Wpnfire? Who's Wpnfire?!'s Journal

Wpnfire · 08-31-2014, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

If you've never heard their Nordland I album, then "Nordland"'s main riff is required listening for any fan of slower riffs.

I listened to it, and while it is epic, I don't think it comes close to "Enter the Enternal Fire." You did remind me though, that I should probably listen to the rest of Bathory's albums sometime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Nice. "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" is quite possibly the highlight of Mustaine's career for me. Nothing he's done since is so pissed off, not even on the same album, and being pissed off is what Dave Mustaine is about. Even the piano is hateful. I also love that they lyrics are a thinly veiled, and rather threatening, attack at his former band.

I agree, the aggression is pretty unmatched with that song. The piano is very sinister as well.

MetallicA - ...And Justice For All

Rating: 4/5

I'm very uncertain with my rating of this album, and equally uncertain about giving it a rating at all. It's a challenging album to listen to at times for the oft-cited complaints of poor production, and the deliberate removal of Jason Newsted's bass by the rest of the band. While it's certainly flawed, boring at times, and I'm not the biggest fan of "One" or some of the progressive sections on the album, there are two features of this album that make it one of my favorite albums, and a quintessential metal album.

The first, and most important thing I like about this album is the guitar riffs. As usual with Metallica, most if not all of the riffs are downpicked--that's nothing new--but what is new is the sheer number of riffs in the songs. James Hetfield said it best, "We've jammed six riffs into one song? Let's make it eight. Let's go crazy with it." There's fast riffs like in "Dyers Eve," there's slow riffs in "To Live Is To Die," there's melodic riffs like in "One," and there's riffs that are thick and brutal like most of the riffs in "...And Justice For All." It's just my kind of album with all of these riffs. I love it.
Side Note: oddly enough, I actually do NOT like the riff for "Blackened." More on that later.

The second thing I like about this album is just the heaviness of some of the songs. The guitars sound very clean and simple on some tracks, (i.e., "One") but they also sound rough and buzzy at other times. While this is most likely a byproduct of the sub-par production, the strange, pseudo-lo fi guitar sound somehow manages to work very well on a few tracks. "To Live Is To Die" is an example where the production compliments the downpicking barrage, and goes beyond just sounding heavy: it's edgy, brutal, and the guitars even manage to somewhat mask the absent bass. Despite this highly unusual screechy, shrill heaviness, the song still manages to remain close to a technical thrash sound, and not just bland noise. It's all just completely unlike any other thrash metal album in the sound, and it really makes ...And Justice For All sound like both a technical progressive thrash album, but also a technical brutal thrash album.

It's not all good though. The production hurts some songs as much as it helps others. "The Shortest Straw" is almost unlistenable to me. The song structure isn't very complex, which would sound fine, if it wasn't for the fact that without audible bass and high fidelity production, the song sounds very 1-dimensional and affords no chance for an atmospheric or engaging sound.
I also want to take a moment to discuss (ugh) "Blackened." Coming of the heels of great opening tracks like "Battery," "Fight Fire With Fire," and "Hit The Lights," it's really comparatively abysmal compared to those three. And it has such a stock thrash riff that's only calling card is that it's just played fast. It's really boring for me. I expected better from you Metallica.

Anyway, that's what I think of this album.

Wpnfire · 09-03-2014, 06:30 PM

The Living End

Based out of Australia, The Living End takes a fascinating look on the world of punk. A couple of things to note about them. They are a 3-piece band, with an upright bass player, similar to a rockabilly group (more on that later), their material is usually complicated, featuring guitar solos, breakdowns, instrumentals, and lyrics rooted in social critique. They don't stick to just punk rock material either.

It's almost tempting to call them an experimental punk band, that dabbles in rock n roll, rockabilly (hence the upright bass player), pop punk, and later in their career, alternative rock. Early in their career, The Living End adopted a weird combination of punk rock and rockabilly that is often just called punkabilly.

However, there's also a much rougher, harsher side to The Living End, that goes beyond punkabilly, and sounds closer to hard rock, or, dare I say sounds similar to 80s metal. This harsher style has even earned the band a few tracks on Guitar Hero. That's actually how I came to hear about the band; I first heard about them seven years ago back in middle school when I spent my days playing Guitar Hero.

Hellbound

Hellbound is their first release, an EP, recorded in 1995. A close friend of mine found a link to this Australia-only release way back in the day, and gave me the album download. You must scour the web to find this album unless you live in Australia, because it was only released there.

The genre of this EP is very difficult to categorize. Most of the songs feature a punk and punkabilly style, but a few songs sound like a less-harsh sounding Kill Em All. The album has breakdowns, edgy riffs, intricate solos, minor tempo changes, and even features a highly technical instrumental track. Most of the lyrics deal with punk rock-typical social critique.

I recommend checking out this EP. Punk can be hit-or-miss for me, but Hellbound goes all over the place so it's enough to keep me interested. It's also got some great riffs, and the variety is pretty impressive for a debut release.

The highlights of this album for me are: "Trace of Doubt," "Hellbound," "The Living End," "Hedlines," and "Do What I Do."

Wpnfire · 09-10-2014, 02:12 PM

Ramones - RAMONES

What else can be said about this album? Well, I would not call it one of the best albums of all time, (it is, however, highly influential), regardless, there are several things about Ramones that make it one of my favorite albums.

