ayy lmao

I listen mostly to Death/Black/Thrash Metal and sometimes Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal and Grindcore.

Not really into Power Metal and -core genres as of yet.

I write album comments mostly in English because:

1. More people can read them.
2. Generally musical terminology is better conveyed through English.


Top 3 Favorite Bands
1. Rush
2. Rush
3. Rush

<The Brutal Symbiosis of Death & Thrash>

In the late '80s to early '90s, when Thrash Metal was starting to become stale and bedridden, bands had to come up with a way to survive and thrive. Some bands decided to appeal to a larger base of listeners(Metallica with their eponymous record) and others had made similar decisions by tampering with other genres(Punk Sodom and Industrial Kreator, for example). Some bands, however, shifted their sound towards an extremer path. Sure, there were "Brutal Thrash" bands like Dark Angel, but this was on a higher tier. Soon enough Death & Thrash hybrid bands became prevalent.

Now this Teutonic band, Protector, is one of those bands. The two EPs and two full-releases had proved that these German thrashers were solid as hell. But this album just tops everything they had done in a span of 40 mind-numbing minutes. This stuff is way more brutal and ripping than Urm the Mad and all the songs match the quality of their Leviathan' Desire EP, some songs even being better.

Here, I've made space for a paragraph dedicated to praising Protector's song/riffwriting skills, which are straight-out amazing. The riffs are fresh and creative and has smelly rotten corpse juices dribbling out of 'em. One song presents multiple riffs but is mostly presented around one main riff. Standard Thrash Metal structure. Even so it doesn't feel boring because the riffs, again, are so well written. A Shedding of Skin, Face Fear, Doomed to Failure, Retribution in Darkness, Tantalus has some amazing ones that I can listen to all day while having a smoothie with the decaying corpse on the album cover. Indeed, that man can rot away happily after being featured in such a good album!

This, Ladies and Gents, is one of the best Teutonic Deathrash albums you can possibly find. I'mma have to stop writing this review because I need to blast this record on while headbanging vigorously.

<Maybe Religious Brutal Thrash Galore!>

I was writing a long-ass review on this album, but it got scrapped in the end. Anyways, this is some really impressive Brutal Thrash Metal work here. I've been listening to this album a lot for the last few days. The whole album sounds like it's straight out from Death Angel's studio album, or Slayer's secret project that explores Kerry King's deep, undisclosed love for less harsh vocals.

The guitars make up over half of the brutality in this album while the drums are a bit weak. The riffs they came up with there are top-notch and sometimes insanely good. Forsaken Hatred, Idolatry and Subconcious have some really clever and fresh riffs, which is pretty neato! Overall production quality? Muddy but not grainy. It all comes up to an album worth collecting.

+ This album is really religious. It doesn't actually pinpoint one specific religion as it features symbols of multiple Abrahamic religions on the album cover. I am really not sure if they're a Christian band, and if the lyrics are supposed to be pro-Christian ("you worship satan prepare to die") or just tongue-in-cheek. Afterall, killing someone who worships Satan isn't very Christian of someone.

Or.. is it??

<To Be Crushed, Engulfed, Then Devoured By Heaviness>

To those who aren't familiar with this band, Conan is a Stoner Doom band from the UK. They show more of a... well, "atmospheric" approach on Doom Metal; an atmosphere that just nonchalantly crushes you with its overly distorted sounds. Bands like Ufomammut and Come My Fanatics era Electric Wizard are in the same vein.

Typical Stoner Doom Metal haters/critics poignantly pick on the genre's repetitiveness, a point which I actually agree on that it can easily pave its own shortcut to a hellish pit of boredom. And when I talk about records that are actually good and pleasing to listen to, I mean records that successfully eschewed that deep chasm in an artsy fashion. "Then how did Conan's second EP do it?" someone might ask. Very good question. Very good question indeed.

