My Decrepit Lament, Veiled In Sorrow - 5/10, Holy abrupt openings Batman, it certainly doesn't waste any time getting straight to the song, in full fortissimo no less. An eyecatching arrangement, full of a good degree of technical skill, the acoustic part notably featuring some classical guitar. Good soloing, but the rhythm section needs to learn what the fuck a groove is and stop chugging harder than a cheap Bangkok whore. I mean that literally and figuratively. Vocally, it's a bunch of passable, average death growling. Overall, very meh. Thematic, decent breakdown.
Savatage, Hall of The Mountain King - 10/10, Yes, yes, and yes. Legendary, two-fisted kickass chord barrage of an opening riff. Jon Oliva is one of my favorite metal singers for a reason, just listen to that gritty, voluminous belting and those trembling, throat-piercing screams. Evil laughter and burst-fire orgasm screaming is always a bonus. Guitar soloing is akin to a literal phoenix grabbing the fretboard and squeezing every decibel of finger-tapping badass out of it. Percussion and bass are grooving and punchy, no clicks here, just as it should be. Thematic, good breakdown.
W.A.S.P., Harder Faster (Live) - 8/10, Profanity-laden Blackie Lawless rant is epic as always. Crunchy, screaming guitar, thumping bass line, and Blackie's full-throated wails, still absolutely fucking incomparable. Topped off with the hooky, harmonic brilliance of W.A.S.P.'s usual sound. Thematic, breakdown is great, blazing solo from Chris Holmes, leads up to an utterly ferocious Lawless scream, and kicks back into the chorus and more solos. Great motorcycle music.
We Butter The Bread With Butter - 1/10, Remind me to napalm the garbage heap these toxic faggots were spawned from. Veritable atrocity of a vocal performance, complete with inhaled pig squeals, the drums couldn't get any clickier and hoary if you added an audio tape of me furiously tapping my mouse over the red "X" on my browser to get away from this aural abortion. Bad attempts at melodic guitar playing buried in the mix, just like this whole song and band should be buried in a shallow grave. Thematic.
Artillery, Time Has Come - 6/10, Good, melodious thrash metal, however, it's not even on theme, so I've gotta detract from my rating.
Enslaved, Havenless - 4/10, Nordic choral intro replete with percussive riffing guitar, cool. Disjointed and threadbare as a composition though. Not even approaching a respectable enough amount dynamism to allot it this long of a runtime. Competent black metal vocals. Thematic.
Aversions Crown, Xenoforms - 2/10, Cool choice of volume levels ar the start. Literally nothing laudable anywhere else though, as it transmogrifies into a Djent AIDS germ after that brief moment of potential quality and inspiration. Guitarist needs lessons in how to play more than two chords at differing pitches, vocalist needs to be shot and castrated, drummer needs to be bludeoned with rusted pipes till he shits tetanus, bassist needs to find a better band. Thematic.