div>Anyway I know what you're here for, so let's just get to it. This is!</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE TOP 13 ALBUMS OF 2021</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Rules are the same as always: Full lengths only (one of these entries is disputed on whether it's an EP or LP, but the band goes with the latter so I'm counting it) and that's it. The list tends to stay metal since that's just where my listening focuses but ya never know. Fuckin' Foxy won last year so ya gotta stay on your toes. Let's get on with it:</div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEib1aFGDt_mT0xPU3UZW0h_YOUgQB_BTnBDL6lrpvnQ2I-yuKQ7QyAMMoDZh4iTUX8aCbQAjdq46fFPYRle1POzDUGnmB3r8xIpVoLf8V0g7UjYF6Q3jURdsJXG8OUBb4Uvo6LGrhxWC17laonpCsxfce5I8UPj4MdhIsMsDdWh_CuQDXTdL9xqfibL=s960" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="955" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEib1aFGDt_mT0xPU3UZW0h_YOUgQB_BTnBDL6lrpvnQ2I-yuKQ7QyAMMoDZh4iTUX8aCbQAjdq46fFPYRle1POzDUGnmB3r8xIpVoLf8V0g7UjYF6Q3jURdsJXG8OUBb4Uvo6LGrhxWC17laonpCsxfce5I8UPj4MdhIsMsDdWh_CuQDXTdL9xqfibL=w199-h200" width="199" /></a></div>13: Fimir - Tomb of God</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>Ya know, for a guy who has always counted doom as one of his least favorite of the major metal subgenres, there really was something about this ultra basic classic doom record from Fimir this year that grabbed me and refused to let go since the day I came across it. I have no history with four of the five members' previous band, Church of Void, but I had a feeling upon first listen that these guys were scene veterans already. There's a confidence in <i>Tomb of God</i> that can only come with experience. "One Eyed Beast" is such an incredible earworm but has massive balls for riding on basically one riff for nine and a half minutes while the vocalist devolves into tuneless moaning by track's end. The fact that they could pull off such a terrible idea so well speaks to the level of artistry on display here.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjwGZj_Nfvljw-eO-i6TWGIqNA9hBWIo8nzTztPRGmYbMN0YVod_zWZlkdnMA-CMGPOp2JptkTIMzS0MSz7eKxgI_IkWvZbIZOUnos3eb4E_ZbVLlofKx9MJqJBl3Jl8KY-8LrdubS0VoO-Kv1R1GEVWWLmFS__eDooqngHZC_fdKnLEE2FY2a6TDaL=s700" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjwGZj_Nfvljw-eO-i6TWGIqNA9hBWIo8nzTztPRGmYbMN0YVod_zWZlkdnMA-CMGPOp2JptkTIMzS0MSz7eKxgI_IkWvZbIZOUnos3eb4E_ZbVLlofKx9MJqJBl3Jl8KY-8LrdubS0VoO-Kv1R1GEVWWLmFS__eDooqngHZC_fdKnLEE2FY2a6TDaL=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>12: Yoth Iria - As the Flame Withers</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>For all my admitted ageism when it comes to metal bands, I find it darkly ironic that the first two entries here are debut albums by "new" bands comprised mostly of scene veterans. Yoth Iria sports a much healthier lineage, with the two founding members having played on the first two Rotting Christ albums, and even though I never really got into the Greek black metal scene all that much, I know damn well the clout that brings the band. <i>As the Flame Withers</i> fantastically channels that warm atmosphere of their homeland. The album art is actually a pretty good metaphor for the sound on display. It's massive, smooth, dark, and colorful all at the same time. That may seem like a strange combo for a genre as traditionally icy and inaccessible as black metal but I promise you it kicks ass.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsCLYKqWaywklD6l7m1SgQPN5oNIMSJgwF6zAHMj5gyfAN6wZ84u_OEuCRRNyhYFb944ddjdp-r0nOJW95S7n0hrAiVBJM9fSuOF9ttLJ7JF9WnEIss5PJ_zkJAvAAxDNprpcN-rKDuU2FLmrPFzGzgGISAklPDyKJhu_wyOdbOQu9fw4BmXJ0mcOk=s589" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="589" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsCLYKqWaywklD6l7m1SgQPN5oNIMSJgwF6zAHMj5gyfAN6wZ84u_OEuCRRNyhYFb944ddjdp-r0nOJW95S7n0hrAiVBJM9fSuOF9ttLJ7JF9WnEIss5PJ_zkJAvAAxDNprpcN-rKDuU2FLmrPFzGzgGISAklPDyKJhu_wyOdbOQu9fw4BmXJ0mcOk=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>11: Inoculation - Celestial Putridity </b></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div>I initially had Archspire bringing up the tail on this list, but as the months rolled on I found myself more and more let down by it. I think the reason Inoculation find themselves here instead is because this sounds like Archspire if every other note was removed. The Canadians' signature blend of total sensory overload used to augment some sharp hooks, but they've regressed back to being all sizzle and no steak. I'm spending half of this entry talking about a different album but that's because Inoculation is such a phenomenal respec of one of the most popular tech death bands in the world. It turns out that by taking 20 points out of Speed and putting them into Songwriting instead you can wind up with the same basic idea but much better. Inoculation is modern tech death with a Nocturnus sensibility and that's a surprisingly delicate line to thread.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgKa6pNOkeldbCirLTfhBAEnl1P9TY60bsLj_4PDya37w1JhVsvXO5HiH9mda7xGbfDPz4YI7FGZiMyEwLV5keJRADkbVhOrnQxn6B2ywgk3cMrMZu8ql4IEiK2Lps7aLzYIfJvzkqcYUFroUjPe8TPq6GZbBIydHzNgfQ5VI6b8uCWX8zaB3L73Lb0=s1024" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgKa6pNOkeldbCirLTfhBAEnl1P9TY60bsLj_4PDya37w1JhVsvXO5HiH9mda7xGbfDPz4YI7FGZiMyEwLV5keJRADkbVhOrnQxn6B2ywgk3cMrMZu8ql4IEiK2Lps7aLzYIfJvzkqcYUFroUjPe8TPq6GZbBIydHzNgfQ5VI6b8uCWX8zaB3L73Lb0=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>10: Demiser - Through the Gate Eternal</b></div><div>This is just so god damned stupid and I can't get enough of it. <i>Through the Gate Eternal</i> is basically just regular old piss-n'-vinegar black/thrash and if you've heard Desaster, Aura Noir, or D666 before then you aren't going to find too many surprises, but what they lack in forward-thinking creativity they make up for in sheer fuckin' testicular fortitude. This is over the top debauchery that is so on the nose that it rockets past farce and lands squarely on "pure fun". I mean come on, the members gave themselves names like "Gravepisser", "Phalomancer", and the creme de la creme, "Demiser the Demiser", which also adorns the name of an appropriately silly track. There's so much energy in a track like "Deathstrike" that I could never not adore this, even if I genuinely can't tell where the sincerity and irony actually end.</div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCJbFNLrDvmiM1xrTl5T_sVJcAec567VfBd2-r1K80WMX7EqxV2pqfDolwpySbGfF7ONS1FIV9fNys80tQltduFDI0lMPiViuM8TTtg2Qi9TZmklJfTGe2TwwtrHhIpUDCmLablOOwnnZc2XK60ygpgFtxfnqQy99-yltlZpyX_V_yXNEVFmKTWU6_=s500" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCJbFNLrDvmiM1xrTl5T_sVJcAec567VfBd2-r1K80WMX7EqxV2pqfDolwpySbGfF7ONS1FIV9fNys80tQltduFDI0lMPiViuM8TTtg2Qi9TZmklJfTGe2TwwtrHhIpUDCmLablOOwnnZc2XK60ygpgFtxfnqQy99-yltlZpyX_V_yXNEVFmKTWU6_=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>9: Hooded Menace - The Tritonous Bell</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>Hooded Menace is a band I've seen as kinda cursed to always be "quite good" but never managed to break the glass ceiling. Turns out sixth time is the charm I guess. I've always appreciated how they approach death/doom the same way as Runemagick, where the "doom" half of the equation comes from honest to god doom metal riffs instead of just slow death metal. I don't know what they've really done differently here compared to their previous five albums, but they finally got over the hump with this one. I really think it just boils down to them dialing in the grooves to an almost scientifically lethal degree this time. They were always there but they were never as fully torqued as "Corpus Asunder" or "Blood Ornaments", the latter of which would almost certainly be my favorite song of the year if it wasn't for an upcoming entry.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgepNHRu9IsbcbozQTiqAyQXZ-cRWo6WFO_Pou23SXAJUgPKkS7mpwAgbMV26tVXolXAo9XUrB2AJ9LUx3IAJVhpqpic4shnuxO0Md__ZuIWeA6nNSPu4yFy1FtMWDAnqQlHXMgPzPhfsKR38l5opUhx-fXC_EWfQXHtoDydXlH98IQwC24PQIGyFjj=s700" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgepNHRu9IsbcbozQTiqAyQXZ-cRWo6WFO_Pou23SXAJUgPKkS7mpwAgbMV26tVXolXAo9XUrB2AJ9LUx3IAJVhpqpic4shnuxO0Md__ZuIWeA6nNSPu4yFy1FtMWDAnqQlHXMgPzPhfsKR38l5opUhx-fXC_EWfQXHtoDydXlH98IQwC24PQIGyFjj=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>8: 1914 - Where Fear and Weapons Meet</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>I think it speaks to how phenomenal the songwriting normally is with 1914 that they can close this album on an agonizingly long rendition of "The Green Fields of France" (which is thematically appropriate but meh in execution) and still manage to land in the top ten based on the previous 52 minutes. I've beaten the drum enough when it comes to how much I hate themes of real life war being treated like a Disney movie and 1914 continues to be the poster child of making their music just as grimy and unpleasant as their themes. This type of deathified black metal is so fucking bleak and nihilistic, it just punches me in the heartstrings every single time. <i>Where Fear and Weapons Meet</i> is another triumph in their career and I'm glad they're finally starting to build the popularity they so obviously deserve.<br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEif-oS5OgRhWTXLA2J-UCTwx84Rw0enu-2SXeLznfkBKmdwaEtTreUNNSjDWBB9oHvJi56-2YRsfIhsKzB0LiyZn4rUlhY9ymVusESn38eYZgSlqbPUZ0S5s-ZekQnT68G8_rDbYxr5WFKefSEYD-96LLYXzUSEgj_EGKfIgW3gjx1M9xKpljw8fuac=s700" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEif-oS5OgRhWTXLA2J-UCTwx84Rw0enu-2SXeLznfkBKmdwaEtTreUNNSjDWBB9oHvJi56-2YRsfIhsKzB0LiyZn4rUlhY9ymVusESn38eYZgSlqbPUZ0S5s-ZekQnT68G8_rDbYxr5WFKefSEYD-96LLYXzUSEgj_EGKfIgW3gjx1M9xKpljw8fuac=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>7: Eternity's End - Embers of War</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>Man do you have any idea how awesome it is to hear Iuri Sanson singing on a good album for the first time in like a decade? I recall their earlier albums being a less catchy old-school Dragonforce, but <i>Embers of War</i> has much more classic metal influence and holy <i>shit</i> is that the secret sauce they needed. There are so many shades of classic power metal bands and here that it borders on being plagiarism but I don't give a shit because dammit Iron Savior and Running Wild are classic bands for a reason and their signature tropes just fucking <i>work</i>. Honestly, if every song was as good as "Hounds of Tindalos" then this would be #1 without a second thought. It is primo early 90s Running Wild put through a shreddier filter and I could listen to it a billion times in a row. That's the song of the year without a fucking doubt.<br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQpg0YCL3CzQtVlKHFDGH3gZO8W6ZtRb4hi0EXye-bAigNE_X0WTuIR_qtxCUTlFjdsuNLFHxsHJ7iNUZBdh53IMcAqtx4q-0KCgHFeq86AKvYUyg2ai1_M03wExMep6-QZWvgEN0P3ArQsoda4Ymb0MXAfdps4bqRp9baUF1AkUdgM5c-LtpCOSco=s719" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="719" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQpg0YCL3CzQtVlKHFDGH3gZO8W6ZtRb4hi0EXye-bAigNE_X0WTuIR_qtxCUTlFjdsuNLFHxsHJ7iNUZBdh53IMcAqtx4q-0KCgHFeq86AKvYUyg2ai1_M03wExMep6-QZWvgEN0P3ArQsoda4Ymb0MXAfdps4bqRp9baUF1AkUdgM5c-LtpCOSco=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>6: Green Lung - Black Harvest</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>The most concise review of this album is three words long: "Ghost but good". This is stoner doom at its core but there is <i>such</i> a massive injection of 70s rock in here that the comparison is unavoidable (especially since the vocals are equally thin and goofy). The way "The Harrowing" leads into "Old Gods" is pure Boston and it works exactly as well as the classic rock staple it's obviously ripping off. <i>Black Harvest</i> proceeds to be a salvo of Sabbathian riffage and Deep Purple organ shredding and it never stops being entertaining. I'm almost certain this is the first album that could be described as "stoner" to ever land on this list and I don't know if that's because I'm finally warming up to the style or this is seriously head and shoulders above everything else. Either way it owns.<br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguv-mVUWfdkaApMo_lp7F_5s97fI6cKDC7C4iSMSOoTL83QgFcw2o-q0Caqs4yh6aH1zW0mVf5m0BJVMlk-IjLmfHoghFjdzVMvpy8B0UXMvvSb4LKQdX9-dL3TMHoszyO4SaQUx4uoHHbi7fr3fj9MdXKhXkO_N7yyiTYsknsXt8aBISwzVRxsKco=s700" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguv-mVUWfdkaApMo_lp7F_5s97fI6cKDC7C4iSMSOoTL83QgFcw2o-q0Caqs4yh6aH1zW0mVf5m0BJVMlk-IjLmfHoghFjdzVMvpy8B0UXMvvSb4LKQdX9-dL3TMHoszyO4SaQUx4uoHHbi7fr3fj9MdXKhXkO_N7yyiTYsknsXt8aBISwzVRxsKco=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>5: Dream Troll - Realm of the Tormentor</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>This is actually kind of a weird one since it seems to be debatable whether this is an LP or EP, and long time fans tell me that this is a bit of a step down and the new vocalist isn't as good as their old one. However, this is the first release of theirs that I've actually heard, so all this tells me is that I have an amazing backlog to explore, because I love every single second of this banger. There are obviously four albums I like more than this one, but this is without a doubt the <i>catchiest</i> release of 2021. This is hook after hook after hook and I can't get enough of it. It should be clear by now that I like throwback metal when it feels like a lost classic instead of a deliberate homage, and this fulfills that criteria easily. I could time travel to 1984 and put this on record store shelves and nobody would notice that it's from 35 years in the future.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgrdB41v8ls1DWYGRgKVwssF3xxY6LSoLUwUkvwVIsHdrDF3gvjOXgHqYpm4eOnN9nKDyYquflmj5WsMv0b71tyDy2AnIIUkH3yPNP37cBGoiQeXV3F8t-pABVq_lCc6Lp9jR7eWEjETVUoGgX3xU6r2acdRlM3qUzjZUGsZAUSFf79iEP736y3XDnU=s768" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgrdB41v8ls1DWYGRgKVwssF3xxY6LSoLUwUkvwVIsHdrDF3gvjOXgHqYpm4eOnN9nKDyYquflmj5WsMv0b71tyDy2AnIIUkH3yPNP37cBGoiQeXV3F8t-pABVq_lCc6Lp9jR7eWEjETVUoGgX3xU6r2acdRlM3qUzjZUGsZAUSFf79iEP736y3XDnU=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>4: Tower - Shock to the System</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>I only managed to write like five reviews this year, and Tower was one of the few album that motivated me enough to shout about how awesome it is. Everything I loved about Satan's Hallow is showcased here in exactly as much glory as that tragically short-lived project. Sporting possibly the most unhinged vocal performance of the year and some of the most ear catching throwback metal I've heard in a long while. All the youth and fire that made those classic releases so good burns fuckin' hot on <i>Shock to the System</i>. There's very little I can say that I haven't already said about this stunner, so I'll just reiterate how fucking awesome "Blood Moon" is. I don't think I've heard a better opening track since Scanner's "Warp 7" way back in 1988.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLMOSKkbYbudi4KjvhrCUsZbHdxNMk8CuS_b_iC_Jp01GXUpqWFaMdi2CWmeCCtYbIkzBIztpnCNloOpKYDiNYiDUjtHrkdVabY0EztQnsmy-_vokrbquM61rY-5KTwxXpP1LSQ_fkAbqphRuThEPJbotG34jHK1y9aVxIV1LMQ-4QNqtZbiPt-Bpn=s700" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLMOSKkbYbudi4KjvhrCUsZbHdxNMk8CuS_b_iC_Jp01GXUpqWFaMdi2CWmeCCtYbIkzBIztpnCNloOpKYDiNYiDUjtHrkdVabY0EztQnsmy-_vokrbquM61rY-5KTwxXpP1LSQ_fkAbqphRuThEPJbotG34jHK1y9aVxIV1LMQ-4QNqtZbiPt-Bpn=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>3: Craven Idol - Forked Tongues</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>Say it with me now, "Dark Descent is a massively important label but the further away from death metal their releases are, the better they tend to be". I've been saying this for a long while based on fantastic releases from Crypt Sermon and Tyranny and such, and Craven Idol here brings some of the most scorching black/thrash metal recorded in years to further solidify my belief that DDR should just give death metal a break at this point. This is, without a doubt, Craven Idol's masterpiece. All of the intensity, venom, hooks, and razor sharp riffage that made <i>Towards Eschaton</i> and <i>The Shackles of Mammon</i> instant hits for me has been amped up to a nearly unbelievable degree on <i>Forked Tongues</i>. This is one of the few times that a metal record has not only lived up to, but easily <i>surpassed</i> the hype for me.<br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7-x500Do_cFSm1L_WOhLctC3m4oeEnXpdKCraQLHV6lZ7WVqKXq_EXPKYc8hZ1uq0MUbkcCFiiHIgxaQbRvMZmN6TjgBoEI44XKbrGsz0C_2s3WUmWuB_J-1SxLm3lG1eXmoyU4Q_rkX_hPANKWdraGrc6wQcyCWmoNZzHtnbLhQ-GZvrMKXKYbYW=s700" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7-x500Do_cFSm1L_WOhLctC3m4oeEnXpdKCraQLHV6lZ7WVqKXq_EXPKYc8hZ1uq0MUbkcCFiiHIgxaQbRvMZmN6TjgBoEI44XKbrGsz0C_2s3WUmWuB_J-1SxLm3lG1eXmoyU4Q_rkX_hPANKWdraGrc6wQcyCWmoNZzHtnbLhQ-GZvrMKXKYbYW=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>2: Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst</b> </google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>I've never really dipped my toes into QCBM beyond a handful of releases, but I've always been aware of the little microscene and have enjoyed most of what I'd heard. The reason Spectral Wound's homeland was such a surprise to me is because I was absolutely <i>positive</i> this band was either Finnish or French on first blush. <i>A Diabolic Thirst</i> so exquisitely nails that dripping melodic edge that's so inherent to those scenes. The entire album is fine-tuned and razor sharp, and brimming with so much caustic malice that it almost physically hurts to listen to. I often say that I prefer my black metal to be a bit more fiery than icy, but Spectral Wound here is ice fucking cold and never once takes their foot off the gas. I've singled out a lot of "best songs of the year" so far but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how utterly fucking flawless "Frigid and Spellbound" is.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div style="text-align: center;"><google-sheets-html-origin><b>AND THE WINNER IS...</b></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div style="text-align: left;"><google-sheets-html-origin><b><br /></b></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjET8_eryj2RU-pVqhctMBYmd0JzbqwlHq7ewJD9EFKhrIeZG6ODHDJvNMEYKqd3FJXfob4U_3DvtrdI7qjmFaOnMsYtb-I8vjlKwynRL_4a3f4WBJytHr7fzOEcTYr7lOZJT0-oU1hfJ8gVqinsa3J8SNPMhgpl0yzguFTxZ5-GWLQCJW8kOoXJo29=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjET8_eryj2RU-pVqhctMBYmd0JzbqwlHq7ewJD9EFKhrIeZG6ODHDJvNMEYKqd3FJXfob4U_3DvtrdI7qjmFaOnMsYtb-I8vjlKwynRL_4a3f4WBJytHr7fzOEcTYr7lOZJT0-oU1hfJ8gVqinsa3J8SNPMhgpl0yzguFTxZ5-GWLQCJW8kOoXJo29=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>1: Bewitcher - Cursed Be Thy Kingdom</b></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>On first listen way back in April, I thought this was kinda fun and then shelved it without much thought. As the year went on, I found myself constantly coming back to it. Over and over and over again I found myself humming quietly at work before realizing the tune coming out of my throat was the chorus of "Electric Phantoms". Like an oil spill this just kept creeping back into my bloodstream and before I knew it, <i>Cursed Be Thy Kingdom</i> was my most listened to album on the year by a pretty wide margin. This niche of blackened speed/heavy metal or whatever it's called nowadays (I've been calling it "Motorbastard" for a while) is consistently pretty good but rarely breaks above that for me. I like Midnight and Hellripper as much as any self respecting metalhead, but Bewitcher's third album here just blows the entire fucking scene out of the water as far as I'm concerned. I pegged Dream Troll as the catchiest release of the year but this is only behind by like a damn molecule. All of the raucous filth and debauchery that made Venom so amazing in the early 80s is on display here and arguably even surpasses those early classics. Yes, I'm willing to go that far for anybody who could write modern gems like "Satanic Magick Attack" or "Valley of the Ravens". It's pretty weird for how much I crow about how too many metalheads are stuck on old sounds and refuse to truly explore the new bands that are genuinely innovating the style we all love for me to have three of my top five here sound like they could've been written nearly 40 years ago, but in the case of Bewitcher it has less to do with them doing anything new and more to do with them doing everything better. Almost every album on this list was an instant hit for me, and historically like 70% of albums I put on these lists that immediately wowed me wind up fading from my memory after a few years, but <i>Cursed Be Thy Kingdom</i> was a slow burn that grew on me more and more as the year went on until I was fully in its clutches by year's end, and historically that bodes much better for how well this album is going to age along with me. The entire top three here was really tough for me to suss out, but ultimately my gut (and my heart) tells me the only true winner of the BH Award for Album of the Year 2021 could only be Bewitcher.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>And now for something completely the same!</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div style="text-align: center;"><google-sheets-html-origin><b>HONORABLE MENTIONS</b></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b>Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime:</b> Honestly this is good enough to be like #8 or so, but I first heard it on the day I started writing this post. Maybe I'm being overly cautious and I'll regret not putting it on the list proper if it winds up holding up and becoming a modern favorite of mine, but due to a quirk of timing I just flat out don't feel comfortable putting it on the list. Phenomenal meloblack with some cool dungeon synth passages that I'd recommend any fan of classic Emperor or Dissection to check out, I just wish I would've heard it before December 26th.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b>Kanonenfieber - Menschenmühle:</b> This is basically the exact same album as 1914's representative on the list and I'm being completely honest when I say that's the main reason I chose to exclude it. It's weird that both bands aim for this exact same microniche and wind up executing identical ideas in almost identical ways and logically I should be annoyed by that (and I am to an extent), but Kanonenfieber is very good on their own and this album could've wound up ranking in an alternate universe where 1914 didn't put out a slightly better album that I chose to listen to more often.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b>Ningen-Isu - Kuraku:</b> In a year with more doom-adjacent bands on my list than ever before, Ningen Isu still tragically misses the list proper despite putting out a great album for basically the tenth time in a row because they are pathologically incapable of releasing an album that isn't excruciatingly long.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b>Noctambulist - The Barren Form</b>: This actually fought with Inoculation and Inferi as my favorite overly technical death metal album of the year, and I like how it's much grimier and more chaotic than the album that wound up making the list, but it's held back by having way too many lengthy passages of near silence on every damn track. If they had mitigated (but retained) that effect then the final list would look different.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b>Kyning - </b></google-sheets-html-origin><b>Ān:</b> I've heard literally nobody else talk about this excellent doom record this year, and I want to highlight it for two reasons. 1) The vocalist sometimes devolves into this odd fry-whine that sounds <i>exactly</i> like the dude from The Vines, and 2) Despite "only" being 55 minutes long, it still feels like cutting a track or two would've done this album a world of good. At times I really feel like we're re-entering the CD era and bands are just cramming as much content as possible into every release when almost everything I heard this year would've been better with ten minutes shaved off. Kyning is simply a great example of what I mean when I say that sort of thing.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Eye of Purgatory - The Lighthouse</b>: This album had no chance of making the final ranking and I'd probably rate it a 7/10 or so, I just want to highlight it because I am utterly astounded that I stumbled across a Rogga project that isn't belligerently mediocre. </div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>DISAPPOINTMENTS</b></div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /><b>Archspire - Bleed the Future:</b> I touched on it in the Inoculation entry, but Archspire really let me down this year. I noted at the time that <i>The Lucid Collective</i> could technically be classified as pornography since it was the type of thing you'd completely lose interest in once you finished masturbating, but <i>Relentless Mutation</i> just utterly trounced every expectation I could've possibly had for any modern tech death album in 2017 and to this day I still regret snubbing it on that year end list. In 2017 they put out a modern masterpiece that stands against and even at times surpasses the undisputed classics of their genre, and in 2021 they seemed to revert right back to making porn. I dunno, maybe their viral fame has shifted their priorities too much and now Dean is too busy focusing on memes and streaming to focus on writing a song as good as "Involuntary Doppelganger" again, but the end result here is that Archspire went from being kings that proved a dying genre still had some life left in it to just reminding me why I stopped listening to tech death so much in the first place. What a bummer.<br /><br /><b>Cannibal Corpse - Violence Unimagined:</b> This album isn't actually <i>bad</i> really, but I do think it signals a future that I'm really not interested in for the band. Obviously, Pat is out of the band after his mental break a few years ago, and to the surprise of nobody he wound up replaced by Erik Rutan, who is a perfect fit based on chemistry alone. The problem I have is that Erik's writing is just far less interesting than Pat's, despite being a perfectly capable guitarist. Pat's songs had a more manic and technical edge that nobody really brings to the band anymore, so now their fifteenth album here is one of the very few where I really have no counter to the "it all sounds the same" criticism they normally get. It's not a bad album, but they've homogenized their sound even more and I think it's time to admit they'll never be truly great again.