Average Rating: 3.31 Rating Variance: 0.88 Objectivity Score: 87% (Well Balanced)
Sort by: Rating | Release Date | Rating Date | Name5.0 classicAgalloch The MantleAmenra Mass VIBig Black AtomizerBlack Sabbath ParanoidBotch We Are the RomansLet me introduce you to: God tier instrumentation, insane structuring, punishing heaviness and Experienced songwritting. Since early 2000s there was this one question: Converge, TDEP or Botch ? I've always answered this with the same line ,,Is there anything these bands have in common ?'' It was always just a little horseplay, but when I actually think about it...I really don't get that question. TDEP were always the ''chaotic ones'', while converge were very ,,Lyrical and Painfully heavy''...and Botch were always the ,,gorgeous ones'', extremely technical, heavy, yet very structured and somehow even calming. ,,We are the Romans'' has something that non-other album from the same genre has, and it is the songwritting...everything on this album makes way too much sense, every riff goes well with the one that goes after it and before it...and then you got to the end of the song and you'll realize that there was around 15 different riffs in different time signatures and it felt like one huge riff that went through the whole song. Off course there are things that aren't necessarily unique, but they still add to the album, Mainly vocally this album isn't anything spectacular in the genre, but it doesn't even matter because everything else is otherworldly Highlights: Just listen to the album, there aren't any highlights it just works as a full recordBrand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside MeConverge You Fail Me ReduxElliott Smith Elliott SmithConsidering Elliott's whole discography I can't say whether or not is this my personal favorite...but I can say one thing, this is the one I have the most personal attachment to...this is the one that is gonna make me cry almost everytime...this is the one...It's such a bittersweet experience... Elliott is Angry, his playing is as raw and furios as ever, his performance is as emotional as ever and the sadness is bigger than ever...but as someone precious once told '' Depressing isn't a word I would use to describe my music. But there is some sadness in-it, there has to be, so the hapiness in it will really MATTER'Fishmans Long SeasonFrank Ocean BlondeJoy Division CloserKatatonia Brave Murder DayMassive Attack MezzanineMelvins HoudiniMelvins LysolNeurosis Through Silver in BloodPJ Harvey To Bring You My LoveRadiohead Kid ABasically commercial suicide...in the best way possible ''Kid A'' is indescribable experience...such a perfect record, not only is this certainly the most unique sounding record in the bands discography, but at the same time it's easily their most experimental and rewarding listen. So Abstract, yet so Poignant...Kid A is basically ambient record with lots of POP appeal and accesibility, creating gorgeous cold soundscapes, experimenting with sounds and often even writing structureless songs, abstract lyrics, abstract emotions, it's all over the place, but utilized into cohesive and heartwarming recordRadiohead OK ComputerOK Computer...Not only undeniable classic amongst music fans, but mainly final evolution that proved Radiohead to be much more than just your generic 90s alt. Rock band...now some of you might say, that ''The Bends'' already proved that, but I have to politely disagree, off course ''The Bends'' might have been sonically more complex than most of its contemporaries, but it was still record full of 90s alt. Rockisms and clich?s (More on that in my The bends Soundoff)on the other hand ''OK Computer'' is in league of its own. Filled with gorgeous soundscapes and soundplay, playing with complexity while staying extremely accesible. rEvery song on ''Ok Computer'' is like surrealistic painting, if you just recklessly look at it you are definitely not gonna be impressed...but when carefully look into it, you will understand the beauty of its patiently crafted soundscapes and melancholyrRadiohead In RainbowsRefused The Shape Of Punk To ComeSlint SpiderlandTrying to describe indescribable ....I've heard many people complain about how ,,weak are the vocals'' or ,,repetitive and boring it sounds''. And You know what, I get that, Slint is acquired taste, their extremely abstract songwriting and lyricism isn't for everyone, but there is one thing to always mention...God are they extremely unique!! ,,Spiderland'' was love on the first listen ,,Breadcrumb Trail'' Opening up with extremely sinister guitar playing, slowly moving through with abstract and poetic lyricism, until it bursts with heaviness, and then it slowly fades out into darkness, folowing with dark, sinister and atmospherically scary, yet very straightforward ,,Nosferatu Man'', and then it comes, the moment where the storyteling part of the album takes over, the very detailed ,,Don Aman'' might just be my own favorite song on the album, dark deppresive and moody instrumentation that accompanies these very detailed thoughts about don on the party, who probably has some sort of social anxiety, bc. as it is very well described in the lyrics as ,,being watched from outside by someone without a key'' and it ends with don's phenomenal realization, that his only friend might just be his own self. ,,Washer'' continues in this very thought out storytelling, with slightly different theme and more ,,Post-rockey'' approach as it describes a man in love saying ,,Goodbye'' to his loved-one in very deppressive and dramatic way, and on the end the song bursts with extremely emotional crescendo. and the album ends on the high note with ,,Good Morning, Captain'' with dark and sad story about a Captain on the ship who is facing his death and this whole story is accompanied with extremely deppresive and melancholic instrumentation... I mean I just love this record it is very abstract and introspective, but it makes me feel stuff and that matters the mostSlowdive SouvlakiThe most emotionally captivating shoegaze album of all time. ,,Souvlaki'' is way too often compared to ,,Loveless'' even though the albums are way too different. Slowdive's take on shoegaze is much more emotional, ambient dreamy and very lush from a production standpoint, ,,Loveless'' is noisier, much more experimental and not as accesible or clean, so comparing these two albums doesn't make sense. ,,Souvlaki'' is Very calming album, opening up with beautifull single ,,Allison'' right from the start of this song to the last minute of this album, you are getting great vocal melodies, very catchy yet well structured songs and incredibly layered instrumentation...and the production is SO entertaing, dense and dreamy. ,,Machine gun'' is just pure heaven thanks to the vocal harmonies of ,,Haelstadt'' and ,,Rachel Goswell'' ,,,Souvlaki space station'' is filled with detailed electronics and spacey atmosphere and ,,Dagger'' is phenomenal ender, and probably one of the best songs ever written. combining elements of indie folk with Slowdive's airy atmosphere was just geniusThe National BoxerThe Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & NicoUlver Perdition CityVali Forlatt4.5 superbAlcest Écailles De LuneAmenra Mass IIIIAmerican Football American FootballAt the Drive-In Relationship of CommandBehemoth The SatanistBlack Sabbath Black SabbathBlindead Affliction XXIX II MCMXCVIBohren und der Club of Gore Black EarthBrand New DaisyBrand New Science FictionChevelle La GárgolaDefeater Lost GroundDeftones White PonyOne of the best alternative albums. Chino's vocals + creativity + technique of playing. That is what makes this album classic. Deftones Around the FurDeftones Koi No YokanDepeche Mode ViolatorElliott Smith Roman CandleStrong 4.5 Once again...I am trying to give number to something that shouldn't have any number on it...There is reason why I am rating Elliott's music as loosely as I do...because his albums aren't flawless unique albums, they are flawless expressions of who was Elliott Smith, when he was writing that perticular album. It's like losing friend...and I am just reliving all of these memories over and over again...I've lost friend that I've never met, but strangely I know way too much about him. Wanna know what is so special about this album ?? Well: Roman Candle, Condor Ave., No Name #1, No Name #2, No Name #3, Drive All Over Town, No Name #4, Last Call and Kiwi maddog. Some of these are better songs than others, but all of them are great journeyGlen Hansard This Wild WillingInterpol Turn on the Bright LightsISIS PanopticonKauan Sorni NaiKendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d cityKendrick Lamar To Pimp a ButterflyKids See Ghosts Kids See GhostsLeprous BilateralLeprous The CongregationLeprous MalinaLeprous PitfallsLvmen LvmenMarilyn Manson Mechanical AnimalsMarylin Manson on top of his career for me, his first more glam/alternative rock album, great lyrics, seducing voice, phenomenal story telling.Marilyn Manson The Pale EmperorMelvins BullheadMeshuggah Catch ThirtythreeMinor Threat Minor ThreatStrong 4.5 - This might be almost classic to me, it is just perfect, the message of the album, the lenght of the album, just everything feels really perfect. Only reason why this thing is not a classic is because i dont really listen to this as often. But i have some sort of place in my heart for this album.Neurosis Souls at ZeroPoison the Well The Opposite of DecemberLight 4.5 - Extremely Influential, and sadly overly imitated record... ,,The Opposite of December'' is easily the most influential metalcore release of it's time, there is no other metalcore release, that have spawned as many imitators as this one, some of them were decent some of them terrible, but the original remains to be the best one. So..What is it so special about this album ?? let's talk About that ,,The opposite of December'' is unique album, that is way ahead of it's time, and doesn't sound like anything before. mainly the production is unreal for 1999 metalcore release, drumming is produced and mixed exquisitely, just listen to that double bass, It's insane. Another thing I would like to talk about are the dynamics of the songs, Poison the Well are capable of changing between very melodic playing into massive chugg fest in the matter of seconds, and the vocals add a lot to the dynamics too, ranging from heavy screaming into some dynamic spoken word, to pristine clean singing, which adds a lot of contrast to this whole album. So this is sonically quite diverse pleasure. I feel like I could talk about each song for another paragraph, but there is not place for that so some basic info: Most of the songs are very accesible, yet rather complex, they are mostly divided into couple of different passages and are very dynamic, some of them slightly miss chorus, but all of it is overshadowed by technical proficiency of each member... SO there You go Another little review donePorcupine Tree In AbsentiaPorcupine Tree Lightbulb SunRadiohead A Moon Shaped PoolRage Against the Machine Rage Against the MachineThe Dillinger Escape Plan Calculating InfinityLight 4.5 Calculating Infinity: the dawn of chaos 1999 was huge year for Mathcore, we've gotten Botch releasing their masterpiece and we've gotten Calculating infinity...probably the most influential TDEP album of all-time...there is reason why I chose ''the most Influential'' and not the best...bc. it just isn't the best one. Don't get me wrong ,,Calculating infinity'' is huge treat for every mathcore fan, it has all the ambition and technicality. Ben Weinman is laying down perfect blueprint for mathcore guitar work, his stellar shredding is out of this world, and his understanding of music is beyond belief. Chriss Pennie might not be my favorite drummer of the band (Rymer), but the way he influenced extreme drumming is undeniable, and Minakikis was Viscious and animalistic vocalist...the only problem is...later on they kinda did everything with just tad bit more diversity, originality and precission, plus Puciatto's vocal contribution bumped the band into another dimension. But still..Sonically ,,Calculating infinity'' is gorgeous chaos, with subtle hints of Jazz and industrial all over the place, there is really nothing to complain about', Yes I'd like this record to be more accesible or diverse, bc. as much as I hate to say it this album is at parts same-y, plus time wasn't really too nice to this album either, but still phenomenal release for 99'. PS* Listening to this in 2017 is much more difficult than it was when I've heard it for the first time.The Dillinger Escape Plan DissociationThe Weeknd House of BalloonsThrice VheissuLight 4.5 Thrice's opus, their most atmospheric and experimental album to date, Dustin's improved vocals shine all the way through this album, and mainly in the slower more melodic moments his smooth clean tone is what makes this album superior to the rest of their discography. Teppei and Eddie play complicated yet very atmospheric riffs, their guitar work makes this album emotional and crazy journey. And even though the drumming is slightly less raw than it used to be, it perfectly complements the music. Atmosphere that is probably the most visible change from their latest efforts, this album is full of atmospheric guitar playing (Of dust and Nations, Red sky), atmospheric electronically infused alt.rock (Atlantic) and mainly it is full of additional instrumentation (For miles, Stand and feel your worth) . Experimentation, quite possibly the second best word to describe this album (Atlantic, For miles, Music Box) Heavinnes and sludge, The last couple of words to describe the album. Phenomenal ALBUMTrophy Scars Darkness, Oh HellTyler, the Creator IGORUlver Bergtatt - Et eeventyr i 5 capitlerWhite Ward Futility ReportZao Where Blood and Fire Bring RestDecent 4.5 - Extremely unique, powerfull, dark and intense. This is one of the few albums, that really fucks with my head, ,,Where Blood and Fire brings rest'' is dark astonishing journey to the depths of one's soul, the lyricism is only the first part of the journey though, as powerfull and mind-boggling as they are, they wouldn't be special if the vocal delivery wasn't so visceral, powerful, intense and creeping dark. I could talk for hours about how influential this release is for 98, than I could talk about how technically proficient is every member of the group, I could talk about how dark and precise is the production, but I do not want to...Just listen to this. IT IS DARK POWERFULL AND IT WILL PROBABLY GET YOU TO THE UGLIEST PART OF YOUR OWN SELF,AND FOR THE LAST 7 MINUTES YOU WILL CRY.Zao Liberate Te Ex InferisLight 4.5 Dark, Heavy, Powerful and emotionally captivating. Following up album such as ,,Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest" can be pretty tricky task, however Zao follows it up confidently with record that shows their natural progression, growth and their desire to experiment with darker production, soundscapes and structures. ,,Liberate te Ex Inferis" might have very similliar core sound to ,,WBAFBR" yet both of them have their own unique nature to them. On one hand you have the extremelly raw and passionate sound of ,,WBAFBR" and on the other hand you have ,,Liberate te Ex Inferis" Dark, experimental, difficult and heart shattering album filled with dark soundscapes and schizophrenic instrumentation. There is easily no other metalcore band capable of making as dark and scary music as Zao Sonically ,,LTEI'' is another long way into the depths of your awful-self presented through visceral screaming, emotionall and crushing instrumentation. Highlights: ,,Intro", ,,Autopsy" ,,Dark Cold Sound" ,,Man in Cage Jack Wilson"4.0 excellentA.A. Williams A.A. WilliamsAgalloch Pale FolkloreAlcest Souvenirs D'Un Autre Mondealt-J An Awesome WaveStrong 4 - Unique piece of alternative music, extremely catchy accesible, yet very original, well structured and very memorable. This album moves your body, and your head at the same time, laying down groovy rhythms, shimmering and detailed instrumentation, dark and kind of creepy electronics and fairly smart and original lyricism.Archive LightsBathory Under the Sign of the Black MarkBeck Sea ChangeStrong 