Psssh, naw. Underrated album that, even among IE enthusiasts.

Overkill - The Years of Decay: While I've known Overkill for a long time, I've never really delved past a few later albums, Necroshine and Bloodletting to be exact. Always like the latter - though my appreciation for it has declined from those heydays - while Necroshine, not so much. But with the release of Ironbound and them coming to Tuska next summer, I decided to acquaint myself with their classic material. While they are fairly entertaining, this, the last album with Gustafson, is where they really shine. Taking a step towards a more intelligent and mature sound. There are those fast thrashers here as well, Elimination and I Hate, but songs like Playing with Spiders/Skullkrusher, Birth of Tension, Who Tends the Fire and the title track really showcase the kind of apocalyptic atmosphere that sets them apart. The last minute and a half of The Years of Decay sends shivers down my spine.

Another thing about the album is the fact that there's a tangible feel of danger and rage around it. Blitz is spewing the lyrics with such conviction that you'd think that he actually is going to eliminate you personally because most of all he hates you.

How does it compare to their first? I got it when I heard The Wingman which is still rarely off my turntable, so to speak, but I must admit I wasn't as hooked by the rest of the CD. Didn't seem quite as immediate to me, maybe I should just give it some more time.

Also, I know you largely dislike everything about Iced Earth (and god knows, there's much to dislike!) but I'm curious....do you find merit in any of their work? I find entire albums a bit tedious but I don't think it's horrible music by any means, and there are some great songs in their back catalogue...The Coming Curse, Burnt Offerings, A Question of Heaven, When The Night Falls...

Yeah, I really never got the criticism Iced Earth have gotten from this site and metal community in general. The Dark Saga has a great combination of thrashy songs, melodic songs, and epic songs and is a thoroughly enjoyable album. What makes it have no integrity or musical depth? I've agreed with most of what Empyreal has said in terms of albums but, seriously where's that all coming from?

Really the only reason I can see people not liking ANY Iced Earth if they are a metalhead is if they don't like the fact they are very popular.

I can see some people disliking Schaffer's excessive use of triplets or something, but the weird vague complaints like IE 'lacking the heavy metal spirit' or 'having no integrity' come off as kind of bizarre. I've come to accept that people have some damn strange opinions though, like you thinking "The Gods Made Heavy Metal" is boring/embarrassing.

How is that weird? It's like they literally stole the concept of the Spinal Tap song "Rock And Roll Creation" but changed it to heavy metal. It's like "we know people say we're like spinal tap in our goofiness so to prove them wrong we're going to make a song about how the gods made heavy metal!"

It's a good song that manages, like a lot of Manowar tunes, to be more enjoyable than the sum of its parts. Nothing more to it, really.

and what's wrong with that? I like it when a band can poke fun at themselves and anyway, it doesn't change the fact that its a good song.

Well I wouldn't mind if it was a good song, but it's just a rehash of their other songs with similar lyrics(personally I think it sounds quite a bit like "Kings Of Metal"), plus it has even more generic riffs and not much melody to make up for it but hey that's just me.

Death - The Sound of Perseverance [1998]

Definitely a landmark album in technical/progressive death metal and one of my all-time favorites by any band, and an album that saw many a spin last week. It's tough to describe just how much I love this album, so i'll just say that despite being the last in their discography, this stands as Death's crowning achievement by a long shot in my mind (not to say their previous efforts were anything less than fantastic). The entire band pushes themselves immensely and each member puts forth a career-defining performance in their own right. Not to mention Chuck's brilliant composing, which had reached absolute perfection here.

A triple analysis:

Fates Warning - The Spectre Within
You know what? I actually thought that this album was horrible the first time I listened to it. I blame Arch's wailing for that, his vocals are unique to say the least. He sounds like Harry Conklin or maybe Tate or even a little Kiske-ish (but far more skillful.) After several more listens I began to understand what all the hoopla was about. Jim Matheos and more specifically Victor Arduini were very much ahead of their time with their riffwork and sense of harmony. What really makes this album memorable is how all the myriad parts complement each other. Joe DiBiase's basslines keep the music in time along with Steve Zimmerman's precise drumming, the guitarist forming the themes of the music with well-placed melodic sections amidst thrash-y and speed metal riffs, the vocalist's impressive ability to create his melodies independent of the guitars or bass and writing metaphorical/fantastical lyrics that aren't dense and are actually interesting. This album is one of the finest pieces of music ever made.

