Themed Mixtape Game

Garbage can music. I like minimalism, but shitty screeches don't make it sound otherworldly, they make it sound elementary. The length was the final nail in the coffin. Lel.
 
Mayhem - Buried By Time and Dust – obvious song but still classic, uber-intense, 9/10

Satan - Kiss of Death – good song but not that great, 6/10

Mütiilation - Tears of a Melancholic Vampire – actually don’t hate this like I expected to, they show some ability to play more than one rhythm which is usually too much to ask for from a black metal band, and there is actually a sense of climax too, the sound works for them so yeah I actually enjoyed this, 6/10

Vampire - Night Hunter – for retro-1984 thrash this is actually really good and I don’t understand the low ratings, love the tweedly-tweedly Destruction bits and the melodies are straight out of classic Exodus, I’m going to give this a bonus point because I’m going to listen to this album now, 8/10

Stone Demons – Vampyr – yeah chugchugchugchugchugchug chuggachugga for 5 minutes isn’t going to cut it, unfortunate because I like the production and leads here more than most retro doom metal, like the atmosphere isn’t bad at all and I could imagine them getting better, definitely listenable but come on guys, learn how to write a riff, 5/10

Iced Earth – Dracula – if you’re a fan of trad/power and hate this song you’re probably trying too hard, one of their post-Burnt Offerings gems, about as aggressive they get without incorporating any overt thrash riffing, top-tier metal melody, 9/10

Necrophagia - Insane for Blood – pretty crappy, stiff performance and horrible sense of arrangement, the weird bridge and following guitar solo are cool but not enough, 3/10

Venom - Countess Bathory – absolute anthem, 8/10

Bathory - Woman of Dark Desires – another song where the bridge completely overshadows the piss-poor verses, sad! 4/10

Church of Misery - Blood Sucking Freak – immediate impulse was disgust but I mellowed on it, even though it’s a Sabbath clone all the way through that solo was good enough to not care, actually maybe not now we’re back to this heard-a-thousand-times riff again, back and forth, back and forth, I guess the band should just stay away from slower riffs, this could have been really good if it was maybe 5 minutes tops, 4/10

The Ravenous - I Drink Your Blood – duuuuuuulllllllllll, 2/10

Witchhammer – Transylvania – I like their vocals and fusion of thrash aggression with some more speed/power ideas and atmosphere, kind of like a B-list Holy Terror, never got big into them on the whole though, 7/10

Helstar - Black Cathedral – fucking amazing how great Vampiro is, 9/10

Blood Cult - Psychic Vampire – meh, some kind of harsh-stoner Danzig or something, like something that would sound cool if I didn’t get the impression they were trying to sound cool, boring but at least it’s short, 4/10

Necromantia - Last Song of Valdezie – oh it’s a solo, I was expecting some kind of Summoning-tier keyboard garbage, I like this, 6/10

Overall, sweet playlist.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RadicalThrasher
Iced Earth – Dracula – if you’re a fan of trad/power and hate this song you’re probably trying too hard, one of their post-Burnt Offerings gems, about as aggressive they get without incorporating any overt thrash riffing, top-tier metal melody, 9/10

You're so ridiculous sometimes. This is like me saying that you're obviously trying too hard for liking Scream Bloody Gore and other early death metal while disliking that Necrophagia song. Same genre so must sound exactly the same right.

Besides I don't hate that Iced Earth track, I just don't particularly like it either.
 
You're so ridiculous sometimes. This is like me saying that you're obviously trying too hard for liking Scream Bloody Gore and other early death metal while disliking that Necrophagia song. Same genre so must sound exactly the same right.

Besides I don't hate that Iced Earth track, I just don't particularly like it either.

The difference is that Dracula is widely considered one of Iced Earth's best songs, and Iced Earth is generally only considered low-tier by in-crowd USPM hipsters. Scream Bloody Gore, on the other hand, is widely considered an OSDM milestone whereas Necrophagia were middling and behind the curve by a couple of years (even if they got an album out at the same time).

Necrophagia just isn't a very good band. Basically, Necrophagia:Death::Skitzo:Exodus. Novelty act with poor performance.
 
Actually that I am more inclined to agree with, their early demo tapes did not age well at all.

The Ready for Death demo from 1987 is killer though.



But as much as I love the debut, I probably do prefer the 90's/early 2000's reformation stuff with Phil Anselmo.





