Entry 840 - Celtic Frost - Monothiest

Style: Noise driven doom metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: An inescapable fate, death looms around every corner and there is fuckall you can do to avoid it

Thoughts: Where the fuck did this one come from? After hearing the Prototype demo I had essentially written this release off as garbage. That release was one of the worst excuses that has been tried to pass off as music that I've ever heard. Not sure what they were thinking there... but whatever they were drinking at the time wore off by the time Monotheist came out. This is the absolute antithesis of that sound... 

Monotheist is possibly one of the hardest albums I have in my collection to listen to. Part of the riffs - if you want to call them that - revolve around noisy feedback driven to the point where the listeners ears hurt. The other part revolve around creating such a desolate and bleak atmosphere that the very will to live has been eroded from the immediate listening area. 

These riffs are heavy... dangerously so. They come in like a glacier that will consume everything in it's path. Celtic Frost wrote these riffs with no regard of the mental health of the listener... these were written because Tom and company wanted to absolutely obliterate anything in their path. 

It's as if Celtic Frost saw what they were becoming with Prototype and had a reflexive reaction to do something so completely opposite, so transformative that there could be no doubt of what they were doing. Even on the "calmer" songs like Drown in Ashes the music is covered in feedback, and while the vocals are palatable there is this deep unease throughout the song. 

Even Tom's vocals have become nastier, grittier and more visceral than they ever were before. Even on releases like Morbid Tales or To Mega Therion he never sounded like this. While not quite death metal in delivery, the vocal approach still has the same effect. It's inhuman, it's harsh, and they exist only to violate the listeners sense of security. 

I called this music doom metal in the description, but I don't think that's entirely accurate. It's a starting point but it hardly paints a compete picture. Celtic Frost has created a sound on here that is so unique and harrowing that it can only be described as "Celtic Frost." They have done what so many bands spend a lifetime to achieve, make a sound so incredibly unique that it's only them playing it.

Monotheist is one of those albums that I would show to someone who wants to hear the unbridled force that metal can be delivered with. This is more brutal than the heaviest slam band, this is more diabolical than the darkest black metal. This is metal that has devolved and then re-evolved into something completely different - alien - that has ever come before... or after. A modern masterpiece.

Written June 13th 2024

Entry 839 - Chromonicci - Peaceful Places

Style: Instrumental hip hop

Primary Emotions/Themes: A deep sense of release that comes after working through an exceedingly stressful situation for an extended period of time

Thoughts: Life can get complicated. The older I get the more I realize that the simplicity of childhood was is a luxury that I simply do not have anymore. Too many things are happening at once, too many interconnected pieces that are no longer able to be ignored. It can get to be too much in a short amount of time.

Reflecting back the ignorance of youth is something that drive my nostalgia. It's this idealization of life back then that can lead to dangerous decision making for me now. I don't remember what life was like back then, only glimpses of distant memories that I had decades ago. Those memories often show me a life that I thought I had... things that made me happy. It further drives the nostalgia for simplicity.

This is the overwhelming feeling that I get when I listen to Peaceful Places. This short collection of eight songs funnels that exact same feeling of innocent nostalgia that I have memories of when I was a kid. The music and melodies captured in this record emulate those peaceful moments nearly perfectly.

The music revolves around simple melodies that repeat after just a few moments structured around a beat. These melodies would easily be a hindrance to my enjoyment of the album if they weren't so damn good. The way that the songs are produced and structed really make this a pure joy to listen to. 

Instead of being annoyed by the repetition, I'm lulled into a peaceful trance instead. As the music progresses and layers on more harmonies throughout the songs I find myself swaying to the groove. Instead of irritation, the beats ground me and remind me that these moments in my past are important, but not as important as the current one. I'm able to channel the feeling of simplicity from back then to my current state, bringing in an air of tranquility.

Peaceful Places is a blissfully simple album. It hides nothing from the listener and is simply content to be. This album may not have the same effect on others as it does myself, and that's ok. That's part of the beauty of music. As far as I'm concerned though, this is what instrumental hip hop is all about.

Written June 13th 2024

Entry 838 - Celeste - Farewell

Style: VGM

Primary Emotions/Themes: The final installment of the Celeste soundtrack, a tearful goodbye

Thoughts: Everything that can be said about the Celeste soundtrack can be said about Farewell. This is the continuation of everything that Lena put forward in the original games soundtrack. 

All of the beauty and majesty of the original soundtrack is here. All of the wonder and feeling of perseverance through repetition is reflected in this music. The peace, the serenity. It's all here.

It's bitter sweet listening to this. This is the last entry into the Celeste soundtrack, and while I'm glad to have this I'm sad that there will not be anything further. That said, I will celebrate what has been created in the past with the full knowledge that this is some of the best music written in recent memory. 

Written June 5th 2024

Entry 837 - Celeste - B-Sides

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Reimaginations of the main themes in Celeste

Thoughts: Celest B sides, a collection of songs written by other artists to reflect the challenge levels of each area in the game. They range from being a close reinterpretation of the original zone to something a bit off kilter. 

This almost feels more like a remix album more than it does part of the main soundtrack. In fact I think that this is one way that the album can be viewed, a bunch of artists with their own style putting their interpretations on the music composed by Lena. 

Albums like this are almost a mixed bag in terms of quality, but the B Sides remain high in quality and varied in style throughout the runtime of the album. The songs retain the original spirit in most cases, the truly interesting ones though are those that branch well off into their own directions. 

Reflections (Center of the Earth Mix) is a prime example of this. It sounds more like a spaceship reaching its final destination than anything you would find in Celeste. It also utilizes an electric guitar as the lead instrument leading it further from the original seemingly at every turn.

The Celeste B sides are some of the most challenging parts of the game, and hearing the music for them amassed on an album like this is very cool to say the least. Remix albums are hit and miss, but as this one goes it's certainly one of the better ones I'm aware of.

Written June 5th 2024

Entry 836 - Celeste - Piano Collections

Style: Piano interpretations of video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Like seeing an old friend for the first time in years, it's a bit different but so very similar at the same time

Thoughts: Celeste is one of the better video games in the last ten years. The soundtrack may very well be the best in that time frame. I can't express enough how much I love Lena Raine's compositions. They are at the very apex of what video game music can and should be. The perfect mix of memorable melodies and the sound that makes the music distinctly within the video game music genre. 

What would happen if we took the sound away though? Replaced with piano? Does it still have the same appeal? Does the music still hold up? 

