Its as if they removed all the OSDM and just had condensed twisty, jerking pulses. Not that they were ever thrashy death which Emp was looking for, but they were in that school of OSDM with no thrash which started popping up through 92-96 or so which I loved. Without that dirty, more straight forward side it just sounds like a mechanical and slick musical approximation of "ramping" and it gives me a headache.

Damn you guys are picky with your death metal!

There was bound to be a time where the thrash elements would be removed altogether, but hearing people complaining about it? That's news to me. I know there are some people who dismiss the genre entirely if it doesn't have a scent of thrash, but after two decades and the genre itself going full circle with the recent revival one would think that younger fans of it would better understand the modernization of the genre.

CTAWB sounds like its cover album, and you're stuck in the middle of it. It's massive. It's brutal. It's overwhelming. But not liking it is also an option. Pretending that it's a lifeless affair though...

Haha yeah, the "death metal was best when it sounded like thrash" mindset seems to be less prevalent these days, which I'm thankful for, but that era of the band kinda stripped out the death metal too. Yeah, it's not really a lifeless affair or wankfest either, agreed.

androdion, I appreciate the opposing viewpoint, but I've had CTAWB since high school. I do like it to some extent, I just wouldn't go nuts and give it a 90+ score like some do. I don't see any negative opinions for it really, so I figured I'd just chip in mine, even though it's not like I have that much against the album or anything as a whole.

As for the "death metal = thrashy" thing, well yeah, that's a big part of what I like in my DM. But it's not like I don't like any DM without thrash elements in it. I just prefer my DM faster, more melodic and just a bit different from what Immolation do.

I actually wouldn't say the lifelessness in CTWAB is what I don't like about it - it's an interesting element of their sound, a very harsh and demonic sort of aura, even if it's not my #1 sound for DM. It's more the stodginess of the riffing. I don't really get as much enjoyment from that as some do. I wouldn't really say the songwriting gets my rocks off very much either, but then, the review established such already...haha.

He he, it's cool bro. I'm all about people "bashing" revereds album with a good reasoning and in a well written manner. My only (slight) criticism about yours would be the insistence about the lyric department, and to give a small nod about it, I can't for instance take Deicide serious whereas Immolation I can. Lyrically that is. It has to do with the later doing the anti-Christian thing with, say, more charm and in a more mature way than the former. I think that lumping Immolation with all the Satanic wannabes is a bit inaccurate.

I just wanted to share my personal experience with Immolation with you because it was something peculiar. It's pretty well known that I'm a death metal nut, so one would expect for me to be all over them at all times. Yet it took me a long fucking time to be able to properly digest what the band tries to achieve sonically. I remember that when I was first listening to Autopsy, Death, Atheist and all that stuff it took me a few months to understand Suffocation. But you know, a few months is understandable, now eight years? You know?! And funny thing is that when reading through people's reactions to their back catalogue I often sense some sort of cursory misdirection when judgements are passed, because as much as you want to you just don't put Immolation spinning and get it from the get go. It's way too dense and has too much stress and semi-technical flair for the new listener to just grasp it easily. I'd say that it's easily one of the hardest OSDM bands to get into. So yeah, I thought a bit of a nod in that direction could be in order.

Maybe one day, some years from now, you try Here In After or Dawn Of Possession and some light gets suddenly lit. Maybe, I don't know. It happened to me so it can happen to anyone.

Immolation are smarter than Deicide, but they're also not exactly eloquent or engaging. I don't think they ever tried to be, but even so, the lyrical direction is just dull to me is all.

I do remember enjoying Shadows of the Light when it came out. Dunno how much I'd like it now though.

I find Immolation's anti-Christian lyrics to be extremely overrated. Very childish and silly to me, on the other hand I don't really care about lyrics so that doesn't bother me much.

Their lyrics are far from being some sort of deep, soul-scouring poetry, but I actually do find their take on the issue refreshing. They don't even really seem very outsider-y or fundamentally adversarial to me; they almost read more like someone who was deeply religious having been done loads of personal and spiritual wrongs by the Church and its teachings. That sort of vagueness about the exact direction they're coming from is pretty intriguing, I think.

I haven't read Emp's review yet, but I'm glad to see that there are some other dm fans who aren't constantly fawning over that album. Here in After is far, far superior.

Though CTAWB is one of my favourite DM albums, I can see where you're coming from, Empyreal. I must ask though, have you listened to the albums preceding it? I think it's much easier to appreciate the claustrophobic sound if you have, since it's a very logical culmination of their sound up till that point.

In general the CTAWB review was excellent, but calling Entombed "cosmic and Lovecraftian" kind of made me go

I was talking about Clandestine, i.e. the only one I really give a shit about that much. The debut and Nihilist are good too though, and maybe I should have included other adjectives for those.

And nope I haven't heard all of Immolation's albums - the debut is pretty decent though. I've been meaning to hear Here in After for years now.

HIA marries the pulsey, odd elements of their mid era sound and really good, dirty OSDM, so its a bit of a "best of both worlds" thing. You owe yourself a listen, its pretty goddamned fantastic.

x2

x3 great one sentence description.

