Triceratopsoil I'm torn; Emotional Playground probably has the best music, but the worst production of Stone's studios. The drums suffer most, sounding unfortunately a little too tinny to really beat the message across. Some of the guitar solos aren't loud enough, but they rip as hard as anything I've ever heard. Still a very enjoyable listen, and it's only because the other albums sounded so excellent that it is even noticeable.

They've dialed the prog rock back just a titch from Colours, and it works well here. It's a shame that they really came into their own sound so shortly before breaking up. I love the vocal harmonies on the opener, something that doesn't appear on any of their other albums. The vocals in general are much more diverse than the rest of the discography. Also a big fan of the "rattly" bass guitar tone they've found here. Compared to Colours, there is less dissonance, but more variety in tempo, time signature, and heaviness, which makes the whole thing flow quite well. I even heard some acoustic guitar in there. The crushingly awesome downtuned dirge "Years After" stands out as a big stylistic shift, almost an experiment.

Favourite tracks: Small Tales, Last Chance, Mad Hatter's Den, Dead End

Triceratopsoil The most prog-thrash album of Stone's career. Still chock full of heavy chugging gallops and dual guitar harmonies, but this time they tend to be a little more polyrhythmic and dissonant. I'd say there is less head banging here, but less straightforward thrashers should be pleased. For me, it has lost a little; the tracks don't all hold my attention as strongly. Though none of the tracks are obscenely long, it drags a couple times near the middle. Production is excellent as it was on their previous. Vocals are what you expect if you're familiar with the band - a bit hard to understand, melodies can be a bit funny, but overall quite good with occasional gang vox background.

Favourite tracks: Stone Cold Soul, Meaning of Life

Triceratopsoil A little bit clearer, a little bit slower, and a little bit more thunderous than their debut. Definitely thrashier. Certainly no sophomore slump. These Finnish boys have matured a bit beyond out of tune covers of The Final Countdown. The vocals are mixed in much better this time around; the melodies don't always make conventional sense, but it's hard to complain about something like that. The guitars cut like a knife; a very tight duo that makes Maiden and Priest harmonies sound like a high school talent show. Their solos absolutely rip, too, screaming harmonics intertwined with turbo boosted legato lines. You're going to want to be listening to this loud enough for the bass guitar to make pictures fall off your walls. Good stuff. Possibly Stone's best album, though their 4 studio albums are all so good that I could change my mind next week.

Favourites: Sweet Dreams, Empty Corner, Concrete Malformation, Meat Mincing Machine, everything really

Triceratopsoil I have no idea what they are singing half the time, are they cutting back and forth between Finnish and English? My head doesn't care as it begins to bang. Stone is interesting as far as non-Bay Area thrash goes; it's harder to place their influences than most bands. Maybe the closest thing would be Slayer's first 2 studio albums. For 1988: Stone is a little bit faster, a little bit looser, a little bit catchier, gallops a-plenty. Less chunk and more scratch to their palm mutes. Seems more to me the natural progression from speed metal, rather than from Kill Em All. Whatever it is, it never lets up. Elegant compositions that flow well (for thrash metal lol), backing gang vocals (a secret weakness of mine), remarkably good production value for a 1988 debut, this self-titled piece of art certainly satisfies. Plus, how could you go wrong with a cover of one of the best/most underrated Sabbath bangers?

Favourite tracks: No Commands, Overtake

Pekka Many metal fans of today might know the name Roope Latvala from the rhythm guitarist position of Children of Bodom, but a little known fact is that one of the biggest influences behind Alexi Laiho and COB's vision is a band called Stone and Roope Latvala as their riff master and lead guitarist.

The band members were around 17 or 18 years old when they recorded their excellent self-titled debut and a year after that came No Anaesthesia which bettered their craft and gave them and the Finnish metal scene a breakthrough from the underground. Inspired by the likes of Metallica and Iron Maiden the album's name and cover art is a direct reference to Cliff Burton's bass solo on Kill 'Em All and the album's opening may well have been an idea born listening to Maiden's guitar harmonies. Finlandia is a composition by Jean Sibelius, the most famous Finnish classical composer, and practically the unofficial national anthem of our country. It is turned here into a sixteen track electric guitar symphony. Absolutely stunning, at least when listened to with Finnish ears. And followed by this beautiful intro comes The Riff. Sweet Dreams kicks in with an absolute masterpiece of a riff; brutal, powerful and tight. Thrash metal at its finest.

When the whole band kicks in one instantly notices one unexpected thing for a late 80s metal album. The sound is full, fat and heavy with the bass audible all the time adding a massive bottom for the devastating riff machine and the harsh shouted delivery of bassist/vocalist Janne Joutsenniemi. The relatively straightforward thrash attack of the debut album is taken to a more progressive direction on this album with the multi-part title track lasting for almost eleven minutes and many of the tracks exceed the six minute mark which was barely touched on the previous album. Most of the tracks are pure golden riff fests but the album has its share of slightly weaker tracks, perhaps most noticeably the closer Meat Mincing Machine which suffers the most from the biggest flaw of the album: juvenile, silly lyrics. But as I said, the bandmembers were barely 18 or 19 at the time and those were probably the only English words they knew.

It boggles my mind that at the same time that their one time touring partners in Testament were almost ruining their excellent material for the third time with terrible production, these young punks far away in Finland - not exactly famous for its metal scene at the time - managed to get such killer sounds to crown their great headbanging material. No wonder Mikko Karmila went on to become one of the most respected engineers and producers of the Finnish rock scene. Essential thrash/speed metal.