DreamTheaterForums.org Dream Theater Fan Site
General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: Train of Naught on September 27, 2016, 04:50:52 PM
-
This sub has a severe lack of top albums threads.
Last time I did one of these lists was a year ago and it was with a general ranking of my favorite albums. That list has changed drastically but still a lot of the same albums appear. This time I am doing something fresh, about 50 new albums released in 2016 (maybe a bit more based on the yet-to-be-released albums), and I will review them in no particular order, just listening to whichever I feel like spinning and then I will leave it up for discussion and post another one after that etc. These will all be written on the spot so unlike last time I am not keeping to a particular time schedule, it will just be me posting whenever I listen to the album I am reviewing. (expect like daily updates, some times once in 2 days)
What kind of music can you expect: I hate to be this person but "a bit of everything" sounds pretty accurate, if you are a fan of some good albums and a couple shitty albums this thread will be perfect for you. There is a good amount of roulette albums in this one as well thanks to that awesome 2016 bonus theme. I thought I had a good idea of my top 5 albums of the year already but compiling the stuff I have made me realize it is going to be hard. I can already reveal that I am very positive towards these for the most part, been really pleased with 2016 releases so far. So I guess you could almost see this as a recommendation thread.
I will post the first one tomorrow, it is a bit late right now and I don't really have the energy to do it before going to sleep. I'm going to start off the list with what is probably the earliest 2016 release I have on my list. Surprise, it's prog.
Train's albums:
- Sean Ashe: Flux (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2220587#msg2220587)
- Shokran: Exodus (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2220759#msg2220759)
- Haken: Affinity (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2221340#msg2221340)
- Messenger: Threnodies (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2221727#msg2221727)
- Novembre: URSA (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2221891#msg2221891)
- Ihsahn: Arktis. (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2222253#msg2222253)
- Rival Sons: Hollow Bones (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2222518#msg2222518)
- Slice The Cake: Odyssey to the Gallows (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2223401#msg2223401)
- Deftones: Gore (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2223911#msg2223911)
- Cult of Luna (ft. Julie Christmas): Mariner (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2224433#msg2224433)
- Thank You Scientist: Stranger Heads Prevail (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2224540#msg2224540)
- O'kingdom: Anthem for the Lost (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2224967#msg2224967)
- Lemaitre: 1749 (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2225515#msg2225515)
- Dream the Electric Sleep: Beneath the Dark Wide Sky (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2226171#msg2226171)
- Gojira: Magma (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2227006#msg2227006)
- The Dear Hunter: Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2227694#msg2227694)
- Toothgrinder: Nocturnal Masquerade (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2229309#msg2229309)
- Periphery: Periphery III: Select Difficulty (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2230628#msg2230628)
- Thrice: To Be Everywhere is to Be Nowhere (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2232068#msg2232068)
- Pyramido: Vatten (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2233476#msg2233476)
- Slice the Cake: Odyssey to the West (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2236025#msg2236025)
- Obsidian Kingdom: A Year With No Summer (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2237298#msg2237298)
- Car Bomb: Meta (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2239687#msg2239687)
- Avenged Sevenfold: The Stage (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=48538.msg2240396#msg2240396)
-
you have over double the amount of 2016 albums I do
Slice the Cake when
-
Following this biatch, and I might do one of my own when the end of the year is a little closer.
-
Time to train to follow this train.
-
Time to train to follow this train.
Groovy!
-
To quote T.O.P. I've got to groove.....
-
Following this biatch
-
Following. Don't think I've checked out a lot of albums this year
-
Yes all aboard that groove Train. I'll be following :azn:
-
Cool cool cool, kicking this thing off with like I said, probably the earliest 2016 release I have, enjoy folks!
Sean Ashe - Flux (January 12th)
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2941591071_10.jpg)
For fans of: Instrumental prog rock (Sithu Aye, Plini, Pomegranate Tiger, Widek)
Everyone has at some point heard one of those "solo project prog guitarists who produce their own music", everyone always seems to respect them even if they don't like the music. Sithu Aye, Plini (in earlier stages), and here we have Sean Ashe, the lovable Irish dude (jk he is not irish but he does look irish). At the age of 23 years he has just
From the second the album starts you already get this warm inviting feel from the guitar tone and throughout the album he maintains that approach. To flavour it up there is some cool piano here and there, most notably on the opening song "Imagine" which has one of the coolest piano passages I have heard. Unlike many of these instrumental prog guitarist albums it has never really bored me or sounded 'samey'. Granted, Sean does not focus on complex structures or crazy wahibrido pickingant passages or whatever, but rather has these groovy licks and catchy riffs to keep the listener entertained.
Maybe one gripe I have is that it starts off with Imagine, which I feel is the best song on the album. On the bright side, you get a very good impression of what this guy is capable of and the song showcases the range of styles he does on the album pretty well. With that said, if you are looking for an overall upbeat/happy record with some awesome grooves and you like the album opener, I think it is highly unlikely to be disappointed.
I remember the guy even commented to thank me on reddit for listing his album as one of my favorites of the year in the dreamtheater subreddit, what a guy. :laugh: If I made a rough estimation right now it would probably not be among my absolute favorites anymore but this is still a very good album if your mood fits. On bandcamp (link (https://seanashe.bandcamp.com/)) he sells "Flux" for 8 dollars digitally. Unfortunately I don't think they are available in physical form but if you are dying to get it in physical form you could try to PM him on bandcamp, it has worked in the past with others and he is a very nice and approachable guy.
Favorite songs: Imagine, Creature, Hemispheres
-
I'm listening to Imagine now on Spotify and I'm liking.
-
i gave this a spin at some point and it was... okay, but not something i felt worth exploring deeper
-
I hope you'll review Joanne.
-
Joanne isn't out yet :lol but when it is I will probably give it the review it deserves. Take that however you want
I'm listening to Imagine now on Spotify and I'm liking.
:metal
-
I was actually listening to Creature last night. Spotify chucked it my way via the 'Discover Weekly' playlist. Sounded pretty cool.
That weekly playlist has a pretty good hit rate.
Edit: I just checked the playlist and I also liked Run Home by And So I Watch You from Afar. Never heard of them but they sounded pretty cool.
-
That weekly playlist has a pretty good hit rate.
O yeah, I have found so many great songs trough discover weekly, it's really great
-
That weekly playlist has a pretty good hit rate.
O yeah, I have found so many great songs trough discover weekly, it's really great
I add songs I find through discover weekly to a dedicated playlist, it's a good feature but I wish there would be a way to filter out songs that you have already saved. I get songs that are already in my playlist almost every week.
I think 3 of the albums that are going to be on this list come from that discover weekly feature though, good stuff.
-
That weekly playlist has a pretty good hit rate.
O yeah, I have found so many great songs trough discover weekly, it's really great
I add songs I find through discover weekly to a dedicated playlist, it's a good feature but I wish there would be a way to filter out songs that you have already saved. I get songs that are already in my playlist almost every week.
I think 3 of the albums that are going to be on this list come from that discover weekly feature though, good stuff.
That doesn't bother me too much, you can always skip the ones you already know, they're usually in the minority anyway. It is better than a lot of other 'recomnendations' I've got through other sites/apps. It's usually really pointless ones like 'You like Metallica, maybe you would like Megadeth.' Or ridiculous ones like 'You like Foo Fighters, maybe you'd like Slayer.'
Discover weekly is chucking all sorts of great stuff my way and very rarely anything really mainstream or obvious. It doesn't assume you are a real noob who knows like 10 bands. I like that!
-
Slice the Cake when
I want to do it justice so I might 'prepare' for this one (as well as a few others) instead of just churning something out in the 2 hours it takes to listen to the albums (yes, I'm doing Gallows + West). It should be no surprise that I am in love with this album by now.
Gonig to do one more write-up today, this one is going to be a bit heavier. And with a bit I mean a shitton, might be the heaviest album in my 2016 collection. :lol
-
Shokran - Exodus (September 17th)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xlp1/v/t1.0-9/13879440_999908550107941_5805817903686426167_n.jpg?oh=916ff6dc4913189346a3c24099be94e4&oe=587E966A&__gda__=1487774328_a70629c29bd8dbacb3f9d6508dcefd92)
For fans of: Oriental/Groove progmetal and melodic deathmetal (Solution .45, Myrath/Orphaned Land, In Flames)
If anyone has seen me mention this bands name last year in the "What album are you listening to?" thread, yeah they're correct. I found an album of theirs and fell in love with the oriental metal instrumentals but soon figured out that it was the instrumental version of an album with actual vocals. The vocals were such a chore to get through and from there on the band went completely under my radar.
I figured that one year and many heavy-as-shit bands being added to my collection later, I could give it another shot with their newly released album. With a total length of just 35 minutes spread over 10 songs it should be an easy listen, right?
Well yeah this was still a bit extreme for me at times, but they managed to nuance their extreme vocals very well with some cool cleans that remind me of a mix between Orphaned Land and Avenged Sevenfold in several songs, if that makes sense. This album - be warned - does not leave the listener with much breathing room, it's pretty heavy on the djent and metalcore elements (just underlining these words so you guys know whether you can stop reading at this point) but the vocals are simply impressive, maybe not the most talented singer ever technically but he manages to pull off a shitton of different styles and pitches and the low growls work better than I expected. The cheap programmed synths are a bit much and overstay their welcome at times though, seems like they are really dedicated to create that middle-eastern vibe. And don't get me wrong, I tend to have a weak spot for that kinda thing but it's a bit much here. I think these guys would be better off making a full-on melodic deathmetal album or something along those lines. Still, solid effort and I am going to check out that other album I tried last year, it's called Supreme Truth and seems to be the fan favorite.
The Disfigured Hand -> And Heavens Began to Fall run is definitely the most interesting part of the album. Maybe that tells us something about this band since those are the only two songs with guest artists. Structurally these are also the least predictable, especially the latter, which sounds more like an actual progmetal song than melodeath/groove which probably best describes this band normally. With songs like Revival of Darkness and Firstborn they managed to capture the essence of the album pretty well, they're good album closers. Meaning they maintain those heavy downtuned guitars that define their agressive sound, but they also throw some good familiar clean vocal lines in there to remind us that they can write some damn fine choruses.
I would mainly recommend this album to fans of prog metal who also take an appeal towards death and core vocals (there's a lot of both on here) and lots of downtuned djenty guitar riffs. So maybe a good description could be: A combination of Solution .45 and Shattered Skies? Take that description with a grain of salt though.
Favorite songs: And Heavens Began to Fall, Creatures from the Mud, Disfigured Hand
-
Shokran :metal :metal :metal
I had no idea that they did stuff with vocals as well, the only stuff of theirs that I knew was purely instrumental.
-
I've heard a different Shokran album, one which was instrumental, but I didn't really like it enough to give it another go. I'll listen to this one though.
-
Well, I don't know too much about this band but I am pretty sure that Supreme Truth is the only album that they officially released as an instrumental album alongside the album with vocals.
I am still not even sure if I prefer that album instrumentally or with vocals, gotta relisten.
-
Okay, following up two albums that are probably not as well known (the latter likely because it was only released this month), comes what might be the most popular prog release of 2016. Sit back, relax, enjoy the ride. :metal
Haken - Affinity (April 29th)
(https://hakenmusic.com/images/affinity.jpg?v=1.0)
For fans of: Progressive rock/metal (Dream Theater, Leprous, Ayreon)
Remember just before the release when Haken put up that old-fashioned codec website where they released the tracklisting and stuff? I have seen a lot of great pre-release hype campaigns (Gojira and Dream Theater to name the other standouts) but this one was the best. Some very subtle hints, some obviously fake misleading updates which somehow managed to actually trick some people (who the hell thinks "Verbatim" is a proper album title?). But they made it interactive and raised the hype pretty well.
I guess for this reason it was pretty hard for the album to live up to the hype. At first it definitely did, when it came out I spun Affinity on a daily basis and some songs on it I would still consider some of their best. Anyway let's break down the songs. I am tempted to call affinity.exe/Initiate the best album intro Haken have done. The interlude track is a perfect callback to the pre-release updates and fits the album 'theme', and even though I overplayed Initiate it is still one of my favorite songs on the album, maybe even my favorite. Above anything else, that main riff is catchy as hell and I can not stop airdrumming along to it. :lol Alongside that, the vocals have a very dramatic feel to them, it gives the song this dark mood that I wish was present a bit more on this album. Everyone loves 1985, and I can't argue that it's a really good song. The chorus is fantastic, the instrumental section is glorious (you know which one I am talking about), but that "djent" riff after the chorus really sticks out in a bad way for me and some of the vocal melodies in the verses feel really awkward and I get that they wanted to have this goofy 80's feeling to the song, but that's not really my thing I guess. Still, a really good song overall. Whenever I listen to Lapse I really like it, but for some reason it does not have much staying power, it is the one song of which I always forget how it even goes whenever I am not listening to it. Now The Architect is just awesome, I loved it from first listen and noticed people were kind of skeptical about it, but some are finally coming around to it. Might not be as good as Celestial Elixir and FBTE for example, but it is still a really good song and to me feels way shorter than 15 minutes.
