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happymetalgirl · 4 years ago

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Who did it better? (#1)

In the interest of livening up this blog and shaking up the homogeneously review-oriented content, I’m kicking off a casual little series that I thought of a while ago that I think can spark some interesting comparisons. A lot of song titles are shared by multiple artists, especially one-word titles. As is pretty self-explanatory by the title of this series, I’m simply comparing several pairs of songs from different artists that share a title, and decide who did it better, starting with a face-off between old-school and new-school death metal through two titans of the genres:

Sepultura vs. Behemoth: “Amen”

Both these songs come from acclaimed, fan-favorite albums from the heights of both bands’ careers. And while both tracks are solid features of their respective albums, I think the sheer energy and grandiosity that the Behemoth track has edges it out on top over the more standard old-school death metal Sepultura track for me. A more iconic cut from Chaos A.D. might have won Sepultura the prize, but this matchup kind of just presents, through a couple of random samples, the progression and improvement of the genre. The first win goes to Behemoth, on to the next match-up.

Dream Theater vs. Five Finger Death Punch: “Never Enough”

Both of these bands have their share of detractors, Five Finger Death Punch obviously with the heftier bunch, myself included in that group, and both songs fittingly deal with the unbreakable dissatisfaction of other people. But “Never Enough” lands on opposite ends of the bands’ respective catalogs; for FFDP, it’s one of the of the bonus tracks that caught on from the 2008 re-issue of their 2007 debut album before they became the unbearable pandering act they are today, while for DT, it’s eight albums in on the front-to-back prog metal success, Octavarium. The Dream Theater song finds the band dipping its toes into the electronic alternative rock of Muse with surprising comfort, and even though it’s eclipsed by most of the album it’s on, it still outdoes the passable, but formulaic FFDP bonus cut.

Sevendust vs. Periphery: “Alpha”

If you exclude the “Juggernaut” portion of the Periphery album, both of these are title tracks, Sevendust’s closing their sixth album. This one, far and away, belongs to Periphery, Juggernaut: Alpha capturing the band at their most meticulous, passionate, and unabashed, and the bold move of the title track’s poppy, yet emotive melody paid off in spades. Sevendust’s alternative metal version of “Alpha”, unfortunately ends the album they titled after it on a drab, formulaic note that pales in comparison to the bombastic Periphery song.

Swans vs. Metallica: “Better Than You”

Alright, now we’re including a band not really considered to be in the metal sphere, Swans, up against one of the greatest of the greats. And while Swans haven’t ever released anything that’s been classified as metal, their contribution to the 80’s “no wave” movement through their incredibly noisy and abrasive early output, particularly their debut album, Filth, and especially by the day’s standards, has had its influence on the metal world. Around the same time, Metallica were making their massive, legendary contributions to heavy metal’s movement away from glam toward the enthralling ferocity of thrash. But neither of these songs come from the bands’ most aggressive eras, but rather their departures from their earlier sounds during the 90’s. The Swans song opens up Michael Gira and company’s full transition into cerebral post-punk on 1991’s White Light from the Mouth of Infinity, and Metallica’s is one of the more upbeat numbers from their 1997 head-scratcher, Reload. Ultimately, the Metallica song serves as a refresher of just how energetic and not-that-bad Metallica was during their more rockin’ moments on Load and Reload, while the Swans track serves as a reminder and representation of how awkward Swans’ transition into their second phase of their career was. While some of their fans swear by it, I’ll take the more abrasive stuff before it or the more sprawling post-rock experimentation that it grew into any day. While it’s definitely not their best song either, I’d rather listen to Metallica’s “Better Than You” 9 times out of 10.

Breaking Benjamin vs.Three Days Grace: “Home”

As common as one-word titles are, I feel like these bands are still probably just two of many in the alt-metal world to make songs titled “Home”. The concept of home is just so ripe with potential for angst-y situational reflection or broader societal reflection, impossible for alternative metal bands to avoid. But I went with these two artists because I feel like they are some of the more prominent in the genre, and both songs are under-the-radar debut-album hits among fans. The Wizard of Oz-themed Breaking Benjamin track captures the band at their most creatively creepy and heavy, while the juicily angst-y Three Days Grace track rages at the fractures of a distressed relationship between cohabitants. While the Three Days Grace “Home”, I think, does outshine the album’s other (ironically)-iconic single “I Hate Everything About You” and while Breaking Benjamin’s version doesn’t really eclipse the fan-favorite banger, “Polyamorous”, I still prefer the Breaking Benjamin track for its creativity and emotional dynamic.

Ghost vs. clipping.: “Body and Blood”

While I am certainly more of a Ghost fan than a clipping. fan, “Body and Blood” pits clipping. at some of their best against Ghost on their sophomore slump. “Body and Blood” is one of the more naturally fun catchy songs on the largely overthought Infestissumam, but the punchy industrial energy of the clipping. dance number is just too much to override. It’s like clipping. putting up their star player against one of Ghost’s reserves, so not much of a surprise with the lopsided contest there.

Avenged Sevenfold vs. Mutoid Man: “Afterlife”

I definitely enjoy both of these artists’ songs, and the albums they appeared on. The more recent Mutoid Man song is the shorter of the two, and unfortunately one of the more hum-drum thrashy stoner metal tracks on the otherwise excellent War Moans, whereas Avenged Sevenfold’s track is a live staple that served as the driving lead single to their polarizingly mainstreamed, but retrospectively heralded self-titled 2007 album ten years before Mutoid Man’s version of the song came out. And as much as its formulaic verses and choruses gave fuel to all the band’s detractors, the single is a fine example of infectious 2000′s alternative metal with lots of extra classic heavy metal melodicism. So I’m going with A7X on this one.

Gojira vs. Red: “Death of Me”

Two sophomore-album bangers square off over the “Death of Me” title, one of my favorite artists whose unique approach to progressive death metal has earned them the deserved attention they enjoy now versus one of the most underrated bands of 2000′s alternative metal whose version of the song highlights their aptitude with symphonic elements in comparison with their contemporaries as a lead single off their sophomore effort. And this one is tough, because I also find Gojira’s The Link to be an underrated part of their catalog, chocked full of unusual but tasty rhythm that rivals even Meshuggah, and “Death of Me” is one of several highlights from that record. With its energetic string melody and climactic build-up bridge to an emotive vocal melody, I think the Red track takes the cake by just a hair, but both tracks showcase well their respective artists’ quality.

Soulfly vs. Meshuggah: “Bleed”

I had to end with this one; my bias definitely leaks through on this match-up, but it’s undeniable how iconic and influential Meshuggah’s “Bleed” has been since its release, undoubtedly Meshuggah’s most iconic song whose triplet drumming has been ripped off by an entire genre. For Soulfly, “Bleed” kicked off a new era and commitment to nu metal for Max Cavalera in fiery fashion, and it’s one of Fred Durst’s more tolerable moments, but compared to how much of a movement Meshuggah’s spawned and how instantly recognizable, impressive, and groovy the Meshuggah song is, it’s no contest.

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pirraca · 4 years ago

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Max Cavalera, nome artístico de Massimiliano Antônio Cavalera,[1] (Belo Horizonte, 4 de agosto de 1969) é um cantor, guitarrista e compositor brasileiro. Formou a banda de thrash metal Sepultura (que no começo era death metal) juntamente com seu irmão, Igor Cavalera. Devido as desavenças, rompeu com a banda em 1996, formando o Soulfly. A voz de Max Cavalera é conhecida mundialmente por ser forte e gutural. Graças a isso, foi escolhido para fazer uma participação no filme O Retorno da Múmia, no qual ele fez os gritos de um demônio.[2] No início dos anos 90, mudou-se para Phoenix, Estados Unidos, e hoje é naturalizado estadunidense Em 2007 formou outra banda juntamente com o seu irmão Igor Cavalera de nome Cavalera Conspiracy, "a conspiração dos Cavalera" que se apresentou com o nome Inflikted em Tempe, Arizona no "11th Anual D-Low Memorial Show" no dia 31 de agosto. Esta banda também serve para mostrar que os irmãos voltaram a se entender. Em outubro de 2008, a revista Rolling Stone promoveu a "Lista dos Cem Maiores Artistas da Música Brasileira", onde Max Cavalera ocupa o 47° lugar.[3] Em 2011, formou o supergrupo Killer Be Killed juntamente com Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Troy Sanders (Mastodon) e Dave Elitch (ex- The Mars Volta), experimentando outros estilos.[4] #djpirraca @maxcavalera_officiale @sepultura @thesoulflytribe #maxcavalera #bday (em DJ Pirraça) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDdyofDFtPC/?igshid=zlga9ex5sowv

