The Torture Chamber

Trollheart · 11-07-2015, 09:59 AM

Yes they are: the person who recommended it to you. And me. We can't have six albums sitting here for a month or more while people wait for you to review them. The rules (yeah, them) state that the album must be reviewed within seven days. It has to be like that or the thread will just die and people will lose interest.

Trollheart · 11-07-2015, 10:38 AM

Title:We Stich These Wounds
Artiste: Black Veil Brides
Genre: Rock
Evil Bastard: Violet

On the surface, this doesn't look too bad. I mean, I may not necessarily like the band (I don't know if I will: I've never heard them before) but torture? I expected the previous album to be torture; this I consider may be a slight annoyance, or I might end up even liking it. Or maybe I'm looking at a hand-grenade disguised as a chocolate egg. We'll see. So into it we go, with the opener a very short instrumental --- no, some old guy talking about ... don't know what. Title track has a nice power metal vibe to it, very choral and dramatic. Vocals may decide this, as it certainly sounds like the kind of music I would enjoy. Well, although there was a scream there at the beginning, the guy has a perfectly clear voice (think there's another vocal doing a scream/growl in the background) and I see nothing wrong with this at all. Standard power/melodic metal sound as far as I can hear. Yeah, the scream/growl (scrowl?) is distracting, but after all the death, black and viking metal I've listened to by now that doesn't upset me as once it did.

Guy sounds like Chad now. Urgh: that is torture! Seriously though, nothing wrong with this either. Well we're onto the fifth track and though I haven't noticed anything particularly special about this album, it's certainly not torture to get through. Sometimes the vocalist sounds like he may be using autotune, or if not his voice is very boyband-ish, which is probably the only thing I would have a problem about; the scrowls seem very at odds with the music though come to think of it. Can't really pick out any track I really like, or hate, so far. Some pretty good shredding here on “Perfect weapon”, and I can see why BVB are being compared to the likes of Motley Crue, though I don't think they're as good. “Knives and pens” sounds a bit Alesana to me, then the ballad is “The mortician's daughter”, nice acoustic number.

Yeah, as it goes on it's revealing itself to be pretty generic power rock/metal with nothing terribly new to offer. A little bland, a little formulaic. Not terrible, but not terribly good either. I suppose they thought using the scrowls was a USP, but sure bands like Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation among others have been using that format for years, so there's nothing new or innovative about that. Take that away and the man behind the screen is indeed pretty plain and powerless. “Never give in” could not be more banal, and lacks the strength of the convictions of the title, despite the pointless shouted chorus. Kiss these guys are not! “Sweet blasphemy” is not too bad and there's a nice acoustic sort of feel mixed with a little blues in the closer “Carolyn”. Yeah, not bad. Nowhere near torture though.

Torture Level: 0%

**Goofle** · 11-07-2015, 12:19 PM

Who do I rec albums to? Or is it choice?

CoNtrivedNiHilism · 11-07-2015, 12:28 PM

Hit me with something you think will torture me oh so good!

Please?

Trollheart · 11-07-2015, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goofle

Who do I rec albums to? Or is it choice?

Anyone on the signup sheet (though Frownland is doing midterms so his account is on hold); you can rec to as many people on the list as you want, but only one per member until they've done that album.

Trollheart · 11-07-2015, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoNtrivedNiHilism

Hit me with something you think will torture me oh so good!

Please?

Hmm, I dunno. Try this one?

Martika s/t

Tristan_Geoff · 11-07-2015, 01:17 PM

Could you run me by what exactly the torture levels indicate?

Trollheart · 11-07-2015, 01:27 PM

Torture Level is how little you enjoyed the album. So if it didn't bother you you might have a torture level of 0 - 10%, bothered you a bit might be 20 - 30%, set your teeth on edge but you could get through it, maybe up to 50%. After that, if it really got to you and you hated it, it can be anything right up to 100%, in which case you probably would shoot whoever recommended it, the artist, all their family, all their friends, their pets, anyone who ever interacted with them in any way, Mariah Carey*, and probably yourself in the end.

* You need a reason to shoot Mariah Carey???

The Batlord · 11-07-2015, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Yes they are: the person who recommended it to you. And me. We can't have six albums sitting here for a month or more while people wait for you to review them. The rules (yeah, them) state that the album must be reviewed within seven days. It has to be like that or the thread will just die and people will lose interest.

But anyone who wants to rec someone an album doesn't have to wait until the first person they gave an album to reviews it. Frownland can give as many recs as he wants to as many people he wants and just ignore my laziness.

Trollheart · 11-07-2015, 02:33 PM

That's true, but at the same time anyone who has recced something to you say after Frownland did and is waiting for you to review their album won't be able to until you review his one. And Frownland (to use him as an example) may be eagerly waiting to see what you thought of the album, in which case it's kind of bad manners to keep him waiting. I genuinely wanted to hear his thoughts on Bon Jovi, and that's in abeyance now as he's sitting exams. But I had wanted to hear Oriphiel's take on Chris Rea and others.

But it's basically just trying to make sure everyone reviews within the stated time. It's not too much to ask, one album a week, and you get a week then for the next one and so on. It's not just you though: I mean, three or four people have just sat there and done precisely nothing, which has resulted in their albums eventually being marked as failures. I can't let these queues build up, and anyway, if people want to participate they should make the effort, not just put it on the long finger.

