Wpnfire? Who's Wpnfire?!'s Journal

Wpnfire · 11-06-2014, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

You're not very good at being a metal fan.

Ouch...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I'm afraid I would tend to agree with Frown. Someone who can totally diss Paranoid and most of Black Sabbath ... well, it makes it hard to believe you are a metal fan. Not saying you're not, but it's sorta like being a prog fan and hating Genesis, or being a Country fan and hating Cash. Kinda hard to take seriously.

I can't believe you found so little to praise in the first two Sabbath albums: both are killer, as I mentioned when I faced them off against each other in Metal Month II, and to say the words "Meh" and "War Pigs" in the same sentence...?

I am one of those people that believe Black Sabbath got better as they went along. It is certainly an unpopular opinion, but I am fine with it. Vol. 4 is possibly better than Master of Reality IMO. "The Straightener" is one of my favorite songs in rock.

Also, I find it odd you guys are still surprised at how unusual my metal interests are. I am the guy that thinks Rocka Rollla and British Steel are Preist's best albums and Stained Class is among their least appealing... remember?

The Batlord · 11-06-2014, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

to say the words "Meh" and "War Pigs" in the same sentence...?

I've actually never been the biggest fan of "Warpigs", it's a good song, don't get me wrong, but it's just not in the same league as "Black Sabbath" or "Into the Void".

Urban Hat€monger ? · 11-06-2014, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wpnfire

I am one of those people that believe Black Sabbath got better as they went along. It is certainly an unpopular opinion, but I am fine with it.

Me too, I'd take Volume 4, SBS & Sabotage over the first 3 any day.

And I don't really like War Pigs or Black Sabbath either.
I think the best songs on the first 2 albums are the ones that kinda get forgotten about like Behind The Wall Of Sleep, Sleeping Village, Hand Of Doom & Electric Funeral.

Wpnfire · 11-06-2014, 01:59 PM

I edited a few things from the review for Black Sabbath and Paranoid. I now consider Black Sabbath and Paranoid to be mostly even, and I now love "Black Sabbath," but now consider "Paranoid" to be the worst Black Sabbath song I have heard so far.

Wpnfire · 11-06-2014, 11:02 PM

I retured to that list of albums with great riffs and pulled this out.

Genres: Stoner, Doom, Death
Release: 2008

This is a highly unusual album to describe, which is why I want to review it: I like to think of myself as good at writing description. Anyway, the riffs are all over the place genre-wise: Heavily distorted stoner rock, melodic sludge metal, regular sludge, and epic death/doom. Sometimes, two totally different styles are played right after the other, but it works incredibly well. Speed is never consistent either. One second it is wall-of-fuzz, noise or drone, very slow, edgy riffs, (or very slow, melodic playing!) the next it is bright, more uptempo riffs. The solos are high-pitched and piercing loud, sort of like Quorthon soloing on Blood Fire Death, only more akin to Stoner than black metal.
So the guitar playing is all over the map.

The vocals are nasty, if that makes any sense: guttural, gurgle-y, death metal vocals, sung slowly (nothing like Suffocation), and played low in the mix. It is very easy to forget about the vocals actually. They stand out from the instrumentation, but the instrumentation is usually always changing and is far more interesting to me.

"Bare minimum" describes the drumming pretty well. The drummer is very quiet in the background, and plays in very odd timing, but still in rhythm with the guitars. Like the album, very rarely does the drumming ever speed up.

Acid Witch does not **** around with your attention on this album. No fade outs, sparse intros, and all the songs flow directly into one another. Literally, it is like one giant recording cut into multiple "songs". There is music all the time too, no silence, and the riffs only stop playing for the solos. Even the intro tracks "Intro" and "Beastly Brew" are wall-of-noise.

Last but certainly not least, the sound effects. Bubbling (cauldrons, I assume would be a proper interpretation), the sounds of footsteps in the forest, screams, wolves howling, and many other spooky things provide a limited atmosphere, they are very high quality samples too.

One complaint I have with this album is that it drags on far too long, and that hurts my rating of it. Around track 9 it started to get repetitive.

