Author Topic: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #1: I'm Not Sorry For That At All  (Read 30653 times)

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If I ever run a roulette again, I expect you to send me a song from this band.
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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you would be 100% Correct

Offline Zantera

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I remember listening to a song by them a few years ago, at least once but not digging it, but after getting into post-metal I probably should give them a chance again.

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I think I love Yellow/Green more than any other Baroness record. They are a great band but I've found that my favourite songs of theirs are ALWAYS the instrumentals!! Stretchmarker and Green Theme being perfect examples. I like Baizley's voice but the instrumentals just do it for me everytime  :hefdaddy

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well, remember that I haven't gotten to Green yet, and it is 100% on the list  :tup

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #27: Jurassic Park
« Reply #215 on: May 30, 2016, 10:23:30 AM »
#27: Intronaut - Prehistoricisms



This is a difficult album to talk about, mainly for one reason; that epic closer of a track, a post-metal masterpiece in its own right. It doesn't really fit in that snugly with the sound of the rest of the album but there's definitely some connection. And it's not like the rest of the album is bad; it's actually quite good, though probably the only other great track is Any Port, it's hard to point out any moment of weakness on this album, and in general it's a lot more diverse than the two albums that followed it.

A lot of the songs on this album are very... balanced, for lack of a better term. Every song has at least one really killer heavy riff in it, nearly every song has a nice atmospheric break somewhere in it, there's equal parts of dissonant sludginess and warmer post-metal sound, and there's always a nice progressive flair to the tracks, they're never too straightforward but never get lost in technicality and still all come out sounding pretty strong.

As far as killer riffs go, The Literal Black Cloud made have the strongest of them all, a chug-heavy but really addicting main riff. Cavernous Den of Shame has a pretty frantic main riff too, Prehistoricisms having easily the most dissonant, Any Port the brightest, Sundial the most jagged and lumbering, and Australopithecus... well, doesn't really have a "main" riff but there's a thick, slow riff matched with polyrhythmic drums that makes for a few pretty awesome moments. And The Reptilian Brain has some crushing riffs in its third and fourth phases, especially the latter, which is just really damn intense.

The atmospheric breaks on the album are also quite diverse, and more often than not driven by the bass, with guitars just creating atmosphere. The Literal Black Cloud has a really cool bassline during its softer moments, Cavernous Den of Shame switches between a more upbeat, jagged bassline and a really warm one, Any Port is more atmosphere than anything else with bass driving the main motif, Sundial in its quieter moments is driven by this really strange, lumbering bassline, though there's a more straightforward atmospheric break towards the middle, Australopithecus has probably the most gorgeous break of the entire album, a strong bassline as well as some really lovely guitar melodies, and most of The Reptilian Brain is relatively atmospheric, from the long, hypnotic first phase driven by bass and tribal drums, as well as the second and fifth phases that have locked drum grooves, thick basslines, and nice layers of guitar texture.

One thing this album does really well is the balance of dissonance and melody. Take Prehistoricisms for example, probably the most dissonant track of the bunch, with its screeching intro noise and really sludgy main riff, among other things; there's a fair few more melodic and warm post-metal styled heavy breaks scattered throughout the track. The Literal Black Cloud also does this really neat thing where a dissonant guitar riff from earlier is reprised in a much more melodic fashion. There's traces of this throughout the entire album; they just strike a really good balance and neither part gets boring because of the variety.

I also have to give props to the drumming, which is, unsurprisingly, really tasteful and technical throughout. Walker knows how to play an engaging drum line without overshadowing the rest of the band, but still being diverse and technical enough to stay interesting on its own. There's a lot of tom-heavy drumming, some straightforward metal bits, a fair bit of jazzier rhythms in the more relaxed moments, as well as the first 5 minutes of The Reptilian Brain which are primarily just bongos. And let's not forget the fantastic drum duet at the end of Any Port, such a well-constructed moment, never get tired of it.

I sort of wish there were some clean vocals here, but there's not a ton of vocal presence here throughout, which leaves a lot of focus on the instrumentation, and to be fair this is always the more interesting part of any Intronaut album. Not like the harsh vocals are bad or anything either, they're solid but unremarkable really.

