MetalMania! My Metal Reviews

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Roots of Eternity by Manticora
Styles: Power Metal
Release Date: August 18, 1999

Manticora is a Danish power metal band that goes over most people's heads, including mine. I didn't even know they had a new album out yet. In fact, many of their albums aren't even on BEA, so I'm going to be blowing through most of them before I review the new album, and you'll get a review of the debut album right now.

Roots of Eternity has a very cool approach that pretty much secures the status of Manticora as a serious metal band from the start. There's nothing cheesy, blatantly dramatic, or cringy about the band's performances, which comes as a surprise since the lyrics are typically about fantasy, one of the most common topics in power metal. This is done because Manticora includes certain thrash elements reminiscent of bands like Overkill and Testament. This is a strong positive for Manticora because they're a part of a large subgenre of metal that fantasy has a hold on so strong that even metalheads have been drawn away from these bands because of the album covers. If you like metal at all, look at the cover of Heroes of Mighty Magic and tell me I'm wrong. Manticora doesn't have to worry about that. Their performances are fine enough and the songs typically have healthy rhythms and a perfect balance between all of the serious metal elements. Each track also has a strong balance between highs and lows, never playing songs that feel too weak when compared to the highlights.

The album isn't without its faults. Even though they're a serious band, their sound is still a generic power metal sound. It's good music, but so is AC/DC. Manticora haven't proven themselves to stand out with their debut. However, despite being a Danish band, it's easy to avoid comparing this to the superior band Wuthering Heights because their take on progressive power metal is a bit different. They use more folk and symphonic properties that are more commonly associated with power metal, so I didn't even think about Wuthering Heights while listening to Roots of Eternity until I mentioned in this review that they were Danish. And the singer is... well, he's not bad at all put there's nothing special about it. This deep voice of his would sound decent in any style of music he sang for, but performances including the backing vocalists sound more fit for the 80's sect of AOR when bands like Magnum and Harem Scarem were popular.

If you're a metalhead, you might get a kick out of Manticora's debut album. Even if it's a typical power metal album in some ways, it's a breath of fresh air from the Rhapsody and Blind Guardian rip-offs that all have to rewrite "Emerald Sword" every other song. And thanks to Roots of Eternity I'm looking forward to the rest of the catalog. Recommended for anyone looking for good power metal, and for anyone who wants an easy, palatable album to introduce themselves to real metal, not the heavier songs by Guns N' Roses.

8.0
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Do it yourself and let me play my music: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=61802

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Rage by Attila
Styles: Deathcore, Metalcore
Release Date: May 11, 2010

Now just let me get this out of the way: Attila have proven themselves to be one of the worst bands in the world. Their debut album Fallacy is one album that I found no redeeming qualities in, and nothing about it was palatable. But every Attila album I've heard other than the debut showed some improvement, so I give them a fair chance whenever I feel like it since a lot of people like to hate on radio metal acts like this. Now I don't really have anything "good" to say about their third album, Rage, except that it was a much better sort of album.

Now punk and metal are two styles that go together like coffee and milk. Their are so many great forms of this combo: crossover thrash (as made awesome by Suicidal Tendencies), Grindcore, a hyperactive style pioneered by Nasum, Pig Destroyer and Discordance Axis, and the appropriately named metalcore and its extra formats mathcore and deathcore. Mathcore has its awesome acts like Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Botch. Deathcore doesn't have any awesome acts, and most of the good acts are ignored because the most notable act is probably the worst: Attila. It reminds me of something that happened to me recently: I was really bored with an album that I thought was so-so, and I thought, "Damn this is boring. I have more fun with Blood On the Dance Floor and they're shit!" Then I realized how much more noteworthy bad albums are, and that I really enjoy something if there's something notable about it.

Ironically, Rage is a very typical deathcore album, but it's very notable for one damn good reason: it's a huge improvement over the previous two shitfucks Fallacy and Soundtrack to a Party. The writing is much better, the layout of each song is coherent and shifting like any punk metal album should be, and it doesn't drown itself in its hardcore energy like Fallacy did. In fact, I even enjoyed the vocals. In my right mind I expected no imagination present in the album. But throughout the album I didn't see anything "wrong" with it other than the fact that it was just another album for a so-so musical scene, kind of like your average FFDP or Slipknot album. However, I enjoyed the varying vocal styles. Some were extremely deep and monstrous, some were pretty cool, and at one point the singer sounded a little like Cornholio.