Favorite tracks: I like all of the tracks, but "Cauldron Cave" is easily the best. An oddly placed organ opens with some atmospheric sound effects played over it open the track, then an equally out-of-place, fiery solo plays before the song descends into full on death/doom straight out of a Coffins album. Sick! Briks, if you are reading this, you should listen to this song. You will maybe like it, I am not sure. It is very short so you will not have to suffer for long.
My other favorite would be "Into the Cave" because it has my favorite riffs on the whole album.

Overall rating: 3/5

Wpnfire · 11-07-2014, 08:41 AM

Changing Direction

Not really a fan of Springsteen's debut. My parents own the complete set of Tracks, and that was one of the first things I listened to once I decided to start exploring the Boss's music around five years ago. I made the mistake of listening to that before I listened to Greetings, and I firmly believe "Growin' Up," "Mary Queen of Arkansas," "Does This Bus Stop," and the other demo tracks that Springsteen re-recorded for the album, are severely lacking compared to the original acoustic demo versions found on Tracks. Springsteen is good at arrangement, but he fails to match the intensity that the acoustic versions that "Growin' Up," for example, provide. Still, they are good songs on their own.

My two favorites from this album are the rapid-fire "Blinded By The Light," and the hypnotic "Lost in the Flood." "Blinded" is one of my favorite Springsteen songs, and is the definition of singable with over 600 words! "Lost in the Flood" is an addicting, progressive lyrical ballad that could be one of Springsteen's most violent (and depressing) songs, lyric-wise. The song ends with a story of a shootout on the city streets of one New York City's lesser boroughs. One of the last lines are:

Quote:

And some kid comes blastin' 'round the corner, but a cop puts him right away
He lays on the street holding his leg, screaming something in Spanish, still breathing when I walked away

"For You," and "Spirit In the Night" are my other favorites, but they pale in comparison to "Blinded" and "Lost in the Flood."

Overall rating: 3/5

Wpnfire · 11-08-2014, 10:45 AM

And for Wpnfire's 1000th post...

I am not a guy that listens to full albums, but once I play this album, it is hard for me to stop playing it, let alone simply pause it. I have few complaints with Born to Run, none of which are serious. I do not at all care for the first minute of "She's the One", but as it progresses and Bruce comes in with the guitar, we return to 4-star, then 5-star perfection with the second half of the song. "Thunder Road," "Born To Run," and "Backstreets" are some of Springsteens' most notable anthems, but the last two tracks are the highlights from this album for me.

"Meeting Across the River" is easily my favorite song from this album, and it could very well be Springsteen's most passionate performance ever in my book. The continuation into "Jungleland" is one of my favorite track orderings ever. "Jungleland" contains my favorite solo ever, by far, played by Clarence Clemmons, it is my favorite ending track of any album I have listened to, and the short violin introduction to the song is my favorite intro to a song ever. The album could not end any better than with those two tracks.

Overall rating: There is no doubt in my mind with this. 5/5 for Born To Run.

Wpnfire · 11-10-2014, 10:20 AM

Cerebral Fix - Tower of Spite

Genre: Thrash, Death, Doom.
Release: 1990.

Possibly the most evil sounding thrash metal album in existence--if you couldn't guess by the album name. Heavily based in a technical thrash metal sound, Tower of Spite borders on death metal, but contains very extreme tempo changes that give it a very doomy feel at times as well.

Comparisons are futile. Slaughter in the Vatican meets Power from Hell meets Time Does Not Heal are the closest comparisons I can make, but it still does not match what Cerebral Fix achieved here--let alone account for the doom sound. Singer Simon Forrest is exquisite. He was born to sing on a doomy thrash/death album, and compliments the instrumentation pretty much as well as you can do. Every song is at least somewhat different than the last. "Unity For Who?" opens the album with an incredibly awesome riff, before speeding up to thrash, and then, borderline death metal. The evil sounding, "Feast Of The Fools," is one of the tracks where the doom metal sound materializes, opening with evil sounding maniacal laughter and a sludgy riff.

