Kreator's Coma of Souls has 18 reviews with a 96%. That's a pretty big deal! Has to be one of the highest rated thrash albums on the site. I love the album, but I gotta say I'm pretty surprised at its score. It's a pretty different album for Kreator, and if Pleasure to Kill is their Reign in Blood, then I'd definitely say that Coma of Souls is their South of Heaven. It isn't as in-your-face, but still has some of my favourite Kreator songs like the title track or, especially, People of the Lie.

F

Baphomet are good because they have good riffs and sound, they're not my favourite of that sort of style, but they do it well enough to be enjoyable. Swamped in Gore is what happens when a band takes the same simple idea but fuck up the sound, weight and riffing hooks.

^ yeah man, Swamped in Gore was my first experience with BH...and just...so, fucking, boring.

"he's a show-off more determined to say "look at what I can do" rather than giving us something memorable. You can tell Eddie Van Halen is his idol, all style and no substance."

The true testimony of a devourer of metaphorical meatloaf metal, a hearty dish where everything is measured out to make the perfect formula for the perfect amount of time to be a slab of meat that you'll shit out the next day. First, you grind the meat into an almost paste-like but structured string-shaped substance, then you add the basics of the pantry, breadcrumbs and eggs, spice it up a bit and add some onion, then you mix it all up and throw it into a structured mold, lock it away in a studio for a couple weeks, I mean, in an oven for a couple hours. Remove it, cut it into slices roughly the size of a CD case but thicker because this is meaty metal, then shout "kids, dinner's ready!" and they'll come and eat it up. They'll never know that their ancestors once ripped flesh from the beast they slayed and prepared it with an open fire, rather than having the ingredients shrink-wrapped in plastic with a recipe courtesy of Betty Crocker. They just don't get it.

Aww, that's a bummer - not memorable? Damn. I think I can remember every single riff from that album, and I haven't listened to it in years!

Also, this: Worth getting for people looking into death metal's origins and at least it's usually cheap. Earache reissue this album often enough so their must be something about it.

Makes me hurt a little inside.

He probably expects it to sound like Behemoth or Fleshgod Apocalypse...total misunderstanding of what old school DM was about. Zodi hit the nail on the head better than I ever could; I always hate reviewers with these kinds of reviews. Taking a classic album like AoM and just slapping a cliche criticism like 'overrated' just shows you don't know much about metal and should probably listen more.

Man, I'm not sure why it took me so long to be annoyed by the "it's not very memorable" point, it's only angered me for the last year or two and it's one of the most useless, weak points possible.

One day I should review that album, you'll all hate me forever.

G

I think it can be legitimate to argue that something is overrated so long as you've got a better point than "the riffs aren't memorable". And in the case of Altars of Madness, it's beyond me how any death metal fan couldn't fall in love with the riffs on Maze of Torment, Chapel of Ghouls, or Immortal Rites instantly.

You can say an album is overrated, but "it's good but not as good as people say" shouldn't be the central thesis of a review. That's all I'm saying. There's got to be something of more insight and thought in it.

Memorability is tricky because your mileage is going to vary from person to person. I think it's the kind of thing that you shouldn't really base an entire review around because it's a bit less harder to define than other negative qualities. The vocals sound like a child? The riffs are all stolen from Cannibal Corpse? The drumming is sloppy but not charismatic? It's produced like a butt? Sure, all valid, a lot of people know what you're talking about. You can't remember most of the songs? Ehhhhhhh.

Sometimes that's really all that's wrong with an album (happens to me a lot), but it's shaky ground to review on, and it's something I think a lot of people really should try to avoid doing until they get really good at the whole reviewing game. It can be done, but when rookies go for it it just rarely works.

If I'm going to call out an album as 'unmemorable', I want to be able to explain the concepts that make it unmemorable to me. Maybe the songs are so similar to one another that they begin to run together, and I can't look back and pick out which track had that really cool bridge; maybe the band just isn't that good at crafting ear-catching melodies. "Unmemorable" is a springboard to further explanation, not an explanation in itself.

My main is with the unmemorable argument isn't that its non-specific, but more that who cares if you can't remember. Music is something you listen to, why would it bother you as to how well you can recall every note and drum hit while you're not listening to it. If it sounds impressive while you're actually hearing it that's all you need. As others have said its often a stand in for "repetitive riffs" or "uninventive song structures" which are valid complaints, but when meant as it is said its a dumb argument which means nothing. I forget my favourite hooks all the damn time, just means I need to relisten to the song to give myself a refresher.

"Memorable" often just means hooks that are pop-like, the stuff that sticks on the first listen because half of the damn song is the hook and it's as simple as possible so it grabs you every time you hear it. Sometimes used in metal, but far from the point. Looking for something like that is completely missing the point of a twisted, warped album like Altars of Madness.

