Shadow of the Colossus - Shadow of the Colossus

HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THROUGH DORMIN'S PLOY YOU FUCKTARD?

Not sure why, but I feel like I always have to defend myself when expressing the fact that I enjoy this album.  This strange xenophobia in metal fandom has been perplexing me for a while now.  I rode the deathcore bashing train at first but not just because everybody was doing it, but more because by dumb luck I'd only heard bad deathcore bands first.  It was kind of equatable to somebody listening to several bedroom bm artists and coming to the conclusion that black metal must suck.  Yeah, Emmure and Suffokate and Suicide Silence and whatnot are garbage but Burning the Masses and The Browning exist and they rock just fine.  Still, the fact that these Californian dudes in Shadow of the Colossus carry that patented overdone production job and sport a few breakdowns here and there means that they get lumped in as an abomination upon metal along with other bands who don't deserve the dubious honor amongst the equal amount who actually are.

So yes, the deathcore cliches are here, but they aren't as overdone or grating as the genre's worst.  For example, there's that production job I mentioned.  It seems like every deathcore band gets the same fucking producer because despite peeling away enough layers of the genre to find the true gems and beacons of creativity within it, I'm still hard pressed to find too many albums that don't carry the same general sound and tone.  It's a bit hard for me to describe, but the drums are pushed way up to the front and are prone to the cymbals clipping, the guitars have a beastly bottom end and an overwhelming amount of crunch, and the vocals are heavily prominent at the same time.  Basically, dynamics go out the window and every member fights for the spotlight.  It can get to be a bit much during the blasting sections at times but I feel it really helps add to the frantic pace at the same time.  The vocalist is pretty standard, switching between high growls and low roars, double layering the two styles a good amount of the time.

One of the reasons Shadow of the Colossus stands out (apart from being named after one of the best video games ever made (seriously, put down Call of Duty and go pick it up, like right the fuck now)) is because of how varied it is.  I'm a huge proponent of "find something you're good at and don't fuck around with it", but if you're good at quite a few different ideas, then by all means mix it up.  Shadow of the Colossus is good at a few different things, and each track really hammers that home.  There are blasty speedfest numbers in "Constructing Ultimate Destruction" and "Serve the Death Sentence", slower, grinding, breakdown heavy tracks like "Labor, the Enslaver" and "The Grove", and an overt and powerful melody that permeates through "Instrumental" and "Losing Sensation of Dimensions".  That melody is actually fairly prominent throughout most of the album, emulating a less technically proficient Decrepit Birth in lead style.  Unfortunately, no tracks really stand out as the best but the album doesn't really feel like one greater piece of work as a whole either.  The songwriting is certainly good, but I feel like they haven't truly broken out into their own style yet, and as such are stuck with the title of "Best Generic Band".  The talent is there, the ear for melody is there, but it's still missing something.

Despite my generally lukewarm sentiments, I do really like Shadow of the Colossus and would recommend them to both fans of deathcore and people like me who are just trying to explore this supposed bastard genre.  Everything is solid enough to be enjoyable but just a little bit under the threshold of being totally awesome.  I dunno, if you read this, try it out, and don't like it, at least play the game the band is named after.  My email is in my profile, I'm sure you'll want to thank me.

RATING - 78%

Znowhite - Act of God

Oh come on, baba don't you wanna go?

I'm gonna come clean with y'all here, this is the only release from the Chicagoan thrash quartet I've ever heard, and one of the only reasons being because of their hometown.  Being a part of the Chicago scene myself, I always found it baffling that the third largest city in the US has left such a small footprint on the annals of metal history.  I think the biggest band we've ever spawned was Trouble, plus a few underground favorites like Usurper and Judas Iscariot (I know the latter is from DeKalb, it's close enough and with a scene this bizarrely tiny I feel it's forgivable to stretch a bit), but the Illinois in general pales vastly in comparison to what areas like New York, Florida, and California have given us.  So I was beaming with hometown pride when I heard that Cyclone Temple wasn't always a fairly mediocre "long thrash" band, and was previously known as Znowhite.  And lemme tell ya, the name and cover art do a damn good job of hiding what is easily one of the top 10 brutal thrash releases of all time.

