You’re Doing It Wrong
What’s interesting this week is that album that both of us agree is kind of middle-of-the-road is the one that actually gets it the most right. The first reviewed album gets it’s mostly right, but left one of us wanting more. One gets it’s so wrong, we actually spend about 20 minutes talking about it (sorry…kinda…). And the other is just blah. Funny how that works out….
Reviews:
Scale the Summit – V (Prosthetic)
Parkway Drive – Ire (Epitaph)
Gloryhammer – Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards (Napalm)
Ritual Killer – Exterminance (Season of Mist)
Scale The Summit – V
Parkway Drive – Ire
Gloryhammer – Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards
Ritual Killer – Exterminance
The Sideshow Podcast 
Last week I agreed more with Nick. This week, I agree more with Brian. That’s certainly true regarding Scale The Summit. I wanted a little more from this new album, V. I think part of it is about expectations. Their last album, The Migration, was great. It was my number 8 album of 2013. I’d also say that The Migration is one of my top guitar instrumental albums of all time. I don’t listen to ton of guitar instrumentals even though it is a genre I enjoy. I like the Migration better than any of the Animals As Leaders albums, and I put it up there with stuff by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. But V is a step down from The Migration. It seems like the songs on V aren’t as catchy and the solos and guitar work isn’t as impressive as The Migration. That still means V can be an ok album, but I’d give it a rating of a 3 even though the album is named 5.
In the discussion of Gloryhammer, Brian mentioned not knowing where to start if you want to listen to Blind Guardian. The place to start is with their album Nightfall In Middle Earth.
Brian, asking your audience for recommendations of bands that you haven’t heard of – be they black metal or not – is a tall order simply because you’ve heard of everything! I don’t think I can name a single black metal band that you haven’t already heard of.