Metal Odyssey

A certain metal specialist shop in Sydney was selling industry preview CDs (marked “Do not sell!”) for $5, so I picked up four as part of my metal education… .

Old [Down with the Nails] – retro-thrash with Satanic lyrics. Once I got into it I quite enjoyed it, but it was unoriginal and not really my thing anyway. I’ll keep it for when I’m in the mood. 2.5/5

Daath [The Hinderers] – OK death metal, a bit overproduced (i.e. too many superfluous synth breaks). I’ll listen to it again. 2.5/5

Gorefest [Rise to Ruin] – Fuck yeah! These guys know what they’re doing. This contemporary-but-dignified death metal is hard but intelligent, musical but not overtly melodic, and the production sounds great, hard-hitting and tonally rich. I also like the attitude of their lyrics: kill stupid people, kill corrupt leaders, REVOLT! 4.5/5

Panzerchrist [Battalion Beast] – Nope. Not very good. I’m not a fan of dual vocals for a start, but even apart from that, this stuff is just uninspired, undistinctive, unmemorable, annoyingly mediocre. The vocals are better than Cult ov Azazel, but the actual songs are a lot worse. This goes on the throw-out pile. 0/5

BTW, I’m aware that, being new to metal, my descriptions/genre classifications might be a bit “off”. Just bear with me, okay?

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