GMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 1991

[HamburgerBoy]

Even Apocalyptic Disposition? I find it difficult to imagine anyone finding anything redeeming in that song.

 

[CiG]

Yeah sure, what's wrong with it?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

It's an attempted techification of Among the Living that just sounds retarded in the timing they do it in with some other riff that I think is an Exodus ripoff with a solo section virtually stolen from Over the Wall but modified just enough to simply sound wrong with a song title that probably attempted to plagiarize Energetic Disassembly but failed because they probably thought they could get away with using a thesaurus without knowing the importance of context to anything in art. I just tried listening to it and a couple other songs from the album again and literally laughed out loud. It's simply one of the most pathetic attempts at writing music I've ever listened to. Because my own musical background is shit I like to download random tabs available online and dick around on GuitarPro perhaps reversing the order of notes or forcing a melody into a different scale or some other trivial and wholly amateur modification partially in an attempt to try and deduce to some extent the elements I like in a given riff or melody and then note them for future reference but I'd never do something so pathetic as to become proficient on a musical instrument just to show off to the world my total inability to exercise creativity. I dislike Manilla Road, but I can respect that Mark Shelton had his niche and a vision. The Sieges Even guys on those first few albums had absolutely nothing, it's audio that should have never ever been recorded and released.

 

[Satanstoenail]

2deep4u m8

ur2deepupurownassm8

Mental Vortex is an album I want to be my all-time fave. The production and guitar tone are awesome, has a totally unique cold vibe to it, the move towards slower and more subtle grooves plus weirder chords nails it down even further, and Pale Sister is basically the quintessence of what I want out of music and my very favorite Coroner song. The first several listens were captivating experiences on par with anything else in music. However, Metamorphosis is notably less interesting than any of the other originals, the Beatles cover doesn't really do it for me anymore either, the drumming is unfitting on about half the tracks, and I hate to admit it, but even some songs I really love like Son of Lilith could be shortened a bit. It's really close to being transcendental on its strengths alone but the flaws are obvious and numerous.

I agree with Metamorphosis being the weakest original but only slightly so and it's still a great song. I tend not to include the covers on old thrash albums when critiquing, although I think in this case it's perfectly listenable. Your other criticisms are pretty vague.

Manic Impressions is pretty much Anacrusis' superior alternative. Also cold and clinical, though lacking the godliness of Vetterli, it makes up for it with modesty, honest angsty passion, and maintained aggression. It also has a couple flaws, like a few bad choruses towards the end of the album, but overall their entire discography is really hard to criticize for me. Anacrusis is probably my favorite thrash band if I'm being honest with myself.

The production is more dull and lifeless than cold and clinical. Guitars are weak and thin and the bass has that annoying played-with-a-pick twang sound that I can't stand. Vocals are completely meh. Drummer is good.
Riff-wise there are some decent ideas here and there and they are tight as a band but there's no way in hell the riffcraft is better than on MV. And you're all about the riffs, right?

The Maelstrom demo is one of the most ridiculous things I know of, but it's perfect. My statement above about Pale Sister is probably a lie btw, I don't know how you can improve on a USPM/tech-thrash hybrid with vintage Bill Roper-circa-Warcraft: Orcs & Humans narration and totally unhinged faux-British madman theater and a super busy technical rhythm section that would get in on the early mathcore scene and a thousand tech-y galloping harmonized riffs everywhere. It's basically the ultimate counter-argument to the common "Too many chefs" accusation, it does fucking everything at the same time and succeeds 100%.

It's a bloated cheesy mess. Totally b-grade in every aspect. You've lost your mind.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Metamorphosis is just too chuggy, like it tries to be the album's Disposable Heroes but falls way short. I listen to my favorites only sparingly, but one example from memory without relistening where the drumming annoys me is in the chorus of Sirens, there's the little fast bits between the vocal lines and he just plays this unfitting polka beat over those parts. I'm pretty sure he does similar to that a number of times on the album. It's weird because he was definitely a busy (if not amazing) drummer on the first three albums, but I think maybe it had to do with the alleged drama that ended the band in the first place with him feeling constricted by the other members going in a more groovy Prong-inspired way.

