Whaddya want?!

Plainview · 11-29-2015, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechnicLePanther

(Hope you aren't offended.)

Album: Greed
Artist: The Cartridge Family
Genre: Art Rock
Suggested by: Plainview
Familiarity: None.

1. Awakening - Horn at the start, and then guitars come in. And I start to wonder if two songs are playing at the same time. Nope, just one. Eventually the tune mixing stops, and a drum comes in to solidify the song. The chamber instruments aren't always exactly with the tune, so there's still some experimental-ness going on. But the calmness of the song is winning me over. Drums come back in again towards the end. And we close with one chord on the electric guitar. There's a lot going on in this one, but I still like it a lot. I will definitely be listening to this again some day.

2. Freedom Day - Now we got piano and horns, and the drums come in and out during this song as well. As well as some electronic choral stuff. This is giving me a Ghosts-era Nine Inch Nails sort of feel. With the horns, it's got a laid-back jazzy kind of feel as well. What I think this needs is something to pick up the pace. If it were me, I'd throw some speedy drum work in here to spice things up. Nevertheless, it's definitely not a bad song.

3. Greed - I like the guitar on this one immediately. Hopefully, they keep the beat going throughout. Guitar disappears and is replaced with drums, piano and bass on the next beat. Then the semi-realistic orchestral stuff comes back. Kind of freeform stuff. And, bring back the bit from the start. A noisy bit runs over top of it, which I don't really mind (see Merzbox). And then it mainly takes the stuff we've already seen and mixes it around, which is fine with me as well. Nothing really groundbreaking though, so it's just interesting enough to be enjoyable.

4. Olympus Mons - This one has a funkier vibe. Feels a lot more like a cohesive track. Ugh, and it's over! It's actually really frustrating when you're so rapidly shifting from one idea to the next. All of these ideas could have been their own songs, the fact that they are all shoved toegther feels so forced. I feel bad, because both parts are really good, but this shifting is really annoying for me. Still, it's very good. Have a blue.

5. I Believe This Still - Now this one immediately starts with the random melody mixing. Just sort of noticed that all of the drumming has been really badly implemented. Eh, I'm not feeling this one. It's honestly getting a bit pretentious as well. Okay, I'm just really not liking this. It's bad songwriting. The ending might be a bit better.

6. Ulysses - Some more slow songwriting. Then it gets a bit faster and jazzier. And then it's back to the fuzzy stuff. Then slower guitar work. Please just let something go on for more than a minute. Then faster, then fuzz, then a piano bit, and then harmonic drones until the end. At least it was catchy, and so therefore enjoyable.

7. Repentance - This one is quiet and introspective, with a great organ part to start, and then an excellent jazz piano track with some accompanying drums. It switches between the organ and the piano part, which is really as much as these songs need. This last track was very enjoyable, so at least they left a good taste in my mouth.

This album sort of feels like multiple songs and/or ideas, being chopped up and screwed all together, and seeing what it sounds like. Each idea is very unique and interesting, but all together, they don't quite make a whole, but rather feel a bit overflowing. The best songs were the ones that weren't as choppy, and held to one or two ideas. Nevertheless, the songwriting for the individual sections was incredible, and deserving of some praise.

OVERALL RATING: 8/10

Fair review, thanks. I like mixing up song structures a lot, as you probably noticed, but I think I'll work on making the transitions more natural. Interesting that you didn't like I Believe This Still, as it was my favourite when I released it.

The Batlord · 11-29-2015, 02:28 PM

Finally gonna get around to Manowar. It's been a long, strange road, but the destination is in sight.

DwnWthVwls · 11-29-2015, 03:09 PM

Here's my next rec for ya:

The Stringcheese Incident - Untying the Not
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSCV...6FF6BE8B88AB9C

YorkeDaddy · 11-29-2015, 09:05 PM

Daydream Society - For Now

https://daydreamsociety.bandcamp.com/album/for-now

Tristan_Geoff · 11-29-2015, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechnicLePanther

Gonna try and finish this one tonight.

Album: Absolutego
Artist: Boris
Genre: Drone Metal
Suggested by: The Batlord
Familiarity: None.

1. Absolutego - Droning. Droning. Droning and droning and droning. Then heavy distortion. Yup. It's definitely Japanese metal. Anyways, it gets pretty heavy. But as with any hour-long song, there's not much to it. Can't say I enjoy it that much. Towards the middle, it gets a bit sludgy. Eww. But as long as you're fine getting dirty, there's nothing wrong with it. It's not incredibly great musicianship, but I think it's pretty great that a few people sat down in a room for an hour and just played music. That's dedication. It's not terribly boring either, so if you're into sludge, you might like the middle part. And then, droning and droning and droning. The high pitch lowers a bit, and after another 30 seconds, it's over. Alrighty then. It's not really any good unless you decide to skip a few parts, so, overall, not very good.
OVERALL RATING: 4/10

Alright, go for it, Batty.

