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Trollheart doesn't like the avant garde metal album Frownland posted even though it fits into metal month.

Trollheart talks about music (Led Zeppelin) that isn't metal and includes it in metal month.

Hmm.

Trollheart

Kiss were a band I was never quite sure what to make of. I got into them through their double live Alive II album, and though I did buy some of their earlier albums --- notably, the ones from which the songs on that live album were taken, so the likes of Rock and Roll Over, Love Gun, Destroyer, that kind of thing --- somehow I never got the same feeling from their studio recordings as from that live album. I kind of lost interest in them around the Dynasty/Unmasked era, but unlike most fans I rather enjoyed Music from The Elder.

Nevertheless, I never bought another Kiss album, but my brother did, and lucky in a way for me that he did, as he inadvertently purchased what was to be their “last chance saloon” album, the one that would pull them away from the pop precipice over which they were headed and return them, both to the hard rock/heavy metal on which they had built their reputation, and also to favour, both with their fans and the music press.

Creatures of the Night --- Kiss --- 1982 (Casablanca)

Perhaps ironically, it was at this time that Kiss as a band were fragmenting, with Peter Criss leaving altogether and Ace Frehley still with the band, but not recording this album and leaving shortly afterwards. Only Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons would remain of the original crew, and despite an offer from guitar legend Eddie Van Halen to replace Frehley, they decided to go for someone who was seen as less well known, Vinnie Vincent, who would later work with John Waite and, with further irony, Peter Criss on his solo material. And just as the lineup had changed and was changing dramatically, so would the music. Kiss fans and the music press had been underwhelmed with their last three offerings, 1979's Dynasty, which featured the awful disco homage “I was made for lovin' you”, (the sound of Kiss fans' jaws hitting the ground in stunned disbelief could be heard all the way from Detroit Rock City to The Firehouse) its followup Unmasked (perhaps presaging the Kiss-world-shattering event three years later, when Kiss would ditch the makeup forever, and leave behind one of their most potent marketing tools) and of course the triple Annus Horriblus was completed with Music from The Elder, literally, the soundtrack to a movie that did not exist.

So something serious had to be done. Kiss were either going to sink and disappear as their fans deserted them in droves, or turn it around in one last herculean effort. The departure of, pretty much at this stage, two of the original members would put a further strain on the fans' loyalty, so if this next album didn't cut it, then short of just calling it a day and going their separate ways, maybe surviving as solo acts, Kiss were going to find it hard to regain the trust and respect that they had spent so long earning.

It's not surprising, then, that this turns out to be the heaviest album they had recorded since Hotter than Hell in 1974. It is, in every real sense, the album that saved Kiss. Because of Creatures of the Night there was a resurgence in interest in the band, and although the album hardly broke the charts wide open, it re-established them as a bona fide metal act, and showed they still had teeth. True, stadiums were still half-empty and ticket sales very poor, leading to some cancellation of gigs, but there was a sense of something in the air, and soon Kiss would regain their popularity, perhaps paradoxically as they truly unmasked. For now, even the guys who had left were being replaced by ones almost as good, and people were listening to this album and saying “Ace who?” Well, they probably weren't, but it's clear Vinnie Vincent was well up to the job, and you can't really detect too much difference between his playing and that of Frehley.

The intention to bury the memory of the last three albums is evident right from the first chords, as the title track powers out at you. Paul Stanley is in fine voice and seems to have a note of defiance in his voice, and you get the feeling this album could as easily have been titled something like Not Dead Yet, a point the two remaining band members plan to prove. It's a good heavy opening, though it doesn't really give new boy Vinnie Vincent a chance to show what he can do on the frets, as he doesn't feature on the title track, guitar duties being taken by Mr. Mister's Steve Farris. Simmons takes over vocals for “Saint and sinner”, a slightly slower, blues-based tune. When he sings ”I'm not gonna fall on my knees” he could be talking to the fans, assuring them that Kiss are back and it is business as usual. It's not, to be fair, the strongest of tracks and for one with such a title it kind of has a little of a whiney tone for me, but now we hear the first solo from Vincent, and it's pretty sweet, again kind of slide/blues affair.