#djpirraca #maxcavalera #bday

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iambenjiijackson · 5 years ago

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The Groove Guide - Reviews 2008

The Prodigy - Experience Expanded/More Music For The Jilted Generation With the advent of British big beat/hard dance merchant's The Prodigy's fifth studio album, released by their new record label Take Me to the Hospital, it was inevitable that XL Recordings and Maverick undertook the same treatment EMI gave Radiohead and Capitol gave The Vines in releasing previous albums to capitalize off their success. However, rather than a traditional "Best Of" compilation which, well, has already been done, the shrewd move was to re-master two albums which helped both shape the big beat scene and redefine techno and rave with added b-side and live track bonuses. Experience and Music For The Jilted Generation both became important albums for the dance music scene; where Experience expanded upon early rave culture and fused jungle and techno with tracks such as "Out Of Space" and "Everybody Into The Place", both remixed and contained on the "Expanded" section of this re-release, it's ...Jilted Generation which provided a crossover between the underground to their critically and commercially acclaimed Fat Of The Land; the edgier, almost industrialized sounds emanating from "Break & Enter", "Their Law" and the Nirvana-sampling "Voodoo People" bridging ravers and rockers into the Big Beat sound that sculpted the likes of The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method and Fatboy Slim and gave birth to what we now know as 'electronica.' B-Sides from their single releases, live tracks from their most recent stints at Pukkelpop and remixes from Dust Brothers, the real reward is the re-mastering of the songs and highlighting that despite today's standards highlighting fluro, glamour and fashionista sensibilities, it never needs to be that way.

Los Campesinos - Hold On Now, Youngster

If you're not really a fan of twee, this may change your mind. Welsh sextuplet Los Campesinos have been making an impression within the 'indie' scene, but rather that come across sophisticated and potentially haughty, the group have a power-pop element which comes across as fun. Catchy, with the ability to muster a smile upon the face of anyone (case point - "You! Me! Dancing!), Hold On Now, Youngster... is nigh on flawless and is once again more proof Wales, who have provided a number of influential acts in the past two decades, are doing something right nurturing their countries music scene.

Akaname - Filthlicker

The internet seems to heavily favour bands of Akaname's variety for good reason - while mainstream outlets omit such "radio unfriendly" one might be inclined to state as being on "Filthlicker", the internet and it's at times quite staunch view on bands place emphasis on talent rather than aesthetics. What we have with Filthlicker is a band who are mixing one part The Dillinger Escape Plan with five parts The Black Dahlia Murder to a great accord. New Zealand's music scene has just been hit with another metal(core) slug to its chest – one that'll be fired on April 11th at Oblivion in Auckland.

Goodnight Nurse - Keep Me On Your Side Goodnight Nurse seem to have turned a trick used by Blink 182; from that bubblegum-esque pop they once honed during their "Always and Never" era, there seems to be a more serious straight-ahead approach to the band. Almost breaking away from the quasi boy-meets-girl, girl-breaks-boys heart formula their new album makes them sound a little less New Found Glory and, strangely, a lot more like Homegrown and their 'darker' punk rock. An apt analogy would be to compare their work used in a Judd Apatow movie rather than a high school comedy akin to American Pie. "Drift Away" perhaps the standout track on the album, with "Lay With Me" there for older fans as not to alienate them. Definitely a goodnight rather than a goodbye from the boys.

Otep - The Ascension

Otep were one of the bands that during the golden age of nu-metal at the start of the 00's passed through with both relative success and, more importantly, a deal of anonymity - though they had their fans and were very much "Kittie for the thinking man", they escaped the scathing retrospective views because, sadly, people couldn't have cared less. Their latest effort retains those nu-metal sensibilities while the vocals pulling away from relentless screaming, and where the oft compared Jack Off Jill or, for some reason, Arch Enemy, found their transitional period turbulent, Otep manages such a thing near graceful. It helps, also, they pull off a Nirvana cover with justice.

Satyricon - The Age of Nero Satyricon is an interesting little quandary - though superficially resembling all the aesthetics of a black metal act, they've caused quite the controversy after the release of Now, Diabolical was cited as being "radio-friendly" amongst hardened fans of the genre. Funny how Norway's equivalent of a Grammy can do that to you... However, The Age of Nero retains the hallmarks you would commonly expect from a band of their kind; the high pitched death growl, the bleak outlook within Satyr's lyrics. Unlike other black metal acts, there is a groove involved within their sound, rather than blunt force trauma - 'The Wolfpack' melodically could seat well at home with Dirt era Alice In Chains while 'Last Man Standing' could be a Down b-side, all the funnier Phil Anselmo is rumoured to be working with the band. The black metal fan in me is reluctant to give it a high rating because it's not essentially an album of that kind. But the general metal fan in me concedes it's a brilliant piece of work and, as taboo as it could be amongst the community, is actually very accessible and at the end of the day, isn't that more important to a movement?

Emigrate - Emigrate

Touted as being "industrial metal" and including remixes from Mr. Digital Hardcore himself Alec Empire, the side project of Rammstein's Richard Z. Kruspe sounds like a delectable and, dare I say it, heavy affair. Instead, Emigrate treats us to generic, radio-friendly tracks which you would hardly expect given Krupse's CV. In fact, it seems offensive to even believe this would come from such a person – almost as if the creativity from the German group has finally diminished (let's be honest though, Rosensot wasn't exactly their edgiest, was it). Bland, devoid of anything challenging, it would seem that the aesthetics were more important than the music and by far this is little more than a vanity project for Krupse.

The CHASE - Paranoia

When it rains, it pours. 2008 definitely seems to be the year in which New Zealand's hardcore scene emerges out of the woodwork finally to the acclaim it deserves - none more so than The CHASE, who channel the spirit of good post-hardcore that emanated out of the US underground scene circa. 2002-2004. In fact, with songs such as "The Seconds" and "Boomers", you could have easily mistaken them for a band on early Drive-Thru or Victory Records. Short (the album runs little over half an hour) but both melodic and aggressive, The CHASE are like a double happy; though they make not look it, they can induce a large amount of unexpected splendour. How's NZ DIY hardcore scene going to lay siege once more throughout 2008? With bands The Chase leading the charge. Corporate punk rock stops here.

Franz Ferdinand - Tonight Doth my ears deceive me, or have Franz Ferdinand taken a page out of KISS' playbook and decided to craft a disco song or two? Though where the old aged outlaws alienated the KISS Army with their experiment, Franz Ferdinand has not - there's always been that dance party element within their previous releases and Tonight is no exception. It, however, seems like the band have been caught in a zeitgeist of electro-new-wave eighties - songs like 'Turn It On' and 'Send Him Way' almost seem homages to Synth godparents The Human League, Alex Kapranos and company even seem determined to summon the spirit of Saturday Night Fever with 'Live Alone'. Though it might seem like committing commercial suicide, the thing is Franz Ferdinand have always been eccentric, and their idiosyncrasies are their strengths. Tonight is a record you might be ashamed to admit you'd like, but you will like it... embrace your fear.

Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted

There's been a wait in the metal community for the mighty return of influential metal act Sepultura. While that prophecy may not come to pass, Cavalera Conspiracy reunites brothers Max and Iggor Cavalera after too long of an absence. What you'd expect is something loud, noisy and aggressive, and truth be told, that's one extent of the album. The other is the groove that made Sepultura so popular, with well crafted if deceptively simple riffs that command the ability for even a casual rock fan to nod their head. Another bullet fired from the metal scene in 2008 – Inflikted is part Nailbomb at times and at others Arise-era Sepultura, but a huge return for the brothers Cavalera.

The Naked and Famous - No Light Was it rushed? That's the sceptical question posed as The Naked And Famous release the follow up to This Machine in what does feel like a very short space of time. Though many who may not have listened to the group cite that they are simply another electro band flooding Auckland's musical landscape, they couldn't be more wrong. Dirty basslines, distorted guitars, the tracks play out more industrial than electro - leadoff single "Birds" almost a nod to With Teeth era Nine Inch Nails and the sultriness of early Garbage. Second record syndrome? Powers and company taunt it... and leads us into eager anticipation for their debut long-player

Soulfly - Conquer

Max Cavalera has had quite a busy 2008 - earlier this year we saw the long-awaited reunion with his brother Igor conjuring a zeitgeist of prime Sepultura days with his side project Cavalera Conspiracy and now the sixth instalment of Soulfly, the group he formed shortly after leaving the thrash/groove metal outfit he made his name with. With that in mind, was it ever going to be an easy feat juggling his main band with a project many of us metal fans have waited years to see? The answer isn't an easy one and leaves many sitting on the fence.

