"Universal loathing" is a far, far, far cry from what anyone said. The point is, while Scarsick isn't the worst album out there, it's pretty fucking terrible. And most people seem to agree that it's one of those PoS albums you save for last if you're trying to get into them. I don't see how you can blame it on the fans, since they're the only ones who seem to care about defending it.
I'm not basing my opinion on Scarsick on their previous output either, so thank you very much. I love Be, which was a big change from Remedy Lane (which itself was very different from TPE, and so on). Simply put, Daniel Gildenlow can't rap, and thankfully from what I can tell of Road Salt he's given up trying. The music itself is hook driven and gets stale pretty quickly. The lyrics are some of the worst I've heard on an album, and fall somewhere in the category of "parody" only they're not funny or amusing, just sad and a little pathetic.
Furthermore, as the album that's supposedly the sequel to The Perfect Element pt. 1, one of the most beloved albums by the fans, I'm not quite sure why I was supposed to leave my expectations for Scarsick at the door anyway.
Regardless, I for one am glad PoS aren't the type of band to do the same thing twice. Road Salt already sounds light-years ahead of Scarsick in terms of everything.
Well that's not what I'm contesting, so fair doos on that bit. Have an opinion! It's stellar. Hey, have two. I don't mind.
What you said, is "what UMH has posted here seems to be the general sentiments about Scarsick from the greater music-listening community." Only bit I'm challenging really, but oh boy it's wrong. Steeped in wrong. It's not unanimous, but the greater music listening community are
much warmer - by the best, broadest meter I could rustle up, and frankly none of the opinions he expressed would even make
sense applied on a broader scale.
UMH said "objectively, it's pretty bad" - you said "this is the general opinion." It's not. That's just a lie. It's very much an insular, internet-PoS-fan, cabin fever kinda perspective. He even quoted an intimate knowledge of the back-catalogue as necessary background to all of the reasons he didn't like it. That couldn't
be more PoS-fanny. An anecdotal sample pasted together from self-selected, opinionated people from the internet who like to grumble and make lists - much like myself. There are plenty of them, for sure, but there are plenty
more people who think it's at least "good," if not even "great." Truth is, though, there are plenty of people who dig it. Oodles of the buggers - as the RYM score reveals. You, yourself, put down its apparently-few defenders as "a few fanatics and the people at Remedy Lane" - as though the only reason anyone would like it was because they have a bit of a boner for more or less anything PoS put out. Kinda dismissed it as the ramblings of mad people - you even called the people who thought it was ace part of "a community you should avoid at all costs." But, regardless of how bad RL may be (I've never been) - people who like it are the majority!
"Objectively, Scarsick is pretty bad?" Objectively, what a load of old cobblers! There is no objective scale on which that's true. If you don't like it, grand! Hate it, if you want. Loathe it! Form a little club about it, that'd be nice. Nice to be in a club. Sense of belonging. But it's not the consensus. Which doesn't make your opinions any less or more valid! Just means that bit about Scarsick being objectively bad is wrong. And the one about only a few idiot fans liking it is also wrong. (Although I'm sure there are plenty of idiots who f'ing love the thing.)