Official Album Reviews Thread

Listened to a new album, really liked it? Write about it here.
Or have you always wanted to review your favourite albums? Do it here.
Hated an album and want to warn everyone about how bad it is so they don't make the mistake of buying it? Write here.



Artist: Human Error
Album: Memories of the Afterlife



Memories of the Afterlife is perhaps the most annoying album on earth. In terms of the instrumental parts, the album does everything avid melodeath fans look for. And so in that department it certainly does not disappoint. All eleven tracks are very much in the same style but have enough unique, smooth lead guitar with classical stylistic features and pumping riffs to keep you hooked. The death growls themselves are more than satisfactory but the biggest issue with the album, the most irritating flaw it bears is the weak clean vocals. I personally believe clean vocals can work very well in melodic death metal but sadly every time Human Error sing, it seems to hit them back in the face. The fact is that most of the sung parts are weak and a little amateurish, the harmonies sound a little off key and even single vocal lines are generally flat. It's truly a sad way to mar an otherwise phenominal metal album. No matter how much you love the songs as a whole, the clean vocals will always be there to remind you that they could be better.
Finally, would I recommend this album? YES, although there are notable flaws there is no denying that as a whole, the album is successful at doing what it aims to do.

Cool...

I'll start mine with my most recent album PURCHASE and that's Turtleneck and Chain by The Lonely Island. With great hip hop beats, extremely catchy choruses, and some of the funniest lyrics to pop up on any comedy/music collaboration album they've successfully parodied the watered down, repetitive version of mainstream hip hop circulating on the radio waves across America. I see them as the Spinal Tap of this generation coming through to cleanse the streets of thoughtless music, we can only hope they're as successful as spinal tap.

This album does just what it's supposed to and more. Delivering lines that will have you laugh so hard that you'll have to listen to the songs over and over just so you can hear what you missed. They start oof the album with jokes about the shortcomings of their sex lives as heard on songs like, "We're Back, and I Just had Sex," but the funniest comes from an unlikely song "Threw it on the Ground," with really nothing funny being said, but the way it's delivered is hilarious.

I might catch flack for reviewing a comedy album. In that it's not supposed to be taken seriously, but I personally don't take much music nowadays seriously Besides, comedy is art no matter what anyone says. I believe it's harder to make someone laugh than make someone wallow in self pitty (Emo Slam)

:) out of

Nice :) Any chance you could add album art or something just to make it look prettier?

Btw I didn't cross my mind to use smiley faces XD

lol... 3 1/2 out of 5 works perfectly

Pizzy3C wrote:

lol... 3 1/2 out of 5 works perfectly

True, that's a good method to use.
Unless there's a half star gif

Anyway..

Artist: Avenged Sevenfold
Album: Avenged Sevenfold (self titled)


This album, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call my favourite album of all time.
Why? Because it just keeps giving. While most albums have a particular vibe which is carried on throughout every song in the album, this album does not have that but instead every song has it's own genre and own style. It's filled with beautiful instrumental parts and some mind-blowing vocal lines. The album goes from heavy metal to country effortlessly, from a more hip-hop sounding beat to a fast, technical guitar lick. Every note that is played or sung is done so with passion, with beauty, with love and effort. There is not a single flaw on this album except that you will wish there was more of it.
Avenged Sevenfold have proved to us their true unrivalled talent, their virtuosity and sheer, utter brilliance in every aspect.
You owe it to yourself to buy this album, listen to it a thousand times over like I have and embrace the art that oozes from it. To sum it up in a couple of words: Pure, Powerful, Passionate Pwnage.



:king:

Lykos wrote:

Pizzy3C wrote:

lol... 3 1/2 out of 5 works perfectly

True, that's a good method to use.
Unless there's a half star gif

Anyway..

