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droneriot
cisgender

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 4:48 pm 
 

Well that was a first for me that a musician who hasn't been active in over two decades has emailed me. Normally it's people who are 100% in the game.
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CHAIRTHROWER
Methed-burnt rogue babelfish

Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 7:10 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:27 am 
 

Anyone know if any big-name musicians contribute to site, review-wise? Say, imagine your band was reviewed by OO, Rob H., or Bruce D....now, that'd be a gas (lit affair...er, hopefully, not!)

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droneriot
cisgender

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 8:05 am 
 

Ronnie James Dio and Lemmy Kilmister used to write tons of 100% Black Tribe reviews but they were taken down by their families after their deaths.
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Cat III
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:44 am
Posts: 382
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 1:44 pm 
 

CHAIRTHROWER wrote:
Anyone know if any big-name musicians contribute to site, review-wise? Say, imagine your band was reviewed by OO, Rob H., or Bruce D....now, that'd be a gas (lit affair...er, hopefully, not!)

None that big, but the Cirith Ungol albums were reviewed by one of its members, Blackdeath's guitarist regularly submits reviews, and S. Craig Zahler used to write reviews, though he's better known as a (fantastic) movie director and novelist than a metal musician.
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EzraBlumenfeld
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 12:50 pm
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:43 pm 
 

Looks like Lord_of_Diamonds is finally getting a taste of his own medicine.
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CHAIRTHROWER
Methed-burnt rogue babelfish

Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 7:10 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 4:21 pm 
 

At least it beats scooting onto pear of anguish...(twisted emoj of your selection, s.v.p.!)

*Why would fams of Dio and Lemmy K. withdraw their write-ups from the site? Are they afraid somebody will usurp, hence, profit from them? Seems like a (pee) wee stretch, no?

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Cat III
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:44 am
Posts: 382
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2020 1:24 am 
 

EzraBlumenfeld wrote:
Looks like Lord_of_Diamonds is finally getting a taste of his own medicine.

Didn't LoD admit the point of his musical project was to be awful? Seems like Gas_Snake is giving him more of the attention he craves.

CHAIRTHROWER wrote:
Why would fams of Dio and Lemmy K. withdraw their write-ups from the site? Are they afraid somebody will usurp, hence, profit from them? Seems like a (pee) wee stretch, no?

Would you want your loved ones to be remembered for heaping praise on Black Tribe?
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CHAIRTHROWER
Methed-burnt rogue babelfish

Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 7:10 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2020 2:37 pm 
 

From what I gather, this Crack Tribe is terrible, or profane, or sumthin'?...

Yes, if so, in that context, I fully get it.

They sure did their homework, no how. No disrespect towards the departed gents/metal icons, but maybe was stated so in will?

+, (duly)

Dug J Priest Jugulator write up; dig this legume-strewn loom:

It is a headbanger to kneel down, and I recommend every metalhead to take off the tomatos from their ears and to enjoy this little piece of Hell. All in all I would consider "Bullet Train" as the most classic Judas Priest song on "Jugulator". Not too dark, more melodic and speedy. Great song and a earcatcher. But I doubt that this one song will comfort the ones who mourn the departure of Rob Halford.

(May I, ahem, *wisely* suggests the like named "Bullet Train" by Finland's Coronary, to go with it, as monte christo/wizened Scotch pairing?...)

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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:03 pm 
 

EzraBlumenfeld wrote:
Looks like Lord_of_Diamonds is finally getting a taste of his own medicine.


I sampled his stuff out of curiosity, it was so utterly terrible I decided not to bother writing anything about it. Frankly, the less attention he receives, the better.
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Sweetie
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2020 10:59 pm 
 

Now you're all making me curious. See! It works!
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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 29, 2020 2:26 pm 
 

SweetLeaf95 wrote:
Now you're all making me curious. See! It works!


Sure it works, much the same way that a car wreck with mangled corpses works in turning heads, doesn't really make it something that's a net positive for anybody.

