Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent (2023)

Nekromantheon - Visions of Trismegistos (2021)

Mork - Katedralen (2021)

Woe - Legacies of Frailty (2023)

Yellow Eyes - Silence Threads the Evening's Cloth (2012)

Morbid Angel - Blessed are the Sick (1990)

11 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I was excited for the new Doctor Who special, especially with David Tennant, returning to the show, then I remembered I need to reactivate my Disney+ subscription to be able to watch it, and I really don’t think there’s anything else on that platform that interests me

I watched it.  Very disappointed.  I hadn't watched most of the previous iteration with Jody Whittaker as the Doctor because I felt she was a terrible actor who over-hammed it far too much.  Had hoped for some sense to return with Tennant nut unfortunately, although he does bring some stability back to the role, they have also brought back Donna Noble as a character.  Portrayed once again by Catherine Tate who I simply cannot stand, the show is on to a loser.  Still very youth orientated in the themes (which I get, it's a family show after all) but this nonsensical "gender-crisis" apparently inherent in youth nowadays is bleeding into the storyline already and I have little patience for this "gender-neutrality" construct.  Could be I am getting too old for the show but I doubt I will hurry to watch it.

Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)

The Acacia Strain - Failure Will Follow (2023)

Celeste - Epilogue(s) (2023)

Altarage - Sol Corrupto (2022)

Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery (2008)

Obscure Sphinx - Epitaphs (2016)

Vastum - Inward to Gethsemane (2023)

Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)

Doing my self-assessment for the tax office this afternoon (yes it is that magical time of the year already), where despite every penny I have earned being visible to them already I have to waste four hours of my life giving them all the data they already have for me all over again, just on the off-chance I have found time to undertake a second job/secondary source of income that I have not declared.

Relevant tracks here: Battery, Master of Puppets, The Thing That Should Not Be and of course Damage Inc.

Google Bard, ChatGP and AI in general can go fuck themselves.  Users caught using them will be banned for 24 hours.

Today's selection whilst mostly doing chores:

Knife - s/t (2021)

Master - s/t (1990)

Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)

Aara - En Ergô Einai (2020)

Weedeater - Jason...the Dragon (2011)

Skinless - Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead (2006)

Analepsy - Dehumanization by Supremacy (2015)

Fires in the Distance - Air Not Mean't For Us (2023)

On 11/10/2023 at 12:22 PM, JamesT said:

I had just gotten done posting about my latest listen through "Aftermath" from Angelus Apatrida when I saw this!  Excellent choice!  They're by far my favorite new wave thrash band.  Every one of their releases is incredibly high quality! 

I can't comment on their back catalogue but if Aftermath is representative of their usual quality then I have heard all I need to hear.  Sure fire way to kill my interest in a record?  Collaborate with Jamie fucking Jasta (or worse - a rapper, and that happens on this record also).  Even Todd La Torre's input gleans nothing amazing.  The guitarists can play I grant you but the songwriting is all over the place with no two concurrent tracks consistently showing the same level of aptitude.  Aftermath was better than that terrible Bazookiller release from Holycide though - a lot better.

Holycide - Bazookiller (2023)

Angelus Apatrida - Aftermath (2023)

Mānbryne - Interregnum: O próbie wiary i jarzmie zwątpienia (2023)

Immolation - Failures For Gods (1999)

Normally a guaranteed win with anything I discovered by them, Failures for Gods has always been the exception to the rule for me with Immolation's otherwise fantastic discography.  With only Alex Hernandez new in post, the same line up that produced Dawn of Possession and Here In After somehow managed to go off the boil with album number three.  I will call out early in the review that although Hernandez is a fantastic drummer, his performance on this record is dubious and suffers from some mistiming on top of a poor mix and production that makes the drums sound too wet and tepid.  His perfomance on Failures for Gods is nowhere near the level of confidence that is obvious on the follow up to this record, Close To A World Below (my favourite Immolation album).

To be clear though, the let downs on this album are not all down to Alex.  Paul Orofino does little to help the band with a production job that sounds murky and claustrophic.  Guitars sound stifled, as if struggling to find space to fill with their angular sound.  The clicky sound to the drums does nothing to help this sense of confinement and in the end, only Dolan's vocals get anything like the attention they should in the mix.  Again, this problem did not persist when Orofino continued to produce Immolation albums for the next few releases so I suspect that Failures for Gods was his first death metal production job (or one of his first at least) and so he had quickly learned his trade come the next album.

This album is full of the trademark Immolation attack coming straight out of the traps with the monstrous Once Ordained making the bands intentions clear enough on track one.  But a few of the tracks on here feel cumbersome in nature with that familiar shifting sound becoming more of a lurch, certainly without a consistent sounding percussive backdrop to shape and guide it at least.  The threat of the melodic and lead work of the guitar is all but tamed in the grander scheme of things, sounding more monotone than menacing.  Thankfully little more than a blip on the discography, Failures for Gods is cursed by a tired production job and some lack of focus on all details and is an album that I rarley visit as a result.

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos (1989)

This one has always been a struggle for me due to the production job that sounds too suppressed and muffled.  Being familair with all of the Bolt Thrower discography I just cannot fight the feeling that the band are somehow restained from getting into full flow here.  The guitar sounds sterile and there is no weight to the drums or bass for me.  It is ironically like a blistering black metal album in its production values at times.  I had thought this was due to me owning a remastered, FDR version but from listening to the original album I can see that the master tapes are the source of the problem.  Tishy drums and somehow a scratchy effect to Karl's vocals to boot.  Content would be superb if it had been produced properly.