Actually that was the exact same thing I was thinking about your response to his opinion of the album. Completely dismissive and unnecessary. You spoke the same way a child does when someone tells them that they don't like the same cartoons.

If you truely were riding that high horse like you are now claiming to be sitting upon, you would have ignored it and went about your business in enjoying your album. You don't need to let everyone know that their opinions bother you.

Oh come on. I haven't even heard the album yet but isn't that a bit self-righteous?

BH'S OFFICIAL OPINION:

It's okay. It pretty much takes the template of Agony but shows that they've learned a little bit from it, as the compositions are more well thought out and less "metal band and orchestra play two different songs at the same time". The bassist's clean vocals aren't as woefully overused as they were before but they're still not at that perfect nexus of ridiculous and awesome they were on Mafia, since they're still kinda distracting and crappy, but the music is better. I like "Pathfinder" and "Under Black Sails" a lot.

I actually kinda like this. I'm a bit shocked. It's a giant wall of noise and nonsense as expected, but I actually find some stuff worth my attention on this. I don't actually think it sounds as bad as Agony did, I certainly can make a lot more actual rhythm RIFFS this time, rather than just runs of machine gun dadadadadadadadadadadadadadadada which is all I heard on Agony, although there is still a lot of that, and for that I'm pretty happy. Still, not entirely worthless rhythm work + solos + lead melodies > Entirely worthless rhythm work + solos + lead melodies, so it's definitely a step up there.

Like BastardHead said, the actual symphonics are composed a fair bit better, seeming much less like a few layers of synth impersonations being pressed on a keyboard and more like something resembling an actual composition with actual instruments. This may simply be because the only real instrument on the whole symphonic side, the piano, seems to be given the most right of way in the wall of silliness, which hides the synthphonics behind some level of authenticity, and even then, the synthphonics are so hyperactive and shreddy that they never feel like samples mapped to keyboard keys being pressed as "epic tones" which is what usually disgusts me to my core when people try for this sort of music. By doing all this it does seem much less tacky and computerized than say, Time 1 did, and as such I was never disgusted by the symphonies which is something I've never said about a symphonic metal album. Ever.

Still, I wouldn't say it's amazing or anything, just better than I expected. The band has still sacrificed a lot of actual riffing chops to allow for all the orchestration, like literally every symphonic metal band, they just haven't sacrificed all of it, which is an improvement, the vocals actually never bothered me that badly at ay point either, they still have goals beyond the actual vocal skills of any of their members, but they never really revolt me, which is again and improvement of sorts. Really, the biggest thing it has against it is that it's fucking 54 minutes long, nobody needs an hour of robotic blasts and chuggachugga riffs. Nobody.

Yeah I'm gonna need me some Bolt Thrower after this.

And I'm not even that big of a Bolt Thrower fan.

These are actually the reasons I like the new album less than Agony. The only thing I like about Agony is the sheer over the top ridiculousness of it all. Labyrinth seems to be a more focused and (as you already pointed out) more thought out efffort. But that's the problem, I don't want them to think "we have to write better compositions", because most of the "better" compositions on this new album are just plane boring and uneventful. I want them to write a deafening barrage of loud orchestral craziness, because that's the only thing I have ever enjoyed about this band after their first album. Now I'm just left with a less crazy and more serious version of Agony, and now there is nothing left to even remotely enjoy.

I find this album really enjoyable. Its much more coherent than agony. It doesn't sound like symphonic elements shoved into brutal death metal. This album is more balanced and does not sound like most of the gimmick symphonic metal albums

That's a really idiotic retort to throw at Metantoine. He's immensely open-minded compared to many of us here. Get over yourself.

Care to read posts you comment on more carefully in the future? He did listen to a large chunk of that horrid album.

Take your own advice. My post has absolutely nothing to do with what you said since said "I" haven't heard the album yet so I can't defend it or hate on it but his claim was ridiculous. So fuck off.