The first is the guitar playing by legend Johnny Ramone. That fast, clean, buzzing sound that Johnny produced combined with heavy distortion is simply brilliant. I love it, and it never gets old hearing him play that way. "Blitzkrieg Bop" is one of my favorite guitar songs just because it is simple chords but Johnny's play style make it sound so heavy and deep.

The second reason I like this album is the lyrics. I am usually not a fan of nonsense or silly lyrics—even if the lyrics have a deeper meaning—but their sung so light-hearted and sing-song-y that I almost do not even care. Take "I Donnt' Wanna Walk Around With You"

Quote:

I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You
I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You
I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You
So Why You Wanna Walk Around With Me?

haha. I rest my case.

. . .
The last thing I like is how uptempo the album is. The guitars, the singing, it is all meaningless if the song is not engaging, and the Ramones definitely provide an engaging experience. It is exactly the kind of album that I like.

The highlights of this album for me are "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue," 53rd & 3rd," "I Donnt' Wanna Walk Around With You," and "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World."

Overall: 4/5

Overall though, this is one of my favorite albums and there is not a song on it I would consider to be anything less than enjoyable.

Wpnfire · 10-07-2014, 02:12 AM

THE POST WHERE I PROVE MY MANLINESS

IN ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS!! Nevermind that's just annoying. With Trollheart's metal month still ongoing, I've decided to honor his sacrifice listening to Jansz' grindcore albums by listening to one (JUST ONE) myself. You hear THAT BATTY, JANSZ? What's that? You can't hear me because I'm not saying anything huh? Well I guess you'll never see my special journal review of

GRINDCORE

I decided to forgo recommendations and just find a random band. I literally just chose a random letter and took the first band. I ended up with...

Xysma

Wpnfire? Who's Wpnfire?!'s Journal-maxresdefault.jpg

Xysma is a Finnish grind/death band, and yada, yada, yada...none of that is important. I decided to review their first demo LP (The Swarming of the Maggots), since apparently that's the only thing they did that's true grind. Says here they did rock combined with death metal after that. Well that sounds like ****, wonder why they did that. Oh god, that must mean this demo is either ****, or one of the heaviest things in existence. Well, I guess I'll find out. The title of this demo is called Swarming of the Maggots and appropriately has a fitting album cover of...whatever that is.

The first track is an intro track, with some drone-stuff to start off with then some of that vague incoherent chanting/choir stuff that sounds...cheap. Now the first track is playing, "Pulsating cerebral slime," and well I appear to have dodged a serious bullet here as this is at least bearable. Certainly heavy though, that guitar tone is exceptional, the vocals are alright, but the best is at the end of the song when they go full demonic-growl voice for a few seconds. That wasn't bad, mostly because it was only 34 seconds.

Okay this next song "Pulverized Necrobrains" is sick. The guitar playing is exactly the kind of stuff I like, and when the guitars aren't chugging along, I'm at least immune to the vocals, as I count myself among a lover of Sarco***o. It's going to be hard to top this, but let's see.

Hmm, "festering sore" sounds promising–never mind it's over. Forgot that grind does that. "Procreated from blood" slows down the tempo a bit, which allows the drumming to really shine for a few moments. woah then there's this furious guitar solo that sounds more like nails scrapping on a chalkboard than Slayer worship. More bands should do something like that.

These guys should win an award for these song titles. Both because of the actual title, and some of them are a bitch to spell. "Unaesthetic genitplasty" the **** is that? Never mind I'm not looking it up, I know better than that. Oh wow, for the song with one of the most intimidating song titles so far, "Fetid gurgitation" is a frightening six seconds. Might have to look up the lyrics to that song, maybe the lyrics are so putrid they just cut the song after the first verse.

"Fleshaw" (clever title by the way

) is the first song from this album I would like to never hear again. That's right Batty, I do NOT like all the songs on this album. The guitar playing is great, but the vocals are just a tad too much for me. Uh the complex song titles continue with "pathologists perevesrljadjfad." I don't ****ing know what it says. It's 2:38 in the morning, and I'm not going to spend 30 seconds to figure out the title to song that's...hahaha, wow, that's only 22 seconds–so yeah, I'm not doing that.

Alright "Priests formed in excrement" returns to the chugging guitar riffs that I liked so much on the second track. Very tight stuff. I have no idea what the hell is going on in "charred limbs" it opens with what sounds like should be the ending of a song, then it goes into this watery trance part that continues until the song fades out. The word strange comes to mind.

Ah "Drown Oneself" is another great song with some chugging guitar riffs. The next song is titled "Burbed Rectum" and that should tell you all you need to know about that. Wow, it's 2 minutes, guess I should pay attention then. This one has some upbeat, non-double bass drumming that sounds great. Hm, that was at least moderately satisfying. "Evisceration" has a part in the middle I like, but it's mostly the same.

Well that's all the tracks worth discussing. This album wasn't that bad, and the few songs I liked from it I would probably place on the level of my extreme metal playlist of "play occasionally." The rest not so much. Alright, that's all for now, I'm going to bed.

The Batlord · 10-07-2014, 01:31 PM

Sounds like you found some goregrind (self-explanatory). Every goregrind band on Earth is just a Carcass-worship band. Might as well go straight to the source.

