FatherAlabaster

That's more like it... I'll push my Metal on anyone, I don't give a shit! Crom laughs at your four winds!

I just finished my last Brooklyn East India Pale Ale. Now I'm sad.

One of my main problems with the scientific method is that it can only address what can be measured' date=' and many things simply can't be. I'm not saying that science isn't useful, but it has its limits when addressing things that I consider to be more important, where philosophy and spirituality have more infinite and personalized possibilities. Used correctly, the scientific method could help us prod at more metaphysical issues / snip[/quote'] I'm jumping in with both feet here... This, I agree with, definitely. I don't know if you're familiar with Daniel Dennett apart from his involvement with the "new atheists", but my favorite book of his - though dated at this point - is "Consciousness Explained". The title is a bit of a joke, as he admits. One of his points goes to yours, though, which is that the fact that you're having that experience is a piece of data that we can use to help us understand it. In other words, you're treated as an observer of your own consciousness. Privileged beyond others? Maybe not in principle, but practically speaking, for now, yes. You are a provider of data about you, and that data includes your interpretation of what it all means to you. Once an event happens in your mind, at that point, it's not metaphysical. It can be looked at, by you and by others through you. It's not lab science but we can still subject experiences - yours, mine, whoever's - to rigorous scrutiny. Far better that than to say that "science can't touch it", that's a Russell's Teapot kind of argument. I'm not saying causality is well understood at all, or that it will ever be. But to assume that there's a "metaphysical realm" - made up of whatever we don't understand - and to assume that we can somehow access it by "emptying our minds" or whatever (this is the kind of thing that I grew up with, I'm not saying it's what you believe), well, to me that's the opposite of open-mindedness. It's making too many assumptions. Good questions, to me, would start with "what actually happened?" "What did it feel like?" "What does it feel like now?" and "How are you interpreting it?" I think if we had a lot of data on a lot of people, we could understand more about all of us. Not in a huge meaningful way, in a very practical, instant-to-instant way. Here I joined up hoping to make friends and bullshit about metal, and I'm getting into a philosophical argument with the moderator:D. Really batting a thousand...

I'm not blaming old school death metal' date=' not sure where you got that from.[/quote'] No, I didn't think you were! All I'm saying is that there was this wonderful explosion of great new music happening, and refining itself, just under the radar, at the same time as the commercial music world was getting dumber and dumber. I think it's funny. Take 1994. We have Transilvanian Hunger, Tales From The Thousand Lakes, The Bleeding - classics whether you like them or not - Far Beyond Driven, which I love... and the first Machine Head and Korn albums. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Hmm. Ok. I don't believe that "the metaphysical" and "things we can't perceive" are the same thing. I think there's a lot that we'll never know or even grasp, and a lot that we can make instruments to measure and make fumbling guesses at, and then plenty of things that directly affect us on a daily basis that we're well equipped to see and understand. I'm not saying that what we can see is all there is... but my point about the "scientific method" is that it's an outgrowth of the way that we all naturally process information. It depends on what information we get and how we interpret it, but everyone does have some concrete reason for believing they're right - some childhood experience, some "mystical revelation", whatever, they were convinced. And if that makes someone else wrong in the process, so be it. I love that quote, "never try to reason someone out of something they weren't reasoned into in the first place", but I think it misses the point. The most ass-backwards justification for Christianity that I ever read was in CS Lewis's "Mere Christianity" where he basically said - I paraphrase - that all of the stuff that makes people doubt god's existence is actually even more evidence for god's existence, because it seems like exactly the kind of thing a god would put there to test your faith! Really. Ugh. More like proof that if you really want to be convinced of something, you'll find a way to convince yourself. I've seen friends go through the conversion process. Some of them are even still my friends, because they didn't go all evangelical on me! Some people equate talking about science with proselytizing religion, but that's a false equivalence - like I said before, the heart of science is nothing more than asking questions. The religions I've experienced have a lot more assumptions built in from the outset. AAAnyway. Enough of my babble.

Ok, this has some potential. But you need vocals. You're basically doing variations of one theme for like five minutes. This needs some other parts, some rhythmic variation, some different guitar textures, and it should probably be shorter. And you should tweak your drum parts so they don't sound so much like preprogrammed loops. We all have computers! Make it happen. I'm not trying to be a dick, it's supposed to be constructive. Oh. This is one of those "one post wonders" I read about. I see.

I like the sound on the older album better, new one is too shiny and modern for the kind of music you guys are doing. This is well done. Not my thing, but sounds pretty pro.

I hate to say it but y'all have a lot of work to do. Tighten up your vocals. Your vocal rhythms are all over the place and it makes you sound like you lack confidence. Your kick drum sound in particular needs a lot more bass and punch. Not addressing songwriting, that's a whole different topic.

Hey, I can check your stuff out and see if I'll have anything to add. Not sure whether or not I'll like it/have time! But I'll let you know - I have my vocal recording equipment all set up so it wouldn't be that hard for me to track stuff at some point. If you want to hear what I sound like, there's a link in my sig. I do cleans as well.

