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Saron_Gas
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:57 pm
Posts: 180
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:54 am 
 

Really love the idea of this thread, great way to check out some good albums I haven't heard yet.

Stolen Babies - There Be Squabbles Ahead

I haven't listened to much metal this week, and have been more in an Alternative Rock type of mood, but one of the metal albums I did have playing multiple times on my iPod is There Be Squabbles Ahead. Personally, it's one of my favorite albums of all time, and just a generally fun album altogether. It's Avant-Garde Metal, but it has a catchy, evil-circus type of sound to it. It's not as heavy as most Experimental/Avant-Garde groups on EM. I love how a lot of the songs on the album aren't guitar driven, but have a much more prominent bass line, accordion work, and violin work. I think the vocalist, is probably one of the best female vocalists I've heard, in the sense that both her Shrieks/Yells, and clean singing have a defined identity, and don't sound whiny or forced. Out of all the albums I constantly listen to, this is probably the one I listen to more often then most.

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Rottenrectum
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:41 pm
Posts: 2245
Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:48 am 
 

Shame it haven't caught on quite as one would hope...

Armagedda - Ond Spiritism

My first encounter with this dark Swedish metal band. They wrote (they are now apparently split-up) poetic lyrics in Swedish in classic black metal manor, very interesting to read. Music wise they play a simplistic variant of black metal with a dark atmosphere, much like old Darkthrone although not as raw. My favorite aspect of the music has to be the vocals which are very emotional and deeper than your average icy black metal vocalists.
I feel I fall in a trance-like state when I focus while listening to this album. This helps me understand how addicting black metal can be.

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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 12:00 pm 
 

Black Destiny - In Neo Noir

Third album from these tragically underrated Power Metallers. Their sound is a mix between Helloween's galloping, careening melody and the heaviness of bands like Dark at Dawn or Tad Morose, with a different overall vibe than any of those bands. This music is just incredibly emotional, stirring and passionate, with heavy, catchy songs and energetic performances all around. Recommended.
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matrixmetal
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 5:09 am
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:16 am 
 

The old. The Eclipse Of Ages Into Black. Goatwhore. 2000.
The new. Carving Out the Eyes of God. Goatwhore. 2009.

This is kind of a weird analysis. Back in 2000 I would have laughed at a band named Goatwhore! I was mainly listening to 90's death metal classics at the time, Obituary, Napalm D, Carcass, the old school, etc.

Earlier this year (and knowing I was to see them when they came to Seattle in July) I took a chance on a new release, "Carving". I liked the sound, production, songs, feel of that record. It was easy enough to decide to take another chance and go pick up the first full length release, "Eclipse".

So I've been listening to these 2 cd's back to back for a few days and thinking about this thread. I still don't know much about Goatwhore except that these 2 cd's are really what I love in death metal "albums": loads of catchy riffing (sometimes not themost original) with great song structures that make songs MEMORABLE, a find sound production - a bit on the dirtier side, expressive range of vocals that are sometimes understandable, impressive & solid -if not typical - rhythym section.

This band is definitely worth the price of admission to see live at this stage in their career. They have enough good songs on these 2 cd's to fill up a lengthy set (not counting stuff I haven't heard on the other albums). I have my eye out for the 2 middle albums next time I hit the record stores.

In 2000 ,I just wasn't looking for this kind of blackened death metal sound, but always looking for Left Hand Path Pt.2!! People's tastes, as we all know, change in music just as much as bands evolve in musical styles.

From 2000 to 2009 Goatwhore has evolved a well crafted effort to achieve the sound of the present day "Carving". I'm glad I finally evolved to be able to hear it!

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Transphilvanian
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:32 am
Posts: 214
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:55 pm 
 

I'll give this a go, a good thread idea indeed, only just spotted it!

My Dying Bride- Turn Loose the Swans.
An excellent Death/Doom/Gothic album that stays enough away from the gothic for me to enjoy it. The song structures are very unusual and always keep you second guessing, as well as the beautiful combination of death metal riffs and more melodic lines played by guitar/keyboards/violin. Bookended by a couple of excellent more sombre pieces aswell.

Disembowelment- Transendence into the Peripheral.
Cannot stop listening to this one at the moment. This fuses death/grind riffs played with a ridiculously low tone reminiscent of early Incantation, mixed with slow funeral doom parts and strange atmoshperic layers. The atmospheric overlay strangely reminds me of The Velvet Underground, and this feeling combined with the dirtiest of old school death metal and beginnings of funeral doom is really a treat to the ears.

Rotting Christ- Thy Mighty Contract.
This is an excellent moulding of black metal and heavy metal, which normally fails to my ears. The catchiness of the riffs add to the charm of the album, combining some tremelo lines with heavy metal riffs, pleasingly compacted into epic songwriting and a lack boring song structure makes this a dense and beautiful hellenic black metal release.

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alexlovestheredchord
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:16 pm
Posts: 363
Location: Tajikistan
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:40 am 
 

matrixmetal wrote:
The old. The Eclipse Of Ages Into Black. Goatwhore. 2000.
The new. Carving Out the Eyes of God. Goatwhore. 2009.

This is kind of a weird analysis. Back in 2000 I would have laughed at a band named Goatwhore! I was mainly listening to 90's death metal classics at the time, Obituary, Napalm D, Carcass, the old school, etc.

Earlier this year (and knowing I was to see them when they came to Seattle in July) I took a chance on a new release, "Carving". I liked the sound, production, songs, feel of that record. It was easy enough to decide to take another chance and go pick up the first full length release, "Eclipse".

So I've been listening to these 2 cd's back to back for a few days and thinking about this thread. I still don't know much about Goatwhore except that these 2 cd's are really what I love in death metal "albums": loads of catchy riffing (sometimes not themost original) with great song structures that make songs MEMORABLE, a find sound production - a bit on the dirtier side, expressive range of vocals that are sometimes understandable, impressive & solid -if not typical - rhythym section.

This band is definitely worth the price of admission to see live at this stage in their career. They have enough good songs on these 2 cd's to fill up a lengthy set (not counting stuff I haven't heard on the other albums). I have my eye out for the 2 middle albums next time I hit the record stores.

In 2000 ,I just wasn't looking for this kind of blackened death metal sound, but always looking for Left Hand Path Pt.2!! People's tastes, as we all know, change in music just as much as bands evolve in musical styles.

