Your controversial opinions/thoughts on music

[TAC]

Opeth is way way way better without the growls. See: my post in the favorite Opeth album thread. Blackwater's a good album but Watershed has the perfect balance of light and heavy. Pale Communion is one of the best things they've ever done. I like Axenrot more than Lopez. Every growly album prior to Watershed other than Blackwater is a dud. I'll give everyone time to clutch their pearls.

The thing about Opeth is that while I'm not crazy about the growls, the clean vocals are so much worse.

[The Walrus]

Opeth is way way way better without the growls. See: my post in the favorite Opeth album thread. Blackwater's a good album but Watershed has the perfect balance of light and heavy. Pale Communion is one of the best things they've ever done. I like Axenrot more than Lopez. Every growly album prior to Watershed other than Blackwater is a dud. I'll give everyone time to clutch their pearls.

The thing about Opeth is that while I'm not crazy about the growls, the clean vocals are so much worse.

[King Postwhore]

Seriously Tim.

WTF?!

[TAC]

They suck. What do you want me to say?

[Rattlehead]

Just out of curiosity, how much of their music have you listened to? 

[The Walrus]

They suck. What do you want me to say?

Dude.  Dude. NOT cool. My heart rate just increased reading that.

[King Postwhore]

Dude, they write ballads.  How CNN Tim listen to them?

[TAC]

Just out of curiosity, how much of their music have you listened to? 

Actually, I have Ghost Reveries and I like it a lot. I have a copy of Watershed and I think I've listened to it a couple of times. I have also listened to Heritage.

I have also listened to My Arms Your Hearse.

So I have listened completely to four of their albums in my life, and Ghost Reveries multiple times. I think they are a great band.
But vocally, I think they are terrible. I'm not a huge fan of growls, but can definitely tolerate them if the music is good enough. But Akerfeldt's clean vocals are terrible in my opinion. There's nothing to them.

[TAC]

Dude, they write ballads.  How CNN Tim listen to them?

[Sacul]

I think Damnation is by far the best they've done.

[Rattlehead]

Just out of curiosity, how much of their music have you listened to? 

Actually, I have Ghost Reveries and I like it a lot. I have a copy of Watershed and I think I've listened to it a couple of times. I have also listened to Heritage.

I have also listened to My Arms Your Hearse.

So I have listened completely to four of their albums in my life, and Ghost Reveries multiple times. I think they are a great band.
But vocally, I think they are terrible. I'm not a huge fan of growls, but can definitely tolerate them if the music is good enough. But Akerfeldt's clean vocals are terrible in my opinion. There's nothing to them.

That's cool then, at least you've given them a chance. I know some people that dismissed the band as soon as they heard the growls. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Akerfeldt's clean vocals - I prefer him over any other prog/metal vocalist I can think of. His clean vocals seem to get better with age to me.

[King Postwhore]

Mother bleeper. Lol.

[The Walrus]

Mother bleeper. Lol.

+1 

[TAC]

Just out of curiosity, how much of their music have you listened to? 

Actually, I have Ghost Reveries and I like it a lot. I have a copy of Watershed and I think I've listened to it a couple of times. I have also listened to Heritage.

I have also listened to My Arms Your Hearse.

So I have listened completely to four of their albums in my life, and Ghost Reveries multiple times. I think they are a great band.
But vocally, I think they are terrible. I'm not a huge fan of growls, but can definitely tolerate them if the music is good enough. But Akerfeldt's clean vocals are terrible in my opinion. There's nothing to them.

That's cool then, at least you've given them a chance. I know some people that dismissed the band as soon as they heard the growls. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Akerfeldt's clean vocals - I prefer him over any other prog/metal vocalist I can think of. His clean vocals seem to get better with age to me.

I'm an old guy, and it's taken me a long time to come around to growls.

About 10-12 years ago, one of the kids that worked for me, upon learning that I was a huge Dream Theater fan, made me a copy of Ghost Reveries. I held my nose to the growls, but found I really liked the album. Especially Harlequin Forest.

I ended up buying it.  But I've kind of shelved them. I think musically, they are amazing. I just think that Akerfeldt's cleans lack so much in dynamics.

All good bro!

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Just out of curiosity, how much of their music have you listened to? 

Actually, I have Ghost Reveries and I like it a lot. I have a copy of Watershed and I think I've listened to it a couple of times. I have also listened to Heritage.

I have also listened to My Arms Your Hearse.

So I have listened completely to four of their albums in my life, and Ghost Reveries multiple times. I think they are a great band.
But vocally, I think they are terrible. I'm not a huge fan of growls, but can definitely tolerate them if the music is good enough. But Akerfeldt's clean vocals are terrible in my opinion. There's nothing to them.

