Artist: Bon Jovi
Album: Slippery When Wet
Year: 1986
Chronological position: Third album
Genre: Hard rock/glam metal
Expectations before listening: The bad kind of cheese

Quote:

Originally Posted by Me, about 50 minutes ago (Post 1429077) **** it, now I have Bon Jovi on my last.fm

Bon Jovi is among those bands I try to avoid because my first impressions were really, really bad. If we hadn't selected this in our little club, I simply wouldn't have listened to it, unless it was some sort of new JB week challenge.

Why don't I like Bon Jovi? Their lyrics are cliched and dull, their songs are overly repetitive, and those synthesizers sound like they inspired Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay. That album had some bad synthesizers. Maybe I'd enjoy Bon Jovi if I was above legal age for drinking, drunk, and at a concert full of sweaty people with much hair and little clothes. Unfortunately, I'm not.

2/5

I heard Slippery When Wet for the first time when I was about 13, and I adored it for about a year. Then I grew up and started taking an actual interest in music and realised it was a bit crap really.

The hits (You Give Love A Bad Name, Livin' On A Prayer and (to some extent) Wanted Dead Or Alive) are good and I still enjoy listening to them, but the remainder of the songs are just poor fillers and aren't worth listening to at all.

I wonder why, ya perv.

Love that album. Yeah, it's definitely more Sabbath than a lot of other, later doom bands. But back then doom metal didn't exist. The only band that had really picked up with what Sabbath was doing was Sabbath. So Witchfinder General were were more like a tribute band than anything else. I guess they may have evolved the sound a tiny bit, but from what I understand their place of honor in doom circles is mostly due to being the only band since Sabbath to have done that kind of sound, and I suppose they influenced other bands just because of that.

BOO to you both! Bon Jovi roolz! Seriously, I think that album is excellent and won't have a bad word said about it. From "Let it rock" to "Wild in the streets" I enjoy every single moment. Hell, maybe I'm just old. No maybe about it. But talk **** about Bon Jovi again and I'll meet you at dawn where we can select our weapons and sort this out once and for all.

Do.
I.
Make.
Myself.
Absolutely.
Crystal.
****ing.
Clear??
:bringit:

Bon Jovi makes me vomit. Nearly as disgusting as Phil Collins and that's saying a lot.

An axe is my weapon of choice, of course

Even 'Social Disease'? Seriously? :eek:

Yes. Sorry.
Moving on...





Artist: Ozzy Osbourne
Album: Blizzard of Ozz
Year: 1980
Chronological position: First solo album
Genre: Heavy metal
Expectations before listening: Annoying vocals that don't go well with the music

I read Unknown Soldier's review of this album, so this may be a bit coloured, but I'll try to make it as much my opinion as possible. I thought selecting this album would be appropriate since it sparked some discussion in his journal, you know, why shouldn't I join in?

This was my first time hearing solo Ozzy, apart from a couple of songs. What can I say? I prefer Black Sabbath, by far. I know it's meant to be different, but it's a change for the worse, in my opinion. Ozzy has a fairly limited vocal range, and his voice does not fit with the excellent guitar riffs of Randy Rhoads; he's not the right type of vocalist. I also think his singing is pretty dull at times, you know, lacking expression. In the part of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" that starts at around 3:19 (please PM me if you know what the professionals would call it), his vocals are great. Why did he give that up? I wonder what it would sound like if Dio sang in “Mr. Crowley”, instead. I feel that he would be an appropriate vocalist. Then there's the keyboards. Why couldn't they just leave them out? They sound terrible, and ruin everything, in my opinion. The ones at the start of “Mr. Crowley” sort of resemble an organ, but not quite. I think all of the keyboards on the album should be replaced by an organ, surely Ozzy could afford a Hammond or something.

Tl;dr version: Good riffs, good solos, bad vocals, bad keyboards, okay album.

3/5

Artist: Amon Amarth
Album: Twilight of the Thunder God
Year: 2008
Chronological position: Seventh album
Genre: Melodic death metal
Expectations before listening: Commercialized, watered-down death metal

This was chosen by one of the others in the album club, who just joined earlier this week. He's really digging Amon Amarth. Prior to this, I had heard... one song of theirs, I think? I didn't take much note of it, thus I didn't really know what to expect before listening. Therefore, I just assumed that this would sound much more commercialized and kind of like, say, In Flames. I must say, I was positively surprised. It's very melodic, but it doesn't sound as if it was written for radio, and the growls are tolerable. Still, I think it gets a little too much of the same at times, but maybe that's just a weakness of the subgenre, what do I know. Decent album.