Artist: Avenged Sevenfold
Album: Avenged Sevenfold (self titled)


This album, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call my favourite album of all time.
Why? Because it just keeps giving. While most albums have a particular vibe which is carried on throughout every song in the album, this album does not have that but instead every song has it's own genre and own style. It's filled with beautiful instrumental parts and some mind-blowing vocal lines. The album goes from heavy metal to country effortlessly, from a more hip-hop sounding beat to a fast, technical guitar lick. Every note that is played or sung is done so with passion, with beauty, with love and effort. There is not a single flaw on this album except that you will wish there was more of it.
Avenged Sevenfold have proved to us their true unrivalled talent, their virtuosity and sheer, utter brilliance in every aspect.
You owe it to yourself to buy this album, listen to it a thousand times over like I have and embrace the art that oozes from it. To sum it up in a couple of words: Pure, Powerful, Passionate Pwnage.





:king:

I hate Avenged Sevenfold! Now we can't get along that well.....I THOUGHT I COULD TRUST YOU!

I betrayed you

Self Titled- 5*
City of Evil-5*
Nightmare-5*
Waking the Fallen-4*
Diamonds in the Rough-4*
Sounding the 7th Trumpet-2.5*

My fav's from A7x from top to bottom

Hollywood Undead Swan Songs

Since I found this band in 2005 via myspace I have always liked them. I couldn't tell you why, I just knew I did. Until recently, when they came out with their follow up American Tragedy, I couldn't pin point what drew me into them. Sure they've had catchy hooks/choruses and nice rhythm to their raps, but their rhymes were very basic, and their instrumentals have always been the most generic form of rap rock you can find.

I found that on Swan Songs it has a very diverse music style, from hip hop, to rock, to dance- All still very generic in each form. American Tragedy has this as well but what American Tragedy doesn't have is a "Rebel" mentality to it. Swan songs is laced with "Fight the Power" songs from Young, a song about the youth rebelling against "The old guard" to City, a song of burning a city to the ground. Undead is a song that gives the middle finger to their critics and haters. But the most rebellious song of all is Paradise Lost in which they actually rap about God being a sadistic, control freak kind of a being.

There latest album failed to capture any of that with the closest song to being a rebellious song is "Been To Hell." Maybe it has something to do with their former singer being kicked out I don't know.

Anyway, for me this album is a-

:) out of

Pizzy3C wrote:

Self Titled- 5*
City of Evil-5*
Nightmare-5*
Waking the Fallen-4*
Diamonds in the Rough-4*
Sounding the 7th Trumpet-2.5*

My fav's from A7x from top to bottom

Dude that's exactly the same as how I would rate them!

A7X, COE and NM are really 5/5 albums. Although my favourite of the tree is A7X, they're imo all amazing.

Pizzy3C wrote:

Hollywood Undead Swan Songs

Since I found this band in 2005 via myspace I have always liked them. I couldn't tell you why, I just knew I did. Until recently, when they came out with their follow up American Tragedy, I couldn't pin point what drew me into them. Sure they've had catchy hooks/choruses and nice rhythm to their raps, but their rhymes were very basic, and their instrumentals have always been the most generic form of rap rock you can find.

I found that on Swan Songs it has a very diverse music style, from hip hop, to rock, to dance- All still very generic in each form. American Tragedy has this as well but what American Tragedy doesn't have is a "Rebel" mentality to it. Swan songs is laced with "Fight the Power" songs from Young, a song about the youth rebelling against "The old guard" to City, a song of burning a city to the ground. Undead is a song that gives the middle finger to their critics and haters. But the most rebellious song of all is Paradise Lost in which they actually rap about God being a sadistic, control freak kind of a being.

There latest album failed to capture any of that with the closest song to being a rebellious song is "Been To Hell." Maybe it has something to do with their former singer being kicked out I don't know.

Anyway, for me this album is a-

:) out of

LOL. Hollywood Undead sucks.

Suicide Silence - No Time To Bleed

Normally I don't like the deathcore genre, but this band (this album mainly) is an exception. The topics discussed (screamed, growled, w/e) in this album are way more diverse (even though you might need to look up lyrics to understand them) then Suicide Silence's previous album (the cleansing) and their EP. With topics spanning war, religion, politics and even love (in a really fucked up way). Mitch Luckers vocal ability has also skyrocketed since their previous album and now he sounds similar to Randy Blythe (The A-mazing vocalist from Lamb of God).

