| A Crowd of Rebellion Zealot City | 4.0 |
| A Wilhelm Scream A Wilhelm Scream | 3.0 |
| A Wilhelm Scream Mute Print | 3.5 |
| A Wilhelm Scream Ruiner | 3.5 |
| A Wilhelm Scream Partycrasher | 3.5 |
| A Wilhelm Scream Career Suicide | 4.5 |
| Adrenalized Tales From The Last Generation | 4.0 |
| Aerosmith Pump | 3.5 |
| AFI Sing the Sorrow | 3.5 |
| After Forever After Forever | 4.0 |
| Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose | 4.0 |
| Agalloch The Mantle | 4.0 |
| Agalloch Ashes Against the Grain | 4.0 |
| Agalloch Pale Folklore | 4.5 |
| Alcest Spiritual Instinct | 3.5 |
| Alexisonfire Old Crows / Young Cardinals | 3.0 |
| Alexisonfire Watch Out! | 4.0 |
| Alexisonfire Crisis | 4.5 |
| All That Remains Overcome | 2.0 |
| All That Remains The Fall of Ideals | 3.0 |
| Almeida Fantastic Massacre | 4.0 |
| Imagine if instead of becoming overly technical, atomised and over-produced, Protest the Hero made music after Kezia which built on it; this album would be it. Almeida manage to pull off quality, complex songs at an alarming rate for a debut, and with the fantastic guitar solos, varied songs and atmospheric passages, this deserves a listen. |
| Amaranthe Amaranthe | 3.5 |
| Amia Venera Landscape The Long Procession | 3.0 |
| Amorphis The Beginning of Times | 2.5 |
| Amorphis Eclipse | 3.0 |
| Amorphis Elegy | 3.5 |
| Amorphis Skyforger | 3.5 |
| Amorphis Magic & Mayhem | 3.5 |
| Amorphis Tales from the Thousand Lakes | 4.0 |
| Amorphis Circle | 4.0 |
| Amorphis Silent Waters | 5.0 |
| Now I'm sure everything positive about this album that can be said has been said, and let me say I totally agree with all the immense praise this gets. From every song being excellent to the vocals which are literally to die for (they used 5, yes 5, backing vocalists for this), this album is just perfect in every way. Okay, there are small gripes like 'Enigma' killing the Metal feel of the album, 'I Of Crimson Blood' having a dragged out intro (at that point) and 'The White Swan' having a weaker chorus than all the other tracks, but those do not hold this back from perfection. I rarely give the 'Classic' rating, but this deserves it 100%. |
| Anberlin Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place | 2.0 |
| Anberlin Blueprints for the Black Market | 3.0 |
| Anberlin Never Take Friendship Personal | 3.5 |
| Anberlin New Surrender | 3.5 |
| Anberlin Cities | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 2.0 |
| Anti-Flag Die For the Government | 3.0 |
| Aquaria Luxaeterna | 3.5 |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 3.0 |
| Arch Enemy Wages of Sin | 2.5 |
| Arch Enemy Anthems of Rebellion | 3.0 |
| Arch Enemy Doomsday Machine | 3.5 |
| Arch Enemy Rise of the Tyrant | 3.5 |
| Arch Enemy Burning Bridges | 4.0 |
| Arcturus Sideshow Symphonies | 2.0 |
| Arsis A Diamond for Disease | 3.5 |
| As Cities Burn Hell or High Water | 3.5 |
| As I Lay Dying The Powerless Rise | 3.0 |
| As I Lay Dying An Ocean Between Us | 4.0 |
| Atreyu Lead Sails Paper Anchor | 3.0 |
| August Burns Red Constellations | 2.5 |
| August Burns Red Leveler | 3.5 |
| August Burns Red Rescue & Restore | 4.0 |
| Avantasia The Metal Opera | 3.0 |
| Avantasia The Wicked Symphony | 3.5 |
| Avenged Sevenfold Waking the Fallen | 3.0 |
| Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil | 3.5 |
| Why the hell is this as low as 3.4? The answer is simple: haters gonna hate |
| Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold | 3.5 |
| Extremely experimental record, and even if some of the experiments fail, each song is fresh and creative, meaning the album is difficult to get bored of. It seems the album has become trendy to hate, which is a shame, because there are some real gems here, such as 'Almost Easy' and 'Afterlife'. 'Brompton Cocktail' is a fantastic atmospheric song if there ever was one, and 'A Little Piece Of Heaven' is a great multi-faceted song (extended choruses usually don't work, but they pulled it off), even if it takes a while to get used to. Also a shout-out to the Rev's drumming, powerful and creative, a model for most Metal drummers. |
| Avenged Sevenfold Nightmare | 3.5 |
| BABYMETAL Metal Galaxy | 3.5 |
| Baroness Blue Record | 3.5 |
| Barren Earth Curse of the Red River | 3.0 |
| Bat For Lashes Two Suns | 4.0 |
| Bayaan Suno | 4.0 |
| Be'lakor The Frail Tide | 3.0 |
| Becoming The Archetype The Physics of Fire | 3.0 |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors | 3.5 |
| Blind Guardian Beyond the Red Mirror | 3.0 |
