Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor (2015)

   Officially the 2003 released "The Golden Age of Grotesque" was Marilyn Manson's last commercially successful album and the band have been at their peak of success being played as frequently as never before (though it was pretty much a forgettable album). Over a decade long silence came after that basically wasn't silent, since 3 albums came out meanwhile, only they've been completely inostensible. And unexpectedly Marilyn Manson have returned with "The Pale Emperor", a record, that brought back exactly that kind of music what used to make people liking their music so much. However, a few things have been changed meanwhile in general.
   Even though the music was able to bring back what so many have been waiting for, and the album also included the same spirit, that insulted every good hypochristian American back then, Mr. Manson didn't become a common scapegoat like how he used to be back then (which also meant no free commercial). The world has changed meanwhile. Rough social criticism didn't reach people's unjustified oversensitivity in the mid '10s like 15 years ago, such as Mr. Manson's androgynous appearance. First the emo subculture, later the rainbow cult turned the whole thing as a trend, therefore the shock rock factor didn't work like before, and this definitely had effect on the sales. However "The Pale Emperor" was able to reach the quality that was long lost after "Holy Wood" by including plenty of catchy songs that are both reflecting some actual and plenty of good old features. The band's darker, more ominous tone with raw social criticism wasn't new, but long time missing, and its return proved to be the best step that the band have made in the past 15 years. It worked well even being combined with the softer and more chilling tone, that have been completely usual during the forgettable period. This way the music became catchy, easy to go into and a bit more diverse too, though diversity in Mr. Manson's music was never a sensible factor during exact albums. Probably the endeavours of creating unified sound have been responsible for the homogeneity of each Marilyn Manson album. For most old fans "The Pale Emperor" finally wasn't disappointing and could have been nostalgic too, cause it recalled the feeling why they've become Marilyn Manson fans back then.

Stereoshval' - Split (2024)

   Previously it was mentioned, that stoner rock isn't the most difficult genre to work with, however, there are plenty of situations (especially in the modern scene), when this rule gets broken. Like when styles getting mixed up. This happened exactly at the debut of Stereoshval' - a young Russian band from Moscow area. 

   In reverse situation the rules turning upside down as well, and the difficulty will lie in creating something extraordinary, that's able to catch the attention (mainly) of the mainstream audiences. Stereoshval' definitely have the potential for that for 2 main reasons. First: their style mix of stoner, alternative and hard rock turned out pretty unified. The songs are well composed, and even though they are complex and showing a wide range of diversity and productiveness, they're kind of easy to go into. That's one of the essential features of great songwriting abilities. The results are enough unified to not even suspect at first the complexity that lies behind. And second: it's a great quality production. Similar sound and performance quality used to be expected to come from the US, and even after several listening, nobody would expect, that this music was recorded in Eastern Europe or in Russia. However, if someone paying attention on the current tendencies in the main scene, will not expect anything similar from the US, and nowadays the possibility turned reverse too. It makes a funny contrast how shortly the band expressing themselves in title giving, but the same time flooding the listener with the greatest pile of musical diversity and wealthiness. Even in similar style the material that was used to made this album, would be enough to create 2 different albums. Or would be divided into 2 releases, even if the total length wouldn't  make it necessary. Also complexity might be the only aspect how this record could be harder to go into for some (especially for ordinary storer rock fans), but for the fans of hard rock and progressive rock, it's definitely a potential long term favorite. 

