"When it comes to Master of Puppets, it’s either hailed as the greatest thing in existence or the most overrated piece-of-crap ever made. I’m supporting the latter, which is indeed a very overrated album. The way this album feels and plays just like its predecessor, Ride The Lightening, without its intensity. It was certainly one of the turning points for the band. Dave Mustaine was booted and now formed Megadeth and you’ve got Metallica without that extra wheel to push their music to bigger heights.

There have plenty of reviews already and everyone who’ve become a metalhead or so have crossed its path. One of the major problems with this album is that it tries to be more epic than the previous album but it’s not very successful. The band is using cheap tricks like overly extending the song just to give the impression that it’s “EPIC!!!”. For instance, “Disposable Heroes”, despite the best song here, have 3 overlong choruses which go on and on until the song gets to an 8 minute mark. This same problem goes for the title track, “Master of Puppets”, with its overlong choruses which somewhat kills the song. The melody part in the middle of the song is cute and it’s like Hetfield is like: “Hey guys, see what I could do!!! YEAH!!” Speaking of disposable, you could pretty much say for the song “Leper Messiah” which sounds pretty generic without anything noteworthy. You have some adorable lyrics slapped around onto it, but musically, there isn’t anything to give or take and I would say, it’s easily the worst song here.

Speaking of Hetfield, he sounds really soulless when it comes to his vocals, doesn’t he? “The Things That Should Not Be” is a terrible, boring and plodding song which goes on forever even if it’s one of the shortest songs here and Hetfield doesn’t help when it feels so robotic. He doesn’t input any emotions or adds anything to make the song stands out, he keeps his monotone voice throughout. This is Metallica’s attempt of being Black Sabbath, but it’s an amazing cure for insomnia. This continues on with “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” which tries so hard to repeat “Fade To Black” from the previous album but it feels so bleak and whiny from Mr. Hetfield.

This is when I had the impression that Master of Puppets is just a weak and a cheap replica of Ride The Lightening. They try to cash-in the previous success of that album onto here and you also have an instrumental and it’s an 8-tracked disc with an acoustic opener for both. There’s nothing new and I do understand why this album dragged the metal scene as a whole. You know the impression “Perfection is the Enemy of Good?” well, what if the “Perfection” is just decent. It’s going to create a negative and hurtful ripple effect. It’s a carbon copy of the previous album that became a marketing ploy that this is the STANDARD of all metal albums should be. The whole scene suffered because of this just the likes of UltraBoris and hells_unicorn stated out. If mediocrity is celebrated, it could cause a terrible effect just like what we’re hearing on today’s radio. Slayer’s “Reign In Blood” and Megadeth’s “Peace Sells” are way superior albums to this and if those albums were called “The greatest of all time” by the masses out of metal, things would’ve been more successful in the metal music, as a whole. This album was definitely the turning point of the band, for the worse… I’m afraid. They had one positive hiccup in the “…and Justice” album, but after that, it was all downhill from here and the band has never recovered ever since.

While many calls this album “masterpiece”, it did expose the band’s limitation. Hetfield is a decent songwriter overall with good ideas here and there, but cannot piece them together properly like Dave used to do. To Hefield’s credit, he could come up with decent riffs here and there with okay lyrics. Lars has always been a crappy drummer from the start and all these years, he hadn’t had much of progress only the basics of drumming and it is shown throughout the album. Kirk reliant on the “Wah” pedal for his, so-called creative, solos aren’t that much to take notes on. Cliff was the more competent out of the four players with some good bass lines on the instrumental “Orion”. Overall, the album is a weak version of what thrash is supposed to be. In which, they’re trying to sound melodic by placing unnecessary melodic stuff between songs like the title song, like I mentioned, doesn’t add much. The opener song of Damage Inc’s melodic section takes so long before the riff comes into play. I remember I used to turn off the album, which I had it on a cassette at the time, before the song ever started and I was thinking that it was part of the Orion song.

My little story when I first heard this album around 2001 and when I was getting into metal, I thought of it as “okay!” For a “legendary” album to get just an okay from my early metal brain wasn’t a good sign for this album when I thought albums like “Rust In Peace” and “Show No Mercy” were amazing from my immature ears. It took me awhile to enjoy it and thought it was a grower but not a whole lot. I’m harsh towards this album because this like the so-called “Standard barrier” and any weakness isn’t supposed to show from the biggest metal band in the world. I’ll give you this example… we all know that the WWE is the biggest company when it comes to wrestling and let’s say they put out an okay or a stinker of a Wrestlemania show, you’d be so livid and you show no mercy if there’s a small crack onto the show and this is how I feel about Master of Puppets.