4 - Sea change is beautiful atmospheric album, which doesn't necesarilly cross into many genres but everything on the album is done right. Highlits - ''Paper tiger'' super memorable and funky song, ''lonesome tears'' beatiful spacey atmosphere with amazing ending. ''End of the day'' i am feeling some sort of Kurt cobain vibe on this one. After all there is not many mistakes on this record it just could've been little bit more experimentalBlack Flag DamagedStrong 4 After couple of great EP's, Black Flag releases their first full lenght album, with more defined and influential Hardcore punk sound, rougher production and Henry Motherfuc*in Rollins. Not only is Rollins my own favorite vocalist of the band, but he influenced the sound of the band in drastic way, Damaged is very different compared to the preceding EP's, the band got rid of their very clear punk-rocky sound, and changed it for some rougher, heavier and even more technical ? (if that's what we can call it'') sound....and the Vocals are insane for 81, heavy throaty screams mixed with some gang vocals, make up for very memorable part of the record... ''Damaged'' off course isn't flawless, it has some minor problems in lenght and some songs just have little B-sidey feel to them, but for the big part, that doesn't influence my listening experience in a big way...Yeah so really sick Hardcore record Check it out it's starter pack record. Black Flag Nervous BreakdownDecent 4 It's insane how many things you can do in 5 minutes. Don't get me wrong this album keeps it really simple, musically it really doesn't do much in 5 minutes...but considering the whole scene that this record spawned, this might be one of the most influential punk records ever written. ''Nervous Breakdown'' is great punk rock record, that might wear it's influences right on it's sleeve ''Sex pistols, Clash'', but it does more than your typical punk rock record, this record brought the focus on simplicity and getting your point across, while focusing on faster, louder and ''edgier'' side of punk music...this album is your first official hardcore record... Ps: ''Nervous Breakdown'' is the introduction to this more ''distorted'' and higher in the mix guitar sound that is basically copied by every 80s hardcore punk band.Black Flag Jealous AgainLight 4 While ''jealous Again'' stays in the shadow of it's predecessor, it still is great punk-rock EP, with phenomenal title track and 7 minutes of rawest expression of freedom. Bohren und der Club of Gore Patchouli BlueBrand New Deja EntenduDecent 4.5 - There is probably not that much to say about this album, the rating says it all. It is just an amazing albumBreach VenomStrong 4 Better version of ,,It's Me God'' On ,,Venom'' Breach continues to write extremely raw, passionate and sludgey Metalcore, but this time around with better production and much more memorable songwriting. Sadly ,,Venom'' still slightly suffers from inconsistency. Most of these shorter 2-3 minute long songs, don't really do anything unique or memorable, they are still extremely solid metalcore songs, but not neceserally highlights. On the other hand ,,Venom'' shows its full potential in the longer songs like ,,Helldriver'', ,,Heroine'', ,,Black Sabbath'' or ,,Penetration''. On these songs we can slowly see the band dipping their toes into ,,Post Metal'' and more abstract songwritingBreach It's Me GodDecent 4 - Heavy, Original, Experimental and Weird. ,,It's me God'' is Mixture of extremely heavy sludge, metalcore and what I would call almost ,,Neurosis-esque'' post metal. This might just easily be one of my 90s. favorite metalcore releases, it pretty much destroys every 90s release in its raw heaviness, and extreme production that complements the louder(sludgier) parts and slower more melodic passages...and the vocals...passionate earpiercing screaming. ,,It's me god'' offers 37 minutes of pure brutality in every way possible: The guitar riffs are crushing and heavy, production is dark and often experimental as hell and the drumming is phenomenal, maybe the drummer is slightly raping those cymbals, but it really works with those Heavy guitar walls. Off course there is lot to improve, whole album is a bit one dimensional and not really memorable,plus ,,Venom'' improves upon the sound of this album and ,,Kollapse'' is lightyears ahead. Nonetheless Great albumCara Neir Part III / Part IVChevelle The North CorridorStrong 4 - First thing I have to say is that chevelle went really crazy on structures, it is really impressive, there is not a single song, which doesn't contain any surprising element. Second up, I think that ,,la Gargola'' is by far the band's best work. Ok so let's talk about this album little bit now, this album pretty much takes heavy elements of ,,La gargola'' and makes them freaky, heavier and at times better. Songs like ,,Door to door Cannibals'' or ,,Rivers'' feel like they could've been a part of La gargola, ,but they have more layers and just overall stronger structure than songs like ,,Under the knife'' or ,,Jawbreaker''. On the other hand songs like ,,Joyride'' or ,,Last Days'' are amazingly catchy and memorable. ,,Warhol's showbiz'' has amazing layered guitar and Bass work which is just straght up impressive. And now we're getting to the ender ,,Shot from a Cannon'' which is this 8 minute long giant and it actually shows capability of these guys to make something that is really starting up pretty slow and soft, but it is growing into this huge distorted ball of sounds. As a whole thing it is as strong as ,,La gargola'' it just misses the beautiful spacey atmosphere i loved about ,,La gargola'' but yeah really impressive releaseConverge When Forever Comes CrashingLight 4 - Yet another solid Converge release. ,,Petioning the empty Sky'' was huge improvement for the band, and well...extremely polarizing album for 1996 in metalcore. ,,Petioning the empty sky'' introduced heavy, noisey, ugly, dark, fast and vaguely chaotic side of Converge. And this album perfectly continues in that, with addition of better production, better vocal performance, and some awfully sinister songwritting. Once again this album slightly lacks in consistency, and cohesion...But It is very solid anyway.rHighlights: ,,My Unsaid everything'' ,,The lowest Common Denominator'', ,,Ten Cents'' ,,Letterbomb'' ,,Love as Arson''Converge I Can Tell You About PainDecent 4 Even though this is pretty solid 4.5 material, it's just 10 minutes and 2 songs, so giving it a 4.5 didn't feel right. I can tell you about pain is pretty standard Converge track, even tho Bannon and the production and lyricism are really pushing it above just ''standard''. Eve is masterpiece, lyrically strong, instrumentally magnificent, blistering guitars, layers of beauty, linear and natural structure and MAGNIFICENT performance from BannonCrosses CrossesCult of Luna SalvationCult of Luna Somewhere Along the HighwayDeadguy Fixation on a CoworkerStrong 4 - The Band who's sound influenced everyone. If I had to choose only one band from 90's metalcore, who's production and guitar playing is the most influential, I would always say Deadguy. Deadguy's sound was complex, precise and relentless. Furious drumming, complex yet memorable riffing, dark sinister production and structure full of tempo changes. The only thing that divided me from giving this a 4.5 were the vocals, they are sharp and they complement the music well, yet I always wish, they were more animalistic and more MEMORABLEDeftones Saturday Night WristDinosaur Jr. You're Living All Over MeDirge (FR) Wings Of Lead Over Dormant SeasDrowningman Busy Signal At The Suicide HotlineLight 4 - The band that got somehow lost in the past... There we are 18 years after 1999, metalcore music changed into something way different than what it used to be, looking back at 99' in metalcore, you can really see the potential, bands like ,,Dillinger escape Plan'', ,,Botch'' ,,Cave In'' are dropping their glorified releases ,,Calculating infinity'' ,,We are the romans''. All of these LP's are well remembered to this day, Drowningman's ,,Busy signal At The Suicide Hotline'' got somehow lost in the past. And It makes me really think how is it possible, when this release has all the qualities. Fast, visceral, complex and ever-changing metalcore, extreme riffs, schizophrenic tempo changes, Emo-ish lyricism. If You haven't already give this one a try, it might surprise You, how influential this actually Is.Drowningman Rock And Roll Killing MachineStrong 4 Another nearly flawless Drowningman Release. Drowningman is Burlington based emo Mathcore band, that can be easily compared to the likes of ,,The Dillinger escape plan, Botch, Converge, Cave in'' and many more Mathcore greats of late 90s and early 00s. Their 1999 debut release ,,Busy Signal At The Suicide Hotline'' was not only one of the best Mathcore releases of the year, but it was mainly great introduction to the band's Spastic, fast, heavy complex and often layered Hardcore music, I've had just one little problem with that release, While I felt like ,,Drowningman'' was one of the more instrumentally pleasing and enjoyable outfits, I just couldn't catch on anything memorable or somehow unique or special on the band, and that sadly continues on ,,Rock and Roll Killing Machine'', even though the band improves on their sound even more, with adding more layers, cleaner mix and much more ambitious songwritting, I can't help but feel like they've been slightly overshadowed by some of their more unique contemporaries....nonetheless PHENOMENAL RELEASE....Plus the drummer of this band is out of this worldExplosions in the Sky Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die...Faith No More Angel DustFaith No More The Real ThingFishbone In Your FaceFlood of Red ThrowGlassjaw Worship and TributeHelmet BettyISIS OceanicJai Paul Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)James Blake Assume FormKendrick Lamar DAMN.Korn IssuesLeprous Tall Poppy SyndromeLeprous CoalLoathe I Let It In And It Took EverythingLow I Could Live in HopeM O O N MOONMac Miller CirclesMarilyn Manson Antichrist SuperstarMeshuggah Destroy Erase ImprovemewithoutYou Pale HorsesMiddle Class Out of VogueStrong 4 One of the most interesting hardcore records that came out in 70s. Middle Class's sound was way ahead of its time, they've played faster, harsher and their sound was the rawest hardcore sound of its time, as much as I love ''Nervous Breakdown'' or ''(GI)'', both of these records have that obvious huge influence in punk rock, ''Out of Vogue'' doesn't have that, it has just pure hardcore passion and attitudeMineral EndSerenadingMisery Signals Of Malice and the Magnum HeartMisfits BulletStrong 4 It all goes hand in hand...If you like 70s punk rock then there is no reason why would you dislike this. Misfits aren't groundbreaking band, but they are definitely extremely enjoyable and easily loveable punk rock band...plus they definitely can make sticky, memorable music.Mo'ynoq Dreaming in a Dead LanguageMogwai Young TeamMudvayne L.D. 50Muse AbsolutionLight 4 - This album is even more consistent than Origin of symmetry, but it is just not it, it is equally good as every album by the band before this one, it is a new sound which is amazing and has some amazing songs, but i find some songs to be litlle boring at times.Muse ShowbizLight 4 - Quite forgettable at times, but man this album has some classics ,,muscle museum'' ,,Showbiz'' and ,,Falling down''. I feel like on this album there are some effects that are just so good.Muse Origin of SymmetryLight 4 - This Album is totally an excellent one, but i feel like it could've been so much better, It just misses something that the first album had. This album is super strong songwritingwise it is just amazingly consistent, but i miss those amazing highlits, like ,,showbiz''. The whole thing is much more consistent than showbiz, but it just misses something that showbiz hadNine Inch Nails The Downward SpiralNine Inch Nails The FragileNirvana In UteroNirvana NevermindClassic my favorite album since i was a kid still love the flow and catchiness of this album total classic for mePalms PalmsPoison the Well You Come Before YouPorcupine Tree SignifyPortishead DummyRorschach ProtestantStrong 4 - The most unique album of early 90s metalcore, early 90s era of metalcore is not really my type of thing,bc. in my opinion most of early 90s metalcore bands lacks personality or they at least fit in between huge amount of 90s hardcore punk. But Rorschach is not one of those bands, and this album is the best showcase of that, Screamo high pitched vocals soaring over dark and sinister guitar playing, and all of that is driven by insanely profficient drummer. Rorschach were in my opinion huge influence for more experimental metalcore of late 90s (Converge, Dillinger escape plan, Botch) all of those bands found their own experimental style, in this small genre, but Rorschach were still the First ones. And I think Charles Maggio gets too often overshadowed by Jacob bannon. The only complaint I have is: Maggio is burried in the mix, somebody might love it, I would like him more in the fore front, but still he is killing it. Highlights: Mandible, In Ruins, Drawn and quartered, Recurring nightmare and Ornaments Rosetta The Galilean SatellitesSecret Band LP2Shai Hulud Hearts Once Nourished With Hope...Light 4 - ,,Hearts Once Nourished With Hope and Compasion'' A.K.A the start of Melodic Metalcore is Album filled with passion, energy and instrumentation that still to this day remains pinnacle of the genre. Matt Fox came through with vision that changed the sound of metallic hardcore for years to come, his misanthropic lyricism, dark approach to soundscapes and extremely inovative guitar playing full of melody and complexity made Shai Hulud, Shai Hulud. With this in mind I am not trying to discredit the rest of the members, but as the band have shown in subsequent releases, It doesn't matter who is handling which instrument, bc. in the end Mat is always the main figure behind the sound. but back to this release, the vocals on this thing are raw passionate and strong props to Chad Gilbert. So why is the rating not higher ? Well listen to the stuff that came out after this release and you will understand. If you like Melodic metalcore do yourself a favor and Check These guys outSkindred BabylonSkycamefalling 10.21Strong 4 Undeniably the best mixture of metalcore and Post-Rock of its time. ,,10.21'' might be conceptually simple and straightforward idea, but perfectly executed idea. Mixture of harsh, complex metalcore music with some Post-rock passages and atmosphere has never been done this tastefully. Right from the start the album opens up with instrumental ,,Intro'' that hits with unorthodox textures, then ,,With Paper Wings'' kicked in and I was sold on the record, this song has 3 fairly different and unique passages, opening up with the first 2 minutes of top-tier metalcore, then switches into melodic dreamy post hardcore with some cleans and ends with dark piano, and all of this worked together so well. ,,Laura Palmer'' ,,The Nothing'' ,,Porcelin Heart Promise'' ,,Shallow Like Sand'' ,,November's neverending'' are written in much more ,,Typical'' fashion, linear structure, couple of phenomenal slower passages to add some atmosphere and top tier metalcore with some ,,Math Rock-y'' drumming. Though the most unique part of this album would be the instrumental side, the math rock inspired interlude in the middle of the album or Post-rock powerhouse ''S/T''rYeah 10.21 has some minor problems, but every album has. Maybe the vocals aren't necesarilly unique or memorable, same goes for the Lyrics. Maybe the production is sometimes clumsy and the closer ,,An Ocean Apart'' is slightly dissapointing end, but other than that FLAWLESSSlipknot SlipknotSlipknot Vol. 3: The Subliminal VersesSlowdive SlowdiveStrong 4 - just bc. its too short, this album is the best introduction material to slowdive's ethereal, insanely influential take on shoegaze. There is too many people sleeping on this EP, just bc. they've heard ,,Souvlaki'', but the rest of slowdive's discography is equally worth it.Slowdive Outside Your RoomDecent 4 - Living in a shadow of overwhelming ,,Souvlaki'' but still masterfully done ep. If you want to hear this, just buy the whole reissued version of Souvlaki. Snapcase Designs for AutomotionLight 4 I find it funny how you can obviously tell that this one came out after ,,The Shape Of Punk To Come'' on ,,Designs for automotion'' Snapcase technically improves upon ,,Progression through unlearning'' while keeping their music accesible and fun. The riffs are more technical, the songs are more ambitious, the songwriting is better and the production is much better (No MORE TIN CAN DRUMMING). Not only is this album superior from technical standpoint, but it just seems more realized and unique...it all comes from the little concept of adding little bit of experimentation with production and recording on the end of each song, and it makes for quite entertaining and memorable addition to the album. Highlights: ,,Target'' - Catchy, Memorable and energetic ,,Disconnector'' - perfect Hardcore song that has great riff and ton of energy in the vocals. ,,Ambition Now'' - the most unique song on the album, riff out of the left field, trumpets, melody, crescendo....is this even Snapcase ? ,,Bleeding orange'' - lyrical favoriteStone Sour House of Gold and Bones - Part 2Sunn O))) and Ulver TerrestrialsSwain The Long Dark BlueSystem of a Down System of a DownThe Cure Seventeen SecondsThe Dillinger Escape Plan Under the Running BoardLight 4 - Sonically powerfull, ambitious and intense release. S/T Ep had it's problems, and the whole extremely intense, fast and spastic metalcore wasn't there yet. ,,Under the running board'' takes off as great precursor to ,,Calculating Infinity'' and displays what's about to come in the future. 