Rage proves that Attila are capable of decent music. They just don't always know what they're doing every time. It's entirely possible for one of the worst bands in the world to have at least one decent album, so I'm glad Attila had something perfectly palatable for an average metal fan. But I wouldn't check this album out unless you liked death metal or metalcore.

6.0
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Underneath by Code Orange
Styles: Metalcore, Industrial Metal
Release Date: March 13, 2020

More metalcore. This time I'm going into a recent album by a band who has proven to be a decent venture into an overlooked metal form until now: Code Orange. Formally known as Code Orange Kids, they released three studio albums with moments of creativity but little substance. All that seems to be changing with their fourth album, Underneath.

This is easily their best release. I didn't expect any moments of brilliance or anything, but Code Orange cranks up the creative factor and jumbles it around to make it a very surprising, bombastic and unpredictable album. Underneath, like previous albums, brings in some sludge and industrial metal to help the power of the album stand out a little more, but the dosage was faint throughout the catalog and was slowly growing with each new release. Now we have something less about the hardcore energy and more about the band. Everything that Code Orange was known for was evenly balanced, giving Code Orange new life and meat.

I have to complain about those moments in the beginning of the album when the music would just break for a note, giving of some sort of dubstep feeling. They really didn't need any of that since Underneath and its essence already justified Code Orange as a "cool" band. Those moments were the few times that Code Orange seemed to try to hard.

I definitely recommend this for any metalcore fans. Underneath is Code Orange's best album and I have a feeling that they will only get better.

8.0
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Do it yourself and let me play my music: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=61802

[LedZep]

This is by far the most interesting Code Orange album, although I prefer Forever album cover. It's easily one of the best metal albums of the year, pure energy and fun.
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Finally updated the overall chart

2020s
90s

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Terra Mortuus Est by Katalepsy
Styles: Brutal Death Metal
Release Date: July 31, 2020

Brutal death metal is a hard genre to navigate. Most of the bands have lyrics that are incredibly gory, and occasionally just twisted. When that's not the case, they'll be very offensive, sometimes anti-religious like Cryptopsy. But if you're a fan of death metal and want something a little cleaner and more tolerable, I've got a few recommendations for you. Serocs is a pretty good band, Suffocation is a staple for brutal death metal, and Katalepsy are an up and coming act with a truly metallic approach. As soon as I heard about the third album, Terra Mortuus Est, I dropped my plans for other albums and spun it. Believe it or not, death metal can help calm my nerves.

I don't expect Katalepsy to produce any bad release just yet, since it's still too early in their career for that. However, this is their first album in four years. I'm glad the album managed to be very entertaining, although there was nothing unique about it. Normally, a trope-rooted album will annoy me. The new Toni Braxton album, Spell My Name, was so typical and trope-filled that I gave it a 3.0. That's lower than any of the Britney Spears albums I've rated so far. And when a metal album is typical, I can get just as agitated, especially since metal is the one genre I probably know better than any othe. But the album's saving grace is its technical capability. Every track on the album bleeds of an authentic anger that's backed up by some impressive guitar work and perfectly fine mixing. But at the same time, the band members are careful not to rely on boastfulness that would inevitably get in the way of the album's quality. It's a balanced album, and probably the most balanced album of the three Katalepsy albums. The aforementioned avoided mistake is the very thing Attila's albums rely on, and if you know death metal you'd probably know Attila and how horrible they have been before.

But the main problem with the album is that it's very long. Brutal death metal albums are often one-sided, and they shouldn't be any longer than 40 minutes. Terra Mortuus Est is 50 minutes long, which means there's too much music. Some of these songs should have been saved for another album. Every song is pretty good, but too much is too much.

Terra Mortuus Est is the worst of the three Katalepsy albums, but it's still worth listening to if your into death metal or if you just want to make a list of 2020 metal albums. It offers a fun and authentic brutal death presence that most modern bands have a very hard time trying to create. Still, 'm hoping the fourth is better and shorter, because I feel like Katalepsy have a lot of potential that they haven't reached yet.

7.0
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Do it yourself and let me play my music: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=61802

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Revocation of the Fallen by Disavowed
Styles: Brutal Death Metal, Technical Death Metal
Release Date: July 31, 2020

Disavowed is one of those bands between the underground and popular area in death metal. And let me tell you, I an NOT impressed with the earlier Disavowed albums. Their debut, Perceptive Deception, is some of the most typical and monotonous death metal I've ever heard. Their second album, Stagnated Existence, was a half-star improvement thanks to some technical structuring. Revocation of the Fallen is their third album and their first in thirteen years, so I didn't have any high expectations. Damn, did they prove me wrong. I actually liked this one.