| Blind Guardian Nightfall in Middle-Earth | 3.5 |
| Blind Guardian Tales from the Twilight World | 3.5 |
| Blind Guardian A Twist in the Myth | 4.0 |
| Blind Guardian At the Edge of Time | 4.0 |
| Blind Guardian Somewhere Far Beyond | 4.5 |
| Blind Guardian A Night at the Opera | 5.0 |
| Blind Guardian Imaginations from the Other Side | 5.0 |
| Bosnian Rainbows Bosnian Rainbows | 3.0 |
| Brand New The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me | 4.0 |
| Sorry guys, I just don't get the whole 'connection' thing with this. 'Degausser' is a great song musically, however. |
| Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A. | 3.0 |
| Bullet for My Valentine Scream Aim Fire | 2.5 |
| Carcass Heartwork | 2.5 |
| Chevelle Vena Sera | 3.5 |
| Children of Bodom Hatebreeder | 2.0 |
| Children of Bodom Follow the Reaper | 4.0 |
| Circa Survive Blue Sky Noise | 2.5 |
| Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo | 5.0 |
| Close Your Eyes Line in the Sand | 3.5 |
| Closure in Moscow The Penance and the Patience | 3.0 |
| Closure in Moscow Pink Lemonade | 4.0 |
| Closure in Moscow First Temple | 4.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 | 3.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness | 4.0 |
| Copeland You Are My Sunshine | 4.0 |
| Cormorant Metazoa | 3.5 |
| Cult of Luna Salvation | 3.5 |
| Cult of Luna Somewhere Along the Highway | 3.5 |
| Cynic Traced in Air | 4.0 |
| Traced In Air's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. The album's kernel point of 'the audible recording of air' does lead to impressive layered arrangements, mind-blowing instrumentation and great diversity, but hinders the album's potential to have many things tangible on it, let alone emotion. Still, once you get past all the insane amounts of layers you should find it a very enjoyable album. |
| Dan Reed Network The Heat | 4.5 |
| Amazing album. It's perhaps a bit too long and some tracks aren't necessary, but most of it is incredibly catchy funky Rock which is super easy to listen to and enjoy. Don't let my 'funky Rock' tag fool you however; this album is incredibly diverse, with Hip-Hop, Pop, Country and Gospel all worked in smoothly. The band themselves are stellar: the vocals are delivered perfectly, the lyrics slay, the rhythm section is amazing (especially the drumming) and the keyboard and guitars create some great melodies. I first heard it about 10 years ago, and 'Blame It On The Moon' and the title track still to this day remain as some of my favourite songs. Highly recommended, even though barely anyone has heard of this band. |
| Dan Swano Moontower | 4.0 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Acceptance Speech | 3.5 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Artificial Selection | 3.5 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Instant Gratification | 4.0 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Mothership | 4.0 |
| Dark Tranquillity Character | 3.5 |
| Dark Tranquillity Damage Done | 4.0 |
| Dark Tranquillity Fiction | 4.0 |
| Dark Tranquillity The Gallery | 4.0 |
| Darko From Trust To Conformity | 4.0 |
| Daylight Dies Dismantling Devotion | 5.0 |
| Dead Letter Circus This Is The Warning | 2.5 |
| Death The Sound of Perseverance | 4.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism | 4.0 |
| Deep Purple Made in Japan | 4.0 |
| Deep Purple Burn | 4.0 |
| Delain The Human Contradiction | 3.0 |
| Demons and Wizards Touched by the Crimson King | 4.0 |
| While it has no killer standout track like 'Fiddler On The Green' in the s/t, Demons and Wizards' second offering tops the s/t by its relentless quality and diversity, further proving Hansi and Jon are masters of Power Metal. 'Touched...' sounds scarcely like the s/t (and avoids some of the generic moments, ie 'Blood On My Hands', 'Winter Of Souls'), yet still maintains Jon's killer riffs (title track, 'Loves Tragedy Asunder'), Hansi's exceptional layered vocals ('Seize the Day', 'Wicked Witch') and enough hooks to last you a long time. Although it has one too many slow songs and is a bit bizarre in places ('Terror Train'), the band deserves major credit for recording a brutally heavy cover of Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song'. |
| Demons and Wizards Demons & Wizards | 4.5 |
| Dio Holy Diver | 3.5 |
| Disillusion Back to Times of Splendor | 3.5 |
| Draconian Turning Season Within | 2.0 |
| Draconian Arcane Rain Fell | 4.0 |
| DragonForce Inhuman Rampage | 2.5 |
| DragonForce Valley of the Damned | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater Octavarium | 3.0 |