Really, it's hard to knock this album, even if I'm not fully behind it as a whole it's still always an enjoyable listen and it ends in one heck of a high note while being otherwise pretty consistent. It's probably their most diverse album to date, and a really ambitious album in its own right, even if it doesn't stick the landing every time. And The Reptilian Brain is easily the band's best track, probably one of the best post-metal tracks I've ever heard, so, yeah, there's that.

Favorite Tracks: The Reptilian Brain, Any Port, Australopithecus
Least Favorite Tracks: Sundial

7.75/10

DTF Addendum: Yeah this is definitely the case of one song bringing the album up a few nothces, without The Reptilian Brain I'd probably place most of this a bit below Habitual Levitations but it's just such a good song.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #27: Jurassic Park
« Reply #216 on: May 30, 2016, 10:26:34 AM »
 :corn

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #27: Jurassic Park
« Reply #217 on: May 30, 2016, 10:33:06 AM »
oh yeah, nobody got the top 5 right  :corn

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #27: Jurassic Park
« Reply #218 on: May 30, 2016, 10:54:36 AM »
I don't think I've listened to this one actually, only Valley of Smoke and forward. Might check it out.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #26: A New Djent
« Reply #219 on: May 30, 2016, 05:51:04 PM »
#26: Being - Anthropocene



I think my kneejerk reaction to this album was a bit weird, I really liked it at first, grew a bit tired of it after only a few listens, then came back to it much later after purchasing it and quite liked it again. And I think the main reason for my exhaustion was its length; the album isn't short, certainly, but... it shouldn't have been this long.

Let's get this out of the way: The 8 minutes of symphonic reprises at the end of the album was not a good idea. It stretches the album out way too long and I'm not really sure it adds much to the album, since all the vocals here aren't new. It's kind of a shame, since honestly, the orchestration sounds lovely and there's a ton of cool moments during this block of reprises, but I have to wonder why the decision to stick this long block of very similar stuff at the end of the album was made. Why not apply it all throughout the album's runtime and add a nice symphonic flair throughout? I get that technically the symphonic stuff was done by a guest artist, but... meh. It's a shame that it's stuck sitting at the very end and going on for so long though, it really is, because it works against itself in rather frustrating ways.

With that out of the way we can get on to the positives. And there are a lot of them. I may be guilty of letting the choruses on this album overshadow a lot of the rest. Because at the end of the day, this is actually quite poppy for djent or progressive metal in general. A lot rides on the vocals of this album. And... well, the main vocalist isn't great, but the vocal melodies he sings are often quite great to the point where I don't mind if the vocal quality itself is a little weak.

The choruses especially though are the strong point, for sure. DNA, Mindflay, Perpetual Groove, Escape, Sorrow, Air Atlantic, and The Singularity - Cosmists II all have FANTASTIC choruses, ranging from powerful to grooving to uplifting to emotionally intense to just outright massive. The only chorus I don't really like is Story for a Muse, which just feels a bit lifeless and stiff. There's a number of cool vocal moments outside choruses, though. A Part, Apart has a nice vocal melody, as do Perpetual Groove and Sorrow, and Escape is just absolutely loaded with wonderful vocal moments, especially the "we go" buildup in the middle.

The album definitely does have some djent influence to it, especially during Mindflay, Perpetual Groove, and Air Atlantic, but I don't think it's a prevalent sound on the album, more used as an element. There's a strong melodic focus throughout and the heavier moments are never really crushingly heavy nor empty and robotic-sounding. The production on the guitars is quite a bit less crisp than your average djent record which I honestly prefer, it sounds a lot warmer and more alive.

The other major musical component here is, actually, electronic work. There's a bit of an influence in most of the tracks, with it taking the forefront in songs like Escape and Sorrow; the former having a lot of bright synth lines, though also a weird out-of-place dubstep moment, the latter having a lot of electronic percussion and subtleties throughout. The last two tracks both deserve a mention too, the entire first half of Terrans is a quieter electronic build and there's synth work driving the second half as well, and there's a gorgeous electronic break in Cosmists that works as a nice cooldown moment for a rather intense track.