I tried, I really did....but this sounds like the most generic modern death metal possible, mashed up by a radio DJ with samples of a keyboard on the symphonic preset falling down some stairs. Just....really incongruous, but also made up of constituent parts that aren't really very interesting, either. Like some others here, I'm struggling to see the appeal of this music. Is it the novelty factor, I guess?

This would be the perfect review.

Joking aside, this album is a colossal beast. I think it completely overshadows Agony and leaves it writhing in the dust. I even went back to Agony and found it to be just underwhelming and not as powerful. Like if they were really trying hard on that album to get the symphonic parts to somehow work into their music. Now, with Labyrinth, I think it is more fully realized and better thought-out. Way more epic.

In addition, Francesco Paoli has really outdone himself on the skins. Clearly, he is not human. Crushing performance, hands down.

The guitars are still buried beneath all the chaos going on, but they sound MUCH better than they did in Agony. A couple parts in Towards The Sun and all of Pathfinder in particular. Both killer and some of my favorite tracks. Interesting to note, how every guitar solo is much more simplistic this time around. I don't think there was even one sweep, at all. So they do take a backseat in that regard. In my opinion, I think there's enough technicality going on in the songs, if, that there were crazy wild-sweeping solos alongside, I think my head would spin.

Paolo's clean vocals are pushed back and not present as often. I do like the combination of both the harsh and clean vocals, rather than the clean on its own. While on the subject of vocals, the female operatic vocals are fairly good. It keeps the songs more varied (as predicted). I think it suits the concept and tone of the album well. Those really high notes though. Gah, did somebody pinch one of her nipples while she was in the middle of recording?

Something I see that goes unnoticed, or rarely touched upon, is their lyrics/ lyrical content. I think it is one of FGA's strongpoints. They've done an exceptional job in the past of creating meticulous, vicious and practically unlazy lyrics. Plenty of strength and emotion can be found in their words, imho. Unraveling the myth of the Labyrinth of Knossos while still maintaining a metaphor with our present times of "trying to find ourselves" really shines throughout this album. It is very well depicted.

Overall, this album is a great one. Better than Agony. If I were to give a score to each album/EP so far, it would be this:
Oracles 95%
Mafia 85%
Agony 80%
Labyrinth 90%

I'm not about to read the 250 posts in this thread, but I have no doubt you guys are fapping yourselves to death over this.

I can't believe this is the same band that did Oracles. This is pure garbage; poor song structures, muffled guitar sound, suffocating in power metal amount of keyboards... the list of failures just pile up track after track.

I just listened to this. Anyone who claims this is great. Is missing his ears. has nothing better to do or is just trying to annoy the shit out of every self respecting death metal fan.. What an unbelievable crap. totally nothing to do with death metal or extreme metal at all.

Oh yes its extreme ofcourse. extreme shit.

Okay, if your attitude wasn't so intolerable, an apology would be in order. I wonder though, if you haven't even heard it, why are you even commenting on others' experiences of the album, as if some given opinion on the album would be inherently questionable.

This is pretty symptomatic of modern metal. Utterly without any atmosphere or feeling besides 'loud,' and full of gimmicky crap like weird high pitched vocals and soprano vocals and orchestrations and shit...yeah, THAT will make your band good. Not like you actually need good songwriting, right? This is for kids who think anything with even the remotest "sophisticated music" influence must automatically be art. If you guys think this is that amazing, wait until you hear old Nightwish - way, way cooler than this crap.

