Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 65

ARTIST:  Metallica
ORIGIN:  San Francisco, CA (United States)
TITLE:  Until it Sleeps
LABEL:  EM Ventures
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Until it Sleeps"
NOTES:  I remember the hype for Load.  It was out of control.  Metallica was finally going to release a new album after several years away.  So when "Until it Sleeps" hit the radio and the CD racks as a single, I bought it quickly.  I do like the song, and always have.  The b-side was a cover of the Motorhead classic "Overkill", which also sounded great.  I do not have a lot of CD singles, but I made an exception for this one because it was the first new Metallica song in a long time.

FMA Reviews: Malignancy: Eugenics

Originally reviewed here.

Malignancy has been around for a long time, forming in the early 1990's, but despite hearing of the band several times, for some reason I had just never gotten around to checking them out. Until now that is. Malignancy formed out of the same area of the country and in the same general time frame as Immolation and Mortician. But other than playing death metal, they really do not have a lot of similarity to them. Malignancy is far more technical than their more straightforward death metal peers.

The music on this release is hyperactive, technical, and bizarre. Malignancy is a brutal death metal band that utilizes a lot of very technical riffs and sweeps throughout their songs. But there is just something off-kilter about their brand of technical brutal death metal. The whole thing feels off somehow. Malignancy does not really follow a lot of the cliches and expected ideas that a lot of technical death metal bands do. Though their style is definitely technical, something about them just does not fit in with groups like Necrophagist, Obscura, or any other bands. I am not sure how to explain it really, something is just different about Malignancy.

I suppose for one thing, Malignancy does not write terribly long songs. The longest song on this release is less than five minutes long and most of them do not even touch four minutes. This means that the band does not thrown riff after riff and sweep after sweep for an interminable period. Each song will end, and fairly quickly.

Another unusual aspect is the attention to the rhythm section. The drums and bass really steal the show on this release. The beat and rhythms are constantly evolving and changing throughout the release. It never feels calm and complacent. The whole thing is fairly unsettling and makes this a difficult album to listen to as background music. It simply demands attention.

Unfortunately, after the album is over, it is hard to pick out highlights. Nothing really stays fresh in the mind. That is often a problem for technical death metal, and it shows through here as well. The vocals are also a tad on the boring side as they do not tend to change much throughout the album. But while listening, this is certainly an interesting release. Perhaps it will be a grower.

Reunion Album of the Year

Corrosion of Conformity re-emerged from the ashes in 2012.  This time they reverted to the three-piece band that they were prior to Pepper Keenan's arrival.  Their sound reverted to more of a crossover style as well.  The band was reinvigorated.  This is easily their best album since Deliverance.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 64

ARTIST:  Type O Negative
ORIGIN:  New York, NY (United States)
TITLE:  October Rust
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Gothic Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend"
NOTES:  I have always really liked Peter Steele's voice.  His deep baritone was especially interesting on the track "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend", which was always kind of a joke song to me.  Most of the rest of the album though was softer than the band's previous release.  It was never really my favorite album by the band.  The production was a little bit too slick as well.

Best Metal EPs of 2012

3.  CORROSION OF CONFORMITY: MEGALODON
Following up on a surprisingly good reunion album, Corrosion of Conformity released an EP on Scion that was perhaps even better than the full-length.  There were a couple of vocal missteps, but for the most part this is exactly the kind of crossover stomp with which C.O.C. made their name.

2.  REVOCATION: TERATOGENESIS
Revocation is fast becoming one of the greatest modern thrash metal bands around.  Hot on the heels of their terrific album in 2011, which ranked #3 on my end of the year list, Revocation has released a great little EP on Scion.

1.  DOWN IV: THE PURPLE EP
I always anxiously await any new Down album.  They remain one of my favorite bands, and certainly my favorite side-project.  This album brought back some of the aggression and spirit of the band's first full-length album.  It is short yes, but extremely powerful.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 63

ARTIST:  Paradise Lost
ORIGIN:  Halifax, England
TITLE:  Draconian Times
LABEL:  Music for Nations
YEAR:  1995
GENRE:  Gothic Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Hallowed Land"
NOTES:  I love this album.  I got it for Christmas one year and fell in love with it right away.  And I still listen to it frequently.  It is absolutely haunting.  The songs are all incredible and infectious, the vocals sound amazing, and the music sounds terrific.  I first heard the band when the local rock radio station started playing "Enchantment" and "Once Solemn".  I liked the tracks and began looking for it myself.

