Entry 1301 - Swans - To Be Kind

Style: rock, experimental rock, insane rock, guitar driven noise, ambient, avant-garde 

Primary Emotions/Themes: what an ironic album title...

Thoughts: 

Love, child, reach, rise, sight, blind, steal, light

Mind, scar, clear, fire, clean, right, pure, kind

Sun, come, sky, tar, mouth, sand, teeth, tongue

Cut, push, reach, inside, feed, breathe, touch, come

No pain, no death, no fear, no hate, no time, no now, no suffering

No touch, no loss, no hand, no sense, no wound, no waste, no lust, no fear

No mind, no greed, no suffering, no thought, no hurt, no hands to reach

No knife, no words, no lie, no cure, no need, no hate, no will, no speech

Entry 1300 - Swans - The Seer

Style: too many to count

Primary Emotions/Themes: the epitome of a challenging listen. The continuation of Soundtracks for the Blind

Thoughts: 

In the mind of no one

Forming sun, forming love

Break the chain, hide within

Innocence, not innocent

Innocent, in no sense

Eat the beast, keep him in

Take the blame, speak the name

Lunacy, lunacy

Lunacy, lunacy

Hide beneath your monkey skin

Feel his love, nurture him

Kill the truth or speak the name

Lunacy, lunacy

Lunacy, lunacy

Entry 1299 - Svartidaudi - Flesh Cathedral

Style: dissonant black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The screaming never leaves my head. The pain never leaves my body. I will never be free of this suffering.

Thoughts: Iceland is a beautiful country. It's filled with scenery that can't be found anywhere else on the planet. The language is so insular that no other language sounds like it anymore. It's truly unique... and this carries over into the music that they create.

Flesh Cathedral consists of four songs, four monoliths, four hymns. These four tracks do not treat the listener kindly. They demand that the listener be attentive, and for that attention we are rewarded with pain. The riffs do not follow normal conventions, the transitions do not work well (intentionally so), the production is bright and can cause tension headaches if taken in too much at once. The vocals are harsh and buried deep in the mix, you have to strain to hear them. Flesh Cathedral is auditory pain, so why do I like it so much?

It's because it rewards those who go beyond the pain, go beyond the dissonance. The riffs after some time start to make sense. Those janky transitions actually are to the benefit of the music when it clicks. The vocals being buried mean they are simply another instrument to the whole. It all starts making sense... and when it does Flesh Cathedral is more than pain, it is art. 

Entry 1298 - Sunun - Ooid

Style: experimental hip hop, ambient, dub

Primary Emotions/Themes: darkness can come in many forms, sometimes from those places least expected

Thoughts: Some of my favorite albums in my collection are the one off odd balls that I have no idea how they got there. Ooid is one of these records.

Sunun's music is somewhere in between instrumental hip hop and dub. It's unlike anything else I've ever heard, and I wish I knew more music like this. I absolutely adore it. 

The music feels incomplete in the way that the samples are put together. Moments where the main instrumentation will suddenly stop, or come crashing in out of nowhere. The way that Ooid does this is rather disconcerting, and it keeps happening over and over. I am constantly on edge when I listen to the album, and that's what keeps me coming back to it.

I wish I knew more music like this... this is something else to listen to. It's eerie, it's janky, and it's truly unnerving and dark. It taps into the more sinister side of music that is rare to hear... a side of music that few have ever managed to even touch... yet somehow in these twenty minutes Sunun have managed to master it.

Entry 1297 - Sunken - Livslede

Style: atmospheric black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: loneliness, isolation, self discovery thorough suffering, the grandeur of things beyond our control

Thoughts: Calm across the water. Stars reflect their light across it's empty surface. My boat feels nothing but the gentle sway of the waves, what little there are. The calm is but an illusion, for this water carries in it a ferocity that none can withstand.

Sunken's second album is much like that water. Moments of extreme calm interrupted by moments of extreme music. A piano will give the music it's introduction, a deep and contemplative melody emanates from my speakers. Without warning this calm is broken by blast beats, fast riffs and lengthy passages of distortion and screeched vocals.

The harsh sections of the music provide their own sort of meditation. The constant blast beats intermixed with furious riffing offer a type of hypnotic sway to them that is not found in the quieter moments, lending the music to more than one type of contemplation. Regardless of what type of music the band offers at any given moment, Livslede is an album that encourages the listener to take moments of reflection, to reevaluate life as it is. These moments are the ones where true change can happen.

Entry 1296 - Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn

Style: epic black metal/dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: a more refined and mature take on the Summoning formula

Thoughts: As we grow older things change. Things we once took for granted are now harder to accomplish. Our perspective changes with experience. Life becomes shorter. The art we create changes too, as is the case with Summoning on Old Mornings Dawn.

It's not that much has changed, but rather that the band is so much more deliberate in what they do. Their music has never been in a hurry, but here it feels more like an old man reflecting on life rather than a march through a forest. The melodies have a deeper, more reflective styling to them. The epic moments are still there, but they are dialed back somewhat in favor of this more contemplative style. 

Life changes us all, for better or for worse over the years. How we respond to these changes is reflected in our actions and fruits of our labor. As we near the end of Summoning's discography it's a joy to have taken this journey with them throughout their long and storied career. 

Entry 1295 - Summoning - Oath Bound

Style: epic black metal/dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: It's Summoning, they sound like no one else and no one else sound like them. 

Thoughts: At what point do I break down and just admit that Summoning is one of my favorite bands? I've been listening to them for decades, and I can hardly find a fault in their music. Maybe it's time that I admitted what I've always known.

Oath Bound is another excellent offering from the masters of epic black metal. It is largely a direct continuation of Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame, which is entirely welcome. More of the same is always welcome from Summoning, especially at this point when their release schedule is so sparse. 

As with all Summoning records I'm compelled to close my eyes, take a deep breath and let the music carry my immagination to realms beyond. The keyboards weave wonderous melodies as the percussion marches us forward. The guitars and vocals provide the backing for the main focus yet they are also the defining characteristic of the band. Neither wholly black metal nor wholly dungeon synth, Summoning stands alone, and Oath Bound stands proudly as one of their offerings.

Entry 1294 - Summoning - Nightshade Forests

Style: epic black metal/dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: A continuation of the Dol Guldur sessions

Thoughts: You want more of a good thing? Yes? Well you're in luck. Summoning was on such a hot streak during their third album that they couldn't fit everything into one album. Nightshade Forests are essentially the B sides of those sessions... though calling these B sides is an injustice to their quality.

We have four more songs in nearly the same vein as the pervious album. If you enjoyed those then you will enjoy this. Plain and simple. For my tastes you can never have too much Summoning.

Entry 1293 - Summoning - Dul Guldor

Style: epic black metal/dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: Walk with me as we explore the great Mirkwood, come with me into the Misty Mountains

Thoughts: Take a moment. Put Dul Guldor on, the medium doesn't matter. Now close your eyes. What do you see?

That answer will vary from person to person, but for me I see landscapes. I see mountains. I see forests. I see the ruins of once mighty fortresses. I see rivers. I see dragons. I see everything that the world of high fantasy brings. I see freedom.

Summoning's music brings me to another world. Regardless of what album it is, or what time I'm listening to it, their compositions always transport me to a far off land where I am free of the turmoil's of this world. The slow marching music combined with layer upon layer of keyboards and a distant guitar and vocals does wonders. Dul Guldor in particular emphasizes the keyboards over all other aspects of the music in the mix, the guitar and vocals are nearly an afterthought with how deeply they are buried. 

Of all the Summoning albums I own, I probably listen to Dul Guldor the least. Listening to it now, I don't understand why that has come to pass. The music on here is equal quality to every other album at minimum and contains some of the finest moments in their discography (Nightshade Forests is an incredible track). Now journey with me as we travel through the lands of yore, into the depths of Middle-Earth. 

