Metal Reviews

To create some controversy, no, Blood in Our Wells isn't that great.

My Drudkh List:

1. Autumn Aurora
2. The Swan Road
3. Forgotten Legends
4. Estrangement
5. Blood in Our Wells
6. Microcosmos

Estrangement at 4?!

Yep, I like it, reminds me of the old albums without the overly folksy/melodic feel of Microcosmos or the...... uhhhhh I don't even know why I don't like Blood on Our Wells that much, I just don't. Just 4 songs of fantastic black metal riffery.

I've always heard those bands talked about as total shitfests. Have I been told wrong?

Skinless is pretty good actually. Can't say the same for Brain Drill though, just pointless uber technical death metal with the most annoying drum sound ever.

I saw Skinless live a while back and it was pretty good, but I don't listen to them or anything. Maybe I should.

Possibly. Whenever I hang out with this guy we just shoot the shit, and play a bunch of metal we've heard recently to each other and what have you. He showed me a few Skinless tracks, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was really brutal, and technical, the way I like it.

I'm getting a hold of an album, so I'll let you know what's up afterwards.

As for Brain Drill, they weren't awesome, I liked Skinless more, but they weren't bad either.

Also, on the topic of Drudkh, I only have 3 of their CD's, but I really don't think you can go wrong with anything they've done.

Thinking about it, Isis - Oceanic might be the most important metal album of the 00s. It really got the ball rolling on post-metal, and practically created what some call hipster metal that's actually RLY GD metal. Influenced just about everyone, too.

Some Opeth album would probably make second. This is all after three minutes' thought, of course.

I've been thinking about this now since I read your post, and its quite an interesting topic to think about. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to come up with a decent sized list, but after some thought I think I've proven myself wrong. Nearly none if any of the albums on my list are as "earthshattering" as old favourites, but there are some that were still great. Some parts are also just "my faves of the last ten years" rather than those I truly thought were best. The list is in no particular order though I will note the ones that I thought were absolutely mindblowing or all around awesome.

Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal - In typical BT fashion this album is one of the best death metal albums not just of the last decade but of all time. Very few albums can compete with this.
Vader - Litany - Again, one of the best not only of the last decade but of all time. Very few albums out there literally nail your ass to the wall the minute you push play. Fucking brilliant death metal.
Vreid - Milorg - A rare breed among concept albums. No filler. No bullshit. Every song is meant to be there and delivers 100%.
Peste Noire - La Sanie des siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence - In a decade where black metal generally saw a decrease in quality there is some hope, apparently.
Destroyer 666 - Cold Steel...For An Iron Age Need I say more.
Nifelheim - Servants of Darkness *drool*
Carpathian Forest - Strange Old Brew
Carpathian Forest - Defending the Throne of Evil
Sotajumala - Death Metal Finland
Windir 1184
Windir - Likferd The above two aren't as great as Arntor but still better than most albums that came out the last decade.
Fuck Off and Die! - No Peace. No Love. No Whores. No God.
Fuck Off and Die! - Anti All *more drooling*
Hate Forest - The Most Ancient Ones
Akitsa - La Grande Infamie Akitsa is raw black metal of the last decade finally done right, and this album is the epitome of it all. In an age of "progressive-post-postpost-über experimental-avantgarde-modern-lulz look at me and how openminded I am" bands, Akitsa proves you don't need that shit to write something unique and mindblowing.
Weapon - Para Bhakti...Salvation
Weapon - Violated Hejab and more great black metal from Canada. Again, something exciting in a stagnant decade.
Horna - Sudentaival
Horna - Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne
Horna - Aania Yossa
Azaghal - Of Beasts and Vultures
Azaghal - Perkeleen Luoma
Judas Iscariot - To Embrace the Corpses Bleeding I admit I love everything Akhenaten has ever put out, despite the fact that this album is a little weaker than past albums. Still better than the vast majority of the black metal put out the last decade.
Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult - Nocturnal March
Wyrd - Huldrafolk
Nokturnal Mortum - Mirovozzrenie
Lunar Aurora - Andacht omg more interesting 00's black metal?
Myrkgrav - Trollskau, Skromt og Kolabrenning
Nocturnal - Arrival of the Carnivore
Tyrant - Reclaim the Flame My oh my how I love this album
Angantyr - Sejr
Armagedda - Only True Believers
Dub Buk - Idu na Wy
Cor Scorpii - Monument As with everything the guys from Windir do...

I'm sure I left something out but there you go.

Please....please, good sir...the bile is rising in my throat That Oceanic "influenced just about everyone" is such a...I would say overstatement but that would require that it be influencial on a significiant portion of metal to begin with.