Conquer rather than becoming a continuation of the heavier hitting sounds the group gave us with their previous release, Dark Ages, with it's throwback to albums reminiscent of Arise, combines those elements with the groove metal which brought them to such acclaim with their sophomore album Primitive. Though it's an eclectic prospect on paper, sadly in practice it comes across a little disjointed and does beg the question if now Igor is in the song-writing midsts that Soulfly becomes now a second thought to the newer Cavalera project.

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moleofmetal · 6 years ago

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Soulfly - ॐ /3

om / ॐ

əʊm,ɒm noun

a mystic syllable considered the most sacred mantra in Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. It appears at the beginning and end of most Sanskrit recitations, prayers, and texts.

Everyone and their aunt seem to know the story of Max Cavalera's stardom with Brazilian metal monsters Sepultura and the personal tragedy that inspired him to create Soulfly to be an outlet for his more spiritual side and for his tribal and world music influences. Very fitting for this album to bear this symbol.

The first 4-5 tracks are a little safe, not straying too much from the expected path. As this is a very Alternative and nu metal sounding album, with Soulfly not quite finding the true metal stride until album “Enslaved” five albums and ten years later, this album being number 3 is firmly in early-2000's vein. As you can probably guess that album is dripping with tribal feeling and experimental moments. A whole heap of guests is on this too. Some for better, some for worse, but it did make me feel a little nostalgic to hear again after a long time the voice of Ill Nino frontman Cristian Machado, one of my favorite bands "growing up".

While others such as the cover of Sacred Reich song “One Nation” and “Brasil” are very thrashy numbers, but this is as interesting as Nu Metal era Soulfly got. There are notes of tenderness present too in songs like “Tree of Pain” and the touching 9/11 tribute minute silence track, but I feel this is where the album ends and the filler comes in. The experimental side of the later tracks boils down to world music demos might put some people off but I admire the spirit.

Perhaps if I heard this in 2002 rather than 2018, might have been more influenced by it and god knows I might have been now listening to exclusively ragga-dub music by now. However, as it stands, this not a bad metal album, just a little bloated. [6/10]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWzjoWxObU0

#soulfly #3 #max cavalera #sacred reich #Ill Nino #Cristian Machado #sepultura #ॐ #album review #review #6/10

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xlevelpr · 3 years ago

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“Marc Rizzo fue despedido de Soulfly por razones personales”, cuenta Max Cavalera

El líder de Soulfly, Max Cavalera, comentó que el mítico guitarrista de la banda, Marc Rizzo, fue despedido debido a razones personales.

El frontman de Soulfly, Max Cavalera, comentó que el mítico guitarrista de la banda, Marc Rizzo, fue despedido debido a razones personales. Comentó algún detalle sobre el despido del guitarrista, al que le desea lo mejor pese a tener que separar caminos profesionalmente.

Un despido por motivos personales

Cavalera habló sobre el despido de Rizzo en el último episodio de Max Trax:

“Ahora mismo, para la tribu, quiero comentar algo que está pasando con Soulfly. Por supuesto, es sobre Marc Rizzo. Él no se ha ido de la banda. Nosotros decidimos separar nuestros caminos con él por razones personales. Le deseo a Marc lo mejor en su carrera. Quiero agradecerle por sus 18 años con Soulfly”.

Hace unos años, en 2018, las palabras de Max sobre Rizzo eran mucho más positivas. Dijo a The Classic Metal Show lo siguiente sobre el guitarrista:

“Le encanta lo que hace, tocar en Soulfly, trabajar conmigo. Estamos totalmente conectados. Da el 150% en cada show, sin importar que haya 10 personas o 10.000, lo cual es extraño”.

Rizzo se había unido a Soulfly en 2004, y ha participado en muchos álbumes de la banda desde entonces. También participó en el proyecto paralelo de los hermanos Cavalera, Cavalera Conspiracy, con quien publicó algunos discos.

Amistad y colaboración con Dino Cazares

El músico también habló sobre el anuncio respecto a Dino Cazares, de Fear Factory, como futuro guitarrista de Soulfly para su gira por Norteamérica, que comienza el 20 de agosto en Nuevo México:

“Estoy emocionado por llevar a nuestro amigo Dino a tocar la guitarra con nosotros para la nueva gira americana. El show debe continuar. Dino es uno de mis compositores de riffs favoritos”.

Dino ya había participado en la canción de Soulfly “Eye For An Eye”, y su relación con la banda viene de años atrás. Cavalera comentó sobre la ayuda que aportó a Fear Factory en su búsqueda de sello discográfico conectándolos con Roadrunner Records, ya que es un gran seguidor de su música.

Rizzo se defiende

Por su parte, Marc Rizzo también ofreció su punto de vista respecto a su salida de la banda. En primer lugar, su conclusión sobre su última década con la banda “no fue demasiado buena”. Su salida de la banda se anunció el 7 de agosto, pero ya había especulaciones sobre el tema debido al anuncio respecto a la incorporación de Dino Cazares unos días antes.

En una entrevista para Rock Talks, Rizzo habló sobre su salida de Soulfly:

“fue un año muy difícil. No tuve apoyo por parte de Soulfly. He tenido que volver atrás y buscar un trabajo diario renovando casas, trabajando muy duro, 10 horas al día. Nunca he visto un céntimo del directo que publicó Soulfly el año pasado. Cuando habían pasado 6 o 7 meses de covid pensé que no quería ya eso más.

Les di 18 años de mi vida, y fue genial. En los años buenos, fue genial. Pero los últimos 10 no fueron muy bien. Estuve separado de mi familia, los horarios eran una locura. Era imposible tener una vida personal, ver a mi familia o hacer planes con ellos. Ahora prefiero concentrarme en mi proyecto en solitario y pasar tiempo con mi familia, donde soy feliz y me valoran lo que hago”.

Afirmó, por tanto, que el dinero fue solo uno de los problemas que tuvo con la banda, especialmente en el último año.

Se muestra realmente feliz con su proyecto en solitario y prefiere dejar atrás los problemas que ha tenido con Soulfly durante la pandemia.

#Marc Rizzo #MAX CAVALERA #SOULFLY #xlevelpr #noticias

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k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9 · 3 years ago

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Ozzy Osbourne & Max Cavalera

#Ozzy Osbourne #Max Cavalera #sepultura #Soulfly #black sabbath #90's #1997/1998 #Metal #Groove metal/ tribal influences #Ozzmosis era #Brazil #UK

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metalshockfinland · 4 years ago

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Indian SYSTEMHOUSE33 Release Official Music Video For 'Lake of Sorrow'

Indian SYSTEMHOUSE33 Release Official Music Video For ‘Lake of Sorrow’

Indian heavy metallers SYSTEMHOUSE33 have released the official video of their track “Lake of Sorrow” from the band’s “End of Days” album. Putting the current state of events in perspective and to commemorate 1 year since the band successfully toured the USA with Soulfly and days before the world went into lockdown mode in 2020, the video is homage to the pre-covid era. SYSTEMHOUSE33 frontman…

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nuclearblastuk · 7 years ago

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Anthrax, Paradise Lost, Enslaved, Sepultura, Overkill And More Celebrate 30 Years of Nuclear Blast!