Ripping Corpse - Dreaming with the Dead
On the other side of the Metal spectrum, we have Ripping Corpse. Having heard of Erik Rutan's later efforts I am honestly amazed at how restrained this album is. Rather than the constant tickticktick found in oh, EVERY HATE ETERNAL ALBUM, we have more thought out death metal with well-done mid-paced numbers that wouldn't sound out of place in a thrash album and even a song with a galloping riff (Anti-God.) While sharing the atonal sensibilities of the rest of the '91 DM scene, this album can be surprisingly melodic and not sound overtly forced like the melodeath stuff Sweden was churning out. That said, the vocals aren't as impressive as the guitars or the bass (which is audible.) The lyrics are a mix between typical gore 'n more gore, Lovecraft stories (the songs are more less synopses for a few of his stories,) demons 'n stuff, and the band's point of view of that whole Fred Wertham drama about comic books in the '50s. It's a shame Erik didn't take cues from Shaune in the riff department, this band had promise.

Psycroptic - The Scepter of the Ancients
Fast-forward to 2003 and let's take a gander at the modern death metal scene (does 7 years ago count as modern?) the scene has become a contest of who can out blast each other and who can out wank each other. One Tasmanian band decides to put a more interesting perspective on the whole tech-death scene. Yes, this is indeed a technical album but the Haley brothers show far more restraint in their masturbatory sessions than Mr. Suicmez and his ilk, the riffs are in fact actual riffs rather than the 'left hand goes apewire while right hand tremolo picks the bottom three strings' approach that most tech-death bands are doing. The drumming is complex, varied, precise, and actually interesting. Light-years ahead of what Derek Roddy, Mike Smith, and Inferno is putting out. Matt Chalk does his best to vary his vocals and they work, his high-pitched shrieks are just as effective at getting his lyrics across as the standard growl. The lyrics are another high point for essentially being a short story in itself, ranging from speculative fiction, gore stuff, and an interesting spin on how outsiders view metal. Highly enjoyable technical death metal with a strong sense of melody and creative lyrics.

I'll try and post every Thursday since I'm starting today. Hope anyone finds my analysis interesting

HADES ALMIGHTY - The Pulse of Decay (2001)

Holy shit! Nearly a decade this beast was released and I managed to ear it only a few weeks ago. Let's just say that the CD has been on heavy rotation lately.

From the previous album Millenium Nocturne (and even more from the old Hades albums), there's a slight stylistic change. It's not a revolution, as the music cannot be mistaken for another band's one, but some of the epic feeling found in older releases has been put aside, and a more industrial tone is now present, probably due to a more upfront distorted bass, shorter riffs and faster and more agressive pace. What has not changed are the vocals, still hateful and varied. The slightly oriental melodies are still here too.

I can't understand why Hades [Almighty] are not much talked when speaking about 2nd wave Norwegian Black Metal: being present from the start (first demo in '93), with a great discography including at the very least 2 masterpieces - ... Again Shall Be and this very one - it's really a pity.

On a side note, this has been re-released in 2004, with 3 bonus tracks added, including a Manowar cover. Their sound is not as good as the core album's one, and they would have best fit an EP.

NAPALM DEATH - Time Waits For No Slave [2009]

TWFNS is Napalm Death's 14th full-length album. I've listened to them since recently and i'm proud to say that they are already one of my favourite bands.
I must say that ND has taken a good direction by evolving their sound to Death Metal.

The album consists of 14 tracks, what's good is that every song is unique and it never gets boring. What's more the total time length adds up to 50:13 minutes. What bands can substain their sound and atmosphere in a 50minutes length album besides ND?!

Each song comprised of awesome and technical riffs performed by Mitch Harris.
The drums are heavily tumultuous, slamming the way through every song.
Barney's vocals have also improved over the years, however still as hateful and harsh. He also does some clean vocals in this album.
Their lyrics impressed me - Political themes are still kept alive in ND's albums.

Each song title used in this album also has a meaning behind it - Barney explains each of the songs meaning and there's a video of them in Youtube.

In short, I really enjoyed TWFNS. I must say that this is their best album yet. I'm gonna check out older albums of them when I got the time.

I can think of many who do it much better than new Napalm Death!