3 songs, overall clocking just under 8 minutes, well it is not much time to shine, but it is worth it. Opening up with insane and chaotic ,,The mullet burden'' the tempo break with screaming women in the middle of this song always gets me. ,,Sandbox magician'' is filled with intense songwriting, crazy structure and ever changing guitar ,,squeeking''. The closer ,,Abe the cop'' contains another notable tempo change, this time going from heavy almost doomy riff into fast and spastic dillinger-esque speed. Overall If your a fan of this band, this is must haveThe Menzingers After the PartyThrice The Illusion of SafetyStrong 4 - Beatiful melodic and technical hardcore punk. Dustin's vocals aren't by far his best on this album, but his screams and his actual emotion are as strong as ever, often he reminds me of jesse lacey's passion for his music. Teppei and Eddie play some of the best riffs and solos this band have ever done, their riffs are as memorable as ever, yet they are very technicall. Riley's drumming is as always perfect, and listening to his ,,Where idols once stood'' performance gives me chills everytime.rSongwriting on this album is my favorite part, the structures feel so free and not scripted, yet they are memorable and catchy. A lot of bands tried to do what this album did, and just a few did it as good as this one, perfect blend of pop punk, metalcore and melodic post hardcore. rHighlights: ,, Kill me quickly'' - Perfect opener, amazing solo. ,,Deadbolt'' - really memorable riff, i love how the song shifts in between parts and it has probably the best bridge ever written by this band.r,,Where idols once stood' - the drumming is just perfect. ,,Trust'' - My favorite song on the album, it has strong ,,soft - loud'' structure and it is the catchiest and most memorable song on the album. ,,To awake and avenge the dead'' - The most intense performance. ,,The beltsville crucible'' - perfect ender, emotional, memorable and dustin's best vocal performance on the entire album.Thrice Major/MinorLight 4 - Simple, entertaining and catchy. I pretty much like this entire album equally, some songs might be catchier than others, some are groovier, but overall this album is hella consistent, Dustin is on point, guitar playing perfectly complements their more simplistic sound and the drums keep the groove perfectly, well sadly this album lacks some experimentation and some big highlights, but overall, it is great to see that thrice found their sound and they are fine with it.Thursday Full CollapseDecent 4 - Thursday has always been strange band, they sounded so unlike everyone else in the genre, in pretty much every way possible. They chose to use Emo alt. rock sound mixed with screamo vocals (most bands were using hardcore screaming at this point in time), their music was mixture of upbeat and melancholly at the same time, plus their sound was always so energetic and passionate. Even though I might sound like total fanboy, I have never really been fan of the band, but I've always seen the appeal, it just wasn't for me. I do really enjoy the sound of the band, but at the same time, the vocals are not my type of thing. So is this really ,,One of the best post-hardcore albums ever'' - well for someone, not for me though. Overall this is really excelent album, it is really fun, it flows perfectly, the songs are catchy and smart, the guitar playing is great and the drumming is flawless. So where are the flaws ? In my opinion the vocals are mixed way too high, even though the singer grew on me, the more i've listened to this, there are parts where the vocals are just shattering my ears. Another problem would be the production, it is just strange, I can't say what was wrong about it, but sometimes it just didn't work (Concealer, A hole...) But on the other hand the more ,,melancholic'' part of this album fits the production perfectly ( I am the killer, Paris in Flames). Overall I've really enjoyed this, and hopefully I will like their newer stuff even bit more. Highlights: ,,Cross out the eyes'', ,,Autobiography of a Nation'' ,,I am the killer'' ,,Paris in Flames''Ulver Silencing the SingingUlver The Assassination of Julius CaesarWill Haven El DiabloLight 4 - Will Haven, another one of those bands where you can't specifically pinpoint in what genre do they belong, some might say this album is straight up metalcore, some say It is noise metal, sludge, post metal...yes I've heard all of these genres surrounding these guys, to me ,,El Diablo'' is metalcore with sludgey elements, I would even say that I think this album is huge influence for bands like ,,Everytime I die'' whose sound is fairly similiar to what Will Haven does on this album. High pitched screaming mixed with slow extremely heavy and sludgey guitar walls, here and there some noisey production and all of it is topped with almost post-metallish riffs similiar to some Neurosis or Deftones. If your really looking for some great album from early metalcore years give this a listen it's worth it3.5 greatAFI Answer That and Stay FashionableLight 3.5 - It's so immature and so generic....but SO enjoyable and fun. This album is great showcase of hardcore with pop punk tendencies, but one thing it certainly isn't is the best showcase of AFI. This album totally lacks any signature AFI moments, but it's still one of the most fun records they've ever released. Highlights: ,,Brownie Bottom Sundae'' ,,The mother In Me'' ,,Don't make me III'' ,,Highschool Football Hero''Agalloch Of Stone, Wind and PillorAJJ Good Luck EverybodyAlcest Le Secret (2011 Version)Alexisonfire AlexisonfireDecent 3.5 Definitely fun album, that perfectly represents post-hardcore in early 2000s...It has everything: The catchy choruses, The vocal contrast between heavy screams and cleans with almost pop sensibility, the extremely immature emo lyricism, great melodic instrumentation, that shifts between tempos and melodies so seamlessly. Now from my perspective Dallas Green makes this album what it is...off course Pettit's screaming is decent, but he isn't all that unique vocalist, Green on the other hand has huge amount of ''swagger'' to his delivery, his vocals just soar over the music and stick into your head and never get out...plus some of the guitar work from Green and Mcneil is really solid for the genre, would it be the awesome almost post-rocky intro to the opener or the chaotic nature of ,,A Dagger Through the Heart..'' or my personal favorite ,,Little Girls Pointing and Laughing'', has great 3/4 riff to it, and the chorus to this thing is just so Catchy. Off course there are better records from the genre that came out just about the same time, and I would've liked this band a bit more expansive and matured (lyrical), going into different time signatures (Most of this is written in 4/4), trying out some different structures, and maybe thinking sometimes out of the box, but still I've had ton of fun with this oneAmenra Mass IIIArca ArcaArcane Roots Heaven and EarthArchitects Lost Forever // Lost TogetherArchive LondiniumArchive With Us Until You're DeadAura Noir Aura NoireBark Psychosis HexBathory The Return of the Darkness and EvilBe Forest KnocturneBehemoth Thelema.6Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?Botch American NervosoStrong 3.5 - Everyone always loves to brag about how this album is where ,,Mathcore was born'' well considering rhow much this album actually borrows from ,,Deadguy'' I would have to disagree...but yes these guys were truly rUnique. ,,American nervoso'' is unique, fast spastic and technical, but it does all of this without sounding ,,just'' rlike another chaotic band, Botch does it differently, their music is much more structured and scripted, everything rmakes sense, and that is what is so special about this band, they can Pull of this extreme and fast sound, without rmaking something that is just way too difficult for average hardcore fan, yet they are able to experiment with rheavy, squeeky and chaotic playing. Another great example of their experimentation would be the ambient half of r,,Oma'' or the industrially infused ,,Thank god for worker bees'' Highlights: ,,Hutton's Great Heat Engine'', ,,Oma'', r,,Thank god the worker Bees'',,Hives''Boys Life Departures & LandfallsBreaking Benjamin Dear AgonyBring Me the Horizon SempiternalI never thought bring me the horizon will get from me higher rating than 2.0. But this album is something you shouldn't miss, just because you don't really enjoy Bring Me the Horizon. It is totally worth itBruno Sanfilippo PianetteCaspian On CirclesCave In Until Your Heart StopsStrong 3.5 - Progressive metalcore... This Whole term starts Right here in 1998 with ,,Until Your Heart Stops'' am I saying this is the first Metalcore album with Progressive elements ? No there was couple of albums before, but this one succeeded, it perfectly blends elements of heavy technical metalcore with very thought out structuring, Decent amount of longer more layered songs and album concept that screams ,,We want to be Proggy'' just from the titles. My vision of this album being extremely inovative, influential and unique actually trumps my overall enjoynment of this album though. I do have huge amount of appreciation for this album, but It is not really my own personal taste, The production is bit too dreary, songs are not really that memorable and the vocals are very unsatisying. That is why 3.5rPS...I do actually enjoy the whole album, It just didn't really hit the spotCave In Final TransmissionChevelle Wonder What's NextChevelle Vena SeraChevelle Hats Off To The BullCoalesce Functioning on ImpatienceDecent 3.5 - Coalesce comes back with shorter, heavier, cleaner and much more experimentally pleasing release. ,,Functioning on Impatience'' is 20 minute long journey to the depths of anger, fear and power. Instrumentally this thing is massive, full of unorthodox drumming, strangely composed riffs and vocals with very strong lyricall message, even though I wouldn't really consider myself a huge fan of the vocals, plus they are bit drowned in the mix, they are enjoyable. ,,ODD TIME SIGNATURES'' this is what makes this album so unique for it's time, I find these extremely strange time signatures pleasing, considering metalcore played 5/4 or 6/6 is always interesting idea. Coalesce changes between these tempos so easily, and that is what makes them force to be reckoned with. Getting themselves on level of ,,Botch'' or ,,The Dillinger Escape Plan''. Cocteau Twins GarlandsColdplay A Rush of Blood to the HeadStrong 3.5 - this album is little bit more ambitious than their first record. There is more ,,heaviness'' and ,,loudness'' to this record, album is nicely balanced and has some amazing singles. Only thing that this album needs is just the band experimenting little bit more and getting out of their comfort zone.Coldplay ParachutesDecent 3.5 - Amazing, consistent album, that is doing maximum of its ambition. Sound of this album was pretty simple and basic sound that does have it's own flavour. This album certainly is fun and good calm listen, but nothing groundbreakingConverge Petitioning the Empty SkyDecent 3.5 - There are two ways I look at this album. First one: It is 1996, metalcore is pretty much unknown genre, and most of the music labeled under this tag is just heavier hardcore, and there we have Converge's ,,Petitioning the empty Sky'', the ugliest, noisiest, heaviest and fastest metalcore album of its time, from this standpoint the album is massively inovative and influential, sadly there is the second way to look at this album: In my opinion every Converge album after this is WAY better, From instrumental standpoint this album has all the qualities of Converge album, but the production is bad, and this is easily Jacob Bannon's worst vocal performance (Excluding HIH). Now to the album, I might be the only one, who thinks that ,,Saddest Day'' is not the best song of this album, I get why everyone thinks it is. It is very ambitious song, and that is the problem, its so ambitious, that it deserves better production and it deserves Bannon screaming his head out like a freak...and non of it is there, the vocals on the song are atrocious, they have no power, there is not any heaviness or emotion that you would anticipate from Bannon,and all of this just lacks in half of the album. But all of this aside I think there is couple of superb songs like ,,Dead'', ,,Shingles'' ,,Note to this city''. and my fave - ,,Color me Bloob Red'' - this song totally pisses me off, why wasn't the whole album mixed like this, Bannon strikes you with his high pitched intense screaming right from the start, its so beautiful. So... the album is incredible piece of music...but the rest is better.Counterparts You're Not You AnymoreCult of Luna The BeyondCult of Luna Cult of LunaDeftones DeftonesDeftones Diamond EyesAfter 10 years deftones were able to totally change their sound and hit me to the heart as much as they did with white ponyDeftones GoreDisembodied If God Only Knew The Rest Were DeadStrong 3.5 - Improving, shining and Destroying...,,If God only Knew The Rest Were Dead'' is Disembodied at their best, ,,Diablerie'' was decent album, but it had it's flaws, the major ones would be the stale vocal delivery, bad production and forgettable songwriting. ,,If God...'' improves on all fronts, with better songwriting, heavier and memorable sound, great production and perfect balance between the instrumentation and the vocals. Every member knows when is time to shine and when is time to step back and let somebody else shine with their technicall proficiencies. ,,Heroine Fingers'' is one of the most accomplished metalcore songs.Downfall of Gaia Ethic of Radical FinitudeEarth Crisis FirestormDecent 3.5 - Influential, entertaining. Huge improvement over ,,All out war'' this actually really brings something new to the table. EC's slower, heavier and more groovy take on metallic hardcore is really entertaing, offers huge amount of good riffs and intense moments, and even the songwriting quite differs from most of 90s hardcore, sadly the album is way too short, but all 3 songs are worth it, mainly ,,Firestorm/forged in flames'' and ,,Eden's demise'' both of the songs bring anything new to the genre, mainly the slower groovy riffs on the opener and the spectacular intense ending on the closer.Evergrey The AtlanticHatebreed Satisfaction Is The Death Of DesireDecent 3.5 - Hatebreed proves that they can write good music. ,,Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire'' is very