Jan 1st - 6th

Jan 1st - 6th 2020
The year ended very sadly with the passing of the great MF DOOM, so I spent a good portion of this week just enjoying his classic records - mainly my favourites Madvillainy and MM.. FOOD. The former going from an (86) to an (89) and latter (87) to also an (89). I also took the time to finish off(??) his vocal discography - Venemous Villain (73) and Take Me to Your Leader (78), both quite enjoyable but on the lower end of his discography.

After that I gave a re-listen to Pink Floyd's debut - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, as I had a feeling I didn't give it the time of day and was a bit harsh, but honestly still not the biggest fan, and although Astronomy Domine is a fantastic track, there is quite a lot of crap on it too so it only got a slight upgrade from (68) to (70).

This was also the week I tried out some lesser known metal albums - atmospheric black metal in particular - recommendations from a friend, and surprise to me is that I actually love it, or what I heard at least what I listened to. The first was Griseus - Aquilus, a great - not too extreme - introduction to the (sub)genre with some nice neoclassical elements too, only 1 listen but a generous (82) rating. Will definitely have to give this one a re-listen at some point soon as I hear that combination of genres isn't too common, or atleast at this quality.
After that came the really interesting stuff.
The next record that was recommended was Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain (88), and this one clicked alot -  didn't feel too extreme, more like Hard-Hard-Rock with some growly vocals, but with it being mainly atmospheric, that wasn't present in every track, which was nice as I'm not the biggest fan of those types of vocals. Very enjoyable and exactly what I was looking for from the metal genre. From this I was excited to check out their other projects.
That next project was "The Mantle", the previous album before AAtG, and wow. This one blew me away. It was like everything I had a problem with on the previous one was gone here, a lot less growly vocals, no dead tracks, just a phenomenal record from start to finish - ordered the vinyl as soon as I got home, looking forward to re-listening to this underrated gem. Rated (92).

Other re-listens this week was Led Zeppelin 3 on vinyl and Black Sabbath's Paranoid. LZ3 started on an (85) but I didn't feel the enjoyment as I previously did, so it got lowered to an (82) and just find this record a bit lacking compared to 1,2,4 and PG. It's a little more variety and less hard rock, which isn't my preference for Led Zep. Still a good record, but had to lower my rating a bit.
Paranoid on the other hand was a much more positive experience, maybe my recent interest in metal had gave me appreciation for the band that really started it all and how could you not with a record that has War Pigs, Paranoid and Iron Man in it. Really impressive stuff. Increased from (82) to (85). Wouldn't be surprised if I increased that again at some point as I don't see myself getting bored of that album anytime soon.

Overall very good week if only for finding Agalloch but still a melancholic feeling from losing the masked villain.