"Perspectives" is the second full-length studio album by Canadian industrial death metal act Inner Thought. The album was released through Witchhunt Records in 1995. It´s the successor to "Worldly Separation" from 1993. Inner Thought is a one-man project featuring Bobby Sadzak who performs all guitars, keyboards, and drum programming. The growling/high pitched screaming vocals on this album are performed by Dennis Balesdent. The remaining instruments and occasional female vocals are performed by sessions/guest musicians.

Listening to "Perspectives" is could almost seem like Sadzak had read my review of "Worldly Separation", because some of my issues with that album have been solved on "Perspectives". The sound production is heavier and the music is generally more dark and brutal than on the debut album and less ethereal and dominated by keyboards. Of course there are still keyboards in the music and the drums are also still programmed, but Sadzak have found a better balance on "Perspectives".

The churning heavy riffs and rhythms, the aggressive growling vocals, and they atmosphere enhancing keyboards and lead guitar parts go hand and hand on this album and don´t feel disconnected. So while this isn´t a masterpiece recording by any means, it´s a good quality release which is certainly worth a listen to two. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

"Disorder of Battles" is an EP release by Canadian industrial death metal act Inner Thought. The EP was released through Witchhunt Records in 1993. It´s a companion release to Inner Thought´s debut full-length studio album "Worldly Separation".

...and companion release is the right term to use here, because you get absolutely nothing new by purchasing "Disorder of Battles" as the two tracks featured on the EP are culled directly from "Worldly Separation" and both appear here in the exact same versions as the versions featured on the album. So this is one of those completely redundant EP releases where you can´t help think what the label was thinking. They could at least have put one song on the EP, which hadn´t already appeared on the album...but no.

So upon conclusion "Disorder of Battles" is a redundant/unneccesary release, which does feature some decent quality industial death metal, but you should of course purchase the full-length studio album instead. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted for the actual content of the EP. The idea to release the EP gets a 0,5 star (10%) rating.

"Worldly Separation" is the debut full-length studio album by Canadian industrial death metal act Inner Thought. The album was released through Witchhunt Records in 1993. Inner Thought was formed in 1989 by Bobby Sadzak. Sadzak had been a member of Canadian thrash metal act Lethal Presence in the mid-80s, and joined Slaughter in 1987 and subsequently also co-founded post-Slaughter act Strappado with Dave Hewson. The early 90s was spend with recording and touring with Strappado, but Sadzak always had Inner Thought as a one-man project on the side and as activitives with Strappado came to a hold in 1993 he opted to spend time recording "Worldly Separation".

Stylistically this is industrial tinged death metal featuring both drum programming and an omnipresense of keyboards (and occasional samples and spoken words sections). The sound production is a bit thin, which is a shame because I´m sure that a more massive and heavy sounding production could have elevated the music to a higher state. The current sound production leaves a bit to be desired, although it´s not an amaturish sounding release.

The album is dedicated to all innocent victims of war and that theme is obvious from the lyrics and the atmosphere of the album. This is a melancholic album displaying despair at the state of the world. Heavy riffs and rhythms, growling snarling vocals, and atmosphere enhancing keyboards and lead guitars. I must admit that I enjoy this album most when it´s darkest, heaviest, og most brutal, and less when it´s too ethereal and carried by the keyboards and the programmed drums. But that´s a subjective observation and objectively evaluated this is a good quality industrial tinged death metal release. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

"Ki" is the tenth full-length studio album by Canadian artist Devin Townsend. The album was released through HevyDevy Records (Townsend´s own label) in May 2009. It´s the successor to "Ziltoid The Omniscient" from May 2007 and marks the end of a 2 year release hiatus, which at the time was an unusually long break between releases for Townsend. After a period of hectic recording and touring activity, Townsend however decided that he would withdraw from touring, to concentrate on family life and on getting sober from his addiction to alcohol and drugs. He recorded and released "Ziltoid The Omniscient" during the first period of his isolation, but then stopped writing music for a full year, before returning to composing at full force, writing around 60 tracks, some of which ended up on "Ki". Townsend brought in drummer Duris Maxwell and bassist Jean Savoie who he had never worked with before, and also asked former Devin Townsend Band member Dave Young to join the project and play keyboards. Female vocalist Ché Aimee Dorval (who Townsend would create the Casualties of Cool duo project with a few years down the line) sings additional vocals on the album.