"Chasten Of Fear," and "Circle of the Earth" start at thrash speed, before descending into doomy territory once more. The album's second longest track, "Quest for Midian" contains a surprisingly epic and melodic solo, totally out of nowhere among the buzzsaw riffs. "Forgotten Genocide" goes crazy with blastbeats. "Culte Des Mortes" revolves on medium speed riffs, with a strong beat that sounds almost groove-laden. The last minute is heavily melodic, and, oddly, fades out. The final track, "Closing Irony" ends as well as "Unity For Who?" opened the album. An extended, introductory, technical thrash-fest complete with buzzsaw riffs, snare drums, and melodic soloing.

For an album that came out in 1990, Cerebral Fix shows that bands were still capable of doing new things in thrash metal. I can think of several thrash albums that have more variety, but none of them cover as much ground genre-wise as Tower of Spite. It is a technical album, but it does not go wild with bravado. It is a simplistic, and well-balanced album. If there is one album that deserves the title of heaviest thrash metal album in existence, it should be Tower of Spite.

Ever wonder what thrash/doom sounds like? Tower of Spite!
Don't like the singer of Dark Angel? Tower of Spite!
Like the intensity of technical death metal but don't like the vocals? Tower of Spite!
What is one of the most underrated thrash metal albums? Tower of Spite!
What does evil sound like? Tower of Spite!

I'm going to give this one a 4/5, because while the songs have pretty much no flaws, I think one or two tracks could be removed. However, I would not be surprised if I am the only one that thinks that, and other people give this a 5/5.

Favorite tracks: "Unity For Who?" "Feast of the Fools" "Quest for Midian" "Closing Irony"

Overall Rating: 4/5

The Batlord · 11-10-2014, 12:41 PM

Alright, that was pretty cool, but Dream Death has them beat as far as doom/thrash goes. They're far more raw, and also hit that primitive black metal sweet spot I know you love. And that production is just tar-thick. Unfortunately they only had the one album (until they reunited recently that is), and it even has your band beat by being released three years earlier, in 1987.

Edit: Oh, and you wanna talk about technical death/thrash? Anacrusis is pretty much tops. They got pretty left field with later albums, but their debut is pretty brutal for thrash, but intelligent and mature as well. I'd say they actually qualify as progressive, rather than just technical, and while they aren't exactly Morbid Saint as far intensity, they still have a great dynamic going, with aggressive thrash melding seamlessly with melodic elements. If they'd caught on, I think they could have invented melodic death metal years before Carcass and At the Gates.

Straight-up death/thrash.

Something... a little different.

God damn it I keep editing this. I forgot just how awesome this band was, and I'm having trouble just recommending one or two tracks. **** it, this song has a bitchin' mid-paced riff, kickass thrash, and enough songwriting depth and uniqueness that it really could only be an Anacrusis song. Last edit... I swear.

Trollheart · 11-10-2014, 01:38 PM

Re: your two Springsteen reviews. I would agree that the debut is a weak album, and my own particular favourites from it would be definitely "Lost in the flood" but then "Spirit in the night" and "It's hard to be a saint in the city". It's easily my least favourite Bruce album though. "The wild, the innocent and the E Street shuffle" was a huge leap forward for the man, and quite a gamble, given that the second side has only three tracks, all of which hit over the seven minute mark.

Moving on to "Born to run", I agree this is one flawless album, though I personally think "Meeting" is a weak track, also "Tenth Avenue freeze out". The rest of the album more than makes up for it though, a total classic through and through and I would agree with the solo on "Jungleland": is there a better sax player than Clarence? The SOUL he put into his playing, man it can bring tears to your eyes!

My own journey began with "Born in the USA" --- specifically, the single "Dancing in the dark" followed by the purchase of the album --- then moved on to "Born to run", "The river" and "Darkness" before I got his lesser albums as it were. After that I was a fan for life.

Good reviews. Watch for one on BTR in my own journal very soon....