First off, the band gets a lot of press for being female fronted, but that aspect takes a caboose to the sheer intensity's engine.  When I say "brutal thrash", I think of stuff like Sadus, Kreator, or Sodom, and Znowhite is surely not as intensely over-the-top as these bands, but it's by far one of the heaviest and most vitriolic thrash releases of the late 80s (and possibly ever).  The fake-out ending of "War Machine" and the opener, "To the Last Breath" are great examples, boasting some of the most high octane riffage the genre has ever seen.  In fact, the only time I find myself disappointed with the guitar work is on the overlong and heart crushingly anticlimactic closer, "Something Wicked This Way Comes".  The slower, more twisted atmosphere that song attempts to conjure just falls flat in comparison to the 8 slabs of beastly thrash that precede it.  The band's strength lies in never taking the foot off the gas and just letting the songwriting and aggression manifest themselves through fast paced and cutting guitar work.  Znowhite reminds me of a slightly less sharp but infinitely grittier Anthrax, as the punchiness and hard hitting rhythms of the New York legends is definitely present here, but they sound as if they were filtered through a sandpaper loofah.  Really, the tightness of the rhythm section is really accented by the bone breakingly crunchy guitar tone.  It's like Extreme Aggression with added low end and at least two extra sets of balls.

Despite the overall pant-shitting intensity of the music and generally monotonous shouts of Nicole Lee, the songwriting here actually manages to be very accessible and catchy at the same time.  The incredibly 80s gang shouts in "Thunderdome", every riff in "Soldier's Creed", and the chorus of (once again) "To the Last Breath" are prime examples of moments that are not only incredibly awesome but also infectious.  Yeah yeah, the singer is a chick and the guitarist is black and affirmative action and yabba dabba doo, but none of those superficial aspects should be the reason Znowhite and Act of God get noticed.  This really holds it's own against almost everything else released around the same time, and that includes rippers like the aforementioned Extreme Aggression, Agent Orange, and Eternal Nightmare.  The only thing I dislike is how the leads kind of go in one ear and out the other (which isn't a huge problem since the riffs make up so much of why this album is enjoyable), and the bafflingly poor closing track.  Everything else is sublime, razor sharp, punishing riff writing coupled with enraged shouting that so perfectly captures everything that made thrash metal great in its heyday.  This is a must listen for any self respecting thrasher.

RATING - 89%

APOLOGY FOR SLOW UPDATES

Hey folks

Just wanted to let y'all know that I'm well aware I've been slacking with the updates.  Real life has kind of gotten in the way lately and I haven't had much computer time.  Things have been getting slightly less hectic lately, so I'm getting at least a few hours of free time a day now, so I'll do my best to spend some of that time cranking out updates.  I'm notorious for abandoning projects after they've been running for a very short amount of time, but I'm determined to keep this one going.  So don't y'all worry.  I've a few reviews in the pipeline, but just so you know I haven't been doing nothing, I'll have y'all know that there are planned Decrepit Birth, Destruction, Overkill, Devin Townsend, and my very first non metal review on the way, plus an editorial piece.  So fret not, though my fingers haven't been proving it, my brain has definitely been working.

Stay tuned!

~BastardHead

Deathchain - Deathrash Assault

There's a track called "Napalm Satan", that's all you need to know

I imagine that my first encounter with this album is similar to most death/thrash fans' first encounter.  "Deathchain?  Well that's a fucking awesome name.  What's the name of the album?  Deathrash Assault?  Hmmm, reminds me of Deathrace King.  What's that?  The album cover is a simple black and grey affair like the Crown album I thought of?  Great, we've got a clone on our hands here".  And upon first listen, that's exactly what I thought.  Looks like The Crown, sounds like The Crown, it must be a duck.  So I shelved this as another entertaining but ultimately hollow recreation of a greater band.

Years passed, and a chain of events lead me to dust this off and give it another run.  I don't know why, but absence truly does seem to make the heart grow fonder, because this is not the imitation that I remember it being.  What were once stock riffs have become aggressive monsters, what were once forgettable vocals have become versatile and malicious, and what were once forgettable Crown rip offs have become intense Deathchain rippers.  Not sure why, this is the same album, but it just doesn't have the ability to grab a listener upon first listen.  It takes some resilience to keep coming back to it I suppose, but once this thing latches, it doesn't let go.  And yes, my initial criticism does still ring true, this sounds like the Swedish speed junkies I love so much, complete with their trademark addiction to insane tempos and over the top lyrics.  That said, this connection is far from a bad thing here, as it doesn't sound like they're stealing a great idea as much as they just happened to have another great idea that happens to be similar to one that was already proven to work.