This is were the album kinda goes downhill for me. Earthrise and Red Giant are alright songs but I would never really revisit them, the only things that stick out in a positive way for me are the chorus in Earthrise and the Drum 'n Bass section at the end of Red Giant. :lol The Endless Knot on the other hand is fantastic, when it was released I thought for sure this would be my album of the year, Initiate and it were some of the best things I had heard all year, and The Endless Knot was so cool in a live setting too. Bound By Gravity is the obligatory mellow ending some bands seem to feel is a must this year. Apparently they are generally very well received (Periphery's Lune and this song mostly) but the only thing I love about this one is the reprise at the end. Speaking of reprises, Affinity definitely wasn't the most subtle at them, but both The Architect and BBG had such epic reprises, to the point of almost feeling like a really good conclusion of a movie.
Overall this is a solid album from front to back, though I feel that the affinity.exe - The Architect run is much stronger than the last four songs. I still strongly believe that The Mountain and Aquarius are their strongest efforts, but this one is not too far behind. If anyone somehow still does not know this band, I'd stay away from Aquarius at first and start with either of the last two albums.
Favorite songs: Initiate, The Architect, The Endless Knot, 1985
-
bound by gravity is the best, and earthrise is pretty great too, and so is the endless knot, i actually prefer the back half in general to the front half
honestly the architect is one of my least favorite, it has its moments but it's too drawn out and generally slow-paced. i actually sort of spaced out when they played it live last week... oops
-
I'm warming up to pretty much all of it.
-
Pretty good album. Endless Knot and 1985 are my favorites.
-
Definitely one of my favourite albums of this year, it hit me a lot more emotionally then the other Haken albums did. I love Red Giant, the rhythm is really nice and some of the high floaty vocal melodies are just so beautiful. :angel:
-
It feels like part of me bashes on the few negative aspects too hard just because it didn't live up to my expectations because it really is a good album. Guess it just does not compare to some of the other stuff I have found this year, this is a really good year for music.
I might hold off updating this thread for a few days sometimes during the process btw guys, I will try to have this done around late November so I don't miss out on the good stuff that is still being released this year.
-
Hearing the songs from this album live made me love this album even more.
-
Hearing the songs from this album live made me love this album even more.
I had this with Crystallised, but only slightly. Still think it pales in comparison to most of their epics but the chorus was much better in a live setting, and the acapella section was magnificent. :metal
Messenger - Threnodies (April 22nd)
(https://progreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Messenger_Threnodies.jpg)
For fans of: Progressive rock with a touch of sludgy/stoner guitar tones (Yes, Mastodon, Dream the Electric Sleep, The Flower Kings, Pink Floyd)
As one of the many spotify discover weekly things I have.. discovered, this is one of the only ones released this year. It actually took quite some time for me to recognize the effort that went into this album, at first it sounded like a lazy mix of The Flower Kings (yes, I have actually checked out some since my roulette) and Dream the Electric Sleep, with some heavy moments that remind me of Mastodon. But the musicianship on this is actually quite great and not in a technical show-off sense, everything blends well together and never during the entire 46-min runtime do I get the feeling that they put too much attention on one instrument/bandmember.
The song that got me into this album (the one that was on my discover weekly playlist once) was Oracles of War, a pretty heavy song with some striking similarities to Mastodon, only this sounds way cleaner, for better or worse. The song has some guitar leads that are almost too similar to ZZ top's Sharp Dressed Man, almost. Balearic Blue seems like the best introductory track for fans of older progrock. Especially the chorus which is essentially Yes. Following it up, Celestial Spheres, is basically a much groovier alternative of the last song, and way superior if you ask me. Soaring vocal lines, orgasmic synths (unlike Ayreon - Reign of Computers) and sexy basslines. The most interesting song for me remains Nocturne, it has these dark Pink Floyd-like verses and then they go into a bombastic chorus and it's the most satisfying thing ever. Pareidolia is a good track, may even be the best introductory track, but in the context of the album it kind of sounds like everything we have just heard put into a blender to crank up the album length. Though I gotta say the chorus is really cool. Crown of Ashes is pretty forgettable and not a good song to end the album with, and I feel like these guys have more in store because there were some nice mixes of different styles throughout the album, leaves me a bit disappointed but I can't say the album as a whole left me disappointed, it's good.
I guess this is a solid effort, and I will keep this and on my radar for sure to see what else they can come up with, but particularly looking at some of the vocal melodies, they're not all that interesting at times. Also might be sufficient to note that while it's solid all the way through, apart from the instrumental work in Celestial Spheres and the entirety of Nocturne there is nothing too special going on. You should go into this expecting something solid but not amazing, still definitely worth the listen. This may become one of those albums I burn out on after like 10-20 listens, but for now it is an enjoyable album, a nice surprise this year.
Favorite songs: Nocturne, Pareidolia, Oracles of War, Celestial Spheres
-
No takers? :( Next one came out right after I started becoming a fan of these guys.
Novembre - URSA (April 1st)
(https://www.novembre.co.uk/images/novembre-ursa.jpg)
For fans of: Doom/death/atmospheric metal (Opeth, Katatonia, Alcest)
This was and still is the first time I have ever been properly introduced to a band through the monthly band feature (which seems to have died out now) of the progmetal subreddit. The first song I heard was Verne off their most 'popular' album, whatever that means for a band this small.
Novembre started out as a deathmetal band in the early 90's and have since developed a really cool blend between deathmetal, doom metal and an atmospheric sound that reminds me of Alcest with its own unique twist to it. With all the new stuff I had never heard before by this band I was kind of skeptical that they could live up to their earlier albums (Materia, The Blue and Classica were on regular rotation), and that's exactly what happened.
I did not like the album at all and kind of ignored it for months, until eventually I was on a Novembre kick and decided to give the lead single another shot (titled "Umana"): This is quite easily the best introduction to the band. The song includes their signature gloomy/somber clean vocals, it has the death growls (I personally believe Carmelo Orlando does the best growls that I've ever heard, they are so powerful). On the flip side, Umana does not have a strong instrumental section like many of their other songs do, so it fails to explore that side of their sound and it may be a turn off when people get into albums like Classica and realize that this band is actually very focused on instrumentals. To be fair, this entire album is a bit minimal on the instrumentals and that may be a slight gripe of mine when reviewing and ranking it amongst the other 2016 releases. This time I am not going to bother going song-by-song, will just be doing as much songs as needed to capture the essence of the album since this is a pretty concise and straight to the point album.
With Umana out of the way, let's move on to the preceding track, The Rose. It is a fair bit darker and not as heavy on the background orchestration to try and make it sound "epic". It has some more retro-Novembre vibes to it which I appreciate, and with that drk mood at the end it definitely reminds of some of the songs on "Materia". URSA, the title track, does not do this album justice I feel. It is too heavy on growls and they feel a bit misplaced. I always thought that title tracks should represent the album but I would not say this is. They kind of flipped it around so they have growls at the start and clean vocals in the part that leads up to it. Notice how I refrain from using the terms "verse" and "chorus". Novembre have very interesting song structures and rarely use these, repeating certain parts in songs does not happen often, one obvious exception being the song Verne, where I feel they repeated the chorus so many times because it is packed with emotion, maybe they wanted this to be their live hit or something. Oceans of Afternoons is the breather they did not necessarily need on this album. It is already a pretty pleasant, relaxing listen throughout so they could have done without a relatively slowpaced, all clean vocals song. But regardless this is a good and interesting song, and the payoff at the end (sax solo) is brilliant. Annoluce, unlike any other song on the album, pretty much represents the structure of many of the older songs by this band, with the progressive, longer instrumental sections and all. Like you're taking a trip through several songs and it all ties in together at the end. See it as a clean, softer alternative of their older material, pretty cool. Agathae, being the longest song on the album, feels like they were trying to make another "Zenith" from The Blue album, not even close man. They will never be able to make a song that good, this one is too dragged out and I feel like these guys are not amazing at doing instrumentals. The one time the vocals do come in they are not even that good. I guess this is the only real disappointment for me on the album too. The last two songs are not really noteworthy. Both are good songs but are mostly similar to other stuff on the album. If you liked this album, chances are you will like these songs just as well.
Favorite songs: Umana, Oceans of Afternoons, The Rose, Bremen, Annoluce
-
No takers? :(
I was going to listen to that album today but didn't get around to it.
-
I really like URSA, great album. I disagree with your thoughts on the final two songs, I think they're two of the album's best songs. I have a stout support for Agathae in particular. I'll have to give this a few more listens (so much awesome new music this year, ugh) but I could see this beating out Materia as my faerie Novembre album.
-
Train, we had a power outage in Boston so they played as a bonus both Celestial Elixir & Crystallised.
-
Was just about to post the next write-up but glad to get some feedback on Novembre still. Looking at it right now actually it seems like apart from The Blue, I've always felt the same about the final few songs on Novembre albums, they are always good and up to par with the rest of the album for me, but I've never gone gaga over them. Still, with reservations to The Blue and its Zenith - Argentic - Deorbit run.
Train, we had a power outage in Boston so they played as a bonus both Celestial Elixir & Crystallised.
That's awesome! (not so awesome about the outage though :lol I think I saw that on FB) They played Crystallised > Celestial Elixir here as well but I thought they were done after Crystallised so I actually left before they played Celestial Elixir :( one of my favorite songs.
Got this one this morning so the timing feels right!
Ihsahn - Arktis. (April 8th)
(https://www.metal-archives.com/images/5/5/1/5/551528.jpg?5041)
For fans of: Heavy metal, Prog metal and black metal (Leprous, Emperor, Arcturus, Enslaved)
I remember checking out Emperor a loooong time ago and never thought I would actually enjoy their music one day, mainly because of the vocals. I guess to most people what appeals to them naturally is a human voice, and the more it differs from a human-sounding voice the harder it is to get into which is the reason a lot of people cannot get into growls. Ihsahn is basically this to the extreme if you ask me, but when you get into them, oh man do they come across as powerful!
My introduction to his solo work was actually the single off this very album, Celestial Violence. Being one of the more straightforward songs on the album, I think it's just gorgeous, and it is a contender for my favorite song of the year for sure. I have been raving about this song even to friends who listen to EDM, I can not get enough of it. If you at some point have enjoyed Einar Solberg's (singer of Leprous) vocals and have not heard this, go do so right now. Leprous has actually been the performing band for Ihsahn's solo music. Ihsahn has also contributed some vocal work on some of Leprous' music, most notably the harsh vox in Bilateral's "Thorn". These artists have a lot in common musically while still being very different, but I would at least recommend Ihsahn to every Leprous fan and the other way around, in case they hadn't heard the other band yet somehow.
Now onto the album in general, this latest Ihsahn release is without a doubt the most accessible of his catalogue. The album includes some groovy hardrock/metal riffs in songs like Until I Too Dissolve and Disassembled, as well of some oddly remeniscent-to-Leprous synths on Frail. Mass Darkness features Matt Heafy from Trivium and is one of the heaviest tracks on the album, but not one of my personal favorites. I actually thought for the longest time that In The Vaults was the Matt Heafy featured song since that chorus sounds so much like him.
Anyway, Arktis. seems like a very on-the-surface effort after the first listen but it is actually quite a lot to take in when you start getting into it more, do not give up on it after the first listen unless you can absolutely not stand the vocals. I found myself having listened to the album about two or three times while having listened to Celestial Violence for at least 50 times :lol but it is amazing front to back, really. One of the most interesting things about the best Ihsahn album (for most, including me) titled "After" was the speedy sax sections, which have been abandoned completely on this album apart from Crooked Red Line, where it is used in a jazzier and more relaxing way than usual, similar to On The Shores off After. That is fine though, the sax would not fit on this album for the most part since this one is a bit more heavy metal/hardrock focused opposed to full-on black/avantgarde metal.