| Dream Theater Images and Words | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater Train of Thought | 4.0 |
| dredg Catch Without Arms | 3.5 |
| dredg El Cielo | 4.0 |
| Echoes of Eternity The Forgotten Goddess | 2.0 |
| Edge of Sanity Crimson II | 3.5 |
| Edge of Sanity Purgatory Afterglow | 3.5 |
| Electric Six Flashy | 3.0 |
| Much like Electric Six's previous album, lots of melody and the general happy atmosphere that made Fire and Switzerland what they were is sacrificed in favour of experimentation, which I guess is a good thing, but lots of it ends up going nowhere. For example, the first 2 minutes 'Graphic Designer' are some of the most straight-out awesome material the band has ever written, but the solo section has this utterly pointless, irritating scratchy section (hard to describe but you'll understand if you hear it), which really makes the song a lot less enjoyable. There are lots of other moments like this throughout, but let's not be too negative; there's still loads of untampered goodness to be found in this, as shown in 'Transatlantic Flight', 'Heavy Woman', 'Making Progress' and the title track. Good album, but check Fire or Switzerland if you want the band at their best. |
| Electric Six Fire | 3.5 |
| Electric Six Senor Smoke | 3.5 |
| Electric Six Switzerland | 3.5 |
| Not the most consistent album, but loads of amazing stuff inside. From the perfect intro of 'The Band In Hell' to the opening Piano roll of 'I Buy The Drugs' to the inanely catch chorus of 'Pulling The Plug On The Party', I was thinking this was the best album I'd ever heard. 'Pink Flamingos' and 'I Wish This Song Was Louder' bring in the filler at full force, but 'Slices of You', (which is arguably the best song in the entire Electric 6 discography) saves it. The last 3 tracks are average to bad (despite a great chorus in 'Germans in Mexico'), but the album is certainly worth it for its good stuff. And of course, Electric 6 maintain their natural charm and awesome lyrics. |
| Emery ...In Shallow Seas We Sail | 3.5 |
| Emilie Autumn Opheliac | 3.5 |
| Ensiferum Ensiferum | 3.5 |
| Epica The Divine Conspiracy | 3.0 |
| Equilibrium Sagas | 3.5 |
| Eternal Storm Come the Tide | 4.0 |
| Faith No More Angel Dust | 3.5 |
| Faith No More The Real Thing | 4.0 |
| Faun Von den Elben | 4.0 |
| Firewind The Premonition | 3.5 |
| fun. Aim and Ignite | 4.0 |
| Funeral for a Friend Hours | 3.0 |
| Funeral for a Friend Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation | 3.5 |
| Gamma Ray No World Order | 3.5 |
| Gamma Ray Land of the Free | 4.0 |
| Gamma Ray Majestic | 4.0 |
| Garden of Shadows Oracle Moon | 3.5 |
| Glassjaw Worship and Tribute | 3.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞ | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada | 4.0 |
| Grimner Frost Mot Eld | 4.0 |
| Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction | 4.5 |
| Haggard Awaking the Centuries | 3.5 |
| Haggard And Thou Shalt Trust the Seer | 3.5 |
| Haggard Eppur si muove | 4.0 |
| The growls in this are as beastly as hell, yet there's constant melodies with the orchestra; Symphonic Death Metal, as an idea, actually executed well. It's a shame the songs keep stopping and starting/the orchestral passages drag on needlessly. |
| HammerFall Crimson Thunder | 3.5 |
| Harakiri for the Sky Aokigahara | 4.0 |
| Heaven Shall Burn Iconoclast (Part 1: The Final Resistance) | 3.0 |
| Hop Along Bark Your Head Off, Dog | 4.0 |
| HORSE the band A Natural Death | 3.0 |
| HORSE the band The Mechanical Hand | 3.5 |
| HORSE the band Desperate Living | 3.5 |
| HORSE the band R. Borlax | 4.0 |
| Hot Cross Cryonics | 4.0 |
| I Am Robot and Proud The Electricity in Your House Wants to Sing | 3.0 |
| I Set My Friends On Fire You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter | 1.0 |
| This album is terrible, as it contains no depth, originality, emotion, skill, and most importantly, passion for the music at hand. This is what music sounds like like when it's written and made with a computer (plus abhorrent harsh and clean vocals on top), and honestly it's one of the worst things I've ever heard. 'Hxc 2-Step' is actually worse than Brokencyde, if that's possible. Avoid. |
| I the Mighty Satori | 3.0 |
| Icarus the Owl Icarus the Owl | 3.5 |
| Icarus the Owl Pilot Waves | 3.5 |
| Iced Earth Horror Show | 3.0 |
| Iced Earth Something Wicked This Way Comes | 3.5 |
| Iced Earth The Glorious Burden | 4.0 |
| Ikuinen Kaamos Closure | 3.0 |