solid hardcore album filled with great production, mixing and very solid instrumentation, every member of the band does what needs to be done, plus the drumming is extremely well mixed so be ready for really enjoyable drumming session. But this album offcourse have some negative qualities: Hatebreed is very solid hardcore band with metalcore qualities, but they sound way too close to their main influences, mainly Earth Crisis is extremely visible in vocals and instrumentation. Another problem is the one dimensionality of the album, everything sounds way too similiar, so there are no highlights... But overall IF youre looking for very accesible and not extremely heavy or chaotic early metalcore, jump into this.HEALTH VOL. 4 :: SLAVES OF FEARHeatmiser Cop and SpeederDecent 3.5 - Another great mixture of punk rock, alternative rock and indie. Lyrically slightly better than ,,dead air'', sonically equally catchy and enthusiastic. Songwriting is a bit diverse, but overall both of these records are pretty much on the same level.Heatmiser Dead AirDecent 3.5 - Solid punk-rock album, that borrows from some post-hardcore and grunge. It's nothing overwhelming, but the songs are catchy, guitar playing is fantastic, and the vocals are raw and energetic and the bass is phenomenal...maybe the drums should have been slightly higher in the mix, but other than that, there is nothing to complain about, album isn't really ambitious, but is extremely well pulled over. Highlights: ,,Still'', ,,Dirt'', ,,Blackout'', ,,Stray'' ,,Cannibal'' ,,Dead Air''rHoly Fawn The Black MoonHopesfall The Satellite YearsIncubus (USA-CA) Make YourselfIncubus (USA-CA) S.C.I.E.N.C.E.ISIS CelestialJimmy Eat World ClarityKevin Abstract ARIZONA BABYKillswitch Engage Alive or Just BreathingKorn UntouchablesKorn The Paradigm ShiftLa Dispute VancouverLinkin Park A Thousand SunsDecent 3.5 - Most interesting LP album so far. Great experimental album, some new sounds beautiful light soundscapes and pretty interesting more mature songwriting.Linkin Park The Hunting PartyDecent 3.5 - This might be the best LP album so far might top even HT and ATS but still it is a great listen with ZERO bad songs to me, some parts are litlle bit underwhelming but that happens. Rebellion, Guilty all the same and war might be my favorite LP songs of all time. Have to say that the album has an epic feel to it and i like itMarilyn Manson The Golden Age of GrotesqueMastodon Once More 'Round the SunMinor Threat First Demo TapeStrong 3.5 - Songs are just amazing they are pretty catchy and lyricaly just amazing. But it certainly sounds like demo the production is really bad.Mogwai Come On Die YoungNumenorean Adoreof Montreal Cherry PeelP.O.D. Payable on DeathLight 3.5 - Hit or miss. Most experimental and too safe at the same time. This album pretty much has some of the most interesting content yet written by these guys (,,Wildfire'' - catchy Nu metal with some nice punk influence, ,,Execute the sounds'' - Smooth reggae infused song, super chill and fun listen, ,,Revolution'' - really good radio single.r,,Eternal'' - Smooth pretty beatiful acoustic instrumental, and my favorite ,,Asthma'' - almost metalcore influenced song, soft - loud structure, perfectly mixed screamed vocals, with beatifully melodic chorus.) on the other hand, this album is full of filler and really blend stuff ( ,,Change the world'', ,,Freedom fighters'' being the most blend stuff i've ever heard by these guys, both of these songs had totally no personality) Overall there is a lot of good singles, if this was 6 song Ep it would've been superbrP.O.D. SatelliteStrong 3.5 - One of the catchiest Nu metal albums to date. This album opens up with ,,Set it off'' typical rap metal song, it kinda misses some sort of heavinnes to it, but it has pretty decent ambient instrumental in verses. ,,Alive'' and ,,Satellite'' are pretty catchy radio rock songs. Another highlight is ,,Youth of the nation'' catchy beautifully written song, with really nice atmosphere to it, this song goes straight into ,,Celestial'' which is beautiful little ambient interlude. ,,Ridiculous'' and ,,without Jah nothin'' are fun little ideas, ridiculous is kind of silly rap, reggae and ska fusion. And ,,Without Jah nothin'' is silly punk rock song. Songs like ,,Anything right'' ,,Ghetto'', ,,Thinking about forever'' are not really highlights, but every little one of these songs flows perfectly with the album. And album ends up with my favorite song of the album ,,Portrait'', which is song that opens up with really distorted, and chaotic Nu metal sound, but then goes into the most beautiful Chorus of the entire Album. This album has its flaws, it misses a lot of complexity, experimentation, and some songs ,,Masterpiece conspiracy'' ,,Messenjah'' feels little bit too corny and generic, But this is the most fun I've had with nu-metal album in awhile.Papa Roach The Paramour SessionsDecent 3.5 - Catchy as hell. Much stronger than GAWM, this album is straight up modern rock, and it is very well done. Album opens up with pretty decent and energetic ''to Be Loved'', ''Alive'' goes in the same direction, and then we are getting to the first big highlight ''Crash'' - Catchy, beautiful rhythm and Jacoby Shaddix is stronger than ever on this song, really fresh listen, another highlight comes only 2 songs later with the song ''Forever'' - amazing slowburner, really nice work with Quiet/Loud structure.ranother highlight is ''I devise my own demise'' - this songs is just super fun, it makes you want to rock to it really hard. After this you get couple of really fun decent songs, and last 3 songs are really strong finish for the album.rParadise Lost Draconian TimesParadise Lost IconParadise Lost One SecondPoison the Well Tear From the RedPorcupine Tree Stupid DreamPorcupine Tree Up the DownstairPostcards The Good SoldierPrayer for Cleansing Rain In Endless FallLight 3.5 - Extremely one dimensional, lacks a lot in songwriting territory, but you somehow still really like it, do you know the feeling ? Welcome to Prayer For Cleansing. To be perfectly honest there is not much to say about this album, it offers interesting mix of black metal and metalcore, instrumentally excellent work accompanied with phenomenal vocal work and generic-edgy laughable lyricism. Songwritting: There is not much to talk about really, most of the songs work on the same basis: Couple of riffs, couple of parts, sometimes breakdown, tempo change and somehow work''. So in the end it is not memorable at all, but I still leave the album with Love. BTW. This sounds almost identical to something early Underoath would've dropped, yet the average is this high...interestingProject 86 Drawing Black LinesProtest the Hero KeziaPUP Morbid StuffR.E.M. MurmurStrong 3.5 Catchy, jangly and Laid back 1983 - Alternative rock was pretty much underground genre, that was often mixed with post-punk and Folk, Bands like Violent Femmes were dropping their ''Legendary'' albums, but then out of nowhere R.E.M came through with ''Murmur'' extremely accesible and radio friendly album, that helped to get Alternative rock on the top of the charts, with huge influence from jungle pop and folk rock ,,Murmur'' was succesful right from the day it dropped. 2017 - Looking back at this album now is interesting to say the least. After realizing how much different the genre is now, but mainly appreciating how huge is the actual influence of murmur. To be perfectly honest ,,Murmur'' didn't really age all that well, but still even though it might not sound as fresh as it sounded in 80s, it still is great record. R.E.M were one of the best in writting short simple songs with great and catchy instrumentation and that is what made this band, they don't have that one ''STAR'', that overshadows everyone...NO...,,Murmur'' works just because every member does their work well. There were much better records that came out in the genre, but this is still really enjoyable piece of laid back music that you shouldn't miss if you are fan of the genre Highlights: ,,Radio Free Europe'' ,,Laughing'' ,,Perfect Circle'' ,,9-9''R.E.M. Automatic for the PeopleRadiohead AmnesiacRadiohead The BendsStrong 3.5 Let's be honest here for a second: The Bends is easily NOT the biggest improvement in the bands discography, that happens on ,,OK Computer''. It is actually pretty similiar to it's predecessor...yes off course this is much more unique and well written, BUT still this might be radiohead's 3rd worst album, mainly looking back at this in 2017, this album really sounds extremely dated and *Hate to say It* cheesy. Mainly looking at Songs like ,,The Bends'' ,,Black Star'' or ,,Bones'', yet all of these are fairly enjoyable and catchy tunes, all of them sound slightly generic and unimaginative compared to this record at it's best. Potential highlights would be songs like: ,,Planet telex'' - spacey atmosphere, and unorthodox guitar lead this is easily the most ,,Ok Computer'' like song on the record ,,Just'' - Great example of what the whole album should've sounded like, grungy, intricate, awesome tremolo picking and phenomenal bridge. ,,Bullet Proof'' - gorgeous little ballad with awesome production and angel-like ,,Thom Yorke'' and ,,Street Spirit'' - extremely melanchollic, emotional and difficult, with it's simply brilliant chord proggresion and airy vocal work this is easily one of the highlights in the band's career. Radiohead My Iron LungStrong 3.5 - Probably on par with ,,The Bends''. Pretty solid transition album full of extremely solid B-sides. EP opens up with T/T, pretty memorable and well thought out piece of grungey alt.rock, eventhough I feel like this album has more to offer than this track, ,,Trickster'' and ,,Lewis'' are closest songs to ,,Pablo Honey'' type of material, but their much more complex and layered, Trickster might be the catchiest and most complex song on the whole album, Lewis isn't that great of a track considering that the song is kind of tidious, plus in comparison to this album's finer moments it is quite weak track. ,,Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong'' is beatiful fresh song with great hook and nice airy Guitar work, sadly it might've been slightly shorter track. ,,Permanent Daylight'' is my own favorite, superior Sonic Youth-ish production, extremely memorable riff and drowned vocals, only thing this song really needed was another minute or 2 and that belongs to every little one of the last 3 songs, their way too short, even though they are the most ambitious songs. ,,Lozenge of love'' has extremely gorgeous picking and the whole guitar part of this song is just eargasmic. ,,You never Wash up After Yourself'' is straightforward ballad, with great vocal delivery and huge amount of passion. My own version of this album doesn't have Creep acoustic on it.Radiohead Street Spirit (Fade Out)Decent 3.5 Fun little ep that shows Radiohead flirting more and more with art rock and complexity. ''Street Spirit'' single/EP is filled with one of the most gorgeous and melancholic songs the band has ever written ''Street Spirit'', surprisingly unique and groovy ''Talk Show Host'', slightly underwhelming and forgettable Bishop's robes and 2 other obvious B-sides, that while they feel slightly underwritten, they show the band experimenting and having fun with soundplay.Ramones RamonesRingworm The PromiseLight 3.5 - Hardcore album, full of intensity, fast riffs, heaviness and thrashiness, album is really short, but in its runtime, that clocks just under 20 minutes, it demonstrates everything this band has to offer, album is fun, great, but it certainly isn't groundbreaking.Run-D.M.C. Run DMCSadistik Haunted GardensSleaford Mods Eton AliveSlipknot IowaSlowdive Just for a DayStrong 3.5 - Slow, ambient, calm, airy slowdive. This LP is incomparable to ,,Souvlaki'' both albums have totally different qualities, this one has sadly quite monotone tendencies and is not equally memorable. But for someone this one might be more captivating, it is very calm very chillfull and that's all you need from an album like this. GIVE IT A LISTEN IT'S WORTH IT. Slowdive MorningriseDecent 3.5 - Pretty decent work. S/T EP is much better, I guess I prefer the more layered sound of S/T over the ambient sound of this album. But ,,She Calls'' is magnificent piece of music. ,,Morningrise'' is Great single and ,,Losing Today'' is probably just not my cup of tea, there is not many underwhelming Slowdive songs, but ,,Losing today'' is one of them. Snapcase Progression Through UnlearningStrong 3.5 - If your looking for a band that covers the mid point in between hardcore and metalcore, check out these guys. ,,Progression through Unlearning'' is perfect mix of complex metalcore-ish riffing with accesible hardcore structuring of the songs and very vigorous and powerful vocal delivery. Instrumentally this album is as good as 90s hardcore can be, riffs are complex and extremely groovy, drumming is punchy and very dynamic, and even though the production of drums is quite clumsy, Somebody just loves it. bass isn't as strong as for example in Will Haven, but it has its spots...but the best thing on the album are the vocals, they are so powerful and energetic, that you will forget about the music, and you just want to listen to vocals. BUT this band has one major problem, their music is extremely repetitive, at least on this album, all songs on this album are way too similiar, it misses some diversity, other than that great release. Highlights: Check Out the Whole albumSneaky Feelings Send YouSoen LotusStarflyer 59 AmericanaStarflyer 59 The Fashion FocusStarflyer 59 Everybody Makes MistakesStarflyer 59 SilverSunny Day Real Estate DiarySunny Day Real Estate How It Feels To Be Something OnThe Antlers UprootedThe Fall of Troy DoppelgangerThe Number Twelve Looks Like You Wild GodsThe Ocean FluxionThe Tallest Man on Earth I Love You. It's a Fever Dream.Thou MagusThrice The Artist in the AmbulanceStrong 3.5 - This is so different than ,,The Illusion of Safety''. Most of the pop punk influence is replaced by more melodic punk, alt rock-ish sound and most of the technicality is replaced by atmosphere. Dustin's vocals are the biggest improvement, his cleans are deeper and bluesier, yet still as emotional as they were before and his screams are better than ever. Teppei and Eddie are writing easier and not as diverse riffing, but the riffs are still very groovy and memorable,the only thing I've kind of missed here was the phenomenal soloing and ever changing riffing between melodic and heavy. Riley's drumming is probably my biggest let down on this album, his drumming is not highlighted at all on this album, plus he gets lost in the mixing quite too often. The structuring on this album isn't as great either, it is full of chorus oriented songs, basic verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus formula. BUT for the big part this is fantastic album, full of catchy choruses, slow-fast, quiet-loud structures, great groovy instrumentation, more mature than ,,TIOS'', but mainly this is much more atmospheric, which makes it more emotional - with additional instrumentation in the background of pretty much half of the album. Highlights: ,,Cold Cash and Cold Hearts'', ,,Sillhouette'', ,,Stare at the sun'', ,,Paper tigers'', ,, The artist in the ambulance'', ,,The abolition of man''Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & IILight 3.5 - Underwhelming fire and phenomenal water.rThrices most experimental album to date, sadly not all of it is amazing. Fire - distortion, noise, screamingrWater - ambience, post rock, dreams, icy beats, beauty. Album opens up with ,,Firebreather'' great distorted song, that is perfect example of what the Fire should sound like, with its unorthodox riff and noisey atmosphere. Sadly ,,Messenger'' is underwhelming, ,,Backdraft'' - is overly distorted and fails to accomplish anything and ,,The arsonist'' is my least favorite thrice song to date, with crappy nu-metal edge to it, I really think the song is awful. Thankfully ,,Burn the fleet'' is great and catchy song and ,,The flame deluge'' is phenomenal ender, so noisey and distorted. Thankfully the water is thrice at its best opening with ,,Digital sea'' and ,,Open