You shouldn`t have said that, now The Batlord will accuse them of ripping off Lamb of God.:laughing:

I used to like Lamb of God.

Can't really stand them these days.

Shouldn`t you be in bed and sleeping like a baby? Its like 5am there:D

i was sick yesterday and slept too much, so woke up very early

it was 6 am just now

Hope it was nothing serious and you`re 6 hours ahead of me, I`m off to sleepy land very soon.

just an ear infection and a cold

better today

thx for asking

i'm 7 hours ahead of you now (8 in the summer)

It's only a matter of time I suppose. WHAT?!?! They use DRUMS?!?!? Totally copying off of Ringo and The Beatles.

The Blackening wins that battle 4-1. Next up are a couple of doom/gothic metal albums with death/black metal influences chosen by Me (The Batlords battle will follow this one) from two bands that hardly ever get mentioned on here but are well worth the listen.

I have to go with Icon there, I find it more atmospheric which is important for Gothic metal.

Icon - 1
Turn Loose the Swans - 0

I still love their first two, the Burn the Priest debut and New American Gospel. Those two are ****ing brilliant. As the Palaces Burn and Ashes of the Wake are sweet, but they just don't excite me the way the other two do. And I still haven't heard their latest one cause Sacrament just bored the piss outta me. They definitely jumped the shark with that one.

oh well, back to the contest

i love gothic/doom

Paradise Lost

Am somewhat a mild fan of this Halifax band. B-b-b-but this sounds just too much like Metallica. I like their early dissonant, death-ish stuff like Gothic. I like their later symphonic synth stuff like In Requeim. This in-betweener stuff i don't much like.

My Dying Bride

Noice! Sludgey! Cool riffs! Grunts!

here I go:-

Icon - 1
Turn Loose the Swans - 1

Not surprisingly I really like both bands and albums but I have to go with My Dying Bride here, for a long time I actually preferred the Paradise Lost album with its more upbeat feel and I really like Nick Holmes on vocals, I know that`s not what doom/gothic metal is about (But often I have to be in the mood for doom metal and its lethargic feel) but since I`m going through a doom listening phase at the moment I really dig My Dying Bride again, as for the album Turn Loose the Screws Aaron Stainthorpe`s vocals along with his spoken word are great and the gothic atmosphere sets the whole album off. Some people may find it overly long but the riffs and atmosphere are there.

@ Il Duce- I know there is a strong Metallica influence on Paradise Lost, but given the fact that a huge % of metal bands in the 1990s sounded similiar to Metallica or Slayer, I wouldn`t say this was a detrimental aspect.

My Dying Bride- 2
Paradise Lost- 1

they didn't start out sounding like Metallica

Agreed, as sounding like Metallica sold albums. If they had sounded like Metallica in a poor way I`d be trashing them, but they mixed in the Metallica sound with their own style and this resulted in a great album.

Same could also be said about Corrosion of Conformity, the album Blind is probably the best album Metallica never did.

Given that like 90% of doom bands sound akin to Black Sabbath anyway, I don`t think accusing a doom band of copying somebody else that much of a serious crime. I mean Pentagram, Saint Vitus and Trouble on a lot of their albums sound like Black Sabbath mk.2...........and these three bands have put out some great albums.

I love how this battle just so happened to coincide with a doom metal phase I've been going through recently. The Paradise Lost album is cool, but it comes across (as has been said) as a much less two dimensional Black Album. Still sweet, but not quite on the same level as the My Dying Bride album. Which has great atmosphere, great vocals, and just is overall the more engrossing album. If this had been between this album and Paradise Lost's Gothic, this would have been a much harder choice.

My Dying Bride - 3
Paradise Lost - 1

no contest for me if that were the case, Gothic would win hands down

I thought about putting gothic in, maybe I should`ve, I just went with Icon because both were 1993..........I`m a sucker for matching things up.

You mean you're a neurotic weirdo? I completely understand. ;)

or just has OCD?

Well, whatever, he probably needs therapy and collects his own scabs. :p:

I got out of bed this morning, turned on the computer and then wrote than strange post.

This sort of shit always happens, when I try to do anything first thing in the morning without my first mug of tea.

Saying all that, I do have some strange obsessions though.

I found both albums to be kind of meh, personally. I didn't really pick up on the gothic elements on Icon aside from the occasional synth lead. It wasn't a bad album just average to me, and the Hetfield influence is undeniable albeit done adequately. Swans' best moments are the immense, heavy death/doom sequences that the band is known for. I can respect the poetry found in the spoken word portions but I felt as though they distracted from the coherency of the album as a whole.

My Dying Bride- 4

Paradise Lost- 1

Let's get a new battle up, I'm ready to participate in my first one.

Edit: Are you still looking for match-up ideas?

I have two new battles already lined up, but whatever you`ve got just PM me and I`ll add it to the queue.

My Dying Bride win that battle 4-1, In hindsight I should`ve put up Gothic as its more representative of Paradise Lost. Next up thanks to The Batlord after his previous Swedish death metal match-up, comes this three-way Florida death metal showdown.

fix the last cover man. can't link to RYM images :p

Good match up though. Best album by each band for sure.