<br /><br /><b>Running Wild - Blood on Blood:</b> Normally, since it hasn't been the early 90s for nearly thirty years now, I wouldn't have any expectations to dash in the first place when it comes to Running Wild. But I do admit, there was a part of me that was genuinely excited to hear this after <i>Rapid Foray</i> was so surprisingly decent. Neither I nor any other self respecting metalhead was expecting them to crank out another <i>Death or Glory</i> or <i>Pile of Skulls</i> after 40+ years, but after surprising everybody last time, Rolf put on his best songwriting cap and instead cranked out the most boring and inconsequential album in Running Wild history, which is no small feat considering that history contains shit like <i>Resilient</i>. Guess it was a fluke after all.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b>Grave Miasma - Abyss of Wrathful Deities: </b>I only managed like five or six reviews all year as it is, one of them was for Grave Miasma, and at the end of the year I <i>still</i> forgot that I had even listened to this in the first place. Just very, very, very dull for a band that carries a ton of clout.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b>Chainsword - Blightmarch:</b> At this point I'm just convinced that whatever intangible chemistry that made Bolt Thrower work so well is completely impossible to recapture, because every single band I've listened to that has tried to replicate their formula has wound up being mind-drainingly uninteresting and Chainsword is no exception.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b>Enforced - Kill Grid:</b> This was hyped as the undisputed thrash king of the year and the worthy successor to Power Trip's throne after Riley Gale's untimely death. It wound up being the okayest album of the year.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><b>Iron Maiden - Senjutsu:</b> Is it really a disappointment if I knew it was going to be the same album they've been rewriting since 2000 with the exact same problems they've had since 2000 with the seventh-power diminished returns since 2000? I get that Maiden is one of the most legendary bands in the genre but fuckin' hell metal media has really been keeping their heads above water by desperately clinging onto bloated, waterlogged corpses like this one. They need to move the fuck on and cut the dinosaur show already. In no universe can I comprehend somebody listening to this shambling shadow of an album and thinking "Yo this fuckin SLAPS" while eagerly voting it as AOTY. Guys, it is <i>completely okay</i> to revere the classics while admitting that the band hasn't truly been great in decades.</google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin><br /></google-sheets-html-origin></div><div><google-sheets-html-origin>And that's all for 2021! I've been trying to temper how much I personify years in recent months because it's very frustrating how instead of class consciousness we all get mad at abstract shit like years instead of lighting our bosses on fire, but regardless I hope this last cycle was good for you. There's a blizzard heading towards my hometown right now so I'm gonna just hole up for the next few days and catch y'all on the flipside. I promise I'll write more in 2022. Toodles!<br /></google-sheets-html-origin><br /></div></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-11999922804024869172021-12-02T15:21:00.005-06:002021-12-02T15:21:50.307-06:00Tower - Shock to the System<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlGHXc1hoiUYyq2jccget3ZvaR5iXReGgGnEiPWQejQThyiX9HCiMyjp-9hQqg9qtzBoGjos9-dw98GMLzN6lLVEh5OD7Bv2j0NFD3Qt9OS6BdxIm62ZgMpqEXkA_jlj3T77mbOPncpM0/s768/981189.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlGHXc1hoiUYyq2jccget3ZvaR5iXReGgGnEiPWQejQThyiX9HCiMyjp-9hQqg9qtzBoGjos9-dw98GMLzN6lLVEh5OD7Bv2j0NFD3Qt9OS6BdxIm62ZgMpqEXkA_jlj3T77mbOPncpM0/w200-h200/981189.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">How it feels to chew 5 Gum</span></div><br />Were you, like me, devastated when Satan's Hallow broke up pretty much immediately after releasing one of the standout throwback speed/trad metal albums of the decade a few years ago? Are you, like me, interested in Midnight Dice, the band that took shape afterwards featuring every member of Satan's Hallow except Von Jugel, but think they're missing some of the previous magic and are getting impatient with how long it's taking them to put out a full length? Do you, like me, firmly believe that you can gauge a metal band's quality simply by judging how ugly the members are? Then boy <i>fuckin'</i> howdy do I have a treat for y'all today.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While there's been no shortage of raunchy female-fronted throwback metal in the past few years thanks to bands like Solicitor, Crystal Viper, Sanhedrin, Savage Master, and others (not to mention more polished power metal entrants like Battle Beast having a pretty great run until recently), there's some primal intangible that Tower scratches like a spider bite. To bring it back to Satan's Hallow one last time, Von Jugel once described the intention behind their sole album to be single-mindedly tight and focused, with nothing but ass kicking metal from front to back, not unlike a finely tuned opening set from the best local opener you've never heard of. That idea is in the forefront of my mind when listening to <i>Shock to the System</i>. This is 39 minutes of lean, mean, ball-shattering Heavy Fucking Metal straight out of the mid 80s. I give throwback acts a lot of shit on principle because I prefer bands that bring their own flavor to the style instead of just ripping off classics and calling it a day, but if exceptions that prove the rule are a thing, then the fact that Tower was such an instant hit with me should show that they are exactly that. This really feels like a temporally displaced Warlock album from their speedier era instead of a group of kids desperately wishing they <i>were</i> Warlock, ya know?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Warlock comparison is pretty much mandatory considering the vocal stylings of Sarabeth Linden here. Doro is pretty much the undisputed Queen of Metal at this point in history and her sandblasted howl is a huge reason why. Linden follows in her footsteps by blasting the listener with the vocal equivalent to a flamethrower, but I'd wager she actually has more in common with the tragically forgotten Nicole Lee, who fronted Znowhite in the late 80s when they were secretly one of the best thrash bands in America. Check out "Running Out of Time" for probably the clearest example of their similarity. Linden has a very similar hint of shrillness (I know that's usually a negative but I mean it value-neutrally here) with her wild-out shrieking and fuckloads of vibrato when she really cuts loose that sets her apart from the flood of Doro-likes out there. She sounds like she's flying off the rails and I love it, it's completely unhinged. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While she's the highlight of the band for sure, <i>Shock to the System</i> wouldn't be worth listening to if the music underneath her vocal acrobatics weren't equally great. Fortunately, Tower avoids the pitfall that Iron Griffin fell into and gave the vocal star some excellent songs to work with. The majority of the album is awash in 80s sleaze and early metal tropes, but instead of being tired rehashes of 40 year old ideas, it's approached with the kind of creative verve that really only happens when the stars align. Sure, a track like "Hired Gun" can trace its lineage directly to late 70s Motorhead if you really wanted to dissect it, but it doesn't feel like a Motorhead track, it feels like a <i>Tower</i> track, and that's very important for reasons I've repeated plenty by now. One thing I really appreciate about <i>Shock to the System</i> is that it's unafraid to dabble in hard rock influences as well, instead of limiting themselves to the tropes that we exclusively categorize as "heavy metal" forty years later. "Hired Gun" is a great example in the opening minutes, as are "Blood Moon" and "Lay Down the Law", the latter of which is pure arena metal cheese during the buildup. What makes these touches magical, however, is how startlingly brief they are, as each and every one of those tracks I mentioned (along with the rest) inevitably climax with absolute teeth-shattering speed metal insanity. This balance between hooks and intensity would be clinical if it wasn't so obviously covered in slime. The overwhelming sense of pure fuckin' <i>raunch</i> is completely inescapable and I'd argue that it's crucial to the album's success. I want my metal to sound fuckin' <i>dangerous</i> and that's exactly what Tower gives me. "Blood Moon" kicks the album off with a nifty marching snare and a descending guitar riff that sounds like it could've been written by Steppenwolf, but it lasts a whole twenty seconds before Linden fires off the first absolutely deranged howl and the music abruptly shifts into high octane carnage. It's so destructive and over-the-top that the first simile I thought of was "it's like a parade float with boosters and rocket launchers instead of t-shirt guns" and I almost didn't write that down because it's so stupid, but god dammit I seriously <i>can not</i> think of a better visual to describe the reckless enthusiasm on display here.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There's very little I don't adore about <i>Shock to the System</i>, and I can't recommend it enough for fans of older, less extreme styles of metal. If there's any flaw, it's simply that "In Dreams" doesn't really sound like a seven minute long track, and man that's barely even a complaint! What it lacks in ambition it makes up for in execution, and it's just a fantastic fist-pumping metal tune instead of a particularly epic one. That's uhh... kinda it. I haven't even touched on the smaller aspects like how much the solos melt face or how fucking great "The Black Rose" is, the whole experience is just nugget after nugget of unoriginal but extremely explosive Judas Priest style trad metal if every song was "Freewheel Burning". And come on, does that not sound rad as shit?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 92%</b></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-6606772866179078522021-05-13T19:53:00.001-05:002021-05-13T19:53:08.437-05:00Grave Miasma - Abyss of Wrathful Deities<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh43CuhGzYfq2tX5k0F5BNH4pqi4M1WyM-ua1aCMARObJHUzLZSYA2s1nn8uz1Pc_hpnZUxButiKDjpVhDlsB7jdrIBXfPWGsOQb6lpwLCUxdkU0r8V7tAe2YIrXh2ppaSqW12mUTSxHeI/s700/935262.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh43CuhGzYfq2tX5k0F5BNH4pqi4M1WyM-ua1aCMARObJHUzLZSYA2s1nn8uz1Pc_hpnZUxButiKDjpVhDlsB7jdrIBXfPWGsOQb6lpwLCUxdkU0r8V7tAe2YIrXh2ppaSqW12mUTSxHeI/w200-h200/935262.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">A meandering fart-cloud of non-riffs</span><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It might be easy to forget if you weren't around at the time, but back in Grave Miasma's heyday they were a Big Fuckin' Deal. The term "caverncore" has fallen out of favor in recent years (likely because it sounds like a pejorative, though personally I use it value-neutrally) but when that style was first really blowing up about a decade ago, Grave Miasma was one of the earliest bands to really show how to do it well. Heaps of influence from Incantation, murky production, chaotic songwriting, particular attention paid to atmosphere, all the tropes were codified in part by these guys back when the wave was beginning to swell. Their debut full length, <i>Odori Sepulcrorum</i> stands as a classic in the little microgenre they occupy, so their long awaited followup, <i>Abyss of Wrathful Deities</i>, has been one of the most anticipated albums of the year for death metal fans.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm five or six listens down at this point, and what this has really done has reaffirmed my belief that Grave Miasma was always the least interesting of these early studs. Obviously they can't sniff the socks of Incantation, but when it comes to their peers, the two they are most often compared to outshine them in every way. Dead Congregation and Cruciamentum seem to be spiritually tied to Grave Miasma, all three of whom are examples of early bands showcasing this new breed of Incantation influence and having an agonizingly slow release schedule, but the former two are a hell of a lot better when it comes to crafting memorable experiences. Dead Congregation throws curveballs all the god damned time, never tipping their hand as to what the next section of music is going to bring, lurching frantically between fast and slow moments and clobbering you over the head with morbid nastiness at every turn. Cruciamentum hunkers down into vicious grooves and rides out musical anxiety attacks with razor sharp riffage cutting through the thick atmosphere. Grave Miasma, on the other hand, is just that, a miasma. It's thick and noxious and just kinda floats around without any real purpose.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's a shame because obviously I really enjoy bands that are very similar to this idea, it takes very little tweaking to change an album like <i>Abyss of Wrathful Deities</i> into <i>Graves of the Archangels</i>, but those tweaks haven't been made here. There's very little actual excitement to be found on this album. I personally hate the argument of "it all sounds the same!" because it's almost always said by somebody who has no idea what they're even looking for, but man it's true this time. Like, <i>sure</i> there are tempo shifts across and within songs but they all somehow sound like they're the same speed. "Rogyapa" starts with an incredibly intense drum fill before flying into a screaming Kerry King style solo, but the riff underneath is just some walking tremolo patterns while the drums <i>technically</i> fire away with high speed double bass, but the snare and cymbals are placed very far apart in the pattern, giving the illusion that the section is moving much slower than it actually is. This could be a neat effect but it feels so woefully misplaced when the rest of the album is actually as slow as this particular section feels. It's rare that the tempo truly feels above mid paced, instead meandering between strolling and trotting and as a result the whole thing just drags. It feels like it's holding itself back whenever it tries to break free. It turns the album into a hazy slog where thirty minutes can pass by without me noticing a single interesting thing happening.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Grave Miasma is the type of band to focus on atmosphere above riffs, and while that isn't necessarily my preference, it's still totally valid and can produce some excellent shit (see the other bands I've namedropped here). The problem is that the atmosphere on display here is very monotonous. This is the same fuckin' problem I have with Ulcerate, we <i>do not</i> need 53 minutes of the same damn idea in a row. The actual elements change of course, they aren't <i>literally</i> playing the same riffs in the same order at the same speed on every track, but when the effect of each song is functionally identical then they might as well be. My old analogy about a long rollercoaster applies here as well; there may be a lot of twists and turns and starts and stops but at the end of the day you're really just doing the same loop-de-loops on the same track over and over again. I'm always worried when every track on an album is basically the same length for this exact reason and that's the case here as well. Of the eight non-interlude tracks, six of them are within the six minute window, while one is ten seconds short and the other ten seconds over. They wind up playing with the same ideas with the same tempos for the same general length of time on each track and <i>holy shit</i> why should I be invested in that for nearly an hour?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I wish I liked this, because I adore Grave Miasma's peers and influences, but they've always managed to whiff the execution for me, and eight years after <i>Odori Sepulcrorum</i> I find myself up against the same problems again. This is overwhelming in a negative way, just the same brown air languidly wafting back and forth for an extended period of time with no actual punch to direct it in any real direction. And that's just really, really, really fucking boring.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 39%</b></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-16656172911231985082021-05-04T21:27:00.000-05:002021-05-04T21:27:02.449-05:00Lunar Shadow - Wish to Leave<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN5tu8sviM5j0QJy_taUf9OBIcmRJeJ-FZ8dnYNGTXvRFsMu87KXXYTQbjQC8JI7E0lZicVskn97DqX8APL8kN7smC5yYPShL0CfKDXwSo4BcZlsIkuE0dstx1q9VNY-YuvjnEtr7HNxk/s1016/916487.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1016" data-original-width="1016" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN5tu8sviM5j0QJy_taUf9OBIcmRJeJ-FZ8dnYNGTXvRFsMu87KXXYTQbjQC8JI7E0lZicVskn97DqX8APL8kN7smC5yYPShL0CfKDXwSo4BcZlsIkuE0dstx1q9VNY-YuvjnEtr7HNxk/w200-h200/916487.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">A trendy move, but a good one</span> <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">It always takes a few years for new trends to catch on, and I think we've recently been seeing the ripples left by In Solitude's third and final album, <i>Sister</i>, becoming a roiling surge years later. Shortly after their abrupt left turn from Mercyful Fate styled heavy metal to a dark, downbeat gothic rock/metal hybrid with heavy influence from goth staples like Bauhaus and Fields of the Nephilim, we saw Tribulation abandon death metal to hit a similar sound, and in the years since we've seen more and more bands adopt the style. The biggest one is undoubtedly Idle Hands/Unto Others in my circles of the internet, but I can only foresee more burgeoning into the spotlight as it becomes more comercially/artistically safe. </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Of all the bands to hop on this trend, I don't think there was a better candidate than Lunar Shadow. I'm using the term "trendhopping" in a value-neutral way here, despite knowing that it's typically a pejorative. What Lunar Shadow did here was shift their sound to more closely emulate a style that is trending positively, that is a trendhop, pure and simple. The reason I'm not upset with it this time is because it turns out this is <i>exactly</i> what Lunar Shadow needed to do to properly play to their strengths. Unlike high profile shifts that I vocally hated, these Germans didn't abandon their strengths with the shift, and instead directly enhanced them. Enforcer traded being the best speed metal band in the world to become an average glam metal band. Skeletonwitch traded being one of the only consistently relevant American thrash bands that didn't form 40 years ago to become the ten trillionth mediocre atmoblack band. Lunar Shadow, on the other hand, traded being a mediocre trad metal revival band that simply "had potential" to become something that fully unlocks said potential. That's the key difference here.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Far from Light</i> and <i>The Smokeless Fires</i> were both novel curiosities to me. They were rollicking heavy metal in the typical Cruz del Sur vein, but there was always something a little more interesting/frustrating about them. Both albums were great and terrible at the same time. Great riffs but bad vocals, cool atmosphere attached to songs that didn't really suit it, production that was interesting but not exactly good, touches of black metal influence that never really got to shine or recontextualize the songs, et cetera forever. Max always struck me as a great guitarist with great ideas but was constantly saddled with shitty vocalists and couldn't seem to get his cool ideas to manifest in a way that worked. And that's why <i>Wish to Leave</i> works so well. It turns out the problem all along was that he was simply writing in the wrong genre. The atmosphere was always so damn strong on those first few albums so it makes total sense to shift to a genre that focuses much more on atmosphere in the first place. The riffs were always cool and melodic but never really went anywhere, but that's not a problem here since this dreamlike wateriness allows the riffs to breathe and wander freely while clean arpeggios over the top keep things grounded. The vocals always kinda sucked but that's fine this time since they're less a focal point and more of a background element that adds color to the atmosphere instead of distracts from pummeling riffage. <i>The Smokeless Fires</i> sounded like a decent album that was unsure of itself but <i>Wish to Leave</i> sounds like a definitive statement by a band that finally found their calling.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The majority of the album is very laid back and cool-toned, but there are a few elements of fire near in the back end. "And Silence Screamed" is the obvious example, starting off with double bass and a very twisty Iron Maiden style melody that used to be the band's bread and butter, but after four tracks of more relaxed psychedelia it hits pretty hard and feels like a fun diversion from the mopey sadness that the album had been wallowing in, despite lyrically following the same threads. This is also where the album's biggest flaw shines through to a degree though, and that's that the new approach has led to a very soft guitar tone and distant, echoey drums, which works excellently on tracks like "I Will Lose You" and "To Dusk and I Love You", but is shockingly ill-suited to galloping heavy metal riffs. It feels like an odd but intentional aesthetic choice on "And Silence Screamed", but there is a random heavy bit that pops up occasionally in "Serpents Die" and it sounds hilariously dinky there. "The Darkness Between the Stars" <i>should</i> be the worst offender in this regard since it's the lone track where their sparse black metal influence unexpectedly returns, but the blasting comes from out of nowhere and thanks to the very wide open snare drum sound it winds up sounding overwhelming and dramatic instead of incoherent and confusing. The fact that Lunar Shadow didn't go whole hog and just rip off Idle Hands completely despite that being a very obvious influence here is fantastic and helps a lot when it comes to my previous point of them enhancing their strengths. The odd off-genre bits used to be cool but weren't effective, whereas this time they saved them all for the final song and it ultimately works <i>beautifully</i> and turns the song into the most monumental one on the album.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Idle Hands is an obvious comparison since they were such a surprise hit two years ago and Lunar Shadow is obviously aiming for that same crowd here. Basically every issue I had with <i>Mana</i> isn't a problem on <i>Wish to Leave</i>. Instead of the weak vocals being the focal point and vessel to deliver every hook, the wimpy vocals are mostly a textural element that shines occasionally but usually cedes ground to the atmosphere. Instead of the riffs being contractual afterthoughts they're quietly creative in very evocative ways. Instead of the lyrics being dumb sophomoric poetry that made my 15 year old self cringe, the lyrics don't even matter to me because the music is actually fuckin' <i>interesting</i> and paints a perfect picture without the need for words. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">tl;dr - Lunar Shadow finally got it right by completely shifting their approach to songwriting. Of all the bands I was expecting a hit from, these guys weren't on the list at all. <i>Wish to Leave</i> is by no means perfect (it tends to blur together and the songs typically don't stand apart from each other all that well, and the vocals <i>do</i> still suck, they're just less prominent and easier to ignore now) but I am very pleasantly surprised. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 84%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-63955847155888202842021-03-06T05:01:00.000-06:002021-05-15T06:35:52.554-05:00A Day to Remember - You're Welcome<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjLRDSq8x0_vywqa8wL3CPlRL0PvPfWIcYPs_SLTXt9RmaGvgdqgtG6FKSeCsFNMhd7JyolRsCMZ3Hwn54sTEhJq8YCgs67BD90LI4jvVXJ_XkvttOR23UrQwQsO7BEeyiVmAODaQ-hwY/s768/adtr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjLRDSq8x0_vywqa8wL3CPlRL0PvPfWIcYPs_SLTXt9RmaGvgdqgtG6FKSeCsFNMhd7JyolRsCMZ3Hwn54sTEhJq8YCgs67BD90LI4jvVXJ_XkvttOR23UrQwQsO7BEeyiVmAODaQ-hwY/w200-h200/adtr.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">We're Sorry</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Two elephants I've gotta knock out right away:</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">1) "Why the fuck are you talking about this band?": I like ADTR, sorry yo. I've racked up hundreds of plays over the years, they're one of the few bands my wife and I both like, they were a highlight of Riot Fest 2012, they're just a damn fun time and I've enjoyed them ever since I first heard "Downfall of Us All" like a decade ago. I know now that "easycore" was a short lived scene back in the day helmed by acts like The Wonder Years and New Found Glory, but the first time I heard a band hopscotch between Killswitch Engage and Yellowcard my brain just couldn't comprehend it. It's such a compatible blend and I'd never even considered it. So naturally I'm gonna latch on to the first I heard, and that just so happens to be A Day to Remember. Also let's be real, my production has been super slow this year and this is one of the few albums I heard and immediately had something to say.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">2) "This album fucking sucks, there is only one heavy song this time!": Well, yes and no. I may like the band despite them clashing with what most readers know me for, but there's really no way to sugar coat it, <i>You're Welcome</i> is really fucking bad. However it's not a pure pop album like a lot of disappointed fans are claiming. Don't get me wrong, it's far and away their lightest and least beefy album, but it's kinda natural that the band would soften over time since they've always had soft influences in their music and they undeniably hit their peak in popularity when they released "All I Want" as a single, which at the time was the most radio friendly pop punk type song they'd written up to that point. Let's not act surprised that they've been chasing that dragon for a decade. But back to the original point, this is much closer to <i>What Separates Me from You</i> than any given album in the Millennial Monogenre*. The parallels are actually pretty hilarious because it seems like they're deliberately trying to strike that same lightning in a bottle. "Last Chance to Dance" is the only song that's heavy most of the way through, but "2nd Sucks" was the only song that was heavy the whole way through on that 2010 album. They only had two other songs that amped up the metalcore portion of their sound, those being the opener and one more near the end, which is uh, exactly what they did this time too. The actual quality across the board is much lower here, but people bellyaching that they've abandoned their old style are both dead wrong and way behind on the times, because you're never getting another <i>For Those Who Have Heart</i> and you weren't going to get another one at any point since 2007.