Favorite songs: Celestial Violence, Crooked Red Line, Disassembled, In The Vaults, My Heart Is Of The North
-
Easily one of my favorite albums of the year. Not a bad song on the whole album and it's so diverse throughout. Until I Too Dissolve it's probably my favorite here, but the wrote thing is fantastic. I'm not always in the mood for the spoken-word bonus track, but Celestial Violence makes a great closer and when I am in the mood for it, it's fantastic. I honestly didn't think that this would happen, but Ihsahn has actually beaten After with this album. :hefdaddy
-
Yeah it is actually very close for me now as well. I love to have the last track playing as a chill aftermath type of thing. It's a bit strange to me that the words spoken in that track can't be found anywhere though, it's not even in the lyric book and I'd love to know what they are saying.
Thinking of doing a preliminary ranking with every 10 albums that I review, got a pretty good idea of how to rank the 6 albums I have done so far but not sure yet which will be the other 4.
-
a pretty solid album but one that got old fast for me.
the way he doubles up on a lot of the ideas here is the problem, i think
-
I actually thought there were a lot of new ideas on this album (not new generally speaking per se, but new as in ground that Ihsahn himself hadn't treaded yet), but I agree there's a good amount of songs that do sound alike, I'm not complaining though since I think all songs on here are great.
-
I've listened to it once because you told me I had to (not really but...:P) and liked it very much. Why only once? Because I forgot about it :facepalm:
-
I need to listen to this. I mean, I have tickets to his gig that's two months away and I'm still unfamiliar with the album. :facepalm:
I blame the Ayreon thread.
-
I'm (very likely) seeing him in February at Complexity Fest, he will be headlining there. :metal Only 3 bands have been announced yet and he is the only one I'm familiar with, but early bird tickets are only 17,50
I've listened to it once because you told me I had to (not really but...:P) and liked it very much. Why only once? Because I forgot about it :facepalm:
:getoffmylawn:
-
Rival Sons - Hollow Bones (June 10th)
(https://cdn.nlblue-abdaloglu.savviihq.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Rival-Sons-Hollow-Bones.jpg)
For fans of: Hard Rock, Garage Rock, Rock, and of course Rock (White Stripes, Black Sabbath, Wolfmother, Led Zeppelin)
It has been a year and a few months since I got into this band, and what an experience it was when I first got into them! This was the thing modern rock music needed, a band to successfully blend together the styles from various oldschool rock bands to make it their own thing. Songs like Keep On Swinging, Open My Eyes, You Want To and the Manifest Destiny series had me floored. After finding out about Royal Blood I didn't think I'd stumble upon another rock band that I would like as much but these guys did it.
Now they released a new album and I honestly did not have any expectations at all, I was fully prepared to get some of the same stuff we have already gotten with maybe one or two great tracks at best. Cause let's face it, these guys are people pleasers. They will not go out of their way to explore an entirely new sound, and yeah, it has been a pretty similar effort to their previous releases, only I feel this one was a tid bit less ambitious. The mixing on some of the songs sounds very weird too, they have the guitar so low in the mix that it actually sounds like a badly produced bass guitar, and unlike Royal Blood, these guys have a guitar player AND a bass player so at certain points on the album you could pretty much render the bass player useless. The vocals have some awkward and recycled melodies in them, bar a couple of standout moments like on Baby Boy, which feels like the best track of the first half of the record just because it at least tries something different than the standard Rival Sons formula. Not by any means a standout song but every second of it is solid at the very least with a few above par moments. Black Coffee has a pretty cool gospel type vibe to it and is the song that starts of what is actually a pretty good ending to a lackluster album. The instrumental jam sections that they tend to put in some of the longer tracks actually plays a big part in me having liked this band so much in the past, the Manifest Destiny series being the perfect example of that. It's funny that on this album the main attention of the longest song, Hollow Bones Pt. 2, is on the vocals. It works out pretty well here though, and the final song of the album (All That I Want) is another song on the album that actually stands out in a really good way, while it is yet another song that is vocal-centered.
Overall, I would not rank this album very highly. The last few songs are very good but they do not make up for the mediocre first 21 minutes (for the record, the runtime of the album is only 37 minutes). If you are interested in this band, check out their album "Head Down", that one is actually really really good from start to finish. And if you are ever debating seeing them live, go. This band is fantastic live, they make for a really good energetic show.
Favorite songs: Black Coffee, Hollow Bones Pt. 2, Baby Boy, All That I Want
-
Slice The Cake - Odyssey to the Gallows (April 1st)
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1607401074_10.jpg)
For fans of: Ambient and poetry (I have literally not a single band or song to compare it to)
This is going to be a slightly different approach. As you may have noticed I am doing these two Slice The Cake releases separately, even though they got released on the same day. Odyssey to the Gallows is the single most underrated release of 2016 and I feel it is just because some people forget it even exists. This one is a 28 minute piece divided into three parts, being a prequel to the acclaimed Odyssey to the West. I felt like doing the review for this release since the 6th of October is a dark day in my life and the mood of this song fits the day perfectly, if you are looking to be crushed by intense atmospheres look no further guys. Also remember that Slice the Cake started out as two guys who started collaborating through an online music forum. Anyone wanna collab?
Prepare your shit, because this is the most intense experience I have ever had listening to music. Gareth, vocalist of STC, goes through various emotions in a matter of seconds during some moments in the first track of the song which is called The Exile. Some of the strongest deliveries in music are being introduced here, albeit not an actual singing voice. This really is the standout part of the song and the one that introduces the listener to an entirely new approach for Slice The Cake's music, one that we see a whole lot on Odyssey to the West. At all times when possible you should have the lyric sheet (https://slicethecake.net/) in front of you, the phrasing of each and every line that comes out of Gareth's mouth is so damn powerful and following along with him makes it even more rewarding.
Next up we have Of Fire, Of Sword and The Void, which continues the harsh noise and returns the vocals once again, but this time with a demonic sounding voice, a lot more surreal than the voice we got in The Exile. Now I gotta admit that I found those demonic reverbs to be pretty cheesy at first, but I have come to appreciate the wide array of vocal styles including this one, especially since they transition between these vocals and the intense harsh vocals to make them sound similar. At this point of the song I am still on the edge of my seat out of excitement even though I already know there is no real climax that this is leading up to, it is just a great suspenseful atmospheric sound that makes me feel like it will.
Being through 22 out of 28 minutes of the story now, and the song continues to move in waves now with The Pilgrim's Path which sets up the story of the pilgrim in Odyssey to the West. The vocals come back one last time, this time around rounding things up and calming down near the end. I could not believe what I had just heard the first one or two times, and I am sure that this will not be as cool or interesting a few year from now, but right now this and the follow-up album are simply groundbreaking in the world of music if you ask me. One might say that it is kind of a letdown to not get an epic conclusion to this journey, but keep in mind that this one is meant to be listened to before the actual album, which hands out epic conclusions left and right.
Odyssey to the Gallows is truly an ethereal experience, one that can not be fully understood without listening to it and it has only been described to you in words. Also you absolutely have to use earphones for this one, no matter how shit the quality might be, because the harsh noise comes in waves from different sides and cannot be fully appreciated without them. Fun fact: the song playing in the background is actually "Of Gallows" from their previous album - which is an 8 minute song - slowed down to the point where it made up 28 minutes of background noise.
Anyway, this is a one of a kind release guys, do check it out if you have the time. Odyssey to the West is definitely the better album for obvious reasons, as it is a full album and I guess it goes more places while this one focuses on setting up the atmosphere as the predecessor of that album.
Favorite songs: Well, my favorite part is probably The Exile, but it should not be possible to listen to one part of the song without listening to the rest, just check out the entire thing.
-
This sounds really good! I' m going to listen when I get home :azn: Is that collab question serieus btw? :p If so, yeah!
-
Yeah, sounds interesting, will check it out.
-
Is that collab question serieus btw? :p If so, yeah!
No :lol if I am as bad of a singer as I think I am, I am an even worse narrator. So unless you can give me a quick guide on how to become a world-class guitar player within a few weeks I don't think we have a deal.
Maybe this doesn't mean too much since I was not 100% sober at the time but when I listened to this song/album on a late-night walk to the train station I actually shed a few tears during The Exile, never heard so much emotion in a singer's voice before man. I also jumped up out of fear when the vocals returned in Of Fire, Of Sword and The Void :lol it actually scared me.
Also here's my ranking of the albums that have been reviewed so far. Will keep doing this after another 8 albums, the ones here can still switch around if I start liking an album more or less over time also.
(https://i.imgur.com/OMa7N8r.jpg)
-
I just listened to Odyssey To The Gallows, the amount of emotion in his voice is really amazing
No :lol if I am as bad of a singer as I think I am, I am an even worse narrator. So unless you can give me a quick guide on how to become a world-class guitar player within a few weeks I don't think we have a deal.
Damn I was counting on you to do the vocals :lol
-
I'm pretty happy about my overly dramatic take on the vocals on The Exile Part I - The Razor's Edge of the Odyssey to the West album (the actual vocals, not the narrating :lol) so I guess we could do that.
-
Deftones - Gore (April 8th)
(https://cdn4.pitchfork.com/albums/22856/1a91b9f5.jpg)
For fans of: Alternative rock/metal, Atmospheric rock, Nu-metal
I'll admit right away that, even though Deftones have a pretty enormous catalogue, I hadn't fully gotten into them until Diamond Eyes got released, before that the only album I knew and loved was White Pony. To kick things off, this album has been a major success for the band themselves, Gore charted #1 in some countries if i recall correctly and the band played on some huge European festivals. Now for me, Koi No Yokan had the perfect atmosphere, but was kind of missing the agression and the catchiness that I know and love Deftones for, while Diamond Eyes and White Pony have the pure intensity that the band is known for, but did not feel as cool as a full album, rather than just some great individual songs. Here we have Gore, the one that has this great ethereal atmosphere, some of the catchiest choruses and basic concepts of their entire discography.
I have already voiced my opinion on this album plenty of times around the time of its release and have been thoroughly positive, but I was not sure whether it had much staying power. I can safely say that this is still a really good one, and besides now having taken the spot for my #1 Deftones album it is also looking to stay there for good. The hype started rather early for me, while the majority of the people seemed to be pretty disappointed with the first single, Prayers/Triangles, I couldn't have been more happy with it. One of my favorite bands just released a great yet considerably safe new song, and the album seemed to be roughly in the same musical direction of that song. Then they released another song, Doomed User, with which I was kind of disappointed at first because it was just a heavy track with not much else to it, but later on when the full album got released it made way more sense and has since become one of my favorites.
With songs like Pittura Infamante and Geometric Headdress the band seemed to go back to their roots in a way, but still managed to mature, they sound like slightly better renditions of songs off Saturday Night Wrist if I may be so bold. Inbetween those, we have one of the most epic Deftones tunes ever, and my new personal favorite Deftones song, Hearts/Wires. This one has the most satisfying build-up I have ever heard from these guys, even though that's not particularly one of their strong points. They tried something new and it paid off tremendously. I guess my appreciation for the last three songs has slightly decreased since the release, but they are still great songs and this selection includes Rubicon, my new favorite album closer by the band. It is being preceeded by one of the most atmospheric songs they have done (Phantom Bride), on top of one of the heaviest songs they have done (Gore).
Granted, there is one dud on this album that I wish would've been cut or atleast reconsidered and that is Xenon. The melodies are so awkward and I can't help but zone out when I hear it, usually leading to me skipping that song. 1 bad song on an album of 11 songs is not too bad I guess, but I can't help but feel a tad bit disappointed with it.
A great release that has gotten a lot of mixed opinions from the DTF members from what I have seen so far. With that information, I would still recommend any newcomers to start with this album, it is a fairly safe one but still has a lot of cool stuff going on that we have not really heard from the band yet.
Favorite songs: Hearts/Wires, Phantom Bride, Rubicon, Prayers/Triangles, Doomed User
-
I'm pretty happy about my overly dramatic take on the vocals on The Exile Part I - The Razor's Edge of the Odyssey to the West album (the actual vocals, not the narrating :lol) so I guess we could do that.
I could play it on guitar if there were tabs somewhere, my musical hearing is way to terrible to play it by ear :lol
-
Pretty sure the guitars on the vocals part of The Exile I - Razors Edge (talking about the part that starts with "So beneath the sight of God") are just power chords but Ï could be wrong. It seems like they got rid of their official website, good thing I downloaded the lyric booklet because they look beautiful compared to those awful online lyric websites.