“Keep me comin'” is much more like the Kiss of old, dirty, nasty guitar and powerful riffs, a sense of the old swagger coming back, that feeling you got in the seventies that Kiss owned the world, ruled it and only suffered other bands with bad grace. It's Stanley back on the mike, and Vincent shows his chops in no uncertain fashion, and the old Kiss tongue-in-cheek double entendre is present in a song for the first time in five years. If the next track sounds like a Bryan Adams track, well that's because “Rock and roll Hell” is co-written by Simmons with the Canadian soft-rocker and his partner in crime, Jim Vallance. In fairness through it's not a bad song, marching along on an ominous, threatening groove, but when it hits the chorus you could swear you were listening to Reckless or Cuts Like a Knife. It doesn't soften up the album though thankfully, and is heavy enough to get a pass, plus the chorus is certainly memorable.

We go for broke then with “Danger”, which returns us to the days of “Detroit Rock City” and “Calling Doctor Love”, where Stanley at times manages a quite passable Ronnie James Dio, then the first of three songs Vinnie Vincent co-writes is also one that would go on to become a favourite and a mainstay of their live performances. “I love it loud” sort of affirmed their mission statement, that they were dropping any idea of pop songs and softer material and going for the throat, doing their best to be seen again as one of the heaviest and loudest bands in the world. They wouldn't; they had way too much competition and to be honest they had always been known more for their stageshows and pyrotechnics than their songwriting ability, but this is a good clarion call. With a kind of “We will rock you” idea mixed with “Rock of Ages” by Def Leppard, it's a powerful, defiant, unapologetic call to arms, reflecting a sentiment that surely even Manowar would have approved of. When Simmons intones ”I love it” and the rest of the band take up the chorus ”Loud! I wanna hear it loud! Right between the eyes!” you can hear the determination to leave their last three years behind, and mostly I believe it worked.

They can't get away without one ballad though, and “I still love you” has an atmospheric guitar opening that's sort of progressive in its flavour, then the drums from Eric Carr cut in and it reminds me more of something Journey would write, but it's still a good song and it kicks up sufficiently for the chorus to qualify as a power ballad, with some fine soloing from guest musician Robben Ford to help it on its way. You can certainly hear the passion leaking from every word of Stanley's vocal and the guitar buildup in the middle leads into a great emotional solo, then “Killer” knocks everything back up to ten and we're back in the heyday of Love Gun and Destroyer, while Gene decides to partner up with the Adams family (hah!) again for the closer.

“War machine” lays down a marker with big snarly guitars and thumping drums, a growled vocal from Simmons and a warning: ”Better watch out! Cos I'm a war machine!” After several years of staggering along in first, and trundling somewhat in circles, the Kiss machine was back on track and gunning for ya!

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Creatures of the night
2. Saint and sinner
3. Keep me comin'
4. Rock and roll Hell
5. Danger
6. I love it loud
7. I still love you
8. Killer
9. War machine

As I perhaps overqualified above, this was the album that saved Kiss, though there were still half-empty arenas and much refunding of ticket money as gigs were cancelled due to lack of interest. It wouldn't be till the next year, when Kiss would reveal their true faces to the world for the first time in their careers, that they would write the album that would return them to the glory days of the seventies. Having proved that they were more than just four guys in makeup, they could then drive on and really reinvent themselves. None of that, though, I believe would have happened without this album. After Music from “The Elder” the fans were deserting them in droves, and had this album proved another limp-wristed, lacklustre affair, perhaps Kiss would never have got the chance to really grasp the nettle and go for it, and maybe their decade-long career would have ended here, instead of continuing to this day, with varying degrees of success.

But if in 1982 you were sick of disco anthems and weak ballads, and wondered where the real Kiss were, and if they would ever return, Creatures of the Night would have given you hope that there was life in the old Destroyer yet.

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Trollheart

Season of the Dead --- Necrophagia --- 1987 (New Renaissance)
Suggested by mythsofmetal
It's the kind of name you really associate more with black metal than death metal, and the undercurrents in it are a little disturbing, however I'm going to trust mythsofmetal in that he usually recommends me music that he knows I'll like, or that at least there's a chance I'll like. So let's see what this is like then. It's the debut album from Necrophagia, and it opens on the deceptively-gentle “Forbidden pleasure”, with a nice soft guitar which sounds acoustic, even a little progressive, then about two minutes in a sort of growling, echoey sound which could be percussion or could be the dark feedback of a heavier guitar takes over, an altogether more ominous tone takes the piece as moaning, chanting voices surface from the depths, then a rolling drum and guitar combination punch in, the song speeding up but still pretty palatable to me.

