DELUHI - Visvasrit [2008.10]

Very catchy, even more so than OOA. Slightly less heavy production than OOA, but more than enough to achieve the proper effect. It's also a bit more geared for pop culture, but not so much that it feels like a sell-out. The songwriting has improved ten-fold. This is quite different from most Japanese metal bands… it's got much more of an American sensibility to it.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.myspace.com/deluhi

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DELUHI - Orion Once Again [2008.7]

Wow, great production quality. Hits you in the face. Thrash metal with melodic choruses. It's a bit of a stock style (for the U.S., at least), but it's pretty damn well done. Catchy songwriting. They're not lighting the world on fire with anything new, but it's still well-done and good songwriting. A pleasant surprise.

Rating: 7

http://www.myspace.com/deluhi

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Keep of Kalessin - Kolossus [2008]

Starts off pretty weak compared to Armada, but it's different for KoK, so I'll roll with it. T3 is what they probably should've started the album with. The creativity is ramped up in this album and some parts even cross over into the Atmospheric genre of music. The production quality is strange. It's still heavy, but there's a weird type of re-verb to the guitars that's only really audible when everything else drops out. Not a bad thing, though. It gives the guitars a bit of an alien quality to them that makes listening to them interesting. There are more keys / piano in this album than Armada. One of my complaints is that the lyrics are a bit static and boring. Often verses are repeated more than once. Another complaint is that this album is definitely less brutal than Armada. However, it's almost a completely different style, which is great to see and the songwriting is still top-notch.

Rating: 8

http://www.keepofkalessin.no/

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Keep of Kalessin - Armada [2006]

Awesome from start to finish. Brutal riffs. Fast as fuck. Some of the most unique guitaring I've heard in Black Metal. Catchy. For an album with no keys whatsoever, it does an amazing job of creating an epic feel with the extremely well-crafted guitar riffs and song structure. Production quality is perfect for the style. There are a couple fillers in the middle-end of the album, though. Cheers for doing shit differently and expanding the boundaries of Black Metal.

Rating: 9

http://www.keepofkalessin.no/

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Jeniva - 想浮、明くる緋ノ月 [2006]

The intro is really dark, but the next track jumps into very stock and happy-sounding visual kei. I think they have mixed up their desires on this album. On the bright side, the vocals aren't intolerable at all. In fact, they're actually pretty good. Last track is really good. So, it's a step up from 泣き雪, but not much of one in the way of song writing.

Rating: 6

http://www.geocities.jp/official_jeniva/

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Jeniva - 泣き雪 [2005]

Not quite what I was expecting from a band that looks as Gothic as they do. Cool piano part after the beginning, though. Weird vox and definitely not the best tuning. Somewhat stock (okay, very stock) vocal styling and rhythm. Cool solo at the end of T1, definitely the only part of the song that has any talent… too bad it fucking fades out within 5 seconds. T2 is much more promising with its more moody riffs. Overall, definitely not fucking impressed. It's stock as hell. Admittedly, the second song is ok, but the vocals are intolerable… not the worst I've heard, but pretty fucking bad. The short length of the album gains it a favorable score. I can see now why this band didn't last long.

Rating: 5

http://www.geocities.jp/official_jeniva/

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Jelly Berry - Mother Crisis [2002]

Niiiice. Cool and funky rock beginning. Definitely catchy. Interesting vox. Nice and in tune. Cool use of muted notes on guitar during the verse. I heartily approve. Too bad there's only one song… time to search. Short, but sweet.

Rating: 7.5



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Agalloch - Tomorrow Will Never Come [2003]

One rehash of an old song and one brand-spanking-new one. The new song is quite good. it's very soothing and beautiful. However, the song is marred by a plethora of sound samples that really undermine the beauty of the guitar riffs.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.agalloch.org/

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Agalloch - The Mantle [2002]

Five seconds in and I can already tell that the production quality has increased quite a bit. Somehow feels like it's missing a bit of the catchiness that was in PF. However, the atmosphere is still there as well as the calm beautiful riffs and sections with clean singing.

Rating: 8

http://www.agalloch.org/

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Agalloch - Of Stone, Wind, and Pillor [2001]

Good stuff. Basically an extension of PF, production quality and all, but shorter and with more clean vox.