The music is indeed different, but different isn't always bad. In fact, Celeste's music lends itself particularly well to this type of interpretation.  The melodies hold up despite the instrumentation used. In many ways the change in instrument gives the music a new character, a bit more tenderness than it has with the synths. Other times the acoustic nature of the piano reminds me of why the synths are better suited for this music. Either way though the music itself holds up incredibly well regardless of what it's being played on.

I'm normally not a huge fan of reinterpretations of video game music soundtracks. I prefer to let the original stand on it's own. While the soundtrack will get a ton more play from me than the piano collections, this album does have a place in my collection. It reminds me of how beautiful music Lena's music can be even when not played in the original context.

Written June 5th 2024

Entry 835 - Frog Concert - Lullaby of the Crystal Eyed Squeaker

Style: Dungeon synth, classical

Primary Emotions/Themes: An odd sense of tranquility and acceptance of the world around me. Enlightenment through contemplation

Thoughts: What happens when frogs get ahold of classical instrument? Who would listen? What would it sound like? Lullaby of the Crystal Eyed Squeaker answers all of these questions so that enquiring minds no longer need wonder.

As silly as the idea of a Frog Concert is, there is nothing silly at all about Lullaby of the Crystal Eyed Squeaker. The thirteen tracks on this album are nothing short of magical. This collection of tunes is some of the absolute finest music to cross my ears this year and will undoubtedly end up on my best of the year list.

Lullaby is largely a string driven album. Violins, viola, and cello create a string quartet feeling that is explored in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it's accompanied by piano, other times an organ, other times they just are allowed to be by themselves. That's not to say that the strings are present in every song. There are quite a few tracks where they are absent, however they do seem to be the predominant instrument in the album.  

The music itself brings out the very best in me. The album is one of the most peaceful and contemplative works that is in my collection. The way that these songs are structured allow me to take the notes in slowly and deliberately.

There are points in the album where it almost feels minimalistic, but the execution is anything but. It feels so simple and so complete that it's easy to miss the small details in the background. The melody will be played off a violin or a piano, and it's easy to miss the sounds of the swamp in the background or the counter melody that is subtly played off a second instrument. I absolutely adore this kind of music composition.

I can't put into words how much this album has impacted me. I was put onto this album by a close friend and I feel I owe him a debt of gratitude for it. It only made things better when the package came from the Frog Concert Maestro himself, including a hand written note on a sheet of music thanking me for my purchase. This whole release makes me smile, it makes me warm inside, it brings me peace.

Written June 5th 2024

Entry 834 - Wyrding

Style: Goth rock, doom...?

Primary Emotions/Themes: A tribute to the forefathers of yesteryear, the pioneers who perfected the style of gothic rock 

Thoughts: I know nothing about this band. This was included as a bonus LP on a recent order from the enigmatic Frog Concert. I had no expectations on what was going to come through my speakers when the needle dropped.

Wyrding from what I can tell is a modern take on 80's goth rock. The pace is slowed down to a glacial crawl but the overall feel is very much the same. The vocals in particular have that drawn out gothic drawl to them that fits them in with the early goth rock bands easily.

The music itself is largely guitar driven, however there is a healthy smattering of keyboards as well. The two combine to create a dreary atmosphere that often feels similar to that found in doom metal. The pace also matches that found within the doom genre, with the bpm rarely going above 90. Overall its a rather dismal sound that I've grown quite fond of.

Wyrding isn't something I think I will have the urge to listen to very often, however it does fit a rather novel spot in my collection. I don't have that much goth rock, and I certainly do not have any that sounds like this. For that alone it deserves a spot in the record stacks.

Written June 4th 2024

Entry 833 - Frog Concert - Slumbering Sounds of the Frog Fellowship

Style: Dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: A croaking good time

Thoughts: 

Dungeon Synth is quickly growing to becoming one of my favorite genres. It does not take itself seriously, and it's constantly spitting out new and fascinating takes on what someone can do with a keyboard and an imagination. Dinosaur themes? You got it! Sitting next to grandma as she cooks a pie? Yep. Watching an old man pack a pipe and tell tales of when he was younger for hours on end? You got it. What about epic tales of far away lands and legends of mythical beasts? Without question. Pretty much if it can be though of then it can be put into this genre somehow. 

Frog Concert. The name alone should bring about some indication of what the music sounds like. Croaking frogs, flies passing by, the subtle sounds of the swamp. All of this and more can be had during the run time of this fascinating album.

As the name and album cover imply this album revolves around music as if it were performed by frogs. The result is nothing short of unique. I can honestly say that I have not heard anything like this in the past, nor am I likely to hear something like this again outside of this project.

The songs are short and have little progression to them, but that is perfectly fine. They are there for a few moments before passing on to the next crazy theme. What about a frog playing a pipe organ in a swamp? Try out In Boreal Repose. A frog braving the wilds with sword in hand? Fate Fortune and Flies has you covered. A lonesome tune played by a clarinet lamenting the loss of a beautiful habitat? Toad Anigua is where you need to be.

I don't know if those examples are truly what the creator had intended, but they are fun to imagine. The whole album is so quirky and bizarre that it makes me smile every time it's on. Nothing is like this in my collection... it stands alone in solidarity.

Written June 4th 2024

Entry 832 - Castlevania - Symphony of the Night

Style: VGM

Primary Emotions/Themes: Only one of the single greatest soundtracks ever released on any system for any game ever... the end.

Thoughts: There was once a young man who thought he knew what kinds of games he enjoyed. This strapping young lad enjoyed RPG's and platformers as well as adventure games. He enjoyed a game with a good story and memorable characters. This youth's world was about to be turned upside down.

Castlevania had never been a series that he took too seriously before. The games were difficult and he would always die late in the game and have to start over from the beginning. After a few dozen times of doing so the games became unfun and he cast them by the wayside. Then his room mate came home with Symphony of the Night...

It looked cool enough, the game started with a Dracula fight? That was different. Then all the sudden were playing as someone else? Alucard? Who is that? We just made it into the castle in the brink of time! Look at the size of those dogs! They are huge! What? Death? At the start of the game? Did I just level up... and what is that...? What is that music? Why is it so damn good?

That is an approximation of my first reaction to seeing this game. My room mate did in fact come home with Symphony on a fateful afternoon. We both played it for what seemed like countless hours trying to figure out where to go next. Before we knew it it was way into the night and we had to sleep for the next days activities. I had dreams of vampires and exploration.

One of the lasting impressions that the game gave me was it's soundtrack. It was one of the absolute best I had heard on the PlayStation and I kept coming back to listening to it time and time again. I went out and bought the CD for it to listen to in the car... it was that good.

