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User
Reviews 22
Approval 100%
Soundoffs 54
News Articles 5
Band Edits + Tags 41
Album Edits 49
Album Ratings 1371
Objectivity 73%
Last Active 12-28-17 3:22 pm
Joined 03-06-13
Review Comments 1,322
| Another 2013 List? How Original!
As if twenty billion 2013 lists weren't enough, here's mine. Spoilers: it's rpretty much all prog | | 15 |  | Dream Theater
Dream Theater
What a painfully average album. When it first streamed, I listened to this in its
entirety, then I listened to some Rush. In my drunken haze, I couldn't distinguish
between the two. I know, I know, I know what you're thinking, and yes. I have a
drinking problem - 5/10 | | 14 |  | The Flower Kings
Desolation Rose
Oh god what are you doing, Mr Stolt?! Banks of Eden was so good and you come
out with, this!? Tower One and White Tuxedoes are great, but the rest of the
album is just painful to listen to. The melodies are corny, and not in the good-
upbeat-classic-Flower-Kings-style corny, just bad corny. The album was rushed,
what do you expect when you spend a year on the entire process? - 5.5/10 | | 13 |  | Everything Everything
Arc
Hit and miss album. They've tasted the sweet nectar of the limelight in the music
industry and sucking on its tit, which makes Arc suffer greatly in originality. Half of
the album just sounds like the same recylced indie pop, but songs like Cough Cough
and Undrowned make up for that. The rest of Arc isn't diabolical, but I'd kill to be
able to see Everything Everything pre-Arc, Man Alive was a masterpiece - 6/10 | | 12 |  | Carcass
Surgical Steel
Death Metal isn't my cup of tea, but Carcass is surprisingly appealing. They weren't
my favourite act at Damnation Festival, although it's pretty hard to top the others.
The didn't play Granulating or Nocompliance though so I was pretty pissed at that -
7/10 | | 11 |  | Riverside
Shrine of New Generation Slaves
Pleasant album, nothing too remarkable, not much to say - 7/10 | | 10 |  | Shining
One One One
Shining are one of those bands that are way better live than on their studio
albums, like iLiKETRAiNS or The Pineapple Thief, only more demonic. One One One
isn't the most consistent album, and definitely a step down from Blackjazz, but The
One Inside is just so god damn amazing I cannot even. These guys were definitely
the biggest surprise at Damnation Festival, I'm so glad I caught them - what's
better than metal and sax? Seriously though, killer combination - 7.5/10 | | 9 |  | And So I Watch You From Afar
All Hail Bright Futures
Saw these guys at Leeds Festival not knowing what to expect. I was pleasantly
surprised at the energy brought by these guys at the smallest tent in the venue!
Maybe not their most technical album, but definitely their most upbeat. Although
the album tails of at the end, it holds its form with stronger songs like Big Things Do
Remarkable and Rats On A Rock - 7.5/10 | | 8 |  | Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension
Relatively disappointing. I mean, it's nowhere near what I expected it to be, but it's
naturally hard to follow Ascension. The first half of the album -is- on the same level
as Ascension, I'll give Coheed that. But the last half that's comprised of ballads just
seems... bland? Bland. The small time frame that the double album was written in is
evidence enough for the rushed feeling at the end of Descension. Or I could just be
cynical towards ballads in general because I am incapable of feelings? Eh.