I guess it's not too awful, just boring and hyperactive. Some parts, eh, aren't too bad, but mostly it's pretty childish stuff. Miles better than the last Septicflesh album for sure. It's really pretty middle of the road. Autothrall put it best in his review for Agony when he said:



Also, damn you guys made this thread into a shit-slinging fest. I mean wow. This band really brings out the immature whiners.

after listening to the whole album a few more times, It's not as bad as I originally thought. Some of the solos are pretty well done, better so than on Agony at least, and the symphonic stuff is a little bit better done, still waay overdone for my tastes but it's not as chaotic and boring in comparison to Agony. I still HATE these operatic female "until the fat lady sings" parts with a burning passion, and those weird prologue/epilogue tracks 3/4 of the way through the album were just stupid. Basically, the first 7 songs are decently done to just OK, while tracks 7-10 are a big pile of nasty crap. Their standard album-title-dark-piano-instrumental starts off really cool and then gets sorta shitty when they add in all the Dimmu Borgir chorus parts towards the end there.
It's still bad, but it's not as bad as some people on here are making it seem. This isn't some universal onslaught to music lovers, it's technical death metal that tries to experiment with orchestras and symphonies, of course it's gonna sound weird and out of place.

Well, I think that begs the question: are death metal and symphonic pseudo-classical music two genres that really work together in the same place at the same time? I've certainly heard symphonic *elements* tastefully and appropriately used in extreme metal plenty of times to great effect, but having an actual *symphony* (or a simulated one as the case may be) alongside what's already a complex style of music that it shares nothing with on a purely sonic level....it's just asking for a train wreck with too much going on. Obviously, this band's aesthetic is different from something like Wintersun but it ultimately suffers a similar fate.

I like Oracles though and also the Mafia EP That's why I'm probably pissed, they totally threw feces at their potential in my opinion.

I'm just finishing my first listen and I really like it. "Agony" was a strange album in that I think I only liked it because of how over-the-top it was. Listening to "Labyrinth", they've fixed nearly everything I didn't like with "Agony". For one thing, the drums are quieter and don't play blast beats 100% of the time. The drumming is far more varied on this release, and it really helps to break the monotony that the band used to have.

The use of symphonics is much better. Now they manage to compliment the music fairly often, and even when they don't, they still don't sound that out of place to me. I'm surprised at the lack of clean vocals that were prevalent before, but I guess those were replaced by the operatic vocals. She's really not a bad singer. I enjoyed her work in the first half of the record, but I just finished "Epilogue", and some of the lines in that song were a bit out there for me. Still nothing unbearable though.

I'm excited to give this a few more listens because I think it will end up having the most staying power of any of their releases aside from "Mafia". I really expected this to fall short, because a lot of bands who get this big quickly tend to release bad albums, but "Labyrinth" is very good IMO.

I saw these guys open for Wintersun a few days ago. From their dexterous playing to the synchronized hair-whipping, their performance was unmistakably professional. The actual music left something to be desired, though: Post-Nile 'new school death metal' featuring faux-classical tremolo melodies colliding with chug fodder riffs. Sprinkle in some sweeping solos, female vocals, keyboard orchestration, and any other misguided modern metal trope you can think of and voila! You have a recipe for success among the teenybopper metal demographic.

One thing I love about albums is the musical performance, Francesco Paoli's playing keeps me interested almost the whole record, and I'm not hating all the orchestral stuff, the guitars are more present here, so I'm liking this album more than Agony, but not nearly as much as Oracles.

This album cannot keep my attention at all. Every time I listen to it, it just becomes a blur and ends up as background noise, can't even really remember a note worthy or memorable section in any song.

I just saw these guys last night which was an awesome show. The drums were much too loud and the only reason I could follow along was because I knew the songs (and the drum tracks) so well, but it was still awesome. Ended up getting a Labyrinth shirt and the Labyrinth CD before the show started. After the set I was talking to some members, mostly Tommaso (vocalist/guitarist) and somewhat with the Francescos (pianist and drummer). I didn't ask if they would ever return to their old sound (which I don't have to, they made it clear they won't plenty of times in the past) but I did ask if they would ever return to playing old songs live they played nothing from Oracles or Mafia). Essentially the response I got was they'd only play old songs if they were headlining and had a long enough slot, or if they had enough albums out and had been around long enough for songs off their old stuff to be classics. For now, they fully intend to move forward and promote the new stuff they do. On the next tour, they plan on playing 6 songs off of Labyrinth instead of the 2 they currently are.