-
Cult of Luna (ft. Julie Christmas) - Mariner (April 8th)
(https://www.metalsucks.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Cult-of-Luna-and-Julie-Christmas-Mariner.jpg)
For fans of: Post-metal (Isis, Pelican, The Ocean, Neurosis)
After having held off from anything by Cult of Luna for reasons I don't know, I finally came around to checking them out with this new release. For starters, I think The Ocean's Pelagial gave me a bit of a comfort feeling that post-metal can actually be a really cool innovative approach to metal instead of the monotonous heaviness and low notes that I imagined it to be. It's safe to say that I've been having a love-hate relationship with the genre as some of those initial expectations from the genre still stand firmly, I guess this type of music has a harder time resonating with me than other genres but if it hits, it hits hard.
So let me clarify that the only albums I have heard by this band are Somewhere Along the Highway and this one. As far as uniqueness goes, Mariner definitely wins in that regard. Julie Christmas being featured on this album is an ideal addition and I would not mind if she (or someone similar) would permanently be added to the line-up at all, it is an interesting change of pace and would give the band a lot more flavour that I feel has been missing for the majority of popular bands in this scene.
A Greater Call might just be my favorite part of the album. It has great switch-offs between Julie and Fredrik, and this melodic part makes it all the more better when they finally transition that into this catchy riff that might as well be my favorite off the album. Though it may seem a bit repetitive and overused on the song, those bombastic vocals thrown on top flavour it up a bit. While the first song definitely sets the mood pretty well, we haven't fully gotten into the demonic, plodding agressiveness that the album is centered around for the most part. Chevron does a pretty good job of doing that, throwing in the listener at the deep end. Although I will say that apart from the section I am talking about which is the agressive outlash in the middle, there is not much of note on this one, just a solid track among a bunch of great ones. Speaking of great tracks, The Wreck of S.S. Needle freaking delivers man, and here it is all thanks to Julie Christmas, she 100% makes this song. The most impactful line of the entire album for me being "Put me down where I can see you run" not because it is a cool line that means a lot to me personally or anything, but because the delivery is so intense and the song and album feel like they have been building up to this moment the entire time, and then she keeps repeating it for dramatic effect with more and more emotion to it, it is one of the greatest musical moments of the year and it might lead to me ranking this song highly among my favorites of the year as well.
The way this album is structured does kind of put me off slightly, which is my one gripe. They made it so that every song is longer than the last one and with my interest peeking at The Wreck of S.S. Needle there is a bit of a lack of attention near the end. Don't get me wrong though, Cygnus has an absolutely fantastic conclusion and has a lot of great moments too, but the build-up to that moment is just not rewarding enough, mainly because of Approaching Transition which just takes too damn long to get going.
Overall I'd say this is currently one of my favorites of the year for sure, but because there is such a small collection of songs on the album (total of 5) I can not justify ranking it among my absolute favorites since I do not even like one of the longest songs of the album, Approaching Transition, which takes up 13 minutes of the total 54 minute runtime. Still pleasantly surprised by this release, and Julie Christmas played a huge role in my enjoyment of it, I hope these guys will continue to work with her in the future.
Favorite songs: The Wreck of S.S. Needle, A Greater Call, Cygnus
-
A bit late to the party but just wanted to say I have just gotten around to listening to Arktis.
I had only previously listened to After and angL and I love them both. After two listens though this is sounding like it could be my favourite of his yet. Einar sounds great on the album and there are some cool melodic death metal vibes. There are even some Maiden style riffs and I think it all works really well together.
-
The Until I Too Dissolve riff especially gives me a cool oldschool heavymetal feel along the lines of Maiden like you mentioned, but I still get a lot of Leprous meets death metal vibes from a lot of the songs which is cool, for me it works better than most of the stuff Leprous have been putting out though both are pretty great.
Have you listened to Emperor before? I only tried a couple songs a long time ago but actually never got around to it. Curious if someone who is into Ihsahn would enjoy their music.
-
The Until I Too Dissolve riff especially gives me a cool oldschool heavymetal feel along the lines of Maiden like you mentioned, but I still get a lot of Leprous meets death metal vibes from a lot of the songs which is cool, for me it works better than most of the stuff Leprous have been putting out though both are pretty great.
Have you listened to Emperor before? I only tried a couple songs a long time ago but actually never got around to it. Curious if someone who is into Ihsahn would enjoy their music.
I do have a few Emperor albums and I think I only started listening to them a short while before I got After and angL by Ihsahn. I vastly prefer his solo stuff.
I think I mainly checked out Emperor and Ihsahn because Matt Heafy from Trivium used to bang on about him all the time.
I'm not really into that more old school black metal sound. I prefer Dimmu Borgir's style of black metal, as you know.
-
Okay good to know, I might try some Emperor in the future again but everyone seems to like their solo stuff better.
Going to do one more writeup today as I'll probably be pretty busy tomorrow during the day and I'll have the Ayreon thing in the evening. One of the most popular DTF releases of the year by a band that's gaining popularity really quickly coming up.
-
I'm not big on Cult of Luna generally, but Julie Christmas is incredible, definitely the best part of the album.
-
i probably owe it to myself to give this a spin tbh
-
I'm guessing Thank You, Scientist, which I am listening to at the moment :corn
-
Thank You Scientist - Stranger Heads Prevail (July 29th)
(https://consequenceofsound.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/stranger-heads-prevail-album-art.jpg?w=806&h=806)
For fans of: Progressive rock/metal, jazzfusion (Haken, Mandroid Echostar, Coheed and Cambria)
Okay, I am guessing everyone here has heard of Thank You Scientist by now? If not, what the hell are you waiting for. I am dreading the day that they run out of new ground to cover, because even though it is a pretty damn cool concept musically, progrock/metal with a live brass section, I don't feel like they have done all that much to expand their sound from Maps of Non-Existent Places to Stranger Heads Prevail. I am sure they will be the next big thing in progressive metal though, with the talent these guys posess and the quality songwriting skills I do not doubt that for a second.
With yet another cool pre-release promotion this band was another highlight on that department beside Gojira and Haken among others. The album did not disappoint on first listen at all, in fact I don't think I had a single first impression this year as good as the Prologue: A Faint Applause... - The Somnambulist - Caverns run. The intro is something I am starting to expect from this band at this point, a cool short cinematic-stylo song that invokes a fun vibe, transitioning into a cool alternative-like riff, just like on Maps with A Salesman's Guide to Non-Existence. But what these first two full songs have in common I guess, is those metal elements I've come to expect from TYS in small doses, they are definitely not a full-on metal band but they do know exactly how to place those moments in their music, especially on The Somnambulist they create some really cool agressive vocal deliveries and badass riffs.
Next up comes what is far and away my favorite off the album's singles, Mr. Invisible. I love this song so so much, it is such a gentle and harmless song but at the same time one of the catchiest things ever. I find myself singing along to each and every line when it comes up, no matter how much of a fool I look like doing it because of silly lyrics like "I ask you if you want to dance some more" and "Mr Invisible has been found". The instrumentals are topnotch as well, the chorus being complemented by infectuous melodies, and the solo section is one of the highlights of their entire career so far with that typical funky jazz sound. Speaking of singles, I was not all that impressed with them overall. The Amateur Arsonist's Handbook had some really cool moments but did not compare to the quality of their previous album closer "My Famed Disappearing Act" in the slightest. And then you have Blue Automatic which is quite easily my least favorite song off the album. Guess that goes to show that I am still not completely head over heels about this band but it is pretty damn close to being one of the best things 2016 had to offer. Rube Goldberg Variations seems to be the fan favorite from what I have gathered from the websites I regularly visit. I agree that it is a great instrumental, and obviously better than Suspicious Waveforms if we were to compare, but it does take a while to get going, the payoff is fantastic though. Psychopomp is another great more metal-induced track though not as great as the first set of songs.
Credit where credit is due I guess, djanks Parama for introducing me to TYS last year though no doubt I would have heard of them eventually. :lol Currently the most popular new progmetal sensations seem to be Thank You Scientist and Haken, but I would take Native Construct over both any day, of course. That's not even a choice guys, it's fucking Native Construct.
Favorite songs: The Somnambulist, Mr. Invisible, Rube Goldberg Variations, Caverns
I'm guessing Thank You, Scientist, which I am listening to at the moment :corn
How'd you know? :neverusethis:
-
i dunno. i feel like there's a notable difference in sound between the two. a lot of maps is really cool but also really straightforward; whereas a lot of the songs here that parallel songs there are just so much more complex.
also, a wolf in cheap clothing is the best them but otherwise that top tracks list is pretty good. and yeah blue automatic is the weakest here easily.
and tys are better than haken by a bit atm and waaayyy way way better than native construct, you're insane :loser:
-
I don't hear too much of a progression in their sound on this album so I agree with you there. My favourite track is easily Psychopomp, just something about it. It's an inspired album though, even my Dad likes it.
Comparing them to Haken and Native Construct??
I'd say I prefer Haken more out of the three and Native Construct are bottom (mainly based on their lack of material). If they can top their debut then everything changes. To be clear I do love NC's debut :hefdaddy
-
To be clear I don't think NC sounds anything like these bands (maybe a few Haken influences here and there but not much), it was mostly in jest because sometimes I feel like NC have become the joke of roulettes and I wanted to give them a pat on the back. :lol I meant to compare the quick gain in popularity of Haken and TYS, not so much their music.
i dunno. i feel like there's a notable difference in sound between the two. a lot of maps is really cool but also really straightforward; whereas a lot of the songs here that parallel songs there are just so much more complex.
also, a wolf in cheap clothing is the best them but otherwise that top tracks list is pretty good. and yeah blue automatic is the weakest here easily.
Guess I do agree with the first part kind of, the songs on Stranger are way more complex and have a lot more dimensions to them, but I still like Maps more. For the amount of complex shit stuffed into that album it's a pretty straightforward rocker and I could honestly show songs from this album to any music fan with success.
Wolf is pretty good but I'm not as crazy about it as you.
-
Native Construct are bottom
Truer words have never been spoken. :neverusethis:
-
:corn
-
Another thing, TYS really know how to write good intros/outros :biggrin:
-
O'kingdom - Anthem for the Lost (June 22nd)
(sorry for the bad quality)
(https://i1.wp.com/takemetal.org/wp-content/uploads/Njvs__BVm3o.jpg?resize=300%2C300)
For fans of:Progressive metalcore, Dj0nt (Architect, Periphery, Monuments)
Between all the cool well-known releases appears this unknown progressive metalcore release that blows all the big metalcore bands out of the water, whatever that even means on a prog forum. I know metalcore is not among the most popular genres on DTF but this band, while not the most innovative of its kind, feels like a very fresh burst of energy into the genre.
Coming in at just a total runtime of 21 minutes, this EP only consists of 5 tracks ranging from 3 to 4 and a half minutes, so unfortunately there is not much material to determine their talent or songwriting skills on, but I can atleast say that while it lasts it is actually one of the better things I have heard in (progressive) metalcore over the years, and has a lot of replay value. On the verge of sounding like a slightly less technical and more agressive alternative of Periphery, I guess I can see where my interest comes from. One thing I tend to pick out and rant on about with a lot of metalcore is that it is breakdown after breakdown after breakdown and it starts to lose its meaning after a while, same goes with this EP, first it sounds really cool and creatively implemented. Take for example the second track, Insurgent, which is definitely the most progressive song of the EP. It changes the direction of the song many times and executes this flawlessly, it's an assault of low tuned guitars and might come across as too br00tal for the sake of being br00tal but with all of the relaxing music I have been listening to lately while studying this is a nice little outlet.
Serpent and Mirror Eyes I would say are the other standouts if I had to pick, they have catchy choruses that resemble a very modern metalcore sound which a lot of people seem to be turned off by, gives it kind of a slowed-down punk vibe almost. Mostly this album is not about catchy hooks and melodies though, it is just some pretty straight to the point djenty metalcore with some impressively diverse growls. I should hear more of their music (they have two more releases of roughly this length) before giving my final judgement but overall I think it is safe to say that while I like their general sound, they are not groundbreakingly unique and I think the fact that I will start liking this EP less over time is evident, but so far I am liking it a lot so I'll enjoy the ride while it lasts.
Favorite songs: Insurgent, Serpent, Mirror Eyes
-
Lemaitre - 1749 (January 29th)
(https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000144823307-q3sv8m-t500x500.jpg)
For fans of: Electronic indie, synthpop (Bag Raiders, Madeon, CHVRCHES)
I guess I have kinda voiced my love for Lemaitre over the past year, but it's not something you hear a lot about on a prog forum. I have mainly been enjoying several standalone songs from them but was never really into an entire release by them. Cut to Black is their best song and the song that got me into them, if you do not mind a little repetitiveness in electronic/synth pop (which is pretty much a given with most of this music) you should check out that song.