Water'' beautiful catchy dreamy songs ,,Lost continent'' is another adventurous ambient piece ,,Night diving'' thrice goes ISIS, phenomenal and the album ends at its best with ,,King upon the main'' Dustin sounds so amazing dreamy and acomplished on this one, I keep getting goosebumps.Thrice BeggarsStrong 3.5 - A lot of growing involved.... Thanks god not all of it is as terrible as the first bass line you will hear on this album. ,,Beggars'' has more indie theme and it sticks really well with it, but maybe it sometimes really lacks experimentation. Dustin is as always excelent, mainly on more emotional or slower cuts like (The weight, Circles, Wood and Wire and S/T) Teppei's playing is quite diverse, but he's mostly playing slower airy riffs, some of them are phenomenal (Circles, Beggars) some of them are pretty average (Doublespeak, At the last). Riley's drumming complements the music in a big way, but sadly he is not highlighted at all. And even though I am pretty harsh on this album, it is really fantastic work, the album flows really well and it doesn't have any bad song on it, maybe some parts are slightly poor (Chorus - At the last, Bass on some cuts, but mainly on All the world is mad), but this album is full of highlights - ,,Circles'' is perfectly executed, it has a lot of detail and mainly phenomenal cruscendo on the end, ,,Wood and Wire'' - is really emotionally captivating and Dustin's vocals and lyrics are so enjoyable, ,,Talking through...'' has the best chorus, and the best song on the album ,,Beggars'' has really catchy tune, Dustin's progressive performance and overall progressive structure builds this song perfectly for the huge final instrumental cruscendo on the end, it is just so perfectThrice To Be Everywhere Is to Be NowhereDecent 3.5 - Bad album done with excellent passion, precission and power. Thrice takes on post-grunge, this album pretty much sounds like everything from seether, but surprisingly enough it is actually really well done, full of amazing verses, great guitar work and full of passion, sadly most of choruses on this album is just generic radio rock, that does more likely discourage somebody from listening to this, then the other way around. Overall this album offers some excelent singles and that is about it, the rest of the album is good, but not really that amazing. ,,Hurricane'' - phenomenal song, catchy, structured, passionate. ,,Blood on the sand'' - Meh ,,Window'' - Good tune, kind of obnoxious chorus ,,Wake up'' - and the price for the worst chorus thrice has ever written goes to thisrThe long defeat - Great single, nice and catchy tune, slightly overproduced, but overall it really sounds great ,,Seneca'' - fantastic ,,Black Honey'' - Post grunge perfected, really great single, excelent guitar work ,,Stay with me'' - Totally worth it r,,Death from above'' - GOD what is wrong with that tempo change ? ,,Whistlebower'' - absolutely perfect riff, I don't know how they got to this sound, but i fkin love it ,,Salt and Shadow'' - Best song on the album easilyThy Catafalque NaivUlver KveldssangerUlver Nattens MadrigalUnderoath Cries of the PastLight 3.5 Underoath proves to be better metal band, than they are a Post-hardcore band.rStylistically ,,Cries of the Past'' is very similiar album to the ,,Act of Deppresion'' (mix of Black metal with metalcore and (Death metal here and there)), but it has drastically more to offer. ,,Cries of the past'' is album filled with intense vocal delivery, ambitious songwriting and phenomenal instrumentation...Corey Steger tastefully shows his guitar skill, while he's changing in between groovey, thrashey riffs and fast tremolo picking. Aaron Gillespie lays down some great rhythms and grooves on the drums and when it's his time to shine, he does really well.... Even though this album is instrumental beast, it has it's problems too, Let's summarize it: 1)While Dallas Taylor is really solid vocalist, his slow unenergetic growling in some parts takes more from the album than it actually adds. 2)Underoath are not capable of writing memorable and consistent songs that are 8 minutes, every song has it's awesome moments, but could be 5/6 minutes long.r3)MESS - there is too many unnecessary parts in every song...For example who thought those acoustic guitar parts go well with the rest of the album..rPlus Trash lyricism, but that's expectedVision of Disorder Vision of DisorderDecent 3.5 - To explain my rating... Let me start with: ,,Vision of disorder'' is very ambitious mix of metalcore/Hardcore and Nu-metal/alt. metal. They are blending these genres together into very cohesive and solid sound, the vocal mix of moody cleans and extremely heavy screams would be perfect example of this, the instrumentation is slightly underwhelming in comparison to the ,,always so colourful vocal work'', but instrumentally it is not bad in any way shape or form, just slightly forgettable...but it doesn't change anything on the flow of the record, ,,Vision of Disorder'' flows perfectly, there is easily just something about the band that sounds fresh, catchy and likeable. Vision of Disorder ImprintDecent 3.5 - Heavy, Focused and Energetic....The more you know. Often overshadowed by its predecessor, but this is easily equally enjoyable piece of music. I don't want to go too deep into description of the sound on this album. If you haven't heard anything by these guys: they are early metalcore band with huge alt.metallish influence and very melodic and colourful approach to vocals for 90s metalcore. If you've liked their debut and your looking for something faster, heavier, punchier and much more instrumentally advanced check this out. Will Haven WHVNLight 3.5 - Will Haven continues to make solid and unique metalcore. ,,WHVN''...is diffucult release to write about, It has most of the stuff we've loved about ,,El Diablo'': the heavy bass, difficult almost noisey soundscapes, heavy extremely sludgey guitar walls and visceral vocal work, plus it bears new experimentation and slightly more diverse songwriting. So why 3.3 avg. ?? Well...the inconsistency, even though there are some new ideas, most of them just fall short or are not memorable at all, the great example of that would be the totally unnecesary strange intro to ,,Fresno'' or the more straightforward part of the album ,,Jaworski'' or ,,Muse'', even though both of these songs are very enjoyable, they are not really memorable or special. Another problem would be, that some of the songs on this album sound almost like B-sides of ,,El Diablo'' ,,Genesis 11'' or ,,Dallass drake''. But In the end I am just too much of a fan of the sound of these guys, so even though I think some of these songs are slightly underdeveloped and maybe way too safe, they are in no way shape or form bad. And on the other hand this album offers some real highlights like for example these sludgey extremely heavy and extremely well structured songs like ,,Slopez'' or ,,Death do us apart'' or the magnificent 9 minute long ,,Miguel Abburido''. So in the end this album doesn't reach the heights of ,,El diablo'', but if you are a fan of these guys, there is no way you won't enjoy this.Will Haven Open The Mind To DiscomfortWristmeetrazor Misery Never Forgets3.0 good...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead X: The Godless Void and Other StoriesA Swarm of the Sun The WoodsAmenra Mass I: Prayer I - VIAmenra Mass II: SermonsAndy Shauf The Neon SkylineAngel Du$t Pretty BuffArchitects NightmaresArchivist TriumvirateAstronoid AstronoidBadflower OK, I’M SICKBathory BathoryBehemoth SatanicaDecent 3.0 - Vocals on this thing sound so badass, that they are actually funny at times, this album doesnt have the production we know from their future releases, but it certainly is a good record. There are some enjoyable parts and the whole thing is pretty short which is probably the most enjoyable thing about this album it has just the right time it needs to do its job. There are off course some flaws, songs are not really that memorable and interesting or as instrumentaly proficient as on releases like satanist, but it is allrightBetter Oblivion Community Center Better Oblivion Community CenterBiohazard Urban DisciplineDecent 3 - fun, some catchy singles, great grooves. But sadly this album fails to keep any mark on me, huge amount of 90s hardcore lacks charisma, memorability and idea. This album has idea, is well executed and has some memorability, but biohazard for me lacks charisma, their music fails to impress me, plus 57 minutes long hardcore album that doesn't really progress anywhere out of hardcore or rap hardcore, just bores me to death about 40 minutes in. Highlights: Whole first half is really good, the rest is meh.Bombay Bicycle Club Everything Else Has Gone WrongBring Me the Horizon AmoCandlemass The Door To DoomChevelle This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In)Chevelle Point #1De Staat Bubble GumDeerhunter Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?Deftones AdrenalineDepeche Mode A Broken FrameDepeche Mode Construction Time AgainDisembodied DiablerieLight 3 - Part of me just hates this album, I do not know what is the reason behind that, I just can't get into this thing. I feel like everything I do really like on this album I kind of dislike at the same time, Start up with the vocals, their kind of heavy and emotional, but at the same time they take so much momentum from this thing...Btw (the vocal delivery seems quite influential for ,,Poison the Well''), then the instrumentation is sometimes really lack luster, and the sludginess of the riffs adds totally nothing to the final product, because the vocals are so much dragging, I just don'T know what it is about this album, but the 26 minute runtime felt like 50...but now to be honest, the album isn't that bad, It has couple of good songs, some decent riffs and overall it doesn't really strike me with negativity after I listen to it, I am always kind of confused whether I do really dislike it or the other way around. If your looking for some original early metalcore, check these guys out, you might enjoy it a tad bit more than I didDope Felons And RevolutionariesStrong 3 - Another band I've listened to when I was 13 or so...YAY Nu-metal, Industrial rock and alt.metal...prepubescent....Yeah A lot...but strangely enjoyable to this day. Lyrics aside, this album is filled with one catchy song after another, offering extremely accesible industrial rock, that lacks in originality and diversity, but is very enjoyable and entertaining. Just don't think about It. Most of these songs sound like b-sides from Manson's ,,Antichrist Superstar'' with worse lyricismDream Theater Distance Over TimeEnslaved FrostEnslaved EldEnslaved Vikingligr VeldiGore Mean Man's DreamHatari NeyslutransHellyeah Blood for BloodIntegrity Those Who Fear TomorrowStrong 3 - Easily the best example of what I love about metalcore, and what I hate. TWFT is the most influential album for 90s metalcore, this could easily be considered ,,The First metalcore release ever'', and it contains everything you want from 90s metalcore, hardcore aesthetics mixed with metal-ish heaviness, rawness, head shredding screams and fast very straightforward drumming. This album is as straightforward as metalcore can be. But sadly, I hate big chunk of this album. Why is that ? Easily just because the Vocals and the straightforwardness. To me, the vocals are for the big part insanely bad, I love when he experiments with the vocals, when he pushes out that insanely high scream or when he pulls of that guttural wall of sound, it sounds magnificent, but his mid range screaming is just awful, He sounds like drunk a**hole on his way home from the bar. Overall I think this album is instrumentaly superior to most of 90s metalcore, plus i think it is the most influential metalcore album, until Zao's WBAFBTR, but I cant stand listening to this. Highlights:,,Micha'', ,,Judgment day'' ,,Descent into/Darkness'', ,,Dawn...'' and the closerJimmy Eat World Static PrevailsKatatonia Tonight's DecisionKatatonia Discouraged OnesKatatonia Last Fair Deal Gone DownKhalid Free SpiritKillswitch Engage The End of HeartacheKiss It Goodbye She Loves Me, She Loves Me NotStrong 3 - Rorschach, Deadguy and Kiss it goodbye, all these bands have something in common - Keith Huckins aka the Master guitar player. ,,Rorschach'' extremely experimental band for its time, they dropped some of the best and freakiest hardcore of 90s. ,,Deadguy'' one of the most influential Metalcore bands, their immediate and fast playing full of tempo changes is copied on daily basis. So I've had quite high Expectations and sadly this didn't match them. Kiss it Goodbye is great and fairly original metalcore band, their dark production and their very unorthodox approach to vocals is enjoyable, yet my expectations were higher, because ,,Fixation on a Coworker's'' guitar playing is infamous in Metalcore scene, sadly Huckins doesn't match that here, the riffs are mostly great, my main issue is the build-up playing, the album loses all the immediacy and it is lame and not always well executed. The best guitar work is easily on the spastic ,,Fire drill'' and ,,Sick Day'', but there is bigger problem. The vocals are so lackluster, edgy pretentious repetitive build-up talking, that never actually builds up into anything for half of the album is just boring, thanks god the lyrics are so good. The mixing is strange too, sometimes the guitar is way too low and the vocals are drowned in the music, it's strangely mixed. Overall: the album is very inconsistent for me, maybe you will Be more Into it, give it a try, It certainly has its own charisma. Highlights: ,,Fire Drill'' ,,Ammunition'', ,,Sick day'' ,, Put your head...''Linkin Park Hybrid TheoryStrong 3 - Great catchy nu metal album. With catchy riffs, catchy electronics and sometimes very good vocals. But this album has some major issues: immature very simple sound, cringy lyricism and some really bad hip hop arrangmentsLSD and the Search for God LSD and the Search for GodMarilyn Manson The High End of LowMelvins Gluey Porch TreatmentsMelvins OzmaMineral The Power of FailingMono Nowhere Now HereMorning Again As Tradition Dies SlowlyDecent 3 - Falls under the generic metalcore tag. As much as I think this is very solid album, It isn't special. Deadguy, Earth Crisis, Integrity, Kiss It Goodbye the influence of these bands is all over this album, here and there the band really tries to make them sound original, but they never really step out of shadow of their influences. If you're in love with 90's metalcore/extreme hardcore, then try this, you will probably enjoy it quite a bit.O'Brother The Death of DayStrong 3 Warning (( This is gonna sound like I really dislike the record, but that's not the case, I do thoroughly enjoy this album from the start to finish, I just expected much more than what I've got)) I really don't know what to think about this record, It's instrumentally such an interesting record that goes through number of different moods, ideas and genres....I should love it, but I simply don't. I do enjoy it in the moment, but I will probably never get back to it, it has too many flaws that just bug me the wrong way. The Vocalist for example sounds like he is really trying to do Dustin Kensrue Impression, while he sounds decent on the record, there is nothing memorable about his vocals, or those extremely predictable song structures on songs like ,,Ascension'' or ,,Oh charitable thief'' while those are the more interesting songs on the record and both of them have pretty solid climaxes on the end, their structure is just so predictable, and that's what bugs me about huge amount of new post-rock, it just never surprises you. Tho' my biggest problem with this record would be my need to compare this to Thrice's more experimental works in 2007/8/9, because truly this band sounds like they took all these records and mixed them together...the Sludgy feels of Fire, the detailed and very post-rockey water and the accesible indie feel of beggars...and I just simply can't get over the fact, that this record really sounds so unimportant. P.O.D. Fundamental Elements of SouthtownStrong 3 - First up I have to say that I do really