Anyway, I've just been listening to Immortal's Battles in the North a lot today. I'm thoroughly enjoying it -- much more than I expected to, actually. I'd heard the album once back when I still thought Sons of Northern Darkness was a good album and just wrote it off as a "windswept, too fast and uneven". Yes, it is true that the drums are uneven -- but I wouldn't want them any other way. Great songs, riffs and overall atmosphere, might be my favourite Immortal album... I'll wait a while before making any final judgement (I still need to re-visit Pure Holocaust and Blizzard Beasts). Anyone who says they can't make out what's going on here is an embarassment to hearing and I hear a little bit of Morbid Angel creeping in already.

I've been listening to Destruction's Thrash Anthems a lot, too, this week after picking it up in Edinburgh. The songs are obviously great and I appreciate the fact that it doesn't have the wasp-powered amplifier guitar sound that, say, Eternal Devastation is plagued by. It's going to make me explore classic Destruction some more soon.

The album definitely seemed like a blur to me at first, but I thought the sound was somehow so cool that I kept wanting to listen to it. One of my earliest times smoking weed was done along with this record and my affinity definitely increased that day, as I kept wondering whether I was actually hearing what I thought I was and following Abbath's crazy drugged/sped-up war drumming was a strange sort of joy. I think it's too bad that "Blashyrk" seems to be the only song from this one most people remember...and yeah, definitely lots of Morbid Angel in the sound already.



I recently got that, myself. I'm pretty happy with it...I was afraid the guitars and drums would sound like the overly loud and sharp stuff on "All hell Breaks Loose" and "The Antichrist" (actually still the only new Destruction albums I've listened to, though I've seen them live a good four times now) but they actually seemed to get a pretty old-school sound. It almost reminds me of what you'd think an album from 1989 ("Release from Agony") should have sounded like, only Destruction always had terrible production in the 80s, excepting "Sentence of Death", of course, which sounds great.
They should have done "Ritual" on "Thrash Anthems" though..I know it's not the most technically advanced or exciting Destruction song for some people, but I've always loved it and it'd be cool to hear it with a much better guitar tone and drumming.

Yeah, Waterlines is a grower, it took me a while to like every song on that album.

And I don't think they're the worst band ever or anything. Sure those songs are listenable or whatever, but I don't really enjoy them that much. They're OK at times but just such a bland band compared to what I could be listening to instead. Schaffer's riffs are shit and the whole ordeal comes off as something like a caricature of what people expect metal to sound like after listening to Metallica and Judas Priest. Which isn't always bad, except for the fact that I just find Iced Earth so lame. They just don't have anything to their music that I find appealing. They sound bland and uninspiring, which is the death knell for a metal band in my eyes.

The Dark Saga is shallow because it's just so goddamn immediate and accessible and well...shallow! Again, the fact that it's shallow isn't necessarily what makes it suck, but rather the fact that I personally just find it to be a huge waste of my time and energy. Being 'shallow' doesn't mean bad music, but I don't see why I should praise this over albums like Tad Morose's last three, Morgana Lefay's Maleficium or TOC's Loss Angeles, which are vastly superior, imaginative and all around better albums. I'm no stranger to candy-metal or stuff that just isn't very 'deep,' but Iced Earth wouldn't even be my first choice then. I guess that last bit is just personal preference though.

As for integrity, well, it's not really something easy to describe. That IE album was like, "here's some riffs we didn't use on our last album, here are some saccharine melodic choruses and here are a few dark parts to make sure we don't lose fans from the last album"...eh, pretty insipid stuff.



If you think I'm that kind of person, you are very sadly mistaken.

That's a big assumption to make. I really dislike Iced Earth, and that's all the material I've heard which is from many different albums. Whether they're popular or not makes no difference to me at all. I like plenty of other popular power metal bands.