It combined the best of the previous generation games soundtracks with the expanded capabilities of the PlayStations soundcard/CD music... and it was incredible. For the first time we heard pipe organs, electric guitars, full string ensembles... it was all so epic and captivating. Every song fit the area perfectly... the waltz to start the games introduction to the Castle. The first fight with Dracula as Richter... it was all so immersive. Dammit now I want to go play the game again.

The game redefined several things for me. The first being that now one of my favorite game genres were this thing called Metroidvania's. Secondly this helped solidify my lifelong love of video game music, not just in the games but on their own as well. This is single handedly one of the most important games in my life span, and the fact that I have both this and the Super Metroid soundtrack on vinyl blows my mind.

Written June 4th 2024

Entry 831 - Castlevania III

Style: VGM

Primary Emotions/Themes: A tale of two sound chips

Thoughts: If you ever wondered what the NES/Famicom was truly capable of sound wise, then the Japanese version of Castlevania III is exactly what you need. This album is a double LP with one containing the soundtrack for the North American version and the other the Japanese version.

There is a distinct difference between the two with a simple explanation: the Famicom cart had an extra sound chip in it. The NES version is quite excellent in its own right - this is a Castlevania soundtrack after all. If I had never heard the Famicom version I would easily say that this is the definitive soundtrack for the series on the NES.

The songs have a life and a spark to them that the first two games are lacking in somewhat. If we compare the ever popular Bloody Tears to the one from Simons Quest it's clear that the version from III is the superior one. It is more upbeat, the bleeps and bloops work together better, and the percussion feels more lively than it did in previous games. It's a real pleasure to listen to.

Then I heard the Famicom version... and all the sudden the NES version did not sound nearly as good. Instead of 8 bit chip tunes we have several more tracks interlacing with the melody - giving it more counter melodies and a clearer overall sound. Where the NES soundtrack sounds compressed and it's struggling to get every ounce it can out of the NES sound chip, the Famicom version sounds effortless, uncompressed, and free flowing. It's night and day the difference.

Castlevania III is still the definitive soundtrack for the Castlevania series on the 8 bit Nintendo systems. Out of the two though the Famicom version is the one that I will listen to when given the choice. I'm glad that the record came with both versions of the soundtrack, it's a nice touch for a classic game. 

Written June 4th 2024

Entry 830 - Disillusion - Back to Times of Splendor

Style: Epic melodic death metal with a tinge of progressive 

Primary Emotions/Themes: Balancing harshness, melody, progressive riffing on a razors edge while still creating some of the most profound songs within the genre

Thoughts: The idea of creating progressive metal is nothing new. Creating it with memorable riffs though is something that fewer bands can do. Creating it with a mix of harsh vocals and cleans is something fewer still can claim. Creating it with riffs and melodies that leave a deep lasting impact on me, well now that's something special.

Back to Times of Splendor is one such album. These six songs are nearly an hour in length with two of them reaching well past the fourteen minute mark. With songs that long they damn well better respect my time, and I am happy to report that every moment of this album has a deep reverence for the listener. There isn't a moment wasted with pointless meandering, everything is to the point and continues to feed the listener with riff after tasty riff.

The opener ...and the Mirror Cracked explodes right away with a massive riff. The first time I heard it I was blown back in my chair, literally. I was not expecting it. This is similar to the rest of the album, it's explosive riff after explosive riff. Even tracks that are not as strong (such as Fall) are still loaded to the brim with riffs that want to rip my face off... but with a strong sense of melody. 

The band isn't afraid to change things up either. Almost all of the songs on here, wither they are 5 minutes long or seventeen, they weave through different passages easily. The transitions are so seamless it's sometimes easy to miss that the song has moved from one section to another. Expertly done.

The real star here though is the last two tracks. A Day by the Lake acts essentially as an intro for The Sleep of Restless Hours. The ominous "But it came..." transitioning into the acoustic intro gives me chills, even twenty years after the album was initially released. 

The final track is a collection of everything that the band has done right on the album: powerful melodic riffs that leave me in a sense of awe, complex arrangements that keep me engaged with the song, acoustic guitars intermixed with tasteful keyboards. All of that wrapped up with one of the single best album closing movements I've ever heard. Easily one of the best melodic death metal songs in my collection.

Back to Times of Splendor is something that I never really thought about owning. The album is incredibly good, but all of the pressings for it are old and cost a lot of money... that was until the 20th anniversary version was released. Now the album can take its rightful place in my collection... another album that brings it one step closer to completion.

Written June 4th 2024

Entry 829 - Minenwerfer - Alpenpasse

Style: Militaristic black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: 

Thoughts: Every time I put this album on I get a huge feeling of nostalgia. This albums structure reminds me so much of one of my favorite black metal albums. It's not that the music sounds too similar, but the way that the songs are ordered and the way that the album flows is so similar that it gives me fond memories. 

The album starts out with the incredible epic Der Blutharsch a nearly 17 minute epic. To go through all the twists and turns that this song embows upon the listener would take forever so we'll go over some of the highlights instead. Right at 11 minutes there is a heartfelt guitar solo that compliments the epic nature of the song and drapes this incredibly mournful tone on top of it. The first five minutes of the song are instrumental and they build into an incredible crescendo before the vocals come crashing through my speakers. The final few minutes of the song introduce the first blast beats and add an extra level of intensity, it rounds out the song in a nearly perfect way.

Der Blutharsch is not only an epic song, it displays why black metal can be emotive. This song alone is a huge reason why Alpenpasse is my favorite Minenwerfer album. This song is a ten out of ten, it is something that should be looked upon with reverence.

The rest of the album has significantly shorter songs, however they still range in the eight to twelve minute range. They tend to be a bit more focused on a few concepts rather than the journey that the opening track brings. None of that is bad though, it allows the album to essentially have two chapters, with the opener being the first and the remainder of the album being the second.

The entire flow of the album reminds me a lot of Enslaved's Eld. The first track making a grand statement about what the band is capable of and the rest of the album exploring smaller ideas after. Eld is my favorite Enslaved album by far, and as such the comparisons the Alpenpasse is apt as this shares a similar opinion for Minenwerfer's discography.

Written June 4th 2024.

Entry 828 - Cannibal Corpse - Tomb of the Mutilated

Style: Brutal death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Look at the cover... does this question even need to be asked?

Thoughts: Name a more iconic death metal album. Go on... I'll wait. Sure there may be albums that are better than this one. Sure there are albums that I regard more highly than this one, but this thing is essentially the flagship album for the genre. 