That's cool then, at least you've given them a chance. I know some people that dismissed the band as soon as they heard the growls. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Akerfeldt's clean vocals - I prefer him over any other prog/metal vocalist I can think of. His clean vocals seem to get better with age to me.

I just think that Akerfeldt's cleans lack so much in dynamics.

Actually this is kind of a fair point. He doesn't do a ton with his range, he doesn't go super high or low. For me though, what he lacks in range he more than makes up for in tone and how he uses his voice to fit the song. Personally I love his vocals. I think his tone on his cleans is beautiful. Mixed together with the style of harsh vocals he does is just perfect for all pre retro 70's prog trash they've been putting out lately (shots fire at Kattelox and 425  )

[ReaperKK]

Yeah, unfortunately there aren't more studies of and dissertations based on pop music. Academia is usually a bit slow on figuring out that "oh wait there's a new genre of music" (jazz didn't start entering into academia until the late 60s/early 70s, iirc). Clercq and Temperley's "A Corpus Analysis of Rock Harmony" is another good one; it focuses on using statistical analysis to determine what's actually going on in pop and rock harmony. It's a hugely influential essay for me as a music theorist, and it helped me appreciate what's going on in a lot of pop music much more once I understood that the rules were different from what I was used to lol. As far as edutainment lighter stuff, Todd in the Shadows is a good critic to watch and Holistic Songwriting does a fantastic job on using some theory and industry knowledge for breaking down pop and rock artists. Understanding breeds familiarity, familiarity breeds enjoyment, and enjoyment breeds more understanding!

Back to your main point, tho, I think it's important to remember that there was overall less music being produced and released then. The last 20 years or so have democratized music and boosted the population to such an extreme degree that there's an absurd amount of music being produced nowadays. It's not that there's less good experimental and left-field music pop music being made (there's a lot more of it now), it's just that there's a lot more stuff out there that's competing for your attention. And, as usual, most of it is mediocre.

Even arguing for popularity, a lot of these more experimental outings are incredibly popular. Radiohead's last album was massive on social media when its first single was released, FO's Blonde hit #1 and has spent 116 weeks on the chart, Kendrick Lamar/Kanye/Tool are pretty much household names, etc. etc. Heck, Snarky Puppy and Joey Alexander have gotten a lot of attention and Dream Theater hit the Top 10 with The freaking Astonishing. Even major artists like Katy Perry are having trouble putting butts in seats because it's 2019 and everyone is still poor and honestly pop is in a temporary slump outside of Taylor Swift (because of sad rap becoming the "musical embodiment of the zeitgeist" of the last 5 years).

Ed Sheeran's popularity today vexes me.

He is a fantastic songwriter and if you see him live he is a phenomenal guitar player, it's not too tough to see why he is popular.

[mikeyd23]

Just out of curiosity, how much of their music have you listened to? 

Actually, I have Ghost Reveries and I like it a lot. I have a copy of Watershed and I think I've listened to it a couple of times. I have also listened to Heritage.

I have also listened to My Arms Your Hearse.

So I have listened completely to four of their albums in my life, and Ghost Reveries multiple times. I think they are a great band.
But vocally, I think they are terrible. I'm not a huge fan of growls, but can definitely tolerate them if the music is good enough. But Akerfeldt's clean vocals are terrible in my opinion. There's nothing to them.

That's cool then, at least you've given them a chance. I know some people that dismissed the band as soon as they heard the growls. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Akerfeldt's clean vocals - I prefer him over any other prog/metal vocalist I can think of. His clean vocals seem to get better with age to me.

I just think that Akerfeldt's cleans lack so much in dynamics.

Actually this is kind of a fair point. He doesn't do a ton with his range, he doesn't go super high or low. For me though, what he lacks in range he more than makes up for in tone and how he uses his voice to fit the song. Personally I love his vocals. I think his tone on his cleans is beautiful. Mixed together with the style of harsh vocals he does is just perfect for all pre retro 70's prog trash they've been putting out lately (shots fire at Kattelox and 425  )

I'm totally with TAC on all this - obviously a good band, super talented. But I have never been able to get real into them because I'm not a fan of the vocals.

[Stadler]

I am totally with TAC on this point, by the way.  I can't say I know every song, but since Mike started pimping Akerfeldt, I've been reminded how "great" they are, and I'm sure they're very talented.   Just not my cup of tea.   

[cramx3]

I've never been able to get into Opeth either.... mostly due to the vocals.  I don't think I've given them a fair shot though, haven't listened to anything with the clean vocals.  I saw them open for DT twice and felt they were solid musically, but vocally not my thing.  I never really had a desire to get an album after seeing them, but my friends all love them and think I would.  I was going to see them a couple years ago with Gojira and Devin Townsend but I got super sick that day, maybe I'd have enjoyed their headline show.

