What Are You Listening To?

[AlSymerz]

^ That's doc's second name!

 

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

Anathema - Shroud of Frost

Drilling this into my head so I don’t forget how to play ity

[AlSymerz]

Evile - Five Serpent's Teeth

[JonoBlade]

12 hours ago, JamesT said:

The way I see it, I want more music for the money.  I'd rather not drop my hard-earned money on an album that's 9 or 10 tracks and only 38-42 minutes long.  Give me 12-14 tracks and 55+ minutes any day.  This one is 14 songs, and a little over an hour in length, which I think is fantastic.

With all due respect, that approach is insane. "Value for money" doesn't work with music. 

Are you saying you'd recommend this new album to a new listener wanting to discover Megadeth over Peace Sells (running time 36:12)? 

Who would ever choose Book of Souls over Number of the Beast? 

My approach of dismissing long albums can likewise be a bit shortsighted, but it has been a good yardstick based on empirical evidence. 

You might get good value going to see Return of the King at the cinema, but your kids will be clawing their eyes out with boredom praying for it to end already by the closing credits. A more adept filmmaker would have edited it to a better paced final cut. 

Same with music. A good producer will distil an album down to its strongest and most succinct assault. A weak producer will let the band have their way. 

Release extended/extra tracks in special editions for avid fans. 

The reason I harp on about this shit is because I genuinely think many albums would be stronger and enjoyed more by the listener if they were trimmed back. It even makes good business sense, because you can sell the album twice with bonus tracks at a later date. 

[BLAMO]

MGLA-AGE OF EXCUSE 🤘

[RelentlessOblivion]

39 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

With all due respect, that approach is insane. "Value for money" doesn't work with music. 

Are you saying you'd recommend this new album to a new listener wanting to discover Megadeth over Peace Sells (running time 36:12)? 

Who would ever choose Book of Souls over Number of the Beast? 

My approach of dismissing long albums can likewise be a bit shortsighted, but it has been a good yardstick based on empirical evidence. 

You might get good value going to see Return of the King at the cinema, but your kids will be clawing their eyes out with boredom praying for it to end already by the closing credits. A more adept filmmaker would have edited it to a better paced final cut. 

Same with music. A good producer will distil an album down to its strongest and most succinct assault. A weak producer will let the band have their way. 

Release extended/extra tracks in special editions for avid fans. 

The reason I harp on about this shit is because I genuinely think many albums would be stronger and enjoyed more by the listener if they were trimmed back. It even makes good business sense, because you can sell the album twice with bonus tracks at a later date. 

And it does somewhat depend on the genre though, short for traditional metal or thrash it’s probably going to get bloated once you go past the 40 minute mark. Equally though would you really want a 35 minute Evoken album? 

[MarkhantonioYeatts]

SHIKABANE - Ego And Desire

SARABANTE - Poisonous Legacy

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

And it does somewhat depend on the genre though, short for traditional metal or thrash it’s probably going to get bloated once you go past the 40 minute mark. Equally though would you really want a 35 minute Evoken album? 

I think I would listen to Evoken more often if the albums were more like 40 - 45 minutes long. I don't necessarily believe their songs need to be 10 minutes or longer just because they're slow paced. As it stands when I listen to Evoken I'll frequently cherry pick a few tracks I like and skip some others because I don't always want to commit to them for an entire hour or more. I listen to their half of that Beneath the Frozen Soil split a lot because their 4 tracks come to 42 minutes.

I don't think it's the sub-genre that matters as much as my attention span. For norsecore, osdm, blackened goat metal and crust albums (the sub-genres I listen to the most) I love that the 20 minute album has become a thing in recent years. 20 - 30 minute albums are the perfect length imo. If you still want more when it ends you could always just play it twice.

