Probably the darkest of all Tool's albums; Undertow, much like the metaphor of its title track, has the overarching theme of being swept away into the darker recesses of the human psyche and being as much of a prisoner to the vices found therein as your own jailer... Except 4°. That song is about... A different sort of dark recesses.

Anyway, this album is pretty damn great barring Disgustipated, which is 15 minutes of mostly nothing because the band hate you (yes, you specifically) ... read more

Brave Murder Day was the first Katatonia album I heard, and as much as I have listened to Opeth and Katatonia's other works, nothing hits quite like this album. The closest thing to it would be the "Sounds of Decay" and "For Funerals To Come" EPs, the latter being quoted here as well on "12". While the instrumental aspects of this album are practically perfect at portraying the cerement of sorrow that is the emotional bedrock of the album, the exploration of ... read more

While it does give the vibe of "this time I'm really gonna do it" (while standing a little too close to a ledge), it doesn't do so in a way that's insincere. It very much does live up to its name in that regard, this is a bleak album with no real sense of escape from the mire of one's bleak existence. This quality works both in its favor and against it however.

While you immediately get the feeling of hopelessness, there isn't much of a feeling of emotional ... read more

The Hip Hop benchmark to which only the best albums within the genre are compared. The cultural impact this album had, both lyrically and instrumentally, in managing to make jazz something that people could connect to, in part through Kendrick's lyricism, is not to be understated.

The soundtrack to a drug induced mental breakdown.

In November of 1995 the genre of Melodic Death Metal peaked twice within a two week span of time. On the 14th of November, At The Gates released one of the crown jewels of Melodic Death Metal with "Slaughter of The Soul", but in the words of Obi Wan in Return of The Jedi, "There is another". 13-Fucking-Days after one of the most ferocious offerings from the Gothenburg Death Metal scene, Dark Tranquility, not to be outdone, releases "The Gallery". Hell, it was even ... read more

Even bearing in mind that this album came out 21 years ago, it has remained a timeless effort, not just an influential one. This album is one of the peaks of Atmospheric Sludge and in my opinion, even a recommendable entry point for someone who isn't quite as well versed in the more obscure modern metal genres.

There are certain moments here that definitely get close to subverting expectations and doing something that feels pretty distinct as compared to the rest of their catalogue, however this album as a whole doesn't really feel like it's doing much to innovate upon the formula set by the prior releases. It plays it somewhat safe and opts to refine upon what previously exists. If you like Afsky's prior releases, you'll probably have a positive opinion about this album as well. ... read more

Musicially speaking? This is terrible.

Intellectually speaking, this is what "full retard" sounds like.

Personally speaking, when I am craving ass, this is right there, shitting itself in excitement.

This is horrible. Would I rather listen to Judas Priest's worst songs on loop? No, "Epitaph", "You Say Yes", "Love Zone", etc. are dreadfully bad. Why would you suggest that you sicko?! That being said, this was probably better off not being made.

It's Painkiller. It's a 10/10. You already knew this, what did you expect me to say?

Straight out of the gate with Victim of Changes, Judas Priest show that they can bring their own twist to the prog rock rave of the mid to late 70s, with piercing high wails that'd becoming one of the emblematic signs of the 70s/80s heavy metal frontman (unless your name was Lemmy).

I will say however, the way the vocals on "The Ripper" sound, where you can almost hear Halford's lips smacking together is very odd considering how no other track's vocals sound quite ... read more

Priest's first record and one that was very nuch not written with Halford in mind, but rather the original vocalist Al Atkins. The record isn't bad in the sense of "everything here is garbage" but rather in the sense of "you should probably restructure and have a serious think about the music you want to make, because this ain't it".

Priest were finding their footing here and it very much shows. Nonetheless for 1974 standards, this album is unremarkable as ... read more

If the biggest flaw of Orchid was the songs weren't focused enough in the abundant sea of riffs, some definitely significantly more memorable than others, this is Opeth's first step towards maturing (while still holding on to their black metal influenced roots). This is effectively a more focused effort that compromises between progressiveness while still being focused enough to make the listener feel like the songs aren't just a collection of riffs thrown together. Morningrise ... read more

For the record: Yes, I am aware of Jon Nödtveidt's murder-hate crime side-quest that I'm sure he would have claimed Lucifer directly gave him through a chaotic, malevolent, dark revelation. No, I will not let the 10 or so years he spent in prison for having completed said side-quest soften my judgement as to how disappointing of a release this still was. Varg Vikernes (with whom you should already be familiar with if you ended up here) was still writing solid and inspired music ... read more

Look man... Dave's vocals were never winning any awards, his lyrics however could definitely be in the running for some of the tightest in thrash metal, a genre that almost prides itself on its confrontational attitude. Holy Wars stands as probably one of the most iconic verses in metal, Punishment Due just as well follows it up lyrically and in terms of musicianship and completes one of the most iconic songs in metal. So why does Dave kinda just sing about how "Now I'm really ... read more

For the people who know about this album, and know about doom metal, they know that this classic falls in the category of absolutely depressing doom. The atmosphere is vulnerable, not like this dead zombie-like monolithic sound you often find in Funeral Doom, nor like the groovy distorted haze of stoner doom, or the more melodic offerings of Candlemass and their successors. This cracks the floor and sinks deeper and deeper into the bottomless abyss. Sometimes listening to "sad music" ... read more

Okay, this is insane. I was not expecting this to go as hard as it does and to be as wild and compositionally tight as it is. It's hard to describe the usually kaleidoscopic journey through dissonant melodies, rhythmic variations, progressive variation, and relentless savagery that is present with Avant-Garde Metal (not that I wont try). That being said, the one-man blitzkrieg that is Felgrave manages to make this journey a very enjoyable and inspired one.

Straight away on Winds Batter ... read more

So you know when a band usually follows up their debut album, that while flawed and a little immature was passionately crafted, with a typically more haphazardly "thrown together" album that tries to capture the magic of the debut? This album is that, except Agalloch missed the memo after Pale Folklore and instead got it while already deep into a legendary run of LPs (with some very stellar EPs as well to be fair). This sort of sounds like Agalloch trying to capture some of the more ... read more

Edit: Review was updated since relistening to the album again a judging it as more of a prog metal offering rather than tech death or progressive death metal.

I am not really sure what I am supposed to expect from Rivers of Nihil; I am left wondering if it is appropriate to classify this album as Tech Death. I suppose then that this album could more broadly fall under the classification of progressive metal and as such I would rather judge it as such. However, I find the progressive ... read more