Compared to "Ziltoid The Omniscient", "Ki" is a completely different type of release. It´s still unmistakably a Devin Townsend album (although released under The Devin Townsend Project monicker), but it´s predominantly a non-distorted, non-metal oriented release (although it can still be pretty heavy at times). Instead Townsend have opted for a stripped down, organic, and earthy rock sound, which often works through tension and release type dynamics. It´s sometimes a pretty intense album, and often not meant for mellow listening pleasure, so it´s not one of those atmospheric and pretty acoustic guitar releases, although the album does feature a good share of mellow and laid back sections and tracks. Some of the tracks feature jam parts combined with more structured sections and the whole album feels loose and creative in spirit. Featuring 13 tracks and a total playing time of 66:50 minutes, it´s also a pretty long release.

"Ki" is probably Townsend´s most personal release in terms of the lyrical subjects which include subjects like dealing with sober life, self-discovery, and spirituality. "Ki" features a gorgeous organic and earthy sound production. It´s an absolutely brilliant production, where you can hear every detail of the music and all instruments and vocals are well balanced in the mix. It´s interesting to hear Townsend´s music presented in this type of production package, as it stands in great contrast to his usual wall of sound/multi-layered sound productions, but that´s pretty obviously the whole point of "Ki"...to produce a release which sounds vastly different from anything which Townsend had been involved in before.

Personally I find "Ki" a very hard album to get into and it´s taken me many years to get through the album and many re-visits to be able to write something about it. And it´s not because it´s an overtly complex release in terms of the song structures or challenging parts, but it´s the whole atmosphere and the sometimes slow building and repetitive nature of the music (which is often laid back and ambient), which has taken me a while (well...actually a very long time) to get into. Even after all this time "Ki" still leaves me a bit perplexed...

...I´m sure the often idiosyncratic Townsend would be delighted if he read my reaction to "Ki" and the struggles I´ve been through to understand what he has created, but at some point you do have to ask yourself if it´s worth it. Some albums just seem to alienate you even though you try everything to understand them and appreciate them. And that´s how I felt about "Ki" for many years. But understanding and appreciating music sometimes comes down to experience with different types of music, the real life situation you´re experiencing at the given moment, and maybe who you listen to the music with. Negative feelings often create a negative reaction to difficult music, because you don´t have the emotional surplus to grasp it.

The point is that "Ki" is one of the most unique but also one of the most difficult releases in Devin Townsend´s discography, and it´s one of those releases which is an aquired taste. Just because you think of yourself as a Townsend fan doesn´t mean you´ll be able to appreciate "Ki". In parts maybe, but probably not the full album in one sitting unless you´re one of those rare folks who get it right away. But while you should consider yourself warned at this point, I would still urge you to give "Ki" a listen. This is the work of a real artist trying something new and working outside his comfort zone, and while I still have a way to go before I completely surrender to "Ki", there are arguably musical treasures buried on the album, which deserve to be discovered. The only way to find them...is to keep digging. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

"Vault of Horrors" is the twelfth full-length studio album by Belgian death metal act Aborted. The album was released through Nuclear Blast in March 2024. It´s the successor to "Maniacult" from September 2021. The two full-length studio albums are bridged by the non-album single "Infinite Terror" from October 2022.

Stylistically the core sound of the material on "Vault of Horrors" is no surprise if you´re familiar with the previous technically well played and brutal death metal releases from Aborted, but when that is said it´s still a slightly different sounding release, because Aborted have invited various guests to perform vocals on each track on the album along with lead vocalist Sven de Caluwé. So some of the these tracks almost work like extreme metal duets. Alex Erian from Despised Icon for example lends his aggressive hardcore snarling/screaming to "Death Cult", which along with de Caluwé´s brutal growling and aggressive snarling makes for a nicely varied vocal part of the song.

When the novelty of the tracks featuring different guest vocalists is over, "Vault of Horrors" however pretty much turns out to be Aborted by the numbers. Sharp and brutal riffs and rhythms, blistering lead guitar work, and variation between fast-paced blasting and mid-paced heavy grooves. It´s all clean, a bit sterile, and if you enjoy this type of massive professional sounding production, a very well sounding album. It´s become a bit predictable what Aborted releases these days (guest vocalists or not), and a bit more grit, sleaze, and organic playing and production values, would be a welcome change on the next release. Still a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.