Metascore
82

Universal acclaim - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 19
  2. Negative: 0 out of 19
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  1. Jun 16, 2014
    80
    Equally critical and affectionate and entirely fascinating, it's some of Daniel's most personal music.
  2. Jun 18, 2014
    80
    Sugar and spice and everything twisted, Daniel continues to write music for people who like to think about why they like something and can appreciate creative, sincere homage.
  3. Jun 13, 2014
    90
    On Why Do the Heathen Rage?, Daniel has managed to bring the intellectual and the primal together for one big dance party.
  4. 80
    By and large, the songs on Why Do the Heathen Rage? are brilliantly executed hybrids that manage to subvert received ideas even once you’ve processed the album’s premise, thanks to superb transposing and Daniel’s knack for lashing together motifs from utterly different styles.
  5. Magnet
    Jul 18, 2014
    90
    In plain but very powerful terms, it's one of the smartest albums ever released. [No. 111, p.61]
  6. Mojo
    Jul 24, 2014
    60
    Initial listens may suggest contrived incongruity. Further spins reveal the affectionate smarts behind these acts of desecration. [Jul 2014, p.87]
  7. Jun 13, 2014
    80
    It’s catchy, perfectly executed, and succeeds in both honouring the better aspects of a much maligned scene whilst also sticking two fingers up at the horrific ideologies that still populate it.
  8. Jun 17, 2014
    89
    The results of these experiments can be on the nose, like doing a gender switch on Brazilian extreme metal act Sarcofago.... Others take a little bit of unpacking.
  9. Jun 20, 2014
    82
    He’s strip-mined one thing he loves in order to drive another. In doing so, he’s found a wonderful, unexpected kind of combustion.
  10. Jun 20, 2014
    80
    Daniel lives by his music and his ideas, without any arbitrary distinctions between the two. If nothing else, Why Do the Heathen Rage? is massively refreshing for that reason.
  11. Q Magazine
    Jul 2, 2014
    80
    A vigorously thought-provoking record. [Aug 2014, p.113]
  12. Jun 24, 2014
    80
    The striking concept alone is enough to make this album worth a listen. That it turned out to be so inspiring is a happy byproduct of the whole experiment.
  13. Jun 17, 2014
    80
    The result is the rare heady corrective that's as fun as it is thoughtful.
  14. Jun 19, 2014
    80
    The most radical makeovers highlight how great some of these songs are.
  15. 85
    Rage is, by turns, ridiculous, overly-serious, and self-satisfying. It’s also one helluva EDM record and an intelligent send-up of an otherwise difficult-to-work-with (and work in) music genre.
  16. The Wire
    Jul 14, 2014
    80
    What is most striking about Why Do The Heathen Rage?, Which reworks Black metal songs as electro, house and techno, is how intelligently respectful it is. [Jun 2014, p.55]
  17. Jun 17, 2014
    90
    Daniel has successfully harnessed this concept to produce an impressively cohesive art object on all fronts, one that yields perhaps the most provocative statement any musician is likely to make all year. It just might be a little too provocative for some.
  18. Uncut
    Jun 26, 2014
    70
    While somewhat novelty, it's hard not to appreciate Daniel's conceptual moxie. [Aug 2014, p.79]
  19. Under The Radar
    Jun 13, 2014
    65
    Rage pays homage as well, geared as much toward rethinking the form as upending it. [Jun/Jul 2014, p.94]

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