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What Are You Listening To?


khaos

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'In Nomine' by Adagio. So, to provide a Deftones update, I listened through 'Diamond Eyes' and to be honest I completely agree with FA's assessment. 'Koi No Yokan' seemed a much better piece of work, since the heaviness was restrained for the sake of melody. Diamond Eyes did not give off the feeling of relative emotional refinement that 'Koi No Yokan' did, and for the most part it bored me immensely. 'You've Met The Butcher' was a good song though.

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Re: What Are You Listening To?

'In Nomine' by Adagio. So, to provide a Deftones update, I listened through 'Diamond Eyes' and to be honest I completely agree with FA's assessment. 'Koi No Yokan' seemed a much better piece of work, since the heaviness was restrained for the sake of melody. Diamond Eyes did not give off the feeling of relative emotional refinement that 'Koi No Yokan' did, and for the most part it bored me immensely. 'You've Met The Butcher' was a good song though.
You've seen the butcher is a great track and one of my favourites Deftones tracks of all time. DE wasn't up to their best work IMO but it had what I enjoy about Deftones, Rocket skates is also a good track. What album are you listening to next iceni?
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'An Anonymous Phone-Call and a Dead Line' by Lengsel. FA, I have more dissonance for you...

You've seen the butcher is a great track and one of my favourites Deftones tracks of all time. DE wasn't up to their best work IMO but it had what I enjoy about Deftones' date=' Rocket skates is also a good track. What album are you listening to next iceni?[/quote'] It will probably be White Pony as per your suggestion.
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'In Nomine' by Adagio. So, to provide a Deftones update, I listened through 'Diamond Eyes' and to be honest I completely agree with FA's assessment. 'Koi No Yokan' seemed a much better piece of work, since the heaviness was restrained for the sake of melody. Diamond Eyes did not give off the feeling of relative emotional refinement that 'Koi No Yokan' did, and for the most part it bored me immensely. 'You've Met The Butcher' was a good song though.
Wow, you're not someone I would've expected to like Deftones. I do more or less agree, though; Koi No Yokan is definitely a stronger album than Diamond Eyes. Diamond Eyes was such a triumphant comeback after their 'dip', though, and has some fantastic songs on it. The upbeat nature of the songs after what happened with Chi makes it an uplifting and also touching listen. I don't think the album is heaviness for heaviness' sake as there's a great deal of melody and truly beautiful parts as well, and the combination of Stephen's heavy, Meshuggah-inspired riffs with Chino's melodic and expressive 'croon' is what really makes later Deftones for me. In fact, when it wants to be, Koi No Yokan is significantly heavier than Diamond Eyes imo. I think KNY just perfects the formula they introduced on DE. I'd also point out DE was a grower for me, though, so it might be the same for you. It's definitely worth checking out again.
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Not updated here for a while, and I'm sure you're fascinated to know what I've been listening to whilst I've been away, so... Converge- Jane Doe Korn- Korn Eyehategod- Take As Needed For Pain Deftones- Around The Fur Norma Jean- Meridional And now... Glassjaw- Worship And Tribute

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I love many of the tracks from the self titled, but as a whole, it's one of their weakest albums for me. White Pony is definitely a great place to start, especially if you liked Koi No Yokan.
Maybe it's the sound quality on the S/T that turns you off? It's over-compressed and fatiguing to listen to, it feels a bit stifling (and I think that was a bad mixing/mastering choice rather than some artistic decision on their part). But the songs on there are great. It did take a little while to grow on me. I know we've talked about it before, but IMO it was the best thing they'd done until they released KNY.
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Have you been doing some psychic reading. On my brain lol
Ha! Well, it's cleaning day. Was scrubbing the bathroom/toilet to Retribution. Off to the kitchen with Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God Still trying to figure out what to listen while vacuuming, something really loud! :D
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Maybe it's the sound quality on the S/T that turns you off? It's over-compressed and fatiguing to listen to' date=' it feels a bit stifling (and I think that was a bad mixing/mastering choice rather than some artistic decision on their part). But the songs on there are great. It did take a little while to grow on me. I know we've talked about it before, but IMO it was the best thing they'd done until they released KNY.[/quote'] I don't think it is the production, actually. In fact, I really like it; it's got quite a crisp sound and the riffs have a good 'crunch' to them. For me S/T lacked the really beautiful and intricate melodies of many of their other albums. It's plenty heavy, which obviously isn't a bad thing, but single-minded aggression isn't what I come to Deftones for. I feel albums like White Pony and Koi No Yokan are deeper and have greater emotional complexity. As I'm sure you gather, though, I do absolutely love Deftones, so my calling any album of theirs ' one of their weakest' only means 'least best'. Some of Deftones' best tracks are on S/T imo.
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I don't think it is the production' date=' actually. In fact, I really like it; it's got quite a crisp sound and the riffs have a good 'crunch' to them. For me S/T lacked the really beautiful and intricate melodies of many of their other albums. It's plenty heavy, which obviously isn't a bad thing, but single-minded aggression isn't what I come to Deftones for. I feel albums like White Pony and Koi No Yokan are deeper and have greater emotional complexity. As I'm sure you gather, though, I do absolutely love Deftones, so my calling any album of theirs ' one of their weakest' only means 'least best'. Some of Deftones' best tracks are on S/T imo.[/quote'] Bad production strikes again. Obviously we have different opinions on the songwriting, but I feel like the over-emphasis on loudness at the expense of dynamics kind of ruins the impact of the songs. It's a subtle thing, but the album "feels" sterile. White Pony sounds better, but the songwriting on that one strikes me as a little shallow and poppy. I've listened to it more recently than I had for a few years, but it's far from my favorite despite its breakthrough appeal.
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Bad production strikes again. Obviously we have different opinions on the songwriting' date=' but I feel like the over-emphasis on loudness at the expense of dynamics kind of ruins the impact of the songs. It's a subtle thing, but the album "feels" sterile. White Pony sounds better, but the songwriting on that one strikes me as a little shallow and poppy. I've listened to it more recently than I had for a few years, but it's far from my favorite despite its breakthrough appeal.[/quote'] When you put it like that, maybe it is the production after all. As I say, I like the 'crunch' of the riffs, but maybe the fact that I don't hear the intricate melodies I usually associate them with can partly be accounted for by the compressed sound quality. I still think the album leans too much to the aggressive side of their sound at the expense of their beautiful subdued side. In terms of White Pony, it's definitely got some pretty accessible tracks on it, with some nice clean melodies, so I get where the 'poppy' description comes from to an extent, but I don't think that automatically makes it shallow. I think it's as emotionally complex as anything they've ever done and there's an understated (but still prevalent) sinister, dangerous atmosphere to it. I wouldn't call it a metal album tbh, and a far cry from the popular metal around at the time. I'd recommend it to a Massive Attack fan as much as I'd recommend it to a Slipknot fan. Out of interest, did you like the single Minerva? That's the poppiest thing they've done imo. I remember when it came out. I was still pretty young, but I remember it was even pretty popular amongst Coldplay/Stereophonics-type music fans.
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