The Great Collection Rediscovery

Album: Empiricism

Obtained From: Online

Total Previous Track Last.fm Scrobbles: 78 (10 Tracks)

Old Rating: 4/5

Verdict: This is actually the Borknagar album I've owned the longest. I've been a bit up and down in my appreciation of it since day one. On this listen I liked this one a lot more than I remembered and it's pushing me more toward accepting Borknagar as a favourite band. 

New Rating: 4.5/5

Keeper? Yep. 

Album: Winter Thrice

Obtained From: Amazon

Total Previous Track Last.fm Scrobbles: 59 (9 Tracks)

Old Rating: 4/5

Verdict: The last of the Borknagar albums I physically own, though I should probably try to fill the gaps based on this run through the majority of their work (I skipped over the non-metal album, though I do remember liking it). This one finds them firmly in blackened melodic progressive metal vein transitioned to on Urd and is also the last to feature Vintersorg on vocals. It's a pretty fine album, but it doesn't get my blood boiling the way earlier Borknagar at their best did. However I could see this era of the band growing on me a lot more, especially with having also streamed Urd and latest album Truth North again.

New rating: No Change.

Keeper? Yep.

I highly recommend it. I've got more into their newer stuff with this run through their discography, but the early ones are definitely my favourites. 

Album: Awakening From Abyss

Obtained From: Amazon

Total Previous Track Last.fm Scrobbles: 308 (12 Tracks)

Old Rating: 5/5

Verdict: Okay, so I definitely didn't need to rediscover this one since it's only a few years old and I've played the thing to death already, but since I decided to write about every album I own (except ones I buy since starting this project, unless it's still ongoing years later, which could be likely since I have almost 1000 CDs) I figured I'd write a little bit about it here. Lovebites are the kind of band that subvert expectations: an all female power metal group from Japan who by association exist in the scene of J-Pop and Visual Kei bothering Japanese metal artists which have produced a number of other all female power metal acts. Then you hear them. And you realise that their music owes as much to the German Teutonic school of power metal (meaning it's speed/thrash metal influences) as it does to more famous Japanese power metal exports. Some may prefer their following releases (as an aside note the Morbid Angel-esq naming convention of their main releases!), but for nostalgia reasons this debut remains my favourite by them. 

New Rating: I'd give it 6 out of 5 if the system let me.

Keeper? It's very nearly number #1 album I'm voting for in the Best of Decade and honestly could get there in the last couple of weeks of voting, so what do you think? 

"I'm very much doing these based on my whim alone"

Then how will you know what you've already reviewed when you get to #697?

Album: Lustdriven

Obtained From: Online

Total Previous Track Last.fm Scrobbles: 77 (10 Tracks)

Old Rating: 4.5/5

Verdict: I really should drag the Kiuas out more often. I really should see if I can find the albums I don't have too. The thing with Kiuas is that for a band with a rather unique sound to them (thanks to the voice of Ilja Jalkanen) they're actually easily to forget about, because they're a quintessential example of a band who split far too soon. 2010's Lustdriven was their fourth and final album. It's probably my favourite of the four, so they went out on a high, but this is one act I really wish was still around as I've always felt we never quite got the defining Kiuas album. 

New Rating: No Change

Keeper? Yep.

Album: Into the Mirror Black

Obtained From: Online

Total Previous Track Last.fm Scrobbles: 108

Old Rating: 4.5/5

Verdict: The second Sanctuary album is one that I've been on the verge of giving five stars every time I listen to it, this time being no exception. And yet there's something undefinable that stops me every time. Maybe it's because I've played Refuge Denied considerably more and I just don't find this one to have quite the same level of energy as its predecessor, even though it too is an essential record from US power metal canon. 

New Rating: No Change, though I still don't rule out it one day clicking up to 5 star status.

Keeper? Obviously. 

Album: Reformation

Obtained From: Online

Total Previous Scrobbles: 122

Old Rating: 4.5/5

Verdict: The second Kiuas album and the one I've had the longest. Made sense to revisit this now while waiting for their others albums to arrive, which I managed to pick up yesterday. I don't quite like this as much as Lustdriven, featured here earlier, but it's close. A great band gone before their time.

New Rating: No Change.

Keeper? Of course.

I tried this one once. Won't be trying again...