The Chasm - Eternal Cycle of Delusion
Holy shit, a Chasm song with riffs. This was really strong all the way through, very thrashy rhythmic basis but with their more trademark ringing atmospheric guitars interjected at all the right moments. A lot tighter than most of the other stuff I’ve heard. That break at 5:10 or so was excellent. Makes me wonder why I don’t see more people drawing comparisons between them and Vektor. 9/10.
Eulogy - Consecration of Fools
Pretty strong, intense engaging stuff, manages a driving vibe even in the faster sections and the drummer does a good job keeping things groovy and varied. It was that solo section that pushed it beyond just good. 7.5/10.
The Krixhjälters - Mulling Over Anaesthesia (The youtube is mistitled, but I'm informed it's the correct song)
Haven’t listened to this album in for fucking ever, despite their following album under Omnitron being an almost-favorite of mine. Remembered this being pretty inconsistent, too silly, and not as cleverly arranged as Omnitron’s. This actually sounds pretty good right now, the weepy punk/emo melodies/chorus work well and there’s a high riff-count. That last minute satisfies a hi-hat fetish I have. 8/10.
Deceased - Morbid Shape in Black
This is the Deceased album I’ve seen the cover art of most frequently, but I don’t think I ever listened to it. That intro was amazing, when the verses first got started they seemed a little straight-forward but there were multiple interesting parts after that. The drumming is fucking awesome here, love the tribal vibes popping up. Guitarwork is ugly in a great way, I don’t like their Maiden-y stuff as much but this sounds psychotic, almost some Release From Agony-era Destruction vibes. Need to hear this album. 8.5/10.
Addictive - Echoes Of The Mind
Hated their first album from what little I remember of it, Anthrax-y iirc, never listened to this one in full. This is pretty tight, very strong rhythm section and a little bit melodic. Vocalist is easily the weak point and it’s not anything special overall, but pretty decent still. Oh wait, this is their first album, I just know it by a different album cover. Maybe I should give it another chance. 6/10.
Fates Warning - The Arena
Always one of my faves on this album. One of the more old-school-styled songs of their Alder albums, piercing ball-straining vox throughout and wonderful melodic riffing. 9/10.
Exmortus - Metal Is King
This band is really overrated in a lot of ways but this is still a good retro power metal song. The inclusion in this theme is weird though and I think the delusion is that Baroque wasn’t actually the one that submitted it. Too meta for me. 5/10, subtracted two points for the theme.
Aborym – III
What the fuck, I was expecting this to be a stain on the playlist but now I think this is going to be one without a single bad song. Maybe I had them confused with Abigor, I don’t know. I wish it kept that noise/electronic/whatever vibe from the intro at 100% the entire song, but this was still pretty cool. Tons of riffs and over before I knew it. Figures that it takes an Italian to make a prefixed black metal song that’s actually really good. 8/10.
Thin Lizzy - Waiting For An Alibi
Not very metal but whatever, the chorus is poppy at least and the weak point of the song, but I don’t understand complaints that this isn’t lyrically on-theme. Shifty music right in line with some gutter punk delusional that he’ll be able to finally strike a big win and pay back his debts. Gorham and Moore, what a fucking duo. 8/10.
Despair – Delusion
The album has more interesting songs than this one, but still a good demonstration of their own brand of melodic thrash. 7/10.
Atrox - Mental Nomads
This and Orgasm are their albums I’ve given the most attention, not something I’m often in the mood for but there’s a lot going for it when I am. Even though I don’t remember this song explicitly, I get the impression that this is one of their better ones, not the pure syncopated proto-djent chugfest some of their stuff is but a bit more dissonant and dense. Good sense of growing tension, last minute was excellent and climactic. Obviously the vocals are insane as always and the defining feature overall. 7.5/10.
Eucharist - A Velvet Creation
Just listened to this album a couple days ago when someone compared a song to the Smashing Pumpkins (which I could totally hear after the fact). Overall I’m not that hot on this album but it has a few great songs, and this is one of them. The album is best when it’s less constrained and avoiding typical metal rhythms. Something about that eighth-note-droning black metal-ish riff is really surreal and uncomfortable in a good way, makes me think of those YouTube videos of floppy drive actuators playing metal or something. 8/10.
Crimson Glory - Lost Reflection
One of the most chilling vocal performances in metal’s history, and love the creepy Alice Cooper-esque inner-horror vibes. 10/10.
Fantastic fucking playlist dudes.