Nokturnal Mortum: The Voice of Steel

My friend is now obsessed with this album, and he insisted that we listen to it in his vehicle the other day and then gave me a copy of it. I've commented before that I don't really like this band, even though objectively I can feel their ambition and laud it, and it does seem that they've been getting a little more strident and powerful with each successive album. "The Voice of Steel" is certainly more provocative and stirring music than dull crap like "To the Gates of Blasphemous Fire". "Ambitious" is indeed the word to describe this, for there are sounds culled from all over the musical map, and the sound production is positively huge in a way that none of their albums have been until now. I like a lot of the disparate elements on display here, and there are cool passages on display everywhere. The wild and surprisingly rocking lead guitars are a powerful touch, as are the use of real violins, and Vargoth's vocals actually sound great, I have to admit. Stil, I just can't seem to get terribly enthused about this. They're starting to sound a bit like latterday Ancient Rites, but bigger and more bombastic and with less neoclassical pomp and more stuff brought in from rock and folk music. Just as in the case of that other band, their music sometimes makes me crack a smile and tap my foot and detachedly admire the grandiosity of it all, but my blood is not set afire. I'm trying to take this in a spirit of isolation, uncoloured by their past work, and something still feels lacking or maybe even a bit fake. I can't help but notice how many guest musicians there are, and a cynical part of me says they needed all those extra people to bolster the production into something that'd be a cut above what they normally make. My friend says that this is "sketchy black metal you can play for chicks"...and while I sort of understand his sentiment, I don't know that that's something to be gleeful about, or why you'd want to play "sketchy black metal" for random chicks anyway.

"Pretentious" is more like it.


varggoth's a terrible vocalist, and this album is no exception.

Anyway, this album sounds very forced to my ears, and its oversaturation with many different ideas certainly doesn't help it sound better or more coherent and consistent. Add the annoying production where vocals, synths and drums drown out the guitars (actually, it's the only way it could've ever been - there are no real riffs (there never were, to begin with), and keyboards merely serve to cover this up with all of those oh so wonderful and mesmerizing hooks and melodies that make 80-ies Soviet pop muzak composers eat their hearts out). Then there's plenty of blues-influenced parts in "Valkyria", of all songs. At least, they tried to turn "Ukraine" into a hymn/anthem and I must admit that the chorus is hard not to like, but it wears thin really fast. All in all, my impression is that the band tried really hard to appeal to a wider audience with this album (but failed again, of course).

Oh, and the cover art looks like it was taken straight out of "Eddas for toddlers".

Ah, well, they never really seemed to have good riffs to begin with, and the guitars feel poorly represented on just about every one of their albums...but getting louder and fuller with each one perhaps.

I'll listen to it a few more times, but I don't really think that you're wrong about it. My friend really thought I would like this and I think he's already disappointed that i wasn't bowled over as he was.

It's funny, I agree with everything both of you said but I still can't help but love the fucking album.

It's one of those things where the elements are simply pleasing my ears and I can't deny that it moves me no matter how jumbled, ambitious, pretentious or fake it may be. I can't usually say something like that but I can't listen to this album and not enjoy it.

What I said was not liking ANY Iced Earth. It makes perfect sense to prefer other bands, but it seems like in general a metalhead can find at least something to like. Even Empyreal who constantly insults them admitted to liking Burnt Offerings so there you go. I mean I'm sure some people just don't like them regardless and that's fine but most people I've met who dislike them can never really come up with a good reason for disliking them. But I can see what you're saying, and TDS is far from being their best(I don't even think I have to tell you which one is the best, because most of you already know what), but it just seems to get a lot of hate that IMO is undeserved.

Lately I've been listening to Ihsahn's "After" album and I must say I'm impressed. It's definitely a different approach then what Ihsahn has done in the past but it seems to combine the atmosphere of black metal with a more traditional progressive rock approach in that the experimentation is there but there isn't any drastic shifting in tempo or structure.

Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

It's a joy rediscovering an album like that. It was collecting a lot of dust while its successor "A Sombre Dance" got constant playtime, but in reality it's just as essential. Unlike the second album, which is structured in chapters, here two lengthy opuses are accompanied by two short interludes. A variety of instruments are merged in a tasteful manner to create beautiful "odes to solitude" (title of the fourth track). The musical character ranges from smooth classical-esque parts with classical guitar, lute, piano, organ, cembalo or flute instrumentation, which may develop into a melodic doom metal style with emotionally rousing guitar leads, to heavy, mid-paced riffing and black metal-inspired blasting moments. The "symphonic" part never falls short, the calm acoustics are as sophisticated as the incorporation of piano or flute into a doom/death context. Vocally, deep, indecipherable death grunts and raspy caws share about equal parts, but all in all play a rather minor role in the drama. Additionally, a female singer appears a couple of times during non-metal parts, but doing no harm.

this weeks playlist has been:

ALGHAZANTH- "THE POLARITY AXIOM". ive havent listened to this cd in a few years but decided to pull this out for a listen. its a good album all around. in my opinion not many bands can pull off this aggression and still have the melody infused in each song and done right. being a fan of this style, i highly recommend this album to anyone into blackened thrash with keyboards.
BOLT THROWER- "IN BATTLE THERE IS NO LAW". another cd i pulled out of the archives. i remember getting into this band back in the early 90s. this is a solid debut cd for any death/grind band at the time, though it is trademark riffing that was coming out of the early black metal scene. there is enough grind/death metal sensibility to keep it interesting. the black metal riffing that is written all over it is the first thing that turned me on to this band. the later releases by this band did go torwards straight forward death metal.

Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness

I'm posting about this album because I don't see it mentioned all that much around here and it should be worshiped. The band is from Sweden and when it comes to death metal, the Swedes are pretty on the ball. The album was recorded in 2002 and released in 2006, but has some strong old-school vibes to it. The band must have had some good spirit put behind the making of this, cause everything sounds passionate. These guys set out to make death metal and that's exactly what they did. The riffs are of a high calibre and frequently changed so nothing has time to get tired. Some solos are sprinkled here and there for your amusement and the albums overall dark, morbid feel is complemented nicely by a great sense of melody. They haven't reinvented the wheel, but that was most certainly not the point of this record. Also, there isn't that much that separates the tracks from one another, but death metal listeners will know that individual tracks don't have to be beacons of uniqueness; it's the overall album that counts. And the overall album slays.

Does the first 20 or so seconds of the first song remind you of anything else you've heard before? I ask because it sounds so familiar but I can't figure out where I know it from (no one in the song id thread knows either).

Hmmm, it does sound familiar, now that you mention it. But I'm not sure if it's reminding me of anything specific or just of the Swedish death metal scene as a whole. Either way, I can't really help you, sorry.

Sigh - Sigh - Scenario IV: Dread Dreams

Picked this up from a trade a few weeks back and have been playing it regularly since. Great album, really, as of yet it's my second favourite after Scorn Defeat (and notably more similar to that album than most would give it credit).

Admitedly, I do have some difficulty digging certain parts of Sigh's discography (namely, Imaginary Sonicscape, which seems to be one of their most highly praised albums). But this one really doesn't suffer from the same flaws as that one -- the "outside elements" are much better intergrated into the overall flow of the song. And although you can go "Oh, look a funky bass line and slide guitars!" they're actually well used here, and you shouldn't give them all that much notice, anyway . The songs are very grandiose and macabre, even without the outside elements, and though everyone's obsession with those other parts -- every one of these songs is usually built around a handful of great metal riffs (some creepy black ones, some more traditional heavy metal stuff). Perhaps this album is more ordinary than you'd believe (ie more recognisably metal than one would expect from a very 'avant-garde' band), but the overall effect and construction is fantastic.

I should note that Shinichi Ishikawa's performance here is really great. Perhaps his best, I particularly enjoy the NWOBHM riff at the end of 'In the Mind of A Lunatic'. Scenario IV: Dread Dreams is also a great album to take in, lyrically. Typically morbid, but also hauntingly beautiful -- particularly on 'Divine Graveyard' or 'Severed Ways' what with its refrain of:

'Lover and victim
One and the same
Unholy ritual
Severed ways'

Great stuff, really. I'd recommend this album to people who are perhaps a little skeptical with Sigh's later output. Something of an unsung album (although Ribos recently gave it a very fitting review). Apparently this one's hard to come by, though, but whatever check it out.

Yeah, Scenario IV is probably my favourite out of that particular era of Sigh's development, if you can call it that. I still think there's some weird and not altogether pleasing (for me) stuff going on in a couple of the tracks, but I think I can understand why they did those things, so it's okay, really. Shinichi does rule and I don't know why they don't bust out "In the Mind of a Lunatic" at their shows as I think it'd be a storming concert track.

