Metal Reviews

Agreed with Aaron on Crowbar, and there are a few sludge bands people ignore because of the vocals, yet are quite happy listening to 3 Inches Of Blood. Strange.

Also:
Meads Of Asphodel, one of the most unique and experimental bands in existance, and they get ignored. Why?

Tribes Of Neurot, like Neurosis but more ambient, still amazing stuff.

Early Mortiis, and his various side-projects. An acquired taste, but brilliant music.

Enslaved haven't made a bad album.

And why do people listen to Cradle and Dimmu when there are far better bands out there, such as Tvangeste and Tidfall?

Not that Better Than Raw was ever slammed by metal fans. But that album is just so fucking amazing that it easily ranks among my top 5 favorite power metal albums (ditto to 2000's The Dark Ride). It just seems somewhat overlooked now because of all the praise and fanfare the two Keepers albums get. Not that those aren't also excellent albums, but for me Helloween is a rare example of a band whose best work happens to be their most recent.

I do agree that Rabbit... is also very underrated. Actually, it was probably the closest Deris-era Helloween ever got to the Keepers sound (though I still have yet to seriously listen to The Legacy).



Ha! If you think the production on the final Glorious Burden album is weak, you should listen to the production on The Reckoning EP that was released a few months prior (yep, I'm such an Iced Earth fanboy that I bought The Reckoning EP despite the fact that TGB was being released just a couple weeks later) - sounds almost like it came out of a garage.

Anyway, I didn't really find the production on TGB to be much weaker than it was on previous Iced Earth albums. Their drummers have always sounded (to me) like they were drumming on Quaker Oat Meal boxes and their guitar sound was always somewhat flat (possibly because of the Eb tuning they generally used). Sometimes I think reviewers purposely slammed TGB because of the way Jon Schaffer was ranting and raving about it every three seconds rather than because of the actual musical quality.

A lot of great/popular metal albums have their rebels. Saying Judas Priest's '70s material is underrated would be like saying the game Final Fantasy VII is underrated. Yeah, there are the "rebels" who have to be different and say, "Judas Priest was garbage until Hell Bent For Leather/Defenders Of The Faith" or "Final Fantasy VII is crap. FF6 was the last good Final Fantasy." But the general consensus is that these are considered masterpieces. Hell, Stained Glass by JP is widely regarded as one of the greatest metal albums of all time. THE greatest by the guy that runs the BNR Metal Pages.

I agree. As for the last two, Cross Puposes is excellent. It has an Ozzy era feel to the riffing and Tony Martin is always top notch. Evil Eye is one of the best songs to come from that era. As for the final one Forbidden, it should be forbbiden to exist. Lame, boring, repetive songs and a collaboration with Ice T?

It's funny, I love The Dark Ride, but I honestly don't see what the big deal is with that one. It's a great album, but I think many other Helloween albums blow it away.


Weirdo. :roll:


I have The Reckoning EP! Is there a difference? I admit to buying it because I'm a fanboy and not giving it much listen, but it's different huh? I'll have to listen to it. As for TGB, the production is weak, definitely. The volume level on it is lower than Something Wicked and Horror Show! It just came out and it needs to be fucking remastered!! :shock: I just hear very little bass and bottom end on TGB, it could use an overhaul, a remix and remaster,

At The Gates- Terminal Spirit Disease


ZOMG AT THE GATES IS POPULAR POST.


I know, but everyone always seems to only talk about Slaughter of the Soul and forget they have 3 other great full lengths, terminal spirit disease being their best.

I agree with Meads of Asphodel (I'll think I'll review the latest one). Also Forest of Fog (doesn't even have a record deal) and Woods of Ypres aren't very known outside these forums, which is a shame because the music is great.

Also Thursday - War All The Time is a great album that is overlooked... it's labeled Emo so most people won't give it a chance and most people into Emo don't seem to care about it... I think it's very good.

Also Sparta's first album, Wiretap Scars is very cool, but it seems like it was shadowed by The Mars Volta... oh well.

Sinner - The End Of Sanctuary, a very good album and band that is overshadowed by Primal Fear.

I thought thats what one of the definitions of underrated was =(. I guess I'm thinking of something along the lines of underappreciated or something... and as for the inconsistent thing, I find that the first and last songs are better than everything else on the album. Overall though the album ranges from "awesomely good" to "above average".

Gorguts-From Wisdom To Hate and Obscura
These albums should be checked by every single death metal fan.

Its ohhh so true, though 9 was pretty good.

Anyways:

Arwen (Both albums I found to be good)
Dream Theater - Awake (Ive noticed alot of people seem to ignore it between albums like Images And Words, Scenes From A Memory, etc.. But for me, its their best record and along with Octavarium, the only one where I like every single song)
Dreamtale (This band does get favorable reviews, but most of the time its like "generic, decent stuff, its ok" But I think they are fffaaantastic and the new singer each album keeps it fresh )

I cant really think of much else, pretty much all the albums I own I agree with how they are percieved.

Pfffft. Stupid Disney-ish crap. Fuck Zidane and his stupid tail. FF8 pwns above all others.

If anything is queerer than disney it most definately has to be FF8's stupid plot and draw system and the random rule for the card game and the junction system and just about anything else that has to do with that game.. God, even FFVII was better than that shite.

Lykathea Aflame-Elvenfris

Holy shit, I hate crowbar. I always thought they were overrated, and rarely run into people who agree with me that they are a shitty and worthless band. Location location location, I guess...


Fucking right! I remember mentioning them on here a while ago and got at least one or two guys into it. A terribly overlooked band.

I'm gonna go ahead and say Edge of Sanity and Diabolical Masquerade are rather overlooked too. The fans they do have are pretty adamant about them, but largely, even among fans of likeminded (not to mention simpler and less impressive) bands, they often go unknown.

Kvist - For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike

One fucking masterpiece. And many don't even know it exists.

Oh no. Strategy in an RPG! :? Only 2D sprites and dominating everything in your path after level 25! L33T! FF6 was too damn eay.

Death's Design is amazing.

Oh,,, and FFVII rules.

You're damn right it does.

Rune- The End Of Nothing
This was the only album that I know of that this band did but it's a fuckin masterpiece as far as i am concerned.


Black Sabbath- Vol 4
The best Ozzy era Sabbath album imho and rarely given the attention it so rightly deserves. For most people it is always Paranoid this and Paranoid that. Dont get me wrong I like Paranoid but it pales in comparrison to this monster.

My copy of Lykathea Aflame-Elvenfris is on the way and I am really excited about that.