From 2000 to 2009 Goatwhore has evolved a well crafted effort to achieve the sound of the present day "Carving". I'm glad I finally evolved to be able to hear it!


ooohh!!

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orionmetalhead
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:54 am
Posts: 2327
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:48 pm 
 

[quote="matrixmetal's Goatwhore post"][/quote]

I actually felt that their new album sounded quite watered down and boring. It seemed to have waaay to many -core influences well. I though vocals in particular sounded really modern (as in influenced by the modern metalcore bands) and weak as opposed to their previous albums which were firmly entrenched in a more oldschool blackened thrash sound. I remember seeing them with 1349 and Nachtmystium in 2006 or 2007 and they fit in with those two bands really well. I don't know if I would still find them to fit on that bill so easily now. A lot of the songs sounded repetitive, a stringing together of hastily written riffs - something you hit on yourself in your review which I agreed on.
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~Guest 41299
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:07 pm
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:01 pm 
 

Devildriver - The Fury of Our Maker's Hand

I know they are around for a few years, but I never paid any attention to them, especially because I always thought Coal Chamber one of the worst bands to ever record an album. But a friend of mine kept bugging me to listen to them, so I decided to give it a try.

This album is actually pretty good,especially the guitars, the riffs go from good to great, and drums (I'm a sucker for double bass).
As for the vocals, Dez Fafara sounds like the average screamer but doesn't hurt the songs. Other low point is the lack of guitar solos,
a plague that aflicts lots of new bands. All in all it made me want to check the rest of their discograhpy.

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CrushedRevelation
Devil's right hand

Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:47 am
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Location: The cavern's core
PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:18 pm 
 

Rottenrectum wrote:

Armagedda - Ond Spiritism
I feel I fall in a trance-like state when I focus while listening to this album. This helps me understand how addicting black metal can be.


Truly? I consider this a good thing. Have yet to hear this album, going to have to obtain it soon, as all their other releases are pure black gold for me. Only True Believers being their best and personal favourite of mine.

Behexen- My Soul For His Glory

Been into this Finnish outfit for quite some time now. Found their debut full length to be quite solid, but not extremely outstanding. The same cannot be said, in my opinion about the sophmore album, By The Blessing Of Satan, which I believe a sort of modern minor Black Metal classic. Very old school in approach and composition, but with riffs galore and a perfect BM production; scything, raw, intense, ear bleeding white noise(which only heightens the atmosphere), and powerful.
So it is fair to say that I was expecting quite a lot from this record. I had heard one song before I decided to buy this, that being Born In The Serpent Of The Abyss, damn good song. Now that i have the album I've been listening to it almost constantly. I will admit, that it is not immediately as magnificent as the second record. Whereas BTBOS was speedy and mostly utilised fast, tremelo style riffing, this tends to be rather more planted, relying on chunky, palm-muted progressions, and deeper almost Death Metal vocals in places. Bludgeoning rather than say, a razor wire approach. This tends to suit the overall feel of this album, and the songs themselves, which appear to have progressed a little more in composition. I do have reservations about the production however, as I feel it could have been just a little rawer, it feels a tad too clean. This does not mean it's polished or "pristine", it's still very filthy, having a similar production to the material off the Horna/Behexen split. Overall this is good to great in places, leaving me satisfied with both conviction and execution, with good doses of atmosphere. Glad I own it.

Stand out tracks- Born In The Serpent Of The Abyss, Cathedral Of The Ultimate Void, My Soul For His Glory, And All Believers Shall Be Damned.
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OlioTheSmall
Handsome (marsupial) Beast

Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:08 pm
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Location: Squatter's Crog, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:55 am 
 

Timeghoul - Panaramic Twilight (demo)

I wanted to write about both of their demos, but I had a pretty messed up week and only got around to giving this a good listen. But when I say a good listen, that's exactly what it was. These guys know how to write a good song, with both tracks being of impressive lengths, full of complex and cosmic sounding riffs. The sheer amount of changes in tempo and riffs is staggering and each track is a bizarre journey, manifested by both the music and the lyrics. The vocals are the only aspect that I would call a weak point, but then again, I can't deny that they fit; they are just not my thing. This demo is a fine death metal specimen, of a very out there and spacey variety. Could really shine if treated to a better and more worthy production.
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theheinouskilling667
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:24 am
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Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 7:01 am 
 

Hm, just noticed this thread after a while, decided to give it a post.

I've been listening to Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness almost every day for the past month or two. This is such a fucking amazing beast of an album, amazing death metal, throat-slit-raping rifss, and godly vocals. It's really a shame they went for growls on the later albums, not that I don't like those, but nothing can outdo those raspy shouts. Lord of All Fevers and Plauge is definitly my favorite track on this album.

I've also been blasting Virulent Gestation's first EP, Victim of Tape. It was limited to 24 copies on tape, so you probably wont find it unless the band has copies still avalible, but it's definitly a great slab of groovy goregrind. It's not slam, it has maybe four slam riffs in the whole thing, but it's groove. Kind of like a more brutal version of Torture Killer, pure groovy goregrind. Really enjoyable shit.

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Rottenrectum
Metalhead

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Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:58 pm 
 

Devourment - Molesting The Decapitated

Devourment is the undisputed kings of slam. Whether they actually created it or not, no band has ever come close to this kind of brutality. It's hard to stomach this kind of death metal but when you're in the mood for it there is nothing quite like it. MTD is the fan favorite and the rawest of their albums. It has an awesome guitar tone but lacks a bit in the drum department (although impressive display of blast beats, especially in Chocking On Bile). The vocals are filthier and more "wet" on this album than the later ones (courtesy of Ruben Rosas) but I'm not sure yet who I prefer (no I haven't heard the legendary Wayne Knupp actually).

Devourment - Butcher The Weak

This is where they started to lean more towards regular brutal death with more blasting than on MTD, but still comfortably standing in the slam zone. This is actually my favorite album, not sure why, maybe because it was my first encounter with the band, I don't know. The drums are more devastating here but the crunchy guitar tone from MTD is sadly lost. Not to say the guitar tone here isn't good, but MTD had better. The main difference between Mikes and Rubens vocals for me is Mikes seem dry compared to Ruben. The band could use some more pronunciation when it comes to the vocals because both Mike and Ruben are able to pull it off good.