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I enjoy <i>What Separates Me from You</i>. It's not a masterpiece by any means but they were still in their prime and tracks like "All I Want" and "All Signs Point to Lauderdale" may have had zero metalcore in them but they had incredible hooks and remain huge fan favorites to this day, to say nothing of bangers like "Sticks and Bricks". The issue with <i>You're Welcome</i> is half new, half old. The old problem is simply that their knack for hooks has depreciated a shitload over the years. "My Life for Hire" has been stuck in my head for a decade but after several listens I still don't remember a fucking thing about "Looks Like Hell" or "Re-Entry". They're clearly <i>aiming</i> for hooks more than anything else by this point, but the creativity well has completely dried up at this point. And that leads to the new problem: in the absence of breakdowns and screaming, they used to rely on pop punk tropes to get by. A lot of what they did sounded like mid-era The Offspring or the one good Yellowcard song. But now?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*-Yeah that was a psyche-out, they tap into the Millennial Monogenre so fucking much on this album that it borders on parody. Tracks like "Blood Sucker", "Only Money", and "High Diving" are so derivative and uninspired that Imagine Dragons deserves royalties from this album. The band described this as a "happier" album, which yeah I suppose that's true, but by leaning on shitty EDM cliches and Millennial Whoops they've morphed into something completely indistinguishable from any given modern rock band. If you've been out of the loop, rock music in its current form is a lot less about four people playing instruments in their garage (which is fine, that scene still exists but it isn't the popular one anymore) and is much more about super glossy anthems where the guitars take a secondary role to vocal melodies and a billion layers of production tricks. That's fine, whatever, it's not for me but it's not artistically dead on arrival. The problem with this is that ADTR has gone from being the last visibly relevant easycore band with an instantly recognizable style to just another one of a billion no-name sycophants who sound exactly like this. If not for the five or six breakdowns and McKinnon's vocals, you could have told me this was the new Fall Out Boy album and I wouldn't have questioned it. McKinnon made very clear that the band's intention was to branch out, mature, and try new things without alienating old fans by becoming unrecognizable, but holy <i>fuck</i> did he whiff on that goal. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The band collaborated with EDM superstar, Marshmello, a few years ago, and boy howdy did that rub off on them. The Imagine Dragons knockoffs are loaded with an obnoxious wall of synth, there's annoying thudding and plonking throughout "Degenerates", even the heavy songs get infected with this as evidenced by the bloated staticy synth mirroring the guitars during the breakdowns in "Resentment" and "Viva la Mexico". I don't necessarily hate that on principle ("Degenerates" is actually one of the few tracks where classic ADTR peeks out in the bridge) but it's pervasive and unavoidable. I mean god damn the verse of "Permanent" sounds like somebody in the studio was listening to "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon and it bled into the masters and nobody noticed. These new sounds are really hamfisted and forced into tracks where they clearly don't fit. Absolutely nobody listened to "Thrash Unreal" by Against Me! and thought it would be better if David Guetta produced it but here comes A Day to Remember with "Re-Entry" to let us know how awful it would've been anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I don't touch on lyrics very often, but ADTR is one of the bands where it's kind of necessary, both because the music itself isn't all that interesting beyond what I outlined in the last two paragraphs, and because they're a <i>massive</i> part of their appeal. I've spoken to fans both online and offline who have cited them as the best aspect of the band and to have both inspired them and helped lift them out of dark places. The thing is... are we listening to the same band? Even on the albums I <i>like</i> the lyrics are absolute trash and they always have been. I think McKinnon's lyrics strike such a nerve with me because they remind me of every meathead fuck I knew in high school. For a band so famous for vulnerability and positivity they are fucking <i>loaded</i> simultaneously with insincere machismo and woe-is-me moaning. He constantly flip flops between how much of a badass alpha chad he is ("YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIKE ME BUT YOU'RE GONNA RESPECT ME!") and how much of a put-upon victim he is ("I hate this town, it's so washed up, and all my friends don't give a fuck") and sometimes a particularly insufferable blend of the two ("This one goes out to everyone who's lied to my face! MY HEART IS FILLED WITH HATE!"). Maybe this shouldn't bother me but holy fuck everybody knows a guy who is both somebody who swears that he's somebody you don't want to fuck with while paradoxically doing nothing but complaining. There has <i>never</i> been any introspection or vulnerability in ADTR's lyrics. Every single song has always been about how they're going to kick your ass or about how sad they are because of external forces. It's always their shitty hometown, shitty relationships, shitty two-faced lying fake friends, hell I think <i>Common Courtesy</i> is their last worthwhile album but it's undeniably all about how shitty their label is. It's never problems they need to work through, it's <i>always</i> something else's fault. It's the living embodiment of that dude you used to know who's favorite show is South Park and lists his biggest dislike as "stupid people". Bro, if everybody you know seems to be an asshole, <i>that might be because you're an asshole</i>. And he <i>constantly</i> contradicts himself to the point of total exhaustion. He desperately needs to escape his hometown and live life on the road but he's so proud of Ocala that he'll open an album with how great his hometown is. Most of these examples are pulled from previous albums mostly because this one is so unmemorable that I can't be fucked to learn what he's saying, but the contradictory nature of the lyrics shines here too, so it's not like he's just grown as a person and the songs have taken on a different character over time. He's completely stuck as the same person he was as a teenager and everything comes off as super phony because there's no logical consistency in the messaging. "Last Chance to Dance" is about shitty lying friends who make his life miserable while "Degenerates" is about how his friends are shitty liars but they're <i>his</i> friends and he wouldn't trade them for the world. "F.Y.M." is about fantasizing about coming into a massive financial windfall and giving everybody the finger as he escapes his shitty life and starts over, while "Only Money" is all about the huge moments in life he's had to miss because he's always on the road and how money is pointless compared to the memories made with loved ones. Maybe this is why I stay away from looking at lyrics too hard, holy shit I hate everything that comes out of McKinnon's mouth. Nothing is ever his fault. He's the perfect specimen and everything about him that sucks can be explained by some other individual person or place. I'm <i>all for</i> systemic critique but that's not what he does, he just bitches about other people bringing him down while he pulls on his bootstraps just long enough to call somebody else a motherfucker before going back to complaining about how despite his undeniable success he's still a put-upon Randian Superman who isn't king of the world because somebody else is bringing him down. Fuck this shit so hard.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Okay so obviously I had an itch to scratch with the lyrical content, but hey, the lyrics are a big part of the band's brand and it turns out it's the shittiest part about them by a wide margin. The album itself is a mess regardless. It seems trite to loop back to it after a 1000 word rant about how much the lyrics get under my skin, but the fans are right when they say that <i>You're Welcome</i> is a shitty pop album, they're just wrong when they say that it's shitty <i>because</i> it's pop. It's shitty because it comes off as phony and taking influence from widely reviled bands, completely abandoning their signature sound in favor of becoming just another rando. I believe them when they say in interviews that this was a genuine effort to branch out, but they wound up sounding more plastic than the packaging the CD comes in. The Imagine Dragons comparison wasn't an exaggeration by any stretch. "Blood Sucker" sounds almost exactly like "Believer" and if that doesn't highlight why this album isn't worth checking out then I don't know what will. It's pretty telling that they've been getting pilloried for this album on social media and the first singles released have 20-30 million streams on Spotify, while the later ones have closer to 3 million and the rest of the album is struggling to break 3 thousand. The veil has been lifted and I'm far from the first person to realize this album is total dogshit.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 15%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-33550207603595100152021-02-12T19:22:00.000-06:002021-02-12T19:22:30.612-06:00Pantera - Reinventing the Steel<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwXnGqOxhDg4n8CZfd94Elb0xY-yxTKREdyVP0MNwQbxtveNRTTC_dZDZBUTBDMRyvR_xOHDKyb7IsGoza4M-1E_-Qyg9kCYrWJoDe39xNcsIo1iwavIW6M0BwQjOrNF9RoLTlltWKfY0/s500/234.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwXnGqOxhDg4n8CZfd94Elb0xY-yxTKREdyVP0MNwQbxtveNRTTC_dZDZBUTBDMRyvR_xOHDKyb7IsGoza4M-1E_-Qyg9kCYrWJoDe39xNcsIo1iwavIW6M0BwQjOrNF9RoLTlltWKfY0/w200-h200/234.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">I'm Bastard in the Head, and this is Trainwreckords</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Skip this paragraph if you don't care about the metashit, but I want to explain my thought process here in why I'm choosing such a weird album to talk about in The Year of our Lord 2021. It's pretty apparent if you're familiar with any of my early reviews as a teenager in the late 2000s that I was a big fan of the trend of snarky internet reviewers, Spoony and Brad Jones especially. I've largely moved away from that entirely and tend to spend my youtube time with more broad, thoughtful analysis than just pointing at things and saying they suck while making wildly hyperbolic statements about how Album X makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a claw hammer and everybody involved in the creation of Album Y needs to be fed to mutated bees or whatever. However there's one from that era I still follow, Todd in the Shadows, the pop music reviewer. He's basically the only person from that era who nailed the double whammy of escaping with his integrity intact without a massive change in format. One of his occasional series is Trainwreckords, videos about albums that were so bad that they irreparably tarnished reputations and/or ended careers. Think of MC Hammer's gangsta rap album or Jewel's disastrous dance-pop sellout, that kind of thing. For about a year now I've been wanting to rip off that conceit and do a metal-themed series along those same lines. The reason the idea sat in limbo for so long is because I very quickly realized that the careers of metal bands simply don't operate the same way a pop artist's does. Almost every candidate I had in mind wound up not really working because metal bands bounce back from seemingly <i>everything</i>. Iron Maiden's <i>The X Factor</i> was loathed on release, but the band never missed a step, got Bruce back, and went on to essentially remake that album five times in a row with glowing fanfare each time. Everybody thought Judas Priest's <i>Turbo</i> was an egregious sellout but they just kept on trucking and wound up releasing their best album four years later. Metallica has survived like four extinction level events, Manowar had a clear dropoff but nobody can seem to agree which album was the last good one, Celtic Frost, Cryptopsy, Morbid Angel, Grave Digger, Slayer, all of them released huge bombs that they ultimately recovered from without much lasting issue. The <i>only</i> album I considered that wound up making sense was this one, Pantera's <i>Reinventing the Steel</i>.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Pantera may have never been popular in the underground necessarily, but it's impossible to overstate how much they dominated the 90s. They were <i>the</i> metal band (besides Metallica of course) that everybody knew, and they released four albums that decade, all massive hits with huge singles that dominated rock radio airwaves (less so with <i>Trendkill</i> but that one makes up for its lack of radio success by being the one Pantera album that Extremely Online Metalloids allow themselves to like), and then just... suddenly they weren't. <i>Reinventing the Steel</i> stands out precisely because it <i>doesn't</i> stand out whatsoever. I was a 90s kid that grew up loving the shit out of Pantera, some of my earliest interactions with other people on the internet come from when I was 12 years old and pretending to be 18 so I could join Metallica and Pantera messageboards on Elektra's website, and even then, barely a year after this album dropped, nobody at all was talking about it anymore. It's a strange bunny fart at the end of an otherwise very successful career that even meathead superfans with Confederate flag tattoos and Big Dog t-shirts forgot about mere months later. I want to revisit the album for the first time since Diablo II was released to see if I can suss out why. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Upon relistening, the first thing I was struck by was how fucking <i>good</i> "Hellbound" is. Seriously, <i>Trendkill</i> is remembered nowadays as the most venomous and unhinged Pantera album by a fairly wide margin and "Hellbound" kicks this swansong off exactly where that classic finished off. It's basically "Sandblasted Skin" part two, and from minute zero it acts as buckshot to the face and amps the adrenaline off the fucking charts. You'd be forgiven for expecting the spiritual successor to "Strength Beyond Strength" judging by its immediate intensity and short runtime to kick off the album, but... you'd be wrong.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As good as "Hellbound" is, it also immediately signals a huge problem with <i>Reinventing the Steel</i>. "Strength Beyond Strength" is meticulously structured in three parts, starting off fast and furious, downshifting into a brutally sludgy slow part in the middle, and building to a fantastically exciting climax that showers you in vitriol. It's by no means novel or unique but it knew what it was doing and executed it very well. "Hellbound" on the other hand just... kinda ends. It goes verse-chorus-verse-chorus and then it just stops and moves on to the next song. It's really jarring because Pantera is known for simplistic groovy riffs and an overall aura of lunkhead jocks headbanging on two notes, but apart from a few flukey bad songs they were never really <i>lazy</i>. This sounds like they simply couldn't be fucking bothered to finish writing this song but felt like it had potential to be a good opener when they started writing it so they just went down with that ship.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The rest of the album suffers from this same problem but in varying ways. Some songs sound like they're just unfinished (like "Hellbound", "Death Rattle", and "We'll Grind that Axe for a Long Time") while others sound like they weren't workshopped at all and just recorded the first riff Dimebag could think of with no tweaking or variation across repeats (like "Yesterday Don't Mean Shit", "Uplift", and "You've Got to Belong to It"). Dime was always good at solos and shit at riffs, but he's never been shitter at riffs than on tracks like those. <i>Reinventing the Steel</i> winds up being surprisingly difficult to talk about simply because so little actually happens in it. It very much stinks of a band that can't stand to be in the same room together and just wants to get recording over with. It's pretty telling that this is a good ten minutes shorter than anything else from their groove era. You'd think this would be a good thing since there's always been a filler track or two and it's hard to groove for a solid hour without getting bored, but really it's a result of the band clearly wanting to just put this behind them and get out as fast as possible.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's impossible to truly take this album in a vacuum because the behind the scenes drama shines through so effortlessly. It's well known that tensions within the band had been running extremely high for a long while by this point, with the Phil Anselmo being a strung out belligerent junkie and the Abbott brothers wanting nothing more than to cut bait and leave him out in the cold. If the few paragraphs of Rex Brown's autobiography that I found previewed on Google can be believed, the brothers themselves were also just genuinely unintelligent meatheads, with Vinnie being a loudmouth bully and Dime being a perpetually confused dimwit who couldn't handle his money if it was glued to his hands. I get the feeling that three of the four guys (excepting Dime, who by all accounts was a very nice guy who just wasn't too bright) were giant assholes who couldn't stand each other anymore. This tension goes as far back as <i>Trendkill</i>, but intra-band adversity has resulted in artistic brilliance before, likely the most famous being Fleetwood Mac's <i>Rumors</i> but even within the realm of metal you've got <i>Painkiller</i> or <i>Persistence of Time</i> being birthed from similar circumstances. The difference seems to be that after that tortured work of stressed out genius, there's either a notable member parting ways or the band just breaks up. Pantera made the critical mistake of trying to do this twice, because <i>Reinventing the Steel</i> shows what happens when the album in question acts as neither a catharsis nor an exit door for unhappy members, and they try to just "stay together for the kids", as it were. <i>Trendkill</i> was dark and violent and explosive, <i>Steel</i> is just a paycheck that nobody really wants to bother with anymore.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As a result, this album sounds exactly like what you'd expect given that knowledge. The band is on the verge of total collapse, the trademark great album that can sometimes happen when these conditions are met had already happened, nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to really try. Vinnie shines on "Hellbound" and one weird off-kilter bit in the bridge on "Uplift" but otherwise he's just going through the motions, Dimebag had precisely two standout riffs under the solo on "Death Rattle" and the intro to "I'll Cast a Shadow" (the former being most well known nowadays for being featured in an early episode of Spongebob Squarepants, which might seem bizarre but it's honestly the best riff on the album by a canyonesque margin so whoever chose to include that riff is a genius) and (for the first time) zero exciting solos, Phil's vocals flip flop between strained and uninterested, none of the songwriting has that tightened polish that their earlier albums had, everything is just a dull simulacra of what Pantera used to be. "Revolution is My Name" stands as one of the only enduring tracks from this release despite not being particularly good, and I think it's because it's the most Pantera-ish song out of all ten tracks. Even though it's pretty boring on the whole and the squealy bit in the intro is obnoxious, it at least sounds like a fully thought out song with a catchy chorus that wouldn't have sounded out of place as a weaker song on <i>Vulgar Display of Power</i> (or alternatively, a filler song on a late-era Lamb of God album). Unfortunately most of the album is just lazy and uninteresting. "You've Got to Belong to It" and "Uplift" are some of the worst tracks Pantera ever laid to tape, "Goddamn Electric" and "It Makes Them Disappear" might as well not exist for all the adrenaline they fail to produce, "Hellbound" is promising but clearly unfinished, et cetera forever. I know it's uncool for underground metalheads to like Pantera, but I think it's telling that the underground hate is usually directed at <i>Vulgar Display of Power</i> or <i>Far Beyond Driven</i> while nobody can muster up enough bile to even acknowledge <i>Reinventing the Steel</i>. Pantera was divisive, but they were unmistakable and everybody has a hot take about their early 90s era. By 2000, they were, for the first time since their oft-forgotten glam era, completely skippable.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">We all know how this story ends. It took three years after release, but Pantera finally split for good after this album, with Phil and Rex focusing on Down full time while Vinnie and Dimebag formed Damageplan. Any future fantasies of a reunion were dashed completely when Dimebag was tragically murdered onstage in 2004, and their legacy was firmly cemented for better and worse. <i>Reinventing the Steel</i> is honestly just sad. It didn't need to be released and it certainly shouldn't have been the band's swansong. It's a pitiful non-album with painfully few bright spots but is mostly droning and ugly. Like them or not, Pantera was an unescapable force of nature in the 90s, and the storm ended with nothing more than a little spittle before subsiding forever, and it turns out the old adage about it being better to burn out than fade away is entirely true.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 29%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-74397142909504766372021-01-01T00:00:00.009-06:002021-01-01T00:00:00.377-06:00BH AWARDS 2020 AND MISCELLANEOUS NONSENSE<div style="text-align: left;">Hey guys, you know what time it is! I've been doing this for too long now, as this is the 11th AOTY list I've posted to this blog (and they started as "unofficial" forum posts on a long-dead board back in 2005 or so so really I've been doing this for half my life now) and I just want to say thank you all for sticking with me as long as y'all have. I put zero effort into promoting myself either here or at MA (where I started writing and where most of you know me from) so the fact that I have people willing to listen to whatever bullshit I have to say warms my cockles. Thank you all. I know it'd be the obvious cliche to talk about how much 2020 sucked as a year, but I'm only going to mention it in passing to explain that due to how awful the year was, I actually spent way less time listening to music at work (where I tend to do it) and instead focused mostly on podcasts and audiobooks for most of the year. As a result, sometime around mid November I had realized I only heard like seven or eight albums that I even liked, so most of the last six weeks has seen me blitzing to check out everything I missed and get my list ready. As a result, this is probably my least solid AOTY list in a long time, based purely on the fact that many albums haven't had time to grow on me and many of the ones that had a strong first impression didn't have time to fall off if they were going to. So when 2030 rolls around and the next Album of the Decade list goes up, you can expect a lot of these to not return. Sorry I dropped the ball for y'all this year, but I'm only human. Either way, it's time for!</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE TOP 13 ALBUMS OF 2020</b> <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Y'all know the rule: full lengths only. I dropped the "metal only" requirement years ago but the list tends to stay 100% metal anyway just by virtue of my listening habits. Anyway lets get on with it!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFsFesQ3kzVY3sFvbjc4S4tCH6C3BxkSNveCU9HHxXQpVly9wYF-UfY0N_chom5arH6jTlxY2PUN4UQtN0Nhu_uWgAND63Fi3OyLCy24QUmcEJA1AAJoZIic-STEqNst-rD42Ow0nndME/s1024/848652.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFsFesQ3kzVY3sFvbjc4S4tCH6C3BxkSNveCU9HHxXQpVly9wYF-UfY0N_chom5arH6jTlxY2PUN4UQtN0Nhu_uWgAND63Fi3OyLCy24QUmcEJA1AAJoZIic-STEqNst-rD42Ow0nndME/w200-h200/848652.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>13: Gaerea - Limbo</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I briefly rememberGaerea being promising a few years ago with <i>Unsettling Whispers</i> in 2018. That debut took black metal and mixed it with the nasty heaviness of sludge, and while it's initially kind of disappointing that they've become much more "normal" BM on <i>Limbo</i>, it's pretty quickly washed away simply by the virtue of how much better the songs themselves are this time around. This is a very caustic and overwhelming album with an incongruent atmosphere of catharsis. Every track here feels like taking the wakizashi to your gut and letting your demons spill out on the floor. I'm hearing a lot of similarities to Mgla here but with a lot less malice involved. It tends to hit the same mood over and over for the entire runtime but this is a case where that works marvelously because it's overwhelming in a good, artistic way.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLf9Sz6h5Sl0CgsQ_MJCcKuVPo4oJHGXVptYgGc63iUb4MT-Yvwitnp_JwaElewmsScLhtl-fpm5LYUgx8wgUbiBE9Worh76uRJTEhPfVtzD0hVfqJC7vEaSt6MjDLFhPiuuDlndnA5rc/s1000/861552.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLf9Sz6h5Sl0CgsQ_MJCcKuVPo4oJHGXVptYgGc63iUb4MT-Yvwitnp_JwaElewmsScLhtl-fpm5LYUgx8wgUbiBE9Worh76uRJTEhPfVtzD0hVfqJC7vEaSt6MjDLFhPiuuDlndnA5rc/w200-h200/861552.