Post your controversial music opinions v. I couldn't find the previous one

[Crow]

I guess at this point this is probably a controversial opinion:

Haken's Affinity is not in my top 15 albums of the year anymore.

i don't have enough 2016 albums to have enough to kick it out of my top 15 yet but i don't really see why people are freaking out over it so much, it's a fine album but only their third best album, realistically. out of four. so yeah

[Train of Naught]

Yep. The Mountain > Aquarius > Affinity > Visions

I think I liked it more when it got released because of the concert hype but I have never felt the need to keep listening to it after that show to be honest, don't even know when I played a song from the album for the last time. I definitely know at least 15 great albums from this year that surpass it, but maybe even 20.

The real question though is Affinity or The Astonishing? Those are pretty closely matched for me

[Zook]

My cat's obnoxious meowing > Haken

[Zantera]

Loveless is a really great album but overall I like Slowdive, Ride and Lush more than I like My Bloody Valentine.

[Tomislav95]

Not sure how controversial this is, but I consider Death Magnetic to be Metallica's 2nd worst album.

And after watching the really entertaining 2 hour making of docu, where it's clear that just about every aspect of every song was decided by committee, it helped solidify my opinion that it's soulless and completely uninspired.

Agree. Load and Reload are much better.

[Stadler]

Not sure how controversial this is, but I consider Death Magnetic to be Metallica's 2nd worst album.

And after watching the really entertaining 2 hour making of docu, where it's clear that just about every aspect of every song was decided by committee, it helped solidify my opinion that it's soulless and completely uninspired.

Doesn't it depend on who the "committee" is?  I didn't see the doc, but if it's a committee of James, Lars, Kirk, and Robert, or even Bob Rock, that's not really grounds to say "soulless".  If the "committee" is the PR guy, and John Kalodner John Kalodner, and the lawyer, and some DJ from Sirius Metalhead Radio, and Eddie Trunk, etc., then I agree.  Then it's just pandering. 

[Mosh]

Loveless is a really great album but overall I like Slowdive, Ride and Lush more than I like My Bloody Valentine.

Not really into that genre but I love Lush.

I guess at this point this is probably a controversial opinion:

Haken's Affinity is not in my top 15 albums of the year anymore.

i don't have enough 2016 albums to have enough to kick it out of my top 15 yet but i don't really see why people are freaking out over it so much, it's a fine album but only their third best album, realistically. out of four. so yeah

That's probably accurate for me too, although I think I even prefer Visions to it.

Affinity and The Astonishing are difficult to compare because they're so different. Affinity probably has more replay value but I also admire DT's boldness to do an album like The Astonishing.

[bosk1]

I think I.T. is too disjointed - there's too many riffs in too short a time.

Maybe but the high points in that song just do it for me big time.

I completely agree with both of these positions.  I found it offputting at first because it is so disjointed and has too many different things going on, especially the middle section killing the flow of the song.  But the good parts are just SO good that I have come to love it.

I don't like Dev.

I'm right there with you.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Death Magnetic > Ride the Lightning

[Sacul]

Thrash is so boring.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

prog sucks

Even if you're not serious, I'm going to pretend you are and use this as proof that not all heroes wear capes.

[Kotowboy]

Death Magnetic > Ride the Lightning

Well there's no Escape or Trapped Under ice on DM.

But Ride has better production.

And it has Fight Fire. Creeping Death. Ktulu. Bells. Ride The Lightning. Fade.

[rumborak]

prog sucks

Even if you're not serious, I'm going to pretend you are and use this as proof that not all heroes wear capes.

For the most part he is entirely correct. Prog is a genre with great potential, but it is usually mired in uninspired, derivative pseudo-intellectualism.

[Scorpion]

prog sucks

Even if you're not serious, I'm going to pretend you are and use this as proof that not all heroes wear capes.

For the most part he is entirely correct. Prog is a genre with great potential, but it is usually mired in uninspired, derivative pseudo-intellectualism.