3.5/5

I love certain Amon Amarth songs, but I bought Versus the World a while back, and while, again, certain songs have my soul, a lot of the rest are just kind of dull. I'd love to love a band that sings of nothing but Vikings, but I think they will forever be patchy to me.

Yes another reviewer that agrees with my assessment of that album:) and that is an interesting point concerning Dio as well. Just imagine if Ozzy hadn't had left Sabbath and Dio had teamed up with Randy Rhoads instead

Artist: Bathory
Album: Blood Fire Death
Year: 1988
Chronological position: Fourth album
Genre: Black/viking metal
Expectations before listening: Something harsher than the debut, but still as epic as Batty says it is

Right after hearing Bathory's debut, I asked the others in the club if we could have more Bathory, and suggested Blood Fire Death. I was really excited to hear Bathory play viking metal, since Norse mythology is the bomb and Batty says that the viking-era Bathory albums are among the most epic things to ever be released on record.

Come to think of it, the album he's been talking the most about is Hammerheart, not this one. That might be a key point. This album, Blood Fire Death, had only two tracks that I would consider truly epic: “A Fine Day to Die” and “Blood Fire Death”. The rest didn't sound much different from the debut apart from greater speed and hoarser vocals. It sounded pretty good, but my expectations were not fulfilled. Two songs aren't enough. I'm really excited to hear Hammerheart, though.

4/5

Artist: The Beatles
Album: Revolver
Year: 1966
Chronological position: Seventh album
Genre: Psychedelic rock/pop rock

I'm starting this review with a shout-out to Taxman, whose name is taken from the first song on the album, and Pet_Sounds, who gave me the idea of reviewing the album by posing this question (he just started his own journal, by the way):

I decided to review this album track by track, instead of following the mini-review format I've been using lately.

The first track on the album is named Taxman, and is a rather straightforward rock song with hooks and cowbells. Next up is Eleanor Rigby, which is more baroque pop-tinged and, in my opinion, the most depressing song on the album, though the Beatles don't really write depressing songs. I'm Only Sleeping is the first real psychedelic track on the album, with a brief solo sounding like it's being played backwards, and one of my personal favourites. Gotta love that bridge! The follow-up, Love You To, is obviously written by George Harrison (it's Indian raga). It's pretty interesting, but not a favourite of mine, so I'll say it's one of the weaker songs on the album*, along with Here, There and Everywhere, which is way too slow and sentimental. Ah, Yellow Submarine! Everyone needs some nonsense lyrics and repetition once in a while. A very catchy and fun song. It's followed by another great song, She Said, She Said, which was inspired by something Peter Fonda said during an LSD trip. The line "you're making me feel I've never been born" was what John Lennon responded to him to make him shut up, and it's really sticking in my head. Good Day Sunshine is a piano-driven pop song which, to me, sounds a bit bluesy, at least in the chorus. I think it proves that The Beatles can be great without even trying, because I like it even though it sounds so incredibly simple. And Your Bird Can Sing is my favourite song on the album, because of its beautiful melody and excellent vocal delivery. It is followed by For No One, which is similar to "Here, There and Everywhere" in theme and nature, but more baroque. I like the horns. Doctor Robert is alright, but to me it does little more than prepare the listener for I Want to Tell You, which is infectiously catchy and great in its simplicity. Got to Get You Into My Life was The Beatles' last top ten hit in in USA until 1995, when "Free as a Bird" was released. Even more nice horns, sweet. At the very end of the album, our beloved Beatles go insane with the song Tomorrow Never Knows, a psychotic mix between experimental, raga and psychedelia.

Of the merely seven full Beatles albums I have heard, this one is my favourite. Most critics tend to favour Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and while I agree that that one is a great album, too, this is the one I will sit down and listen to in its entirety whenever I'm in the mood for some Beatles. It marks the transition between the pop rock of their earlier albums and the experimental stuff on the later ones, and I think it's a near-perfect mix between the two styles.


5/5

*The weakest tracks on the album are not bad in any way. They just fade in comparison to the rest.

It's considered viking metal cause of the lyrics, not so much because of the musical style. Starting with the album before this though they started to move away from the more simple, raw black metal style and more to a mid-paced, heavy sound that was the precursor to Hammerheart. So the sound was still developing even then.

