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A list of albums I listen to and rated with a small commentary. This list is not meant to have an order, or a best-to-worst classification.
Links to connected lists:
Album & Artist Impressions (Part 2)
Rating:
10 - Timeless classic
9 - Masterpiece
8 - Excellent
7 - Solid
6 - Uneven
5 - Tainted by tone-deafness
4 - Humanity catches a plague
3 - Socialist revolution
2 - Needs medieval treatment
1 - Commies aren't human. Kill them.
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1.
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Igorrr - Hallelujah
Why this music doesn't have a progressive label on it? Just because the guy behind the music is 50/50 techno-metal guy? I ain't too fond of bands who make (excessive) use of beats, but unlike Venetian Snares who introduces them randomly, Igorrr at least uses them to amplify the music, complimenting the tunes. There is a touch of originality here, albeit partly ruined because of the decision to use a drum machine, which makes the drum sound weak, thin and artificial. And sometimes ruined by silly vocals (track 7). How many metal musicians have combined classical music, old baroque and a heavy sound? As far as I know none, or very few. Ok, yes, some have replicated Bach tunes, who is baroque but the same old tunes. Classical music isn't just about Mozart. There are some clear Mr. Bungle influences here, particularly in the first 4 tracks. Not explicitly, but you get that feeling when the music transcends from one genre to another and the sheer playfulness surrounding the mood of this album. Main highlight are the first 4 tracks, as well as track 8-9. The rest are solid, aside from tracks 5 and 7. Rating: 6.5 (rounded to 7). |
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2.
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Strapping Young Lad - Strapping Young Lad
The successor of City, although hyped and very highly regarded today is nonetheless the least impressive SYL album. There are a number of reasons why this album was bound to be a step down from City. Devin admitted in several interviews that he was far more interested in Accelerated Evolution (one of his solo albums) rather than recording this album. Although he composed 95% of the material here, he allowed Jed Simon and Gene Hoglan to write some songs and to handle the production. As a result, with the exception of 2 tracks, everything else is pedestrian and this album has the least impressive production quality of all 5 SYL albums. Still, Relentless and Aftermath are head over heels classics, on par with the best tracks on the debut and City. Particularly Aftermath with its gargantuan long fast-thrash part in the second half, one of the best moments not only in SYL's catalog, but in metal overall. Rating: 7 |
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3.
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Cro-Mags - Revenge
The reunion of Parris Mayhew and Harley Flanagan was much talked of and the release of this album was very anticipated back in the day. Parris has gone on record multiple times that this album, in his opinion, is the best offering under the Cro-Mags moniker. That couldn't be more wrong, as pretty much everything here is subpar, songwriting wise. Yes, the production is good, the performance tight, but the track arrangements and the songwriting is nowhere near the first 3 albums. If anything, the quality on this record is similar with the 4th Cro-Mags record which Mayhew hates. Deciding to play pop-punk wouldn't be a problem if only the band had the wisdom to separate the pop-punk tracks from the hardcore punk ones, rather then having one following the other. It makes the album even harder to listen to knowing that after a passable hardcore punk track you get a pop-punk one. Not worse than Green Day, mind you, but if we use them as a standard for pop-punk, everything is bound to stink. Rating: 2.5 (rounded to 3) |
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4.
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Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
For any other band, this album would be below average. But in the case of Sepultura, this album is elevated by two outstanding, perfect songs, namely Amen and Territory. It is a pity that such good tracks have no other equals on this album, pretty much all the other tracks being forgettable compared to these two. There are a few more solid ones such as the opener, Biotech is Godzilla and Slave New World, but overall this was the last decent effort this band could provide. Pretty much everything they released afterwards was inferior in quality. If this album would have been released as an EP containing only the aforementioned tracks it would have been the single greatest Sepultura release. They have their good and solid albums, but they never really put out something outstanding. Rating: 6.5 (rounded to 7) |
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5.
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Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
A hard album to asses and to rate. I had to give it half a dozen spins for it to sink in. My first impression of it was that this is definitely not the usual dissonant traditional black metal this band played on the previous 2 records and that in style, it tends to be more similar with the material they released on the 777 trilogy. The other impression is that, although the style resembles that of the trilogy, the songs are much more soft and accessible. The vocals are scarce and usually buried in the mixed. Only the impeccable choirs get a more prominent role. Instrumentals dominate. Unlike the 777 trilogy, there are no tracks that standout here. The album flows seamlessly, shifting from more catchy melodies to dull moments. The strongest tracks are 1, 3, 4 and 5, but the rest also have their moments. This is not a masterpiece, but a very solid album with no filler songs, only filler sections in some songs. Rating might change as I am still listening to this. Rating: 7.5 (rounded to 8) |
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6.
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Devin Townsend - Physicist
As expected, this album is underrated here as well. I can bet a barrel of wine that about 80% of the people who rated this lower than 7 essentially never listened this album and pretty much took for granted Devin's own impression about it. It is no secret that Devin considers this one of his weakest albums for some reason. But fans take it for granted as Devin considers it lackluster due to his perfectionist tendencies as a musician. Not because it is an album executed in a half-assed manner. This album could've been recorded for SYL, the entire line-up is present here and it is certainly an odd-ball, as except Deconstruction, this is the heaviest solo album he made. And boy it is terrific. It contains some of the best tracks ever written by DT, namely Namaste, Victim, Material, Planet Rain, Jupiter and The Complex. Kingdom is also good, but gets improved on Epicloud. No filler material here, with perhaps the middle section, tracks 5-6 and Irish Maiden being a bit inferior. However inferior in the context of Physicist is like the value difference between platinum and gold. My advice for both old and new fans is to shut out all preconceived opinions about this record. Devin's opinion, while it should be taken into account, it should always be taken with a grain of salt. After all, the man does have some questionable musical tastes (liking Sevendust for example) and he has always been a perfectionist. This is a masterpiece of progressive thrash metal. Rating: 9 |
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7.
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Excel - Split Image
Overlooked, underrated. I don't usually use these words when it comes to rating albums, but in this case, I have to. It is just baffling how unnoticed this band was even back in the heydays of thrash and hardcore punk, not to mention today. Even more baffling is how the dimwitted people that rate albums here can't recognize the superiority of this record. Split Image essentially wraps up everything good about crossover thrash in 10 exceptionally good tracks. It is extremely rare to find albums with not a single flawed track on sight. Every song here is a highlight, with just the 7th and last track being just a bit inferior (a tiny bit though). I am nit-picking a bit but this band has set up the standard so high that you have to judge them based on it. It takes a few listens for this one to sink, although even on the first listen you will like what you hear. This is how really heavy music should be done. The songwriting and the production are perfect. This is as perfect crossover thrash as you can get. Rating: 10 |
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8.