Worst/Most Disappointing Albums of 2012

5.  BONDED BY BLOOD: THE AFTERMATH
Bonded by Blood was once one of the more impressive retro thrash metal bands out there.  Their last release was very good.  Unfortunately, they went through a change in vocalists and basically phoned in this album.  A shame.

4.  ELUVEITIE: HELVETIOS
When I first heard Eluveitie, I was blown away by them.  Their combination of melodic death metal an Celtic folk metal was extremely impressive.  But since then, Eluveitie has been trying desperately to remake that same album to increasingly lackluster results.  I am not sure I will give them another chance.

3.  SONATA ARCTICA: STONES GROW HER NAME
Like Eluveitie, Sonata Arctica was a band that I was so impressed by when I first heard them that I still check them out on new albums despite not being horribly impressed by anything they have put out since I first heard them.  This is their worst one yet.  It's basically modern rock at this point, there is very little power metal left.

2.  TIAMAT: THE SCARRED PEOPLE
I do not care for Tiamat's take on gothic rock.  But with seemingly each new release I hear something about the band incorporating some of their atmospheric death metal elements that the band did so well early on.  Each time it is false.  This time is no exception.

1.  THE SORROW: MISERY-ESCAPE
Run-of-the-mill metalcore with Christian lyrics.  Need I say more?

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 62

ARTIST:  Soundgarden
ORIGIN:  Seattle, WA (United States)
TITLE:  Badmotorfinger
LABEL:  A&M Records
YEAR:  1991
GENRE:  Stoner/Grunge Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Room a Thousand Years Wide"
NOTES:  This is to this point my favorite Soundgarden album, but it is not something I listen to often.  It just does not really interest me all that much.  It tends to drag a lot and there are a lot of filler tracks.  But it is still better than their other releases.  Chris Cornell does sound amazing on the album, in particular the opening scream on "Room a Thousand Years Wide".  "Rusty Cage", "Outshined", and "Jesus Christ Pose" are also highlights.

FMA Reviews: Satan's Wrath: Galloping Blasphemy

Originally reviewed here.

Greek band Satan's Wrath make their debut on this release. The band is the new project of former Electric Wizard bassist Tas Danazoglou who appeared on EW's last full-length release but has since moved on. Satan's Wrath is very much Tas's project as he performs the bass, drums, and the vocals with only Stamos K making up the rest of the band on the guitar. Tas has always been something of a menacing presence in EW so this project promised to be intriguing.

Things definitely start out ominously with some bass strings being plucked along with the screams of some poor tortured souls. This immediately leads into an opening guitar melody that would not sound out of place in the opening strains of a Slayer album, just to set the mood.

It is clear that Satan's Wrath was created for Tas to pay tribute to his musical idols. Elements of Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer, and many other bands who helped lay the groundwork for more extreme styles of metal show up at various points on this album. The main riff in "Between Belial and Satan" sounds like it was lifted directly from a Megadeth song, with another one sounding more like Possessed. So Satan's Wrath is clearly a product of a number of early extreme metal influences.

The music here is not meant to be technically impressive. The songs are fairly straightforward without a lot of changes in riffs or tempos. The guitar and vocals drive the album. Tas is a talented bass player though and he does show off this ability frequently over the course of the album. There is an air of the occult to most of the music. Tri-tones and minor chords are used frequently in order to drive home the Satan-centric lyrical themes. The vocals are done in sort of an early Quorthon-meets-Tom G. Warrior grumble, which fits well with the music.

I have just a couple of complaints. The first is the production. There is not a lot of bottom end here. Perhaps it was done that way purposely as metal in the early 1980's did not have a lot of bottom end to the albums. But when the main member of the band serves as the bassist and drummer, it seems like kind of waste to not emphasize his contributions. The other is that there have been more and more groups doing metal in this style and I am not sure Satan's Wrath has really done enough to distance themselves from the pack.

Beyond those two issues, I enjoyed the music on this album quite a bit. This is an impressive debut and I will be anxious to see if Tas keeps this project going or not.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 61

ARTIST:  Iron Maiden
ORIGIN:  London, England
TITLE:  Fear of the Dark
LABEL:  EMI Records
YEAR:  1992
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Fear of the Dark"
NOTES:  This was my first album by Iron Maiden, and though it is by no means my favorite album by the band, I still find myself going back to it frequently.  Bruce Dickinson sounds great on the album and the guitar and bass work is once again terrific.  The only problem is that a lot of the songs sound somewhat uninspired. It's a shame, but there are still some great songs on it.