One thing, you could give this album that it does create controversy and it divides people, whether people worship and believe that it’s the greatest musical experience on the planet or the most overrated piece of shit ever existed. There is no middle ground here and definitely a game changer and unfortunately, it was for the worse. I wouldn’t say it KILLED metal as a whole because the music did recover in the 2000’s somehow, but it did damage it for quite a while and that’s why the 90’s weren’t so kind of metal when the whole grunge and other trash that disguised itself as “metal” in which this album opened the gates to the unwelcome and go “HEY! I CAN DO METAL, AS WELL!!! LOOK AT ME!!!”

In the end, many had accepted this as their master and did obey it and made a large group of sheep that whatever Metallica would crap out, the majority would eat it. It’s so annoying when you open a list that has the likes of Beyonce and Kanye West and other rubbish and find the name Metallica within this list and this is where it all started. The downfall of Metallica… they pulled the strings on their suckers… I meant fans and at the same time, they pulled their own strings, I’m afraid."

Vreid was formed in 2004 from the ashes of Windir, an excellent viking black metal band that ended tragically when Valfar, its vocalist and mastermind, died of hypothermia in a snow storm. This dramatic background clearly influenced Vreid’s first effort, Kraft. The album’s vibes are wrathful, dark and grim, and the lyrics deal with wrath, anti-religious sentiment, nostalgia and Marquis de Sade’s philosophy. Having settled all this let’s talk about the the most important aspect, the music:


I’ve been a fan of Vreid’s music since the very first time I listened to Kraft. Their trademark fusion of rock’n’roll and black metal, with some acoustic clean guitar moments and sporadic electronic passages got me immediately hooked. Their riffs are simply unforgettable. I love how this band have produced so many catchy riffs over the years with a grim, dark and evil tone. I mean, it was thanks to Vreid I removed the dust from my guitar and started playing again!
Kraft was simply the perfect debut album, and an excellent showcase of what Vreid is capable of. It contains all the aspects that made this band well-known in the black metal scene; catchy riffs and melodies, a raging vocal performance and obscure and provocative lyrics, all this played with a seemingly unending energy. In other words, pure black’n’roll! From the rageful ‘Wrath of Mine’ through the misterious and industrial influenced ‘Helvete’ to the nostalgic ‘Empty’, this album is brilliant in every aspect. Another thing I love about this album is its production. It’s raw and dirty, yet you can hear everything perfectly, which I feel it was the way this album was meant to sound. It became one of my favourite albums ever and introduced me to a band I still listen to often nowadays.


I would recommend this album to any black metal fan, specially if you like “Age of Nero's era” Satyricon and rock’n’roll influenced metal in general. Hails!

Void Meditation Cult is essentially a Beherit worship band similar to Demoncy, except a tad lighter on the guitar distortion. Dark, ritualistic black metal with heavy static-y guitars, and a mix of whispered vocals and low chant-like growls. This type of black metal is generally very thick, and it usually works with a nice balance of fast, aggressive blast-heavy metal and slow, dark, evil atmosphere (without going full-on atmospheric black metal).

This band came out with Sulfurous Prayers back in 2011, then seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet. The demo showed promise for some quality Beherit worship, albeit with not as good songwriting. (But can you really expect a worship band to outdo the original?) Then, out of nowhere we get Utter the Tongue of the Dead.

This album starts out promising. The title track has some memorable riffs and is pretty well-paced to keep the listener's interest. It's to-the-point, hitting the listener with some dark riffing and thick, ritualistic atmosphere. So far so good. My only real complaint at this point is that the drums could stand to be a bit more prominent in the mix, but the riffing and atmosphere are both satisfying.

Then once you get to the second full track, The Antichrist Prevails, the album just falls apart. At this point, the riffs and overall songwriting are noticeably boring and uninspired, and start to just sound like stuff they picked up off the cutting room floor after spending a bunch of time working on the title track. The pacing is mind-numbing for the rest of the album -- the whole album just maintains the same slow beat with almost identical riffs and mumbled/whispered vocals used exactly the same on every single track. You could switch around the names of all the rest of the songs, and I wouldn't notice the difference because of how similar they all sound.

On the plus side, the rest of the album does maintain its dark, ritualistic atmosphere. But the riff-writing and song-writing are just not interesting or attention-grabbing.

If you're not familiar with this style of black metal, just go listen to Beherit's album Drawing Down the Moon. Maybe it's unfair to compare this album to DDTM, because DDTM is a perfect example of this style of black metal done extremely well. Unfortunately, Void Meditation Cult just doesn't seem to have the songwriting chops to make this style interesting and attention-grabbing beyond one track.