I remember arguing with a good friend of mine when that Cultes des Ghoules album Coven came out and it was 98 minutes long. He loved it, found every second of it absolutely riveting, said he was playing it 3 times a day. We had the same argument about that 113 minute Necros Christos album a few years ago. I do like these bands, but my feelings for both of those was that it was just far too much of a good thing. I usually can't stay engaged with an album for 58 minutes much less 98 or 113 minutes. And for busy people whose listening time is limited, a 98 minute album means that might be the only thing they have time to listen to that night. I'd rather be able to hit three different 30 minute albums than one 90 minute album.

I also have friends who seem to get pissed off when a new album drops from a band we all like that clocks in at just 25 to 35 minutes. They'll get doubly mad if they've dared to call it an LP and not an EP. I remember one dude was bitching specifically about that Blood Incantation Hidden History album because it was only 4 tracks and ran just 36 minutes. I really don't get that because I always thought the EP/LP cutoff was 25 minutes. I'm totally fine with 25 minute albums. But some people feel shortchanged and cheated when bands deliver albums they've been waiting for and they run less than 40 minutes, especially when it's 5 tracks or less. So it seems a lot of people do look at it as value for their money.

I gues I can relate to their feelings a little bit, I too can get annoyed when a band I like drops something that's 2 or 3 tracks and runs between 10-15 minutes. I generally feel like they should have written a few more songs and waited til they had at least a solid 20 minutes worth of material. Or if I get a 20 minute EP and find out that it has a 5 minute ambient intro and a 3 minute interlude and a 2 minute outro leaving just 10 minutes of actual riffage, that annoys me too. 

[markm]

9 hours ago, Dead1 said:

Reminds me of a story I head about Nissan looking to sell a car in Australia in the 1960s.  They had a team of Aussies review a list of names for the car.  The list included Cedric.  Apparently they were told by their Australian team the name was a bit too "mummy's-boy" (ie effeminate and pansy).  The Japanese didn't understand this was regarded a bad thing and released the car as the Cedric. 

 

Not sure if it's true but it shows the Aussie attitude to naming.

 

Dio - Holy Diver

Nothing wrong with Cedric. It has a level of sophistication. I find name etymology interesting. Per Google,  an Old English boy's name, is a variant of Cedric, a name invented by Sir Walter Scott for his book Ivanhoe. It might also have its roots in the Welsh name Cedrych, meaning "pattern of bounty." Cedrick gives the name an unexpected spin, combining the elegance of Cedric with the nostalgic charm of Rick. For whatever reason, in my experience, a lot of black dudes on this side of  the pond go by that. Maybe African Americans during Jim Crow era, chose that name for the quality of sophistication that I connote.  

[markm]

Decided to listen to the the new Megadeth album after seeing a review say it was the best album since Countdown to Extinction.. Back in the day, I really liked Peace Sells and Rust in Peace, but always thought Mustaine was the least effective front man of the big 4. I've never actually heard Countdown. I bought a few MD albums in the 2000's. I thought The System has Failed was OK. This one strikes me as being somewhat invigorated and will please old fans but won't win new ones-kind of thing. Something about his lazy drawl turns me off. I have enough of that in stoner and doom-vocalists who are the weak points. I think in thrash or these veteran thrash bands-I'll just call them commercial-post-modern-thrash-has-beens, a charismatic front man is important which is why I'd rather listen to a new Testament or Anthrax album than MD album. This strikes me as energetic and musically marginally enjoyable but banal and not something I'm going to buy. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

9 hours ago, Thatguy said:

Never in the history of the world has any Australian born male been named Eugene. 

Just saying.

I'm here to inform you that there have been 164 recorded births of males named Eugene in Australia in the 75 years between 1944 and 2019. Over that same time period Australia has spawned 69,127 Marks which I have to assume would include you, as I don't think you were born during or before WWII.

My name Brian returns a figure of 15,837 for OZ (1.2 million in the states) so it would seem I'm considerably more popular than Eugene down under, but not nearly as popular as Mark. Meanwhile here in the states I'm not that far behind Mark. (1.35 million American Marks)

Eugene's not the most popular name over here either, but we have had a respecdtable 376,883 Eugenes born here in the States in 140 years since 1880. NZ had 867 Eugenes born between 1900 and 2019, the UK has had 448 Eugenes born just since 1996. Ireland's racked up 2,402 Eugenes just since 1964.