enjoy reggae infused P.O.D. and I can't stand their angsty sound. And this album is first kind of reggae infused, but still remains to be angsty. Album Opens up with 4 pretty solid songs, that are pretty well written and remains to be catchy and interesting. Then there is ,,Rock the party'' which I don't really care for, but it is alright, but then my biggest problem arrives ,,Lie down'' is awful, it sounds so angsty and so tasteless, the screaming chorus of this song is mixed in such a distracting way, that i really have to skip it everytime. Thankfully after this song there is my favorite song of the album ,,Set your eyes to Zion'' ,which is this really catchy reggae infused slow ballad. Second half of the album is pretty much consistent rap rock with some downhills (Bullet the blue sky, follow me) and some highlights ( Tribal ) Overall this album was kind of inconsistent for me, because I don't care for the ,,heavier'' more angsty side of the band.P.O.D. When Angels and Serpents DancePapa Roach InfestStrong 3 - Papa Roach - 1st Chapter - ,,Infest'' - Off course, Now I could talk about: why is this album in my subjective opinion better than most of it's contemporaries...and that's exactly what I am gonna do Looking at nu metal in 2017 is fairly unique and interesting experience, not only because it has been 15-25 years since the genre had it's time to shine...but mainly because after all these years we can see how well most of the ''big'' nu metal records aged...and trust me most of them not so well *cough* Korn *Cough*// but surprisingly enough ,,Infest'' sounds as energetic and fun as it used to sound 20 years ago, I might not enjoy it as much as I used to 7-8 years ago, but I can still enjoy how easily it flows, and how Catchy huge amount of this thing is: While riffs are mostly really simple and kinda unimaginative, they are memorable and in ,,Broken Home'' ,, Between..'' and ,,Revenge'' I would even say really good for mainstream Nu-metal. And even Shaddix sounds freakin' great on this record while he is melodramatic angsty douchey kid, his delivery is certainly more captivating than Dursts ''drunk frat boy'' delivery and Davis's ''Naked little kid Crying in the bathroom'' delivery. Highlights: ,,Infest'' ,,Broken Home'' ,,Revenge'' ,,Thrown Away''Paradise Lost Paradise LostParadise Lost Shades of GodPeriphery PeripheryPoison the Well Distance Makes the Heart Grow FonderStrong 3 - Ambitious, Interesting, but ends with a lot to be desired. So this is how ,,Poison The Well'' started, well It's quite strange listening to ,,Poison the well'' without jeffrey Moreira's contrast between deep screaming and his quite shy vocal delivery. But all of this aside, Let's jump into this album. ,,Distance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder'' Opens up with ,,Grain Of Salt'' kicking off with catchy rhythm guitar and great work on ,,dueling'' vocal delivery, this is probably the most memorable song on the whole ep, as it has catchy chorus and very catchy yet quite intelligent melodic guitar playing.,,Torn'' my own favorite, opening up with extremely melodic and memorable picking, and is very melodic and smart throughout , plus this song is the closest this album gets to ,,Opposite of December'' songwritingwise. another highlight would be the song ,,Obstacle'' with ever changing riffs and very unorthodox structure, afterall this song has very strong ending with very sludgey riff and extremely heavy production. sadly this little ep closes with somewhat underwhelming ,,Material christ'' not a bad song, just not good enough for closer, this song just doesn't bring anything new or anywhat interesting to the table. Instrumentation is very solid throughout this whole album, melodic guitar passages soaring over the music, very memorable guitar work and solid drumming. Vocals aren't on the same level as they are on some other releases, the lyrics are sometimes a bit cringey, but it works for the band at this point in their career. Production isn't bad for metalcore in 98, but comparing this to some of their later works, with clean precise and very lush production, this thing is just not as good.Poppy I DisagreePorcupine Tree DeadwingPorcupine Tree The Sky Moves SidewaysR.E.M. ReckoningDecent 3 R.E.M. Follows Murmur up with Murmur Nr.2 4th April 1984: R.E.M. Follows up their extremelly succesful ,,Alt.Rock Classic'' Murmur. Everyone is eager to find out what this album actually sounds like....Aaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnddd then everyone is happy bc. ,,Reckoning'' is really similiar to ,,Murmur''...another Charttopper 18th May 2017: I am trying really hard to like this as much as murmur...but I just can't..Well that happens I suppose. ,,Reckoning'' just isn't that great in my opinion, it pretty much sounds like worse version of ,,Murmur'', Instrumentally it sounds equally appealing...The jangly guitar work, punchy drumming (Those Hi-hat triplets in some of these songs are gorgeous) and less-punk-y bass, is still really enjoyable. The problem I have with this album is mainly in the songwriting...To me ,,Reckoning'' doesn't have too many catchy or memorable moments...Off course I love songs like ,,So. Central Rain'' ,,TimeAfterTime'' or ,,Litle America'', but other than that, most of these songs are so ''Meeeh'' to me..They are not bad at all, I just think, their little bit too safe and uninteresting for the most part..Plus some of the ,,Multi-Vocal''/Layered vocal choruses are just distracting to me, the great example of that would be ,,Harborcoat'' song I LOVE, until the chorus kicks in. Well Dissapointed in this..But Hey...Just OpinionR.E.M. Lifes Rich PageantRadiohead Pablo HoneyStrong 3 - The album that would have been 3.5 average if it wasn't by Radiohead...Rating early Radiohead days might be pretty challenging, on one hand comparing this to the radio alternative rock of the time, songs are much more memorable, catchier and the songwriting is already very ambitious, in this case ,,Pablo Honey'' is stronger than most of radio alt.rock of the time. rbut on the other hand comparing this to subsequent Radiohead music, ,,Pablo Honey'' is nowhere near to the rest of their discography ((well except couple of Bad LPs)). Well all these things aside, I think the album is great, it is very enjoyable, fun and it flows pretty nicely, some songs are stronger than the others, but that happens. If This didn't sound as dated, It would've been extremely solid . Highlights - ,,YOU'' - Catchy, great guitar work and wonderful vocal performance. ,,Creep'' - catchy, great bridge, very memorable. ,,Stop whispering'' - Great chorus. ,,Prove Yourself'' - dig the mixing, great guitar tune. ,,Blow out'' - nice chord progressionRadiohead CreepStrong 3 - Rating early Radiohead days might be pretty challenging, bc. on one hand comparing stuff afore ,,the bends'' to the radio alternative rock of the time, Radiohead were superior to most of radio alt rock of early 90s. but on the other hand comparing this to subsequent Radiohead music, it lacks quite a bit. ,,Creep'' has all the ambition of the band shining through, Jonny Greenwood was always huge and interesting guitar player, even at this point in time he was laying down complex, yet very memorable riffs, and you could even say that this is one of Thom Yorke's best vocal performances. BUT THIS BAND IS STILL NOT RADIOHEAD, this album doesn't have the charismatic elements that you would get from radiohead, it doesn't have the experimentation, it is just very enjoyable album, from NOT RADIOHEAD.Radiohead Anyone Can Play GuitarDecent 3 - ,,Anyone can play guitar'' is great, even though the intro is kind of clumsy. ,,Faithless the wonder Boy'' is good catchy song, the mixing has its mistakes, the guitar is way too high in the mix, plus the distorted part is way too loud. ,,Coke babies'' has great detailRome Le Ceneri Di HeliodoroShadows Fall The Art of BalanceSlipknot .5: The Gray ChapterSlowdive Holding Our BreathDecent 3 - Compared to the 2 EP's that came out prior to this, this is underwhelming. But it is still a good piece of music, slowdive tries some new ideas, but overall, I am not feeling thisStaind StaindStarflyer 59 Leave Here A StrangerStarflyer 59 GoldSunny Day Real Estate Sunny Day Real EstateSwallow the Sun When a Shadow Is Forced into the LightThe Cure Three Imaginary BoysThe Dillinger Escape Plan The Dillinger Escape PlanLight 3 - Back when Dillinger tried so hard to copy Deadguy, well they did quite a good job, but they still lack their own charisma and style, plus Dimitris wasn't the greatest vocalist. Overall it is good for first release, the production lacks, but the instrumental part is as always excellent on this album. Songs aren't really memorable, plus their very similiar in structure, plus the vocals are very one dismensional on this release.The Gloaming The Gloaming 3The Sonics Here Are the SonicsThe Triffids In the PinesThrice Identity CrisisStrong 3 - It can be pretty generic, but it is really fun, this album has 3 different types of songs in it. First are Pop punk-ish songs like ,,Ultra Blue'' or ,,In your hands'' these songs are pretty generic pop punk, but with a lot of tightness and pretty catchy vocal and guitar work. The second type are hardcore influenced songs like ,,As the ruin falls'' and ''Torch to end all torches'', these songs are really good, but they are too similiar to some influences on this album like ,,Minor Threat'' for example.rAnd the last type are songs, that would eventually be what the band started doing on their next full lenght album, on songs like ,,Identity crisis'' you can certainly see some similiarities with Thrice's later work.rOverall: Dustin Kensrue sounds really good on this album, totally prefer this over his ,,Illusion of safety'' vocals. Teppei's and Eddie's riffs are overall the worst in Thrice's discography, but they are not that bad. Riley's drumming is as always amazing and punchy as hell. The production is bad and songwriting is at times kinda crappy too , but this album is still pretty fun and catchy listen.Thrice The Alchemy Index Vol. I: FireStrong 3 - Meh... the whole album is slightly burried in distortion, which makes some songs really noisey and atmospheric (Firebreather, The flame Deluge),but some songs really miss some of that more sharp less distorted playing, mainly ,,The Messenger'' and ,,Backdraft''. Overall I am not really a fan of production of this little Ep. ,,Firebreather'' is really solid song with quite unorthodox riffing that is kind of Isis-esque. ,,The messenger'' is meh, it is one of those crappy post-hardcore songs that fail to make me feel anything, ,,Backdraft'' is quite interesting in verses, but it is destroyed by super generic chorus. ,,The arsonist'' is probably my least favorite thrice song ever, that nu-metal edge to it is terrible, I just can't f*ck with this one, it is just NOT GOOD, ,,Burn the fleet'' - is catchy song that gets you pumped up for the final cruscendo which is ,,The flame deluge'' - by far the best song on this ep, and probably one of the best thrice songs, It is just pure noise with phenomenal ending.Thrice Deeper WellsTraining for Utopia Plastic Soul ImpalementDecent 3 - My explanation is simplistic....viz. ,,Dean R''s soundoff. There is no reason behind writing a soundoff that would say the exact same thing.Trivium AscendancyUlver Svidd Neger OSTUlver Lyckantropen Themes OSTUnbroken Life. Love. Regret.Strong 3 - Probably the best example of early 90s metallic hardcore album. Until metalcore evolved into what we consider metalcore these days, the genre was pretty much hardcore music with additional heaviness, slower heavier riffs and screamed or shouted vocals, and mainly darker atmosphere. Unbroken's - life.love.regret is pretty much perfect showcase of this, so if you are insanely huge fan of 90s metalcore this is probably 4.5-5 for you. I think there is not really anything to complaint about, maybe you could argue that this album has really clear influences, mainly Integrity influence is pretty evident or You could say, that the album is not memorable enough... but all these things aside, I think this is perfect showcase of early 90s ,,typical metalcore'' (Rorschach is not typical) and the closer of this album is masterpiece. So why 3.5 ? Bc. typical 90s metallic hardcore is just not really my type of thing, I like my metalcore experimental, with strange vocals and heavy, noisey, dark atmosphere, and I am not getting that on this album.Underoath Act of DepressionLight 3 - The hate towards this album is certainly justified...But is it really that Bad ? NO It is not...I've heard ton of much more generic and tedious metalcore with 3.5-8 average.... This album isn't even that bad, It provides quite interesting mix of metalcore, Black metal and Death metal. Yes it has huge amount of flaws: The lyricism is completely horrid, every song could be half of the runtime and Dallas Taylor sounds like ,,Angry GoAt screaming at shit''...But the whole album is quite entertaining, most of the guitar work is excellent and the production isn't that bad either, plus in a way the vocals perfectly suit the instrumentals and you can't actually understand the horrid lyricism that abounds pretty much 90 percent of these guys discography. Yes I am certainly not a huge fan of these guys, but their first 2 albums are superior to what they were releasing in the middle of their career on ,,The Changing of Times'' or ,,They're Only Chasing Safety''. Better to have punchy, slightly edgy and clumsy Unblack metalcore release (Yes I've made that up), than whiny pretentious cheesy metalcore with christian themes...They've gotten better over time thoughUnreqvited Mosaic II: la déteste et la détresseVision of Disorder For the BleedersLight 3 - Natural Continuation....,,For The Bleeders'' is Vision of Disorder staying on the safe ground, this album is once again pretty solid, off course not dissapointing if you are Vision of disorder fan, but not that amazing either, It is not as catchy as their self-titled LP and not as sonically interesting as their second album, It just kind of exists... Sonically it is ,,Vision of Disorder'' as usual, inovative and accesible vocal work, some catchy tunes, some great instrumental work and that is about it...the only reason behind the decent 3 is ,,Adelaide'' and ,,In the room'', bc. those are some of the best songs these guys have writtenVVilderness Dark WatersWestkust WestkustYung Lean Unknown Death 2002Yung Lean Lavender Yung Lean Unknown MemoryYung Lean Warlord2.5 averageAmorphis Queen of TimeAngus and Julia Stone Down the WayApocalyptica Cell-0Archive Take My HeadBeach Slang The Deadbeat Bang Of Heartbreak CityBorn of Osiris The SimulationBreaking Benjamin We Are Not AloneBreaking Benjamin PhobiaBreaking Benjamin Dark Before DawnBring Me the Horizon Suicide SeasonStrong 2.5 - Big change in band's sound the whole thing has little bit more memorability. The main difference to better on this album is Oliver Sykes, he changes his totally awful screams that had no memorability at all for his more melodic, emotive vocals, that you could hear on some sort of touche amore/amitty affliction album. I did enjoy the album quite a bit, if the lyricism was better, the songwriting and instrumentation was little bit less generic and the songs were around 2/3 minute mark this could've been excellent albumBring Me the Horizon That's the SpiritCamper Van Beethoven Telephone Free Landslide VictoryChevelle Sci-Fi CrimesDance Gavin Dance Instant GratificationDemon Hunter WarDepeche Mode ExciterDepeche Mode Speak & SpellDepeche Mode Sounds Of The UniverseDinosaur Jr. DinosaurDope Group TherapyStrong 2.5 - Dope Improves upon ,,Life'' while getting back to their Industrial edge. ,,Group Therapy'' shows Dope finally utilizing their Nu-metal sound with improved songwriting and a tad bit better lyricism, but sadly this album still gets dragged down by inconsistency and uncharismatic sound. While in songs Like: ''I'am'', ,,Now Is the time'' or ''Today is the day'' we can see Dope writting catchier and much more dynamic songs than ever, there are songs like ,,Bitch'', ,,Bring It on'' or ,,Burn'' where the band just keeps on writting these