| Dark Tranquility | Review and Rating
| The Mind's I
| Swedish Melodic Death metal is the only way to describe this CD. This is high
quality stuff from these guys. It does not get much better than this if you are looking for a mixture
of melody and brutality. There are varying tempo's throughout the songs on this disk. The sound quality is very good if a little
thin on the guitars. The vocals are in the Swedish vein, i.e. screamed but not in a totally unintelligible manner. They fit the music
pretty well and I don't think this music works well with clean vocals in any case. Top notch melodic Death metal from Gothenburg, Sweden!
| Rating - 9 Projector
| The latest album from Dark Tranquility sees them moving in a slightly different direction.
It seems that they grew tired of playing straight ahead melodic death metal and decided to include clean vocals and much slower tempo's even Gothic at times.
Although this is quite a shock at first if you are expecting something similar to before but it soon wears off and you are still left
with a very decent melodic death/Gothic disk. Special mention must be given to the new crooning style clean vocals. To some purists they may seem awful
but to these ears they are real quality and mix well with the harsher vocals. The songs themselves are very catchy as usual with many decent riffs thrown in.
Maybe not quite as good as The Mind's I but a very credible and enjoyable effort from this Melodic band from Sweden!
| Rating - 7 David T. chastain |
| Next Planet Please
| David Chastain is a very good guitarist full stop. But instrumental albums are very hard to
listen to in their entirety. The playing on this album is pretty faultless. Also the bass player and drummer are not left out. The bass gets
room to roam around and create very interesting sounds in the background whilst the guitar is doing the business up front. Guitar players around the
world will enjoy this and I like one or two of the songs on it as well. The riffs that are used are often catchy and the good thing is Mr. Chastain
refrains from the million notes per solo syndrome! Decent background music for me!
| Rating - 6 DC Cooper |
| Dc Cooper
| Mr Cooper was the lead singer for prog metal band Royal Hunt and this is his first solo
offering. Not having any Royal Hunt Cd's with Mr Cooper as the lead singer meant that I bought this on the
sheer strength of the reviews that I had read about it beforehand. Mr Cooper has surrounded himself with top class metal musicians on this
disk and also got himself atop class producer. The sound on this album is absolutely fabulous to coin a phrase. The man himself is blessed with one
of the best voices in melodic metal today. Royal Hunt fans will lap this up big time. One or two of the songs are not really for me as they enter
in to more AOR based territory. However the songs that rock hard are superb and verge on Power metal at times. The progressive elements are also present and correct
making this CD have wide appeal. Harder edged metal fans will not probably find this that interesting but I think it is well worth the money I paid for it!
| Rating - 8 Dearly Beheaded |
| Temptation
| This is fucking heavy metal man! This has everything I look for in a metal album. Heaviness, some speed, melodic but powerful vocals,
killer riffs and most importantly decent songs. The sound on this disk is as heavy as lead. the guitars are rally crushing. The vocals are very good and have a melodic edge
which makes the songs that bit more catchy. It does have moments of speed but it is the groovy headbanging songs that I like most about this disk.
Very good heavy melodic thrash metal from the UK!
| Rating - 9 Death |
| Symbolic
| Yet another great addition to this man's legacy of metal. The man is of course Chuck Schuldiner the
godfather of Death metal. Of course this album is far removed from the primitive and brutal beginnings
of the band called DEATH. On this album Chuck further's his ambition of making heavy metal music that has no peers.
Being an absolute massive fan of Chuck I have to say that he is yet to dissapoint his fans and this album is obviously
not within amillion miles of being a dissapointment. The use of melodic riffs is more pronounced than ever and Chuck's genius shines through yet again in the
song writing department. The openning riffs of Symbolic sends chills down your spine and the melodic mayhem continues until the last note is played.
The lyrics are far better than the average death metal band and actually have something to say.
I get the feeling that Chuck was fairly angry when writing these lyrics as a song like 'Misanthrope' would indicate!
This is fucking awesome!
| Rating - 10 Individual thought Patterns
| Perhaps the most technical Death album. The production gives the bass
plenty of room to be heard which is nice as usually you can't really hear the bass. The songs are again top class. The riffs
are filled with genius and super complex rhythms. The vocals and lyrics are typical for Death. Some will say the vocals detract from the music but I think
a band called Death needs vocals like this and the lyrics again are thought provoking and fairly cryptic in nature.
| Rating - 8 The sound of perseverance
| The latest death album is one of their best. The sound is phenomenal!
Crystal clear guitars that twist and turn with the very individualistic Death trademark. Chuck's vocals are again crystal clear and very sharp!
Very different from the early albums when it had a more lower tone. There is an absolutely awesome cover of Painkiller by Judas Priest.
Chuck even tries to sing like Rob Halford and he does a fairly god job of it. Easily one of their best!
| Rating - 9 Spiritual Healing
| This album saw Death moving away from the gory death metal of the previous pair of albums.
The guitars are much more melodic paving the way for more melody in death metal music. Songs are great like killing Spree and Altering the future.
Damn good if you ask me, but as you know, Chuck is a metal GOD!
| Rating - 8 Human
| Death's Heaviest album! featuring memebers of Cynic. Everything is pretty damn perfect here.