'30 YEARS OF NUCLEAR BLAST - THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION' - OUT NOW

It's time to celebrate! To coincide with the label’s 30th anniversary, Nuclear Blast have released 7 vinyl albums in a premium box and a CD/DVD box set featuring classic cuts from NIGHTWISH, SABATON, DIMMU BORGIR, BLIND GUARDIAN, SLAYER, ACCEPT, KREATOR, AVANTASIA, PARADISE LOST, SEPULTURA, ENSLAVED, IN FLAMES, ANTHRAX, BLUES PILLS and many more. You will find timeless anthems, current neck breakers and epic hymns in this journey through 3 decades of the label's history. Some of our bands are helping us celebrate by telling us about their favourite NB releases. Watch the video featuring some of these quotes, here: https://youtu.be/v26QcoUU8jg Order '30 Years Of Nuclear Blast - The Ultimate Collection': Limited Edition Green Vinyl box set: http://bit.ly/NuclearBlast30th Limited Edition CD/DVD box set: http://bit.ly/NB30thCDDVD Speaking about the label's anniversary, ANTHRAX stalwart Scott Ian commented: "Nuclear Blast's 30th! Wow. Thirty years of supporting this music through thick and thin. I'm proud to say that Anthrax and Nuclear Blast have been working together for almost eighteen years now. That's by far the longest we have ever worked with any label. It's rare in the music biz to have such a successful marriage, and much like with a real marriage, both partners have to remember why they got married in the first place. That initial spark that lit the flame that turned into a raging inferno. For me that initial spark was Markus Staiger's love for metal - how big of a fan he was/is. That's why I wanted to work with Nuclear Blast, because I believed Markus loved Anthrax. And all these years later he still does. Thank you to everyone that's kicked ass for us over the last almost two decades and it's an honor to be a part of this 30th anniversary celebration." Speaking about their favourite NB releases: “Behemoth, gave a new slant on the death / black metal scene, a very convincing heavy album and probably the first extreme album I've managed to listen to all the way through from start to finish in a very long time!” - Nick Holmes from PARADISE LOST discusses ‘The Satanist’ by BEHEMOTH "My favourite Nuclear Blast release is “ObZen” by Meshuggah. Like those stars packing unbelievable amounts of matter compared to their size, this album just contains way too much raw, masculine energy compared to what should be possible just in “music”. Also fascinating is the constructive nature of the music on this album (masculine energy tends to be that); this is music for building and preserving. While screaming your lungs out, that is. The piece de resistance itself is “Bleed”; a song that needs to go down in music history as the definition of “powerful music”. They say using music with your workout increases intensity by 15%, but then you haven’t tried with “Bleed” blasting, have you? I’d say 115% easily. A dangerous album in the wrong hands. I love it!" - Ivar Bjørnson, ENSLAVED “Kreator have always been one of my favourite bands, the real deal, period. Not to mention my German cousins. Phantom Anitchrist, released in 2012 forged not only the past with the present but that of what would come. I am UNITED IN HATE!” - Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth, OVERKILL "I really like the Sylosis album Monolith, which came out a few years ago. It has such wonderful dark atmospheres in the slower sections in contrast to the power that follows. Not a bad guitar player either. Now I am looking forward to hearing Nuclear Blast albums for the mighty My Dying Bride too in that kind of style!" - Karl Groom, THRESHOLD "We met Peter Tätgtren the first time on a German festival and he convinced us with his euphoric enthusiasm to produce our comeback album ‘All Hell Breaks Lose“ in 1999/2000. Since then we became close friends and I became a big fan of his work. THE ARRIVAL is the best sounding HYPOCRISY records for me as a musician. I know many fans love the older and more raw albums but this one sounds as massive as a steamroller. It is a role model and shows that Death Metal can also sound brutal when it is nicely produced. Also the song ERASER is a Death Metal Anthem ‘par excellence’ - for me one of the best and the most catchy songs Peter has ever written for HYPO. I also remember well how excited he was when the album was mixed, like a little kid in the candy store. This excitement is an important part of success - it was a big step forward for him as a producer and songwriter. Out of all Swedish Death Metal this is still my favourite record till now!" - Schmier, DESTRUCTION & PÄNZER "Well since it’s obviously not the easiest of all things picking a favourite out of all Nuclear Blast releases, but 'The Living Infinite’ became an instant personal classic for me from the day i picked it up. I’m a big fan of swedish melo dm bands in general but the diversity of this mean beast holds a special place for me. Of course it has the super fast and punchy stuff on it but at the same time there’s this melancholic feel to the songs that holds it all together so well, being a double album. Just listen to the opener and closing track from disc one. It’s typical for the genre of course but they forge those elements together so well here and haunt you with those melodies that you can’t get out of your head. And then when you think you know the deal they jump at you with an almost rock n rollish riff like in 'Long Live the Misanthrope’, it’s so cool! I just rediscovered it lately and it hasn’t lost on bit of intensity!" - Jonas Wolf, ELUVEITIE “I would have to pick one of your old school releases, Dismember's "Like an Ever flowing Stream". A great album that truly represented the early Swedish Death Metal scene. Dismember was a band that we were in touch with in the late 1980's. I was pen pals with Fred Estby back then, so we were trading Immolation demos and shirts for Dismember 's demos and shirts. We were huge fans and friends and actually got to meet them back in those early demo days when we visited Sweden back in 1989.” - Ross Dolan, IMMOLATION “One of my favourites NB releases is the Death album The Sound of Perseverance. It’s the last Death album and is the best work from Chuck Schuldiner as a composer, the guitar work is phenomenal and to this day it sounds very actual, very modern. It is an album that showed a new exciting way to heavy music, truly a classic.” - Andreas Kisser, SEPULTURA “There really is no doubt that Soilwork’s 'Stabbing the Drama' has become the most important Nuclear Blast release to me. That album basically gave me the taste for the heavy metal genre and the albums that followed ended up being one of my biggest musical influences to this day. Being an actual member of this band 12 years after is beyond anything I ever imagined and an accomplishment that I'm truly proud of. I’m still amazed by the level of musical content that Nuclear Blast puts out.” - Bastian Thusgaard, SOILWORK “It’s hard to choose your favourite NB release over the last 30 years but mine would have to be Dark Passion Play by Nightwish - and it is a serious contender for my favourite album of all time. I cannot begin to explain the journey that this musical masterpiece takes me on at every listen. The power, the melody, the anger, the beauty, it just engages my every sense, pure genius. It was this album that got me into this amazing band and showed me just what I had been missing. So, thank you Nightwish for Dark Passion Play! And thank you Nuclear Blast for 30 years of amazing music!!” - Glynn Morgan, THRESHOLD Nuclear Blast 30 Years box set Trailer: https://youtu.be/T41chwbtKZs

Nuclear Blast 30 Years anniversary Vinyl box

LP 1 Side A 01. Dimmu Borgir – Mourning Palace 02. Hypocrisy – Roswell 47 03. Children Of Bodom - Morrigan 04. Behemoth – Ov Fire And The Void 05. Immortal - Hordes To War 06. Benediction - The Grotesque Side B 01. Carcass - Unfit For Human Consumption 02. Kataklysm - In Shadows & Dust 03. Memoriam - Memoriam 04. Soilwork - As We Speak 05. Cradle Of Filth - Blackest Magick In Practice 06. Equilibrium - Born To Be Epic LP 2 Side A 01. Slayer - Repentless 02. Lamb Of God - Still Echoes 03. Testament - More Than Meets The Eye 04. Overkill - Ironbound 05. Exodus - Salt The Wound 06. Death Angel - Sonic Beatdown Side B 01. Kreator - Gods Of Violence 02. Anthrax - For All Kings 03. Machine Head - Killers & Kings 04. Destruction - Thrash Till Death 05. Tankard - A Girl Called Cerveza 06. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter - Unter Der Asche LP 3 Side A 01. Accept - Teutonic Terror 02. Blind Guardian - Fly 03. Helloween - Lost In America 04. Primal Fear - Seven Seals 05. Threshold - Staring At The Sun 06. Rage - The Devil Strikes Again Side B 01. Sabaton - To Hell And Back 02. Edguy - Superheroes 03. Battle Beast - Over The Top 04. Metal Church - Killing Your Time 05. Doro - Raise Your Fist In The Air 06. Black Star Riders - Heavy Fire 07. Hammerfall - Hearts On Fire LP 4 Side A 01. Nightwish - Élan 02. Avantasia - Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose 03. Amorphis - Silver Bride 04. Eluveitie - Omnos 05. Sonata Arctica - The Wolves Die Young 06. Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody - Rosenkreuz Side B 01. Therion - To Mega Therion 02. Epica - Never Enough 03. Twilight Force - Powerwind 04. Symphony X - Without You 05. The Kovenant - New World Order LP 5 Side A 01. In Flames - The End 02. Fear Factory - Dielectric 03. Pain - Call Me 04. Devil You Know - Shattered Silence 05. Mantar - Era Borealis 06. Grand Magus - Triumph And Power Side B 01. Meshuggah - Future Breed Machine 02. Hatebreed - Honor Never Dies 03. Sepultura - I Am The Enemy 04. Killer Be Killed - Wings Of Feather And Wax 05. Discharge - Infected 06. Agnostic Front - The American Dream Died 07. Soulfly - We Sold Our Souls To Metal 08. Madball - Hardcore Lives 09. Rise Of The Northstar - Samurai Spirit LP 6 Side A 01. Blues Pills - Lady In Gold 02. Kadavar - Last Living Dinosaur 03. Witchcraft - It’s Not Because Of You 04. Graveyard - The Apple & The Tree 05. Crobot - Legend Of the Spaceborne Killer 06. Orchid - Wizard Of War 07.Scorpion Child - Polygon Of Eyes Side B 01. Opeth - Sorceress 02. Enslaved - One Thousand Years Of Pain 03. Avatarium - The Girl With The Raven Mask 04. The Doomsday Kingdom - Never Machine LP 7 Side A 01. Suicide Silence - Doris 02. The Charm The Fury - Down On The Ropes 03. Forever Still - Miss Madness 04. Fallujah - The Void Alone 05. Fleshgod Apocalypse - In Aeternum 06. Aversions Crown - Ophiophagy Side B 01. Thy Art Is Murder - Holy War 02. Carnifex - Drown Me In Blood 03. Despised Icon - Beast 04. Rings Of Saturn - Inadequate 05. All Shall Perish - There Is Nothing Left 06. Bury Tomorrow - Earthbound