Anyway, I felt like giving these guys another chance when I saw they had released another EP and I am glad I did. In just 20 minutes this offers more variety than anything they have done before. Many guest vocalist featurings to flavour up the sound, because while their own vocals are alright they do not quite stand out, they are pretty regular. Speaking of their own vocals, the EP starts off with Not Too Late, an incredibly catchy song with pretty standard vocals, but they actually work here pretty nicely. It honestly sounds like a song that should be on Fifa, it has that kind of happy-but-still-kinda-laidback atmosphere to it. Day Two does not do much to differ from their standard sound and therefore is a pretty average song for Lemaitre standards, it is still a fine song but pales in comparison to the EP opener. Closer is the most fun song off the album and my personal favorite. The programmed brass section is fairly straightforward at times but it is just a lot of fun to listen to regardless, and still does some interesting things.
Over time this one has dropped a bit in the standings but it is still really solid considering its length. It would have been way higher in my rankings if the last song, Nishio 2, would actually be worthwhile. This is my definition of filler, 4 minutes of nothing on a 20-minute EP to close off the EP. The vocals are boring and frankly kind of annoying all the way through, and the instrumentals are uninteresting as well. Quite a shame.
Favorite songs: Closer, Not Too Late
P.S. Apparently they have just released another EP and I have just given it one listen. Don't know whether I'll be including it later, it is only 15 minutes. :lol Anyway after one listen it does not sound as good but the first song is really cool.
-
Dream the Electric Sleep - Beneath the Dark Wide Sky (July 22nd)
(https://mutiny-records.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/DTES_BTDWS_Cover_12-960x960.jpg)
For fans of: Progressive rock (The Pineapple Thief, Porcupine Tree, Frost*, Jolly)
Another band of whom I have heard nothing apart from their latest album, this time around with something lighter though. This music is the exact bright themed sound that I have been missing in my library for a long time. I mean, I have some great happy music but most of it was very upbeat while Dream the Electric Sleep go for more of a well.. dreamy sound.
What caught my attention right away from the first listen is the mixing. Everything in the mix is brilliantly clear and it makes for a fantastic first impression, even for someone like me who normally does not bother all that much with the production quality.
Sure, the musicianship on this is album, and probably this band in general, is not outstanding, but the riffs are catchy enough, the fills are interesting enough and vocal hooks are enjoyable. Basically there is just this overall pleasant vibe going on from start to finish that makes me unable to say something actively negative about it, it is solid. That being said, nothing on the album stands out in spectacular fashion either, and what you get is a solid hour of music that does not feel innovative in the slightest. If those are factors you can deal with, definitely check out the album, it will not disappoint.
Let the Light Flood In is the earworm of the album. This song will surely stick out like a sore thumb if you are not into the chorus, the vocals in that chorus have very memorable melodies, for better or worse, and get repeated plenty throughout the song. That said, I love it, it is a great single and one of my favorite songs off the album. We Who Blackout the Sun makes for a pretty eerie moodswitch, being a pretty dark and heavy instrumental that is kind of plodding throughout. Moving on to Culling the Herd which is quite easily the coolest song of the bunch. Being the longest song, it has a great break down>build up going on from the middle of the song up until the end, with a groovy guitar solo leading into the finale of the song. The echoed vocals work immensely well here. A lot of the remaining songs have a pretty straight-forward poprock approach and are not all that noteworthy, but I would still like to echo the statement I made earlier of the production quality lifting up this album's overall quality. Black Wind is a nice surprise near the end of the album. When you thought you had heard all this band had to offer (which, judging from this album would not be much but I am not going to have preconceived thoughts about their sound range), they stuff in a pretty dark and heavy track with vocals, and it shows us that this guy is not only good at doing pleasant and delightful vocals, showing his "dark side".
Really no risks have been taken on this album but I am completely fine with that, it is a solid output throughout and something I have kinda been missing in my music up until now. Good album, not spectacular though.
Favorite songs: Culling the Herd, Black Wind, Let the Light Flood In
-
Gojira - Magma (June 17th)
(https://www.metalwani.com/mwwp426/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/gojira-magma.jpg)
For fans of: Progressive/Groove metal with a bit of doom and death (Ghost, Mastodon, Hacride)
As arguably the most anticipated release of 2016 this one felt like a bit of a clunker at first. Joe himself said in an interview that, based on the shortening attention-spans of the mainstream crowd, they aimed for shorter songs, around 4 minutes. Any Gojira fan would probably agree that this is the biggest turn the band has made in their career so far, and with that, obviously, some controversy will see the light of day.
The overall atmosphere that the band has maintained throughout their career persists, they have always been about that dark depressing sound, but this time it feels more genuine than ever. The sheer agressiveness in the riffs that they are so well known for seems to have kind of been replaced with some punchier and more accessible riffs. I find it incredibly impressive that a band with this amount of agression and extreme elements in their music have been able to cement themselves as one of the most popular modern metal groups, even before the release of Magma. This one feels like they felt the need to broaden their sound range a bit and show their wide fanbase what they are capable of while still catering to a big part of their fanbase. Unlike many bands, Gojira still have a very unique approach when trying to do accessible music. That is party of why I love them, in all these years I have not found a single band that sounds like them. Closest I have come is with Hacride but the mood of their music is not anything alike.
The clean vocals, most noticably on The Shooting Star, sound to me like a very accurate combination of Mastodon and Ghost. It is a catchy song and the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnRv4azfris) made me appreciate it even more, literally one of the best music videos I have ever seen. With the long-anticipated album release I had obviously been spinning Stranded and Silvera beforehand, and while I was initially disappointed with the first one - sounding like some alternative metal song - it became much better in the album context. Silvera was a hit from the very first moment I heard it, agressive and fairly orthodox riffs layered under some catchy lead guitars, good depressing vibes in the clean chants and heavy verses. It has almost everything I love about the band and was almost as good as Born In Winter if you ask me. Magma has achieved the track record of probably having my worst first impression of any Gojira song ever, I outright hated that oddly tuned guitar riff and it continued for pretty much the entire time. Lately I have been digging it a lot more as it has this spiritual feeling to it, also a very eerie sound that, when executed properly, becomes a very interesting element inside a Gojira song. They take a sharp left-turn as they go from a trippy/psychedelic mood into a fairly agressive string of songs, both being the closest the band has ever come to sounding like djent: I remember being particularly excited about Pray when they teased that intro, I thought we were getting another "The Art of Dying" type song because of the tribal ticking noise. Obviously that was not the case but nonetheless I was impressed, a song with very few initial ideas that still kept progressing throughout. The first time they break down into that heavy section is possibly the most powerful moment of the album. Only Pain has this "love it or hate it" aspect to it, one of the more chaotic songs when you consider how sophisticated this album sounds for Gojira standards. This is the song that those old-timers that hate the new turn Gojira has taken will probably still rave about.
Just like the way the band introduced us to the album, we end off with some more quiet and sinister stuff, Liberation being a unique Duplantier instrumental duet with tribal percussion and somber acoustic guitars. They wrote and recorded this song in memory of their mother who passed away during the process of making this album, with that in mind it might just be the saddest song in the history of Gojira.
A very challenging album that took quite some time to resonate with me. I am still not supporting this new direction 100% and will be interested to see what they come up with next now that we know they definitely have the ability to surprise the fans with something new. Did not quite live up to my expectations but it is still a very good effort.
Favorite songs: Pray, Silvera, The Shooting Star, Only Pain, Low Lands
-
Yes, this album is excellent.
-
This is easily my favourite Gojira album to be honest. I love the change to their sound, it works much better to my ears.
I reckon this album may creep into the bottom of my top 10 of the year.
-
At first I didn't like it, now I do but it's not my favorite Gojira release.
-
I agree. It is probably my #3 Gojira album right now tied with L'Enfant but I did not like it nearly as much on first notice.
-
The Dear Hunter - Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional (September 9th)
(https://i0.wp.com/www.soundfiction.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/The-Dear-Hunter-Act-V-Hymns-With-The-Devil-In-Confessional.jpg?fit=1500%2C1500)
For fans of: Progressive rock, rock-opera, symphonic rock (Thrice, The Reign of Kindo)
Just one year after having released my AOTY of 2015, The Dear Hunter were set to release the follow-up album and final piece completing the "rock-opera" part of the act series. (Almost) all the material of both Act IV and Act V had been written last year so the biggest amount of effort was already out of the way, but the fact that these were written around the same time definitely shows, Act V seemingly sounding like the darker counterpart of Act IV. At this point we have kind of gotten used to what we can expect from new TDH material, but they still manage to come up with a few slick surprises. The neverending thematic reprises throughout the Act series is something we have come to expect from concept albums, but nonetheless this band manages to do it so smoothly that I am still picking out several reprises after having listened to it for at least 20 times, if not more.
The first time listening through this album was from the CD I bought, which was a pain since the programme installed to my computer does not transition consecutive songs properly. Normally I wouldn't really mind but The Dear Hunter is known for their flawless transitions and moodchanges in a matter of seconds. So I actually decided to hold off until the album came out on Spotify, my first listen through I was not too impressed, a couple of standouts but I didn't really care for any of the more standard Dear Hunter songs. Granted, none of the albums except for Act IV clicked with me after the first time listening. Soon enough, the contagiousness of the opening tracks Moon/Awake and Cascade started hitting me, stuff like "Awake" especially being one of the main reasons I love this band so much; they can completely turn around the direction of a song in a matter of seconds and it will still be awesome. I do slightly prefer Cascade because of the awesome chorus and the bombastic ending though.
Then the album continues with a very slow and somber seemingly Pink Floyd influenced song in The Most Cursed of Hands / Who Am I. The level of simplicity in the musicianship on this track is almost as impressive as the complexity of the song's arrangement and structure. Yet again, we see a sharp left turn in the song's finale in the "Who Am I" section. I am impressed at how certain albums had such strong lead singles and still managed to impress me with the remaining songs, and this one is no different. Say what you want about The Revival, I think it posesses the best chorus in the history of The Dear Hunter. "Feels so good to be so bad" has this awesome melody to it that made the chorus even catchier than it already was. Not to forget the great middle section that marks this album's overall dark mood. Melpomene may just be the best ballad the band has done, though personally the tear-enducing Light hits closer to home so that one edges it out for me. That being said, it's impressive that they just produced my new top 2 ballads on this new album, though they do not do full-on ballads a lot.
Next up is what I consider to be The Bitter Suite IV and V: The Congregation of the Sermon in the Silt's counterpart, even though they do not sound anything alike. Mr. Usher (On His Way to Town) has this same goofy attitude and feels very authentic. Mind you, this reminded me a lot of Frank Sinatra, especially the first few lines. Anywho, this song is a lof of fun and I am still puzzling through all the crazy piano parts in the background, another example of how The Dear Hunter never gets old. :lol Transitioning into the very first actual The Dear Hunter duet song, featuring Gavin Castleton who sings the lines of Mr. Usher. The Haves Have Naught is one of my personal favorites and is apparently being referred to on reddit as their most "Disney-sounding" song. :lol I can't argue with that, I could easily see a song with this kind of mood and melodies being featured on Sleeping Beauty or something. Already having mentioned Light, I was kind of skeptical about the two-punch of that and Gloria since I was already familiar with both songs. But both ended up being so so much better on the album, especially following eachother up. Light is the depressing ballad with a slim silver lining to it, and then Gloria is the bombastic anthem being lead up to. The official music video for Gloria was one of the coolest experiences I have had with the band too, I believe it was the first time we actually got to see actors play certain characters of the story, and being able to identify Hunter with a real person is pretty damn satisfying after all this time of wondering. That moment when the soldiers are marching ahead shouting the chorus at the top of their lungs is the most epic moment for sure, goosebumps all over.
Kicking off what I consider the final chapter of the act, The Flame (Is Gone) and The Fire (Remains) make up for the first real TDH epic to me. They have some very strong long songs but they always start off powerful and then end on a lower note. This one, with all the background info to it, is simply epic beyond words. The first chorus kicks in, and you can just imagine the situation building up to the burning down of the church to the line "DO THE HEAVENS EVER SPARE THE CROPS WHEN THE WINTER FALLS", omg. Having said that, I love the transition into The Fire with the last minute of The Flame introducing us to this old western-ish melody, and Ms. Leading's lines in the first chorus are so powerful. I like how it all works musically as well, since it gives us this slow start and strong finale that the band has become so good at lately. The March is another fun song musically, if you want to keep that thought, do not go into the story too deeply as you will find that it is nothing but the opposite. :lol Blood is the aftermath of the things that happened during The March, and makes for a very sinister theatric song that could very well have been a finale to a musical or something like that. A Beginning is just a mindfuck, I'm a bit clueless as to how it actually came to this but I am guessing that it's like a "this story ends where it begins" situation, being the mother of Hunter? Anyway it is a great closer and much better than "Ouroboros" to me. Captures the sound of the album perfectly too.
