FatherAlabaster

This all comes down to your guitar and your rig and personal preferences. I hate actives. I had three guitars with the Fluence Moderns in, and I wanted to like them, but they just didn't have teeth through my setup. If you're an EMG 81 player, the Fluence Moderns have a lot to offer, I just don't find them dynamic enough or strong enough on the attack, and somehow their EQ profile gets on my nerves.

I'm a Bare Knuckle fan. My two main guitars are Gibsons - a 6 string Explorer and a 7 string Les Paul. They're both warmer-sounding guitars that benefit from brighter pickups. I have a Rebel Yell in the Explorer and a ceramic Warpig in the LP. The Warpig had an alnico magnet when I got it, but I swapped the magnet and it really brought the pickup to life for aggressive stuff. I also love their Cold Sweat bridge pickup. But again, these guitars are heavy in the low mids and they're going into an amp (Fryette Pittbull 100CL) that loves being hit with a high mid spike, so the pickups balance them out and add some sparkle and make the amp break up in a pleasing way. I wouldn't recommend a Rebel Yell in a bright guitar, but maybe it could be a good fit with the right pot values.

Worth mentioning that both guitars have the bridge pickup wired to the jack, again not something that works on every guitar or for every pickup. I just happen to like it this way. Bypassing all the pots can make pickups sound harsh and unnatural. That's been the case with all the Duncans I use and in all of my brighter guitars. The 7 string LP came with a JB and it was almost great. I have another 7 string with a Distortion in the bridge and a Schecter 6 string with a set of Invaders. They're all ok. If I played simpler stuff I'd probably love them, but for what I do they feel a bit muddy.

Too much Sparagmos, that's the problem. It'll turn your piss green.

Schilling Brücius doppelbock

these guys do not fuck around

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab  ...the cure for what ails me

2 hours ago, Thatguy said:

I'm sure it's a badge of honour here to say this, but I too have never consciously heard her music and have no idea what it is like.

I had managed to avoid most of it until today. I had to listen to a second album on the way back home. I now feel as though my brain has been scraped out of my ears. I didn't hate most of it but it's a bit much in aggregate. It turns out my wife is a massive Swiftie. 

12 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Hey not bad man. I'll admit I was expecting something a bit proggier, but this hits hard, consider me onboard. Any plans to tour this or do a few one-off gigs? Or do they not live anywhere near you? 

Cheers dude. There is some weirdness in spots, but nary a prog riff to be found. No plans for any shows, we all live too far apart for it to be feasible.

14 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Don't think I've ever heard Taylor Swift's music. Is it really bad? I'm sure if my wife were still alive she'd be forcing it on me in the car too. When she learned that I couldn't stand Rush she used to crank their songs up louder every time one would come on in her car just to annoy me. Isn't marriage wonderful?

I haven't listened to any of this stuff before. It's a few cuts above the vapid dancey bubblegum bullshit I hear at the grocery store. So, no, not bad as these things go. Not how I would choose to spend a morning but it doesn't offend my delicate sensibilities.

I love Rush, but I understand that other people don't, so I only inflict them on traveling or living companions when necessary. Maybe we'll listen to some Rush later to compensate for the Taytay marathon.

It's in the upper 30s (F) here in Vermont, and even though it feels a little like t-shirt weather, I'm annoyed. When it gets above freezing the ground turns to muck. False spring, I guess. 

We are in my wife's car, so we are listening to Taylor Swift. Nuff said.

I joined Construct Of Lethe as the vocalist for their new album, "A Kindness Dealt In Venom". We worked on this for a long time and had to keep it under wraps for a while. Transcending Obscurity will be releasing it later this year. I'm happy I can finally share part of it:

This section is taken from the middle of the album. It's a concept album and it's meant to be heard as a single piece. It's a dynamic, immersive head trip, with more variety than this snippet suggests - spoken parts, found sounds, noise and soundscape elements - but it stays rooted in death metal. The lyrics deal with suicidal depression and self-loathing; despite (or because of?) the heavy themes I found it really enjoyable to work on. 

Lineup is:

Tony Petrocelly - guitars, bass, synth

Patrick Bonvin - lead guitar

Kishor Haulenbeek - vocals

Kevin Paradis - drums

Concept, music, and lyrics by Tony Petrocelly; mixed and mastered by Tony; artwork by Kishor

Hope you enjoy.

Hey, welcome to the forum.

It's all about the rig you're going into and the sound you're looking for, I think. There's no one silver bullet. The Rat is a great pedal once you get the filter frequency dialed in just right. I like it as part of a parallel processing chain with my bass rig, so I can blend in a compressed clean signal with the distortion on top. I thought fuzz would work great for that but the Rat hit the sweet spot. 

Moved to the guitar section.

I never bonded with fuzz. I've had a few, nothing boutique, different flavors of Muff. I always found it too hard to dial in for a sound that did what I want or a level that made sense. Maybe it's my rig, maybe it's my ears. I get better results by stacking an eq or an overdrive into a distortion pedal. I got an HX Effects a few years ago and played around with the fuzz models, too, but I wound up getting my favorite fuzz-adjacent sound out of a Rat.

21 minutes ago, Arioch said:

I lost my mum this week so I'm not in the mood to listen to music.

My condolences man, that's terrible news.

15 minutes ago, navybsn said:

The Origin of Satan: How Christians demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics by Elaine Pagels

What's with this pseudo-academic bullshit, everybody knows Satan originated in England in the late 1970s.

8 hours ago, Arioch said:

I'm listening to it right now.

At the time, I mainly remembered the first two tracks, Born and Final Product, but not the following ones at all.