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Exodus - Pleasures Of The Flesh
This album marked the transition between the heavy tritonus riffing on the brilliant debut to more happy-sounding blues-based thrash riffs which on the long term pretty much lowered the songwriting quality of subsequent Exodus thrash albums. Still, the riffs used here are great and the what makes this album much better than the subsequent two is that Souza was not comfortable enough to use his screechy vocals as these songs were written with Baloff's singing in mind. His voice adds nothing to the music, but at least it ain't annoying and luckily, it is also used rather sparingly. The instrumentals dominate this record. Terrific solos all the way on this album as well, probably one of the best thrash albums when it comes to excellent usage of guitar solos. Many thrash bands played them randomly, to either give a break to the vocalist (Death Magnetic anyone) or just for the sake of it (Reign in Blood). Highlights: 1-4, 6, 9 and 10. Rating: 9 |
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9.
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Ministry - Filth Pig
How do you recognize people who profess to be great heavy metal fans and yet are afraid of heavy metal? By giving them this album to listen to. Severely underrated by Ministry standards, this album is considered by many fans and non-Ministry fans as a failed experiment. You see, the music is slow, sludgy slow. And people wanted another Psalm 69. That's this album's greatest sin. However, those who care less about these 'sins' and give a few more spins to this album will notice an exceptional songwriting talent in it. Al was good at both thrashy, speedy industrial metal and at playing slower, sludgy, even doomy industrial metal. Despite the music being slow, it evokes a lot of power, the wall of sound is just astounding and plenty of tracks that are as catchy as any Ministry classics can be found here. Absolute highlights: 1-3, 6, 8 and 9. Also terrific: 8 and 10. The only average songs ones are in the middle. Rating: 9.5 (rounded to 10) |
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10.
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Death Angel - Frolic Through The Park
Death Angel has the bad luck of having their best album cited as their weakest among those released in their early phase. Thrash fans were quick to lambaste this album for whatever reason, other than the music it seems. Or it was that time of the month for them. Unlike the debut, this album has a better production value and more varied songwriting. Unlike the next album, it is not overproduced, sterile, commercialized thrash-lite drivel. I guess much of the disappointment with this album comes from the fact that Death Angel took a less trve approach with thrash than the full-blown aggression on the debut. In other words, fans expected a TUV clone. Best tracks are Bored, Confused, Open Up, Mind Rape and Why You Do This. Guilty of Innocence and 3rd Floor are good as well while Road Mutants is solid. Cold Gin and Shores of Sin are average. Devil's Metal is a bit atypical, seems to be an older recording and would have fitted better on the debut album. It is a tad too primitive and doesn't really mingle well with the other songs on this album. Rating: 8 |
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11.
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Ex Deo - The Immortal Wars
The debut album was like a warm-up phase for this band compared to the material on The Immortal Wars. I can't help but notice how steadily and gradually this album improved over the course of their 3 albums. The first being meh, the second being decent while this one bordering on greatness. This is how symphonic metal should be played, sissies. With a decent degree of variation, with a focus on actually reproducing the war-like melody (helped tremendously by the well-picked symphonic samples) a great guitar tone and a predilection to writing impressive slow, but groovy tunes. Don't get me wrong, the band sometimes ups the tempo and does it well like on track 5, however the best parts are the more slow, mid-paced ones as displayed on the opening track. Groove dominates this album. The production is just phenomenal, which helps elevating even the more inferior 3 last tracks. I can't help but think that with a proper soundcheck, this music would sound terrific in a live setting. Highlights: 1-5, the rest is average to passable. The album works better as a whole rather than separated on individual tracks. Rating: 8 |
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12.
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Testament - The Ritual
Had this album been released before they made their attempts to sell-out, it would have been received differently, which proves that sometimes timing is more important that the quality of your music when it comes to fan appreciation. It is quite clear that the core fan-base of this band were ready to slam them for their 2 previously crap albums. It is a shame though that this album got the bashing and not the previous two. This is still soft-thrash or thrash-lite, pretty much trending at the time, but it is far better executed and contains better songwriting. In a way, Testament pulled a Megadeth here, as Megadeth released their first thrash-lite album, Countdown to Extinction. Plenty of highlights on this album, some being terrific such as Electric Crown, As the Seasons Grey or Agony. The Sermon and Let Go Of My World are good too and The Ritual and So Many Lies are solid. Track 10 is the crappiest, the rest is filler. Pick this one up instead of PWYP and SoB. Rating: 7 |
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13.
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Deicide - Overtures Of Blasphemy
I was starting to give up on Deicide emerging from its rather long period of mediocre material. Glenn Benton seemed to be contempt to dish out the same album over and over again until he could lay down the chainsaw and become a pensioner. This album was a pleasant surprise, as unlike the previous couple of albums, it has 2 great tracks and 3-4 solid ones. In addition, it was a rather inspired choice to trim down the length by keeping the songs short (none of them go beyond the 4 minute mark) and straight to the point. The highlights are tracks 1 and 6 with tracks 2, 4, 9 and 11 being solid. Good guitar sound and impressive production quality. This is how you do a modern death metal record. Rating: 7 |
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14.
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Mordred - Fool's Game
Mordred was a novelty and a new entry in many ways during the late 80s thrash metal scene. Already the big names of this movement started to soften their sound by the time this album was released and most of the late-comers were mere copy-cats, bent on copying their idols without providing an ounce of inspiration to their music. Not Mordred though. The production of this album is squeaky clean, albeit a bit dated and the band itself is very professional in regards to the way they approach their music. Still, the very clean production and the focus on soft, very melodic thrash prevented the band from packing a punch, of providing a truly outstanding effort. Fans of F&J in particular will like this album. One terrific track, State of Mind and 4 very good ones, Spectacle of Fear, The Artist, Shatter and Numb. The rest are solid, even the funky, record-scratching 3rd track is decent. Deftones gets credited for introducing this new 'instrument' in metal music but it is actually Mordred who first did this infamous deed. Rating: 7 |
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15.
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Dark Angel - Time Does Not Heal
Less is more. Don't believe Malmsteen fans that more is more. In this case, less is more. And somebody should have told the band this. It is never a good idea to cram up 246 riffs into your music if you have no idea how to properly structure them to make a cohesive album (and stupidly promote this infamous deed). As a result, some sections of this album can be labeled riff salads. Because that is what they are. Disjointed sections glued together by unrelated riff melodies. Nevertheless, there are a few notable tracks, such as the opener, tracks 3-5 and track 8. The singer was a poor choice, but then again I can't blame him, the music is so over the place sometimes that it is hard to hit the notes. However this goofy vocalist would have been more suitable for power metal bands, not for a technical thrash band. The vocalist on DD would have been more appropriate for this music. I've seen these guys live back in the early 1990s and they had more tuning and synch problems than 100 early black metal bands combined. Every band member was playing their own song in their own concert, despite being on the same stage. Ridiculous. Rating: 6 |
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16.