Instrumentally, the dual guitarists Chris Garza and Mark Heylmun do an amazing job on this album with their ability to seamlessly go from death metal slow, to ridiculous grindcore fast in a heartbeat. The drumming on this album is nothing special, but you still have to give it up for Alex Lopez for simply being able to keep up in some of this albums faster riffs.

My favorite song off the album personally is either disengage or wake up. Disengage showcases perfectly what I said earlier about the guitarists ability to change their style on the fly, starting with a brutally heavy opening, and then going into a fast riff and heavy vocals discussing suicide and of course human annihilation, . Wake up, instrumentally is a very fast paced song, it only slows down a couple times, in my opinion it showcases the best drumwork on the album by far. Vocally what it's discussing could be anyone's guess, but In a metal injection interview, they talked about it being about a "real bad drug trip." Mark Heylmun said, "It's called eating hallucinogenic drugs and going whoa, this could be bad some times."

I would give this album :) out of , This album is a must for fans of the brutal combination within, crisp production by Machine (a producer, This man had done over the past few years some of the best rock/metal albums in Lamb Of God’s breakthrough ‘Sacrament’ along with Mindless Self Indulgence’s ‘You’ll Rebel To Anything" and many more) equals a must buy for fans of brutaful (yes I just made up that word) music.

^
Randy's got an amazing, distinctive voice but sadly he's not that diverse

DukemNukem43 wrote:

LOL. Hollywood Undead sucks.

Lykos wrote:

Anyway..

Artist: Avenged Sevenfold
Album: Avenged Sevenfold (self titled)


This album, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call my favourite album of all time.
Why? Because it just keeps giving. While most albums have a particular vibe which is carried on throughout every song in the album, this album does not have that but instead every song has it's own genre and own style. It's filled with beautiful instrumental parts and some mind-blowing vocal lines. The album goes from heavy metal to country effortlessly, from a more hip-hop sounding beat to a fast, technical guitar lick. Every note that is played or sung is done so with passion, with beauty, with love and effort. There is not a single flaw on this album except that you will wish there was more of it.
Avenged Sevenfold have proved to us their true unrivalled talent, their virtuosity and sheer, utter brilliance in every aspect.
You owe it to yourself to buy this album, listen to it a thousand times over like I have and embrace the art that oozes from it. To sum it up in a couple of words: Pure, Powerful, Passionate Pwnage.



:king:

I give the album a 4/5. There were some great tracks such as Scream, Afterlife, and Almost Easy, there were some tracks that were like meeeeeeh. And whats the point about a jam-along version of Almost Easy?

^
Scream is actually my least favourite and Almost Easy comes close. The best tracks were Dear God, Unbound, Lost, Gunslinger, Brompton Cocktail imo :)

It's my favourite album of all time and there's not a track on it that's anything less than good. In fact scream is the only one that is on the "good" standard, the rest are only great or amazing :)

Lykos wrote:

^
Scream is actually my least favourite and Almost Easy comes close. The best tracks were Dear God, Unbound, Lost, Gunslinger, Brompton Cocktail imo :)

It's my favourite album of all time and there's not a track on it that's anything less than good. In fact scream is the only one that is on the "good" standard, the rest are only great or amazing :)

Dear God was horrible. Are you high?

"Dear God" is a lousy song even by A7X standards. My favorite song of theirs is "Unholy Confessions."

Everyone calm down, I'm here. A7X sucks. Problem solved.

BioRevenant wrote:

Lykos wrote:

^
Scream is actually my least favourite and Almost Easy comes close. The best tracks were Dear God, Unbound, Lost, Gunslinger, Brompton Cocktail imo :)

It's my favourite album of all time and there's not a track on it that's anything less than good. In fact scream is the only one that is on the "good" standard, the rest are only great or amazing :)

Dear God was horrible. Are you high?

It's one of my if not my favourite song of all time.