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>12: Orbit Culture - Nija</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I can't explain this album for the life of me. On one hand it kinda sucks. It feels much longer than it is, it focuses very heavily on groove elements in conjunction with melodeath, perfectly playing one of the least exciting and most entry-level styles of metal on the surface, the production is very punchy but is so mechanized and inhuman that it lacks any real sense of danger, et cetera. On the other hand, I can't stop fucking listening to it and have come back to it like a dozen times since the summer so it must be doing <i>something</i> right. <i>Nija</i> sounds like what I thought Fear Factory sounded like based on description alone, or alternatively like Scar Symmetry if they had more going for them besides a great vocalist. Any album with tracks as devastating as "At the Front" or "Open Eye" is going to be a hit with me, full stop.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ6f1i2OjA4olvk0rCgGsZaam0OoBH48saZbNxaVT9jFsCsc0Wnq8YHas6lTjW-SKYV41JM7gJdg9aKD9p0dyTFjOTrD_jZzQ2Rw_0AEYPn807UtyuVSfmq50LQgDfAyKHQgO9sykERyI/s600/806789.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ6f1i2OjA4olvk0rCgGsZaam0OoBH48saZbNxaVT9jFsCsc0Wnq8YHas6lTjW-SKYV41JM7gJdg9aKD9p0dyTFjOTrD_jZzQ2Rw_0AEYPn807UtyuVSfmq50LQgDfAyKHQgO9sykERyI/w200-h200/806789.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>11: Jordablod - The Cabinet of Numinous Song</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">While it didn't rank at the time, I really enjoyed Jordablod's debut, <i>Upon My Cremation Pyre</i>. It took the discordant, DSO styled-jangleblack and played it with both feet firmly planted on the ground, with much less incomprehensible experimentation and ultimately sounded like one of the few albums in the niche created by humans. <i>The Cabinet of Numinous Song</i> completely throws that out the window and spends the lion's share of the runtime experimenting with noisy ambient soundscapes. It's by no means an "ambient" or "noise" album, but both of those influences are definitely here, intertwined beautifully with both chaotic and downbeat dissonant black metal straight from the void. "The Two Wings of Becoming" is great black metal, while the title track is mostly noise accompanied by a guitar that sounds like a screaming baby.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoSZvdPlj0HP8pNgiCzma8cpdc4qVISJilUcyaeYAm5LlW9Yr2kNFc-U54JX175pTk8T8KtF9GmUQvZSmuX8F916eKjIAWkVKAgGcq7qKImU-P9KcAj-EVSmR1-xmX00e6QMTKSSyhwAY/s1200/830657.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoSZvdPlj0HP8pNgiCzma8cpdc4qVISJilUcyaeYAm5LlW9Yr2kNFc-U54JX175pTk8T8KtF9GmUQvZSmuX8F916eKjIAWkVKAgGcq7qKImU-P9KcAj-EVSmR1-xmX00e6QMTKSSyhwAY/w200-h200/830657.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>10: Vader - Solitude in Madness</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I so badly want Vader to stop appearing on these lists so I can stick to my ageist bullshit about classic bands needing to move on so new blood can keep the genre alive and exciting, but fuck man, Vader just can't physically stop themselves from kicking ass. This is more <i>Tibi et Igni</i> than <i>The Empire</i>, basically meaning that this is full steam ahead from the word go and stays consistently wicked. You'd think that after 30+ years they'd've slowed down at least a <i>little</i> bit, but no. Vader sounds just as hungry and vicious as they did in 1995 and that's unbelievable to me. Piotr is in his mid 50s how the fuck is he still <i>this</i> fast and angry? To still routinely pump out songs as wild and nasty as "Shock and Awe" is nearly criminal. As long as Vader lives, classic death metal will never truly die.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwqh0wda0P4hyphenhyphenKeFPSFI1oLgad2fYvf9BNOCKbTR7rZGkJ8tYtnf3_JCtAeNFwIqz0J6ZdIIUz4YQ6h6kDq_KDB6nwvHpXc0YVJaxLEJQsNntPs5PYalHVNtrwOdrG1AoHSCQRcJYCQU/s1584/849099.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1584" data-original-width="1584" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwqh0wda0P4hyphenhyphenKeFPSFI1oLgad2fYvf9BNOCKbTR7rZGkJ8tYtnf3_JCtAeNFwIqz0J6ZdIIUz4YQ6h6kDq_KDB6nwvHpXc0YVJaxLEJQsNntPs5PYalHVNtrwOdrG1AoHSCQRcJYCQU/w200-h200/849099.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>9: High Spirits - Hard to Stop</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">And now for the total opposite, my hometown heroes strike once again with yet another totally underappreciated delight of classic metal. I've once heard High Spirits described as "as light as you can get while still being undeniably metal", and while that's less true in a post-Tanith/Wytch Hazel world, they still reign supreme to me in this niche of "light metal" or whatever you want to call it. Their sound is so uplifting, unthreatening, and easy to listen to that they manage to strike a crossover into basically every other fandom within metal, and somehow they still haven't broken out as one of the "big names" in the scene. <i>Hard to Stop</i> is something that both a bearded extreme metal freak like myself <i>and</i> my dad who liked AC/DC in the 70s can rock out to together, and dammit isn't metal supposed to be all about bringing people together?</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuu0evqPCRNEHOYZ1NVH618n0tX22ufmU_iDQjC2oAjb3kvPO6sAvyfvp_dRoBuxbyTruoCLpdqWp3N3cNCghNgeAdpEoNJh0sPQFcv5KFnRffjWttM58GzyMVX8MLPmsUwk7yhLDvlM/s700/819098.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuu0evqPCRNEHOYZ1NVH618n0tX22ufmU_iDQjC2oAjb3kvPO6sAvyfvp_dRoBuxbyTruoCLpdqWp3N3cNCghNgeAdpEoNJh0sPQFcv5KFnRffjWttM58GzyMVX8MLPmsUwk7yhLDvlM/w200-h200/819098.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>8: Vengeful Spectre - Vengeful Spectre</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I am eternally thankful for Pest Productions for all the work they do signal boosting Chinese bands. I've always had a fascination with bands from there since it's weird to see the most populous country so wildly underrepresented in the world of metal. It's thanks to them I've been able to hear great bands like Black Kirin, Holyarrow, Skeletal Augury, and now, Vengeful Spectre. These guys have a flavor of Chinese folk in here thanks to the cool howly/whistly instruments, but the real appeal to me is how suffocatingly dense this record is. You could just flippantly describe this self titled as "just" meloblack, but the fact that every song has like two hundred riffs in them and the intensity stays so high, even during the slow parts, is out of this world. "Rainy Night Carnage" and "Wailing Wrath" are legitimately two of my favorite songs on the year. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhWOfLVk-ya1nJcV4IJweMlCUNF_ww_GyEFJjlsSp_6OZb5dyIUMEoRr9KKMqNA-qMQQfhULgMG-EJ_6V2CSf7vG2xV6PLcQVNV16_kSt0-igjjmPYk8D4i5LBtCOoiQgIz5-GccTtrH8/s370/824930.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="370" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhWOfLVk-ya1nJcV4IJweMlCUNF_ww_GyEFJjlsSp_6OZb5dyIUMEoRr9KKMqNA-qMQQfhULgMG-EJ_6V2CSf7vG2xV6PLcQVNV16_kSt0-igjjmPYk8D4i5LBtCOoiQgIz5-GccTtrH8/w200-h200/824930.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>7: Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Oranssi Pazuzu is one of the bigger names in black metal right now and for whatever reason I just never really gave them the time of day until this year. Most people I've talked to have pegged this as their least good album but really that just tells me that I have one hell of an incredible backlog to sift through. <i>Mestarin kynsi</i> scratches the exact same itch for me that Sigh scratched in their weird middle era. The occasional blasts of intensity that cut through the downbeat electronics and psychedelic soundscapes is exactly what I've been missing out of one of my old favorites since <i>In Somniphobia</i>. Sigh likely isn't the best point of comparison, but the muted trip hop elements can't help but bring them to the fore of my mind, and OP is fucking great at replicating that feeling I've been missing. Maybe this is more for me than y'all, but I adore this.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogSUTD8Kfx9nQUnT44PweELaMlwUbA288hCqpipVF63tcoGfbD2uCG5w3HORUX_PhVD1tL9ZvepY2T1t6gsCk8wFu-w8wtOHm7XoS0ctFosfxnFbIzueyEHMTKgFSiX821K-wkiAzU30/s500/833596.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogSUTD8Kfx9nQUnT44PweELaMlwUbA288hCqpipVF63tcoGfbD2uCG5w3HORUX_PhVD1tL9ZvepY2T1t6gsCk8wFu-w8wtOHm7XoS0ctFosfxnFbIzueyEHMTKgFSiX821K-wkiAzU30/w200-h200/833596.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>6: Sweven - The Eternal Resonance</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I couldn't get into Horrendous's <i>Ecdysis</i> when it dropped several years ago, so as a result I ignored every band that got compared to it, which is why I missed out on Morbus Chron when they were a thing. Now that they're "back" as Sweven, I'm really starting to think that this whole psychedelic death metal thing was actually right up my alley all along (see also my 2018 list where Chapel of Disease landed a spot). There's something about this vaguely extreme prog metal with low distortion, haunting melodies, and rollicking 70s rock grooves that I just can't get enough of right now, and <i>The Eternal Resonance</i> delivers that in spades. I think I lack the language to explain exactly why this touches me so perfectly, but tracks like "By Virtue of a Promise" and "Mycelia" just tickle an erogenous zone I didn't even know I had.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNwD0QP-UxDNGasY1SwlF-EHjc8WkqrLpjUn-D3mZrr7b0Tk3DtOLie5rPMKtxynvVKozCXbimAsyNUYt0oDByEwtpPnSlCD_i6RJ5KGY81pXVIRU7yCSxOyIuJndQzpqwKx7vheYttXI/s1000/862763.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNwD0QP-UxDNGasY1SwlF-EHjc8WkqrLpjUn-D3mZrr7b0Tk3DtOLie5rPMKtxynvVKozCXbimAsyNUYt0oDByEwtpPnSlCD_i6RJ5KGY81pXVIRU7yCSxOyIuJndQzpqwKx7vheYttXI/w200-h200/862763.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>5: Cult of Lilith - Mara</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Iceland has become a surprising hotspot for metal in recent years, mostly thanks to the jangleblack scene (though I'm convinced most of those bands are decent at best and tend to get subconscious extra credit simply for being from Mystikal Volcano Island), but here we are finally giving the tiny nation some recognition and it turns out to be for incredibly precise, pristinely produced death metal. <i>Mara</i> reminds me of a less technical version of early Fleshgod Apocalypse with odd Devin Townsend style vocals barging in every once in a while, and it's such a strange experience that I just can't kill it. The first time I heard the quick two seconds of clean vocals in "Cosmic Maelstrom" I knew I was in for some weird shit that really shouldn't work but god dammit it works for me and this is probably the metal album I've spent the most time with this year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUJL_1Hq4ycf-kHxwMi3EiBM03W6M7GTWuyubqC3GXzJ2eF3Wb0R_2lPyRoM7nP89aygZUBFhl609TwI-SC9CDWtM1MT-QXut2P_POH0uN8-X6EHx_c9rUAJUb9yAvaXGNleKQHr_QhvI/s408/869760.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="405" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUJL_1Hq4ycf-kHxwMi3EiBM03W6M7GTWuyubqC3GXzJ2eF3Wb0R_2lPyRoM7nP89aygZUBFhl609TwI-SC9CDWtM1MT-QXut2P_POH0uN8-X6EHx_c9rUAJUb9yAvaXGNleKQHr_QhvI/w199-h200/869760.jpg" width="199" /></a></div>4: Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Speaking of extreme metal with random operatic cleans! Anaal Nathrakh is losing their shine for a lot of people it seems, as they've been sticking with the same style more or less exclusively for like six or seven albums in a row now, but god damn it <i>works</i> for me. I know damn well they're gonna do that thing where they build up and then stop dead silent for half a beat before exploding with a blast beat and YAAAAAAAH scream. I don't care, that shit gets me hyped every fucking time. Despite me loving their style, they've been pretty hit or miss since <i>Constellation</i> but I can't deny that <i>Endarkenment</i> is definitely one of the good ones. This is exactly as violent and unhinged as I like AN to sound, and the fact that Hunt's clean vocals keep getting worse over the years only makes the clean vocals sound more desperate and apocalyptic. I love it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVkMigchfu1e00iCGxrW2BypoDU10xG-LkQHO6MwK-SCPsyikZT7iLmWSq_nY-4VBqLP56CwWxp-7PlFtvrod_2T8NZJXZHNDTFP7j2zOGIUXpCddtXn1ZG0f552gajtssuoKYoQpMtk/s1000/884409.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVkMigchfu1e00iCGxrW2BypoDU10xG-LkQHO6MwK-SCPsyikZT7iLmWSq_nY-4VBqLP56CwWxp-7PlFtvrod_2T8NZJXZHNDTFP7j2zOGIUXpCddtXn1ZG0f552gajtssuoKYoQpMtk/w200-h200/884409.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>3: Persuader - Necromancy</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I've probably made it clear already, but Persuader's second and third albums are two of my all time favorites and their frustratingly slow release schedule since then has been a heavy pain on my heart. <i>The Fiction Maze</i> had one or two incredible songs but was kind of underwhelming, so imagine my shock when <i>Necromancy</i> finally dropped six years later and wound up being nothing but absolute heaters and the true successor to <i>When Eden Burns</i>. This is everything I want out of a Persuader album, blisteringly heavy power metal with anthemic choruses that consist of three hooks at once. I've said for a long while that they picked up where Blind Guardian left off when they abandoned the rough speed metal of their early sound, and <i>Necromancy</i> continues to prove that. "Scars" alone should illustrate why this is peak BH metal.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGpENKi438VCbqbU82mC2RmGdM3wPW4W1_t50I5PbSO51gmNVAa-M1no_dgloEqRX9f3zO5fR0uV2NMTdu0N5Tdk_QJVK_K5G-b3viDCX5QEv4b2XvoJ7Pgj2xtts4B31DU3kFmhFBAbg/s355/71jOtZswwML._SY355_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="355" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGpENKi438VCbqbU82mC2RmGdM3wPW4W1_t50I5PbSO51gmNVAa-M1no_dgloEqRX9f3zO5fR0uV2NMTdu0N5Tdk_QJVK_K5G-b3viDCX5QEv4b2XvoJ7Pgj2xtts4B31DU3kFmhFBAbg/w200-h200/71jOtZswwML._SY355_.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>2: Protest the Hero - Palimpsest</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">The real surprise on this list is that Persuader is actually my metal album of the year. It's true! The final two are, for the first time in LOTB history, not metal albums! That's not to say metal was weak this year, it's just that Protest the Hero somehow kept their streak alive and released another stunner. Somehow each new album is their new best album, and every time I'm initially disappointed before slowly realizing every track is brilliant. Rody irreparably damaged his vocal chords on the <i>Fortress</i> Anniversary tour, and as such the music had to change to accomodate his new voice and lack of ability to scream as much, and god fuck did they nail it. This more overtly melodic style with added synths is life affirming. "Little Snakes", "The Migrant Mother", and especially "All Hands" only further their legacy as one of the all time greats. </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>AND THE WINNER IS...</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> </b> <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVg6yuPtwZIh2kc932Cag8wME2zawN9p-mUw8pI-f8jDupU1DtoBWKQnk_zjOWE-VVuR4zgjWwfaSw0gjBRW8xpQImeDjONV5KkCePbeY72ssv85X3nBpoBtsEcwD9aJGLL-D0cQ5wpNo/s425/339464.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="425" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVg6yuPtwZIh2kc932Cag8wME2zawN9p-mUw8pI-f8jDupU1DtoBWKQnk_zjOWE-VVuR4zgjWwfaSw0gjBRW8xpQImeDjONV5KkCePbeY72ssv85X3nBpoBtsEcwD9aJGLL-D0cQ5wpNo/w200-h200/339464.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>1: Foxy Shazam - Burn</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I mentioned before that my actual #1 album of the last decade wasn't actually Sigh and they took the prize entirely because I made the big list metal exclusive. My <i>actual</i> favorite album of the 2010s was Foxy Shazam's self titled album, and their dissolution in 2014 was pretty much my musical 9/11. Basically no other band on the planet has ever really managed to replicate Queen's classic 70s sound, but Foxy fuckin' did it back then. <i>Burn</i>, their first since their surprise reformation early this year, on the other hand, is a stylistic whirlwind with a serious tonal consistency problem and a lot of bizarre experimentation that fans have seemed to largely balk at. However, I think anybody familiar with them outside of their two most famous albums (the self titled and <i>The Church of Rock and Roll</i>) should be aware that they've never been afraid to experiment and have always been fearless in playing with expectations. <i>Burn</i> is such an incomprehensible mess of weird ideas that all come together beautifully that even though it only came out a few weeks ago, it was basically the only album all year that I heard and immediately said "YES! THIS IS IT!" I think what makes this work so much for me is that this is the first one to find a way to accurately portray how much of a cocaine
nightmare their legendary live performances are. They are notoriously
high energy and theatrical, despite the total lack of actual props or
massive stages. They perform like a group of ravenous madmen from the
70s on the budget of a coffeehouse indie band, pure punk energy with the
sound of old school arena glam. I saw them in 2014 on the <i>Gonzo</i> tour, and near the end of the show, Eric Nally took a pack of cigarettes from a fan in the crowd, lit four of them at once, <i>ate them</i>,
and then sat cross legged on the floor and sang the chorus of "Dragula"
a capella. I've seen live footage of Sky White playing keyboards while
crowdsurfing while Nally does a color guard routine with the mic stand
using only his feet. Even during their soulful ballads they act like a
bunch of space cases that took a shitload of drugs that turned their brains
into Jack Nicholson's face.<i> Burn</i> is the first album that matches that kaleidoscopic
apocalypse they invoke onstage. The new bassist is a dude who wears a
mask and calls himself Trigger Warning, there are two tracks that
consist of nothing but swelling ambient strings and Nally and new
drummer Teddy Aitkins singing Kevin Hart jokes with heavy autotune, "Dreamer" is a wonderful power ballad that starts off like something off
Kesha's <i>Rainbow</i> and ends invoking Queen's more climactic moments,
at one point the title track throws in a random death metal roar in the
background before playing the breakdown from "Raining Blood" on the
trumpet, "Suffering" is the most straight ahead driving rock song on the album and gets
like one word away from referencing a Sublime song for the sake of a
pun, "S.Y.A.A.F." contains the line "erection of the holy wood" before a jaw harp starts boinging away, there's just... a whole lot going on. I'm probably making this
sound like some r/iamveryrandom shit, and maybe it is, I dunno, but for
me it perfectly showcases the steadfast defiance against stupid things
like "rules" that Foxy has always proudly stood for. This is everything I ever wanted out of a Foxy album, every single track is a banger, even the bizarre cloud rap ones, and at the end of the day, this album is like seeing an old friend for the first time in years and immediately reverting to all of your old inside jokes and catching up as though you haven't missed a day. This is the exact sepia-toned warm-and-fuzzy that I think we all needed to close out the screaming rollercoaster ride down Fuck Everything Avenue that was 2020. Likely the most controversial winner of the BH Award for Album of the Year we've had yet, but if I look in my heart and ask what my favorite album that came out in 2020 was, the answer is <i>Burn</i>. Hands down.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And now for something completely the same!</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"> <b>HONORABLE MENTIONS<br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Expander - Neuropunk Boostergang:</b> I love it when a band completely bucks the accepted aesthetics of their
chosen genre, and Expander does that phenomenally with their Dan
Terminus style album covers giving way to meaty thrash instead of busy
synthwave, and even then it's not the hypertechnical excess that you'd
expect from sci-fi themed thrash like Vektor or Watchtower, instead
beefing up their sound with a ton of crusty grime and landing somewhere
closer to Power Trip or Black Breath. <i>Neuropunk Boostergang</i>
makes this sonic mismatch work even better than the debut, simply being
both tighter and more epic in scope. The term "metalpunk" is often used
with these guys but I need to stress that it's less the Motorbastard
style and instead strikes a much more literal definition of crossover
that sees them throwing in big heaps of noisy hardcore, and it rules. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Nyktophobia - What Lasts Forever:</b> It's been nearly fifteen years since the last truly great Amon Amarth album, and I think a lot of fans like me have been yearning for a return to their more driving and pummeling early sound. Nyktophobia finally delivers the spiritual sequel to <i>The Crusher</i> that I've been wanting for decades.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Temperance - Viridian:</b> On the whole, I could take or leave most of the bands from this 3rd wave of power metal that has been mixing the classic genre with arena rock hooks and danceable beats. Y'all know how I feel about Sabaton, Battle Beast and Dynazty have been steadily getting worse and worse, et cetera. Temperance finally made the jump to this style with this album and it was a beacon of genuinely stupid fun in a sea of albums that are offensively stupid and unfun.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Atramentus - Stygian:</b> There's usually one funeral doom representative on these lists, either in the main thing or in the dooblydoo down here, and here it is for 2020. Any band Phil Tougas shows up in is going to get some positive press by default, but the difference between him and other known mega-prolific guys in metal is that most of the albums he touches are really good, and <i>Stygian</i> is no different.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Stalker - Black Majik Terror:</b> Most throwback speed metal fans this year seemed to gravitate towards Solicitor or Traveler, but man Stalker is the exact kind of brainless energy that I just lap up. It's unabashedly corny and I love that about it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>DISAPPOINTMENTS</b> <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Dynazty - The Dark Delight:</b> Maybe this is my fault for simply wanting this album to be something that it never tried to be, but god damn do I miss when Dynazty was cranking out chest beating arena anthems on speed. <i>Firesign</i> may have signaled the shift to this 3rd wave style but it still had some great songs like the title track and "Follow Me". <i>The Dark Delight</i> has absolutely nothing. I don't fault the band for simply changing their style to better suit where they are as songwriters, but it's a damn shame that we traded the band that wrote monsters like <i>Renatus</i> and <i>Titanic Mass</i> in order to get a second rate Amaranthe knockoff. It's not the worst album of the year or anything, but it definitely has the least amount of good in it.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Enslaved - Utgard:</b> I never really talk about them, but I like Enslaved a good amount. It took me a while to warm up to their new direction since I'm just not much of a prog fan, but <i>Below the Lights</i> and <i>Axioma Ethica Odini</i> are both great albums, and I don't have too many bad things to say about <i>In Times</i> either despite not thinking it's particularly phenomenal. <i>Utgard</i> on the other hand feels like pure autopilot. All of that creativity I like so much seems to have finally dried up, because this is just bland as hell from a band that usually does much better.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sodom - Genesis XIX:</b> This one barely qualifies since I think Sodom hasn't been truly good in a decade at this point, but I had several people I trust insist that this is a worthy addition to their discography and proof that they still have some left in the tank. Yeah sorry, I still don't hear it. They haven't had a new idea in eons and Angelripper is really showing his age.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Seven Spires - Emerald Seas:</b> This wasn't even a <i>bad</i> album really, just much less exciting than <i>Solveig</i> and I'm kinda bummed that Adrienne Cowan is following the Jorn Lande path of being an incredible vocalist constantly stuck in kinda underwhelming bands. She needs to front something with some fuckin' power behind it, please, her voice is begging for that energy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style="font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'Arial';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;">Wytch Hazel - III: Pentecost:</span></b><span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style="font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'Arial';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;"> Again, not even a bad album necessarily! This is just an example of an album that had a lot of hype behind it that just didn't connect with me. This "soft metal" niche is pretty cool and all but it just doesn't hit me like the more aggressive styles do and I was really hoping this one would change my mind.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style="font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'Arial';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style="font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'Arial';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;"><b>Uhhhh - Ehhhh?:</b> Every year I talk about how I plan on getting rid of the disappointments section because I get disappointed less and less each year, and that's how I feel again. I only kept it in this year because I didn't listen to enough demos to do that section again and nothing sucked nearly as much as the Aftermath and Ministry albums from the previous years so I felt no need to highlight anything as the worst. Yes I know I gave Imperial Triumphant a 0% review this year but it wasn't necessarily a disappointment and unlike the aforementioned albums I don't think it was an artistic failure. I get the appeal, I just hate it. And now I'm dragging this out because I have nothing else to say and I feel like this was a very short post this year, and George Soros pays me by the word so I've gotta stretch this shit like goatse. Screw Flanders.