Key

Welcome to Ki's Music Hall where you will find various endeavors like album reviews, music talk, and pretty much everything else you can imagine. The year is 2017, and that means bands far and wide will be releasing album after album, and it is my job to report on them. Members at this forum will also be releasing albums, so you'll probably see that in here as well.

Anyway, here's what you'll find in this journal:

Album Reviews (Non-2017):
Short Reviews: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Hyrule Symphone & The Marcus Hedges Trend Orchestra - Ocarina of Time Symphony

Album Reviews (Released In 2017):

Member Album Reviews / Discussion / Highlights:

Member Recommendations:

Anything Else:
Nostalgia Trip (Runescape and other stuff)
Travis Scott - Pray 4 Love (Song)
Reasons Why I Love Travis Scott

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Key

So, first up, we're going to talk about an album I listened to today.


Katatonia - The Fall of Hearts (2016)

I'm weird when it comes to Katatonia. I'm a fan of their music, but I really don't listen to them as much as I should. This album is definitely a bit different than what I'm used to hearing with them, specifically because they went with more of a progressive rock route in this album. It works though. They have such a crisp sound that even adding a different type of genre other than metal seems to work for them really well. I'd be more than happy to listen to this album every day, and feel the satisfaction of great music each time.

Standout track:

Key

Red Hot Chili Peppers have always been a band that I have known about, but never really appreciated the type of music they made. Until recently, I hadn't really given them the light of day, even though I knew of their strongest albums. They released an album this year titled "The Getaway" which has been getting a lot of mixed reviews from their large fanbase.


Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Getaway (2016)

When it comes to music, I'm pretty easy to please. If the music sounds good, then i'll like it. If everything seems to fit together nicely and the entire album seems to flow really well, then i'll most likely put it on my favorite albums list. This album is certainly no exception. There's a lot to say about what's missing from the album, or how it sounds much different than what long time fans are used to, but for me, i'm enjoying the album for what it is. It's nowhere close to what they're known for, musically, but it's still up there in being one of the catchiest albums i've heard this year.

Standout track:

Frownland

Anthony Kiedis needs to sew his mouth shut.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Key

There are a lot of bands out there that I would consider more than worthy to see live. Some bands that I have seen live are actually far better in concert than they are in the studio. I'm speaking of Anathema right now, however.

Recently, I've been really into their Weather Systems album, which is much different than their earlier albums if you aren't familiar with the album yet. But it's nowhere near as bad as a lot of people would say it is. Some people just don't like change, but for some bands, change is a good thing, and in terms of this album, change has definitely been a good thing. They continued the sound they went with in Weather Systems to their follow up album Distant Satellites, and of course, it is such a fantastic listening experience that it's almost depressing that everyone hasn't heard it.


Anathema - Distant Satellites (2014)

I have derailed a little bit, since I've come here to post about this live performance of Untouchable Part I and Part II which are both featured on the Weather Systems album:



I was already in love with these two tracks when the album was released, but when I found this performance, I fell in love with the songs even more, which resulted in respecting the sound they went into a lot more. Definitely a great performance by a great band.

Key

I like his voice.

Key

You ever get really excited about an album that you know is coming in a few months, then once it's released, you give it about two full listens only to find out how disappointed you are with the album? Well, Dream Theater have managed to do just that...


Dream Theater - The Astonishing (2016)

I'm a pretty easy going fan when it comes to Dream Theater. They're a band I have been listening to for years, and I did have the chance to see them perform live, and they definitely know how to put on a good show. The last couple albums have been hit and miss, especially with some changes in lineup, but they still managed to make the album sound good, at least that was the case until their release this year. The Astonishing was said to be something different than their previous albums, something along the lines of a rock-opera of sorts. I'm thinking to myself, "hell yeah, that sounds awesome." Unfortunately, the album did not deliver. Y'know, when I hear a band is going to do a rock opera, you'd expect to hear more than just some slow songs with vocals in them, but that's what we got with this album. I think there's really only three tracks in this entire album that actually made me want to listen to them again. As the album kept going from track to track, I felt like each album dragged on longer than the last, dismissing of course the few tracks that actually did grab me. I'd also like to mention that this album is split up into two acts, for a total of 24 tracks. That brings the entire album to a wopping 130 minutes. That's a ridiculous amount of time to be listening to an album, especially one that really doesn't grab me as much as I hoped it would upon the release of the concept it was going for. It's a shame, really. They've had a good track record of coming out of a dark place of releasing a bad album, but still making the album at least decent enough to listen to, but I don't think I will be looking to listen to this album again. Unfortunate really, was hoping for something jaw droppingly brilliant in the form of a rock-opera, but it didn't even come close.

Standout track:

Key

Anathema - Distant Satellites (2014)

Of course, once I started talking about Anathema in the previous post, I had to listen to the album that I was talking briefly about. Distant Satellites follows the same kind of formula they started going with in Weather Systems, and it really works for them. People are probably missing the days of Alternative 4, etc, but I really like the direction the band went in. Especially since the vocals seem to fit the style of music really really well. After listening to Weather Systems and Distant Satellites collectively 100+ times, I can safely conclude that Vincent Cavanagh is becoming one of my top 5 favorite vocalists. His voice is perfect for the type of music that they've gone for in these two albums, and I really hope they continue to do these types of albums, because like I mentioned probably a few times already, it fits the band really well.

Standout tracks:

The Batlord

That's what you get for being excited about a Dream Theater album.

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Key

I'm starting to realize that about them. They try to do something different because they've always tried to be different, but unfortunately, it didn't work in their favor this time. Hopefully they can crawl themselves out of this one, but I don't have high hopes.