hmm..havent heard the album but u have touched an important aspect of metal, and in particular prog-metal. These days, we r too obsessed with whether the riffs are faster and complex, whether the shredding is more kvlt, how technical the music is...but the most important aspect of an album is its soul. Thatz what makes Bonded by blood special and Tempo of the damned meh for me. As to whether the album actually is so devoid of soul I cant comment without hearing it.

OMG! Awesome Pain Of Salvation-screwing review! Caspian has done it again... finally, one serious review that shits upon the inexplicably overrated scum that POS have done in their glorious past!
Check out the latest review for The Perfect Element Part 1. That's what I am talking about.

There is great power in approaching an album with a desire to like or dislike it.

My fixed Fates Warning review is up again, rejoice! Oh, and saintinhell, I don't think Awaken the Guardian lacks soul - it is there, but with the exception of a couple of songs I can't relate to it as much as I want to.

By the way, I like Noktorn's review of the latest Xasthur album. Not really sure why, except that it gets to the core of one of the many things wrong with a lot of today's black metal. His newest review, of Dark Castle's Flight of Pegasus, also gets a couple of thumbs up for dwelling on the packaging - something I feel is a bit of a neglected art.

I wonder tho, there were SIX reviews over there, all 100%, for this album, who nuked them?? I am an advocate of this album, if you leave aside the ill-advised rapping on Used, it's actually pretty good, tho not in the metal way. However, it's still by no means perfect, so hurrah and hats off to Caspian!!

And damn you, Peregrin, for proving the "Peregrin Theorem", which states that it's possible to write an excellent, convincing and enjoyable review while holding opinions that are completely and obviously false. I mean your Into the Pandemonium review, of course...

..Don't know if this is referring to me, but as a disclaimer for future negative reviews, let me just say that except for my old, crappy trivium review, every album I listen to with the mindset of "This should be good, I'm looking forward to it". From what people has said about them, I was hoping to give PoS at least 80% or something.

Thanks for the words. I actually liked the Xasthur review myself, though I didn't have much to say about Dark Castle.

Absolutely ... the sentiments I don't share but I can still understand as I feel like a few years ago I was in the same position of being somewhat baffled by this album's endless praises. But, I still don't feel that "The Sorceress" rips off "CHildren of the Grave" that much.

This thread is rapidly being taken over by endless praise for the same users .. but saintinhell really did it again with his new Iron Maiden review. The man has a style that's a pleasure to read, maybe because it simply seems as though he's talking to you and it's "down-to-earth" as someone else here said but simultaneously very expressive. He sets out to make a point or argument with each review and and doesn't get diverted or swept up in dull self-justifications or tirades.

I liked the Xasthur review, too, except for one part. The whole review seems calm and methodic, and suddenly completely out of nowhere there's a line in all-caps. I think that doesn't fit into the flow of the review at all.

You should hear it and write your own review. It'd be a good read.

No soul? pffft.

False indeed. He gave the album a much too high score.

By the way, does anyone else find it weird that saintinhell writes such great reviews but types like a three-year-old retard (with "u" and "r" and horribly constructed sentences, etc.) on the forums? I always thought that was kind of funny.

Hah, I've been thinking of panning ITP for a while now but Peregren did a good job of it, though I still don't think any negative review I've ever seen of that Frost album really and truly touches on what's wrong with it. Simply put, it's aged very poorly and I suspect most of its fans have been such since the album first came out ...

One more thing:

I think BARD_Jean_Pierre's review of the new Sodom turned out awesome. While I don't like the album all that much I fully and wholeheartedly agree with his sentiments, and I think he presents them perfectly.

Come to think of it, I might want to lower its score to somewhere in the mid-thirties (more appropriate when the review describes the album as "an unambiguous failure") when I'm going to fix some obvious grammatical errors too. I'm surprised more of my reviews don't get rejected for bad grammar, really.

Agreed, though I can't really justify such a high score for it. Is the album out yet or is everyone still trying to be so vocal about the leaked copy?

Witchunter's drums are certainly the most charming thing about that whole re-recording.

I hate you guys, I hate you so very, very much.