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Summoning - With Doom We Come
Summoning has been on a downward spiral ever since releasing Oath Bound in 2006, which can be considered the last great album they've made. Already the album preceding this one, while still having some memorable tunes, showed signs of a lack of creativity. This album felt like dropping into the abyss of Khazad-dum. The production is atrocious, the songwriting is almost completely devoid of inspiration, most of the tracks feel as if they were leftovers from the previous album recordings meshed up together into an incoherent cacophony. Silvertine and Night Fell Behind are the only decent tunes. Mirklands and the title track had potential, as they contained a few good sections but due to their unnecessary long length they are a chore to listen to. Which pretty much shows that making your songs so long without having anything interesting to show does not make the songs more epic. Maybe in another 10 years the boys can come up with more decent material. God knows who will wait until then. Rating: 5 |
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17.
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Exumer - Possessed By Fire
For millennials, this album may be energetic and well written, but for those of us who actually caught a few glimpses of how thrash started, we know that this was actually a forgettable album. And the band a total hack. The tracks that are played fast have a timing issue. Furthermore, a lot of the riffs that many have the impression they are inspired, creative and fresh are actually borrowed from the likes of Slayer, Exodus and Kreator. Wait, let me reformulate, not borrowed but stolen actually. There is not a smidgen of inspiration in this album, only stuff blatantly stolen from other more prolific and creative thrash bands. Now, I have nothing against stealing a few ideas from an established band provided that you are capable of building up on it and create something, if not original, at least decent sounding. Turns out that Exumer had no songwriting talent, only thief-talent in their ranks. This may sound good to those that have not listened a lot of thrash albums, or for youngsters, but once you know how this thrash thing works and listened the more relevant bands, you will notice how sloppy this record is. Rating: 3 |
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18.
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Possessed - Revelations Of Oblivion
I went into this expecting nothing and what do you know? Nothing I got. Chances for this band to have made some at least worthy of being put together with their classics were almost 0 since Mike Torrao, the principle songwriter on the 80s stuff is not part of the band. The only good thing about this album is the production quality. The songwriting is mediocre all across the board. The vocals, while still good, are inferior to the vocal quality Becerra provided in the 80s. Becerra was so proud of his band contributing to the development of death metal yet they now devolved into a thrash band. So, 3 more albums and they will play what? Power metal? There is a good section in one of the songs, forgot which one, but overall this album is mediocre, even outright shit on some occasions. The current Possessed has no songwriter in their ranks who can elevate their music beyond boredomness. Rating: 3 |
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19.
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Profanatica - Rotting Incarnation Of God
Another black metal band that relies more on style over substance. Speed and aggression cannot supplement good songwriting quality. Gimmicks such as shoddy album covers, satanic lyrics and the overall evil aura that surrounds this band is not enough to impress me or any listener that actually seeks some actual musical quality. This album has a mixing problem, not really a production problem, the production seems to be decent. But the mixing sounds as if a pop producer mixed this. The guitar tone is weak and buried in the mix which is a travesty for any form of extreme metal. The Orc vocals, who seems like he caught a cold, is pushed in the front, together with the relentless blast beats that are way too overused, thus turning the music monotonous. As such, all songs sound the same. The song structuring is also formulaic, with the exception of one song in the second half of the album, which is the least annoying one (forgot which). Almost all songs start with blast beats, move to a slower middle section and end with more blast beats. Had I been a teen or in my early 20s I might have liked this. But since I ain't anymore, this kind of music is pedestrian. Kids, best avoid. Even for black metal, this is fairly weak. I am willing to reward anyone who can actually tell apart one song from the other. Rating: 2 |
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20.
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Assassin - The Upcoming Terror
This 'forgotten thrash gem' is forgotten. The reason it is so overrated is because most people, particularly the younger audience believes that if this was recorded in the 80s, it must be a thrash classic like many of the albums released during those great days when people had higher standards when it came to music (even pop music). This is an early attempt by some clueless teens to figure out how to play this thrash-thing when they clearly had no basic grasp of musical instruments. But in a way, they are pretty much in line with most of the German thrash scene. When thrash started becoming popular overseas, German record companies had to hire young thrash bands as there were no established, professional thrash acts in the mid 1980s in Germany. The timing is off on the entire album, the vocalist is off-key, the solos are random and uninteresting and the production is horrendous as well. No highlights here. Avoid. Rating: 3 |
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21.
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Razor - Open Hostility
Razor is one of the weirdest thrash bands in existence. It is almost as if the members had moods, or bipolar personalities. They released much of their catalog in less than a decade, yet never before have I seen a band with so much lottery-like randomness when it comes to song-writing and production quality. It is like flipping a coin. Good album - bad album. Well produced - badly produced. Open Hostility is somewhere in between. It has a decent production (much better than Shotgun Justice, weaker than Decibels) but the songwriting is rather uneven. This is textbook thrash metal with 0 experimentation. Just relentless, fast-paced thrash but with few noteworthy tracks. Not much filler material either, it is just that bland and good parts are scattered throughout most of the tracks with In Protest, Sucker for Punishment and Free Lunch sticking out of the bunch. Rating: 6 |
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22.
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Kreator - Endless Pain
There is a nostalgic aura revolving around this album, as I never really understood why it gets so praised when it is quite clear from the get-go that half of this album is amateur-hour. The band was way too young to play proper thrash tunes at this point, as such, this album seems to have been released a few years too early. This is how Metallica would have sounded had they released KEA 2 years earlier. Half of the time the timing is off, the guitar and drum parts are off-synch most of the time and the riffs are weak, particularly when played fast they sound like farts. The production doesn't help this album either. There are a few good tunes that could be improved if re-recorded such as tracks 1-3 and 5 and improved with a better production (although not the squeaky-clean Kreator production used today), but suffice to say that what we have here is a bunch of kids signed to a major underground label that did not really got to learn how to play their instruments, how to play tight as a band and how to properly compose tunes. They rely on riffs borrowed from the likes of Exodus and Slayer. Nevertheless, for a bunch of teenagers this was an extraordinary feat, though far from being a classic. Rating: 5.5 (rounded to 6) |
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23.
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Strapping Young Lad - Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing
Devin Townsend when he was inspired, has always been with a few steps ahead compared to his peers. When this album was released, pretty much everyone that was looking at the 80s thrash bands for innovation and heaviness got terrified of it and ran away like scared sissies. After all, the title of the album promises sonic mayhem. Some moments on this album feel as if the songs can descend into chaos, but they actually have a flow and are constructed in a progressive, innovative manner. This is how you make progressive extreme metal. Even more amazing is that Devin actually wrote this entire album by himself as he did not have a proper band at that point. Because this album was so ahead of its time, it usually gets underrated, although the music here is not really far behind that on City. Highlights are tracks 1, 2, 5-7. Drizzlehell is solid as well. The other ones are kind of weak and monotonous, particularly the 4th track. The bonus tracks are weak as well, with maybe the exception of Japan. Rating: 8 |
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24.