Apart from the music itself, I never really bothered to delve into the story that much up until Act V. So much interesting twists and turns and such a dark atmosphere overall that it made me curious about what exactly was happening at every point. There is enough diversity on this album throughout but at the same time sticks to the theme very well. Sometimes I think about how this all started and the thought that Casey knew how the story was going to pan out from the very start, and already had a rough idea of how the musical arrangements were going to be composed just leaves me in awe. This man is a mastermind. My favorite band has managed to release an album that might just be my favorite of theirs. The story, more than ever with TDH albums, immensely enhances the listening experience. So to anyone who has not bothered with it yet I advice you to, anyway. We can only guess how these guys will conclude the act series, the only thing we do know is that it is not going to be in the same format as the previous 5 albums. People have been speculating about a live orchestra and even a movie, all I can say is I will be counting the days until I personally own whatever the hell they will come up with.
Favorite songs: The Most Cursed of Hands / Who Am I, The Flame + The Fire (is this cheating?), The Haves Have Naught, Light, The Revival
-
And here is my new top albums list going from left to right and top to bottom respectively. Changed it from top 8 to top 12 and I think I will end up making a top 16 or 20 as soon as every album has been dealt with. Keeping it to top 12 for now though. Arktis has moved up ahead of Odyssey to the Gallows recently, Gallows is just not as great on its own as it is combined with West. Newcomers from the second batch make up the entire third row with 1749, Gore, Magma and Beneath the Dark Wide Sky, as well as Mariner at #6 and Act V and Stranger Heads Prevail both making my top 3 so far.
(https://i.imgur.com/UqIedpD.png)
-
You should install Foobar for gapless playback :corn
-
Act V is just :hefdaddy I can't remember when was the last time I couldn't resist to listen to certain album every few days (probably in my early DT days with Metropolis part 2).
-
Yeah same case for me, although there's one album on the list that I return to even more ocassionally than Act V and it's not Odyssey to the West :corn
You should install Foobar for gapless playback :corn
Good to know!
-
What are you using to listen? Pretty much any legitimate media player should be able to handle gapless playback.
-
BTW I recommend you MusicBee. It's doesn't have all those plug-ins foobar does but it's pretty good "out of the box" solution. Oh and it looks great.
-
i've tried listening to this twice and i just find it really boring :(
-
I've got 5 out of your top 12 and they are all great.
Of course I love, love, love Act V. It doesn't quite top Act IV for me but it's not far off. It will likely be my album of the year tbh, just as Act IV was last year. I just can't really fault TDH, I just seem to connect with everything they do musically. I will probably fall in love all over again when I finally get the deluxe bundle of the album.
-
What are you using to listen? Pretty much any legitimate media player should be able to handle gapless playback.
Just WMP. The issue is not so much the inability to handle gapless playback, but upon selecting more than one or two songs to play them, it sometimes randomly skips tracks or plays them in backwards order. Really weird. Guess I'll check out MusicBee and Foobar to see which I like the most.
i've tried listening to this twice and i just find it really boring :(
:getoffmylawn:
I've got 5 out of your top 12 and they are all great.
Of course I love, love, love Act V. It doesn't quite top Act IV for me but it's not far off. It will likely be my album of the year tbh, just as Act IV was last year. I just can't really fault TDH, I just seem to connect with everything they do musically. I will probably fall in love all over again when I finally get the deluxe bundle of the album.
Act IV will probably always be my go-to convincing-random-friends-to-The-Dear-Hunter album, whichever ends up being my favorite album of theirs a couple of months, maybe years from now, they all kick ass.
I realize that this project might take up longer than a month from now which is fine, because it's meant to cover all things 2016 anyway, and there's a lot of highly anticipated releases of mine yet to be released. Also scrapping some of the albums I was going to include because I don't really like anything about it all things considered. This is meant to be more of a recommendation thread than me randomly reviewing albums I stumbled upon. I don't want to force myself upon albums I don't like just to spread the word.
That said, there's still more than 30 albums left IIRC, including yet-to-be-released stuff.
-
Act V is still in my Top 5 for this year, and that's saying a lot considering the insane amounts of great music this year. Such a great album - the run from Light to Blood is basically musical perfection. :hefdaddy
-
I've been extremely busy with school and will probably continue to be extremely busy. But as far as I'm concerned it's not a huge problem since I there's no waiting list or anything like that, I don't want to churn out rushed writeups cause they will be even worse than my normal writeups. :lol
(https://www.metalinjection.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Toothgrinder-Nocturnal_Masquerade.jpg)
For fans of: Progressive metal, metalcore, groovemetal, dj0nt (Monuments, Periphery, Fallujah )
Nocturnal Masquerade was one of my very few impulse purchases. Saw it in the record store to my surprise as Toothgrinder seems to be a pretty underground reddit hype that hasn't gotten a lot of attention at all. I think Parama said it was alright and I got it the next day. Of course, I also knew it was the kind of music I would normally enjoy from what I had heard from others, and I hadn't heard a note off it yet.
What can I say, this band has a unique quality, but said quality is to be good at molding various formulas into their own. The different sections do not sound necessarily original, but when put together it is a pretty unique progressive metal experience with some alternative and core elements to it, more of the latter than the former though. This is the kind of modern approach to agressive progmetal that never really fails to interest me on first notice, but also never quite stands out either. The mix has a very fresh modern sound to it which may be offputting in the bombastic blast beat sections since most of us are used to hearing those in a more sludgy sound.
The House (That Fear Built) is the "Periphery - The Price Is Wrong" of the album, meaning it's a full-on aggressive metal opener with some great grooves and extreme dj0nt guitars and harsh vocals. Very solid song and it is a cool opener to hook the listener and introduce us to the core sound of the band. Following up is Lace & Anchor which is refered to by me as that song with the catchy clean chorus, it's a great song with finally a short break from the continuous heaviness. Speaking of which, the song that comes after, Coeur d'Alene is where it kinda gets old. Repetitive djenty riffs and just too much sameyness, getting through this one feels like a chore if not in the right mood. In fact, more often than not, I feel like listening to standalone songs from this album rather than the full album, so I rarely even find myself hearing that song. It has an awesome groovemetal section that lasts for a couple of seconds but it's just not worth it. Blue shows me yet again that the cleans (or cleans with layered harsh vox) are pretty damn good, I wish they would tune down on the harsh vocals a bit because they are really dominant on this record. They do not even have to be crazy good qualitatively, because the clean vocals are being complemented by the multiple layered guitars very well whenever they appear. Dance of Damsels might be the most experimental track, as far as the term "experimental" goes on an album like this. :lol it features almost Sigh-like vocals, or Slice the Cake-like during "The Dark Carnival" if you will. On top of that, the approach it takes here is way more in the vein of traditional progmetal than the more modern stuff in the middle section. I think the "do as I do" harmonies in Diamonds for Gold are kind of awkward and they just repeated them into oblivion, auto-skip. At the end of the album I am reminded why I keep returning to the album, because I would argue that the last three songs on the album are all top 4 material. Dejection / Despondency has quite an ominous nature and offers a pretty well-executed payoff near the end, great grooves and the agressiveness comes in doses here, the song is not too all over the place. Schizophrenic Jubilee has great clean harmonies which is all that I had been missing on the album opener, a mix between this song and The House (That Fear Built) would have been excellent. Waltz of Madmen is not necessarily a fantastic album closer but does the job. Atop, there are some great slowpaced guitar leads here which has been an awful omission all the way through the album, they should pace it down a bit at times.
I don't know what it is, I am not crazy about this album, but I keep returning to it nonetheless. It is just an addictive album with some great songs, but after all this time, none of the songs have floored me. This is just an alright heavy release that I kind of want to have in my collection because heavy music is pretty gud, but I feel like the music industry as a whole can still improve so much on the heavy progressive metalcore side of the spectrum. I do more often than not get the feeling that these bands have to blend all kinds of crazy musical styles in order to keep the listener interested when it comes to the really heavy music, like I cannot think of a band with a fantastic defining sound within this genre. I would say BTBAM but they are more on the experimental side and have moved on from metalcore.
Looking back at how I would approximately rank the songs though, it's pretty disappointing to me that my favorite songs are both the first two and the last three songs. Good thing the album is on the short side because sometimes it does become a bit too much of the same in the middle.
Favorite songs: Dejection / Despondency, Lace & Anchor, Waltz of Madmen, Schizophrenic Jubilee, The House (That Fear Built)
-
pretty much, except the songs i like aren't the songs you like :lol
i like Blue and Diamonds for Gold both a decent bit and the last four tracks always kind of blur in my mind but they're all good, there's just a few "there" songs I always forget about as well. i have literally no clue what couer d'alene or the hour angle sound like
it's an easy album to listen to though, yeah
-
Yeah pretty much that. Easy to listen to but not spectacular.
I really like Blue too and it just missed the cut, but I think I've made clear that Diamonds for Gold is pretty far from any favorites list for me. :tup
-
Periphery - Periphery III: Select Difficulty (July 22nd)
(https://www.metalinjection.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PERIPHERY_PeripheryIII-SelectDifficulty-2-2.jpg)
For fans of: Progressive Metal, Djent(TesseracT, Monuments, Protest the Hero, Erra)
Modern djenty progressive metal pioneers return with their 4th studio album, Periphery III, ain't that confusing? Just like on Periphery II, Misha Mansoor has contributed with some more Bulb/Haunted Shores demo material on this record, this time from the former. This has has caused a long anticipated rendition of "Absolomb" among many fans. Me? I was just looking forward to some new Periphery material. Was never particularly stoked about the Scarlet demo but the full band effort is glorious to me.
One should not go in expecting a new approach to Periphery's overall style. On the flipside, this album is a very fresh alternative of their earlier output. I don't know about the general consensus, but I was not impressed by Juggernaut and thought they were going to go on a downward spiral.
For instance, we have heard orchestral samples before in the intro of "Have a Blast", but they did not sound as clean and well-placed as on Marigold, which I consider to be the best introduction to the album. The choice to start off the album with 2 brutal metal tracks like The Price is Wrong and Motormouth (great songs) is understandable, but I would have much rather had an intro like on Omega, followed up by Marigold. This song blends Periphery's agression and pop elements perfectly and is never over the top on either count. One thing that bothers me every time I listen to it though, the last 2 minutes are literally filler, I have to manually skip through them every single time and I have no idea why they put 2 minutes of ambient behind a progressive metal song, it does not work guys.
On the contrary, here is probably the most happy sounding Periphery song in all of their career (apart from The Summer Jam, but I like to act as if that does not exist). Inspired by Rick & Morty, The Way the News Goes... will stand out upon first listen for everyone as "that track with the happy blast beat chorus", and everyone will hate it on first notice, I promise. I genuinely hated this song after 1 listen but it has grown on me so much and I can never sit still during it. You know, this is probably my favorite Periphery song at this point, and if not it's at least my favorite of the new album. Remain Indoors has long been stapled by me as the filler track of Periphery III, but after numerous listens under my belt the vocal melodies just became infectuous to the point of not being able to keep my mouth shut while it played. The song becomes somewhat monotonous after a while since it basically repeats the same verse and chorus over and over again without alternating, so that still probably makes it one of my least favorite songs, nonetheless it is a good song.
For the longest time (months), Habitual Line-Stepper was my favorite song off Periphery III. The choir-y vocals in the chorus hooked me from the very first listen, the brutality comes in doses which is always appreciated with this band, and they seemed to have experimented with some "The Bad Thing" type song finales, and this is the one that does the best job at it. They keep interest with some fun instrumentals to connect the both, because it might have been a bit of a disjointed song otherwise. The part starting with "Done waiting" until the end is my favorite thing about the album period. Next up is Flatline, the single I had been the most impressed with initially, and is still among my favorites. One of my favorite things about this band is how they can transition from "GUUUUUILTYYY, now shut the doors and open fire", into some clearly pop-induced segments without it sounding odd. Once again, this is a song that works especially well because the somewhat disjointed final section, the lines are catchy as hell. I myself don't mind when a song connects two sections without any real connection between them as long as they are good sections. Initially, I was a bit disappointed with Absolomb, even more so because everyone else seemed to love it and I just didn't get it. I mean, the bassline that this song is built upon is groovy as fuck, but I had already heard this when hearing Bulb v1 demos. However, this track has proven my love for Spencer's cleans. I am a huge fan of his growls, but only because of the agression behind it, I do not think they are masterfully executed. But Absolomb, and Lune for that matter, show how much he has grown as a musician over the years when you compare it older songs.