For me I gotta go with

Retribution - 1
The Key - 0
Millennium - 0

Something perfect to me about "Retribution", can't really put it into words at the moment, but I love that album, in my top 5 for Florida Death Metal.

"The Key" is an excellent album as well, very close second, with "Millennium" close behind.

2 of these albums also feature two future Cannibal Corpse musicians. Malevolent Creation has Rob Barrett, who would join Cannibal Corpse after they recorded "Tomb of the Mutilated", and Monstrosity has vocals by George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher.

Yeah, it's my battle and I have no idea which one I'm gonna choose. As soon as I listen to one, I'm convinced it's the best, then I listen to the next one, and I'm lost again.

I dig Cannibal Corpse, but Malevolent Creation and Monstrosity are both better bands.

I do not know about better, each one has their strength. Different though.

Cannibal Corpse is to me in the world of Death Metal, like a cartoon. Their b-movie splatter inspired lyrics almost make them like the GWAR of death metal. They are cartoonish and one dimensional, but talented musicians. So they kinda lose me at that. The other 2 bands are more serious, while Cannibal Corpse are like the class clowns.

Hopefully that fact won't scare any away, George Fisher is in top form on "Millennium", I think I like his vocals better on that album than anything he did with Cannibal Corpse. Rob is fantastic on the Malevolent Creation album, great guitarist and the best Cannibal Corpse had I think. His guitar playing is what made "The Bleeding" so memorable.

But all 3 of these albums are must hear for anybody with an interest in the style and should be given an honest listen.

The 3 way battle of Florida I would love to have would probably be

Brutality - Screams of Anguish
Massacre - From Beyond
Resurrection - Embalmed Existence


maybe I should cast my choices to Unknown on that one.

Do it. I haven't heard them, and I need to listen to some more Florida DM.

Alright, I have to choose one, and I guess I have to go with Malevolent Creation too. They're not necessarily a ground breaking band, but they just do ugly, brutish death metal right. The vocals are savage and off the leash in a way that shouldn't be as rare in death metal, the riffs are relatively uncomplicated but they have a brutality that is simple but effective, and the production hits that sweet spot between clarity and rawness that just brings the whole thing home.

I just know I'm gonna be second guessing my decision, cause the other two are ****ing ace as well, but it is what it is.

Malevolent Creation - 2
Nocturnus - 0
Monstrosity - 0

I gotta say I love all these death metal albums and its without doubt one of the very best metal genres out there. The quality of the bands within the genre is staggering compared to other sub-metal genres as well. I mean its so good that I can`t decide which I prefer the Florida scene or the Swedish one, probably the Florida one due to the higher amount of quality bands it has produced. Also I love the Quebec technical death metal scene despite only having heard a couple of its bands.

I need to listen to all three of these albums, so will do it over the next day or two, if I listen to too much death metal albums in a row they all tend to blur into each other. I can say that by looking at the reviews of all the albums the Nocturnos album grabbed me the most though and Ten Commandments by Malevolent Creation got great reviews!!! (The Batlord had originally submitted this album) I`ll chuck that into my listening as well.

@Bastard-I`ve noted your Florida DM choices and will put them up after the next battle which has already been submitted by Alfred.

got all those in the battle

also got BoY's recs/next battle

so it's gonna be a Floridan death metal weekend for me

Not quite, after this battle and before BOY`s battle there is another battle and its not death metal.

I`ve listened to all three albums plus some other releases by the bands as well.

First off Malevolent Creation, I really dug their first album The Ten Commandments despite its very heavy Slayer and Kreator influences but the album had some great classic style Slayer riffs. I was expecting more of the second album Retribution given that its leading the battle, its a good solid album and thats all I can say about it.

Next up Monstrosity (I wasn`t put off by the name) Anyway George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher is a great death vocalist but the album not as solid as Retribution.

Best though were Nocturnus. The Key is a concept album based around a sci-fi theme and despite having the prog death label, is really just a technical death metal album but a great one at that, the publicized keyboards don`t really feature that much but the guitar riffing is first rate here, but its the drummer and vocalist Mike Browning that steals the show here! I also listened to their Thresholds album and again another great album with Dan Izzo on vocals, he actually sounds a bit like Max Cavalera:pimp:

Malevolent Creation-2
Nocturnus-1
Monstrosity-0

Malevolent Creation - 2
Nocturnus - 2
Monstrosity - 0

The Key is just so awesome.

Quite a few people have submitted albums and this is the queue order, just in case you want to know where you`re at after the current battle has finished:

Alfred
Bastard
King Matt
Mondo Bungle

I love that. The keyboards make for ambiance in the right places without taking away from the brutality of the music. I think Fear Factory definitely did the old five finger discount when they heard that ****.

Ok, maybe I should have said they were subtly done.

I understood what you meant. I was geeking out.

I'll be the odd one out here and say Monstrosity. THE OTHER BANDS ARE GAY.

No just kidding, Retribution and The Key are also great albums, but there's something I like more about Millennium than the other two.

Malevolent Creation - 2
Nocturnus - 2
Monstrosity - 1