3. Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Emerson, Lake & Palmer
I've only ever known 2 things about ELP: Keith Emerson was a monstrous keyboardist, and Jordan Rudess's version of Tarkus is incredible. So, when I started this, I didn't know what to expect. But holy hell, man, that is some ridiculously good keyboard playing. No wonder Emerson is a legend.
I was pretty sure the legend comment was ELP; looks like I got it right.
8. The Dear Hunter – Act IV: Rebirth In Reprise
This was interesting. It took one spin to tell whether or not I liked this, but it's going to take many more to really absorb it. This is cool. Needs some fat trimmed, but it's cool. Way different from what I expected given the comments about circus music earlier in the thread.
I hope you weren't expecting the entire band to be "circus music" based on my comments. It was based on one live show, I said it might just not be the setlist for my tastes, and I even said that the first 2 songs were really good. I think I said carnival music, but either way, it's not exactly accurate, and I'll admit to not being great at describing music, but there were songs that made me expect someone to start yelling "step right up..." I don't know anything about the band other than now 2 live shows, so there might be a lot that I like about them, or possibly not, but I wasn't trying to describe their whole existence.
10. Solefald – Norrøn livskunst
2010; avant-garde/black metal
sent by Lethean
I knew this would be a troublesome album after looking up the genre, but I gave it three full spins and tried to have an open mind about it. I at least hope you were being truthful about not caring about scores. The language barrier is a bit troublesome since the lyrics lose all meaning to me, and I was hoping the rest of the album would at least follow the style of the first track – unfortunately it doesn't. Sometimes there are cool soft moments or passages with clean vocals, and then the harsh growls/screams come in and completely ruin the mood. There's a vocalist on this album that sounds like a ten year old child or an imp screaming obnoxiously, and that might be even worse than the growls. As a result, Tittentattenteksti is a really irritating piece of music. Eukalyptustreet is by far the best piece of music here, I truly enjoy it... except that it gets heavy in the last two minutes, and then introduces growls at the end, which completely destroys the mood set in the first 5 minutes of the song, especially with that beautiful sax break in the middle. I really wish you had read the Moonsorrow writeup before sending this. I know you wanted me to hear this, but I can't understand why. I'm sorry, I just don't like this kind of music. 6.0/10
Favorite tracks: Song til Stormen; Eukalyptustreet
I wanted you to hear it because I love it, and wanted to share it. It's also one of the strangest albums in my collection. But I'm fine with this review - I like it way better than the previous one, and if I were giving you star ratings on reviews, this one would get a higher score.
I disagree about the harsh vocals ruining anything, especially Eukalyptustreet; I think it finishes the song off on a really intense wave. But I get that you may not agree. My only "issue" so to speak is... why would you consider the language barrier to be "troublesome?" I know English is the standard language for rock, metal, and most forms of music, but... I don't have a problem with listening to stuff in other languages. It's your choice of course, but I'd be happier if the 6/10 score is the same as it would have been if the language was English.