I'll probably get banned for this or something stupid like that, but I really don't care anymore. What the hell is this guy doing being a mod on this site? No wonder a lot of "outsiders" (for the lack of a better term) hate metal and metalheads. Now I finally get it. Apparently the very definition of "true metalhead" is "etilist wannabe who hates everything that has a melody". I think everyone here should get off their high horse and start appreciating the genre instead of constantly fighting over what is better. It can be done, guys, I've seen it before. Apparently you just don't want to learn.

Again, I'm starting to understand society a bit more now.


Oh, "unpopular preference alert": I really didn't like Oracles and Mafia, Agony is one of my all-time favorite albums (although I do agree with most of the people here that the production could've been a little less overdone). Haven't listened to Labyrinth yet but will do that right now.

His post was pretty retarded, but yours wasn't much better. Hating Fleshgod Apocalypse means we hate anything with a melody? Get real.

I listened to a song or two from this album, and...I dunno. It's very spastic and hyperactive, and of course competently performed, yet I honestly can't remember a single note that was played. I'll give it another shot later, I suppose.

Heh, I like this. It's a little more dynamic than Agony (which I also really enjoy), and there's a billion things happening at once when it's full on, but I don't mind that. This'll get some spins from me.

That wasn't directed at the community (which, to be fair, really isn't a community) as a whole, just Metantoine. I haven't seen a single positive review/message from him about any of the bands that aren't lo-fi black metal or extremely obscure stuff like that. Just seems like a really hipster-like thing to do.

Are you serious? From what I know, he enjoys a lot of Mastodon, Opeth, Primordial, Neurosis and stuff like that, that is just one of the very phew "negative" comments I've read from him.

Metantoine likes a huge amount of really diverse stuff but you can go on thinking he's an underground black metal elitist who hates melody if that makes you feel better about liking a crappy band.

Tony likes to review unreviewed albums, which is why all his reviews are for obscure things, he doesn't see the point of discussing the same bands over and over in reviews. Others have already discussed his love of more popular acts.

Hey, so it seems like people don't really like this album?

I enjoyed the album, I like all of their albums, really...

I dont listen to a lot of symphonic metal or power metal nor a ton of death metal anymore. So to me, they have a good blend that i enjoy.

That was a pretty silly thing to say, although I'm sure he was being hyperbolic, he just really hates it and probably wanted to like it. Most of us, being a "community" for lack of a better term(oh wait no, we're just regular forum-goers) realize that though. So please, don't jump in here, start accusing people you know jack shit about, about things you don't understand at all.

You obviously still don't understand society...

By the way, as far as I know, Metantoine field of expertise(at least from what I've seen on the rec forum) is doom, old school, sludgy, you name it. You're just using the kvlt black metal stereotype because it makes it easier for you to vent your anger...

For the win.

The more I listen to Labyrinth, the more I really like it.

"Pathfinder" is currently my favourite track, and contains my favourite riff/drum beat of the album around 35 seconds in. "Kingborn," "Elegy," and "Prologue/Epilogue" are all pretty good, too. I'm also getting used to all the female vocals, which I was a little apprehensive about at first, but they've quickly grown on me. Labyrinth is more dynamic than Agony - an album which I also really enjoy - and I think it works well (mostly - the first half of "Towards the Sun" needs to grow on me a bit more).

So yeah, I'm a fan of this one. Do I stand alone?

I listened a second time hoping I'd come to my senses and hate it, but I.still liked and even started making sense of it. I am ashamed of myself.

Embrace it!

Like I didn't even find it overlong like the first time, it all seemed to ebb and flow naturally and with some semblance of care. WHY CAN'T I FUCKING HATE YOU ALBUM! YOU'RE EVERYTHING I HATE!

hahahaha if you like it, then like it. If you hate it you hate it. Just own it and go on with your life. This band will never be much more than garbage to me that's no longer death metal, but something like that shouldn't keep you from enjoying it. There are people who love Waking the Cadaver as well.