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Strapping Young Lad - City
For those of you who don't know, this album was originally titled "Heavier Than The Last One". Just to make my point clear. While City is not necessarily heavier than the debut album, it is better produced, the drums are even better as Gene Hoglan plays them, the wall of sound is even more present and improved here and it is less chaotic and more cohesive than the debut. It also trims by half the number of uneven tracks as compared to the debut album. Together with Grip Inc's Nemesis, this is the best thrash album of the 90s. And the best progressive metal album of the 90s. Every song here, with the exception of songs 3 and 5 are pure classic thrash/industrial songs. And even the more uneven ones, from a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is weakest, they get a 3.5. That's how solid they are and how excellent this album. All Hail the New Flesh with its intro, Detox, AAA, Spirituality and the underrated but equally excellent Underneath the Wave make up the blunt of this timeless classic. 100 years from today, this album will be viewed the same as Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. That's how epic, well executed and well written this album is. Whoever was looking for an 80s thrash band to release a landmark record in the 90s looked where it shouldn't. This here is the real deal. Rating: 10 |
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25.
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Forbidden - Twisted Into Form
For many years, if not decades, I have given this album many chances, trying to understand why it gets at least half of the praises it unworthily gets and I still can't find a reason why this album is so praised as a sort of thrash classic. Forbidden has always been a 3rd tier 80s thrash band who set for itself great ambitions but they did not have the chops to achieve them. Simply put, they had no good sense for catchy melodies, they had a tendency to go into technical wankery, they tend to cram mutually exclusive riffs in some songs, creating literally riff salads and the songs, particularly on this album, lack the energy of even more melodic thrash bands. Apparently, the last Dark Angel album was influenced by this album so now I understand why their last album was so atonal. Only highlights are tracks 6 and 8, but they are merely solid tracks, nothing great about them. The rest is pretty much forgettable. Get the 3rd album. Despite the rating, it has 4 good to great tracks. Rating: 4 |
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26.
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Excel - The Joke's On You
Same as the debut, underrated and forgotten. It is just amazing how these guys managed to put up songs of such quality and go unnoticed back in the 80s. And still remain unknown to this day. Even when it became plain obvious that Metallica stole a riff from this album to create "Enter Sandman" the notoriety of this band did not flinch. Like on the debut, no inferior material here either. The album is a bit more accessible as it is less metal (less aggressive) and more hardcore punk. Highlights: 1, 2, 7, 8, 11. Also good: 3-5. The rest is solid. You can ignore the third album which is basically a turd. Their guitarist, the main songwriter left the band and the replacement was not an inspired choice. There may have also been pressure from their record company to record a more commercial sounding album. Rating: 9 |
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27.
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Hanzel Und Gretyl - Black Forest Metal
This music is not made for hipsters. Or rather it is made for them, to annoy them. The founding members behind this band are so extremely unpretentious, that they got mocked and ridiculed by the way too serious black metal fan-base. The shtick is that they like this genre actually, but in HUG (sic!) fashion they make a mockery of its own baloney imagery. Lets face it, much of what black metal is all about is more style than substance. Brainless shock value and adults acting as kids while taking this way too serious. And that is what pisses black metal hipsters the most. A band of unpretentious great musicians making fun of their plaything. This is literally the second best album made by this band, not far behind Uber Alles. Highlights are 2-4, 8 and 10, but the rest have great moments as well, a thoroughly consistent album with extremely few weak moments. Play this to your hipster friends to annoy them. Rating: 8.5 (rounded to 9) |
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28.
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Siebenbürgen - Delictum
Incredibly overlooked band here. But it is no surprise, somehow these guys managed to go under the radar even in the heyday of melodic/symphonic black metal so it is no wonder that these guys have just 1 single rating here. Siebenburgen plays a mix of melodic black metal with gothic undertones and among their peers, they play it best on this album. Everything on this one is sublime. The songwriting, the production, the vocal delivery (particularly the female vocals), the overall atmosphere. It was as if all the planets aligned one rainy, foggy day and 6 guys in Sweden managed to put this opus out. The real highlight on this record if Kicki Hoijertz vocals which adds an extra ominous layer to the overall atmosphere of this album. Highlights: Storms, As of Sin, Levande Bergravd, Thy Sister Thee Crimson Wed, A Dream of Scarlet Nights. Solid: Majestie Infernal, Thou Blessed Be By Night, Opacitas. There is also a hidden song in track 10 which is very good, a cover song actually. I won't spoiler which one is it so if you are curious, listen to this album until the end. You wont be disappointed. Rating: 9.5 (rounded to 10) |
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29.
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My Dying Bride - 34.788%... Complete
At a time when most of the original death/doom, early gothic metal scene was either selling out (Paradise Lost) or exploring new musical ventures (Anathema, Katatona), My Dying Bride was the only bride who kept the torch up high for this genre and scene. This album represents the only time when the band experimented with new sounds and strayed from their trademark sound, this being the reason why this is rated even lower that For Lies I Sire, hands down their worst album to date. The band experiments with psychedelic sounds here, thus giving an aura or quirkiness to the songs. No filler songs here at all, with the highlights being tracks 1, 4 and 5. The other ones are good or solid. This album requires more than one spin to sink in. Rating: 7.5 (rounded to 8) |
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30.
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Razor - Decibels
Don't be bothered by the overall rating. Metalheads couldn't get this more wrong. Many of them got scared about the very polished production of this record, a novelty for a Razor record who historically has been plagued by very bad produced albums. Some fans prefer their thrash albums as raw-sounding as possible. If you have people bashing this album, yet liking drivel such as "Morbid Visions", you know the opposite is the real deal. Decibels is well written, relentlessly fast and well produced, quite a fun album to listen to. Had this album been released in 1992 when thrash was still relevant, the rating would have been much higher. But 1997 was not a good year for metal in general, much less thrash metal. There is some very faint industrial experimentation on this album, mostly related to the vocals as well. First 6 tracks are stellar, with the opener ranking as one of the best Razor songs ever released. The last 4 tracks are weaker with maybe the exception of Ninedead. Rating: 8 |
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31.
