I never really heard of this band before this year, but they quickly won me over from the first track onwards. In fact, the first 4 tracks are absolute knockouts in experimentations with brutality. They flow between so many ideas but never feel incoherent. "Tormento" especially fucks, especially with how ... read more
TL;DR more Pain Remains ... read more
There's something about Fallujah's mix of technical death metal with ambient sections and triumphant choruses that genuinely works for me. I wish I could say what that is, but it really shows on this album. There's an awesome sense of instrumentation on here and the album shines in its choruses. I don't have much else to say about this one. I docked one point just because the vocals were grating on first listen, ... read more
I loved the self titled album and The Stories We Tell Ourselves, but there's something in here that doesn't sound right. Personally, I think it's the mixing. ... read more
Aenaon got put on my radar from the Metal Trenches youtube channel. I started off with "Psyche" and just saw the album through from there. I'v been slowly engrossing myself into experimental/post-black metal (i.e. Ihsahn, A Forest of Stars, White Ward, Deafheaven) and haven't really looked back. From the first track onward, it's obvious this album is different. There's an awesome amount of ... read more
I had no idea this was one of the APC founders, but this solo album felt like it was almost to something interesting. It is entirely possible I missed something and I'll likely return to this when I figure out what is is I was missing.
Rank 11th / 40
Now normally, I'd be really into a forward thinking album like this, but to me, this feels like an album that should be released 300 years from now instead of 3. There's a lot happening here and I feel like the band members have evolved as a species and left us behind.
Rank 18th / 39
This sounded exactly like I expected it to sound.
Rank 27th / 38
I can't shake the feeling that this and the last album feel like Grey Daze are just milking Chester's death, but this batch of songs is semi decent overall. I would listen again eventually, but not actively return to.
Rank 17th / 37
It's a good thing Our Last Night is significantly better at covering pop songs because their original material really really sucks.
Rank 34th / 36
This album is nearly 110 minutes and yet somehow, it feels like nothing was truly accomplished. Sure there are great moments in here, but they are overshadowed by the daunting runtime of the whole project and it feels like there's a lot of wasted moments in here.
Rank 25th / 35
White Ward continue to push musical boundaries, exceed expectations, and provide powerful music for the 21st century. This will unequivocally go down as one of the best albums of the decade.
For the uninitiated, White Ward combine extreme black metal and noir jazz (i.e. sax and piano) to create an extremely bleak but refreshing sound. Now, I am not a BM fan at all and have criticized many albums from the genre for sounding like they were made in a toaster oven. However, ... read more
There is literally 0 reason for me to like this, but it's got a droning sort of feeling combined with alternative rock that gives it a good pulse overall. It gets a bit slow at times, but is satisfying overall.
Rank 8th / 33
While this is a slightly refreshing take on symphonic metal, it takes up a bit too much time and feels repetitive.
Rank 8th / 32
I don't know much about this band but the impression I got out of this is that the instruments are fine and the vocals are way too autotuned. If the vocalist was not in the picture at all, it'd be a significantly better album.
Rank 15th / 31
I was led to believe this would be more fun than it turned out to be. It follows an extremely similar production style and format to everyone else doing this sound. The music is pretty bland and features arbitrary trap beats for no reason.
Rank 24th / 29