Well, obviously I'm not talking the deepest darkest underground, nor was I suggesting that Bolt Thrower were influenced by it. But it was pretty darned influential. Enslaved? A lot of modern 'core? Anything remotely atmospheric that isn't Black Metal?

I'm going to have to check a few names on your list out, although calling Those Once Loyal one of the best of all time is a bit of an overstatement, surely? And Vader, eh...

Perhaps anything under the "progressive" etc. moniker (as shown with the Enslaved example, and you can probably throw in such bands as Borknagar and co. too but are they really representative?) but anything atmospheric that is not black metal? I definitely disagree. Looking even into doom metal I think you'd be hardpressed to find a lot of Isis influence across the board. Power metal, I'm not expert but I dunno I suppose I better not comment. Basically you're cutting out anything that isn't -core (metalcore, deathcore etc.), melodeth, gothic metal and generally progg/experimental...which means your cutting out a hell of a lot of the metal genre.



I honestly do think that Those Once Loyal and Litany are up there among the best death metal albums of all time, and wouldn't hesitate to say that they stand beside many of death metal's classics in quality. Bolt Thrower has been one of the most consistently great bands in death metal history, and I would not hesitate to place Those Once Loyal beside, say, Cause of Death of which I'm also a great fan. Same with Litany.

Edit, oh and I should probably add, it depends on which names on my list you wanted to check out. For example, if you check out Tyrant's Reclaim the Flame it will depend on what you're looking for. The Hellhammer influence is pretty in your face but to me this band do it right. Depends on what you prefer. A lot of the "drooling" comments were in reference to the more "thrashy" or gritty black metal bands on the list.

To be honest it's a pretty damn near impossible question to answer, and I was throwing Isis out to start debate as much as anything, I admit that it was a bit of a debatable choice but then what answer wouldn't be? Picked up a copy of Kerrang in the supermarket just now to see what their album of the decade was. Fucking Green Day - American Idiot. At least we can agree that that wasn't.

I wouldn't even call TOL a Bolt Thrower best, really, let alone a Death Metal best, but I can see why you like it. And eh, I'll try 'em, I do dig a bit of Hellhammer but prefer Celtic F.

Well it depends on whether we're answering the question of the "most important" album, the "best" albums or merely favourites. Personally when it comes to the most important I'm not sure I'd really have an answer either. We could easily take the perspective of "most influential" albums according to the sub-genres that saw a great rise (and likely fall) in popularity during the 2000's. In that case we'd probably be looking at, as an example, Funeral Mists' Devilry (before 2000 but still works in that example) and the rise of "orthodox" black metal. We could also look at the albums that kick started the "new wave" of thrash or perhaps a lot of the tech. death albums of the last decade. And of course in that respect we could look at your Isis and Opeth for their influence on music I don't like. Hell, when considering death metal we could even consider albums like Litany as pretty influential in the last decade, probably as the most influential Vader album since De Profundis.

But then again, influential is not always good, which is evidenced by many of the trends that popped up in metal during the last decade. It seems with the fall of Korn and co. an even worse beast arose. Personally I went with "bests" and "favourites", which I tried to give some distinction between.



What do you mean it isn't! Like, everybody, like, loved that album like!:wink:



Well we agree that it isn't Bolt Thrower's best, actually. My personally favourite is Realm of Chaos (however, it obviously cannot make this list) and then TOL probably tying with Warmaster...or somewhere there abouts, though in all honesty its very difficult for me to choose a favourite BT album. Realm of Chaos was my first so it'll likely always take first place with me, but taking that into consideration it would probably turn into a RoC with first and every other Bolt Thrower album in second...perhaps with Mercenary somewhere between second and third. Either way, I still see TOL as one of the best death metal albums of the decade and of all time (along with a large part of their discography).

What is it about the album that makes you believe otherwise, out of curiosity? I would bring up points for its greatness, but I am not entirely sure of what it is that takes away from that album for you, and so I am not entirely sure which aspects of it to discuss first...unless I turn out another train-like post covering the whole damned thing

I'm not sure, to be honest... it is a great album, and I'd have to listen to it again and write a train-like post myself to really state it. In terms of personal favourites, it's hard to pick, but Warmaster and The IVth Crusade are close to the top. What do you think of In Battle There Is No Law? That'll probably be the next BT I write up.

That should be an interesting review. I really like In Battle, though I seem to get some strange looks for it on occasion, particularly a friend who thinks that TOL is the be all and end all of Bolt Thrower. Its a little strange to me that there seems to be that divide between fans on this album, but at the same time logical since, even though Bolt Thrower aren't known for being "clean", there is definitely more of a sense of order on every album after (in a way it is more the "realm of chaos" than their second. Among many there seems to be a concensus of when something becomes "too unclean" or beyond some kind of "grit" threshold. But its still an interesting album at least to consider where the band's roots lie, and how they evolved.

I do think it seems a bit silly when some love RoC and write off In Battle, since the roots are still occasionally clear on RoC anyway. Where the albums that followed dragged you through the dust and made the earth shake to the point where you can no longer distinguish between tremors, In Battle was more along the lines of dragging you through blood, piss and vomit. Its less clean, less sophisticated, not as heavy in the sense of bass-centredness and prominence, but it doesn't need to be for what it is. In short, not my favourite Bolt Thrower album but it definitely has its place. That said, I don't think you can go into listening to that album expecting the same as what you'd expect from Warmaster or any other proceeding album, and it shouldn't be judged alongside the rest of the discography that is for sure.

When did a new Vreid come out?

Personally Idu Na Wy is one of the best NSBM albums ever. Too bad Rus Ponad whatever its called wasn't any good.

And personally I rate Andacht to be supremely boring compared to the incredible Ars moriendi.

January or February, I forget which. If you haven't heard it yet then get to it. It is their best yet. That album is seriously fucking awesome.



Agreed for sure.



I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of Andacht's awesomeness! Seriously, I disagree though I do love all their albums, but to me Andacht definitely rises above Ars Moriendi. Andacht is the album where everything most came together, then again Ars is a slightly different beast, but even in what it strives for Andacht is far more relentless and the music far more "descriptive" in the sense that its practically like watching a movie, especially with tracks like Dunkler Mann and Der Pakt. Even after many listens, I felt myself caught off guard by the eerieness of it. Its wonderfully unsettling. When you think of the basic musical "requirements" of black metal and how much has been done, and how rare it is to find someone producing truly unique black metal. It continues to boggle my mind how bands like Lunar Aurora can take the most basic elements and turn it into something that spinetingling, especially when you consider how simple the music itself is. Their creativity and compositional skills are phenomenal. How on earth can you call it boring?

Hell, with a rant like that I'll give it a few more spins, maybe I dismissed it too quick back when it was released

And shit, I have all the Vreid albums, I can't believe I missed a new one :o

An interesting thing to look at too (since this is a non-thrash thread, but can also be looked at in conjunction with the current retro fad) is which sub-genres or sub-sub-genres or bands received a lot of hype and were acclaimed "masterpieces" when they came out, and yet kind of faded a way.

As we've seen the rise of the current "new wave of thrash" fad, we also saw the decline of black metal as far as listeners seem to be concerned, at least compared to the early to mid- 2000s. It seems that for a while there, quite a few people were flocking to what has been termed as "orthodox black metal", and while it didn't receive the media attention that this recent wave of thrash acts has, black metal has never really been as marketable as genres like thrash anyway. Suddenly everyone's favourite bands were Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist or Ondskapt...and those that dug a little deeper fell in love with Heresi, Ofermod and countless others. Honestly when it first came out I thought Si Monumentum was great, and I still enjoy Salvation and Mysterion tes anomias once in a while, but how well did these albums really stand the test of time.

Honestly, I don't think any of those bands stood the test of time at all. Everything after Si Monumentum was pretty mediocre, and even that album lost its charm after awhile, being an album that I found could only be played every so often before I lost interest. Maranatha was an absolute flop, a half-baked attempt at the atmosphere of Salvation that just ended up utilising the typical tactics that an artist who can no longer replicate his own work tends to fall back on: long repetitive passages that cling to a single riff or two for dear life, along with some attempts to appear to be doing something experimental or different. It really didn't work here.

Ofermod didn't really hit that wall, but then they never carried with them expectations that the above two did.

But after years of being talked about, how many are left loving these albums as they once did? Are any of these an In the Nightside Eclipse or a Hvis lyset tar oss? Definitely not. So while I see some people still listing DsO and Funeral Mist as producing some of the best albums of the year or of the decade, I really wonder if these same people will be saying the same thing in another ten years. What was it that really made people love these albums? Were DsO really doing anything that creative and great? I think the album structure of Si Monumentum was interesting, and when I think back there are still some good tracks on there, but does it all hold together well? I would say that the album was a success up until about half way through, at which point it began to sputter out. The first half certainly does give a good impression, but then there is a sense of filler in order to give it length. Looking at Salvation I get a similar feeling. Among a lot of good songs, there is also a decent amount of filler. The quest for atmosphere and the appearance of experimentation really kill a good amount of what could have otherwise been good releases.

Discuss? Orthodox black metal. A fad. How did it pan out? And oddly enough seems to have died out with the rise of the thrash fad...