black & death: the top 10

Well all these lists pretty much cover it, but I would add these three:

Nokturnal Mortum - To the Gates of Blasphemous Fire
Nokturnal Mortum - Lunar Poetry (especially the track Ancient Nation)
Arthemesia - Deus-Iratus (half the songs suck, but the other half are true gems)
 
Charubic Murder said:
It's an alright album, but for the time it was released during, it's rather bottom of the barrel. The highlight of the album is the lyrics which are fantastic, but otherwise it's not very compositionally achieving.
I don't agree. It's the beast album ever, and please don't get me started on the "influential"-part of that album.
 
Transilvanian Scotsman said:
Edit: Guardian do you ever find yourself disagreeing with the reviews at Anus? Whether is simply a disagreeance musically or about their interpretation of ideology or other interpretation of artistic content?

If so, which review and why?
I'm not going to analyse every phrase. Here are a few brief examples of disagreements:
Cryptopsy - None So Vile - Prozak seems to believe that the energy of this release makes up for the poor songwriting. I do not. ARGH, those tempo changes.
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse - I don't feel the atmosphere Prozak wets himself over. The production may have something to do with this, but I still think the songs meander and that each one feels like a collection of riffs without direction.
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane - Again, I don't think this album has that 'essence'. Bands that incorporate "Maidenism" into extreme metal tend to piss me off.
Blasphemy - I hate this monotonous, blasting, shitty band. I hate the monotonous, blasting, shitty bands that they've influenced as well. "War metal" would more accurately be called "bore metal".
Conqueror - See "Blasphemy".
Black Witchery - See "Blasphemy".
Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas - I disagree about the vocals. I also disagree about it being 'relentless', there's far too much filler where they should be going somewhere but are not.
Deeds of Flesh - I think they're run-of-the-mill brutal death. He raves about them as if they're Suffocation.
Kataklysm - He can look past the dull cheesiness and find something in this band that I can not.
Vader - I don't think they're written anything breathtaking, but Prozak worships them.

I also think the top 15 lists are extremely poor.
 
Ah, I was not expecting so much, but i'm glad to see that you dont find anus infallible. That was the impression i had. Though I suppose you are disagreeing on content rather than arguing on writing style.

Likewise, I dont find much on offer from Vader. The other bands you mentioned i dont know well enough. Except Mayhem and Emperor, but you probably know where i stand with them.
 
I love Vader, and actually agree with the anus thoughts of Vader being a death metal slayer.

I think this reviewer has read a bit too much Heidegger- or well any 19th century German Philosopher. However, unlike Heidegger, his byzantine meandering reviews never come to a point; they exists as merely incoherent ramblings and ideas.
 
Anus emphasizes the correlation between ideology and music. Their inseperable, which I agree with. As far as the politics are concerned, that is where I think most people don't like Anus. They are Pro-White European and people become threatened.

Arguing about the writing style is irrelevant in my opinion. You need advanced words, and I don't find that Prozak overextends the vocabulary. Technical thoughts need technical words. Saying "contorted" is more expressive than saying "weird" for example.

If Anus wasn't openly racist, more people would praise their website I think.
 
I think most are threatened by the elitism. Mention the term 'objective analysis' and you get hordes of people crying out 'IT'S AN OPINION, IT'S AN OPINION' within seconds.
 
The racism and elitism of anus.com is irrelevant. The scotsman and I are concerned with his writing style. It is clear that this prozac fellow is trying to impress us with his "vocabulary"(I'm sure we have all met pretentious sons of bitches that really arent all that smart, but use these vocabularies that make little sense, just so they seem smarter than others) . Some people can write beautifully using overly wordy obscure words, others like this prozac fellow, use large words as a shield for their own insecurity in thought and intelligence.

The problem is evident in this quote from one of his reviews:

The continuity of one set of charging violent riffs against another makes for open-ended looping structures resembling more grindcore than death metal but if beset by anything under the skin of another genre, it is a metal heart in the solidity and logical absolutism of the riffs that sign off on all other riffs in the song: it is a theme above all other which signals a call to the certainty of nothingness.

