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November 2015 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 2:41 am
by hellboy
I know many of you have been hanging out for my opinions on all things music, and due to work circumstances I've been unable to listen to much new stuff with a view to really giving them a fair chance.

Anyway, now that I have more time off (until the next job anyway) I've been able to listen to some stuff. Some of it from months ago that I may or may not have reviewed yet (I can't remember nor can I be bothered checking)

Lindemann - Skills In Pills Solo album of sorts by Rammstein front man. Lyrics make me chuckle at times, and are pretty cringeworthy at others. If you dug Pussy by Rammstein, then you may dig this. 6/10

High On Fire - Luminiferous Probably their best album for since Blessed Black Wings. 8/10

John Zorn - Pellucidar A range of instrumental pieces from Zorn, sounds more or less like every other instrumental album he does. 5/10

The Armed - Untitled No idea why I downloaded this albm, and I think I only listened to it once. Seemed like a pretty by the numbers noise metal type album 6/10

Cosmic Psychos - Cum The Raw Prawn Fucken bullshit maaaaaaatteeeeeee. 8/10

Failure - The Heart is a Monster Not a bad album, though a notch or two below Fantastic Planet. I would deem their reunion a success though. 7/10

Refused - Freedom The sound of punk from 15 years ago. Not sure I'd rate their reunion as much of a success as Failures. 5/10

Capital Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction These guys always deliver intense in-your-face metal/grind and this album is no exception. Feels a bit "been there, done that" though. 6/10

Enabler - Fail to Feel Safe Solid album from a solid metal band. 7/10

Fear Factory - Genexus I'll lump this in with the new Slayer album and say that while it's not a bad album, it just feels like a band going through the motions. 6/10

Royal Headache - High Punky rock album. No real opinion on it, though I doubt it will stay in my collection. 5/10

Sleaford Mods - Key Markets I like this band, but the novelty is starting to wear off. Found it hard to get through without getting bored. 4/10

Sleep Maps - We Die For Truth Album I grabbed of what.cd as part of some community release. Really good hard rock/prog album. 8/10

Destruction Unit - Negative Feedback Resistor Really enjoyed the last album by this fuzzy punk band. This one is well worth a listen as well. 8/10

Screature - Four Columns Psych rock album that I enjoyed, though probably won't win any awards. 7/10

Fuck the Facts - Desire Will Rot Great grindcore album. Will probably get into the top 10 grind albums of 2015. 8/10

Hate Eternal - Infernus By the numbers death/grind metal. 6/10

Slayer - Repentless I'll lump this in with the new Fear Factory album and say that while it's not a bad album, it just feels like a band going through the motions. 6/10

Uncle Acid - The Night Creeper These guys seem to get plenty of good reviews, but I usually find I walk award from listening to them a little uninspired. This album was no real exception. 5/10

Battles - La Di Da Di Sounds like most other Battles albums. I'd enjoy seeing these guys live again, but this one is a little la di da. 5/10

Chris Cornell - Higher Truth Well, it's not as bad as scream, but still nowhere near the classic Euphoria Morning was. 4/10

Deafheaven - New Burmuda The hipster black metal band everyone loves to hate. This was a pretty good album for a band that doesn't deserve as much flack as they get from people who I doubt have listened to them. 8/10

Scale the Summit - V Pretty standard instrumental rock/metal fare. I don't like using this saying, but I think I'd enjoy this band much more if they had a vocalist. 6/10

Run The Jewels - Meow The Jewels Much better than the original album. 8/10

Clutch - Psychic Warfare Top musicians with a great live show. This album doesn't stray much from their previous work, and I didn't think it had as many stand out tracks as previous albums. 6/10

Cult Leader - Lightless Walk Continuing where Gaza left off with al ball tearing metal/grind album. 9/10

Killing Joke - Pylon Never really understood why Killing Joke get the accolades they do. They're a good band, but never heard anything I'd classify as great. 7/10

Kylesa - Exhausting Fire Kylesa have a track record of putting out excellent, but not amazing albums. This one continues that trend. 8/10

Organ Dealer - Visceral Infection Has all the elements of a great grind album. Go listen! 8/10

Tanned Christ - Antipodean Sickness Short sharp and sweet album from Aussie power violence grinders. 8/10

Fuzz - II Not as good as I, but still pretty damn good. 8/10

Kowloon Walled City - Grievances Not heard much of this band before, though I know the name. I kinda felt like this album had one good track that was repeated 7 times. How much you like that track will determine how much you like this album. 6/10

Puscifer - Money Shot The review you've all been waiting for! My opinion that half of the album is quite good, and the other half pretty meh. More or less the same as COMP. Combine the good bits of those two albums together and you probably have a 9/10. In isolation: 7/10

VHOL - Deeper Than The Sky Expected more given who's on it, found myself a little bored at times while listening.

