77/100, Gorgorth rebuilds itself with decent results, but they should have taken some more time to create something truly great.

After several listens I have to say it's disappointing especially considering all the hype about Infernus retaking control and the band returning to their older styl*e* While Infernus did indeed write all the music, he only wrote the lyrics for the short little outro, "Introibo ad Alatare Satanas". While Infernus' guitar playing is full of ups and downs, Pest really stepped up to the plate on vocals and proved that he could indeed fill Gaahl's shoes. I still personally prefer Gaahl's unqiue vocal styl*e* but Pest is certainly equally as skilled. The drumming on the album is pretty basic and boring, even moreso when put up against the drumming on the other two big black metal releases in the same month, Immortal's All Shall Fall and Marduk's Wormdwood. The album essentially comes across as some good but incomplete ideas thrown together with some really basic and generic parts used as the glue.

"Aneuthanasia"-Comes in pretty brutal with one of those infamous black metal barks but soon leads into some incredibly monotonous riffing. The first time through I thought it was kinda cool but repeated listens proved frustrating and boring. Luckily it doesn't last too long and is followed up by a really awesome riff that really doesn't last long enough. The song has some good ideas but doesn't really reach its potential. 6.5/10

"Prayer"-Starts off with an extraordinarily short riff that I can't help but feel they should have used way more, it would have been perfect for a bridge section. It gets followed by some generic and simple black metal riffs which then gets followed by a really *c*lassic one that get's interrupted by a lesser albeit good one as they switch off. This pretty much continues until the abrupt ending. 7/10

"Rebirth"-I swear this song is about putting Gorgoroth back together after the whole fiasco with Gaahl and King, but I guess we'll never know for sure since they don't print their lyrics. Anyway this song is a step above the previous two. It sounds a lot like something Burzum would write. It's very dark and moody, a little ambient even, but it's also surprisingly progressive as it goes on. Once pest screams, "Rebirth of Gorgoroth!" things begin to get a bit more epic. 9/10

"Building a Man"-I hate the stupid intro but the song gets pretty solid afterwards. To me the main riffs on this track sound a lot like Immortal, but I guess that's for you to decide. It loses some credit for being extremely derivative but it's a very good song. 8/10

"New Breed"-Starts off a little too overly simple but progressively gets heavier and more technical with some really cool riffing a couple minutes in. Unfortunately the great riffs do get underused and the simpler and more boring ones seem to take priority a little. 7.5/10

"Cleansing Fire"-The first riff is interesting and has potential, but it feels unfulfilled and the extremely lackluster drumming really takes away from it. It turns out to be a relatively heavy and decent song, but not much else. 7/10

"Human Sacrifice"-Easily one of the best tracks on the album, and one of the only ones with competent drumming. Starts off really intense but soon leads into some semi-memorable riffing. If this song had kept that intensity all the way through it would have been awesome. As it stands though, it's still a great track to listen to. 8/10

"Satan-Prometheus"-This has some really cool guitar parts and is the only other track besides "Human Sacrifice" with decent drumming. Besides Pest's more than solid vocals there's some clean background on this track that work surprisingly well. Definitely a great song and a very good way to end the album 8.5/10

"Introibo ad Alatare Satanas"-The point of this little outro eludes me. Not going to score it or include it in the average.

My top tracks fort this album are "Rebirth", "Human Sacrifice", and "Satan-Prometheus". It really feels like Infernus was desperate to put out an album both to prove that he could still write music despite his lack of any serious contribution over the past six years and to compete with his new rival God Seed's release who ironically fell apart before even releasing their first album. It grows on you with more listens, but Infernus should have waited and polished up the album a fair amount more before releasing it. He should have hired a different drummer, written some more interesting riffs, and made a couple more tracks to lengthen this all too short album. It's solid black metal, and if you're a fan you'll definitely find something to like, but it really just doesn't compete with what everyone else has been putting out, or even any of their own back catalog (With the exception of the somewhat lacking Destroyer) for that matter.

Immortal: All Shall Fall

90/100, Immortal treats us to a grim and frostbitten peek of Blashyrkh.

This album is epic, and actually makes the seemingly endless wait worth it. Abbath's vocals and guitar playing are equally excellent. Horgh's drumming is both creative and super precise. The new bassist isn't all that noticeable because he's barely even audible. Demonaz is becoming a better lyricist and it shows.

