Rexorcist's Reviews Thread

[Rexorcist]

Styx - Circling from Above (2025)
Genres: Art Rock, Prog Rock, AOR

Styx was one of those bands that really helped me to get into rock albums, starting by heavily exploring radio rock. Believe it or not, in my SUPER early stages, I heard "The Spirit of Radio" by Rush and assumed it was 80's Styx. I even assumed REO Speedwagon was a certain era of Styx due to some stylistic similarities. But that believe was quickly dispatched with a little bit of study. I remember years ago, asking my father what some of the greatest albums ever were, that he brought up The Grand Illusion by Styx. Excellent work and their best, yet their only five-star for me. Styx had a strong thing going on as a progressive AOR band, which were too few in number during the 70's. And then they jumped to hype train from prog to AOR like many of the giants in prog did, and as well, they stunk. I had no idea that they had a new album out this month, and that some have preordered it and put it on YouTube!

Now my curiosity is satisfied, and my expectations are largely met. This one seems to be a careful revival of the stylistic choices they made during the early 70's with some elements of their more radio-friendly era. Because of the style and production tone, many of these songs feel the same despite the number of influences and genre tags attacked. It flows too evenly between them all to really feel as diverse as it looks on paper. The songs themselves are pretty much all catchy and easy to get behind, if you need something a little spring or summery in the morning. It's a very... refreshing album in that way. But it's not without other issues. Some of these songs sound like there needs to be another layer in the background to help bring out these refreshing vibes, as if they neglected something that would make the album much more powerful, maybe even a new age vibe that would've helped greatly.

So does this satisfy me as a Styx fan? I'd say it's Styx-y enough. Not a lot of raw energy like in many early works, but these guys are in their 70's, so what are you gonna do? The real issue is that this catchy oceanside album doesn't really soar, and more quiet rock and pop albums have in fact done that in the past. So while this is about as good as some of their earliest albums, pre-Grand Illusion, it also feels a little like a missed opportunity.

70

[Rexorcist]

Born of Osiris - Through Shadows (2025)
Genres: Metalcore

I know how huge Born of Osiris is in the metalcore community, but I gotta say, I never could get deeply invested in them. Nevertheless, during my first metalcore deep dive, I completed several studio catalogs, including theirs. So at this point, just blowing through a new BoS album is essentially an obligation. But this never means I have high expectations, as the vast majority of modern metalcore, especially deathcore acts like BoS, tend to write the same album over and over again.

I'm immediately hit with lo-fi electronic voice acting and overtly mechanical songwriting. I am given no surprises here, and just decided to enjoy this mock-cyber metal sound as much as I could. I noticed, however, that with the vocals aside, there really isn't a lot of "deathcore" as much as their is "alt-metalcore," a tag I use to describe a few mainstream or more radio-friendly metalcore artists that fall under both categories. But despite some cool moments and excellent production, this really is NOT much of a change for me. There are already thousands of other artists who sound like this, which means Born of Osiris betrayed the deathcore sound they pioneered for a more radio-engineered sound that was pioneered by other, potentially inferior artists for money. Hell, the biggest change I can think of is how much the intro to the title track sounds like the way you'd start off a Brokencyde song. These songs were all basically doing all the exact same things, basically saying, "Hey, look at how well we can play and how fast and edgy we get..." you know the drill. At the end of the day, all you have to worry about is how good the production is and how often it gets catchy.

Do I have any personal picks from this album? No. Not really. There's nothing about this album that hasn't already been done before. This is nothing but fodder for the fans, a musical rendition of a Zack Snyder film with half the effort of Watchmen. There's nothing unique here except for maybe one jazzy bit in the track Activated. If you're a metalcore fan, chances are you might enjoy it more than the average joe, but it's not like I can't pick an equal off of Bandcamp after spending 30 seconds of searching.

52

[Rexorcist]

More reviews coming tomorrow.

[Drjohnrock]

Originally Posted by Rexorcist

Styx - Circling from Above (2025)
Genres: Art Rock, Prog Rock, AOR

Styx was one of those bands that really helped me to get into rock albums, starting by heavily exploring radio rock. Believe it or not, in my SUPER early stages, I heard "The Spirit of Radio" by Rush and assumed it was 80's Styx. I even assumed REO Speedwagon was a certain era of Styx due to some stylistic similarities. But that believe was quickly dispatched with a little bit of study. I remember years ago, asking my father what some of the greatest albums ever were, that he brought up The Grand Illusion by Styx. Excellent work and their best, yet their only five-star for me. Styx had a strong thing going on as a progressive AOR band, which were too few in number during the 70's. And then they jumped to hype train from prog to AOR like many of the giants in prog did, and as well, they stunk. I had no idea that they had a new album out this month, and that some have preordered it and put it on YouTube!