Yeah, I don't disagree. But the majority of pretty much any genre is boring, so I'm not sure why prog is being singled out.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Because when any other genre is boring, it gets to its boring point a whole lot faster.  When prog is boring, you have to wait a lot longer to get to the end to realized that you shouldn't have listened to it.

[Mosh]

prog sucks

Even if you're not serious, I'm going to pretend you are and use this as proof that not all heroes wear capes.

For the most part he is entirely correct. Prog is a genre with great potential, but it is usually mired in uninspired, derivative pseudo-intellectualism.

Yeah, I don't disagree. But the majority of pretty much any genre is boring, so I'm not sure why prog is being singled out.

Cause people like being contrarian. You're not going to get much of a reaction on here if you said most of Country is boring or something.

Personally I don't find prog much better or worse than any other genre. There's so much stuff out there that trying to blanket statement it is usually naive.

[King Postwhore]

Any genre can get stale if your musical taste change.  Not that any of this is right or wrong but some people love a certain style of music or a band not to change it's style and they are ok, others are consistently looking for something now that grips them musically.

Both are ok.

[bosk1]

Because when any other genre is boring, it gets to its boring point a whole lot faster.  When prog is boring, you have to wait a lot longer to get to the end to realized that you shouldn't have listened to it.

  True...

Cause people like being contrarian.

...but mostly just this.^

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Nuh-uh.

[rumborak]

Because when any other genre is boring, it gets to its boring point a whole lot faster.  When prog is boring, you have to wait a lot longer to get to the end to realized that you shouldn't have listened to it.

My take on it is slightly different. When say punk is bad, it's still ok because the expectations are by no means "high-brow". Not disparaging towards punk in any way, but the "requirements" on it are much less than prog. Prog on the other hand often tries to be the ultimate listening experience, and when that fails, it fails hard.

[Super Dude]

Because when any other genre is boring, it gets to its boring point a whole lot faster.  When prog is boring, you have to wait a lot longer to get to the end to realized that you shouldn't have listened to it.

My take on it is slightly different. When say punk is bad, it's still ok because the expectations are by no means "high-brow". Not disparaging towards punk in any way, but the "requirements" on it are much less than prog. Prog on the other hand often tries to be the ultimate listening experience, and when that fails, it fails hard.

Yeah, I mean no offense to any prog fans here (after all, I admit I am the occasional prog fan myself), but there's a measure of pretentiousness baked into the genre because it's supposedly "so much more complex and sophisticated than 'normal' music." So when a genre that is claimed by its fans to be categorically superior to all other music ever turns out to be mired in uninspired, derivative pseudo-intellectualism, it sorta takes all the air out of that claim; the fact the music sucks is all the more damaging. Like, insult added to injury.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

^ If this comment was water, I would fucking bathe in it, gleefully. If it was mud and I was a pig, I would get filthy goddamned dirty in it.

[Super Dude]

[Sacul]

Yeah, I mean no offense to any prog fans here (after all, I admit I am the occasional prog fan myself), but there's a measure of pretentiousness baked into the genre because it's supposedly "so much more complex and sophisticated than 'normal' music." So when a genre that is claimed by its fans to be categorically superior to all other music ever turns out to be mired in uninspired, derivative pseudo-intellectualism, it sorta takes all the air out of that claim; the fact the music sucks is all the more damaging. Like, insult added to injury.

[Prog Snob]

Because when any other genre is boring, it gets to its boring point a whole lot faster.  When prog is boring, you have to wait a lot longer to get to the end to realized that you shouldn't have listened to it.

My take on it is slightly different. When say punk is bad, it's still ok because the expectations are by no means "high-brow". Not disparaging towards punk in any way, but the "requirements" on it are much less than prog. Prog on the other hand often tries to be the ultimate listening experience, and when that fails, it fails hard.

Yeah, I mean no offense to any prog fans here (after all, I admit I am the occasional prog fan myself), but there's a measure of pretentiousness baked into the genre because it's supposedly "so much more complex and sophisticated than 'normal' music." So when a genre that is claimed by its fans to be categorically superior to all other music ever turns out to be mired in uninspired, derivative pseudo-intellectualism, it sorta takes all the air out of that claim; the fact the music sucks is all the more damaging. Like, insult added to injury.