On an unrelated note, I decided to start my rewrites of my formerly nuked 2005 through early 2006 catalog, largely inspired by an assignment I received on Sonic Perspectives to review the remasters of Dio's last 4 albums (Angry Machines, Magica, Killing The Dragon and Master Of The Moon). Just revamped my old 2006 review of The Last In Line and am now contemplating hitting Sacred Heart. These won't show up in the latest reviews feed because I'm treating them as edits (largely because I kinda view it as point whoring to submit a rewrite as new, though I also wanted to maintain bragging rights for having been one of the earlier reviewers to hit said albums lol).

https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/ ... corn/29518
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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 29, 2020 11:45 pm 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:
These won't show up in the latest reviews feed because I'm treating them as edits (largely because I kinda view it as point whoring to submit a rewrite as new, though I also wanted to maintain bragging rights for having been one of the earlier reviewers to hit said albums lol).


Yeah I had actually had wondered about this myself when I started rewriting my 2008 era stuff. On one hand it did kinda feel like cheating to review the album twice and be on the top both times with it, but ultimately I decided to have my cake and eat it too by deleting the old one and adding the rewrite with a little note pointing out that it's a rewrite, giving the date of the original at the start. It's not necessarily point whoring since mods don't get points for reviews (I genuinely can't remember if scribes still do, but I think they do) but the way I see it, I'm putting in enough work to fully rewrite the damn thing so I'd rather get some sort of credit for that. It's a whole new review so ya might as well treat it like one, and it's not either of us are pulling a LeMis and re-reviewing the same album three times in a month.
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Sweetie
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2020 9:44 am 
 

I don't think I even knew that re-writes would give you the points again. I've re-written a couple old ones, but never took notice to the points.

Also yes, scribes do get points for reviews. How come mods don't?
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Derigin
The Mountain Man

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2020 10:01 am 
 

I just confirmed that we mods do get 5 points per review.

If you just do an edit to a review, you do not get points for that. That applies to everyone. If you delete it, rewrite it and resubmit it, you do get points for that.

There are ways for us to determine if someone is submitting the same review, untouched, that they've previously submitted... so please don't abuse this to point-whore.
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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2020 2:05 pm 
 

BastardHead wrote:
hells_unicorn wrote:
These won't show up in the latest reviews feed because I'm treating them as edits (largely because I kinda view it as point whoring to submit a rewrite as new, though I also wanted to maintain bragging rights for having been one of the earlier reviewers to hit said albums lol).


Yeah I had actually had wondered about this myself when I started rewriting my 2008 era stuff. On one hand it did kinda feel like cheating to review the album twice and be on the top both times with it, but ultimately I decided to have my cake and eat it too by deleting the old one and adding the rewrite with a little note pointing out that it's a rewrite, giving the date of the original at the start. It's not necessarily point whoring since mods don't get points for reviews (I genuinely can't remember if scribes still do, but I think they do) but the way I see it, I'm putting in enough work to fully rewrite the damn thing so I'd rather get some sort of credit for that. It's a whole new review so ya might as well treat it like one, and it's not either of us are pulling a LeMis and re-reviewing the same album three times in a month.


To amend my original thought, a full on comprehensive rewrite isn't really point-whoring in my opinion, but since my views on all these albums are almost 100% unchanged, all I'm really doing is fixing some formatting issues and adapting what I originally wrote into my more verbose 2017-2020 style. It's more that I like the idea of maintaining my status as one of the first to review said album on the site. I wouldn't begrudge anyone else for taking your approach on this, I did do a couple of rewrites years back where I took the review down and resubmitted it (this was before the current version of the site).
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Cat III
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 5:19 am 
 

I have no desire to not be a scribe, but I do miss the opportunity to have a review deemed worthy of 8 points. It was a goal to motivate me to write better, though I only achieved it once, so it's not like I'm missing out on hoards of points I'd have earned otherwise.

On the subject of rewrites, I have a strict rule to only edit when there are significant factual errors. That keeps me from endlessly reworking things I've published to focus on writing new things. Aldous Huxley wrote a forward to a reprint of Brave New World that lays out clear reasoning against authors trying to "fix" their past work. Unfortunately I do have one review that isn't completely inaccurate, but requires more than swapping a word or two.
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Twisted_Psychology
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 8:54 am 
 

To be honest, I forget that the point system is even a thing sometimes. In general, I prefer to leave my old reviews as is. My opinions on most of them haven't changed all that much so there wouldn't be much incentive to revise them beyond better formatting and some more fleshed out points.
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Timeghoul
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:49 am 
 

I wanted to do a few reviews, for albums that had no reviews. Good albums, that I thought deserved a review. I am not much of a writer, but I thought I would give it a try. Two of the reviews were rejected, so I did as was noted in the reason for rejection. I resubmitted them and they were rejected again. Could someone here tell me where to make improvements? The one is for a one song demo, so I am not really sure where to go with that one. The note for rejection stated to beef it up, not just why it sounds good. I didn't really want to say something like he should of turned off his phaser during the solo.