Also, the jazz breakdown at the end of Number City was way too short, they
could've made that into a whole new song. I loved it! - 7.5/10 | | 7 |  | Scale the Summit
The Migration
All aboard the hype train! I only heard of Scale the Summit from you guys, and the hype was
pretty well deserved. Atlas Novus blew me away, and the rest of the album is pretty strong too. I
really want to go see these guys live if they ever come to the UK - my one tiny tiny issue is that
instrumental progressive metal seems rather.... limiting. Like ASIWYFA, I'm unsure how long these
guys will go on for creating decent original music. - 8/10 | | 6 |  | David Maxim Micic
Bilo 3.0
Now this -was- a surprise for me! Great album by this guy here, I'm not going to pretend to
know stuff about him because I don't, but the boundaries of prog are certainly being pushed. I
mean, scat? Operatic breakdowns? That's pretty damn Zappa right there. The heavy-yet-
optimistic elements just scream 'Devin Townsend' - some might argue that this results from
sponging off other artists' unique characteristics, but I love it. Some of the album is quite
forgettable though, IMO, but it might help if I had a physical copy at hand so I could enjoy
this more frequently *cough cough* - 8.5/10 | | 5 |  | Atoms for Peace
Amok
Whilst the world waits patiently for another Radiohead album, Thom Yorke gets to
work on Atoms for Peace. An album that's essentially a more energetic The King of
Limbs makes me pretty damn happy. The only downside is that parts of the album
often parallel Thom Yorke's The Eraser, which makes me question the level of
originality in AFP - 8.5/10 | | 4 |  | The Ocean
Pelagial
I only heard of these guys around September-time when I bought Damnation
Festival tickets - Pelagial is a great concept album and an even better show when
performed in its entirety. With fluid songwriting, 9 minutes feels like 3, breaking the
often stagnant repertoire of progressive metal. The opening piano track, Epipelagic,
is nice too - 8.5/10 | | 3 |  | Cult of Luna
Vertikal
Ditto to #4. Bought their latest album seeing as though I ought to give them a look
due to all the hype, and my god is the hype well deserved. Harsh vocals were never
my cup of tea but by Jove have Cult of Luna turned that around. I managed to
catch them play The Weapon and In Awe Of (yes yes yes I know they were the
opening and closing tracks, but my mate wanted to buy a sandwich and the venue
was packed as fuck) and it was damn brilliant - 9/10 | | 2 |  | Steven Wilson
The Raven That Refused to Sing
Mr Wilsons done it again - although it lacks a certain flair of originality, you can't
flaw him from drawing inspiration from his progressive roots. You know what? I've
read too many reviews of this album saying it's brilliant, and I agree. Go read those,
I can't be arsed saying again how good this album is - 9.5/10 | | 1 |  | Haken
The Mountain
What can I say? Haken have really reached their climax with this record. With all the greatest parts
extracted from their previous two albums but with twice the charm, The Mountain is easily the strongest
album this year. Every song is strong standalone yet works like clockwork in a grand concept album;
with original and unique tracks that never tire after multiple spins, this album is definitely one of my
favourites this year, if not all time.
Also, that falsetto in Falling Back to Earth. hnnnnnnnnnnnnnng - 10/10 | |
JJKeys
12.29.13 | You might realize that I started writing this from #1 to #15, thats why my wording is so dire at the start | Calc
12.29.13 | *cough cough* YEAH *cough cough* SO *cough cough* OH *cough cough* wait a second.... | JokineAugustus
12.29.13 | 1, 2, and 4 are some of my favs this year as well. Check out Extol if you haven't. I know you don't dig death metal much, but you might find some stuff to enjoy on their latest album. | JJKeys
12.29.13 | DON'T TRY TO HIDE IT, NO. DON'T TRY. DON'T TRY TO HIDE IT, NO. DON'T TRY.
God, I hate that song | ShitsofRain
12.30.13 | okay prog | Mad.
12.30.13 | Awesome list, some good effort went into it.
Seriously, Humanfly - Awesome Science tho | JJKeys
12.30.13 | cheers Mad, and I should just not listen to that just to piss you off. I joke, I joke, but I'm digging Shining too much atm to listen to anything else | Mad.
12.30.13 | I think I listened to about a minute of Blackjazz lol, maybe I should try again I dunno...
Oh yeah... new Gazpacho album!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | oltnabrick
12.30.13 | http://www.last.fm/user/oltnabrick1/library/music/Lil+B/05+Fuck+Em |
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