I like the way this song is structured; they really take time to build it up in layers and it's quite impressive once it gets going. “Bleeding torment” though is fast from the outset, a bit more basic though. Wait a sec though: in the second minute it rolls into a kind of dark doomish tone, with a snarly much slower guitar and then “Insane for blood” is pretty much standard death metal with a growly vocal. Bit boring. At least it's a short song, just over three minutes. Even shorter is “Reincarnation”, at only two and a half minutes, but the boredom is setting in now. Not seeing much of the innovation I saw in the first two tracks and it's descended into death-metal-by-numbers at this point. Which is odd, if you believe Metal Archives, who tell me that Necrophagia were one of “the first death metal bands ever”. I find that hard to conceive: they got together in 1983, and surely there were death metal bands in existence before then?

Anyway, we're now onto a longer song, and at five minutes and change hopefully “Ancient slumber” will have something different to offer, before I take its advice and nod off! It's a dark, atmospheric opening at any rate, with what sounds like bells but not those dark, doomy, gloom-laden bells like from Black Sabbath or any other doom metal band. There's a snarled chant and then a plodding, crunching guitar leading the music in, with funereal drumming, then it picks up speed as the band launch into it. The vocal here is basically spoken, or growled, but there's no real attempt at singing. Oh, it's over now. Didn't really get much from that. There's a good buildup to “Mental decay”, with a sharp guitar taking the riff over and it rocks well, then “Abomination” is fast and aggressive from the beginning.

Sadly though the main impression I'm getting from this album is boredom. Much of it sounds too much the same, and I can't really pick out (other than the first two) any tracks that really say anything to me or make any sort of an impact; it's all just passing me by. “Terminal vision” is slower with a nice bassline, and some at last interesting guitar riffs, though it does fall back on that somewhat overused blistering guitar line and the spoken vocal. Yawn. Can't they do anything different? I guess not, as “Painful discharge” follows the same tired pattern, even if there is some good guitar work right at the end, but at least we're at the end now with the longest track on the abum, almost seven minutes as “Beyond and back” goes for the throat. Again. Just waiting for this to end now. Okay, they do some good work with instrumental breaks here, making the most of the length of the song and the dearth of vocals to at least end on a strong note. Good use of chanting and sound effects like rain and thunder. Too little though, I fear, too late.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Season of the dead
2. Forbidden pleasure
3. Bleeding torment
4. Insane for blood
5. Reincarnation
6. Ancient slumber
7. Mental decay
8. Abomination
9. Terminal vision
10. Painful discharge
11. Beyond and back

There was very little about this album that interested me. I found it quite generic, bereft of ideas and just really tedious to listen to. I know myths said it is an important album in death metal, and maybe it is, but that doesn't necessarily make it a good one, at least in my eyes. Myths had said I should also listen to another of their albums, but I'm not going to do that, for two reasons: one, I never accept any more than one album from one artiste for the same section, and two, I was so mind-numbingly bored by this I certainly do not want to experience any more of Necrophagia's music.

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Trollheart

Apart from one horrible album he recommended, which he knew I would hate, this post is the only contribution by Ki to Metal Month III.
Hmmm indeed...

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Trollheart

Like the long-lost and thought-dead hero who turns up at the season finale of a TV show, the creator and driving force behind Judas Priest made his triumphant return fifteen years after he parted company with the band, and coincidentally, to record their fifteenth album. Priest had been slipping over the time with replacement vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, and neither Jugulator nor Demolition had really cut it in the eyes of fans, and I can see why. Would this be the shot in the arm the band needed? Would this help them reclaim their throne and scale to the summit of the metal mountain, assuage the fans's fears and begin a whole new chapter in the life of the band?

Angel of retribution (2005)
They certainly set out their stall in no uncertain terms with the opening track, as “Judas rising” punches its way out of the grooves on the twin guitars of Downing and Tipton, with a climbing guitar line that eventually explodes as Halford lets out a scream, sounding glad to be back, and eager to reclaim his place as the only Judas Priest vocalist, the original and best. There's really little time to take that in though, as you're battered over the head with a heavy, crunching riff and drumbeat and a snarling, menacing vocal from the returning prodigal son. Go for the throat early, seems to be the idea, and don't let go. Jugulator? What fucking jugulator? Demolition? I'll show you fucking demolition!