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Slaughter - Strappado
Digging up some old-school thrash records that for some reason were forgotten by time, I somehow managed to find this rather obscure, back-in-the-day thrash band. While most old-school thrash bands that were forgotten in the 80s and 90s deserve to be forgotten (they suck basically), these guys do not. Part of the reason they were forgotten was because they never really went beyond their Canadian confines and this album was hard to find back in the 80s. Anyway, this is a very primitive form of death-tinged thrash record with some hardcore punk influences. They play their music even more raw than Razor, early Voivod or Sacrifice did, which is an extraordinary feat. You can hear from this record a bunch of big thrasheads having fun with the music they love. They are like a textbook example of a raw, primitive thrash band. Highlights are tracks 1, 5, 6 and 9 with the rest being solid material, no real filler, just a few weak segments in a few songs. Get the remastered edition. Rating: 7 |
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32.
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Theatres Des Vampires - Candyland
TdV has always been a band stuck in the 'guilty pleasure' and for good reason. Their music is so corny, so cliche, so full of gimmicks and sometimes with outright stupid shenanigans that you always have to take them with a grain of salt. This did not help them throughout their career to reach at least half of the level of popularity Cradle of Filth enjoys, despite the fact that both bands share many things in common. However, Dani Filth at least had a more realistic vision and a tad bit more talent at finding musicians to enhance his vision from a musical point of view. TdV was not blessed with this, as such they never really released a great album. Suicide Vampire came closest. Even Sonya's stage antics and skimpy outfits did not help the band become more notorious which kinda shows that even among the more fetish-oriented metalheads, fan-service is not enough to sell your music. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean they can't be catchy while being simplistic. On this album they play a mix of gothic metal with industrial and symphonic elements which is very unpretentious. The highlights tracks 2, 6, 8 and 10. Tracks 2 and 7 are solid while the rest are filler material or outright shit (tracks 3 and 4). If you are looking for something light to listen to, unpretentious, with a good production and slightly weird vocals, then give this one a go. Rating: 6 |
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33.
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Devin Townsend - Empath
Whenever DT goes the extra mile to pointlessly praise an album before its release, you know something fishy is going to happen. And it happened. This is DT literally venturing into Disney music (the metal variety). He came close on previous albums to this sound/songwriting, but he was inspired enough to pull more creative tunes, not these mostly boring, cringy tunes. No terrific tracks, 3 decent ones (Borderlands, Requiem and Adrift) and a totally worthless bonus disk which contains the hands-down worst DT track ever released, This is Your Life. The fact that DT has run out of ideas on this record is proven by the incessant need to rehash material from the Deconstruction album, which wasn't particularly great either but much better than 80% of the material here. A lot of stuff is also rehashed from Sky Blue/Dark Matters. How the hell can you transgress from a SYL/Deconstruction track such as Hear Me to a Disney/Broadway track like Why? Only DT knows. I rest my case. Rating: 5 |
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34.
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Death Angel - Humanicide
Signing with Nuclear Blast seems to have been a bad business and musical choice for Death Angel. Trying to play old-school thrash with this modern, very plastic production quality is a recipe for failure. But then again Death Angel, ever since reuniting in 2001 has only been preoccupied with dishing one average/crap album after another with no real intention to actually stray from this formula or even attempt to make something a bit more creative. Another AC/DC of thrash metal. The Evil Inside showed that if they try, they can release 2-3 decent tunes, but on Humanicide there is little to offer in terms of musical quality. On top of that the album is plagued by mixing issues too. Thrash metal is a young man's game. Expecting these old fogies who have always been a 2nd tier thrash band to become relevant now when they are slowly reaching (or have reached, dunno) their 50s is like pulling a lottery win ticket. Rating: 4 |
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35.
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Ministry - AmeriKKKant
One decent song here: Twilight Zone. The rest is either filler or outright crap. There is a serious lack of heavyness on AmericKKKunt. If this were Within Temptation or whatever soft metal band, I wouldn't have complained, but this is frigging Ministry. With the exception of his 80s stuff, pretty much everything he has released was rooted in a form of extreme metal. This is pure fluff, a clear point that Al is getting old for this. Metal is a young man's game, and the fact that this old fart could pull it off into his 50s is nothing less than an achievement. However, FBtE should have been his real last album. As for the reason this album is bashed to such a high degree, it has nothing to do with the music, but with the message. Back in the mid 2000s it was acceptable and praise-worthy to be a mindless leftist Antifa -loving NPC. Today it isn't. The younger generation that is slowly eking out its head is more conservative than the millennials, thus more weary of such messages. They've seen and experienced the intolerance of the left far too many times to be fooled anymore. And it is not like Al changed. He has been the same for over 30 years already, writing the same old leftist-inspired Castro-worshiping lyrics, despite being Cuban-born. Rating: 4 |
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36.
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Sodom - Obsessed By Cruelty
Do people actually listen music with their ears or with their asses? How can this spastic, atonal, off-tune, primitive crap have a 7.3 average? I tell you why, hipsters and edgelords. This album and especially the early phase of Sodom in general is hyped as precursor to black metal and thus this album and the previously released EP get undeserved attention. But even so, had fans actually listened to this album with their ears, rather than their asses, they would have notice that more than half the time the band members are off-synched. It is as if everybody is playing randomly, incoherently, fast primitive thrash riffs and on top of that, with a very bad production quality. How the hell this band recorded Persecution Mania just 1 year after releasing this pile of dung is beyond me. It is as if two different bands played on this record. Nothing here stands out, mostly because of the extremely bad songwriting, sewer production quality and most likely, a lack of proper instrumental handling. The Sodom guys were still young and they seem as if they did not yet master their instruments, a thing noticeable on the works preceding this album. Avoid. Whatever stylistic significance this album may have to future sub-genres, the fact remains that there is no songwriting quality to be found here. Except for hipsters and edgelords. Rating: 1 |
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37.
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Burzum - Hliðskjálf
This is what happens when some people are bored in prison. They start promoting crap ambient albums as musical projects. And of course, Burzum fans praise this as the epitome of musical bliss simply because a criminal misfit that has a somewhat legendary status (mostly for negative non-musical aspects) has released it. If people actually made an effort to clean up their ears before listening to this, this album would have gotten proper treatment. A one way ticket to the garbage dump. But since we live in the age of hipsterdom, this stuff is recognized as music. No, this is amateur hour. Some bored prison convict playing with the keyboard and releasing his noise as music. Laughable. Rating: 1 |
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38.
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Exodus - Fabulous Disaster
Exodus is one of those bands that many thrash-heads moan that they are unjustly not included in the Big 4 corporate malarkey. While I do agree that they should be mentioned in one breath with other thrash classics, there are several reasons why they never made it there and the most important one was hiring Souza. It is his screechy vocals that ruin half of these songs and one of the primary reasons why Exodus never really got the attention it deserved and broke out a few years later. But that is not the only reason. Throwing away the tritonus based evil riffs that made Bonded By Blood a classic was also a huge mistake. On this album we have Exodus playing happy blues-based thrash riffs. Well not all over it, but you get the idea. The third was bad management decisions. Anyway, there are a few worthy tracks on this record, tracks 1-4. Track 4 is the best. The last track is solid as well. The rest is pedestrian, made even worse by Souza's nail-to-the-wall screech vocals. And while I don't give 2 cents on lyrics, I can't notice the obvious cretinous leftarded lyrics in some of the songs such as 'the prison system, inherently unjust and inhumane'. This is something leftist hipsters spewed back then and spew today as well, although much more vocally now. God have mercy on us when thrash bands go all political. Particularly when their political views are as infantile as those of a teenybopper. Rating: 6.5 (rounded to 7) |
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39.