Wpnfire · 10-08-2014, 04:20 PM

THE POST WHERE I PROVE MY MANLINESS
part 2

Suffocation — Effigy of the Forgotten

This is Suffocation's first album, and given how much my brothers-in-metal Batlord and Briks have mentioned it in the past few days I've decided to review it. It's categorized as brutal death metal...so I'm already opposed to it from the beginning.

Ugh, this is really difficult. This makes the grindcore album I just listened to look ****ING WEAK! This is legitimately impressive how heavy and death ridden this sounds. Suffocation is a fitting name for this band: it's unrelenting, and it will slowly brutalize you. Brutal death metal indeed. The effect the vocals have on me I can only allegorize as being slowly tortured to death.

Alright several things to address right away. I'm getting tons of similarities to Dark Angel with these utterly flawlessly executed fills, tons of riffs, many starts and stops, and of course slight tempo changes. Nothing jumps out at me for the first two tracks, except the continued slight awe I feel for the guitars and drums, and the continued loathsome feeling I have for the vocals. There are very few times (mostly just a few dwindling seconds) when I actually like the vocals, most of which are when the singer actually screams or yells instead of the 'spoken word' brutal death metal voice.

The first minute of the third track "Infecting the Crypts" is killer. Some of the MEANEST riffs you will ever play for the first minute. These are relatively clean riffs, but man, they're good. Then the song slows down as the heaviest riffs yet start playing and the vocals return. Around the first minute mark, the song returns to sounding much like the previous songs. Still, that first minute is going to be hard to top. Also during the first minute is one of those few fleeting moments where I like the vocals: The song opens with a brief growl-scream (?) and that's the kind of stuff that doesn't bother me.

"Seeds of the Suffering" has a crazy solo around the half-way point that is very impressive, and goes all over the place. The vocals are starting to bother me less, but now the biggest problem I have with this is that all the songs sound the same to me. There's nothing that I particularly like except for the growling guitars, but those are played so fast it's hard to latch onto them.

Grinding guitars open "Reincarnation" and there's promise on this track. Oh sorry, that's not the name of the track, it's "Reincremation," that's clever. This is probably my second favorite track so far, because the guitars actually standout on this track, and it's the shortest track on this album, heh.

"Mass Obliteration" also has 4 or 5 good riffs, and the are some brutal, dual-channel vocals on this track, and that is something I haven't heard on this album. The more I listen to this album, the more I'm able to detect subtle differences on each of these tracks. I have to say, the second half of this album is much better than the first. Whether that's because of the reason I just discussed where I can detect more things I like on each of the songs, or it's actually better, I don't know.

Alright, last track–with perhaps the most sinister sounding title ever in metal "Jesus Wept." Seriously, that's just genius. The guitar playing on this one sounds monster truck-y. If that makes any sense. Just imagine some brutal downpicked guitar playing, played really fast, most of the playing is 90% shredding, 10% riffs, but there's some occasional "clean" riffs, and of course there's tempo changes that don't follow any set pattern, and there; Monster truck guitar.

This wasn't the most pleasant experience I've endured, but I suppose if it was just brutal death metal without the technical side to it, it could have potentially been much worse. Probably only five tracks from this I would ever want to listen to again. "Inffecting the Crypts" is easily my favorite of those.

Isbjørn · 10-10-2014, 03:02 AM

"Infecting the Crypts" is killer, even though I'm hardly a fan of death metal. And I'm checking out that Xysma demo.

Wpnfire · 10-11-2014, 02:48 PM

a

Wpnfire's Heavy Metal Expedition

Alright, so with Trollheart's metal month ongoing, I have decided to post my own metal review albums for this month as well. I racked my brain a bit, and at first I was going to review the albums from member's top ten metal albums list that were not chosen by Trollheart, but I decided that was too taxing (also I used a random number generator to choose which albums I was going to review, and Ninetails albums kept popping up. Sorry Nine, but your albums frighten me greatly!).

So, I decided to instead review some of the albums I have listened to in the past year. During this past year I have discovered more metal albums in one year than I have in the past 19. I will add what my thoughts were when I first listened to each of the albums that have slowly shaped my metal tastes.

Much to my dismay, the first true metal album that I listened to was something so sinister, it almost put me off from metal altogether...again!

Load

*sigh* well maybe I will just put this one at the end...but if I want my chronicling to be accurate..
fine! I guess I will review this **** stain of an album.

I am not posting the artwork because I refuse to look at it.

Alright, so as much as I hate the prospect of listening to this entire album again, I will say this. "Ain't My Bitch" is my favorite Metallica song, bar none. Also it was on the strength of this one song that I bought the album. You see, I still was not a true fan of metal a year ago and in my confusion I mistook thrash metal for overly aggressive, disgusting, offensive metal. Not sure why I thought that, (I guess I was just a pussy as Batlord would call it) but I elected to buy Load as all the reviews said it was not in the realm of thrash. Alas, it was not what I expected. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have gone BACK instead of going forward, but hey, I knew nothing about metal, let alone Metallica...

Alright, so "Ain't My Bitch" is still my favorite Metallica song, and I will never apologize for that. Truly, the guitar riffs on this song are just all-around spectacular, and while the lyrics, and the solo in the middle, are lackluster at best, I do not ****ing care. The riffs are heavy, it is singable, and at the end of the day, that is really all I am looking for.