There's not really a lot of "standout" musical moments here, but there's a pretty consistent quality here nonetheless. DNA has a lot of nice melodic guitar work, Mindflay has some killer riffs, Perpetual Groove's riffing has a ton of... well, groove, Sorrow has some fantastic piano and clean guitar work, Air Atlantic has some more killer riffs and a great main melody driven by piano, and the guitar and drums of The Singularity - Cosmists II creates a nice frantic feel.

Really though at the end of the day, yeah, it comes down to how catchy and relistenable a lot of these tracks are. Strong enough choruses to stay in your head and not get tiring after multiple listens, with enough going on in the instrumentation for you to notice new things each time you listen and diverse enough to keep things interesting. I will again have to admit that I may like this album more than it deserves, since I'm well aware of its flaws, but I sort of feel they don't come close to outweighing the positives here. It definitely stands out among other djent and progressive metal albums, too, not quite fitting comfortably into either and having its electronic elements to give it more flavor on top of that. Really solid album all-around though, regardless.

Favorite Track: Air Atlantic, The Singularity - Cosmists II, Sorrow, DNA, Perpetual Groove, Mindflay
Least Favorite Tracks: Story for a Muse, A Part, Apart

7.75/10

DTF Addendum: Oh hey, it's that one album I put on my first Top 50 list even though I'd barely listened to it. I mean, looking back on it, I wasn't exactly wrong, though I don't know if it would be on my top 50 list if I did one today. Probably not. Still good though.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #26: A New Djent
« Reply #220 on: May 30, 2016, 06:01:50 PM »
Nice album cover! Not sure if I would like it that much since djent/prog is not my go-to genre but might check out a tune or two.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #26: A New Djent
« Reply #221 on: May 30, 2016, 06:04:26 PM »
0/10 not Periphery :neverusethis:

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #26: A New Djent
« Reply #222 on: May 30, 2016, 06:51:01 PM »
it's really poppy as far as djent goes but it doesn't have the whiny high-pitched vocals a lot of djent like periphery and tesseract has
not that those are bad vocals, just
and i mean there are guest features like that too, sure, so  :corn
random parts of this album still get stuck in my head every so often and i haven't listened to it for at least a month or two at this point so

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #26: A New Djent
« Reply #223 on: May 30, 2016, 09:41:39 PM »
This album is a bit of a mixed bag for me. Some of it is decent but then a lot of it is fairly meh aswell.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #25: WAAAAKE UUUUUP
« Reply #224 on: May 31, 2016, 12:48:45 AM »
#25: Caligula's Horse - Bloom
#5 for 2015



This is a very... standard album. I don't think it's pushing any boundaries, and while Caligula's Horse definitely have their own unique sound, there's not a lot of experimentation being done with here. On the other hand, despite not being particularly adventurous this is still a damn solid album. Not outstanding, but. Quite good. Would I recommend it over their other ones? Maybe their debut, but not their previous; that's more a testament to the consistent quality of Caligula's Horse albums than it is about this one's weaknesses.

The main strength of this album actually comes from the tighter songs that are arguably less "progressive" but make up for it by all being damn fine metal tracks. On the other hand, the longer tracks feel a bit less polished and both feel a bit drawn out, as well. Dragonfly has some stellar moments but feels like a weirdly constructed song, and Daughter of the Mountain never really surpasses being "alright" but doesn't really have any weak moments either.

What elements of this album work best, then. Hmm. Let's start with... the riffs. There are a TON of awesome riffs here. Suspect #1 and easily the best riff the band has ever done, heck, perhaps the best djenty riff I've ever heard, is the main riff of Marigold. Savor it; they will never write a riff quite that perfect again. Heavy, groovy, catchy and addictive, it's near perfection. Not that the other tracks are lacking cool riffs. Rust probably comes in second place with an awesome djenty riff following each chorus, again better than most any pure djent I've ever heard, and as well the main riff of the track is very frantic and driving, accentuated by the drums. The brighter tracks still have cool riffs, too; the prechorus of Firelight has a strong groove to it, and Turntail has maddeningly catchy riffs throughout, especially during the chorus.

