I was on the fence about posting this, as I imagine it could be locked. I tried searching and couldn't find anything, though I bet this has been done before. Still, I think it would be fun.

Howzabout a pointless game? I'll post a link to a song. Whoever wants can listen, then post back with a mini-review of said song. Let's say, no shorter than three sentences but no longer than five? Something coincise but genuine. Then, that person posts a link to a song - and the person reviews it posts a song, etc., etc. Yay, nay? I think it could be a cool, fun way for people to kinda discuss bands, discover new shit, etc.

Its gotta be metal though. Mainstream, obscure, whatever.

S'ppose I'll kick things off:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOAtJjH1 ... re=related

Love Angra
Funny idea for a thread, so I'll participate:

Love the voice, build-up and virtuoso guitar work, but the song is a bit over-stretched.
I thought the bass break in the middle was a bit too much: I can see that they want to incorporate elements next to the riffs, but it gets boring.
Luckily the solo made up a lot. 8/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuWn8iUj ... re=related

Sounds like an interesting idea. Here's what I think of that song:

I haven't been listening to any power metal in a long, long time, and I've also never listened to Angra before, so this was a good introduction for me. I was pretty impressed; the song kind of reminded me of Vhaldemar, who I like very much. Loved the proggy bit in the middle, though they made the "standard" power metal sections sound a tad lackluster. Also, the vocals sounded rather restrained, but that's a minor complaint as the other instruments do their jobs just fine.

---

Kathaaria - As Fear Changes Sides
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUoxgudc2dc

Quick review, huh?

About the Kathaaria song,

Too long, and very "flat" so to speak. Don't get me wrong, I like Black Metal but, this one didn't kick in, honestly. The first minutes were great, actually, the song started really well, with a very energetic riff, but things got slower around 2:23, I guess they tried to play a little with riffs ad tempo changes from that point on, but intead of "interesting and experimental" (especially around the 4th minute and after) got boring... at least to my ears.

Sorry, I'm at loss of words right now. It was a bit boring for me. I know these kind of reviews are not what the OP would expect, but really, after 5 minutes, this song bored me to no end. Weird thing is, I was having strange deja-vu feelings, like "where the hell did I hear this before?" but couldn't find the spot in my time/space continuum :S

Sounds like a good idea to me; anything to generate some discussion round these parts. I guess I'll respond to Aatxe as he replied first (sorry triggerhappy!). Note mine is a bit biased as I'm not a fan of the majority of melodic death metal. I think it's a stagnant, watered down genre full of Gothenburg scene clones. Anyways, here goes:

This song is a combination of mainstream radio pop rock combine with the typical Gothenburg worship (which by the way follows a pop rock formula generally), or rather Insomnium in these guys' case. Production was clean to the point of being sterile, no character or charm whatsoever. The arrangement followed the typical verse-chorus song structure, no surprises here folks. The bouncy rhythms and consonant melodic leads were admittedly catchy, but hardly anything new and had nothing in common with the genre of metal. The whole thing was better suited to a modern rock band.

Here's mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AhtB3dKUw

Thunorrad...

I quite like the riff, it has a semi-sludgy tone to it, very old school death metal. The drumming is pretty fucking average and kind of annoying, as are the vocals. Really flat sound here, and nothing special or interesting going on. Couldn't say I'd like to listen to this band on a regular basis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHhgMIEciGA

Awesome opening speed riff, catchy chorus, enjoyable lyrics, bass is actually audible, all around enjoyable. The solo seemed a bit lackluster, but good enough. Like that it's only 3 minutes long, songs like that going on for 5 minutes plus tend to get quite boring.

So I'll just post what I'm currently listening to...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uci6WQ3q ... re=related

I like the idea of this thread.

The Dio song feels quite poppy to me, with big simple riffs and structuring. On the other hand, the vocals make it a lot more powerful than it would be in the hands of most other popular '80s metal vocalists. Also, the solo in the middle was unusually effective for whatever reason. So my opinions are leaning towards positive.

Martyr - Warp Zone:

The martyr song was pretty good. Don't listen to much technical death, but I enjoyed it. It was pretty structured and fairly melodic. I haven't heard much tech death like that. The vocals sounded a bit like Meshuggah which was the only thing I didn't totally love about the song. Not a big fan of those types of shouts. The vocalist used some deep growls here and there, which I enjoyed much more. Great song though, thanks man.