Best Metal Songs of 2012

TESTAMENT: "NATIVE BLOOD"


ARKHAM WITCH: "ON A HORSE CALLED VENGEANCE"
I could not find a video for this one, so here is another song from Arkham Witch.


MORTALICUM: "THE ENDTIME PROPHECY"


GOJIRA: "EXPLOSIA"


WITCHCRAFT: "IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF YOU"

Best Album Art of the Year

This is an utterly incredible album cover.  The hopelessness and despair that it elicits are incredibly powerful.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 60

ARTIST:  Dio
ORIGIN:  New York, NY (United States)
TITLE:  Holy Diver
LABEL:  Warner Bros. Records
YEAR: 1983
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Rainbow in the Dark"
NOTES:  I picked this up on the strength of the title track and "Rainbow in the Dark".  At the time, it did not really click with me.  I enjoyed several songs on the album, but the album as a whole was kind of lost on me for awhile.  It is an album that I love now but it took some time for me to get into.

Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012: 10-1

10.  RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER: GHOSTMAKER
The best pure thrash metal album this year came from a very unexpected source.  Rumpelstiltskin Grinder had previously been kind of an anomaly in the wave of retro thrash metal bands, a band with a strong sense of humor and some non-thrash metal elements thrown in for good measure.  Their sound really came together on this release.  It is a shame so few people have been willing to give them a shot because they really deserve it with this one.

9.  AURA NOIR: OUT TO DIE
Australia has mostly become known for this style of blackened thrash metal, so it came as a bit of a shock to hear a terrific blackened thrash metal album from Norway.  This is an incredibly grimy and dirty sound that kicks ass and takes names.  It is short and raw and a wild ride.

8.  EVOKEN: ATRA MORS
This release shows just how morose and despairing funeral doom metal can get.  Ahab remains my favorite funeral doom metal band, but this release may be one of my favorite albums from the subgenre, joining prior Ahab material and the Catacombs album.  This album is utterly hopeless with an incredible sense of despair hanging over the entire album.

7.  HOODED MENACE: EFFIGIES OF EVIL
The best pure doom metal album this year, Hooded Menace's lyrics mostly deal in horror themes.  There is definitely a market for this style and lyrical theme.  Hooded Menace craft extremely impressive traditional-styled doom metal with infectious riffs and incredibly catchy songs.  The vocals may be death metal-styled but the music is pure doom.

6.  GOATWHORE: BLOOD FOR THE MASTER
I can always count on Goatwhore to release an album of purely chaotic and menacing black/thrash/death/extreme metal.  They have not disappointed me yet.  Perhaps the most impressive thing about Goatwhore though is that the band continually gets better.  Each time they release a new album, it is the best album they have ever done.  That continues with this release.  This is the best Goatwhore album ever.  Though that will only last until the next one if history is any indication.

5.  MORTALICUM: THE ENDTIME PROPHECY
Every year it seems like a traditional metal album comes out of nowhere to completely shock me and make it very high on my end of the year countdown.  This is not the only one this year, but it is perhaps the most shocking.  This one was sent to me to review from Metal on Metal Records and I have not been able to stop listening to it since.

4.  GOJIRA: L'ENFANT SAUVAGE
I once said that Gojira released one of the heaviest songs of all time.  Now they have released one of the heaviest albums.  The French band continually puts out ridiculously heavy material.  This is my favorite album that Gojira have released so far and it came damn close to taking the top album of the year.  The band is almost unclassifiable, but that is not important when the music is this good.

3.  ATARAXY: REVELATIONS OF THE ETHEREAL
I have said it before in this list, 2012 was a great year for death metal.  Ataraxy is a Spanish death metal band that has released an utterly terrific raw and grimy album.  Not bad for a debut album.  I owe my knowledge of this band to Full Metal Attorney.

2.  NEPHELIUM: COILS OF ENTROPY
Almost everything I said about Ataraxy could be said about Nephelium, except that they are from the United Arab Emirates originally before relocating to Canada.  This is a death metal album on par with just about any other death metal album of the last several years.  There is just something about this release that grabs the listener and refuses to let go.  It is an incredibly raw and brutal death metal album that is fresh and exciting.  2012 was a great year for death metal and Nephelium is the biggest reason why.