****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****, ****!
I basically summarized my views on the next 13 tracks, but that is a cop-out right? *sigh* (again) Alright so "2x4" has got some mighty fine riffing that is right up my alley (like seriously, we are talking 10/10, lights out for the riffs, wow!) but these lyrics are just awful! Holy **** Hetfield, please ****ing stop singing this goddamn minute. The vocals for Suffocation are better than what you are doing right now! "Put the screws (ah!) to yah"

Oh my god these are so terrible. Having flashbacks to "Frantic" right now. Right away, "One" is sounding more appealing than listening to this–hell, even the black album sounds good! Okay, it is not black album bad, but it is not too far away from that ****.

There is an odd trippy/psychedelic section of this song after the first minute that sounds about x1000 better than Hetfield singing on his own. It is actually bearable. Oh, but of course Hetfield ruins that too as he comes whispering in. The solo is nice, also right up my alley, but it can not save this song.

lol Track 3 has descended almost entirely into hard rock. And I am done! I can NOT take this anymore. THIS...

...is heavier than 90% of the songs on load, and about a 1000x more appealing! Good God! I can not believe I spent my ****ing money on this album.

Alright! So let us forget about that one and just go right on to the main album I was going to review first and foremost.

Bathory -- Bathory

I had zero respect for black metal before this album. I thought black metal was worthless, offensive (an emphasis on offensive), skill-less noise metal. After the Batlord showed me a song from this album, I quickly realized all my preconceptions about black metal were just wrong, and that First Wave Black Metal was more up my alley.
Technically, I am skipping ahead a few albums to get to Bathory, but this is the first extreme metal album that I listened to that was not a thrash album.

I still find that album cover rather eerie. I have seen the yellow one, and good god, that one is way more creepy, but oddly enough, the album cover I have has one with red eyes for the goat, and I am not quite sure why. I have never seen that cover before, but I think I actually like it the best of the covers I have seen (also it is the least creepy!)

Tracklist:
Storm of Damnation (Intro)

Hades

Reaper

Necromanc(s)y

Sacrifice

In Conspiracy With Satan

Armageddon

Raise The Dead

War

Winds of Mayhem (Outro)

The album opens with a dark ambient track, "Storm of Damnation," that cannot set the stage more perfectly for this album. Like the name implies, there is howling wind, what sounds like thunder (?), and perhaps most creepy, a very large bell, or gong maybe. This ambience continues directly into the first track, "Hades" that starts immediately following the intro track. I originally found this album on the internet, and that album had the intro track and "Hades" as separate tracks, but the CD version I bought a few months ago has them combined as one track, something I have never seen before or read about.

Anyway, when this song begins, virgin black metal listeners such as myself, may immediately notice the absolute dearth of quality recording techniques on this album, and it is quite shocking. The overal album sounds like it was recorded using something slightly higher in quality than a tape recorder. The guitars are downtuned, the drumming is fast, but when Quorthon comes in with the vocals, it puts the instrumentation into perspective: this is truly just a grinding, downtuned, satanic mess of an album--in a good way. An accurate comparison would be that it sounds like a Venom album, but considerably more intense. The vocals are raspy, rapid-fire, and for the most part, unintelligible.

The album gallops along at a brisk pace, offering some high-level songwriting finesse by Quorthon, who adds in some minor breakdowns, false starts, and occasionally a wild solo. Most of the songs are average in length. Regardless of whether you like Bathory or not, I do not think there is any debate: this is a great debut album. The vocals change slightly from track to track, sometimes Quorthon sings slower, but deeper, gurgle-y vocals (like on "Armageddon"), Other times, he sings (yells) much more clearly, or screams fiendishly.

Now I cannot do an album review which includes my personal thoughts at the time and not talk about "Raise The Dead." This was the track that the Batlord originally showed me many moons ago. A few chimes from a bell slowly give way to what sounds like a heart beating; then a few ringing guitar chords give rise to one of the best guitar riffs from this album; followed shortly by Quorthon shouting "Dust to dust!!" Simply spectacular.

After a much faster track, a doom-y outro track plays called "The Winds of Mayhem" that runs for thirty seconds and is supposed to be the antithesis of the intro track "Storm of Damnation." Instead of hollowing wind, distant claps of thunder, and a ringing bell, that all carry a foreboding sense of an impending storm, "The Winds" are the aftermath of that storm with–I do not even know how to describe it–drone-ish ambience I guess you could call it. It is chilling, and I could not think of a better closing to this dark album.

Alright, so let me summarize my feelings on this album. This was the first black metal album I listened to, and while it is not a flawless album, and it can get a tad stale at times, it was without a doubt, the darkest, most intense album I had listened to up to that point--and I loved it. Gritty, glorified satan worship at pretty much its finest.
My favorite tracks from this would be "Hades," "Sacrifice," "Raise The Dead," and "War," though all of the tracks are great, and I could listen to each and every one of them. After this album, I started listening to heavier and heavier metal. It was truly the beginning of my extreme metal days.

Wpnfire · 10-12-2014, 01:58 PM

The Expedition Continues with...

SARCÓFAGO - I.N.R.I.

