MPF's Music Year In Review 2013

[MPF]

Originally Posted by hb420

Thought this was really mediocre for them. Sucks too because Eternal Kingdom was sooo good. I:Weapon and Mute Departure are fucking beasts but Vicarious Redemption and In Awe Of are way too bloated with filler. The industrial and dubstep parts are cheesy too. lol With four out of the nine songs being being ambient interludes or the outro that's never a good sign either.

That's the thing, I thought all of it fit together so very well. I didn't notice any cheese of any kind.

I'm so used to listening to albums as a whole so I tend to look at albums as one complete song *It's the prog thing to do*. But, that's just me.

[MPF]

Sorry about the lack of albums today. A bunch of stuff came up today and I received a fuckload of new albums today that I haven't even had the chance to check out yet. So I plan on doing at least 5 albums tomorrow.

[MPF]

4.) Steven Wilson- The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)

This is an album that everyone has been going crazy waiting for, all while I was about to go, "meh". the first two Steven Wilson albums left me uninspired, more boring than anything else. Kinda keeping the same mellow-mid tempo stuff. While Grace For Drowning was a bit better, still nothing. The Raven on the other hand......WOW. it still has the SW signature mellow, minimalistic mellow parts, but there is something that hasn't been done since the last Porcupine Tree album...DYNAMICS! This is what I have been missing for so very song. The Pin Drop is a great example of this, starts off mellow then gets into it, then mellow again and ends on a glorious high impact note. It's good to see that Wilson left the atmospheric mellow stuff to the Storm Corrosion album of 2012, because another album of that would have left me wanting a Porcupine Tree comeback more than ever, now I couldn't care less for the time being if PT comes back (although i eventually do). The band lineup is pure excellence. Steven, you won me back, now let's do an interview in may when you come back to Minneapolis for the first time in 8 years. haha

5/5

[MPF]

alright folks here is a few albums to make up for the lack of albums:

5.) Sons Of Aeon- Sons Of Aeon

Easily one of the most impressive Melodic Death Metal albums in recent times, and it really focuses on the Melodic side. It's as if Pain of Salvation started playing Melodic Death Metal. The song Wolf Eyes is my current favorite song of the year. The main riff reminds me of something off BE, just uptempo. This is definitely a band worth checking out for the fact that the music more then makes up for the screams and growls if you are not into those kinds of vocals. It keeps your interest from start to finish. Give it a spin if you can dig it, I think you will.

4.5/5

[MPF]

6.) Riverside- Shrine Of The New Generation Slaves

Riverside is one of those bands that had my interest for a long time and then somehow lost it over the years. They have yet to top Second Life Syndrome in my eyes. This album kind of has the same problems I have had since that album, it just feels bland and one sided. I know a lot of people are crazy about them and even I would love to see them one day and could be won back over by them live, but this just feels too much like an attempt to be Pink Floyd, which is the cool thing to do in Prog now a days if you don't wanna be Djent. If you have been into these guys, this album won't disappoint you at all, if you are like me and just kinda into them, this won't win you over.

2.5/5

[MPF]

7.) Mutiny Within- Synchronicity

The debut album from Mutiny Within is still one of my favorite albums of all time. Its the perfect accumulation of Progressive Metal and Metalcore. Dream Theater meets Killswitch Engage. Synchronicity is essentially the same album minus keyboards. To me that's what made the debut so damn good. the music on this of course is top notch in musicianship, but the overall songs just feel so bland and honestly uninspired. The biggest reason it has that feel is because they just wanted to release the album without intentions of continuing on. So in other words, it's an uninspired Swan Song of a band with 2 albums. That is really depressing. Do yourself a favor and check out the self titled debut album, and if you wanna hear the same album without keyboards, check out Synchronicity.

2/5

[MPF]

8.) Bad Religion- True North

My favorite Punk band is back and again in top form. The music is of course 100% in the style of Bad Religion, uptempo for most of the songs, lyrically and vocal harmonic driven and overall just fun to listen to. The lyrics this time around are much less about just political themes like have been around for a while and go more towards life in general and American culture. there is a couple seconds of blast beats, most present in the beginning of the song My Head Is Full Of The Ghosts. It's a standard length Punk album at 36 minutes. If you want some fun fast music to enjoy without having to think to hard, this is for you. Enjoy the great Punk that's out there, not the bad Punk!

4/5

[MPF]

9.) Portal- Vexovoid

Too Black Metal to be Death Metal....too Death Metal to be Black Metal. One of the best examples of Experimental Brutal Metal that there is out there today. Portal is back with another raw powerhouse of an album that will get all the dark anger in life out of your system. This is a mind screw of an album for sure and not for the weak of heart, but if you give it a chance you can appreciate everything that is going on. Unless you are into Experimental Metal, don't expect to get it on the first try, but give it a chance, you may just find what is so unique and great about this band.

4.5/5

[MPF]

10.) Holy Grail- Ride The Void

Holy Grail is one of the bands that are keeping the spirit of Judas Priest alive. Very Melodic and Thrashy Power Metal. this album in particular shows the band going through a very guitar solo oriented, almost an over the top Dragonforce, style. They are not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeve, which can be a good thing. The last song, Rains Of Sorrow is a very Trivium and Shadows Fall style ballad, a very odd song in comparison. Give this album a shot if you wanna hear some killer Thrashy Power Metal with some modern influences. Keep the spirit of the 80s alive!

3.5/5

[adamclark52]

I'm really looking forward to the new Portal album.