So you preface all your vitriol by typing that after your last 3 or 4 negative reviews you promised you'd be "nice"?
My mother says something that I find true in Danish as it is in English; "Sometimes if you have nothing nice to say then say nothing at all".

I happen to be one of those people who wrote a review on Vale of Amonition for the Archives and scored them 90% so allow me to throw you some perspective. Vale of Amonition is an African band who attempt to turn their African styled music into metal. The results are usually bizarre but never bland...I haven't listened to them in a while but last I did, I noticed that more and more they were moving towards a more conventional sound. The problem will often arise when we try to classify the music. You can't especially call it "progressive" because that is just a desperate term for lack of a better one. It has shades of doom (especially the "Black Cathedral" single which I reviewed) but it is distinctly tribal music. It has psychedelic tendencies but so did Witch and Ngozi Family (early Zambian rockers who are the most reasonable comparison to Vale of Amonition not Damien Storm!). Most importantly it has an identity which is why the band has been well received. Don't want to turn this into a debate but I felt I should throw my two cents in as someone who has actually listened to the band at length.

Can't seem to find the link to the song you reviewed...

I hate it when doom is misunderstood! "True Revelation" is anything but bland. I find it to be the highlight of Count Raven's first album. Morsay, I really hope you take the time to get deeper into the band, they're great!

Though Voivod have been, and arguably are once again, a thrash metal band at points during their career, I wouldn't say that classification applies at all to this song/album. Certainly I understand that it isn't for everyone, but it's disheartening that most of my attempts to coax people into appreciating the sublime and terrifying darkness that is the Phobos album have been a failure.

It's awesome that you like it! Kekal is a wonderful band, super experimental and weird. The album that that song was off of is called 1000 Thoughts of Violence; it is in my opinion their best work.

Sounded a bit thrashy to me, but I'm not the best when it comes to genre identification. I thought of it as "progressive thrash metal" but I guess it's not. The "darkness" that you're referring to is not really something that I heard at all in it, although it's more ambient portion was fairly cool sounding. Sorry to disappoint you like everyone else has.

Man, is it getting old telling people to stop relying on the internet to tell them what they're hearing or what? Sooooo not thrash...anyways I do have a bit of a weird soft spot for Phobos but it's just too long for me to come back to often. I'm going to dust it off soon I think.

Gosh, sorry that I'm not up to your standards with genre identification. It sounded thrashy to me, the vocals matched, and the feel of it did too. No need to get so worked up.

i prefaced my review there with that because that's the truth of it; it seems like more often than not, the songs i review on this page are awful, and i wanted to add an "in my defence" to this one because it was even awfuller than normal. a way of saying "hey guys, sorry if all you ever see from me is negative reviews in this thread - i wanted to treat the glass as half full this time around but look at the cards i was dealt". i wasn't going out of my way to be nasty to it, i just genuinely think that was the worst thing i've ever seen in this thread.

as for the song itself, please give it a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RARibVk6m4

there's no doom metal in that. i don't know how you drew a comparison between that and black sabbath or candlemass (was that your review?) but as i said in the review above, there is no doom there, there is DEFINITELY no prog in there beyond the linear "progression" of the song, and as for tribal? sure, there's no way i've heard every type of music from every tribe around the world, but if there's a tribe whose traditional music sounds like talentless 14-year-olds with electric guitars, i'll eat my hat.

in all honesty, it blows my mind that someone can listen to that song (assuming it's average from them, and not the black sheep of the album) and not only hear anything but an absolute musical trainwreck, devoid of talent and skill in any way, shape or form, but actually go so far as to defend a negative review of it. there is NOTHING in there that would attract a metalhead, or a music fan in general. if i'd been nasty to something like i dunno, nevermore, then i could understand why people would say "hey jez, you mad? they have shitloads of talent, you just don't like it", but this is a whole different kettle of fish.

Yeah that would be a great album to start with. Also, their most recent, Necrovision, is another of their greats. To me, they all are great in their own way. They are one of my favorite black metal bands.

The link does not work so clearly we're talking about different songs. The stuff I've heard from Vale of Amonition was well composed and well executed and well worth the review I gave.

ok that was strange.... so african and deathbysuicide were the same guy, and the video has since been removed from youtube... co-ink-i-dink? probs not. shame it's gone, cause it was great evidence of how atrocious it is....

I can definitely recommend their first three albums with wholehearted zeal. The one they did a few years ago with a new singer (J. D. Kimball died of cancer some time ago), Eternal Black Dawn is pretty good as well. But that trilogy of Battlecry, Warning of Danger and The Curse are mandatory for anyone interested in 80s epic American metal. They write such powerful songs and Kimball had one hell of a voice!

I can see why you don't like that Conception song. They've got more songs that way more exciting though. You might want to check this song instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_gm4ds1GcI

That Truppensturm song was really good...such a dark feel but extremely heavy too

Yep. Seriously heavy. The whole album is a masterpiece as HeySharpshooer rather succinctly pointed out. If you don't mind being ground to a pulp under a 60 ton tank's tracks, then get this record. It's not only blisteringly heavy, it's also loaded with atmosphere, in a dark, brutal, and barbaric way. Utterly perfect!

2 person mini review game!
btw: i'd probably give the exact review of the Ophthalamia song...kinda drags on even though its not terrible long. I haven't heard any of their other albums only that one as was interested in Jon Nödtveidt on vocals