Metal Reviews

Yeah I think applies to all of metallica/megadeth/slayer/anthrax

personally I can't choose a favourite thrash album because all theb ands sound so damn similar

personaly for me its exodus - tempo of the damned...truly amazing...an underrated band in my book

Tempo of the Damned I would qualify as overrated- everyone calls it one of the best modern thrash albums, but most of it is completely groove laden. A few good songs, but its beaten by lots of modern thrash. I'd say that Pleasures of the Flesh is underrated, however.

My favourite modern thrash album is Dekapitator's new one

if I had to pick a favourite overall thrash album right at this moment I'd go with Coroner - Punishment for Decadence.

i love it though...agree that it is more groove-laden

Well here is just more to support my theory that anything coming out of Finland is overrated. Everyone seem to think exacly like you regarding Finland and it's supposedly great metal. Tbh i couldn't think of anymore annoying music to listen to. Excessively keyboard driven, and with singers who either can't speak english properly, or wail like they need to go to the bathroom. The bands aren't the least bit original either but just live of the classic bands, and when there is some innovation going on it's by meshing different formulas like opera or cello music with metal, power metal with black metal and so on just because it hasn't been done before. I could start a band today and mix it with Reggae music and it would probably be hailed as the next Nightwish. Which brings me to my next point, Nightwish has to be the most overrated band ever. I wouldn't object to 8 year old girls digging it, but grown up people who has a firmly grounded taste in metal actually like this radio-devoured goth/pop crap? Thats just always been freaky to me.

/rant over

A-fucking-men. There is a strong underground scene in Finland (Clandestine Blaze is one of the best BM bands in the world at the moment) but most of the more mainstream bands can FOAD for all i care.

I definately agree, especially about all that keyboard bullshit.

It does get a lot of hoopla for being Metallica's "last good album," etc. Even though I actually find the Load twins to be superior in many ways (songwriting, complexity, etc). That's why I think it's overrated.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds MOP boring in places. I wouldn't really call it "overrated" since, as I've said before, it was basically the blueprint for all future heavy metal albums through its complexity, technical mastery, and emotion/passion. And I'm guessing that, at the time, this was mindblowing/groundbreaking. But it's also a very repetitive album. Leper Messiah is IMO one of the worst songs Metallica's ever written. And musically, the album's already been outdone in almost every area. Thus, after listening to more recent metal albums/bands, it's really hard to be as impressed by MOP as I was when I first got into it over seven years ago.

OVAR:

Carcass - Heartwork : Come on. It's just lame.

Mayhem - Ordo Ad Chao : What's with all the rave reviews? It's boring as hell.

Negura Bunget - OM : They've had much better releases than this.

Melechesh - Emissaries : Sphynx shits all over this one.

UNDAR:

Dimension F3H - Better than some of Limbonic Art. Now that they're back it will be hard to top DF3H.

Cyrptopsy - Once Was Not : probably the best tech-death album in history but not hailed as such.

The Crown - Criminally underrated as a whole.

Funeral Mist - Salvation : One of the top 3 BM releases of all time and no one even listened to it.

That album goes right over my head. I can tell they're doing something good, but I just don't get it.

i mostly agree, but there are some gems from finland to...as in every country almost...for my part i think germany,norway, and sweden delivers the best metal nowadays

The second song of that album totally kicks ass. I'm still waiting for the rest of it to "click" :O

I'd put Cryptopsy on my overrated list for being another "gets painfully tedious after 10 minute" brutal death metal band.

Or just every brutal death metal band ever.

OVER:

Metallica - The Black Album
C'mon, it's poppy, simplistic, and it's over played. There is some good tunes, like Wherever I May Roam, My Friend of Misery, The God That Failed, Sad But True, but the idea that it's some kind of hallmark for Heavy Metal in general is false. If anything it spawned legions of dumbed down metal bands who lived and died by the dropped D tuning.


Metallica - Load and ReLoad
I like Hard Rock, in fact I love the shit. But these albums epitomize the absolute worst of the genre. Pedestrian songwriting, a lot of the lyrics are plain nonsense, and there's a lot of filler to be found here. They could have cut the crap and made one decent HR album, instead of two mediocre ones. There's too much garbage like Ronnie, Better Than You, Mama Said, The Memory Remains, and not enough stuff like The Outlaw Torn, Bleeding Me, and Fixxxer.

Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction
The first sign that Dave just wasn't going to let the Metallica thing go. The Remastered edition reveals a slighty heavier album than the shitty Max Norman mix, but it's really just not that good. After the strong start of the first 3 songs, the album turns into a dreadful bore, with High Speed Dirt being one of the stupidest Megadeth songs ever written. Ashes In Your Mouth is the only song I would revere as being a classic Deth song, and that's due to the fantastic deuling solo run at the end of the song. I really have no use for this album.