Now, listening to them a few years later (I'd say well over 15 years), I'm rediscovering emotions and it's true that this album is really good!

My Nevermore top 3 could well look like this:

- Dead Heart in a Dead World
- The Politics of Ecstasy
- This Godless Endeavor

Thank you for talking about this fabulous band, who died too soon.

Yes, it is!

Jeff Loomis wasted quite a few years in Arch Enemy, where he was muzzled by Michael Amott.

It's going to be very difficult to get a band in the vein of Nevermore, especially without Warrel Dane, but let's hope Jeff does something great!

The original Watchtower vocalist was in a newer group called Howling Sycamore that had a couple of albums I really enjoyed in the past few years. He doesn't "sound like Warrel" but listening to that stuff made me think he could pull it off. Not many could.

I loved Nevermore. It took me a long time to warm up to anything they did after Dreaming Neon Black. Still kinda think that's their best. Everything after that sounds like plastic to me. But I have come to enjoy Enemies and Godless.

6 hours ago, navybsn said:

The Seven Tongues of God into This Sacrament may be the best 2 opening tracks on an album ever. Loomis + Dane was an absolutely great combo.

NP: My Dying Bride - As the Flower Withers

MDB - Turn Loose the Swans

1 hour ago, navybsn said:

MDB marathon continues. Mrs. Navy did not appreciate Skyforger but seems to tolerate this.

The Angel and the Dark River

The Light at the End of the World

The Dreadful Hours

I agree with everything posted here.

GWAR - Scumdogs Of The Universe is the only album I need from them. Not amazing but pretty fun. No point seeing them live and getting spattered with crap for me though. I kinda recall having this conversation with Navy a while ago, too.

27 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

This makes me think some bands just shouldn't tour. Instead, play home turf gigs that they can really enjoy and stream them. I know it's a bit late in Type O's case because that technology barely existed back then, but you get the idea.

Nothing beats a great live gig. But, so too the level of disappointment of a half-arsed gig. 

I reckon there is a real market for interactive online pay-per-view content. There are a lot of bands I'd be just as happy to spend fifteen bucks on to see at a bespoke live gig, say with a Q&A afterwards, than travel to see live. 

As the technology catches up, you could even have live gigs with musicians remote from each other.

 

Some food for thought there. A big part of what I like about live shows is being there in person, in the moment with the musicians, and another big part is feeling the impact of air moving off the kit and from the amps and so on. I wonder what it would take to have a setup that's fast enough and interactive enough to feel like you're sharing that moment instead of just playing along and having it synced up downstream. I like a good live performance video but I don't think it could take the place of an actual show for me. It would be fun to jam on those tunes across the ocean though!

Behold... The Arctopus - Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning

I got this album from a friend about 15 years ago and really liked it for a while, but I haven't played it in several years. Funny how some of you are shitting on it for being too chaotic, I had remembered it being more spastic and inaccessible than this. I think the mix sounds a bit unpolished and the playing is a little rough and loose sometimes, and maybe that makes it feel a little more frantic than it is. And maybe it comes off a little less intelligible without the "glue" a vocal would provide. Not surprised some of y'all don't get it, I would never expect the Goatster to enjoy a Colin Marston vehicle. But I'm happy this prompted me to put it back on. Philistines.

Wardruna - Kvitravn

42 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

I only saw the band once, on the LiKM tour and Kenny seemed to be the grown up holding the show together. Peter was a mess and it was worse in the Carnivore reunion I saw a few years later because Kenny wasn't there.

I saw them on tour three times and they weren't too good. It seemed like Pete really didn't want to be there and the rest of the band kind of felt the same. I wrote them off for a few years and then finally saw them play on home turf at L'Amour, and they were fantastic. I got to see them twice more there and they were outstanding every time. Pete's energy was totally different, he was funny and humble and charismatic.

I pretty much agree with Jon. Anesthesia is a highlight. The song does slow down, and even sound a little mellow in parts, horror of horrors.

My understanding is also that writing for the band was Pete's baby and he and Josh put everything together. I heard rumors that Pete recorded most of the guitar parts himself. Not to take away from Kenny, he was always on point when I saw them and his vocals added a lot to the band dynamic. I can't get into any of his post TON stuff though.

9 hours ago, BloodHornVital said:

How much does the album cover affect to the listening experience?

Not much for me either. I love good cover art, but bad cover art has never put me off if I like the music. Bad art and silly band names probably make me less likely to check out a band in the first place though.

4 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

My Apple watch is my saviour here.  I will sit up, tired as shit, knowing I should go to bed but just trying to play on Xbox for on more mission or listen to one more track on an album.  Setting up the alerts of when I need to be winding down has helped me to discipline myself, plus having the alarm on my wrist means I truly wake up when it goes off.  Wind down alerts start at 21:45 for me to be asleep by 22:30, alarm set for 6am to give me the best shot at 7 hours (even though now the 'experts' are saying 8 hours but, fuck that).  Then I can be out the door for 06:15 - 06:30 for a decent few miles walk before work starts.

Maybe an Apple watch would help as backup - I could show it to my wife and say look honey, the machine says it's time for me to go to bed now. 

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I'm just not ever gonna click on anything called Wicked Innocence.

I doubt it would be your kind of death metal, but it's a cool and relatively unique album. I'm surprised you haven't come across it before now. Jayke is a big fan.

Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current

7 minutes ago, MacabreEternal said:

didn't exactly make my balls tingle

I don't think this is a sensation I've ever experienced or even looked for out of music before. I need to broaden my horizons.

Killing Joke - Night Time