Author Topic: The official Frontiers Softcock Shit thread (Read 568326 times)

jjrock88 · « **Reply #3045 on:** March 29, 2015, 04:49:57 AM »

I agree cleavage would improve that album cover drastically

Lowdz · « **Reply #3046 on:** March 29, 2015, 12:42:07 PM »

Quote from: jjrock88 on March 29, 2015, 04:49:57 AM

I agree cleavage would improve that album cover drastically

I would just the way she is

TAC · « **Reply #3047 on:** March 31, 2015, 05:41:57 PM »

Quote from: wolfking on March 24, 2015, 06:07:21 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zOl3kg2lAE

Another Kiske/Sommerville song. Karlsson by numbers really, but a decent song for a single I guess. Some Karlsson shred is always welcome though.

This song sucks. City Of heroes was a lot better. I'm getting this, but I hope there's no worse songs than this.

I always laugh at their videos because Amanda is trying to act all dramatic and Kiske is ..um..not!

wolfking · « **Reply #3048 on:** March 31, 2015, 05:43:54 PM »

Yeah, I thought that too. Kiske just has a stupid plain dumb look on his face the whole time.

wolfking · « **Reply #3049 on:** March 31, 2015, 07:42:24 PM »

Freefall 2 shaping up to have bigger names than the first one. So far;

TONY MARTIN (ex- Black Sabbath)
JOE LYNN TURNER (ex- Rainbow ex-Deep Purple)
JORN LANDE
JAKOB SAMUEL (The Poodles)
HARRY HESS (Harem Scarem)

bl5150 · « **Reply #3050 on:** March 31, 2015, 09:53:26 PM »

Jakob Samuel is under rated (or unknown) I reckon - has a nice Axl style rasp and enough power to go around. One of the songs off their latest is a ripper , saving it up for Mr Hath's roulette

.

jingle.boy · « **Reply #3051 on:** April 01, 2015, 05:28:40 AM »

Quote from: wolfking on March 31, 2015, 07:42:24 PM

Freefall 2 shaping up to have bigger names than the first one. So far;

TONY MARTIN (ex- Black Sabbath)
JOE LYNN TURNER (ex- Rainbow ex-Deep Purple)
JORN LANDE
JAKOB SAMUEL (The Poodles)
HARRY HESS (Harem Scarem)

Was wondering if you saw that. I went ape-shit when I saw it over the weekend.

wolfking · « **Reply #3052 on:** April 01, 2015, 05:32:27 AM »

Quote from: jingle.boy on April 01, 2015, 05:28:40 AM

Quote from: wolfking on March 31, 2015, 07:42:24 PM
Freefall 2 shaping up to have bigger names than the first one. So far;

TONY MARTIN (ex- Black Sabbath)
JOE LYNN TURNER (ex- Rainbow ex-Deep Purple)
JORN LANDE
JAKOB SAMUEL (The Poodles)
HARRY HESS (Harem Scarem)

Was wondering if you saw that. I went ape-shit when I saw it over the weekend.

Good to see you Chad. Hope you're well. Yeah, I freaked when I saw Tony Martin. This is gonna be good. Can't wait to see who else is on the roster.

Quote from: bl5150 on March 31, 2015, 09:53:26 PM

Jakob Samuel is under rated (or unknown) I reckon - has a nice Axl style rasp and enough power to go around. One of the songs off their latest is a ripper , saving it up for Mr Hath's roulette .

I only have their last two albums, but they are both very good.

jjrock88 · « **Reply #3053 on:** April 01, 2015, 09:14:20 AM »

Finally... The Chad has come back to DTF

That line up for Free Fall is shaping up very nicely. Tony Martin is a very pleasant surprise!!

wolfking · « **Reply #3054 on:** April 08, 2015, 05:27:48 AM »

New House of Lords EPK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EadZs_yj2xM

Man, these guys are busy, last album only came out Feb last year.

bl5150 · « **Reply #3055 on:** April 08, 2015, 07:32:40 AM »

It's hard to tell too much from the EPK but it sounds like it could be a bit more varied than usual ,which is a good thing for me because I often find Jimi Bell's sound/writing a bit one dimensional. If the songs are there I'll like it because James Christian is one of my all time favourite vocalists.

wolfking · « **Reply #3056 on:** April 09, 2015, 05:16:27 AM »

At first I found the last album a bit underwhelming, but it turned into quite a grower and not a bad record IMO.

jingle.boy · « **Reply #3057 on:** April 11, 2015, 09:15:49 AM »

Precious Metal was definitely a grower. Middle of the pack for me when it comes to 2014 releases. This EPK makes Indestructible sound a little crunchier... me likey. HoL is still pretty much an instant purchase for me.

wolfking · « **Reply #3058 on:** April 12, 2015, 03:44:55 AM »

Quote from: jingle.boy on April 11, 2015, 09:15:49 AM

Precious Metal was definitely a grower. Middle of the pack for me when it comes to 2014 releases. This EPK makes Indestructible sound a little crunchier... me likey. HoL is still pretty much an instant purchase for me.

