Album: The Key
Artist: Nocturnus
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Suggested by: mythsofmetal
Familiarity: None.
1. Lake of Fire - Lots of synth at the start here.Then the guitars go wild. I like it. Oh yeah, really getting that prog death metal vibe here. Excellent. Lots of things happening one after another. Batty would call it wank, but I love it. Oh, and the growls are good too. Nothing special, but good enough. I'm too ensconced with the rest to complain.
2. Standing in Blood - Don't be confused; the real star of this album is a the guitars. They're excellent. No complaints about the drumming either. This song feels a bit bland, but it's energetic enough to entertain me.
3. Visions from Beyond the Grave - I may have heard this song before. I sort of feel like I have. Again, the snappy vocals, all-encompassing guitars, and backing synths have me entranced.
4. Neolithic - I'd be a liar if I told you these songs didn't sound like one song on repeat. They are all very, very similar. Just sound like a collage of random bits thrown together. It's sort of hard to pull anything in particular out of this album; it all just blends together so well. The guitars still haven't tired me yet. Just barely though.
5. Undead Journey - Ugh, boring 80s synth. And then back into the constant noise section. And I'm basically just tuning out at this point. There's just nothing to hold on to with this stuff. Did get me moving though, so I guess it's okay?
6. B.C./A.D. - Took me a little while, but I'm finally seeing the appeal of this stuff. I just tune out and listen to it and it's the best thing ever.
7. Andromeda Strain - Another epic mushy song. Lovin' it. It's so perfectly headbang-able, by the way.
8. Droid Sector - I like the synthy nonsense in the intro. Man, this music makes me feel so peaceful. It's really, really great.
9. Destroying the Manger - So creepy at the start. Purposeful or not, it gives me an Alien kind of feel. Or perhaps A Space Odyssey. Either way, it's back into metal territory soon. Alright, this one I'm not feeling as much. Not sure what it is.
10. Empire of the Sands - Another creepy intro. Reminds me of dark ambient really. Back to metal. Yeah, I'm yawning now. Just went from hypnotizing to post-hypnosis fatigue. Still alright. Not feeling it as much as before though.
I feel like this album is a bit situational. Enjoyment of this one is going to be wildly dependent on what your current disposition is. It's technical death metal, so we all know what to expect. In my case, it was either very, very good, or just alright. And that's fine by me. Overall, it's probably one of the best technical death albums I've heard, so its rating is certainly merited.
OVERALL RATING: 8/10