The album closes with aforementioned Lune, another fun song, Catch Fire, although this one is more in a quirky sense than anything and it does not work as well as The Way the News Goes...
Furthermore, Prayer Position is just a very solid heavy effort by the band, probably being their most balanced song instrument-wise. No one outplays anyone on this song, the chorus is amazing and would work well in a live setting and the ending is brutal as fuck, exhaling once more before the album ends off on a light note with Lune.
I would be surprised if this album did not end up being among my top 5 by the end of the year. As far as non-concept albums go, this one sits comfortably at #1 right now and I expect it to remain that way.
Favorite songs: The Way the News Goes..., Habitual Line-Stepper, Flatline, Prayer Position, Absolomb
-
I'll listen to this tomorrow I guess, expectations are pretty low though.
-
After what you've said I would never recommend anything Periphery to you but if you want to try yeah this album is definitely the best start.
-
This sound pretty good based on your description, I will check it out after my roulette is over!
-
After what you've said I would never recommend anything Periphery to you
Yeah, it wasn't really doing anything for me.
-
:corn
-
I liked P3 quite a bit, Catch Fire is their strongest song melodically I'd say. Just such a great chorus.
STAY WITH ME, I'LL SHOW YOU PARADIIIIIIIIIIIISEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
-
Yeah that's another great one. Couldn't stand it at first because of the quirky "shotgun"'s and "ha!"'s but I've grown to embrace it. Really love when they have these anthemic lines like you mentioned yourself, also the thread title and "Sure is something when we all catch fire"
This sound pretty good based on your description, I will check it out after my roulette is over!
Thought of sending them, but probably won't. So yeah I'll see if I change my mind but if not P3 is definitely the best start.
Maybe an update tomorrow, depends on how things pan out with school stuff. Will also be out of town from tomorrow afternoon until the afternoon/evening after. Thinking of the new Thrice for the next update.
-
Thrice - To Be Everywhere is to Be Nowhere (May 27th)
(https://dutchscene.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/thrice-to-be-everywhere-is-to-be-nowhere.jpg)
For fans of: Progressive rock/Alternative rock (The Dear Hunter, Glassjaw, Brand New)
So this record has gone a little under the radar it seems. That, or I have simply not been in the right threads at the right time. In any case, I think it's a fine assessment, since while it is a good record, it is not really creative by Thrice standards, just reproducing the formula in a very good way.
It's funny that I can basically listen to Thrice at any moment and it will fit my mood in some way, their music gives me really mixed feelings in small doses, and then they do have the oddball track that's just extremely depressing, but most of it is middle of the road for me. The vocalist sings with a certain level of grit to his voice while sounding like a pretty standard alternative rock/metal singer at the same time, but there's a certain intensity to his delivery that makes the music more interesting than it seems on first notice.
Leading up to the release, I did not really follow the band that much and I still don't. They are fine IMO but I have never gone as crazy about The Alchemy Index as most seem to. Contrarily, I think Beggars is fantastic from start to end and Veissu is very good as well. To Be Everywhere is to Be Nowhere.. is probably my #2 behind Beggars. The record is a little heavier than their standard output instrumentally, though not as intense. Unlike some of their other output, I could definitely see some of the songs on here being played on the radio, songs like Stay With Me and Death From Above. At times I think the album lacks something to set it apart from the rest, but then again I hear it and it is just enjoyable all the way through, I guess in this case there is no need for vast amounts of diversity in order for it to be great. Granted, when I look back at 2016 and see all of the great continuations of bands I already loved + groundbreaking releases by bands I hadn't heard of, I will probably not pass a second glance at this record, and probably rock Beggars whenever I'm in for some Thrice.
The mixing sounds very modern, it's the type of mixed I've grown to expect from Thrice and vaguely similar bands, and I never have a problem with it. I like having the bass guitar pretty high in the mix like this, because it is an instrument I often neglect when listening to music because it requires some attention to pick out. There are some cool bass licks and this way they do not go unnoticed, Blood on the Sand, while initially not one of my favorites, is made pretty interesting because of that bass.
Seneca remains one of my favorite passages on the album. Yeah, it's a 1 minute instrumental, blame me, it's gorgeous. Wake Up has all I like about Thrice mixed into one song, it's intense, it has great melodies, nice mellow verses, you name it. Probably one of my favorite of their songs as far as the more straightforward songs go. Salt and Shadow is one of the most hauntingly beautiful Thrice songs, it doesn't come close to a song like "Child of Dust", but it has its time and place. Hurricane has a very traditional Thrice sound, one that I enjoy a lot, one of the few songs I could see being on Beggars. Whistleblower is yet another angry song that at this point seems a bit redundant. All the same, it is a very strong track and I feel like it fits very well as a last breath type song, before we go into the last song which is very slow-paced.
Favorite songs: Wake Up, Hurricane, Salt and Shadow, Whistleblower
-
"it's just okay" is about how i'd describe this one. i actually completely forgot about it until just now.
-
I've tried a few albums by these guys over the years but nothing has ever grabbed me by the balls. They basically seem like they tick all the boxes of what I should like, which is why I have tried so many times.
I'll give this a listen at some point. Another day, another album :lol
-
You should go for The Alchemy Index, which is their best as far as I'm concerned.
-
You should go for The Alchemy Index, which is their best as far as I'm concerned.
Yea, I have given those albums at least one listen. I'll have another go sometime.
-
Yeah most people prefer Alchemy Index, I prefer Beggars though
-
Beggars is the begst
-
Pyramido - Vatten (April 29th)
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2500394390_10.jpg)
For fans of: Post metal, sludge/doom metal (Cult of Luna, Neurosis, Dark Castle)
Whereas most post metal does not really manage to connect with me, this is straight up solid post metal throughout. It is hard to pinpoint my favorite moments or even favorite songs on this 5-song release but any fan of angry, dark, plodding music should dig this. While bands like The Ocean venture into a more proggy sound to create some interesting diversity, Pyramido seem to simply create very deep atmospheres and layer their guitars in a way that, to many bands in the genre, seems like a no-go as far as post metal goes. It is like they want to have some high-toned guitars to play the leads, only to then almost completely drown them out with the low, slowtempo rhythm section. It creates a really cool effect that kind of ties in with post rock at times.
Not much to be said about the band in general, they never really break the mold when it comes to album structures, they have stuck with the 30-40 minute releases forever and never go beyond 5-6 songs per release. There's a good few moments when they sound like a sludge/doom metal band too, especially when the guitars go in unison, and it sounds like an extremely slowed down alternative of stoner metal.
The musicians on this record play off each other really well, that's the first thing that comes into my head when thinking about what makes a good post metal band. Even though many find the genre to be too plodding and monotonous, the music in itself stays very cohesive most of the time, and what better way to complement that than implementing some great unisons, bass transitions and drum fills? I'm generally very biased towards songs that go from a standard tempo to half tempo, which I'm kinda getting showered with because I listen to prog metal. But when a genre like this one goes above and beyond and manages to stick with an even slower tempo, it just amplifies the impact of every note that is played, to me at least. Rhythms are more headbangable, vox are easier to follow and understand even though they're so harsh you can barely make out what they are saying. Tempus, for one, has a really intense conclusion which is not something I generally look for in my post metal, but whenever it is executed properly (Cult of Luna - Cygnus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njLPM3K9eH4) folks) it can be such a satisfying payoff, which this is. Like I said, I have a hard time picking out standout moments/songs because it feels like they're a bit too similar stylistically to distinguish them, even after having listened to this for about 4 times. It's very much a mood-album, I'd rather listen to this when I'm down as fuck or just really tired.
Favorite songs: Tempus, Aktion, En Linje I Sanden
-
Slice the Cake when
ITS TIME
I will probably stick to my favorite albums of the year instead of randomly selecting some other albums I've heard this year. At this point, I know I can't keep up the pace I had liked to, so I'm just going to do as much as possible before wrapping it up at the end of the year.
Slice the Cake - Odyssey to the West (April 1st)
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3011357034_10.jpg)
For fans of: Technical deathmetal / Spoken words / Progressive deathcore
At this point, it should not be a surprise to the people that know me on this board, that Odyssey to the West has been my album of the year for months already, and it is not looking to give up that spot ever. This album, man.. if you have not heard it before, it will be nothing like you have ever heard before. If there was ever a groundbreaking prog release in the 2010's it would be this one.
Slice the Cake, as unprofessional as it sounds, started out as two guys meeting on an online forum called ultimatemetal.com. Guitarist Jonas Johansson was looking for a vocalist for his new project and surely Gareth Mason turned up and from there the band guys picked up one more studio member, Jack Magero. So Slice the Cake has ever since been a three-piece divided across three different countries in Europe, a pretty crazy situation to be in when you are planning to actually write and record music. Their output in the past has not impressed me much though "The Man With No Face" has some great moments.
They took a sharp left turn with Odyssey to the West and went for a very elaborate concept album with an intense adventurous setting and some of the most dramatic vocal work you will ever hear. The writing/recording process took the band about 4 years. Granted, they were not writing and recording the entire time, but you can tell a lot of work went into the concept and the arrangement of the entire thing. There are callbacks to the previous album "The Man With No Face", as well as the 30-minute song that was released as a prequel to this album on the same date "Odyssey to the Gallows". From beginning to end, it takes the listener through many different emotions shows the biggest musical variety I have heard in deathcore/techmetal.
Sure, the vocals are some of the most extreme ones I have heard in my entire life, especially in Stone and Silver Part II: The Horned God, which has the lowest growls on the album and just feels like a bombardment of agression, with a runtime of only 2 and a half minutes. When listening to the album, I always feel like I am in a darker alternative of a Lord of the Rings type movie, the songwriting and atmospheres are so vivid and the lyrics are so well-rounded that the story really comes alive. I always imagine The Horned God being the most intense part of the 'movie'. Not necessarily in an epic climax sense, but rather in just a super dark intense one.
When recommending the band to new listeners, 9 out of 10 times I would recommend to start with the "Westward Bound" saga. It includes Westward Bound Part I: The Lantern which is the song in which the pilgrim has to make the choice to either continue the journey or leave empty-handed after all that has happened prior to this song. Therefore, it is a very two-faced song. They start out quite somber, but the music is still clean with an acoustic guitar and clean vox. As the song progresses, the vocals get more intense and we start to build up towards the climax of the first part, in which the pilgrim reveals that he will persue his journey, shouting the words "So I go westward, westward bound" euphorically. The saga flows seemlessly into Westward Bound Part II: The Pilgrim's Progress which leaves behind the poetic tone and focuses on a more profound sound. The song does not offer as much diversity as The Lantern but it is a very good continuation nonetheless and I would not listen to either one of them separately. The conclusion of Westward Bound, in which they threw a reprise of "Stone and Silver", might just be my favorite moment on the album if I had to pick.
In Exile Part I: The Razor's Edge is my anthem, this is the best introduction to an album I have heard all year. The vocals (both spoken and singing) are phenomenal and set the mood for the rest of the album perfectly. The decision to not include any real growls on this track is a good one IMHO, there is still a certain level of intensity to the part starting with "So beneath the sight of God" that offers the same, if not more, amount of fierceness as some of the growls on this album. The transition into In Exile Part II: The City of Destruction is beautifull, and you will soon come to notice that they draw the listener to the darkest places of their imaginary story. I have fucked up my voice pretty seriously several times when trying to sing along with The City of Destruction, I do not advice this. I see this second track as the longer version of The Horned God, by this I mean it's a full-out agressive song that takes the listener through various emotions in a matter of seconds.
Unending Waltz is a very enchanting one-piece substory that seems like a self-reflection of sorts, of the protagonist. I love how atmospheric it sounds, how the female vocals give it this beautiful feel and how it all bursts out into agression in the end, as we have come to expect from this band. This one is followed by the "Ash and Rust" series which has to be the most experimental one on the album, it definitely feels like the most "interesting", but it is probably my least favorite series of songs on the album, still awesome though. Ash and Rust Part I: From Shell to Shell and Ash and Rust Part II: The Dark Carnival being my favorites, they work very well together. From Shell to Shell being an intense build-up and The Dark Carnival just being exactly what the name suggests, it has some resemblances to earlier songs but the main draw here are those Sigh-like vocals with a very ominous carnival feel to them.