| Illusion Suite Iron Cemetery | 3.5 |
| Immortal At the Heart of Winter | 3.5 |
| In Flames A Sense of Purpose | 2.5 |
| In Flames Colony | 3.5 |
| In Flames Clayman | 4.0 |
| In Flames Come Clarity | 4.0 |
| In Mourning The Weight of Oceans | 3.0 |
| In Mourning Shrouded Divine | 3.5 |
| In Vain (NO) Mantra | 3.5 |
| In Vain (NO) Currents | 3.5 |
| In Vain (NO) Aenigma | 4.0 |
| In Vain (NO) The Latter Rain | 5.0 |
| Insomnium Above the Weeping World | 4.0 |
| Into Eternity The Incurable Tragedy | 1.0 |
| Into Eternity Buried in Oblivion | 2.5 |
| Iron Maiden Dance of Death | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden A Matter of Life and Death | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden The Final Frontier | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden The Book of Souls | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden Powerslave | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden The Number of the Beast | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden Seventh Son of a Seventh Son | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden Flight 666: The Original Soundtrack | 4.0 |
| Iron Maiden Piece of Mind | 4.5 |
| Iron Maiden Brave New World | 4.5 |
| ISIS Wavering Radiant | 3.0 |
| ISIS In the Absence of Truth | 4.0 |
| ISIS Panopticon | 5.0 |
| Jethro Tull Minstrel in the Gallery | 4.0 |
| Judas Priest Nostradamus | 1.0 |
| Judas Priest British Steel | 2.0 |
| Judas Priest Stained Class | 3.5 |
| Judas Priest Defenders of the Faith | 3.5 |
| Judas Priest Screaming for Vengeance | 3.5 |
| Judas Priest Painkiller | 4.0 |
| Kalmah For the Revolution | 3.0 |
| Kalmah Swamplord | 3.5 |
| Kalmah 12 Gauge | 3.5 |
| Kalmah They Will Return | 4.0 |
| Kalmah Swampsong | 4.0 |
| Kamelot Ghost Opera | 3.0 |
| Kamelot The Black Halo | 3.5 |
| Kamelot Karma | 3.5 |
| Kate Bush The Dreaming | 3.5 |
| Kate Bush Hounds of Love | 4.0 |
| Kauan Ice Fleet | 4.0 |
| Kero Kero Bonito Bonito Generation | 2.0 |
| Killswitch Engage The End of Heartache | 3.5 |
| Killswitch Engage As Daylight Dies | 3.5 |
| Kiuas Reformation | 3.5 |
| Kiuas Lustdriven | 4.0 |
| Kiuas The Spirit of Ukko | 4.5 |
| Kiuas The New Dark Age | 4.5 |
| Kvelertak Kvelertak | 4.0 |
| La Dispute Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair | 3.5 |
| Ling Tosite Sigure I'mperfect | 3.0 |
| Ling Tosite Sigure Inspiration Is Dead | 3.5 |
| Ling Tosite Sigure Just a Moment | 4.0 |
| Lisa Mitchell Wonder | 3.5 |
| Live Throwing Copper | 3.5 |
| Living Colour Vivid | 3.5 |
| Lorde Pure Heroine | 3.5 |
| Lorde Melodrama | 3.5 |
| Lost Horizon A Flame to the Ground Beneath | 4.0 |
| Overrated but still excellent. You have to get used to how the songs stop kinda stop and start often, which is fine in a band like Haggard but when these guys are often playing things that are fast and intense, it feels a bit odd that they will stop for a bit then carry on. Apart from that, and some really bad/weird parts (the terrible solo at the end of 'Cry of a restless soul' and the part at the end of 'Again will the fire burn'), the songwriting is generally on point.r |
| Lydia Illuminate | 4.0 |
| Machine Men Scars and Wounds | 3.5 |
| Mar De Grises Draining The Waterheart | 4.0 |
| Mastodon Crack the Skye | 3.0 |
| Mastodon Leviathan | 3.5 |
| Maximum the Hormone Korekara no Menkata Cottelee no Hanashi wo Shiyou | 4.0 |
| Megadeth Youthanasia | 2.5 |
| Metallica Master of Puppets | 2.0 |
| Minsk With Echoes in the Movement of Stone | 3.5 |
| Misery Signals Controller | 4.5 |
| Moonsorrow Kivenkantaja | 3.0 |
| Moonsorrow Tulimyrsky | 4.0 |
| Motion City Soundtrack I Am the Movie | 3.0 |
| My Dying Bride The Angel and the Dark River | 3.5 |
| Ne Obliviscaris Portal of I | 3.5 |
| There are many good things about 'Portal of I'. It is an example of how to be creative in a genre (extreme rMetal) which is often limited by an excessive focus on riffs and needing to be 'heavy'. Yet it can still provide rthe 'heavy', with excellent harsh vocals and an extremely focussed drum performance. The problem is that the rband hasn't yet harnessed or refined their creativity: many of the songs feel disjointed. There are many rexcellent passages, but these come randomly; indeed, the best parts of the album, the ends of 'Tapestry of rthe Starless Abstract' and 'Forget Not', are where there is a clear direction or journey towards the final, rfantastic passage. The disjointed nature of the songs hurts their flow, making them feel incomplete, even if rthey have excellent parts within. The other issue is the clean vocals aren't good enough to provide the depth rand melody they intend to add, limiting the potential of lots of the album. Add to this an extremely large ralbum length, which makes the album susceptible to being repetitive, and you have many problems which rcannot be overcome, despite the excellent songwriting and genius which this band does genuinely possess. I rlook forward to hearing more from them in the future, when the songwriting is refined. |
