MacabreEternal

Ambush - Firestorm

I only really have time for the debut and Blessed... if I am honest. Covenant was a bit sterile overall (although I don’t dislike it as such) and nothing else really stands out for me in the discography. The first two albums are near flawless for me though with the debut managing to achieve that balance of lethal intent and menace but managing to balance that over chaotic soundscapes that twist and contort like some pained beast writhing in agony. Blessed... just refined that perfectly, all the same elements as the debut but made more impactful by more mature songwriting and a more focused application of atmosphere.

Hear ya here. This is our last major purchase until we become a double income family again. Glad we managed to get it done before we start to feel the real pinch of only one wage hitting the bank on payday. With renewed COVID restrictions the job market isn’t picking up anytime soon.

New desktop PC arrived yday and I now have a PC with a soundcard that works (there was masses of other things wrong with the old pc as well as a lack of soundcard though). Life made good by the little things.

The Thelonious Monk Quartet - Monk's Dream Enslaved - Isa

I thought the last Morbid Angel record was a bit safe if I am honest. I expected a lot more from a band of their stature in death metal. Granted they were coming off the back of a real experimental record but to just go so safe to try and gain success from avoiding failure seemed a bit pointless. It’s not a bad record but it could have been done by any band just out of high school really.

Anacrusis - Screams and Whispers

The Horde - From Empire to Ashes

The Devil’s Trade - The Call of the Iron Peak Likewise, not metal. But after a day with a playlist of mostly traditional heavy metal and some power/symphonic metal for good measure some dark folk music should put some needed melancholy into the afternoon to bring the adrenaline levels down.

Hi Maddie, welcome to the forum. I can dig all of the bands you mention, hopefully you’re going to find a few more from our recommendations which are usually stickied at the top of each genre section. Hope to see you around.

Lockdown is more or less back here, all regions in the North West UK are under some kind of restrictions. The delicate balancing act between saving the economy and saving people’s lives is still heavily in favour of the former though and it makes the restrictions seem ridiculous and flimsy.

Awesome work man.

Fairyland - Score to a New Beginning Had a bit of a stretch of my legs in the metal world and am currently listening to more power/symphonic metal. A lot of it is terrible Eurovision sub-standard pop rock (Nightwish) but there’s a couple of decent albums that sit like needles in haystacks. This album is mediocre at best, despite the solid musicianship and epic structures the mix is off and the vocals are too low. Whilst the songwriting has a formula that gets the band to the finish line it is far from being a winning formula. To much wanky keyboard solos followed by guitar shredding on more or less all tracks; I mean mix it up folks. Fairyland is a terrible name btw.

Now live, Metal Academy Radio Playlists. A playlist per clan goes up at the start of each month with members invited to make suggestions for inclusion on next month's playlist. Also new is the Gallery, with a ratings system just for album artwork to build a top 100 at any given time.

Disaffected - Vast Perhaps one of my favourite ever finds and I don't rightly recall how I found it (think @FatherAlabaster had it in this thread somewhere maybe). Progressive death metal that loses none of the intensity at the expense of any wankery. Compositionally varied yet not to the point of losing me. Can't understand why these guys weren't better known in the mid 90's when this came out, but then again they are from Portugal, not Sweden or America so not sure how much exposure they got at the time. Skyfall Records doesn't jump out at me as being a bastion of quality metal releases from the nineties at first glance.