 
I haven't listened to that one, though 20 seconds in and it already sounds like shit. Point is, they were second-tier at best, and the analogy to Iced Earth and trad/power doesn't work at all. A minute and 30 seconds now, still crap. Cool solo again though. Slower Death-y section 2 minutes in is pretty sweet, vocals sound meaner rather than cartoonish. Maybe I'll listen to this in full at some point.
 
The difference is that Season of the Dead is widely considered to be one of the best early death metal records, and Necrophagia is generally only considered low-tier by in-crowd Euro death metal hipsters. Iced Earth were middling and behind the curve by a couple of years.

Iced Earth just isn't a very good band. Basically they're a novelty act with poor performance.
 
vampirehunterd_new_anime.jpg

Mayhem - Buried by Time and Dust 9/10

This is how you play drums, like the heart-beat of fleeing human cattle! Is that Gary Oldman from Ford's Dracula on vocals? :D

Satan - Kiss of Death 7.5/10
Reminds me of the raunchier songs by Judas Priest for some reason. Killer of course.

Mütiilation - Tears of a Melancholic Vampire 7/10
Recorded in the dungeons of a Transylvanian castle? The bats whisper...

Vampire - Night Hunter 8/10
I haven't heard this album yet, fucking reminds me of what Deathhammer might sound like if they tightened their ship up a bit. Fucking awesome raw energy and a great throat-ripping solo!

Stone Demons - Vampyr 5/10
This didn't blow me away, kind of bloated and boring.

Iced Earth - Dracula 7/10
Full bore on the romanticisation of Dracula into a woman's romance novel character. But I can't deny it's epic appeal. Definitely seems inspired by the 1992 film by Ford, but at the same time reminds me much more of that movie Dracula Untold. Anyway...

Necrophagia - Insane for Blood 9/10
Raw and insane first wave death metal that doesn't really sound much like anything that came before it. They wrote very stalking riffs, almost like they're all variants on the Jaws sound of foreboding.

Venom - Countess Bathory 7.5/10
Ridiculously obvious choice. But I never don't enjoy hearing old school Venom.

Bathory - Woman of Dark Desires 8/10
Same as before.

Church of Misery - Blood Sucking Freak 7/10
I don't listen to metal like this, but Church of Misery will always be one of the few exceptions because they don't sound like pretenders or poseurs or try-hards (which is something I think "stoner metal" suffers from).

They're madmen.

The Ravenous - I Drink Your Blood 9/10
I like disgusting and filthy death metal like this. I feel a lot of death metal doesn't really sound ugly, evil, disgusting, rotten or like death in any other sense, but these bands do to my ears. Chris Reifert on vocals is always fucking awesome.

Musical exploitation.

Witchhammer - Transylvania 10/10
This is fucking awesome, the RPG/tabletop side of Dracularian mythology. Can't get enough, it was over too quick! Must get immediately, cheers!

Helstar - Black Cathedral 7/10
Drums sound so Zod damn overproduced and clicky-clacky but everything else was great. Helstar are so consistent!

Blood Cult - Psychic Vampire 6/10
Not bad, has some cool KISS/rock'n'roll vibes going on, but not doing a whole lot for me.

Necromantia - Last Song of Valdezie 6.5/10
This is interesting and quite enjoyable but I have no idea of the context (who/what is Valdezie?).
 
Who considers it that? 3.19 with 307 ratings on RYM. ANUS hasn't even reviewed them. Necrophagia is nothing special outside of having a horror gimmick in an extreme metal context. They're only interesting if you're someone that pretends demos don't exist and album release dates are all that matter.

What makes Iced Earth a novelty act? Outside of their dumb mascot no one cares about, and maybe some of the AMERICA FUCK YEAH stuff, they don't really have much of a specific gimmick. They weren't behind the curve at all; they were an obvious influence on tech-y death/thrash bands like Nocturnus and Sindrome, they stripped away most of the direct Maiden influence of 80s USPM in favor of their own not-quite-thrash approach, while there is some Crimson Glory influence it's hardly overpowering. While like most bands they shot their load early and have been dribbling ever since, the particular song this round is far from poor. I'd say it's at least comparable to a Ghost of the Navigator or similar, modern and polished yeah, not quite an all-time eternal classic, but still a great fucking song thoughtfully crafted.