Now my curiosity is satisfied, and my expectations are largely met. This one seems to be a careful revival of the stylistic choices they made during the early 70's with some elements of their more radio-friendly era. Because of the style and production tone, many of these songs feel the same despite the number of influences and genre tags attacked. It flows too evenly between them all to really feel as diverse as it looks on paper. The songs themselves are pretty much all catchy and easy to get behind, if you need something a little spring or summery in the morning. It's a very... refreshing album in that way. But it's not without other issues. Some of these songs sound like there needs to be another layer in the background to help bring out these refreshing vibes, as if they neglected something that would make the album much more powerful, maybe even a new age vibe that would've helped greatly.

So does this satisfy me as a Styx fan? I'd say it's Styx-y enough. Not a lot of raw energy like in many early works, but these guys are in their 70's, so what are you gonna do? The real issue is that this catchy oceanside album doesn't really soar, and more quiet rock and pop albums have in fact done that in the past. So while this is about as good as some of their earliest albums, pre-Grand Illusion, it also feels a little like a missed opportunity.

70

One of my very first concerts was Styx. This was very early on for them: John Curulewski was still in the band and they were touring their last (I think) album for Wooden Nickel. Their only hit at the time was "Lady." They were more of a hard rock band then, at least when playing live.

[Rexorcist]

Originally Posted by Drjohnrock

One of my very first concerts was Styx. This was very early on for them: John Curulewski was still in the band and they were touring their last (I think) album for Wooden Nickel. Their only hit at the time was "Lady." They were more of a hard rock band then, at least when playing live.

I'd love to see them. Unfortunately, I don't have a buddy to bring with me as practically no one else I know is into them.

Anyway, I know I said there would be more reviews a couple days ago, but plans change, you know? I got a new plan, however. I'm gonna review an album in pieces over the course of a week. Why not just get through it all in one go, you ask? Well, it's freakin' seven hours long.



Naked Flames - Wall I Was (2025)
Genres: Outsider House

After reading Naked Flames' lengthy document on the controversy, I became a defender of his case. I was inches away from begging God that his time as a musician wasn't over, as I currently consider Miracle in Transit to be the best house album I've ever heard, as well as considering NF to be the #1 house artist I've heard. This is based on average rating rules. So I was extremely happy when he had a new one out, but sheesh, seven hours? No wonder it took so long for him to release another album! He wasn't hiding, he was waiting for **** to die down before he freaking Toby Fox'ed us with the whole of his own personal Deltareune in one mighty blow.

So what I'm going to do is maybe spend an hour or so on the album each day, or maybe just go for ten tracks each everyday fore a week. As a guy who spedread Stephen King's It in a week and Misery in a couple hours, this is no challenge to me.

So... PART 1

Undisputed Attitude is an 11-minute opener. I've heard enough trance and IDM to know that you can't be a real EDM artist unless you can make 11 minutes work, and this is pretty much what this opener does. Maybe a couple minutes too long, but it's still a lot of fun and beautifully creative. Although, I found the first half to be slightly wonky and a little hard to follow. Maybe that's my fault. Second track is No Wild Card, which tones down the prog house aspects of the first and relies on melody to do the work. Next up is Hellsbells, one word, which starts out with a pretty ambient melody and a eurodance style beat before sax comes in. I immediately understand that this track is still a dance track, but it will have a layer of smoothness to it. Adding that modern jazzy vaporwave sound to it was a damn good move. It's nice to be able to find that balance between being lost in sound and ready to dance.

Track four is another 11-minute track called Sleep Shirt. The mood becomes a little darker, lo-fi and slightly mechanical, steering into techno. Of course, dub techno has been a key factor in Naked Flames' musical identity for years. But while the effects in the background provide a proper lo-fi ambiance and fogginess, it would be nice to hear the backing melody shift within the eleven minutes it has. It doesn't do so until eight. I checked and found that this is the longest track for the next 33 songs. Track five goes back to the standard 76 minutes we've seen so far. Chime-in is mostly an ambient techno track that emphasizes the glossiness of the previous track, steering a little closely towards the vibes you get from genres like new age or whalesong. Beautiful atmosphere carries the ever-shifting song the way an ambient track should. Cherry Hinton is less ambient and more melodic but maintains a coolness and mellowness that stays consistent with what we had before. It's been a while since we had some melody, as well, so its nocturnal approach to rhythm is appreciated. The whole thing makes you wanna wear sunglasses... at night.