1.  CHRISTIAN MISTRESS: POSSESSION
Here it is, the best metal album of 2012 and this is definitely from an unusual place.  As I said with Mortalicum, every year it seems like a traditional metal album comes out of nowhere and blows me away.  Christian Mistress have released the best metal album of the year.  Their sound can be traced back to the NWOBHM.  The vocals are simply incredible and are a large reason why this album is so impressive.  And there you have it, Metallattorney's Album of the Year.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 59

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Roots
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Ratamahatta"
NOTES:  The last of the albums I got on the long road trip.  I loved this album for several years after getting it.  This was my first Sepultura album.  Obviously it is not my favorite now, but I do really enjoy the use of tribal drums in the music.  This album went a long way towards getting me into more extreme styles of metal.

Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012: 20-11

20.  KREATOR: PHANTOM ANTICHRIST
There were a number of venerable thrash metal giants that released new albums this year.  A surprising number of them were very impressive.  Kreator is one of my favorite German thrash metal bands with a remarkably consistent output.  This release is not quite as powerful as their last couple of albums but still possesses that anger and razor-sharp riffing style that the band has perfected over the course of their long career.

19.  3 INCHES OF BLOOD: LONG LIVE HEAVY METAL
I have enjoyed a couple of 3 Inches of Blood's albums in the past, but after their second vocalist left the band, they seemed less exciting.  They kind of phoned in their previous album.  But on this one, the band sounds rejuvenated and possibly better than they ever have.  That is saying something in my eyes.  This album is a hell of a lot of fun, exactly what 3 Inches of Blood set out to do.

18.  OVERKILL: THE ELECTRIC AGE
Like Kreator, Overkill is another long-running thrash metal titan that released an incredible new album in 2012.  Overkill is quite possibly the most consistent thrash metal band going which is saying quite a bit.  Their recent albums have actually proven to be better than the Big 4 of thrash metal, not bad for a band that existed in their shadow for years.  Overkill never disappoints me.

17.  WEAPON: EMBERS AND REVELATIONS
Weapon is a band that I have heard great things about for years but never really checked out until this year.  Now I am kicking myself because I really enjoyed this one.  Weapon has a surprisingly original take on blackened death metal and can not easily be compared to other bands in their genre.  The music is ominous and powerful.  It is an album I come back to time and time again.

16.  ASPHYX: DEATHHAMMER
Martin Van Drunen has long been one of my favorite death metal vocalists.  I try to pick up every project that he is attached to.  Asphyx is one of the bands that is most associated with Van Drunen and their sound matches his psychotic roaring better than most.  This album is yet another reason why Van Drunen is one of the most influential death metal vocalists of all time.

15.  TESTAMENT: DARK ROOTS OF EARTH
The third longtime thrash metal band to release a strong album in 2012, Testament's newest is the best of the three and is also one of the best albums the band has released since Low.  It is one of the best thrash metal albums of the year and featured the terrific "Native Blood", a tribute to singer Chuck Billy's Native American ancestry.

14.  HIGH ON FIRE: DE VERMIS MYSTERIIS
High on Fire is one of the leaders of the stoner doom metal genre and they have once again shown why on this album.  Their last album had somewhat weak production but was otherwise a very strong release.  This album fixes the mistakes of the last album's production with a much meatier and heavier sound.  The strong production lead to an even stronger overall feel with this release.

13.  PARADISE LOST: TRAGIC IDOL
I have been a big fan of Paradise Lost for years, ever since I got Draconian Times for Christmas back in around 1996.  Unfortunately the band has not put out an album quite as impressive since that one including a long foray into gothic rock.  But unlike some bands that went that direction (ahem Tiamat), Paradise Lost has found their way back out of it.  This is easily Paradise Lost's best album since that one.

12.  WITCHCRAFT: LEGEND
Like Weapon, I have heard a lot of great things about Witchcraft over the years but simply never got around to checking them out.  I read great things about this release before deciding to pick it up as well, but I am definitely glad that I did.  This is another very strong album influenced mainly by the old school heavy metal masters.  It rocks, quite simply.

11.  CATTLE DECAPITATION: MONOLITH OF INHUMANITY
Wow.  I was not expecting to be blown away by a Cattle Decapitation album.  There were a ton of great death metal albums in 2012 and Cattle Decapitation was one of the strongest.  This was the first Cattle Decapitation album I ever checked out due to their politics and being a run-of-the-mill deathgrind band, but this album elevated Cattle Decapitation to the top of the pack.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 58

ARTIST:  Various
ORIGIN:  Various
TITLE:  Hard Music Vol. 1
LABEL:  WEA
YEAR:  1994
GENRE:  Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, etc.
FAVORITE SONG:  Slayer: "Seasons in the Abyss"
NOTES:  Another album that I bought on the long road trip after my ninth grade year.  This is a compilation that had a lot of rare tracks, stuff off of singles, foreign releases, and more.  This album introduced me to Slayer and Ministry.  There are a couple of missteps here but for the most part it has some good songs on it.

Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012: 30-21

30.  WINTERSUN: TIME I
It has been a very long time coming for this release.  The band released its first album way back in 2004 and there have long been promises of a new one coming soon.  I myself have known about this for about four or five years now and anxiously awaiting it.  Of course it did not quite live up to the hype, but it is still an extremely impressive release all the same.  An incredible blend of a variety of metal styles into a surprisingly beautiful final product.

29.  CRADLE OF FILTH: THE MANTICORE AND OTHER HORRORS
Everyone's favorite gothic metal nutballs, Cradle of Filth have once again released an album in October of this year.  Just like clockwork.  The sound is a little different this time around with more of an emphasis on aggressive riffwork than on albums past.  Cradle of Filth has also focused on decreasing their song lengths making this a much tighter and punchier release than some of their more long-winded efforts to date.  It is easily one of the band's best albums in years.

28.  ENSLAVED: RIITIIR
Enslaved has received a surprising amount of criticism on this release.  I do not personally buy into all that much as this album has once again strongly impressed me.  It is not as dynamic as some of their other more recent releases, which is why it is in this position instead of closer to the top, but it is impressive in its own way.  Enslaved is a band that continually puts out terrific album after terrific album, and this one is no different.

27.  NAPALM DEATH: UTILITARIAN
Napalm Death has built one hell of a long career out of simply making eardrums bleed.  Their politically charged lyrics are sometimes lost in the cacophony of noise that they make but their anger is plain and obvious.  I have not always been the biggest fan of Napalm Death, but over the last couple of years they have become one of my favorite groups.  This release certainly shows why it is that the band has been able to last as long as they have.

26.  ABORTED: GLOBAL FLATLINE
Simply put, this is the best album that Aborted has put out, likely ever.  The Belgian bashers have long been attempting to add some measure of experimentation and more mainstream-influenced sounds into their brutal style.  On this release, Aborted abandon all of that and simply play to their strengths.  This is brutal and unrelenting grinding death metal the way that it should be.

25.  SATAN'S WRATH: GALLOPING BLASPHEMY
Departed Electric Wizard bassist Tas Donazoglou wasted no time in putting together his next musical project.  Fans of his former band will likely not find a whole lot to compare it to as this is a band looking towards other metal influences to guide his style.  Satan's Wrath is built upon the legacy of early Slayer, Bathory, Hellhammer, Possessed and other band at the forefront of extreme metal.  This is a tribute album with original material and it is one of the most impressive debuts of the year.

24.  NACHTMYSTIUM: SILENCING MACHINE
Nachtmystium lost me for a little while.  Their last album was far too progressive without enough of their prior black metal style for my tastes.  This album saw a return to their original black metal sound while also working to mix in the progressiveness that the band had been experimenting with.  What resulted was one of the band's best albums in their discography.  This album even saw a return of the band's black metal logo.

23.  ARKHAM WITCH: LEGIONS OF THE DEEP
This will not be the only traditional metal release that will be seen on this Top 40 release.  There were a number of terrific albums released this year dedicated to the early heavy metal masters.  Arkham Witch utilize a variety of styles on this album from doom metal to thrash metal to hard rock.  One thing stays the same throughout though, their ability to write damn catchy songs.

22.  SINISTER: THE CARNAGE ENDING
Sinister was once one of the most brutal death metal bands going.  They emerged from the Netherlands in the late 1980's and put out a couple of terrific and powerful death metal classics early on.  They faded a bit over the years but apparently never really lost their edge.  This is the best album Sinister has released in a number of years.  The brutality and power that once coursed through the band's veins is back with a vengeance.

21.  CHAOS INCEPTION: THE ABROGATION
There have been a lot of great death metal albums released this year from unexpected bands.  Chaos Inception is a recent project of Quinta Essentia guitarist Matt Barnes.  Just like his other band, Chaos Inception's biggest strength is the highly original and impressive riffwork.  It is a masterful death metal release that proves that there is still a lot of life left in the genre that many have believed has grown stale.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 57

ARTIST:  Black Sabbath
ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England
TITLE:  We Sold Our Soul for Rock N' Roll
LABEL:  Warner Bros. Records
YEAR:  1975
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Children of the Grave"
NOTES:  A large compilation of songs from Black Sabbath's first six albums.  This quickly became my go-to compilation for Black Sabbath songs as there is a nice mix here.  I picked this one up on the same road trip as the Quiet Riot album.