obviously cringeworthy ''tough-guy'' hooks and lyrics, and that just doesn't go well with me. Sadly the whole album really suffers bc. of this inconsistency. Highlights: ''I Am'' - great catchy nu-metal single with quite obvious linkin park worship,but the layered vocals on the chorus are just great and the whole song has great dynamics, ,,Sing'' - This is what I'd imagine ,,Alice in chains'' would sound like if they were Nu-Metal band, pretty great song tho. ,, Motivation'' - great mix of industrial rock and nu-metal. ,,Today Is the Day'' - Heaviest and probably the most dynamic song on the whole album...really fun oneEarth Crisis All Out WarStrong 2.5 - is this first metalcore album ever ? Hell no. This album is still very much decent hardcore, that lacks creativity and originality. Only ,,metal" thing about this album is the guitar work, which is slightly thrash influenced, but overall...good hardcore album, with lack of memorability, and originality. I was not feeling thisEarth Crisis Destroy the MachinesStrong 2.5 - I don't know what happened between ,,Firestorm'' and this, but man did the band get incredibly bland and forgettable. ,,Firestorm'' opened up the doors for early metalcore, for 93 the album had totally new sound, and their take on metallic hardcore was insanely inovative, slower, darker and more ,,chuggy'' playing of the band was incredible, but the pinnacle of the band in my opinion was their vocalist, with high pitched hardcore-ish screaming he made the band heavy yet accesible at the same time. So what's changed ? The playing is pretty much the same thing as it used to be, the band is tight and the drumming and guitar playing still has the power that it used to have in 93. But the vocals this time around, are so forgettable, I don't know what happened, but it almost looks like the band was trying to get heavier, so their vocalist started using deeper and slower vocal technique, and it just made the band sound almost unrecognizable from most of metalcore of early 90s, what a pity. IMO the heaviness took so much fun from the band, mainly when unbroken did this sound MUCH more solid.Earth Crisis Breed the KillersStrong 2.5 - Don't worry we are doing it as safe as possible. Earth Crisis is one of the most influential metalcore bands of early 90s and in their fairly long career they came out with some great albums ,,Firestorm'' EP and ,,Gommorrah's season'' being my favorite, but sadly they are very safe and kind of generic metalcore band. And ,,Breed The Killers'' is their first album to fall under the Generic Hardcore/Metalcore brand. In The End the whole album is enjoyable there are some good songs here and there, but it just sounds like the band isn't even trying to differentiate themselves somehow. So on one hand it doesn't offend you, but it doesn't impress either, It is more likely kinda uneventful listen.Floral Tattoo You Can Never Have a Long Enough Head StartGHOSTEMANE Human ErrorIf These Trees Could Talk The Bones of a Dying WorldKendrick Lamar Training DayDecent 2.5 - Kendrick kinda has it ? Kendrick's ambition shines throughout this record, his flow is already on high level and his songwriting improved a lot over the ''YHNIC'', but lyrically this is still really poor for kendrick's standards, plus making 26 song long mixtape was just bad idea.Korn Korn III: Remember Who You AreLil Nas X 7Linkin Park MeteoraDecent 2.5 - This album is younger brother that didn't quite make it. There are some new good ideas and some new very catchy songs, plus new more alt. rock sound to this album. this album was very ambitious but didn't make it, the sound is even less complex than on HT and overusing one simple riff over and over again makes it much much worseLow Long DivisionNine Inch Nails With TeethOld Man Gloom Meditations in BP.O.D. TestifyStrong 2.5 - Songwriting is pretty mediocre, and boring at some places, guitar playing is not bad, but neither is really good, drumming is as always very decent. Thankfully there is couple of catchy tunes and well written hooks, pretty much this is P.O.D as usual, not bad, but sadly not improvemed in soongwriting.rHighlights: ,,If you could see me now'' - catchy as hell ,,Sounds like war'' instrumentally the best song Let Down: ,,Roots in stereo'' - awfully stereotypicalr,,Lights out'' - this sounds like worse version of any limp bizkit song Papa Roach Getting Away With MurderStrong 2.5 - Solid Hard rock album. Vocals improved in a big way over ,,Lovehatetragedy''. Guitar has some sweet spots like on the s/t song or acoustic guitar on ,,sometimes''. Bass work is sadly pretty much always in the background, and drums are punchy, but not really profound. For the big part this is really solid album, ambitions of this album are fairly small, and it really doesn't do much for you, But it works. Highlights: ,,Getting away with murder'' ,,Blood'' and ,,Sometimes''Paradise Lost GothicParadise Lost Symbol Of LifePhinehas thegodmachinePorcupine Tree On the Sunday of LifeRadiohead DrillStrong 2.5 - to be honest, its pretty good - for a demo record. ,,Prove yourself" and ,,stupid car" sound great, ,,You" sounds pretty clumsy productionwise, but the song by itself is pretty decent and memorable tune, and ,,thinking about you" is mistake, with awful production on top of that. But yeah overall pretty enjoyableRed (USA) Innocence and InstinctRotting Christ The HereticsSadistik The Balancing ActSevendust SevendustSlipknot All Hope Is GoneSoilwork VerklighetenThe Beach Boys Surfin' SafariStrong 2.5 Album that perfectly does what it's supposed to do. 12 songs that have little to no original or memorable flavor to them, but are still fun listen. ,,Surfin Safari'' is the perfect example of really average pop music done right...it has been done much better by other rock'n'roll acts, but ''surfin safari'' is just what people wanted in the 60's. Simple, straightforward, happy sunny and very accesible.Trivium Ember to InfernoUlver Silence Teaches You How to Sing EPWalls of Jericho The Bound Feed The GaggedStrong 2.5 - Well...not necesarilly good. ,,The Bound Feed The Gagged'' has some things going for it, very obviously the band is quite instrumentally proficient, they have unique Female vocalist Candace Kusculain, and she actually sounds pretty good on this Record. Plus they tend to mix their metalcore with some thrash metal riffage, and that actually adds something unique to the band...YEAH..But that's about it, there is so many things going against this record... First up It's Lazily written - this is mainly obvious in the songwritting, every little song except one little exception (Angel) sounds pretty much alike, off course the band tries to change a little something in every song, but mostly it just doesn't add anything to the ending product, great example of this would be the opener that has this extremely unnecessary tempo change in the middle of the song, it just breaks the dynamic of the song, or couple of songs have these extremely unnecessary breakdowns, that do totally NOTHING! Second Point - Generic - Most of this album just doesn't sound unique in comparison to some of it's contemporaries The Last Point - 2 minutes isn't enough...Walls Of Jericho aren't exactly the band that can work with these shorter songs...they don't have the dynamics, heaviness and memorability to make these short songs compelling Highlights: ,,Unwanted Resistance'', ,,Misanthrophy'' ,,Angel''Wicca Phase Springs Eternal Suffer OnZao The Splinter Shards the Birth of SeparationStrong 2.5 - Zao before they were ZAO. This album is nothing special, the vocals are pretty miserable compared to Dan Weyandt's, structuring of the songs is very simplistic and the music lacks personality big time. But all this said the album has quite solid musicianship going on. Riffs are mostly great, flawlessly changing between heavier and more melodic side of the band, eventhough the melodic parts take the W on this album. The band was pretty tight and drumming and bass is pretty decent too. Album flows pretty well and there are some great songs, sadly non of them will stick with you and you will forget, what they sounded like minutes later. Highlights: ,,Repressed'' ,,In loving Kindness'' ,,Endure'' and ,,Resistance''2.0 poorBlindead NiewiosnaCoalesce Give Them RopeStrong 2 - My friend told me to check this band out, that ,,I am totally gonna enjoy it, because it's similiar to stuff like converge and The Dillinger escape plan''. So I offcourse went into this album with huge amount of anticipation and sadly I ended up underwhelmed big times, maybe if so many people didn't overhype this to me, I'd like it tad bit more... Now just to understand why my rating is what it is: My main issue is production and mixing, The mix is easily not good, only well mixed thing on the album is drumming. But production aside, the vocals are extremely one dimensional and they get quite boring very fast, Drumming and the guitar playing is sometimes very intelligent, but the mix totally destroys it, there is nothing highlighted whatsoever, and that easily makes this whole album pretty much NOT memorable at all. But I am gonna try some newer material from these guys, because this album is extremely ambitious, so maybe their newer material might be betterCoheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3Converge Halo in a HaystackStrong 2 - uninteresting, lacks charisma, has awful production, the screaming and lyricism lacks personality, sounds like every underground mettalic hardcore of the time... it shatters my heart, to use these words for converge album, but it is the truth. Converge had quite a bit of potential already at this point, you can hear it here and there on some of Kurt's guitar playing, you can hear it on some structures and even some full songs. But you can't listen to this without waiting for some extremely noisey and characteristic guitar part or Jacob turning into his typical ,,troll-ish'' screaming. This album could use some remastering and it could easily be a 3/3.5 album.Dope LifeStrong 2 - Go on and take your best shot____!!!! On ''LIFE'' Dope desperately tries to move away from their original Industrial rock-ish style, ,,Manson's'' shadow, and acquire their own original style. On paper that sounds like a good idea. IN REALITY....not so much tbh it starts off pretty solid with memorable opener and two solid Nu-metallish songs after that, but then for some reason !!! ,,STOP'' kicks off with that horrid chorus and just awful songwriting, then the next couple of songs sound like they were all written according to the same blueprint ,,Die MF Die'', ,,Move it'' or ,,Crazy'' are all just atrocious, plus I just can't get through big part of this album without cringing at the lyricism on some of these songs, it sounds like it was written by 5 year old...Yeah.. And that sums up the album perfectly, It has some other ALRIGHT moments through the album, such as the post-grungey ,,What about'' or the extremely cheesy but enjoyable ,,Slipping away'', but that just isn't enough to make me interested in the final product.Earl Sweatshirt EARLHellyeah HellyeahKendrick Lamar Youngest Head Nigga in ChargeLight 2 - Ehhh Kenny didn't have it. At all....King 810 Suicide KingKorn Life Is PeachyStrong 2 - It might look kind of silly, but i see this album as a big improvement over their poor debut. Because this album opens up with some really memorable songs that i didn't find on their debut. I feel much less annoyed by childish unworked vocals of jonathan davis. And i do actually see some good ideas on this album (Twist,Porno creep, Adidas, Wicked) But that is not enough this album still has some terrible lines and lyrics, but the biggest problem on this album is that it does only improve what was already there, the guitar sections throughout this album feels so much unoriginal after 3 songs.Lamb of God New American GospelDecent 2 ,,New American Gospel'' displays huge amount of ambition and possibilities, but in the end it's poorly produced and poorly performed release...actually it kind of reminds me Converge's debut...The biggest problem of this album is it's lenght, while songs like ,,In the absence of the Sacred'', ,,Black Label'' or ,,Terror and Hubris in the house of Frank Pollard'' can keep me interested. listening to the same bland, safe and uninspired mixture of Metalcore, thrash metal and black metal with groove metal elements sneaking in once in a while, for 55 minutes just bores me to death, I can't imagine ever wanting to go back to this release, while it doesn't strike me as necessarily bad (Mostly) while listening to it..I just can't say anything good about it...Yeah off course I have enjoyed riff here and there, and I would've really enjoyed the drumming if it wasn't so atrociously mixed and produced (It's like when you have set of cans in your garage and one kick drum and you half-decently mix that kick drum and just forget about the rest)...and yeah I think I would've enjoyed the songwriting and the structures too, but it's so dragging most of the time.rFinisher: Blythe sounds insane on this record, I didn't know he could ever sound this bad, it's like listening to some trve cvlt guy screaming through sh!tty speaker.Lil Peep Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1Lil Pump Harverd DropoutLing Tosite Sigure Inspiration Is DeadLinkin Park ReanimationStrong 2 - It is certainly not bad idea, but some of the songs are just much worse than on originalLinkin Park Minutes to MidnightStrong 2 - This album has some of the best material ever written by the band. But the whole album feels like the band just took some songs threw them on the record and started selling them, it doesn't work as an album, if they made a shorter experimental piece out of this i would probably like it moreMarilyn Manson Portrait of an American FamilyLight 2.0 Perfect Soundtrack to 90s trashy B-Horror movie. It's very obvious, what sound did Manson go for. He just didn't really pull it off that well. ,,Portrait Of An American Family'' suffers from poor songwriting, inconsistency and lackluster instrumentation/production. Some of these songs sound almost like they were supposed to be just 2 or 3 minutes long, but somebody decided to add another 2 minutes of repetitive/uninteresting/boring stuff. The great example of this is ,,Lunchbox'', ,,Organ Grinder'' ,,Wrapped In Plastic'' ,,Sweet Tooth'' ...But even if the songs don't have this problem they are mostly just not good, most of them miss any memorable element, or any sort of real cohesion. Although there are some good elements going for this album: Manson's freaky appeareance works well with the sound of this record and there are some catchy and well written choruses...and in the end I can enjoy some songs from this...Just not the full HOUR. Highlights: ,,Cake and Sodomy'', ,,Lunchbox'', ,,Dope hat''and ,,Misery Machine'' Marilyn Manson Eat Me, Drink MeP.O.D. Snuff the PunkLight 2- I don't know why, but i thought that this album is kind of underrated, it might be because i've listened to remastered version of this, but i didn't really have that many problems with it. Vocals are decent not a highlight, but certainly not awful, drums and bass dish out some really decent rhythms and guitar has some spots too, overall this album wasn't that bad, it was pretty decent rap rock, with some cringey lines and overall not really highlighted playing. But it wasn't bad, if this album had more memorability and overall better production it would be really decent workPapa Roach lovehatetragedyStrong 2 While not necesarilly bad album ,,Lovehatetragedy" is such an unimportant record in the bands discography. On lovehatetragedy you are introduced to the band that is not certain what type of music they want to write. Not only is this obvious in the tracklist where the band switches from hard rock tunes, to melodramatic alt.rock and nu metal all so often, but this is even more obvious in the performances. Shaddix sounds uninspired, bored and it almost looks like he lost most of his passion...although on most of the hard-rocky stuff he seems too passionate for my tastes. Instrumentally this is interesting album to say the least...off course there are some lackluster songs, but songs like (time and