The quality of the guitar work doesn't end there, though. Vallen has always been the heard of the band and he delivers some great solos as well as some strong guitar leads in general. The laid-back solo in Bloom, the guitar work throughout Firelight but especially that opening guitar line and the two solos later on in the song, the jagged and intense solo/unison in the middle of Firefly, the main guitar line of Turntail and even the cleaner moments of the track as well. Really, the only songs the guitar doesn't have any standout moments on are the last two, and Undergrowth at least gets the excuse of being a vocal-driven song using guitars just as a backdrop.

Speaking of, the vocals on this album are great too. Grey's voice is a good fit for the music and he delivers a ton of powerful performances. My single favorite moment of the entire album may be the "on your knees now... WAKE UP" moment where Bloom really kicks in, it's just fantastically chilling. The choruses on this album are generally strong too, Marigold, Firelight, and Rust especially. Special mention also goes to the last few minutes of Firefly that are particularly intense, the "even gods and their feet of clay" break in Turntail, and the entirety of Undergrowth, which is for as simple a song it is quite powerful and intense, probably the best vocal performance of the entire album.

I will say that bass feels a little underplayed/underpresent throughout this album and while there are moments where the drums do some cool things, they feel a bit underplayed as well. It's not a huge problem and I don't really think it detracts from the album in any significant way, I would've liked to see them both get a bit more love.

No, the real detractors here boil down to two major complaints. One. What the hell is up with Dragonfly's structure. After the guitar solo in the middle, the song cuts into a piano reprise of the main theme leading into one last chorus. And then the song is over... just kidding, 3 minutes left to go. And, despite that those 3 minutes are the best part of the song, the weird structure of the song makes them feel like they drag even despite enjoying them immensely.

Two. Daughter of the Mountain feels like an arbitrarily stretched out song; the chorus is repeated far too much, especially near the end, and the song definitely feels like it meanders about in the middle for a bit too long. Apart from the chorus I never find much of this track memorable at all, and while it's solid it definitely holds the album back a little.

When my biggest problems can be boiled down that simply, though, that generally means an album is quite good. I think the safer nature of the album and its small weaknesses hold it back from being truly great, but regardless it's still definitely an album worth checking out if you're a fan of prog metal or really metal in general, it's a fairly accessible album in spite of the technicality on display here, which may be a stroke of genius on its own.

Also, that album cover is gorgeous. Just saying.

Favorite Tracks: Marigold, Firelight, Turntail, Rust
Least Favorite Tracks: Daughter of the Mountain, Dragonfly

7.75/10

DTF Addendum: Caligula's Horse will always be my hipster cred band and they haven't released a bad album yet so I hope to see that trend continue, even if this isn't as great as their previous. Doesn't help that I'm moving away from this kind of prog metal lately, but I can still recognize quality when I hear it, sure.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #25: WAAAAKE UUUUUP
« Reply #225 on: May 31, 2016, 02:18:47 AM »
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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #25: WAAAAKE UUUUUP
« Reply #226 on: May 31, 2016, 02:37:34 AM »
I agree fully with the addendum, but it's also better than you make it out to be.
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #25: WAAAAKE UUUUUP
« Reply #227 on: May 31, 2016, 03:10:11 AM »
I can't find any bad tracks or moments in this album. I was starting to write something "swap Firelight, Rust and Turntail with Daughter Of The Mountain and Dragonfly in your favourite's list", but those three are perfect songs for what they do, it's just that I rarely listen to them and it's only a matter of personal taste.

I didn't find weird the structure of Dragonfly, instead since the first time I listened to its chorus I've always doubt if it was copied from other songs. I don't know if I remember something similar from other songs or maybe it's a melody so natural that makes me think that some other bands must have invented it before.

My ranking:

1. Bloom + Marigold
2. Dragonfly
3. Daughter Of The Mountain
4. Undergrowth
5. Firelight
6. Rust
7. Turntail

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #228 on: May 31, 2016, 09:11:48 AM »
#24: Skyharbor - Guiding Lights



There's a pretty significant distance between myself and this album, at this point; I got it near the start of 2015 and gave it a ton of spins because I didn't have a lot of new music at that point in time, and set it aside some time later when I did have new music, not really revisiting it much at all since then. I sort of feel like I'm biased to like it because of how fondly I remember it, but then thinking about it I realize this just means it's a good album that I still recognize as a good album even after all this time.