Unfortunately, I know very few prog fans who use those words to describe it. Most of those that do are the type that only discovered Dream Theater a few days ago and have forgotten every other band they listened to and will only listen to bands that measure up to them. Using that definition in any way to portray the genre in a negative light is like using Prometheus as an example of why it's a bad idea to steal anything.

[mikeyd23]

Yeah, I mean no offense to any prog fans here (after all, I admit I am the occasional prog fan myself), but there's a measure of pretentiousness baked into the genre because it's supposedly "so much more complex and sophisticated than 'normal' music." So when a genre that is claimed by its fans to be categorically superior to all other music ever turns out to be mired in uninspired, derivative pseudo-intellectualism, it sorta takes all the air out of that claim; the fact the music sucks is all the more damaging. Like, insult added to injury.

What about, crazy idea here, people that just like prog music but don't feel any of that other stuff? 

But seriously though, I like some prog, I don't like some prog, but that doesn't mean I think that music is somehow "categorically superior" to other music.

[Zantera]

Super Dude is pretty much on point though. It's not the case with all prog fans, but I've seen a lot of them pull the "it's a better genre because technical skill YO" argument. And it's not that weird given the nature of the genre. Fans of every genre think their genre is the best, but with prog you have that extra element of the music being more technically difficult to execute, so there's that.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Unfortunately, I know very few prog fans who use those words to describe it.

To be fair, of course no prog fan is going to describe it that way.  All of us think we're better than everyone else at something, but we'd be fairly socially inept to go around actually saying it out loud to everyone.

[Stadler]

Unfortunately, I know very few prog fans who use those words to describe it.

To be fair, of course no prog fan is going to describe it that way.  All of us think we're better than everyone else at something, but we'd be fairly socially inept to go around actually saying it out loud to everyone.

And yet... some people try. 

[Prog Snob]

Unfortunately, I know very few prog fans who use those words to describe it.

To be fair, of course no prog fan is going to describe it that way.  All of us think we're better than everyone else at something, but we'd be fairly socially inept to go around actually saying it out loud to everyone.

I don't think social ineptitude has anything to do with it. I'm pretty socially inept, but I also won't go around making an ass of myself by making wide-eyed claims such as, "my music is better than yours because we play in 99/64 time and have 49 minute epics." Though, I've met enough people like that to understand why people mock prog fans. I think it's more about making others feel inferior or maybe it's an insecurity issue with themselves.  I guess you could put that under the umbrella of social ineptitude if you really wanted to debate it, but when I think social ineptitude, I think of someone like myself who has terrible social anxiety and is fully introverted and tends to avoid most social gatherings.

To me, I find it to be a more interesting genre because of how some of the musicians try and explore new territory. It could be the most simplest piece of music, but something so beautiful and endearing. Vinny from Anathema said it best. He doesn't understand why so many bands call themselves progressive bands when they essentially make the same music over and over.

I'd rather listen to something different, if it's good of course. I've probably tried to explore more new prog bands than most people here, so I can unequivocally say there's a lot of crap out there. Prog does not always equal good or mind-blowing or even complex.

[Skeever]

Prog ebbs and flows; opinions on it wax and wane.

It was big in the 70s, and bad throughout the 80s. It coalesced again in the 90s, and reached its peak in the 00s before tailspining hard again.

The 10's seem to be a period where prog is mostly considered "not cool", and while there are a couple of artists making interesting progressive music, there's no one out there really leading the genre to where it needs to go next. These days, it's more controversial to like prog.

It'll be back. 

[King Postwhore]

I like my music like my bitches.  I want to sample it all.


Now, all I got is music.

[BlobVanDam]

I like my music like my bitches.  I want to sample it all.


Now, all I got is music.

I like my music like my bitches. Stored on my computer in high quality.

[Prog Snob]

Funny, it's the same standard for your Asian porn. I am noticing a trend.

[BlobVanDam]

That's what I meant. What other form of bitches is there?