Alright, so I listened to this album after the Batlord showed me one of the tracks from it. This is much, MUCH heavier than Bathory's first album as it is borderline death metal like a large percentage of proto-black metal albums in the 80s. Accordingly, I was a bit turned off by the vocals at points when I first listened to this, but I am far and away over the vocals now and consider this album to be one of the sickest albums I have heard in the past year. I would probably say that this album has the heaviest vocals in metal outside of brutal death metal and grindcore. And if the album cover with the band members covered in corpse paint; standing in a graveyard; with inverted crosses worked in to the cover, this album covers mostly irreligious themes.

I have never known what genre this album is properly described as, as it certainly belongs in discussions of proto-black metal albums, and proto-death albums, but there are hints of extreme thrash as well. I guess we could just call it an early extreme metal album and that should settle it.

"Satanic Lust" is the first track, and after some downpicked riffs get going, there is this incredibly evil sounding beastly growl that I am sure would have Trollheart running for cover. The riffs continue for a bit until the guitars intensify and then we hear some of the first iterations of blast beats in metal. Now I do not want people to get the idea that I am some religious pussy and the lyrics bother me, but they do to some extent bother me in this song. The saving grace is that the vocals are very unintelligible. Some of the lyrics for certain songs are kind of ****ty, but other times, they are great.

I really would classify all of the songs on this album as great, or at least very memorable (who could not like "Deathrash"?) but I do have two favorites. I know I talk about riffs A LOT, but one of the riffs in "Nightmare" is truly heavy. At 5:38 the song is just a tad too long but it is still my favorite due to the guitar work alone.
"The Last Slaughter" is my other favorite track, again, for a very groove-y middle section of the song which contains another swell riff.

Overall, this album was really heavy when I first listened to it, but it was not quite as likable as the Bathory album I listened to before it. After this, I started looking at the list of black metal artists the Batlord provided me with, but first, I took a brief stop revisiting Metallica.

The Batlord · 10-12-2014, 02:22 PM

Ah Sarcofago. The only band whose name unintentionally forces me to get around the language filter. And their lyrics should be ****ty. They're from Brazil and can barely speak English.

09-03-2014, 06:30 PM	#2 (permalink)
Wpnfire Dragon Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kansas, United States Posts: 2,744	The Living End Based out of Australia, The Living End takes a fascinating look on the world of punk. A couple of things to note about them. They are a 3-piece band, with an upright bass player, similar to a rockabilly group (more on that later), their material is usually complicated, featuring guitar solos, breakdowns, instrumentals, and lyrics rooted in social critique. They don't stick to just punk rock material either. It's almost tempting to call them an experimental punk band, that dabbles in rock n roll, rockabilly (hence the upright bass player), pop punk, and later in their career, alternative rock. Early in their career, The Living End adopted a weird combination of punk rock and rockabilly that is often just called punkabilly. However, there's also a much rougher, harsher side to The Living End, that goes beyond punkabilly, and sounds closer to hard rock, or, dare I say sounds similar to 80s metal. This harsher style has even earned the band a few tracks on Guitar Hero. That's actually how I came to hear about the band; I first heard about them seven years ago back in middle school when I spent my days playing Guitar Hero. Hellbound Hellbound is their first release, an EP, recorded in 1995. A close friend of mine found a link to this Australia-only release way back in the day, and gave me the album download. You must scour the web to find this album unless you live in Australia, because it was only released there. The genre of this EP is very difficult to categorize. Most of the songs feature a punk and punkabilly style, but a few songs sound like a less-harsh sounding Kill Em All. The album has breakdowns, edgy riffs, intricate solos, minor tempo changes, and even features a highly technical instrumental track. Most of the lyrics deal with punk rock-typical social critique. I recommend checking out this EP. Punk can be hit-or-miss for me, but Hellbound goes all over the place so it's enough to keep me interested. It's also got some great riffs, and the variety is pretty impressive for a debut release. The highlights of this album for me are: "Trace of Doubt," "Hellbound," "The Living End," "Hedlines," and "Do What I Do." __________________ Last.FM My RYM Ratings *My Glitchwave Beta Profile*