| Ne Obliviscaris Citadel | 4.0 |
| Nightfall Athenian Echoes | 3.0 |
| Mixing Melodeath and Black Metal doesn't work, as this album demonstrates. This is because the catchiness, heaviness and general feel of Melodeath cannot work alongside drony, sparse Black Metal atmospheres. The track least influenced by Black Metal is hence the best: 'Isthar (Celebrate Your Beauty)' feels exciting and intense, and has a nasty guitar solo. Sadly the rest of the album, with its preoccupation with Black Metal-y atmosphere, just drones and meanders on without anything to grab the listener. |
| Nightrage Wearing a Martyr's Crown | 4.0 |
| Nightwish Endless Forms Most Beautiful | 2.0 |
| Nightwish Wishmaster | 2.5 |
| Nightwish Imaginaerum | 3.0 |
| Nightwish Once | 3.5 |
| Nightwish Oceanborn | 3.5 |
| Nightwish Dark Passion Play | 4.0 |
| Norther Death Unlimited | 2.5 |
| Norther N | 3.5 |
| Norther Dreams of Endless War | 4.0 |
| October Tide Rain Without End | 3.0 |
| Omnium Gatherum The Burning Cold | 4.0 |
| Opeth Watershed | 2.5 |
Okay, I tried for 3 weeks to let this 'grow' on me, but it just didn't. It starts awesomely with Coil and Heir Apparent, then things get a bit weird with The Lotus Eater (that has its good parts but is really messy overall). Then we have Burden, which is nice, but feels like Mikael is just half-assing it songwriting wise. Porcelain Heart follows, which is similar to Burden albeit worse. Luckily Hessian Peel is a good song (although it drags in places), but I soon forget about that when the totally directionless Hex Omega is playing. And oh great, that's the album finished.
The song quality is just weaker on this. It feels like Mikael really half-assed lots of it (Burden, Porcelain, Hex) and the harsh and clean vocals lack the power they usually do. On the positives I did like the new drummer and guitarist (a bit of a different sound). This isn't terrible or anything, it just doesn't leave nearly the impression others did. |
| Opeth Heritage | 2.5 |
| Opeth Damnation | 3.5 |
| Opeth Ghost Reveries | 3.5 |
| Opeth Still Life | 4.0 |
| Opeth Blackwater Park | 4.5 |
| Orphaned Land The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR | 2.0 |
| Orphaned Land All Is One | 3.5 |
| Orphaned Land Mabool (The Story of the Three Sons...) | 5.0 |
| Our Lady Peace Happiness... | 3.5 |
| Pain of Salvation Be | 2.5 |
| Pain of Salvation Remedy Lane | 4.0 |
| Parkway Drive Ire | 3.5 |
| Persefone Core | 3.5 |
| Persefone Shin-Ken | 3.5 |
| Persuader The Hunter | 3.0 |
| Persuader When Eden Burns | 3.5 |
| Persuader The Fiction Maze | 3.5 |
| Persuader Evolution Purgatory | 4.0 |
| Peter Gabriel So | 4.5 |
| Porcupine Tree In Absentia | 3.5 |
| Propagandhi Failed States | 3.0 |
| Propagandhi Potemkin City Limits | 3.5 |
| Propagandhi Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes | 3.5 |
| Propagandhi Supporting Caste | 4.0 |
| Protest the Hero Scurrilous | 2.0 |
| My initial problem with this album was that it sounded too similar to Fortress. My problem now is that it's worse than Fortress; it's almost like they wrote this before Fortress and then did an improved version, which turned out to be Fortress. The worrying signs on Fortress of the band becoming more technical at the expense of improving songwriting is proven true, as the songs are filled with more arbitrary time changes and lack direction in general. My issue is really how this happened: complex songwriting like what the band try to do successfully has been achieved on albums like Kezia; how did they somehow make their songs have less direction as time went on? Another issue is the abysmal lyrics, which are so poor they don't merit discussion. Also, the over-production which was creeping into Fortress blossoms here; the mix is so bloated I find the album hard to sit through in one sitting. The only positive note to be made is the first two tracks. |
| Protest the Hero Fortress | 3.5 |
| Better than I previously though. But where are the choruses? Bloodmeat is the best song, for obvious reasons to this reviewer. |