Look at me: I've reviewed everything almost in my queue, as well as listening to a ton of stuff for "Love or Hate?" It can be done. It needs to be done, and as always people need a kick or else the whole thing just slows down, gets bogged down and eventually everyone loses interest. It's kind of similar to you getting people to vote for metal albums within certain dates: things have to happen in some sort of order and to some sort of schedule, or it all falls apart.

11-07-2015, 09:59 AM	#221 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Yes they are: the person who recommended it to you. And me. We can't have six albums sitting here for a month or more while people wait for you to review them. The rules (yeah, them) state that the album must be reviewed within seven days. It has to be like that or the thread will just die and people will lose interest. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

11-07-2015, 10:38 AM	#222 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Title:We Stich These Wounds Artiste: Black Veil Brides Genre: Rock Evil Bastard: Violet On the surface, this doesn't look too bad. I mean, I may not necessarily like the band (I don't know if I will: I've never heard them before) but torture? I expected the previous album to be torture; this I consider may be a slight annoyance, or I might end up even liking it. Or maybe I'm looking at a hand-grenade disguised as a chocolate egg. We'll see. So into it we go, with the opener a very short instrumental --- no, some old guy talking about ... don't know what. Title track has a nice power metal vibe to it, very choral and dramatic. Vocals may decide this, as it certainly sounds like the kind of music I would enjoy. Well, although there was a scream there at the beginning, the guy has a perfectly clear voice (think there's another vocal doing a scream/growl in the background) and I see nothing wrong with this at all. Standard power/melodic metal sound as far as I can hear. Yeah, the scream/growl (scrowl?) is distracting, but after all the death, black and viking metal I've listened to by now that doesn't upset me as once it did. Guy sounds like Chad now. Urgh: that is torture! Seriously though, nothing wrong with this either. Well we're onto the fifth track and though I haven't noticed anything particularly special about this album, it's certainly not torture to get through. Sometimes the vocalist sounds like he may be using autotune, or if not his voice is very boyband-ish, which is probably the only thing I would have a problem about; the scrowls seem very at odds with the music though come to think of it. Can't really pick out any track I really like, or hate, so far. Some pretty good shredding here on “Perfect weapon”, and I can see why BVB are being compared to the likes of Motley Crue, though I don't think they're as good. “Knives and pens” sounds a bit Alesana to me, then the ballad is “The mortician's daughter”, nice acoustic number. Yeah, as it goes on it's revealing itself to be pretty generic power rock/metal with nothing terribly new to offer. A little bland, a little formulaic. Not terrible, but not terribly good either. I suppose they thought using the scrowls was a USP, but sure bands like Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation among others have been using that format for years, so there's nothing new or innovative about that. Take that away and the man behind the screen is indeed pretty plain and powerless. “Never give in” could not be more banal, and lacks the strength of the convictions of the title, despite the pointless shouted chorus. Kiss these guys are not! “Sweet blasphemy” is not too bad and there's a nice acoustic sort of feel mixed with a little blues in the closer “Carolyn”. Yeah, not bad. Nowhere near torture though. Torture Level: 0% __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

11-07-2015, 12:28 PM	#224 (permalink)
CoNtrivedNiHilism Because I Am, I Can! Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 1,128	Hit me with something you think will torture me oh so good! Please? __________________

11-07-2015, 01:27 PM	#228 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Torture Level is how little you enjoyed the album. So if it didn't bother you you might have a torture level of 0 - 10%, bothered you a bit might be 20 - 30%, set your teeth on edge but you could get through it, maybe up to 50%. After that, if it really got to you and you hated it, it can be anything right up to 100%, in which case you probably would shoot whoever recommended it, the artist, all their family, all their friends, their pets, anyone who ever interacted with them in any way, Mariah Carey, and probably yourself in the end. You need a reason to shoot Mariah Carey??? __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

11-07-2015, 02:33 PM	#230 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	That's true, but at the same time anyone who has recced something to you say after Frownland did and is waiting for you to review their album won't be able to until you review his one. And Frownland (to use him as an example) may be eagerly waiting to see what you thought of the album, in which case it's kind of bad manners to keep him waiting. I genuinely wanted to hear his thoughts on Bon Jovi, and that's in abeyance now as he's sitting exams. But I had wanted to hear Oriphiel's take on Chris Rea and others. But it's basically just trying to make sure everyone reviews within the stated time. It's not too much to ask, one album a week, and you get a week then for the next one and so on. It's not just you though: I mean, three or four people have just sat there and done precisely nothing, which has resulted in their albums eventually being marked as failures. I can't let these queues build up, and anyway, if people want to participate they should make the effort, not just put it on the long finger. Look at me: I've reviewed everything almost in my queue, as well as listening to a ton of stuff for "Love or Hate?" It can be done. It needs to be done, and as always people need a kick or else the whole thing just slows down, gets bogged down and eventually everyone loses interest. It's kind of similar to you getting people to vote for metal albums within certain dates: things have to happen in some sort of order and to some sort of schedule, or it all falls apart. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

11-07-2015, 01:17 PM	#227 (permalink)
Tristan_Geoff midnite roles around Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 5,302	Could you run me by what exactly the torture levels indicate?