I knew of Tomb of the Mutilated before I even knew of death metal. Watching Ace Ventura when I was a wee little lad imprinted this album on me. I didn't know that the scary music was death metal, and I didn't know that Hammer Smashed Face was even a song then. When those connections were made years later my mind was blown.

Tomb of the Mutilated has one of the best one two combo punches I've ever heard in death metal. Hammer Smashed Face opens the album in brutal fashion with riff after fucking riff. Every time I think it's going to let up, it only gets more intense. The vocals are a key part in this as well. Chris Barns may be a joke these days, but in the early Cannibal Corpse days he was one of the absolute best. 

He helped pioneer the whole brutal death sound with this album. The vocals here are the essence of what you hear these days. Deep, gurgled, completely incomprehensible. Brutal. There is no other word. These are the very definition of brutal vocals.

The second track is a long time fan favorite and one that has made waves across the internet with the way that Corspegrinder announces it. I Cum Blood is a legendary song, and much like Hammer Smashed Face it's nearly instantly recognizable. Despite all the chromatic progressions, as soon as that blast beat hits it's hard to do anything but head bang.

This continues for the next thirty minutes - the perfect length for an album like this. Anything longer and it feels like the album starts to blend together. Anything shorter and it's more of an EP than it is a full length. There are a few good Cannibal Corpse albums, but this one is the best. In all of it's disgusting glory, this one rules on top of all the others.

Written May 21st 2024

Entry 827 - Final Fantasy IX - Terra Gaia

 

 

Style: Jazzy hip hop, video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Like meeting an old friend but something has changed

Thoughts: Final Fantasy IX is a game I never finished. For whatever reason I never got past the second disc and even now, decades later, I never went back to finish it. I suppose I should at some point. It's often hailed as a fine return to form after the experimentation of VIII. 

The one thing I do remember though is the music. It was excellent (much like all Uematsu's works around the time). It was more grandiose and seemed to have a larger scale to it than any of his previous works. Almost as if he was now truly comfortable with the 32 bit sound chip as opposed to that of the 16 bit of the SNES. 

So where does Terra Gaia come into this? Well this album is a reinterpretation of many of the composition from Final Fantasy IX. The style used here is a mix of lofi hip hop, lounge, jazz, and some other pretty low key genres. The overwhelmingly present mood on the album is calm and peace. This is an album to relax to after a hard day.

The one thing that is immediately obvious is the care that was taken to create these tracks. The artist (who is anonymous) has a deep reverence for the source music. Most of the tracks are recognizable within the first few measures of the song. It's always fun to listen without a track list and be pleasantly surprised when a familiar melody crosses the speakers. 

Remix/reinterpretation albums are always a bit of a hit or miss with me. Too often they are lazy recreations of the original. I say about 90% of the time I would rather listen to the source music than another "lofi" version of a familiar soundtrack. Here though, there is a lot more put into it than normal. These tracks have been transformed into something new, yet retaining the identity of the original. This is what I need out of cover albums. This is how you do it.

Written May 21st 2024

Entry 826 - Caladan Brood - Echoes of Battle

Style: Epic black metal/dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: The greatest tribute possible to Summoning

Thoughts: They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Well if that is the case then Caladan Brood are utterly smitten by Summoning. 

Echoes of Battle may as well be a Summoning album from their glory days the way that it is written and presented. Six tracks, seventy minutes. Drawn out sequences of guitars battling with keyboards for the melodic lead. Layer upon layer of melody strewn upon the listener in such a way that the music takes on a character far greater than imagined.

Caladan Brood's music is simple in nature. Take a melody on guitar or keyboard and repeat it for about ten minutes. After the melody has been established put layer upon layer upon layer of supporting instruments before finally adding in programmed drums that sound like a dirge march. 

That's it, that is the entire essence of this album. It's deceptively simple and on paper it sounds rather boring. The reality though is that it is incredibly engaging, and the more the depth of the songs begins to reveal itself the more I get dragged into the music. 

Now there is the inevitable comparison to the masters of this style: Summoning. Caladan Brood do not shy away from this comparison at all, in fact they embrace it. On the vinyl version of the album there are not one, but two Summoning cover songs (including one of my favorite ones: Marching Homewards). 

There are some minor differences between the two bands. Caladan Brood tends to have a bit faster songs, even incorporating a blast beat or two. Summoning tends to be a bit more grandiose, if that's even possible. I also tend to prefer Summoning. 

Echoes of Battle is an epic album. Sitting through the whole thing is an invitation to lands untold and stories beyond imagination. It's excellent in it's own right and if this is the only album we get from this project then they certainly went There and Back Again with much comings and goings. 

Written May 20th 2024

Entry 825 - Pa Vesh En - Catacombs

Style: Raw black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: A murderer is chasing me through corridors made of rust, I hear them coming up behind me. I fall, I hear the footsteps stop. I brace for the end, but nothing happens.

Thoughts: Pa Vesh En is one of the better surprises to come out of the raw black metal scene of the last few years. Not only is the music well executed, this project manages to capture an atmosphere so horrific, so terrifying that it takes a highly specific frame of mind to listen to it. To go in unprepared is asking to be drowned in a sea of dread.

From my understanding Catacombs is a remix/rerecording of some of the project's older tracks. I'm not as familiar with the early works of the band so I'll let that remain my understanding until I can get a better handle on the complete discography. 

One thing that is immediately apparent is that this is some sort of compilation. Whereas Manic Manifest or Martyrs has a cohesive musical narrative throughout the entire album, this one feels a bit more disjointed and hap hazard. 

This is not inherently a bad thing, but it does take away one of the stronger aspects of the bands sound. That being the insanely oppressive atmosphere that never lets up. In Catacombs the writing style and in some aspects the production vary from track to track so it gives the album a bit less focus and hence drags it down just a tad from the expectations set from the last few opus'.

Each track in and of itself though is a completely different matter. Some are slow and haunting like a lurking deamon come stalking its prey. Others are as chaotic and violent as anything from the past two albums. The strength of the individual tracks is enough to overcome the innate weakness of the lack of focus the compilation nature of the release brings.

The atmosphere is suffocating, the songs are completely devoid of hope, and most of all the entire affair feels completely inhuman. All of these facets are central to why Pa Vesh En is such a strong project. Without them, the music and the mystique around the band would be weaker... and in the world that Pa Vesh En has created the weak are culled.

Written May 20th 2024

Entry 824 - BVDub - Drowning in Daylight

Style: Melodic ambient with a subtle hint of techno

Primary Emotions/Themes: Looking at the horizon right before dawn. The beauty and radiance of the night sky being slowly erased by the warmth of the sun and a new day.

Thoughts: I stood at the edge of the world facing the endless ocean. The night had been ever-present since I could remember. As the skies darkened so did our lust for hope. The light from the stars was but a hint of a distant memory, an ever fading dream of blue.

Only here, where all things end was I able to come to a new beginning. Looking down into the endless waves I finally saw it. It was more radiant than anything I had seen before, more bountiful than the most alluring simulations. 

My eyes could not handle this newfound light. It was too much, I had to look away. I feared to do so, knowing I may not ever see it again. When my eyes returned to the sight, it had not disappeared. It had only grown stronger. A light crested upon the horizon. It was unlike anything I had ever witnessed before. Dawn.

-------

There is something about this album. Something magical that transcends the music. It pierces me and slowly envelops me in it's captivating embrace. There is a beautiful darkness and horrible light that comes from this album. Things that should not be comforting are, and things that should be comforting offer little respite.

The wonder of the album starts with the title track. It's a gloomy mix of BVDub's traditional haze mixed with minimalistic melodies that repeat for nearly the entire twenty minutes. Unlike other albums around this time, he does not shy away from the techno influences of Serenity and instead embraces them. They are not as overt or as ever present as one might expect, but they are present enough that they add a strong backbone to the music.

Drowning in Daylight as an album is an exercise in depth and layers. The longer the songs deliberate the more singular components are added in. By the end the song that started out simple is now a multilayered complex of emotions and thoughts. 

Do not mistake this for overwhelming however. Nothing about this album is overt. Even with eight to ten different things going on in the song, they all sync up in such a way that they are in discrete symbiosis rather than in competition with each other for my attention.

It's this gentle tension that brings an uneasiness to the music though. As the song progresses I get a sense that things are in subtle conflict with each other, even though the music sounds so harmonious. It's only when everything is stripped away to its base components that I feel truly at peace with the record. 

This ebb and flow is what gives Drowning in Daylight its character. It brings about deep emotions in me and reminds me so much of why I love BVDub's music. This is probably my second favorite album of his, second only to Serenity. The very definition of outstanding music.

Written May 20th 2024

Entry 823 - BVDub - Explosions in Slow Motion

Style: Deeply obscured ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: Peace where there should be chaos, calm in the midst of unrest

Thoughts: I close my eyes, I see before me a brewing storm. The world is brewing it's conspiracies against me, trying to defeat me once again. It bears an unnameable malice towards me, towards every. single. living thing on this planet. It will not be content until all have suffered greatly at it's hands.

I take a deep breath, I look inward, I find peace. The storm that surrounds me is incapable of reaching my inner sanctum. While it rages around me I am at peace, I have found the eye. 

------

Explosions in Slow Motion is one of the most profound pieces of ambient music I have in my collection. It is the fulfillment of all the promise that BVDub has shown over so many albums. While not his best work, it is certainly a top five album of his. Considering how many albums this dude has released that is saying quite a bit.

The fascinating thing about this album is that nothing much has changed from his previous works. The hazy ambience is there, the long form songs, the distorted vocals, the occasional beat. All the ingredients are the same, yet somehow this one come out stronger.

Unlike other times when something is "just better" without any quantifiable reasons, Explosions in Slow Motion is the exact opposite. The way that these songs progress is impeccable. They start out minimalist, and remain so in the amount of individual ideas presented at one time. The minimalism does not mean that this album feels hollow though, in fact quite the opposite. Through simplicity comes greatness. 

The album truly does feel like the eye of a storm. The music feels like it should be frantic, but instead it feels like a moment of clarity. The world slows down, peace envelops everything, and the world is as it should be. 

What really drives this home for me is the inclusion of stringed instruments. Cello and violin are used at key moments during the main songs as well as the interludes to make this album that much more profound. I can't emphasize enough how powerful these moments are. It's like finding that missing peace to a puzzle you have been searching for for years. The moment when you realize the solution to a problem that has been taxing at you for eons. It's Archimedes shouting eureka while running around town naked. 

Explosions in Slow Motion is all these things and none of them. It is it's own expression of an age old truth in audio form. A truly astounding album.

Written May 20th 2024

Entry 822 - BVDub - Wrath and Apathy

Style: Hazy ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: Consistently flirting with greatness only to stumble at the last moment

Thoughts: BVDub may be one of my favorite ambient artists. His combination of obscure ambient melodies with a thick wall of haze is second to none. That said, with the amount of releases this dude has to his name it's natural that some will be of higher quality than others. 

Wrath and Apathy consists of four songs, all around twenty minutes in length. Four songs, four sides to a double LP. Sounds rather intentional to me. 

Each one of the compositions feels more like a journey than any type of typical song. Anyone familiar with BVDub will know that his compositions tend to be well over ten minutes long. They might also be familiar with how his music progresses from the start of the song to the finish. Some do this better than others, some feel more complete than others, some are flat out better than others. 

I keep hinting at the varying quality of his music for good reason. Wrath and Apathy is not one of his better releases. The whole affair seems... for lack of a better term: lacking. The atmosphere is there, but it's not quite as developed as other releases. The vocals and harrowing soundscapes are there, but they don't feel as well thought out or planned as similar releases. The melodies are there, but again they are lacking compared to more compelling releases from BVDub. 

There are some good ideas here, a seed planted for a good song. That seed never truly gets the nourishment it needs, it's always stuck as a sapling. It's a damn shame. 

I really wanted to like Wrath and Apathy, and while it's still a BVDub album I would rather listen to pretty much any of the other albums that I own by him. This one still hits the turntable every now and then, but most of the time it's quickly replaced by another entry in his extensive discography.

Written May 16th 2024

Entry 821 - Burzum - Filosofem

Style: Hypnotic black metal, ambient/dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: Entering a meditative state where I become one with the world around me

Thoughts: "Separate the art from the artist." A divisive saying if I've ever heard one, and yet it is fully applicable here. There are few people less infamous in all of metal than Varg. His list of offenses is long and involved and will not be recounted here. They do set the stage though for a moral decision. Can I enjoy the music of someone who has views such as his and done deeds as despicable as he has done?

Filosofem is the fourth full length of the Burzum project and sees Varg take his music to the logical conclusion of what was started on Hvis lyset tar oss. These songs are longer with the shortest one being just over seven minutes long... the longest being twenty five. The repeated riffs that come wave after wave have been refined and molded to make a much greater impression. 

The title track from the previous album hinted at this style, but the riffs were bland and overly repetitive for what they were. By contrast songs like Jesu dod take the same formula and reinvent it. The instead of the riff becoming annoying, it feels like it should go on forever. Instead of the vocals getting in the way of my enjoyment of the music, they have been pushed back and made slightly less agitating. 