| Protest the Hero Kezia | 4.0 |
| Protest the Hero Volition | 4.0 |
| Protest the Hero Palimpsest | 4.0 |
| Queensryche Operation: Mindcrime | 2.5 |
The only song here that felt like it had some real energy to it was the opener ('Revolution Calling'), but
it's still basically 80s rock and not much else. It's fun, but nothing really special. Same with the rest of
the album. The vocals are kinda monotone / never really varied, and the lyrics/story is nothing special
(I actually thought it was kinda cheesy in places, couldn't really see anything profound about it). Given
all the high reviews of this, I thought there must be something I'm missing...I played it to some friends
(who have good taste), and they thought the exact same - it's just dull 80s rock. Out of all the high-
rated albums on Sputnik, this one I just cannot for the life of me understand how it's so highly rated. I
have no idea what others are hearing. |
| Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire | 3.5 |
| Rage Against the Machine The Battle of Los Angeles | 3.5 |
| Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine | 4.5 |
| Regina Spektor Begin To Hope | 2.5 |
| Regina Spektor Far | 4.0 |
| Rise Against Appeal to Reason | 3.5 |
| Rise Against Revolutions per Minute | 4.0 |
| Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture | 4.0 |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness | 4.5 |
| Rocket From The Tombs The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs | 3.5 |
| Rolo Tomassi Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It | 4.0 |
| Rosetta Wake/Lift | 3.5 |
| Rosetta A Determinism of Morality | 4.0 |
| Rx Bandits Mandala | 3.0 |
| Rx Bandits ...And the Battle Begun | 3.5 |
| Saosin Saosin | 3.5 |
| Saosin Translating the Name | 4.0 |
| Saturnus Paradise Belongs to You | 3.5 |
| Savage Circus Of Doom And Death | 3.5 |
| Savage Circus Dreamland Manor | 4.0 |
| Say Anything In Defense of the Genre | 3.5 |
| Say Anything ...Is a Real Boy | 4.5 |
| Scar Symmetry Dark Matter Dimensions | 2.5 |
| Scar Symmetry The Singularity - Phase I: Neohumanity | 3.5 |
| Scar Symmetry Symmetric in Design | 4.0 |
| Scar Symmetry Holographic Universe | 4.0 |
| Scary Kids Scaring Kids The City Sleeps In Flames | 3.0 |
| Shadows Fall The Art of Balance | 3.5 |
| Sigh Imaginary Sonicscape | 4.0 |
| Sights and Sounds Monolith | 4.0 |
| SikTh The Trees Are Dead and Dried Out, Wait for Something Wild | 2.5 |
| SikTh Death of a Dead Day | 3.5 |
| Silverstein Discovering the Waterfront | 3.0 |
| Silversun Pickups Swoon | 4.5 |
| Sirenia At Sixes And Sevens | 3.0 |
It is a grave shame for Metal and music in general that Morten left Tristania (to form this sucky band). This is
because the songs on 'Widow's Weeds' and 'Beyond the Veil', most of which incredible, were collectively
written. Without each other, Morten and Tristania's subsequent efforts were both subpar to the sum of their
collective songwriters (and continued to get worse). While this is the best Sirenia album, Morten's songwriting
is only as good as he can do himself: extremely solid and rhythmic, but lacking the interesting aspects and
melodies (which the keyboardist mostly contributed) making the work in Tristania so magical. As such,
songwriting wise, this album is basically a boring version of Tristania. The instrumental work doesn't merit
much discussion, while the female vocals sound weak (definitely not the (most of the time) powerful soprano
needed for this style of Gothic Metal). The male vocals are very good, and there are a few catchy moments,
however, the record remains merely above average and not anything special. |
| Skid Row Skid Row | 3.5 |
| Slayer Reign in Blood | 2.0 |
| Solefald Pills Against The Ageless Ills | 2.5 |
| Solefald World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud | 2.5 |
| Solefald Red For Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey Part 1 | 3.0 |
| Solefald In Harmonia Universali | 3.5 |
| Solefald Black For Death: An Icelandic Odyssey Part 2 | 3.5 |
| Solefald Norron Livskunst | 3.5 |
| Solefald Neonism | 4.0 |
| Solefald The Linear Scaffold | 4.5 |
| Sonata Arctica Ecliptica | 3.5 |
| Sonata Arctica Winterheart's Guild | 3.5 |
| Sonic Syndicate Eden Fire | 1.5 |
| Strung Out An American Paradox | 3.5 |
| Strung Out Exile In Oblivion | 4.0 |
| Strung Out Transmission.Alpha.Delta | 4.0 |
| Strung Out Blackhawks Over Los Angeles | 4.5 |
| Strung Out Agents of the Underground | 4.5 |