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style="font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'Arial';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style="font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'Arial';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style="font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'Arial';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;">And that's it for 2020! I always end on a note of hoping you all had a great year but let's be real here, unless you're a hermit crab you probably had an awful year. To everybody who made it, I'm proud of you and I'm glad you're here. If you're about to be evicted around the time you read this then you would be morally correct to beat your landlord to death. To everybody who didn't make it, I'm sorry the people in power failed you and I hope we can make the world better in your memory. To everybody who voted for Mitch McConnell, promptly fuck yourself with a railroad spike.<br /></span></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-12781236695773065452020-12-04T10:33:00.002-06:002020-12-04T10:33:33.640-06:00Aerith - For the Fallen<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU2oRx9y6gUk1vCZbP2QSiA0nAzUXvjCUv9p1wikFfXQuXK-VfqcpDeawKLiPdPZtgwqWiIForEGdG1oooIDpMcTJ-jM5RQPdIviynXy1cZiN5sB7ZVdV4CvdU0fWDVv-NZg23nEhmjkc/s700/866360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU2oRx9y6gUk1vCZbP2QSiA0nAzUXvjCUv9p1wikFfXQuXK-VfqcpDeawKLiPdPZtgwqWiIForEGdG1oooIDpMcTJ-jM5RQPdIviynXy1cZiN5sB7ZVdV4CvdU0fWDVv-NZg23nEhmjkc/w200-h200/866360.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Can you hear the planet crying out in pain?</span><br /> <p></p><p>I know singles are frowned upon for the Diamhea Challenge, but I'm determined to stick with this theme and this is the last band I can find any music from and this particular single seems to be the only release actually based on FF if we're going by lyrics alone. Aerith is notable for being the side project of Ken Bedene, the drummer for Aborted, handling drums and guitar, with his dad Frankie on bass and some rando on vocals. "For the Fallen" is a nice enough melodeath tune obviously based on FFVII, but that's about all the musical description I can bear to muster for this. It's a very simple, stock template melodeath song based mostly on <i>Clayman</i> era In Flames and that's about as far as the creativity goes. It's a far cry from the pugilistic death metal of Aborted and I'd've never known this was Bedene's brainchild if I wasn't told outright. All told it's one of those releases that covers well-trodden ground pretty thoroughly, but it's well done enough that any fan of the style will enjoy it. The vocals sound like if Anders Friden didn't suck, the harmonized leads never stop but never really get dull either, the solo is flashy and exciting, and the song itself is structured very basically but does its job well enough. So this isn't something I'd really recommend seeking out but if you like 90s In Flames/Dark Tranquillity then I don't see why you wouldn't like this either. For me personally though, I wish this stretched its legs a little more and tried to do something a little more creative as opposed to just doing something that's already been done better by hundreds of bands decades earlier.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>RATING: 59%</b><br /></p>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-17798230676258704372020-12-04T10:03:00.004-06:002020-12-04T10:03:59.977-06:00Starforger - Meteorfall<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIoTk1EdTIXmz6LM33ybx2QYNbwBNUK-RyJrZHPuHJZ6Kw6K3cve5BTkPIHbW9px2DlF9tBSOtCo8NtEDKTIvWkJW-1kfw7vxjO1hzcJ8RGbBziRhgP1fmrMhetLsX_WX5BGn3qdFDugE/s1200/a2775190817_10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIoTk1EdTIXmz6LM33ybx2QYNbwBNUK-RyJrZHPuHJZ6Kw6K3cve5BTkPIHbW9px2DlF9tBSOtCo8NtEDKTIvWkJW-1kfw7vxjO1hzcJ8RGbBziRhgP1fmrMhetLsX_WX5BGn3qdFDugE/w200-h200/a2775190817_10.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">It's morphing time!</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Third time's the charm, because now we've finally hit a band that is both unquestionably based on Final Fantasy lore and <i>doesn't</i> suck! This is the nerd-paradise I was hoping I'd come across when I started this project, with five of the six tracks being unquestionably based on FF without being covers (you'd be amazed how few FF "inspired" bands I was able to find that weren't just endless covers of battle themes straight from the games). This EP starts off with the one-two punch of "Hellfire" and "Diamond Dust", obviously based on staple summons Ifrit and Shiva, and then leads into "Five Hundred Years Later" based on the ambiguous epilogue to VII, followed by "Rose of May" telling the story of IX's Beatrix (the only acceptable waifu, fight me you weeb-pedo freaks), and climaxing with "The Sword Collector", based on <i>The Absolute Boy</i> Gilgamesh, his V incarnation specifically. The sixth track seems to be unrelated, but was tacked on to the 2020 rerelease so hypernerds like me can safely avoid talking about it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But enough expository banter! Starforger's actual sound is closer to Wintersun than anybody else, replete with loads of twinkly keyboards and speedy guitar acrobatics. I've said many times before that Wintersun's main downfall is simply that the brains behind the band can't rein himself in and just make great, focused songs with any regularity, so despite my vocal distaste for the band I do frequently seek out bands that sound like them, and Starforger does that very well. Hell "The Sword Collector" cribs so heavily from Wintersun's "Battle Against Time" that it borders on plagiarism, but the overall package is a fuckload more consistent than anything the Finns have ever managed to put out. </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">That actually winds up being the achilles heel of <i>Meteorfall</i>. It's extremely consistent but this comes at the expense of every song sounding basically the same. All six of them are fairly lengthy blasts of aggression that rarely slow down, full of catchy melodies, prominent synths, blast beats, and deep growls. It's a great example of this particular power-metal-heavy subniche of melodeath but once you've heard the first song you've heard them all, as they all follow more or less the exact same template with the only real difference between them being their length. The keys seem to be the real star of the show, with what I can only assume is a nod to "J-E-N-O-V-A" opening "Hellfire" and an absolutely sublime chorus melody in "Five Hundred Years Later", and just generally being the most interesting part of any given song. The rest of the instrumentals are no slouch, don't get me wrong, but they clearly play second fiddle to the high-flying twinkliness that overpowers the album. Despite how samey <i>Meteorfall</i> is on the whole, I can't deny that I had a lot of fun with it. Starforger is without a doubt the best FF themed metal band that actually plays originals that I've come across on this journey, but I'd be lying to you if I said it was fantastic. It's just a damn solid Wintersun knockoff but I can jive with that.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 78%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-53923052485452584712020-12-04T08:40:00.003-06:002020-12-04T08:40:33.515-06:00Atma Weapon - Through Seas of Gray<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiQ17_Csn78uxWi-J3wnz0S0kTdLzvua6roIOE4ykH31_IP2Er7tW_u1_mvhf30O_R0sPatVg3xCyYhfRDX_sofGyz_iPIB3p-iQ8dpuIUF4T_48oocDnn_CByJIuEJ01cScMzgty4XDQ/s400/722894.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiQ17_Csn78uxWi-J3wnz0S0kTdLzvua6roIOE4ykH31_IP2Er7tW_u1_mvhf30O_R0sPatVg3xCyYhfRDX_sofGyz_iPIB3p-iQ8dpuIUF4T_48oocDnn_CByJIuEJ01cScMzgty4XDQ/w200-h200/722894.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Don't forget to wait until the final ten seconds to save Shadow!</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Continuing with the Final Fantasy theme, we switch from Ultima Weapon (based on the FFX iteration: aka the shitty one) to Atma Weapon (based (at least by the translation) from the FFVI version: aka the best one), and I find it funny that the band named after the chump you can one-shot without much fuss is mega heavy slamming brutal death metal, while the band named after the super intimidating "pure strength given form" is wimpy prog metal. But hey, them's the shakes and I doubt either band gives as much of a shit about FF lore as I do. Atma Weapon sure as shit don't since I'm fairly sure none of their songs are actually based on the games, rendering this stupid theme-week even more pointless than it already was.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I gave all three releases from the North Carolina-based quartet a listen, and while I think their debut, <i>Dark Tower</i> is unquestionably the "best" one in the sense that it has the most depth and complexity to it, I found myself actually gravitating towards their 2018 EP, <i>Through Seas of Gray</i>. <i>Dark Tower</i> is very winding and intricate, with excellent melodic complexity taking the listener on an epic journey, but at the end of the day it felt like very paint-by-numbers prog metal and I just couldn't bring myself to care. <i>Through Seas of Gray</i> on the other hand, is drop-dead simple and barely metal, but I find it much more engaging and more interesting to talk about. These are five tracks that are more or less just standard rock with a few metalisms thrown in like a chugging riff in "Last Days of Hope" or a nice guitar solo that introduces "Fair Weather", but these streamlined songs let the frankly stellar vocals shine. Mick Armstrong's voice is very much suited to this aggressive rock style, and he complements this style much more than the Dream Theater-y debut. He has this rattly inflection that I fucking <i>adore</i> and wish more vocalists had. I've never really been able to describe it beyond "rattly", but it's that style you can find in bands as disparate as Iron Savior, Clutch, and Off With Their Heads, and I can't get enough of it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The overall mood is very dark and morose, and when overtly melodic metal bands aim for this I tend to get bored pretty quickly, but keeping the metal quotient fairly low here works to the EP's advantage. Something like the title track has a chorus that is just straight up Nickelback, (I swear to god it's nearly identical to "Someday" or "If Today was Your Last Day") which will turn most people off with good reason, but here I think it works as a very relatable hook that grounds the rest of the song. This is very heavily emotional sadguy stuff, but I dunno, it works for me in a way that most alternative rock simply doesn't. Maybe it's the fact that they used to be a metal band, maybe it's me being an insufferable FF nerd being nice to a band with a cool name, maybe it's just the fact that this style is something of a blind spot for me and I'm actually more of a fan than I realize, hell maybe tons of prog metal actually sounds like this and I've just never noticed because I'm usually drenched in extremity, but whatever the reason I can't bring myself to say this sucks despite how simple and radio-friendly it is. This sort of emotional verse-chorus rock with big fuckin' chords and simple patterns likely isn't for the type of people who will inevitably read this review, but I think it works.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 78%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-80324295654159460002020-11-30T09:27:00.003-06:002020-11-30T09:27:59.387-06:00Ultima Weapon - Spira<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPgWqYh3ivQ5uFYmoC0xEMrdKffpOb_LAePGnbOVtfON1Tb1iCEp_KpQeS4rFbsn-AVVC7dtHNMmIRaDGyxUp6zaWqIq5QrN9NlWl0uvGf7pNn9OwYr482PA82ZJX9VTZfXYnwtPtM5TE/s700/881166.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPgWqYh3ivQ5uFYmoC0xEMrdKffpOb_LAePGnbOVtfON1Tb1iCEp_KpQeS4rFbsn-AVVC7dtHNMmIRaDGyxUp6zaWqIq5QrN9NlWl0uvGf7pNn9OwYr482PA82ZJX9VTZfXYnwtPtM5TE/w200-h200/881166.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Go away</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">For this winter edition of the Diamhea Challenge, I am only going to be reviewing bands and albums that reference Final Fantasy in some way. Why? Because it's a stupid thing to do and I love doing stupid things.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So we're gonna start today with Ultima Weapon, one of Jared Moran's ten gazillion shitty half-hearted projects. If you're unfamiliar with the guy, Moran is one of those special types of metalloids who has several dozen one-man-bands that all sound more or less the same, releasing new material under rotating names at an alarmingly high clip. Sometimes they're a bit more grindy, sometimes they're a bit doomier, but I've stumbled across like eight of his projects over the years and each one reads the same. It's lo-fi death metal with songs that sound like they were finished in a half hour and there's really nothing more you can say about them because that's all they are. His output is functionally identical to Bob Macabre or Rogga Johansson if he didn't have any friends.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I walked into this with the intention of making stupid FF-nerd jokes about like "'Ronso Rage' sure is a fitting name since the main riff is a total copy of 'Liege of Inveracity' by Suffocation" and "This is probably such a weak release because they based it on the FFX version of Ultima Weapon, which is the shittiest one in the franchise", but once I realized this was a Moran band my mindframe completely shifted because <i>who the fuck cares</i>? He's less a Weapon and more of a Mimic, because I thought I had blundered into a potential gem since it's so rare to hear metal based on videogames that aren't just straight up covers, but then I opened the chest and <i>fuck</i> it's the same shitty scratchy BDM he always pumps out. It's a short eleven minute blast of mid-paced kinda-slammy death metal with no lasting impact shat out by a guy who has done this exact thing literally dozens of times. There's only one sentence of musical description in this review because that's all it's worth and if you listen to it yourself you'll agree.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For good BDM that is super tangentially related to FF just stick to Jenovavirus.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: X%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-85466188471631427662020-11-26T07:38:00.001-06:002020-11-26T07:38:13.698-06:00Imperial Trimphant - Alphaville<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdgFYJBmr2TI3ropgaTcJUSwPxi3Go067aoIvkLrNqGM8Kf_5R19whIeHMODLm6fCd72BwLy58m-lbNvzEIqhYISq0zsz-sKfm4S0ILpe_A_d-Nn1sdE0Q5I45p9QGMxkhy4yicRdcm4/s900/844728.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="895" data-original-width="900" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdgFYJBmr2TI3ropgaTcJUSwPxi3Go067aoIvkLrNqGM8Kf_5R19whIeHMODLm6fCd72BwLy58m-lbNvzEIqhYISq0zsz-sKfm4S0ILpe_A_d-Nn1sdE0Q5I45p9QGMxkhy4yicRdcm4/w200-h199/844728.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Oh god I'm getting old</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Imperial Triumphant is one of those hot new properties that has taken the music snob world by storm, and it's easy to see why. This is utterly whacked out, high concept avant garde madness. Their aesthetic is not only incredible and unique (a type of art deco/retrofuturist pastiche with an undercurrent of decay seeping through every jagged angle) but it perfectly complements their overarching theme of high society elites being not-so-secretly baby eating monsters. This discordant juxtaposition between the callous sociopathy of the upper class and the mud-caked destitution of the lower class is flawlessly executed in the way the music itself works as well, with dissonant jangleblack, amelodic walking basslines, and utterly chaotic percussion clashing against big band brass, barbershop quartets, and tribal hand drums. The entire experience is fractured and disorienting in a way that feels entirely intentional. It's rare you get a metal album so unafraid to step outside the boundaries of what metal is "supposed" to be (something I wish more bands explored) and to hear a concept so seamlessly intertwined with the music itself. You don't need to read anything that spells it out for you to understand it, the industrial clangs and high-falutin' phoniness of the glitzy elements are so square-peg-round-hole against the cyclonic whirlwind of the dominant metal sections that it's obvious on its own.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The problem with all of this is that it sucks. It's... it's so, <i>so</i> unbearable to listen to, holy shit.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In Robin D. G. Kelley's biography of Thelonious Monk, he tells a story wherein he is desperately trying to replicate Monk's unique style of jazz piano, complete with weird off-time clunks and blangs (he wasn't nicknamed "Melodious Thunk" without reason) and no matter how hard he tried he simply couldn't get the sound right. It became clear to him why when he had a dream where he was struggling during practice before Monk himself approached him and said "<i>You're making the wrong mistakes.</i>"</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That quote never left my mind throughout the entirety of <i>Alphaville</i>. Imperial Triumphant is so clearly doing everything in their power to create a disorienting soundscape of jazzy avant garde black metal and despite doing seemingly everything correctly, making all the fucked up noises in all the spots you might expect, it still sounds like they're screwing up in all the wrong places and wind up creating a discordant nightmare that physically hurts to listen to despite their intention being executed perfectly. The climax of "City Swine" sounds exactly like what I'd expect metalheads who completely misunderstood Monk to sound like; a hellish whirlwind of amelodic piano smashes against seemingly free time blast beats an atonal bass runs. It conceptually showcases why the planet-sized thumb of class inequality absolutely sucks to live under when you're not on top, but in doing so they wind up creating music that... well, absolutely sucks. Monk is also the originator of the famous quote about jazz being just as much about the notes you aren't playing as the notes that you are, and Imperial Triumphant apparently threw this piece of advice straight the fuck out the window because they play <i>every single note in existence</i> at every second. The value of silence seems to be approached during more introspective moments like the bass and snare outro of "Atomic Age" that leads into the solo piano intro of "Transmission to Mercury" but it comes at the tail end of eight excruciating minutes of indecipherable nonsense. The off-puttingly weird quiet moments actually work pretty well, all told, but they're bookended by unlistenable bullshit. "Transmission to Mercury" is one of the standouts purely because that smooth intro goes on for so long and gives the most welcome reprieve from the eyeball-spinning cacophony that populates the rest of the record.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I gave extremely high marks last year to White Ward's sophomore album, <i>Love Exchange Failure</i>, particularly because I thought the smooth saxophone melodies didn't add a new dimension to atmoblack as much as it filled a space that I didn't realize was empty before. <i>Alphaville</i> does the exact opposite thing by cluttering every space with so many 2smart4u elephant noises, rattling clangs, and screeches that it makes me beg for sweet release the longer it goes on. Each new track introduces a new sonic element that intentionally clashes against what the band was doing ten seconds before, which in itself was already a cacophonous mess. It's the musical equivalent to letting a six year old choose toppings for a sundae. The title track is basically the only piece on the whole album where it manages to go a solid five minutes or so where the concept is executed in a way that doesn't sound like a kid fucking around in Guitar Pro, and that's with the caveat that once those five minutes are up it goes right back into sounding like a shootout in a music store.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Maybe all of this sounds great to you, and that's fine. This is certainly tailor made to appeal to flannel-clad /mu/people, bearded pipesmoking hipsters, and hygiene-deficient avant garde unmusic fans to jerk themselves off around while normies like me grimace and stick my fingers in my ears, and there's nothing inherently wrong with being those things (but please, take a shower). But something like Liturgy breaks all of metal's rules while creating something that resonates emotionally, blending incoherent, pretentious philosophical sophistry with music that punches you directly in the heart and forces you to reassess what black metal is even supposed to be. Imperial Triumphant breaks all of metal's rules while creating something that sounds like flailing children who have no fucking idea what they're doing. <i>Alphaville</i> is the high budget version of "terrible on purpose" and I didn't enjoy one single second of this disaster. Maybe I'm missing the point or it simply isn't for me, but that doesn't prevent me from hearing a discordant hellsong like "Excelsior" and considering picking up smoking again just so I can die slightly sooner.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 0%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-70494315475366999592020-11-21T05:57:00.002-06:002020-11-21T05:57:33.333-06:00Stalker - Black Majik Terror<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1IfPM-81Vlf3PWX6FFP8xgq3rH9c9NZ74f0gyw7joZG7kbzdebGBcthfMt2Ri58OJGsJn3Gs_1-ELXB4pyJcYhkc-EZJh-AkBubL9ZfBxFY97Fw4e2SY6pEwktE-a_2qQ56RQ2cWjUw/s1024/875170.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1IfPM-81Vlf3PWX6FFP8xgq3rH9c9NZ74f0gyw7joZG7kbzdebGBcthfMt2Ri58OJGsJn3Gs_1-ELXB4pyJcYhkc-EZJh-AkBubL9ZfBxFY97Fw4e2SY6pEwktE-a_2qQ56RQ2cWjUw/w200-h200/875170.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Playing skittles with the heads of the French Aristocracy</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">This year has been weird for everybody. I'm not gonna pontificate on all the havoc wrought by covid and such because I'm sure you've all experienced your own unique hardships, but for the purposes of a music review blog, I found a pretty big shift in my listening habits. That whole Relitigating High School series wasn't just a shelved idea that I resuscitated to cure writer's block, it's also just where my music listening habits were for most of the year, seeking comfort and security in a past that I know already happened and didn't kill me. As a result, near the end of the year as I do my yearly scramble to listen to everything that might be worth considering for my year end list, I've found myself shifting away from the more grand meta way I've been looking at metal. Less brainpower spent on "Does this philosophically clash with the presentation? Is this doing anything truly new? How does the context of the wider scene affect this album's impact?" and much more spent on adolescent surface-level stuff like "Do these riffs <i>fucking rule</i>?" And that's what leads me to today's subject, New Zealand's Stalker (there's an umlaut in the name but my stupid english keyboard doesn't have a button for that so you'll have to deal).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Black Majik Terror</i> is the band's sophomore album, but their debut completely slipped past me despite being my exact jam purely because 2017 was jam packed with raucous throwback speed metal and they just slipped through the cracks. In a much less crowded year, Stalker has managed to jump out of the darkness and punch me in the face with a force akin to a coked out Butterbean. Taking a more surface level approach to music lately has helped <i>Black Majik Terror</i> spring to the forefront of my listening cycles because this is some of the dumbest shit I've ever heard. There isn't one single heady idea, no new interesting or creative twists on an old formula, nothing of the sort. This is tried and true speed metal with obscene tempos, ludicrous soloing, and endless tuneless yelping but it's played with so much fucking gusto that I can't fault it one bit. This is the Zapp Brannigan of speed metal - all CHA with zero INT. Apart from the brief moments of respite in "Holocene's End" and "The Cross", this is forty unbroken minutes of straight ahead downhill pummeling. It's actually kind of hard to talk about because that's really all there is to say. Tracks like "Intruder" and "Of Steel and Fire" are loaded with so many riffs and screaming leads that there isn't any way to really dissect them without disorienting yourself. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This frantic lack of restraint calls to mind OG heavyweights like Agent Steel and Razor, and if you don't like Razor then when the fuck are you doing here? The very nature of playing throwback speed metal gives them a pretty limited pool of influence to draw from, but I'd say they stack up against (and surpass) most of their contemporaries drinking the same juice like Ranger or Vulture. I'd say they're most similar to Evil Invaders simply because they both ape Razor so hard, but in reality, the correct answer is Seax. The big difference between the Kiwis and the Massholes is that charismatic intangible I mentioned earlier. Both bands aim for pure speed above all else and include vocals that aim for raucous squawking and incoherently bizarre falsetto wailing, but Seax never really felt confident in doing so, instead just kinda imitating John Cyriis while being self conscious of how ridiculous it sounds, whereas Stalker's Dave King just strides out on stage with his cock fully out and makes eye contact with you while pointing directly at it while making noises somewhere between a deer mating call and Massacration. It's so rad, I fucking love it. It's the same reason I love Scanner's <i>Hypertrace</i> so much. This kind of vocal approach lives and dies on the vocalist's ability to sell it. In objective terms it sounds like ridiculous wailing, but in context and presentation it sounds like unhinged primal fury, and Stalker <i>absolutely</i> sells it. I would trade my wedding ring for the vocal stems just so I can blast them out of my front window all day.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So yeah, <i>Black Majik Terror</i> is just pure speed and wailing and that's all there is to say about it, but conveniently that's all I want out of this style. This is the exact opposite of "thinking man's metal" and I'm fuckin' here for it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 88%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-52969371276740018162020-10-31T03:56:00.002-05:002020-10-31T03:56:48.519-05:00LADDER MATCH: Propagandhi vs. Type O Negative<div style="text-align: left;">It's time once again for one of my patented Semi-Whenever-I-Get-Time