As I mentioned in the title, Deathrash Assault was predestined to kick ass before it was even released.  The reason for this is simply for this; there is a track entitled "Napalm Satan".  Read that again, say it out loud.  "Napalm Satan".  I dare you, I fucking dare you to come up with a better song, album, or band name than that.  Napalm.  Satan.  I love that name more than my hypothetical first born midget kid.  I thought Fleshgod Apocalypse or "Blitzkrieg Witchcraft" were gonna be hard to beat, but this is an entirely different level of awesome, kids.  Just saying it out loud puts an extra strand of hair on your chest.  There is not a single combination of two words that are more manly, more metal, more brutal, more insane, more anything than Napalm Satan.  I'm calling it right now, I'm calling dibs on Napalm Satan for the name of my band.  I'm actually willing to go as far as to say that, based on their first two records, Deathchain is the undisputed champion of two word song titles.  "Graveyard Witchery", "Chaos Wartech", "Venom Preacher", "Deathrash Legions", "Panzer Holocaust", "Rabid Vultures", there is no way that any of these songs could suck.  Deathchain have nailed the badass aesthetics of metal that we all love so much absolutely perfectly, these guys fly over the top and don't even think about looking back.  This is honestly comparable to Rocky IV.  The aesthetics are so over the top in their silliness yet at the same time meant to be taken 100% seriously, yet it's done so damn convincingly that it's hard not to like it.  Bands like White Wizzard make you roll your eyes, bands like Deathchain make you fucking thrash.

Now I'm well aware that I just spent an entire paragraph rambling about how great the mere titles of the songs are, so one is probably wondering when I'll get to the point and explain whether or not the tracks behind the titles are equally awesome.  Honestly, these songs could be titled "Tea Party in Fairyland" or "Dirk Schlacter Sleepover" and they'd still absolutely fucking slay.  The only time the tempo goes below blistering is during "Panzer Holocaust" in favor of a bizarrely bouncy chugging pattern for the verses, complete with equally bouncy vocal patterns, and during the haunting bridge of "Valley of the Corpses".  Despite these sections deviating from the overall theme of speed, intensity, and speed (with a little bit of speed thrown in for good measure), they are actually welcome breathers as opposed to confusing flow breakers.  I believe the reasons these breaks are made aren't actually because the band wanted them to be there for songwriting purposes, but instead because no fans would survive to the end of the record without them.  Deathrash Assault never lets up, and this is the record's main strength since this shit is practically unstoppable when firing on all cylinders.  The first seven tracks are all absolute modern death/thrash classics as far as I'm concerned, and six out of those seven run at an average pace of 8675309 bpm.  I hate to keep comparing this band to The Crown, but I have to point out that they have not only managed to play a similar style with equal ferocity, but they were even able to replicate the ability to make their songs catchy as hell.  There are a lot of gang shouts utilized throughout the record, which is kind of strange with harsh vocals but it makes certain sections of the music stand out.  Check out the choruses to "Venom Preacher" or "Graveyard Witchery", or the bridge of "Deathrash Legions" and tell me that the thrash trope doesn't work better here than most pure thrash bands could ever hope to make it work.  This could also be due in part to Rotten's incredibly versatile vocals, ranging from deep death growls to the Schmier-esque rasp that he seems to favor.  He does occasionally tend to drift into a range that makes him sound a lot like Colony era Anders Friden, which typically isn't the best sound, but he manages to make it fit with the thrashing intensity that dominates the record.

Death/thrash fans who haven't heard this are definitely missing out.  From what I've been able to gather, the band has taken a turn for the more death metal side of things since Rotten left after this album, and it seems many fans aren't satisfied.  While I haven't heard anything post-2005, I can understand why fans could be disappointed, as the high octane thrash is definitely the band's forte if Deathrash Assault is anything to go by.  If there's anything wrong with this album, it's that "Morbid Mayhem" is a bit of a filler track and the album as a whole doesn't seem to click instantly, and therefore you may run the risk of not getting caught up initially.  Maybe I'm just a retard though, as everything his is as catchy as it is brutal, so who knows?  Either way, definitely check this out, and be sure to start every morning with a healthy dose of "Napalm Satan".


