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The Great Collection Rediscovery

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adg211288 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jun 2020 at 5:05am
Artist: Linear Sphere
Album: Reality Dysfunction
Obtained From: Ebay, came with another album that I was looked for.
Total Previous Scrobbles: 14
Old Rating: 4/5



Verdict: I actually got this in a lot of two albums on Ebay. The other one was the reason I bid so this was extra. The lot was sold as 2x technical death metal CDs. The other one, the one I wanted, was just that. This one, which is also tagged as technical death metal on RYM, certainly isn't. Really not sure how this album has been so badly misrepresented. It's actually an okay progressive metal album (with a tie to Haken), but it's let down by the vocals, which are very up and down in quality. 

New Rating: 3.5/5

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jun 2020 at 5:50am
Artist: Coronatus
Album: Porta Obscura
Obtained From: Online
Total Previous Scrobbles: 218
Old Rating: 4.5/5



Verdict: I got into Coronatus when I was going through a metal with female voices phase. They had a more unique setting in that they didn't pair a female vocalist with a male vocalist (often a growler), but a second female vocalist, which really appealed to me, as did their multi-lingual writing style mixing English, German and Latin songs. I've lost track of the band a bit on more recent releases and all the line-up changes they've had (seriously this band changes members like it's going out of fashion), but this early album still hits the spot.

New Rating: No Change

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jun 2020 at 12:19pm
Artist: Black Sabbath
Album: Black Sabbath
Obtained From: Market Stall
Total Previous Scrobbles: A bloody shameful 18 (7 tracks)
Old Rating: 4/5 



Verdict: It could probably be seen as shameful the amount of time I actually spend listening to Black Sabbath as a self-respecting metalhead, especially this icon first album that is considered the birth of our genre. It could be seen as even more shameful that it's one of only a few records I've even heard by them. Or that my old rating was 'only' 4 stars. They are definitely a band I should give more appreciation to. 

New Rating: 4.5/5

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Vim Fuego Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jun 2020 at 12:30pm
Originally posted by adg211288 adg211288 wrote:

Artist: Black Sabbath
Album: Black Sabbath
Obtained From: Market Stall
Total Previous Scrobbles: A bloody shameful 18 (7 tracks)
Old Rating: 4/5 



Verdict: It could probably be seen as shameful the amount of time I actually spend listening to Black Sabbath as a self-respecting metalhead, especially this icon first album that is considered the birth of our genre. It could be seen as even more shameful that it's one of only a few records I've even heard by them. Or that my old rating was 'only' 4 stars. They are definitely a band I should give more appreciation to. 

New Rating: 4.5/5

Keeper? Yep.

I find this album surprises me nearly every time I listen to it. It's like "oh yeah, it's 50 years old. Like the old tunes, but don't expect too much." And then I'll notice something I hadn't noticed before and think "Fuck! They did THAT 50 years ago! Amazing!"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Triceratopsoil Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jun 2020 at 1:34pm
The fact that a discussion of the history of literally any subgenre of metal has to start with the song Black Sabbath is incredible.  Probably the most important album ever made.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jun 2020 at 11:10am
Artist: Howls of Ebb
Album: Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows
Obtained From: Direct from record label
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 76 (7 Tracks)
Old Rating: 4/5



Verdict: I definitely sold this one a bit short when I reviewed it at merely four stars. It's such an unusual sounding death metal record. I would readily call it avant-garde. Haven't listened to it for a while but it really floored me after some time away from it.

New Rating: 4.5/5

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jun 2020 at 11:48am
Thanks to this project I've already listened to more different albums in June than I did for the entirety of May and most other months of this year so far. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jun 2020 at 11:19am
Artist: Machine Head
Album: The Blackening
Obtained From: er...may have been in store, don't actually remember on this one.
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 13 (would be more, but this came out a couple of years before I joined Last.fm)
Old Rating: 4/5



Verdict: Now here's one that I remember playing a lot when it came out (in my pre-Last.fm days - it's hardly come out since then). Instrumentally it's a pretty fine, though often long-winded, groove/thrash metal record from Machine Head, a band who has never interested me beyond this one album, in big part to their descent into nu-metal periods. I find some aspects of the lyrical delivery a bit immature for my taste though, such as the second song where the first line is Robb Flynn screaming 'fuck you all!!!' which may have been acceptable to the teen ears who bought the album but thirteen years later the same ears realise this kind of almost teen angst was coming out of a 40 year old Flynn and his (mostly) older cohorts and it just doesn't wash. It's an album that's aged fucking badly in that regard with the notable exception of Aesthetics of Hate, which was written about the Dimebag Darrell murder and still feels as poignant in 2020 as it did in 2007. 

This album was also incredibly hyped back in 2007, especially by Metal Hammer magazine in the UK and I admit to being among those swept up in Machine Head (or Machine 'Fucking' Head, as MH and fans tended to religiously call them) fervour. But as is evidenced by how little the bloody thing's graced my speakers since, it's not a record that's stood the test of time. The extra sad thing being that from whatever else I've ever encountered by Machine Head, this is most likely the best the overrated act ever got. 

New Rating: 3/5

Keeper? Barely. 


