Album Rating: 5.0

My opinion on this will likely change hundreds of times over the next few months considering every song here is amazing, but right now I'd lean towards Sickle and Peace ---> Teardrinker as the best stretch.

good review but the summary makes me want to die

Album Rating: 5.0

Puns in the summary is a tale as old as Sputnik

DaveyBoy used to be king of it

Album Rating: 4.5

The beast to me best track here. Those southern licks are beautiful. But yeah sowing this is basically crack the sky part 2. With some minor sound/style changes. Not quite as good but comes close.

Album Rating: 4.0

Sowing, you heard Orphaned Land's Mabool? That might fit your description of things you look for.

Album Rating: 5.0

@Em: Excited to hear it based on what you and many others in the thread have said.

@Freuds: I've heard The Mantle and it's one of my all-time favorite black metal releases. Outside of that, I've never really bothered with their discography though, which is kind of curious considering how highly I hold up The Mantle.

Album Rating: 4.0

Oop, edited my comment after I realised you'd heard some Agalloch, I was too lazy to click on my shitty phone screen. But yeah, Mabool has some lovely use of female vocals and levantine instruments. One of the few things I've discovered in a long time where there's loads of little wow moments.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

orphaned land slap ye

Album Rating: 4.0

Sowing is gonna lose his mind over CtS haha.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

doubt it

cause its not better than this one here

Album Rating: 5.0

I can't wait

edit: I also feel like Flug is prob right; can't imagine much topping this one

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

the only thing i consistently came back to on CtS was the surf rock section in divinations. it has been some years since i jammed that album though. a quick skip through it reveals that its definitely much louder and heavier than this one (and has much worse production lol)

yea i like this a lot more for sure

Album Rating: 5.0

nostalgia is a crazy thing, sometimes it makes for insurmountable milestones

I haven't heard CtS but I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if this one is better

This is like suuuper poppy but also a dense grower at the same time. In any case it rocks

Album Rating: 5.0

How is it poppy? Like maybe it's just because I listen to a ton of pop but this seems like metal/rock to me.

Album Rating: 3.0

CtS is great but suffers from some repetitive sections on the 2 longer songs. Divinations is the best short song they've ever done though and the ending of Last Baron is their finest moment



Agree that this is their best since then. I still don't love the vocal dynamic of Troy/Brann and wish Brent had a larger vocal presence, and some of the songs on here have a cheesy power ballad feel. Very consistent album though.



Is there no Scott Kelly feature on here?

most of the songs are built around strong, memorable choruses and hooks in a way that still resembles their later period more than their earlier period. it is at least moderately poppy

Poppy as in it's a stream of catchy vocals for start to finish and the production is almost always vocal-centric. This could be their softest (in context) record ever in a way

edit: and under that light it's impressive how stuff like Skeleton of Splendor turned out as good as it did. These guys can craft a tune

Album Rating: 5.0

Ah okay so a higher percentage of accessible "poppy" elements, makes sense. Maybe it's just me but I think more metal should be poppy. There's not a lot of well-executed happy mediums. When I'm looking for metal to listen to I'm usually forced to choose between guttural barf noises layered over wanking guitars or super cheesy metalcore where they fake being tough in the verses then (super predictably) go to the cleans for the chorus every goddamn time. Metallica and Mastodon are two of my favorite metal bands because the singers can deliver a melodic hook without veering too far into either direction (poppy or screaming) and the surrounding band is capable of delivering amazing riffs/solos and an exceptional atmosphere. To be fair, my synopsis is probably fairly misguided due to sheer lack of exposure/experience in metal, but it's hard not to feel discouraged when searching for metal and just never really finding this. I think that's also why I'm so giddy about Hushed & Grim; it's more than just a great album, it's like the culmination of a decade-long search for me haha.