^ is it fair to call the latest MA memorable then? I love the pop hooks in "We are Morbid" or "Too Extreme!". It's still metallic, but it embraces the crowd mentality/craziness/bizarro fun of pop melodies.

(btw, Zodi, that album is coming around to me - your endless defense of it really turned me).

The very first riff of Immortal Rites is catchy as fuck. What about the tremolo riff with the keys that serve as bridge?

Altars is one of the most memorable death metal albums for me. Every song is filled to the brim with top notch riffage. Vincent's vocals are incredible, not only for the style and power but his phrasing is also brilliant making everything more memorable. The chorus of Maze Of Torment sound really frantic not only for the riffs but also for his immediate delivery of 'MAZE OF TORMENT' in a very thrashy way. Lord of All Fevers and Plague is another great example. The drum beat is already headbangeable as fuck, the verse riff is supreme but Vincent's vocals? are just perfect in time.

I dunno if I'd describe Altars as technically unmemorable, but while I do enjoy it on occasions it's a rather bland and unstimulating affair. The riffs don't really have any inherent atmosphere beyond aimless, untapped chaos and they're not pleasing from a melodic perspective either. Funnily enough, I'd still say I like it, but only barely; I prefer Morbid Angel's more trudging, openly surrealist era (Formulas and onward) by a factor of ten.

It's full of pop-style hooks in convoluted, longer song structures. I meant to refer to reviewers' use of "memorable" as meaning that, but it's funny how catchy and memorable it is, even people who don't like it remember the hooks.

THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP TOO EXTREME will haunt me until the day I die...

Altars of Madness was a audio translation of extradimensional nightmares in 1989, and Illud Divinum Insanus continued that vision in 2011. It just takes something different.

Annoying is the new scary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VDvgL58h_Y

It already worked for film, it was only time before it happened to music.

http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Ke ... ence/16890

Has anyone else heard this album? It's had three reviews with perfect 100s, the first submitted in '03 and the most recent one just this year.

I have. Not a 100%-er in my opinion. It's a little on the strange side and I wish it had actual drums. Some leads are neat but overall it's not what I'd consider great by my tastes. Hell, even a good at best album like Rage's The Missing Link has 100% reviews (4 of them).

Fixed.

I find that oddball niche stuff like that tends to be heralded as amazing by anyone who might seek out that sort of thing, and it likely hasn't garnered much attention otherwise.

Heard it several times over the years, whenever I'd be on an AG phase of music listening. It's an album with some decent ideas and arrangements but feels a lot like an unfinished/prototype work. It isn't one of those albums that is awesome to a sect and bizarre or lame for others, it's just a weirdo thrown-in-all-you've-got kind of album that isn't great, even for weird music.

Heard it once, thought it was all right. Playin' it safe.

It ain't bad. It's not Perfect Man or their late 90s/early 00s efforts but it's okay. Joph is exaggerating.

It could always be Strings to a Web, just to put it in perspective.

Rage is one of my favorite bands and I like "The Missing Link" a lot, but I'd only score it a 90% at best. I'm not a fan of inflated review scores, to be honest.

Is there anyone outside of Japan who actually gives a crap about Rage?

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/D ... /The_Ghoul

In fact, you've probably heard everything this album has to offer elsewhere, by bands with much more creative juice than Darkthrone. There's nothing here to be gained. There's no point in loving it, no point in hating it, no point in anything to do with this turd, because there are so few ideas in this album, many of which have already been sufficiently expressed in other albums who's record date precedes this one. I detect Mayhem riffs, Burzum riffs, and even a Bathory riff here and there.

Yeah, that's an awful review. Droneriot covered it quite well - his take was that the album was a very neutral, emotionally blank slate which was viewed as the opposite perspective of the listener's default perspective - for most, being something like cold, vampyric, and misanthropic. Much of the allure of the album is that it is so simply structured that it is easy to imitate, as it is very easy to figure out exactly what is being played. The drums are nearly static throughout, the guitars have a recognizable but formulaic and easily understood technical approach, yet many albums that are technically similar just feel completely lifeless in a different, negative way.

Woo! First review request. Moving up in the world...

Moving up? I prefer to be close to a world below.

Grumble grumble...I expect no less from you guys.

Since it is my 3rd winter in Quebec I feel that it's finally my time to do a series of reviews on the excellent QCBM scene. I know I said I'd do it last winter and the winter before that, but this time I'm super cereal you guise. To make sure I hold myself accountable to this commitment, I'll make a little deal - if I don't complete at least 7 reviews by the time the snow melts for good the next MAer I meet in real life reserves the right to punch me in the face (will most likely be Metantoine or Necrotocism214).

You could also learn to say "hi", "thank you" and "I'll order a poutine with a coke, please" in French!

If you want the new Neige et Noirceur, let me know.

L