Edited by adg211288 - 18 Jun 2020 at 11:26am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Triceratopsoil Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jun 2020 at 11:56am
I listened to that album a lot in high school.  Probably the last good thing Machine Head did
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Vim Fuego Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jun 2020 at 4:32pm
I've always found that one to be pretty fucking meh...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 666sharon666 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 2020 at 1:10am
I used to quite like it but its been years since I felt any desire to play it again. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 2020 at 1:26am
Artist: Todesstoß
Album: Hirngemeer
Obtained From: Online, possibly Dodax
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 18 (3 Tracks)
Old Rating: 4/5



Verdict: Now here's one of the weirder entries in my collection, as if you couldn't tell by the cover. A mix of depressive black metal with the avant-garde, this is the kind of album that only fits a niche mood. I described it in my review as sounding like something out of a nightmare and completely unhinged and that's still the impression I get every time I drag it out. 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 2020 at 6:39am
Artist: Hail Spirit Noir
Album: Pneuma
Obtained From: Online
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 81 (6 Tracks)
Old Rating: 5/5



Verdict: Who'd have thought that the debut album from a then new band sent to me unsolicited by a record label would end up becoming a release I love so much? It actually took me too long to buy this on CD, but is now a key part of my collection. Hail Spirit Noir is easily one of my favourite bands now. 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 2020 at 7:53am
Artist: Hail Spirit Noir
Album: Oi Magoi
Obtained From: Online
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 67 (7 Tracks)
Old Rating: 4.5/5



Verdict: Although in some ways the second Hail Spirit Noir album is even more accomplished than the first, it's one of those cases where nostalgia wins the favouritism race. I've actually had it longer on CD though and it further cemented their reputation as one of my favourite bands.

New Rating: No Change.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 2020 at 9:18am
Artist: Hail Spirit Noir
Album: Mayhem in Blue
Obtained From: Amazon
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 113 (6 Tracks)
Old Rating: 5/5



Verdict: My favourite of the black metal Hail Spirit Noir records. Latest album Eden in Reverse marks a change in direction for the band and that kind of makes sense listening to it with these first three, but especially this one. The band has achieved a lot in their original genre and will go on to no doubt do so in their new progressive incarnation. Only time will tell which Hail Spirit Noir graces my speakers more regularly, but between Mayhem in Blue and the new one they've sure made two back to back masterpieces that are very different from each other.

New Rating: No Change.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 2020 at 9:12am
Artist: Sig:Ar:Tyr
Album: Beyond the North Winds
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 74 (9 Tracks)
Old Rating: 5/5



Verdict: An interesting blend of metal with dark folk and ambient to create a rather unique folk metal experience, Sig:Ar:Tyr has proved an act I don't reach for too often in the long term, but still a great experience for when the precise mood strikes. 

New Rating: 4.5/5

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 2020 at 12:05pm
Artist: Anathema
Album: Serenades
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 10 (10 Tracks)
Old Rating: 3.5/5



Verdict: Anthema was one of those bands I ended up with a lot of CDs by in a job lot of someone's entire collection that I bought on Ebay and this marks the first time I have ever listened to any one of the albums a second time. This debut seemed okay on first listen, but it didn't wear too well on the revisit. In fact a lot of its quite boring to my ears. 

New Rating: 3/5 (could go lower)

Keeper? Not really. We'll see how the rest of them go. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Vim Fuego Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 2020 at 12:29pm
Originally posted by adg211288 adg211288 wrote:

Artist: Anathema
Album: Serenades
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 10 (10 Tracks)
Old Rating: 3.5/5



Verdict: Anthema was one of those bands I ended up with a lot of CDs by in a job lot of someone's entire collection that I bought on Ebay and this marks the first time I have ever listened to any one of the albums a second time. This debut seemed okay on first listen, but it didn't wear too well on the revisit. In fact a lot of its quite boring to my ears. 

New Rating: 3/5 (could go lower)

Keeper? Not really. We'll see how the rest of them go. 

I think I have three Anathema CDs cos I got them real cheap, but I have never warmed to the band.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jun 2020 at 5:02pm
Artist: Neal Morse
Album: Sola Scriptura
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 50
Old Rating: 5/5



Verdict: Until the one I picked up earlier today arrives, this remains the only Neal Morse solo album I actually own physically. Likewise I also only own one Spock's Beard album which will feature on this blog at some point. In both cases I'm really not sure why that is, because both albums number among my favourite prog rock albums, especially this one, which is likely the closest Morse has ever come to making a full metal album. Like with the rest of his solo work the Christian theme may be off putting to some (this particular releases is a concept album about the life of life of the German theologian Martin Luther), but I've never found Morse to be excessively preachy (and generally not at all), so it's a shame if anyone steers clear of his solo work for that reason. It's been too many years since I played this one, but it's as strong as ever. I still think he called in favours with God and got the ghost of Layne Staley to lay down some vocals on The Conflict. 

New Rating: No Change

Keeper? Yep.


Edited by adg211288 - 24 Jun 2020 at 5:02pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2020 at 6:31am
Artist: Opeth
Album: Ghost Reveries
Previous Last.fm Scrobbles: 134 (8 Tracks)
Old Rating: 5/5



Verdict: My first Opeth album. I still remember my first experience with them, listening to The Grand Conjuration on YouTube and how blown away I was by it that I immediately set about collecting every one of their albums. I definitely don't take this one off the shelf often enough these days, although it has seen more listens than some I've said that about on this blog. The band lost me for a bit during their prog rock current era (despite being a fan of Damnation) but I've since found more appreciation for those releases as well. 

New Rating: No Change

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