I will be shocked if I find anything in this decade that will knock this album off its #1 throne, I am pretty sure this will go into history as my favorite 2010's album, I love it that much.
Favorite songs: Westward Bound Part I: The Lantern, The Exile Part I: The Razor's Edge, Destiny's Fool, Stone and Silver Part III: Man of Papyrus Limbs, The Exile Part II: The City of Destruction
-
I don't believe you so I'll just check it out for myself.
-
Well with a glowing review like that I guess I will listen to this at work today :metal
-
Yeah, this album is really, really good.
-
I had a hard time linking any bands to the FFO section since I don't know any band with a similar sound, but I believe anyone who is tolerant of deathcore vocals and blast beats at times should find this interesting. There's a lot to the music and it offers more variety than any album I've heard in the same vein.
-
it succ
succ the cake
also I have literally no clue what the concept of the album is but I should probably read into it at some point
also boo no love for the holy mountain why
-
also I have literally no clue what the concept of the album is but I should probably read into it at some point
also boo no love for the holy mountain why
Something about pilgrims - I think it's even the same concept of the new Neal Morse Band album :lol
Because Trainy is not into Sleep :neverusethis:
-
The Holy Mountain succ
Nah but I don't think it's a standout. I love the transition from the acoustic motif in Destiny's Fool into that agressive intro riff but as a whole I don't find it to be on the same level as the best tracks, which is quite a high standard btw. Along with The Horned God, it would be next on my list of favorites, I love The Horned God but it's so short
-
Obsidian Kingdom - A Year With No Summer (March 11th)
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1500372018_16.jpg)
For fans of: Atmospheric metal, post-metal, "hard to classify heavy sound with plenty of contrasts" (Thy Catafalque)
Hey look it's one of the roulette albums. I have listened to Mantiis a couple of time but the band never really wow'd me, the first 4 songs off that album were my favorites. Now with this new album they changed it up quite a bit, they went for a much more atmospheric post-metalish sound here and it is right up my alley. They make a lot of use of distantly produced screaming vocals instead of straight-up growls which is something I appreciate, it adds to the ethereal vibe that a lot of good music in the same vein gives off. I could see how this album would be kind of polarizing among their fans.
There is a certain cold atmosphere to the record that is created by the odd samples and use of sufficient distortion. It feels like an ascending insanity as the record progresses, namely with the first 3 tracks. A Year With No Summer has these strong dark atmospheric elements but overall stays fairly general by the album standards, it is a great introduction to the record and I wouldn't change a thing. 10th April acts as a great transition into the eventual climax of what I perceive to be the first 'movement' of the album, Darkness. There is such a dense feel to this one, I never know whether to be awe-struck or simply creeped out by this, but they pull it off in great fashion.
However, I feel like this is one of those albums that gets better as it progresses. I don't necessarily think that every subsequent song is better than the one prior to it, but due to the increasing tension of the album's overall mood and my personal impression on it, the album feels more epic in a surreal sort of way near the end. Like for example The Ocean's "Pelagial", it gets so intense near the end that ever since I have heard the album in full, I cannot listen to these songs separately anymore. The building suspense is an absolutely essential element for me to get the most out of this album, and oh man is the pay-off awesome as we finally get to Away / Absent. At this point all hell has broke loose and while it is not as agressive as some of the stuff that's on Mantiis, I think it is the bombastic sound throughout that wins me over on this one. There is a truly cold atmosphere to it and whenever they break into these pounding blast beat sections it feels like something is about to collapse. Nearly all of the vocals are harsh at this point and the clean vocals make use of the same distant effect that they have used before in order to make it feel more profound. Or, less profound, depending on the listener's interpretation. :D
I feel like I still haven't absorbed this album in its entirety yet after numerous listens, but the reason I like this one so much is that it just puts you in an entirely different state than most albums, it really is one that differs in quality depending on mood if you ask me.
Favorite songs: Away / Absent, Darkness, A Year With No Summer, The Kadinsky Group
-
I got Away/Absent in my roulette and it really did nothing for me. I'm going to try the album at some point but it might not be my thing.
On the other hand, that Slice the Cake album :metal cheers
-
Everybody has gotten Away / Absent in their roulettes this past year :lol
Thanks for including it; nice write-up!
(By the way, the vinyl edition has a different track order that also works surprisingly well. The title-track os placed between The Kandinsky Group and The Polyarnik, so the album opens with 10th April. I don't know why they did this, but it's a nice change from the original order.)
-
i don't understand the appeal of this album, i find it boring, but oh well
-
(By the way, the vinyl edition has a different track order that also works surprisingly well. The title-track os placed between The Kandinsky Group and The Polyarnik, so the album opens with 10th April. I don't know why they did this, but it's a nice change from the original order.)
This sounds intriguing, I may just try that order out the next time I listen to it.
-
I seem to have this saved in Spotify but I don't recall if I have actually listened to it or not.
-
Car Bomb - Meta (28th of October)
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0008160861_10.jpg)
For fans of: Mathcore, progressive metal(core) (Meshuggah, The Dillinger Escape Plan)
Next up I got fucking agressive album that might just be the biggest surprise of the year, who the hell are Car Bomb??
For the record, I hadn't heard a second off this album before seeing someone online share a song off this new record a couple of weeks ago, just as it got released. Nothing compares to the sheer insanity that went into creating this 11-piece album. The record is filled with over-the-top agressive, complex rhythms and systematically placed bloodpumping vocals. With the average of about 4 minutes per song, you'd expect some more straightforward songwriting, and I could see this music falling flat for a lot of people with little to no interest in br00tal stuff like this, but this one just left me with such interest more than anything, wanting to explore these songs further and seeing what all the fuss was about (I've seen it listed as one of the best albums of the year on some lists).
I feel like the FFO section in this one is the most accurate out of any writeups I've done so far. The music has the same level of brutality and chaos as The Dillinger Escape Plan, while the vocals share some similarities with the vocalists of both TDEP and Meshuggah. Furthermore, the technicality and musicianship across the board seemingly is on par with some of the stuff I have heard of Meshuggah as well, and at times they really do sound like a sped up alternative of Meshuggah.
The first two songs are great sampling material for the rest of the album, From the Dust of This Planet covers pretty much the entire sound range of "Meta", and Secrets Within, with the Prison Song intro, unfolds into another heartpounding outburst of chaos. I would not bother describing every single song, because Car Bomb somewhat stick to a core sound that they feel comfortable with, which works for some and is a big snoozefest to others. I think The Dillinger Escape Plan had something great going on with one of their singles of their latest album, "Limerent Death", that being the outro. Car Bomb make use of the same type of formula here, where they build upon the same riff over and over to increase intensity and make you feel like you are listening to surroundings of an actual madhouse with these incredibly low tuned slow and dirty guitar riffs. I would not say this is the best thing ever but it is at the very least a very interesting surprise of 2016, looking forward to hearing more from these guys.
Favorite songs: From the Dust of This Planet, Cenotaph, Constant Sleep, Secrets Within, Lights Out
-
Car Bomb :metal
Didn't know they had a new album out. Cool.
-
As someone who likes neither of those bands I think I should avoid this one like the plague :P
-
Car Bomb :metal
Didn't know they had a new album out. Cool.
Fuck yeah, you know them? What's your favorite album? Would like to check out some more
As someone who likes neither of those bands I think I should avoid this one like the plague :P
Probably for the best, yeah, this does not sound like paramacore
-
Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage (28th of October)
(https://i.imgur.com/E6iNxNl.jpg)
For fans of: Heavy metal, progressive metal, alternative metal
Deserving of the title "least anticipated release of one of my favorite bands", here we have the latest Avenged Sevenfold album, The Stage! It has not even been a month since its release and it has already taken up the spot of one of my most played albums of the entire year. Initially, I was not hyped about this album at all. The band claimed to be in the studio at around April or something and I fully expected them to become a band that would slowly fade out of my rotation in the next couple of years, to be replaced by brutal black death metal and pornogrind. But with an interestingly surprising release with no prior information except for one random single drop, they peeked my interest soon enough again.
The very first thing we got to hear from this album was a snippet showcasing some almost Dragonforce-sounding shreds by Syn. A bit random, but I personally dug it, gave me some hope that this would not be the standard Hail to the King-type hardrock album that some of us feared.
When finally, The Stage dropped, and we eventually got to hear what direction the band was going into after all these years, I was floored. This song gave me all kinds of goosebumps, from the great thematic intro into the badass main riff, to the mellow Syn-heavy solo section into the grand finale, this song has everything I love about Avenged Sevenfold. It may not be the very best at all those elements, but it is the best all-around song in the bands entire catalogue if you ask me. When the band had announced the album release after the show on the top of the Capitol Records building I had already heard the album in full once, and was kind of disappointed. The Stage ended up being the best song by far and so the rest did not have much else to offer. But upon delving into the album a little deeper, I found out that I kept wanting to return to it and some songs were actually freaking great. Higher has a some awkward lines resemblant to Iron Maiden, but all in all is a great track and one of my favorites. The song tells of a group of people stranded in space in which all but one eventually pass away. The sole survivor then becomes lonely and isolated from the rest of the world to an extent where he decided that he wanted to go back into space one last time to end it all, the ending of this song is so melancholic, I love it. Angels reminds me heavily of Guns 'n Roses, though in a style which I can tolerate a little better. Yet again, it was the ending of this song that initially hooked me, the repeated lines ""The faster we run now, the closer the gun now" hit me in one way or another, can't quite describe it but it's great. And then the solos, once again, Syn is killing it on this record. Leading up to the album closer, I feel like Fermi Paradox is the most experimental song on the album, this, God Damn and Exist are a total Brooks Wackerman show. The drums on this one did not appeal to me at first, but man, those ride-bell blast beats are jst so addictive, and what is more interesting is that they oddly place them in the middle of the chorus. Similar to Periphery's "The Way the News Goes...", this is a very weird change of pace but one that works for me. The intro of Fermi Paradox is what makes this song so spectacular to me though, I love the introductory guitars here which remind me of Save Me.
Furthermore, some of the more straightforward rocking moments on the album are worthy of notice too. God Damn's chorus is by far one of the catchiest moments in recent times of the band's career, you simply cannot listen to that without remembering how it goes, for better or worse I guess. The acoustic break followed by the double-ride final chorus make this from a good song to a great one, Brooks is such a god damn good drummer. :neverusethis: Paradigm seems to not get as much love as other songs, and I guess the first half is pretty standard A7X, but man does that instrumental section followed by the last part of the song blow my face off. I also love the pre-chorus/chorus in this song, I think it's interesting that they kind of blend them together here. Sunny Disposition may well include trumpets, I do not think it is that unorthodox of a song. That said, the horn section is great and it reminds me of The Mars Volta time after time, especially the vocal melodies sound like Frances era TMV.
Exist is the biggest surprise of the year. I scrolled down on the A7X website only to find the complete tracklist which ended with a near 16-minute song, what the actual fuck. The band has done some long songs in the past but this is beyond their standards by quite a margin. When listening to this one for the first time, to be disappointed by it would be an understatement. It just felt so weird opening with a massively energetic metal instrumental only to scale it off slowly and transition into something entirely different. The song would close off with a repeated keyboard rhythm layered with a section written and spoken by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Very quickly I started picking up great drum patterns and beautiful space-concept related themes, Matt's voice fits the theme perfectly here. The fact that they got Neil to personally write something and speak in the words for the finale of the album is just fantastic, and they pull it off flawlessly. The increasing intensity of the drums as the end is nearing adds to it, and honestly when you read into the text it is so deep. I am glad they are keeping songs like this fairly exclusive, because right now, all their songs of epic length hold something special, something that none of their other songs can reach. That is great to have in epics.
I could not be more pleasantly surprised with the release of The Stage, and I am excited to still be able to call myself a huge Avenged Sevenfold fan after all these years.
Favorite songs: Exist, The Stage, Angels, Higher, Paradigm, Fermi Paradox
-
(https://i.imgur.com/qRi9VM1.png)
I ended up merging both Odyssey's, here's my top 16 so far! From left to right and top to bottom.
-
I want to know you made that picture.
-
Well I have 7 out of the 16 and they are all in with a shot if making my top 10 of the year.
I've listened to that Slice the Cake album twice now. It's not bad and I'll give it more spins before I can really rate it but didn't you say it's your album of the decade, so far!! That's quite an accolade. I can't hear anything that special in, yet at least.