Don't let that turn you off to Boris though, they do a lot more than just drone. Some of their newer albums touch on shoegaze, stoner metal, and crust punk. Great band all around and one of my favorites. Amplifier Worship is better if you want to try the drone again, and it's actually extremely good. Really varies in sound compared to other drone releases. I will warn you though, it's pretty sludgy. Nothing wrong with a little sludge though.

TechnicLePanther · 12-01-2015, 07:17 PM

So little time to get anything done. (School is a ****ing nightmare)

I'm going to try to get another one done tonight. No promises at all, though. In fact, don't even get excited. The more I type here, the less time I have. The more time you read this, the less time you have. And yet you still sit here reading this, even though it's a waste of your time. Great job.

Tristan_Geoff · 12-01-2015, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechnicLePanther

So little time to get anything done. (School is a ****ing nightmare)

I'm going to try to get another one done tonight. No promises at all, though. In fact, don't even get excited. The more I type here, the less time I have. The more time you read this, the less time you have. And yet you still sit here reading this, even though it's a waste of your time. Great job.

Well thanks.

TechnicLePanther · 12-02-2015, 08:45 PM

Album: Kings of Metal
Artist: Manowar
Genre: Power Metal
Suggested by: The Batlord
Familiarity: I've heard a bit of Manowar's other stuff.

1. Wheels of Fire - Great, one of these engine starting songs. Alright, this is cool. Just your standard power/thrash metal song.

2. Kings of Metal - Already a band name drop in this song. And multiple times too. I'm rapidly readjusting my definition of how overly commercialized this band is. I mean, not that that's a bad thing. Alright, so this is like the first song, but slower, with a guitar solo in the middle. Cool.

3. Heart of Steel - This one throws in a ballad-y bit in the beginning. Okay, I like this. Vocals are great. Then it's back to the power metal stuff, but even slower this time. Still just as good. Though I feel like this might get old soon.

4. Sting of the Bumblebee - Thought about it when I saw the title, but I didn't actually think they would actually do this. So, for those too lazy, it's a recreation of Flight of the Bumblebee in power metal fashion. Serious props to them for the creativity. And some excellent picking skills as well. Sort of devolves into noise at the end. I really like this one.

5. The Crown and the Ring - Really getting epic here. With these battle themes, they're really abusing the band name. Still, good slower song, and great use of the choir.

6. Kingdom Come - Back to power chords for this one. The vocals really drive these songs. Relatively short (but still good) guitar solo in this one too. Honestly, this one is sort of bland. Worst song on the album nominee? Not that bad though.

7. Pleasure Slave - Alright, this is just uncomfortable. Yeah, this is one of those uncomfortably chauvinistic songs. It's absolutely hilarious though. Gives a new definition to "power metal". Alright, fine. This song is great.

8. Hail and Kill - Back to seriousness here. Now that I'm listening to the lyrics, there's a lot of innuendo is these songs. Pretty much the generic power metal structure again here.

9. The Warrior's Prayer - Literally a story. With accompanying noises. Interesting concept. It actually works much better than you'd expect. Great.

10. Blood of the Kings - The previous song ties into this one, story-wise. So, the majority of this song has the basic power metal structure from the other songs. Then it seemingly ends, and comes back in again, for a final reprise. A lot of noisiness built into the ending part.

This album surprised me. I did not think I would enjoy it as much as I did. It has just enough unique ideas to keep you interested the whole way through, and in that way, it's a great song. There are definitely some ups and downs, and at least a couple of the songs feel like filler. However, as much as possible, there are some good concepts thrown in there, so I'd say this is really an excellent album, especially for fans of the genre.

OVERALL RATING: 8.5/10

The Batlord · 12-02-2015, 09:10 PM

I'm torn. I'm happy that you enjoyed the album FAR more than I thought you would, but you "Loved" all the wrong songs. "Sting of the Bumblebee", "Pleasure Slave", "The Warrior's Prayer" ("The Crown and the Ring" is perfectly acceptable to love)? Like, what? "Sting of the Bumblebee" is pointless wank, "Pleasure Slave" is just a pointless bonus track which should have been left off of the album -- just like it was originally -- and "The Warrior's Prayer" I'm assuming you would skip if you ever listened to the album again, because it is charming once, but then completely pointless every other time.