Further information abut Stereoshval':

https://stereoshval.bandcamp.com/album/split

https://band.link/StereoSplit

Apocalyptica - Cult (2000)

   Who said that electric guitars and drums are necessary to play heavy metal? Apocalyptica proved that they aren't, 4 cellos would do the thing too.
   The band started with covering Metallica songs by cellos and they gained wide attention soon in the age when the main audience seemed like to starve for something new and genuine more than ever. The appearence of symphonic elements in metal wasn't completely new, it's enough to think about some progressive metal bands, to symphonic black metal or to genuine experiments like Celetsial Season. But Apocalypctica made it without involving any ordinary instuments, so their style remained neoclassical, only the way how they played was a reference to the intense, raw features metal. It took for a while until they introduced their own songs like if they were aware to step further from doing covers, though even on "Inquisition Symphony" the self-writen songs were the best. They built on the contrast of classical symphonic melodies and the rough sawing-like noise, that probably nobody expected before to hear by a bowed instrument. Their music is still more relaxing than wild in general, so even if it's able to make other classical musicians crossing themselves, it didn't became the favorite of the moshpits. Still Apocalyptica became one of the most successful bands of the early '00s by their uncommon imaginations. Unfortunately left behind this path slowly by involvolving ordinary instruments and various vocalists too.

Marilyn Manson - Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Walley of Death) (2000)

   "Holy Wood" was probably the heaviest, most and most successful Marilyn Manson album, that finally gave the missing strong character to the main concept of the band.
   Many things happenend since "The Portrait of an American Family". They tried a way similar to Nine Inch Nails, to change their style on each album; their name became more and more notorious mostly because of their heavy social criticism, that wasn't welcome by those who they referred to; and Mr. Manson personally was blamed by the social media as a scapegoat for murders committed by teens, that is unfortunately counts as everyday crimes in America. Even though the album officially counts as the first part of an album triology, counted from backwards to make things even more complicated, there isn't much sense in the whole thing, except if most songs of "Mechanical Animals" and "Holy Wood" were written the same time when they made "Antichrist Superstar". The musical and songwriting progression develops with time and there are plenty of influences that are having effect on the musicians with time. The album itself had a quite complex concept in general, that draws a parallel between the American gun culture, the harmful influences of social media, religious obsession, martyrdom, and the birth of Adam Kadmon. And of course the indispensable compromise-less social criticism. The main consequences are the same way tragic as heavy. By "Holy Wood" the band reached the top of their limits too, as musically it was their most mature album, and had a strong influence on the main metal scene too.

Crisis - The Hollowing (1997)

   Crisis was a very interesting band in the main metal scene, not only because their style was everything but ordinary, but also because their music was very difficult to cathegorize.
   They started with some death metal influenced mix of weird alternative style and hardcore, and lately they ended up with sludge and metalcore influences. This progression counts only partly as a "keep up" with the main trends, because they kept their extraordinary style. The roots of these problems are based on a common thing: the simpler music a band plays, the more difficult to determine it's features, especially in the case of very diverse influences. We can't say that Crisis was a death metal, or hardcore, or alternative rock, or sludge, or thrash metal, or metalcore ect. band, but their simple themes included all of these influences, and even more. Definitely Karyn was the soul of the band, and she was in main focus too. Her vocal style and range of voice counts very unique even nowadays, when it's not a big thing to find female metal vocalists. It seemed like no problem for her to suddenly switch from clear singing to growling or insane screaming. Such as the previous 2 albums, "The Hollowing" is also not free fom uncommon musical solutions and ideas, but it sounds like they seeked for a more unified sound than before. Catchier themes, intense bass lines, and melancholic melodies are it's main characteristics. And of course the rageful, desperate, insane screams of Karyn, that is still something unmatched.

Filter - Short Bus (1995)

   Both the founding members of Filter (Richard Patrick and Brian Liesegang) have worked with Trent Reznor, but since in Nine Inch Nails they didn't have any creative role, they have started to work together in their own band.
  Filter was musically influenced by the 2 most determining mainstream musical directions of the early '90s: industrial rock and grunge. For the first probably their past in Nine Inch Nails could be also found responsible. 16 Volt's second album was made by the same recipe, so it wasn't a so genuine thing that time. The interesting thing in their music (that also makes it different from other similar bands) is that even though it was a high quality production, it lacks passion and deep/serious approach. They may sound heavy sometimes, Mr. Patrick enjoys to shout too, but nothing else. There's no real emotional, intense, rebelling or aggressive breakthrough, they prefer to stay behind a line that they've never crossed. Somehow the disturbance that should be expected from a basically disturbed style is missing. It's partly because of grunge, cause it always preferred to keep stagnating in some powereless state all the time, and probably English rock bands (like Oasis or Blur) also had some influence on their music, since they are famous about playing so intense that almost makes them falling asleep even on the stage. That style and tone had a quite large audience, so it's not surprising that the band's debut was a great success. And they've showed a different aspect of the actually modern musical tendencies, that haven't been so widespread yet in the US that time.

Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family (1994)

    As the world seemed to speed up and turned more violent since the '80s, the common ways of entertaining became more exaggerated too. The mainstream metal scene also felt the need of some update and scandalous backup. The debut of Marilyn Manson meant a new kind of shock rock therapy for the metal audience.
   Their concept was very complex, based on social criticism by flashing onto the paradoxes that are coexisting together in the American society. Religious obsesson and perversions, conservative values and abortion, sex symbols and serial killers, drug abuse, pornography and entertainment industry, Christian cults and satanism just to mention some pairings that are continously referring back to the triangle of fear, sex and violence. And the whole thing had sarcastic, ironic performance that wasn't completely clear for everyone, so for people who had lack of common sense, or felt insulted by discovering themselves in the lyrics, Marilyn Manson was the new boogie man. For the band the concept seemed to be always more important than the music, so diversity and musical maximalism was never their strongest point. "Portait of an American Family" was a twisted mix of the that time conquering grunge and industrial metal waves. The support of Trent Reznor formed a lot on their musical progress. However the band was able to get the attetion they were looking for. And Mr. Manson could have call himself lucky too, because his huge audience seemed to be well updated in societal problems and competent enough to understand the complex concept he created, not only fascinated by his visual appearence and performance.
Yeah, that was sarcasm too...

Tallow - Red Disc of Proximia (1993)

   There isn't much to know about Tallow, except that they had one full-lenght album that is often compared to the Melvins in style.
   "Red Disc of Proximia" could count as another alternative how sludge metal was built up, but from a bit different sources. Tallow's music lacks the punk influences and includes more from the style of the '70s and '80s hard/psychedelic rock. It's simple, harmonic features often appearing on the album, but the main view is still disharmonic in general. Unlike Melvins, they sound less noisy and assuming less undirect references to endless self-destruction. That also means that this short album isn't so raw either, but all-in-one it's still not an easy record. It starts heavily, with strong doom influences, but slowly the album turns into a calmer, more psychedelic direction. The simple themes they operated with are balancing on the borderline of genres, and this laconic, but still meaningful simplicity made their music so genuine. This barely known album certainly counts as a gem of the early '90s scene and belongs to it's  most interesting musical experiments.

Melvins - Houdini (1993)

   The Melvins were always famous about experimenting to play heavier music than it was usual in the styles their tried themselves into. Their music wasn't only heavy but very raw too, which couldn't fit between the borders of the current genres and they couldn't had many chance to apply to any popularity contests either.
   Their alternative, punk, doom and grunge influenced music might be hard to enjoy without psychedelic drug abuse, which might had important role in writing their songs too. Anyway the uprising grunge wave of the early '90s was symptahizing with that concept and had a fortunate effect on their popularity too. And luckily that time they released "Houdini", which is probably their most audience-friendly album. The heaviness of their music is not based on the slower themes only, but their sound was more distorted and unfriendlier too. These ambitions made them a significant influental band of the sludge metal genre. "Houdini" is not a remarkable album only because it shows a genuine way how to merge various genres to create antisocial music, but also shows by detailed features how sludge metal was born.

Tool - Undertow (1993)

Although Tool is not widely considered a metal band as much as  they are alternative rock, they're obscure enough to hold reverence for those fans of extreme genres thanks to the members' odd stage presence and occult, obscure, and social structure examinations; only made clear when one takes the time to study their lyrical content; that extends beyond memorizing all of the lyrics to Ænima.