Oblation - Dead Unborn

Will this song save the murdered babies?
The early 1990s were an interesting time for heavy metal. Especially for death metal. It would not be too long before Christian bands started putting out death metal. A friend of mine gave me this tape, knowing how much I liked death metal. At the time, I was actually surprised that there was a style of death metal that was created by Christians, with Christian lyrics.
I really did not think that this would be any good. Christians, making death metal? Really seemed like an oxymoron to me at the time. Wasn’t death metal supposed to be about Satan, murder or whatever “Immortal Visions” was about? I did not go in expecting much from a one-song demo tape, from Oblation. I was pleasantly surprised how good this actually was.
It has that early 90s death metal vibe. Going from a slow chugging, to fast and then finally a blast beat. This is not the most technical song that I have ever heard, but it is catchy. As catchy as a death metal song can be. The best comparison I can make of it is what Bolt Thrower were doing at this time.
This left me wanting more. I could not wait for a full-length release from this band. Sadly, this would never be the case. The band would demo a six song tape, but they would break up before gaining any real kind of steam.



Possession - Eternally Haunt

Can Christian music sound evil?


Eternally Haunt is the first full-length release from Possession. I would describe this album as haunting and crushing. The band does a great job of mixing thrash metal with death metal. The band has a mixture of low guttural growls, shrieks and glass shattering high vocals. The band also has two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer, who all seem to work well together. The band has quite a history of the members playing with other bigger established bands. Some of the bands are Dying Fetus, Gorguts, Skinless and the Red Chord.
Although Possession is a Christian band, they do not have in your face lyrics. In fact, the first time that I ever heard this band I had no idea that they were a Christian band. The band shared the label Metal Merchant Records with anti-Christian band Acheron, for their album Hail Victory. Sadly, this would be the only full-length release by Possession.
The album opens with Opening a Doorway into the Occult. This is not a song, but a recording of an extremely scary church service. It sets a chilling tone for the album. Directly from Nyk Edinger, who did vocals on this album “I was listening to a church service on an AM radio station, from the church Mission Viejo in Vineyard California. It was a very hot summer day in Kansas City and it gave me the chills as I was driving down the interstate. I immediately knew this was the perfect thing to set the tone for the album.”
From start to finish on this album the band rides the line between thrash and death metal. The only exception to this being the one instrumental track on this album “Despair.” This is more of a guitar instrumental. It is a clean guitar with a shredding electric guitar over it. Besides this instrumental track this entire album will have you reaching to turn up the volume and head bang furiously.
Although Possession would release other music, Eternally Haunt would be the only full-length release. A promo tape would be released for Eternally Haunt and in 1997 the band would release an EP. The band would break up shortly thereafter and various members of the band would go onto form the band Frost Like Ashes.
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hakarl
Metel fraek

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 11:07 am 
 

Timeghoul, this would be the thread you're looking for:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16487
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Timeghoul
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 11:31 am 
 

Ilwhyan wrote:
Timeghoul, this would be the thread you're looking for:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16487
Alright, sorry about that.
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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 11:45 am 
 

Cat III wrote:
On the subject of rewrites, I have a strict rule to only edit when there are significant factual errors. That keeps me from endlessly reworking things I've published to focus on writing new things. Aldous Huxley wrote a forward to a reprint of Brave New World that lays out clear reasoning against authors trying to "fix" their past work. Unfortunately I do have one review that isn't completely inaccurate, but requires more than swapping a word or two.


Twisted_Psychology wrote:
To be honest, I forget that the point system is even a thing sometimes. In general, I prefer to leave my old reviews as is. My opinions on most of them haven't changed all that much so there wouldn't be much incentive to revise them beyond better formatting and some more fleshed out points.


The reason I've taken to slowly rewriting my 06-09 era stuff has more to do with my own skill improving than my opinions changing necessarily. I'm not gonna pretend I'm fantastic or anything but I'm definitely leaps and bounds further ahead than the old "this part is [a Borisism], and this part is [a joke pilfered from Yahtzee]" shtick that I used to do.

