A word of warning before I continue: I am not a fan of extreme metal or 'edgy' music and lyrics in general. I usually say that I am a metal fan, yes, but the metal I listen to is not quite 'real metal' by those extreme purist standards. If you are one of those people, you will probably hate me for writing this review.

Upon starting the music and reading the lyrics that I could not pick up by listening, this seems to be very much what I expected. In particular, the lyrics look like they are ... read more

I have never heard of Astralium before, but I have been told that I might like them, so let's see... Note that the fact something is symphonic metal does not make it automatically good, in my opinion, which seems to be a common misconception among people who recommend me music to listen and review.

The album starts with a 2-minute symphonic intro, 'Remembrance', and then the metal kicks in on 'The Journey', which is very much the way I like it. The metal in question is power metal, but done in ... read more

According to Discogs, this is a folk/world/country album from France. It has been released under both French ('Le chant des Vikings') and English ('Vikings Chant') titles, and it obviously has a Viking theme to it per both titles. Some, but not all of the song titles are in Icelandic, according to Google Translate; the other titles cannot be translated by Google, which could be because they are in a different language or dialect, archaic, or just misspelled. All I can say is that based on the ... read more

Trees of Eternity was a gothic metal project that released one album and will never release an album again. The project was founded by guitarist Juha Raivio (Swallow the Sun) and vocalist Aleah Stanbridge, who died of cancer before this album was released. Also featured on the album are second guitarist Fredrik Norrman (ex-Katatonia, October Tide), bassist Mattias Norrman (ex-Katatonia, October Tide), drummer Kai Hahto (ex-Wintersun, ex-Swallow the Sun, Nightwish), as well as guest vocalists ... read more

This is a band and album I am very interested in, particularly because of their current lead vocalist, Tommy Karevik. Tommy is a vocalist I know from his other band Kamelot as well as his work with the metal opera project Ayreon, and he is possibly my favourite male metal vocalist of all. With that being said, it's time to get started with the album.

I started listening to this album on YouTube in incognito mode, as I generally do with anything I am not already sure if I'm going to like or ... read more

Cellar Darling is a name I have heard great things about, but I have never actually listened to them except for maybe one song, so this is an album I am very interested in. According to Wikipedia, this band comes from Switzerland, they are categorised as 'progressive metal' or 'folk metal' and they also have a female vocalist, so this ought to be in my comfort zone. Without further ado, let's get into the music.

Unfortunately, I do not like this music as much as I expected to; it has a certain ... read more

This album is listed on various websites as 'pop' (or alternatively, 'K-pop', which is just an abbreviation for 'Korean pop'), 'EDM', 'rock' and 'metal'. For that, I don't know exactly what to expect, but I can't say I'm expecting something particularly good because in my experience, such a fusion of a million genres generally does not result in nice music. Some things don't go together; it's like putting pineapple on a pizza, for some people happen to love it, but most others would probably ... read more

This album is listed as 'indie rock' on Discogs and as 'rock électronique', which obviously translates to 'electronic rock', on the French Wikipedia. So far, I have not had very good experiences with either genre/style, but right from the first track, I can say this album sounds like something better than most electronic and indie rock I have heard. And I don't think it is mislabeled for that, the music is indie electronic rock alright.

The best thing about this album for me is just ... read more

'Marina and the Diamonds', the stage name under which this album was originally released, sounds like a band consisting of multiple people, but it is really only a pun on the artist's name and surname, Marina Diamandis. Hence, it came as no surprise to me that she later decided to drop the 'and the Diamonds' part, citing personal reasons. In other words, you may see this album listed under the artist 'Marina and the Diamonds' or just 'Marina'; these two are one and the same.

The tracks on this ... read more

I always feel like reviewing 'classic' albums such as this one is risky business, especially for someone like me, who never listened to or liked the particular kind of music. If you are a fan of this album, then perhaps it is best that you do not read beyond this point. Seriously. You have been warned.