Nuclear Blast 30 Years anniversary DVD + 4 CD CD

CD 1 (1992 - 2003) 01. Gorefest – State Of Mind 02. Benediction – I Bow To None 03. Meshuggah – Terminal Illusions 04. Hypocrisy – Roswell 47 05. Dimmu Borgir – Mourning Palace 06. Hammerfall - Trailblazers 07. Sinner – Devil‘s River 08. Destruction – The Butcher Strikes Back 09. Sinergy – The Bitch Is Back 10. Primal Fear – Angel In Black 11. Soilwork - Needlefeast 12. Kataklysm – Manipulator Of Souls 13. Immortal - Tyrants 14. Anthrax – What Doesn’t Die 15. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter – Ride On 16. Helloween – Hell Was Made In Heaven CD 2 (2004-2007) 01. Exodus - Blacklist 02. Edguy - Mysteria 03. Death Angel – Thrown To The Wolves 04. Nightwish – Wish I Had An Angel 05. Wintersun – Winter Madness 06. Sonata Arctica - Wildfire 07. Agnostic Front – So Pure To Me 08. Gotthard – Anytime Anywhere 09. Therion – To Mega Therion 10. Subway To Sally - Sieben 11. Deathstars - Blitzkrieg 12. Rage – Turn My World Around 13. Threshold – This Is Your Life 14. Sonic Syndicate - Denied 15. Samael – Ave! 16. Nile – As He Creates So He Destroys CD 3 (2007 – 2011) 01. Avantasia – Another Angel Down 02. Eluveitie – Inis Mona 03. Testament – More Than Meets The Eye 04. Equilibrium - Snüffel 05. Pain – Monkey Business 06. Amorphis – Silver Bride 07. Epica – Burn To A Cinder 08. Overkill - Ironbound 09. Immolation – A Glorious Epoch 10. Blind Guardian – Ride Into Obsession 11. Accept – Pandemic 12. Forbidden - Hopenosis 13. Graveyard – No Good, Mr Holden 14. Sepultura - Spectrum CD 4 (2012 - 2017) 01. Slayer – Repentless 02. Sabaton – The Lion From The North 03. Kreator – Your Heaven, My Hell 04. Enslaved - Veilburner 05. Hatebreed – Nothing Scars Me 06. Kadavar – Doomsday Machine 07. Carcass – Noncompliance To ASTM F899-12 Standard 08. Behemoth – Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel 09. Killer Be Killed – Wings Of Feather And Wax 10. Blues Pills - Jupiter 11. Machine Head – Now We Die 12. Cradle Of Filth – The Vampyre At My Side 13. Lamb Of God - 512 14. Thy Art Is Murder – Holy War 15. Opeth – Will O The Wisp 16. Paradise Lost – From the Gallows DVD 01. Slayer – Repentless 02. Nightwish – Élan 03. Sabaton – Uprising 04. Accept – Teutonic Terror 05. Machine Head – Now We Die 06. Anthrax – Safe Home 07. Testament – Native Blood 08. Doro – Love’s Gone To Hell 09. Battle Beast – King For A Day 10. Avantasia – Lost In Space 11. Black Star Riders – Dancing With The Wrong Girl 12. Blind Guardian – A Voice In The Dark 13. Metal Church – Reset 14. Kreator – Civilization Collapse 15. Dimmu Borgir – Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse 16. Cradle Of Filth – Heartbreak And Seance 17. In Flames – The End 18. Meshuggah – Bleed 19. Fear Factory - Dielectric 20. Children Of Bodom - Transference 21. Carcass – Unfit For Human Consumption 22. Kataklysm – Elevate 23. Soilwork – Death In General 24. Death Angel – Truce 25. Hypocrisy – End Of Disclosure 26. Epica – Never Enough 27. Sonata Arctica – Flag In The Ground 28. Twilight Force – Flight Of The Sapphire Dragon 29. Amorphis – Sacrifice 30. Avatarium – Pearls And Coffins 31. Eluveitie – Omnos 32. Equilibrium – Blut Im Auge 33. Rise Of The Northstar – Samurai Spirit 34. Suicide Silence – You Can’t Stop Me 35. Soulfly - Archangel 36. Exodus – Blood In Blood Out 37. Tankard – A Girl Called Cerveza 38. Grand Magus – Steel Versus Steel 39. Blues Pills – Lady In Gold 40. Graveyard – Hisingen Blues 41. Hell – On Earth As It Is In Hell 42. Korpiklaani – Rauta 43. Pain – The Great Pretender 44. Deathstars – All The Devil’s Toys

#30 years #pearlanniversary #favourite #celebration

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rejectedpapers · 5 years ago

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Carry On

Sábado 12 de diciembre de 1998, alrededor de las 3 de la tarde, llegaba un joven Ricki de 13 años, junto a su hermano mayor (de 15) a las inmediaciones del estadio Vélez Sarsfield. Ya teníamos las entradas -las habíamos comprado ¡por $20! en el punto de venta de ticketmaster (que en ese entonces dominaba las ventas en argentina) del dexter del Alto Avellaneda- pero no teníamos idea de lo que era un concierto. Mucho menos un festival. Nos había llevado un amigo de la familia que era nuestra forma de llegar a todos lados (mi viejo o aún no tenía auto o todavía no sabía manejar). Recuerdo que días después me dijo “si le decía a tu vieja lo que eran las inmediaciones de Vélez cuando te dejamos, se moría”. Bueno en fin, llegamos e hicimos mil cuadras de cola, por lo que el festival empezó y cuando entramos estaba terminando de tocar la banda de Claudio O’Connor. Fue más o menos así: entramos y dijo “bueno chau gracias”. Entonces fue mi primer intermedio en un festival: el público se sentaba en el piso. En el escenario movían cosas. Armaban una banda. Hacía menos de un año que yo había logrado que mi viejo rompa el chanchito y me compre una guitarra eléctrica y un amplificador. Regateando le regalaron una correa verde marca D’Addario que años después me fue robada vilmente, pero sé que se sigue usando y eso me deja contento. El amplificador de 15 watts marca Dean también me fue sustraído por la misma calaña de gente. Ese sí no sé dónde terminó. Rayos... Bueno volviendo a Vélez, yo ya estaba que vomitaba arco iris de sólo ver cómo movían cosas en ese gran escenario. Y más o menos en media hora (se tardaba mucho), salió Angra. Esta banda brasileña que yo ya conocía -aunque no tanto-, y el primer frontman que vi en vivo en mi vida: Andre Matos. Arrancaron con Nothing to Say, un te-ma-zo. Tocaron un set sopresivamente corto para lo que yo esperaba, pero no faltó “lisbon”, el hit del disco que estaban promocionando. Esa misma noche vi en vivo a Helloween, a Slayer, a Soulfly y por primera vez a Iron Maiden. Esa noche que tocaron por última vez con Blaze Bayley, porque después del concierto lo mandaron a freír churros para dejarle el lugar a la vuelta de Bruce Dickinson. Y estuve a metros de Rod Smallwood, el manager de Maiden, viendo cómo hablaba con much music. Esa tardenoche estuve por primera vez en un verdadero pogo, sentí el olor a marihuana quemándose cerca mío, vi cómo tipos de más de 100kgs se desmallaban en la multitud, vi la solidaridad del público rockero al ayudar a los que la están pasando mal... Sentí por primera vez la asfixia de estar en la marea de un campo a 10 metros de la valla. Todo ese mismo día. Hoy, 21 años después, mi relación con los escenarios y la música es muy cercana. Es loco cómo algunos días nos marcan para siempre. Y es loco pensar en que algunas cosas las recordamos tan frescas. Hace 3 o 4 días, yo estaba ensayando con un nuevo proyecto y recibí un mensaje de mi hermano avisándome de la muerte de Andre. Y todos estos recuerdos volvieron por un segundo a mi mente. Algunos años después del Monsters Of Rock de Vélez, yo estaba empujando mi primer proyecto de productora -que no sobrevivió- y al mismo tiempo Andre estaba formando una nueva banda, lejos de los grandes escenarios, con dos ex miembros de Angra. Y para este momento yo ya había perdido la vergüenza (o aprendido cómo funciona el negocio) y hablaba con todo el mundo. Entonces un conocido de la incipiente internet me cuenta que Andre vendría a promocionar su nueva banda. Y ahí se dio mi primer encuentro en persona con el verdadero Andre: un muchacho introvertido, bastante petiso, casi ciego de lo poco que veía sin sus anteojos. Hablaba muy bien español y luego de esa foto que nos tomamos con toda la banda en una disquería del microcentro, conversamos un rato. De esa conversación, en la que él me escuchó atentamente contarle mis proyectos, me dijo esta frase que recordé muchas veces y me sirvió de apuntalamiento:

Primero que nada, creé en vos mismo. No importa si es mejor o peor que lo que imaginabas, si a otro le gusta o si te deja dinero o no. Si a vos te gusta, no hace falta nada más.

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happymetalgirl · 5 years ago

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February 2020

After a slow, but solid, start to the new decade last month, February sure picked the pace back up with a ton more releases. As usual though, the early month has seen a few more filler albums pushed out without the bands’ labels stirring up much of hype around them, and for some of it, you can see why. We got several more solid projects though that have me excited for what else their associated record labels have in store for the rest of the year. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, there’s plenty to talk about for February, starting with Sepultura.

Sepultura - Quadra

Machine Messiah was the first album I reviewed for this blog, and in that review I made note of the silliness ongoing complaining about this Sepultura lineup not being the “real” Sepultura by fans who still clamor for Max to come back or for the current lineup to retire the Sepultura name. As the size of the Derek Green era discography gradually dwarfs the Max era catalog, Sepultura fans gradually come to accept that the past is the past and this is Sepultura now. And the mild contrast between Sepultura’s output as old late and Max’s creative output through Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, and Killer Be Killed hasn’t really shown any major gulf in class between the estranged artists. Sepultura may not be putting out successive critically acclaimed masterpieces, but they sure have maintained a greater ambition for grander sounds and concepts than Max, who, by contrast, has come through with some solid projects himself, but has largely repeatedly retread the tribal nu metal ground of Roots and tried to give the death metal he practiced with Sepultura some modern updates, with mixed results. Machine Messiah found Sepultura weaving proggy and orchestral elements into their modern form of death metal with respectable success, and the band’s ninth album with Derek Green is a solid continuation of the styles and aesthetics that the band had been evolving into on and leading up to Machine Messiah. Quadra, though, I think just lacks a bit of that creative spark that its predecessor had. It splits the band’s compounded sonic evolution into its main parts by going through sections of thrashy songs, groovy songs, slightly experimental songs, and more moody melodic songs, and it makes for a nice flow to the album, but it feels like each part is missing some of the others while also not going all-in quite enough to make the splitting up of their stylistic components worth it. Again, it’s still solid, just not blowing me away.

6/10

Ihsahn - Telemark

Kind of an odd one here, just a quick five-track EP: three originals and two covers. The first of two EPs to come this year from the Emperor frontman and black metal progressive progenitor finds him largely continuing in short form the slightly blackened prog-rock he had going on on Ámr. The opening track, “Stridig”, rides this mostly continuous guitar rumble over a few intriguing proggy passages while Ihsahn snarls in classic fashion. On the vocal front, his style is raspy and distinctly black metal, but he keeps the roughness on his throat to a minimum to not overpower the instrumentation around him and to make more potent use of melody with his vocals. The second track, “Nord”, introduces a few little modern Opeth-isms and some subtle horn accents to up the prog factor as the EP gets a little lighter. The title track in the middle of the record really goes to prog town even more dramatically than the previous two and takes with the horns with it. With covers of Lenny Cravitz’ “Rock & Roll Is Dead” (which sounds like it wouldn’t be too far off from a Marilyn Manson cover if he also decided to cover the song) and “Wrathchild” by Iron Maiden rounding the album, Ihsahn continues his use of raspy vocal tones and meager black metal rasp over the rock and metal classics while giving the Maiden cut a sweet extra flair with the brilliant addition of a little horn section. It’s a splendid little addition to Ihsahn’s solo catalog and a continuation of his proggy vision for his brand of black metal.

7/10

Intronaut - Fluid Existential Interventions

I have kind of long seen Intronaut as the heir apparent to Isis, with their spacy, sludgy brand of post-metal taking that of the post-metal godfathers’ into more proggy territories, and the L.A.-based trio have gradually grown more into their skin over the past few records, taking , and with The Direction of Last Things having been released almost five years ago, I was starting to get a little worried about if they’d hung it up for some reason. The band shows that the longer break has not dampened their boldness or creativity as they pick up right where they left off with the marriage of gargantuan sludge heaviness and ethereal post-metal atmosphere. The band get a little Meshuggah-type jazz fusion going on in the song “The Cull” and keep that jazzy flow going on the spacy sections of “Contrapasso”, while getting infectiously headbangingly groovy on “Pangloss”. I love the ways the band finds to shift in so many different directions so smoothly. I’d say though that the repetition of smooth movements in similar directions from song to song continue to be the band’s Achilles heel, sometimes really needing some kind of X factor or some kind of compositional surprise to break their cycles in these songs so as to not feel so circlular. The groovy riffage on “Pangloss” is probably the closest the band comes to diverting from their post-metallic mould, and as much as I love it there, I wish there was more. It’s a strong effort from them nevertheless, but I hope the band don’t take so long to progress in this vein on their next album.

7/10

Napalm Death - Logic Ravaged by Brute Force

With a new record on the way this year, I’m sure happy to get a little appetizer from the grindcore legends in the form of this two-song EP. The first song, the titular “Logic Ravaged by Brute Force” kicks off on a melodic brooding note, but quickly ramps up into the band’s famous high grinding death gear. It’s a pretty solid track, just a bit lacking in aggressive pay-off during the choruses, the verses constantly bringing the tempo down. But it’s definitely the kind of Napalm Death song that fixated on its melodic brooding mood and its titular hook, not necessarily representative of the band’s whole catalog or the album to come. The second track of the two, the cover of Sonic Youth’s “White Kross”, is a bit more of a burner, but it fits quite well into that mould for that kind of Napalm Death track like “Omnipresent Knife in Your Back” that could work as an album closer as well.

It’s just two songs and you want a number? Come on./10

Anvil - Legal at Last

The long-running Canadian outfit’s previous album, Pounding the Pavement, served little more than a reminder of why they never ascended to the heights of thrash metal during that genre’s peak of cultural relevance, and I have not revisited that record since re-listening to it to figure out exactly where to place it on the year’s worst-of list. The bar has never been super high for Anvil, and Pounding the Pavement really made it seem like the only way to go was up. The corny cover art to this follow-up here, though, didn’t give me much hope, and it sure isn’t much of an improvement. As with any Anvil project, the lyrics on Legal at Last are malignantly atrocious, and any attempt to enjoy the album is going to have to overcome the serious hurdle of tuning out some of the dumbest lyrics that sound like they were lifted from a high-schooler’s math notebook. I, again, kind of went into the project not expecting much, and knew I was going to hear some truly cringy bars. The “Chemtrails” song, nevertheless, manages to astound me with its ridiculously stupid lyricism feeding into the titular conspiracy theory seemingly unironically. Nice one guys. I’ll say, the band at least kind of redeem themselves with their pointing out the obvious corruption surrounding the fossil fuel industry and government surveillance. Anyway, predictably shitty lyrics aside, the band channel the same Motörhead-esque proto-thrash they’ve channeled their whole career with similar compositional predictability and lack of imagination, and it tires really quickly. And there really isn’t much to say about it musically. The riffs here, I’d say, are marginally better than those on Pounding the Pavement, and this album at least slightly more tangibly fun than its even more bumbling predecessor.

