Testament - Souls Of Black [1990]

A short and pointless intro track for "Beginning Of The End". "Face In The Sky" is pretty good. However, it's almost all groove metal with no semblance of the thrash they used to have. "Falling Fast" has a little thrash to it, but it's mostly a very aimless song with few riffs that are any good. "Souls Of Black" tries to redeem the album a little with a darker intro, but then drops into very non-evil groove metal. "Absence Of Light" is possibly the most disappointing thing I've ever heard... the beginning sounds like they're going to kick in with some insane thrash, but instead they just jump into a moderato beat with a boring and shitty guitar riff. "Malpractice" is one of the very few songs that actually a good verse riff to it. Extremely large let-down. This album is a very unpleasant turd. I'm not sure how it went wrong, but the riffs are lifeless and sound like they were taken from the reject bin. The only possible exception to this is "The Legacy"... and it's still not that great. Also, why the hell hasn't the production quality increased at all in the last four albums? What the fuck are they doing?

Rating: 5

http://www.testamentlegions.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Disillusion - Back to Times of Splendor [2004]

It's a love hate relationship I have with this. There are moments of greatness and the Progressive aspects add a level of depth to the material. However, it's let down by the reliance on Melodic Thrash as the main energy driver and the use of the stayed and popular Folk influences that crop up in the writing every once in a while. Even so, I can't despise it because it is genuinely catchy and fairly solid song writing.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.disillusion.de/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Nightrage - Wearing a Martyr's Crown [2009]

Very good start. Production quality is far superior to ANDiB. The songwriting has changed again. It's a bit more predictable, but it's still pretty catchy. I don’t really approve of some of the really slow drum beats. There's only a little bit of the SV style left in this band, it seems. However, this album does give me a bit more hope for the future of Nightrage.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.nightrage.com/index.asp

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Nightrage - A New Disease is Born [2007]

This album as a whole is both a step up and a step down from SV. It certainly has more of a unique style, but it also tried to blend in some more modern filth with it. While that approach works occasionally, often it will cause a parts of frustration. It seems like they will never fully recapture what I loved about SV. Even so, the songwriting is much improved and more polished than before, and it is closer to SV. I like that they are using some more of the clean vox again. However, the production has suffered a bit with the guitars being much less clear than on their previous albums.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.nightrage.com/index.asp

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Nightrage - Descent Into Chaos [2004]

Pretty good again. Follows very much from SV with a small but noticeable change in the songwriting. The guitar riffs in many of the choruses are now much more like Arch Enemy riffs, which I'm not really a fan of. I liked the more Gothic and Classical quality of SV. The songs are a bit weak in the middle of the album, too. Even so, this is a good album. Just a bit of a step down from their more unique first album.

Rating: 7

http://www.nightrage.com/index.asp

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Nightrage - Sweet Vengeance [2003]

Good production. Heavy. Natural drum sound. Awesome songwriting. Probably some of the best in the genre. It's catchy, the vocals are decently varied between the screaming and the clean vox. The music has some decent dynamic to it, going into acoustic/clean riffs every once-in-a-while. The style is very unique and almost indescribable, and it has an almost beautiful and classical quality to it. The excellent and unique songwriting makes up for the lake of creativity in other areas of the music and production.

Rating: 8

http://www.nightrage.com/index.asp

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Dimension Zero - He Who Shall Not Bleed [2007]

Powerful opening track. Production is heavier, but it seems like it's right-speaker heavy, especially with the vox. Songwriting is improved with more catchiness than TiH. However, there are still plenty of points during the album that fall flat and lose the album's energy.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.dimensionzero.se/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Dimension Zero - This is Hell [2003]

Cool intro track that goes into a bashing first song. Good production. Heavy guitars, thrashy drums, BM vox. Second track introduces a slower catchy chorus. Pretty good CD. It's very thrash-oriented. However, it's a fairly stock melodic style. There's also little-to-no variation and by the end of the album I was able to accurately guess what was coming next.

Rating: 7

http://www.dimensionzero.se/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Shadow - Forever Chaos [2008]

Whoa, props to Tokiko for performing awesome Death Metal vocals! It's lost a bit of the classical structure that I liked so much from the first album. However, the guitar riffs are 1000 times more complex now. Way more technical guitaring that almost makes me happy that I haven't tried out for the guitarist position. The solos are just as insane as ever… fuck. However, it's definitely not breaking down any boundaries.

Rating: 8

http://www.shadow666.net/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Shadow - Shadow [2001]

Fucking amazing songwriting from start to finish. Probably the only Melodic Metal band that I can highly praise. Tokiko Shimamoto is fucking flawless on the vox. The guitar work is melodic, but the song writing has a classical vibe to it (probably due to the chord structures used). The solos are talented enough to make me want to commit seppuku. The album does feel a little bit repetitive, but it's not enough to be distracting at all.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.shadow666.net/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.