Entry 1292 - Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos

Style: blackened death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Offer thineself to the great cosmic void, slay thine own soul for the consumption of the old ones

Thoughts: I am tired. I wish to surrender myself to a being who will consume me so I can be no more. I am tired of this life and the ills it brings. Take me away oh great destroyer, I sacrifice myself to your will.

Before we start to dissect this album, can we take a moment to appreciate how cool the album title is? I've shared this title with many people who are not metal fans and the most common reaction is something along the lines of "That's one of the most metal title's I've ever heard." I tend to agree.

Sulphur Aeon's third album is an experience to say the very least. It's perhaps one of the single best albums to come out of extreme metal in the past few years. It manages to combine harrowing melodies that claw at my sanity every chance they get with a sense of heaviness and destruction that simply is not heard in melodic music these days.

With their third album Sulphur Aeon has solidified themselves as one of the best bands in all of extreme metal... no scratch that they are one of the best active bands regardless of the genre of metal. They have created a sound here that few can even get close to. The world yearns for change... and the great old ones are here to heed that call.

Entry 1291 - Sulphur Aeon - Gateways to the Antisphere

Style: death/black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: when the cosmic kaos comes for you, will you be prepared or will you be swept into the antisphere?

Thoughts: What a cover. What an absolute masterwork of an album cover. It encapsulates the deep cosmic horror that the band is channeling with their music. The fear. The unknown. The absolute alien nature. The grotesque. All of it. 

Gateways to the Antisphere is obviously influenced greatly by the literary works of H.P. Lovecraft. The inhuman tentacled being on the cover should have been enough evidence of that. Tracks such as "Devotion to Cosmic Chaos" and "He is the Gate" should clue anyone in doubt in to the foundation of their literary work. 

The band uses this foundation to create an intense, melody infused blackened death metal album. The band is never content to rest on one riff for more than a few bars as the riffs come fast and furious. That doesn't mean that these are not cohesive songs though, on the contrary the band will often revisit the same riff but with a slightly different twist - a different tempo, or a slightly different variation. It makes what could easily be an overwhelming album a quite enjoyable one instead.

The band has always shown potential. Their debut showed flashes of what they were capable of, but it's on Gateways where they really found their sound. This would end up becoming the basis to the follow up album which perfected this style and in doing so created one of the finest extreme metal albums in the past ten years.

Entry 1290 - Sugarcream幻想 - 失恋Rhapsody

Style: vaporwave, future funk

Primary Emotions/Themes: future funk by the numbers

Thoughts: I only have one future funk album. I only need one future funk album. Once every other year or so I have a burning desire to hear ultra high energy city pop infused dance music. When that urge strikes I have Sugarcream at the ready.

Future funk is one of the genres that blends together for me. Listening to one album vs another they all start to blend together. I don't have any desire to seek out all of the Sailorwave albums or the Macross albums... they all sound the same to me. 

That's why I kept this album. It has all of the tropes of the genre, and it fills that void whenever it comes. Though granted the need to listen to future funk does not happen very often. When it does though it's strong and only this album can satiate it.

Entry 1289 - Street Cleaner - Annihilation

Style: synthwave, darksynth

Primary Emotions/Themes: The end of humanity is nigh, let's dance the night away 

Thoughts: The city lights are zooming by faster than I can process. There's someone chasing me and I don't know why. All I know is that if I stop driving I'm dead.

Annihilation is an urgent album. It has somewhere to be and not a lot of time to get there. The songs each instill a profound sense of dread in me if I don't get this mysterious goal completed, and I HAVE to complete it, or the consequences will be dire. 

In a lot of ways Annihilation is a cinematic title. There is a strong visual component to each of the songs. They feel like they are scenes in a movie or video game. They all have their own character, yet the intensity of the music remains constant. I love this and wish more music was this driving. I really should listen to this album more often than I do.