Also it's very clear that I was a teenager until mid 2010 and if you aren't disgusted by every single thing you've ever said as a teenager then you still have some growing up to do.
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Cat III
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:44 am
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 1:49 pm 
 

My rule is for myself. I don't expect others to follow it (might not be a bad idea if they did), and can't say I'll always follow 100% either. I have the fortune to having written all my reviews well into adulthood (on this site at least).

Twisted_Psychology wrote:
To be honest, I forget that the point system is even a thing sometimes.

It's not a big deal to me. If it were, I'd spend more time submitting changes to bands and such, but it still is neat to see my total grow. In the case of the scores rewarded for reviews, it gave an approximate idea of how well a review was written (got a few 3 pointers).

BastardHead wrote:
Also it's very clear that I was a teenager until mid 2010 and if you aren't disgusted by every single thing you've ever said as a teenager then you still have some growing up to do.

I've always been blessed to be ashamed of everything I've written/said at every stage of my life.
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Sweetie
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 1:58 pm 
 

BastardHead wrote:
Also it's very clear that I was a teenager until mid 2010 and if you aren't disgusted by every single thing you've ever said as a teenager then you still have some growing up to do.


This is why I got rid of most of what I wrote as a teenager (which was only like my first year of reviewing anyway, consisting mostly of classic albums with poorly worded thoughts).
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CHAIRTHROWER
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 4:01 pm 
 

"They’re good for background music, but just start to sound played-out for me after the halfway mark for every track, and none stand out as particularly kick ass."

says Empyreal 'bout Traveler's Traveler...

I've now option between anodyne dismissal and getting on with (somewhat of) life or...extirpated big-ass harrrumph!

(Will take devil "traveled" high road, though and simply guffaw with laconically amused, ruminating/ed musing(s)...[duly!])

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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 5:22 pm 
 

Cat III wrote:
On the subject of rewrites, I have a strict rule to only edit when there are significant factual errors. That keeps me from endlessly reworking things I've published to focus on writing new things. Aldous Huxley wrote a forward to a reprint of Brave New World that lays out clear reasoning against authors trying to "fix" their past work. Unfortunately I do have one review that isn't completely inaccurate, but requires more than swapping a word or two.


I generally agree with your sentiment on this, the specific reviews that I'm rewriting are ones that were nuked about 5 years ago because they failed to meet the current standards of the site. More than half of them were in the now prohibited track-by-track checklist format (a rule that only really came into effect in early 2006, and wasn't heavily enforced on albums that had less than 3 reviews until years later) and the rest were riddled with formatting issues (improper paragraph spacing, syntax errors, etc.) Not to mention that other than tweaking a couple of scores by a few points, I'm basically writing the same review again. I don't think anything I've written since June of 2006 is going to be rewritten unless there were some hidden track-by-track crappers that managed to sneak past Diamhea when he was cleaning up the site a few years back.
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 5:58 pm 
 

CHAIRTHROWER wrote:
"They’re good for background music, but just start to sound played-out for me after the halfway mark for every track, and none stand out as particularly kick ass."

says Empyreal 'bout Traveler's Traveler...

I've now option between anodyne dismissal and getting on with (somewhat of) life or...extirpated big-ass harrrumph!

(Will take devil "traveled" high road, though and simply guffaw with laconically amused, ruminating/ed musing(s)...[duly!])


Just not that into it really. I've tried it a handful of times now and nothing really sticks out much. Got potential though.
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droneriot
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:14 pm 
 

https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/ ... ake/793059

I don't know if that's better or worse than hells_unicorn calling it doom metal.
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Metal_Detector
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 11:08 pm 
 

Actually I agree quite a bit with Empy's take on that one. I listened to that album a bunch of times, and though it sounds pretty convincing and well-done, it lacks the idiosyncracies and intangibles I look for from a genuine great playing their brand of metal. It's like someone followed a recipe perfectly, except that they failed to add any seasoning to the dish. Competent, never excellent.

Still, there was enough potential there to anticipate their next album. Hopefully that one establishes more of an identity.
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 11:22 am 
 

Metal_Detector wrote:
Actually I agree quite a bit with Empy's take on that one. I listened to that album a bunch of times, and though it sounds pretty convincing and well-done, it lacks the idiosyncracies and intangibles I look for from a genuine great playing their brand of metal. It's like someone followed a recipe perfectly, except that they failed to add any seasoning to the dish. Competent, never excellent.