Njiqahdda- 'N Ventrii
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEnJ6659MNs

thoughts on listening to Njiqahdda:
I like black metal with post-rock influence more than I expected to. The filter on the harsh vocals is pretty cool, and the clean singing sounds like Peter Steele. This is the sort of thing I like to listen to while I'm studying - it works well as background music. Which I guess is both good and bad for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZF9QaJu ... re=related

Grey Water-say goodbye:

more like "gay" water.........nah but really that song just reminded me 'the song' that's so commonly found in movies these days, you know, it's at the end when everythin 'goes down' brings it all together, pseudo-metal-ish, is really flamboyant/grandoise/'epic'. ionno, i am not a fan and i wouldn't even consider this Metal.

here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4mKZzhiKTA

^ Killer track! Dreaming with the Dead is one of my favorite albums of all time and yet I've never bothered checking out that promo for whatever reason. It's some very intense death metal still heavily rooted in thrash. Frantic, schizophrenic music that retains a groove and is memorable. Vocals make me cringe but in a good way. All that aside, you can definitely see they had room to grow back then. The songwriting was good but they didn't perfect it until their full-length.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bXKUKdecNw

Ride for Revenge

First things first...drum production sucked balls and the vocals are way too goddamn loud. But the droney repetitive nature of the song was awesome, loved how absolutely primal it was, too bad the production ruins the experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pszNbg9kNeo

Akitsa - Les Sentinelles

The drums are very mechanical sounding, but it fits with the unusual beat, which gives the whole song a almost marching feel. I really like how the guitars and keyboards flow together, I haven't really heard that before. This is my first time hearing this band, so I'll have to check them out some more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYbu9YRzD3Y

Animal As Leaders: Very melodic an varied enough

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuJnDLDPER4

Animals As Leaders - "Isolated Incidents" (official stream)

I'm not that much into prog stuff, really, but the first seconds caught my atention. The drum work is really good and, oh god, the bass (?) figures sound just great! Nice background music for a saturday night, bored at home, no bars open tonight, and I guess I'll keep playing this one while I do some grammar/spelling correction in my thesis. The plthora of sounds around 3:50 are a good way to take the song to a climax...

Anyways, here is mine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nIbpGdzOtA

Not bad. I had my doubts with the gay melodic intro, but once it picked up pace it really kicked ass.

Now for something we all can (or should, rather) agree to like:
Ishitrobots - "Your Mother and I Are Getting a Divorce, I Believe She's a Spiderbot 3000 in Disguise"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKY-bUvYd8I

Kaamos - Black Revelation

First 30 seconds sound pretty much like Unleashed and I liked it, now come the blast beats ad grinding riffs... Riffs are ok, luckily for me, not repetitive, this song has certain Swedish Death Metal feeling into it.

Surprise surprise, a quic search on MA and yes, Swedish Death Metal, the way it should be!
...and I just realized that the description indicated they were from Sweden. :S

Review for IShitRobots: Eh, grind of any kind does nothing for me. Gurgling vocals drive me batty, and grind is always too short to have any staying power even when it does sound okay. Closest I get to grind is Short Bus Pile up. I award 1 out of 5 points; 0.3 for the fact it's produced well, 0.3 for the fact it has all real instruments, 0.2 for heaviness and 0.2 for the song title.

Let's get this thread-ball rolling again.

Unexpect - "Megalomaniac Trees"

Unexpect - Megalomaniac Tree

Overall, I liked it. The first minute is god-awful, I don't understand the appeal of the whole avant-garde thing where there are a million influences going on at the same time...what a mess. Thankfully it doesn't happen to that degree again. The keyboard melodies are nice, and I mean really really nice. There's a cool riff-driven section as well, then a slow section towards the end that leads to a very nice conclusion.

Here be mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4-pbo0lK6M

Not bad, but I tire of that kind of straight forward riffing and plain rasping vocals easily. The dry thrashy/folky atmosphere doesn't really help either, especially when it only really seems to have one trick up its sleeve. If the album itself is more varied and makes up for what this song lacked it might be better, though it didn't really work for me as a stand alone piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmZuCjBAl38

Who will combine this with the haiku thread?

I really like this, nice melodic doom with great vocals. Nice "jammy" sound. I'm not much into doom (like but havn't explored much) so I can't explain it well. 9/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orD3zvZsarU
sorry I get an ad at the start

I was put off by the recording quality, album name and band name. Luckily the song itself is quite good: decent riffing and nice drumming. I like The Day Everything Became Nothing, so this wasn't too bad. Short and sweet song.

Another Aussie band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzYVl42WaM

Psycroptic - The Valley Of Winds Breath And Dragon Fire

Going to be completely honest here, and say that this did nothing for me whatsoever. The vocals I found to be somewhat irritating, none of the ranges used I thought were good at all, and the everywhere but go-nowhere structure of the song left me bored and unengaged. Perhaps it would be fair to say that the youtube viewing might have blunted it's desired effect (I doubt it...)? For me however, it had no flow and nothing to hold my attention. Not my cup of tea...

Here is mine...

