I'm really glad you like this one, mate. I think it's a wonderful album and one of Ron Jarxombek's best. As good as Blotted Science is, I still think Ink Complete will be one of his best works. You will definitely not be disappointed. All the songs are worth hearing due to the technicality and skill on display.

Where the FUCK is LegendMaker?!

Acrobat, that Necrophobic is pretty much the first real death metal I ever listened to. Definitely creeped me out at the time, but in a way that eventually just made me want to hear more!

That's a fair question; thanks for giving a shit, that's much appreciated. I didn't realize it had been that long since my last post (over three weeks!—it's a first since the thread's inception). In my head, it was like "hm, been a few days since I last mini-reviewed something".

Well, the truth is that I've just been busier than usual IRL lately; and it's going to get worse before it gets better, since I'm now in the process of (finaaaally) moving to a nicer place, so expect me to post sporadically at best for the next month or so, and then not at all until I get back online after the move. On the plus side, I will eventually be able to retrieve my whole collection from the storage, including my vinyls!


AHA! This raises a few interesting clues to our respective preferences and habits. Your overall reaction shows you had yet to give Lethal a proper try (even though they're an 80s band!1!!), and the "most importantly" prefix you honored Queensrÿche with shows you may have been right to delay the listen (QR over JP & LL combined? wow! I barely give the former's mini-LP a listen every other year and that's it, whereas the other two have whole discographies I cherish). But that's cool.

Having said that, while they're no Crimson Glory by any stretch of the imagination, and even accounting for our respective preferences, I'd still strongly suggest you give Lethal another couple of fair chances before you cross them off of your list as run-of-the-mill late wave USPM; they are really more than just that, hell they were even a major influence on Hollow themselves (yes, the godly Swedish band responsible for 'Architect of the Mind'). But their style is definitely one I'd call a grower. If any song in their repertoire can hook someone on the spot and give instant gratification, "Killing Machine" would certainly be it (which played a huge part in why I picked that one specifically); so if that one left you cold... Then perhaps their more subtle side will be your gateway to their stuff instead.

So, they've made a quite professional-sounding demo back in '87, essentially a slightly rougher take on 4 songs of their future debut; so not a priority. The debut in question, 'Programmed', is a minor USPM classic, sort of a cross between a less dramatic 'Crimson Glory', a less complex 'The Spectre Within', and a less technical 'Graceful Inheritance', it has a charm and spirit of its own, though. It's a collection of very well-written and performed, genuinely good power/prog songs, that flows perfectly as a whole. "Killing Machine" is the punchier, more straightforward closer, but much of the album is slower, more progressive, and more melodic than that. For instance, "Immune" shows their more poignant side, while "Obscure The Sky" is more representative of their bigger, more theatrical side.

I never got the chance to give their '91 demo a try, but the '95 mini-album 'Your Favourite God' is quite different and yet awesome in its own right. Some trends of the 90s hit them hard, namely chugging-heavy riffs and louder-and-more-crompressed-than-thou production, but it still has the same songwriting level, more varied and dynamic arrangements, and improved musicianship. Style wise, it's both more abrasive/metallic and more subtle/progressive, and what I'd consider the peak of their own personal approach. Actually, if TDR is your WoJ, then maybe "The Page Before" could be your "Killing Machine"? That's really their release where the Hollow connection is the more evident (some aspects aren't too far removed from post-reunion Agent Steel, albeit much calmer of course). How about that one (one of my favorites)?

Anyways, right after that, they moved too far too fast into that new then-"modern" direction, and past that to the land of sugar-coated semi-ballads and overall more "progressive", accessible songs, seriously bordering on the "alternative" with their final album 'Poison Seed', which is not of much interest to me, although it's certainly competent for what it is, but may or may not suit Excalion's fans fancy...


Seeing this thread had been inactive for three days was the very thing that gave me the incentive to come back for a spin tonight. Thanks for reviving it! Cool pick with Mortem, too: unknown to me, and pretty nice, "evil thrash" groovy thrash/death, right there!

@Turner: Man, why do you look at the visual before you listen to the song?! This would ruin half of the fun for me, if I did this... Plus, some YT uploads go with really, really annoying "clips" entirely out of the poster's ass (I don' t look in the horse's mouth, though: it's hard enough to find something reliable audio wise). Bah, to each his own. But maybe you'd want to try once in a "blind" mode, just for shits and giggles?

I put Queensryche last because Lethal sound a lot like them - on that song anyway...

And yeah, I dunno man, they're a cool band, but I sometimes just feel like I have too many 80s metal bands. Sorta oversaturated by 'em, ya know? I cherry-pick my favorites and stick to 'em while discovering other, new stuff that I've never heard before. That makes it sound like I snub my nose at the rest of them, but really I just need to be in a mood for that style, just like any other style.

And Excalion is awesome. They're poppy as hell and have really simple songwriting, but it's done incredibly well. It's just great music.