Entry 1288 - Stray Theories - All That Was Lost

Style: ambient, post rock

Primary Emotions/Themes: the rain falls down the windowpane, I see distant shapes distorted as the water trickles down 

Thoughts: Isn't it funny how the most profound things in life often start off so small? A choice to pick up a phone call. Taking a left turn instead of a right. It's only years later looking back that we realize just how monumental such a small change was. 

Maybe we met our life partner that day. Maybe we avoided catastrophe. Maybe we found the missing piece to the part of our thoughts that we had been seeking forever. Maybe for just a few moments we had clarity. 

All That Was Lost explores all of these recollections in audio form. The depth of emotion portrayed here is uncommon, and it feels exceptionally intimate. The fact that the band has decided to share these compositions with the general public feels like we have a glimpse into their inner most circle, their highest degree of trust. I am honored that they decided that we were worthy of this, as I for one would never have shared something this close to my heart with anyone but those I trusted the most.

Entry 1287 - Strapping Young Lad - Alien

Style: Chaotic extreme metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Have you ever seen Scanners? The scene at the beginning where the dude's head blows up... yeah that's this album

Thoughts: How many riffs did you say you wanted? Oh ok... let me check the menu. Does five hundred sound reasonable to you? No, too many? I would suggest you take your business elsewhere then.

After a long period of inactivity Devy decided it was time to make a new SYL album. The self titled was... lack luster at best... at least in my humble estimation. Well, I think Hevy Devy heard my complaints and wrote an album specifically for me... because Alien addresses every. single. issue I had with the self titled. 

The previous album wasn't very dynamic... Alien has more riffs than there are stars in the sky. I didn't think that a lot of the songs on the self titled had good transitions or riffs... the riffs here are so heavy and so fucking powerful that the crush me into dust. The transitions? Better than even those found on City. I felt that the self titled was too calm. Alien? Well we have a full choir playing over three guitars, playing over Gene's insane drumming playing over a xylophone playing over bass drops, all while modulating tones and keys every other measure. I think that'll do.

Alien is the magnum opus of Strapping Young Lad. This is the craziest shit they ever released. It's the angriest Devy ever was, and it has all of the members at the top of their game. It's a Shitstorm and I love it.

Entry 1286 - Strapping Young Lad - City

Style: chaotic extreme metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: All hail the new flesh!

Thoughts: Whatever, whoever, wherever you are... you are not ready for this album. City is unlike anything else. One part charging rhino a china shop, one part bulldozer, one part atomic explosion, one part delicate flower. It's all these things in audio form plus an infinite form consisting of unlimited riffs, screams and chaos... so much chaos. 

You want riffs? We have more riffs than you can count. You want aggression? Don't you talk to me, you piece of shit! I'll see you pigs in hell! You want melody? Yeah we fuckin got that too. You want more instruments and notes to know what to do with? Got you covered. 

I warned you! I warned you!

Strapping Young Lad does not fuck around. This album is serious business. This is not something that you go into lightly. This is the kind of album that you delve into when you know that you want the real shit. 

Entry 1285 - Stormkeep - Galdrum

Style: black metal, dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: An epic autographical chronicle of the denizens of the Stormkeep

Thoughts: Dungeon synth mixed with black metal is not a new creation under the sun. Rather it is one of the more common unions found within both of their respective genres. Black metal artists are well known for forays in the realms of the dungeons, and the dungeon dwellers will oftentimes venture into the forest to cast their metallic ways. Stormkeep has managed to find a deep equilibrium between these two styles.

There are four opus on this short album. The first three are excellent black metal tracks that intertwine keyboards in the style of the dungeon masters. It's so well done that I venture to say that these tracks would be a mere shadow of themselves if they lacked the keyboards. This is an integral part of the Stormkeep's sound, and they utilize it to the fullest. 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And so it is with this album. The band focuses strongly on its melodic components and we as listeners are rewarded greatly for our attentiveness. These songs are some of the best the band has ever put together. The band even pay tribute to the synthmasters in the final track where the delve into the dungeons themselves. Any fan of either epic black metal or dungeon synth would do themselves well to give this album a listen.