Rating: 8

http://www.agalloch.org/

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Agalloch - Pale Folklore [1999]

Nice, already a huge improvement on the first album. Better production, much better playing, way better riffs, and infinitely better song writing. A couple minutes into the first track and it's already way more creative than the entire first album. In the end, this album is worlds better than FWotO. So good, in fact, that it completely reverses my decision to hate them that I obtained from the first album. If the production was a bit better, it would be amongst the best of my albums. High marks for doing shit way differently and superb song writing.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.agalloch.org/

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Agalloch - From Which of this Oak [1997]

Whoa, definitely not what I was expecting. Melodic-based heavy metal. Really shitty playing so far, I've been able to hear a shitload of mistakes. Vocalist kinda sucks at keeping his vox distorted. However, I’m intrigued and must listen on. Okay, wow, first track was a fucking joke, right? Terrible. Second track is much better… they actually sound like they know what they're doing in the song. Okay, totally redeemed themselves a bit with the slow acoustic section in T2. The rest of the cd was decent. Interesting stuff that makes me want to be drawn in, but the entire band's playing is awful. It's got potential, but they pushed the project out the front door before it knew how to dress itself.

Rating: 5.5

http://www.agalloch.org/

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Abyssos - Fhinsthanian Nightbreed [1999]

A bit melodic for my tastes in the beginning. Cool song writing, though. Beautiful clean section towards the end of T2. Good clean vox sections. Definitely has damn creative song structuring and riffs. It's very effective and extremely well-crafted. Because it relies so heavily on complex melodies, it does get repetitive by the end. The production is not so good, but it's not distracting.

Rating: 7

http://www.zenial.nl/html/abyssos.htm

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Ebonylake - On the Eve of the Grimly Inventive [1999]

Chaotic opening. Cool orchestra/keys. Very haunting feel. Disjointed songwriting, but it really works for this style and the effect that they're trying to convey. This album actually makes much more sense when you know that the subject is about a haunted house. The production quality is a bit stale. It's not all that heavy, either. However, it is definitely clear and all of the instruments are very audible. Very unique album with interesting ideas executed in a compelling manner. High marks for innovation, even if the catchiness is a brutalized casualty.

Rating: 8

http://www.myspace.com/ebonylakeofficialuk

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...and Oceans - SYNÆSTHESIA - The Requiem Reveries [2007]

Pretty good first track, the rest is straight up industrial.

Rating: 6

http://www.myspace.com/andoceans1

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...and Oceans - Cypher [2002]

Heard this album a couple times before. The industrial is completely integrated into the music, now… there's absolutely no separation. More catchy and much more heavy. I do miss the grinding drums, though.

Rating: 8

http://www.myspace.com/andoceans1

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...and Oceans - A.M.G.O.D. [2001]

Wow, less than ten seconds into the first track and I can already tell there's a HUGE difference in the style of the guitars. Definitely the first CD where they heavily used the industrial effects with Black Metal. It's very well done and used to great effect throughout the album. One of the things I really like about this album is that it has more grinding and thrash elements than their proceeding album. Pretty catchy, too.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.myspace.com/andoceans1

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...and Oceans - The Symmetry of I - The Circle of O [1999]

Cool keys and guitar riff right-off-the-bat. Powerful vox. Really cool stuff, nice key sections that blend well with the guitars to give that "nice" Black Metal feel. There's much more grinding on the drums than the last album. On disc 2, the first track has really cool use of techno / industrial effects that are calming. Seems like disc 2 is going to be just industrial effects… interesting. There's some dabbling in the techno stuff in disc 1 and used in a pretty unique way. Plus the production is definitely better than TDGoT. Disc 2's effects are kind of corny at some points.

Rating: 7

http://www.myspace.com/andoceans1

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...and Oceans - The Dynamic Gallery of Thoughts [1998]

Weird beginning, but when the keys kick in, it's fucking nice as hell. Definitely more traditional Black Metal than their later works. It's really strange, like a completely different band. There's some really fucking fast grinding in here. A few strange vox in T3. T5 has a killer beginning techno thing that reminds me of the dystopian society of Blade Runner. Cool CD. Not nearly as ground-breaking as their later efforts, but there's still plenty of the techno/industrial element and some unique song-writing. The production quality is what I'd expect from a Black Metal band's first album, though it is still better than most debuts.

Rating: 6.5

http://www.myspace.com/andoceans1

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Je*Reviens - Romantic Jewel [1999]

First track is very unimpressive as far as singing goes. Seems like the vox haven't improved much. In fact, they may have just gotten a bit worse… he's doing this weird thing that makes him sound vaguely like Kermit the frog and it's beginning to hurt my opinion of T2. T4 is basically a Offspring rip-off, but less catchy. This whole CD is crap. There's only one remotely well-written song on here (T9), and while it's a pretty damn good song, everything else is so bad that I want to puke. Repetitive, boring, uncreative, and painful to listen to. The vox haven't gotten any better at all and are VERY frequently out of tune. Better production, but it doesn't spare the album from one bit of my bile.

Rating: 3

http://www.last.fm/music/JE*REVIENS

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