Deep Switch: Nine Inches of God

Woa, what a fun album. For some reason I didn't immediately dig this the first time I listened to it. Don't really know why as it's incredibly catchy and addictive music. Deep Switch plays a particularly quirky sort of metal that occasionally sounds like Mercyful Fate, and also a bit like old Megadeth, with even some progressive bits that remind me of a band like Rush. The vocalist is a bit of a chameleon; he can do the snarly talking stuff like Mustaine, wail like King Diamond or croon like the sweetest heartthrob. The quirky goofiness of the band is awesome and, well, very British, and the lyrics are simply the best. The title track is big, epic and hilarious all at once with its blasphemous lyrics..probably the tastiest and cleverest ode to a man's snake that's ever been conceived. The song "Poor Bastard" includes some almost thrashy riffs and begins with a faux-barbershop quartet vocal part that had me in stitches, as Dave sings his gloriously politically incorrect lyrics ("Starving, lonely, blind and black / Broken-hearted, sick and fat / You know I'm not overjoyed / when the hangman's unemployed!", and "Retarded children should be slapped / the ugly too and the handycapped"), but then, in case we're actually weak enough to be made uncomfortable by this stuff, they tell us not to reach for the razor blade because they have to be cruel to have a good laugh. Oh, man, why didn't I fall in love with this record right away? I must commend the band for having the good taste to hold off on the sappy balad until track seven, too..and it's a real sweet, almost smaltzy affair, but knowing what band it's coming from, I actually really like it, probably largely due to the Reverend Nice's guitarwork, which never fails to be full of melody, charm and shred. The closing epic is great with that acoustic guitar/impassioned vocal intro and ends the album on a very high note. SO yeah, this sounds very much like something released in 1986 in terms of playing and production, and not some old NWOBHM band that just happened to release their album four years late and whose music was already retro when it was recorded (not that this is a bad thing, but it seemed to happen a fair amount). The playing is pretty great and while the production would raise some eyebrows today (that booming drum sound is ridiculous and very mid-1980s) I hope that any fan of somewhat artsy/humorous heavy metal would get a real kick out of this. In fact, I'm writing this at work now and I wish I were at home so I could listen to the thing again. This is supposed to get a proper CD release on Shadow Kingdom soon, and I'll be picking it up as soon as it materialises.

I don't really get all the hype of post-Gallows Gallery Sigh. What I love about Sigh, is the duality between Mirai's keys and orchestration and Sinichi's riffs, rarely are the riffs taking the backseat and if there's orchestration, there's usually still a good riff being played. Mirai plays some cool keys and Sinichi has a wide spectrum of killer riffs and leads. Scenario IV is a definitely awesome album that represents well what I just said. But since Hangman's Hymn, the quality of the riffs has dropped a notch, and it's not like Mirai's letting much room for Sinichi which is what I think unfortunate of the last two albums. At least it's still good.

Yes, though I admire the ambition in Sigh's recent music and there's been at least one time when Hangman's Hymn really struck me as marvelous, I haven't often the urge to listen to it. I'll always turn back to albums like Infidel Art, Scorn Defeat, the Ghastly FUneral THeatre EP and, indeed, Scenario IV.

Hi, my contributin to our Weekly Metal Analysis for current WE 10/04/10 is as following:


BRUCE KULICK : LP - BK3 2010
Decent rock, nothing spectaculous. Actually those 2 songs featured Gene Simmons and the other one of his son Nick are most "visible" but nowhere of a high quality. Overall album floods through your ears as professionally perfected work but leaves you cold. For fans of guitar hero Mr.Kulick only!

HELLOWEEN : LP - Unarmed 2010
I actually liked this one. The good song remains the good song no matter how it is play as soon as melody and key aspect are followed and kept. In fact it is ideal music as backgound for shopping malls or public centers. I think Dr.Stein re-make is the most enjoyable and also medley of "Keeper..." and "Halloween" is pretty good. Overall very pleasant deviation from hard guitar driven world.

KEEL : LP - Streets of rock´n´roll 2010
You can´t step twice in the same river. Just another number in their discography. Their 80´s stuff is just somehow better...or maby more appealing to me, than this attempt to be reborn....

KROKUS : LP - Hoodoo 2010
Fashioned in AC/DC sound, complete retro of Australian gigant. Actually the title song "Hoodoo" is really good and catchy. The cover of Steppenwolf is also acceptable. And Marc Storace´s cocal is still strong and good to listen. Thumbs up for having courage going out on the market with this sound, this songwriting in these days.

OVERKILL : LP - Ironbound 2010
These guys should be awarded some kind of lifetime prize of keeping thrash metal flag up on and on. I very much like the sound. I could not really enjoy sound of previous 3-4 records, cos it did kinda deviated from thrashing. I only have a small issue with songwriting. Seemed to me that some songs are lacking being interesting. Just like flowing around, not realizing them. However, overall great album, must-have for any thrash fan!

TOBY KNAPP : LP - The campaign 2010
Guitar hero solo project, but nowhere close to "Guitar distortion" album from 1993. Kinda ball of sound and I could not find anything catchy really here except of perfect guitar finger work, that I suspect is very appreciated by those technical guitar players.