RATING - 92%

New Amon Amarth track: "War of the Gods"

Sodom - In War and Pieces

My apologies to Onkel Tom

I have a confession to make... I completely dropped the ball here.  A few weeks before the new year turned, I thought to myself "Well I plan on opening LotB with a best of section, are there any notable records I have yet to hear?".  It wasn't until after it was published that it dawned on me that I had somehow completely overlooked Sodom's latest offering, In War and Pieces.  For this, I have sliced out the vagina of the first attractive woman I saw after leaving the house this morning and mailed it to Angelripper in hopes that it pleases him enough to not kill me for my blunder.

The thing about Sodom is that they've had very few dips in their career.  Every time the Knarrenheinz resurfaces in the news, buttholes clench in preparation for the brutal rape that's down the pipeline.  Sure, Masquerade in Blood was a bit of a disappointment and their flirtations with punk on Get What You Deserve and 'Til Death Do Us Unite didn't sit well with some of the fans (though I personally thought they were still great), but most thrash bands are kind of allowed that stumble in the 90s.  It's one of those things that is just kind of understood and accepted as fact in the metal world.  Most thrash giants turned to suck in the 90s and black and death metal had to fill the gap.  But also like many of their brethren, Sodom once again harnessed the power they once held so triumphantly and began whipping merciless ass around the turn of the century.  This thundering monstrosity is a testament to what Sodom has always stood for musically: aggressive, vitriolic, and violent thrash intensity set against a backdrop of apocalyptic warfare.

Over the years, old Uncle Tom's voice has undergone a bit of a transformation.  The wear and tear of the extreme rasp he sported at the beginning of his career has obviously taken a huge toll on his vocal cords, as he now sounds reminiscent of fellow countryman and another corner of that famous Teutonic Thrash Triangle, Destruction's Schmier.  One of the words I can see people using to describe it would be "modern", but that's really an ill fitting term since "modern" doesn't actually mean a damn thing and it seems to be associated with metalcore yelling, which couldn't be further from the truth here.  Yes, it's a yell or a bark as opposed to a scream or a rasp nowadays, but it's still pure thrash, and it fits the blistering intensity of the music underneath to a T.  And speaking of the music, it certainly fucking delivers.  Sodom still hasn't slowed down since kind of regaining their swagger a little over a decade ago.  This shit is just punishing.  I wholeheartedly believe that if the production was stripped down to a late 80s thrash value, this could have been released no more than a year after Agent Orange and nobody would have been aware of the band's time traveling ability.  And that quality is something that many of the younger thrashers nowadays need to understand better.  Yeah, the 80s were a completely kick ass time for thrash metal, but instead of sounding like records you enjoyed from that era, you should try to sound like you could have been writing and performing alongside Exodus and Slayer instead of just ripping them off over and over again.  Sodom isn't trying to relive past glories with In War and Pieces, they're trying to just kick ass the only way they know how, and that is the way it should be.

I'll admit, like most Sodom records, this does tend to get a little bit samey in the middle, but it bothers me here less than on some other efforts.  "God Bless You" has a rather different feel to it than the rest of the record, starting off on a much calmer note and carrying a less violent and more heroic vibe to it.  "Knarrenheinz" borders on crossover thrash with its intense riffing, and the war march beat under the chorus to the title track just sounds brutal as hell.  There's no doubt that these guy still mean what they're playing, and it's just exhilarating to see a man nearly pushing 50 this energetic and youthful with his art. I don't want to compare Sodom to Destruction yet again, but they're really similar at this point in their careers.  After a shaky 90s campaign, they both release monstrous fan favorites in 2001 (M-16 and The Antichrist respectively) and have only marginally slowed down since then, released solid record after solid record and maintaining a youthful exuberance to help them stay relevant and ass kickingly great.

So once again, I sincerely apologize for my glaring oversight on my year end list.  If you wish to imagine it properly, imagine Hooded Menace shooting up to the number 7 spot (it's really grown on me), Misery Index getting bumped off, and Sodom sitting about the number 8 spot.

RATING - 93%

Year of No Light - Ausserwelt

O Darkness, O Solitude!