I started out my review of this, as I do with all my reviews, by going track-by-track through the album and taking notes on all of them, but by the fourth track I realized I was more just commenting on the album as a whole than any of the individual tracks themselves.

In most cases that would be a bad thing, but here... well, this is hardly an album of songs, at the end of the day. It's music that strikes a particularly mood and does it well enough to stay interesting the whole way through its 68-minute journey, while not having many specific moments that overshadow others or any moments of weakness.

It's an album where I'm kind of glad I don't really have any of the tracks memorized or ever really remember which track is which; it doesn't really matter here. It's a sound more than it is songs, and they all do it quite well.

The production on this album is basically perfect for what it's trying to accomplish; there's just enough crunch to the heavier moments, but still enough thick atmosphere to keep that ethereal sound, and of course the lighter moments have just the right amount of reverb to give them a full, lush sound. It sounds great, consistently.

There's clearly some djent influence here, but it's never overpowering and just serves to compliment the mood. There's some chuggy riffs, sure, and some of the polyrhythmic drumming, but they're always balanced out with the more full sound of the album, thick soundscapes, and lots of softer moments in each track to keep the album dynamic. Tompkins' vocal style is pretty obviously similar to the cleans you'd tend to hear from djent groups, too, but it's not really a whiny, nasal pitch that he sings in, and he fits right in with the music here.

Each instrument is given plenty of room to breathe, as well. There's some nice guitar riffs, some noodly guitar leads, and of course twinkly cleaner guitar moments, while the drums tend to drive the mood and pace of the tracks more than any of the other instruments, and the bass provides a nice thick sound and a fair number of cool grooves to form the backbone of each track. It's perhaps a bit less present than the other instruments but still important here all the same.

As for song structures, it's generally easier to just talk about the album as a whole than any individual songs. There's not really a ton of standout, memorable moments, but on the entire album there's really only one moment, the spoken word sample at the end of Halogen, that doesn't really work; everything else? Not a weak moment to be found. There's generally a mix of some upbeat, pretty heavy moments, some more downbeat heavy moments with some groove behind them, softer and atmospheric moments that have a relaxing and dreamy sound to them, and generally a pretty powerful chorus somewhere in each track as well. They're elements that all work and most every track uses all these elements together to create dynamic and engaging songs that you can just as easily zone out to.

Honestly, it's an album that pretty much fully met my expectations for what it wanted to deliver. Pleasant, intense, atmospheric, powerful, relaxing, pretty. It's not an album I turn to to put on any specific songs that I can't get out of my head, just an album to put on and have a nice time listening to.

Favorite Tracks: New Devil, Idle Minds, The Constant, Guiding Lights
Least favorite Track: Halogen? But barely.

7.75/10

DTF Addendum: This is one that I got early enough into 2015 that it feels weird even including it here, but it's also quite good and coming back to it when I wrote the review I found it a lot more fresh and compelling than I expected somehow.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #25: WAAAAKE UUUUUP
« Reply #229 on: May 31, 2016, 10:06:13 AM »
I think the safer nature of the album... hold(s) it back from being truly great

And here in one sentence is the difference between you and me.

I don't actually know the album in question, but I thought it was worth commenting on this line.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2016, 12:13:07 PM by 425 »
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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #230 on: May 31, 2016, 10:34:39 AM »
I don't get what you're getting at tbh  :P

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #231 on: May 31, 2016, 11:31:57 AM »
I think Guiding Lights is great. Like you said, the spoken word section of Halogen doesn't work. In fact, I've only heard it once since I can't bear to listen to it one more time. But the rest of Halogen is very nice.

The title track is probably Tompkin's best work to date I'd say. I love that song.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #232 on: May 31, 2016, 12:14:49 PM »
I don't get what you're getting at tbh  :P

Well, the stupid bbcode crossed out part of the line when I didn't mean to do that, so that was a problem.