YNGWIE JAMES MALMSTEEN´S RISING FORCE : LP - Live in Korea 2009
Dissapointment. Especially the vocalist is catastrophy. Bring Mark Boals or Joe or Mike Vescera back! And the song selection is terrible as well.


ROB ROCK : LP - The voice of melodic metal-Live in Atlanta 2009
Excellent US power metal. Great sound, great performances and now I realized thank to this live release that Rob has in his own discography the quantum of songs better than his famous work with Axel Rudi Pell or M.A.R.S. or elsewhere. High reccomendation!

My this week WE 17/04/10 listening:

METALLICA : LP – Live in Berlin (2008)
Great sound actually. James singing very clear and in tone, not tired at all. Fans response significant. Song selection balanced. The stuff from „Death Magnetic“ goes well with all numbers. Even „Frantic“ did not sound so out of place. The end of „Seek and Destroy“ with getting fans doing rhythmical „ooo-ooo-ooo“ is pretty nice and enjoyable. Reccomended.

DREAM THEATER : LP – Bonus CD of covers from „Black clouds....“ (set 2009)
Very enjoyable actually. None of the covers is bad and actually the choice is what made this quite interesting. Queen covers trilogy is actually the most I enjoyed as well as Iron´s „To tame a land“. Regarding Rainbow´s „Stargazer“ only I can say that John Petrucci does good in matching to Ritchie, however original song is driven by Dio vocal and this is no case of Dream Theater. But, anyway, great music.

BITCH : EP – Damnation alley (1982)
Very exciting this band from U.S. This is their first record, kinda midpaced heavy rock with tongue-in-cheek lyrics. „Saturdays“ seems to me as the most compact song. I like the entire EP as such. Last song „Live for the whip“ is undoubtely most structured. If you like US heavy rock of early 80´s then this is the band.

KILLER : LP – Stronger than ever (1984)
Swiss rockers put out this one in 84 and it is really fun to listen. Quite good decent production, AC/DC feeling in rhythm section and this time they really focused on melody lines. „Turn it loud“, „Killer lady“, „On the rocks“ typical vocal lines and I really enjoy listening this. Unfortunatelly they never made it out off the shadow of their partners in crime called Krokus.

HEADHUNTER : LP – Parasite of society (2008)
What a surprise! Thrashing par excellance. This is one is more Destructionized than current Destruction releases themselves. Production quite dry, straight to bottom line and Schmier vocals are superb to this music. Back to 80´s by the first second of the record including intro cool section as well as outro. We have 2 covers here but they are completely opposite. While Skid Row´s „18 and life“ is close to disaster and totally out of place in any aspect, remake of Priest´s „Rapid fire“ is superb. All fits into its place. No need to say that Jorg Michael again demonstrated his undeniable drumming skills and his drums are well integrated in overall sound. Excellent!

JUDAS PRIEST : LP – Nostradamus (2008)
It took me a greta deal of time to get into this. And I think this is excellent record. I like the partially its bombasticity, if I can say so, as well as slow and silent sections. I think Rob did decent job in term of vocals and guitar sound is also more realistic than on previous records. Overall the band sound very tight and the music flows very nicely. I cannot pick up any song as highlight or downlight cos I really now see this as the complex of music and lyrics and therefore I approaching this from now on as a kinda story or a tale. My verdict: very reccomended. Better than Nikolo Kotzev´s "Nostradamus" opus.

My previous post was originally written in November. Now it is April 2010. During these months I looked through a considerable amount of Mayhem's recent live footage and I have to say that with the departure of Blasphemer the band changed. These two session guitarists brought back the life into Mayhem (this might sound ironic to a certain extent). They look and sound excited and inspired when playing the classics. Attila improved greatly as well. At this point I get the impression that Blasphemer was holding the band back in some way. I watched all the Inferno footage (March 2010) which I found on youtube and I should say that it was a great performance. The atmosphere was certainly there. Thankfully Attila did not try to be too inventive when it came to costumes. Another thing I noticed about him is that his intonations became much more focused and his delivery became more intense.

It all looks like they are getting in shape after a long hiatus. I think they should make some official footage and release it as DVD.

