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[leatherface]

They must be idiots, it's a 5/5 album, and their best. Top 5 DM album for me.

100%, possibly focusing on the wrong reviews , "half baked ideas" .. erm , nope

[John Kimble]

I'd say so. Subjectivity and all that aside, it's pretty much a universally lauded album and rightly so. I'd imagine the likes of Kerrang, Raw et al didn't know what to make of it at the time but these are the same clowns who completely dismissed BM from the outset and then followed up with glowing retrospectives when the penny eventually dropped.

[Taranis]

It is a good, possibly even great album, and possibly the most creative of their classic albums, but I'd take the ones either side of it any day of the week. Covenant is my favourite of theirs, so that might disqualify me from having a valid opinion...

The Raw and Kerrang! and often the Metal Hammer reviews of pretty much everything were ridiculous back then, with the writers more focussed on writing zingers than on the music they were supposed to be reviewing. It even bled into Ultrakill and Terrorizer at times, even if both were a major breath of fresh air in comparison.

[Anvil]

Fu Manchu - No One Rides For Free
Solefald - In Harmonia Universali
At The Gates - The Ghost of a Future Dead
Rotting Christ - Triarchy of the Lost Lovers

[Maggot Colony]

The God Machine - One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying

[ijnjnijnilijbibbjknkjbjkk]

Aparthiva Raktadhara - Agyat Ishvar
Slaughter - Surrender or Die
Emperor - Emperor

[Taranis]

Last five:
Warning (England) – Rituals of Shame (2026, long awaited and worth the wait, even if you'll have to be scraped off the floor afterwards).
Gorgoroth (Norge) – Under the Sign of Hell 2011 (2011, not sure what the fuck I was thinking putting this on, an absolute travesty to re-record one of the best ever black metal albums, making it shitter in every way).
White Death (Finland) – White Death (2017, sounds like a lot of other stuff that has come out on the same label, but really well done with some great songs).
Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze (USA) – The Fractal Ouroboros (2023, great follow-up to the the first album by this very interesting  black-metal-adjacent band).
Vígljós (Switzerland) – Tome II: Ignis Sacer (2025, black metal about bees, certainly one of my top ten albums from last year, has all the right ingredients).

Next up: ZZ Top – Eliminator, one of my go to records when the thermometer heads up past 35°.

[Barnacle Billy]

The God Machine - One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying

Immense album. As was Scenes From The Second Story before it...

[Anvil]

Sammath - Triumph in Hatred
Cresent Shield - The Stars of Never Seen
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Grave Digger - Tunes of War
Deicide - Once Upon The Cross
Lunar Shadow - Far From Light

[OpenSores]

Warning - Rituals of Shame (loving it, beautiful, sorrowful and suffocating)

In Vespro – Where Silence Used to Sleep (gave this a blast after reading a review, old school Katatonia and Paradise Lost worship well executed!)

[Carnage]

Metallica: Seattle '89

[Bürggermeister]

Mercyful Fate - Melissa & Don't Break the Oath

Pure Heavy Metal. Lovely.

[ochoill]

Slift - "Fantasia"
On and off all week.  Savage savage album.  Better than Ilion and probably on par with Ummon.  Just savage songs, well put together, doesn't get boring, great energy, couldn't recommend it enough.

[Carnage]

Warning: Ritual Of Shame

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Slift - "Fantasia"
On and off all week.  Savage savage album.  Better than Ilion and probably on par with Ummon.  Just savage songs, well put together, doesn't get boring, great energy, couldn't recommend it enough.

Nice. Haven't heard a note off it myself yet