The production ahs been muted somewhat as well. While this is obviously a black metal album, the production is slightly clearer than expected - especially considering the bands past. While still sounding behind a wall of fuzz, the production is decidedly more accessible. The instruments are clear and well defined, the vocals are mixed well, the drums - while not the clearest - server their purpose well and don't dominate the record in any way. In short, the production is well done and quite pleasing to the ears.

This then leaves the outlier on the album... the twenty five minute synth track. This is a direct extension of Tomhet from the previous album and could be considered an early form of dungeon synth - though to my ears it sounds more like an ambient track. The songwriting here remains the same as the rest of the album, albeit with different instruments. The melodies continue for lengthy periods of time with no change. They are never unpleasing to the ear, and often fade into the background as I'm going about my day. It's a bit of an outlier to the black metal on the remainder of the album.

Filosofem is Varg's magnum opus. It is easily digestible to anyone who has a taste for black metal, and will remain in my head for days at a time. Does this make it good enough for me to detach the man from his music? I don't know... the jury is still out. For the time being though this album is the only one of his I have in my collection, and it will likely remain that way for a long time.

Written May 16th 2024

Entry 820 - Burst - Lazarus Bird

 

Style: Progressive hardcore punk

Primary Emotions/Themes: Two dueling forces wrestling for control 

Thoughts: Now this was unexpected. I had known about this album since its release and I enjoyed it quite a bit back then. Somehow it fell off my radar for nearly a decade until I saw that it got a repress. The price was right so I picked it up without a second thought.

Burst are a bit of an anomaly. At their core they are hardcore punk, but that's like saying Neurosis or Converge are hardcore punk. It's a part of their sound, but they have evolved far beyond the confines of that genre.

The core aspect of the sound on Lazarus Bird is one of light and dark, violence contrasting peace, complexity mirroring calm. It's an paradoxical album that finds its identity in opposing forces. This is seen both musically and vocally.

Musically the band alternates between clean and distorted electric guitar riffs, simple to complex riff arrangements, and a linear song structure. The riffs are the driving force of the music. They ebb and flow with a grace that is uncommon. Full on distorted riffs with a blast beat will turn into clean guitars that mimic rain drops in an instant. A massive build up that takes six minutes to morph from the humblest of origins into a mighty behemoth of a song is done effortlessly. 

The vocals mirror the riffs in every capacity. Employing two vocalists, one for cleans one for the traditional hardcore shout. While both vocalists don't typically overlap, there are points in the songs where they are used in a duet. These are the moments that truly shine. The highlights of the album include the sections where the music is weaving in and out of distortion and the two vocalists are overlapping each other in a beautiful dance. Cripple God, (We Watched) The Silver Rain, and City Cloaked all reach rare heights with this combination.

Lazarus Bird is not a perfect album, there are some awkward moments - but when the band puts everything together they reach rarefied air. This is the last album that the band has released and that's a damn shame. The band truly found their own sound with this album. At very least they decided to leave at the top of their game.

Written May 16th 2024

Entry 819 - Borgne - Temps Morts

Style: Industrial black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Hatred towards a creator that forced an unwilling union of machine upon an unknowing human being

Thoughts: We all have masters in one form or another. Even those who proclaim to be free have something, somewhere that they are servitude towards. Ideals, money, religion, physical enslavement... everyone has a master. 

Borgne's latest album shows a great disdain and malice towards... something... anything. This is a supremely angry album. The vocals in particular have undergone a drastic change from the previous two opus. 

Instead of a higher registered rasp as is pretty typical for black metal, the vocals now have more of a human tone to them. They are almost shouted... in a half shouted half screamed kind of way. It's enough to give them just a tint more humanity than previous. 

In stark contrast to this the vocals also will shift to a near death metal like roar. Contrary to the higher vocals these are even more inhumane and present quite the duality for the vocal delivery. The roar is often utilized in the more aggressive parts of the music, amplifying the innate abhorrence of the record.

The music here also seems to have undergone a further refinement from Y. The black metal is a bit more prominent this time around with a stronger emphasis on actual riffs rather than soundscape type moments of songs. There are more "melodic" sections, where the lead guitar will guide the music rather than a chord progression.

There are still quite a bit of ambience on this record, probably more so than Y... but it feels like the band is slowly morphing into more of a black metal act and pushing the industrial elements to the background little by little. Y was the perfect balance of the two, Temps Morts seems to be just a tad too far on the black metal side of this delicate balance - at least for my tastes.

Written May 14th 2024

Entry 818 - Borgne - Y

Style: Industrial black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The synthesis of humanity and machine into one  

Thoughts: Y is a thought experiment conducted through music. It begs the question, what is man and what is machine? What are the two of them to each other? Can they coexist? Can they be one and the same?

All things must evolve. If they do not, then they wither and die to the ever changing times. Humanity is no exception, we must evolve or we are to die in this tomb we call earth. As we evolve so does the music we create. 

Borgne's art is that of synthesis. A fully realized symbiosis of machine and man - creating something that is greater than anything we could hope to be individually... at least that appears to be the argument that their music is making.

Y is the direct continuation of [∞] in that it takes the ambient, industrial, and black metal elements and forces them together. They are no longer distinct entities, rather they have all been assimilated into the entity known as Borgne. Resistance is futile. 

Whereas the previous album seemed to have the band exploring different facets of their sound, Y comes across razor focused. They have cut all the chaff and thrown it to the wind, there is zero filler here. When I read descriptions like that it makes me worry that the album sounds samey and that I'll become bored in short order - especially when the songs are as long as they are here. That is not the case with Y.

While all the songs sound like a cohesive unit, they explore different sides of this unified sound. Some tracks with include electronic drums, others will lean a bit more heavily into the atmospherics and slower tempos. Others still will attempt to rip my face off with their speed and aggression. All the while maintaining a perfect balance of industrial and black metal. 

I don't think I've enjoyed an industrial black metal album as much as Y since Aborym released With No Human Intervention. It's a huge breath of fresh air for me, and something I have been seeking to add to my collection for years. I finally have my go to record for industrial black metal.

Written May 13th 2024

Entry 817 - Borgne - [∞]

Style: Industrial black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The horrors of what happens when humans give over control to machines 

Thoughts: Industrial black metal. What a fascinating yet incredibly frustrating genre. It sounds like such an amazing combination, but very few bands have caught my attention over the years. They either start off good and fade out (Aborym) or disband (Red Harvest - I know they aren't really black metal, but close enough) or just are not to my liking.