10-07-2014, 02:12 AM	#4 (permalink)
Wpnfire Dragon Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kansas, United States Posts: 2,744	THE POST WHERE I PROVE MY MANLINESS IN ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS!! Nevermind that's just annoying. With Trollheart's metal month still ongoing, I've decided to honor his sacrifice listening to Jansz' grindcore albums by listening to one (JUST ONE) myself. You hear THAT BATTY, JANSZ? What's that? You can't hear me because I'm not saying anything huh? Well I guess you'll never see my special journal review of GRINDCORE I decided to forgo recommendations and just find a random band. I literally just chose a random letter and took the first band. I ended up with... Xysma Xysma is a Finnish grind/death band, and yada, yada, yada...none of that is important. I decided to review their first demo LP (The Swarming of the Maggots), since apparently that's the only thing they did that's true grind. Says here they did rock combined with death metal after that. Well that sounds like **, wonder why they did that. Oh god, that must mean this demo is either *, or one of the heaviest things in existence. Well, I guess I'll find out. The title of this demo is called Swarming of the Maggots* and appropriately has a fitting album cover of...whatever that is. The first track is an intro track, with some drone-stuff to start off with then some of that vague incoherent chanting/choir stuff that sounds...cheap. Now the first track is playing, "Pulsating cerebral slime," and well I appear to have dodged a serious bullet here as this is at least bearable. Certainly heavy though, that guitar tone is exceptional, the vocals are alright, but the best is at the end of the song when they go full demonic-growl voice for a few seconds. That wasn't bad, mostly because it was only 34 seconds. Okay this next song "Pulverized Necrobrains" is sick. The guitar playing is exactly the kind of stuff I like, and when the guitars aren't chugging along, I'm at least immune to the vocals, as I count myself among a lover of Sarco*o. It's going to be hard to top this, but let's see. Hmm, "festering sore" sounds promising–never mind it's over. Forgot that grind does that. "Procreated from blood" slows down the tempo a bit, which allows the drumming to really shine for a few moments. woah then there's this furious guitar solo that sounds more like nails scrapping on a chalkboard than Slayer worship. More bands should do something like that. These guys should win an award for these song titles. Both because of the actual title, and some of them are a bitch to spell. "Unaesthetic genitplasty" the is that? Never mind I'm not looking it up, I know better than that. Oh wow, for the song with one of the most intimidating song titles so far, "Fetid gurgitation" is a frightening six seconds. Might have to look up the lyrics to that song, maybe the lyrics are so putrid they just cut the song after the first verse. "Fleshaw" (clever title by the way) is the first song from this album I would like to never hear again. That's right Batty, I do NOT like all the songs on this album. The guitar playing is great, but the vocals are just a tad too much for me. Uh the complex song titles continue with "pathologists perevesrljadjfad." I don't *ing know what it says. It's 2:38 in the morning, and I'm not going to spend 30 seconds to figure out the title to song that's...hahaha, wow, that's only 22 seconds–so yeah, I'm not doing that. Alright "Priests formed in excrement" returns to the chugging guitar riffs that I liked so much on the second track. Very tight stuff. I have no idea what the hell is going on in "charred limbs" it opens with what sounds like should be the ending* of a song, then it goes into this watery trance part that continues until the song fades out. The word strange comes to mind. Ah "Drown Oneself" is another great song with some chugging guitar riffs. The next song is titled "Burbed Rectum" and that should tell you all you need to know about that. Wow, it's 2 minutes, guess I should pay attention then. This one has some upbeat, non-double bass drumming that sounds great. Hm, that was at least moderately satisfying. "Evisceration" has a part in the middle I like, but it's mostly the same. Well that's all the tracks worth discussing. This album wasn't that bad, and the few songs I liked from it I would probably place on the level of my extreme metal playlist of "play occasionally." The rest not so much. Alright, that's all for now, I'm going to bed. __________________ Last.FM My RYM Ratings *My Glitchwave Beta Profile*

10-08-2014, 04:20 PM	#6 (permalink)
Wpnfire Dragon Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kansas, United States Posts: 2,744	THE POST WHERE I PROVE MY MANLINESS part 2 Suffocation — Effigy of the Forgotten This is Suffocation's first album, and given how much my brothers-in-metal Batlord and Briks have mentioned it in the past few days I've decided to review it. It's categorized as brutal death metal...so I'm already opposed to it from the beginning. Ugh, this is really difficult. This makes the grindcore album I just listened to look **ING WEAK! This is legitimately impressive how heavy and death ridden this sounds. Suffocation is a fitting name for this band: it's unrelenting, and it will slowly brutalize you. Brutal death metal indeed. The effect the vocals have on me I can only allegorize as being slowly tortured to death. Alright several things to address right away. I'm getting tons of similarities to Dark Angel with these utterly flawlessly executed fills, tons of riffs, many starts and stops, and of course slight tempo changes. Nothing jumps out at me for the first two tracks, except the continued slight awe I feel for the guitars and drums, and the continued loathsome feeling I have for the vocals. There are very few times (mostly just a few dwindling seconds) when I actually like the vocals, most of which are when the singer actually screams or yells instead of the 'spoken word' brutal death metal voice. The first minute of the third track "Infecting the Crypts" is killer. Some of the MEANEST riffs you will ever play for the first minute. These are relatively clean riffs, but man, they're good. Then the song slows down as the heaviest riffs yet start playing and the vocals return. Around the first minute mark, the song returns to sounding much like the previous songs. Still, that first minute is going to be hard to top. Also during the first minute is one of those few fleeting moments where I like the vocals: The song opens with a brief growl-scream (?) and that's the kind of stuff that doesn't bother me. "Seeds of the Suffering" has a crazy solo around the half-way point that is very impressive, and goes all over the place. The vocals are starting to bother me less, but now the biggest problem I have with this is that all the songs sound the same to me. There's nothing that I particularly like except for the growling guitars, but those are played so fast it's hard to latch onto them. Grinding guitars open "Reincarnation" and there's promise on this track. Oh sorry, that's not the name of the track, it's "Reincremation," that's clever. This is probably my second favorite track so far, because the guitars actually standout on this track, and it's the shortest track on this album, heh. "Mass Obliteration" also has 4 or 5 good riffs, and the are some brutal, dual-channel vocals on this track, and that is something I haven't heard on this album. The more I listen to this album, the more I'm able to detect subtle differences on each of these tracks. I have to say, the second half of this album is much better than the first. Whether that's because of the reason I just discussed where I can detect more things I like on each of the songs, or it's actually better, I don't know. Alright, last track–with perhaps the most sinister sounding title ever in metal "Jesus Wept." Seriously, that's just genius. The guitar playing on this one sounds monster truck-y. If that makes any sense. Just imagine some brutal downpicked guitar playing, played really fast, most of the playing is 90% shredding, 10% riffs, but there's some occasional "clean" riffs, and of course there's tempo changes that don't follow any set pattern, and there; Monster truck guitar. This wasn't the most pleasant experience I've endured, but I suppose if it was just brutal death metal without the technical side to it, it could have potentially been much worse. Probably only five tracks from this I would ever want to listen to again. "Inffecting the Crypts" is easily my favorite of those. __________________ Last.FM My RYM Ratings My Glitchwave Beta Profile** Last edited by Wpnfire; 01-28-2015 at 10:44 AM.