| What can be said, another excellent release from Strung Out. Yes, the album lacks diversity. Yes, Jason is losing his voice. But these criticisms can be negated simply by looking at Agents Of The Underground in context. Strung Out have reached their pinnacle with their previous album Blackhawks Over Los Angeles - it was the perfect combination of the Punk, Metal and Hardcore that they've explored so passionately their whole career. With those eight albums they've influenced countless other bands (hell, listen to the radio and you'll hear them in Rise Against) and while never becoming close to famous, have become incredibly respected. This leads to the logical conclusion of the the album's title: Strung Out, throughout their career, have established themselves as the Agents of the Underground, those down-to-earth and respected but never in the spotlight. They've achieved their destiny. As such, Agents is practically written just for fun; the band aren't concerning themselves with writing anything new or diverse, they're just playing for the sake of music. And it's damn good. |
| Sunless Rise Unrevealed | 4.0 |
| Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster Wires/Dream\Wires | 4.0 |
| Talons Hollow Realm | 4.0 |
| Tarot Suffer Our Pleasures | 3.0 |
| The Antlers Hospice | 4.0 |
| The Blood Brothers Crimes | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise | 2.5 |
| Pretty dull music, I don't understand why it gets so much hype -- reminds of that boring Queensryche album in this sense |
| The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound | 3.5 |
| The Halo Effect Days of the Lost | 3.5 |
| The Hotelier Goodness | 2.5 |
| The Hotelier Home, Like NoPlace Is There | 4.5 |
| The Kindred Life in Lucidity | 3.0 |
| The Mars Volta Amputechture | 3.5 |
| The Mars Volta Octahedron | 3.5 |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium | 4.0 |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute | 4.0 |
| The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath | 4.5 |
| The Menzingers On the Impossible Past | 2.5 |
| The Menzingers After the Party | 4.0 |
| The National High Violet | 4.0 |
| The Ocean Precambrian | 3.0 |
| The heaviness (big heavy guitars and harsh vocals) doesn't really work (especially with the post-metal-y context of the album) when they use it so much. 'Rhyacian' is the only song that really succeeds at what they're going for. Also, the album is way too long. |
| The Ocean Pelagial | 3.5 |
| The Offspring Ixnay on the Hombre | 3.5 |
| The Offspring Americana | 4.0 |
| The Pax Cecilia Blessed Are The Bonds | 3.5 |
| The Receiving End of Sirens Between the Heart and the Synapse | 3.0 |
| The Sins of Thy Beloved Lake of Sorrow | 3.0 |
| The Sound of Animals Fighting Tiger and the Duke | 3.5 |
| The Sound of Animals Fighting The Ocean and the Sun | 4.0 |
| The War On Drugs Lost in the Dream | 3.5 |
| The Wonder Years Sister Cities | 2.5 |
| Some good tracks but the production butchers it, so jagged, I really struggled listening to this after a while. It's a shame because 'Pyramids of Salt' is one of the best songs I've heard in a while, but the production just grates on me every time, headphones or speakers. One of the worst drum sounds I've heard in ages, really interferes with my listening. |
| Theatre Of Tragedy Velvet Darkness They Fear | 3.0 |
| Theocracy As the World Bleeds | 2.5 |
| Theocracy Theocracy | 3.5 |
| Theocracy Mirror of Souls | 4.0 |
Sadly, many Metal bands nowadays seem to lack ambition - not necessarily to do something new, just
something big, something epic, something complex; something ambitious. Theocracy is not one of such
bands. Except a few duller tracks (which limit my rating to a 4), the crazy OTT drums (exactly what is needed
in PM), the blurred choruses and verses, exceptionally melodic vocals and the twenty minute epic, this album
is a model of Power Metal done right. Give it a spin. |
| Thursday War All the Time | 4.0 |
| Tiamat Wildhoney | 3.0 |
| Tides of Man Dreamhouse | 3.0 |
| Todtgelichter Angst | 4.0 |
| Tool Ænima | 3.0 |
| Tool Lateralus | 4.0 |
| Tool 10,000 Days | 4.0 |
| Touche Amore Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me | 3.5 |
| Trail Of Tears Bloodstained Endurance | 2.5 |
| Trail Of Tears A New Dimension Of Might | 3.0 |
| Trans-Siberian Orchestra The Lost Christmas Eve | 3.0 |
| Probably the cheesiest album ever (for better or for worse). Some great tracks (the title track is spectacular), but also tons of filler. Worth a few listens. |
| Tristania Illumination | 3.0 |
| Tristania Ashes | 3.5 |
| Tristania World of Glass | 3.5 |