But I'm getting at how, for you, it matters how experimental or risky an album is, while for me that doesn't matter at all. Essentially, "it's too safe" is never something I would cite as a reason for ranking an album lower.
And if spirit's a sign,
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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #233 on: May 31, 2016, 12:29:05 PM »
being safe isn't inherently bad, but it makes albums turn out a bit samey at times, and yeah my top 20 doesn't exactly have a lot of safe albums on it thinking about it

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #234 on: May 31, 2016, 12:34:25 PM »
See, I think of "safe" and "samey" as totally different things. Like, Color Before the Sun is a pretty safe album, but I wouldn't call it samey, because there are a lot of different types of songs on there (I'd call Year of the Black Rainbow both safe and samey).
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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #235 on: May 31, 2016, 12:34:36 PM »
That Being album sounds interesting, might even actually discover good music from a Parama top albums list wtf :corn

Guiding Lights is just fantastic, my favorite song is easily Patience though. It's the Steven Wilson effect.
people on this board are actual music fans who developed taste in music and not casual listeners who are following current fashion trends and listening to only current commercial hits.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #236 on: May 31, 2016, 12:55:46 PM »
Everyone else is commenting on the actual albums and I'm just being so annoying and hectoring Parama about random things :P
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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #237 on: May 31, 2016, 12:57:52 PM »
Guiding Lights is just fantastic, my favorite song is easily Patience though. It's the Steven Wilson effect.

Yeah Patience is another great one. And the video is fantastic.

Offline Train of Naught

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #238 on: May 31, 2016, 12:59:06 PM »
Everyone else is commenting on the actual albums and I'm just being so annoying and hectoring Parama about random things :P

Yeah shame on you, you're not even paying attention to what could be your new love in music, check out Patience by Skyharbor right now! I think you'll like it. Preferably the official video since it has one of those lovely video's by the same person who does the Steven Wilson animated video's.

Guiding Lights is just fantastic, my favorite song is easily Patience though. It's the Steven Wilson effect.

Yeah Patience is another great one. And the video is fantastic.
Love it.
people on this board are actual music fans who developed taste in music and not casual listeners who are following current fashion trends and listening to only current commercial hits.

Offline Crow

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #239 on: May 31, 2016, 01:16:03 PM »
I can only immediately pull to mind the chorus of patience tbh

Offline BlackInk

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #24: The Djent Strikes Back
« Reply #240 on: May 31, 2016, 03:45:01 PM »
Every section of that song is beautiful.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #23: Blood Tomato Cardinal
« Reply #241 on: May 31, 2016, 08:44:36 PM »
#23: Baroness - Red Album



Exploring both ends of the Baroness spectrum, with the more accessible and toned-down Yellow & Green, and the heavier, jagged Red, as well as the recent comfortable middle between the two, Purple, has given me a lot of appreciation for this band. There's a core underlying sound they have, but they're also competent enough songwriters to take it in a different direction with every release and still have tons of variety on each record.

Red, which is their first full-length, is certainly the heaviest Baroness album I have, though I wouldn't say it's really especially heavy, and it's also, interestingly, the least vocal-driven. Four of the tracks here are completely instrumental, and most of the rest have a strong instrumental focus with occasional bits of hard-edged vocals from Baizley. I definitely think this works in the album's favor as while the vocals tend to be nicely intense when they come in, they're not the greatest; having them in small moments to accentuate the heavier parts of the tracks makes them work about as good as they could.

There's a certain southern rock twang to the guitar lines that permeates pretty much the entire album; Cockroach en Fleur in particular is a weird mixture of classical guitar and a very twangy guitar line that creates quite a captivating mix. A good chunk of the rest of the guitar lines on the album have a similar though not as strong vibe to them, but it's one thing that really gives this album a lot of its unique flavor.

The other most notable thing about this album is the drumming. 'Cause... damn, it's impressive. There's this drum break in The Birthing that's just really intense, and the rest of the track as well has some nice frantic drumming going on throughout. Wailing Wintry Wind is basically a 6-minute showcase of the drumming, set to the tune of an escalating build; the drums take this downbeat atmospheric track and transform it into an intense, energetic thrill ride, without destroying the more relaxed mood of the rest of the instruments. Teeth of a Cogwheel also has pretty intense drumming throughout, especially a bit that sounds almost like something you'd hear in an industrial track, clanking of metal and thumping toms. Really though the drums are the other half of what really works about this album.