You can plug in any name it'll give you the stats:

 

https://www.popular-babynames.com/name/eugene

[MarkhantonioYeatts]

S.U.G.A.R. - II

SHITSHOW - Shitshow

 

49 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I'm here to inform you that there have been 164 recorded births of males named Eugene in Australia in the 75 years between 1944 and 2019. Over that same time period Australia has spawned 69,127 Marks which I have to assume would include you, as I don't think you were born during or before WWII.

My name Brian returns a figure of 15,837 for OZ (1.2 million in the states) so it would seem I'm considerably more popular than Eugene down under, but not nearly as popular as Mark. Meanwhile here in the states I'm not that far behind Mark. (1.35 million American Marks)

Eugene's not the most popular name over here either, but we have had a respecdtable 376,883 Eugenes born here in the States in 140 years since 1880. NZ had 867 Eugenes born between 1900 and 2019, the UK has had 448 Eugenes born just since 1996. Ireland's racked up 2,402 Eugenes just since 1964.

You can plug in any name it'll give you the stats:

 

https://www.popular-babynames.com/name/eugene

...Murgatroyd.......

[GoatmasterGeneral]

26 minutes ago, markm said:

Decided to listen to the the new Megadeth album after seeing a review say it was the best album since Countdown to Extinction.. Back in the day, I really liked Peace Sells and Rust in Peace, but always thought Mustaine was the least effective front man of the big 4. I've never actually heard Countdown. I bought a few MD albums in the 2000's. I thought The System has Failed was OK. This one strikes me as being somewhat invigorated and will please old fans but won't win new ones-kind of thing. Something about his lazy drawl turns me off. I have enough of that in stoner and doom-vocalists who are the weak points. I think in thrash or these veteran thrash bands-I'll just call them commercial-post-modern-thrash-has-beens, a charismatic front man is important which is why I'd rather listen to a new Testament or Anthrax album than MD album. This strikes me as energetic and musically marginally enjoyable but banal and not something I'm going to buy. 

Apparently some people do find Dave quite charismatic. I was contacted by a Brazilian teenage girl through the PM feature on this forum about a month ago who wanted an English speaker to translate some transcripts of video interviews for her. She had typed up what Youtube had given her as the translations from the closed captioning, but she could see that it was all fucked up and a lot of it didn't even make any sense. So she asked me to watch the videos and then fix all the mistakes. And there were a shit ton of mistakes and wrong words. I agreed to help her and then as she sent me the links to the videos one by one it turned out that with the exception of one Led Zeppelin interview and one Lennon & McCartney interview all the rest of the videos were interviews of Dave Mustaine from the 80's and 90's. She said she liked Dave becaue he had prettier hair than her.

I also think that that even considering how many of us there are who don't enjoy or appreciate his vocals, there are a lot of people who really like his nasal snarl and think it fits the music perfectly. Now they can't separate the two, it just wouldn't be Megadeth without Dave's snarl. And I get that, I've just moved on from wanting more albums in that same Megastyle. Those first 5 albums are more than enough in case I ever need to scratch that very infrequent Megaitch.

[MarkhantonioYeatts]

VIVISECT - Barbaric Death

VERMIN WOMB - Retaliation

 

[markm]

33 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Apparently some people do find Dave quite charismatic. I was contacted by a Brazilian teenage girl through the PM feature on this forum about a month ago who wanted an English speaker to translate some transcripts of video interviews for her. She had typed up what Youtube had given her as the translations from the closed captioning, but she could see that it was all fucked up and a lot of it didn't even make any sense. So she asked me to watch the videos and then fix all the mistakes. And there were a shit ton of mistakes and wrong words. I agreed to help her and then as she sent me the links to the videos one by one it turned out that with the exception of one Led Zeppelin interview and one Lennon & McCartney interview all the rest of the videos were interviews of Dave Mustaine from the 80's and 90's. She said she liked Dave becaue he had prettier hair than her.