For an EP album that runs for half an hour it did a pretty good job on breaking the old-fashioned Stoner Doom Pulverize-Your-Encephalon method up by bending up the tempos. The first song, Krull, starts off in a damn heavy direction. And it drags itself through that road for eight minutes. And almost when you think the song's done, BAM! In your face, a badass heavy, fast-paced riff that blows your mind. The following song is called Satsumo. This song breaks up its own repetitiveness a few more times, and every time those parts pass you by you can't help but feel a sudden quench of thirst; a burst of sound that relieves your arid and parched mind. The next and third song, Dying Giant, is my favorite song from the four candidates on this album. The song builds up this heavy, suffocating atmosphere for the first half of the song. Then at the 3:10 mark the song just erupts by itself, leaving nothing in its path. But soon that whole building is gone and the song returns back to normal, before when all the madness happened. However, after another three minutes or so pass it reaches out for another gasp of air once again. Just like a dying giant's last roar. Pretty amazing song, ain't it? The last song is called Sea Lord, and it's what you'd expect after listening to three songs from this record; high vocals that feel like they're sang from far, far away with extremely heavy guitars underneath. The riffs are golden in this song, and with the vocals they form together a unification of pure "stonedness". A tripping balls type song, if you know what I mean.

This album is one of those records that you can't help but shout out "Holy Hell!"after a full spin. Overall it's a very good record and a definite recommendation for Stoner Doom starters.

<A Golden Tale of Epicness>

Fire Up the Blades, 3 Inches of Blood's third studio release, definitely shows a more pumped up rendition of their previous(and probably most renowned) album, Advance and Vanquish. It presents songs with more brutality, speed, and aggression sometimes reminiscent of that of mid-'80s Thrash Metal. The guitar lines and riffs are actually better than their previous efforts. The riffs come out one after another, giving no time for the listener to catch a relaxing breath. This is why the album pulls you in by your collar and never lets you go until the very end.

As I have mentioned, 3 Inches of Blood have achieved a more brutal sound with this album. First thing that you'll notice is that the usage of Cam's clean vocals have been drastically reduced, being replaced with more frequently used screaming vocals. Their previous releases have had mostly clean vocals leading the main chorus; however, this album is like early Kreator in terms of vocals. The screams are very powerful and full of angst and generally goes very well with the songs. Another thing to keep in mind is that the instrumental parts have become more fast and furious. The bashing drumming, guitars with more heaviness, and songs so fast like they're on crack all make an epic listen. It's almost like listening to Thrash Metal. This doesn't mean they've totally uprooted their NWOBHM sound the're found upon; they have actually managed to create a crossbred genre of somewhere between Thrash, Speed, Power(even some Black) and NWOBHM.

It's a shame the band is breaking up, but the fact they've put out an album so great and full of creativity is something to be grateful of. These guys rule(d)!

<Hearken the thunder that's breaking in your heart>

Following the departure(read: firing) of Papa Emiritus II, Ghost immediately introduced his younger brother, Papa Emiritus III, and released the follow-up to 2013's Infestissumam, Meliora. Therefore the voice change isn't all that drastic(because of obvious reasons).
Meliora (Latin for "the pursuit of something better"), like other Ghost studio albums, has an album cover based on a movie poster, this time being the 1927 film "Metropolis" by Fritz Lang. And the album cover is pretty clever, with Papa Emiritus' posture actually looking like his own face. Pretty nice eh?

Something to note about: the album cover isn't all that's amazing to this album. Meliora ain't that bombastic. Every single song actually plays a significant part on shaping the album as a whole. For those who aren't all that familiar with Ghost's sound, they remind me of occult(ish) Fire of Unknown Origin-era Blue Oyster Cult with a psychedelic touch(imagine Tame Impala) gone heavy. Ghost pulls off a satanic cult atmosphere that percolates the whole album, from start to finish. Tracks like From the Pinnacle to the Pit, Cirice, and Majesty takes a heaviness-oriented road while tracks like Spirit, Absolution, and Deus In Absentia is more melodic and less heavy. One common thing though, is that the riffs and melodies are stupendously well written. They sometimes even demonically resonate with you, giving shivers down your spine. (What a jerk Papa Emiritus III is, trying to possess me!) For every new spin you will get a brand new track stuck on your head. It's only the matter of what it is; be it the acoustic lines of Spoksonat, the pipe organ-led intro of Devil Church, or the Latin lyrics of He Is, it will pave a way inside your synaptic clefts.

Meliora, overall, is a very solid release with no weak songs. The only downside I found was that the catchiness can bite back, causing the songs to be banal after a few hundred listens. But other than that, this album is wonderful, and deserves multiple spins. +1 addition to the Swedes' wonderful catalogue.