Trollheart

YO! Wake up over there!
How about some more albums, y'all? Huh? Huh?

Anyway, my thoughts on SGR's pick:

First, the bad/annoying news. I'm boycotting Spotify so went with RS's suggestion of Amazon Music. Just guess which is the only FOTN album they ****ing don't have? So thanks for the YT link SGR.

I love the atmospheric opening, reminds me in ways of the opening to Marillion's Brave (though different) and then once it gets going I have to say I'm really, really enjoying this. I had no real idea what to expect (once I got over the confusion with Napalm Death!) but this is great. I love "At the Gates of Silent Memory". The singer's voice is gravelly as a death metal or doom metal one, but completely understandable. The music rocks, great energy about it, and even the shorter tracks like "Paradise (Regained)" are really speaking to me.

There's some superb work on the guitar here and I love his use of the talkbox, or whatever effect he's using (Plankton would know of course); the vocal is dark and oppressive and threatening, but in a really good way. I see Wiki has the band described as Gothic Rock, and I think I'd agree with that. Definitely get a sense of Sisters of Mercy crossed with The Damned at times. Also some Nick Cave. I did find myself getting a little bored with "Sumerland (What Dreams May Come)" - not that I didn't like it, but at eleven minutes it seems a little stretched and wasn't really able to keep my full attention. Still, that's the first one I haven't completely loved on the album, so not bad.

Okay well I started re-getting into it near the end, and normal service is resumed with the superbly dark "Wail of Sumer" (these are both linked to Babylonian/Sumerian myth, yes?) and the majestic grandeur of "And There Will Be Your Heart Also" which is slow and melancholy, a great closer.

Overall, pretty much loved this and would listen to more from this band. Nice one, SGR!

Rating: 9.5/10

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

SGR

Glad you liked it so much Trolls! I'll try to get my thoughts about it up soon.

Trollheart

Yeah I was really impressed. Gothic rock in general is something I can listen to (don't always) but this seems to stand out as one of the gems. Hardly a bad track at all, and that's no mean feat. Pity it wasn't on bloody Amazon. Can you imagine? The only one of theirs that wasn't?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

I'm in. And if you're taking albums then...

Utah Phillips - We Have Fed You All a Thousand Years

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Lisnaholic

Elizium by Fields of the Nephilim:

Well, Between me and TH, I think we prove that old saying, “Beauty is in the ear of the beholder“, because where TH hears beauty, I’m afraid I don’t. A completely new band to me, so I came in with zero expectations, apart from what the cover might suggest: "probably not Dolly-Parton style music."

First track: very effectively sets a mood, but also gives me a sense of foreboding: this is not a mood I particularly want to spend time in.
Second track: at least it has a faster tempo than I expected, but introduces the vocals, which I found to be the weakest aspect of the album.
Actually some of TH’s positive responses are exactly my negatives:-
When the vocalist took a break, I liked Gates, Sumerland and Wail of Sumer best.
For me, the lead-guitar playing was the best bit about the songs: surprisingly smooth with a hint of Pink Floyd about it, but then also there were moments when I thought, “Oh, right – that’s why I don’t bother listening to PFloyd any more.” I think that feeling surfaced most often when those slow, massive, drums came in, like the cue for some big stadium-rock lightshow.

The lyrics:As an atheist, I hear quite enough about god from the established religions: I am really not interested in hearing about, what exactly? Pretend, HPLovecraft gods of some kind?
It’s a bit of a cheap shot to pick on lyrics out of context, but when the singer says: "Tell me, what is reality?" I feel like replying,“It’s what happily awaits me when I can be done with all your suffocating, heavy-handed theatricality.”

My short appraisal: some very accomplished musical interludes swamped by a vocalist determined to conjure up some gloomy goth mood which I found pretty tedious. If we are giving ratings, I’ll give this 5/10, because the music is very competent throughout and because I don’t want to annoy SGR, but tbh this is not an album I would return to.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Trollheart

Just FYI Lisna, I think (though I don't know, but I did ask) that the gods referred to aren't made up (unless you accept all gods are man-made) but are those of the Sumerian/Babylonian pantheon, such as Ishtar and Ba'al and so on. I only say this because two of the tracks contain the word "Sumer", which I take to refer to the Sumerians.

Anyway, I sympathise to an extent. Had I not "toughened" myself up against death/doom metal with three years of Metal Month and more, I might have had the same reaction to the vocalist, but as it is I can hear the power and beauty in his voice. But as you say, it's all one person's opinion, and this would be a pretty boring club if we all felt the same about every album. That's what it's about: different - often wildly different - reactions to the same albums.

Don't forget to drop an album in for consideration when you have a mo.

That said, Batty, though the last to join, is the only other one to suggest an album and so he's next up.

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Tristan_Geoff

I listened to the album as well, had since before listened in early 2018 apparently but I didn’t remember anything going into it. It was really cool, loved how grandiose it was and had like has been said a somber feel to it. As someone who has been around a lot of goth music, I found it to be a standout in the genre, even though goth is theatrical to it’s core one has to note just how good they are at building suspense and a world in each song. I thought the vocalist was foreboding enough to be on Scott Walker’s terms as well.

9/10

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Emo/Pop Punk Journal

Techno Journal

Marie Monday

The opening is bombastic but effective and well executed. The transition to a much more uptempo song is a bit too sudden (or is that just the youtube playlist?). The song is quite good, but a bit too typically goth post-punk for me. Song titles and lyrics seem a bit ridiculous but it's not a distraction. The album has a feel of mixing goth with prog and I'm not the greatest prog fan (and tbh goth is not one of my favourite punk genres), but it's not too bad. Like other people pointed out the guitar sounds nice, very lush. The opening of Submission really worked for me. The bass is kind of PiL-like, which is great. The chorus of Sumerland is beautiful, the kind of stuff I like best about got music. I really love the spooky floaty sounds in Wail Of Summer but the song itself doesn't do much for me. The album ends great though, more spooky sounds. Pretty solid album overall.
7/10

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Marie Monday

Also I made my choice for an album to listen to:
Toshiyuki Miyama & His New Herd - Tsuchi No Ne

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rubber soul

Okay, I'll do my review today.

Meanwhile, put this one on the cue if you will

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