Perhaps modding you wasn't as terrible an idea as I thought.

Deleted. Whined too much.

You can always tell a band has hit it big (or is about to) relative to its niche when saying something less than glowing about them immediately has many people squirming like small, sickly children with smaller, sicklier bladders after a tour of the Kool-Aid factory, as though one had loudly cracked a dead baby joke in the waiting room of an abortion clinic.

Badly produced mediocre black metal. - 41%
Written by Narath on November 29th, 2007

Revelations defiantly has its moments, it’s even quite catchy in some parts. But overall this album is just another failed attempt at recreating Burzum. It begins with ‘I Rise’ which I find to be the worst track on the album – the harsh whispering vocals accompanied by the whispering death metal vocals just fails miserably. There’s no harmony there – don’t confuse me, I’m not a melodic death metal fag who likes everything to be perfectly harmonized, but seriously… these vocals just absolutely ruin Shores of Sheol.

King of the Olden Domain is quite catchy, I enjoy the opening riff and the mixing is much better than the mixing in I Rise – I can hear the vocals AND the music. It sounds like it’s going to be a decent track but then the death metal vocals show up – and kill it, just like they killed I Rise and just like they are going to kill Revalations!

Apart from the vocals, I found this to be a decent track – sure it’s nothing overly great, but I am seeing some potential in Shores of Sheol. Maybe if the demo had three tracks like this we’d be looking at a score above 50 – who knows.

The main problem I have with this album isn’t so much the vocals as it is the mixing – the vocals are way over the top of the music, if they were lowered this demo wouldv’e become substantially better. The drums are another main issue, they may not be as severe as the mixing but they defiantly ruin the atmosphere of the music Shores of Sheol is trying to create.

Shores of Sheol - learn how to mix the music properly and consider a new drum program. That’s my two cents anyway – there’s a long way to go, but Shores of Sheol shows a speckle of potential.

Same Old From Sweden's Most Boring - 55%
Written by Cretaceous_Bob on June 14th, 2007

After the rave reviews, you'd think something changed in between this and Character/Damage Done. Such is not the case. The same level of mediocrity; the same amount of boring guitars masked by airy keyboards.

The production is shit. Damage Done's was better, but Fiction retains Character's cruddy production. The drums are very average, but the poor production makes them annoying. The useless keyboards are same as ever, and are, as usual, the only guide to what song you are listening to. Metal's most crucial element, the guitars, are left to wander around in the mix, which is a good reflection of the level of attention paid to the riffs. And the vocals are crappy, just every album with this loser on it. And there really isn't much to this album beyond that. Average playing skills, poor songwriting, and poor production.

While Fiction is, just like Damage Done and Character, better than the awful Projector, it is still a vicious insult to the old Dark Tranquillity.

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=136238#99317


That damned demo defying us by having its moments and ruining the atmosphere!

t's difficoult to say what is the best between the two album of Cacophony;
I think they are at the same level: '80 Metal Masterpiece;
Go off has a better sound but the track are more songs than symphonies (as in the previous album);
Compositions are more direct and near to pefection, veri fluent: a Power/Thrash riffing (Priest /Accept influences more than bay area sound), meet the Cacophony's usual Multi-solos Armonic Composition more baroque than neoclassical, and always with an epic atmosphere; infact in Cacophony'S sound there aren't only a solo guitar like in Malmsteen but many and multiple guitar phrases that make a majestic armony togheter, as an Orchestra.
The classical and armonic scales unite with strange, oriental and exotic ones, and in Black Cat there's also an ambient intro;
There only an istrumental (except the outro final composition), the title track, in which the lead guitars became very very fluids and elastic;
The sword of the warrior, maybe has the more epic solos parts,
The outro music "Images" is introduced by armonic notes that create a chinese-like music and than became calssical-baroque.
The voice is filtered and cuts as an razor (An Halford, more powerful on bass tones), a real metal screaming voice.

This is not only an accademic tecnical & virtuous album: this is a Metal Masterpiece, the natural Evolution of The metal sound of the first '80: Judas Priest, Accept, Malmsteen and also Iron Maiden (for the lexon about the guitar's orchestral armony );
Togeter with their first album, this work is very often forgotten by the Metallic People;
The listening of them is a duty and an obligation for a Metaller.

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=6283

I posted this a while back and I didn't get an answer, so I'll post it again just in case it got overlooked the first time.