Same here.

jjrock88 · « **Reply #3059 on:** April 12, 2015, 08:23:15 AM »

Everything I hear from House of Lords is very good. Demons Down is a great album and my favorite from what Ive heard from the band.

Lowdz · « **Reply #3060 on:** April 12, 2015, 09:06:13 AM »

Quote from: jjrock88 on April 12, 2015, 08:23:15 AM

Everything I hear from House of Lords is very good. Demons Down is a great album and my favorite from what Ive heard from the band.

DD is certainly their best. Most of their stuff is at least decent.
JC's wig is shit though.

bl5150 · « **Reply #3061 on:** April 12, 2015, 09:10:03 AM »

I always thought he was just trying to look like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. He's got nothing on JLT though

That thing is a protected species of some kind.

jingle.boy · « **Reply #3062 on:** April 12, 2015, 10:01:46 AM »

Quote from: bl5150 on April 12, 2015, 09:10:03 AM

I always thought he was just trying to look like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. He's got nothing on JLT though That thing is a protected species of some kind.

Boals is the worst them.

bl5150 · « **Reply #3063 on:** April 12, 2015, 06:43:16 PM »

Boals is that bad I didn't even think of it as a rug

wolfking · « **Reply #3064 on:** April 13, 2015, 05:32:57 AM »

Yeah, I think Boals gets my vote too. Dunno what the hell he's thinking.

jingle.boy · « **Reply #3065 on:** April 13, 2015, 05:12:52 PM »

Royal Hunt news:

Quote

We´d like to announce that we already completed the songwriting/pre-production process for our new (thirteenth) studio album due to release later this year. Recordings will start shortly at NorthPoint Productions with André Andersen producing.

As a new twist on proceedings we´ve also started our first ever pre-ordering campaign on pledgemusic.com. Support us by sharing this information with your friends and other music fans, or even becoming a pledger.

Hopefully it's better than A Life to Die For. That was a pretty mediocre album. I honestly haven't gone back to it much since it got released (quick check of itunes shows I haven't listened to it since Dec/13). Though, iirc, it came out around the time of Symphony of Sin and Rising From Ashes... both killer albums.

wolfking · « **Reply #3066 on:** April 14, 2015, 05:06:01 AM »

I had a listen to that Royal Hunt album and from what I remember it was pretty shit.

wolfking · « **Reply #3067 on:** April 16, 2015, 05:39:54 AM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VECI3keYKug

New Cain's Offering song. Good classic power metal.

BlobVanDam · « **Reply #3068 on:** April 16, 2015, 05:44:31 AM »

I listened to it for about 5 seconds earlier then closed it. Solid cheese before the vocals even came in.

bl5150 · « **Reply #3069 on:** April 16, 2015, 05:46:33 AM »

Quote from: BlobVanDam on April 16, 2015, 05:44:31 AM

I listened to it for about 5 seconds earlier then closed it. Solid cheese before the vocals even came in.

Not doing much for me either - production line "happy" power metal.

BlobVanDam · « **Reply #3070 on:** April 16, 2015, 05:51:08 AM »

Major keys have no balls.

bl5150 · « **Reply #3071 on:** April 17, 2015, 09:45:24 PM »

OK Blob..........I'll try and get my thoughts on Peterik/Scherer into something half coherent.

Listening to this album was a very familiar feeling - an album that I know is going to be raved over by the melodic rock crowd (of which I have until recent years been mostly on board with) but which for the most part underwhelmed me. In fact this was going to be a pretty nasty score until 2 of the last 3 tracks showed a bit of originality in the music and saved it.

Jim Peterik would rank right up there if I was asked to name some of the best writers in the business , so I have nothing against his style and even when he's ultra cheesy (most of the time lately) I can still appreciate it when the music feels a bit fresh. I know it's getting harder in a genre where it's almost all been done before but this guy has shown that he can do it on a regular basis in bands like Pride of Lions. The track The Gift of Song is a good example......cheesy as a triple cheeseburger but the last few minutes are so awesome in terms of melody and vocals (Toby) that it gives me chills. So it's not as if I have become immune to this style as my tastes have admittedly got a touch heavier.

For the most part this all sounds very safe and stuff that Peterik could write in his sleep. It rocks rarely and the song structures are mostly very standard. The vocal performance of Scherer has been talked up a lot in advance , but just as many of the songs sound like a half assed version of Pride of Lions , he sounds like a half assed version of Toby Hitchcock. That's probably unfair as he still sounds great but he's not as good as Toby. I also feel that many of these songs wouldn't have sounded so overtly cheestastic if sung by someone with a bit more of a rock voice like (RIP) Jamison.