Void Meditation Cult is essentially a Beherit worship band similar to Demoncy, except a tad lighter on the guitar distortion. They came out with Sulfurous Prayers back in 2011, then seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet. The demo showed promise and was some quality Beherit worship, albeit with not as good songwriting (but can you really expect a worship band to outdo the original?). Then, out of nowhere we get Utter the Tongue of the Dead. This type of black metal is generally very thick, and it usually works with a nice balance of fast, aggressive blast-heavy metal and slow, dark, evil atmosphere (without going full-on atmospheric black metal). It is dark and ritualistic, with heavy static-y guitars, and a mix of whispered vocals and low chant-like growls.

This album starts out promising. The title track has some memorable riffs and is pretty well-paced to keep the listener's interest. It's to-the-point, hitting the listener with some dark riffing and thick, ritualistic atmosphere. So far so good. My only real complaint at this point is that the drums could stand to be a bit more prominent in the mix, but the riffing and atmosphere are both satisfying. Then once you get to the second full track, The Antichrist Prevails, the album just falls apart. At this point, the riffs and overall songwriting are noticeably boring and uninspired, and start to just sound like stuff they picked up off the cutting room floor after spending a bunch of time working on the title track. The pacing is mind-numbing for the rest of the album -- the whole album just maintains the same slow beat with almost identical riffs and mumbled/whispered vocals on every single track. You could switch around the names of all the rest of the songs, and I wouldn't notice the difference because of how similar they all sound.

On the plus side, the rest of the album does maintain its dark, ritualistic atmosphere. But the riff-writing and song-writing are just not interesting or attention-grabbing. If you're not familiar with this style of black metal, just go listen to Beherit's album Drawing Down the Moon. Maybe it's unfair to compare this album to DDTM, because DDTM is a perfect example of this style of black metal done extremely well. Unfortunately, Void Meditation Cult just doesn't seem to have the songwriting chops to make this style interesting and attention-grabbing beyond one track.

Japan is an alien place, it has a very particular and peculiar culture that seems disconnected to the reality of other countries, though different to occidental traditions and present costumes, seeing on news blogs or tabloids about weird inventions or the likes happening there it's indifferent to us, due to the over-exposition of the country. So, it's natural that a band like Urobilinemia came from there. The brand new EP from the band is part of the experimental side of the extreme side of extreme metal (pleonasm alert), yet this band doesn't operate with any sort of minimalism, or either the math-y approach, people are often related to. The only adjective that comes close to describing this band's sound is - strange.

Different than one expects from a brutal death metal/goregrind release, Urobilinemia sound isn't formulaic overall, there's not a specific idea which is repeated throughout the entire album, besides the weird impression that they might conjure you. The band set its own standard as soon as they can, which basically consists in a lack of standards - they can go from excruciatingly odd stop-and-go parts to borderline-acoustic sections in a matter of seconds, place an à lá Carcass melodic riff following some sweeping phrases or even go djent without warning you. Yet this mishmash of paradoxical in nature ideas altogether does flow pretty naturally, the 22 minutes of the release, is rich both in detail and variation.

There's one band I can recall a similarity to Urobilinemia, and quite possibly, the one that may be the point of reference for these Japanese kids - Purulent Jacuzzi, though they are just a technical band who simply operates with different concepts at each section, while Urobilinemia tries to be inclusive and match a lot of influences. Still, they can be compared in the composition department, both bands riff in a similar manner, mid-to-fast tempo chugging riffs with occasional arpeggios or dissonant technical phrases, all doing a job as guitar fills, then there are the outbursts of technicality doing the necessary bridges. It goes without saying, that this is only the idea most often employed on Wriggling Chrysalis Of Metaphysical Grudge and you won't see it that commonly.

The vocals are as varied as the compositions are, or maybe is the arrangements' fidelity that makes the EP seem like an omnibus release. No matter what, there are vocals for all tastes, pig squeals for slam primates, high-pitched screams for noisegrind music noobs and mincing pitchshifted gurgles for pornogrind-loving sociopaths. The production is amazing, polished with a very modernized touch, properly made to fit all the extensive ideas the band has, preserving each one's properties. Certainly, something that seems unimaginable for bedroom projects, also it may be due to the production.

In times where experimentalism gets repulsed with negative connotations due to the massive immigration of hipsters to metal. Among others, Urobilinemia comes up to show that this trend still has potential, at least, when it isn't made by hipsters. Artists like this is mandatory in brutal death metal, Urobilinemia shouldn't be the archetype (they're so unique, that no copies can match them anyway), but people aiming unconventional things should be the name of the game as of now, no matter how many craps the trend fructifies, go ahead and give us a fresh air.