Undertow deserves a spot on the blog for being softer than what was actively considered metal at the time. After all, the album embodies everything metal was at the time, without the intense musical stimulation (they saved that for their visuals and lyrical impact): in it's 20's, angsty and nihilistic. I think Tool has done an irreplaceable job of creating this visual and musical entity that either 1) Completely creeps people out and gets the band banned from your local Walmart or 2) Intrigues the listener enough to want more. And as a metal head, what else compels us to continue down this "path of destruction" for more, faster, better, raunchier metal than the fact that there is mental intrigue? Tool has cornered the market with mental intrigue. Undertow contains classic songs such as Prison Sex and Sober. It's influenced a countless amount of bands and opened a strange door between the booming grunge scene of the early 90's and metal at the time. A complete embodiment of 90's in a unique and re-released album covered album, Undertow is a hidden gem in a complicated tree of what is metal. 

Willard - Steel Mill (1992)

    The uprising grunge wave directly unleashed some bands who played heavier and more complex music, so they couldn't be radio friendly. But therefore they counted as pioneers of sludge metal.
   Willard stepped through the borders of the genre and involved ordinary metal influences. In their music the heaviness of doom, groovy heavy themes and the ravaged sound of grunge are mixed together, powered by the feeling of limitless self-destruction. The responsible features which made their music smell less like teen spirit were the common slow downs and the heaviness that follows it. In catchy melodies they were also subdued, it was more about to express a sleazy feeling. And instead of clear singing raspy vocals could be heard. The band was also known about their limitless debauchery during it's short existence, so the influences to their musical message were easily given. They were far louder than productive, but "Steel Mill" became a reasonable influence in the progression of alternative rock and the development on sludge metal on the side of Melvins.

Hole - Pretty on the Inside (1991)

   While in the '70s the references to drug addiction in music life could be figured out from crazy and senseless lyrics and weird musical ideas, the '90s were even more harsh in that way. Some newcoming styles simply left no doubts in the listener about the musicians high level of drug abuse and even put that in focus.
   Already at first listening it's clear that the members of Hole didn't have many clear moments while they wrote and recorded "Pretty on the Inside", but exactly this made this album extraordinary. A group of women in the those times uprising grunge wave with it's simple, catchy, but often very ravaged sound, couldn't avoid to sparke wider attention. But it was more about than some light pop-rockin'. They showed a far distorted world of personal and mental issues unleashed by a heavily self-destructive lifestyle and expressed by mind wrecking noise rock. The combination of sometimes melodic, sometimes chaotic themes, explicit lyrics and Courtney Love's singing that often changes into narrative style and ends up in screaming was musically on a borderline in plenty ways. Involved the past times punk behaviour, the mainstream pop-rock sound, and even some elements of the lately developing sludge metal. A quite complex album in feeling and influences, but it's more like spontaneous than well composed. Pretty only on the outside or on the inside, or none of these, it's the listeners job to decide.

White Zombie - Make Them Die Slowly (1989)

   If horror fanatism is going by hand in hand with drug abuse, the outcomes could be often weird. Maybe even more weird than without horror fanatism.
   Before White Zombie was into industrial influences and  became famous, they had a longer struggle on a rough way in underground. That period produced 2 full lenght albums, an the second, "Make Them Die Slowly" had a feeling that wasn't so catchy, but definitely attention sparking. It was more into heavy metal, but wasn't an ordinary style at all. Good and exciting themes appearing on this album very often, which were referring to heavy metal, but the ambitions to mix with a more alternative style, turned the whole music into a weird way. Sometimes it's very dark, but suddenly turns groovy, sometimes they sound miserable, and later more like chilling, than more intensive again. It could portray maybe the side effects and exaggerated mood changes of a self-destructive lifestyle. Whatever the inspiration was, it's an interesting album.