My favourite tracks in the first half were Cold Blooded, Desperate In Love and The Dying Of The Light. Towards the end Broken Home and Milestones saved the album score with some more thoughtful song writing ,although still very non-rock.

My score is as follows:

Cheesaholics: 78%
Cheesophobics: 68%
Me (in the middle): 73%
mr.com: 95%

BlobVanDam · « **Reply #3072 on:** April 17, 2015, 10:04:48 PM »

I still haven't given it a proper listen through, still mostly skimming, but I think I'm going to be a bit disappointed with it, with a couple of tracks I'll come back to. I don't mind the cheese at all, because it's exactly my kind of cheese for the most part, and it's the kind of cheese this genre is about, but it's a bit soft overall, and the songwriting isn't all up to the standard of the best tracks. The vocals are pretty good, but nothing to rave about.

I don't mind the music being safe or being stock in structure, as that's basically par for the genre, and in many ways that's how I like it. But I think the album leans too heavily on the ballads. My favourite tracks are Cold Blooded (I still absolutely love this song), Risk Everything, Thee Crescendo, and The Dying of the Light. I don't mind that Cold Blooded isn't representative of the style of the whole album, but it doesn't seem to be representative of the quality either.

Take Frederiksen's last album. The single "Last Battle of My War" was by far the most rock track, and wasn't indicative of the whole album, but the rest of the album was equally strong in songwriting imo, so I loved that album. I was hoping this would be a repeat of that.

I still haven't given the album a good listen through, but those are my initial thoughts. I expect I'll roughly agree with you on this one. I must say though, the production is great, easily one of the better sounding Frontiers albums.

bl5150 · « **Reply #3073 on:** April 17, 2015, 10:10:43 PM »

Yeah it does sound great , I'll give 'em that. I don't mind simple structures either but songs written in that way need to do something else to get me interested (rock a bit , interesting melodies etc.....) If they don't do that then the simple structure just amplifies the pedestrian nature of the whole thing. Knowing what Peterik is capable of probably adds to the frustration. As you know I'm no prog head and musical wankery for the sake of it annoys me a lot more than simple song structures.

Now I'm onto the first track of Kiske/Somerville and here we go again.............very generic melodic rock/metal , but when I can tap my foot /bang my head a bit I find it much easier to tolerate the familiar feeling.

bl5150 · « **Reply #3074 on:** April 17, 2015, 10:18:11 PM »

See how you like this............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwA746P5h5Y

Almost as generic as the Peterik stuff , some pretty lame lyrics , but sometimes having some balls make a difference

BlobVanDam · « **Reply #3075 on:** April 17, 2015, 10:21:58 PM »

Not my kind of thing. That deviates too far into just being generic metal to me, and has no relation to melodic rock imo (not that there's a problem with that, as I listen to plenty of other genres, but it doesn't hit the spot as far as this thread goes). When it's that kind of metal, I find it loses the balls, because it's so flattened to the point of having no dynamics or life. It's just electronic sounding machine guns.

Yet another thing I'm quite pedantic on.

bl5150 · « **Reply #3076 on:** April 17, 2015, 10:24:42 PM »

Fair enough..........and I agree to an extent. I can't see this getting 80%+ from me either and I'd take high quality AOR over either of these,. It's just that if I have to choose between generic cheesy AOR and generic cheesy hard rock/metal with a singer like Kiske ,then I'd take the heavier stuff .

BlobVanDam · « **Reply #3077 on:** April 17, 2015, 10:32:23 PM »

I like a particular kind of rock/heaviness when it comes to melodic rock. I don't want it wimpy and lacking balls, because I want my music to have energy to it, but I really hate the metal stuff that comes from the genre, because I find it bland and uninteresting.
Since a lot of the Frontiers stuff comes off the same production line, a lot of albums fall too neatly into one of those two camps, without a lot of room for inbetween unless they're a bit more self produced, like say Journey - Eclipse.

bl5150 · « **Reply #3078 on:** April 17, 2015, 10:34:54 PM »

What did you think of the debut Place Vendome? To me that's the ideal mix of melodic rock/ metal from this sort of production line stuff as it actually has some great original writing on it - both on the ballads and the rockers.

The more I get through the Kiske/Somerville the more I'm getting the same "heard it all before" feeling. We've gone from Peterik by numbers to Karlsson by the numbers. I'm starting to wonder if the time I put into new releases is worth it ............the strike rate is so low $:-\$

BlobVanDam · « **Reply #3079 on:** April 17, 2015, 10:50:28 PM »

Never heard it, but checked out a song on Youtube, and it sounded solid. I don't think I'm in the right frame of mind right now to be absorbing more melodic rock/metal though.

News: Fall Into the Light, official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFxH4kky6z4

Author Topic: The official Frontiers Softcock Shit thread (Read 568326 times)