Emperor - In the Nightside Eclpise
I love this album, but Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk is the bands crowning acheivement. ITNE sounds a little bit trepidatious, like Ihsahn was ready for the full blown Blackened Prog hybrid sound they would later unleash, but the Black Metal scene wasn't quite ready for it.

Darkthrone - Transylvanian Hunger
It's good for what it is, but it's not that great. I can appreciate minimalism, but this in rather uninteresting minimalism. Give me A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Soulside Journey, Total Death, Plaquewielder or even the Cult is Alive over this.

Morbid Angel - Domination
Ehh, hate to say it, but this is commercial Death Metal. It's starts out decently enough, but quickly devovles into boring, and downright weak trash.

Cannibal Corpse - The entire Chris Barnes era
Corpesgrinder is a better vocalist, the band is much tighter now, the music is faster, Mazurickawitz is a better lyricst than Barnes, etc. etc. The band is just overall better know, and they are producing some truly memorable material now.

UNDER

Anthrax - the Sound of White Noise
One of the best albums in the entire Anthrax catalogue. John Bush was in top form on this album, you still had Spitz's odd solos, and the band was very tight on this release. It's heavy as fuck yet catchy at the same time. The lyrics are tought provoking, and the running theme of Fuck Poseurs makes this one a real winner. It's anthemic, it's ful of venom, and it blows the Persistence of Time away. This is serious Anthrax done the right way, and This is Not an Exit is one of the best songs Anthrax ever wrote.

Emperor - IX Equilibrium
A lot of people don't care for this one, and I can't see why. There is a lot of layers to the music, it's still well within the Black Metal realm, and it's not as wanky and self important as Prometheus. It's also a little more gronded than Anthems to the Welkin. The Warriors of Modern Death is one of the best Heavy Metal songs ever.

Venom - Cast in Stone
This is the album that proved all of the peole who said Venom can't play wrong, and kicked them in the teeth to boot. It takes all of the best elements of the entire preceeding Venom catalogue and puts it together in a crushingly heavy and concise package. It's also one of the best lyrical efforts from Cronos, with songs that actually have meaning as opposed to the over the top Hail Satan cheese the band had become known for.

Slayer - Show No Mercy
NWOBHM inspired speed metal goodness from the Slayer camp before they became over-serious and inconsistent. This album has riff after riff of molten lava, and the band was embracing the cheese factor of the early 80's. Die by the Sword, the Antichrist, Crionics, every song here is just flat out awesome. This album is 20 times better than Reign in Blood, and a hell of a lot more fun. Tom Araya also never sounded as good as he did here.

Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer
The forgotten Dio Black Sabbath album. I don't see why eithier. the material is just as good as Heaven and Hell and the Mob Rules, and has better production than both of those albums. It's not instantly memorable like the Mob Rules, but after a few spins you start humming the songs. Time Machine is kind of goofy, but stuff like Letters From Earth, Sins of the Father, I, Master of Insanity are all worthy additions to the Black Sabbath catalogue.

Satyricon - Rebel Extravaganza
This album blows my mind everytime I listen to it. A very experimental album that feature odd song structures and a bottom end that is written towards Frost's strenghts. In fact, Frost is one of the reasons why this album is so good. Satyr finally let him just cut loose on this one, and arranged the songs around him. I've never heard another album quite like it. A lot of people got turned off because the single, A Moment of Clarity is a rather simplistic song that would have fit better on Volcano or even better on Now, Diabolical. The rest of the album is miles ahead of that song, and if you don't like shit like Prime Evil Renassaince, Havok Vulture, Supersonic Journey, and the Scorn Torrent, there's soemthing wrong with you.

Judas Priest - Rocka Rolla
Sure it's not the Priest that we all came to know and love, but this is a solid Hard Rock record. This is the Hard Rock that Metallica wishes they could pull off. Winter, Deep Freeze, and Winter Retreat is a haunting trilogy of songs, they are pretty much the blueprint for the following Sad Wings album, and hold up really well with the rest of the JP catalogue. One For the Road, the title track, Cheater, and Run of the Mill are all classic Hard Rock at it's finest. I love that late 70's sound, and this album is a testament as to why that was such an important time in Hard Rock/Heavy Metal history.

Yeah, but at least you can find Om easily, and not madly overpriced by some chancey hoper on eBay.

Agreed 100%.

Agreed, but speaking of Sabbath...

Black Sabbath- The Eternal Idol

My favourite Sabbath album, yet nobody ever seems to have listened to it. It doesn't have Ozzy (thankfully) nor Dio, but Tony Martin gives a damn good performance of his own- certainly better than anything Ozzy's pulled off in his life. It really is just some damn good old style power metal.

Definitely agree with these, although I'm not really sure if Domination is really regarded that highly.

I've listened to it obviously, and it's my favorite Tony Martin era album. The song Eternal Idol is especially dark and depressing, but awesome. Hard Life to Love has a fucking badass riff too. Hell, all of the Tony Martin albums are underrated except for Forbidden, which deserves it's bargain bin status.