i don't even know, i'm gonna do these writeups and whichever one i feel like cutting at the end i'm gonna cut
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I'm just gonna go in order of when I received albums, so we're starting with this one. I'm not gonna lie, pretty sure this is the one I'm gonna cut. Because I feel like this has the most problems. The elephant in the room is the third track, which is simultaneously the best and worst song on the album - the actual metal on display here is more intense and more compelling than anywhere else on the album but the vocals make it nigh unlistenable, they are just, the worst. I hate this kind of song. Absolutely despise it. Track two has this dubstep wub wub thing going on that I also really don't like at all. And the first track has its moments but it's just a total mess. So the first three tracks, only one of them I really care for and I don't love it. Then everything that comes after is... not as interesting, doesn't have nearly as much flavor. Tracks 4 and 7 I have absolutely nothing to say about, track 5 has that marimba thing that's kind of cool but gets beat into the ground, track 6 I dig the ending bit and some of the synth stuff, but a lot of the song is just... there, and I appreciate track 8 as a solid cooldown tune but a bit anticlimactic to end the album on, especially since track 7 doesn't have much of a climactic feel either. And this album... doesn't sound like an album, just a collection of songs. Here's a secret; I don't care much for Thy Catafalque anymore, or at least, I don't care to listen to full albums from them, because it's usually the same story as here; a lot of songs that don't really form a cohesive whole, even if some of them are kinda cool. Sgurr is the only really good Thy Catafalque album and the only one I revisit. And this band has a lot in common with Thy Catafalque, both in the "weird electronic/folky metal" sense and the "general inability to construct an album" sense. I also looked on RYM and this is by far their lowest rated album there, so maybe I'd like other albums more? But ehh. I don't hate this at all, there's a lot of solid enough metal here and the occasional moment that does work but it's mostly just not that compelling for me.
This is pretty clearly Train of Naught with
Solefald – World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud.
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Right off the bat I'm just going to say the obvious problem here: This album has way too many songs and a lot of them sound too much alike. 45 minutes, 12 tracks, all of them around the 3-5 minute range. The album is smart enough to, for the most part, sequence things in a way that two similar tracks aren't back to back, though it screws that up a little with tracks 9 through 11 all being triplet feel songs, but otherwise. A lot of these songs just... get lost in the shuffle for me. Coming For You basically lays all the album's tricks out on the table in a pretty solid opening, but that means the album doesn't really have a ton left to impress me with after. Deluge is pretty good, a nice intensity to that chorus. Ain't That a
Female Dog is at least pretty memorable and different for its jazzier feel, and Luna has another solid chorus. A lot of the choruses here are pretty solid, really. Some of these tracks though, aside from the chorus, just blend together in my head and I can't tell you what a number of them sound like even after several listens through. And it definitely leans in too heavily on the djent tropes, a lot of the riffs here are pretty indistinct from each other. I'd call this your weakest submission so far, yeah, but I still think it's likely stronger than the other two that remain.
I am, of course, talking about ariich with
Twelve Foot Ninja – Silent Machine.
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And that just leaves this one. I feel like this album is what happens when someone sees that memey
"black metal is just surf rock with distortion" thing, except then it doesn't even play into the similarities and tries to merge the elements they don't have in common. Which is, really, not a bad idea. It makes for an album that is, on the surface, really interesting, but that freshness kind of wears off on relistens. Which would mean the music itself needs to stand out on its own to really keep a listener coming back. And I think it succeeds... sometimes. The title track, in particular, is mostly a good slice of more psychadelic-leaning sounds, though the flute sounds very out of place here. And Lost in Satan's Charms is a mostly pretty enjoyable song, but I don't like the intro/outro bit much, it doesn't take up a huge part of the song but it does diminish how much I like it at least somewhat. The Cannibal Tribe is probably the best-executed track overall though it's simultaneously not very memorable, so maybe I'm wrong there. I don't really care for how jagged Riders to Utopia sounds and the closer has a lot of really awkward vocal melodies in it. But overall though? Mmm... yeah, this is still kinda cool. I'll take my Oranssi Pazuzu any day over this, though, it's not gonna get a follow-up purchase, but I'm at least glad I listened to it.
No surprise here, it's Evermind with
Hail Spirit Noir – Mayhem in Blue.
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Yeah, just from doing those writeups, I pretty strongly have a definitive loser here now. Sorry Train, but it looks like this station is your last stop. ariich and Evermind are through to the next round.
1. Structural Disorder – ...and The Cage Crumbles In The Final Scene
2. Dreamgrave – Presentiment
3. Hail Spirit Noir – Mayhem in Blue
4. Twelve Foot Ninja – Silent Machine
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5. Solefald – World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud
send me some round 4 goodness boys