Metal Reviews

Zad, that album cover is intriguing.



A good day to you all. I don't think I will ever grow weary of 80's Maiden. This album was one of the first few albums that exposed me to the spectacular music of Maiden's boundless stamina for riffage. This album is to set the mood for the day to come. I shall be alternating between the classics and more modern music but this album is relatively succinct and short to take us elsewhere through the course of the day.

I have shook Sakis' hand (amongst many other well-known and notable musicians in the metal community), and I remember he walked with complete conviction after the set, with his guitar in his hand. What a man. Needless to say that this album is unlike anything else which was released around the same time, at least as far as I have heard. The production on this album is phenomenal that it almost sounds like a live album from a band that is in perfect unity. Not that their live performance was anything other than that.

Even in the deepest levels of absolute despair there is ample room for the generation of the most extraordinary artistic resilience as an antidote to human fallenness and human fallibility. This album is testament to this human spirit. Sorrow teaches wisdom.

(Both discs) This album certainly lives up to its title name and some more. Ghastly, horrific, terrifyingly beautiful, colossally tragic. This kind of music must be played at high volume with high fidelity headphones and a quite and calm mind to absorb it to its fullest range. Quite the aural experience and almost equal to a 19th century citizen experiencing a Wagnerian opera live in all its might.

Onward towards more life-affirming music. The avant-garde nature of Solefald's music makes them immediately unpopular with the multitude of metal fans. But we cannot rely on popularity for our taste in music nor can we rely on popular taste for the accuracy of our judgement about music in general. Ingenious, vastly imaginative and uncompromisingly original. A foundational work in the avant-garde metal music landscape. Valiant and wonderfully bizarre.

The all-embracing melodicism of this album and the charismatic constitute of their now absent vocalist makes a world of difference to the once ancient quality of early Amorphis. As much as I can appreciate and thoroughly enjoy new Amorphis, the old charm has certainly left this band, in my opinion and that rare quality for melody building. What once was.

It is quite often the case that I am deficient in Maiden vitamins and minerals. I don't think this album is comparable to anything else I have heard in the past 20 odd years of persistent music listening, metal or otherwise. Maiden's music is all there is needed to plead for peace or wage the most violent of wars and that's an god-awful lot.

A recording to get me prepared for the night's slumber. Nothing as sedative as the music of one of metal's most finest. Until another tomorrow.

Looking forward to my first listen of that new Marduk, hopefully an improvement on Viktoria.

Was:



Early DT at their best, just prior to Gallery.

Now:



Yearning and mournful, still my favourite of theirs I think.

I was a few days listening to Immutable and liked that very much. It is time to go back a bit in their back-catalogue. I had heard this album upon its release and had heard it once again a few months back, but Meshuggah is always interesting and certainly a challenge if the listener is truly paying attention to the music which is being played. A most outstanding way to start a late morning day to become tormented by one of metal's true originators. They certainly find more playing time for me personally, nowadays, than previously. Never smooth sailing, to be sure.

Husker that^ was released today, right? How is it?