[MirrorMask]

Well, I come out of the Opeth closet too at this point, I never ever managed to find anything to like in them.

They play extreme metal with harsh vocals, I don't like them.
"But they made an acoustic album!" oh cool......... I found it boring.
"Now they're more proggish" well, why not, let's listen... nope. Can't relate.

Of course it's me, it's not that everyone else who likes them is wrong, but there was a time when Opeth seemed to be this super ultra cool kickass band that all my friends loved, and I was the very only one who could never, ever liked them. Even saw them live at a festival, lost interested two songs in or maybe earlier.

[The Walrus]

Damnation holds a special place in my heart for being the album that made me want to play guitar. I still play Death Whispered A Lullaby and Windowpane quite a bit on my acoustic.

[bosk1]

Opeth is way way way better without the growls. See: my post in the favorite Opeth album thread. Blackwater's a good album but Watershed has the perfect balance of light and heavy. Pale Communion is one of the best things they've ever done. I like Axenrot more than Lopez. Every growly album prior to Watershed other than Blackwater is a dud. I'll give everyone time to clutch their pearls.

The thing about Opeth is that while I'm not crazy about the growls, the clean vocals are so much worse.

They suck. What do you want me to say?

But Akerfeldt's clean vocals are terrible in my opinion. There's nothing to them.

The only response that seems fitting is simply:

And by I don't mean that TAC's opinion is worthy.  I mean because I simply cannot believe that TAC posted something about music that I agree with so wholeheartedly.  So, yeah,

tl;dnr: 

[King Postwhore]

 

[425]

I think Damnation is by far the best they've done.

I... am not a fan of Damnation.

The only pre-GR Opeth album I've much enjoyed is BWP, and even then... only in very infrequent doses.

[WildRanger]

Maybe this is one controversial opinion, maybe it's not but:
Vocals aside, I don't think Death's Symbolic is musically any more aggressive than Metallica's And Justice for All.

[Crow]

Ghost Reveries is by far the best Opeth album tbh

[KevShmev]

I shall strangle the next person who calls Damnation an acoustic record because IT IS NOT AN ACOUSTIC RECORD.

[King Postwhore]

I shall strangle the next person who calls Damnation an acoustic record because IT IS NOT AN ACOUSTIC RECORD.

 

[TAC]

Opeth is way way way better without the growls. See: my post in the favorite Opeth album thread. Blackwater's a good album but Watershed has the perfect balance of light and heavy. Pale Communion is one of the best things they've ever done. I like Axenrot more than Lopez. Every growly album prior to Watershed other than Blackwater is a dud. I'll give everyone time to clutch their pearls.

The thing about Opeth is that while I'm not crazy about the growls, the clean vocals are so much worse.

They suck. What do you want me to say?

But Akerfeldt's clean vocals are terrible in my opinion. There's nothing to them.

The only response that seems fitting is simply:

And by I don't mean that TAC's opinion is worthy.  I mean because I simply cannot believe that TAC posted something about music that I agree with so wholeheartedly.  So, yeah,

tl;dnr: 

Let's go in on a Powerball ticket!

[Rattlehead]

I don't find it controversial to not like Opeth - outside of forums, I can count the amount of Opeth fans I've met on one hand.

[Ruba]

I have quite limited knowledge of Judas Priest, but I have pretty much liked every Ripper Owens era songs I've heard. I never was interested in them when I was teenager, because Breaking the Law was pretty much the only song by them I knew (I thought it was lame then and I still think so, it sounds more like they put a piece of chewed up gum on their teacher's chair instead of doing something criminal) and I straight up dismissed them. Now I know they have songs that are much better, but I still feel the Owens era is unfairly judged.

[ReaperKK]

Damnation holds a special place in my heart for being the album that made me want to play guitar. I still play Death Whispered A Lullaby and Windowpane quite a bit on my acoustic.

I was really getting into playing guitar when I discovered Damnation and I spent hours trying to learn the songs off the album.

[Ruba]

Also, I adore everything Sepultura did between Schizophrenia and Chaos A.D., but Roots is probably the worst album I've ever heard and Roots Bloody Roots is one of the worst metal songs ever. Why did one of the most badass metal bands ever decide to turn into Korn-light?

[The Walrus]

I shall strangle the next person who calls Damnation an acoustic record because IT IS NOT AN ACOUSTIC RECORD.

No, it is not. But the songs sound fucking amazing on an acoustic. Better, I think.

[Cool Chris]

Not sure if controversial, but this is way, way too many posts devoted to Opeth.