The Judas Factor put the insanity back into hardcore. Ballads in Blue China is everything the bio claims it to be: Noisy, sincere, emotional, and artistic.
Unlike punk or ska covering an oldie-but-goodie to show their influences, a swing band “doing their interpretation” of a timeless classic is legit. I think.
There’s an incredible depth to the violence, passion, and beauty on Enslaved’s Blodhemn. Few metal bands rival Enslaved’s musical complexity and originality.
For all of my bad choices in this life, I never decided “Hey! I’m gonna start a really crappy industrial band called Crocodile Shop and put out some records.”
More like Alice Cooper on amphetamines than punk, they’ve got the snarl of punk, the theatrics of shock rock, and non-sissy production that borders on metal.