The guitars are piercing but not really thin, when they aren't doing the razor-sharp stuff you have Far Too Long, for example, which has this huge apocalyptic vibe not many in metal were doing period in 1991. Kenn Nardi is a top vocalist, beyond criticism. The individual riffs aren't Coroner-level, true, but the arrangements are generally more creative, e.g. Explained Away where they repeat the vocal lines quite a bit but rotate the core set of riffs around in different ways to give it a weird uneasy vibe, whereas most of Mental Vortex is embellished verse/chorus writing. I do have two riffs from the album noted among my favorites in my autistic riff list, but because as with Coroner I try to savor listens, I can't and won't attempt to describe them until I listen to the album again (they're Dream Again - 1:35 and Still Black - 1:38 fwiw though (by comparison, Mental Vortex has eight entries on my list)).

Maelstrom is only for those of strongest constitution, I forgive your struggle there.

 

[Satanstoenail]

Metamorphosis is just too chuggy, like it tries to be the album's Disposable Heroes but falls way short. I listen to my favorites only sparingly, but one example from memory without relistening where the drumming annoys me is in the chorus of Sirens, there's the little fast bits between the vocal lines and he just plays this unfitting polka beat over those parts. I'm pretty sure he does similar to that a number of times on the album. It's weird because he was definitely a busy (if not amazing) drummer on the first three albums, but I think maybe it had to do with the alleged drama that ended the band in the first place with him feeling constricted by the other members going in a more groovy Prong-inspired way.

I'm re-listening to Metamorphasis now and I think you're being way too harsh. The verses are cool as fuck and the lyrics rule, and the "YOU WON'T BE ALIVE" part is fucking awesome.
The 'polka beat' you're referring to is just a thrash beat that would have been his go to and it follows the guitar line so it's not really unfitting, he probably could've been a bit more creative with it though.

I do have two riffs from the album noted among my favorites in my autistic riff list, but because as with Coroner I try to savor listens, I can't and won't attempt to describe them until I listen to the album again (they're Dream Again - 1:35 and Still Black - 1:38 fwiw though (by comparison, Mental Vortex has eight entries on my list)).

I listened to those riffs and they're just ok. The riffs on MV are fucking god-tier.

Maelstrom is only for those of strongest constitution, I forgive your struggle there.

Lost.Your.Mind.

 

[Baroque]

I don't own any of their albums, I believe I discovered them through the mixtape games actually. But I have played the debut a bunch of times on Youtube and I really like it, especially the first half.

We recommended them to you one time when you opened up to listening to prog/tech thrash on here. I think you also liked Children from that list. Not sure if Sieges Even was from my list but prob

 

[HamburgerBoy]

On most other albums Metamorphosis would have been a very good song, but a 7/10 on Mental Vortex looks weak when half the songs are 10's. Definitely has its moments, but the main dut dut-a-lut dut dut-a-lut dut dut riff just isn't enough. Polka beats are fine in some contexts, About Life is built on a fairly standard thrash beat (albeit with fancier kick work iirc) but it's a more immediate and consistently fast thrasher song so it's fine. For some of the other material, he needed to find a new source of inspiration, because it just seems like he didn't know how he was supposed to play the material. The Peter Haas guy that does the few new tracks on the S/T was a much better fit, presumably they were all into the 90s alt/groove/post-hardcore stuff while Marky was maybe still a Maiden guy at heart, I dunno.

Definitely agree that the riffs on Vortex are largely god-tier.

You don't like Adramelch either. You'll never understand.

 

[Burkhard]

The Sieges Even guys on those first few albums had absolutely nothing, it's audio that should have never ever been recorded and released.