So, would you say you'd be down for a more epic Manowar album? I was assuming that you'd hate this album, but since you dug this one, then I'm going to rec a more "serious" album (no Manowar album deserves to be taken seriously, even the legitimately "good" ones".)

This is the height of Manowar's creative "prowess", and as far as I am concerned is one of the greatest metal albums ever recorded (I love, love, love Kings of Metal, but it's flaws are too numerous to qualify for that title). This album I will defend until the day I die, and not just because it is ironically enjoyable, but because it is a legitimately creative album which pioneers a sound which no other band at the time was exploring (and no other band since, including Manowar, with the somewhat exception of their next album, Hail to England)

Manowar - Into Glory Ride

If you don't dig this, then I will know that you are truly a poseur and wannabe-Manowar fan.

Trollheart · 12-03-2015, 01:06 PM

Even Trollheart loves this. Be warned in advance.

12-01-2015, 07:17 PM	#306 (permalink)
TechnicLePanther and the livin' is easy... Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: New York Posts: 1,997	So little time to get anything done. (School is a **ing nightmare) I'm going to try to get another one done tonight. No promises at all, though. In fact, don't even get excited. The more I type here, the less time I have. The more time you read this, the less time you have. And yet you still sit here reading this, even though it's a waste of your time. Great job. __________________ Many have tried to destroy it... but... true evil never dies. It is only... REBORN SUGGEST ME AN ALBUM** - I'm probably not going to listen to it but I will if you bother me enough. Last edited by TechnicLePanther; 12-01-2015 at 07:26 PM.

12-02-2015, 08:45 PM	#308 (permalink)
TechnicLePanther and the livin' is easy... Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: New York Posts: 1,997	Album: Kings of Metal Artist: Manowar Genre: Power Metal Suggested by: The Batlord Familiarity: I've heard a bit of Manowar's other stuff. 1. Wheels of Fire - Great, one of these engine starting songs. Alright, this is cool. Just your standard power/thrash metal song. 2. Kings of Metal - Already a band name drop in this song. And multiple times too. I'm rapidly readjusting my definition of how overly commercialized this band is. I mean, not that that's a bad thing. Alright, so this is like the first song, but slower, with a guitar solo in the middle. Cool. 3. Heart of Steel - This one throws in a ballad-y bit in the beginning. Okay, I like this. Vocals are great. Then it's back to the power metal stuff, but even slower this time. Still just as good. Though I feel like this might get old soon. 4. Sting of the Bumblebee - Thought about it when I saw the title, but I didn't actually think they would actually do this. So, for those too lazy, it's a recreation of Flight of the Bumblebee in power metal fashion. Serious props to them for the creativity. And some excellent picking skills as well. Sort of devolves into noise at the end. I really like this one. 5. The Crown and the Ring - Really getting epic here. With these battle themes, they're really abusing the band name. Still, good slower song, and great use of the choir. 6. Kingdom Come - Back to power chords for this one. The vocals really drive these songs. Relatively short (but still good) guitar solo in this one too. Honestly, this one is sort of bland. Worst song on the album nominee? Not that bad though. 7. Pleasure Slave - Alright, this is just uncomfortable. Yeah, this is one of those uncomfortably chauvinistic songs. It's absolutely hilarious though. Gives a new definition to "power metal". Alright, fine. This song is great. 8. Hail and Kill - Back to seriousness here. Now that I'm listening to the lyrics, there's a lot of innuendo is these songs. Pretty much the generic power metal structure again here. 9. The Warrior's Prayer - Literally a story. With accompanying noises. Interesting concept. It actually works much better than you'd expect. Great. 10. Blood of the Kings - The previous song ties into this one, story-wise. So, the majority of this song has the basic power metal structure from the other songs. Then it seemingly ends, and comes back in again, for a final reprise. A lot of noisiness built into the ending part. This album surprised me. I did not think I would enjoy it as much as I did. It has just enough unique ideas to keep you interested the whole way through, and in that way, it's a great song. There are definitely some ups and downs, and at least a couple of the songs feel like filler. However, as much as possible, there are some good concepts thrown in there, so I'd say this is really an excellent album, especially for fans of the genre. OVERALL RATING: 8.5/10 __________________ Many have tried to destroy it... but... true evil never dies. It is only... REBORN *SUGGEST ME AN ALBUM* - I'm probably not going to listen to it but I will if you bother me enough.

12-03-2015, 01:06 PM	#310 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Even Trollheart loves this. Be warned in advance. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018