11-06-2014, 01:59 PM	#44 (permalink)
Wpnfire Dragon Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kansas, United States Posts: 2,744	I edited a few things from the review for Black Sabbath and Paranoid. I now consider Black Sabbath and Paranoid to be mostly even, and I now love "Black Sabbath," but now consider "Paranoid" to be the worst Black Sabbath song I have heard so far. __________________ Last.FM My RYM Ratings *My Glitchwave Beta Profile*

11-06-2014, 11:02 PM	#45 (permalink)
Wpnfire Dragon Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kansas, United States Posts: 2,744	I retured to that list of albums with great riffs and pulled this out. Genres: Stoner, Doom, Death Release: 2008 This is a highly unusual album to describe, which is why I want to review it: I like to think of myself as good at writing description. Anyway, the riffs are all over the place genre-wise: Heavily distorted stoner rock, melodic sludge metal, regular sludge, and epic death/doom. Sometimes, two totally different styles are played right after the other, but it works incredibly well. Speed is never consistent either. One second it is wall-of-fuzz, noise or drone, very slow, edgy riffs, (or very slow, melodic playing!) the next it is bright, more uptempo riffs. The solos are high-pitched and piercing loud, sort of like Quorthon soloing on Blood Fire Death, only more akin to Stoner than black metal. So the guitar playing is all over the map. The vocals are nasty, if that makes any sense: guttural, gurgle-y, death metal vocals, sung slowly (nothing like Suffocation), and played low in the mix. It is very easy to forget about the vocals actually. They stand out from the instrumentation, but the instrumentation is usually always changing and is far more interesting to me. "Bare minimum" describes the drumming pretty well. The drummer is very quiet in the background, and plays in very odd timing, but still in rhythm with the guitars. Like the album, very rarely does the drumming ever speed up. Acid Witch does not **** around with your attention on this album. No fade outs, sparse intros, and all the songs flow directly into one another. Literally, it is like one giant recording cut into multiple "songs". There is music all the time too, no silence, and the riffs only stop playing for the solos. Even the intro tracks "Intro" and "Beastly Brew" are wall-of-noise. Last but certainly not least, the sound effects. Bubbling (cauldrons, I assume would be a proper interpretation), the sounds of footsteps in the forest, screams, wolves howling, and many other spooky things provide a limited atmosphere, they are very high quality samples too. One complaint I have with this album is that it drags on far too long, and that hurts my rating of it. Around track 9 it started to get repetitive. Favorite tracks: I like all of the tracks, but "Cauldron Cave" is easily the best. An oddly placed organ opens with some atmospheric sound effects played over it open the track, then an equally out-of-place, fiery solo plays before the song descends into full on death/doom straight out of a Coffins album. Sick! Briks, if you are reading this, you should listen to this song. You will maybe like it, I am not sure. It is very short so you will not have to suffer for long. My other favorite would be "Into the Cave" because it has my favorite riffs on the whole album. Overall rating: 3/5 __________________ Last.FM My RYM Ratings *My Glitchwave Beta Profile* Last edited by Wpnfire; 01-28-2015 at 12:15 PM.

11-08-2014, 10:45 AM	#47 (permalink)
Wpnfire Dragon Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kansas, United States Posts: 2,744	And for Wpnfire's 1000th post... I am not a guy that listens to full albums, but once I play this album, it is hard for me to stop playing it, let alone simply pause it. I have few complaints with Born to Run, none of which are serious. I do not at all care for the first minute of "She's the One", but as it progresses and Bruce comes in with the guitar, we return to 4-star, then 5-star perfection with the second half of the song. "Thunder Road," "Born To Run," and "Backstreets" are some of Springsteens' most notable anthems, but the last two tracks are the highlights from this album for me. "Meeting Across the River" is easily my favorite song from this album, and it could very well be Springsteen's most passionate performance ever in my book. The continuation into "Jungleland" is one of my favorite track orderings ever. "Jungleland" contains my favorite solo ever, by far, played by Clarence Clemmons, it is my favorite ending track of any album I have listened to, and the short violin introduction to the song is my favorite intro to a song ever. The album could not end any better than with those two tracks. Overall rating: There is no doubt in my mind with this. 5/5 for Born To Run. __________________ Last.FM My RYM Ratings *My Glitchwave Beta Profile*