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Ludichrist - Immaculate Deception
If I had to make a list of overlooked/underrated bands, Ludichrist would easily be in the top 10, if not top 5. If not the top spot. The fact that these guys went unobserved back in the 80s and they still go unnoticed today clearly showed that music fans haven't really changed in the past 40 years. It is true that in the past they were a bit more interested in music rather than in non-musical aspects (due to hipsters not being the overall majority yet), but they still showed reluctance to embrace something that strays from a certain formula. Ludichrist play essentially a metallized version of hardcore punk, not really crossover jazz influence and even an early implementation of rap vocals. The band is also quite quirky, in the sense that they employ irregular song structures and shift from one mood to another. Simply check track 8, in which they start playing extremely fast only to end up with a rap section. Many highlights: 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 18-20, but essentially all tracks are well above average, no filler material. Very good vocals, some of the best in NYHC. Rating: 9 |
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40.
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Cro-Mags - Alpha Omega
Alpha Omega, unlike what Parris Mayhew thinks, is the very peak of Cro-Mags musical inspiration. I have read a lot of Parris's opinions about this album, but it mostly came down at nit-picking unrelated things, anything unimportant except the music, which is terrific. Alpha Omega sees the band transgressing completely from a hardcore punk act to a polished melodic thrash metal, with a very good production and mixing quality. Yes, this started on Best Wishes, but on that one the songwriting was much weaker than even the debut. This record shows how much potential this band had if they were not shaken by various fights and scandals, particularly between Harley and John Joseph. The highlights here are 1,2 and 4 but the rest are very good as well, no fillers. Apocalypse Now in particular is a marvel of crossover thrash, particularly its gargantuan middle section. Rating: 9 |
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41.
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Exodus - Bonded By Blood
The crowning jewel of tritonus-based thrash metal and maybe on of the best metal albums ever made with a legion of subsequent bands trying to replicate, clone or rip-off material from it, few of them managing to actually improve or even be on par with the overall songwriting quality of this record. Exodus, unlike Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and many other thrash bands had their act together and knew what they were doing right from the get-go. They are among a select few who released a terrific debut. But unlike Metallica for example, they went on a downward spiral. Their subsequent albums never managed into reach the quality of the debut and this was due to the band hiring Souza and shying away from the tritonus playing style. With the exception of track 2, which is slightly sub-par compared to the other songs, this album encapsulates thrash perfection. Don't get the remastered version. It is shit. Rating: 10 |
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42.
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Ludichrist - Powertrip
Even better than its predecessor, yet sadly as overlooked. The curse of this band was that it was too punky for the metal crowd, and too metal for the punky crowd. Furthermore, they had a knack for experimentation, for straying away from the usual thrash, crossover, hardcore punk formula which might have put off many fans back in the day. This is even more experimental than the debut. I am amazed how technically proficient the musicians part of this band were. With this release they almost completely embraced thrash metal as the songs are overall heavier and the band continues to impress and surprise you with grindcore-like drum beats, some acoustic sections and weird choice of riffs. Just when you expect the music to go down a predictable flow, they surprise you with something new and totally unexpected which is exactly how music should be. And one of the few bands intelligent enough to write great lyrics. Ain't that interested in lyrics when it comes to music, but theirs are really funny and worth checking out. No fillers on this album either, but if I had to pick the best songs those would be 1, 3. 6. 7, 9 and 10. Rating: 10 |
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43.
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Method Of Destruction - U.S.A. For M.O.D.
This album should have been the real successor to S.O.D.'s debut masterpiece Speak English or Die. All of the riffs composed for this nice piece of crossover thrash should have been released under S.O.D.'s name but for some reason it wasn't meant to be. Those of you, new fans who have started listening to S.O.D., turn to this album if you want to hear a great continuation of that splendid debut album. The one released in 90s is mediocre at best. This album contains a very strong first half, but essentially none of the songs here are fillers or even close to mediocre material. Main highlights: 1-3, 6, 12, 15, 17. Other great songs: 7, 14, 18. The rest are solid. The production for this album is rather unique as well. Rating: 9.5 (rounded to 10) |
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44.
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Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
As the rating says, a classic, but not an easy listen particularly because of the vocals, which even for me was not easy to get accustomed with. This is one relentless piece of black metal assault, which does not fail in building a dark atmospheric sound which gives you chills on your skin. This album is addictive in a way. Tracks like Funeral Fog, Freezing Moon. Life Eternal, the title track and Buried by Time and Dust are easily some of the best compositions ever produced by classic BM standards. This is also one of those albums that is very hard to reproduce. Many have tried, none of them reached the quality of this album. Despite the fact that some of the members of this band became notorious for non-musical reasons and they seem to have met in a mental asylum, the music here is good. Too bad it gets to be known and hailed because of extra-musical events. Rating: 10 |
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45.
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Immortal - All Shall Fall
A return to form, and finally with a good production. The reason why this album gets some undeserved bad reviews and ratings pretty much everywhere is not due to bad songwriting. 4 very good tracks on this record, the opener, Rise of Darkness, Arctic Swarm and the gargantuan ending track. It is due to the rather clean production that many black metal pvurists hate it and label it as one of the weakest albums made by this goofy band. Black metal hipsters love their albums as badly produced as possible. In their little brains bad production = artistic expression. Finally we have an Immortal album with a decent production quality (not a flat one though and not overtly clean) and the hipsters, of course, are put off by it. Another proof that hipsters essentially do not care about the music. They want it to sound as bad as possible to give it more street cred. Good production is for plebs. This album is much better than over half of the material this band has released in their perceived prime. Rating: 8 |
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46.
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Lyriel - Paranoid Circus
Cohesiveness, great song arrangements, great instrumental arrangements and very good female vocals. These are the main strenghts of Lyriel, a folk metal band with a profound folk rock flavor as well which merges both elements in a very balanced fashion, giving a whole new dimension to this music. Aside from the folk aspects of the music, there is a classical vibe to it, mostly enhanced by the various cello and violin arrangements. Jessica Thierjung is one of the most underrated female metal vocalists, particularly in a genre such as folk metal where female vocalists are more prominent. Highlights: Tracks 3, 5, 6, 9, 11 and 12. Ok songs: 2, 4, 8 and 14. Rating: 7.5 (rounded to 8) |
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47.