There are some very interesting ideas here, but they are very poorly presented. Its one big run on sentence- and this is a trend throughout his reviews. Just what does "it is a metal heart in the solidity and logical absolutism of riffs that sign off all other riffs in the song" mean? It makes no sense at all. This is the problem, long sentences, and using big intelligent sounding words and phrases like "soildity of logical absolutism of riffs" without providing the context for explaining just what the hell point he is trying to get across.

That being said, I for one actually dont mind the reviews at all. In fact when this prozac fellow decides to write a short review, it isnt half bad, and is usually somewhat to the point. Unlike most reviewers, he does have a interesting point of view ( a double edged sword for him), and he does attempt to analyze the music, which is quite rare.

Im not surprised Guardian is defending his writing, as he aspires to become the next Prozac.
 
This is of the CDs I own

10 Death Metal Albums

Theory In Practice - Colonising the Sun
Death - Symbolic
Suffocation - Peirced from within
Myrkskog - Deathmachine
Theory in Practice - The Armageddon Theories
At the Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul
Behemoth - Zos Kia Kultus
Darkthrone - Soulside Journey
Cryptopsy - Wisper Supremacy
Death - The sound of Perseverance

Top 10 Black Metal

Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Borknagar - The Olden Domain
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Behemoth - Pandamonic Incantations
Anorexia Nervosa - New Obscurantis Order
Satyricon - Nemisis Divina
Mutant - The Aeonic Majesty
Absu - Tara
Dissection - The Somberlain
Dissection - Storm of the Lights Bane
 
Focusphere said:
Anus emphasizes the correlation between ideology and music. Their inseperable, which I agree with. As far as the politics are concerned, that is where I think most people don't like Anus. They are Pro-White European and people become threatened.

Arguing about the writing style is irrelevant in my opinion. You need advanced words, and I don't find that Prozak overextends the vocabulary. Technical thoughts need technical words. Saying "contorted" is more expressive than saying "weird" for example.

If Anus wasn't openly racist, more people would praise their website I think.
Agreed. When people yell about how "pretentious" anus it, they don't understand that there must be some sort of pretense when judging any form of art.
 
Azrehan said:
This is of the CDs I own

10 Death Metal Albums

Theory In Practice - Colonising the Sun
Death - Symbolic
Suffocation - Peirced from within
Myrkskog - Deathmachine
Theory in Practice - The Armageddon Theories
At the Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul
Behemoth - Zos Kia Kultus
Darkthrone - Soulside Journey
Cryptopsy - Wisper Supremacy
Death - The sound of Perseverance

Top 10 Black Metal

Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Borknagar - The Olden Domain
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Behemoth - Pandamonic Incantations
Anorexia Nervosa - New Obscurantis Order
Satyricon - Nemisis Divina
Mutant - The Aeonic Majesty
Absu - Tara
Dissection - The Somberlain
Dissection - Storm of the Lights Bane

Your collection must not be very good.
 
Guardian of Darkness said:
I was an idiot back then, with poor taste. I've said this on several occasions. I'm pretty sure you don't have a point.
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Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse
Katatonia - Viva Emptiness
My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark River
Anathema - Judgement
Ephel Duath - The Painter's Palette
Enslaved - Below The Lights
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin At Dusk
Zyklon - World Ov Worms
October Tide - Grey Dawn
At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul

Overall thats a very good list. Which of these albums do you dislike now? Why?
 
Profånity Kerry Wood said:
Without a doubt the best Black Metal album is Graveland "In The Glare Of Burning Churches"
Some other quality Black Metal albums you must have in your collection are:
Darkthrone "A Blaze in the northern sky"
Dimmu Borgir "Death Cult Armagedon" :tickled: :tickled:
An early Behemoth album

Death Metal is harder to pick essential albums out but here's 10 of the best:
Suffocation - Human Waste
Cannibal Corpse - Butchered At Birth
Death - Human
Sepultura - Morbid Visions
Krisiun - Ageless Venomous
Therion - Beyond Sanctorum
Grave - Into The Grave
Entombed - Clandestine
Carcass - Necroticism
Carcass - Heartwork
Are you just trying to start and argument, numbnuts?
I own most of the albums on your list.
Who died and gave you the authority to claim an album "Without a doubt the best Black Metal album"

Dimmu Borgir Death Cult Armageddon????

WHAT THE FUCK DRUGS ARE YOU ON?