Ladder Match! Wherein I will take two completely unrelated bands and
rank their discographies against one another to see who winds up being
the better one, much to the disappointment of all onlookers.<br />
<br />
The rules are simple: I rank the albums of the two bands against each other and assign points
down the line. So for example, if there are 15 albums for each band,
the best record of the bunch will get 30 points, the next will get 29,
after that will get 28, and so on down to 1. The winner will obviously
be determined by whoever has more points, so in this arbitrary system
it's better to have a more consistent career on the whole. Say Band A
has the five best albums and also the bottom ten, they'll end with 195
points, while the band that sweeps spots six thru twenty will end with
270. And also, since I like to make shit contradictory and complicated,
if the bands do not have an equal number of records, the band with more
albums will have their <i>middlemost</i> album excluded from ranking, because if I do a list with Morbid Angel, you bet your ass I'll want <i>Illud Divinum Insanus</i> to count for the same reason I'd want <i>Altars of Madness</i> to count. You don't get to sweep your
mistakes under the rug here on Ladder Match. This is how I balance
consistency with spikes in quality, deal with it, chumps.<br />
<br />
Our matchup today (in patented "zero effort Microsoft Paint Abomination" fashion) is:</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzyU5qi4x-WPhVpS6WEPjrP_YPlsRQct0Yz1b6RZb1_pdDkFzJidVC_IiX8VbNHjpLoVqvv-ETeBFoxZ7y8Evnz7l847OrHaMoRP4QMpyUNuIppAPKwaef1MdFZoEVwckZq8TH1zfpus/s1340/Ladder+Matchup+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1340" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzyU5qi4x-WPhVpS6WEPjrP_YPlsRQct0Yz1b6RZb1_pdDkFzJidVC_IiX8VbNHjpLoVqvv-ETeBFoxZ7y8Evnz7l847OrHaMoRP4QMpyUNuIppAPKwaef1MdFZoEVwckZq8TH1zfpus/w640-h278/Ladder+Matchup+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's October, which means it's the perfect time to highlight the quintessential Spooky Metal Band, Type O Negative. While they were the impetus for this particular feature, I didn't want to give them an easy win, so I'm stacking them up against one of my most listened-to artists over the last year or so, the Canadian Anarchist Punklords, Propagandhi. I do my best to make the opponents totally different from one another, but as always, there are going to be some tenuous similarities. Here we have two bands that started as some version of punk (hardcore for the former, skatershit for the latter) before evolving into something much more unique and defining their signature sound. But other than that, we have two very different legends in the ring this time. TON basically dominated the "gothic metal" subniche in a way that sounds almost nothing like what the term came to mean with the proliferation of Within Temptation and bands of that ilk, instead of having some gorgeous woman coo over lameass non-riffs, TON took an ugly eight foot tall dude and had him deeply croon over a very literal mixture of heavy metal and Fields of the Nephilim style goth rock. Propagandhi on the other hand started off with Fat Wreck style melodic punk that was so iconic and influential that NOFX themselves basically changed their entire sound to rip them off, before molding into a much more angry and metal-infused band of aggressive activists. They're both undisputed monarchs in their spheres and today I'm gonna reanimate Peter Steele's corpse so they can throw down in a Ladder Match. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiakPdYN4KpgJzoElsxF6QR2qUVmqkxvZUsq5t-CYPDErwNHE_RfcF3LGdfLfw_t69nnimU8PY_lq7y1RE4RaGVPNekcH88Qsv_1oASwtSuxZuwXbCGISjXClJwDMiq0QcnXn3fzVb8vAE/s358/4108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="358" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiakPdYN4KpgJzoElsxF6QR2qUVmqkxvZUsq5t-CYPDErwNHE_RfcF3LGdfLfw_t69nnimU8PY_lq7y1RE4RaGVPNekcH88Qsv_1oASwtSuxZuwXbCGISjXClJwDMiq0QcnXn3fzVb8vAE/w200-h199/4108.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>14: Type O Negative - The Origin of the Feces</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm sorry, I love both of these bands but <i>something</i> had to come in last place, and this seemed like the easiest candidate. I do think this is a necessary component of Type O's canon, but at the same time it's without a doubt the most easily skippable. Type O has always had a black sense of humor, and this is without a doubt their funniest release, but it's still kind of a throwaway joke in the grand scope of things. The story goes that their record contract at the time stipulated that they needed to record a live album, so for their second album here they decided to basically just perform the first album again (with different song titles) in addition to a few covers and then dubbed in a bunch of fake crowd noises to simulate an antagonistic crowd. I think that's hysterical. Truly a middle finger to the moneymen above them and it's great to hear no cheers at all and all of the between-song banter being Steele telling the crowd to fuck off (the crowd chanting "FUCK! YOU! FUCK! YOU!" during the quiet part of "I Know You're Fucking Someone Else" is pure poetry) is wonderful. My problem is that, beyond the truly transformative covers of Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath, this consists entirely of tracks that you can hear better versions of on <i>Slow, Deep, and Hard</i>, and for that reason it's the only album out of either discography that I think you can totally pass up without missing much.</div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 0 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 1<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCo7yFpOKqcCB-dX4TP656pul7iaH1RUvrawcyMuOPpVcmoZyvEN7S2OMcBFO-FAoRDk93of1HA4HPfUUq8wcOuLDjd5e8fgBSEAVO0nhBz25lVRSoPPzlf-oLCvAsQOzCJoxU91n-REE/s800/howtocleaneverything.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCo7yFpOKqcCB-dX4TP656pul7iaH1RUvrawcyMuOPpVcmoZyvEN7S2OMcBFO-FAoRDk93of1HA4HPfUUq8wcOuLDjd5e8fgBSEAVO0nhBz25lVRSoPPzlf-oLCvAsQOzCJoxU91n-REE/w200-h200/howtocleaneverything.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>13: Propagandhi - How to Clean Everything</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Like I mentioned up top, Propagandhi's 1993 debut, <i>How to Clean Everything</i>, was such an instantly influential blast of melodic punk aggression that even NOFX, one of the biggest bands in the genre and essentially the owner of Fat Wreck Chords itself, shifted their sound to more closely emulate it. It's one of the most influential punk albums of the 90s, but... man I just don't like it all that much! I think it's so underwhelming that I actually didn't bother listening to the rest of Propagandhi's superior catalog for years simply because I figured it'd be more of this. The reason I don't cover punk all that often despite listening to so much of it is because I simply haven't spent literally my entire life ensconced in the scene like I have with metal, so I just lack the language to analyze it as well, and I find myself struggling here for that exact reason. Like, it's fast and melodic and does the stuttery riff that every skate punk band in the universe does at minimum twice per song and says "fuck" a lot, but beyond that what can I really say about it? I know it predates <i>Punk in Drublic</i> but it's really just that sound. Chris Hannah's voice at this point was really nasally and bratty in a way that he would drop entirely in an album or two, and it works for the snotty attitude of the album itself, but it's really one of the weaker aspects of the album. Some of the elements that would go on to define the band's later albums are here to an extent (the band's caustic and sharply left-wing lyrics are the obvious thing) but the actual sound of this album is just so far removed from what I'd later love that I struggle to enjoy it on its own merits. Maybe that's unfair, but as it stands this is basically emblematic of all the things that made 90's punk so great, but the application of context makes it both better and worse. In the context of where the scene was at the time, this was incredible example of it, but in the context of the band's entire career, this was a very un-Propagandhi record that just so happened to kick off an incredible uber-Propagandhi career. If there's anything about it that's better than their later work, it's that I appreciate how much fun they obviously had with this one. There's a lot more comedy and youthful brashness in tunes like "Ska Sucks" and "This Might Be Satire" than they'd ever do in the future, and even the more serious tunes like "Anti-Manifesto" have some classic fun bits like the quick interjection of "By the way, I stole this riff" before a quick one second long shred. But regardless, this is without a doubt my least listened-to album of their career, with only "Anti-Manifesto" and "Stick the Fucking Flag Up Your Goddamn Ass, You Sonofabitch" remaining in my listening cycle whenever I go on a binge. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 2 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 1</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVGGxg67qvQNldnpJbXyJVbUXdgIm1-gRm_ahMuaXv3D5BHAOBjor8u_iNKeygcSyIST1yln8S3PwaUH2HHBoB2dGVv4D9pDtExLzJAsEKT3GhWpasEeWStWJk1PBV5GpOk-IWt3ueEBo/s500/3533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVGGxg67qvQNldnpJbXyJVbUXdgIm1-gRm_ahMuaXv3D5BHAOBjor8u_iNKeygcSyIST1yln8S3PwaUH2HHBoB2dGVv4D9pDtExLzJAsEKT3GhWpasEeWStWJk1PBV5GpOk-IWt3ueEBo/w200-h200/3533.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>12: Type O Negative - October Rust</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">If there's any controversial entry in this feature, it's gonna be ranking <i>October Rust</i> so near the bottom. I get it, this is one of their most beloved albums, released at the peak of their popularity in the 90s, complete with like six of their most iconic tunes, but I dunno man I've never jived with this one all that much. That's not to say it's <i>bad</i>, neither band in this feature has a true stinker, but the mood they were evoking on this one just doesn't connect with me like some of their other albums do. I get why it's so beloved, there's no denying that this album is fucking <i>lush</i>. It has a gorgeous sound that's very floaty and romantic and it complements their lighter compositions this time around incredibly well. In terms of actually achieving what they were going for, <i>October Rust</i> knocks it out of the fucking park. Hell I'd even say they're very good at it and there's no denying the amount of classic tracks here. But frankly, objective critique is impossible when it comes to art and even though I think all of these components work wonderfully in tandem with one another, it just doesn't resonate with me. I think "Be My Druidess", "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend", "Wolf Moon", and "Red Water" are all fantastic songs, but even though the other classics like "Green Man", "In Praise of Bacchus", "Haunted", and especially "Love You to Death" are fundamentally similar, I skip them nearly every time I put the album on. I think that's actually my problem with the album as a whole, the mood is very static and it more or less hits the same note over and over again as it goes. It's a good note, but I know they're capable of so much more, and the fact that TON was notoriously bad at trimming the fat means that we're treated to basically 75 minutes of the same mood and it isn't overwhelming enough to really work. I don't care that this is one of their least heavy albums, the songs I like a lot aren't necessarily the heaviest ones on display, and you'll see later on that some of their best songs were their least metallic, but over an hour of lethargic romantic textures exhausts me in a bad way. If nothing else, this sports one of Steele's absolute best vocal performances. He was on top of his game in 96 and his deep baritone croon is at it's peak here. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 2 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 4</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlCvCjq5iMknpG2H3d6hve02FKFkXNOxPOwbJg5XQNmRiDV_vXveaqHmtILmqVmPD0mfgc8pNcRw0c3D-Qogdd69zn8JE9M3Zfy5p8sW2N9m-PyftJpcOTMv9k13R9bliF0vB_ZU-juX0/s800/g7043_hi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlCvCjq5iMknpG2H3d6hve02FKFkXNOxPOwbJg5XQNmRiDV_vXveaqHmtILmqVmPD0mfgc8pNcRw0c3D-Qogdd69zn8JE9M3Zfy5p8sW2N9m-PyftJpcOTMv9k13R9bliF0vB_ZU-juX0/w200-h200/g7043_hi.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>11: Propagandhi - Potemkin City Limits</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Propagandhi's style shift was complete by this point in history, to the point that if you weren't familiar with them you'd never guess this was the same band that wrote <i>How to Clean Everything</i>, and that's not a bad thing. Their unique style of heady punk rock blended with the perfect amount of thrash metal to create an instantly identifiable sound was perfected already, and this is simply the least great of their great albums. Fundamentally this is pretty similar to the preceding album, but its main fault is that it's simply not as memorable as their other albums. I tend to refer to this album as "The one with 'A Speculative Fiction' and a bunch of other songs" and I've never been able to break away from that mindset. "A Speculative Fiction" is one of the best songs they ever wrote, perfectly exemplifying their aggressive punk that gets sidetracked with acoustic diversions and occasional thrash riffs, loaded with memorable moments (YOUR STUPID FUCKING LASER PUCKS WERE JUST THE START) with the dead-eyed seriousness that they'd carry throughout their career. The problem is that nothing else even comes close to the brilliance of "A Speculative Fiction". "Fixed Frequencies", "Fedallah's Hearse", and "Die Jugend Marschiert" keep the momentum going as best as they can, but ultimately this one just doesn't live up to the standard they set for themselves. Oddly enough this actually has a lot of similarities to <i>October Rust</i> when looked at in the context of both bands' careers. They're both the least good of their classic eras and second least good overall, they're both the fourth album out of seven and the second after their signature sound was solidified, they're both the lightest and most melodic of the bunch, and they both feature the best vocals. I adore Hannah's deeper register that he took on at the turn of the century and I love Todd Kowalski's super gruff secondary vocals that started once he joined after the first two albums, and neither of them have ever truly deteriorated but I'd say they're most impressive on <i>Potemkin City Limits</i>. Overall though, I think I can sum this up best by pointing out that the title track is on a different album and that kinda speaks to how much more important their other albums are when compared to this one.</div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 6 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 4</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBzKtEKoJTYLJyJVe0Q6nUSR-Pi8LSLEHld00Pa9Os1eL8LO2CyPMR1dcDQHRW-N1D2qRQp1G7n3yDTK-qFJXxWFoAlAaZ-iADvg30y-PBX-cFSwxYFKL04OKlvEXcq6tgG7OrFyqXsE/s800/lesstalk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBzKtEKoJTYLJyJVe0Q6nUSR-Pi8LSLEHld00Pa9Os1eL8LO2CyPMR1dcDQHRW-N1D2qRQp1G7n3yDTK-qFJXxWFoAlAaZ-iADvg30y-PBX-cFSwxYFKL04OKlvEXcq6tgG7OrFyqXsE/w200-h200/lesstalk.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>10: Propagandhi - Less Talk, More Rock</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I want to make clear that from this point forward, every album from both bands fucking rule. So I feel kinda bad putting <i>Less Talk, More Rock</i> on the low end of the list considering how much I love it, but that's the way the chips fall. The snotty vocals and abrasive lyrics are back from the debut, and while all of their music is explicitly anarchist and unavoidably political, I think this is their most directly political album, likely a reaction to how much people didn't get it when they first hit the scene. It's called <i>Less Talk, More Rock</i> because people would complain about them proselytizing and going into detail about what their songs were about onstage. The lyrics are more blunt than before since they were frustrated with people ignoring the message and just jamming to the tunes (the title track explicitly details how Hannah received anal sex and loved it and says everybody dancing to the song without listening to what he's saying is a pathetic nimrod who is now gay by the transitive property). Hell look at the border of the album art. They put "ANIMAL-FRIENDLY - ANTI-FASCIST - GAY-POSITIVE - PRO-FEMINIST" on the cover four fucking times so absolutely <i>nobody</i> could miss the point anymore. I get it that some people don't like bands being preachy even when they agree with them completely, but Propagandhi's unabashed hard-left message is one of my favorite things about them and they'd be exponentially worse if they didn't feel these things as hard and shout them as furiously as they do. "The Only Good Fascist is a Very Dead Fascist" would be a dumb throwaway joke song if it wasn't a vehicle for lyrics as vitriolic as they are (KILL THEM ALL AND LET A NORSE GOD SORT 'EM OUT). These songs get more and more relevant with each passing year and this one stands as probably the most timeless of everything they've done. This is still pure early/mid 90s punk (apart from "Rido De San Atlanta, Manitoba", which is a blast of pure old school hardcore) so they hadn't landed on their signature sound yet, but out of their more "normal punk" duology, this is the clearly superior album to me. It's more unique and direct than <i>How to Clean Everything</i> and really set the wheels in motion for what was to come down the line. I don't use the term "skatershit" as a pejorative, because I'm a huge sucker for the Fat Wreck sound, but I think that Propagandhi's skatershit era is great in the realm of skatershit but pales in comparison to almost everything else they'd do in the future, and the fact that <i>Less Talk, More Rock</i> is a bit more aggressive and experimental than the debut is precisely what makes it the superior album.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 11 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 4</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-uZFpN_8EirQHVkdA1r1de1R1PoUtvdHMoHuv7kmhpW-b9a-KcwmCpSt5bu7sOKd2cKqUHVlpJHVjRmFIXMvcbIBNebe7CJPgBqOOgYus6oikYz9g9oOFcotGGoUFb1DydoBzsRXAXvk/s600/22544.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-uZFpN_8EirQHVkdA1r1de1R1PoUtvdHMoHuv7kmhpW-b9a-KcwmCpSt5bu7sOKd2cKqUHVlpJHVjRmFIXMvcbIBNebe7CJPgBqOOgYus6oikYz9g9oOFcotGGoUFb1DydoBzsRXAXvk/w200-h200/22544.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>9: Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm sorry, but I think there's no way to talk about <i>Life is Killing Me</i> without spoiling a bit of what makes a later entry so great. <i>World Coming Down</i> is one of the most bleak and depressing albums ever written, with every single second sounding like your last moments as you die shitting yourself in a crack house. I suspect that <i>Life is Killing Me</i> was a deliberate attempt to do the exact opposite, because while <i>WCD</i> fully embraced the gothic/doom metal side of their sound, <i>LIKM</i> is all about their more fun and lighthearted poppy side. For that reason it's often seen as the worst TON album, but I don't agree. All of their best songs are the slow and gloomy ones throughout their career (for the most part) but they're equally good at just rocking out and having a good time. "I Like Goils", as problematic as it is from a lyrical standpoint, is without a doubt one of my favorite tunes in their entire oeuvre. Tracks like that and "I Don't Wanna Be Me" are just a barrel of fucking fun and I don't think there's a universe that exists where they don't appeal to the fun drunk in me. And even then, calling this "their pop album" kinda misses a huge amount of the tracks on display, because "Anasthesia" and "The Dream is Dead", potentially the two best songs on the album, are basically just truncated versions of their classic gloomy goth sound anyway. "Less Than Zero" absolutely would not have been out of place on <i>Bloody Kisses</i>. My chief complaint that applies to every Type O album, even the ones I adore wholeheartedly, is that they're all way too fucking long, and even though this is the second longest album of their career, the songs themselves err on the shorter side and even the long ones feel shorter than they are. They captured a very specific lightning in a bottle that they'd always hinted at being able to capture but never really went for before. Like, obviously the shortened radio edit of "Black no.1" isn't as good as the 11 minute version, but if that song was specifically written to be around 5 or 6 minutes, it would've worked fantastically and that's really what <i>Life is Killing Me</i> showcases. They have the ability to condense these songs into tighter packages and it turns out they're really fucking good at it. The entire B side is quality and everything on display is fantastic. Hell even their short punk cover of "Angry Inch" kicks ass and usually the best part of their covers is how they'd totally transform songs into lengthy dirges. I would never call this their best album, but it's definitely the most underrated.</div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 11 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 10</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrj07RTCS4sCKypx-h7dPX5EuoHMsxBPpFEFnnfQeVHFBMyNVdfGFb47gEaLgftQjXxF-n5O-F0gp9SN3NpE7RG-BCUx-Y4FeyCO6vfksmcaLa8mo7M0OnV-qqLEZcdJVMF2DS-_sONxQ/s300/504699.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrj07RTCS4sCKypx-h7dPX5EuoHMsxBPpFEFnnfQeVHFBMyNVdfGFb47gEaLgftQjXxF-n5O-F0gp9SN3NpE7RG-BCUx-Y4FeyCO6vfksmcaLa8mo7M0OnV-qqLEZcdJVMF2DS-_sONxQ/w200-h200/504699.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>8: Type O Negative - Slow, Deep, and Hard</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Let it never be said that I'm some fun-policing wokescold who doesn't think "problematic faves" are acceptable. <i>Slow, Deep, and Hard</i> is a deeply misogynistic record on the whole (to say nothing of the frankly abhorrent racism in "Der Untermensch") but fuckin' hell man it's really god damned good. They hid behind the veneer of "it might be parody, it might not be, wink wink nudge nudge" thanks to Steele's time in Carnivore, and before people on the internet started caring about gross shit in pop culture (like me, for example) the excuse for this stuff was that they were holdovers from that band's edgy shtick. And man, that was believable because there's a lot of leftover hardcore and crossover thrash metal in this record. TON became known for their exemplary goth/doom metal but even when they were kicking the speed up and belting out some absurd aggression they still fuckin' smoked. "Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infedility" (sometimes "shortened" to the alternate title from <i>The Origin of the Feces</i>, "I Know You're Fucking Someone Else") kind of wraps everything TON would ever do into one package. It's quite lengthy at nearly 13 minutes, but it more than justifies its runtime by running through several different themes and moods, from frustrated hardcore punk to to their more signature gloomy doom, and the climactic chorus is so fucking catchy that it should be illegal. I haven't really talked about Josh Silver's keyboard work up to this point, but it's arguably <i>the</i> integral component to their sound, on par with the super fuzzy, bassy guitar tone and Steele's sensual baritone. It works so well here, on their most harsh and unrefined album, that it almost beggars belief. Like yeah, obviously it's an irreplaceable element that absolutely makes <i>October Rust</i> but I think it's even more impressive that he managed to be so prominent and so good on an album where he is by no means the focus. This is kind of similar to <i>Life is Killing Me</i> in the sense that I tend to think of it in terms of its best song and sort of forget about the rest, but every time I revisit it I'm reminded how much I love "Xero Tolerance", "Prelude to Agony", and "Gravitational Constant" as well. Every TON album is long, but I think this one does the best job of justifying its length due to how rough and experimental it was compared to the rest of their career. There really wasn't anything like this in 1991, and there isn't anything else like this throughout the band's career. It was a glorious one-off that saw the band spilling their guts on the studio floor and it amounted to off-kilter genius.</div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 11 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 17<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgls7KfVWUJFomkPlXXjPhYZOEi2fmTWZl1jjoF486OcNrD81OcyDWV-mfz9w2V4EMHYLJBRbc7A2SwTEmqtYQiA4yjkw9A7JusYi72Cy6uXBmd4PAsv8JlQEvoML8yLSdMXo2YrAlad9o/s800/0045778719266.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgls7KfVWUJFomkPlXXjPhYZOEi2fmTWZl1jjoF486OcNrD81OcyDWV-mfz9w2V4EMHYLJBRbc7A2SwTEmqtYQiA4yjkw9A7JusYi72Cy6uXBmd4PAsv8JlQEvoML8yLSdMXo2YrAlad9o/w200-h200/0045778719266.png" width="200" /></a></div>7: Propagandhi - Failed States</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Whenever
a metal fan says they're interested in checking out some punk music, I
actually point to Propagandhi as the best entry point for a metalhead as
opposed to way more obvious bands that more clearly blur the line
between the two styles like DRI or Suicidal Tendencies or whatever. In
my eyes, if you want to get into a new style of music, it's kind of
pointless to cater to the tastes you already have instead of taking the
genre on its own merits. Propagandhi is my go-to because they're a punk band
with a punk ethos that play punk music by punk rules, but <i>constantly</i> throw little metal-isms all over the place. <i>Failed States</i>
is a great example of that tendency, because I'd argue this is their
heaviest, darkest, and most difficult album almost entirely because of
Chris's lifelong love of thrash seeping through the hardest (seriously,
he has a few official playlists on Spotify ostensibly highlighting his
favorite songs and like 95% of them are classic 80s thrash metal).