Not metal: Preston Reed. I've seen other people do his "thing" since, but I still like him the best. eJYli0gE_40 Most of my favorite metal riffs are by guys who aren't necessarily technicians, and I find that a lot of technically appealing playing doesn't go hand in hand with good music. As a guitarist, I struggle with it myself - easy to go down the rabbit hole and forget how to write a song.

Hard to blame Pantera! I mean look at awful crap like Wolverine Blues... I really think it was a product of the time, marketing, zeitgiest, whatever. Something in the air. I'd sooner blame Fear Factory and Korn. Hard to believe it all coincided with some of the best old-school death metal, like Pierced From Within, Tomb Of The Mutilated, Legion.

There's a reason Sierra Nevada pale ale is the benchmark for judges when they're judging American Pale Ales! Though I think I preferred the stuff from CA - Pale Ale on the East Coast is now brewed at their new facility in NC. Still very good. Refreshing beers for hopheads: Founder's: All Day IPA and Centennial - drinking one of these right now! Maine Beer: Mo and Zoe, if you can get either of them The Alchemist: Heady Topper White Birch: Hop Session Also been digging on Fritz Briem's smoked beers and Bayerische Bahnhof's Gose - I just had this beer on draft for the first time and it's even better than a bottle. Now I'm gonna go get drunk.

I have a problem with the scientific method' date=' in that it's designed to make you see things that you want to see, instead of just looking with open eyes and no expectations.[/quote'] I have to disagree. The heart of the scientific method is the same sort of unprejudiced "Zen Mind" that I think you're talking about. Can it turn into narrow thinking? Sure, if you do it wrong. We all use the scientific method. Observe, hypothesize, test, analyze, repeat. Every theist I've talked to used the scientific method when deciding what to believe - they just stopped at a certain point. That's the frustrating thing for me. But honestly I feel like you and I might mean the same thing, and be saying it in different ways. Allow me to add that we evolved to think in the way that we do, and I don't think anyone, however open-minded, is capable of getting the whole picture. We may have more flexible thought processes than a lot of other animals, but we're by no means gifted with a capacity for universal understanding.

Wow, that all depends on my mood, time of day, what I've had to drink. A bunch of them aren't metal, either. Here's one that always grabs me: Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb But if I'm already in a crappy mood, let's call it: Swans - Stay Here And this might sound self-involved, but honestly the songs that get to me the most are two that I wrote years ago, one for a friend that was killed, one for my grandfather as he was dying of Parkinson's. Not like they're the bestest songs evar!!! but I re-live those experiences whenever I hear them, which isn't often. I can't imagine playing them live, I would probably break down halfway through. Here's where my screen name comes from: 7cE-8FtPaSk This is NOT intended to be a shameless plug. This recording was done almost ten years ago. Still might be one of my best, and it's very hard for me to listen to.

Rate the song above you! That's good old school stuff, from back when it was about making noise. 7.5/10 n0f1gfVdXZY

Wait, really? I love death metal, black metal, grind, all kinds of whatever music I'm in the mood for, and Pantera has been one of my favorite bands for holy crap like 19 years now, because of "Vulgar" and "Far Beyond Driven". Those guitar parts, well, some of them are simple, others are really not simple at all, and the best thing about those riffs IMO is that they sound like they came straight out of his brain. Not to mention, those guys knew how to put a song together. Many albums have come and gone for me, but I still listen to that stuff, and still find it relevant. ...I'm in no way approving of Damageplan by saying this.

I was raised with an odd Eastern religion based on Hinduism, but I walked away from that a long time ago. Doing so was painful, but necessary. I've never had a good conversation about religion with monotheists. I've tried. I gave up. "Live and let live" is all great and stuff, but my favorite thing about the pursuit of the scientific method is that you can spend your life learning how to ask the right questions... The more overtly religious people seem to think they already have the answers. We use the same words but we're speaking different languages. Frustrating, yes, but it can make great fodder for song lyrics!

Also +1 to the Amorphis recommendation, I've been playing "Elegy" a lot lately though my favorite has always been "Karelian Isthmus". I'm sure OP has heard the older October Tide albums...? New one is garbage to me, but the stuff with Jonas is great.

I can easily pick a favourite melodeath band' date=' there's only two in my collection as best as I can tell and Dark Tranquillity are the better of the two.[/quote'] Dark Tranquillity was my favorite band for about a year after "The Gallery" came out. I've been digging "Mind's I" again lately, too, and the wife and kid seem to like it also so that's a win... But IMO they jumped the shark after that. I really just really absolutely don't like Stanne's clean vocals.

^I'm willing to bet that quitting soda has at least as much benefit to your health as quitting smoking! That stuff is poison.

Doing vocals actually helped me quit cigarettes about ten years ago. Every time I wanted one, I'd remind myself that I had practice or a show coming up. I still have a cigar or smoke a pipe on occasion, but I can definitely feel the effects in my vocals for the next few days. Health in itself was never a good enough reason for me, I'm sorry to say.

I'll say this, there's a lot more fear to go around these days, what with economic troubles, political instability, etc. and it's no surprise when fearful people lash out. Generally at the wrong target, too.