Average Rating: 3.37 Rating Variance: 1.29 Objectivity Score: 83% (Well Balanced)
Sort by: Rating | Release Date | Rating Date | Name4.5 superbVolbeat Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac BloodVolbeat solidified their sound on this album. It's a little less blatantly rock'n'roll and a little less metal, with more emphasis on Volbeat's distinctive style. As with any change of sound, opinions on this are mixed. Obviously, I'm all for it; this album is both heavy and melodic, badass and catchy (oh so catchy). Also worth noting is the lasting value of this album. Maybe it's just me, but after a year of intermittent but heavy listening, it still rocks almost as hard as it did the fifth time through.4.0 excellentDark Moor AutumnalThis album took a long time to grow on me. There are some obvious standout track, recommended to any fans of symphonic metal--Phantom Queen with its excellent, somewhat folky violin work; Faustus, with its all-out symphonic metal bombast; and For Her, fittingly epic for a song about The Odyssey. The rest all sounded a bit flat for a while, but one by one, I realized that each was excellent in its own way. One trend holds throughout the whole album: flat verses, powerful bridges and choruses. But if you give it time, you'll grow to appreciate the verses as well. As with many power metal bands, Dark Moor began as a fairly typical band, but progressed to develop a distinct sound, becoming more complex, a bit slower, and more unique.3.5 greatSkyclad No Daylights... Nor Heel TapsThe album opens with Penny Dreadful, one of the album?s stronger tracks. If you?d like a good idea of what this album is like, this would be a good sample. The anti-pop lyrics are satisfying, though the line ?Write your poetry with anger, and then sing it with a passion? is ironic, as Ridley did neither. (To be fair, just a line earlier, he?s far from bland). Spinning Jenny is, simply put, an excellent song. This version is faster than the original and almost entirely acoustic, and has done away with the syncopation. These are all for the better, and the result is a song that is worth a listen or ten, at the very least. It is viciously catchy and musically satisfying. It?s one of several songs Walkyier wrote about seductive bordering on sexually predatory women. He seems to have a peculiar fascination with them?or maybe he just finds them easy to write double entendres about. There are indeed quite a few in this song. The Widdershins Jig is different. It was probably the most folk-influenced song on Skyclad?s debut album, pointing the way ahead for the band and for the genre as a whole. It has received more than a superficial facelift, with some rewriting of the music; the addition of acoustic guitar has transformed it from a rather sparse song to one that fully reaches the potential of the notes written more than a decade before. This is also one of Ridley?s most interesting vocal performances, though what the lyrics mean is a mystery to me (who on Earth is ?Wednesday?s child??)
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