Odious Mortem - Cryptic Implosion [2007]

The vocals are WAY more powerful than they were on the previous album. "Fragmented Oblivion" starts shit off on the right foot with catchiness, brutality, energy, and a massive amount of technicality. Shit, half-way through the album and it's still fucking brutally ripping its way through my ears. It's non-stop technicality and energy. Excellent production quality. It's clear, heavy, and punchy all at the same time and seemingly without any compromises. The album is a little shorter than most which works in its favor since the material isn't diverse or experimental.

Rating: 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odious_mortem

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

Odious Mortem - Devouring the Prophecy [2005]

Short as hell Technical Death Metal album. It's pretty damn heavy and it's very technical. The production is quite good as well. I'm not a fan of the vocals on this album, though. They feel weak. There's clearly an air of Cannibal Corpse on this album with the harmonized guitar trills. It's not a particularly catchy album and after listening to it, nothing sticks in my head. So, the songwriting could use some work, but if all I'm looking for is a solid Technical Death Metal album to throw on to kill some time, this will do nicely.

Rating: 6.5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odious_mortem

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

Nile - Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka [1998]

No time wasted here at all. "Smashing the Antiu" jumps right into the fray with grinding. It's good stuff all the way through. Very brutal, pretty catchy, and quite focused. It is technical, but not quite to the extreme that the later albums are.

Rating: 7.75

http://www.nile-catacombs.net/

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

Decapitated - Carnival Is Forever [2011]

Jesus fuck... "The Knife" has one of the most confusing verse riffs I've ever heard. Unfortunately, it's much less Death Metal and more like Swedish Thrash. Not a fan of the Soilwork-wannabe vocals either. Though, his high-screams are quite good. Another confusingly difficult and technical energy bomb can be found in "United". Towards the end of "United" it actually starts to feel like a Decapitated song. Hey hey! Very Decapitated riffage in "Carnival Is Forever". Oddly enough, the vocals seem to inch themselves more towards Death Metal as the album progresses. "404" flexes more of the creative muscles with crazy squeals that sound like they should never come from a guitar. Well, there's no argument at all that this is a very technical album. It's also very high-energy. I like the fact that they didn't just repeat what they had tried before. However, it just doesn't feel like Decapitated and the vocals really push the songs away from Death Metal for me. It's also lacking in the blast-beat department... a lot. Perhaps I'm being to harsh, after all, Decapitated has never put out an album that sounded like the preceding one. Maybe I just need to warm up to this one like I did with Organic Hallucinosis. Must listen to it a few times before I actually give it a rating. Once I get past the vocals and general replacement of blasting with thrashing, this is a very good album that has a lot of brutality and energy. It just takes a while to get accustomed to it.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

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

Decapitated - Organic Hallucinosis [2006]

One hell of a first track. Brutal, fast, technical, and catchy. The different vocalist takes some getting used to, but his style works for the music and he's quite versatile. Things continue on the brutality path with "Day 69". "Revelation of Existence" really drives home the fact that trying to predict what these guys will do next is fruitless. They've really perfected the songwriting on this album. Even the slow parts are really heavy and catchy... never feeling like they drag. All of the songs on this album are extremely strong. By far their best album and certainly one of my favorite Death Metal albums in my library.

Rating: 8.75

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

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

Decapitated - The Negation [2004]

Quite heavier production right off the bat. GREAT first track... very heavy songwriting, energetic, and brutally technical. "Three-Dimensional Defect" slows things down just a bit and brings in some Fear Factory aesthetics. The songs go back and forth between slow death and grinding shreds... but most of the stuff is slower as the album progresses. Ok, so the slower parts are certainly catchy and well-written, but it's a bit unfortuitous for the listener that the album that starts with such blazing energy sags so much in the middle. However, this is a much more refined version of the style change that began with Nihility. If I'm in the mood for more groove than fast-tearing-speed, this will be perfect.

Rating: 7.75

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

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

Decapitated - Nihility [2002]

Significantly more technicality on the guitars and drums. Overall, the style is quite different. A bit more mature. It's a bit of a weird album, though, because the groove continually gets broken up making it very difficult to settle down with this album. Too much of it feels clinical despite the style change. The production is a bit odd as well... it's lost much of the heaviness of WoC, but has gained more clarity. An interesting effort, but despite the new style and increased technical prowess, it's not all that catchy and it feels rather like a dulled razor.

Rating: 7

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

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

Decapitated - Winds of Creation [2000]

What a start. Heavy as hell; punchy-ass production; catchy as fuck; BRUTAL. Wow, I've forgotten how good this album is. Not all of it is catchy, but it's certainly better than I initially thought when I first purchased the album 10 years ago. There is one production issue that has been nagging me: the left guitar is not as loud as the right guitar... poor mixing. Other than that, this is an awesome first effort that makes most bands' peak albums look immature by comparison. Well done.