From Under the Sign of the Black Mark

Was that viking metal lyrics? I'm pretty sure they mentioned Satan more often than Odin.

He's mentioned, but I think the majority of the religious lyrics are more about being in opposition to Christianity. I'm sure I don't need to lecture a Norwegian on how Christianity suppressed the older Norwegian culture and that's really what Quorthon is on about, especially with all the Viking talk. It's about old Norwegian nationalism more than Satanism. I think that's really the undercurrent for Amon Amarth's lyrics for that matter.

Excellent write-up of Revolver, Briks. What are the other six Beatles albums you've heard?

Thanks! :)
They are A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles and Abbey Road, in addition to the red and blue compilations.

You must hear Rubber Soul too.

Will do. It's been on my to-listen list for a while, but haven't really done it yet.

And if you liked Hard Days Night, like I do, those other early albums are great too. But it depends on whether you like their early pop period or not. I love it, but many other people do not.
Hard Days Night is maybe my most beloved record anyway, not necessarily the best, but the most beloved. It was the first I got and so it will always have a special place in my heart...

Artist: Pentagram
Album: Relentless
Year: 1985*
Chronological position: Debut album
Genre: Traditional doom metal

The albums selected in the metal album club, which now has four people, are intended to be reviewed in the "Chunks of metal" section, but since this is a doom metal album, and I also have a section exclusively for doom metal, I thought I'd include it here, since it makes no difference whatsoever.

Up until now, I'd never heard any pure, traditional doom metal. I'd heard Witchfinder General and Black Sabbath, but they're more proto-doom, and I'd heard Candlemass, but they play so-called “epic doom”. Therefore I expected this to be very slow, boring and kind of bland. That turned out to be wrong. It was a lot slower than Sabbath and Witchfinder General, and didn't have the epic, mighty sound of Candlemass, but it had some great, heavy riffs and good solos, as well as an alright vocalist. That's all I need. I liked every song, but I can't give this a five out of five rating, since I prefer the sound of Candlemass, by far.

4/5

*Originally released in 1985 as Pentagram, re-issued in 1993 as Relentless, featuring different cover art and a different tracklisting

You should really check out Trouble. They're trad doom with Christian lyrics. Lyrically they're not my cup of tea, but I imagine that would be different for you. Fantastic band other than that though.





They're heavy/power metal, but while I'm on the subject of Christian metal bands you should also check out Warlord. I just recently became a rabid convert to these guys.

I don't really consider myself religious, so Christian lyrics aren't required. It's just that overly Satanic, gory, evil etc. lyrics aren't particularly welcome in my house. Lately I have started to get less and less offended by such lyrics, since they're mostly for shock value, but I still try to avoid artists who are involved in murders, rape, nazism and things like that. Anyway, if the bands you mentioned are any good, I'll check them out.

http://s30.postimg.org/4onpvjmr3/googlyeyes.png

I think googly eyes were a good investment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord (Post 1429168) Oh and to Briks, obviously you should make up your own mind, but listening to an entire Dragonforce album is probably not going to be a very rewarding experience. All the songs sound pretty much exactly the same: weedly weedly verse/chorus, weedly weedly verse/chorus, even more weedly weedly solo that lasts for at least two minutes (I've counted), and then weedly weedly verse/chorus. Granted, plenty of bands do this but Dragonforce make an art form out of putting as little variety as possible into their albums. Honestly there's probably about as much variety on one of their albums as on a death metal album.

Artist: Dragonforce
Album: Valley of the Damned
Year: 2003
Chronological position: Debut album
Genre: Power metal

Since Batty told me that I should make up my own mind, that's exactly what I'm going to do, and I'll do that by listening to an entire Dragonforce album. I chose Valley of the Damned, since it's their debut album and I like debut albums, they show the band at an early stage, before the members get sick of making music/sell out/change their style to the worse.

The first of October, 2012, I received a message from one of my friends, whose taste in music seems to develop in about the same direction as mine and with whom I started the metal album club. The message translates into something like this: Dude, if you want to hear someone who's sick at power metal, search on YouTube: 'Through the Fire and the Flames'. Watch it all, you'll be impressed. If I am to be completely honest with you, I was a bit impressed. The band played an insane speed, and it was very melodic, so I decided to check out some more of this then-new-to-me subgenre called “power metal”. I soon forgot about Dragonforce, before even bothering to hear an entire album of theirs. But no matter whether I'll hate them, love them, or think they're okay after listening to their debut, I'll have to credit them for introducing me to power metal and maybe even making me a fan of metal in general, just because of one song that I thought was “pretty cool”.