I also think that that even considering how many of us there are who don't enjoy or appreciate his vocals, there are a lot of people who really like his nasal snarl and think it fits the music perfectly. Now they can't separate the two, it just wouldn't be Megadeth without Dave's snarl. And I get that, I've just moved on from wanting more albums in that same Megastyle. Those first 5 albums are more than enough in case I ever need to scratch that very infrequent Megaitch.

You should listen to the new one just for shits and giggles. It doesn't outright suck. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, markm said:

Nothing wrong with Cedric. It has a level of sophistication. I find name etymology interesting. Per Google,  an Old English boy's name, is a variant of Cedric, a name invented by Sir Walter Scott for his book Ivanhoe. It might also have its roots in the Welsh name Cedrych, meaning "pattern of bounty." Cedrick gives the name an unexpected spin, combining the elegance of Cedric with the nostalgic charm of Rick. For whatever reason, in my experience, a lot of black dudes on this side of  the pond go by that. Maybe African Americans during Jim Crow era, chose that name for the quality of sophistication that I connote.  

Problem with the name Cedric is that it has become synonymous with this guy. Not saying that's a bad thing, but I can't separate the name from the dude. Before he became famous I wouldn't have thought it to be the worst name ever, it has a certain character to it. Definitely gives me the mental image of an overweight, cigar smoking, middle aged black dude.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, markm said:

You should listen to the new one just for shits and giggles. It doesn't outright suck. 

It's not about it sucking or not. It's about the fact that it's going to sound like yet another Megadeth album, and even if it's a good one I just don't care anymore. I don't even want to listen to the old ones that I already know I liked. This is why I really don't follow many older bands for mutiple decades. Most bands have their own particular sound and after a certain number of albums I've had my fill of it. It's like you always say about the goat metal filth. You can appreciate the style and you probably pick up 3 or 4 albums each year that you feel best scratch that goat itch for you. But you don't feel the need to listen to or accumulate 30 or 40 of them each and every year like I do. That's how I feel about MegaDave. I have enough.

I tried sampling some modern day Anthrax yesterday just for shits and giggles. It was right after I heard that Bungle Easter Bunny thing with Scott Ian on rythym guitar. I hadn't heard anything from Anthrax other than just a random song or two since 1993's Sound of White Noise...until yesterday. I just tried a couple of tunes off each of their 5 newer albums. I was horrified. It was so fucking bad, this Bush guy does not suit them well at all imo. And I remember liking and defending Sound of White Noise back in the 90's, but it's when I heard Mr Bush trying to sing some of their older Joey & Turbin era tunes on 2004's Greater of Two Evils cover album that I realized he's all wrong for them. No idea why they would have released that abomination. Maybe they were contractually obligated. So now that's it, no more Anthrax sampling for me. I will leave them in peace to do their own thing without me.

[MarkhantonioYeatts]

ICTUS - Imperivm

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Sarabante - Remnants, Greece 2011, because I was really digging that 2016 Sarabante album Marko posted earlier

 

Insidious Process - Mirrors of the Dead, Sweden 2016

 

Liquid Supercharge - Left For Dead, Full Speed Ahead EP, Croatia 

 

[JamesT]

9 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

With all due respect, that approach is insane. "Value for money" doesn't work with music. 

Are you saying you'd recommend this new album to a new listener wanting to discover Megadeth over Peace Sells (running time 36:12)? 

Who would ever choose Book of Souls over Number of the Beast? 

My approach of dismissing long albums can likewise be a bit shortsighted, but it has been a good yardstick based on empirical evidence. 

You might get good value going to see Return of the King at the cinema, but your kids will be clawing their eyes out with boredom praying for it to end already by the closing credits. A more adept filmmaker would have edited it to a better paced final cut. 

Same with music. A good producer will distil an album down to its strongest and most succinct assault. A weak producer will let the band have their way. 

Release extended/extra tracks in special editions for avid fans. 

The reason I harp on about this shit is because I genuinely think many albums would be stronger and enjoyed more by the listener if they were trimmed back. It even makes good business sense, because you can sell the album twice with bonus tracks at a later date. 