11-10-2014, 10:20 AM	#48 (permalink)
Wpnfire Dragon Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kansas, United States Posts: 2,744	Cerebral Fix - Tower of Spite Genre: Thrash, Death, Doom. Release: 1990. Possibly the most evil sounding thrash metal album in existence--if you couldn't guess by the album name. Heavily based in a technical thrash metal sound, Tower of Spite borders on death metal, but contains very extreme tempo changes that give it a very doomy feel at times as well. Comparisons are futile. Slaughter in the Vatican meets Power from Hell meets Time Does Not Heal are the closest comparisons I can make, but it still does not match what Cerebral Fix achieved here--let alone account for the doom sound. Singer Simon Forrest is exquisite. He was born to sing on a doomy thrash/death album, and compliments the instrumentation pretty much as well as you can do. Every song is at least somewhat different than the last. "Unity For Who?" opens the album with an incredibly awesome riff, before speeding up to thrash, and then, borderline death metal. The evil sounding, "Feast Of The Fools," is one of the tracks where the doom metal sound materializes, opening with evil sounding maniacal laughter and a sludgy riff. "Chasten Of Fear," and "Circle of the Earth" start at thrash speed, before descending into doomy territory once more. The album's second longest track, "Quest for Midian" contains a surprisingly epic and melodic solo, totally out of nowhere among the buzzsaw riffs. "Forgotten Genocide" goes crazy with blastbeats. "Culte Des Mortes" revolves on medium speed riffs, with a strong beat that sounds almost groove-laden. The last minute is heavily melodic, and, oddly, fades out. The final track, "Closing Irony" ends as well as "Unity For Who?" opened the album. An extended, introductory, technical thrash-fest complete with buzzsaw riffs, snare drums, and melodic soloing. For an album that came out in 1990, Cerebral Fix shows that bands were still capable of doing new things in thrash metal. I can think of several thrash albums that have more variety, but none of them cover as much ground genre-wise as Tower of Spite. It is a technical album, but it does not go wild with bravado. It is a simplistic, and well-balanced album. If there is one album that deserves the title of heaviest thrash metal album in existence, it should be Tower of Spite. Ever wonder what thrash/doom sounds like? Tower of Spite! Don't like the singer of Dark Angel? Tower of Spite! Like the intensity of technical death metal but don't like the vocals? Tower of Spite! What is one of the most underrated thrash metal albums? Tower of Spite! What does evil sound like? Tower of Spite! I'm going to give this one a 4/5, because while the songs have pretty much no flaws, I think one or two tracks could be removed. However, I would not be surprised if I am the only one that thinks that, and other people give this a 5/5. Favorite tracks: "Unity For Who?" "Feast of the Fools" "Quest for Midian" "Closing Irony" Overall Rating: 4/5 __________________ Last.FM My RYM Ratings *My Glitchwave Beta Profile* Last edited by Wpnfire; 11-10-2014 at 10:27 AM.

11-10-2014, 01:38 PM	#50 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Re: your two Springsteen reviews. I would agree that the debut is a weak album, and my own particular favourites from it would be definitely "Lost in the flood" but then "Spirit in the night" and "It's hard to be a saint in the city". It's easily my least favourite Bruce album though. "The wild, the innocent and the E Street shuffle" was a huge leap forward for the man, and quite a gamble, given that the second side has only three tracks, all of which hit over the seven minute mark. Moving on to "Born to run", I agree this is one flawless album, though I personally think "Meeting" is a weak track, also "Tenth Avenue freeze out". The rest of the album more than makes up for it though, a total classic through and through and I would agree with the solo on "Jungleland": is there a better sax player than Clarence? The SOUL he put into his playing, man it can bring tears to your eyes! My own journey began with "Born in the USA" --- specifically, the single "Dancing in the dark" followed by the purchase of the album --- then moved on to "Born to run", "The river" and "Darkness" before I got his lesser albums as it were. After that I was a fan for life. Good reviews. Watch for one on BTR in my own journal very soon.... __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018