I do think that the high guitar and drums presence does sideline the bass pretty heavily, though; the bass has its moments, sure, but they're far and few between and generally not especially notable.

The small amount of progressive flair that this album does have is utilized pretty well; The Birthing builds on a 5/4 riff that has a sort of rambling mood to it, it never feels like the song is constrained to a strict time signature until about halfway through. Wanderlust has a nice 7/8 instrumental break in the middle which I may like just because 7/8 is the best time signature, but it's a pretty cool groove regardless. There isn't a whole lot of prog on this album in general, only a few moments outside of these two tracks, but it's a small touch that adds to the album a lot.

Another touch that really makes this album work is its roughness. These songs sort of feel like rough drafts, polished juuust enough to be cohesive while still sounding pretty raw. The songs that focus on buildup do so pretty much front-to-back, but in a way that you don't really notice how long the build is because it's interesting every step of the way. All three of the build-focused tracks reach a satisfying and intense climax, too, especially Grad which is just so majestic and triumphant, that horn really makes the ending.

And the rest of the tracks are generally an odd patchwork of three or so main melodies or riffs, with enough small variations to keep anything from getting stale and stitched together just right to have a sense of progression even in their repetition; tracks like The Birthing, Isak, and Wanderlust exemplify this the most, repeating a few main motifs quite a lot with small variations that keep them fresh. And it helps that the motifs repeated tend to be pretty dang good; the only guitar line I don't really care much for is the first main motif of Wanderlust, but it's not bad or anything, just kind of mediocre. It doesn't drag the whole song down too much, though.

The short tracks are the only ones that really break from this formula, not really having the time to do so, but even then they all still have that raw sound to them. Cockroach en Fleur could be a weird guitar jam one of the band members plucked out and put to record on the first take. Teeth of a Cogwheel feels a bit underdeveloped, not going far beyond its one main motif, though there's this weirdly effective guitar solo that could've been basically anything and sound like a first take they just stuck with. O'Appalachia is basically just one of the longer tracks with the instrumental breaks cut out, two or three main motifs and some pretty intense vocals that make for a cohesive and brief track.

Really the only slightly disposable track here is Aleph, which is still notable for having probably the "sludgiest" and most sluggish feel to it, though it mostly just feels incomplete; like there should be a vocal verse or two in the heavier parts, and as well the ending is a bit... abrupt and awkward. There's also that untitled bonus track which is a brief jam after 10 minutes of silence that I've listened to probably once ever and am not factoring into this review, so.

On the whole, this is a strong and rather colorful album; I wouldn't particularly say there are any "standout" tracks here, and barely any weak spots, even the weakest track here is still quite solid, it's just a consistently high bar that gets met by the majority of the music here. Each song has its own unique feel to it as well which is what gives the album its wide palette despite its rather short runtime, there's really no wasted space here at all. The album even has quite a strong flow to it, both in the way the tracks segue into each other and the different moods each conveys. It's an album where I can't go far beyond nitpicking to point out any flaws, but one I'm never especially thrilled by either, just really solid and consistently enjoyable.

Favorite Tracks: Rays on Pinion, Grad, The Birthing, Isak, Teeth of a Cogwheel
Least Favorite Track: Aleph

8/10

DTF Addendum: I think what this album lacks that later Baroness albums have in spades is emotional potency. The music here is pretty great but it's not as... powerful, as anything off Yellow or Green, or even Purple. I'm not familiar enough with Blue yet to know where it stands on the spectrum but I have a feeling it's about halfway between Red and Yellow, or at least that's what everyone makes it sound like. Not that this makes Red a worse album or anything, clearly. First 8 of the list, yo.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #27: Jurassic Park
« Reply #242 on: May 31, 2016, 09:48:32 PM »
I kinda like Blue but haven't bothered to try another of their albums.