Revocation of the Fallen is the album where the band opened themselves up to new possibilities. Instead of the constant low-brow vocals with the same exact tone, sound and note throughout an entire album, the singer goes into some occasional screaming for aural purposes. The drummer and the lead guitarist have improved their thrashing abilities and their technical abilities, creating songs with real rhythms and real riffs. Through their newfound technical sound, the presence of the album is more rooted in the real anger and monstrous behavior of the death metal sound. It's also the band's most well-produced of the three. And, lo and behold, I can tell the tracks apart from each other! The band did not take that into account when making their first album at all, just playing the basics and growling through the tracks.

I'm very happy with how the third album turned out. Hopefully, Disavowed will continue with more albums, and I hope Revocation of the Fallen is only the start of their improvement. This time the band has become technical, truly vile and interesting.

7.5
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Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic by The Ocean
Styles: Post-Metal, Atmospheric Sludge Metal
Release Date: September 25, 2020

The Ocean / Ocean Collective does NOT get the attention it deserves. It's possible that The Ocean is simply drowned out by more popular sludge bands like Neurosis, Isis and Melvins. But The Ocean is a pure gold band. Just to make this clear how much of a fangirl this male metalhead is for The Ocean, I gave the previous album, Phanerozoic I, a rating of 9.5. I had high hopes for their new album, Phanerozoic II. I predicted the outcome of my rating flawlessly: it doesn't reach the heights of the previous record, but it's a perfectly fine Ocean album.

Phanerozoic II may suffer from "sequelitis," especially since it's their ninth studio album, but the atmosphere is once again flawless and must be enjoyed with the best speakers you have. It's another thematic collection of great sludge compositions dragged out for as long as necessary, creating a stronger aura. The ability to shift from total ambiance to almost black metal villainy, even instantaneously, never gets in the way of the atmosludge aura because the aura drives the band and their compositions. The atmosphere is so dense that this album is almost like a musical equivalent to fog, but not the kind that drowns everything else out. It's more like the silver fog of the mountains in the distance in a winter day.

But herein also lies the problem: The Ocean already made several albums like this. Bear in mind that this is a part two to a concept album. I've heard nearly the whole Ocean catalogue. The Ocean already has several incredible albums, and if The Ocean can drag the sound on in incredible ways for several albums in a row like Iron Maiden did with their first seven albums, then they likely would have done so by now.

Even though Phanerozoic II doesn't reach the heights of its predecessor, I still had plenty of fun listening to it. I recommend this for any sludge fan, because so far this is the best sludge album of 2020. We need more great albums for 2020 and I'm happy that one of my favorite sludge acts came forth with a suitable addition.

9/10.
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Do it yourself and let me play my music: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=61802

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The Octagonal Stairway by Pig Destroyer
Styles: Grindcore, Drone
Release Date: August 28, 2020

I love Pig Destroyer. I don't remember how I ended up getting into grindcore music but I do know that I kept on exploring it. Pig Destroyer would eventually become my fvorite of the scene. I recommend Prowler in the Yard and Terrifyer for any fan of punk or metal. But lately their music has been suffering due to age and repetition. The most that Pig Destroyer can do to stay relevant is film dumb indie self-mocking music videos and take some pages from other scenes unrelated to punk. In this case, they released a drone extended play called The Octagonal Stairway.

If you like grindcore, then chances are that you'll like this album a little, like I did. Grindcore is a pretty easy genre to make decent music for, and I could tell from the experimental nature of this EP that Pig Destroyer can still say that they try. But they tried and failed for the most part. They set the high bar for grindcore and now they're having trouble reaching those same heights. There are several great jams throughout this 25 minute monster and the drone compositions add a lot to the album without feeling out of place. Thanks to Pig Destroyer's personality, they successfully combined the two styles in a dark and sinister way that works.

The problem here is that the compositions themselves are only OK. They don't accomplish anything besides contributing to a new album. It's basically a 25-minute filler album full of ideas that would have been better if Pig Destroyer didn't run out of ideas, then then they could have created some shit like "dronecore," which I actually want to exist. The album's not boring, it's just lacking in anything interesting besides the new influence.

I didn't feel like the 25 minutes were wasted at all, but I didn't feel like the album needed to exist either. I think The Octagonal Stairway and its new drone sound only accomplished giving me a desire to see the old Pig Destroyer come back. But it's not a bad album.

6.0
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Do it yourself and let me play my music: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=61802

[LedZep]

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