Iceni

Canadian tech-thrash outfit Droid deserve mention, if you're at all into Vektor these guys are well worth checking out.

https://droidcanada.bandcamp.com/album/terrestrial-mutations

@RelentlessOblivion I'm pleased to hear things are improving somewhat for you and that you've been able to maintain willpower with such consistency. I do realize that makes me sound like a blowhard but that is my assessment from what I've read most recently.

I took the general GRE to get into an international relations program, I've got about six or seven I want to enter. Planning on taking it again since I think I could improve my quantitative score. As for food - well, it was good enough to warrant Cheesecake Factory, which somewhat compensated for my having eaten only a couple pizza rolls beforehand.

13 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I remember those days. My online gaming debut was Halo 3, shit that's about a decade ago now, and I was pretty good at first, really good in fact, but over time those skills dropped away.

 

Bet I would still wreck most in Tekken though, or the Microsoft equivalent Dead Or Alive.

Interesting. You ever play Melty Blood or Guilty Gear Xrd? I love the art style for the latter game but apparently it's one of the most complex fighters on the market.

2 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Oh boy, the Fifty Most Important YouTube Comments.

first - an unassuming sentiment that became ubiquitous and remained a well-studied phenomenon well after its obselescence

fake and gay - the predecessor to the false even-handedness practiced by poorly-informed lazy blowhards across the political spectrum that now constitutes a fundamental paradigm of discourse on all news sites

Hey guys I Have found link to Avengers 5 the Bloom Brightens you can watch here https://www.obviousscam.ru/watch/youcredulousnitwit/vid.mp4_wOLolOloLLhuUeHUEHhuehehUEHU3H3 - a sentiment formed hand-in-glove with globalization that facilitated the expansion of digital discourse to include overambitious third-world con men

Took the GRE and did OK, so I'm going out to eat with a couple friends this evening.

1 hour ago, FatherAlabaster said:

GODDAMN COMMERCIAL ENTRY-LEVEL HACKED-UP POORLY WRITTEN BADLY RESEARCHED IRRELEVANT BULLSHIT CLICKBAIT GARBAGE but hey, it's cool to see a couple of my favorite bands on the list EVEN THOUGH IT SUCKS AND THE FUCKING CENTURY ISN'T EVEN TWENTY PERCENT OVER YET but although I don't really like a lot of these bands, I can see why a few of them are on here, since they've definitely had an impact on the metal world even if THEY'RE SCATTERED THROUGHOUT A WORTHLESS LIST OF HAS-BEENS AND TRITE RADIO POP METAL LIKE CORN KERNELS IN A TURD FUCK HATE KILL STOMP SMASH 

SMASH

AAAARGH

uuhh

that's my subjective impression here.

we all have our own perspective

13 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I get a vintage Edge Of Sanity-meets-Cynic vibe. Pretty much killer for my taste, but given that it's a 1995 release, I didn't know how you would react to it.

NP: 

InanimateExistence - Underneath A Melting Sky

Unhuman - s/t

Definitely sounds like my kinda thing.

^ Also both of those albums kick ass.

On 10/31/2017 at 7:12 PM, FatherAlabaster said:

Disaffected - Vast

@Iceni, you familiar with this? Maybe a little old-school for your taste...

I mean if it's anything like Nucleus or that Contrarian you recommended I can dig it. Sounds fine so far.

18 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Death, Suffocation, Gorguts, probably Atheist for the originators I think. Honestly for sustained quality as well for the first three bands anyway. Still not sure why Individual Thought Patterns through to The Sound Of Perseverance don't do it for you though.

I liked IDP and TSOP is OK. Haven't liked much of anything else, so on balance I wouldn't say I like Death. As for originators, I coulda put either Atheist or Pestilence on there but I don't know that either are particularly prolific, especially not Atheist. I also wanted to acknowledge the ubiquity of the wank school of tech-death for which I think Mr. Sucmiez is indirectly responsible (much as I hate it), hence Negrophagist.

23 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Calvin and Hobbes has quite a bit of bearing on the state of his childhood at present.

I figured! It's a great comic but I'd imagine you almost feel like hiding it from a kid that age in case they get any ideas from the guy.

On 2/4/2017 at 7:21 AM, Requiem said:

 And don't even ask me about my distant cousin Hamish McRequiem, the Scottish vampire.

He dae no' eat, nor dae he sleep; and feeds he only on the black-tar heroin o' the living. His imposing keep may be found in the outskirts of Dundee near a drainage ditch, he dunnae keep a moat so much as a ring of dilapidated cars guarded by rottweilers.

7 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

 We're home together, he's bouncing off the walls, and I can't get any work done... Yay.

Man, I first heard the phrase "bouncing off the walls" during a church service in Houston when I was about 11 or something and it was all I could do not to issue a resonant guffaw through the sanctuary. The mental image of a toddler just rocketing about a bedroom like a squash ball turned out surprisingly evocative, something of the Calvin and Hobbes to it.