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Megadeth - Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!
Speed and aggression cannot supplement good songwriting and decent production values. The original recording of this album was plagued with poor production value which helped ruining several tracks with potential. But it is no wonder. The band back in 1985, although bent on being Metallica's main rival, was more preoccupied with snorting glue rather than writing proper songs and provide a decent production value. Thrash metal has to sound a certain way in order for it to not descend into senseless cacophonous noise. The awful production does not ruin all songs though. The title track, Looking Down the Cross and Chosen Ones are as good as any classic Megadeth song. The opener is not bad either, and it gets improved on the remastered versions. In fact the reason I give this an 8 is due to the remastered version which slightly improves the overall value of the songs. Not all of them are excellent though. Some of them are fillers (Rattlehead, Mechanix and These Boots) and no production improvement could have made them better. Particularly the Nancy Sinatra cover. Nothing ever made by this awful nepotist was musically good so it is mystifying what Mustaine saw good in this song. But that is what happens when drugs cloud your brain. You make bad musical decisions. Same as those jet-set buffoons from Metallica would make when they hire not one but two dilettantes to sing/play on their records. Out of the moronically titled Big 4, only Metallica managed to release a good debut. All the others weren't up there yet, musically speaking. Rating: 8 |
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48.
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Kreator - Pleasure To Kill
Mille and Ventor back when they were youths were more interested in playing their own version of thrash as fast and brutal as possible. Which is what Pleasure to Kill is. It sounds more professional, the remastered version improved the overall experience, but like I said many times, speed and aggression cannot replace good songwriting and a good performance. There are touches of amateurism here, timing problems and a rather pitiful drum performance that cannot keep up with the fast rhythm section. The opening prologue is amateur crap. The good points, Mille and Ventor sharing vocal duties is rather refreshing. It helps break the blast-beat monotony. At this point in time, Ventor had the better vocals. All the songs after the intro essentially compete one against each other, who sounds more brutal and fast than the other, however, ironically, the slower parts are when the band truly shines. This might've been original and even a novelty when it came out, but time hasn't been kind to it. Also, Mille didn't get some basic guitar lessons on how to write guitar solos, which honestly are rather unnecessary here and should have been discarded. It is hard to play guitar solos (especially cohesive ones) on a record where your plan is to break a world record in terms of speed and brutality. Hard to pinpoint any real highlights, as almost all songs sound the same. There are good sections on each of them. Rating: 7 |
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49.
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Ministry - Relapse
Al's heaviest album since Houses of the Mole which to this day remains his thrashiest record. One terrific track, Relapse (despite having stupid lyrics), Ghouldiggers, Al's personal experience with record labels, Freefall (Al's autobiography about drug consumption), Double Tap and the S.O.D. cover being decent to very good tracks. Some filler material here but hey, the fact that Al could pull this off in his early 50s is impressive. This is how industrial metal should be done, ninnies! Rating: 6.5 (rounded to 7) |
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50.
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Ex Deo - Caligvla
An improvement over the rather lackluster debut album, which was almost like a warm-up for them. While the overall style has not changed, the band still playing their own symphonic take on groovy death metal, there is a visible increase in the songwriting quality. Unlike the debut which contained one highlight and one solid song, this one has 3 highlights, namely tracks 3, 8 and the bonus track with its gargantuan middle section and 3-4 more solid tracks, 2, 4, 5 and 9. The guest musicians on this album definitely helped enhancing the quality of a few songs, namely 3 to 5, where they contribute. Mauricio should lay down his main band, Kataklysm as he had sounded dull on it for years and focus his attention and songwriting talent on this band. There is real potential and room for improvement here. Rating: 7 |
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51.
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Ministry - From Beer To Eternity
Al Jourgenssen has been past his prime for some years before he eked another record, supposedly his last. However, this guy has one of the most impressive discographies released by an industrial metal artist ever. Brilliant in the 90s, very good in the 2000s, Al released some landmark albums for this genre and for extreme metal overall as well. The Last Sucker was his major failure and I was happy that he came back to release Relapse, which was a return to form. FBtE is a tribute album, dedicated to the late Mike Scaccia who died of heart disease related complications and it is swansong of sort, but not a classic, far away from Ministry's high standard. Still, there are 2 very good tracks, Punch in the Face and Permawar with Change of Luck being quite solid as well. The rest is average to forgettable. If you are a Ministry fan, it is safe for you stop here. The next album is a turd. Rating: 6 |
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52.
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Razor - Executioner's Song
This was Razor in its edgelord phase. A period characterized by band members not knowing well their musical direction and what kind of music they want to compose. Coupled with amateurish decisions in choosing production quality and mixing and here you have Executioner's Yawn, pardon, got confused, Executioner's Song. Due to the very, very bad production, a typical pop production that pushes the vocals to the front while burying the guitar in the mix, whatever potential these songs may have is forsaken. There is a reason why thrash metal started in the 80s and not in the 70s or 60s. The technology wasn't there yet. And even when it was, there were few people who knew how to properly use it, thus explaining why so many thrash bands had production difficulties in their early days. Razor is a rather schizophrenic band in a sense, which I explained in my Open Hostility commentary. They recorded brilliant stuff and mediocre or outright crap stuff in a very short amount of time (less than 10 years). Their debut LP falls into the mostly crap stuff. The song with some potential that somehow sticks out is the opener, but even that one has its potential limited by the awful production. It is nothing short of a miracle how this band in one year and a half jumped from poorly written/produced dross such as the debut EP and this LP, to the excellently done Evil Invaders, a true thrash classic. Were they abducted by aliens and lobotomized before releasing Evil Invaders? Rating: 3 |
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53.
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Burzum - Belus
Most people complain about this album being too repetitive as if repetitiveness has not been the main trait of Burzum since it began. How can you like the classic 90s albums who are repetitive, but not like this one due to repetitiveness? There is a glimmer of truth though. The early Burzum albums had a knack to find some good melodies and repeat them as much as possible, like squeezing an orange out of all of its juice. Belus has little inspired melodies to squeeze juice from. And there aren't many melodies in it anyway. Varg had a knack in the past to find a hypnotic melody and use and reuse it over and over again. This was the reason why his minimalist music didn't feel a chore to listen to. But in this case, he wasn't inspired enough. The middle section is better with the rest being totally forgettable. This should have been released as an EP. Rating: 6 |
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54.