Obviously when I review an album, I have to write *something* for it to be a review, but in case of music like this, I wish that was not a requirement. I think a blank page would be a perfectly ... read more

When I first read the name Stam1na, spelled like that, this is certainly not the music I was expecting. Perhaps I am a little old-fashioned for that matter; spelling names and titles in '1337' style is something I associate more with mainstream music than with metal. Then again, this band is from Finland, and metal is apparently very much mainstream in Finland, so that I guess that makes sense in a certain way.

This album is listed on Discogs and Wikipedia as 'thrash metal' and also ... read more

So this is an album I have not only listened to multiple times before writing this review, but I have even anticipated it prior to the release date and listened to it that same day, for better or worse. This gives me a significantly different perspective compared to the usual album reviews I have done, so bear with me.

I think the key elements of this album can be separated in three categories: 'the good', 'the bad' and 'the ugly', so that is exactly what I am going to do:

The good: the ... read more

I have been struggling to come up with words about this album for a while, and I am still not quite satisfied with what I have written. This is one of my shortest album reviews to date, and quite possibly the worst. Still, I do have a few thoughts to express, so I decided to publish this after all.

This is an album I might split in half, discard the first half and keep the second. The first half is not much more than mediocre electronic rock you can hear on every radio station, and for that I ... read more

This album is classified as 'folk metal', and it has indeed plenty of both folk elements and metal elements, so that is fine. However, I find the folk elements to be too separate from the metal elements. Some tracks on their own would only pass for one of the two, and among those that pass for both, I still find there to be too many sections that are purely folk or purely metal. Now, I am not saying this is a bad album; it's far from being bad, just not as great as it probably could have ... read more

A 33-minute long synth-pop album. Starts with 'Queendom', a rather unsatisfactory opener that to me sounded like nothing more than the usual pop singles one can randomly hear on the radio. Not looking good this far...

Thankfully, some of the other songs get better. Particularly, 'Gentle Earthquakes' (track #3) and the title track 'Infections of a Different Kind' (track #8) have some more depth to the artist's vocals making them that much more interesting, and 'Churchyard' (track #6) is also ... read more

Doing 'In Contact' sounds like a bad idea during the COVID-19 pandemic, but I have already signed up for the weekly album club on the Epicans Discord server, and this album was selected, so I decided to take part despite all epidemiological restrictions. :) Other than that, this is prog(ressive) metal, a genre that comes with moderate to high expectations to me. The prog metal that I've heard so far is mostly in my high 70s or 80s, i.e. good but not the best. With that being said, let's get ... read more

So, a Turkish alternative rock album. 'Alternative rock' is a very broad genre descriptor, and I think it can be applied to bands, albums and songs pretty much all over the scale, so I don't know quite what to expect before listening. Without further ado, let's get into the music.

The intro, 'Gün Doğumu', was a pleasant surprise, a nice oriental melody that would not be too out of place on a symphonic or gothic metal album, which is the kind of music I tend to prefer.

However, I think ... read more

'Omega' has been the most anticipated release in the world of symphonic metal for almost a year, since its announcement in early 2020 until the release date, February 26th 2021. As a fan of Epica and symphonic metal for several years now, this review is going to include plenty of other symphonic metal references and probably will not be as interesting to newcomers to the genre.

The album felt rather overwhelming on the first listen; instead of listening to the whole album without pauses and ... read more

(Originally posted on Omnivoracious Listeners Discord Server, 20 September 2020. https://discord.gg/kwdYwcx)

Black 'n' Roll. The 'black' part of this genre apparently comes from black metal, so I'm having my fingers crossed that I will like it. Without further ado, let's get right into it. :fingers_crossed:

The first track is appropriately titled Black Rock 'n' Roll, and it was my favourite on this EP. I also liked track #5, Cross Held High, more than the rest. On the other hand, I am not a ... read more

(Originally posted on Omnivoracious Listeners Discord Server, 20 September 2020. https://discord.gg/kwdYwcx)

What can I say about this album? This is the first album I have reviewed with lyrics in Spanish, and it is the kind of music I would hear on a random radio station or on the hi-fi system in a bar/restaurant, and I would think nothing of it. I do not think there is anything remarkable about this music, and the lyrics can't stick with me either, since I do not understand Spanish.

This is ... read more