What Are You Listening To?

[BlutAusNerd]

Running Wild - Under Jolly Roger

That title track has one of the catchiest choruses ever.

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[RelentlessOblivion]

They have so many catchy choruses. Chains & Leather, Prisoners Of Our Time, but don't skimp on the heavy - just how power metal should be.

[BlutAusNerd]

They have so many catchy choruses. Chains & Leather, Prisoners Of Our Time, but don't skimp on the heavy - just how power metal should be.

No question, they combine everything good about power metal into a potent and fun package.

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[RelentlessOblivion]

And who doesn't just love songs about headbanging pirates...

 

NP: Judas Priest - Unleashed In The East

Probably my favourite live album even if Rob's original vocal track was lost forcing him to redo the lot in studio.

[MacabreEternal]

Carcass "Necroticism..."

[MacabreEternal]

Immortal Bird "Empress/Abscess"

[MacabreEternal]

Incantation "Dirges of Elysium"

[FatherAlabaster]

Stone Healer - He Who Rides Immolated Horses

One of the more distinctive and promising demos I've heard recently. There's a lot of variety within these four tracks, from dark acoustic to blackened death to a sort of Mastodon vibe that might turn some people off. I feel like there are minor missteps within some of the songs, but the ideas and musicianship are great and it's obviously heartfelt. 

[MacabreEternal]

Cannibal Corpse "Kill"

[GorboGorboze]

21 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

If you don't mind the growling, their high point for me is the album between those two, Turn Loose The Swans. It took me a while to get into, though, it didn't click immediately. 

Listened to this last night, and then again this morning and I liked it a lot both times, thank you. It's very produced obviously, which is not inherently bad, but I'm formulating a philosophy about over production. I'll get it formed up and produce a scintillating manifesto some time soon. 

[MacabreEternal]

Asphyx "Deathhammer"

[FatherAlabaster]

26 minutes ago, GorboGorboze said:

Listened to this last night, and then again this morning and I liked it a lot both times, thank you. It's very produced obviously, which is not inherently bad, but I'm formulating a philosophy about over production. I'll get it formed up and produce a scintillating manifesto some time soon. 

I'm glad you like it. It's one of my favorite albums. It's odd to me that you think it's so (over?) produced, though. In fact, I recall reading reviews of "The Angel And The Dark River" that praised its sound and lamented that the previous MDB albums were underproduced by comparison.

I think you're running into a pretty standard 90s metal aesthetic of scooping the EQ of the drum sounds, emphasizing initial transients to cut through a thick mix. That turned into a runaway train at some point, but the early 90s was still a time when engineering was paramount. It's possible that they used some sample augmentation, but it's more likely IMO that they just used new drum heads and a lot of spot mics. This would still be antithetical to the sonic approach on a lot of the music you seem to listen to the most. 

I'm listening to "As The Flower Withers" right now, and I think the artifical quality you heard is a mix issue - the drums have been engineered and mixed for the faster, thicker tracks, so they sound a bit thin in emptier, slower songs like "Sear Me". I think if you listen to the drums in "The Forever People", you'll hear them in the context they were meant for. There's enough dynamic range and rhythmic slop to convince me that I'm listening to a natural recording. 

[MacabreEternal]

Inquisition "Obscure Verses For The Multiverse"

[GorboGorboze]

1 hour ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I'm glad you like it. It's one of my favorite albums. It's odd to me that you think it's so (over?) produced, though. In fact, I recall reading reviews of "The Angel And The Dark River" that praised its sound and lamented that the previous MDB albums were underproduced by comparison.

I think you're running into a pretty standard 90s metal aesthetic of scooping the EQ of the drum sounds, emphasizing initial transients to cut through a thick mix. That turned into a runaway train at some point, but the early 90s was still a time when engineering was paramount. It's possible that they used some sample augmentation, but it's more likely IMO that they just used new drum heads and a lot of spot mics. This would still be antithetical to the sonic approach on a lot of the music you seem to listen to the most. 

I'm listening to "As The Flower Withers" right now, and I think the artifical quality you heard is a mix issue - the drums have been engineered and mixed for the faster, thicker tracks, so they sound a bit thin in emptier, slower songs like "Sear Me". I think if you listen to the drums in "The Forever People", you'll hear them in the context they were meant for. There's enough dynamic range and rhythmic slop to convince me that I'm listening to a natural recording. 

I listen to some pretty muddy music, "sonic approach" is not in my lexicon, but if it means distortion, and overdrive, and general noise, than that makes a lot of sense what your saying. Now I do like Cathedral pretty well, and that seems like music that is a sort of sound collage where no doubt they start form the ground and go up adding more and more content and it is just not the sort of music that you would play all at once as in a live setting. I don't really know that, but it is not hard for me to imagine. Right to say that another way, there is in the making of a recording the issue of taking every performance as a separate endevour with several takes to insure that you are getting the best performance out of every individual player, not to mention a recording of optimal fidelity, and in the case of the kind of technological crutches I've been criticizing an airbrushed unblemished version of the performance, so there is that and than there is the work of production where the producers twists all the knobs, add the sound of the loons from "On Golden pond", and than have a hissy fit demanding still more cowbell. It is a way to make art for sure, but i never liked Frank Zappa's music for example, though I've loved some very highly produced music from the 80's synth pop canon. I don't know what I'm getting at really, My Dying Bride is wicked artful and they make their music carefully, which is a good thing, and they are obviously what I call Generous Artists, putting a lot of themselves into their work, being perfectionists, and not taking their fan base for granted, but instead endlessly doing their best. Who could ask for more? I haven't heard what they are like live, but I'd guess that they are super professional and delightful live.

New drum heads, lots of spot mics and an uncanny ability to play the drums, some people are just really good at it, I'll just have to learn to live with that fact.

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

There are a few freakishly talented drummers out there. More then a few actually. Proscriptor of Absu and Melechesh fame is probably my favourite. He's gotten lazy recently but on the Absu album Tara he is showcased at his very best.

 

NP: Venom - Welcome To Hell

[True Belief]

Judas Priest - Redeemer of Souls

[MacabreEternal]

Immortal "Pure Holocaust"

[MacabreEternal]

Immortal "Sons of Northern Darkness"

[MacabreEternal]

Immortal "Battles In The North"

[GorboGorboze]

Listened to Witchcraft this morning, the first album and legend. One of my favorite bands.

[Frostaudn]

4 hours ago, GorboGorboze said:

Listened to Witchcraft this morning, the first album and legend. One of my favorite bands.

Legend is simply magnificent, I love that album a lot.

Np:

Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

[deathstorm]

Obscura anticosmic overload

[RelentlessOblivion]

Bolt Thrower - Warmaster

[True Belief]

Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time

[FatherAlabaster]

Katatonia - Viva Emptiness 

Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance

My Dying Bride - Feel The Misery 

Gotta love how these modern mixes cut through the road noise on the highway...