10-10-2014, 03:02 AM	#7 (permalink)
Isbjørn cooler commie than elph Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: In a hole, help Posts: 2,811	"Infecting the Crypts" is killer, even though I'm hardly a fan of death metal. And I'm checking out that Xysma demo. __________________ fast(ml) Hear me play the guitar Look, mom! I got a journal

10-11-2014, 02:48 PM	#8 (permalink)
Wpnfire Dragon Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kansas, United States Posts: 2,744	a Wpnfire's Heavy Metal Expedition Alright, so with Trollheart's metal month ongoing, I have decided to post my own metal review albums for this month as well. I racked my brain a bit, and at first I was going to review the albums from member's top ten metal albums list that were not chosen by Trollheart, but I decided that was too taxing (also I used a random number generator to choose which albums I was going to review, and Ninetails albums kept popping up. Sorry Nine, but your albums frighten me greatly!). So, I decided to instead review some of the albums I have listened to in the past year. During this past year I have discovered more metal albums in one year than I have in the past 19. I will add what my thoughts were when I first listened to each of the albums that have slowly shaped my metal tastes. Much to my dismay, the first true metal album that I listened to was something so sinister, it almost put me off from metal altogether...again! Load sigh well maybe I will just put this one at the end...but if I want my chronicling to be accurate.. fine! I guess I will review this **** stain of an album. I am not posting the artwork because I refuse to look at it. Alright, so as much as I hate the prospect of listening to this entire album again, I will say this. "Ain't My Bitch" is my favorite Metallica song, bar none. Also it was on the strength of this one song that I bought the album. You see, I still was not a true fan of metal a year ago and in my confusion I mistook thrash metal for overly aggressive, disgusting, offensive metal. Not sure why I thought that, (I guess I was just a pussy as Batlord would call it) but I elected to buy Load as all the reviews said it was not in the realm of thrash. Alas, it was not what I expected. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have gone BACK instead of going forward, but hey, I knew nothing about metal, let alone Metallica... Alright, so "Ain't My Bitch" is still my favorite Metallica song, and I will never apologize for that. Truly, the guitar riffs on this song are just all-around spectacular, and while the lyrics, and the solo in the middle, are lackluster at best, I do not **ing care. The riffs are heavy, it is singable, and at the end of the day, that is really all I am looking for. , , , , , , , , , , , , *! I basically summarized my views on the next 13 tracks, but that is a cop-out right? sigh* (again) Alright so "2x4" has got some mighty fine riffing that is right up my alley (like seriously, we are talking 10/10, lights out for the riffs, wow!) but these lyrics are just awful! Holy ** Hetfield, please ing stop singing this goddamn minute. The vocals for Suffocation are better than what you are doing right now! "Put the screws (ah!) to yah" Oh my god these are so terrible. Having flashbacks to "Frantic" right now. Right away, "One" is sounding more appealing than listening to this–hell, even the black album sounds good! Okay, it is not black album bad, but it is not too far away from that . There is an odd trippy/psychedelic section of this song after the first minute that sounds about x1000 better than Hetfield singing on his own. It is actually bearable. Oh, but of course Hetfield ruins that too as he comes whispering in. The solo is nice, also right up my alley, but it can not save this song. lol Track 3 has descended almost entirely into hard rock. And I am done! I can NOT take this anymore. THIS... ...is heavier than 90% of the songs on load, and about a 1000x more appealing! Good God! I can not believe I spent my *ing money on this album. Alright! So let us forget about that one and just go right on to the main album I was going to review first and foremost. Bathory* -- Bathory I had zero respect for black metal before this album. I thought black metal was worthless, offensive (an emphasis on offensive), skill-less noise metal. After the Batlord showed me a song from this album, I quickly realized all my preconceptions about black metal were just wrong, and that First Wave Black Metal was more up my alley. Technically, I am skipping ahead a few albums to get to Bathory, but this is the first extreme metal album that I listened to that was not a thrash album. I still find that album cover rather eerie. I have seen the yellow one, and good god, that one is way more creepy, but oddly enough, the album cover I have has one with red eyes for the goat, and I am not quite sure why. I have never seen that cover before, but I think I actually like it the best of the covers I have seen (also it is the least creepy!) Tracklist: Storm of Damnation (Intro) Hades Reaper Necromanc(s)y Sacrifice In Conspiracy With Satan Armageddon Raise The Dead War Winds of Mayhem (Outro) The album opens with a dark ambient track, "Storm of Damnation," that cannot set the stage more perfectly for this album. Like the name implies, there is howling wind, what sounds like thunder (?), and perhaps most creepy, a very large bell, or gong maybe. This ambience continues directly into the first track, "Hades" that starts immediately following the intro track. I originally found this album on the internet, and that album had the intro track and "Hades" as separate tracks, but the CD version I bought a few months ago has them combined as one track, something I have never seen before or read about. Anyway, when this song begins, virgin black metal listeners such as myself, may immediately notice the absolute dearth of quality recording techniques on this album, and it is quite shocking. The overal album sounds like it was recorded using something slightly higher in quality than a tape recorder. The guitars are downtuned, the drumming is fast, but when Quorthon comes in with the vocals, it puts the instrumentation into perspective: this is truly just a grinding, downtuned, satanic mess of an album--in a good way. An accurate comparison would be that it sounds like a Venom album, but considerably more intense. The vocals are raspy, rapid-fire, and for the most part, unintelligible. The album gallops along at a brisk pace, offering some high-level songwriting finesse by Quorthon, who adds in some minor breakdowns, false starts, and occasionally a wild solo. Most of the songs are average in length. Regardless of whether you like Bathory or not, I do not think there is any debate: this is a great debut album. The vocals change slightly from track to track, sometimes Quorthon sings slower, but deeper, gurgle-y vocals (like on "Armageddon"), Other times, he sings (yells) much more clearly, or screams fiendishly. Now I cannot do an album review which includes my personal thoughts at the time and not talk about "Raise The Dead." This was the track that the Batlord originally showed me many moons ago. A few chimes from a bell slowly give way to what sounds like a heart beating; then a few ringing guitar chords give rise to one of the best guitar riffs from this album; followed shortly by Quorthon shouting "Dust to dust!!" Simply spectacular. After a much faster track, a doom-y outro track plays called "The Winds of Mayhem" that runs for thirty seconds and is supposed to be the antithesis of the intro track "Storm of Damnation." Instead of hollowing wind, distant claps of thunder, and a ringing bell, that all carry a foreboding sense of an impending storm, "The Winds" are the aftermath of that storm with–I do not even know how to describe it–drone-ish ambience I guess you could call it. It is chilling, and I could not think of a better closing to this dark album. Alright, so let me summarize my feelings on this album. This was the first black metal album I listened to, and while it is not a flawless album, and it can get a tad stale at times, it was without a doubt, the darkest, most intense album I had listened to up to that point--and I loved it. Gritty, glorified satan worship at pretty much its finest. My favorite tracks from this would be "Hades," "Sacrifice," "Raise The Dead," and "War," though all of the tracks are great, and I could listen to each and every one of them. After this album, I started listening to heavier and heavier metal. It was truly the beginning of my extreme metal days. __________________ Last.FM My RYM Ratings *My Glitchwave Beta Profile* Last edited by Wpnfire; 01-28-2015 at 10:48 AM.