Devourment - Unleash The Carnivore

This album follows the same formula as Butcher The Weak but with a darker feel to it. This has the most percussive guitar sound of them all I think. You only need to hear Crucify The Impure or Fed To The Pigs to understand why Devourment is among the heaviest death metal bands in the world. Reading the song titles it seems the band have aimed for more evil sounding lyrics rather than the simple gore and misogyny displayed before, although I haven't read the lyrics myself. My only problem with this album is the guitars tend to blend into each other turning it into a big distorted soup.
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oneyoudontknow
Cum insantientibus furere necesse est.

Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 6:25 pm
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Location: Germany
PostPosted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:26 pm 
 

Perpetual (Pri) - Ad Perpetuam Rei Memoriam

Interesting stuff. A mixture of slighty aggressive and symphonic black metal. There are references to bands like Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Old Man's Child and a bit of Dark Funeral there; also Ork should be cited. Very well (!) produced music, very powerful sound and also the production is quite good. The music is quite catchy and the compositions have a good deal of drive. Some neat guitar work can be found here with some interesting lead-guitar elements. Maybe a bit too much of the vocals and some amount of blandness can be found in the music, but overall a well crafted debut release.
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matrixmetal
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 5:09 am
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Location: Cascadian Forest of Rats
PostPosted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 4:22 am 
 

I missed the window for posting but others are breaking the weekend rules and this is a worthy thread which needs more posts. ;) I'll just continue on from last time with the old and the new.

The old: 1993 Toyota Camry XLE, 6 speaker "stock" system, no cartoys extras.
The new: 2007 VW Passat wagon 2.0T, 8 speaker "stock" system, no cartoys extras.


So. I got the new car and I'm currently listening to a bunch of old stuff in the new car which has COMPLETELY different acoustics. It's fucking amazing what a different set of speakers can do for the enjoyment of albums.

The Toyota had a fucking loudness button which resonated death metal frequencies at brain destroying levels aided by a certain primitive brutality in the sound waves throbbing through the car. I highly recommend listening to some good death metal in this car as you will really enjoy it. The CD player was prone to skippage so I usually listened through an iPod adapter going to the cassette deck. Seriously, the sound system was soo good in the car that I drove it 290,000 miles and was sad to give both up {the sound system & the car}.

The VW doesn't have a loudness button but it does have a rock solid 6-cd deck which hasn't skipped yet once in a month. The wagon has extra open space in back of the driver seat so I'm fiddling with the 3-band EQ and the fader to get a perfect sound for me, the driver. It is louder and boomier than the Camry

I just really hate listening to death metal with the EQ turned off, or worse, EQ FLAT, because all the potential for devastation is lost! When I listen to the older cd's I have to re-adjust (just like in the Camry) the EQ simply because older cd's were recorded lower levels than modern cd's pressed yesterday. I don't mind adjusting the EQ for music if it means that my experience will be more satisfying.

I highly recommend listening to your most favourite albums on new or different systems because you basically are about to listen to the album "again with new ears" and experience the sonic love/hate of the band of artists which was inspired to record & deliver to you.

What's in the player this week?

Gorgoroth's Under The Sign of Hell.
When I turn this up loud in the new VW Gahl's screaming actually sounds as if he is in the backseats, I keeeed you not! I tuned it so his vocals were "floating" in the middle of the vehicle cabin, as if he were in the middle of the back seat and sitting forward to talk the driver. The guitars then were eminating from all 8 speakers creating a horizontal plane of surgical steel cut to perfect dimensions and fitted as a table - with Gahl's decapitated head sitting on the table mouthing the lyrics and blood flowing off the edges, dripping onto the floor into small puddles.


Totally different from the Camry experience which was more about me tuning the EQ for more bass, more midrange, and putting a limit on the hi-band if the treble was creating a sizzling sensation in the eardrum. It was powerful, yes, and brutally sick with the Camry system. It was a feast for the cochlea, more like a roasted pheasant compared to the VW's goat curry.

I cannot listen to "Postludium" this track is evil @ 196khz even with 5 or 8-speakers systems.

It's just a new fucking listening experience and I enjoy hearing good music with a different acoustical dimensionality, a really different perspective, shall we say.

Never can you say an album sounds like shit. You have to hear it on more than one sound system. You have to INTERACT with the recording a little bit and use the EQ, use the Loudness button, use a new pair of headphones or whatever. The artists routinely do this themselves when the album is in the production process; different speakers, different eq, etc.

I know, for instance, my stupid iMac speakers are NOT THE JUDGE OF SONIC QUALITY.

MY EARS ARE THE JUDGE OF SONIC QUALITY, for me. At least that's the way I like it. [edit: minor typo and moved quote marks]

Add on: Profetens Åpenbaring is sick any way you listen to it. Fuck. I'd gladly pay Gorgoroth $20 for that song alone.

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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 9:37 am 
 

Great post, Matrixmetal, and I totally agree. A lot of people make hilariously ill-informed, foolish judgments about albums and their production values after hearing them on crappy computer speakers or worse IPod earphones. I've even been guilty of this a couple of times myself. After getting a new pC with a really nice soundcard and good speakers with powerful range and subwoofer, everything sounds different. Indeed, you can do a lot with a good equaliser. What you say about bands listening to stuff on different sets during the recording process is certainly true...the fellow who is producing my band's album has got several different speaker/headphone setups which he pumps the sound into, as he wants to make sure it sounds as ideal as possible for all systems..

I'll post some albums later, I think. That Gorgoroth is certainly my favourite from the band. By the way, that is Pest on vocals, not Gaal.
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matrixmetal
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:15 pm 
 

Abominatrix wrote:
I'll post some albums later, I think. That Gorgoroth is certainly my favourite from the band. By the way, that is Pest on vocals, not Gaal.


My bad :durr:

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into_the_pit
Veteran

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 8:13 pm 
 

ANationalAcrobat wrote:
Sodom - Get What You Deserve


I agree this album wasn't the summit of sodom's discography, but still my fave sodom album from the 90's (apart from that great marroned live album they put out). I really like the punkish vibe too.
I really like the production on this one, crushing bass sound and aggressive vocals. I also think that andy was a much better guitarist than what he usually gets credited for. it's just that I never really got into atmic's way of drumming (this was his studio debut for sodom if I remember correctly).
sure, this album has a few flawed tracks (jesus screamer, into perdition, delight in slaying, title track), but then again it also has a lot of real killer songs in terms of songwriting, really intelligent compositions and kinda refreshing after the dull tapping the vein. these include freaks of nature, sodomized, and of course both german songs. my absolute faves off this album would be silence is consent and fellows in misery though. also, great cover song pick.

great underrated sodom album (at least in the MA reviews), and I think out of the studio albums after this, only m-16 sort of comes close to this.
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afz902k
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Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2008 12:35 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 12:53 am 
 

Rottenrectum wrote:
Armagedda - Ond Spiritism
I feel I fall in a trance-like state when I focus while listening to this album. This helps me understand how addicting black metal can be.