I couldn't disagree more, but it seems that our opinions concerning the first five albums by Sieges Even - probably with the exception of "Sophisticated" - are worlds apart anyway. OK, as regards "Uneven", I don't actually loathe it, I just find it weaker than any of its predecessors. The only thing of what you said about "Apocalyptic Disposition" I agree with is that the solo part is indeed very similar to the one of Testament's "Over the Wall". But as they say: One man's meat is another man's poison. Thankfully, there is no Metal Pope, though following the discussions on this forum one sometimes might get the impression that there are actually several of them.

On an unrelated note: My no. 1 for 1991 is already carved in stone: "Within the Veil" by Fear of God. Not so sure about the other albums, though I feel inclined to include "A Sense of Change" by Sieges Even.

 

[Krow]

1. Autopsy - Mental Funeral
2. Sabbat - Envenom
3. Master's Hammer - Ritual
4. Goatlord - Reflections of the Solstice
5. Solitude Aeternus - Into the Depths of Sorrow
6. Bolt Thrower - War Master
7. Bathory - Twilight of the Gods
8. Samael - Worship Him
9. Therion - Of Darkness...
10. Sororicide - The Entity

 

[Phylactery]

I almost never see that Sororicide album mentioned anywhere.

 

[CiG]

It's an attempted techification of Among the Living that just sounds retarded in the timing they do it in with some other riff that I think is an Exodus ripoff with a solo section virtually stolen from Over the Wall but modified just enough to simply sound wrong with a song title that probably attempted to plagiarize Energetic Disassembly but failed because they probably thought they could get away with using a thesaurus without knowing the importance of context to anything in art. I just tried listening to it and a couple other songs from the album again and literally laughed out loud. It's simply one of the most pathetic attempts at writing music I've ever listened to. Because my own musical background is shit I like to download random tabs available online and dick around on GuitarPro perhaps reversing the order of notes or forcing a melody into a different scale or some other trivial and wholly amateur modification partially in an attempt to try and deduce to some extent the elements I like in a given riff or melody and then note them for future reference but I'd never do something so pathetic as to become proficient on a musical instrument just to show off to the world my total inability to exercise creativity. I dislike Manilla Road, but I can respect that Mark Shelton had his niche and a vision. The Sieges Even guys on those first few albums had absolutely nothing, it's audio that should have never ever been recorded and released.

 

[EspaDa]

I almost never see that Sororicide album mentioned anywhere.

It's a great album. Definitely the best Icelandic band.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I only hear people talk about it in the context of the thousand buckaroos it fetches on eBay.

 

[CiG]

Definitely the best Icelandic band.

Speaking of Iceland, have you ever checked out Bootlegs (yes, that's the band's name) from Iceland?

 

[I-TEND-TO-DIE]

1. Invocator - Excursion Demise
2. Immolation - Dawn of Possession
3. Sarcofago - The Laws of Scourge
4. Cyclone Temple - I Hate Therfore Iam
5. Hexx - Morbid Reality
6. Asphyx - The Rack
7. Pestilence - Testimony of the Ancients
8. Malevolent Creation - The Ten Commandments
9. Heathen - Victims of Deception
10. Coroner - Mental Vortex

 

[Phylactery]

Glad to see The Rack make someone's top 10! Great fucking album. The title track is one of the greatest death metal songs ever imo. Such unrefined filth is rarely heard these days.

 

[-CC-]

Nothing like grabbing a six-pack, making a giant 1991 playlist and proceeding to blast some Convulse and motherfucking Bolt Thrower while making autistic ranked lists. Big shout out again to no country for making these polls.

 

[Atomic Tide]

1) Bolt Thrower - War Master
2) Immolation - Dawn Of Possession
3) Dismember - Like An Ever Flowing Stream
4) Massacre - From Beyond
5) Voivod - Angel Rat
6) Gorguts - Considered Dead
7) Armored Saint - Symbol of Salvation
8) Motorhead - 1916
9) Unleashed - Where No Life Dwells
10) Grave - Into the Grave

So many classic albums I had to omit from my list. Pretty brutal process narrowing down to 10... still not sure about my ranking.

 

[The Ozzman]

7) Armored Saint - Symbol of Salvation

This band needs more love here. They will be in my Top 10 for sure.