Mortem are an incredible band and yeah, that lead guitarist has a lot to do with it as far as I'm concerned. Can't you tell theyr'e from South America? They actually seem to be improving with each consecutive release and that's remarkable, considering that their first was rather good. Been around for a long time, too!

In my defence, it's the first thing you see when you load the song, and it DOES look like a really cheap knock-off of the Legion cover. If it makes it any better, I own the album now and it's a LOT better than anything Deicide have put out. But it is a little hard not to look at the cover, especially when it's almost laughably bad.

@Lord_Brendan: Glad you dug "Under my Skin", bro; although a meatier praise would have been much appreciated, to be honest (I know, I always have the same complaint, but hey! I'm a stubborn old-schooler, what do you expect? ). Anyhow, FYI Abattoir used to be much rawer than that in their early days and on their debut 'Vicious Attack' (the line-up evolved quite a bit as well), which showed a much more aggressive form of speed metal in terms of performance and spirit, borderline thrash at times, even though songwriting and arrangements wise it was already quite melodic. 'The Only Safe Place' is their more PM album. I really like both. If Mike Towers reminds you of someone, it's most likely not that you heard him elsewhere, considering how thin his discography turned out to be (which is a shame, as he did great on TOSP); I dunno, he has a decidedly 80s USPM approach and timber, perhaps closest to Ruthless' Sami De John and, at times (his raspier semi-shrieks), WASP's Blackie Lawless. Is that it?

@Empyreal: Fair enough, man; if you're not in the mood for it, nothing I can say will change that. Perhaps in your next hey!-I-feel-like-some-new-classic-80s-power/prog cycle, you'll remember that post of mine and give Lethal another chance. But hey! I'm not paid to promote the band or anything, though; do what you want, dude!

@Abominatrix: I couldn't tell Mortem were from South America, actually! I would have guessed Russia or Poland. Now that you've brought it up, the vocals are not too dissimilar with early days Sepultura & Sarcófago. Your enthusiasm towards them makes me more curious; I'll add them to the list haha. One thing I don't really get is their logo, it just screams "old school BM, beeatch!" to me, which has next to nothing to do with their sound; bah maybe it's just me.

@Turner: Thanks for giving it a try! I can see you give a lot of importance to album art, but the thing is that, since we're singling out one song each time for this game, the album's cover art doesn't seem as relevant as with an album review. What I typically do is a mouse-wheel click on the link, and I put extra effort not to read the top of the new tab that the YT page loads in (for my first listen at least).

Glad you enjoyed this Atrophy track; it's my favorite of theirs, but I strongly recommend both of their albums, it's just extatic thrashing goodness throughout. You're right about Brian Zimmerman's vocals: it's basically a guy with the ability to sing perfectly well in a clean/melodic fashion who chose to go with harsh, foam-in-mouth vocals instead (most of the time, anyways) and it shows in how powerful and controled his delivery can be (not unlike Coven's Jay Clark). Thanks for offering a nice read!

As for the song you submitted, I'll let someone less familiar with the band a chance to mini-review it; I could do it, but it'd probably be less interesting as I know their whole discography pretty well. I actually posted another song of theirs a couple of pages back (they deserve all the attention they can get, though).

Glad you at least enjoyed the G.O.T.H track I posted. For me they are a great band, and perhaps they need to grow on you a little like your first moustache or beard. They are a solid band none the less, and can really pull out some quite awesome blackthrashin' brilliance at times.

@CrushedRevelation: Dude, thank you so much for making me reconsider Abigor! That song is fantastic, and million miles away from what I remembered them to be from the few songs I had heard on late 90s magazine samplers. Either they considerably changed their style (from intense and highly emotional to bland and pointlessly brutal) and quality (from brilliant to unremarkable), or I had them confused with a similarly named BM band. I shit you not, the micro-file in my memory under "Abigor" actually read "yet another talentless, generic and über brutal yarf-yarf-huff black metal band" until just now. Sounds like I owe them another chance.

@Turner: Nightingale is one of the various pet/side/not-EOS projects of legendary legend, genuine genius Dan Swanö, and probably the one he cares about the most these days. It's all around impressively well-done, unquestionably inspired and authentic stuff for melodic and progressive hard/heavy enthusiasts, and you're right, as far as clean vocals go, Dan improved quite a lot over the years, although he was no slouch to begin with. Having said that, I have the same bittersweet feeling about this project as I do his outstanding and oh-so-prolific production work: while he's doing this, he's no longer doing that.

That Nightingale song really does sound like Whitesnake's 1987 with a couple of riffs lifted from Katatonia's debut. Swano, you fox, you!

What? Whitesnake? Why?!

Thanks for the praise mate! That particular is from their stellar debut Verwüstung / Invoke the Dark Age, which I consider to an overlooked minor classic (1994). I mean check this out. This album is rife with brilliant, blistering and yes, emotional black metal. I can totally and fully recommend the mini-album that followed this and the second record, but after that they lost some of their atmosphere and charm, becoming as you put it, blasty and bland. For shame really.