I'm able to enjoy Only True Believers more as a whole, but a few songs in Ond Spiritism are also pretty good.

CrushedRevelation wrote:
Behexen- My Soul For His Glory
Glad I own it.


Nice to see there are other people out there that aren't relentlessly bashing this album, I think it's an interesting opus even if it's not as conservative as "By The Blessing of Satan" or as raw as "From the Devil's Chalice".

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VictimsOfDeception
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:57 am 
 

Lately I have been listening to a lot of black metal, or black/death metal styled bands that I did not like upon first hearing them back in my earlier teenage years and I have realized that I can appreciate some of these records a lot more than I initially thought.

One of those records is Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger record. As the winter season approaches, I've been listening to a lot of darker music and I figured "Why not listen to some of those black metal records I have lying around?" and I definitely feel that it was a good choice. Whilst Transilvanian Hunger is obviously not going to be my favorite record of all time or anything even close to that, I still find a lot of joy in listening to this record now and the atmosphere on the record fits the somber feeling of the approaching months. The riffing mushes together like one giant riff with lots of changes, probably due to the terrible production, but I love it. It reminds me of old black and white vampire films and I fucking love that. The drumming is just sort of "there" (something Fenriz agreed upon during an interview after this record was recorded) and it really just serves the purpose of allowing the guitars to express themselves. Mentally, I get lost in this record. It's evil and it's oppressive. It reminds me of when black metal bands were truly all about the grimness of their convictions. And while bands like that still exist today, it's not the same, just like thrash metal in the 21st century isn't quite the same as in the 80s, even if it's played in the same vein. These kinds of black metal records were a result of spontaneous emotions and convictions, just like thrash metal records in the 80s were, and that's what I think separates albums like this from most things (not all) like it in the modern age. Of course, you can find better records now, or even from the same time period, but the fact still remains that this record was part of the beginnings of something that meant something and still means something to certain people today. In short, I finally "get" this record, one could say. I am glad that I dusted it off and gave it another chance after all of these years, because I have been promptly rewarded for doing so.

Another record is Sacramentum's The Coming of Chaos. Being more blackened death metal, this record appeals a lot more to me than their first record. The obvious Dissection-esque sound is there, but I prefer this band over them any day of the week. This record has riffs out the ass and the black metal sections REALLY lend to the sheer chaos that ensues on this record. There's not much to say other than this album slayed my soul and raped me seven times over and I think it's unfortunately very underrated. Everything is very precise and has that "cold" guitar tone without being overly thin. In fact, the guitar tone is pretty massive and the vocals are pretty evil. I'll be listening to some more black metal stuff fairly soon, to see if maybe I feel otherwise about those records now as well.
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Acrobat
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:19 am 
 

Again, I've been listening to a lot of black metal this week (more so than normal, at least). Perhaps, it's the colder weather?

Gorgoroth - Pentagram. I sort of came in with a preconceived notion that I was not going to enjoy this as much as everyone else what with it supposedly being a "generic" black metal album (especially when considering that it owes a fair bit to Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, which I consider solid, if somewhat unremarkable). But damn, everyone else was right - this is all kinds of excellent. That guitar player is absolutely spot-on, especially when he starts putting in what sound like early Sodom riffs! I'm looking forward to checking on Under the Sign of Hell, and it's this impressive I'll be very happy.

Carpathian Forest - Black Shining Leather this was a blind (deaf) purchase for me from the very limited metal selection at my local CD shop. I'd had some name recognition of CF from reading interviews with them a while back in Zero Tolerance (which I should start reading again). Something about Nattefrost being a drunken crusty and something else... who knows? Anyway, this is really stand-out stuff - equal amounts of punk-influenced bm with a lot of atmospheric stuff, too, and that bass sound is gnarly (more bm bands should use an upfront bass, just like Under A Funeral Moon!). Surprisingly brilliant, I think this release deserves more praise and the cover of 'A Forest' is just something else.
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Rottenrectum
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:04 pm 
 

Live show - Entombed and Amon Amarth

I had mixed expectations with Entombed, partly because I've only listened to the first two albums and also because all the other swedeath veterans have delivered some of the best live performances I've ever seen (Grave did Into The Grave with original vocalist Jörgen Sandström when I saw them, simply amazing). But I was not let down here either, Entombed delivered a solid performance with perfect sound and lots of headbang-inducing riffs. The guitar tone was particularly good (not that anything else was expected).
Next up was Amon Amarth which I had already seen ones before so I knew what to expect. The sound was not as good as Entombed, the guitars was quite screechy at times. Overall they did good but I was disappointed (and surprised) to see Johan do Guardians Of Asgaard alone without battle brother LG. I guess I can forgive them since they played all my favorite songs.
Evile was supposed to play as well but we all know about that. I'm not really a fan of the band but it's always a shame when a metal brother dies way too early.
This was my first time at this venue (and my first show since early summer) and it was a good place but a bit too crowded (sucks for me because I'm quite short) and a few too many drunk guys in and around the moshpit.
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Evil_Johnny_666
Reigning king of the night

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:00 pm 
 

OlioTheSmall wrote:
Timeghoul - Panaramic Twilight (demo)

I wanted to write about both of their demos, but I had a pretty messed up week and only got around to giving this a good listen. But when I say a good listen, that's exactly what it was. These guys know how to write a good song, with both tracks being of impressive lengths, full of complex and cosmic sounding riffs. The sheer amount of changes in tempo and riffs is staggering and each track is a bizarre journey, manifested by both the music and the lyrics. The vocals are the only aspect that I would call a weak point, but then again, I can't deny that they fit; they are just not my thing. This demo is a fine death metal specimen, of a very out there and spacey variety. Could really shine if treated to a better and more worthy production.