time again, decompression period, lovehatetragedy) show the band making some of the best music, that they have ever written. Sadly this album is mostly filled with average and poor material. Highlights: ,,Time and time again" ,,Decompression period" ,,She loves me not''Paradise Lost HostPost Malone Hollywood's BleedingRed (USA) End of SilenceSkillet Alien YouthDecent 2 - Starts off as a cringefest - continues as a cringefest - ends as a cringefest.... Now for real: I am not even gonna say what is bad about this album, everyone who have ever listened to this band knows what is wrong. On ,,Alien Youth'' skillet have finally realized that doing awful ,,Trent Reznor'' impression isn't the greatest idea. While their Industrial edge is still there, ,,Alien Youth'' is mostly decent Hard Rock record, sometimes catchy, way too often pretentious as fuck, and often dumb, but sonically it isn't as offensively bad as their previous 2 releases Highlights: ,,Vapor'', ,,Eating Me Away'', ,,The Thirst is taking over'', ,,Rippin' Me Off'' (That title has to be satire...)Skindred Shark Bites And Dog FightsThree Days Grace Three Days GraceThrowdown Beyond RepairDecent 2 Coalesce ???? ,,Beyond Repair'' Is NOT GOOD...I don't even know where to start, off course the band goes heavy and there are some good riffs here and there...but is that all you expect from Metalcore ALBUM ? This album just lacks any sense of real cohesion or atmosphere, it is bland, muddily produced and It tries so hard to be heavy, that it lacks everything else. Now I would normally name at least some highlights, but I can't bc. this album just lacks memorability, after 7 listens, I can't name any song that would stand out. So If You Want To Hear A Better Version Of This...just listen to coalesce or 7 Angels 7 Plagues1.5 very poorAttila VillainBring Me the Horizon Count Your BlessingsDecent 1.5 - Too many flaws. Musically this album starts off as pretty solid piece but after 3 songs you are getting still the same idea and 6 musical patterns at every song, there is pretty much nothing new in any of the songs. Vocals are pretty bad and fake, eventhough production on them is nice and crisp. This could have been good album, but there is non memorability or experamentality. Their musical idea works for a single song, it makes pretty decent song but for whole album ? NOT AT ALLDisturbed AsylumLight 1.5 - Indestructible was the band's best work, really solid, it wasn't a big change over TTF but it was slightly darker and more rhytmical, and much better. But then Asylum came in, and this is the point when everything went to Sh@t. This album is mix of the worst from ,,The sickness'', then the dull ''DARK'' riffing of Believe, and then all of this is put into the musical style of Indestructible. Draiman sounds really bland on this album, Donegan is playing really underwhelming stuff, and when the solo comes in it feels wrong. Whole sound of this album stinks really badly to me there is overall just something wrong.Disturbed ImmortalizedFEVER 333 Strength In Numb333rsHellyeah Band of BrothersI Prevail TRAUMAJuice WRLD Death Race For LoveKittie SpitDecent 1.5 When you are going through each song and are desperately trying to find something to enjoy...You know there is something wrong. I gave it a try, but it just isn't good. There are problems everywhere, it's so dissapointing. Take the opener for example: The most stereotypical nu-metal riff, extremely amateurish drumming, terrible ''one-word'' hook and TRULY BAD vocal performance...Morgan Lander might not be the greatest singer, but I can mostly get over that, but her harsh vocals sound so AMATEURISH, she really sounds like angsty 15 year old learning to scream for 2 months...and I chose the opener just as an example, but that's everywhere, it is instrumentally bland and uninteresting, full of these awful hook ,,One-liners'' and often so dissapointing. Let's take the second song for example: Decent ending, almost deftones-ish atmosphere and slow fade-out...but then someone decided that this isn't gonna be the ending and she needs to add another 20 seconds of her screaming NO!...!!Why!!...Was it really necessary? Highlights: I can't really talk about highlights, but I've mostly enjoyed these a little ,,Paperdoll'' - while obviously not great from vocal standpoint, it's instrumentally unique compared to the rest of the album, plus it has quite strong ending, ,,Brackish'' - If prodigy were Nu-metal band, this is what they'd sound like -('')- PS//DON'T LOOK INTO THE LYRICS IT'S GONNA MAKE EVERYTHING WORSE. PSS//It's full of very ,,familiar'' riffs and I am lazy to look from which album they are, but at least 7/12 of these main riffs I've already heard somewhereKorn KornStrong 1.5 - KoRn's overrated album yay, I take it, it was the first Nu-metal release, it might be influential, but is it anywhat good ? WELL not really, Davis is just the worst whinney kid behind the microphone, mainly on this one, and the rest of the band, their so tidious, the bass gets boring extremely fast, those drum sticks are fucking with my head right from the start and the guitar playing, well pretty decent. I can't look at this without comparing it to the first deftones release, which came out just couple of months later, and even though I do not really like that one either, It's much better than thisKorn Follow the LeaderDecent 1.5 - Korn's most boring work up to date. I confess it, I've always kinda hated this band, mainly bc. they get extremely undeserved praise, but at least on some of their albums, they really try to sound somewhat enthusiastic and original. Taking their whole catalog in consideration I do not understand how is it possible that this album is this bad, coming after album I thought was pretty decent and occuring before what i've considered Korn's best work to date ,,Issues''. So how is it possible that this is SO BORING...Overusing their typical sound is the main Issue, they are doing the same thing over and over again, plus these guys just can't keep my attention for longer songs, they are very good at short 2-3 minute mark songs though. It almost looks like they've really tried to bore me to deathKorn The Path of TotalityLight 1.5 - Always considered KoRn very pretentious band. But I thought they are sane, after this release I've realized they are insane. Who's stupid Idea was dubstep album, I mean I get it, dubstep is 2010s Nu metal, and when KoRn fell into the ,,forgotten realm'' they had to jump on to something modern, but goddamned this is BAD.Lil Xan TOTAL XANARCHYLinkin Park Living ThingsDecent 1.5 - This album perfectly represents what I hate about ,,modern'' radio rock. Linkin Park isn't the greatest band of all time, but they've had some decent albums and some catchy singles. Sadly this album isn't decent and there are not catchy singles. ,,Living Things'' is overproduced shot into the dark with album that tries way too hard to sound like early 00s and be modern at the same time. First three songs are way overproduced to the point where you can't really stand it after 30 seconds, then the bland part of the album kicks in...You don't really mind these tracks, but when you actually think about them, you want to vomit a little. I am sorry to everyone who likes this. But it is indeed pretty badP.O.D. BrownStrong 1.5 - way too much of the same as ,,Snuff the punk''. Lets face it ,,Snuff the punk'' wasn't good, but it somehow worked, it was bad, but catchy and it was over very quickly. This album is very similliar to that, the only problem is that it isn't equally appealing, it drags for way too long and there are no improvements over ,,Snuff the punk''. instrumentally there is not much more to offer, vocally it got even worse, structurally it's all the same verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus shit, sometimes the band is even too lazy to use some bridge, but there is one addition on this album and those are awful hooks like: ,,BROOOOOOWN''. The production is a bit cleaner, but I wouldn't say that is improvement, in consideration of how bad it is still. ,,Snuff the punk'' was muddy and this isn't but this has terrible hooks so it doesn't matter.Panda Bear BuoysPapa Roach MetamorphosisStrong 1.5 - Extremely underwhelming release. Papa Roach was always somewhat bad. But their releases were mostly at least Decent. They were somewhat catchy, cliche and energetic. But this time around everything fell apart. The production is worse than ever, all the energy is gone and the ,,catchy'' singles or songs aren't in here either. I think I can find here one or 2 Decent tunes, but other than that....very underwhelming...but at least it isn't straight up offendingPapa Roach The ConnectionStrong 1.5 - Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh, once again Papa roach comes through with very forgettable releaseSkillet SkilletStrong 1.5 - Skillet...Meh I do not even want to start this theme, but I guess I have to...At least the objectivity is gonna be good :--).... Now for real though...Skillet is ,,The gateway into metal and hard rock for most angsty christian kids''. Sadly for me I am not christian, and the lyrics on most ,,Skillet'' releases are just pretentious piece of garbage, so I've never fell for this band as many of my contemporaries did. Just to sum this album up, it is cheesy post-grunge, off course thematically it is mainly about christianity, which isn't a bad thing, but some bands are just lyrically disabled...Skillet is one of them....,,I'm scared of being hurt, I just want to live, live a happy life!''... sonically this record is just another predictable post-grunge release, ,,Skillet'' really tries hard to be Christian Nirvana...But as on many post-grunge releases there are some alright track, but mostly it lacks memorability or anything interesting Highlights: ,,I can'' ,,Promise Blender'' ,,Boundaries'' Well this is quite objective soundoff isn't it....Tyga LegendaryWhile She Sleeps So What?Within Temptation ResistXXXTENTACION 17Decent 1.5 22 minutes of underwritten, overly edgy material...I don't know if he thinks he is some sort of Shadow the Hedgehog or something but this is barely bearable1.0 awfulAsking Alexandria Stand Up and ScreamThere you have it, the starter pack for scene kids of 21st century. Asking Alexandria always was and always will be a whinny, girlish, tasteles and generic metalcore, that somehow got to the mainstrean, just bc.12 year old girls are angsty and emotional. Even if I've tried, I wouldn't find any qualities of the band, the vocalist is awfully bad, guitar players don't have any imagination and they are putting out some of the cringiest riffs I've ever heard. Structurully this band is closest to early 00s boy bands. Yeah so this band isn't goodbrokeNCYDE I'm Not a Fan, but the Kids Like It!just kill me please... please do it ... no don't let me listen to this fucking thing again, i am gonna do whatever you want just don't torture me pleas...kill meDesign the Skyline NevaehThank You Internet, for this dose of cringe. What would we do without music like this ?, sometimes you just need to find something really bad and laugh. ,,Nevaeh'' made my day. But now honestly, am I the only one who finds it extremely funny that this band is meme, but band like ,,Asking Alexandria'' is actually popular, I could easily call this band technically more proficient and actually somewhat tolerable when their not: Singing, Doing extremely goofy shit with vocals, Saying any lyrics, Playing instruments like retarded fish on the land, and playing stupid edm that doesn't really complement anythingEmmure Eternal EnemiesI cannot even be objective to this, it's the most generic metalcore, the guitar chugging totaly crushes my soul and the vocals are on the fake level of ,,Asking Alexandria'' it is just so bad and bland and mainly boring as fuckEvery Time I Die The Burial Plot Bidding WarThe vocals on this thing are so bad. And overall the production is just terrible i find this album just unlistenableFall Out Boy American Beauty/American PsychoLet's put this straight, I ve never really been fan of this band, I think their first couple of records is unimaginative generic pop punk, and their subsequent stuff was poorly written and extremely inconsistent for my tastes...tho I've always felt like their music is bearable, and in small doses even enjoyable..tho I've always had problem with the awfully pretentious delivery that the vocals had...but still bearable...now this album however...that's a beast of it's own. I always thought that there is never gonna be a band that is gonna sound like carbon copy of band such as Imagine dragons (band is horrid, but mostly bearable). I am not even kidding, if imagine dragons singer was singing over these sonic disasters I wouldn't be surprised...now let's just sum up the album, the instrumentals are terrifying abomination of dubstep-y cheesy radio rock, that is overproduced to the point, where your top 40 pop sounds underproduced, yet they somehow managed to mix all of this crap extremely poorly, the instrumentation doesn't sound well on top of each other, there is so many misplaced instruments, misplaced awful drops, strange trendy dubstep beats...I can't even...Plus what's up with that extremely cheesy ''motivational'' vocal delivery, when the lyrics don't even match it...ABOMINATIONFrom Ashes To New Day One It is just really bad Nu-metal in 2016...If this came out in like 2003 It Would've been considered really generic Nu-metal...but for 2016 this album sounds extremely dated. So initially this band: does pretty poor linkin park impression, but there is one thing they have in common with early linkin park and that is the extremely cheesy and immature lyricism, it always makes me cringe a littleGood Charlotte The Young And The HopelessHollywood Undead Swan SongsImagine Dragons ƎVOLVEPapa Roach Who Do You Trust?Six Feet Under Graveyard Classics IV: The Number Of The PriestWho even thought any of these ,,graveyard classics" would be good. I can already fuckingg see, how chris barnes said ,,Hell yeah guys this album is insanely well done" this s@it gave me headache. PLUS can we all agree that chris barnes is the WORST death metal vocalist alive, just put the man to prison for this album, for attempted murderSkillet Hey You, I Love Your Soul60% Awful Trent Reznor Impression 20% We Are Trying To be Christian Nirvana, But this time around differently 10% We are Really Trying Hard to sound like every radio rock band of our time 9% Our beliefs in God are stronger than our music and We know It. 1% Are we Original ? 100% This Time Around We are Going To be christian Trent Reznor with Incredibly Bad lyricism, but our beliefs are Strong and we are trying to get radio rock airplay, are we mainstream enough ???? This album is easily the worst release I've heard by these guys...Do i wanna hear more ? Well No...Do i wanna rate More ? Hell YeahSuicide Silence Suicide Silence I love how they are trying to pull of so many things, but they don't really know how to do anything, so in the end you get beatiful example of How Not to do Music. Little addition of cringe: ,,Doris'' - meeeeh ,,Silence'' - I am just laughing out loud ,,Listen'' - How can anyone even come up with song like this, God the production is atrocious ,,Dying In A Red room'' - I got to the point where I am praying for some extremely underwhelming SS deathcore. ,,Hold Me Up, Hold Me Down'' - Starting to have extremely gorey visions about how to do the suicide ,,Run'' - Well atleast he is sorry ,,The Zero'' - I've come to a realisation, they actually think their making experimental metal, well then this is pretty much like ,,The zero''/5 ,,Conformity'' - Actually decent tune, and then I've read the lyrics and cringed ,,Dont be careful and the rest of that shit'' - This is it...The point where I pressed play on Lynch's Eraserhead and erased every little part of this shit from my brain. EVEN MY APPLE MUSIC THINKS THIS ALBUM IS FROM 2006Tom MacDonald DeathreatsUnicorns Killed My Girlfriend Deathwish EPThis might be the cringiest music on the internet. When you are listening to this, even Asking Alexandria seems like it has more to offer.
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