Entry 1284 - Stilz - Hyperspace Drifter 3

Style: synthwave

Primary Emotions/Themes: lost in space the nebula call to me through the tones of this album... their melodies acting as a beacon calling me home

Thoughts: Alone in a capsule, traversing the depths of space. The lone shuttle carries it's last passenger. As the universe fades by the slow pace of the Hyperspace Drifter plays through the cosmos. 

Man this album is well titled. The music feels exactly as if one is drifting through space. Deep resonant tones make up the slow melodies of the album, giving the illusion of an object traversing the depths of space. 

Life was once a terrestrial endeavor, but no longer... we have evolved beyond our earthbound roots, and now we are masters of space. Or so we would like to believe. Perhaps this is to our folly, or perhaps we have now begun to fulfil our true potential. There is only one possible future, and the Hyperspace Drifter is here to help form the tale.

Entry 1283 - Stilz - Holding Onto Yesterday

Style: synthwave

Primary Emotions/Themes: the synths of  yesteryear played through a modern lens

Thoughts: It's a damn shame to see the world the way it is currently. A shell of its former self, with no signs of getting better. Those who have been tasked with making our lives better have failed utterly, and when taking things into our own hands we are met with such obstacles that we are unable to act. We yearn for freedom, and currently that freedom can only come from our imagination. we are Holding Onto Yesterday.

Stilz is a beautiful vessel to channel this nostalgia, for a time when the world was a bit less flushed down the toilet. The synthwave that is contained in these grooves recalls a time when life was just a little bit simpler, a little less of a tidal wave mounting against every action. 

It's not only the fact that the music recalls the best sounds of yesteryear, it's that it does so exceptionally well. These songs are moody and are written in a way that I find myself wanting to dwell in their presence for a long period of time. There's more than one point on the album where the groove is so deep that I have to stop everything I'm doing and take in the music. The drums mixed with the deep bass sends shudders down my spine. The lead synths make me bob my head with their tones. This isn't just a recollection of times long past, this is a damn fine album.

Entry 1282 - Starfounder - Vengeance

p>Style: darksynth

Primary Emotions/Themes: simple yet highly effective melodies that touch on the dark found in the human soul as well as that resides in the machines that reflect our values as a society

Thoughts: Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we try to create things that one day may very well rise up and destroy us? Did we learn nothing from the warnings given by John and Sarah Connor? Why are we befriending the very thing that may one day seek to replace us? Why build that which may one day seek Vengeance?

Starfounder asks these questions in musical form. Vengeance is an audio essay about the dangers of artificial intelligence and how it may one day come back to bite us in the ass. It does this through the darkest of synthwave: darksynth. A collection of songs that rely more on rhythms and beats than melody, music that deals more with he visceral part of the brain rather than the more rational part. The part that would be in line with taking Vengance.

This album serves as a warning for all of those who would befriend the machine. We are playing a dangerous game, and yet it would seem like we have fully embraced our new overlords with open arms. Perhaps we are no longer fit to be the dominant species on this planet anymore.

Entry 1281 - Spire - Temple of Khronos

Style: dissonant black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: time... we all run out of time... we all are at the mercy of Khronos

Thoughts: This is another album where I spent a ludicrous amount of time with it in the past. I doubt I could say anything now better than I could back then so here's the old review:

https://thesenightsareours.blogspot.com/2021/02/024-spire-temple-of-khronos.html

Entry 1280 - Spire - Entropy

Style: dissonant black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Crazy music with crazier vocals

Thoughts: Spire is a band that I have a bit of a connection with. Their vocalist is someone I conversed with on a semi regular basis for several years, and in doing so I have a biased opinion of their music. 

Entropy is exactly the correct title for this album. The music goes from being structured and slowly begins to fall apart at the seams as dissonance creeps its way in. Melody gives way to chaos, clean vocals give way to a blabbering mad man, order gives way to entropy. This is the law of nature and the law of Spire.