Japan is an alien place, it (No it isn't.) has a very particular and peculiar culture that seems disconnected to the reality of other countries, though different to occidental traditions and present costumes, seeing on news blogs or tabloids about weird inventions or the likes happening there it's indifferent to us, due to the over-exposition of the country.
(What the hell is going on with this .. paragraph? Sentence? It doesn't seem like you don't know anything about Japan, or how to decently describe it. The grammar is remarkably bad, considering this is presented as one convoluted sentence. "Over-exposition"? "different to occidendatl traditions and present costumes"? "it's indifferent to us"? These phrases do not make sense. News blogs and tabloids are your reference point? This is a confusing and misguided opening paragraph that needs to be reworked.)

So, it's natural that a band like Urobilinemia came from there. The brand new EP from the band is part of the experimental side of the extreme side of extreme metal (What?) (pleonasm alert) (What is pleonasm?), yet this band doesn't operate with any sort of minimalism, or either the math-y approach, people are often related to . The only adjective that comes close to describing this band's sound is - strange . (That's it? That's the only adjective you can come up with?)

Different than one expects from a brutal death metal/goregrind release, Urobilinemia sound isn't formulaic overall, there's not a specific idea which is repeated throughout the entire album, besides the weird impression that they might conjure you. The band set its own standard as soon as they can, which basically consists in a lack of standards (A lack of standards is not the same as a lack of consistency) - they can go from excruciatingly odd stop-and-go parts to borderline-acoustic (Get your hyphenation under control) sections in a matter of seconds, place an à lá Carcass melodic riff following some sweeping phrases or even go djent without warning you. Yet this mishmash of paradoxical in nature ideas altogether does flow pretty naturally, the 22 minutes of the release, is rich both in detail and variation.

There's one band I can recall a similarity to Urobilinemia, and quite possibly, the one that may be the point of reference for these Japanese kids - Purulent Jacuzzi, though they are just a technical band who simply operates with different concepts at each section, while Urobilinemia tries to be inclusive and match a lot of influences. Still, they can be compared in the composition department, both bands riff in a similar manner, mid-to-fast tempo chugging riffs with occasional arpeggios or dissonant technical phrases, all doing a job as guitar fills, then there are the outbursts of technicality doing the necessary bridges . It goes without saying, that this is only the idea most often employed on Wriggling Chrysalis Of Metaphysical Grudge (Album title formatting) and you won't see it that commonly. (I don't know what the idea you're referring to is. This sentence is very confusing.)

The vocals are as varied as the compositions are, or maybe is the arrangements' fidelity that makes the EP seem like an omnibus release (Rephrase for clarity. Fidelity makes it sound like an omnibus? What?). No matter what, there are vocals for all tastes, pig squeals for slam primates, high-pitched screams for noisegrind music noobs and mincing pitchshifted gurgles for pornogrind-loving sociopaths (How is this complimentary or appealing? I don't understand your intention). The production is amazing, polished with a very modernized touch, properly made to fit all the extensive ideas the band has, preserving each one's properties. Certainly, something that seems unimaginable for bedroom projects, also it may be due to the production. (I .. huh? Does that train of thought actually make sense to you? It's entirely unclear to me)

In times where experimentalism gets repulsed with negative connotations due to the massive immigration of hipsters to metal (Fragment sentence. Among others, Urobilinemia comes up to show that this trend still has potential, at least, when it isn't made by hipsters. Artists like this is mandatory in brutal death metal, Urobilinemia shouldn't be the archetype (they're so unique, that no copies can match them anyway), but people aiming unconventional things should be the name of the game as of now, no matter how many craps the trend fructifies (Please phrase more clearly), go ahead and give us a fresh air (Us? Are you a memeber of the band? Regardless, this turn of phrase doesn't make sense.).


(Ok, that last sentence makes me think you might be a member of the band. Is that true?

The language problems are extensive in this review. Most of it is unclear, and it's a bitch to try and make sense of. I get the general intention, and the musical description is enough to give me a decent guess as to what to expect, but over all, the piece needs the attention of a more capable English speaker. I don't know where you come from, but I'm sure that you'll know someone who speaks decent English who can help you out with this. The phrasing is consistently unclear, and usually falls apart toward the end of a thought. Your grammar needs attention thoughout. Use punctuation appropriately. I will never understand the use of the comma in place of the period. They are nothing alike and could not serve more different purposes.)