When it comes to the "post-" styles of music, I've strangely never been able to get into the subset that merges with my favorite genre, metal.  Post rock, I love.  I could listen to God is an Astronaut or Gifts from Enola or Up-C Down-C Blurbbity Bluh Bluckity all day and never get tired of it.  Now if you chuck some Isis into the mix?  Suddenly my interest is lost.  The juxtaposition of metallic aggression with the quiet atmosphere never really sat well with me.  It was great in theory, but the execution was always fairly shit.  Keeping this in mind, France's Year of No Light is a bit of an anomaly in my listening cycle.  MA lists their genre as "sludge/drone doom metal", but really I can't think of any other way to outline post metal than this.  Yeah, there's some sludginess, there's some doominess, but the dynamics, structure, and overall attitude of Ausserwelt is deeply rooted in the post rock ideal.

For example, the opening track, "Perséphone I", is based around the Explosions in the Sky template of "quiet... LOUD" songwriting.  There are two very long and drawn out buildups that lead to explosive climaxes.  The same can be said about most of the tracks, but the what separates Year of No Light from the heavier post rock bands like Gifts from Enloa lies in the almost funeral doomesque guitar work.  "Perséphone II" and "Hiérophante" really showcase that difference.  A majority of the record is taken up by this ultra slow, apocalyptic, monolithic riffing underneath dissonant, haunting melodies with a strong emphasis on dynamics.  Frankly, it works fantastically.  It doesn't try too hard to throw in a faster metallic riffing section anywhere because I think the band knows that what they're doing works very well already, and that trying to spice it up with something so ill fitting will only be detrimental.  This predictable build and release style should be old news by now, but the band does it so well it doesn't matter.  It's the same reason I don't scoff at each new Cannibal Corpse record.  Yeah, sure it's probably going to sound like the last six records but they all slayed.  Why fix what isn't broken?  What they've got here conveys crushing despair and futility so well that basically any change will just screw up what they've got going on.  The only issue I have with the Ausserwelt is that it's a bit samey at times.  Sure the first track is calmer and the last is the most intense and epic, but the lion's share of the music laid out here is pretty interchangeable.  Still, if you wish there was a bit more Tyranny or Wormphlegm in your Mogwai, this is definitely a good place to turn.  Very healthily doomy, with a post what-have-you attitude.

RATING - 86%

Fleshgod Apocalypse - Mafia

They want the clamps!

I have a well documented boner for Fleshgod, it's just common knowledge at this point.  I saw them live with Suffocation about half a year ago and I'm still erect.  These guys have really pushed the limits of brutality and technicality to a once unheard of level, and it sounds better than most of their contemporaries.  This EP, Mafia has generated a lot of buzz since its release last June, and with damn good reason.  We're treated to three new songs, an At the Gates cover, and (as seems to be their trademark) a solitary piano providing an outro.  So this really isn't all that much material, but it is every bit as great as what was found on Oracles a year prior.  The music, at its core, remains largely unchanged since then, with the general idea still being universe bending speed and technicality with sprinkles of classical orchestra.  "Thru our Scars" features a cleanly sung chorus by bassist Paolo Rossi, hitting some impressive high notes.  It really sounds like it should be out of place but it works fantastically.  I feel I should also point out just how great the cover of "Blinded by Fear" is handled.  They keep the spirit of the original intact whilst amping it up to 11 as is their specialty (and this is rather welcome since I'm not much of an At the Gates fan).

I really can't blabber on about this for very long.  Fans of the previous album will undoubtedly love this just as much, and I really can't recommend either of the two releases enough.  Fleshgod Apocalypse is easily one of the best bands formed in the last five years, and each release only hammers that point home harder.

RATING - 94%

Fedjha - La Fin D'une Ère

Remind me one more time what thrashcore is, Fedhja

Metalheads love thrash and hate metalcore, this seems to be universally accepted.  Say you meet two dudes at a Deicide show and ask them what their favorite bands are.  If Guy A says Kreator and Guy B says As I Lay Dying, a vast majority of metal's lifers will immediately claim Guy B to be a poser unworthy of disgracing metal with his mere presence.  Thrash, despite owing a large credit of its existence to hardcore punk, is considered one of the purest forms of extreme metal.  It embodies the aggression, the abrasiveness, the anger, the swagger, everything that makes metal ballsy and skull crushing.  Metalcore, probably because of its ties to hardcore, is considered everything that is wrong with popular metal.  It is overtly simple, unoriginal, bland, and manufactured.  The trees may not represent the forest, but the biggest names are indeed usually rather boring and unafraid of recycling the same Gothenburg melodeath melodies over and over again over simple and predictable breakdowns underneath bad screaming and occasional whining.  With this in mind, Fehdja decided to try to mix the two styles, with less than successful results.

