Metal Reviews

In spite of varying factors whether they be stylistic variances, key members leaving after an album, or labels having their way with the band, if you could alter a bands discography how would you do it? In what way would you change release dates, or in what way would you release a sequence of classic albums? Could you imagine a band ever outdoing themselves, would you completely eliminate the worthless and weak albums?

Cliff should of died before Puppets so then nobody would know who Metallica is. Imagine how different metal/rock music would be if that had happened...

What would have happened if DiAnno had sobered up and secured his position as Iron Maiden frontman?
I doubt IM would have been as big as they became with Bruce but that would have been a fine band nonetheless.

don't get me excited like that, I almost fell out of my chair at the thought.

I almost stained my boxer myself... ^^

If you could go back in time, would you kill Hitler???!!!!

No.

Soft.

No way!
What would BM be without the crazy german über moustache?!

If Emperor had just kept releasing albums; I'd be thrilled with that.

That would be very exciting; they would most definitely be the most innovative BM band around. The combination of Ihsahn, Samoth, plus Trym was precious.

Yes, a massive ego (Ihsahn), a mediocre songwriter (Samoth) and a weak drummer (Trym) combined. Whooptiefuckingdoo.

Don't get me wrong, I love Emperor up to and including Anthems as much as any self-respecting metal fan should, but I can't see any good series of albums after Prometheus that couldn't have been done as well or better by Ihsahn solo.

I find the whole discovery of Emperor brilliant.... excluding their first album. Samoth might not be the best song writer but he was good when combined with Ihsahn. Ihsahn might have a massive ego but he's an excellent song writer. After all, musicians in general have an ego of some sort. Ego is the basis of human behavior. Trym is a weak drummer? Who do you consider a strong drummer if Tyrm is a weak drummer? What makes you say he's a weak drummer? He might not the best drummer there is but he's a very honorable mention to say the least. He's by no means my favourite drummer nor do I consider him a unique drummer but Emperor as a whole were an excellent band.

I love how arbitrary and shifting the decision is on which album was appropriate to say "Emperor lost it". I'm sure I could find shifting viewpoints over the years from 85% of you if I searched on the forum enough.

I understood the Nightside and before fans, but Anthems is as far removed from Nightside as it is from IX Equilbrium. Furthermore, the bar was not set all that high with Peccatum and Zyklon. A 2003 Emperor album would have been better.

Alice in Chains - They actually wrote songs in the vein of the debut album for Dirt, which were better than some of the slower stuff that made the album. I would have liked to see the debut released later than it was, which would have made it more successful and there would have been no reason to try to be even more alternative than they were.

Tom Scholz never sues CBS records, later MCA records. Barry Goudreau and Brad Delp formed two bands while boston was working out it's legal problems. They were fired for releasing two albums that were very much Boston knockoffs, even using the same producer that was Tom's liason with CBS (because John Boylan really didn't produce that first record, it was a ruse) Brad was invited back, fired again, came back, was fired again and finally things settled down eventually. I dont think Tom and Barry are even speaking, though there's rumours they are going to get back together.

Sorry, but Rush caved to the commerical pressure of being in a classic Hard Rock band who were expected to to sound like one when they released Counterparts. I love that record and the ones after it, but Roll The Bones was the last time they wrote a record to please themselves with absolutely no consideration for the fans, labels, ect. They have been writing "Rush Albums" since, but the first 14 Studio albums all felt like three guys who were playing the music they liked at the time. People may not like their Starship impersonation much, but the last thing those 80's albums were was compromised for commercial reasons. That is what they liked and frequently discussed pop and new wave in interviews as being huge fans. I have a hard time imagining Rush sitting around enjoying Aerosmith's "Pump" and all the alternative bullshit going on around that time. It is a known fact a lot of keyboards that were originally written for Counterparts didn't make the final mix.

I checked out some more Meshuggah today and it was ok, nothing particularly threatening or intense about it. It's just inoffensive background music though there are more tempo changes than expected. Not quite what I was looking

Floats all over the place, and floating bass kicks is something I really, really dislike.

Probably, but I've always held the same opinion.

Peccatum was rather crap and Zyklon's debut was only fun to me because of the heavy Myrkskog - Deathmachine inflection. If anything, these projects underlined to me why Emperor had to break up: a bankruptcy of good ideas and conflicting views of which direction to take with the band after Anthems. I reckon if Emperor would've made another album right after Prometheus, to me it would have sullied even more the image of the band that once made ITNS and Anthems.

I can sort of agree with Karmo on this one. Another Emperor album may just have been a crappier version of IX than anything - are we really worshipping the first Ihsahn solo album as sheer unalloyed genius?

I think you're mistaking. The change in their sound after Presto is proof they understood the synthesizers thingy had gone too far. Actually, it IS a know fact that Geddy was the one pushing the band into that direction. Now, take into account that Alex chose Edwin from I Mother Earth to appear on his Victor album and you'll probably get a clearer view of what Rush members did and didn't like at that time. Actually, I think that combining Peart's passion for Jazz, Alex's fondness of the heavy guitars going back thanks to the Grunge scene and Geddy's more classic rock/pop leanings is what makes Rush so special. It's a difficult balance to obtain even for them as it showed on post Roll the Bones album. Thankfullly, Snakes & Arrows is a step in the right direction though it's far from being perfect. And that's why I'm so eager to listen to the new album whenever they release it.

Ho, by the way, I wouldn't change anything in Rush's discography. Even in their missteps, they managed to be one of the most honest and interesting bands around.

His first two solo albums were alright at best, but the third was definitely something.