There's a sense of joy and abandonment in the guitar work too, and you really get the feeling that a machine which has been faltering and stuttering of late has been given a complete overhaul and is working better than ever. You can't get over the idea though that Halford is announcing his return and letting everyone know he is back. Judas rising indeed! “Deal with the devil” speeds things up as the boys catalogue their rise to fame and glory from the early days playing around the local clubs and pubs, while there's more of a boogie feel to “Revolution”, where I think but can't be sure the guys nod to T-Rex in the chorus. “Worth fighting for” sounds familiar, the basic melody, and there's quite a lot of AOR about it. Very catchy tune. Really dials back the metal here to go quite radio-friendly. It's back for “Demonizer” though, grinding along at a fine pace and with a lot of menace.

“Wheels of fire” burns up the road as the cops try in vain to catch the guys, who just laugh and flip the finger as they disappear into the distance to the sounds of searing guitar solos, then everything slows right down for the first (only?) ballad, the lovely “Angel”, on which Halford shows he doesn't just have to live in the very highest or lowest registers, that he can sing with a lot of tenderness too. Super Spanish guitar from Tipton and some atmospheric keys from Don Airey really make the song. Some of the guitar work here really evokes the late Gary Moore at his emotional best. It's guitars too that slowly drag in the anthemic “Hellrider”, with a sort of operatic backing vocal that would carry through into their next album. Halford's voice is at its highest here, could almost be mistaken for that of a female, and contrasts well with the backing vox, which are very deep and dramatic. There's also an absolutely blazing guitar solo, followed by, well, another one in quick succession, almost neo-classical. Takes up about the last two minutes of the song actually, which then goes into a sort of arabic style, kind of reminds me in places of Maiden's “The Nomad”.

Perhaps it's a tribute to his departed predecessor, though probably not; either way, “Eulogy” is a lovely little acoustic ballad with a gorgeous and yet dark guitar line, rising moody synth and piano from Airey, a very bleak, dramatic piece that would have been an anticlimactic closer, but Judas Priest are not ready to go out on such a sour note. “Lochness”, their longest composition to date at just short of thirteen and a half minutes, also starts acoustically and dramatically before rising on sharp guitar which is shortly joined by deep percussion, the whole thing giving off a slow, grindy, almost “Iron Man” kind of vibe. In form and lyrical content, and indeed structure, it's paying tribute back to their earlier progressive rock roots, though certainly with a hell of a bite.

There are even elements of power and folk metal in this masterpiece, with a killer chorus. A totally progressive guitar solo halfway through shows you in no uncertain terms that the boys are back in town, and it's a fantastic closer, setting the seal on an album that confirms the return to grace of a band who had perhaps been slipping of late, and who had certainly been missing their talismanic frontman. But that seemed like it was all in the past now: the boss was back, sounding better than ever, and it was back to business as usual.

TRACKLISTING

1. Judas rising
2. Deal with the devil
3. Revolution
4. Worth fighting for
5. Demonizer
6. Wheels of fire
7. Angel
8. Hellrider
9. Eulogy
10. Lochness

For the first time in decades, this album piqued the interest of America as it took Priest back into the outer reaches of the top ten, while paradoxically in their home country they could only manage to scrape into the top forty. Nevertheless, it was clear from this point that the pussyfooting and uncertainty was over, and that Judas Priest were back, better than ever. If it wasn't, then the next album would leave no room for doubt.

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And so, we've reached the top ten at last. Here are my ten favourite Maiden songs, in order...

Oh fuck! I've just realised I miscounted earlier. Or, to be clearer, I put up two number 28s, which then screwed up the running order for everything else. Dammit! That means I have to go back now and amend parts 1, 2, and 3 .... all right, done now. So this then becomes


10 “Drifter” (from Killers)

I love everything about this song. The way it opens with that hard repeated guitar riff, the way Di'Anno comes in with the vocal almost like an air-raid siren himself -- “Rock and roh-oh-ohhhhhhl!” the way it bounces along with such energy, the solos, the big scream and guitar punch at the end. Superb.

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9 “Run to the hills” (from The Number of the Beast)

Ah, what more do I have to say? The very first Iron Maiden song I ever heard. Prior to seeing this on “Top of the Pops” I had glanced warily at the covers of the first two albums, assumed they were nasty punk rock or something that my delicate sensibilities could not handle and would not like, and gone no further. Once I heard this, I rushed out to buy the album, loved it to bits and immediately set about buying those two albums which had scared me so much, as well as, since then, everything else they have ever released. This was the one, ladies and gentlemen. This was the song that woke my dormant metal gene and allowed me to start appreciating (in a small way, for a long time admittedly) heavy metal music.