Track seven, PaulK the Pool, goes right into aquatic ambient production with an industrial background that recalls the watery levels in Metroid Prime. In other words, this is an ambient techno track that's 100% up my alley. God does this one sound beautiful. Even if most of these tracks have one issue, the variety so far does not fail. Of course, for seven hours, I expect that to eventually fail. The third 11-minut track, and the last for a while, is Pen Gwyn, which is the most nocturnal song yet, reducing ambiance to a faint backdrop and relying on techno beats for the first part. The slow mutations into higher pitches and more diversified electronics never once get in the way of this nocturnal city vibe, almost like you've got the Night at the Roxbury thing going on, but without any comedic irony. We get a vocal chorus from Jennifer Paige's song Crush, largely drowned out by more and more electronic beats that just drown you in atmospheric club glory. About seven minutes in, the song quickly but carefully goes into reverse, breaking down by removing factor after factor until all we have left is rhythmic mechanical jargon and a deeply aquatic farewell. Best song so far.

After a two-minute ambient track with bad voice acting that tries to add something to the album but also feels a little inappropriate (this track is named Penpen, maybe after the penguin from Evangelion), the last track of this ten-track segment is the six-minute Atlantis Fashion Week. This track starts off with the sounds of rain, an orchestral ambient note never wavering, and some electronic piano. This one has a similar behavior to Pen Gwyn, slowly adding to things to maintain an overpowering ambiance overtime, but with less rhythm it more or less sounds like a good but noticeably inferior knockoff, justifying its existence by switching from ambient house to ambient techno. And since the next tracks are one and three minutes long, I'll just get through them. After an untitled minute of lo-fi recordings of random sounds and music, we get the 3.5 minute Copyrighted Music, which slams right into the industrial side of things, like it walked out of an ambient remix of The Downward Spiral. The beat is extra-complex but catchy and intriguing. The ambient sounds are just as organized and complex as the beat, so to end this segment of the album, I'm really happy with it.

Despite where I stopped, I'd be fine if the album ended with Atlantis Fashion Week and another one began with Untitled and Copyrighted Music. So far, I'm really happy with the production values, variety and most of the rhythmic choices. I'd give this about a 9/10 so far, so later we'll see if it keeps that up.

[Rexorcist]

PART II

Able and Wiggling, track 13, starts out with a beatless but heavily atmospheric dub techno rhythm backed up by chimes of all things. This is such a beautiful way to start a song, and a good place for me to have paused yesterday and started today. After the beat kicks in, it remains pretty and soothing, but it DOES drag on, even before the halfway point. Next up is How Does a Phone Work, which is much more upbeat It goes for dense activity, but rhythmically, it's a bit empty. This dance track might be very well-mixed, but it doesn't make me wanna even bob my head let alone tap my fingers. It's obvious that the focus has shifted less from house and more into atmospheric techno. This is made more apparent on the track Glassing Air. Track 16, Map of Fairlop Waters, has a mellow tropical vibe to it, which is completely unique to the album, but once again, it's missing progression. As I was getting disappointed, my prediction of an eventual lack of imagination was starting to ring true. Track 17, Bambi, is a nice little tune that amounts to nothing more than a pretty ambient track that I've heard before. We get back to some proper house on the repetitive I'm Going on the Street, and it feels so basic that I have difficulty believing it's a Naked Flames track, considering how innovative he's been before.

Halfway through this 12-song segment, I'm a bit disappointed, believing once again that the album should've stopped at Pen Gwyn. But I was pleasantly surprised by track 19, B Day, which has a gorgeous house track production and beat being lead by sped up samples of Life's Been Good to Me So Far by Joe Walsh. The two aspects of the song match very well. Track 20 is the longest track of today's twelve-track segment, going in at eleven minutes: Tu Bad No Gold. Now since the previous seven tracks have largely been made up of one track mentalities, I didn't expect anything great here. ANd for the most part, while it had a very strong beat, it did largley have a one track mind. Following is This Is My Voice, which to my jarring surprise features samples of Homer Simpson repeating the title to a beat that largely resembled a children's jingle like something from Signing Time. Track 22, Hammersmith Transit, has a slight city vibe to it, and finally makes something strong out of mutating the background with some returning ambient techno and deep house vibes. Heathrow Transit follows with some similar but more restrained features, effectively being a slightly worse version of the former.