I. FEEL......

....NOOOTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGGGG

Here In After is probably their dirtiest and most savage sounding album. Though the debut has a brilliant energetic quality to it, Here In After simply sounds more volatile and destructive.

I really liked Liquid Braino's review of Arcane Rain Fell, lots of jokes that hit the mark, and does a good job of demonstrating the ratio of beauty to beast ("like a blooming rosebush in front of a burning orphanage") and generally kept me entertained. Sadly I have absolutely zero taste cross over with the guy so I have no idea if he's even remotely enjoyable overall, so that one will have to do.

And conversely the new Primordial one is terrible, its their most hopeful, proud and most catchy and varied (they were quite happy with two or three riff songs previously), yet he claims the exact opposite. And the entire musical analysis is one giant wall of text paragraph.

I hope his wife doesn't read his review though.

In other news, Monolith of Inhumanity got another 100%... Go figure...

The hype for Monolith of Inhumanity is kind of pissing me off. Yes, Cattle Decapitation doesn't sound actively and offensively disjointed anymore, that doesn't mean we need to give them the gold medal just for participation. It is the best Relapse/Metal Blade-esque modern deathgrind you're going to get, but that isn't really saying much.

Liquid_Braino is a damn genius. Not only is he consistently hilarious, but he's expertly descriptive and a fan of Japanese weeaboo flower metal. He is my spirit horse.

Replace "spirit horse" with "creepy uncle" and you're dead on.

"At least I don't get asked to buy beer by those without plastic wristbands anymore, I'm guessing because youngsters might think I'm a narc or something. If there's a band out there, though, that can currently instill in me the will to plow my way to the front of the stage again, it's these women, for reasons both musically and otherwise...with "otherwise" being the key factor."

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/A ... uid_Braino

I like his review for Alhambra "Fadista" a lot. Already being familiar with that album, I had a good laugh when I saw the review title. As disturbing of a thought as this is, Junko Sera is even louder and more intense-sounding live than on CD (I own their live DVD).

Liquid_Braino is awesome. I want to be like him when I grow him.

I always viewed Liquid Braino as a liquid version of Braino, used for clearing your brain like Drano is used for drains.

Though technically, you can probably drain your brain by drinking Drano as well though Braino is probably more safe.

...wait, what?

@ Empyreal: The Arsis go-to insult is "arses." Just so you know.

That knowledge makes me a more whole person inside.

Fuck. Grow up! I want to be like him when I grow up!

Suuuuuure. Your secret "clone your favorite M-A reviewers in commercial-sized pickle jars so you can harvest their stem cells and inject them into your own brain tissue" plot has been uncovered!

I couldn't relate much to the music he reviews often but they're no doubt hilarious.

Hey, guys, now that reissues under new band names are now safe from deletion, those of you who have written reviews for them can move them to the more fitting location (assuming of course the reissued album has gotten its own new page). If not, by all means add them.

Wow! I've heard that Florida was not all it was cracked up to be, but bitterman's reviewing really takes it to a new level (take a look at the location of almost every single "underground" band he has reviewed). Guess the guy doesn't like his local metal scene too much...

Until I see something out of bitterman that has a score above 20, I'm going on the assumption that the guy doesn't like metal, period.

Aaaaand that's the sound of the ANUSites coming to tell us how wrong you are and how visionary this guy is and how stupid all of us are for actually enjoying anything.

Ah yes, what I've come to call the ANUS conundrum, or to put it more plainly, everyone trying to comprehend the garbled, pseudological ravings of people who've admittedly disappeared up their own rectums.

But on a more pleasant note, I thought you did a commendable job on your review of Arsis' latest. I was going to hit that one at some point soon and I think it's the weakest one they've done, though I don't think it annoyed me quite as much as it did you.

I actually don't mind bitterman's reviews (I mean, it's kind of a huge waste of time I think, but hey, whatever floats your boat), I just think that whole "philosophy" is absolutely ridiculous really. It's a joke.

Thanks. Really I'm just tired of those Nuclear Blast type trends, though I like some of the NB bands quite a bit. You should go ahead and review it too.

Going off his profile, he likes Pure Holocaust, The Red in the Sky is Ours, Onward to Golgotha and 12 other albums at the very least. Make of that what you will.

Took me a minute to make the deathmetal.org/ANUS connection. Saw the former for the first time last night and while I didn't mind some of the reviews, seeing them trash Let the Devil In and The Murder of Jesus the Jew was just

Is this deathmetal.org/anus site safe for work? I'm kind of curious to see how idiots who claim to like black metal or extreme metal in general can trash an album like LTDI. Never met any metal fan who doesn't love that even my "I only listen to DM" friends. These guys must have defective ears.

It's SFW, don't worry; there's no actual porn on the websites. (There are two of them, by the way: http://www.anus.com/metal/ and http://www.deathmetal.org/.) Possibly the most cynical, artsy-fartsy collective of metal fans out there.