"All Shall Fall"-Starts off with some ambient noise, but that doesn't last long. Soon you're thrown into an amazing riff that gets quickly followed by another equally amazing riff. The drumming is fantastic on this song, precise and brutal. Abbath's vocals jump in with a quick bark and then come in full fledged. An amazing song and an overall excellent choice as the title track and opener. 9.5/10

"The Rise Of Darkness"-Immortal follows up "All Shall Fall" with another great, albeit softer and slower song. It hints at heaviness early on but doesn't really reach it until about halfway through. There's some really cool drumming on this song and I really like the chorus, but it's just not quite as awesome as the title track. 8.5/10

"Hordes To War"-This song comes out screaming. It's incredibly fast, extremely brutal, very chaotic and just overall very intense. 9/10

"Norden On Fire"-Starts off with the noise of howling wind and some soft guitar playing to set the mood. Then the heavy riffing drops in like a bomb. The song starts out great, and only gets better. The last bit of the song gets really epic with some excellent riffing. 9/10

"Arctic Swarm"-Starts out simple but brutal, and gets more technical and progressive as it goes on. Almost sounds like a death metal song. The song changes in the end and sounds much more like black metal, and Abbath has a cool albeit short solo near the end as well. 8.5/10

"Mount North"-Another very epic sounding song, filled with absolutely great riffs and stellar drumming. It gets heavier and heavier as it goes on, and Abbath's solo is awesome. 9/10

"Unearthly Kingdom"-Starts off with very dark sounding ambient music that really sets the mood, it totally gets you into the song. Then the riffing comes in, mid-paced and trance-like and extremely catchy. Then things heat up and the song gets insanely epic. A battle horn sounds and then the song grows soft while the gates of Blashrykh open. Then drums come in as epic as possible with equally awesome guitar to bring the song through it's final stretch until it's end. The first time I listened to this song I knew it was great, but every time you listen to it, it gets even better. Truly excellent track, it made me sad to hear it fade out. 10/10

My favorite songs are "All Shall Fall", "Hordes To War", and "Unearthly Kingdom". While some bands try as hard as they can to be as "true" or "necro" as possible and others throw in cheesy amounts of keyboards and synthesizers to try and make their music sound more epic or accessible, Immortal is truly evolving black metal in ways no other band has even thought of. This is quite possibly Immortal's best album to date.

81/100, Megadeth finally delivers the goods!

Ever since Megadeth's return after Dave's nerve injury fans have been waiting for a true return to form, well this is probably about as close as they're ever gonna get. If you're expecting nothing but true thrash, you'll end up liking a couple of the songs but will overall be disappointed. However, if you go into just looking for good metal you will be deeply satisfied just like myself. As a hardcore Megadeth fan, I can finally say that I am truly pleased with their new album.

"Dialectic Chaos"-Starts off with a mid paced, simple and catchy rhythm. It pretty much keeps that through the whole song while Dave and Chris trade guitar solos with each other. It really shows off both of their abilities and is surprisingly catchy for an instrumental. Leads right into "This Day We Fight!" making for an awesome one two punch that will knock you out. 9/10

"This Day We Fight!"-Old-school Megadeth through and through. Very thrashy and extremely fast. You can feel some of Dave's old aggression in this song. This song proves that Megadeth is still the true king of thrash, posers beware. 9/10

"44 Minutes"-Simple but catchy main riff with some great vocals on Dave's part. Hints of thrash but the chorus is purely melodic. There's some great soloing as well. 8/10

"1-320"-Great riffing showing off some technical prowess. The drums are a little simple and boring. Very technical soloing at the end makes for a strong finish. 7.5/10

"Bite The Hand"-Good heavy intro riff that leads to an even better technical thrash riff. Those two riffs kinda switch off from there. Lame lyrics, but very solid music. Good duel solos start up around halfway through the song. More solid soloing near the end rounds out another solid track for the album. 7.5/10

"Bodies"-Starts out simple but still heavy and has a melodic chorus. Honestly it gets a little boring until a little past halfway when it goes into guitar solo mode, and that sounds just flat out fantastic. I can hear Chris Broderick's influence heavily here as the latter part could easily be from Nevermore. First half of the song is passable, second half is fantastic. 7.5/10

"Endgame"-The title track for the album and an instant ****c. Stats out mid-paced and very heavy while Dave's vocals sing out over everything. A very progressive song that continuously speeds up and has some great solos. Excellent track. 9/10

"The Hardest Part of Letting Go…Sealed With A Kiss"-Starts off slow and quite frankly beautiful with some symphonic elements. Dave's vocal delivery on this song is amazing, but quite frankly the lyrics themselves are lame. Then the song progresses into heavy mode and gets some seriously great riffing done. When the songs gets heavier it sounds like old-school Megadeth. Excellent song, would be mind blowing if it had better lyrics, although they do get better as the song goes on. 9/10

"Head Crusher"-A big loud wake up call after "The Hardest Part of Letting Go…Sealed With A Kiss". Fast, brutal, and thrashy. Comes across to me as "Sleepwalker 2.0" and that's not in any way a bad thing folks. 9/10

"How The Story Ends"-Interestingly enough despite the title this is not the last song on the album, which makes no sense if you ask me. Sounds very much like a song off of Youthanasia. Probably my least favorite on the album. 6.5/10

"The Right To Go Insane"-Some of the better lyrics on the album. Starts a little boring but gets better as it goes on. Cool riffing at the end with some good soloing. Not the song I would have chosen to end the album on. 7/10

My favorite three songs on the album are "Dialectic Chaos", "This Day We Fight!", and Endgame" with "The Hardest Part of Letting Go…Sealed With A Kiss" as a close runner up. The two songs at the end bring down the average but the album is still amazing. There's something here for every Megadeth fan, and if you don't like some of the song you either don't like Megadeth or you don't like metal, it's as simple as that. If you're a true Megadeth fan go out and buy this right now.

