As already mentioned, Wpnfire chose
Reign in Blood as his number six, so this is his choice for number five on his
Members' Top Ten list.
I've heard these guys for the first time when I checked out their latest album for the “Freshly Forged” section, but the one Wpnfire has chosen is their debut, from a quarter of a century ago.
Lost Paradise --- Paradise Lost --- 1990
Compared to their last and most recent album, the only one I've heard before this, I hear a much harsher, death or even black metal influence on this, with darker, more guttural vocals and a faster rhythm in songs like “Deadly inner sense” and “Breeding fear”, while the title track has a slower, doomier feel with a real air of hopelessness. Some great guitar work here but it's hardly a fun listen: “Internal torment”. “Breeding fear.” Rotting misery.” Nice. Music to hang yourself to? All very grinding, punishing, dark and unremittingly sour. Not expecting too much in the way of ballads, then!
I do hear female vocals in “Breeding fear”, which come as something of a relief to be honest; listening to some guy snarl and growl about how pointless life is is not my idea of a good time. At least the title track is a decent instrumental, so for a few minutes I don't have to listen to yer man but we're soon back to it as we close on “Internal torment II” --- what happened to Internal torment I? Don't ask me --- and all in all I'm pretty relieved when I can turn this album off. Very depressing and little to point the way to the band they would later become, if their new one is any gauge.
at number four we have a three track album...
Variations On a Theme --- Om --- 2005
Kind of a raw, buzzy sound to the guitars, though the vocal is clear enough. Even so, six minutes into the
twenty-one this runs for I'm pretty bored. It's like listening to someone chanting over a repeating guitar riff, neither of which are particularly interesting. “On the mountain at dawn”, that's called. Pity they didn't stay there! Still, be thankful for small mercies, as it's the longest track on the album of three. Mind you, the other two aren't exactly short, at twelve minutes each. Oh no! I just realised: variations on a theme? So are the other two going to be versions of this opening track? Dear god! That would mean in effect another twenty-four minutes of this mind-numbing boredom.
It's kind of hard to tell really. It's slower, but the droning vocal is just the same, no hint of emotion or interest, just like a mindless chanting; nothing there to interest me. And now we're onto the last track, which .... sounds at least a little different, with a kind of boogie beat. Just found out there is no guitar on this album, only bass and drums, so I have to give them kudos for that; I thought that was a downtuned guitar. Still boring as all hell though. Not my cup of poison at all, and if Sleep, whom I see are at the top of his list, are like this, then I'm going to be singularly unimpressed with them too.
And again he's chosen one I've reviewed last year for his number three --- Metallica's
Master of Puppets --- so that only leaves two albums on his list, which we will tackle in the final part of his, and the Members' lists, soon.