Abominatrix has it right, though, I've liked it since the beginning. Or, more like it, since 1988. And it hasn't aged with grace, it's like a silicone queen from the 80's after spending a decade in a solarium and 17 million cigarettes.

*sigh*

Silicone, eh? So you admit it was fakey, phoney and terribly unesthetic from the start?

Correction: it has AGED like a silicone queen frome the 80's... yes, that means that the original form wasn't actually pretty to start with.

Celtic Frost has never really been esthetic, and there are fake parts (One in Their Pride) and phony parts (Wall of Voodoo cover). But no, it's not silicone. If it has droopy tits now... well, that does happen with natural udders, too, if they are big enough. And it sometimes happens with small tits, too, which is twice as pitiful, so let's enjoy the fact that Tom G Warrior's Pandemonium boobs are still enormous, even if they only retain their volume now, and perhaps not the firmness.

This is starting to resemble a bad allegory-based review that would practically write itself. We shall not pursue this further.

An ex-girlfriend of mine once witnessed an older topless german lady actually falling over after stepping on one of her own breasts on a beach in the Canary Islands in the late 80's. I will not elaborate upon request; suffice to say that that must have been the definition of a Pandemonium.

Ok, this post is far too funny than it has any right to be. DOpero, you should translate this into an ITTP review to make us all twitch.

Yeah, his reviews are great but he writes like a 10 year old on the forums.

I'd like to say that most of Radagast's reviews are good and solid pieces of work.

Whether that's actually true or not I'm not sure, but that's still the funniest thing I've heard all week.

Dear god There's a story that'll be passed on through the ages for sure.

oh I don't know, I get the rap on other forums for being too verbose and constructing long sentences, so I thought that applies here too, I shall abandon the humongous shorthand language with immediate effect if that's what you want. .

Oh, and thanks Abominatrix for liking the Iron Maiden review, I will get Awaken the guardian and review it though as you might expect that review is going to take some time coming, I gotta go through the album a few times before I can pronounce on its lack or not of soul.

Corrected.

I dunno... maybe if I one day happen to have time while drunk. That is not a review to be written while completely sober. And it would end up in the Oven Fodder thread before the review photons in the fiber reach New Zealand.

In any case, from the point of view of someone who got the album already in the 80's, and who therefore naturally looks like a chubbier version of the mummy of Ramesses II nowadays, the reviews here do not do the album justice. I wish to have my dissenting opinion noted in the memo, please.

Made the promised edits of the Into the Pandemonium review. It should appear soon. Oh, and I'd like to see both Napero's hypothetical apologetic and a "You call that an iconoclasm? THIS is an iconoclastic review!" review from droneriot.

Earlier today I read a half year old review by OSS for a King's X album, but it's still his newest. I found it very interesting, since it is a little similar to my planned review of Pagan Altar's The Lords of Hypocrisy.

I definitely agree with this. New work by Radagast always brings a smile to my face.

And I'm glad you enjoyed the King's X review, Perry. I don't know if people call you Perry, but they should since it's an awesome nickname.

Besides this site, Radagast aka Craig on Metal CD Ratings is my second favorite metal reviews site. All great reviewers there, including him.

Lord Requiem's review of the new Pagan's Mind:

http://metal-archives.com/review.php?id=171343#12839



I love how he begins the review with that line, because the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the title and score was exactly "whaaaaat, Lord Requiem won't deify just anything this band decides to release??"

In any case, great work, especially if you've read his other Pagan's Mind reviews.

The funny thing is that I don't agree with him 100%, just making me seem like a Pagan's Mind fanboy.

It is a very good review though, much better written than mine was.

Actually, both yours and his are very good.

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=60765#30479

I want that guy to write more reviews, one part especially amazed me:

Thanks.

NausikaDalazBlindaz's latest Godflesh review is a fine one.

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=19029#83846

OMGZ are back!
http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=157375
I am going to ask this Lana girl to marry me.

She's taken.

I think it's time someone pointed out how good Durandal1717's reviews are. They're written with confidence and clarity, are descriptive and fun to read as they usually warrant a few chuckles. He often does a sort of track-by-track that doesn't really feel like one, and he gets away with this by dividing songs on an album into categories.

I love his recommendations in his profile, I just checked out Food Metal!!!