Oren Ambarchi - Live Knots A couple of live cuts from this experimental artist. Nothing overly experimental about this though, largely some easy listening instrumental cuts (depending on your interpretation of easy listening). 7/10

Ray West & Kool Keith Unlike most recent KK stuff, this one doesn't blow! 7/10

Next month I might get around to pirating the new Intronaut album, lest Mog blow his stack!

Re: November 2016 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 2:49 am
by UndKeineZwEier
Man, for awhile I was keeping track of all the stuff I was listening to for the next time you did one of these but then like three months passed and I kinda gave up on it.

Re: November 2016 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 3:07 am
by UndKeineZwEier
Alright, so I tallied it all up and I've listened to 81 albums since the last musical review.

Re: November 2016 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 3:11 am
by Ravenpig
I have a list of albums I've heard this year, of which I'm sure I missed more than a few. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it but I'm glad I have it.

Re: November 2016 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 6:16 am
by Kittaan
"November 2016 Musical Revue"? Who are you HB, NostROCKdamus?

Re: November 2016 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 11:22 am
by hellboy
Kittaan wrote:"November 2016 Musical Revue"? Who are you HB, NostROCKdamus?
Just checking to see if anyone actually reads this shit!

Re: November 2015 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 12:29 pm
by Ravenpig
I don't always comment but I do read them. Gives me the chance to hear things I otherwise wouldn't.

Re: November 2015 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 6:08 pm
by THE1TRUEMOG
By all means pirate away Hellboi. I already covered the new Intronaut album comprehensively. 7 / 10 ....disjointed collection of songs...Not bad but not on the same level as Habitual Levitations, Valley of Smoke or Prehistoricisms. Better than Null and Void.

One album towers above them all in November. (actually was released on October 22nd, but that is close enough)..and that is to your credit one you found...Sheltering Sky - Drowning Horse

Also I am officially removing my seal of approval from the Puscifer - Money Shot album. Replay value isn't there. The production quality and Jimmy actually finding his singing legs made the first listen okay, but subsequent listens have found the album to be lacking. A typical Puscifer release, a gem or two amongst a pile of meh.

We are getting close to the end of the year and there are a few more interesting albums to come out (Baroness - Purple being first on that list)....I look forward to putting together the MOG Special Albums of the Year XMas Edition. Where I will create a list of only the finest musical goodness from 2015.

Remember to tip your bartenders

Image

Re: November 2015 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 9:59 pm
by petemasterpete
Like UKE, I had planned a number of times to update the reviews myself, but the time never seemed to present itself ... either way, I've a laundry list of things I've listened to since the last edition so I'll leave the descriptions brief with a lot of decent, but not great 7/10 stuff with very few standouts:

Failure - THIAM: I think it's a solid record and I've reviewed it extensively before ... definitely doesn't reach Fantastic Planet levels, but it comes close at times (9/10)

Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss: cannot not say enough great things about this record ... dark and beautiful and likely my favorite female voice going (9/10)
Chelsea Wolfe - Pain is Beauty: not quite abyss, but you could definitely see it coming having listened to this one in retrospect (8/10)

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower: Fucking in love with this band right now ... currently doing no wrong (and the singer) is top notch (8.5/10)

Intronaut - The Direction of Las Things: Solid listen, but I find myself agreeing with MOG in regard to the disjointedness of the songs from a whole album perspective and for that reason, I'm not sure I like it as much as any of the last three releases. The Drummer is fucking on point, for sure. Needs more listens and could go up or down a half point in the future (7.5/10)

Cult Leader - Lightless Walk: Massively enjoyable heavy listen ... came into work and didn't want to kill everyone on sight at all (8/10)

DeafHeaven - New Bermuda: I've only gone through it once and don't recall it hitting me like Sunbather did, but I do like it ... need to listen again (7/10)

Drowning Horse - Sheltering Sky: Another real winner of a record deserving of repeated listening ... really like this one (8/10)

Fight Amp(utation) - Birth Control: Way late on this band but if you're into noisey/sludgy/hardcore in the vein of Melvins, Helmet, Whores, etc. (7/10)
Fight Amp(utation) - Constantly Off: Newer EP, released this year, maybe a touch better than the full length (7.5/10)