4/10

Sylosis - Cycle of Suffering

For some reason I didn’t quite like this album when I first heard it, and what an idiot I was in that moment, because damn this album is solid! Blending thrash with some technical death metal much like Revocation and knowing when to inject a little metalcore rhythm, Sylosis have come through with a ferocious and pummeling, but melodically nimble record that channels pure thrash aggression in every direction it travels. The band works in rewarding thrash breakdowns in songs like “Arms Like a Noose” and gripping harsh vocal melodies on songs like “Idle Hands”, and all sorts of little touches that only make the compositions more and more intense; I think this may be their best effort yet!

8/10

God Dethroned - Illuminati

The trajectory of blackened death metal has really been impossible to separate from Behemoth’s highly influencial landmark album, The Satanist, with bands in the field all aware and taking cues from the Polish juggernauts on how to size up the already-mammoth-y style to biblical proportions. And while they still have their instinctive old-school death metal war-like brutishness showing through on songs like the title track, God Dethroned seem to be more willingly working in ethereal choirs and . Songs like “Spirit of Beelzebub”, “Eye of Horus”, and “Gabriel” show a clear Behemoth influence wrapping itself around the band; the intro of “Broken Halo” is perhaps the clearest tribute or rip-off of “Ov Fire and the Void” I have ever heard, and the song only continues to expound on the integration of Behemoth’s style into God Dethroned’s. As nice as the alternating mesh of old and new for the band is aesthetically, there are a few too many bland, filler cuts on here like “Book of Lies” and “Satan Spawn” weighing down the more excitingly volatile tracks with dragging performances that can only sound so good over such dry compositions.

6/10

Five Finger Death Punch - F8

Ivan Moody did a little phone interview with Loudwire prior to this album’s release and his assessment of his band’s recent output was actually pretty sober and realistic. Along with detailing the mental health benefits that have come with his newly committed sobriety (which I am genuinely happy about for him) Moody admitted that the band’s past two albums (And Justice for None and Got Your Six) have not been very special, and he’s right. He even said that the band’s double album pair was bloated and should have been trimmed down to one album, and he’s definitely right. He stated that he felt that the band has been in a rut for awhile and expressed a rejuvenated desire to make music that isn’t so here-today-gone-tomorrow, and he’s right about that. And he said that on this album, F8, the band really stepped it up and improved their craft to finally make something special again, and that’s where his hot streak of correctness ends. Don’t get me wrong, he’s partially right about F8 being better than the past two albums, but that’s not a very high bar to clear. I was very critical of And Justice for None when it came out in 2018 and I agree that it and Got Your Six are without a doubt the band’s worst albums, and that is saying something because they were on a downward slide for a long time and it wasn’t very surprising the way they bottomed out so badly on those two albums. While I don’t think the improvement was quite as dramatic as he made it out to be, I will say that I can see what Moody was talking about with the refined songwriting on F8, it really does seem like the band tried to inject a little more boldness into their writing and their performances have a bit more of a sense of purpose this time around. The band gives us a few glimpses of their younger selves with returns to The Way of the Fist heaviness on a couple songs, and even though they still don’t have the best track record for ballads, the few mellow tracks on F8 are certainly better than the past two albums’. On that subject, the track sequencing on F8 isn’t quite so disjointed and awkward as it was on And Justice for None. But again, the improvements still aren’t as dramatic as Ivan Moody might see them. The band still don’t really break out of their box too much; it’s not so much an album of them finally getting them out of their creative rut as it is an album of them slowly making their way out of that rut or getting them more capable in that rut. Again, it is a noteworthy enough improvement over the past two (or four even) albums’ drivel, but it’s not quite a full return to form. Hopefully this gets them back in the right direction though if it’s not too late.

4/10

Blaze of Perdition - The Harrowing of Hearts

The Polish quartet’s fifth full-length is another set of solid modern occult black metal with just enough of a sense of atmosphere and emotional rawness lifted from blackgaze. I certainly wouldn’t call this an atmospheric black metal album, but the band does venture into those more ethereal realms of black metal too. They do well to maintain their intensity throughout it too, as the atmospheric elements serve to create a more expansive and grand feel to the music rather than just breaking up and diluting the darker, heavier aspects.

7/10

Sightless Pit - Grave of a Dog

After a pretty big past few years for them, Lingua Ignota mastermind Kristen Hayter, The Body’s Lee Clifford, and Full of Hell frontman Dylan Walker teamed up for a seemingly casual dark-ambient-noise-venture to kick the decade off. I’m contrast to the extreme abrasiveness most of these artists peddle through their main projects, Grave of a Dog remains predominantly ambient until Dylan Walker’s distorted-noise-backed screams on “Drunk on Marrow” usher in the industrial noise of “Miles of Chain” and “Whom the Devil Long Sought to Strangle” being the standout exceptions. I enjoy Kristen Hayter’s ever-languishing operatic vocals across the album, especially on the minimal, piano-driven closing track and on “Violent Ruin”, on which the trio play with some autotune on her voice that actually comes out nicely. But for the most part, this album is so casually below all these artists’ punching weight, it’s no doubt just a quick bonus album project for all three of them that I’m sure pales in comparison to their past and future releases.

6/10

Insect Ark - The Vanishing

With clear influences from avant-garde elites like Sumac, Deathspell Omega, and Neurosis seeping through the pores of this album, Dana Schechter continues to refine Insect Ark’s spooky, psychedelic brand of instrumental doom metal with the help of newly-recruited drummer Andy Patterson’s well-tempered percussive accents to give the brooding songs more than just a steady anesthetized heartbeat, but also a newly percussive sense of punch. And the two gel in artistic partnership in such an seemingly innate way you would think they’d have been bandmates for years. The Vanishing, again, continues to hone the spacy, darkly ambient metallic psychedelia Insect Ark has carved out a niche for, floating from unnerving oppressive heaviness to eerie drones of dark, brassy ambiance with ease and confidence. I definitely respect and recommend this one highly.

8/10

Godthrymm - Reflections

Godthrymm is the offshoot project of a couple of former members of My Dying Bride, and Reflections is the trio’s first full length project together after a couple of EPs (from which a few songs on this album are pulled) that gave me mixed anticipations for this full-length. A Grand Reclamation in 2018 sounded very prototypic and derivative of Candlemass without the crucial bombast to back it up, but the band made some strides on 2019’s Dead in the Studio that clearly piqued Profound Lore’s interest, with much more melodically compelling songs like “We Are the Dead” and “Cursed Are the Many” making it into this LP. The band had a more I like the emotive Spirit-Adrift-esque guitar melodies that “The Sea as My Grave” incorporates and the more straightforward funeral dirge of “The Light of You”, and the band even improved the originally amateurish “The Grand Reclamation” from the first EP greatly with a more professional vocal performance and better drum accents. Still, much of the melody on here is not enough to really conjure any strong emotions and the grand doom the album shoots for isn’t quite as epic as it should be as a result. The band did well to improve upon their first efforts together, but I think they do still have a way to go.

6/10

The Amity Affliction - Everyone Loves You... Once You Leave Them

I didn’t totally hate The Amity Affliction’s pop-oriented direction on 2018′s Misery, but I didn’t like it much either (granted they’ve never really been my style), and I wonder if fans felt similarly about the stylistic drift because Everyone Loves You... Once You Leave Them is a definitive return to the band’s roots that, while still not entirely for me, I can definitely appreciate more than Misery. The band’s older sound that makes its way into this album is proportionally much more metalcore than the sound they trended toward on Misery, and even though I still don’t find the pop-punk-ish vocal style and melody writing to be a very fitting compliment to the early 2000’s metalcore the band rides instrumentally, I can much more clearly see the appeal this time around and enjoy a greater portion of the tracks here.