The bass is not as up front as it should be though. Thats why it doesn't get the full marks!
| Rating - 9 Fate - the best of
| Best of album. Came out before Individual thought patterns, therefore
ironically it doesn't feature many of their best tracks!
| Rating - 7 Leprosy
| Very brutal sounding album that has some melody and some very decent riffs.
The songs are quite memorable as well. Pull the plug and Open Casket are classics of the death metal genre.
I think fans of Death metal fans should get this along with all the other Death albums!
| Rating - 9 Decayed Remains |
| Moonlight
| Tecnical melodic death metal with a concept. Some atmospheric moments
are thrown in to add variety to the album. The vocals are abit too much to take at times. The music is pretty good.
| Rating - 6 Deep Purple |
| Progression
| Many famous Deep Purple tracks are present here. Worth listening to once in a while
in order to remember what metal sounded like in the 70s.
| Rating - 6 Machine Head
| World famous purple album! Features the classic song, Smoke on the water!
| Rating - 8 Deicide |
| Serpents of the light
| My favourite Deicide album. simple crushing Death metal with many great
headbanging moments!
| Rating - 9 Once upon the cross
| Better produced than Serpents, but I slightly prefer the simplicity of Serpents.
still the opening song, Once upon the cross is killer!
| Rating - 8 When Satan Lives
| Good live album. The sound is clean but there are some songs where the sound
is not that great. All Deicide classics are present and correct!
| Rating - 8 Insineratehymn
| The latest Deicide album sees quite a change in style with the band adopting
a more mid tempo approach. There is still plenty of speed here and there but it is peppered with heavy mid tempo
riffs. The vocals are ultra brutal as always and the lyrical matter is the same as before. I think the songs are all pretty good with
perhaps the best production they have ever had. Deicide is a band that knows only one thing - Brutal yet catchy anti Christian Death metal!
| Rating - 8 Demon Dagger |
| Aftershock
| Mid - era Megadeth style thrash metal from portugal!
| Rating - 7 Demons and Wizards |
| Demons and Wizards
| This is a power metal fan's wet dream! This is awesome stuff! I don't normally
like Hansi's vocals but he absolutely rules on this and the music and songwriting is beyond compare. Iced Earth magic with a touch
of Blind Guardian's majesty! Heaven Denies is my favourite track although they are all great. No fillers here!
| Rating - 9 Destiny's End |
| Breathe deep the dark
| Very good melodic power speed metal from the USA. The vocals on this album are really great as well.
Very melodic and powerful with a great range. The songs are damn good as well, with plenty of catchy moments for headbangers and loads of melodic riffs and leads all over the place.
This band is comparable to the great Us bands like Iced Earth and Nevermore. The production could have been slightly better however that is a very small problem as everything is clear. Very good stuff!
| Rating - 8 Bruce Dickinson |
| The Chemical wedding
| A very good solo effort from the Iron Maiden Singer. I don't like all
the songs, but most are pretty good/ The guitars are way heavy when compared to how
iIron Maiden sound. in fact there isn't a great deal here that sound like Maiden. Very little gallop in any of the songs.
However it is better that it doesn't sound like a carbon copy of Iron Maiden!
| Rating - 8 Domine |
| Champion eternal
| Dark and Heavy melodic Power metal from Italy! Vocals are abit dodgy in afew places though.
| Rating - 8 Dragonlord
| Dark and Heavy melodic Power metal from Italy! this one has better production and one or two
classic mid-paced stompers with heroic vocals and chest thumping choruses! Vocalist, Morby, is much better here as well! For fans of bands like Virgin Steele and Iced Earth!
| Rating - 9 Downset |
| Downset
| Melodic Rap hardcore with catchy riffs. This is not my usual preference in metal listening however it is quite catchy and melodic stuff always rocks my boat!
| Rating - 6 Dream Theater |
| Falling Into Infinity
| This is the least metal and most commercial sounding Dream Theater album. Not my favourite by them but still they are quality
musicians and they display this well on this CD. The metal content and the progressiveness of the songs are somewhat limited which is what is missing from the songs. Has some good heavy moments nevertheless.
| Rating - 6 Images and Words
| A very good progressive metal CD. Very melodic and also featuring virtuoso musicianship. Good songs
are of course necessary and Dream theater provide this. The sound is quite light on this CD but still the production is near enough flawless in terms od the clarity of the instruments.
| Rating - 8 A change of seasons
| Seems like an inbetween stop gap release to please the fans. i like the Change of seasons long song but I'm not a massive fan of the cover versions although
they are all done very professionally as you would expect.
| Rating - 6 Scenes from a memory
| The latest and perhaps the best ever Dream Theater album. This time they weave a mystical concept into their music in order to keep the fans intrigued.
The music is perhaps the most progressive it has ever been. There are many sections where the music seems to take on many twists and turns with thunderous riffs and solos duelling away.
The production is damn heavy too which is just what fans of Dream Theater want after the dissapointment of the last album. Possibly the best Progressive metal album ever! Possibly!
| Rating - 9 |
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