Borgne is a rather new find for me. I only came across them earlier this year and I was quickly smitten by their alluring formula. They combine atmospheric black metal with a large dose of industrial and ambient music. The resultant music derived from these ingredients is strikingly intoxicating. 

On [∞] Borgne lean heavily on the atmosphere. It recalls to mind being stuck on a floating frigate in the depths of space with an unknown horror chasing you throughout the entire ship. Mechanical noises, deep synthesized ambience, layer upon layer of synths... all of these add to the imminent terror that the album evokes. 

The metal is an important part to all of this of course, but it is not the main focus. It's used as a tool to further evoke the moments of uncertainty and chaos that the ambience brings. The two work as if in symbiosis with each other, neither dominating, yet neither is complete without the other. 

Terror is not the only emotion that [∞] brings though. Starting with Un temps perit the album take a turn to emphasize the incredible scope and vastness of space. This track in particular is likely my favorite off the album. Starting with haunting female vocals before a massive chorus of guitars comes in with a pipe organ. To say that the song is massive is an understatement, overwhelming may be a better term.

These moments are fleeing though as with Comme si ca s'arretera/stone the band unleashes the full force of its fury. This ten minute epic is the fiercest of all the tracks on [∞] and blasts through my speakers with the force of an imperium battle ship. 

[∞] is a fascinating if not a little unrefined of an album. the songs are long, and for the most part they justify the run time. This is the first album with Lady Kaos on keyboards, and while the potential is shown, its not until the next album where it is fully realized. 

Written May 13th 2024

Entry 816 - Bmbu - #Throwback

Style: Instrumental hip hop

Primary Emotions/Themes: That moment of pure bliss as you lay down after a hard days work with no responsibilities left

Thoughts: I've probably used this analogy before, but it works incredibly well for #throwback. A deep breath, a pause. The stress of the world. Financial pressures from constant inflation. Stress from work that never seems to truly cease. A respite is needed.

This respite can be as simple as taking five minutes, breathing in deeply and exhaling slowly. It forces the nervous system to slow down, to stop releasing adrenaline. A moment in time to stop everything in its tracks, to close your eyes and just be. No stress, no fear, no emotions, just... be. That breath, that moment, that break... that is what #throwback is.

The hip hop that is contained in this half an hour of music is slow, borders on lo-fi levels of production, and does not have a single care in the world. This is a remembrance and tribute to times that dot our dreams. Those fleeting memories of childhood when we didn't have a care in the world. When the worst thing in the world was someone messed up the order which they put the peanut butter and jelly on the sandwich. Simpler times.

While the production borders on lofi, the music does not. The music has more in common with jazz and lounge based hip hop than anything form the derivative nature of the lofi genre. This is a key part as to why Bmbu's album works so well. It evokes positive emotions without ever falling into the trappings of repetitive loops and poorly sequenced drums. 

While those compositional stylings are certainly hinted at during the entirety of #throwback, they never reach the point where they overstay their welcome. Each song is short and to the point. They also each tap into a different aspect of nostalgia, some more directly than others. I suspect that different songs will speak to different people in the same way. 

#Throwback is an album I found sitting in a crate in a bargain bin. For whatever reason the cover stood out to me, and I gave it a listen on steaming while in the store. I only had to listen for a few minutes to know that it was coming home with me. I know nothing else of this artist, have not listened to any of their other works. That may or may not change in the future. What I do know though is that this album is an excellent moment of peace in a world that only seems to get more and more chaotic with time.

Written May 13th 2024

Entry 815 - Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars

Style: Cosmic black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Staring up at the night sky and getting that pit in your stomach as the realization sinks in that you are miniscule, but a spec of dust in the wind

Thoughts: I had given up. I had completely given up on Blut Aus Nord. Their first four albums were incredibly well done, and then MoRT came out. It was an interesting experiment but dragged on for far too long. Odinist was... lacking to say the very least. They had gone too far down the industrial path, and the excellence of The Work Which Transforms God was gone. I gave up.

Never in a million years did I think part II of Memoria Vetusta would come out. Part one was a lie, it was the only one in the series and it would never get a follow up... or so I thought. Dialogue With the Stars came out of no where. I heard the title and was in disbelief, they couldn't possibly go back to the early years successfully could they? Could they drop all the industrial leanings and go back to the glorious black metal of the early days? Surely this was a farce.

It's not a farce, it's real. While the drums retain the production of the last few albums, the rest of this album is a glorious return to the melodic and atmospheric black metal of the first two albums. They added in a new element as well: cosmic black metal. This album channels the majesty of the night sky straight into my very soul.

The songs are long - as they should be. They are melodic - as they should be. They portray a grandeur that is greater than any of the individual instruments or melodies. This is true cosmic black metal, this is the music of the night... the grandeur of space. 

Is this album hard to digest? No, at least not for me. This is highly palatable black metal that is the exact opposite of the industrial music they were putting out previously, and would again in the future. This is easy listening, and I am completely in love with it. I don't always need my music to be challenging, sometimes I just want an album to put on during a night time walk and enjoy the majesty of space and time.

Blut Aus Nord reminded me why I love this band with this album. It's the album that brought me back to them, the one that made them relevant again. Since this they have had multiple duds and multiple excellent albums. They don't ever seem to release anything mediocre, for better or worse. 

Written May 10th 2024

Entry 814 - Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle Earth

Style: Incredibly intricate and expertly constructed power metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: It's like seeing the jewels of a crown crafted meticulously over years and finally everything comes into place

Thoughts: Oh what a wonderful time to be alive. There are very few albums that I consider to be in the upper escalon of music. Fewer yet that make any sort of lasting impact on me. I've always held Blind Guardian in high regards, even as my tastes have moved away from power metal into the more extreme realms of the genre. Blind Guardian are a special band, and Nightfall in Middle Earth is a special album.

This is the album that Blind Guardian had been building towards for a decade. All of the progression that started on Somewhere Far Beyond is realized on Nightfall. The intricacies in the music, the changes in pace, the story telling, the wave after wave of cascading vocals, the lead guitar acting as the conductor of the orchestra, the drums morphing from speed metal to almost a progressive metal approach. All of it. It all came to fruition here. 

As complete of an album that Imaginations is, it lacks the scope of Nightfall. That said there would be no Nightfall without the huge leap in sound that Imaginations brought forward. They are both outstanding albums, but Nightfall is the outright better of the two.