There is a lot more that should be said about this album, but I will let those curious to be left to their own devices. This is an album of discovery, an album where the natural order comes into play. Play it to take part in natures glorious return to nothingness.

Entry 1279 - Sojourner - The Shadowed Road

Style: atmospheric black/folk metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Epic melodies that illuminate the road ahead

Thoughts: Full, powerful riffs, a flute, fast drums, and harsh but discernable vocals... the formula that many a band has used to create black/folk metal with in the past. Sojourner is unique in their approach to their music... so why do I have their albums in my collection vs. the rest of the folk/black metal bands out there?

It's not that the band is unique, it's how well they craft their songs that lands their albums in my collection. The way that the riffs interact with the flute compliment each other so well. The atmosphere... oh man the atmosphere is where this band excels. Again the flute mixes perfectly with the guitar melodies providing a counter melody as needed to either the harsh or female vocals... sometimes both at the same time. 

As with many albums in my collection they find themselves there because I enjoy the music more than other bands of the same style. That is absolutely the case why Sojourner find themselves with a place in my stacks.

Entry 1278 - Sonic Adventure 2

Style: video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Running around at the speed of sound

Thoughts: Sonic Adventure 2 may have one of my all time favorite video game songs on it with Escape from the City. This thing brought it in such a cool way. The whole soundtrack was magic.

There isn't much else that I can say about this except that it's one of the crown jewels of my video game music collection. Absolutely incredible.  

Entry 1277 - Sonic Adventure

Style: video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: a definitive work in the realm of modern video game music

Thoughts: September 9th, 1999. The day when the Dreamcast launched. I remember going into Hollywood video trying to rent one of them and they wanted a three hundred dollar deposit. Needless to say I did not rent a Dreamcast that day. It was much later that I would get one along with this game: Sonic Adventure.

This soundtrack was one of the first where vocals were included in a lot of songs. This soundtrack was the first that I heard that incorporated dance music as part of the soundtrack. This was the first of so many things, and I ate everything up. It sounded so good, so fresh, so new. 

Even now revisiting it twenty five years later I love this soundtrack as much as I did back then. The melodies are burned into my brain and I can't get them out even if I tried. One of Sega's finest moments.

Entry 1276 - Solbrud - IIII

p>Style: atmospheric black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: lengthy songs that mold and weave epic tales   

Thoughts: This album is a lot to digest. The songs demand all of the listeners attention, and never allow any sort of rest. As an added layer the songs are long, the album is long... well over an hour and a half. The compositions are complex, utilizing different instruments, atmospheres, and tempos. Is it worth it though? Can an album this demanding be worth the play time and mental energy it takes to digest?

I have yet to make it through this entire album in one sitting. The fact that it comes on two records is hugely beneficial to me as I can segment my listening to roughly 45 minutes at a time. There is so much going on in these songs, so many different things that the band asks of me to pay attention to that if I'm not in the right state of mind it all starts to blend together.

One moment the band will have a beautiful keyboard/acoustic guitar intro that seamlessly flows into black metal, but then the black metal will twist and turn through so many different riffs and moods that I am lost. I can normally keep up with stuff like this but for whatever reason Solbrud eludes me. In many ways I consider this a challenge, I need to be able to conquer this album or else it is going to have it's way with me. Challenge accepted, I shall return for another bout shortly.

Entry 1275 - Solanum - Spheres of Time

Style: dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: What does the universe hold for us? What does it owe us? 

Thoughts: Sphere's of Time is the first of two demo tapes from Solanum in the late 90's. In my estimation its the better album of the two, largely because it sticks to the dungeon synth style rather than branching off into unknown territories. 

Solanum is clearly gifted in creating dungeon synth that reflects the majesty of the night sky. They created two wonderful demos that are best listened to at night as the music contained within is vast and at times awe inspiring. 

Listening to these old dungeon synth recordings brings me untold joy. I love discovering things that I completely missed the first time through, and now that I have the chance to finally hear it I can't do anything but smile. 