Just listened to their first demo for the first time, and it rules, it rules hard. I mean, how could they leave the metal world with only TWO demos that are better than so many bands' albums in mind boggling. Some of the best death metal I've heard, it has a beginning and an end, between, something that makes that changes and evolve seamlessly. There's no solid ABAB structure, you have more of a story like evolution, not only that, but the whole thing is awesome, vocals, riffs, melodies, mood, aggression, you like death metal, you'll like it.


into_the_pit wrote:
ANationalAcrobat wrote:
Sodom - Get What You Deserve


I agree this album wasn't the summit of sodom's discography, but still my fave sodom album from the 90's (apart from that great marroned live album they put out). I really like the punkish vibe too.
I really like the production on this one, crushing bass sound and aggressive vocals. I also think that andy was a much better guitarist than what he usually gets credited for. it's just that I never really got into atmic's way of drumming (this was his studio debut for sodom if I remember correctly).
sure, this album has a few flawed tracks (jesus screamer, into perdition, delight in slaying, title track), but then again it also has a lot of real killer songs in terms of songwriting, really intelligent compositions and kinda refreshing after the dull tapping the vein. these include freaks of nature, sodomized, and of course both german songs. my absolute faves off this album would be silence is consent and fellows in misery though. also, great cover song pick.

great underrated sodom album (at least in the MA reviews), and I think out of the studio albums after this, only m-16 sort of comes close to this.


I love the album, the mix of thrash and punk rules. I really like the attitude, Masquerade in Blood is also solid, and the drumming is a good point.

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Malacoda
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:25 pm
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:35 pm 
 

Jesu - Silver (EP)

I know it's just an EP, but I picked it up recently and like it a lot. Even though it's a post-metal Godflesh-influenced Justin K. Broadrick album (and all that jazz), it's not very heavy. And I love it. Even in Drop A, the album maintains a happy, almost poppy feel (particularly on "Star"). It's got a harpsichord and various keyboard-styled instruments in it, but instead of being at the front of the mix, like they are on "Why Are We Not Perfect", they're more in the fact, providing an excellent contrast and harmony with the synths and the low-end guitar. While some may criticize it for being repetitive and even boring, I personally find it to be a very excellent addition to my collection.

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Woolie_Wool
Facets of Predictability

Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2006 6:56 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 12:39 am 
 

Pretty damn good new-school thrash (dig the active bass, very Realm-ish, and then there's the amazing cover art), but the way they're constantly trading off vocal styles drives me nuts and prevents the album from being truly great. The main singer is a really cool clean singer who's like a sort of cross between the best features of Joey Belladonna and Dave Mustaine, but sometimes he drops out (usually in the bridge) and is replaced with shitty nu-Satyricon harsh vocals, gang vocals used in the most inappropriate places (gang choruses = cool. An intro filled with 40 straight seconds of gang shouts = not so cool), and some shrieking asshole who can't hit a note to save his life.

If they focus on the clean singer, ditch the two crappy harsh vocalists (Chuck Schuldner these guys ain't), and rein in the gang shouts to a more appropriate level, make the album longer than 32 minutes, and otherwise do everything else the same as last time, their second album will be a winner. The riffs slay, the bass is not only audible but does things worth hearing, the solos are really good and quite technical, and the production sounds like thrash fucking metal and not Nevermore. Until then, though, they have to settle for second tier.

Also, wouldn't you buy an album with a cover like this? METAL AS FUCK.
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PvtNinjer
Metal freak

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 4:21 pm 
 

I was late to the party, but the last album I bought was Heaven and Hell's The Devil You Know. A fucking great album with tons of huge riffs and great bluesy solos. Dio sounds great as always, except for a couple odd moments (Superstition, go away) where he sounds out of place and kind of camp. So far I'm a big fan of the faster tunes, those riffs will stick in your head for sure, as well as Atom and Evil and Bible Black. The album never really dips below quality material, although some of the songs are kind of forgettable for me, like Follow the Tears. The only thing I would criticize is the drumming. It's not bad, but it's pretty standard. I guess it leaves me missing those wacked out drum fills from early on in Black Sabbath's career. Keep in mind too that this is my first experience with Dio fronted "Sabbath". I unfortunately still haven't had much of a chance to sit down, pay attention and listen to it (I've heard it maybe 4 times, but alot of the time it's playing while I clean up my apartment and other stuff) but I know already it's a winner. I guess it just remains to be seen whether or not it's lustre lasts!

Other than that, I purchased the At the Gates/Grotesque Garden's of Grief/In the Embrace of Evil compilation, The Red in the Sky is Ours, With Fear I Embrace the Burning Darkness and Terminal Spirit Disease. The compilation is great, Grotesque wrote some badass occult death metal and Gardens of Grief is a strange, obscure sounding death metal album with a great production. Oh and it's quite good too! There's some real winners from Grotesque, my favorite probably being Angel's Blood, it feels like it's out of control, a train careening of the tracks! The vocals are especially good (such a shame he really just got worse and worse with At the Gates). I was already a big fan of The Red in the Sky is Ours and just wanted to add it to my collection. With Fear... is an album I always thought was pretty mediocre, but I've grown to love it. When this album shines it's like a perfect mix of At the Gates' later, more melodic stuff and the progressive, chaotic structures of The Red in the Sky and Gardens of Grief. The album unfortunately wanes in quality near the end, but it's still quite good. Terminal Spirit Disease isn't that bad, but there's some real stinkers here, it's all much more simple and obvious. Let's say when I want to listen to ATG, I don't reach for this one often.

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greenandblack
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:44 am
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Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:53 pm 
 

I recently picked up these two:

Gonin-Ish - Naishikyo-Sekai

Excellent, as expected- everything this band has released is amazing. Mind-blowing avant-garde progressive death metal from Japan that sounds like nothing else. After the first few listens, I think I like their first album a bit better, but this probably needs more time to grow on me- it's rather more chaotic and less accessible than the debut. One thing that has improved on this are Anoji's vocals, which were already a highlight of the band's music. On the first one, she basically had two modes- J-pop-like clean vocals and a deep death growl. On this, her vocals have become much more varied, to excellent effect- her vocals range from the J-pop style to soaring and "angelic" to anguished wails to shamanic chants to brutal, sick death growls to this rather disturbing "evil little girl" thing at one point on the last song (which is truly epic), and more. It's an incredible performance that adds greatly to the atmosphere of the album, which is, as mentioned, bizarre, chaotic, sinister, and very evocative of the dark Japanese mythology and folklore that is the lyrical focus of the band. I'm not sure how I'll end up ranking this album in comparison to the debut, but it does cement my opinion that Gonin-Ish has one of the best vocalists in metal.


Graupel - Auf alten Wegen...