The subject matter is handled really well, with both viewpoints expressed through the verses of the song, Bruce's soon-to-be-trademark scream is heard for the first time, and I got my first ever experience of that amazing double act on the guitar. Ah, life would never be the same again!


8 “Fear of the dark” (from Fear of the Dark)

The only other decent, in my opinion, track on the album that saw the departure of Bruce, and it's a powerful closer. The soft, almost balladic opening and indeed closing, the slow buildup, the creeping sense of menace, everything in this song reflects perfectly the cover of the album, as Eddie waits in a tree in a distorted dark park, ready to pounce on the unwary. As, at the time, a swan song for Dickinson, he couldn't have done much better, and it's certainly appropriate when you realise his last words on vinyl or CD to his fans are “I am the man who walks alone”.


7 “The number of the Beast” (from The Number of the Beast)

From the intoned Vincent Price monologue to the first sharp guitar chords, that moment when Bruce screams “Yeahhhhhhhh!” and the main verse gets going, to the sweet solos right through to the end section where the subject falls under the spell of the “chanting crowds” and becomes one of them, this is the song to put the willies up every Concerned Parent and shivers of delight down the spines of every metal fan when they hear it. Another “up yours” to the self-appointed moral guardians of the innocent, the song is in fact as we all know not a homage to Satan or a prayer, but based on a nightmare Steve Harris had after watching the movie The Omen. A headbanging, heartshaking, blood-pumping joy of a song that has gone on to become almost as much an anthem and signature for the band as the song “Iron Maiden” itself.


6 “Powerslave” (from Powerslave)

One of Maiden's best songs (obviously in my view, given how high it is in my list) with a fantastic sense of the awe of Egypt that hadn't really been reached since the days of Rainbow with “Gates of Babylon” and later Dio's own “Egypt (The chains are on)”, with a big cinematic intro, screams and pipes and dark breathing followed by a laugh without humour, the kind of mirth that the likes of Chthulu might have shown. Galloping, punching guitars, a great motif that's SO Egyptian, and the underlying message that man or god, we all die in the end, and we are all, as it says at the end, slaves to the power of death. As someone once put it, “sceptre and crown must tumble down, and in the dust be equal made with the poor crooked scythe and spade.” Death the leveller indeed.

5 “Aces high” (from Powerslave)

What an incredible way to open an album, and hint at the delights to come, and a mainstay of the live show from then on, almost always the one to open the gig with the immortal words of Churchill ringing in the air. A real tribute to the Few, those brave men who fought for three months over the skies of England and won the Battle of Britain, thus forcing Hitler to call off the planned invasion of Britain. He wouldn't have stopped there, you know! Ireland's only a hop, goosestep and jump away. Love the way the lyric brings to life the idea of a dogfight, the “rolling, tumbling, diving” and then “coming in again!” Great solo as always, and a song to get the blood flowing and prepare you for what else was to come, if anything could. Classic song, a Maiden favourite forever.


4 “Killers” (from Killers)

I've said before and I repeat: there is nobody can sing this like Paul Di'Anno. The aggression, the menace, the sheer psychotic energy he puts into the song is almost impossible to duplicate, and Steve Harris's trundling, gasping bass line just ups the horror and paranoia quotient of the song. The twist (sort of) at the end, when we realise the singer IS the killer, while not exactly a revelation, works very well, and Di'Annos' shrieks and growls, mirrored by Murray and Smith's screeching guitars are so effective you almost take a step back from the audio source. The best Di'Anno era song? Almost, but not quite...


3 “Phantom of the opera” (from Iron Maiden)

An early indication that this band was something special, the seven-minute plus song goes through enough changes over its length to qualify as progressive metal, and the lyric is tight and scary. Di'Anno puts in a powerhouse performance on the song, and of course it gained extra notoriety when it was used as the theme for the energy drink Lucozade in the eighties. I especially love the bit at the end, when Di'Anno hisses the last line in a repeated echo that still to this day sends shivers down my spine. Definitely, for me, the pinnacle of the Di'Anno era Maiden material.

Of course, it also came out on top in my “Before the Beast” list last year, so if you really want to you can read more about what I think about it there. But suffice to say here, that if I had to (as I have done) pick out my favourite early Maiden track, that is, before 1982, this would be it all day long.