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Faith No More - We Care A Lot
I take it as a personal insult when this album is so severely underrated while that pile of turd they released recently (won't even bother naming it) is considered a good output. How the hell can you rate that lazy, sterile and boring collection of turds on their latest offerings a 7 (i.e. a good album overall) and this one a 6 point something (i.e. average album)? If you are gonna rate shit so high, then at least make sure decent outputs get a better rating (i.e. at least an 8). Some people need to clean up their ears, particularly Patton fanboys who still believe that this guy, well passed his prime, can still turn shit into gold. Ever since 2004 he hasn't released anything noteworthy. This album, same like its successor, is maltreated by Patton fanboys simply because Patton was not part of them. They know that the music here is good, but they won't ever admit that FNM was a good band even before Patton joined it. Enough with the rant. The songs here are weaker than on the sophomore album, but by no means shit. There is a good amount of filler songs, scattered mostly in the middle section of the record. The band was in its diaper phase here. The vocals are very solid, the songwriting is a bit uneven. They did not yet have a clue about their musical direction. Hints of greatness are present, particularly on tracks 1, 3, 8 and 9. Track 5 is also pretty solid. All in all, this is not really FNM's oddball record. Rating: 7 |
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55.
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Deep Purple - Burn
This is actually the best album Deep Purple has released in their first phase as a band. Unlike most heavy metal nit-pickers, I don't like labeling this band's eras based on their line-up changes. I consider their first phase being until their break-up and second phase since they reunited onwards. This is also the only record they've made that can truly be labeled as heavy metal. The sound is much heavier here than on anything they released before or after it. There 3 stunning tracks on it, namely the title track, You Fool No One and the psychedelic tinged A 200. Tracks 2-4 are decent as well, pretty solid material. However, unlike most DP fans, I consider Mistreated as their worst song from their early phase. I don't consider a bland blues ballad with Coverdale bitch gasping on it as the epitome of artistic expression. Which brings me to say that, although Coverdale as a vocalist is better than Gillan, his voice is uncannily annoying when he sings in this manner, particularly on bluesy songs. Rating: 8.5 (rounded to 9) |
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56.
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Metallica - Master Of Puppets
Metallica's creativity peak and its most flawless work up until now. Although in terms of songwriting they would fare well for another album, Master of Puppets represents the time when the band fully matured not just as musicians, but as adults as well. The songwriting here is not vastly different or better than on the previous album, but you get the sense that the guys are finally out of their teenage period and now they are walking the path towards maturity, most exemplified in Hetfield's voice, which is the only improvement over the previous records. While on KEA and RTL he sounded exactly like a teenager, on this one his voice got wider, deeper, giving more depth to the music and that necessary punch to really get things moving. Not a shred of filler or inferior moments on this record though my personal favorites are Battery, the title track, Disposable Heroes and the glorious Orion. If there was an album that came close to perfection when it comes to thrash, this one is. Everything about it is flawless. Production, performance (some of the best guitar solos on a metal album), originality and especially songwriting. Rating: 10 |
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57.
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Cro-Mags - Best Wishes
The successor to the brilliant Age of Quarrel debut is even better produced, with an even more pronounced thrash sound (this is basically crossover thrash). If you've only heard the debut album from this band and expect that Best Wishes to be more of the same or a slight variation, you are in for a surprise. They've gone from a raw open-chord hardcore punk to polished, and melodic crossover thrash, whereby it's more thrash than hardcore punk. The only thing unusual, or a slight put-off about this is Harley's unconventional vocals who are different from John Joseph's. But other than that, plenty of highlights here as well: 1, 2, 4, 8. Only 'Fugitive' is mediocre, the rest is solid. Rating: 7.5 (rounded to 8) |
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58.
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Biohazard - Biohazard
One of the very few great hardcore punk bands from the 3rd generation. These guys sound so fresh, inspired and energetic when they burst into the hardcore punk scene, it was hard for you to not notice them. I do remember the early 90s when these guys were playing for very small crowds as if they were headlining a tour on a stadium full of fans. This album is a bit dated. I don't like it as much as I liked it 20 years ago for example. But the material is still extremely strong and retains a dose of vitality you rarely find in today's hardcore punk bands that can only emulate the oldies. The absolute highlight is track 12, "There and Back". Other highlights: 1-3, 5, 6, 10 and 11. No fillers. My only complaint about this album is that the guitar sound is a bit too thin, and a bit too in the background. There is a slight mixing problem on it. The guitar is not crunchy enough to pack that last punch for the KO. Rating: 8 |
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59.
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Amorphis - Tuonela
Progressive metal played safe with some middle-eastern folk influences thrown in for a good measure. This is how I would characterize Tuonela and Amorphis at this stage. It was clear from the release of Elegy that the band lost interest in innovating and refining their trademark sound established on their second album. But unlike in Elegy, where the spotlight was taken by catchy riffs and inspired, safe but good melodies, here the riffing takes a step back in favor of atmosphere. There are even some faint psychedelic moments. As you could expect, the heaviest track is also the best. "Greed" steals the spotlight by far. Other good tracks are 1, 4, 6, 7 and 10. The weakest is track 9, with its random insertion of flute. Rating: 8 |
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60.
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Cradle Of Filth - Midian
This album is considered by many black metal fans, or non-black metal fans or any hipster essentially as Cradle of Filth's venture into more accessible black metal territory. After more than 15 years since I have heard it and after exploring their first 3 and subsequent albums, I still don't get why this album gets the sell-out stamp. Some of the stuff here is as heavy as the material on their first 3 records. There are a few hints to a more accessible black metal style, most present on song 8 (the album highlight) and song 10. The record is less black metallian, implements more gothic undertones, but it is still firmly planted in extreme metal territory. And Dani doesn't yet go over the top with his vocal delivery, which is a great thing. His voice, if used the wrong way is really annoying. The absolute album highlight is track 8. Also very strong: 2, 4, 5 and 11. Tracks 3, 6 and 10 are solid. Track 6 in particular has a killer guitar solo, one of the best in this genre. If you are a CoF fan that has not yet bought into the inherent elitism surrounding this band, do yourself a favor and continue listening to this band after their first 3 records. In the mind of a black metal elitist, becoming more accessible means sell-out. Regardless of the fact that the songs on this record might be as good as the ones before the supposed sell-out. Rating: 9 |
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61.
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Galneryus - Into The Purgatory
Galneryus seems like a more metallized version of X Japan minus the Barry Manilow kind of ballad drudgery this band has been playing. Remain Behind is the only thing that comes close to the X Japan ballads and it obviously stinks. Sometimes fun to listen to, sometimes awfully cheesy, sometimes boring and too samey. Not for the lactose intolerant mind you. The singer emulates the X Japan vocalist perfectly though, even when he tries to sing in English which gets very comical. Not too impressed of power metal versions of AC/DC, keen on dishing out the same album after album to please their fan-base. Stuck in a rut bands are not my taste, I like my metal more varied. You heard one Galneryus record, you kinda heard them all. So far, after 2 spins, the only song that somehow sticks out is the 4th one with an interesting section emerging from minute 18:00 to about 20:00. Rating: 5 |
Disclaimer: All top lists are unofficial and do not represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
[ More lists by TarannonFalastur ]
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