The Metal Advisor

Re: I raise my glass of french wine and salute you !

Re: The Official Country Of Metal Poll Yep, the Scandinavian countries produce a lot of metal these days, but it's hard for me to ignore the amount of drivel coming out of Sweden, especially those cookie cutter "melodic death metal" acts.

Re: What Are You Listening To? Deathspell Omega - "Sola Fide II"

Re: Chthonic - Takasago Army (2011) I'm not sure I'd call it a Sabaton sensibility, but.... yeah. I'm glad you're liking them because they're obviously a great listen. The album that predated Takasago Army has a bit more black metal influence.

Re: I raise my glass of french wine and salute you ! Welcome! I'm taking a trip to France in November, and I hear it's a pretty fun place.

This is a fun album, ladies and gents. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you try it out. ------------------ From my first listen through Takasago Army, I pondered how it could be categorized as straight black metal because, in the general sense of the label, most of the music on the record has little, if any, resemblance to the grim subgenre of metal. A good portion of the music would fit well under the melodic metal umbrella, if not the melodic death metal subgenre. I suppose some of the tracks could be filed under melodic black metal due to symphonic bits and the occasional melodious tremolo picking, but I typically find the music too chuggy and polished to be included there. As I've seen the band say before, they cannot be categorized, and I wholeheartedly agree because Takasago Army is essentially whatever it wants to be, unhindered by boundaries created by subgenres. Further forays into Chthonic's earlier work should prove to be interesting beacuse I'll get to see if there is a pure black metal side to the band. The most compelling thing about Chthonic is that their home base is in Taiwan. Not too many artists from Taiwan can claim to have gotten international attention, but after 10 years of hard work, the band certainly deserves it. At the beginning of this year, I saw blabbering and interest across various metal websites, but it was only a month or so ago that I decided to give them a look. They're touring with one of my favorite bands (Skeletonwitch), so they have to be good, right? And they are very good. Despite apparently being a step back from earlier works, I've been enjoying Takasago Army immensely, even though it offers little variation from song to song. The first full track, "Legacy of the Seediq," gives you a nice little tip off of what to expect with its culturally invigorating melodies and musical passages. I'm happy the band is consistent though. Some bands can't even make a good album. Lyrically, Takasago Army is quite interesting because it forages into the deep unknown histories of World War II from the perspective of Taiwanese citizens who were forced to fight on the side of the Axis due to Japanese control. After WWII ended, Taiwan was handed off to the United Nations, which resulted in the Chinese arriving in the country, once again subjecting Taiwan to total oppression. As a result, the small Takasago Army formed with aspirations to defend the country from further take overs. Where the heck was this shit in my history books? Wherever it's been hiding, I'm glad I finally found it because the history nerd in me is fascinated. As always, Chthonic offers their newest album in two varieties, each a different flavor to tickle your fancy. For those looking to play it safe, the band recorded the album in English, likely to appeal to a bigger audience. But if you're looking for something a little more exotic, a Taiwanese version of the album also exists, one I'm particularly eager to try out when I get the chance. I'm guessing the two will be the same musically, merely with a change in dialects. Majestic would be the proper tag to give Takasago Army with its free flowing and soaring melodies that embed themselves into a listener's head with heavy backing from the guitars and rhythm section. I can't recall the last time I enjoyed symphonic elements in metal this much. In a sense, the record is multifaceted because it combines traditional Taiwanese musical melodies and the occasional vocal line or chant with the heaviest of metal, thanks to a tip top modern production. Possibly the worst thing about the album is the production, however. It accomplishes its job of giving the music oomph and a kick in the teeth, but in doing so, it lacks dexterity and transparency because nearly everything is pushed to the brink of audio peaking, offering little dynamic range. But in this day and age, that's the norm, and I'm not surprised it found its way to these Taiwanese metallers. Takasago Army doesn't push any boundaries or bring anything new to the metal round table, but it is a very good slab of modern metal in its own right, one that should stay enjoyable for a very long time; yet, it is relatively unique because it combines Asian cultural melodies with metal, which is relatively unknown to the popular metal scene. I can only hope Chthonic continue on their upward climb to success, and we see more metal bands come across the pond from Asia with their wonderful music. Listen to this album and support Chthonic, The Metal Advisor See the original post @ The Metal Advisor with a video and a few photos here: http://metaladvisor.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-chthonic-takasago-army.html

Re: Ban the user above you! Banned for posting about cowboys.

Re: The Official Country Of Metal Poll That's very debatable. The English didn't "invent" all subforms of metal. Like I said earlier, great metal can come from literally anywhere. I don't think who "created" it constitutes them as best. People all over the world have something equally good to contribute.

Re: What Are You Listening To? Chthonic - "The Island"

Re: Metal Vs. . . . . . everything else Props, man.

Re: The Official Country Of Metal Poll There is no official country for metal. Finely crafted metal can come from any region. That's all I have to add. Also, basing this question off of how many people are in metal bands per country isn't a concise way to judge this, at least in my opinion. That just leaves more room for drivel to be created.

Re: Hello metalheads! Welcome! I hope to see you around quite often.

Re: I need help, kinda xD The second one is neat. Go with that.

Re: Heritage I feel you, dude. Anyway, I got Heritage on vinyl a few days ago. Gonna give it a whirl tonight. I'll move this thread to the reviews section when I get a chance.

Re: What Are You Listening To? Excellent.

Re: Agalloch, and other obscurities I used to feel that way, but they just clicked one day.

Re: Books? @Iceni, I saw your post beforehand, but then it just disappeared. Anyway, you should listen to Imaginary Sonicscape in full. It is fantastic. Edit: Apparently my post did as well. I think the forum is a bit buggy.

Re: Agalloch, and other obscurities Agalloch is very atmospheric as well, but I wouldn't really call them obscure (Same with WitTR for that matter). They have a pretty big following, you know. My personal favorite is the debut. Check out Gallowbraid. If you like Agalloch, you'll dig them.

Re: Wolf Kick ass pure heavy metal.

Re: Grind? Grindcore is not metal. Death/grind can be metal, but only due to being a hybrid of death metal and grindcore. I'll move this to the other music section.

Re: What Are You Listening To? Continuing on the streak of electro house with LiL's "Me, Too."

Re: ANNIHILATOR - Canadian ThrashMetal by Jeff Waters Couldn't have summed it up any better.

Re: Metal Jokes!

Re: Could someone please tell me what Djent is? Djent will likely replace (or is replacing) metalcore/deathcore in the mainstream, only to be replaced itself with something else when it comes along. I don't mind a few djent acts, but most are uninspired and generic relative to the collective group of bands in the style. Tesseract is worth checking out.

Re: Non-English Lyrics.... I adore music (not just metal) in other languages. I have quite a bit of music in Japanese, as well as Korean, Swedish, Norwegian, and possibly another language that I can't recall right now.