ehh, i could do another relisten but honestly at this point i don't think it's worth it
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I don't have much to say about this album, I don't have a ton to say about any of these three to be honest. This one is... weird, yes, but I think it overplays its weirdness to the point where once you strip away the initial "omgsocrazy" reaction all you're left with is... okay metal that tends to be way too overbearing. Some of the vocals, especially the "crazy" bits in tracks 4 and 5, really just... don't do it for me. And as well the guitar tone on the heavier moments is... lacking. Especially since I think this is like, a remaster/rerecording of the album, that they released under a different band name a year before? I'm not sure on that but it doesn't really matter. The track you played in plug.dj was I think was Lucilinburhuc, which is... one of the more "normal" tracks but still with enough flavor to it & more compelling music in general than a lot of the album, which makes it a smart pick and also gave me expectations that the rest of the album didn't tend to meet. And the pacing of this album is strange too, three of the last four tracks are all quite brief after a lot of longer tracks in the front half, which makes them feel kind of tacked-on or unimportant. I feel like I'm being pretty down on this but I still did like this, it's just hard to call out specific things I did like because they don't stand out as much as the issues I have. I dunno. I still think this is pretty easily safe over the other two though.
Train of Naught with
Le Grand Guignol – The Great Maddening, looks like you haven't gone off the deep end just quite yet.
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I honestly could just copy and paste my writeup on October Falls wholesale here because I feel -exactly- the same towards this album as I did towards that one. The issue is, to put it bluntly. This lacks the intensity that makes black metal appealing to me, same as October Falls. It's absolutely "nice" music, I am absolutely okay with listening to it, there's nothing about this I dislike at all, but at the same time I've heard this sound before plenty of times and without having anything really new to offer it just doesn't personally compel me much. I feel like there's a tiny bit more flavor here than October Falls had but it's not paced as well as an album overall either, and the production is maybe just a tad too muddy. I dunno. In a round without an obvious sore thumb in the bunch this would probably get cut for just not interesting me much, but the album I did settle on cutting just has a problem I can't overlook, so this is safe for now.
Evermind with
Falls of Rauros - The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood is safe to tell another tale, yet again.
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And that leaves us with Spiritualized. Oh lord. I have THOUGHTS about this one, alright, and they are incredibly mixed. For starters. That intro track/title track? Absolutely GORGEOUS. Loved it from first listen. How did that get home cut from Tomi's roulette? Seriously dude? Okay. And then Come Together is pretty solid too, a lot more abraisive and lumbering but in a way that works. And then things start to fall apart... I Think I'm In Love contains one of the first moments of "the lyrics have to be ironic because I can't imagine them being straight-faced" and irony is one of the least interesting ways to make music to me. The "probably just" lyric bit, in particular. Every track after that until Broken Heart I don't... remember a single thing about. I don't remember really disliking any of them, but they don't really offer much for me. I'm just skimming through them now... All of My Thoughts is a pretty nice one actually, Stay With Me is... also pretty nice and builds well, Electricity isn't exactly my thing but makes for a nice change of pace, the next two are basically one track split into two parts and really ambient. Broken Heart then. I like how this one -sounds- a lot but god the lyrics are again so... banal. Ruins the atmosphere for me just a little. Next track is an okay instrumental, Cool Waves is a great album closer.
...
Right, now then. Cop Shoot Cop may be the single worst song in the entire roulette this far, worse than any song on that St. Vincent album, because... it's just the most grueling, pointless, overly long tedium-fest I've heard in a long while. That nice groove that starts the song off is okay for a minute or two. Until you realize. That's... that's it. That's the entire 17 minute song. Sure, they turn up the volume on that groove a few times. And they stop the song dead in its tracks to hit random notes on all their instruments for about 4 minutes straight, before just going right back to sounding exactly like the rest of the song beforehand. With like, a tiiiiny bit of added texture. It's the pinnacle of pretentiousness. It just inherently projects this "we're so awesome we can put anything on our record and the critics will eat it up". It offends me on a deep level that I honestly can't get past, especially because it drags out what would be a pretty solid album with a pretty decent length into becoming an absolute chore to finish, just by itself. If this song wasn't here, this would honestly almost certainly be safe, but the fact that I want to skip an entire 17 minute chunk of an album and would never wish to listen to this one song again, it's just a sticking point for me that my relatively mildness towards the other two albums this round can't possibly overcome.
Also, it feels to me like these guys are inspired by the Beatles a lot. A lot of this takes notes from them but reframes them into a more psychedelic, early-Floyd type of vibe. I think they even lampshade this by having a song name literally taken from the Beatles. Anyways.
home with
Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, looks like the cop shot you down this time. RIP.
1. White Walls - Escape Artist
2. Intervals - A Voice Within
3. Hyperomm - From Nothing to Eternity
4. Le Grand Guignol – The Great Maddening
5. Falls of Rauros - The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood
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6. Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
i honestly half-wanted to give the bottom three another spin to solidify my thoughts further but i feel like it'd be as pointless as listening to that last spiritualized song felt all three times i did listen to it, so, whatever. like i said, not gonna be listening to anything for probably the next few days at least, Friday or Saturday, but go ahead and send for the next round