(I write all these quick reviews without even seeing the youtube clip or reading the description, I let it play in a different Mozilla tag.)

Graupel - Herkünfte Schatten

First seconds had a certain Bathory-esque sound, Blood, Fire, Death era, but the resemblance ended when the voice entered. The almost clean voice still mantain some Bathory feeling, and the guitar riffs perhaps, but the voice gives this song its own personality. And the blast beats around 3:40 gives the track full force and might. Still, there is something in the voice I don't like... it's not your typical BM harsh screams which is good and gives the song an atmosphere of anguis, especially at the end. I liked the first half of the song more than the second half... Gotta listen to more of this band! 8/10

...and here's mine!

Witchtrap - Heavy Drinker

I'm not too into thrash, though I make exceptions more particularly amazing shit. This is not particularly amazing. The "HEAVY DRINKER!!!!" bits are an immediate turn off, but the generic thrash riffing is even worse - just boring, doesn't really go anywhere. None of them are particularly good. I could've sworn I heard "I'm going to give you, the way of the BUTTHOLE!" @ 1:12 though.

Here is mine:

Sigh - A Sunset Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9-WwDWh9fo

^Sigh

Wow this made my day! I spent most of the time trying to figure out of what kind of music this is. My conclusion is feel-good elavator-music black metal. The vocals seemed out of place at first but somehow fit well. Nice guitar sound, love the funky disco groove bit, overall very fresh and feel-good despite some melancholic lyrics and melodies. Thanks for showing me this, I'll be looking into this band. Recommended to everyone reading this thread!!

Mine (sticking to the East):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUlc6xrZU7I

As sahar, absolutely not the style I like. Melodies are ok, but it's too... Let's say atmospheric for me. Made well and beautifully, but it's a bit boring.

Next one:
http://youtu.be/EWY9jTlUI2k

Ah, NS black metal, what to say.....
ABSURD -MOURNING SOULD
well this absurd track is one of their more rock oriented songs
with the clean vocals and everything, not the biggest fan of these
id rather listen to goatmoon anyday when it comes to nsbm
nonetheless still good
next one : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlJzVQKv ... plpp_video

Fall of the Bastards - Folk-tinged black-death seems to be a winning combination for these guys. The intro is beautiful. Song is harsh but melodic and it kept me fairly entertained. I see they went on to become Oakhelm, honing in on the pagan vibe; I'll be sure to check that out.

Entrails - "Undead"

The second I saw the cover, I knesw that Entrails would be great old school Swedish death metal. But released in 2011? Were these guys frozen for the past fifteen years? Anyways, I quite liked the melodic section around 2:00, in addition to the quite melodic solo. It's not melodeath, but it seems to have more melody than your average Swedish death metal band. Riffing seemed catchier than most death metal also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXZc9-mtFDk

It sucked, sing song vocals from someone who can't sing, not to mention that annoying chorus. The instrumentation was bland was as well, the riffs did nothing and had no memorable qualities, the drums I barely noticed, and the bass I didn't notice... And even then, it just got worse with that stop start chugging section at the end, which had some of the weakest chugs I've heard so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyEh_G8I ... re=related

Eh, doom metal really isn't my thing to begin with so I suppose my judgment isn't fair. Overall, I found the song too long and repetitive and the atmosphere wasn't engaging enough to really make up for that. Vocals were also bland and monotone as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY23BE2JnnY

Kekal- characteristicon

Kekal. Now there's a band I haven't heard mentioned in awhile. I used to be a rather big fan of them a few years ago, and to be honest I completely forgot about their existence. This song is great, and to be honest I don't believe I ever fully listened to all of Acidity. But the trademark Kekal is all there. Awesome harsh vocals, great guitars, and weird avant-garde awesomeness. If anything this has reignited a passion for this band again. I sense a massive Kekal binge coming my way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCCnL0XQAtM

Askival-Whispers in a Breeze

I guess if atmospheric black/folk metal is your thing than this can be enjoyable. Too repetitive for me, even if it is less repetitive than most other bands in their style. Vocals are uniquely good; they sound lower than most black metal rasps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LWcEHCp ... re=related

Nice and melodic, reminds me a lot of Alarum to be honest. Drumming is nice and interesting, guitar tones quite nice and good bass. I don't like the mid section much though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BRSDTkW28w

Quite catchy right from the get-go. The vocals are a good mix of aggressive thrashy-style vocals, falsetto power-metal screams and death metal growls. The aggressive vocals somewhat remind me of the vocals on Therion's Lepaca Kliffoth. The guitar work is top notch, Skyforger is now on my list of bands I have to check out in the next ten minutes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOBBAoq9ggM

They only did one cd like that, Latviesu Strelnieki

I hear chunky riffs
the clean vocals are very
nice. not bad, Swano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLko4TmJkUQ