France's Fedhja really goes out of their way to remind you that they are indeed "thrashcore", putting it in their logo, mentioning it in every interview and promo blurb, and just parroting the word endlessly in some attempt to make them stand out.  The style shouldn't be hard to pull off, and it can be argued that thrashcore is interchangeable with crossover as it is.  If that was the case, why not just label oneself crossover and join an already popular crowd?  The answer is because they aren't blending thrash with hardcore punk like Cross Examination or Municipal Waste does nowadays, but more because they are mixing thrash with As I Lay Dying and Bury Your Dead.  And the result sounds like... well, As I Lay Dying and Bury Your Dead.  Don't get me wrong, there are indeed some healthy thrash segments present in each song (namely "Insoumis"), but they're interspersed with metalcore yelling, aggressive melodeath riffing, and breakdowns.  Really all this is is typical AILD fare with faster breakdowns and the occasional Slayer riff.  Sadly, there really isn't much else to say.  This is a bland record and not even worth listening to all the way since all of the tracks are so damn indistinguishable.  Go ahead and listen to the first track, but after that there's no real reason to go further, you already know what the rest of the album sounds like.  Maybe some hardcore and metalcore fans with gauged earlobes and lip piercings will love the hell out of this, but as a more traditionally leaning metal fan, I can't say I'm gonna listen to this ever again after this review.  Artas does this kind of thing better (though not much better).

RATING - 30%

Lamb of God - As the Palaces Burn

Haters gonna hate

I know Lamb of God is an easy target for a lot of die hard metalheads.  They are a very popular band who play a groovy, Pantera styled metal with plenty of breakdowns. A lot of what makes them Lamb of God is exactly what purists despise.  I'm not gonna sit here and play the open minded card, I'm just gonna concede that I like some shitty music and then praise the hell out of the band.

This here, As the Palaces Burn currently ranks as the band's best.  The aggression is always kept up to a really blistering tempo and always manages to let the percussion carry it very well in order to create a very punchy experience.  Chris Adler is by far the highlight of the band, keeping his patterns interesting during all of the breakdowns and slower parts while also keeping the adrenaline up to full pace during the fast sections.  I've noticed a lot of people who dislike this album usually seem to concede that the drum performance is at least pretty good, and it's no accident.  The riffs are mainly a blend between Pantera worship, hardcore, and occasionally thrash.  If that doesn't sound appealing to you, actually hearing the riffs won't change your mind.  That said, they are deceptively complex, well written, and catchy (Which I believe is the main thing I can attribute to their mainstream appeal.  Kids love something angsty they can hum).  Randy Blythe catches a lot of flak for his Phil Anselmo impersonation but it really does fit with the hardcore nuances, and I really couldn't imagine the band with anybody else behind the mic.

Despite all of the individuals' styles meshing together fairly well in the context of the songwriting, this album is still far from perfect.  There's a pretty dull stretch from "For Your Malice" to "Blood Junkie".  "A Devil in God's Country" stands out a bit during that lull but not too horribly much.  Unfortunately, that stretch takes up five tracks out of a ten track album, (And honestly, I think the only reason "11th Hour" doesn't fit in this area is because it's right before it and right before I start to get bored).  Strangely this dip in the songwriting department is bookended  by some rather creative pieces of work.  "Purified" and "As the Palaces Burn" are high tempo rippers, carrying some of that much beloved thrash swagger, "Ruin" boasts one of the better breakdowns the band has put to tape, and "Vigil" is a great and varied song, beginning with a good, haunting acoustic intro, followed by a not quite successful attempt at doom, and finishing with a monstrously thrashy and mosh friendly riffset that completely makes up for the mediocre middle part.

It's hard to write about Lamb of God, it really is.  The music community is very, very polarized when it comes to the band.  One half throws accusations of elitism while the other accuses the former group of thickheaded noobiness.  This is all a dissertation for another day though.  Overall, I find As the Palaces Burn to be enjoyable yet flawed.  There's a crippling lack of variety in the middle that sucks a lot of enjoyment out of the full listening experience, but the good tracks are fantastic if you're just looking for a quick fix.  This isn't for everybody, but it's worth at least a try.

RATING - 74%