Terrible - 5%
Written by KlausBarbie on December 23rd, 2004


This album is a disgrace to the death metal scene. The band seems to think that it is all just a big joke, and it is as if they are mocking the rest of the bands out there. Ordering this album was the biggest waste of my time, ever. On their website, they claim to not know how to play their instruments. Well, no shit. They don't have to tell you that for you to realise it. I have heard people complain about bands like Marduk and other bands of the sort to just sound like blastbeating and not creating anything listenable. Well, once you hear anything from "AAAAARGH! Bloody 2-Handed Chainaxe Blow" (terrible band name), any other band will seem talented as hell. This includes the likes of Slipknot and Limp Bizkit.

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=153344#15695

This could be talking about any number of Black Metal albums.

EDIT: typos

Never has so much said so little.

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=122193

Whoever accepted this didn't read it very carefully, because it doesn't talk about the music at all.

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=152879

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=20093
User mud's review is pretty muddy in my humble opinion.

review is ok, but do we need another track-by-track for Powerslave....I would rather he also talked more about the album's sound and influence rather than describe each song in two lines:

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=77#15788

Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli - 95%
Written by _DooM_ on July 6th, 2007

I'm always disappointed by new Dimmu Borgir albums. Not because they're particularly poorly written, played or produced albums. Ironically, it's because they never live up to the titillating negative press I read about them before I listen to them. I'm always expecting a bombastic black metal circus with all the unnecessary and over the top trimmings. But, what do I get? I get a solid, but pretty underwhelming blackened/melodic death metal album with some clean vocals and a few keyboard parts. As outrageous as people make these guys out to be, I always find their albums to be pretty tame, middle of the road affairs. In Sorte Diaboli is really no different. Again I was hoping a new Dimmu Borgir release would serve as a decadent and raucous guilty pleasure, and again me and my short memory are served up a workmanlike and unspectacular album that doesn't pack nearly as much audacious punch as I hoped it would.

Opener “The Serpentine Offering” begins with a brief Romantic orchestral march before giving way to triggered double bass and machine-like power chords. Not surprisingly, Dimmu Borgir put their best foot forward, as “The Serpentine Offering” is probably the best and most diverse track on the album. There's a break that features some actual black metal riffing and a welcome clean chorus by the regrettably under utilized ICS Vortex. “The Chosen Legacy,” “The Conspiracy Unfolds,” “The Sinister Awakening,” and “The Fundamental Alienation,” are mid paced, melodic, and unspectacular. Sadly, these tracks betray Dimmu Borgir as a painfully average group big on budget but short on inspiration. Elsewhere, “The Sacrilegious Scorn,” and “The Invaluable Darkness,” break the monotony with some satisfying crooning by Vortex, but still come up short in the riff and melody department. For a band so endlessly panned for being pompous, there's very little pomp or excitement to any of these songs.

In Sorte Diaboli is a well produced album, but the band has written so few heavy parts that their potential to truly crush the listener is never fulfilled. I've heard groups with a lot less money sound a lot heavier purely on the strength of their material.

Dimmu Borgir will undoubtedly move units. Likewise, the elite metal crowd will always consider them a joke. I find this pardigm kind of baffling, as every Dimmu Borgir album I've heard has sounded neither particularly marketable nor slag-worthy. In Sorte Diaboli is no exception. Despite my expectations for something more, for better or worse, this is just an average and pretty typical sounding album.

All in all this is good album.

Genre Bending Black Metal.. - 100%
Written by The_Cry_Of_Mankind on December 3rd, 2007

Simply put, a band like Deathspell Omega obviously would not care what anyone thinks about the music they create. For obvious reasons being that they dont play live, have no photos, play on no gimmicks and just play music they want to hear. This music is chaotic black metal at its best. Technical metal as a whole is a genre that will never make its way to the top and only to a certain percentage of the underground will it ever grab, and its for obvious reasons. We are fed up hearing weird time patterns and fed up hearing how many notes can be played at the one time, however Deathspell Omega's latest offering is far beyond the ordinary. They create jazzy technical moments, and moments of noise and ambience to add to the atmosphere, and it works like a devilish charm. Its a pleasure to listen to black metal that was created in the past decade and actualy remember tracks and parts of the songs. Gorgoroth released a new one, remember what it sounds like? same as Satyricon and Dark Funeral? I checked out all those albums but it is infact less of the same in that aspect to black metal as generic wank with no experimentation. It has suddenly become cool to be at a black metal show, so bands tend to release bollocks, go on tour, dress up in drag and spit fire and get a nice green note, well balls to that with Deathspell Omega because with whatever little money this band make, they will make it through quality music, and thats what this is.