Graupel is a project of two former members of Nagelfar, and as ex-members of Nagelfar also are behind The Ruins of Beverast and Verdunkeln, both of which are among my favorite black metal bands, I was very interested in hearing Graupel, which it seems has gotten substantially less attention than the other two. I wasn't disappointed, though of Nagelfar's descendants, I would say I prefer The Ruins of Beverast and Verdunkeln. Graupel is much less offbeat than those bands are- their music is fast, aggressive black metal with a slight atmospheric bent and a very "icy" sound. It's nothing overly original, but it's very well done, and the standout tracks on the album are very impressive. (Especially "Requies Filii", which is a very powerful song, particularly when you know what it's about.) The album is a bit frontloaded, though- all the best tracks are towards the beginning of the album, IMO, and towards the end of the album I found the music mostly just sort of blasted by without leaving too much of an impression. Still, well worth picking up if you like that sort of black metal.

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matrixmetal
Metalhead

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Location: Cascadian Forest of Rats
PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 8:41 am 
 

A lot gets said around here about the evolutions of metal and many voices [grunts & squeals & clean] can be heard calling for the strangulation of every newborn mutation of the metal family. It's true. Some metal babies should have been aborted with rusty barbed wire. But, they're here amongst us now. I know them. You know them, too. Of course, I'm talking about Darkthrone. j/k

That's just the introduction. Tonight, I'm going to do an extreme version of The New and The Old for Darkthrone.

Last night I listened to 6 Darkthrone records. I listened to the albums in alphabetical order - not chronologically - to assist myself in analysing what I had heard. This is the order I played my 6 cd's:

A Blaze In The Northern Sky (1992) - Darkthrone are really showing their colors early on in this masterpiece @ 4:03 the punk rock kicks on "In The Shadow of the Horns" and leads me into believing that they were fucking krüst pünks from the beginning. "In the Shadow of the Horns" gets more extreme from beginning to end with punk riffs. The acoustic overdubbing at the end is total metal authenticity.

The Cult Is Alive (2006) - "Are you Satan? - I don't think so. You copy my style and call yourself a man!" taken from the song "Shut Up". Obvious punk metal with a dick wave attitude from a band who has not ever succumbed to cliché but created metal, by itself, a powerful artistic statement. "Shut up, Fucking Twat!".


F.O.A.D. (2007) - "But I'm metal I don't give a fuck. Eugh! I was raised on ROCK! It went plastic since '94. Oh my God, you're such a whore." taken from the song "Raised on Rock". And what he means there is that metal is a whore. And the riffs on "Church of Real Metal" are pretty much writing the black book of punk/crust metal underground, low-track, guitar sound.

Panzerfaust (1995) - The riffs in "Beholding the Throne of Might", start out doomy. There are a lot of doomy riffs on this album. "Hordes of Nebulah" starts off like a slower version of And the riffs continue to add crust and gloom as the song grinds toward a spew of blatant punk riffs starting at @ 3:05. "We Are (the) Future Now Be Desecration Master Be The Hammer". But the true winner for riffs on this album has to be "Triumphant Gleam" just for that single riff at the top of the song and when the vocals come in it's just a black metal hellfire of agonizing pain.



Total Death (1996) - *Sound production on this album leaves a lot to be desired when compared to other cd's sampled in this review. A bit 'muffled' compared to the 'flesh on asphalt' rawness of the other records. The riffs on "Black Victory of Death" are pretty much what you get when you mix crusty pünk with black metal. Metal Archives says there were "1377 results found" for full length albums released in 1996. We have to consider this album exceptional for 1996 simply for the opening riff of "Blasphemer" stands up so strongly to everything here http://heavymetal.about.com/od/10/tp/bestof1996.htm .

Under A Funeral Moon (1993) - Title track. Sizzling distortion, slices of electrocuted guitars with grinding crust & grotesque vocals. "Flowers of doom - Rising in bloom -You will see - Our immortality!" with a totally Rock & Roll over the top ending drum roll, [remember those drums at the start of Black Victory of Death?] we have a simple yet effective Darkthrone formula designed to exterminate anything trendy in your brain: drums, riffs, repeat.

The span of these albums is 1992-2007 which covers not all the musical ground but enough so to illustrate the composure of Darkthrone's prolific song writing system. And truly we are talking about a back catalogue of songs here and *not* a retrospective of great riffs with no place to go. This amazing collection of Black Metal songs & spectactular riffage fits together so tightly, I can't imagine that they could be split apart so easily.

It's not the purpose of this analysis to mention every great moment in these 6 albums. Darkthrone has been a success in the song writing department for nearly 20 years and that would be a daunting project. So what I did for this analysis was to take something from each album. Each quote sampled is intended to illustrate Darkthrone's metal authority. I know that I've just sampled less than 50% of Darkthrone's back catalogue. Writing this article reminds me that I have 50% to look forward to when it comes to Darkthrone.

In the final analysis I conclude that Darkthrone has always sounded like Darkthrone. Thanks for reading. [edit: I made several edits to this!]

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matrixmetal
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:05 am 
 

Analysis of metal.

Reviewers: When posting a review of metal recordings please do the readship a favor by stating what kind of system you are listening on and if you paid for the music or if you otherwise received the music for free. My rationale for this is as follows: if you give the artist no consideration for the artwork then you are insulting him by taking something for free and then critiquing it in public.

fuck the freeloading music fans out there -eat shit & die

As technology advances we are being pushed away from the artist by decomposing the media into different forms, e.g. different wavs, different mp3's, it is important to remember that we are getting further away from the artist with each analog-to-digital-to-digital conversion.

This is why I love live music so much. When the high amplitude sonic waveforms hit my body it means more to me than it does for my iPod to spit out bit rates at 196khz. That's just pure fucking physics.

Music, like all art, is created to be discussed and analyzed. Art is the language of the artist. And when the connection between the artist & the art lover becomes a love affair then we should all relish that relationship. Because love, true love, is a rare find indeed.

Well. That was my analysis.

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MikeyC
Official Greeter of Broken Hills

Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:16 am
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 6:47 am 
 

While your opinion is noted, that's absolutely not what this thread is about.
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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 1:28 pm 
 

MikeyC wrote:
While your opinion is noted, that's absolutely not what this thread is about.


Why not? It's not the expected form, but it doesn't seem that people are making much use of that anyway.