We can certainly agree to disagree.  If an album is strong, I never find myself wishing it was shorter.  I want more music for the money always.  I love "Peace Sells", and I do wish it was a bit longer.  I'm enjoying this most recent one just as much, though.  My favorite thrash band is Overkill, and I've never necessarily been a die-hard Megadeth guy, but I like almost all of their catalog as a casual fan.  I'd highly recommend checking the new one out if you get the chance!  Happy listening!

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Ming City Rockers - Ming City R*ckers,  Immingham, Lincolnshire UK 2014

 

Mad Daddy - S/T,  Isle of Man 2021

 

[AlSymerz]

5 hours ago, markm said:

 which is why I'd rather listen to a new Testament or Anthrax

Good luck getting anything from Anthrax in the near future.

 

Hellbringer - Hellbringer EP

 

[Serpentboi1992]

[RelentlessOblivion]

6 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I think I would listen to Evoken more often if the albums were more like 40 - 45 minutes long. I don't necessarily believe their songs need to be 10 minutes or longer just because they're slow paced. As it stands when I listen to Evoken I'll frequently cherry pick a few tracks I like and skip some others because I don't always want to commit to them for an entire hour or more. I listen to their half of that Beneath the Frozen Soil split a lot because their 4 tracks come to 42 minutes.

I don't think it's the sub-genre that matters as much as my attention span. For norsecore, osdm, blackened goat metal and crust albums (the sub-genres I listen to the most) I love that the 20 minute album has become a thing in recent years. 20 - 30 minute albums are the perfect length imo. If you still want more when it ends you could always just play it twice.

I remember arguing with a good friend of mine when that Cultes des Ghoules album Coven came out and it was 98 minutes long. He loved it, found every second of it absolutely riveting, said he was playing it 3 times a day. We had the same argument about that 113 minute Necros Christos album a few years ago. I do like these bands, but my feelings for both of those was that it was just far too much of a good thing. I usually can't stay engaged with an album for 58 minutes much less 98 or 113 minutes. And for busy people whose listening time is limited, a 98 minute album means that might be the only thing they have time to listen to that night. I'd rather be able to hit three different 30 minute albums than one 90 minute album.

I also have friends who seem to get pissed off when a new album drops from a band we all like that clocks in at just 25 to 35 minutes. They'll get doubly mad if they've dared to call it an LP and not an EP. I remember one dude was bitching specifically about that Blood Incantation Hidden History album because it was only 4 tracks and ran just 36 minutes. I really don't get that because I always thought the EP/LP cutoff was 25 minutes. I'm totally fine with 25 minute albums. But some people feel shortchanged and cheated when bands deliver albums they've been waiting for and they run less than 40 minutes, especially when it's 5 tracks or less. So it seems a lot of people do look at it as value for their money.

I gues I can relate to their feelings a little bit, I too can get annoyed when a band I like drops something that's 2 or 3 tracks and runs between 10-15 minutes. I generally feel like they should have written a few more songs and waited til they had at least a solid 20 minutes worth of material. Or if I get a 20 minute EP and find out that it has a 5 minute ambient intro and a 3 minute interlude and a 2 minute outro leaving just 10 minutes of actual riffage, that annoys me too. 

For me it comes back to one question: did I enjoy the music? If yes then I’m not too worried by the length of an album/EP. Just as happy listening to Scum as I am Antithesis of Light.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

I do have some longer albums that I love and I don't even notice how long they are while I'm listening to them. So it's not a rule or anything that I won't buy albums longer than 50 minutes. If I like it then I like it, and I'll probably buy it at whatever length it is, I just might not always be able to make it to the end. Being ADHD I do find it hard to stay focused on one album for much longer than an hour or so, maybe 70 - 75 minutes at the absolute most. Which I know makes no sense because how many times will I listen to 8 albums in a row one right after another? Even sometimes multiple albums from the same band back to back. Seems there's just something about starting a new album and changing up the sounds I'm hearing that lets me stay fresh and interested.