Heavenly - Carpe Diem

The most anticipated album of the year for me by far, considering I'm borderline fanboy status of the band. Man did this album fucking dissapoint. After the grandeur neoclassical sound of Dust to Dust, and the more straight-forward modern sounding Virus, we get this piece of shit? They are following in the footsteps of Freedom Call, even the part of stealing other bands' song titles! "Full Moon", "Save Our Souls"... ridiculous! Half of the album is bullshit disney music, while the other half is what Heavenly should sound like, but toppled with way too much pop elements, including unnecessary electronical effects. Ashen Paradise, while half-assed, is still a great song (shows you the massive potential Ben Sotto has), the rest are terrible for the most part. Hopefully Lost Horizon will finally release some material this year to make me forget this piece of shit.

I should note that Shinichi Ishikawa's performance here is really great. Perhaps his best, I particularly enjoy the NWOBHM riff at the end of 'In the Mind of A Lunatic'. Scenario IV: Dread Dreams is also a great album to take in, lyrically. Typically morbid, but also hauntingly beautiful -- particularly on 'Divine Graveyard' or 'Severed Ways' what with its refrain of

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Audiopain - Nekromantheon - Split EP [2010]

Never heard of those two bands. Both are thrash acts from Norways. Audiopain sounded quite bored while Nekromantheon sounded like the old Slayer.
The Split EP itself is not really worth it since both bands only play one song but i'm happy that i heard Nekromantheon. Now i can listen to more of them.

I got a lot of albums this week, but the OP said 3 max, so:

Sodom - Tapping the Vein

I'm on my second listen of this now. I own all of Sodom's full-lengths up until this point and I'm definitely looking to collect all of them. I've heard a lot of people say this album is a straight up Death Metal album but I have to disagree. It is far heavier than Agent Orange and certainly Better Off Dead, but at most I would consider this Death/Thrash. The riffs are still pure Thrash and the vocals aren't that much harsher on all of the songs. Still, this album is really good. The riffs are blistering and Tom's vocals sound angrier than ever. Probably my second favorite Sodom album, after Agent Orange (I enjoy PM, but it's not one of my favorite Thrash albums).

Cannibal Corpse - Live Cannibalism

This album is a fantastic summation of Cannibal Corpse's work up until this point. I have to admit that buying Cannibal Corpse albums is a lot of fun for me. I started with Eaten Back to Life when I was first getting into Death Metal about a year ago, and I've bought the rest (up until Gore Obsessed) ever since. I think most of their albums are fairly well represented here. I would have preferred a little less of Gallery of Suicide, since it's my least favorite, but all of their songs are enjoyable. The performance is actually really tight. The only noticeable flaw is during "Stripped, Raped, and Strangled", where it sounds like the guitar in the right headphone is a little bit behind. Nevertheless, this album makes me wonder about all of the hate for Paul M (don't know how to spell...). He does a great job, as does the rest of the band. I would recommend this to all CC fans, especially if you got into the band the way I did.

One I didn't get this week but it still wasn't that long ago:

White Wizzard - Over the Top

This album is amazing! I've heard differing opinions about White Wizzard, but let's face it; these songs are good. I would even argue they sound like Iron Maiden with a different singer. I can't understand the hate for these kind of albums because when they don't exist, people complain that (insert metal genre here) is dying, but once they come along they are just "rehashes". The way I see it, more Metal is a good thing when it is this high caliber. White Wizzard isn't very inventive, but they know how to make an album full of catchy songs. Right now it's my #1 pick for 2010 (though there are a lot of releases left)

Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption
Their best album, period. This album also features guitarist Jesse Pintado (R.I.P) The riffs are very grindly and deathish and also the old school production, that's what death metal should sound like!
Barney vocals were the best but over the years he has deteriorated but nonetheless he still remains one of my favourite vocalist of all time.

Autopsy - Mental Funeral
Heard of this album today, and I'm crazy over it. Bass is very audible and Steve Cutler did a very good job in it as well. Mainly this album gets a major plus from the production and also the doomy atmosphere that the band is going for.
Many death metal bands go for the brutal approach, but Autopsy prefers to do it slow and doomy with the guitars and the heavy and slow hit on the drums.
This album has many creppy moments as well(mainly because of the doomy guitars) , sometimes your hairs just stand on ends.
One recommendation for you guys, just stare at the album art the next time you decide to play this album.

Death - Spiritual Healing
What can I say? Death has always been an one-man band in my opinion and the others are like studio members. Chuck is the man behind Death and also the father of death metal. The lyrics, riffs and solos are perhaps the best in this album and it greatly demonstrate Chuck's songwriting ability.
The lyrics are very catchy and I see myself singing to the song everytime I put on this album.