That was a fine analysis, too. I generally agree with you...the biggest change Darkthrone ever made was from their early death metal stuff to the unadulterated freezing dry grimness of UAFM. Since then, they've always more or less trodden the same path, abundant humour or no.
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OlioTheSmall
Handsome (marsupial) Beast

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Location: Squatter's Crog, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 10:10 am 
 

I think Mikey was talking about the post where matrixmetal shares his view on technology in relation to the intimacy that can be experienced with music. Whether his points are valid or not is irrelevant. It's not an analysis of albums/music in the sense that this thread was made for. Though the Darkthrone post seems good and fine to me.
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matrixmetal
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:25 am 
 

Another version of my tired script, the New & the Old.

Based on the Mercyful Fate thread alone I went out and purchased Mercyful Fate's Melissa Roadrunner 25th w bonus tracks. My first purchase of any MF material. For me they are in the category of "I've heard of them but not listened to them much".

I'm listening to Melissa right now for about the third time. The album sound is that of 1970's hard rock guitar with extremely high pitched, clean male vocals which are the most unique identifying feature of the sound.

The guitar solos are slices of 70's greatest hits of rock & roll which blend in & out with the extreme falsetto male vocals at times. I have to smile when they do that because it's pretty cool.

[If you remember back to that time frame, rock bands with extremely high-pitched, clean male vocals were very popular; Rush, Boston, Judas Priest to name just three.]

The lyrical content & face painting/aesthetics clearly gives Mercyful Fate some weight in the heritage of Black Metal. Kiss painted their faces and were playing hard rock & roll music yet are not considered Black Metal by a long shot.

The playing of the instruments is exactly what I would expect out of a top tier American hard rock / merging with heavy metal sound form the early 1980's. Obviously Mercyful Fate had listened to records during the 1960-70's and that, mixed with the blood of goats, created the sounds heard on this record.

As I stated this was my first real, thoughtful listen to Mercyful Fate's music. I wouldn't be listening to this in 1983... I wouldn't get into metal for a few more years. So going back to listen to a classic like this is a special pleasure for me. I was able to enjoy this sort of music without putting too much importance on what genre it is.

This album doesn't quite fit with the hard rock, early metal scene completely. Nor does it fit perfectly with Black Metal. I call them a "break out band".. a band which records a moment in metal history where the music fans just look back with awe & wonder... sometimes with surprise, like I did while listening to Mercyful Fate's Melissa.

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matrixmetal
Metalhead

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Location: Cascadian Forest of Rats
PostPosted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:58 am 
 

ANationalAcrobat wrote:
Again, I've been listening to a lot of black metal this week (more so than normal, at least). Perhaps, it's the colder weather?

Carpathian Forest - Black Shining Leather this was a blind (deaf) purchase for me from the very limited metal selection at my local CD shop. I'd had some name recognition of CF from reading interviews with them a while back in Zero Tolerance (which I should start reading again). Something about Nattefrost being a drunken crusty and something else... who knows? Anyway, this is really stand-out stuff - equal amounts of punk-influenced bm with a lot of atmospheric stuff, too, and that bass sound is gnarly (more bm bands should use an upfront bass, just like Under A Funeral Moon!). Surprisingly brilliant, I think this release deserves more praise and the cover of 'A Forest' is just something else.


This post & VictimsOfDeceptio's excellent Darkthrone post inspired my Darkthrone posting. I just recently happened to pick up Fenris's Red Planet/Nattefrost "Engangsgrill" in which Nattefrost really impressed me with the sounds they came up with there. The song about the psychopaths, "Lustmord", is a total mind fuck freak out.

I'm putting Carpathian Forest on my "must get" list.

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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
Posts: 9311
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 12:35 pm 
 

matrixmetal wrote:
Another version of my tired script, the New & the Old.

Based on the Mercyful Fate thread alone I went out and purchased Mercyful Fate's Melissa Roadrunner 25th w bonus tracks. My first purchase of any MF material. For me they are in the category of "I've heard of them but not listened to them much".

I'm listening to Melissa right now for about the third time. The album sound is that of 1970's hard rock guitar with extremely high pitched, clean male vocals which are the most unique identifying feature of the sound.

The guitar solos are slices of 70's greatest hits of rock & roll which blend in & out with the extreme falsetto male vocals at times. I have to smile when they do that because it's pretty cool.

[If you remember back to that time frame, rock bands with extremely high-pitched, clean male vocals were very popular; Rush, Boston, Judas Priest to name just three.]

The lyrical content & face painting/aesthetics clearly gives Mercyful Fate some weight in the heritage of Black Metal. Kiss painted their faces and were playing hard rock & roll music yet are not considered Black Metal by a long shot.

The playing of the instruments is exactly what I would expect out of a top tier American hard rock / merging with heavy metal sound form the early 1980's. Obviously Mercyful Fate had listened to records during the 1960-70's and that, mixed with the blood of goats, created the sounds heard on this record.

As I stated this was my first real, thoughtful listen to Mercyful Fate's music. I wouldn't be listening to this in 1983... I wouldn't get into metal for a few more years. So going back to listen to a classic like this is a special pleasure for me. I was able to enjoy this sort of music without putting too much importance on what genre it is.

This album doesn't quite fit with the hard rock, early metal scene completely. Nor does it fit perfectly with Black Metal. I call them a "break out band".. a band which records a moment in metal history where the music fans just look back with awe & wonder... sometimes with surprise, like I did while listening to Mercyful Fate's Melissa.


I assume your CD comes with the "In the Beginning" set as well? If so, check out the Mercyful Fate EP, released a year before "Melissa' and in my view tied with "DOn't Break teh Oath" for their best stuff. King is just amazing on that EP, delivering some of his highest and most insane vocals.
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Aaron713
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:40 pm
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Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:53 am 
 

Truly a unique album with incredible atmosphere and melody.

All I can say. Lol, not too good with reviews.

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~Guest 74046
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:42 pm
Posts: 962
PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:39 am 
 

Xenomorph - Empyreal Regimes

Genre: Old-school technical death metal (1995)

Xenomorph are a rather curious old-school death metal act that only managed to release one full-length. Musically, Xenomorph play a form of technically-minded death metal that wouldn't sound out of place on an Atheist album. I was pleasantly surprised myself, actually. The technical flourishes are excellent and managed to kept me on my toes for the entire duration. It may not be as "jumpy" as Atheist and very rarely do they ever settle on bloated technicality a la Necrophagist. Overall, its an unjustly overlooked release and Old-school technical DM fans would be doing themselves a great disservice for not checking this gem out.

