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User
Soundoffs 13
Album Ratings 48
Objectivity 49%
Last Active 01-14-20 8:01 pm
Joined 12-16-19
Review Comments 18
| Journey to the perfect metal album
I've been rooting through metal from all decades and genres for a few years, and have recently become sort of obsessed with finding an album that fits a very specific ideal. I'm getting closer, and at time of writing have found an album that I'd say is 80% of the way there. This list is a somewhat chronological catalog of the highlights found along the journey.
The ideal I'm searching for is something that can deliver on the fantasy of being part of a hive mind and also being a fanged inhuman monster that eats people. Something with good use of modulation and song/album structure, and a cocktail of doom, thrash, and stoner metal. | | 17 |  | Coldworld
Melancholie
A defining statement in black metal that's been with me for a long time. Something about the spatial placement and effecting of the vocals makes this album incredibly transporting. Icy winds, cold metal, dying embers, knee-high snowdrifts, and total isolation all delivered through the character of the sound. | | 16 |  | Vektor
Terminal Redux
The album that made me a metal devotee. Visionary album construction and songwriting, spiralling sci-fi narrative, solid production, instrumentation calculated to the point of sterility, and an explosive, brain-busting resolution that answers the discordant question posed at the end of the first track. Possibly the most complete-sounding album I've heard, with very little out of place. This extremely tight construction leaves no room for the natural world, but then, very little can survive in the vacuum of space. | | 15 |  | Usurpress
Interregnum
An incredible amount of character. Beautiful production, especially the battering, overwhelming drums. A blackened steak of an album that bleeds when cut. Best-in-class vocals. Ships of Black Glass in particular has one of my favourite moments of the decade at 2:10. | | 14 |  | Ex Eye
Ex Eye
A hallucinatory, jazz-soaked religious experience that makes Philip Glass obsolete. Extremely unique sound that will leave you stunned and possibly dehydrated(?). | | 13 |  | Puppy
The Goat
Closer to grunge than metal, but still an incredibly entertaining romp with cute and satisfying songwriting. Nightwalker is a standout favourite for making Weezer utterly redundant in all record collections, and Poor Me for both validating and condemning your most myopic self-pity. A vibrant album that shines with care and attention. Highly recommended. Tom Dalgety's presence as producer is the cherry on top. | | 12 |  | Tribulation
Down Below
Gothiest thing ever put to wax. Find myself paying particular attention to the use of dead-on-time sixteenth notes, especially in Nightbound. One of the most consistent albums I've ever heard and an all-time favourite. | | 11 |  | Judas Priest
Sad Wings of Destiny
Only really interested in the first two songs, but they're so perfect! Catchy, atmospheric, and occasionally hilarious. Dripping with charm. Don't crucify me for not liking the rest. | | 10 |  | Megadeth
Rust in Peace
Wish this album was smarter. It has so much potential. Still, Lucretia is unadulterated genius, possibly Megadeth's best song, and an all-time great. | | 9 |  | Mercyful Fate
Melissa
Moody, spiralling, beautiful, hysterical. The slow section around 8 minutes into Satan's Fall just tears my heart out every time. The album's from '83 but it has one foot firmly in the best parts of the 70s. A bit slow overall. | | 8 |  | Angra
Temple of Shadows
Proof that earnestness, directness, and specificity is the way to approach power metal. Astonishing composition and narrative vision. I think the accented english and lyrics written from the perspective of a second language lend Angra a unique character. A fascinating look at an individual's relationship to god and the church in a historical context. | | 7 |  | Angra
Aurora Consurgens
Another blistering, dramatic rollercoaster with brainbending solos and spectacular vocal harmony. Salvation: Suicide is a particular highlight that gives me chills every time. | | 6 |  | Strapping Young Lad
City
Unique, brainpan-rattling production that's kind of ruined by the use of major chords that sound like they belong on a grunge album. Feels like an almost-lethal fever and too much DXM at the same time. Sickening but intriguing. | | 5 |  | Candlemass
Ancient Dreams
I'm really just putting this on the list so I can call out the astonishing solo on the title track. Positioning it in a key change over spectacular earth-shaking chugs is brilliant. | | 4 |  | Candlemass
Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
I love Solitude so god damn much. The "earth-to-earth" bridge with the singer breaking into falsetto, the indescribable solo, the feeling of tension, it's all there! It's a perfect song! The rest of the album doesn't quite reach this incredible high because it's probably impossible to make a Candlemass song better than that, but god does it try. A favourite that's going to stick with me for life.
This is around when the vision of an ideal album popped into my head and I started hunting with specific intent. | | 3 |  | Annihilator
Never, Neverland
This album is funny as hell. It's constantly playing pranks on the listener, setting up and shattering expectations. Great vocals, but really intensely boring lyrics and subject matter. Childish fun. The solo at the start of the title track has some great use of atonal bendiness that shoots straight for my heart. Overall not a great straight-through repeat listen, but the highlights are so, so worth revisiting. | | 2 |  | Entombed
Left Hand Path
God, I want to like this one. The guitar tone is just too flat to hold my interest. Still, their use of effects, such as the tasteful moment of phaser on Revel In Flesh and the fucked up vocals in Premature Autopsy are deeply my shit. Great vocals all around. | | 1 |  | Autopsy
Mental Funeral
This is as close as I've gotten. Crucially, it switches between doom and thrash in a way that makes me want to eat humans. The vocals sometimes sound too wet(...?) for my taste. Solos are both fucking blistering and tonally coherent. Some great moments guaranteed to bring your inner hydralisk out. Fucking rips. | |
BlazinBlitzer
12.26.19 | 12 is criminally underrated. | blou52
12.26.19 | Since you liked Mental Funeral I guess I'd recommend Brutality - Screams Of Anguish. Its death metal that goes doomy pretty often but also has speed in there too. | Deez
12.27.19 | Great list man. Props for 14. Underrated. | el_newg
12.27.19 | love these descriptions | Source
12.27.19 | "Wish this album was smarter."
operator error | Deathconscious
12.27.19 | I fuckin love Chris Reifert's vox. Some of the most ridiculous and disgusting vox out there, he sounds like he broke out of an asylum. | vertexarray
12.27.19 | Gave Screams Of Anguish a shot and found it a little too sterile and directionless for my taste unfortunately
Also I think Megadeth is at this point a little like seinfeld: they did it really well, so everyone copied them and evolved on their formula, meaning the original just tastes stale now. If I listened to them in the 90s they would probably tear my spine out. | el_newg
12.27.19 | i disagree with that about both megadeth AND seinfeld | garas
12.27.19 | This is not bad, but the comment on Rust In Peace, and the wrong Candlemass picks... and Coldworld doesn't deserve to be here, imo. | vertexarray
12.27.19 | Coldworld's a personal one for me, old friend and I bonded over it. Nostalgia chemicals might be at play. | garas
12.27.19 | Ah, that changes a lot, hahaha! :] The nostalgia factor is something immeasurable, I'll take back what I said. | worthlessscab
12.27.19 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ciDWDb4G4s |
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