So on July 11th I went with my girlfriend and two friends (nimatoad2000 and kurisu1 to the Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountainview to see Mayhem Fest 2009. It was so awesome. Right when we got there we were met by protestors outside telling us to give our lives over to Jesus and giving us "Get Out of Hell Free" cards. I thought it was pretty funny, nimatoad2000 yelled "give you lives over to satan!" and I screamed in a black metal voice "satan!". Pretty stupid I know but i couldn't help myself. We went in and nimatoad2000 got a slayer shirt and kurisu18 got a cool white mayhem fest shirt. I wanted this gray mayhem fest shirt but all of the stands were out fo it so we wasted time by searching for it. I was lucky enough to find one in my size which made me pretty happy. Then we went over and waited in line for the Cannibal Corpse signing. When it came for my turn I got the mayhem fest magazine signed by them. Pat was really shy it seemed, Rob was just kinda there, Alex was sick and we talked about Blotted Science for a few seconds before I had to move on, Paul seemed very appreciative when I told him how much I liked his drumming, and Corpsegrinder was nice and talked about his pose in the picture in the magazine. They were all really nice and down to Earth guys. It's always great when a band actually cares about it's fans. Then I walked over to the Behemoth tent and bought one of their tour shirts. Then we caught the last three songs of Behemoth's act. They were awesome but I wish I could have seen then whole thing. Meeting Cannibal Corpse was worth it though. Then Kurisu18 wanted to see All That Remains, and as he went to mosh the rest of us got tired of the band (Kurisu18 was the only one of us that liked them) and went around looking at tents and entering contests. Then we found out we had missed a Behemoth signing, which was disappointing but oh well. While we were waiting for All That Remains to finish up we rain into this guy. Here's another video of him for those of you interested . I asked him if I could get a picture and he said sure and then asked if I wanted him to puke to which I obviously responded no thanks. Here's the picture:

Yeah I wasn't expecting that interesting encounter. Then Kurisu18 dragged us to My Bloody Valentine at the main stage which we only stayed two songs for before we couldn't take it anymore.It was pretty watching the guy in charge of the lights show rocking out to the music as he pressed buttons though. So then I finally got to see Cannibal Corpse live for the first time. They didn't disappoint in the least. They played absolutely perfectly,sounding just like they do in the studio. Right when they started up with Evisceration Plague the crowd went nuts and pits erupted everywhere, including right next to us. There were tons of people crowd surfing and a trash can was being thrown around. Nimatoad2000 said he saw someone throw a jug of milk. After they finished their set people were still being thrown over the barrier even though there wasn't any music. Here's what I remember of the setlist for those of you who care: Evisceration Plague, The Time To Kill Is Now, F***** With A Knife, Priests of Sodom, Unleashing The Bloodthirsty, Make Them Suffer, Hammer Smashed Face, and Stripped R**** and Strangled. don;t know if that is completely the right order but it's close, and I may be missing a song or two. Then we hung around until Slayer. It was cool being able to see them and they played very well but to be honest they were disappointing. Out of their short set only around half were actual goods songs. The rest were from their newer albums that nobody cares about and wouldn't evens stand up as filler on their older stuff. The good songs they played were War Ensemble, Mandatory Suicide, Chemical Warfare, Dead Skin Mask, Hell Awaits, Angel of Death, South of Heaven, and of course Raining Blood. Psychopathy Red wasn't bad, but the whole song was essentially one riff. As good as that one riff was, it is just one riff for a roughly 3 minute song. Simply not good enough. Anyway I got to hear some truly ****c songs live and can now say I've seen Slayer. We got out of there before Marilyn Manson, none of us listen to him.

Overall it was the most fun I've had in years and easily the best concert I've been to. It was a truly great experience and I recommend metalheads every go if they get the chance.

This is my list of top 20 metal albums (personal favorites, no other criteria matters to me), from any subgenre. If your favorite isn't on here, tough luck. If you see a band/album you hate, keep it to yourself.

1. Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?

2. Rust In Peace

3. Infinity

4. This Godless Endeavor

5. Accelerated Evolution

6. Dreaming Neon Black

7. Powerslave

8. Dead Heart In A Dead World

9. Black Sabbath

10. The Bleeding

11. Coma of Souls

12. Pleasure To Kill

13. Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good!

14. City

15. Human

16. Synchestra

17. Don't Break The Oath

18. Tomb of the Mutilated

19. Ride The Lightning

20. Countdown To Extinction

Mayhem Fest is soon!