The band incorporates so many different elements into this record. Spoken word passages detailing the narrative of JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion as it details the war of the First Age (I know it's not purely JRR's work, it has significant contributions from his son as well). These narrations are done expertly, they capture the mood and tone of the war and portray them to the listener as if they were factual history. 

The music in between these tracks is of equal if not higher quality. Blind Guardian has created eleven new songs that are some of the highest caliber in all of the metal genre as a whole... perhaps even beyond. These things are miniature tales in and of themselves. They have the complexity of a classical symphony, and the depth of them as well. 

The lead guitar is the focus, it effortlessly leads the music through it's many twists and turns. The rhythm guitar provides the backdrop for everything else. These two combined create the very core of Nightfall's music. Dancing in-between the guitars is the orchestral accompaniment. They are keyboards, but they are so well produced and written that they may as well be the real thing. 

This intermixes with the vocals... and oh boy do the vocals stand out. Hansi's voice has always been powerful, but here it's another level. Imagine forty layers of his voice overlaid in perfect harmony recounting the fantastical tales of Middle Earth. It's not something that must be imagined, it's real, and it's on this record. 

I'm going to stop myself here. This album must be heard in order to be fully appreciated. Ten thousand words could not do this album justice. For anyone who considers that metal cannot be art, I present to them Exhibit A: Nightfall In Middle Earth.

Written May 10th 2024

Entry 813 - Belphegor - Lucifer Incestus

Style: Blackened death metal, deathened black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Incredibly intense, laser focused hatred.

Thoughts: Wow this album came out of no where. Nothing that Belphegor had done before this interested me in the slightest, but then... holy shit where did this come from?

These riffs... oh my sweet baby jesus these riffs. They are so razor sharp that they can bleed Christ from the cross at 100 paces. They are so tight and well constructed that I pretty much have no other reaction than a pure unadulterated stank face. 

Everything here is at 666 beats per minute, there is no stopping the monstrosity that is Belphegor. These riffs move so effortlessly around the fretboard that they sound like a swarm of insects flying around me. I'm never able to focus in on just one thing, for they keep changing and destroying me note by note. 

The band has found the perfect equilibrium between black and death metal. The riffs are heavy, but they are also atmospheric and impactful. The best of both death metal and black metal in one riff. Some will lean more towards the death side, others more towards the black... but the equilibrium is always there.

Lucifer Icnestus is a flash in the pan for these guys. The follow up doesn't do anything for me, and outside of Blood Magick Necromance they really haven't done anything else to keep my interest. That said, this is one hell of an album, even if it is the only one I can get into from start to finish.

Written May 10 2024

Entry 812 - Blind Guardian - Forgotten Tales

Style: Power metal, speed metal, classic rock, surf rock, oldies

Primary Emotions/Themes: This is like that crazy old uncle who tells the wild stories at family get togethers. Always entertaining, if maybe a bit far fetched

Thoughts: Albums like this one are a bit of an anomaly to me. Compilation albums of "rarities" and unreleased tracks are always so hit and miss with me. Normally they are an easy pass. Blind Guardian's entry into this field is one of the very few "collections" albums that I would consider essential to the bands discography.

As one would expect from a random assortment of songs, the style of Forgotten Tales is all over the place. You have everything from oldies covers of Mr Sandman and Surfin' USA. Both are true to the source material while still incorporating Guardian's trademark sound. Honestly they are some of the better covers that I've heard in the metal genre. 

Acoustic versions of Bright Eyes, Mordred's Song and Lord of the Rings are excellent rerecording's of these now classic tracks. The live songs... I'm a bit torn on these. On one hand it's cool to listen to the audience sing The Bard's Song, on the other hand it's annoying because it completely overshadows Hansi's amazing voice.

Overall the album is a fun collection of oddities that flows strangely well for tracks that were never meant to be put together. It's the missing piece to Guardian's discography that is often overlooked. I personally love it because it gives me a peek into the bands not so serious side. Sometimes even bard's need to relax and have fun.

Written May 10th 2024

Entry 811 - Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond

Style: Power/speed metal

Primary Emotions/Themes:  There comes a time in everyone's life when they are faced with a decision, a decision to stay in youthful ways or accept their fate and become an adult.

Thoughts: Blind Guardian. A name that is held in high regard by those who listen to metal and in many cases those who do not. They are one of those bands that reach well beyond the genre that they are in and garner fans from all demographics of life. It's not uncommon to see someone wearing a Cradle of Filth shirt standing next to someone in a suit at a Blind Guardian. I've seen that more than once. 

Early Guardian is unapologetically speed metal. Everything is played as fast as possible and there is little variation between songs. The quality is there though. The riffs are catchy and they make great songs for live performances. That's not what Blind Guardian are known for though. In my experience the three 90's albums are the holy trinity of albums from the band.

Somewhere Far Beyond is the start of their golden era. It retains the speed metal of the early releases while transitioning into something else. Something larger... more grandiose... this is the transition where Guardian went from speed metal to the massive sound that they would have on the next few albums.

Right off the bat Time What is Time introduces us to their new sound. Like almost every album at the time it has an acoustic intro that mirrors the main riff of the song. When the song comes in the band wastes no time blowing my socks off with the intensity of the riff... but something is different. 

Instead of going straight into the speed metal riff fest the band slows down with an acoustic break with a distorted lead. It gives the song just a little bit of pause... letting the listener catch up and appreciate what is happening. The band uses the bridge to speed things up with their trademark speedy power chords. Even here though we have interesting leads and choirs - all staples of the later releases, but they are new here. 

The band does rip things wide open with the chorus. Whole note power chords played over a spastic back beat gives it almost a thrash like feel. It's the climax of one of the better songs on the album. The band has begun to show that they are capable of more than just speed. 

This continues throughout the album. You have scorchers like Journey Through The Dark and Ashes to Ashes, but you also have more off kilter songs like Black Chamber and Theater of Pain. Both of the latter songs are decidedly more keyboard driven than anything the band has done in the past. 

That leaves the title track. This thing is something special. Brought in by The Piper's Calling - a triumphant bagpipe introduction to one of Blind Guardians best songs. It's the longest song on the album by far and goes through many twits and turns before its nearly eight minutes concludes. I won't spoil any of it here, it needs to be heard to be fully appreciated. 

Somewhere Far Beyond is either my favorite or second favorite Blind Guardian album depending on the orientation of the sun and planets. I go between this and Nightfall. Sometimes this one blows me away unlike anything else, other times Nightfall does the same. I should just say screw it and say they are equal... yes actually lets do just that. This is Blind Guardian's best album, a title also shared with Nightfall in Middle Earth.

Written May 10th 2024