This is not an easy listen at all, and it took a couple listens for me to fully "get" this. Imo this feels like it does a better job of accomplishing what Hive Mind Narcosis and Disharmonium -- Nahab were trying to do in creating a sense of overwhelming dread and anxiety. Over the course of the album it devolves into almost pure noise, feeling more and more claustrophobic as it progresses. If you're looking for something abrasive to provoke a visceral emotional reaction, this is for ... read more
Most of my issues with this come down to memorability and my preferences when it comes to vocals, but this is actually pretty damn good for an artist this small. Massive respect to Occult Kenji because I enjoyed this quite a bit!
I have absolutely no idea how this works as well as it does for me, it has so many ideas that feel like they should be bad. These include what sounds like power metal influences, heavy use of synths throughout, 80's pop-rock type vocals, a glockenspiel (I think? Lay to Rest sounds like it has one).
The last one is a really apt microcosm of this album for me. Glockenspiels are one of my biggest musical pet peeves, I hate how they sound and >90% of the time they're included in a song they ruin ... read more
I honestly had no idea how to rate this. There were some pretty good tracks (especially Into the War and R.A.C.F.), and then there were some like "Human Target" and "Mr. Magnum" that made me want to rate this in the mid 30s. Plus some of the lyrics don't seem to make much sense, even on the songs I liked. Ultimately I think I enjoyed it a bit more than I didn't so I'm giving it a low 50, but if you like Heavy Metal a lot, you may like this more than I did
While I don't like much here, the guitar and melodic aspects are so good they save the album for me to a degree.
Doom metal is inherently risky because if it hits, it can REALLY hit, but if it misses, it REALLY misses. Unfortunately this album falls into the latter category for me. I think music like this turns people off of Funeral Doom even though amazing stuff can be done in the genre. If you describe funeral doom to someone who's never heard it before, something like this is what they would probably picture, which is unfortunate because there's actually some great stuff out there.
Despite the low rating, I think there’s a lot of potential here, this album just doesn’t quite realize it fully imo and has some decisions I disagree with (particularly drums and the overly long nothingburger intro lol). Overall it’s pretty forgettable. Faded is probably the highlight for me, I like the kinda heavy, doom metal-inspired sounding atmosphere of it a lot.
Lastly, I’ve heard that though this is instrumental, it was supposed to have vocals but she wasn’t ... read more
"symphonic power metal" is a recipe for absolute cheese cringe if not handled well, but this album manages to keep it together pretty well. Bigger fans of power metal as a genre may like this a lot more than me
How am I the first one to even rate this album? The band has 140k monthly listeners and the lead single from this album, Voices, has over 1 million plays on spotify. It’s not any different on RYM, the album only has 2 ratings there. Octopus Montage has practically no online presence for a band that’s supposed to be as big as it is. I mean they don’t even have a Wikipedia page ffs.
Anyway, as for the music itself, it’s basically just generic pop-punk sounding bullshit ... read more
This album is kind of a mixed bag for me. A lot of this actually works way better for me than most “pop metal” type stuff. I kinda like the idea of a metal-electronic genre mix, and I think Solence does pull off the sound at times. At its best moments this album reminds me of Immersion by Pendulum.
A couple things that help it for me are that extremely processed sounding vocals fit better alongside electronic music than in other genres imo, and that the vibe of this doesn’t ... read more
Very tempted to rate this even higher. I honestly don't fully understand why I like this so much because a lot of the songs sound very similar and are pretty simple, but this was the most an album has made me want to headbang so far this year. My best guesses are that it's combining elements of black metal and death metal in a way that perfectly aligns with what I like about each genre, and that it reminds me of Tapping the Vein by Sodom (which I also love).
While I don’t like some of the melodies (the one around the 35 second mark of Nova Terrae sounds like Sonic drowning lmao), the vocals don’t sound like they “fit” the instrumental at times if that makes sense, and the clean vocals in general are… not for me, to say the least, what this album does have going for it is ambition, memorability, and charm. To me anyway, it feels like they have a real vision here rather than just making something different for the sake ... read more
It cannot be overstated how much the guitarwork here carries the album. Everything else ranges from mid to bad, but the riffs and especially the solos are solid throughout.
I’ve listened to this twice now and still feel conflicted about it. Overall it seemed to be best at the start and get worse as it went on (I’ve verified this isn’t just me getting sick of it as I listen by listening to the tracks out of order — Patron Saint of Whalewatching was still my fav when i heard it last). There are parts that REALLY work for me and parts that REALLY don’t.
I’ll start with the latter. Probably my least favorite part of the whole album ... read more
Overrated imo, the only tracks here that work particularly well for me are Welcome Back O' Sleeping Dreamer, Soulless Existence, and Wrath.
To elaborate, the biggest problem I have with this album is that the symphonic elements end up feeling kinda the same on all the tracks to me. If you showed me just the symphonic part without any of the vocals, guitar, drums, or other metal stuff, I wouldn't be able to identify which song it was from. In really good symphonic metal albums, like Agony by ... read more
This is just Greta Van Fleet but with Black Sabbath instead of Led Zeppelin. And not as well executed. And with annoying vocals and lyrics that feel like they belong in power metal or something?
EDIT: I forgot to mention how painful this was to sit through. The album clocks in at almost 90 MINUTES in length, and it suffers from Saint Anger Syndrome where every song feels like its length should’ve been halved before release. Only ONE song is under 6 minutes, and it’s 5:56. This ... read more
Decent, albeit forgettable, funeral doom metal, and I'm not the biggest fan of the mixing here tbh. Doesn't feel very accessible at all imo. There are some funeral doom metal albums one may enjoy even if unfamiliar with the genre, and this is probably not one of them. Overall I enjoyed this but probably won't return to it
The first 25 minutes and final 10 minutes are incredible, but there’s a section that’s about 10 minutes long in the middle there that was kind of a slog for me. I can definitely see myself returning to this album though.
EDIT: I was right, I did definitely end up returning to it a lot. This album FASCINATED me. I previously hadn't really listened to that much from the genre, and I ended up checking out some more albums in the style. The more I listened, the more that the section I ... read more
The entire album is good, but holy SHIT do those last 2 tracks go hard
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Recent Review Comments
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On Doxophobia - Basic Intellect May Burn Out
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On Doxophobia - Basic Intellect May Burn Out
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