Songs like "Status Update" and the title track here are fucking
barnbuners, and something like "Rattan Cane" is actually full on
dissonant in its spastic chaos, with Kowalski's gruff, amelodic voice
absolutely battering the shit out of you. I haven't really talked about
Jord's drumming up to this point but he's a monster behind the kit here
more than arguably anywhere. There aren't a whole lot of legitimate
"storytellers" in punk rock, but Propagandhi excels at this and the more
experimental nature of <i>Failed States</i> really helps this element
of their sound shine. All of their lyrics read more like longform
poetry than cut up stanzas, and this is true of every album but it works
fucking beautifully with tracks as sprawling as "Lotus Gait" and "Note
to Self". That latter one is so fucking out there that it's actually
reminiscent of Tool of all bands in certain parts. While this isn't
their best album, I do think it's the most "Propagandhi" album out of
all Propagandhi albums. They leaned pretty wholeheartedly into their
metal influences to create a melodic hardcore album unlike any other,
and even within their own heavy as hell discography they amped the
heaviness up to extreme levels with this one. Without a doubt, <i>Failed States</i>
is their most experimental and daring album. They took a ton of risks
with the extreme variance in song lengths ("Status Update" barely cracks
sixty seconds while "Note to Self" is a full six minutes) and the
off-kilter angle they approached everything. They had their style
pretty solidly pegged down with the previous three albums and then took a
huge dose of Protest the Hero with this one and shoved it all through
an aggressive punk filter and landed on total brilliance. And it's only
their fourth best album somehow. (Initially I had this ranked a spot
lower, but upon relisten I was reminded how fucking incredible the
closing duo of "Lotus Gait" and "Duplicate Keys Icaro" was and had no
choice but to leapfrog <i>Slow, Deep, and Hard</i>. If TON ends up losing by a point, blame those two songs.)<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 19 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 17</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVsAthF-MrYRGa6VAz8nLpaYHbExXX-96fH80uuf7y3xZYMJ3li7VPEBb1mTaY12MECmU4aoh0h7oOAixKxqjuszFPZruIKNywKKS7g3542YEzRagAHjctySHzmQgQW5aiVAUYsa04Uo/s800/87540_Propagandhi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVsAthF-MrYRGa6VAz8nLpaYHbExXX-96fH80uuf7y3xZYMJ3li7VPEBb1mTaY12MECmU4aoh0h7oOAixKxqjuszFPZruIKNywKKS7g3542YEzRagAHjctySHzmQgQW5aiVAUYsa04Uo/w200-h200/87540_Propagandhi.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>6: Propagandhi - Victory Lap</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Their most recent record as of this writing, <i>Victory Lap</i> copped some shit when it was released in 2017 for basically being just <i>Failed States</i> a second time, but honestly that criticism seems wildly off base to me. It has some superficial similarities for sure (tracks like "Comply/Resist" and "In Flagrante Delicto" get crazy heavy), but the overall color of the album is totally different. It almost feels optimistic in a way, which is actually a pretty new direction for a band of anarchists hell bent on exposing the shady underbelly of the world. I think this is mostly due to the abundance of quiet parts this time around. I haven't really mentioned it yet, but one of the reasons Propagandhi is so unique in the realm of melodic hardcore is their fearlessness in how frequently they'll shift the tempo down, and <i>Victory Lap</i> is probably the most reckless in how suddenly it'll shift from soft introspection to chaotic intensity. "Lower Order", for example, starts off with what it basically thrash mosh riff before abruptly shifting to clean guitar and bouncy pop melodies as Hannah details his road to veganism thanks to a forced hunting trip as a kid and his growing hatred with people who treat sentient animals like a stupid joke. "Tartuffle" sounds like a fun, almost Motorhead-esque tune until you realize the acerbic lyrics are pointed squarely at the punk scene itself (something they've railed against in the past) for treating their music like some performative self flagellation before fucking off to live their lives without internalizing the message at all, which like, damn dude just call me out by name next time. There's a feeling of hopeless resignation to more current events this time around, with some direct allusions to Trump and the NDP, and I think that less general and more timely approach is something that might make this album less poignant in the future, but in this current moment, it strikes me as one of their absolute best. Maybe it's not the intent, but the feeling I get from this is that the world is definitely, irreversibly fucked and the best we can do it just keep trying to live our lives and change it for the better as best we can. So while this is by no means their most venomous album, it's the one that I feel most strongly about on a visceral level most of the time.</div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 28 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 17</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrs6GQQ6iX_J-CoJ7duIv10gXWJY28FmdWUoIQffW4oMjkMczlrUjQTwULObpEbdSelR2n_qcr8RLDhieUvT51B_2SsbQ8iVW1JuceCwbcsiw2xWmqYqVz-DnNyXAby908yuw0oyGQjc/s400/3534.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrs6GQQ6iX_J-CoJ7duIv10gXWJY28FmdWUoIQffW4oMjkMczlrUjQTwULObpEbdSelR2n_qcr8RLDhieUvT51B_2SsbQ8iVW1JuceCwbcsiw2xWmqYqVz-DnNyXAby908yuw0oyGQjc/w200-h200/3534.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>5: Type O Negative - World Coming Down</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">As I hinted in the <i>Life is Killing Me</i> entry, <i>World Coming Down</i> is without a doubt the bleakest album in TON's discography. Their signature brand of black humor is basically entirely washed away in a haze of drug-addled misery. It's a collection of agonizingly slow, nearly unlistenable drudging dirges that only give you enough breathing room to let out a sob and imagine your own death in horrific detail. The actual compositions on display are less important to me than the thematic cloak surrounding them. I've talked about this album in other features before, and I want to draw attention once again to Noktorn's review from 2007, which is, as far as I'm concerned, the definitive analysis of this album and TON's career as a whole. Forgive me for the cop-out of quoting an entire paragraph and basically letting Temporally Displaced Noktorn write this entry for me, but I'll never describe the feeling this album gives me better than he did thirteen years ago. "One of my central complaints about metal's illustrations of depression
and sadness is that they're much too idealistic and teenaged in tone.
Most metal bands have clearly never experienced genuine depression, as
it's not the gothic romance they portray it to be. The atonal moments of
Type O Negative capture the truth of it: depression is much more an
abstract, featureless misery than it is something beautiful. The riffs
flawlessly express this: amorphous, languishing collections of
lethargic, dissonant notes, with just a fragment of minor key melody to
give a trace of emotion to it And that's all there really should be, as
that's all there is during periods of depression: a trace of emotion,
more a memory of what it's like to feel than any feeling itself. But the
more incredible thing they're able to do is in the openly melodic
segments, with their bittersweet beauty that fits the New York goth
style and allows us all to look into it. This beauty isn't a celebration
of a depression, but a celebration of beauty in ugly places. It's the
beauty in natural disasters, in inevitability, and most importantly, in
the fact that you, yes, you, will not be remembered after you're gone.
Type O Negative celebrates our insignificance, how non-existent the
footprint each one of us leaves on our world will be. This is the
musical equivalent of standing on the edge of the river at night and
looking longingly at the city before you, surrounded by people, and yet
the loneliest person in the world. That is beauty." If that doesn't help <i>World Coming Down</i> make sense to you, then frankly, I wish my history of mental health more closely mirrored yours.</div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 28 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 27</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi1JBjXZZbU46v5leuPco_5TSuQG8PbmGD2GqNQoNYST_nExJ-J9RmoYUp3DEp4B8PVx-WhaWud2fi17UQ7123cZuFOmJdsKdbp55HLT361FkSSYW8M5d0AAV7v1RfIiWFaGg5nShp0xI/s800/g7015_hi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi1JBjXZZbU46v5leuPco_5TSuQG8PbmGD2GqNQoNYST_nExJ-J9RmoYUp3DEp4B8PVx-WhaWud2fi17UQ7123cZuFOmJdsKdbp55HLT361FkSSYW8M5d0AAV7v1RfIiWFaGg5nShp0xI/w200-h200/g7015_hi.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>4: Propagandhi - Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I wasn't a fan of Propagandhi in 2001 when this was released, mostly because at that time I refused to listen to anything that could be described as "punk", but god damn I can only imagine how much of a complete game changer this was for fans at the time. <i>Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes</i> is one of those rare albums that seems to be unambiguously recognized as a major band's magnum opus while simultaneously not going on to be super influential. Still to this day, Propagandhi is in a league of their own and <i>TETA</i> stands as one of the only albums that sounds like it does. I said <i>Failed States</i> is their heaviest album, but without a fucking doubt <i>TETA</i> is the most <i>venomous</i>. Absolutely zero punches are pulled with this one, from the scathing takedown of the punk scene in album highlight "Back to the Motor League" to the straight up animal-activist-terrorism-fantasy of "Purina Hall of Fame", to the feminist tirade in "Ladies Nite in Loserville", to the vicious condemnation of everybody who ignored the genocide in East Timor in "Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An", it just never stops. The entire experience is like standing under a waterfall of flaming bile for a half hour, delivered with some of the most simultaneously smart and chaotic hardcore this side of Converge. It's like <i>Less Talk, More Rock</i> somehow still didn't manage to properly convey what the band was all about and so they threw every little bit of humor and fun out the window and instead just pummeled listeners over the head over and over and over again until everybody who stubbornly resisted the message finally fucked off forever. The CD contains an entire multimedia section detailing CIA war crimes, there's no subtlety here at all. I've mentioned bassist Todd Kowalski a few times throughout this feature, but this album heralded his entrance after John Sampson left to form The Weakerthans and god <i>damn</i> is it immediately obvious. Any poppy element of the band is now completely gone and Todd's razor sharp bark punctuates the fastest and meanest songs on the record like "Fuck the Border", "Bullshit Politicians", and "Ordinary People do Fucked-Up Things When Fucked-Up Things Become Ordinary". <i>TETA</i> feels like it's constantly flying off the rails <i>while</i> coming apart at the seams. Nothing is restrained, nothing is held back, it's just one of the most insane god damned records in the genre. Even "Purina Hall of Fame", the longest and most complex track on display, can't help itself with that climactic guitar solo sounding like Chris is completely losing control and taking the Kerry King approach, completely throwing out the entire concept of musicality and just raking his fingers to the bone, blood spraying everywhere while ten billion notes in no particular order just fly through the speakers and directly into your heart. There's really no place to put this, but that first heavy riff on "Purina Hall of Fame" is so fucking good that even Protest the Hero couldn't help but jack it for "Skies". "Better lives have been lived in the margins, locked in prisons, and lost to the gallows than have ever been enshrined in palaces".</div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 39 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 27</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilIeb9NWVsW5vLxxuwLe-xbOXMBOqCoi3CVtPG2G6pg_5e8gRbaLIK3w-arP-7cKVBygRbA-iAiRrmKW9yOTd9_fsPrDDHlR2WoiHuS_gmjpv-9H75vgYqaWoWY3UVDl8FDNYhRIIrP6E/s409/2101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="409" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilIeb9NWVsW5vLxxuwLe-xbOXMBOqCoi3CVtPG2G6pg_5e8gRbaLIK3w-arP-7cKVBygRbA-iAiRrmKW9yOTd9_fsPrDDHlR2WoiHuS_gmjpv-9H75vgYqaWoWY3UVDl8FDNYhRIIrP6E/w200-h200/2101.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>3: Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">If anybody reading this hasn't heard Type O Negative before for some reason, <i>Bloody Kisses</i> is without a doubt the first album you should check out. Not only is it their mainstream breakthrough and one of their best in general, it's also arguably their most diverse album. <i>BK</i> is a 73 minute smorgasbord of basically every single style they'd touched before and will touch in the future, and because of that it acts as the perfect primer for everything the band is about. You've got the old school punk blasts in "Kill All the White People" and "We Hate Everyone", you've got their goth rock groove in "Blood and Fire" and "Set Me on Fire", and most importantly you've got their signature goth/doom gloomfests in the title track, "Too Late: Frozen", "Christian Woman", and of course their most well known song, "Black no.1". That last track is in serious danger of being one of my favorite songs ever, across any genre. It's one of the most perfectly written tunes ever and I'll never not love it. The lyrics being a pointed skewering of goth girls wound up being deliciously ironic considering it's eventual goth anthem status. It's named after a hair dye, Josh plays the Addam's Family theme at one point, the line "Loving you was like loving the dead" is not a darkly romantic couplet but rather a joke about how you're terrible at sex, it's a brilliantly sardonic sendup of what would prove to be a key demographic, and I love that sort of deliberate self sabotage failceeding into massive success. I've mentioned several times that most TON albums are too long, despite their consistently high quality, and while that's true here as much as anywhere, this is still the most digestible of the lot. I think this is because the three albums after this all more or less stick to one mood whereas <i>Bloody Kisses</i> tries a whole bunch of different shit. They took a lot of risks on this one, and it paid off by launching the band into genuine superstardom in the 90s. There really was nobody else like them at the time and to this day there still kinda isn't. I've gotta cut this entry relatively short for reasons you'll see in a few words.</div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 39 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 39</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-okT7fpl-JVbRKdRMdviYErw_Hb2Vbjhk54sycZQoaQGGTqbvL8Xie4jmkrd7hazlfB5dBY5F2GPlSxO0pUf-9XoxQUMUgx01uxx8oQk3Ln7uY7HKAfGoS_q1u8iREJo0G9gtVR7-ISQ/s400/141273.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-okT7fpl-JVbRKdRMdviYErw_Hb2Vbjhk54sycZQoaQGGTqbvL8Xie4jmkrd7hazlfB5dBY5F2GPlSxO0pUf-9XoxQUMUgx01uxx8oQk3Ln7uY7HKAfGoS_q1u8iREJo0G9gtVR7-ISQ/w200-h200/141273.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>2: Type O Negative - Dead Again</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I was dreading this part of the list purely because I knew there was a very good chance I'd place <i>Bloody Kisses</i> and <i>Dead Again</i> right next to each other, and that makes them a bitch to write about because I love them both for basically the exact same reasons. <i>Dead Again</i> became the band's swansong, released a few years before Steele's death, and honestly I don't think I could've ever asked for a more fitting capstone on their career. If <i>Bloody Kisses</i> showcased all of the styles they were capable of, and the following three albums explored three of those different sounds to their fullest extent, <i>Dead Again</i> was the coda that reached back and acted as a "greatest hits" of all of them. This is probably their strangest album because it's so many contradictions simultaneously. It's their most diverse album while also being a throwback, it's the longest album despite having the fewest tracks and containing a multitude of uncharacteristically fast songs, it has the most uplifting and optimistic sound of them all while the subjects remain as dark and miserable as usual, it's a whole lot of everything and I love all of it. It's lyrically pretty confusing to me, because I've never really delved all that deeply into the band members' personal lives, but it seems like Peter had found religion at some point before writing this album, which might have something to do with why this album sounds oddly hopeful in many parts, but it does result in some weird anti-abortion shit punctuating the first verses in "These Three Things". That track ends up being the lone less-than-phenomenal moment on the album, though it's no fault of the lyrics, it's simply <i>way too long</i> and manages to be one of the few tracks in the band's oeuvre to fail to justify its length (I complain about their albums being too long but it's usually because they have too many tracks, not because the tracks themselves are too long). The other nine tracks though? Absolute knockout after knockout. Even their best albums fell prey to their tendency to throw in pointless interludes or joke tracks, but not this one. As great as TON's discography is, <i>Dead Again</i> is the only one I can confidently say is all killer and no filler. Apart from "These Three Things", there isn't one single thing I dislike about any tracks. Each one has a different angle of attack and all of them are phenomenal. I love how gorgeous "September Sun" is, I love the hardcore/crossover throwback moments in "Tripping a Blind Man" and "Some Stupid Tomorrow", I love the incredibly deep vocals and march cadence in "She Burned Me Down", I love the pure Sabbath riffing in "An Ode to Locksmiths", I love how the title track manages to be one of their fastest songs without actually sounding particularly angry, I love how oppressive and suffocating "The Profit of Doom" is, and god damn whatever "Halloween in Heaven" is is just fucking <i>magical</i>. The whole thing is Sabbath-cum-Bauhaus-cum-cumshot and there isn't a single thing I'd change about it. <i>Dead Again</i> may be an unorthodox choice, but it is without a doubt my favorite Type O Negative album and one of the greatest tragedies in music history is that Steele passed away before he was able to further expand upon it. "We ain't going home, we've got nowhere to go..."</div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 39 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 52</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYYUQMSnOOsAVJh1rLqvETXKV4P1SomdF5aQmEKgDwtcbQLj7uwkmim85bm_xJXSIB7obkG8HWltaTSaEFvmlAKqrbW0vy4wdvSH0yxu3rKUFrbfwrzZQUZpV1oeh9ba_T60ISgdaUxAU/s800/g7058_hi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYYUQMSnOOsAVJh1rLqvETXKV4P1SomdF5aQmEKgDwtcbQLj7uwkmim85bm_xJXSIB7obkG8HWltaTSaEFvmlAKqrbW0vy4wdvSH0yxu3rKUFrbfwrzZQUZpV1oeh9ba_T60ISgdaUxAU/w200-h200/g7058_hi.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>1: Propagandhi - Supporting Caste</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Placing <i>Supporting Caste</i> at the top of the heap when discussing Propagandhi isn't really a hot take, but I do want to rewind a bit back to me placing <i>Potemkin City Limits</i> near the bottom. That's the album that usually fights with the surrounding albums for the top spot with most fans it seems. I mentioned the title track was on a different album and I felt that was fitting, and that's where this brick joke pays off, because "Potemkin City Limits", the track, not the album, is featured on <i>Supporting Caste</i>, and if <i>Potemkin City Limits</i>, the album, not the track, was fully realized and every song was as good as "A Speculative Fiction", it would've been <i>Supporting Caste</i>. This is their apex, and while the subsequent albums have been great, I don't think anything they do in the future has a reasonable chance of surpassing this monument. Everything they had been doing up to this point has just been so finely tuned and honed to perfection that there really isn't anything worth tweaking at this point. This was it, the absolute best version of Propagandhi to ever exist. I see the term "progressive thrash" thrown around a lot when people talk about the heavy sound they've championed since the turn of the millennium, but I think that's usually kind of off base and simply the result of punks not really having the language or intimate knowledge of metal to fully explain what it is they're doing, but not this time. <i>Supporting Caste</i> is the closest they ever came to truly being some form of whacked out left-field progressive thrash metal band without ever abandoning that melodic hardcore base. You can hear it plainly in tracks like "Night Letters", "Tertium Non Datur", and especially "Incalculable Effects". The A side in general tends to be the heavier side by a long shot, because even the though the two best songs on the album ("Dear Coach's Corner" and "Humane Meat") spend most of their time playing to their lighter and cleaner side, they feature the two heaviest moments on the album in the intro and bridge respectively. I mentioned before that Propagandhi's fearlessness in leaning into their acoustic sections and twinkly melodies is something that really helps them stand out, and the contrast between their heavy and light parts are their most stark here, and it works wonderfully. They were never the type of band to write in a straight line anyway, but this is the twistiest and most chaotic of them all. The poetic style of the lyrics works incredibly well with the way they write songs, seemingly jamming on riffs in odd orders and fitting the pieces in after the fact, but they do it all in such a way that you never doubt for one second that it wasn't intentional. I want to highlight "Dear Coach's Corner" as well for admittedly personal reasons y'all likely don't care about. I reference sports just as often as I reference videogames and Achewood in my writing, but in truth I haven't watched a sporting event in years at this point, and "Dear Coach's Corner" reaches directly into my heart to pull out the exact reasons why. It's such a heartfelt plea for sanity as we've watched this silly kid's game we all love turn into an expensive military recruitment commercial, and we've been robbed of the ability to even watch some dudes slap wads of rubber around a sheet of ice without being complicit in empire, and that's so fucking heartbreaking. Propagandhi sees the world for what it is, but they desperately, hopelessly wish that it wasn't this way, and they express this pain via some of the smartest punk ever written. I've mentioned before that my favorite band of all time is Bad Religion, but Bad Religion is what plays during the Democratic Party Convention while Propagandhi is what plays during the insurrection outside. The Hard Times put it best with their review: <a href="https://thehardtimes.net/blog/we-listened-to-half-a-propagandhi-album-and-came-to-while-setting-a-wells-fargo-on-fire/">"We Listened to Half a Propagandhi Album and Came to While Setting a Wells Fargo on Fire"</a></div><div style="text-align: left;">PROPAGANDHI 53 - TYPE O NEGATIVE 52</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">AND SO! With the tight score of 53-52 we have a winner for the third Ladder Match, and they are...<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBmfpFS7SGHBOwKbXKvvpPjXieBTzAHbgBYnFyMxcU0lDPkGrhpl0fbDBvQJLjgNls4s0uylxTAy3nKXPrIzFfd3BwuWgJexLFGrpwy0nKnrHbGKMTpDo6OmP-0LACF5vnhfWDJ9dWUhw/s1340/Ladder+Match+Final+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="1340" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBmfpFS7SGHBOwKbXKvvpPjXieBTzAHbgBYnFyMxcU0lDPkGrhpl0fbDBvQJLjgNls4s0uylxTAy3nKXPrIzFfd3BwuWgJexLFGrpwy0nKnrHbGKMTpDo6OmP-0LACF5vnhfWDJ9dWUhw/w640-h262/Ladder+Match+Final+3.jpg" width="640" /></a> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Propagandhi! I know I said that it being October was the whole reason I wanted to do one of these featuring Type O Negative, but my insistence on keeping the two bands as different as possible meant that the decidedly unspooky band I chose wound up just edging them out. I'm being honest when I say that I don't tally up the point totals before I start writing (I scrapped a Metallica vs Suffocation matchup halfway through writing when I realized Suffo was gonna win by like forty points), and I also only make a rough outline of the final ordering and tweak it as I write and listen, it's not uncommon for albums to jump or fall from their initial position during the course of writing. Both of those things bit me this time, because I knew the top two were going to be Dead Again and Supporting Caste but I wasn't sure which order I'd put them in, and once I got to Bloody Kisses and realized the score was going to be tied at that point with one album each to remain, I audibly groaned because now that final ordering of the last two albums was going to be <i>the most important</i> placement. I joked that if Propagandhi won by a point you'd have to blame the last two tracks on Failed States, but in actuality you'll have to blame "These Three Things" for being too long because that was literally the deciding factor for me when it came to giving it #2 instead of #1. Really tough break for the Drab Four but they lost to some <i>stiff</i> competition.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway, thank you all for reading! The spooktacular special wound up shafting the gothlords but life isn't fair and you'd think goths would've caught on to that by now.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">(AUTHOR'S NOTE: While searching for pics to use for the awful matchup pics, I came to the conclusion that holy shit please buy Propagandhi's albums so Chris can afford a new Final Conflict shirt)<br /></div></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-1722531139001748062020-10-05T08:00:00.002-05:002020-10-07T21:55:36.188-05:00RELITIGATING HIGH SCHOOL Vol VII: Job for a Cowboy - Doom<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkPD1v8wH7sxAMT-M4XOMULqb4fB9nonNuuVEp7dCrmsF8b70HgoYHuLYHtyPr1fqGBiPmjoQD40td16borcsul54dUMgHg9tN97vNklj6BJX2WA2LC-K3sXoI2awHxXDLQM6qDW5lvJ8/s398/101523.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="398" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkPD1v8wH7sxAMT-M4XOMULqb4fB9nonNuuVEp7dCrmsF8b70HgoYHuLYHtyPr1fqGBiPmjoQD40td16borcsul54dUMgHg9tN97vNklj6BJX2WA2LC-K3sXoI2awHxXDLQM6qDW5lvJ8/w200-h200/101523.