Rating: 8

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

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

Nile - Black Seeds of Vengeance [2000]

There's a significant amount of exciting song writing here. Some decent creativity as well. It's not nearly as polished as later albums, but it's still quite awesome. The production quality isn't half as exciting as later albums, but what could I possibly expect from an earlier album like this? There is a nice amount of variation throughout this album with quite a few Ancient-Egyptian-themed folk songs thrown in.

Rating: 8.25

http://www.nile-catacombs.net/

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

Anomalous - Ohmnivalent [2011]

Shiiit. The technicality is just as maddening as the last album, maybe even more so. The keyboard and effects are still there in fairly large quantity for Death Metal. Atmospheric keys contrast nicely with the madness of the Tech. Death Metal. Ahhh, when "The Seraphim Veil" drops into clean guitars briefly, I know now that any fears I had that this album won't live up to the hopes set by the first one have been made into dust. The soft and light sections blend so amazingly well into the structure that it freaks me out. Now, it seems I can finally put my finger on it: Technical Death Metal with elements Dark Ambient and Progressive Metal. The production is incomparable to the previous album... very powerful, punchy, yet delicate at times. The main vox are a tiny bit low in the mix, but the wall of sound attitude really makes up for it. It is a bit long, though, and it doesn't feel quite as fresh as the first album.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.myspace.com/anomalousmetal

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

The Faceless - Planetary Duality [2008]

Ok, half-way through the second track and I can already tell that the songwriting has improved quite a bit. Some riffs aren't all that powerful, but at least they still feel like they serve a purpose. Contrary to the mainstream opinion, I think that the use of robotic vocoder is nifty and interesting. "Shape Shifters" flexes the deeper songwriting muscles responsible for creativity in a song before bashing my face in with "Coldly Calculated Design". This feels like a much more energetic and brutal album than the first one. It's actually quite good, this album. More catchy songwriting combined with some creativity, great consistency throughout the album, extremely precise technicality, and ESPECIALLY the near-exclusion of that shit-fest known as Melodic Thrash Metal make this album the first one from this band that I will listen to regularly. Even so, it's not exactly ground-breaking or pushing the limits of Metal to some amazing new area, but it is very well-done and with a style that is mostly their own.

Rating: 8

http://www.myspace.com/thefaceless

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

The Faceless - Akeldama [2006]

It's pretty straight-forward Technical Death Metal. Unfortunately, some of it feels a bit cliché. However, there are bouts of creativity and interesting keys thrown in the mix to set the music apart from the rest. The technicality is quite impressive. Some of the transitions could use working on to make them more smooth and increase the song's flow. I'm certainly not a fan of the Melodic Thrash sections littered about the album like plastic bags in a state park. One other thing I don't like is that I can clearly hear all of the hard-cuts performed by the recording engineer. Overall, it's a competent first album that has some creativity mixed into a fairly stock but effective style with bouts of catchiness. The reality is that I will probably only come back to this album for one or two songs.

Rating: 6.5

http://www.myspace.com/thefaceless

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

Nile - Those Whom the Gods Detest [2009]

Damn, massive upgrade in production energy. Drums are a little higher in the mix. Everything sounds crystal clear. Wow, some more creativity in the first track with the Indian vocals in the midst of grinding Death Metal. They've definitely pushed the Egyptian theme to a new level with this one. There is more samples, sound effects, and extra instruments thrown into the mix. The technicality has been ramped up to a new level as well with a lot more difficult sweeps. Almost every song is solid gold with only one song that feels like filler on the album. The only thing I can think of that keeps this from a perfect score is the very thing that makes me excited for albums like this: the slight change in guitar style. If it stands up to multiple listens, it'll earn its perfect mark. Even so, Nile has really out-done themselves on this fucking epic and perfectly produced album.

Rating: 9

http://www.nile-catacombs.net/

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

Nile - Ithyphallic [2007]

The guitars are so heavily distorted that I almost crapped my pants. However, every detail of the guitar riffing is still audible making it the perfect brutal guitar sound. This is another epic effort when listening to the whole album with a little more catchiness sparsely strewn within many songs. The snare drum is slightly higher in the mix, much to my delight, giving this album a more Grindcore feel than previous albums

Rating: 8.5

http://www.nile-catacombs.net/

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

Nile - Annihilation Of The Wicked [2005]

Much better production. This follows very closely on the philosophy of ITDS with a very epic album structure when listened all the way through. They play more with the atmospheric Egyptian sound in the middle of songs. There's even some more catchiness thrown in. My only complaint is that, like ITDS, this is an album that doesn't really sine on a song to song basis. Rather, you must listen to the album all the way through if you are to hear its full brilliance.

Rating: 8

http://www.nile-catacombs.net/

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

Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines [2002]

Good and heavy production. Starts off with a massive punch in the face (more like a sledge-hammer). Second track is equally as brutal. Listening to the whole CD is epic... if you have the time to do it. It's a damn good CD overall with only a few drop-offs in brutality, but the artistic creativity of these tracks more than makes up for it. The production certainly isn't their best and is a bit stale and dead. However, it's still heavy, effective, and clear enough to make out all of the instruments.

Rating: 8

http://www.nile-catacombs.net/

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