10-12-2014, 01:58 PM	#9 (permalink)
Wpnfire Dragon Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kansas, United States Posts: 2,744	The Expedition Continues with... SARCÓFAGO - I.N.R.I. Alright, so I listened to this album after the Batlord showed me one of the tracks from it. This is much, MUCH heavier than Bathory's first album as it is borderline death metal like a large percentage of proto-black metal albums in the 80s. Accordingly, I was a bit turned off by the vocals at points when I first listened to this, but I am far and away over the vocals now and consider this album to be one of the sickest albums I have heard in the past year. I would probably say that this album has the heaviest vocals in metal outside of brutal death metal and grindcore. And if the album cover with the band members covered in corpse paint; standing in a graveyard; with inverted crosses worked in to the cover, this album covers mostly irreligious themes. I have never known what genre this album is properly described as, as it certainly belongs in discussions of proto-black metal albums, and proto-death albums, but there are hints of extreme thrash as well. I guess we could just call it an early extreme metal album and that should settle it. "Satanic Lust" is the first track, and after some downpicked riffs get going, there is this incredibly evil sounding beastly growl that I am sure would have Trollheart running for cover. The riffs continue for a bit until the guitars intensify and then we hear some of the first iterations of blast beats in metal. Now I do not want people to get the idea that I am some religious pussy and the lyrics bother me, but they do to some extent bother me in this song. The saving grace is that the vocals are very unintelligible. Some of the lyrics for certain songs are kind of **ty, but other times, they are great. I really would classify all of the songs on this album as great, or at least very memorable (who could not like "Deathrash"?) but I do have two favorites. I know I talk about riffs A LOT, but one of the riffs in "Nightmare" is truly heavy. At 5:38 the song is just a tad too long but it is still my favorite due to the guitar work alone. "The Last Slaughter" is my other favorite track, again, for a very groove-y middle section of the song which contains another swell riff. Overall, this album was really heavy when I first listened to it, but it was not quite as likable as the Bathory album I listened to before it. After this, I started looking at the list of black metal artists the Batlord provided me with, but first, I took a brief stop revisiting Metallica. __________________ Last.FM My RYM Ratings My Glitchwave Beta Profile** Last edited by Wpnfire; 01-28-2015 at 10:50 AM.