Rate the album you last listened to

[killer_roach]

Arch/Matheos - Sympathetic Resonance
6.5/10

Strong pedigree for this quirky progressive metal project, but its strong vocals and neck-snapping changes in time signature eventually get overwhelmed by less-than-impressive lyrics and repetitious riffing that makes this little more than a cynical attempt at reviving 90's-style prog metal.


FreddeGredde - Thirteen Eight
7.75/10

Yes, I know, it's a one-man project. Yes, I know the guy's mostly famous from YouTube. Yes, his voice is nothing to write home about. Nonetheless, Thirteen Eight is a strong, professional release (you'd be surprised how rare these are for multi-instrumentalists!) that goes heavy on dark atmospherics and uses his warbling vocals as contrast in a manner not unlike what British neo-prog band IQ has done over their last few albums, with a slightly harder edge to it (think Remedy Lane-era Pain of Salvation for a point of comparison).

[ULS_980]

Abzu - Absu 8.5/10
Really dig this album. Liked Absu a lot, but I think this album is even better.
Few things like the opening scream were a bit ill advised, but really, this was a great album over all.
Still prefer Skeletonwitch for my blackened thrash (and seriously cannot wait for their new album), but this is a close second.

Illud Divinum Insanus - Morbid Angel 2.5/10
Pretty awful album. There's very little here to really latch onto.
The industrial songs are cringe inducing and the death metal songs aren't much better (although they are listenable I guess).
The only thing I found myself enjoying were the guitar solos, but maybe that was just me trying to find something good about the album.
Really only listened to this album out of curiosity due to what I've heard about it, so I wasn't expecting much to begin with. It's not as bad as some people make it out to be (because it truly could be worse, think if all the songs were like Too Extreme, Destructos, and Radikult), but it's still terrible.

In Waves - Trivium 1.5/10
The lyrics are banal and border on incoherent whether in meaning, as a complete sentence, or as a whole, not to mention spend half the time repeating the same lines. The vocals irritatingly try to copy Hetfield or employ very one dimensional growls (and if not those, generic metalcore-y clean vocals). The musicianship itself is competent I guess, the players know how to play their instruments, but in general they waste their talent on pretty bland music that doesn't stick long after the music is over.

[moderndaycatastrophist]

Recipe for Hate - Bad Religion

7.5/10

Favorite BR album.

[Runesmith]

Phideaux - "Fiendish": 8/10

Really enjoyable listen. No, it's not breaking any new ground, but one RYM reviewer says the album sounds like what would happen if Syd Barrett and David Bowie colloborated, and that's not too far off the mark at all; just add in a few hazy, drug-induced stray goth rock tones (particularly in the melodies and atmosphere) via The Cure's Pornography or Seventeen Seconds. I love how unwanky/unmasturbatory the album is, too, which is also in the Pink Floyd vein-of-prog tradition.

[killer_roach]

Yeah, Phideaux is never really in the category of "wanky" prog, although some of his more recent stuff can have a tendency toward symphonic-style excess (his full band is eleven people, and some of the time pretty much everyone will get involved in a song). If you're wanting another more goth-like album of his, I'd point out Ghost Story or The Great Leap, otherwise his most recent three albums are pretty good bets for the allusions to Bowie, Barrett, or Gabriel.

[ULS_980]

Autopsy - Macabre Eternal 8.5/10

Getting this out of the way first.
I typically don't listen to straight death metal. If I ever listen to any form of death metal, it's of the avant-garde, technical, or progressive variety (think Death, Gojira, Meshuggah, etc.).
So I went into this album not expecting much and not expecting to like it at all (especially considering it's a "reunion" album of a band that hasn't been around in like 15 years). Never listened to their stuff before.
So there wasn't much for me to get excited about here.

That said. This album absolutely surprised the hell out of me. The production is top notch while still allowing the music to breathe, the riffs are abundantly good, the vocals, while on a few songs he can't decide what he wants his death growls to sound like, are enjoyable, and the solos are great.
Aside from some of the gore lyrics (which is one of the reasons I typically stay away from plain death metal), there really isn't much to say against this album.
It's just all around a fantastic album.


Also listened to like a million other albums today, but I'm not going to go into too much detail about them.

Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination 9/10
Great album from one of my favorite bands. Love how they went out of their comfort zone sometimes with songs like the opener instead of just sticking to their tried-and-true 2 and a half minute long machine gun songs.

Tombs - Path of Totality 8.5/10
Took me a few tries to get into the album, but once I did, damn good album.

Primus - Green Naugahyde 7.5/10
Decent album all around. Some songs stood out for me (Last Salmon Man) others... not so much (Tragedy's a' Comin').

Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues 7/10
Never been a fan of BtBaM, but this was alright.
Coulda sworn they ripped the opening guitar section (after the intro) of Triumph's song Fight the Good Fight for some bit parts on the first song of the EP, but eh.

Protest the Hero - Scurrilous 7/10
Never was a fan of these guys either (don't like the singer), but the album seemed more accessible than the previous stuff I've heard from them, so it wasn't that bad.

[GandWuser]

Maire Brennan-Whisper to the Wild Water (1999)

5/10

I thought I would like this album after listening to the first track a few times... turns out that none of the other songs sound like it. While I did kind of expect that, none of the other songs are as memorable as it either. I mean, it's an OK album, but it's just not that memorable. In fact, the only track I'd actually suggest is Follow the Word, the first track I mentioned up there. If you like Christian New Age music, I'd recommend this, otherwise, I wouldn't. Also helps if you can understand Irish. Tracks like Peacemaker have copious amounts of it.

Interestingly, I listened to a pre-release copy from when my dad worked at a Christian book store.

[moderndaycatastrophist]

Throb Throb - Naked Raygun - 7/10

[Cubecubed]

Batman: Arkham City- The Album 7.5/10

Not a bad compilation, the theme of it helps quite a bit for sure.

High Points: The Coheed and BMRC songs are definitely best at capturing the whole "Batman" feel.

"Shadow on the Run"- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
"Deranged"-Coheed and Cambria
"Trophy Widow"- The Damned things

Low Points- Not many, except for the Daughtry song, and the Serj Tankian song which is just terrible, and almost completely unlistenable, a real disappointment.

[krisko]

Mylo Xyloto - Coldplay - 7/10
Probably the second worst album they have ever made, but still a worthy effort from the top contemporary stadium rock band. I could see some fans ranking it as their worst, however, due to its more electronic and repetitive feel. Some of the tracks, such as Hurts Like Heaven, sounded very different compared to the live versions that were leaked over the summer. The song with Rhianna was surprisingly pretty awesome, though I may be biased as I happen to enjoy some of her solo work. The much-touted "love story" concept ended slightly differently than I would have expected, with the protagonist not getting the girl but still hopeful that he can find her again. I still think that the best thing here is "Every Teardrop", but it is only a first impression after all, and it could change.