| Tristania Beyond the Veil | 4.5 |
| Tristania Widow's Weeds | 4.5 |
| Trophy Scars Holy Vacants | 4.0 |
| Turnover Peripheral Vision | 4.0 |
| Ulver Kveldssanger | 3.5 |
| Ulver Nattens Madrigal | 3.5 |
| Ulver Bergtatt - Et eeventyr i 5 capitler | 3.5 |
| Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety | 3.0 |
| Underoath Define the Great Line | 3.0 |
| Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation | 3.5 |
| Unearth III: In the Eyes of Fire | 3.5 |
| Unearth The Oncoming Storm | 4.0 |
| Unexpect Fables of the Sleepless Empire | 3.5 |
| Unexpect In a Flesh Aquarium | 4.0 |
| United Nations United Nations | 4.0 |
| Vektor Terminal Redux | 4.0 |
| We Lost the Sea Departure Songs | 4.0 |
| While She Sleeps You Are We | 3.0 |
| Basically what's to be expected from poppy music (this being mainstream Metalcore). Extremely catchy but not a lot of depth to it; on repeated listens it's fairly dull in most places. Some quite cringe-worthy lyrics too. ("borders in the land that we roam // we pray for war like it's a ****ing religion // when greed is all we know". I'm politically left-wing but this just sounds embarrassing).rAll that said, the title track is excellent, so big credit to them for that. If you can write a song as good as that then your album is very much worth it. Based on that I'd say the album is a success overall, and its limits are, well, in effect, the limits of its genre. |
| Whispered Shogunate Macabre | 3.0 |
| Whispered Thousand Swords | 4.0 |
| Winterhorde Maestro | 2.5 |
| Winterhorde Nebula | 3.5 |
| Winterhorde Underwatermoon | 4.0 |
| There are many good things about 'Underwatermoon'. It is an example of how to be creative in a genre (extreme Metal) which is often limited by an excessive focus on riffs and needing to be 'heavy'. Yet it can still provide the 'heavy', with excellent harsh vocals and an extremely focussed drum performance. The problem is that the band hasn't yet harnessed or refined their creativity: many of the songs feel disjointed (see the title track and 'the Curse of Gypsy'). There are many excellent passages, but these come randomly; indeed, the best parts of the album, in 'Wreckage Ghost' ('I tried to follow her...') and 'Hunting the Human' (the first chorus), are where there is a clear direction or journey towards the climatic passage. The disjointed nature of the songs hurts their flow, making them feel bloated, even if there are excellent parts within them. The other issue is the clean vocals aren't good enough to provide the depth and melody they intend to add, limiting the potential of the parts where they're used; 'And Flames...' is fantastic due to the female vocals - on the others it seems the band is trying so hard to not sound like Power Metal that the clean vocals suffer. Add to this a large album length, which makes the songs susceptible to blending together, and you have many problems which cannot be overcome, despite the excellent songwriting and genius which this band definitely does possess. I look forward to hearing more from them in the future, when the songwriting is refined. |
| Wintersun Time I | 1.5 |
| Seeing these guys live last week really made me realise how appallingly bland and boring this album is. The songwriting has become simple - 'Land of snow and sorrow' is one of the most uneventful songs I've heard, dragged out to a painful 7 minutes (after they played it, I left the gig. This was the first time I've ever left a gig early before -- it was that bad). 'Sons of winter and stars' also has too little going on to justify its length, and is disjointed -- there is no clear progression or direction to it like say, 'Sadness and hate' off the s/t. The climax/chorus at the end, which is only built up to by the knowledge that the song must be over soon, is actually very bland and just relies on sounding big, rather than having any melody or creativity to it. Across the album, the drums are far too quiet in the mix and seem happy to just keep the beat (rather than do something interesting or crazy like in lots of parts of the s/t). The awesome guitar solos of the s/t have practically disappeared. Of course, I don't want just a carbon copy of the s/t; the problem with this 'Time 1' that unlike the s/t, it's not creative or challenging *at all*. It's boring and generic. If this wasn't Wintersun, people would see this as just a generic, boring album. |
| Wintersun Wintersun | 4.0 |
| Within Temptation The Silent Force | 3.5 |
| Woe Of Tyrants Kingdom of Might | 3.5 |
| Wolfchant A Pagan Storm | 3.0 |