5/10

Kvelertak - Splid

Norwegian alchemists Kvelertak have been eccentrically fusing punk at varying degrees of hardcore and rock ‘n’ roll with black metal for four albums now and they’ve been pretty damn successful at it the whole time so at this point it’s a matter of what the band do with their established style, how far they can take what they already, and how much expanding they have to do to keep it sustainable. Splid shows that the band’s answer to all those questions is “yes, we can”. While much of the vibrant novelty of the self-titled debut and Meir has worn off, what’s left is a band showing that they are indeed more than an attention-grabbing novelty act and can keep their style going beyond that initial excitatory period. Stylistically Splid only occasionally draws from new-ish territory, occasionally going significantly light-spirited and even dancy, but otherwise it’s pretty much the Kvelertak we know and hopefully love, maybe some of that initial charm is a little worn and sensible through the compositional repetition, but sure as hell not to the point where it’s not a good time.

7/10

Frigoris - ...in Stille

Germany’s Frigoris continue to struggle to set themselves apart from the ambient black metal pack, which they present themselves as little more than a statistic in the growing homogeneity of the genre with all the baseline competence to pass but nothing stylistically or compositionally unique or forward-thinking.

5/10

殞煞 Vengeful Spectre - 殞煞 Vengeful Spectre

Blending ambient elements of traditional Chinese folk music into the atmosphere of Deafheaven-esque blackgaze (the vocals being some of the closest I have ever heard to George Clarke’s) this anomaly of a self-titled debut from 殞煞 Vengeful Spectre is a fantastic way to enter the fold for the Guangdong outfit, establishing a signature style early and with impressive genre-blending competence. I am eager to hear what this band has in store for the future.

8/10

Tombs - Monarchy of Shadows

A pretty sizeable EP from the Brooklyn-based four-piece, Monarchy of Shadows gives a pretty concise and tasty portrait of the band’s crushing Gorgoroth-esque black metal that sacrifices hardly any heaviness for its dissonant atmosphere. The compositions get a little repetitive as the EP draws on though, which does do a harsh number on the project’s otherwise consistently solid aesthetic. Luckily the more death metal-infused portions of the album like “The Dark Rift” and “Once Falls the Guillotine” kick some needed energy and compositional life into the project. I’d say it’s worth a go for anyone with a hankering for black metal with unrestrained distorted heaviness and occult vibes more than shoegazy ambianc; it’s not a mind-blower, but it’s a good quick dose of it.

7/10

Delain - Apocalypse and Chill

After being thoroughly disappointed by Within Temptation’s writer’s-block-ridden LP last year, I was honestly not in much of a mood for any more pop-oriented neoclassical symphonic metal this year, but after hearing a lot of praise for this new Delain project, I thought I’d give it a try, and Delain sure did change my appetite for the genre. The band sound so much more cathartically vibrant with their willingness to depart from the neoclassical norm into synthetic and other diverse stylistic territories, incorporating adrenaline-fueled downtuned guitar riffs, upward key shifts akin to alternative metal and power metal, and resounding melodic choruses into modern symphonies with big but tasteful production bolstering, and the Lacuna Coil-esque vocal trade-offs across it all are executed brilliantly. And even when the band go more traditional they show they can accomplish similarly invigorating results with a more bare production pallet, a truly impressive display of symphonic versatility and creative courage.

8/10

Suicide Silence - Become the Hunter

After the calamity that was their ill-fated attempt to branch out into Deftones-imitation and clean vocals on their self-titled album, Suicide Silence show that they thoroughly learned their lesson with their gruff, classically deathcore groovy sixth LP, Become the Hunter, which finds the band playing much more to their instrumental strengths and their signature style of deathcore chug (there is a lot of thicccc, delicious chug on this project), finds them taking their riff-writing style back a bit to The Cleansing and No Time the Bleed and feels more natural than what they were trying to do on the self-titled record. Eddie Hermida got the memo about his vocals on the self-titled; it’s all screams and growls here, not a “tee-hee” in sight. Unlike the aforementioned albums with Mitch Lucker behind the mic, Become the Hunter isn’t quite as productionally rough around the edges or as horror-movie eerie and menacingly evil. It’s all about the crunchy guitar rhythms all across the album, which finds the band repeating themselves a bit, but not so much that it feels more like derivative writing rather than convergent compositional tactics across the song. While it could certainly be seen as a run through the motions or a retreat to the band’s safe zone, this was definitely the return to form Suicide Silence needed after the misfire that was the previous record, and definitely a more exciting album for Hermida to showcase his deathcore vocal talent than You Can’t Stop Me. For me though, it’s definitely an improvement on the band’s meager first album with their new vocalist and its subsequent creative dry heave, and it sets a much more convincing tone for Suicide Silence going forward with Eddie Hermida.

8/10

Neaera - Neaera

Despite their fluctuating quality across the first run of their career, I was a surprised and disappointed when Neaera disbanded back in 2014, but equally enthralled to hear the band return to the fold thankfully not too long after. With this self-titled record being the German act’s first after returning from the grave, the band rose back up in the most emphatic way I can imagine. As self-titled albums are generally meant to, Neaera represents Neaera at their essence, blending Swedish melodic death metal with modern NWOAHM metalcore as they always have throughout their career. Indeed, the fascinating thing about this self-titled album is that it’s really not significantly stylistically different from the band’s previous efforts aside from some minor production tweaks. But Neaera really found the sweetest balance for themselves between the menacing blend of death metal urgency with a thrashy metalcore sense of rhythm and the cathartic guitar leads of melodic death metal, and I can’t honestly think of any other project that makes a better case for the intermingling of these styles than the case this album makes. While plenty of metalcore out there incorporates some elements of melodeath, Neaera’s brand that they crystallize on this album is the other way around, primarily melodic death metal but with the raw pounding drive of metalcore to provide a more punchy dynamic to a style that often finds itself in great need of it. And the band manages to mesh these genres in a manner that, rather than diluting them both, brings out the best in both of them. I could seriously sing this album’s praises for much longer, but I think I will leave it at it being the best album I’ve heard so far this year.

9/10

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man

I’ll admit that I don’t really follow the public life of the original Black Sabbath frontman too closely or intentionally, but it is pretty hard to avoid as well so it’s not like it’s even possible for me to be completely ignorant of how he’s doing. It goes without saying of course, but Ozzy Osbourne is a bonafide icon and singular figure for heavy metal that very very few, if anyone else, can compare to, and with his career and musical output kind of petering out over the past decade as his old age begins to get the better of him, there seems to be a greater sense of awareness in the metal world that we probably only have a few years more with Ozzy, if that. And it’s going to be a very profoundly somber day when the vocal godfather of heavy metal is gone. That being said, this is quite possibly the last album we will get from the prince of darkness and yet listening to it doesn’t quite feel that way. In the weeks leading up to the album, Ozzy’s supporting tour was postponed (or maybe just cancelled), and the man himself said that he does not have his health as is not happy. Yet the album sounds like a very stale, yet modern take on Ozzy’s doomy and classic heavy metal sounds with some modern rock production updates that honestly sound a few generations younger than its seventy-one year old apparent creator, and Ozzy himself sounds uncannily clear, coherent, and healthy. I saw a little bit of dismissal of this album as not being a profound conceptual contemplation of mortality like David Bowie’s, Leonard Cohen’s, or David Berman’s last albums, and while I definitely enjoy those artist’s swansong albums more than this and while I do feel like Ozzy deserves a proper album that better represents his importance to and impact on metal and culture at large, I don’t know if that’s the kind of album Ozzy wants to make. The man is struggling with Parkinson’s disease and based on his music leading up to this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just wants to make fun rock music therapeutically to get his mind off the pain rather than honing in on it and intensifying it. Going back to criticism of the album though, Ozzy still sounds so checked out in his performances despite his suspiciously healthy-sounding voice that I can’t help but wonder how touched up it is, the exception being the title track featuring Elton John on which Ozzy does get a little introspective about realizing his ambitions and cementing his legacy as a music legend. Ozzy also sounds more enthusiastic in his performance with Post Malone on the galloping, blood-pumping closing track “It’s a Raid”, but for the majority of the album, it really sounds like he doesn’t even want to be there, and I just hope this wasn’t something people around him pressured him into. I really do want to reiterate my utmost respect for Ozzy Osbourne and all that he has done for the music I love so much, and I would love to hear him round out his legendary career in a more fitting manner. But if he needs to end it here to rest and heal, which it really seems like he does, I won’t begrudge the man or take anything away from his legacy and what he’s accomplished for music. Thank you forever Ozzy, and whatever you do next, as always, go fucking crazy.

5/10

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