2 “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (from Powerslave)

No surprise to find this epic here. I've made no secret of my love for this song, not least because either I got into Coleridge's poem through it or was already into it at that point, I really can't remember which.The whole scope of the song is immense; you would normally expect maybe a progressive rock band to undertake something like this (as did Hostsonaten) but for a metal band to write something so almost anathema to metal --- how do you convince your millions of fans that a song running almost fourteen minutes and based on a nineteenth century epic poem is worth giving your time to? --- almost beggars belief.

And yet, not only did it work, but it has become one of Maiden's most loved and requested songs on tour. The changes it goes through, especially the midsection, with the creaking, the groaning and that indefatigable bass thrumming slowly like the very approach of death himself, is stunning in every way. Never for once in its length does it flag or seem like things are being added just to fill it out, and it even manages to tell, mostly, the whole story of the poem. An absolute triumph, and definitely a shining jewel in Iron Maiden's crown.

And number one is, I'm sure no surprise to anyone and most of you will probably agree...

1 “Hallowed by thy name” (from The Number of the Beast)

For a band whose album ws decried and denounced as being Satan-worship (which it was not, no more than Black Sabbath or Venom were) there is a delicious irony that the closing track from that much-maligned album should be the words of The Lord's Prayer. Probably really pissed off Tipper Gore and her ilk. The song itself seems to question whether there is a god, but does seem to hold that there is something in the afterlife, when the condemned prisoner sings “Don't worry now that I have gone; I've gone beyond to seek the truth” but he certainly doubts the existence of a Christian God, or is perhaps just angry with him for not intervening as he is led to the gallows when he asks “If there's a god, why has he let me die?”

From the opening peal of bells, the thump of drums, to the scorching guitar solos and Bruce's roared “Yeah yeah yeah! Hallowed be thy name!” the song doesn't ever put a foot wrong, and the final machinegun guitar chords finish it perfectly. Although never released as a single, it is surely one of the very finest and most requested Maiden songs ever, and I can't think of a gig since 1982 that didn't end with this, either as the last song or within the encore. Another long song, its length is fully justified and so is its place at the very top of my own personal tree of Iron Maiden songs.

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Trollheart

Yeah it's all a rich tapestry I know.
I'm not rating them on how metal they are, just to my mind an album needs to sound metal for me to be able to recognise it as such. I realise I have a very slippery handle on avant-garde anything, especially metal, so chalk that up to my inexperience with the subgenre. My main gripe with it though was just that I found it dull and boring. I mean, Gorguts was, to me, terrible, but not boring. This was. It's just how I perceived it, how it came across to me, and obviously millions out there think differently, so it's only one owl fella's opinion.

I do however try to be as genuine and honest as I can when reviewing, and if something really impresses me which I didn't expect it would (see Sigh last year) I make a point of admitting how wrong I was about it. If, however, something I expect to perhaps impress me does the reverse (see Necrophagia just now) then I also mention that. I'm open to being impressed, just sometimes these albums don't chime with me for whatever reason. Batty likes your Zu, so I'm sure it's widely respected and regarded as a great avant-garde metal album. I'm not disputing that (the comments at the end were couched in an attempt at your kind of dry humour, may have backfired) but even so, I will never pretend I like an album, even if every other person on the planet loves it. So I give my opinion, it's my own personal one, doesn't necessarily reflect the views of others, and at least the one thing you can be sure of with me is honesty; good or bad, I won't pretend.

Also, that review was written I think in September so the discussion we had had about your other albums, Gorguts in particular, didn't really have any bearing on the review, and as time is precious to me now as I rush to complete Metal Month III, I just posted it as I had originally written it. Had I reviewed it this week, perhaps I would have had a different view of it, slightly.

But probably not.

Anyway, green shoots? If I can say good things about Anaal Nathrakh, which Batty expected me to hate, then surely I'm making some sort of progress?

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Frownland

I'm not disputing your opinion on the album, just asserting that it is, in fact, metal. You are allowed to not like the record, although I gathered from your review that you didn't find the album to be (entirely) dull and boring. I'm just curious, since you're not rating things on "how metal they are," how would you have enjoyed it under other circumstances? What makes this context different?

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grindy

While I don't think Carboniferous is out of place in a discussion about metal, I also wouldn't really call it a metal album. Neither its historical roots, nor the compositions and arrangements are particularly metal. Well, apart from it being heavy and rocking as ****.

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