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">IT'S A FUCKIN' GOOD CHEESE</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I knew which album I was going to end this series with way back when I got the idea to do it. Job for a Cowboy isn't strictly metalcore, per se, but they provide a nice narrative conclusion to the whole thing in my eyes. When nu metal died out, metalcore became the predominant heavy genre in the mainstream, and after few fruitful years at the top, it was eventually supplanted by deathcore. I don't consider JFAC to have invented the style or anything, I'm sure there were plenty of lesser known bands to blend those heavy breakdowns with more traditional death metal and add pig squeals on top before them (I tend to think of them more as one prong in the trident along with Whitechapel and As Blood Runs Black when it comes to bringing the genre to the forefront, but even then I'm sure somebody can make a convincing argument otherwise), but this was the first I had heard. It was the first that tons of people had heard, frankly. JFAC is the first band I can remember that truly hit it big off the back of Myspace popularity, the first band to utterly blow the minds of kids who were into heavy music but weren't interested in old shit from the 90s, the first to speed past mere "aggression" and land headfirst into utter "brutality". Us jaded internet folks understood that death metal had been a thing for like fifteen years at this point, but after spending the last few weeks completely immersed in early 2000s New England metalcore, I get it now. Killswitch Engage and All That Remains sound like shuddering pissbabies in the shadow of "Entombment of a Machine". If I hadn't had a cool mom and access to the internet and had instead followed the natural trajectory of Pantera > nu metal > metalcore, <i>Doom</i> would have wrecked my fucking brain too.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Looking back from the perspective of the wizened old know-it-all that I am today, I can pretty safely say that <i>Doom</i> is actually a fairly normal death metal EP for the most part. Take away the bree bree vocals and the breakdowns and this is fairly standard technical death metal, with ripping tremolo riffs and punishing blastbeats aplenty. It jumps around very often, never riding on a static section for more than a few seconds. The drums are constantly spazzing out in a dozen different directions, the riffs twist and slither all over the place, quickly snapping into place on a dime and constantly throwing power punches at you with little regard for a logical flow. It's chaotic and nasty, and the band's eventual progression into standard DM is much less surprising now that I'm revisiting this fifteen years later.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">However, if this were regular death metal, it would have neither set the metalcore world on fire nor would it have drawn the ire of so many traditionalists. No, it earned the reputation it has because of those different elements, and their inclusion did indeed meaningfully change it into something beyond simple death metal. I'm not gonna pretend Autopsy didn't exist but let's be real, JFAC didn't include massive slamming breakdowns because of any traditional influence. In essence, what made <i>Doom</i> what it was was that it was musicked in a way that bent much closer to hardcore/metalcore than death metal. You don't listen to Cannibal Corpse the same way you listen to deathcore. Instead of taking in entire songs as a whole, with different riffs and motifs working in tandem with one another, you listened to relatively disconnected blasts of intensity as the song built and built and built until it finally burst with a massive, devastating breakdown. This is what <i>Doom</i> did spectacularly well, and if this had never gotten the grassroots success that it did then heavy music as a whole probably would've looked a hell of a lot different for a solid ten years.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Unfortunately, this is far from a perfect release. Hell it'd be a stretch to even call it "great". What <i>Doom</i> has going for it are two fantastic songs packaged along with three totally inconsequential snoozers. "Entombment of a Machine" is <i>the</i> iconic deathcore song, and it's earned that reputation. It's a four minute long cavalcade of chaotic blasting sprinkled in between gargantuan heaps of big stupid mosh riffs and big stupid breakdowns. It's a big stupid song and it turns out that JFAC's strength at this point in their career is just being big and stupid. This kind of knuckle dragging simplicity is beautiful in its primitiveness and the EP's greatest crime is that every song isn't like this. "Knee Deep" stands out as the other great one, and frankly it could've logically been written by a different band considering how much more normal it is. That one sports an opening riff that could've been written by fucking Deicide, and it absolutely rules. Like I said before, if the vocals were different nobody would've bat an eye at this song, because that's really the only thing nontraditional about it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The other three songs? Eh, they're all <i>fine</i> but that's about it. Opening with "Entombment of a Machine" was a brilliant choice because it instantly smacked you in the face with a sound that was genuinely new to most people and was the strongest song anyway, but it also carries the unfortunate burden of setting expectations way too high for the rest of the album. "The Rising Tide" has like three separate moments where the band drops out and you <i>know</i> when they come back they're gonna fuckin' <i>slam</i> their hearts out but they just... don't. They come crashing back in with more or less run-of-the-mill death metal with some heavier chugs interspersed in from time to time. This happens time and time again, and it wouldn't really be a problem if these other tracks were as good as "Knee Deep" but they just aren't despite being fundamentally similar. I remember their first full length, <i>Genesis</i> being a shock to me at the time because there was nothing deathcore about it and it was just straight ahead death metal with no twists, but going back to check out this debut EP 15 years later reveals that they had pretty much telegraphed that they'd be totally pedestrian without those breakdowns and pig squeals and that already took up the lion's share of what they were doing. "Entombment" was so ubiquitous and so iconic that I think we all collectively tricked ourselves into thinking the entirety of <i>Doom</i> sounded like that, because it categorically does not. And that's not to say that it's only good <i>because</i> of the deathcore cliches necessarily, because they'd go on to prove with <i>Ruination</i> that they fucking smoked when they shifted to a more tech death style, but it's probably not a coincidence that The Big Stupid is where all of the most memorable parts of this album can be found. I bet you don't remember a single note of "Relinquished" but you all know that ridiculous screech in the intro to "Entombment" whether you want to or not.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Doom</i> didn't kill the more melodic side of metalcore by any stretch, tons of iconic albums in that style came out after this (All That Remains had their biggest hit a full year after this came out and the hands down best As I Lay Dying album was released two years later), but I do see it as the signal flare. It wasn't the nail in the coffin, but it was the writing on the wall, the changing of the tides, anybody paying attention to this scene knew that things were going to change for the heavier, and <i>Doom</i> is what opened their eyes to the possibilities. Job themselves more or less stepped aside and let Suicide Silence or whoever lead the charge but I'd say it's pretty uncontroversial to say they got the ball rolling here. At the time, I hated this for what it represented: a total bastardization of a style of music that I loved, taking my beloved death metal and ruining it with dumbass 60bpm breakdowns and bree bree vocals, but nowadays I appreciate it more for what it is than for what it isn't, and even then it's mostly pretty average on the whole. And after listening to that New England style for a few weeks solid, I totally understand what made this such a smash hit at the time. This must've been what it felt like to hear loads of late 80s Anthrax and Exodus for years before stumbling into <i>Altars of Madness</i>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 70%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-49825807653510741332020-10-03T09:00:00.012-05:002020-10-03T09:00:01.286-05:00RELITIGATING HIGH SCHOOL Vol VI: Avenged Sevenfold - Waking the Fallen<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi32t3kjrCiewgruMJgnYcZbS5onr1aR53kMKn9dHmKfEPYpva1dhrZhgCbvHvAQ5FlRkO9nfCFCxUQS7RS03HP5ebmRsc4FvPtuZhlZi81_aUPr__ZRlOY93VtID3jAIa9NAXfRC1EAI4/s600/Avenged+Sevenfold+-+Waking+the+Fallen+%25282003%2529+Album+Artwork.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi32t3kjrCiewgruMJgnYcZbS5onr1aR53kMKn9dHmKfEPYpva1dhrZhgCbvHvAQ5FlRkO9nfCFCxUQS7RS03HP5ebmRsc4FvPtuZhlZi81_aUPr__ZRlOY93VtID3jAIa9NAXfRC1EAI4/w200-h200/Avenged+Sevenfold+-+Waking+the+Fallen+%25282003%2529+Album+Artwork.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">They still ripped off Chaly though</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Well we're nearing the end of this series. My initial plan was to do ten reviews because that seemed like a nice round number and there are more than enough albums to relisten to from this era of my life, but over time I wound up shaving it down to seven for a couple reasons. I was gonna touch on <i>The Fall of Ideals</i> by All That Remains because it would pull double duty and allow me to rewrite an old review, but really I'd just be repeating the Killswitch review so it wouldn't be interesting. I was gonna tackle a Chimaira album but honestly all three of the ones I listened to just bored me to tears and I only managed to get through a full listen once and that was purely because I had it on in the background while I zoned out and played Dynasty Warriors. And lastly I cut out Bullet For My Valentine because other than pointing out how much the clean vocals sounded like Green Day I just didn't have anything interesting to say about it. This isn't exactly relevant to the review, but this is gonna be a LOTB exclusive since Avenged Sevenfold isn't listed on MA so I wanted to take this opportunity to meander a bit and give a look behind the curtain in case any readers thought I left out some obvious candidates. For the curious, my opinions on the three albums I cut are "lame", "bad", and "meh", in order.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">On topic, I have a bit of a confession to make, I'm not entirely unfamiliar with A7X here, because I've long been a defender of their third record, <i>City of Evil</i>. Even when I first heard it, back when the band was persona non grata for metal fans, I thought it was a weird flukey home run where every dumb element of their sound just <i>worked</i>. It was fun, it was fast, it was catchy, it was and is a brilliantly well written slice of modern hard rock/metal that stood head and shoulders above the shitty metalcore they started with and the overblown Guns n' Roses imitation they'd go on to milk to death. But the dirty little secret here is that I had never actually known any of their other albums beyond like two songs across seven albums or whatever. They just weren't worth listening to, who the fuck cares about a group of dorks who dress like Good Charlotte, give themselves dumb names like "Zacky", and rip off Overkill's mascot?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The extremely obvious revelation I'm leading to is that holy shit Avenged Sevenfold is genuinely <i>good</i> and I think I'm just an unironic fan now. Despite always kinda-secretly liking <i>City of Evil</i> this was genuinely the band I had the lowest expectations for based on my memory. But man I'd be lying if I said I hadn't gone back to listen to <i>Waking the Fallen</i> more than a few times since the original relisten, not because I needed to take notes or anything, but just because I wanted to hear it again.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The thing that stands out the most is something that I remember hating the most as a kid, funnily enough. M. "Night" Shyadowlan easily, and I mean fucking <i>easily</i> stands out as the best vocalist of all the bands I've covered in this series. Back when I was 14 I remember hearing a song or two and thinking he was super whiny and then switching the music to Angel Witch without a shred of irony. Hearing so many lame, weak, dry, or tuneless vocalists in a row really makes his skill incredibly fucking obvious and I have no idea why I hated him at the time. His cleans have a lot of grit to them and he carries a tune extremely well, even showcasing a surprising range on "I Won't See You Tonight part 1". His harsh vocals, while dropped entirely after this album, are very good as well. They're extremely venomous and sound like they're coming straight from the gut despite being on the higher end of the register. I focused on vocals so much throughout this series because it seemed like nobody could get the harsh/clean combo right and they so frequently took center stage, but Avenged Fucking Sevenfold of all god damned bands winds up being literally the only one to nail it and my jaw is still on the floor.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Even the instrumental side excels in a way that most of the other bands couldn't. They are by no means the most aggressive or heaviest band in the genre (their drift away from metalcore to a more hard rock and (apparently) progressive metal direction over the years isn't really surprising) but these guys are incredibly fucking tight songwriters. Despite the length of these songs, they have the girth to make it worthwhile. The typical metalcore breakdown of open string chugs in perfect time with a rapid fire bass drum shows up plenty of times here, with "Unholy Confessions" sporting probably the most basic one to ever exist, but they hit surprisingly hard whenever they show up and more often than not the band will just subvert them by slamming down a meaty groove that smacks more of Pantera than anybody else instead. <i>Waking the Fallen</i> runs through a lot of different moods, from caustic bursts like "Unholy Confessions" and "Eternal Rest" to melodic anthems like "Chapter Four" to mournful ballads like "I Won't See You Tonight". That last one actually hammers the Pantera comparison home even further, since it's technically a two-parter, with the first part being a slow ballad and the second part being a shotgun blast of aggression. There's absolutely no way that wasn't intentionally modeled off "Suicide Note", right? Am I crazy? Regardless, the album ebbs and flows between all of these different approaches and for the first time in a half dozen reviews a band actually manages to be good at all of them. I seriously can't get over how much I like "Chapter Four". Seriously, I'd be willing to consider that as my favorite song in the entire genre. There is barely a wasted second on that one and every stupid element of it hits bullseye, and I'm saying that with full acknowledgment of the completely pointless section that repeats a ten note chug pattern eight times in a row. It (and the rest of the album, frankly) is so basic that it should just be corny schlock, but there is so much sincerity here that I can't help but adore it. That chorus is just fucking sublime with that incredible vocal hook coupled with the sliding octaves on the guitar in the background. In comparison to their peers, Avenged Sevenfold doesn't have a single new or novel idea in their collective head but they played their fucking hearts out and torqued the lugnuts so damned tight that they wound up writing a dozen songs that effortlessly steamrolled everybody else trying to make metalcore accessible. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I do have one complaint though, and it should be obvious to anybody familiar with both this album and my reviews in general: it's way too fucking long. No metal album should get this close to the 70 minute mark unless every single song is a standout on its own, and <i>Waking the Fallen</i> is not immune to this criticism. There are a lot of different ideas here but they're all pretty well worn and the album works best as a unit despite a few standout tracks. So as a result it really does start to blur together after the first handful of tracks, which isn't the biggest problem since I think this works pretty well as a unit but it's a problem nonetheless. The good news is that none of the tracks themselves feel too long, which is shocking considering the shortest one (barring the intro) is still only a few seconds shy of five minutes, and three of them breach the seven minute mark (with the first part of "I Won't See You Tonight" stretching out to nine), so the arduous runtime isn't really the end of the world since I was entertained the whole time at the very least.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Really, I didn't see this coming, but <i>Waking the Fallen</i> is genuinely the best of the bunch here. My lifelong love of Pantera helps me appreciate the stomping groove metal parts, my lifelong love of Guns n' Roses helps me appreciate the overblown epic parts where Synyster "Bill" Gates goes fucking feral on his fretboard (though they wouldn't fully lean into this until later), and my lifelong... well indifference to melodeath helps me appreciate the heavy parts simply because they're so much better than the legions of mediocre trend chasers that defined this era of music. The word I keep coming back to in my head that I've been trying not to overuse is "tight". <i>Waking the Fallen</i> is simply a remarkably well written album in a style that was absolutely saturated with mediocre chumps pumping out first draft songs and cashing in, delivered with enough sincerity to turn the corny simplicity into something truly endearing. All this really needed was a bit of a fat trim and maybe dropping one or two songs entirely and this would genuinely be a classic, and I'm not kidding.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I wouldn't have bothered with this series if I wound up thinking everything still sucked just as much as I thought it did when I was a teenager, but really, the fact that Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold, the two bands I vocally hated the most, wound up being the ones that surprised me the most and churned out some genuinely great albums (Heafy's awful vocals are literally the only thing dragging <i>Ascendancy</i>'s score down, remember) is seriously not at all what I expected. I figured it'd be Killswitch, honestly, since I've been a fan of As I Lay Dying ever since 2007, but the world is really fucking weird and here we are. Avenged Sevenfold is Good Actually. Feel free to hold that against me forever if you wish, I'm not backing down, I genuinely adore this album.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 89%</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: left;">(Pre-Publication Edit: Since writing this I've started listening to their other albums. The self titled is actually worse than bad, it's exactly as awful as I remembered their metalcore era being when I was a kid, oddly enough. <i>Nightmare</i> was much better, it was super corny but very <i>City of Evil</i> if it had a huge shot of the <i>Black Album</i> in it, though there were way too many shitty ballads that dragged it down a ton. Still gotta check the rest but that's three albums I'll stand up for now so yeah I guess I'm just a fan after all, whoda thunk)<b> </b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141184874069158818.post-43031513778157874962020-10-01T09:00:00.001-05:002020-10-01T09:00:06.162-05:00RELITIGATING HIGH SCHOOL Vol V: God Forbid - Gone Forever<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1_1mmoGQN7U5yufSfYQietGzquXWlkKmpbIgsyCwc7BcT5FBi9e06-KKJRJvMjBEzKCSaxskHRiOH5D8d30ZujFg6JuXwVRyxS5VU8XGoue0DkCGWQ6Xu1sr3rCAlQBpoCVi9ppVmcbg/s600/36601.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1_1mmoGQN7U5yufSfYQietGzquXWlkKmpbIgsyCwc7BcT5FBi9e06-KKJRJvMjBEzKCSaxskHRiOH5D8d30ZujFg6JuXwVRyxS5VU8XGoue0DkCGWQ6Xu1sr3rCAlQBpoCVi9ppVmcbg/w200-h200/36601.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Yo this fucks</span><br /> </div><div style="text-align: left;">I've been trying to touch on every corner of this era when choosing albums for this series. Shadows Fall was the collective macrogenre in a nutshell, Killswitch was the most standard metalcore band, Atreyu occupied the more radio-friendly and alternative side, et cetera. So when it came time for "the heavy one", the obvious answer was Lamb of God but I've already covered their entire discography, so my brief research led me to two possibilities: God Forbid or Unearth. I decided to go with God Forbid almost entirely because of the hilarious way Suffocation's Frank "The Tank" Mullen pronounces those two words on "Funeral Inception".</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">God Foopee is similar to Shadows Fall in the sense that they were actually fairly early to the party, forming in the mid/late 90s and not seeing success until nearly a decade later, and even then their success was pretty modest compared to most of their contemporaries. Based on everything I've seen and read, they were always extremely respected by scene veterans and inadvertently acted as a great promotional tool since basically the entire northeastern American metal scene of the era opened for them at some point, but merely through bad luck they just never broke out above the second tier.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And that's kind of shocking because they honestly have one hell of a leg up on most of their contemporaries. They were without a doubt the band with the most "metal cred" in the scene if you ask me. While most bands I've covered so far seemed to play metalcore because they were simply influenced by other metalcore bands or did a very cut-and-dry blending of In Flames styled melodeath and emotional hardcore (in a way that kept the elements mostly separated, like a salad instead of a soup), God Foopee played metalcore seemingly by accident by playing hella fast paced melodeath closer to At the Gates or The Haunted with a massive dose of intense thrash metal and simply included breakdowns into the formula that came off sounding more like Pantera than Madball. Every metalcore band was aggressive, but few of them were <i>violent</i>. This unhinged sense of danger is something that <i>Gone Forever</i> absolutely fucking nails in a way that the All That Remainses of the world couldn't even imagine. The clean parts are more effective here than anywhere else because they're so much more rare than usual and the heavy parts are so overwhelming and destructive. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've found myself focusing on vocals a lot in this series and I think that's because this scene had a weird problem with most bands featuring both harsh and clean vocals but basically no band being good at both of them (if either). God Foopee is no different, with the cleans being clearly inferior to the screams, but I actually think the fact that the cleans are so rough adds to the authenticity. Killswitch may have hit a home run with Jones's stunning cleans, and while brothers Doc "tor Death" and "Diamond" Dallas Coyle are several rungs below his smooth majesty, their more scratchy and less tonally punched-in cleans lend a level of sincerity to the music that no amount of theatrical histrionics could dream to match. That "What are we waiting for?" part on "Force-Fed" sounds downright desperate, and the more intense than average music surrounding it helps them blend in so much more than the saccharine cleans of other bands. Byron "The Butcher" Davis's screams, on the other hand, are some of the most caustic and vitriolic I've heard since undertaking this project. He does the Shadows Fall thing of layering over himself quite frequently, but his scream is much more full and menacing than Fair's, so when the layering happens it sounds less like a studio trick to fill out the sound and more like a horde of pissed off minions preparing to eat your insides. He doesn't dig deep into the death metal register or anything, but his mid range screams absolutely stand out from the pack due to the intense amount of rusted nails he chewed before tracking. I can't stress enough how night-and-day the intensity of the vocals are here when compared to basically every other band in the scene.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That applies to the instrumental attack as well. I may be overselling the speed of <i>Gone Forever</i>, but I'm not overselling the aggression. "Washed Out World" has more clean vocals than it probably needs but check out that rollicking thrash riff 25 seconds in. "Living Nightmare" kicks off with an incredibly mosh friendly riff before careening headfirst into a short double bass section that leads into a bloody-knuckled Pantera section. <i>Gone Forever</i> just starts knocking teeth out from the word go and basically never stops. Even the melodic choruses that every album needed by law in 2004 sound dirtier and more chaotic than I'd been getting used to. There's a surprising amount of Nevermore in the sound as well, from the solos to the more skippy riffs to the way the clean vocals are delivered (even if they're wildly different from Warrel Dane's off-broadway overprojection), tons of signs point to that Seattle institution on here. And just like with Trivium, the amount of epic 80s metal in here is surprising as well. "Antihero" and "Soul Engraved" open with speedy riffs that were probably more inspired by <i>Whoracle</i> than anything else but they come off sounding like if In Flames was ripping off Judas Priest instead of Iron Maiden, if that makes sense. The lithe riffs that zip along at high speed and the mid paced open string breakdowns are equally devastating, and I can't help but envision the band tearing the walls off of every venue with their bare hands when these songs are played live. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If there's any flaw here, it's that the tracklist could've used a reshuffling, since the only two songs I don't really care for all that much are "Better Days" and "Perfect Lie" (the latter of which is super clunky and probably should've just been cut entirely), and they're unfortunately placed directly next to each other pretty early in the album. Otherwise the disparate influences are all combined into a super taut package and delivered with an overwhelming amount of venom. God Foopee gets bundled with Unearth mentally for me fairly often because they were both the two bands most frequently recommended to me back in the days I'm looking back on, and now that I've finally gotten around to giving them both good faith listens, I can say they both kicked ass at this niche and I regret passing on them the most. I'm not gonna review Unearth but just imagine they got an identical review and score.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>RATING: 84%</b><br /></div>Bastardheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00653810815019959177noreply@blogger.com1