"Maniacal Renderings" by Jon Oliva, a man whose metal is so heavy it caused him to gain a good 300 pounds over the course of his career. No pop star could look and dress the way he does and get as much adulation...gotta love a man who'll literally wear a McDonald's shirt to an interview.

10 minutes ago, ButterLettuss said:

I think my favourite thing about sludge might be the band names.  I know what you mean though, transitions take forever and unless you're invested in the genre as a statement it can be a little much

One guy on Facebook used the phrase "slugfuck pacing" which certainly gave me a chuckle. Definitely gotta integrate that one into my vocabulary.

Tech-death:

Death

Nile

Necrophagist

Suffocation

Not that I like any of them that much. If I could make a big 4 list synthesizing sustained quality, longevity and success it'd probably be:

Gigan

Gorguts

Gorod

Wormed

"Mechanical Spin Phenomena" by Mnemic.

Unfortunately I don't have a Monster and Cheetos to accompany this. If only this vocalist sounded older than 24...

Can't say I really get the whole 'unhear' thing, the only time I get that feeling is with really obnoxious pop songs, particularly ones with an ethos I hate. I guess I wish I'd not heard Pyramaze after "Legend of the Bone Carver" since that's their last really good album. The band have some phenomenal potential but they're utterly wasting it. Wish I'd never heard anything by Into Eternity (except maybe "Buried In Oblivion"), since they're good on paper but I just never listen to them anymore for whatever reason. Same goes for Holy Blood's "Waves Are Dancing". Bought t-shirts for both of those bands too...

5 hours ago, ButterLettuss said:

OH right... Sludge.  Well, someones got to like it right?

BAN and NTNR like some, but they've got a better tolerance for monotony than me and different sonic tastes besides. Bongripper and Mudbath are pretty close but they just drone on for too damn long without evolving their songs.

1 hour ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

A Halloween playlist on youtube. So far the opener from Nightmare Before Christmas, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Dokken (ugh), Halloween, The Adams Family, and Don't Fear The Reaper...

Snowy Shaw and Jon Oliva's Pain work pretty well.

Usually my temptation is to say it's uptempo or in the words of absentee member AkselJ "has more notes". Obviously you're then confronted with doom metal. To be honest, my general understanding is that it's just more intense in what it sets out to do. Might be useful to ask people what they don't like about metal, and the answer I'd say is just that it's loud. Sure, you get the more contemplative fiddly kinda guys like Fleurety or Spiral Architect, but even then the quiet aspect is more a trick of production. I do think it comes down to the loudness and pitch, as other people have stated, because the only other genres that are comparable in this regard are probably electronic - i.e., industrial, dubstep or maybe trap. These genres, however, can be immediately distinguished from metal by nature, so that's not a problem.

So then, the difference between metal and rock. I might put it down to the use of palm-muted riffs. It's not like there's no use of palm muting in rock, but it's far more common in most metal music. Doom metal comes up again...well, technically if you speed doom metal up enough it either resembles other metal or perhaps rock, depending on the production. Las Cruces are pretty close to being a rock band even though they're pretty strongly doom.

I do think metal does also tend to go more for the flamboyant and/or oblique than a melody that's memorable by popular standards, so that might be worth taking into account.

"Temple of Hell" by Mean Messiah.

Pretty good SYL clone and all done by one guy. This is definitely the best track.

11 hours ago, ButterLettuss said:

To be honest, I don't see the Epica comparison at all...but I do see the Sadist conenction a bit.  Also I've really been listening to their more recent stuff which has got a lot more musical depth.  Their rhythm guitarist is doing some pretty awesome stuff and their lead players keep getting better and better.   Everyone has their thing though and metal is amazing no matter the genre

I really liked Hyaena and I've been getting more into their other stuff. I'll have to disagree on all metal being great, though, at least until I can find one sludge band other than DVNE that can make the case for the genre not being scrapped altogether.

I have now come to like a number of the songs I used to just enjoy ironically, "Liquid" probably being at the top of the list. Then again, I'm on record as enjoying Disturbed. Mnemic do definitely belong to the Jumpdafuckup School but I can't hate it too much. I'd love to see them take a couple notes from bands like Alchemist, Gojira and Mithras and become a little more...hate to use this word, but raw. Some prog touches wouldn't hurt, but then I usually believe that about every band.

Update - Matt Smith is clearly a very talented composer and can make some phenomenal stuff when he's on his A-game, but I do feel like he ought to be complemented by someone like Dharok from Sympathy or maybe Alex Kenis from Aletheian and Becoming the Archetype, a really techy guitarist who can lend a little more mania and dynamism to his work. The new album "Ghost Ship" was a miss IMO, lacking any particularly good tracks and having only the title track to stand out to any significant degree.

On 10/15/2015 at 10:32 AM, RelentlessOblivion said:

That stuff no longer ties in with my taste. Back in late 2011/early 2012 it worked but now I don't know I guess I'm looking for more punch and less negative space so to speak.

Funny you should say this, my friend gripes about a lack of texture in most of the music I listen to.