Entry 1274 - Solanum - Spectral Poetry

Style: dungeon synth, black metal...?

Primary Emotions/Themes: look  unto the stars, these songs celebrate  their beauty and grandeur

Thoughts: It's amazing when you get to hear things for the first time. I completely missed Solanum when they debut in the late 90's, so now I have the distinct pleasure of discovering them 20+ years in the future. 

To say that this demo rough may be a bit of an understatement. There are four songs and the band is clearly trying out a bunch of different style to see what works and what doesn't. When the band is doing dungeon synth and adjacent music they are completely in their element, seemingly nothing can stop them. When they try to incorporate some black metal though... that's where things take a slight misstep. 

It's not that the black metal is bad per see... it just sounds lost. It doesn't know if it wants to be dungeon synth or if it wants to be black metal. The band needed to commit more to one or the other, but in treading the middle ground they seem to be treading water. Fortunately it's only one track where this happens, but when there's only four tracks on the album its a major portion. 

Regardless of the quality of one of the tracks, Spectral Poetry is a real treat to listen to. It's dungeon synth before dungeon synth. It's trying to figure out what it is, and I love it's quirky, experimental self discovery.

Entry 1273 - Soilwork - The Living Infinite

Style: Melodic death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: the band finally fully embraces their melodic death metal roots on parts of the album and explores a bit of their entire catalog

Thoughts: What a journey Soilwork has been on. After A Predators Portrait they seemingly got lost in the isles of mediocrity for almost two decades. While they showed flashes here and there of what they were capable of, none of the albums got anywhere near the intensity or the craftmanship of the first three albums... that is until this one.

The Living Infinite is one of the best albums that Soilwork has ever released. They finally figured things out. They managed to create intense melodic death metal that fully integrates the pop melodies that they embraced the past few albums. 

Opening up the album with a song like Spectrum of Eternity was all I needed to hear to know that the band had figured things out. The song is aggressive, mixes melody with blast beats in a way that they haven't done since The Chainheart Machine. Speed mixes his clean and harsh vocals to great effect, and most importantly the band doesn't just stop playing aggressively when the clean vocals come in. It's a fantastic realization of everything that the band has been trying to do for five albums.

Entry 1272 - Soilwork - A Predators Portrait

Style: Melodic death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The band continues their thrashy melodic death metal but incorporates clean vocals for the first time.

Thoughts: I am insanely biased when it comes to Soilwork. I got into them with The Chainheart Machine and they have never once gotten close to touching that masterpiece. I was exceptionally excited for this album when it came out, but was rather disappointed when it first dropped. Over the years though my opinion has slowly mellowed out over my initial disgust.

My big problem with the album was not the clean vocals themselves, but rather how the band stopped being interesting when they started. They have all of these intricate melodies and harmonies going on during the harsh vocal sections but when the clean vocals come in the band stops all of that and just plays open chords and let Speed do all of the melody. It's a huge disappointment knowing what the band is capable of melody wise.

After listening to this album for roughly three decades at this point, I understand where my younger self was coming from but I don't care nearly as much as I used to. This album still has a ton of great melodies on it, much more so than the following five albums... so even though there is a bit of a letdown it's still a solid album overall. 

Entry 1271 - Sodom - In the Sign of Evil

Style: 1st wave black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: A sloppy and utterly genuine taste of evil

Thoughts: Everything has to start somewhere. This is where Sodom did. 

To say that this is a technically sound release would be an overt lie. This is a sloppy mess of riffs and drums with some grumbled/shouted vocals over top. It's chaotic and seems like it was recorded in one take, and that is exactly why I love it. 

In the Sign of Evil is one of my favorite releases of the 80's. It has the raw energy that you would expect of some teenagers creating counter culture music. The lyrics are all about evil and Satan, they don't care about the good in the world - look at the world to see the effects of this "good." Songs fully embracing evil were rarer back then, but it's as relevant today as the day this thing hit the shelves in 1984.