Mixtape Game ExTreME EdiTiON!

Root, Talking Bones - 6.5/10, Nice intro with the carnival thing, transitions surprising well into the guitar which reminds me vaguely of Andy Larocque's playing on the Abigail album. Get's a little shred-ish part way in, which is cool. And then the Count from Sesame Street jumps in on vocals. Holy shit. They're not too bad from a technical standpoint, but holy fucking crap I can't take this song too seriously because of him. He even does the Dracula laugh.
Alice Cooper, Pick Up The Bones - 7.5/10, Sleek, slithering whiplash of a song and superlative industrial metal. Alice provides an excellently furious and emotive vocal performance as usual.
Baroness, Take My Bones Away - 5/10, Love that opening riff, very Sabbath/Danzig. Bass in general has some great tone. Sadly, beyond that, it seems to be ultra generic schmaltz. Guitar solo is alright. It only manages a 5 and not a 4 because of some of the gradual deconstruction of its musical framework it does, which is impressive.
Pungent Stench, Bonesawer - 8/10, Cool, doomy crunch and groove with that guitar, and the guttural vocals are well-performed and are certainly a service to the song overall. They have this odd, hollow blowing quality to them that makes them unique in texture, which I enjoy. Guitar solo fucking rips.
Exarsis, Skull and Bones - 7/10, Catchy riff, but that goofy little blip on the mic at the beginning made me bust out in laughter. Kinda how when Ozzy says "Let's go" during a live version of Fairies Wear Boots these days and I feel like I'm playing Super Mario/Mario Kart with Black Sabbath all of a sudden. Other than that, the vocals slay as this weird hybrid of Bobby Blitz, Joey Belladonna, and Tim "Ripper" Owens. Plus a cataclysmically mindblowing solo.
The Unguided, Boneyard - 3/10, A lot of nu metal-ish stuff which I absolutely can't stand, including the dramatic 90s tempo shift shit and the whiny radio rock esque clean vocals. They even do the hazy, ultra-reverbed drop off. And the electronica it incorporates is loathsomely soporific and uninspired. Puke worthy garbage.
Reaper, Burning Bones - 5.5/10, A lot of admirable energy and power, but it doesn't really vary itself and the vocalist sounds like he's battling a catastrophic sinus infection.
Altar of Plagues, Feather and Bones - 5/10, What in the cancerous, watery shit streaks is up with black metal bands and writing songs like modern Iron Maiden these days? I mean, really, what the hell? It's like they deliberately maximize length and minimize musical ingenuity. I get some cookie cutter black metal at the beginning and then they proceed to subject me to five minutes of meandering zombie line dancing while the same guitar lick keeps going and going like it's on a mission to suck out every iota of creative potential this song had.
Sortilège, Marchand D'Hommes - 6.5/10, A raging French heavy metal romp. Fucking glorious vocal performance. Just a little lengthy for what it is and does.
Nastrond, May The Rotten Bones Absorb Life Again - 4/10, If the producer knew what the fuck volume levels were and fixed whatever he did to the guitar, I'd rate this higher. Vocals are great, drummer seems a little lost beat wise at moments, and doesn't provide much, but he's competent at least. Besides that, who had the bright fucking eureka moment to make this 7 minutes long?
 
Because, depending, it's generally indicative of poorer vocal technique. I'll admit in this case it may be simply an aesthetic quibble, but it does seem to actually detract from his tonal quality.
 
Hey, I mentioned the Count from Sesame Street before that. You got warned, you shouldn't have worn such a tight skirt in this seedy of a neighborhood.
 
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I'm sad about the low rating for the Nastrond song, Toteslaut rules and the production is totally fitting to its vile and filthy atmosphere.

Also, come on guys, I want to see more rating posted!
 
Even in black and death metal? I can see that style of production suiting some types of music (as long as it doesn't go into the realms of overproduction *shudder*), but I personally don't find it very fitting in a lot of extreme metal.

Also you gave my The Chasm pick an 8, and the production on Deathcult for Eternity is nowhere near crystal clear or smooth.
 
sometimes riffs make up for it but generally too much fuzz or static or buzz makes my enjoyment of a song plummet. a bit of it can be good up to a threshold

black and death metal can meet my preferences and still be brutal as fuck with proper guitar tuning and drums and vocal skill
 
Root - 8/10 Love the riffs. Average vocals. I liked it overall enough to look them up on Metallum, will check out the rest of this album.

Alice Cooper - 5/10 I like some Alice, but this song was pretty dull. Slow riffs that don't go anywhere. Grunge era bridge/solo. Mostly monotonous vocals.

Baroness - 6/10 Slightly more interesting than the previous, but not much.

Pungent Stench - 7/10 Average DM, not much else to say. Needs work imo.

Exarsis - 8.5/10 One of the better unknown modern thrash bands, if you like this style of vocals.

The Unguided - 7/10 Good for what it is. Not my style though, this is like emo millenial modern rock/metal. Def some Linkin Park influence in here.

Reaper - 7/10 This is dirty as shit. This is like that 1st band that comes on at the Whisky at a thrash show that no one has heard of. Seen dozens of bands like this, and they're fun live but I feel like there would be 5 people (their friends and family) headbanging in the front row while the rest of us nod to be respectful and wait for the real show to start.

Altar of Plagues - 5/10 I appreciate some parts of this. Successful atmospheres. But damn it's 11:42...

Sortilege - 6/10 Riffs too repetitive. Needs some kind of change sonically, be it tempo or key. I know there's that chant part, but it's kind of uninspired drone type stuff. Monks did it better 1500 years ago.

Nastrond - 7.5/10 This is the right kind of mood and level of extreme for this playlist. But other than that it fails to stand out.

Most of this playlist was kind of unexpected. I was under the impression this game is geared more towards extreme metal? or is it just extreme difficulty?
 
Root, Talking Bones - 6.5/10, Nice intro with the carnival thing, transitions surprising well into the guitar which reminds me vaguely of Andy Larocque's playing on the Abigail album. Get's a little shred-ish part way in, which is cool. And then the Count from Sesame Street jumps in on vocals. Holy shit. They're not too bad from a technical standpoint, but holy fucking crap I can't take this song too seriously because of him. He even does the Dracula laugh.

If you think those are weird vocals, you ain't heard nothin'.
 
I can't remember what you thought about the Root song that was posted recently in the main game from The Temple in the Underworld, but that one, along with Hell Symphony are my favourite releases from the band.

I thought the "extreme" tag was because it was more difficult to find a song with a specific word in it than one that fits a theme. However, you can simply search a word on Metal-Archives and find all songs containing that word, so actually I think this one is easier. I'm sure not everyone is actually doing this, though.