I am not that pleased with part II of this. Tracks 13-24 were still pretty good on the whole, but much less creative. Current rating, roughly 8.5.

[jadis]

Never heard of this artist but I quite like the sound of this track


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bpw...edFlames-Topic

[Rexorcist]

Originally Posted by jadis

Never heard of this artist but I quite like the sound of this track

Naked Flames was a forerunner in modern day house, especially outsider house. But during the MeToo moviement, his ex-girlfriend made some serious accusations about him and he was dropped, so for a little while, to listen to him was a similar taboo as when Ariel Pink was seen at the Jan. 6 rally right before the march, even though he left the rally when it got "stupid," as he says. The controversy's died down greatly, especially since Naked Flames put up a very lengthy statement about the verbal abuse he went through from his ex, and the fact that there was no proof of any physical altercations. And of course, there was the whole Amber Heard incident with her telling Depp wouldn't be believed because he was a man. I read the statement, which included screenshots of text conversations to help prove his case.

I've been openly defending him as my current pick for the greatest house artist, and I will continue to do so. How he is as a human being, however, he's had some nasty texts himself and he admitted to it, but not as many as his ex, so I'll give him the benefit of a doubt after reading the case file and assume he's a victim with a couple bad verbal habits. After being bold enough to make his own texts public, I'll assume he's been getting a hold of his mouth.

PART 3

This next segment I'll be tackling will feature many short songs, so I'll listen to two longer ones that follow, making this a 14 track day. Track 25, Troy Shoots and Scores, immediately goes into a hyperactive industrial sound which is so heavy and fast-paced that it reminded me of cyber metal. Even for three minutes, quite a bit happens here, and it never gets tiring. There's a similar case on the next tack, Answer the Question Please, which never gets industrial but maintains a lot of the same personality. This one's five minutes as opposed to three, but has a good amount of activity to it. Once again, this fast-beat hyperactivity can be seen on Dickhead: the Chemist, except it doesn't quite have the mutation going for it like the last two did, not at the same pace, anyway. It changes pace halfway through, thankfully, which completely changes the game of the song, justifying it's appearance. There's no need for the forty-second midtro's, Pass Go I and II, though. They don't have the charm of many other midtros from many better albums, let along the thematic and calming simplicity of the two finishers on Soundtracks for the Blind, which work better as a way to tone down rather than actual songs, as was intended. These are just too randomly inserted and simplistically developed.

Track 30, Fridge Raider I, has a deeply atmospheric, icy feeling to it with a cool but calm hip hop beat in the back. Once again I'm taken back to Metroid Prime, except instead of a sunken Space Pirate ship filled with water, I'm in Phendrana Drifts. God, I love that game. Chainwater follows up with a lightly aquatic feel and some electronic melodies that also recount the vibes of this game. It's a worthy follow-up, and in my opinion, one of the best tracks. I actually found myself wishing it was longer than 3.5 minutes. But another skit, Untitled Track, is simply a boring segment of some interview, rambling on and not going anywhere until 80 seconds in, a punk version of Deck the Halls takes the last 20. Random enough? Thankfully, Marble Rollers goes right back into the beat with a heavily eurodance-inspired beat. This one's a very healthy track, making the most of its energy when many other tracks failed to make the most of their aspects. Fridge Raider II returns the icy aspects but with a much deeper and nocturnal house beat that rings of oldschool hip hop, lasting two minutes and relentlessly slapping. Fade from Black lasts two minutes, returning dialogue but adding ambiance to it, already feeling less boring than Untitled Track, but never reaching any great heights. And Track 36, North and Strong, gets right into the ambient techno with a careful complexity and beauty rivaling the best works of Dream Dolphin's ambient trance works.

Now that we're done with the shorter songs for this segment, now we enter the longest track at 13 minutes and 20 seconds: Chez Wink. It makes a point of its weirdness really quickly with a very short and funky intro and some samples of public banter, soon being overtaken by a simple and smooth house rhythm. The major rhythm in the first few minutes isn't that impressive, but the backgrounds are constantly changing until a third of the way in, when a funkier rhythm combines with the main riff, breathing in a new life. Halfway through, a whole new, slower and more droning beat takes over while ambiance in the backdrops becomes the name of the game, maintaining the same pace of mutation and variety. Following is the eight-minute Rughouse, which instantly keeps things basic and mellow, relying on a complex techno beat for the most part. Simple electronic beats and a mild ambient backdrop drive the beat until a quiet vocal sample from a song I can't make out takes control. In start contrast to the high-octane melodies of the majority of this segment, this quiet and controlled closer is nice ande perfect for it.