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~Guest 74046
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:42 pm
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:40 am 
 

Crap. Double post.

But yeah, don't expect to be blown away at first. Try letting it wash over you.

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DeathFog
Temporally-Displaced Fossil

Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2003 9:20 am
Posts: 582
Location: Estonia
PostPosted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:49 pm 
 

Some thoughts on Mayhem. This week I had been listening to a lot of Black Metal and the last thing that I listened to was Mayhem's DMDS.

Some retrospective thoughts. I felt that the album could have been better. First of all the vocals. As the first things by Mayhem I heard were bootlegs with Dead, Freezing Moon / Carnage single and Deathcrush EP, I was expecting the vocal performance to be absolutely different. I was wondering what the album could have sounded with Dead on vocals. I thought that his performance would have immensely improved the album. Secondly the bass sound seemed too weak, compared to the one of Necrobutcher and I thought the bass was too low in the mix.

My current position.

I compared performances of the songs from this album by different singers (Dead, Maniac, Attila). Certainly the way Dead performed Freezing Moon and Carnage on that single was amazing. He sounded inhuman and demented, or for the lack of better words, sick. But on the other hand his performance on numerous bootlegs is lacking and very inconsistent. Another song he managed to perform well was Buried By Time And Dust. Taking this into consideration I doubt he would have been able to deliver a remarkable performance on the album. But these three songs have never sounded as good with any other vocalist.

Maniac was good on Deathcrush, his vocal style was unique. On the later works and live performances he sounds weak and uninspired, if not bored. I think he was the weakest singer of the band and never possessed the same amount of charisma as Attila and Dead. I was looking through the Live In Bischofswerda performance on youtube and I should say he looked quite out of place on stage. I liked his singing only on one song - From The Darkest Past.

Attila. On DMDS the quality of his performance is rather debatable. On one hand he makes some songs sound more dramatic and developed, but on the other hand he sound completely out of place on the tracks like Freezing Moon and Funeral Fog. My favourite performance of his on the album is the track Buried By Time And Dust. He does not try to reinvent the vocal lines, he just follows the path paved by Dead. In some aspects, such as the power of delivery he clearly surpasses his predecessor, but still something is lacking. I tried to imagine some songs that had never been recorded with Dead, with the vocal line different to the ones heard on the album. I realized that I could not. After years of listening they started to seem almost organic.


The bass tone and place in the mix. I still dislike the thing and fuzzy tone of Varg's bass on the album and I still think that it could be louder in the mix, but I do realize that even in its current form it somehow fits the overall atmosphere of the album. It gives the album a more subtle feel so to say.


I was looking through and listening to the live performances of the band and I should point out the following : it seems like the band has never been a consistent and tight live act. Nowadays the band completely lost any kind of atmosphere, back in the day the band in the classic line up was very sloppy but supposedly atmospheric. It does not mean that they are any better from the technical point of view now.

There is more hype about the band than the actual substance, that's my conclusion.
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matrixmetal
Metalhead

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Location: Cascadian Forest of Rats
PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:33 am 
 

the NEW and the OLD

Deicide - Deicide [1990)
Deicide - Till Death Do Us Part [2008]

I just listened to these albums back to back. There isn't much else to say except... each album has an identity in the sound design.... each album is uniquely inspired by Satan...

These are observations not criticisms: Glen's vocal are more brutally grinding on the 2008 release Till Death Do Us Part. On the first album he was using more shouty vocals which, even 18 years later, are fresh sounding.

I remember when Deicide first came out with the s/t record and the press was agape with "the heaviest, most brutal band ever" syndrome. I bought the debut record when it came out in 1990 and it quite simply blew me away over and over again. Back in the day there was some criticism of Mr. Benton for using overdubs on his vocals which is totally bogus.

The songs on Deicide s/t stand the test of time! The songs on Deicide's Till Death Do Us Part stand up because of the bludgeoning, grinding consistency mixed with the blood sacrifices offerred by the lead guitar executioners personified in Jack Owen and Ralph Santolla.

Without question, Glen Benton's death metal vision is disturbing and consistently brutal over the 18 year career of Deicide. The first record is blistering exorcisms ["You will die! It's been written!" from Blaspherion] and the last record is a simple epitaph reading ["Die Die Die Die Die Die" from Horrors In The Hall of Stones].

I saw Deicide live in 1991(?) touring on their first album at the Tufnell Park Dome in London, UK. Glen had just recently branded himself with the upside down cross on his forehead which only incited the music press to scrutinize his antics as self promoting. There was also some press drama involved when his customized bass guitar was stolen. I don't care too much about that or the situation with the Hoffman brothers. It's just drama.

The first and last records still stand as brutal Deicide records for different reasons. The self titled Deicide maintains it's place in death metal archives as an "essential - do not miss this" record. The last release of Deicide maintains the sickeness levels but can never replicate the first record and so must live on it's own merits. Till Death Do Us Part is totally Deicide, just a different Deicide from the first Deicide record. But still Deicide with blissfully sick solos.

[edit to add] Carnage In The Temple of the Damned is an absolute death metal classic... with the sirens at the beginning... the Hoffman Bros. thrashing, Glen's vocals screaming possession by the spirit Jim Jones "Drink the blood, concentrate of death..." it's so sick "In the temple of the damned".

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matrixmetal
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 5:09 am
Posts: 561
Location: Cascadian Forest of Rats
PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 3:51 am 
 

Yo DeathFog I liked your Mayhem analysis. One of the hardest things for me to remember about Mayhem is "which Mayhem"? What I mean is the cast of characters, like so many other of the highest rated black metal bands, seems to be the revolving door - very akin to how jazz musicians operate. For example - Frank Watkins of Obituary is now in Gorgoroth! Hey, wuh??? Jazz and black metal, so different, so much the same.

Just one thing I would argue about your conclusion that Mayhem is no longer atmospheric, I must disagree. I witnessed Mayhem's 25th anniversary Blackenedfest tour in Seattle earlier this year and it certainly had "atmosphere", excellent lights, excellent sound, Atilla costumed like a monk from the dark ages swinging his hangman's noose and screaming like a banshee at every opportunity. The Mayhem atmosphere beats any other show I have seen this year.

I understand that it might be very hard for a European black metal band to tour the World with a decent light show and "atmosphere" so I give credit to the Mayhem crew for doing a great job with the atmosphere. The lights, smoke and sound were outstanding and fitting for a band of such legendary quality. [I have videos if you want to see them posted..]

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