Still, there was enough potential there to anticipate their next album. Hopefully that one establishes more of an identity.


This is how a bunch of these new bands sound to me - excited to play but green behind the ears, and without real inventive hook writing or strong eclectic ideas. I hate to point at older bands still putting out music, but Slough Feg and Arch/Matheos are more recent examples of the kind of writing I like. Antiquus and Celtic Legacy are some other, more obscure examples that aren't from the 80s.
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CHAIRTHROWER
Methed-burnt rogue babelfish

Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 7:10 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 1:15 pm 
 

I dunno, man...Traveler's pretty exquisite stuff, riff/vocal-wyse; but then again, perhaps this starry-eyed minstrel was singularly overwhelmed by junkie ode "Street Machine", as to (unduly) amplify score...For myself, the themes, riffs, and fact I'm already big time Jean-Pierre A. (vocals) fan, had lots to do with it. (Plus, Calgary proximity tugged on heartstring or two).

Still, feel a bit of the ole devil's advocate on your (esteemed) B-halfs!

*ok, in plain English, now, check out War Dogs' Die By My Sword and if you don't dig (like rabid pitbull) shall sprint over to where youze at and maul hat(s)!

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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:13 pm 
 

This is definitely better. Still not at the level of the latest Slough Feg and Ironsword or anything but it's got chops. I can dig it.
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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 4:04 pm 
 

droneriot wrote:
https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Metallica/...and_Justice_for_All/559/Gas_Snake/793059

I don't know if that's better or worse than hells_unicorn calling it doom metal.


It's slightly better in the abstract, as there are some occasional progressive ideas thrown in like odd time signatures, off-kilter shifts in tempo and a generally adventurous approach to song structure. Granted, calling the album prog metal is a pretty massive stretch considering that the album doesn't even come close to resembling transitional prog/thrash albums out of Voivod or Watchtower, let alone something that was full on prog. My old 2007 thesis relied on a couple of isolated, Sabbath-influenced riffs on "Eye Of The Beholder" and "The Frayed Ends Of Sanity" that were so peripheral that they were, at best, incidental. There are some examples that could be used to justify saying that the album was a progression relative to past Metallica albums and had some subtle progressive elements, but not to the point of dwelling upon them for most of a review.
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Napalm_Satan
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:37 pm 
 

Even in my own review I made parallels like that, though if it wasn't clear I was talking about how the album feels vs. what it is in substance. It's very much a mid-tempo thrash metal album taxonomically, and it never tries to be anything else, which makes it even more remarkable that it doesn't listen like or feel like one at all.

Also on TheHumanChair's new Rainbow review, I don't really have anything to say but I liked the title, lol.
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DoomMetalAlchemist
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:49 pm 
 

Napalm_Satan wrote:
Also on TheHumanChair's new Rainbow review, I don't really have anything to say but I liked the title, lol.


It's a really good review, even if I disagree with his stance on Still I'm Sad 110%. Also it seems weird to me to refer to If You Don't Like Rock n Roll as "blues rock." It's basically 50s era style rock n roll, which to me isn't synonymous with blues rock.

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Sweetie
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2020 6:39 pm 
 

That Blood Incantation review is spot on. I really could stand to give it a few more listens, but I had the exact same thoughts.
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Twisted_Psychology
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 3:30 pm 
 

I've rather liked TheHumanChair's discography enthusiasm but I really wish they'd break up the walls of text more.
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Empyreal
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 3:34 pm 
 

I have to say giving Sabotage a lower rating than 13 is an interesting choice. Intriguing reviews though, seems well written.
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Acrobat
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Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:53 am
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 4:18 pm 
 

That should be rejected for factual inaccuracy. 13 is fucking wank.
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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 4:28 pm 
 

Acrobat wrote:
That should be rejected for factual inaccuracy. 13 is fucking wank.


Gotta agree with your sentiment here (though maybe not rejecting the review lol), frankly I never thought Sabbath would put out anything weaker than Never Say Die, but that's precisely how 13 came out.
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droneriot
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 4:37 pm 
 

You guys are so harsh, that album checked almost all the classic Black Sabbath boxes, it only forgot that little one with writing any interesting riffs, other than that it's total classic Sabbath.
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