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #22: Back to the Past
« Reply #243 on: June 01, 2016, 01:08:10 AM »
#22: Thank You Scientist - The Perils of Time Travel



If you'd listened to this EP a few times before the band dropped their first album, you probably wouldn't be surprised at how good that album was, because while this EP isn't quite on the same level, it's still pretty dang fantastic. It's got the same sensibilities, just less refined, and with songwriting that's a bit sloppier and unfocused at moments but showing a ton of potential.

One thing that this EP does really well is breadth. There's a lot of tiny subtleties throughout, a lot of moments where there's so much going on that it can be hard to follow, but everything that's going on its just awesome. Grin has a lot of these subtleties buried in its mix, and Make Like a Tree (Get Out) is probably the most lush song overall, even incorporating some xylophone at moments; the proggy breakdown during its instrumental has just so much going on it's crazy, but it sounds really cool because of it.

The EP also has its fair share of strong choruses. Abandonship! especially, has possibly their best chorus, that vocal line is so catchy and the instrumentation matches both the bigger moments and the more frantic moments of the vocals perfectly; especially the third chorus which has a cutoff at the start and even more layers of vocals, it's glorious. Leave the Light On is a close second, though, switching between a straightforward mood and groove driven by guitar and violin melodies. Grin and Make Like a Tree both have pretty solid choruses too, though the instrumentation in both of these overshadows the vocals, and Gemini doesn't really feel like it has a chorus, just a long prechorus with a ton of cool moments that satisfies on its own.

There's a number of cool vocal moments outside of the choruses, though. The vocals on the very jazzy verses of Leave the Light On are quite nice, the verses on Make Like a Tree outshine the chorus, and Gemini has both great verses and this absolutely fantastic staccato vocal moment about 3:15 in. The vocals are generally accompanied by really great music throughout, though, especially the aforementioned staccato moment in Gemini, everything together just makes that section HUGE.

Every instrument here has its time to shine, and there's a lot of them, clearly. Guitar and violin are probably the two most prevalent, driving a lot of the riffs and melodies respectively. There's a few great guitar solos too, on Leave the Light on and Gemini, the former especially builds into the song's last chorus really well. The drums never really take center stage but are often driving the mood of the song quite well. The bass has a number of cool lines of its own, especially the break in Abandonship! which has a ton of groove to it. The saxophone has solos in Abandonship! and Gemini the latter working as a great cooldown moment, and while beyond that neither it nor the trumpet takes center stage much, they're both plenty present throughout. There's also a bit of synth in Leave the Light On and Gemini, a solo in the latter, something you don't hear on the follow-up album, a bit of a unique touch.

Really though, the EP is at its best when all the instruments are working together to create a cool musical moment. Leave the Light On has a ton of instrumental cooperation, everything coming together to drive one hell of a groove, and Gemini's build in its first half is done so well because of the instrumentation. There's also a number of other moments, like the riff/melody in the second verse of Make Like a Tree that's jagged and addictive, the frantic intro of Grin, the opening unison of Gemini... too many to list really, just a ton of small little moments that work well.

I honestly feel like I might not have listened to this one enough, since even on this last listen I spotted a lot of little subtleties that I'd never noticed before and just made me appreciate this little EP all the more; it's not up to the level of the album that followed it, but it's still damn good on its own, only the opener track is a little weak by the band's standards, the Abandonship! and Leave the Light On could easily go one-on-one with most tracks on Maps. It's accessible, technically pleasing, and tons of fun, and between this and their debut album I can't wait for their next release.

Favorite Tracks: Leave the Light On, Abandonship!
Least Favorite Track: Grin

8/10

DTF Addendum: I'm just super happy to be able to get a physical copy of this EP, also having this band's shirt and fanboying and etc. Honestly I feel like I may have underrated this a little, it's not as good as the album for sure but it's still pretty great.

Offline Tomislav95

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Re: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #22: Back to the Past
« Reply #244 on: June 01, 2016, 02:11:45 AM »
I heard like one song from their album and it wasn't what I expected at all. But it is on my to-check list and I will check them sometimes.
...the years just pass like trains
I wave but they don't slow down...