Elder - Lore: I've only given this one full run through in it's entirety and heard a track or two whilst zooming through a bunch of releases recently. I do dig it for the most part (7/10)

Fuzz - II: Much like HB, I'm digging this record as well. Solid stoner riffs and decent vox, but not sure it reaches the level of the last release (7/10)

Le Butcherettes - A Raw Youth: It has its highlights and a few guests (including Iggy singing in Spanish) and is mostly enjoyable ... I love Terri (7.5/10)

Locrian (back catalogue): I picked up a number of their older records, and the new one. I like them, but don't think any one is as good as Return to Annihilation (7/10, collectively)

Puscifer - money shot: meh. I think Maynie should be looking at some of this stuff under a more refined microscope rather than seemingly releasing whatever comes to mind. Yes, even he should be filtering his ideas. Easily the worst record I've put time into recently (4/10)

METZ - II: Toronto based 'noise' rock. A bit 'softer' than most of the music I listen to in this genre but there's a few standout tracks to be had here (7/10)

Retox - Beneath California: I really thought this record would be better based on the first few tracks I'd heard (6/10)

Harvey Milk (back catalog): I swear I had some of their tunes at one point but couldn't find them buried anywhere. Re-supplied myself and like a lot of it, but not nearly as much as their touted (7/10, collectively)

Nights Like These - Old Youth Culture: Music here is solid, vocals are lackluster but typically passable for the genre. Will listen again. (7/10)

VHOL - Deeper than Sky: Similar to HB's assessment, I thought it would be more interesting based on the players. I found myself not even paying much attention to it. (6/10)

Clutch - Psychic Warfare: Typical Clutch here. No real stretch or expansion on what they've done historically. Listened to it a few times and forgot about it (6/10)

We Lost the Sea - Departure Songs: Need to listen to this one again. It's well crafted, but doesn't have the same affect without the Vox that were included on the 'Quietest Place On Earth (which I really, really like and listen to fairly regularly). 'Challenger Part 1' is the definite standout on this record - (7/10)

Battles - La Di Da: I know I listened to it, can't even remember any of it (5/10)

Generally recalling from the top of my head, so I know I've slighted the list. If I remember to look back at my collection and recall anything notable, I'll update.

NEXT IN ROTATION:

Black Cobra - Invernal
Behold! the Monolith - Architects of the Void
Zu - Cortar Todo

Re: November 2015 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:06 pm
by hellboy
THE1TRUEMOG wrote:
One album towers above them all in November. (actually was released on October 22nd, but that is close enough)..and that is to your credit one you found...Sheltering Sky - Drowning Horse
There are a bunch of things from Bandcamp that I don't think I've included, Drowning Horse being one of those (and I agree it's excellent). I'll see if I can make an addendum later on today.

Re: November 2015 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 11:45 pm
by Calfium Jay
hellboy wrote:
Capital Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction These guys always deliver intense in-your-face metal/grind and this album is no exception. Feels a bit "been there, done that" though. 6/10

Don't you mean "Cattle Decapitation"???
Uncle Acid - The Night Creeper These guys seem to get plenty of good reviews, but I usually find I walk award from listening to them a little uninspired. This album was no real exception. 5/10

Yeah...they're terrible. More or less.

Chris Cornell - Higher Truth Well, it's not as bad as scream, but still nowhere near the classic Euphoria Morning was. 4/10
He's the "Hayden Christensen" of solo performers and really SHOULDN'T venture much further beyond the cosy confines of what he does best ie Soundgarden.

And nuts to you for calling Euphoria Morning a "classic".

Deafheaven - New Burmuda The hipster black metal band everyone loves to hate. This was a pretty good album for a band that doesn't deserve as much flack as they get from people who I doubt have listened to them. 8/10
Nup .Just Nup. And yeah I've listened to them.

Killing Joke - Pylon Never really understood why Killing Joke get the accolades they do. They're a good band, but never heard anything I'd classify as great. 7/10

They are hit and miss. First two albums are essential. Their latter day albums more or less stink the house up. Especially the one Dave Grohl played on. The only good album Killing Joke have put out in the last 25 years was Pandaemonium.

Nowadays they shovel out the same old politically lop sided post punk metal and conspiracy theory arena rousing junk time after time after time....and are about as edgy as Bono wearing purple Nikes. Or an Ozzy Osbourne tele movie.


Also you forgot to review the new Wolf Eyes silly...