Halfway through:
Wow, the guitarwork on this album is amazing! These guys are brilliant songwriters, and all the lyrics up until now have been topnotch. The song “Starlight” is such a hard-hitting ballad, I feel that I can relate to it very much... like as if it's written just for me. I'm being sarcastic, of course. A thing I think is funny, though, is how much “Starlight” reminds me of “California King Bed” by Rihanna. Metal.

Finished:
I'm sorry for not listening to you, Batty. This was garbage. It's sad that something like this, an album made by mislead poseurs, can pass as power metal, a True Metal subgenre, when it really should be called “speedy nintendo mallcore”. The synth is gross, and there's way too much of it. The lyrics are repetitive and unoriginal. Half of the album length is made up of wanky chiptune solos. There is one good thing about that last bit, though: more solos mean less lyrics. This was 52 minutes wasted.

What I will do now:
Cleanse my mind with Nirvana and celebrate that I'm done with this.

Artist: Ghost
Album: Opus Eponymous
Year: 2010
Chronological position: Debut album
Genre: Hard rock/heavy metal
Expectations before listening: Epic doom, but softer and with more hooks than ordinary doom metal

I stated earlier that all my doom metal reviews would be in the doom section, but after listening, I don't really think this is doom. It says doom in the title, but that's only because that's what it was called when we selected it in the club. Anyway, what do I think of this praised-to-death, mystical, Swedish metal sensation called Ghost?

Well, I guess they're alright, but hardly more than that, in my opinion. Why? Well, their lyrics are nothing new; Satanic and occult themes have been there ever since God created Metal. They're not even doing it with style or originality, so instead of being offended, I'm just a little disappointed that they decided to jump on the Satanic bandwagon instead of getting a little more creative. Alright, their anonymity and stage performances are original, but their lyrics aren't. The song “Elizabeth” is fine, with its lyrics about Hungarian Countess Báthory rather than (*sigh*) Satan. The music isn't really outstanding either. The band members know how to play their instruments, but I think they could put some more soul into it. The drumming could need some variation, so could the solos, and even though the vocalist is talented, he should put some more power into his singing. He doesn't really fit as a metal vocalist in my opinion, but maybe as a pop vocalist. Conclusion? This is only half metal, and nothing to get all excited about, but if it came on the radio, I certainly wouldn't turn it off in disgust before regurgitating. Nice try.

2.5/5

Why do some of your album reviews not have a rating? Have noticed one or two where you haven't done it.:)

Sometimes I feel like writing a short conclusion at the end of the review instead of rating the album. Of course, I could do both, but I don't always feel like rating when I can express myself otherwise instead. Know what I'm saying? ;)

Quiet, Ratings Boy! :D

Yes, but the numbers say it all especially with the style of your reviews.

At least I do proper ratings when I use them, unlike some people on the site that are fond of giving out ratings like 3.8, 7.7 and 8.95 etc, yourself and Briks excluded here, but just saying:wave:

Meh, I prefer things like guitars, skulls and, oh yeah, cookies! :thumb:

Agreed. I don't get the hype. So long as someone doesn't go back in time to the early eighties and assassinate King Diamond before he can form Mercyful Fate then Ghost will remain redundant.

P.S. I hear Dragonforce speed up their guitar work in the studio and can't actually play that stuff live. So they don't even get credit for that.

Ever seen this? I'm sure it's related somehow...

Per your inquiry in our EXCELLENT DOOM METAL GROUP, RIGHT HERE ON MUSIC BANTER.... ;)

Check out the album 'Trouble', by the band Trouble. One of the pioneers of the genre, and their self-titled is easily their best. I'd love to know what you think of it. I think it's a pretty accessible doom album for someone starting out their exploration of the genre, not so trudging and their guitarist is a master. Plus... vocalist is very Halford-esque, something pretty unique in doom.

Sold

I don't know. Their self-titled is pretty fantastic.

Do you like Helloween? Their early work was a little too... thrash for my taste. But when Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I came out in '87, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a raw, speedy sound, and a new sheen of melody that really gives the songs a big boost. They've been compared to Blind Guardian, but I think Helloween has a far more prevalent and distinct sense of humor. In '88, Helloween released this: Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is “I Want Out”, a song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should! Because it's not just about the downsides of conformity, and the limits of society, it's also a personal statement about the band itself.

I want me one of them bad boys!