So this third segment was much better than the last one. It's getting back on track with melodic prowess and clever production techniques, although the skits and midtros didn't feel necessary. So far, the rating is about an 88/100.

[jadis]

The cancelation of Ariel Pink was, to me, very funny. Never stopped me from blasting Revolution's a Lie, let me tell you that...

There's something so degrading about those MeToo rituals of 1) an accusation posted to FB, 2) the social media mob doing its thing 3) a lengthy apologia/contrition/explanation posted by the accused usually via some pastebin type thing.

[Rexorcist]

Originally Posted by jadis

The cancelation of Ariel Pink was, to me, very funny. Never stopped me from blasting Revolution's a Lie, let me tell you that...

There's something so degrading about those MeToo rituals of 1) an accusation posted to FB, 2) the social media mob doing its thing 3) a lengthy apologia/contrition/explanation posted by the accused usually via some pastebin type thing.

Yeah, it was one hell of a nasty time. Thank the powers that be for Amber Heard's careless quote. Maybe that's a step forward to separating the real abusers from the fakes, as well as the real and fake victims.

PART IV

Apparently, part 4 didn't post properly yesterday, and I'm just now noticing, so now I'm quite agitated. So I'm going to redo all twelve from yesterday. Might be good for the review.

We start off with Track 39, 88:88:88, clocking in at 9 minutes. It's pretty much reusing tricks we've already seen with a fair bit of catchiness and complexity, but everything is so low-brow that it doesn't really end up creating any strong effect. It barely does anything to mix things up, so nine minutes is just way too long. The next treack is about half the runtime: Pan's Hangar, which does much of the same thing but without all the vocal samples. It doesn't change the pace much at all, so both songs are just filler to me. I was begging the next track, Ultimate Session, to be different somehow someway. This one has a stronger beat and a slight eurodance vibe to it, helping to stand out from the previous two despite strong instrumental and tempo similarities. But once again, it's basically seven minutes of the same thing. God, where the wild attitude of past Naked Flames albums? EDM's been weird and wild ever since Juno Reactor's debut, so it's not too much to ask for some consistency. In fact, seven is IS too much to ask and he did it anyway. Next is Scratchist, which doesn't even pretend to have a rhythm going on, and would rather be an exercise in ambient techno production. I suppose that's fine. At least it's going for something different and justifies that. For an ambient techno track, I'd give it about a 7.

Now Lantern, the fifth of twelve tracks for the day, is only 3.5 minutes, so there's only so much overlength I can blame it for (hopefully). What I got was a beautifully breezy balance between a good rhythm, shifting backgrounds and a smooth, jazzy feeling. This is easily one of my favorite tracks on the album. But in a contrast as surprising as the shift between a heavy metal rock 'n' roll tribute to a strictly Celtic folk song like on Led Zeppelin IV, Consolexti is an energetic display various beat techniques, sounding tribal, electronic and industrial all at a total balance. Halfway through, a ghostly ambiance and a Spamton distortion of noise takes over, bringing a kind of depth I didn't predict at all the first time I heard it. THERE'S the imagination I was waiting for! Two excellent tracks in a row. Console Corpus is a bit more standard, making use of dated electronic synths that sound like they belong in After Dark screensaver soundtracks, while the beats remain modern and diversified. The following keys are taken right out of the backing rhythms of a good modern-day vaporwave track, but without the vapor. SO I just ended up with three excellent tracks in a row.

Next comes track 46, Just an Awful Day. I get that. This one progresses just beautifully, balancing out between atmosphere and melody perfectly with completely even shifts. Next is Awful Day Continues, which starts out with a simple rhythm and instrument that sounds like it was either pulled out of a bad comfy synth EP or a children's jingle. But when the extras are added, it starts to take an interesting shape. Ironically, everything else about this track sounds mature while the main riff sounds childish. Everything except that main riff is beautifully done. But Horrible Day is such a simple track in comparison, pretty much repeating the same traits we got from 88:88:88 and the two tracks after that. Next is a one-minute segue called Untitled Track, which is merely a bunch of distorted auto-tune trap rapping. Ironically, the weirdness adds something to the album, being much better than all the other segues and midtros so far. And to end this segment is Genuiinely Terrible Day, which is, once again, a repeated melody with the backdrops doing the work but going halfway towards drowning each other out with the atmospheres, so it's not the best ending.

Well, I got some utterly brilliant tracks today, and some very disappointing filler. The current rating will be roughly 85/100.