The shirne of Mad Laughter would be the first real track here, and it sounds like Ved Buens Ende meets Cryptopsy meets dark ambient noise makers, all bundled up in an almost 10 minute stormer of a track- this song made me want to buy the album without hearing anything else before hand and that happens rarely, its just that good with low gutteral vocals, storming drums and great and sinister guitar work. One thing I have noticed is that the music is very inspired by the Avant Garde metal scene relatively know well in Norway as there are moments that are reminiscent to Virus and Code, due to the twisted riffs, but without the humourus antics of bands mentioned before that. To put it blunty a fan sleepytime gorilla museum could appreciate this without even having interest in black metal, thats how well together the music is blended. Bread of Bitterness gets straight into music that is just like Kenose, fast hard hitting with its moments of slow bliss, suck as a very different breakdown in the middle that almost sounds like the band is jamming, which is quite different to Kenose on so many levels.

Im not going to go track by track even though I may of left out so many great parts, this is just simply something anyfan of black metal who aint fourteen and taking pictures of themselves looking like Dani Filth for their Vampire Freaks profile can appreciate, like it or not, Deathspell Omega are the true essence of black metal at this period of time and are a prime example of why people must dig deeper than what they hear so much about to find complete gems, and this band made me learn that lesson a long time ago. And as for sounding like Opeth? for fucks sake clean your ears out, I cant even find a tiny thing about this band that sound like Opeth. Ah well cant win them all even if they are retarded.

Andrew

40 minutes of pure Awesome! - 97%
Written by Damnation_Terminated on December 15th, 2007

Right from the start of this masterpiece, you know you are in for something spectacular. And not once in the entire 40 minutes does it let you down! As soon as you hear the yell of "Another Sky is Young..." your blood is racing, your head is banging and you are ready for one of the most awesome progressive death metal albums ever!

Crimson has everything a good progressive album should do - unexpected musical twists and turns, ranging from the heavy and brutal to the slow and almost mellow, and back again! It has a wonderfully crafted story, told both in the recognisable growling vocals of Dan Swano, and also softer lighter vocals with the legendary Mikeal Akerfeldt (Opeth) lending his distinctive voice to the sound. It has a grand, epic feel (helped out of course by the fact that it is 40 mins long) and this sense of the epic leads the listener on a great journey. It has clever musical genius, with soaring guitar and keys melodies, combined with heavy head banging riffs, to create a unique yet

There isn't really much more to say - this album has everything! From the heavy, fast paced intensity to the slower, calmer "eye of the storm" moments, this album will make you want to listen again and again, and I would recommend that doing so is a good course of action!

Fails to justify the hype. - 34%
Written by DarkSoul175 on July 25th, 2004

Ugh, this album is such a disgrace to doom metal. It’s so damn tame, safe, in a word: CALCULATED! It’s labeled as doom – yet it completely defeats the purpose of doom, which is to create a dark and depressing atmosphere with ultraslow, heavy music! I downloaded this album (thank God I didn’t waste my money on it) expecting some memorable, emotional music, but what awaited me instead was a load of bubblegum fake shit. It’s not even mediocre; it is a complete atrocity and probably the single worst thing to ever happen to the doom metal genre. On a strictly musical level, it’s not bad at all, though. If you’re looking for a decent metal album with some good riffs and catchy melodies, you will like this. But if you listen to this knowing it’s supposed to be a doom metal album, let alone something remotely emotional, you will be terribly disappointed. On an artistic level, this isn’t worth shit; it has already been done to death before by much better bands. It adds absolutely nothing new to the genre, it is by no means groundbreaking, and more importantly, there is nothing behind the music; just a bunch of guys playing doom metal for the hell of it, instead of trying to be unique and creating music that has a soul behind it. It is 100% generic from beginning to end, and thus may probably be seen, in a couple of years, as one of the albums that killed doom metal.

Technically, they did invent a new subgenre, I call it Fake Doom Metal, and Swallow the Sun are most definitely pioneers in that area. So, Swallow the Sun, take notes: first, never try to be “extreme” like Esoteric or Thergothon, because that is the recipe for failure. Instead, make some cheesy bubblegum “doom” that will sell well in the metal community. Eventually make a strong name for yourselves and become a legendary cult band that will influence hundreds, if not thousands of unoriginal crappy bands in the future that will all sound the same because they will be following the stupid trend that you have started and all have the same personality behind them. Those with basically no creative ideas will thus be able to copy and clone at will and yet succeed in the music industry. Oh dear, I so wish someone could kill all the members in StS...

As a conclusion, if Swallow the Sun tried playing melodic death metal instead, they would be far from a horrible band (although not great by any means). But sadly, as a doom metal album, The Morning Never Came is an awful piece of crap that suffers from a COMPLETE lack of real substance. I cannot hear anything remotely human behind the music; there are no emotions, no desires, no fears. Burzum, this is not. If you like doom metal at all, do yourself a favor and stay very far away from this.