I love everything about it. It's melodic but powerful, has beautiful guitar licks, raw and emotional vocals, great harmonies, good progression, a mind blowingly beautiful solo and just everything about it is amazing :) Has everything I could possibly want in a song.

Lykos wrote:

BioRevenant wrote:

Lykos wrote:

^
Scream is actually my least favourite and Almost Easy comes close. The best tracks were Dear God, Unbound, Lost, Gunslinger, Brompton Cocktail imo :)

It's my favourite album of all time and there's not a track on it that's anything less than good. In fact scream is the only one that is on the "good" standard, the rest are only great or amazing :)

Dear God was horrible. Are you high?

It's one of my if not my favourite song of all time.

I love everything about it. It's melodic but powerful, has beautiful guitar licks, raw and emotional vocals, great harmonies, good progression, a mind blowingly beautiful solo and just everything about it is amazing :) Has everything I could possibly want in a song.

No.

Dear God was awesome... Country music w/o the country singer... What more could u ask for?

More of that variety that A7x fans love and non A7x fans bash...

Anyway...



The debut album which thrust Tech n9ne from just 1 of the rappers in the '57th st. Road Doggs' to the legend of Kansas City that we know today. Like Nelly from St. Louis, but on a smaller scale, if you are to come up as a rapper from Kansas City you have to go through Tech, because nobody else pays much attention; and this was the album that started it all. In my opinion his one good 'complete' album.

A breathe of fresh air back when it came out during the Cash Money peak for hip hop Tech took us through a journey through his thoughts and views on the world in a much grander scale than most rap then, and for the most part now. A 22 track CD that is a compilation of great aggressive songs that hadn't been heard of in hip hop, giving KC its own unique sound that has transformed into a huge underground phenomenon. The single "It's Alive" became somewhat of an anthem for K.C. when it was released and is one of the more complex musical arrangements in hip hop to date. The track "Einstein" stole the album however with a dance friendly beat and Tech's forceful delivery of his lyrics. Fans and non fans alike give Tech much respect for the track "Stamina", a 15 second skit where tech is rapping along to the sounds of a "Tech-9" machine gun.

However there are down sides to the album, which is to be expected with 22 tracks on it. Most of this comes after track 13, Einstein, and seems like the album could have stopped with that track and could've been a 5* album. And if I was giving this review back when I was in high school I probably would have. But listening to this album again the down sides are glaring.

Still overall a great album, especially for those fed up with hip hop music nowadays. One of the more polished underground albums engineering wise in its time and probably ever.

out of

Zombie wrote:

Lykos wrote:

BioRevenant wrote:

Lykos wrote:

^
Scream is actually my least favourite and Almost Easy comes close. The best tracks were Dear God, Unbound, Lost, Gunslinger, Brompton Cocktail imo :)

It's my favourite album of all time and there's not a track on it that's anything less than good. In fact scream is the only one that is on the "good" standard, the rest are only great or amazing :)

Dear God was horrible. Are you high?

It's one of my if not my favourite song of all time.

I love everything about it. It's melodic but powerful, has beautiful guitar licks, raw and emotional vocals, great harmonies, good progression, a mind blowingly beautiful solo and just everything about it is amazing :) Has everything I could possibly want in a song.

No.

Well, as long as you've considered it from all angles...

^

Lykos wrote:

Zombie wrote:

Lykos wrote:

BioRevenant wrote:

Lykos wrote:

^
Scream is actually my least favourite and Almost Easy comes close. The best tracks were Dear God, Unbound, Lost, Gunslinger, Brompton Cocktail imo :)

It's my favourite album of all time and there's not a track on it that's anything less than good. In fact scream is the only one that is on the "good" standard, the rest are only great or amazing :)

Dear God was horrible. Are you high?

It's one of my if not my favourite song of all time.

I love everything about it. It's melodic but powerful, has beautiful guitar licks, raw and emotional vocals, great harmonies, good progression, a mind blowingly beautiful solo and just everything about it is amazing :) Has everything I could possibly want in a song.

No.

Well, as long as you've considered it from all angles...

:oops: